sition. Congress can control and restrict expenditures for such service as heretofore, but within the limits fixed by Congress the Secretary of the Navy is held responsible for the proper distribution of the appropriations as to yards and stations, as well as with regard to individual compensation, in accordance with the relative efficiency and the importance of the work to which assigned.

The CHAIRMAN. Under this new arrangement what is going to be the policy of the department? Are you going to put more men on the per annum basis or keep the men on the per diem basis?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Keep them on the per diem basis.

The CHAIRMAN. Take off some of the men on the per annum basis and put them on the per diem basis?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir; we will put them all in the same class. The heads of offices and principal clerks might well be on the per annum basis, but we will put the lower grade clerks in the per diem class.

Mr. BUTLER. The expenditure of the appropriation is in the discretion of the Secretary of the Navy?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir. He may not have to expend it all, but simply pay the men in conformity with the class of work done. For instance, a teamster in a navy-yard gets $3 a day. He has been carried in the civil list for a great many years. Then comes about a time when a teamster can earn more, but a man who is holding that position, by reason of the fact that he is carried in the bill, can not be changed.

The CHAIRMAN. And then Congress keeps control of it through this method that the Secretary makes a report of the number of employees every year?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And also the amount needed for this service?
Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. The only control that Congress will have is the limitation of the amount to be expended by the Secretary?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir. That is more than they have exercised. Heretofore it has been left entirely to his discretion to expend whatever he deemed desirable. That creates a constant pressure on the department for increased clerical force. Under this arrangement he will be permitted to keep the clerical force busy all the time and to expend the money in the wisest possible way. I do not say that that is not done now, but the pressure for constant increase is something that is very difficult always to resist. There is this to be said about the clerical force: Men working in the same office, one classified and one per diem-the per diem man becomes very much dissatisfied, because he can not comprehend why one clerk next to him, doing exactly the same work, gets thirty days' leave of absence with pay while he only gets fifteen days. He can not understand that. Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Is not that true of every other department of the Government?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I am not familiar enough with the other departments to answer that question.

Mr. BUTLER. They all get thirty days' leave of absence.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. The change we have made regarding the leave of absence meets with your approval?

Secretary NEWBERRY. It does.

The CHAIRMAN. You believe it will work for more economic administration in the yards and stations?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I know it will for the simple reason that you know what the maximum cost of the clerical force will be under this legislation, and under the other you did not know anything about it; it depends upon the will of the Secretary of the Navy and the amount of pressure that he can withstand.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to inquire about the dock at the New York Navy-Yard.

Secretary NEWBERRY. The Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Civil Engineer Hollyday, just returned this morning. He was over there yesterday in order to give me the last word which I could give the committee on that subject. In order to review the circumstances which led up to the second contract for the building of the dock-the committee is more or less familiar with the failure of the first contractor, the readvertisement, and the beginning of work by the new contractor at the beginning of last year. He started in with a good deal of zeal and earnestness. I have made two or three visits to the yard myself because of the supposed danger possible there caving in. The dock is being built over what seems to have been the site of old docks, filled in with city refuse and is soft and mushy. The material approximates quicksand. They call it quicksand. As he dredges down the land seems to flow into the hole as fast as he dredges it. He has secured the advice of the best civil engineer that he can secure in New York, and all of the engineers believe that he can complete his work in accordance with the contract. In the last three or four weeks there have been rumors to the effect that he was going to fail or give it up, but Mr. Hollyday tells me this morning that he does not see any necessity for that, that the man is going on with the work and taking all the precautions he can, and unless he is hampered by some purely financial consideration, of which we know nothing, he ought to complete his contract.

Mr. ROBERTS. What per cent of the work has been completed?

Secretary NEWBERRY. About 5 per cent. I can tell you how it appears to me. They have excavated the entire dock down below the high-water mark. For a section of the dock they have gotten very nearly down to the floor of the dock.

Mr. ROBERTS. Have they put in any stone or concrete?

Secretary NEWBERRY. The last time I was there they were simply excavating by cofferdams and by driving piles.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Do they find any quicksand down at the full depth?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I think so; yes, sir.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Is not that far below the original old docks? Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Then, the natural soil must be of a quicksand nature?

Secretary NEWBERRY. That is what they tell me. It is not an impossible situation from an engineering standpoint, but very expensive.

Mr. ROBERTS. Are you familiar with the plans for that dock? Do they call for a pile foundation?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I can not say offhand whether they do or I presume it will be pile foundation, with a concrete floor.

Mr. HOBSON. Do you know whether it is thought by the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks and others that the dock can be completed within the appropriation asked for?

Secretary NEWBERRY. We thought so when the contractor took the contract and gave a satisfactory bond for its fulfillment.

Mr. ROBERTS. How many men have undertaken contracts for the dock?

Secretary NEWBERRY. In my experience two contractors. This is the second one. It possibly may be the third, I am not certain, but two that I know of.

Mr. ROBERTS. The first one failed, did he not?

Secretary NEWBERRY. The first one I had any personal experience with failed.

Mr. PADGETT. Did he furnish a bond?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

Mr PADGETT. A solvent bond?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I believe so. The bond, I think, was furnished by a Vermont company for $150,000, that is my recollection, and Mr. Metcalf directed that they proceed against the bondsmen. Of course in a case of that kind the contractor has many claims of his own and it simply means long legal contest to recover on the bondclaims on both sides.

