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finally grew and grew until it reached the amount put in here. Another thing, the appropriation "Provisions, Navy, "has in it the pay of the clerical force and labor for handling the stores, and all those things. If we do not consolidate the appropriations, I believe in taking those amounts out of the appropriation "Provisions" and putting them under "Contingent" and calling "Contingent" "Maintenance, Supplies and Accounts," because it is really not contingent. The CHAIRMAN. Strike out "Contingent" and just insert "Maintenance"?

Admiral CowIE. That is my idea.

The CHAIRMAN. Then you would transfer the items from one to the other?

Admiral CowIE. That is my idea exactly, because the appropriation as it stands now "Contingent, Supplies and Accounts," is not contingent at all. The appropriation Provisions, Navy" should not pay for the labor for handling all stores; it should simply be for provisioning the Navy; that is, if it is to be continued as a separate appropriation.

The CHAIRMAN. Please indicate in the hearings what language you would strike out of "Provisions, Navy," and insert in "Maintenance." Admiral CowIE. Yes, sir. The words "labor in general storehouses and paymasters' offices in navy yards, including naval stations maintained in island possessions under the control of the United States, and expenses in handling stores purchased and manufactured under the general account of advances," and "Provided further, That the sum to be paid out of this appropriation, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, for chemists and for clerical, inspection, and messenger service in the general storehouses and paymasters' offices of the navy yards and naval stations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and fourteen, shall not exceed five hundred and twenty thousand dollars," should be transferred to "Maintenance, Supplies and Accounts." The total amount for our bureau is $14,215,841.75. That includes equipment and coal, however.

The CHAIRMAN. Your idea is that we just appropriate for the Bureau of Supplies and Accounts $14,215,841.75, and that then the Secretary of the Navy would spend that money for the various items specified here just as he saw fit?

Admiral CowIE. Of course, the estimates would have to come in for those things and the expenditures would practically be made in accordance with the estimates and in the same manner as at present.

The CHAIRMAN. But there would be no requirement. We require now, by these specifications, that the money shall be spent according to the estimates, but if we gave a lump-sum appropriation of $14,215,841.75, although you had submitted to us the estimates for consideration in making the original appropriation, when you came to expend it there would be no requirement as to how you should expend it in conformity with those estimates, and you might decrease one estimate and increase another.

Admiral CowIE. That is very true, if it were in the interest of the Government, but to avoid any trouble of that kind and to meet contingencies that might occur you could limit the amount to, say, $10,000; that "not over $10,000 of this amount shall be expended for contingencies," and the other amounts would have to go for the articles estimated for as at present; and to safeguard that the com

mittee might well put in a limit as to the amount that could be expended for contingencies.

The CHAIRMAN. That would be just one item. If you had a surplus this year in "provisions" that you did not have to expend, under your general idea of a lump-sum appropriation you could take that surplus and apply it to any other of the various things in your bureau in excess of the estimates submitted?

Admiral CowIE. That is very true.

The CHAIRMAN. In other words, that would take away the wholediscretion and limitation that is now with the committee and Congress and place it in the Secretary and the bureau ?

Admiral CowIE. Well, I think not, as long as the amount was appropriated on the estimates submitted.

The CHAIRMAN. But the estimates are simply the evidence of what you wanted, and when we turned that over to you we would not say that you should be limited to the estimates as we are doing

now.

Admiral CowIE. Well, you could require that at the next session we report as to the amounts that had been expended under the general heads.

The CHAIRMAN. But the money would be spent then.
Admiral CowIE. I think it would be expended wisely.

The CHAIRMAN. I know. I am just suggesting the various phases. Admiral CowIE. That it would prove not only economical so far as bookkeeping and accounting is concerned, but also in many other respects, as it frequently happens that work has to be curtailed and in some cases stopped altogether owing to a deficiency in one appropriation while in another there is a large unexpended balance. This would be obviated by consolidation.

Mr. BUTLER. It would simplify the bookkeeping?

Admiral CowIE. Yes, sir. The fewer appropriations we have the simpler it makes the accounting and bookkeeping. In case the committee does not decide to consolidate any of the appropriations I will have a plan prepared taking away from "Provisions" the clerical appropriation and putting it under "Contingent," calling "Contingent" "Maintenance."

