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be about the same as when the troops were on the border, which was one-third per cent of the total enlisted strength; but for the foreign service the estimate is increased to one-half per cent and the total expenditure increased to $100. Applying that same rate of percentage for normal deaths, it would give us 5,360 men, and at $100 per man it would be $536,000. There have been no obligations incurred against this fund, but they are preparing to organize a burial corps, and there are several requisitions and requests from our ports of embarkation, and I think one request from the commanding general of the forces across the water, for caskets and embalming fluids, and things of that sort, which we have not been able to supply.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

INTERIOR DEPARTMENT.

STATEMENTS OF MR. THOMAS EWING, COMMISSIONER OF PATENTS, AND MR. E. J. AYERS, CHIEF CLERK DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

NEW INTERIOR DEPARTMENT BUILDING—INCREASE IN PAY OF EMPLOYEES.

The CHAIRMAN. You are asking that the persons who were put to work a month or so ago as the force in your new building be given the benefit of the 5 per cent and the 10 per cent?

Mr. AYERS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Why?

Mr. AYRES. It is a privilege extended to the others, and these people think that they ought to be treated the same as those under the legislative bill.

The CHAIRMAN. Are they new men or old men?
Mr. AYRES. Practically all of them are new men.

We have had to

take them from the civil service. It is an increase of the force due to the taking over of the new building.

The CHAIRMAN. They have not been suffering any from a lack of adequate compensation in the Government service?

Mr. AYERS. They were not on the roll before.

SUBSTATION EMPLOYEES.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is:

To enable the Secretary of the Interior to employ during the fiscal year 1918, without reference to the civil-service rules, three substation operators, at $1.200 each per annum, and three assistant substation operators, at $900 each per annum, required in the operation of the electric substation in the new Interior Department Building, $6,300 or so much thereof as may be necessary?

Mr. AYERS. That is the substation put in by the Supervising Architect from which we get the current from the Capitol power plant. When we submitted the estimate for the technical force of our department this was not submitted, because they claimed that it had not been determined whether we would get the current from the Potomac Electric Power Co. or the Capitol plant. If the current had come from the Potomac Electric Power Co. this transformer

would not have been there, and it would not have been necessary to have these employees. Now, that we get the current from the Capitol plant, we have to operate the substation.

The CHAIRMAN. How is it operated now?

Mr. AYERS. The Treasury Department has maintained it. They have been insisting upon turning it over to the department since before the 1st of Julv.

The CHAIRMAN. Why should you ask Congress to give you these employees regardless of the civil-service rules?

Mr. AYERS. Because the Civil Service Commission at the present time has not the people competent to do this work; there is no eligible register.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is not an eligible register, you could get them without any register?

Mr. AYERS. I have no one in view other than to be able to take it on a minute's notice, when it is ready to be turned over.

The CHAIRMAN. The President has the power to do this.

Mr. AYERS. Yes, sir. I do not care where we get the people, so long as we get somebody to operate the plant.

Mr. GILLETT. How do you know that they have no eligible register; have you inquired?

Mr. AYERS. Yes, sir.

Mr. GILLETT. Do they say that they can not furnish the employees? Mr. AYERS. NO; they have not said they could not furnish them. Mr. GILLETT. Did they say they would try to furnish them?

Mr. AYERS. Undoubtedly they would try to furnish them if we pressed them.

The CHAIRMAN. If there is no register and they can not certify them you can select them where you please.

Mr. AYERS. This is the language which is contained in the amendment prepared recently for the other deficiency bill to take care of that situation. At that time it seemed as though the plant was to be turned over to us the next day. I have no objection to striking out that provision.

The CHAIRMAN. How did you arrive at this estimate?

Mr. AYERS. Through a conference with the superintendent of the Capitol plant and by a comparison of the compensation paid elsewhere. According to the Treasury Department the compensation would be at least $1,800 per man for this service, but we find that the compensation paid outside is about $1,200. The superintendent of the Capitol plant said, in his judgment, that was a fair compensation. Mr. GILLETT. What department estimated $1,800?

Mr. AYERS. The Treasury Department, the Supervising Architect's Office.

PATENT OFFICE, RENT OF QUARTERS FOR MODELS.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is:

For rent of quarters for accommodation of the Patent Office models now stored on reservation numbered thirteen, in District of Columbia, and for necessary expenses, including labor of removal of the models and their storage, $3.500, to continue available during the fiscal year 1918.

Where is reservation No. 13?

Mr. AYERS. Where the old jail and workhouse are located which you have turned over to the District of Columbia for the Gallinger Hospital.

The CHAIRMAN. Why not leave the models down there?

Mr. AYERS. They are going to take those buildings down and erect the hospital; they have served notice on us to get out.

The CHAIRMAN. If you do not get the rent, what will you do?

Mr. AYERS. I do not know.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Commissioner, do you know anything abort these Patent Office models?

Mr. EWING. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you want them?

Mr. EWING. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Why?

Mr. EWING. They are frequently certified in cases where old patents are cited as anticipation.

The CHAIRMAN. You use them?

Mr. EWING. I certified one filed in 1859 since I have been there. They are frequently certified.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that the only one?

Mr. EWING. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you mean by "certified"?

Mr. EWING. Where a certified copy is made and produced in court. I just remembered this instance. Besides they are interesting historically.

The CHAIRMAN. I know that they have been boxed up, to my knowledge, for 10 years or more?

Mr. EWING. It is a great pity that it has been necessary to box

them.

The CHAIRMAN. I saw them stacked as high as the ceiling, and you could not very readily get into the center.

