The CHAIRMAN. We would like to have a detailed statement of their expenditures in the months of May and June. Capt. SMITH. All right, sir. The CHAIRMAN. What act authorized the creation of this board? Capt. SMITH. The only one I know of is the naval appropriation act approved August 29, 1916. The CHAIRMAN. That was just an appropriation bill. Capt. SMITH. Yes. The CHAIRMAN. There was no authority in there to establish it. Was there any other authority? Capt. SMITH. None that I know of. The CHAIRMAN. Have you the personnel of the board? The CHAIRMAN. Send that and also a detailed statement of their expenditures for May and June. NAVAL CONSULTING BOARD. Addicks, Lawrence, 126 Liberty Street, New York City; residence, Elizabeth, N. J. Arnold, Bion J., 105 South Lasalle Street, Chicago, Ill. Baekeland, Dr. L. H., Harmony Park, Yonkers, N. Y. Coffin, Howard E.. 29 West Thirty-ninth Street, New York City. Craven, Alfred, 375 Park Avenue, Yonkers, N. Y. Edison, Thomas A., Edison Laboratory, Orange, N. J.; residence, Llewellyn Park, West Orange, Emmet, William LeRoy, General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. Hewitt, Dr. Peter Cooper, Madison Square Garden Tower, Twenty-sixth Street, New York City; residence, 11 Lexington Avenue, New York City. Hunt, Andrew Murray, 55 Liberty Street, New York City; residence, 549 RiverIside Drive, New York City. Hutchison, Dr. M. R., Edison Laboratory, Orange, N. J.; residence, Llewellyn Park, West Orange. Lamme, B. G., chief engineer, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co., East Pittsburgh, Pa. Maxim, Hudson, Maxim Park, Landing, N. J.; 698 St. Marks Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. Miller, Spencer, 96 Liberty Street, New York City; residence. 217 Turrell Avenue, South Orange, N. J. Richards, Dr. Joseph W., Lehigh University, South Bethelem, Pa. Riker, Andrew L., Locomobile Co. of America, Bridgeport, Conn.; residence, Fairfield, Conn. Robins, Thomas, 13 Park Row, New York City; residence, Saddle Rock House, Shippan Point, Stamford, Conn. Saunders, W. L., 11 Broadway, New York City; residence, 112 Rockview Avenue, North Plainfield, N. J. Sellers, Matthew Bacon, 801 North Arlington Avenue, Baltimore, Md. Sperry, Elmer A., 126 Nassau Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; residence, 100 Marlboro Road, New York City. Sprague, Frank J., 165 Broadway, New York City; residence, 241 West End Avenue, New York City. Thayer, Benjamin B., 42 Broadway, New York City; residence, 46 East Seventyninth Street, New York City. Webster, Dr. Arthur G., Clark University, Worcester, Mass. Whitney, Dr. W. R., General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. Woodward, Dr. Robert S., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, D. C. Officers: President, Thomas A. Edison; chairman, W. L. Saunders; secretary, Thomas Robins. NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 10, 1917. From: Capt. W. S. Smith, United States Navy, Navy Department. 1. In compliance with instructions, the following is submitted: Amount expended for travel of members in attending Amount expended on clerical work in office in New York Amount expended in office furniture outfit, including 3, 525. 70 Investigating and test of Stevens submarine bomb net. 1, 769.99 223. 69 156. 31 99.70 Expenses of board meeting, French and English and Night watchman for guarding confidential papers. 13. 50 The last of May the Park Row Realty Co. gave the use of a suite of offices on the fourteenth floor of 13 Park Row, New York City (six office rooms and two large desk and filing rooms). Six well-known consulting engineers of experience in mechanical and electrical work have given their services as assistants to the Secretary in examination and investigation of inventions and ideas submitted for the benefit of the Government. The cost of fitting up these offices with furniture, typewriting machines, duplicating machines for form letters, and office fixtures is a very large part of the expenditure for June. In June an office was established in Chicago to relieve the offices in Washington and New York from a great deal of the work in the West and Northwest and to lessen the expenses of many living near and west of Chicago who preferred to personally call and discuss their ideas. The State Council of National Defense provided office room, and the expenses of the office is estimated at $500 monthly for the present fiscal year. Two hundred dollars of this, however, is subscribed, leaving $300 to be paid from the appropriation. The estimated expenses of the New York office for clerical force, telephone expenses, lighting, and all service (based on July expense) is, per month.. The total estimated expenses of the board is, per month, with no provision for emergencies.. A yearly estimate_ $1, 200 3, 350 40, 200 W. STROTHER SMITH. