men, and the only provision for officers now is a series of little rooms that have been temporarily partitioned off in the enlisted men's quarters. Our wish is to build one house for the commanding oflicers' quarters and one for two or three junior officers, at an expenditure of $10,000 each.

The CHAIRMAN. "Toward the completion of one quartermaster's storehouse, marine barracks, navy-yard, Boston, Massachusetts, ten thousand dollars."

Colonel DENNY. In the naval appropriation act of last year provision was made for $20,000 for such storehouse. We drew up plans and specifications of the building and bids were invited, and 10 proposals received. The lowest of these proposals was $10,000 in excess of the available appropriation, so necessarily we stopped the work and are now asking Congress for that increase and $20,000, total $30,000, with which to put up this building. It is a small building of a fireproof construction, without ornamentation, simply for storerooms and offices, and a few prison cells.

The CHAIRMAN. You need it?

Colonel DENNY. We need it, yes, sir; badly.

General ELLIOTT. You left one thing out, Colonel Denny. We have one officer in charge of the prison, which is a short distance north of this building, and we intend to put in this building an office, a room for him. He has no place of any kind to see anybody or transact business. He is to have an office in this building, to be there night and day.

Colonel DENNY. I think the main point, though, is that the enlisted men in the present barracks are very seriously overcrowded, so much so that the conditions are detrimental to their health. The idea is to get all stores out of the present barracks and put them in a separate building so that the men will have the accommodations now used for supplies, space which they sorely need.

The CHAIRMAN. "For the purchase on Long Island, New York, of fifty acres, more or less, of land as a marine corps reservation and the construction thereon of barracks, officers' quarters, and other necessary buildings, four hundred thousand dollars."

General ELLIOTT. That comes under my province, I believe. A letter was sent to the Secretary of the Navy two years ago from Admiral Rodgers saying that they must have the land which we now occupy in Brooklyn as a marine barracks. This land is right at the head of the dry dock. A great portion of the navy-yard was sold, and the navy-yard is built nearly entirely over with machine shops and buildings of that sort. The piece we occupy is absolutely necessary, the naval men think, for the use of machine shops in connection with these dry docks which they have put in there. They intend to put a new dry dock in there, I believe, in the future.

The CHAIRMAN. How many acres are there?

General ELLIOTT. About 6 acres.

The CHAIRMAN. How much of this will go for the purchase of the land?

General ELLIOTT. The land is worth a million dollars to the city. Mr. ROBERTS. You are speaking now of the land in the Brooklyn yard you occupy. The chairman is speaking of the land you propose to buy.

The CHAIRMAN. I see; 50 acres.

General ELLIOTT. I was telling you why they want to move us out. Mr. PADGETT. The statement is, "fifty acres, more or less." Has any survey been made to ascertain definitely how much?

General ELLIOTT. Yes, sir; we know the land we want, but you can not appropriate for any definite land. If you appropriated, you would not appropriate to buy a certain piece of land, would you?

Mr. ROBERTS. Why not put it "not exceeding fifty acres of land?" General ELLIOTT. That would do.

Mr. ROBERTS. To get down to a concrete point, do you want more than 50 acres?

General ELLIOTT. No, sir; we can do with 50 acres, and this is in one piece that we know of. It is 18 miles from Brooklyn by tug. It is just above Hell Gate and deep water. The land is high, no marsh land, and there are 80 acres in one tract which is even under an Indian title to-day; it was never sold; the title is perfectly good. The railroad, if the water should freeze, would run us within short marching distance of the barracks. The Secretary's idea, and the idea of the naval officers, was that this land in Brooklyn we now occupy, 6 acres, is so valuable to the Government that we should keep one building we now own, in which officers live, and turn it into a big guardhouse; that we should bring 100 men in and keep them three or four days and make of them what we call a "running guard"—that is, they will do two hours on and six off, night and day, while they were there. They would be allowed no liberty or anything of that sort. Then they would go back to the station for their drills and exercises, and in about a week they would have another whirl at this guard duty in the yard. It would be better for our men. There is no place so pernicious to the discipline of recruits as the Brooklyn navy-yard and the surroundings. The men have no place in the world to go except in their bunks and out on the streets. The old barracks looks like a pigeon rookery.

