Mr. FOSDICK. Yes. I have been paying for the stenographers myself and I borrowed some money from some friends with which to pay the athletic coaches. We have only had the athletic coaches at work for about a month and we have had the singing people for about a month, and I have been fortunate enough to get private funds with which to handle that thing. If this final clause here in the urgent deficiency act "that no part of this appropriation shall be expended for personal services" could be qualified so that we could do work along this line that figure there, $500,000, would, I think, include all that we want to do in the line of erecting auditoriums, paying athletic coaches, or anything else.

The CHAIRMAN. Are you providing libraries?

Mr. FOSDICK. Yes. That is another point that I neglected to speak of.

Mr. BYRNS. Do you mean this sum of $500,000 in addition to the $500,000 you have already received?

Mr. FOSDICK. I mean just this sum of $500,000; I think that might be sufficient if we could use it; but we can not use this fund at all for personal services, under the terms of this act. Now, on the question of libraries, Mr. Fitzgerald, we asked the American Library Association to assume the responsibility of providing reading material in all the camps, and they appointed a committee under our commission. They are erecting a library building at each camp. and they are going to use the Y. M. C. A building and the Knights of Columbus building as substations for distributing purposes. They are paying all the expenses themselves that is, they are raising the money themselves-and it is going to cost $1,000,000. It is not going to cost the Government one cent. That will mean that there will be a well-equipped library in every camp, and there will be distributing centers in every camp. In addition we will have books in the barracks buildings, too, all controlled and run by the American Library Association, under our general direction.

I think it is fortunate that we are getting so much of this work done free; that is, we are getting two and a half million dollars from the Playground and Recreation Association of America for the community work and we are getting a million dollars from the library people for the library work. That is all Government work, and yet it is being done by these people under our general direction as a matter of patriotic service, and all we are asking for now are some administrative expenses and the money necessary to put up anditoriums at the 16 cantonments.

Mr. CANNON. These cantonments will not be there over 60 days, will they?

Mr. FOSDICK. Oh, yes; they will be there longer than that. I might say that it might be well to add $100,000 to that $500,000, so that we would be sure of having enough money to do all of the work we want to do. That would make $600,000.

The CHAIRMAN. And that would carry you to the 30th of June?
Mr. FOSDICK. To the 30th of June 1918; yes.

Mr. CANNON. In addition to this $500,000 you want $600,000?
Mr. FOSDICK. No; $100,000 more.

4400-17- -39

Mr. SHERLEY. Of course, you do not expect to expend anything like $600,000 for personal services?

Mr. FOSDICK. No.

Mr. SHERLEY. What amount of money would be sufficient for personal services, so that when a limitation is placed at what figure should it be placed?

Mr. FOSDICK. If you could give us $150,000 for personal servicesI am making a rough estimate all the rest would have nothing to do with personal services whatsoever-that is, out of that sum of $600,000. If that seems large, I would make it $100,000.

I should like to revise the foregoing figures to the extent of asking that the original figure of $500,000 in the urgent deficiency bill be retained and that $350,000 additional be granted, making a total of $850,000 instead of my original rough estimate of $600,000, which I made without opportunity for careful consideration. I do this because of figures which have just been handed to me relative to the cost of our auditoriums. We had hoped to be able to get such auditoriums for $15,000 to $20,000. Our latest figures, including full equipment, bring the figure pretty close to $30,000, so that we shall need approximately $500,000 to cover the 16 auditoriums in the 16 permanent cantonments. I have already emphasized the necessity of these auditoriums, both from a military and from a recreational standpoint.

Now, as to personal services, I should like to submit the following figures as to probable needs during the ensuing year:

In addition, the bill ought to give us the right to allow traveling expenses not to exceed for the year $15,000 and maintenance expenses not to exceed $25,000. These maintenance expenses have to do with the athletic and singing coaches assigned to the camps. In some camps we have been unable to make arrangements so that these men could eat with the Army mess, and we have had to pay their expenses. It is a question whether this difficulty can be overcome, and I am inserting this figure to meet the contingency.

