Admiral MASON. That is very necessary. The building at present used is a makeshift structure made of scrap materials; entirely inadequate.

The CHAIRMAN. "Lime and cement shed, four thousand five hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. That is very necessary for storing material. We are 22 miles away from a market for the source of supply, and the material has to come down there and be stored, sometimes. It would be a saving to have a shed to keep lime and cement and other stuff from deteriorating.

The CHAIRMAN. "New emplacement, twelve-inch gun, two new steel circles and vamping ten-inch emplacement, sixteen thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. That is necessary for another place to fire a 12inch gun.

The CHAIRMAN. "Railroad extensions, eight thousand dollars." Admiral MASON. These extensions are necessary for increasing the facilities for handling materials and space for storing cars.

The CHAIRMAN. Naval magazine, Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania. Storehouse and offices, two hundred by fifty feet, with railroad track through center of building and continuation of railroad trestle to connect therewith, thirty thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. That storehouse is urgently needed for stowage of boxes, powder tanks, empty shells, and so forth. The present buildings do not permit of storing this material. We are using a shell house at present for storing it, and the building is too valuable; we need it too much for a shell house. In addition, of course this is quite a large building, and we want one corner of it to be used for offices, and in addition to that we want a powder magazine at the same navy-yard, $15,000.

Then there is the fence. We acquired several years ago from the War Department a number of acres. The length of that fence was 7,300 feet. That ought to be fenced in in order to keep trespassers and cattle off.

The CHAIRMAN. What sort of fence is it?

Admiral MASON. This would be a 5 or 6 barred wire fence of about a dollar a foot, I think it is.

The CHAIRMAN. The next is "one dwelling house for officers' quarters, eight thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. All of these large distributing magazines are now in charge of commissioned officers. We found that they were of too much importance to leave them in command of chief gunners or gunners. It is necessary for the officer to be on the station, in addition to the gunners.

The CHAIRMAN. How much have you there?

Admiral MASON. This magazine has one officer now and two gunners. The officer lives in Philadelphia, and it takes him an hour to get down each day, and there is one gunner who lives in the place and the other lives in the city also. We will come up eventually to have quarters for each one of the officers at each one of the magazines.

The CHAIRMAN. "Naval magazine, Mare Island, California: One office building, including permanent furnishings and fixtures, eight thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. That is necessary. The present building is old and of wood, and situated on the wharf, where it is in the way, right up close to ammunition building No. 3, containing fixed ammunition, and in close contact with another building containing ammunition and various explosive materials. There is no protection to the office records in case of fire, and so forth. That is considered very necessary. Then we want two filling houses, for which we ask for $2,000. They are small buildings. Two more are necessary. In fitting up and repairing ammunition the working party working on the ammunition take their material away from the main storehouse, the shell house, and work on it in a small filling house. Two more of these houses are absolutely necessary at that magazine now.

The extensions of the sewerage system from the magazine grounds are necessary for safety and health. This is an addition to the present sewerage system, rendered necessary, I think, by an increase in the size of the magazine grounds.

The CHAIRMAN. "Naval magazine, New York Harbor."

Admiral MASON. The first is "one fixed-ammunition house, twenty thousand dollars." That is required to provide stowage space for the large quantities of fixed ammunition turned in from ships and being prepared for ships at this magazine.

The CHAIRMAN. How large are those ammunition houses?
Admiral MASON. About 75 by 100, I think.

The CHAIRMAN. What are they made of?

Admiral MASON. Brick or stone. Just at present at the new Hingham magazine we have gone off to reenforced concrete very successfully, so far. In the Philippine Islands we have gone to concrete. It makes a very good building and a much cheaper building.

The CHAIRMAN. "Wash room and water-closets in power house, two thousand five hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. That we have asked for a couple of times. That is necessary. They ought to have a wash room and water-closets. It will necessitate a small building right near the power house.

The CHAIRMAN. How many men do you employ there?

Admiral MASON. From 100 to 150.

The CHAIRMAN. "Extension of sewerage system, five thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. They want to carry off all the sewerage of the station to out beyond low-water mark in the river, instead of letting it soak up into the earth as they have done.