Mr. EWING. If we get an order, it must be furnished. Of course, we do the best we can. It takes a clerk some time. It is a thing that is done repeatedly and is of importance.

Mr. CANNON. Will they always be important, a hundred years from now?

Mr. EWING. I think it would be a great pity ever to destroy those models. They represent the arts down to 1880.

Mr. CANNON. That is, from a sentimental standpoint?

Mr. EWING. No; a historical standpoint. I should like to have them where they could be seen. I have people come to the office who remember the office when the models could be seen and ask to see them.

The CHAIRMAN. In your letter you say that there is a building which the Government owns in which they could be stored, but that the Chief Clerk of the Treasury Department will not let them go into that building, because he wants to use that for the storage of secondhand furniture.

Mr. AYERS. We first asked the Treasury Department to let us have. the old Panorama Building, which is now rented as a garage by the Treasury Department. They said that they could not spare it. The CHAIRMAN. Where is that building?

Mr. AYERS. It is in one of the five squares purchased by the Gov

ernment.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that building rented to private individuals for a garage?

Mr. AYERS. Yes sir.

Mr. GILLETT. They told us the other day that they were going to use it in the new development.

The CHAIRMAN. For what?

Mr. GILLETT. For storage, according to Col. Harts,

MAYERS. Then we asked for the basement of the armory, but they use that for the storage of discarded material, and the police department has a rifle range there, so they declined to let us have that place. We have made a survey of such buildings as might be made available for these models, and our request has either been turned down or denied, and so consequently we must come to you for relief.

Mr. GILLETT. How did they ever come to be moved out of the basement of the Capitol, did you have them removed, Mr. Woods?

Mr. Woops. I think they were put out by some provision of law. I do not remember the provision of law. Then, they were moved to this present site.

The CHAIRMAN. I think they were put in the Capitol by mistake. Mr. AYERS. In that connection there is one statement which I should like to make. There is a building on G Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets, which contains sufficient space for these models, at a rental of $2,400 a year, and in addition there is room on the first floor-it is now a livery stable-that could be utilized as a garage for the department's trucks. We have eight trucks that cost us $13 a month, amounting to $1.024 a year. If this request is granted, we could move the models in there and reduce our garage service $1,000 a year, which would bring the rental of the building for these models down to $1,400.

Mr. GILLETT. If you had the garage there, would you not have to employ some man whom you do not now employ to keep the garage? Mr. AYERS. No, sir. Our chauffeurs take care of their cars. That building is right near our shops where they make all the minor repairs.

Mr. GILLETT. How about the old Maltby Building, is there not room to store the models there?

Mr. WooDs. They could not store the models on any floor in that building or in any building adjacent, because the floors are not strong enough. They might use the cellar floor, but that would not

be sufficient.

Mr. SISSON. Would you have to have a watchman at the building where you stored these models?

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Mr. SISSON. Not only as a historical matter, but as a matter of evidence, like old deeds?

Mr. EWING. Yes, sir. They are cited as anticipation of patents now in force.

Mr. SISSON. Litigation may arise at any moment when it will be necessary to have them?

Mr. EWING. Yes, sir; and they will always be important.

Mr. AYERS. There is one other matter and that is the coal situation. I am speaking of the trucks. Our department has a siding and is going to buy two trucks, 5-tons each, and haul its own coal instead of paying 172 per cent increase over the prices that we paid last year for haulage in the District of Columbia.

ADDITIONAL EMPLOYEES, PATENT OFFICE.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Commissioner, you are asking "For additional employees during the fiscal year 1918 at annual ratings of compensation as follows: Two law examiners, at $2,750 each; examiner of interferences, $2,700; examiners, three principals, at $2,700 each, 25 first assistants at $2,400 each, and 25 second assistants at $2,100 each; clerks, two of class 4, three of class 3, five of class 2, in all $144.200. Please explain this item, Mr. Commissioner.

Mr. EWING. The office is at the present time receiving more applications per year than it has ever received in any previous year. I state that so that there may be no wrong impression that this war and the cutting off of applications from foreign countries has reduced our work; on the contrary, the work has increased. The applications in certain lines are increasing enormously. For example, there has been a sudden rise in Mr. Colwell's division, where ships. guns, and airships are examined. The number of applications in the last two months, compared with the same two months of last year, is 258 per cent-two and one-half times. That is not a mere sudden and temporary rise, but it will continue. That makes it absolutely necessary that we divide Mr. Colwell's division and make two divisions, which we have done with the force we have. That would require one of the primary examiners that I am asking for and the eight additional assistant examiners that go with the division. What is going on in that particular division is going on, in a large measure, in a number of divisions. For example, there has been a sudden increase in dyes and medicines because of the cutting off of the foreign supply. There is a sudden increase in optics because of the cutting off of the Belgian glass. I only mention those as illustrative of what is going on. There is a sudden increase in another division because of the enormous demand for gasoline. There is a sudden increase in the division that examines the different types of trucks, and in the division that examines gasoline engines. I could go through the office. There is immediate prospect of sudden increases in a great number of classes.

The office force is inadequate. It has been inadequate all the time I have been there. In spite of every effort I have made to catch up with the work, and I have never let up for a minute, we have 1,294 more new cases awaiting action to-day than the lowest figure in 1913. We have altogether at the present time 11,289 new cases awaiting action. The number is increasing. It is of the greatest importance to the public that the work of the office be brought up to date, especially in the handling, of course, of things which are of particular use in this war time, and instead of catching up we are falling behind. We can not catch up; it has been demonstrated that we can not. The only way to do the work properly is to have a sufficient force provided to bring the work up to date and to keep it up to date. That

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