In addition, we should have $2,500 for furniture, inasmuch as we have just been called upon to enlarge our quarters, and another $2,500 for office supplies, including typewriters, etc.

Finally, I am wondering whether the bill could be made retroactive to the extent of covering an amount not to exceed $5,000 of expense already incurred in the two months and a half during which this commission has been in existence. This is money, as I told you, which I have advanced myself and borrowed from friends.

One hundred thousand dollars is the sum which we have set aside for the purchase of athletic supplies for the new Army. We shall try to have as many of these supplies as possible donated, but there will be a large call for the kind of equipment which it will not be possible to secure by gift.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 8, 1917.

ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE.

(See p. 57.)

STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. HENRY P. McCAIN, ADJUTANT
GENERAL.

TEMPORARY EMPLOYEES.

The CHAIRMAN. General, you are asking " for the temporary employment of such additional force of clerks and other employees as in the judgment of the Secretary of War may be proper and necessary to the prompt, efficient, and accurate dispatch of official business in the War Department and its bureaus, to be allotted by the Secretary of War to such bureaus and offices as the exigencies of the existing situation may demand: Provided, That the Secretary of War shall submit to Congress on the first day of its next regular session a statement showing by bureaus or offices the number and designation of the persons employed hereunder and the annual rate of compensation paid to each (June 15, 1917, Public Act No. 23, p. 4), $534,800." This is all for your bureau, I understand?

Gen. MCCAIN. I do not know. I submitted an estimate to the Secretary. I do not know what the Secretary had in mind in submitting this estimate. That is not the estimate which I submitted. The CHAIRMAN. What did you ask for?

Gen. MCCAIN. One thousand clerks and 100 subclericals, but they did not think that I needed that many, and I understood that they expected to reduce my estimate one-half.

The CHAIRMAN. It is all asked for your office in the letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, although in the estimate of the War Department it is not.

Gen. MCCAIN. I have never seen this estimate.

The CHAIRMAN. Please state what your needs are.

Gen. MCCAIN. I will try to explain that. I wish I could make such a definite statement as would enable the committee to act with confidence on it, but I can not do it. The work in the office is changing so fast that we have been utterly unable to estimate what it will be a year from now or six months from now. Two years ago we handled a daily average of about 3,000 pieces of mail in the office. The CHAIRMAN. When?

Gen. MCCAIN. About two years ago that was about the average. The CHAIRMAN. A day?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir; a day. The day before yesterday we handled 94.000 pieces of mail. The statement is put in with this estimate that we handled 65,000 pieces of mail a day when this statement was made. I do not want to mislead the committee about that. These are not papers that require any extended communications or letters to be written or investigations, but they have to be handled. They relate to things like beneficiary designations from officers and enlisted men, history blanks, and returns: things of that kind. It is not hard to appreciate that when we get the Army we will be receiv

ing in another year from 350,000 to 400,000 pieces of mail a day that will have to be handled.

With the approval of the Secretary of War, we have established a statistical division in my office that has to do with keeping track of the enlisted men and officers in the Army wherever they may be. Every mother expects and should be able to know where her son is at any time and what has happened to him; whether he has been wounded or is sick in a hospital or is missing. That will require a big force. I understand that the Canadians have 600 clerks to do that and nothing else. That is just from hearsay. I estimate that we need 500 clerks for that purpose. We have the organization started and we are getting inquiries now. We have started it over in Europe. They are working it out at the headquarters of the American forces there. The adjutant general of the expeditionary forces was directed to investigate the British and French methods, to combine them with ours, and take out the best. My information is that the scheme that we have worked out here will work over there. People can not wait, they will not wait for returns to come in to be shown that their boys died or were killed two months ago. They want telegraphic information. We are going to be prepared to give it to them. It is going to take a great many clerks to do that work. The CHAIRMAN. General, will you please outline the plan?

