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is the proper way to run the office at any time; it is particularly of great importance at this time. If you give us the force, we will establish three new divisions. There is Mr. Colwell's division, which has been already divided, making a new division. We have put a first assistant in charge of one of the divisions. And we would divide Mr. Bancroft's division, and make a third division with classes taken out of several others, if we can get the force, so that we can relieve those examiners who are being especially burdened and have the applications properly and promptly acted upon.

In this supplemental estimate I have asked also for two law examiners. They are, in effect, direct assistants of the commissioner. The war, the problems arising out of the handling of the cases, and the extension of the nine months which the law gives people who can not file their cases within the time limited by law, has caused a very large increase in the commissioner's work, so that last year 4,500 matters came to the commissioner in which he had to render some sort of a decision as against about 3,000 a year or two ago. I have asked for one examiner of interferences. The number of final hearings on interferences in the first six months of this year increased exactly 40 per cent over the number in the first six months of last year. That is true without particular reference to last year. If we go back over four or five years and average it, it is exactly a 40 per cent increase. Furthermore, so many men are inventing along similar lines, because of this war situation, that the number of interferences is going to increase rather than diminish, and the examiner of interferences is simply snowed under.

As to the distribution of the 25 first assistants and 25 second assistant examiners, I do not wish particularly to press the point that they should be only first and second assistant examiners. If the committee wishes to give instead of a part of those some third and fourth assistant examiners, we can get along. But there is in the office one great big job which has pretty nearly stopped because of the tremendous pressure of business at the present time, and that is the work of the classification of patents. I have presented this matter to the committee before and have urged very strongly that I be given an adequate force for the purpose of classification. About 20 years ago we started in to reclassify the patents on a different scheme from what had obtained up to that time. The scheme up to that time was breaking down because of the enormous increase in the number of patents. For 20 years the office has been struggling to get that classification completed, and at the present rate it can be finished in about 25 years more. To leave the office where it has two systems of classification in existence, half of the patents under the old system and half under the new system, is a most lamentable situation which results invariably in slowing down the work and in decreasing the security of the work. If I can get more than enough for three new divisions, such additional men as there are will be used in the classification work. The three new divisions would require three principal examiners and 24 assistants, 8 assistants in each division. That is the way the divisions are made up-2 first assistants, 2 second assistants, 2 third assistants, and 2 fourth assistants. Those are the things that we simply have to have. When this estimate was prepared it was not based quite on that line.

As to the clerks, what I want is enough clerks to take care of the three new divisions and to assist in the work of classification. Every division has to have 2 clerks. The three new divisions would need 6. The fact is that the clerical force of the office is in just about as deplorable a condition as the examining force for lack of proper places in the higher grades, with the result that the office is constantly losing people who get better salaries in the other departments. When we get a well-trained man in any class of work he immediately looks around for a position in the Treasury Department or the War Department, or somewhere else and gets out, because we have not enough places in the higher grades. That is why I have asked for these higher grade clerks.

The CHAIRMAN. Was this matter taken up with the Committee on Patents recently?

Mr. EWING. It was taken up in different form. I wrote to you, if you remember, in March, and this estimate was sent in in April. I got a letter from you shortly after this estimate was sent in in which you stated the committee would not consider this estimate; that they had gone over this matter last fall and did not have time to go over the matter again. Having had no encouragement from you in the matter, I saw Mr. Smith, with the result that a bill was introduced by Mr. Smith in somewhat different form, which is here.

The CHAIRMAN. Was that bill prepared in your office?

Mr. EWING. Yes; and it asks for a part of what I am asking for now. I did not know which I was going to be asked to discuss here, but I supposed I was going to discuss the estimate.

The CHAIRMAN. This bill H. R. 5287 was prepared in your office? Mr. EWING. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that an expression of what was believed adequate for the office?

Mr. EWING. Not at all.

The CHAIRMAN. Upon what basis was it prepared?

Mr. EWING. I talked this matter over with Mr. Smith. I told him that you had written to me that you would not consider this estimate, and Mr. Smith said he might get through what is in this bill, and I trimmed the bill down to what he thought he might get through.

The CHAIRMAN. What is there about this proposed bill that you thought might appeal to the judgment of Congress which is not in

the estimate?

Mr. EWING. This bill calls for 2 primary examiners instead of 3. The CHAIRMAN. A force of 26 employees, at a cost of $46,500, stead of 66 employees, at a cost of $144,200?

Mr. EWING. Yes.

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The CHAIRMAN. And it was prepared in your office and introduced in the House on the 29th of June?

Mr. EWING. Yes. It calls for 2 primary examiners instead of 3; it calls for an examiner of interferences, just as this does, and calls for 4 first, 4 second, 4 third, and 4 fourth assistant examiners; that is. 16 assistant examiners instead of 50, and the salaries on the average are lower. It also calls for 5 clerks of class 1 at $1,200, and 2 laborers. That was 1 clerk for the examiner of interferences, 2 clerks for each of the two divisions and 2 laborers or messengers, 1

for each of the divisions. Now, as I say, this estimate represents my idea of what the office needs. The bill represents Mr. Smith's idea of what he might get through, and I am simply making every effort I can to get some relief.

The CHAIRMAN. Last year you asked for $1,581,960.

Mr. EWING. Yes. This present supplemental estimate was our regular estimate of last year, and your point was that you would not consider this because it was really reconsidering what the House had turned down.

The CHAIRMAN. In March, before Congress had convened, you wrote to me and spoke to me about it and I told you I did not think Congress would reconsider it.

Mr. EWING. You wrote me to that effect.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, I probably wrote you so far as I was able to tell I doubted whether Congress at this extra session would start in and review all of its actions of last session.