The CHAIRMAN. To illustrate the idea I have in mind, take, for instance, the Bureau of Steam Engineering. At the request of the bureau we inserted last year the word "aviation," and I asked the chief of the bureau what he wanted, and he said $20,000 was all he could use and all he wanted. When the bill was in conference, in order that there might be no mistake about it, I called him up on the phone, at least I had the clerk to the committee do it, and he still asserted that $20,000 was all that was wanted or that he could use, but there is an expression of regret in the report of the Secretary that it was limited to $20,000, although we took the figures submitted. "Aviation" was included in a general appropriation of something over four or five million dollars. Under your idea of a lump-sum appropriation could he not have taken the remnant, if I may use that expression, left over from every other item that entered into that appropriation and turned it into aviation?

Admiral CowIE. He could; but I think that would be one great advantage.

The CHAIRMAN. Suppose I use another illustration. I have been told by an employee that a year or two ago an appropriation was made for the War Department for flying machines and that they bought

automobiles.

Admiral CoWIE. I do not understand that.

The CHAIRMAN. Under a general appropriation, if there was a lump sum, could not every remnant be turned into the purchase of automobiles?

Admiral CowIE. I have not found any way yet for the Navy to get automobiles. I think most of the items are mentioned. Still, I can see the point you make.

Mr. BUTLER. Then no respect would be paid to the estimates at all? Admiral CowIE. Of course, the Secretary and the people who are to handle these appropriations must naturally be trusted to carry out the wishes of Congress.

Mr. TRIBBLE. On the question of aviation, we have before Congress bills which some of the Members favor and some do not; then we would turn over to the department the authority to do what Congress will not do-to use the money for aviation?

Admiral CowIE. If Congress does not appropriate it for aviation they can not use it for that purpose.

Mr. TRIBBLE. But under the chairman's illustration they can? Admiral CowIE. Not unless it is mentioned in the appropriation. Aviation was mentioned in that appropriation, but the amount was limited to $20,000. Of course they could not expend any more. Now, if it were absolutely necessary, and deemed so by the department, to spend more than that amount for that purpose, I think they should be allowed to, but when it is limited this could not be done. Mr. TRIBBLE. But Congress says that they shall not. Admiral CowIE. If Congress limits it, they can not.

The CHAIRMAN. This committee has reported on aviation fully every amount ever estimated for by the department or the bureau. That is on the question of aviation, using that simply as an illustration.

Admiral CowIE. That only shows that the work advanced much more rapidly than they expected, and had the department been allowed to use more it would have been greatly to the Government's interest.

Mr. BUTLER. Take the Bureau of Equipment, where we appropriate for hemp, wire, and other materials, we do not specify how much is to be paid for wire, hemp, and other materials. That is left to the discretion of chief of bureau?

The CHAIRMAN. Certainly.

Mr. BUTLER. It takes in a group. Your proposition is just extending that view?

Admiral CowIE. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUTLER. If aviation was not provided for, there could be no money expended for aviation?

Admiral CowIE. No, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Here is the distinction: He would take that paragraph with that language, and he would combine with it the language that is in the next paragraph, and then he would combine with it the language in the next paragraph and put all of the language of his bureau into one paragraph, grouping all the items, and add

together all the separate amounts and put the aggregate into one paragraph, and then that would give authority, as no item was limited anywhere, for the whole amount to be expended for hemp, if the Secretary saw fit to buy that much hemp.

Mr. BUTLER. He could use it all for hemp?

The CHAIRMAN. Or he could buy wire and buy no hemp. As it is now, we divide the appropriations into paragraphs, and they must be used for the items in those paragraphs.

Mr. BUTLER. As I understand the Paymaster General's proposition it is this, that Congress will indicate how the money shall be spent, but not the amount for each item.

The CHAIRMAN. Group all the items into one paragraph and group all the appropriations at the end of that paragraph, and one paragraph will carry the aggregate of the appropriations.

Admiral CowIE. That will be doing practically the same thing as now. In the case of aviation or any other item which Congress might see fit to limit they could do as in this case, say, "not to exceed $20,000." The department must have discretion as to how much hemp or how much wire they purchase. It would certainly facilitate business. Last year I prepared a bill for 1913 right along the lines I have suggested here. I took up with Paymaster Leutze, of the bureau, the estimates and prepared the wording of the bill right straight through.

The CHAIRMAN. You can insert that in the hearings.

Admiral CowIE. I shall be glad to do so. It involved considerable work.

The CHAIRMAN. At the same time, in order to give us an idea as to how the different appropriations can be combined or remodeled, make it for 1914.

Admiral CowIE. That would require considerable work. At the same time we might get it up.

[Memorandum showing results obtained by consolidation and simplification of appropriations.]