The CHAIRMAN. How much would the 50 acres cost; the land itself? General ELLIOTT. The 80 acres, I think, could be bought for that

sum.

The CHAIRMAN. Eighty acres?

General ELLIOTT. We know it could be bought for that.

Mr. ROBERTS. Four hundred thousand dollars?

General ELLIOTT. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. I know; but would all this money go to the purchase of the 80 acres?

Colonel DENNY. No, sir. It is this way, Mr. Chairman. We ought not to specify any particular piece or tract of land-any particular number of acres because the property we have in mind is all sold, not by the acre, but in tracts. We have in mind six or seven. The one having the greatest acreage is the one the General referred to, which has 80 acres; the one we favor has about 52 acres. Our fear has been that if this project should get to the attention of the real estate brokers and so forth, down in that part of Long Island Sound, they would raise the prices so that we could not possibly touch them, and we left it indefinite so that we could purchase any one of these good spaces found to be best, all things considered.

The CHAIRMAN. What would the barracks cost?

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Colonel DENNY. The average cost per acre would be between $3,500 and $4,000 per acre; say, fifty times four, that is $200,000. The barracks would cost $200,000.

The CHAIRMAN. The officers' quarters and the other buildings about what?

Colonel DENNY. We would have to come to Congress subsequently for that, because it will take some time to buy this property, to grade it, and prepare it for buildings, by which time the idea was to ask Congress for about six sets of oflicers' quarters. Instead of asking for the whole sum in one act, ask for it in two.

General ELLIOTT. We could not use all the money in one year.

The CHAIRMAN. Do I understand that your purpose is to leave Brooklyn Navy-Yard?

Colonel DENNY. Yes, sir; except for a guardhouse. We think the Government requires it absolutely, our present reservation, for naval purposes, dry dock, storehouses, shops, etc.

The CHAIRMAN. You have about 6 acres of ground there?
Colonel DENNY. About 6; yes.

The CHAIRMAN. And for what purpose would the Government use it?

Colonel DENNY. They want it for storehouses, machine shops, and the extension of the dry dock. I think perhaps the chairman remembers the situation in New York, having visited it every year for several years. The end of the new dry dock would come into the new marine barracks grounds.

Mr. ROBERTS. Is the mess hall in the new tract you intend to buy? Colonel DENNY. Only the large mess hall.

Mr. ROBERTS. Is there one there you could have, so that you would not need any building for that purpose?

Colonel DENNY. No, sir.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Is there any necessity for having the marines in the yard at all?

Colonel DENNY. Oh, yes.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. What for?

Colonel DENNY. For the purpose of protecting public property there, and for the purpose of drilling and otherwise preparing them for all kinds of service.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. They could drill elsewhere, could they not? Colonel DENNY. Inside of the navy-yard, you mean?

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Yes.

General ELLIOTT. Our real duties are in the yard, guarding the yard.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. How many would it take to guard the yard? General ELLIOTT. One hundred, making a running guard.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. How many acres are there in the yard? General ELLIOTT. This is a guess; there are, I should say, 120 in the yard itself, at least.

Mr. BUTLER. One hundred and twenty acres?

General ELLIOTT. The yard contains about 120 acres.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. It seems to me that 100 men would be entirely too large a force to guard 120 acres of land in times of peace, to keep even a proper watch over them. If you compare that with other industrial plants in the land that have watchmen over them, it seems that that is too many. It came to my mind that it would

be best to bring this investment down to League Island, by erecting extra barracks there for them.

Colonel DENNY. We are suggesting that also at this time.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. I know; but I mean instead of Long Island, and have less naval stations. There is plenty of ground there. General ELLIOTT. We would have to run them on cars to New York.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Change them every two or three weeks. That would be a very slight expense.

General ELLIOTT. Yes; but it would be a long pull.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. You would have your same officers at League Island and the officers now at League Island could take care of the men. You would not have to have a detail of officers as you would have for this new place. All that expenditure could be saved. Is that not so?

