Last year we were granted an increase of $100 a year-from $300 to $400. If we can get these new bicycles we think that $400 a year will be enough to keep our bicycles going.

Mr. GILLETT. Then do not come back next year, please, and ask us to put it up to $1,000 again.

Colonel COSBY. In the estimates I say that this increase is for this year only; I state the amount in my explanation. The new bicycles only account for part of it, however. I think $340 is the estimate of the amount we need for the new bicycles. The balance is needed for pistols and ammunition. If you will notice, the appropriation for contingencies has been " for purchase and repair of bicycles and revolvers for park watchmen and for purchase of ammunition." Every cent of the $400 we have had this year has been used for the bicycles. We have never yet been able to buy one revolver or any ammunition. Mr. GILLETT. They have not any revolvers?

Colonel COSBY. They have none.

Mr. GILLETT. Why do they need them?

Colonel COSBY. We have had two or three of our men almost killed by toughs and in fights when they tried to arrest men.

Mr. GILLETT. How would they have used revolvers if they had had them?

Colonel COSBY. In one or two cases if they had had revolvers they might have saved themselves.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. Then you would have had a murder on hand. Colonel COSBY. I do not think there is a single city policeman who is not furnished with a revolver.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. No; but not one of them ought to have one.

Mr. BINGHAM. Do you propose to expend your $400 as heretofore, in repairs and ammunition, and so forth? What do you propose to do with the increase of $600?

Colonel COSBY. We propose to spend $340 of it to buy the ten new bicycles. The other $260 is to buy revolvers and ammunition for the park watchmen. Having made those purchases this year our $400 will be sufficient to carry us on hereafter.

Mr. GILLETT. How large is your force now?

Colonel COSBY. We have 42 men.

Mr. GILLETT. All right, Colonel. That is all you have, is it not? Colonel COSBY. I think so.

STATE, WAR, AND NAVY DEPARTMENT BUILDING.

STATEMENT OF LIEUT. U. S. GRANT, 3d, U. S. ARMY, SUPERINTENDENT.

CHIEF CLERK.

Mr. GILLETT. The first thing you want to do is to promote one clerk?

Lieutenant GRANT. I want to get him a higher salary.

Mr. GILLETT. Why is that?

Lieutenant GRANT. He is the only clerk and chief clerk of the office; and I can not get a man who is qualified for the position for $1,200 a year. The clerk whom I have there at the present moment has already accepted a position at $1,800 a year.

Mr. GILLETT. Where? In one of the other departments?

Lieutenant GRANT. No, sir; outside, in civil life. I have been looking around to get some one to take his place, and in a month I have not found a man who was fitted for it who was willing to take that salary.

Mr. GILLETT. How do you mean you have looked around? Have you been to the Civil Service Commission?

Lieutenant GRANT. I have been to the Civil Service Commission and gotten the names of all the men they had available, not only for that class, but for the higher classes, to see if a man would not come in; and I have not found a man who has really had the experience required to take the job and who would come at that salary. Mr. GILLETT. What does he have to do?

Lieutenant GRANT. He keeps the accounts of the office. That is practically his main duty. He is disbursing clerk. He is not bonded, and of course if I keep the accounts there is no check on them; and I have other things that I have to do, too. So it comes down to a question of getting an assistant engineer or a disbursing clerk. As the clerk is provided for and the assistant engineer is not, it seems that the only way to do is to get a clerk who can do that side of the work. That has been asked for before. In looking over the offices of superintendents of other buildings, I find that while our chief clerk gets only $1,200 the others are getting two thousand and three thousand-that is, in the Congressional Library, the Capitol, and the Treasury.

Mr. GILLETT. You refer to him as a "chief clerk." He is your only clerk, you say?

Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir; he is my only clerk.

Mr. GILLETT. He does not have a very large force to be chief over? Lieutenant GRANT. No. He has about 225 employees altogether on the pay rolls, and we have a great many small purchases, so that his work is quite considerable. Then he spends a good part of the time as a member of the general-supply committee. That is, perhaps two days a week all winter he spends the morning and part of the afternoon on that duty.

Mr. GILLETT. He is not a member of the committee, is he?

Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir. He is the only person that we can have to represent the office on the supply committee. The law requires that it shall not be the head of the office, and he is the only man available.

Mr. GILLETT. Is such an office as yours a member of it?
Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir.

Mr. GILLETT. I thought it was only some of the departments. Lieutenant GRANT. There is a member from every independent office or bureau; and, you see, we are not in any department. We are an entirely independent office.

Mr. GILLETT. All right. Is there anything else under that?

FREIGHT ELEVATOR.

Mr. BINGHAM. Do you want to say anything about this item "For the purchase and installation of one freight elevator," on page 178? Have you anything to say on that?

Lieutenant GRANT. That proposition has been laid before the committee a good many times before; but we need it very much.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. That is provided for.

Lieutenant GRANT. We need the freight elevator very much; and, if you wish, I can leave with the clerk a statement of the amount of packages, and so on, that we have to carry. That interferes very much with the passenger service.

Mr. BINGHAM. You are not pressing it, beyond stating the fact that you have had it before the committe heretofore for consideration, and they have not approved the proposition?

Lieutenant GRANT. It is something that is necessary.

Mr. GILLETT. You might leave that statement.