The CHAIRMAN. "One magazine building, twenty thousand dollars." Admiral MASON. That is about the same sized building as the fixedammunition house. In fact, they are practically interchangeable except the inside fittings.

The CHAIRMAN. Which is the most important of the two?

Admiral MASON. They are both important. We ought to have The fixed-ammunition house is most important.

The CHAIRMAN. "Condenser in boiler room of power house, three thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. We need that rather badly, because the river water is brackish up there, and it is bad in the boilers.

The CHAIRMAN. We come next to "Naval magazine, navy-yard, Puget Sound, Washington." The first is "one gib crane on magazine wharf, one thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. We want a crane on the wharf for lifting heavy weights. A 13-inch shell weighs over a thousand pounds, and in making provision for the other expenditures they failed to ask for a

crane.

The CHAIRMAN. "Telephone line from navy-yard to magazine, one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars."

Admiral MASON. That is, from the magazine to the wharf. I have forgotten how far that is. It is from 6 to 8 miles across the neck of land to the navy-yard. They have the right of way and everything, and I started to put the telephone line in on the sum appropriated for the magazine, but the legal people said it could not be paid for, as it was not on the magazine reservation, all of it.

The CHAIRMAN. "Watchman's clock system at magazine, two thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. That we want. We have been installing that very successfully, and we have found it very efficient at all magazines. It is absolutely necessary not only to have the watchmen go around, but also to know that they are going around.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you this system at other magazines?

Admiral MASON. Yes; we are getting it at the others as fast as possible. We are putting it in at Fort Mifflin, Pa., and we have it at Ïona Island.

The CHAIRMAN. The next is "Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island. New water main, two thousand three hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. The present water-main system there is 20 years old, and they want to extend it and also replace it. I think it is

necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. "Converting one of powder factory buildings into brass foundry, five thousand three hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. We had a small powder factory there several years ago, but we have now vacated the buildings and they find in the manufacture of torpedoes, and so forth, that it is very often necessary to have small castings, and it takes a great deal of time and money to make requisitions for purchases and also time to get these castings, and they want to put in a small converter and make small castings. That is a necessary item.

The CHAIRMAN. "Storehouse for torpedoes, fifty thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. The building asked for is to store 500 torpedoes with the necessary tools and outfits corresponding thereto. Also it is to provide floor space for packing and unpacking and final tests and inspections before shipment. The design of this building is for one story with an attic, but the foundations and walls are to be made. sufficiently heavy to ultimately add one or two stories more for torpedoes as the reserve supply in the service increases.

The CHAIRMAN. "Repairing and extending wharves, eight thousand eight hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. The wharves and slips for torpedo boats have received little or no repairs in the last few years. The maintenance money of the station has been insufficient to keep them up.

The CHAIRMAN. "New sewerage and drainage system, two thousand seven hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. That is about on a par with the water system. At present there is no regular drainage or sewerage system. The surface drainage is on the principle of the water seeking the lowest level. Twice recently the dynamo and the compressor rooms have been flooded during heavy rains, necessitating shutting down of the machines. This is due to the fact that no drainage is provided and the surface water from a large portion of the ground flows naturally into an area way.

The CHAIRMAN. "Coal shed and coal-handling apparatus, including elevated car tracks, elevator, fourteen thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. That coal shed I know has been there ten or twelve years. It is an old, tumble-down structure, and the coal might just as well be piled up out in the open. The coal shed is very necessary. The CHAIRMAN. "Repairs to sea walls, six thousand four hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. The sea wall on the west side needs repairing, and on the east side by the ferry and in front of the administration building it would be raised about 8 inches in order to be of sufficient height above high water. As a matter of fact, the wall along that portion, as I remember, at very high water is submerged, the water coming over it.

The CHAIRMAN. The next is "Naval magazine, Lake Denmark, New Jersey. One magazine, seventy-five by forty feet, including necessary clearing, grading, railroad track, water mains, electric lights, hose houses, and watchmen's clocks, twelve thousand five hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. This is providing for an increase in ammunition. This magazine at Lake Denmark is our main storage magazine. Our main supplies go there and are held until they are required for use. The magazine and the high-explosive house are very necessary.