Mr. BUTLER. How much work had he done?

Secretary NEWBERRY. He had excavated the dock down to about the level of the water. He had just made an opening and rigged up his gear for hoisting and established a pump house. He had just made a good beginning when he gave up.

Mr. BUTLER. What cause did he assign for his failure?

Secretary NEWBERRY. He made the claim that the work became difficult or impossible because of the failure of a sewer within the navy-yard that discharged into the hole. The matter was very carefully gone into, and we had plenty of evidence that the Navy Department was not responsible.

Mr. BUTLER. He charged the navy with his failure?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. How much was paid to him on the contract? Secretary NEWBERRY. $129,758.32.

Mr. ROBERTS. Do you know if any borings were made over the proposed site of the dock before they located it at that particular place? Secretary NEWBERRY. I can not say. The work began a great deal more than four years ago, before I came here. They always do; so I imagine borings were made.

Mr. ROBERTS. The borings, if properly made, should have shown the quicksand?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir; the contractor does that on his own responsibility. He satisfies himself as to the work. He does not have to rely on the facts and figures of the Navy Department.

Mr. ROBERTS. I wondered if the department could make borings and give that information.

Secretary NEWBERRY. I presume that all of the contractors had that information.

Mr. HOBSON. If the appropriation of $300,000 on page 34 of the bill is made, can you tell us what would be the additional amount required under the present contract?

Secretary NEWBERRY. The contract price under the second contract is $1,207,182.16, and no payment has been made under it. The Government has expended, outside of the contracts, for plans, specifications, inspection, etc., the sum of $16,373.97. The Government is very well protected in this last contract because we have adopted a wise provision, inserted by Mr. Metcalf in the contract. Under the practice of the department now we do not pay for any material going into a structure of that character until it is actually incorporated in the dock. There had been a practice in the department of paying for material like sand and concrete when it was delivered on the work, or for making an allowance for the false work and then, of course, deducting the allowance out of the final cost of the dock, but we found when the last contractor gave up the work that payment had been made for so many thousand bushels of concrete that were stored in a warehouse somewhere.

Mr. BUTLER. When was this dock authorized?
Secretary NEWBERRY. About 1900.
Mr. BUTLER. Nine years ago?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I think so.

Mr. BUTLER. Do you remember the size of it?

Secretary NEWBERRY. The original dock was to be four hundred and some feet long. It will be a modern dock now.

Mr. ROBERTS. May I suggest to Mr. Butler that subsequent legislation increased the size of the dock and increased the limit of cost? Mr. MUDD. The aggregate cost of the dock is fixed in the limitation of the appropriation bill?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. I want to ask in this connection a question which came up the other day, as to the approaches to the docks in the other navy-yards with reference to whether or not they could take in a 20,000-ton ship?

Secretary NEWBERRY. The Florida?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, sir. What is our condition in that respect? Secretary NEWBERRY. The Florida is the largest ship we have under construction. The largest ship under contemplation could go into the new docks at New York, Puget Sound, and Pearl Harbor; after some dredging and if the contemplated vessel was in a light condition she could go into the Portsmouth, Boston, and Philadelphia docks, already completed.

The CHAIRMAN. Could it go into the floating dock at New Orleans?

Secretary NEWBERRY. It could not.

In regard to the Florida, which is under contract and which is 510 feet long, 88 feet wide, 521 feet 6 inches over all, and 28 feet 6 inches draft, the only dry docks existent or projected of sufficient capacity to dock this ship are at Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, Mare Island, and Puget Sound. The docks at Portsmouth, Boston, Philadelphia, Norfolk, Charleston, and Mare Island are either ready to dock such a ship or will be ready before the 20,000-ton ship has been completed; that is the

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Florida. Also the floating dock Dewey at Olongapo could raise such a ship until the deck of the dry dock is about awash. That is, they could raise the hull of the vessel so as to work under the body, but not under the best conditions. It has been calculated that the floating dock at New Orleans could partially lift such a vessel out of the water, so that a considerable part of its hull would be exposed for repairs.

The approaches to these dry docks have controlling depths as follows:

With regard to the depth at mean low water, given as 22.8 feet at the navy-yard, Philadelphia, Pa., it may be stated that this small depth exists over only a short length of the channel. That was really out of the channel, between the channel and our dock approach.

Mr. BUTLER. Dredging will relieve the situation?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir. It is a very short distance. The bottom is soft, and it is probable that a project now under way for a controlling depth of 30 feet at mean low water from the sea to Philadelphia will be completed in the near future.

Mr. ROBERTS. Have you a channel in Boston Harbor projected up to the navy-yard 30 feet in depth?

Secretary NEWBERRY. At Boston?

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes, sir. You said that the depth at mean low water was 27 feet?

Secretary NEWBERRY. Yes, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. There is a 30-foot channel projected up to the yard on which they are working?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I am only giving you the figures that we have to-day. I do not know.

Mr. ROBERTS. Do you know, Admiral Pillsbury.

Admiral PILLSBURY. Up to the yard at high water.

Mr. ROBERTS. My impression is that they are going to carry it up to the yard.

With the present conditions at Norfolk can you take the Florida, which is 520 feet long, in there?

Secretary NEWBERRY. I think so.

Mr. ROBERTS. Can you get her into the dock by reason of the narrow