Colonel DENNY. I do not think so. In the first place, your force of 100 men, which is for guard duty alone, means that you can have about twenty-five sentries. In navy-yards, where we have anything in the way of copper, brass, and so forth, which can be stolen, it is stolen from time to time notwithstanding that we keep a good guard, the best we can. That, it seems to me, proves that you have to have this number of sentries. The commandants of the yard not only want the number they now have, but they want a great many more. It is not like a big plant where there is nothing to steal except from the offices, probably, and from the brass foundry, and in places where they have some few precious things, where one watchman would do; that watchman has the day off and only stands at night. He may have relief at night. These men stand two hours on and four hours off. It is a hardship. The policy of the marines is to be ready for anything or everything all the time.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. I know a place where they employ 7,000 or 8,000 men in a place that covers a good many acres of land, where the same quality of goods is used, but perhaps not as large a quantity, although a very large quantity, where the watch service is not near so great as that, and where their own money is invested.

Colonel DENNY. These men whom you refer to are employed solely for the purpose of watching that property?

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Yes.

Colonel DENNY. These people are employed not only for the purpose of watching public property, but to fit them as soldiers-drilling, training, etc. You see we are proposing for a week to have only 100 men at the navy-yard of our entire force, which is about 300 at New York. The other force is engaged in drilling and discipline and training preparatory to war and emergencies of all kinds.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. The question came to me, could they not just as well be drilled at League Island as at this place?

Colonel DENNY. The trouble would be in getting them from League Island to New York, which means about four hours to Brooklyn navy-yard.

General ELLIOTT. I should rather they come by tugboat. A tug could go to Perth Amboy and we would be in striking distance.

Colonel DENNY. Let me suggest that we need not limit the selection of land to Long Island Sound. That seems to be the most convenient place. Perth Amboy has been considered. Staten Island also. If

Congress provided the appropriation, the course would be for the Secretary to appoint a board to investigate the whole question-which was the best place to go to, the cost, and the acreage, and examine the title and all the questions before anything was actually done; but without this appropriation we can not even take preliminary steps.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Why not say, "For the purchase, near New York, of 50,000 acres, more or less, of land;" the purchase of Long Island absolutely?

General ELLIOTT. That was a mistake, to put it on Long Island, absolutely.

The CHAIRMAN. Let us pass on. "Toward the completion of marine garrison, navy-yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, one marine barracks, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars; officers' quarters, sixty thousand dollars; and for the construction and completion of an amusement room and gymnasium for enlisted men, twenty thousand dollars; in all, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars."

Colonel DENNY. We have outgrown the one barracks at the League Island yard, and it is suggested here that we build another much like the present one, which would permit about 600 men to be accommodated at the station.

The CHAIRMAN. How many will be accommodated there now?
Colonel DENNY. About 300.

Mr. BUTLER. Would this be in addition to the present barracks?
Colonel DENNY. Yes, sir; one additional barracks.

Mr. BUTLER. What I would call "wings" to the original building? Colonel DENNY. Better disconnected, so as to get light and air all around them.

Mr. BUTLER. We have plenty of land there to build on?

Colonel DENNY. Oh, yes.

Mr. BUTLER. How many acres of ground are set aside there for the marines?

Colonel DENNY. I can tell you by feet, if that would answer the question as well. It is about 1,200 feet long, and about 400 feet deep. Mr. BUTLER. Is there a parade ground?

Colonel DENNY. Yes; a very good parade ground. It is 580 feet long by 410 feet wide.

Mr. BUTLER. Enough for 600 men?
Colonel DENNY. Oh, yes, sir.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. About 12 acres? Colonel DENNY. Ten acres, I think. 580 feet long by 410 feet wide.

The parade ground itself is

General ELLIOTT. That is only for that one barracks?

Colonel DENNY. Yes, sir; outside of that parade ground is sufficient ground for another parade ground of the same dimensions, roughly, 1,000 feet long by 400 feet wide.

The CHAIRMAN. "Toward the completion of the quartermaster's depot, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the purchase of ground adjoining such depot, twenty-five thousand dollars." I thought we completed that last year.

Colonel DENNY. No; the committee has been very generous with us about that. We have two buildings, two offices, storehouses, and workshops, and we are building a third additional one. When completed, we will have a splendid storehouse there, all we need, where we can make everything we require except arms, practically.