The CHAIRMAN. "One high-explosive house for storage of explosive 'D,' including necessary clearing, grading, railroad track, water mains, electric lights, hose houses, and watchmen's clocks, twelve thousand five hundred dollars."

Admiral MASON. As I say, there is a commissioned officer who is going there as soon as we can get one to take command of this important station where there is at least $3,000,000 worth of government material. He will take the quarters now occupied by the gunner, and we will have to have quarters for a gunner and a pharmacist. They have 100 to 150 men there, and they should have there a pharmacist or a doctor. We can get a pharmacist, and the Surgeon-General promised us a doctor as soon as he could get one.

The CHAIRMAN. "Extension of administration building to provide office for general storekeeper, for dispensary, and laboratory for testing powder, three thousand dollars."

Admiral MASON. Since last year we have taken a representative of the general storekeeper, or the Paymaster-General, at each of our magazines, and at present he has his office and is working in one end of a shell house, which is rather a cold proposition. There is no way of heating it, at all. We have an administration building there, a small one, and by putting that extension on we can get an office for him and get a dispensary and carry a few emergency supplies, a medical outfit, and we can have a small laboratory for testing powder. The CHAIRMAN. All together, in one building?

Admiral MASON. Yes, sir; that is, it will be an addition to this administration building.

The CHAIRMAN. "Naval magazine, New England coast (Hingham), Massachusetts:" That is $100,000.

Admiral MASON. As you will remember, $500,000 was authorized by act of Congress in 1904. Four hundred thousand dollars has been appropriated, and the additional $100,000 should be appropriated at the next session of Congress, as it will be undoubtedly needed before the expiration of the fiscal year 1910 to cover the cost of construction. The CHAIRMAN. We have not acquired the ground yet, have we? Admiral MASON. Here is a statement of two pages out of the annual report, giving the exact status of that. We have bought all of the ground that is necessary for us to go to work. We have the plans practically ready and really would have commenced to build the railroad in, but we got into a dispute with the electric railroad company of Hingham about a grade crossing, and the papers in that case have been in the Attorney-General's office for some time. Without doubt in the early spring we will be able to commence work and to push the whole place to completion during the next fiscal year. The long statement here which will go in the hearings with the committee's permission will show what we have spent, or we will have for the buildings and railroad track and so forth, about $200,000 left out of the amount appropriated.

The CHAIRMAN. That is to say, the land will cost about $200,000? Admiral MASON. Yes, sir. It has cost quite a little more, and the length of time that has elapsed has been caused by the delays in the

courts.

The following is an extract from the bureau's annual report on this subject, but as the annual report has not been printed yet is submitted for the information of the committee:

Every effort has been made to expedite proceedings for the condemnation of the land at the Hingham naval magazine site necessary to undertake construction work. Although many unexpected and exasperating situations have arisen to delay matters, the more important parcels have been acquired by decree of court and by deed (acquisition by deed becoming possible in some cases by allowing an increase over the appraised value in order to avoid delay and the probability of the courts awarding an even higher price), and it appears that contract for building the railroad could be awarded and the road completed early enough to permit undertaking construction of the plant and completion of the more important buildings before winter.

With this idea in view, the work of preparing plans for the buildings was taken in hand immediately after the fleet left the Boston Navy-Yard in December, and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company was furnished with complete plans of the site and other data and requested to submit an estimate of time and cost for building the railroad. This the company did, after making a survey, and their proposition was forwarded to the bureau under date of May 21, 1908, accompanied by plan showing the location of the road. However, as the estimated cost was much higher ($59,520) than had been expected, arrangements were made to have a responsible engineering company give an independent estimate. In due time the contracting company submitted their estimate, based on the plans made by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, and in view of the great difference in cost it was decided that the building of the road on the Hingham reservation should be let by contract to the lowest responsible bidder.

In the meantime, under date of February 29, 1908, the board of selectmen of the town of Hingham were requested to approve a plan showing desired grade crossing between the magazine site and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad at Fort Hill street, West Hingham. It immediately developed that there would be strong oppoition by the town of Hingham to the proposed grade crossing, and a counter proposition has been suggested, not acceptable to the Government. Although the board of select men has repeatedly been requested to render a decision in this matter, the official communications of the Government have been, and still remain, ignored by that board.