Mr. EWING. I am sorry I have not your letter, Mr. Fitzgerald, but as a matter of fact, it was after Congress had convened and you wrote that the committee would not consider it.

The CHAIRMAN. I would not be surprised at that. Why should we? Congress convened on the 2d of April, and you wrote me in March, and I probably wrote you that I did not think Congress would take up the reconsideration of items that had been submitted by the department at the last session of Congress and refused. You might just as well expect every man who applied for a patent and had it denied to come in and ask you to do the whole thing over again.

Mr. EWING. Now, Mr. Chairman, this is the point I want to make plain: The war has created an emergency for the office, and it is doubly important, in view of this war situation, that people should be able to get their applications passed on, and passed on promptly, because their applications and their patents are the basis of the business which they want to develop in the things that are important in this war; and while Congress might have refused me last fall the necessary force to bring the work up to date and keep it there and do the work properly, in the face of the emergency that the country was facing, they should reconsider that action. Now, that was my point, and I think the point is absolutely sound; and I think it is a reason why Congress should reconsider the estimate of last year; but I will take anything I can get, of course, because I want to do what I can to get the work in proper shape. The conditions are not going to be what they are now. They are going to be worse. They are growing worse, and anybody who is trying to get something on the market or get financial backing for something which may be of value in this situation wants his patent as the basis of his work, and he is hung up for four or five months and perhaps longer. If it is something that is of special importance in the war, it is still longer, because those classes are most crowded and we can not take men off of one class and put them on another class and have them examine patents in arts with which they are unfamiliar. Besides, as I said, the whole work of the office is not falling off but is increasing.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

REPAIRS TO TEMPORARY COURTHOUSE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

STATEMENT OF MR. ELLIOTT WOODS, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CAPITOL.

The CHAIRMAN. "Courthouse, Washington, D. C.: For general repairs to the temporary quarters (known as the Emery Building) occupied by the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia during the reconstruction of the courthouse, $2,000, to be expended under the direction of the Superintendent of the Capitol Building and Grounds and to be payable one-half out of the Treasury of the United States and one-half out of the revenues of the District of Columbia."

Mr. Woods. Mr. Chairman, at the time provision was made for rental no provision was made to take care of the incidental wants of the court in the way of construction. General repairs and care of the building are in the hands of those who rent the building to the Government, but there are incidental matters connected with the court that require some little expenditure of money. That can not be stated in detail, but it is estimated it will take that much money to care for these incidental matters during the coming year. They will be in that building at least another year.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of the building do they occupy?
Mr. WOODS. They occupy fully one-third of it.

The CHAIRMAN. Is the rest of it vacant?

Mr. WOODS. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Could not the rest of it be utilized by some other force?

Mr. Woods. It could; yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any other place we could put those courts for the present and get the whole building?

Mr. WOODS. Not very well. I think they are in as good a location as they could possibly secure.

The CHAIRMAN. But if we wanted the building for the use of some of the departments

Mr. WOODS (interposing). I do not know of any other building at present. I have not thought about that lately.

COLUMBIA INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF.

NEW DORMITORY FOR WOMEN.

The CHAIRMAN. You are also asking $21,000 additional for the new women's dormitory at the Columbia Institution for the Deaf. Mr. WOODS. That is based on an average increase in materials and labor since the building was provided for. Our estimates at the time. were based on the prices of material and labor at the time the appropriation was made, but increases have been considerable and very rapid in the last six months, so that I think we will be about $21,000 short; in fact, the bids received during the last two or three days. show that my average increase of 15 per cent is rather low. It is

astonishing how some things have gone up, ranging, in building materials, anywhere from 15 per cent to 60 per cent.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you not contract in advance for all that material?

Mr. WOODS. We could not in this case. You see the appropriation was made for the building at the last moment and we had to simply make a hurried estimate and then start in and build it ourselves, letting it out by separate contracts. It took three or four months to get all the details worked out, and as fast as they were worked out we immediately let contracts. In the meantime these price increases kept up and we have had to account for them, and will have to account for them until we complete the building, which we expect to do by the middle of next October.

FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1917.

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANKLIN K. LANE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

CONSTRUCTION OF RAILROADS IN ALASKA.

Secretary LANE. Mr. Chairman, I want to call your attention to the estimate we have made and the request that has been presented for an additional appropriation at this time of $4,000,000 for the Alaskan Railroad. This map [indicating] shows what we have done. The little black marks show the railroad where track has been laid; that is, from Seward to Mile 71; and then comes that terrible stretch at Turnagain Arm, which is almost, solid rock, where we have done an unexpected amount of work this last winter owing to the fact that we had a comparatively open season from Kern Creek over toward Anchorage. We have got the road now completed from Anchorage up midway into the Matanuska Valley, and we are pushing it on, so that in a couple of months we will have it up to Chickaloon.

Mr. GILLETT. The Chickaloon coal field is where they get the good coal?

Secretary LANE. Yes; that is the coal which was tested for the Navy. It might interest you, Mr. Gillett, to know that this coal singularly runs from lignite in the southwestern end of the valley to anthracite in the northeastern end of the valley, and as you progress up the valley the character of your coal increases in value. This Chickaloon coal is high-grade bituminous coal which tests up to the standard of the Pocohontas fields. We have also in the last few days made a strike up in the Susitna Valley of coal alongside the track. What that field amounts to we do not know, but that is an entirely new body of coal. You see, we have been working up the valley and carrying most of our supplies up to Susitna River and working up toward Broad Pass. Here is Mount McKinley over here [indicating]. Then we have been working from the Tanana River down toward the Nanana coal field here.

Now the situation is this: The price of supplies has gone up. The estimates that were made last year were made in August and those

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