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1917. BUREAU OF NAVIGATION-RECREATION OF ENLISTED MEN. STATEMENT OF COMMANDER L. M. OVERSTREET. you are ask The CHAIRMAN. For "Recreation for enlisted men ing $250,000. What is proposed to be done with this amount? Commander OVERSTREET. Previous to the war the men on the battleships and the men at the four regular training stations pro vided most of their amusement by the profits of the canteens which they run by selling candies, cigars, etc. With the great number of men going into the various camps we have been unable to supply the money. The Navy League has done a great deal by leasing and turning over 110 acres of land to the fleet and establishing 10 baseball diamonds thereon, which has been of great benefit to the men. We have about 25 different places enumerated as the training camps. This $250,000 would allow about $10,000 to each camp. The CHAIRMAN. You have, all told, in the Navy, in round numbers, about 200,000 men? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. And you want half as much money as the War Department wants to amuse a million men? Commander OVERSTREET. This will allow an average of something like $1.50 per man. As the Army will have larger numbers in their camps the average cost per man would be less. The CHAIRMAN. In some places you will have only about 1,000 men and have about $10,000? Commander OVERSTREET. Of course, we would not give them that amount. We would pro rate the money according to the number of men at each station. The CHAIRMAN. What is proposed to be done? Commander OVERSTREET. Where the weather permits the purpose is to lay out baseball fields, as many as we can. Then, there is a great demand for moving pictures. You can entertain a whole camp at night by moving pictures with the band. Then, we want to get them the pictures from the moving-picture circuits. The idea is, in the daytime to have baseball diamonds and in the evening to have the moving pictures and the band? The CHAIRMAN. Do you not still have the canteen profits? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes; but they do not meet the big exexpenditures. For instance, they want a 150-acre field. It costs a great deal to get the field and level it. The men themselves always do a great deal of the work in laying out the diamonds. Mr. GILLETT. Do the men themselves contribute to raising money for this purpose? Commander OVERSTREET. They contribute something and they contribute largely through the canteen without knowing it; but when we meet a big proposition, where we want to lease and lay out a couple hundred acres of land, we do not have the funds. The CHAIRMAN. How is the estimate of $250,000 arrived at? Commander OVERSTREET. We figure that we will have about 25 stations that we would give an average of about $10,000 to each. The stations will average about 5,000 men. Of course, the Navy Department will prorate the money. It is hard to keep the men contented and happy, and if you can give them baseball for the daytime and moving pictures at night, it is very desirable. The CHAIRMAN. Does that have any appreciable effect on the discipline? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. If we can not furnish the amusement, they will want to go on liberty and go looking for trouble. If you can furnish them with the moving pictures at night, they are contented to stay at home. It is the old problem of amusing them at home rather than letting them go out and go into the saloons and get into trouble. If you can content your men in these camps, it means a great deal for discipline. This question of liberty, letting the men go out, to be gone over night, is a hard thing to handle in handling the enlisted men. I have seen men on the ships at the New York yard fairly contented if you give them amusement at night. When you are near a city-I have been aboard ships in the New York yard a great many times-it is a hard problem to keep four or five hundred men on board the ship at night when the lights of the city can be seen by all of them; and the same thing applies to the camp, if they are at a place where no amusement is going on. In the fleet they have been able to keep the men contented and happy by having