By the consolidation and simplification of appropriations the following results are obtained:

Total number of appropriations: According to estimate, 69.

Plan 1, 59; plan 2, 35.

In obtaining the above number of appropriations all the public works have been considered in each case as one appropriation.

T. J. COWIE.

PLAN NO. 1.

CONSOLIDATION AND SIMPLIFICATION OF NAVAL APPROPRIATIONS PREPARED BY T. J. COWIE, PAYMASTER GENERAL, UNITED STATES NAVY, BASED ON ESTIMATES SUBMITTED BY THE NAVY DEPARTMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1914, AS AGREED TO BY THE CHIEFS OF THE SEVERAL BUREAUS CONCERNED.

[Should Bureau of Equipment be abolished, further changes will become necessary.]

The various bureaus of the Navy Department have recommended the consolidation, as outlined below, of the appropriations under their cognizance:

SECRETARY'S OFFICE.

Pay of the Navy (no change): Pay and allowances prescribed by law of officers on sea duty and other duty; officers on waiting orders; officers on the retired list; clerks to paymasters at yards and stations; general storekeepers ashore and afloat, and receiving ships and other vessels; 2 clerks to general inspectors of the Pay Corps; 1 clerk to pay officer in charge of deserters' rolls; not exceeding 10 clerks to accounting officers at yards and stations; dental surgeon at Naval Academy; commutation of quarters for officers on shore not occupying public quarters, including boatswains, gunners, carpenters, sailmakers, machinists, pharmacists, and mates, naval constructors, and assistant naval constructors; and also members of Nurse Corps (female); for hire of quarters for officers serving with troops where there are no public quarters belonging to the Government, and where there are not sufficient quarters possessed by the United States to accommodate them, or commutation of quarters not to exceed the amount which an officer would receive were he not serving with troops; pay of enlisted men on the retired list; extra pay to men reenlisting under honorable discharge; interest on deposits by men; pay of petty officers, seamen, landsmen, and apprentice seamen, including men in the engineers' force and men detailed for duty with Naval Militia, and for the Fish Commission, 48,000 men; and the number of enlisted men shall be exclusive of those undergoing imprisonment with sentence of dishonorable discharge from the service at expiration of such confinement; and as many machinists as the President may from time to time deem necessary to appoint, not to exceed 20 in any one year, and 3,500 apprentice seamen under training at training stations and on board training ships, at the pay prescribed by law; pay of the Nurse Corps; rent of quarters for members of the Nurse Corps, $39,264,662.

Pay, miscellaneous (no change): The Secretary of the Navy shall send to Congress at the beginning of its next regular session a complete schedule or list showing the amount in money of all pay under the provisions of this act and for all allowances for each grade of officers in the Navy, including retired officers, and for all officers included in this act and for all enlisted men so included.

For commissions and interest; transportation of funds; exchange; mileage to officers while traveling under orders in the United States, and for actual personal expenses of officers while traveling abroad under orders, and for traveling expenses of civilian employees, and for actual and necessary traveling expenses of midshipmen while proceeding from their homes to the Naval Academy for examination and appointment as midshipmen; for actual traveling expenses of female nurses; for rent of buildings and offices not in navy yards, including the rental of offices in the District of Columbia; expenses of courts-martial, prisoners and prisons, and courts of inquiry, boards of inspection, examining boards, with clerks' and witnesses' fees, and traveling expenses and costs; stationery and recording; expenses of purchasing paymasters' offices of the various cities, including clerks, furniture, fuel, stationery, and incidental expenses; newspapers; all advertising for the Navy Department and its bureaus (except advertising for recruits for the Bureau of Navigation); copying; care of library, including the purchase of books, photographs, prints, manuscripts, and periodicals; ferriage; tolls; costs of suits, commissions, warrants, diplomas, and discharges; relief of vessels in distress; recovery of valuables from shipwrecks; quarantine expenses; reports; professional investigations; cost of special instruction at home and abroad, in maintenance of students and attaches; information from abroad, and the collection and classification thereof; all charges pertaining to the Navy Department and its bureaus for ice for the cooling of drinking water on shore (except at naval hospitals), telephone rentals and tolls, telegrams, cablegrams, and postage, foreign and domestic, and postoffice box rentals; and other necessary and incidental expenses: Provided, That the sum to be paid out of this appropriation, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, for clerical, inspection, and messenger service in navy yards, naval stations, and purchasing pay offices for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, shall not exceed $280,000; in all, $1,000,000.

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