Gen. MCCAIN. We will have an organization in each regiment, the chaplain, with one or two enlisted men, whose business it will be to know where every man is all the time. They will have no other business. That will be under the regimental adjutant. As it goes up, it will extend to the division above. It goes up to the headquarters of the Army and we will have a major or a lieutenant-colonel who will be in charge of that work and nothing else. He will have one or two officers under him, several lieutenants of the Army reserve corps and a sufficient number of clerks to handle the business. It will be his business to keep in touch with these matters, spread out from the center like a fan to every unit of the Army that is on the firing line and coming back-we ought to be prepared to give an answer to any inquiry within 24 hours after it is made. That is what we expect to do.

The CHAIRMAN. Before the outbreak of the war, what force did you have?

Gen. MCCAIN. I had 479 clerks, and, I think, I had about 70 subclericals, that is messengers, firemen, and labors.

The CHAIRMAN. How many have you now?

Gen. MCCAIN. There are 583 clerks authorized on the permanent force and 550 clerks on the temporary force and 102 subclericals. The CHAIRMAN. You have requested already, previous to this estimate, some additional force?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir; we have some vacancies; there always will be vacancies.

The CHAIRMAN. Was not that estimate submitted in this bill heretofore?

Gen. MCCAIN. 1,113 clerks all told.

The CHAIRMAN. Additional?

Gen. MCCAIN. That is what we had before this estimate was submitted.

The CHAIRMAN. 1,113 clerks before this estimate was submitted?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. But in this bill are there not some others? Gen. MCCAIN. Not for my office force. The others whom you refer to are field clerks.

The CHAIRMAN. In the estimates that are now before us was there not an estimate for your office in addition to the ones that came in yesterday?

Gen. MCCAIN. Not that I know of. I have never seen this letter from the Secretary of War. We have 1,133 clerks authorized now. Mr. CANNON. Did you say that is one-half of what you wanted? Gen. MCCAIN. I put in an estimate for 1,000 additional, but the Secretary's office did not think that we needed so many and they cut it down to 500 here, as I understand it. I did not see this before and I did not know what estimate was submitted.

Mr. BYRNS. I understood you to say you wanted 500 additional clerks for this statistical work?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir; for that alone. I also want 500 for our office force, for the natural increase that will come from the increased work of the Army, as the Army increases.

Mr. BYRNS. You have 1,133 now?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir; authorized.

Mr. BYRNS. That includes your permanent roll and also the emergency roll?

Gen. MCCAIN. The permanent roll and 500 temporary clerks. The CHAIRMAN. What do you expect to do-to appoint that number of clerks at $1,000 each?

Gen. MCCAIN. That is what we would do. If I get authority to do that, we might get something out of that and promote some of the permanent force who have been working there all the time and give them an advance on their permanent salaries and get the new men in at $1,000. That is what I wish to do.

The CHAIRMAN. If you were to get 1,000 additional clerks

Gen. MCCAIN. There would be $1,000,000 required for clerks.

The CHAIRMAN. $1,000,000 is what you estimate?

Gen. MCCAIN. I put them in at about $1,100 apiece.

The CHAIRMAN. That would be $1,100,000; and then you need some subclerical force?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir; 100 subclerical employees.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the status of your office? How is the work relative to being current?

Gen. MCCAIN. I am very well up, but, Mr. Chairman, it is done by working hard and overtime and cutting out the leave.

The CHAIRMAN. How long do your clerks work generally?

Gen. MCCAIN. Well, the regular hours are from 8.30 o'clock in

the morning to 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The CHAIRMAN. How long do you give them for lunch?

Gen. MCCAIN. One-half hour for lunch.

The CHAIRMAN. That is eight full hours of work?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That makes eight full hours, exclusive of lunch. time?

Gen. MCCAIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Is the whole force working that way?