the great baseball fields. They have baseball tournaments and competition between ships and on the ships between divisions of the men. We have 70 or 80 men to each gun division. If you have eight gun divisions on a ship, you can get competition between them. That works for the good spirit of the ship. If you can work up a good spirit, you are bound to have a good ship. The happy ships are always the most efficient ones. That is the secret of an efficient ship— to keep the men happy and amused. WEDNESDAY, JULY 25, 1917. TRANSPORTATION. STATEMENT OF COMMANDER L. M. OVERSTREET, BUREAU OF NAVIGATION. The CHAIRMAN. The next item is on page 7, as follows: For transportation, Bureau of Navigation, including the same objects specified under this head in the naval appropriation act for the fiscal year 1918, $700,000. Commander OVERSTREET. The appropriation for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1917, was $1,010,254. That ran out, and on June 1, 1917, we had a deficiency of $362,000. The deficiency act of June 15, 1917. gave us $1,659,000, and the regular appropriation for the year ending June 30, 1918, is $1,060,000. We estimate that we are now spending at the rate of $250,000 per month, and that it will take $700.000 additional to provide transportation up to June 30, 1918. The CHAIRMAN. You do not need that money right away? Commander OVERSTREET. No, sir; but we will need it before the end of the next fiscal year. The CHAIRMAN. Before next June? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir. Mr. GILLETT. Would you need any of it before December? Commander OVERSTREET. No, sir; but the appropriation will not run through to June 30, 1918. The CHAIRMAN. There will be plenty of time to provide for that. Commander OVERSTREET. If we keep on spending at the rate of $250.000 per month The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Even at that rate you will have plenty of money up to the 1st of January. Commander OVERSTREET. Yes, sir; we will have plenty up to January. WEDNESDAY, July 25, 1917. BUREAU OF ORDNANCE. STATEMENT OF COMMANDER C. A. KEARNEY, ACTING CHIEF. ORDNANCE AND ORDNANCE STORES. The CHAIRMAN. For ordnance and ordnance stores you are asking $12,446,480, which is in addition to $8,488,333 in the naval bill and $16,905,000 in the deficiency bill. For what purpose is this money needed? Commander KEARNEY. The first items under ordnance and ordnance stores are, briefly, for fire-control and optical instruments, such as range finders, stadimeters, gun-sight telescopes, binoculars, periscopes, range keepers, target-bearing instruments, time-of-flight indicators; in other words, the optical instruments of our fire-control system. Our estimate for these is $3,011,000. The CHAIRMAN. That is in addition to what you have already had? Commander KEARNEY. The above was a part of the detail estimate. This is our big working appropriation. This is the blanket appropriation for labor, all repairs, alterations, etc., of ordnance on ships of the Navy; in other words, it is the current working account of the bureau. The CHAIRMAN. How do you estimate you will require this $12,000,000 additional at this time? Commander KEARNEY. In part for labor, due to increased work, $3,000,000; on directoscopes for the battleships, $20,000. Ammunition expenditure counter devices, we estimate for that $6,000. Directoscopes, $100,000. Mr. GILLETT. May I ask a question before you go on? Are all these appropriations simply additional appropriations? Commander KEARNEY. These are additional ones. Mr. GILLETT. What causes the need of them? Commander KEARNEY. The developments due to the war, new ships coming in, procurement of new devices which war has made. mandatory. Mr. GILLETT. You mean new devices? Commander KEARNEY. Yes. Mr. GILLETT. Then those would not be additional. What I mean is, whether these are all for things which have already been appropriated for, and this is to make additional appropriations for them. Commander KEARNEY. Some of the items have been covered in the past, but these are additional of the same design or of approved design. Mr. GILLETT. In other words, by this bill are you simply getting more in quantity? Commander KEARNEY. Getting more in quantity, sir. The CHAIRMAN. More in quantity, or are there in addition some apparatus which provision had not been made for? Commander KEARNEY. Some for which provision had not been made and could not be foreseen. The CHAIRMAN. So it contemplates both classes of expenditures? Commander KEARNEY. Both classes; yes, sir. |