This shows an average of over 11 carriages daily, with no sheltered place of landing in bad weather.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. Where is this elevator to be put-in the Mills Building or the Lemon Building?

Lieutenant GRANT. No, sir; in the State, War, and Navy building— the main building.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. They are provided with all the elevators they want, I think.

Mr. GILLETT. No; this matter has been up every year for some time. Mr. LIVINGSTON. They have a big elevator there.

Lieutenant GRANT. We use for freight on each side one of the passenger elevators, which, of course, interferes very much with the passenger service. The elevator is not built for freight, so that it is being injured by such use; and we can not carry heavy safes and things of that kind on them. We have to go outside and make a contract for handling any heavy weights of that sort.

REWIRING.

Mr. GILLETT. Is your rewiring done yet?

Lieutenant GRANT. Bids will be opened on the 13th of this month for that, sir. It took some time to work up a scheme which would fit the new wiring to the old building conditions.

Mr. LIVINGSTON. Why do you cut out this whole paragraph here? Mr. GILLETT. We gave them that last year. Is there anything else?

REPAIRING FLOORS AND CORRIDORS.

Lieutenant GRANT. There is one item on page 179, sir" for repairing the floors of the corridors." On the basement and first floor the tiles are very much worn. The white tile has worn much quicker than the black tile, and we have a wavy surface. One woman broke her arm there this year; and we have had quite a number of minor accidents.

Mr. GILLETT. How do you mean? Did she fall?

Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir; as a result of slipping on these inequalities. Five or six minor accidents have been reported-sprains and bruises from people coming in and simply falling down. The tiles are worn very smooth and there is an inequality of at least half an inch in some places between the highest place and the lowest place near by.

Mr. BINGHAM. Have these accidents happened to outsiders-incidental visitors?

Lieutenant GRANT. No, sir.

This woman who broke her arm was one of the women working in the building; and all the accidents I have heard of were in the case of people working in the building. General Edwards was one of the persons.

Mr. GILLETT. What happened to him?

Lieutenant GRANT. He came in, and in turning around he struck one of these slippery places and his foot went out. I have slipped myself several times without falling down. There are a great many people who are not very active and who are apt to have bad accidents. Mr. GILLETT. What do you want to do to remedy this condition? Mr. BINGHAM. Has there been any claim in any case for damages? Lieutenant GRANT. No, sir.

Mr. GILLETT. Do you want an entirely new floor? Is that your idea?

Mr. LIVINGSTON. He wants to take out the white tiling and put in the black, I suppose.

Lieutenant GRANT. I want to take up the tiles and replane all of them; and where they are broken or cracked in the taking up, I want to replace them with new tiles.

Mr. GILLETT. You speak of replaning them; what do you mean? Lieutenant GRANT. I mean to take them up and send them to a finishing factory and put them on-I have forgotten just what is the technical name for it-a sort of a table with a machine that rubs them flat or grinds them down.

Mr. GILLETT. So that it will bring those that are worn to the level of those that are not worn?

Lieutenant GRANT. It will grind them all flat, and then we can set them all on a level by filling the concrete base underneath. I got estimates on that work from three or four firms here in town; and the cheapest I could get is the one that this amount is based on.

Mr. GILLETT. You would use most of the same tiles, then?
Lieutenant GRANT. I would use almost all the same tiles; yes.
Mr. GILLETT. All right.

Mr. BINGHAM. Have you anything else?

MECHANICS AND LABORERS.

Lieutenant GRANT. No, sir; there is nothing else, except that the words "or mechanics," on page 177, are indicated here to be left out, and I should like to leave them in. They were in last year and they are in the current bill.

Mr. BINGHAM. Why were they marked out?

Lieutenant GRANT. I do not know, sir.

Mr. BINGHAM. Is there any difference in pay between skilled laborers and mechanics?

Lieutenant GRANT. There is not any provided for in the case of our building, sir.

Mr. BINGHAM. That is what I mean.

Lieutenant GRANT. The word "mechanics" gives us a little more latitude in getting people for the position; that is all.

Mr. BINGHAM. They are under the civil service, are they? Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir; every one is under the civil service. Mr. BINGHAM. Does the word "laborers" give a broader field? Lieutenant GRANT. I should like to leave both in, sir. By leaving both in we will have a little wider field to choose from.

Mr. BINGHAM. That covers all you wish?

Lieutenant GRANT. That is all, sir; except that I should like to emphasize the necessity of raising this clerk's pay, if the committee will consider that matter. It is practically impossible to get a man who has any experience and that I can trust in the position at $1,200 a year.

Mr. BINGHAM. The man you want is one of class 3 instead of class 1?

Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir. It seems like a very little item, but it is pretty important to us. I have tried in all the departments to get a man who would transfer to that position, preferably a young

man.

Mr. BINGHAM. You want some one who will change with you? Lieutenant GRANT. Yes, sir. I could not get a man to transfer because there is no opportunity for promotion there. It is a very difficult situation in that way.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1910.

NAVY DEPARTMENT.

STATEMENT OF MR. F. S. CURTIS, CHIEF CLERK.

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY.

Mr. BINGHAM. You ask for a chief of correspondence at $2,000. Have you such an office now?

Mr. CURTIS. In effect we have. A clerk at $1,800 is doing the work, and has been for some time. This would be an increase of $200 for that position.

Mr. BINGHAM. And you have no chief of division?

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