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[No. 3.]

THE COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS, Monday, December 9, 1912. The committee this day met, Hon. Lemuel P. Padgett (chairman) presiding.

STATEMENT OF REAR ADMIRAL H. R. STANFORD, CHIEF BUREAU OF YARDS AND DOCKS.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, we have with us this morning Admiral Stanford, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks.

The first item is on page 52 of the bill, "Bureau of Yards and Docks Maintenance, Bureau of Yards and Docks," and I see, Admiral, that the language is the same until we get to the bottom line on page 52, where "pay of employees on leave" is increased $100,000; that is, from $1,500,000 to $1,600,000. Why the necessity of that increase?

Admiral STANFORD. That results in part from the new arrangement for compensating yard employees who are on leave. In times past the use of "Maintenance, Bureau of Yards and Docks," funds for the pay of men on leave was limited to yards and docks employees. Now, as a result of the new accounting system and the consolidations which have been effected there is a different adjustment or arrangement by which these men are paid when on leave, and it puts a disproportionate share upon "Maintenance, Bureau of Yards and Docks.'

The CHAIRMAN. Do you reduce "maintenance, Bureau of Yards and Docks," by an equivalent amount which you add here?

Admiral STANFORD. "Maintenance" must be increased on this account.

The CHAIRMAN. You are increasing the total $100,000?
Admiral STANFORD. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, you are making it $1,600,000, and you say that is on account of the consolidation, readjustment, etc., and the transfer from one account to another?

Admiral STANFORD. For instance, "hulls" and "machinery," and the general yard work

The CHAIRMAN (interposing). Do you reduce the others by the amount of the transfer?

Admiral STANFORD. I am unable to state, because I am not familiar with the requests by the Bureaus of Steam Engineering and Construction and Repair for this purpose.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the consolidation you talk of increase the cost of operation or decrease it; does it produce extravagance or economy? Admiral STANFORD. I think it tends to produce economy, very decidedly.

The CHAIRMAN. If it does, where does it come in, if we have to add $100,000 to the appropriation?

Admiral STANFORD. Yards and docks work is especially active during the summer months. That means that the pay roll is larger than it is at other periods of the year when weather conditions do not permit of outside work. On the other hand, there are not apt to be as many vessels at the yards during the summer time, and it is more convenient for the shops of the manufacturing divisions to give their employees leave during the summer months. Leave pay is apportioned among the different appropriations based upon the relative expenditure for direct labor at the particular time that the leave is granted. If the yards and docks work is especially active during the summer months and the manufacturing division is slack during the summer months, and if they, in the manufacturing departments, give their men leave during the summer months, it means that the adjustment or charge against the yards and docks appropriation is greater proportionately than it was under the former method of paying these

men.

The CHAIRMAN. This increase does not appear here exclusively for the pay of employees on leave, but it is the total appropriation for "Maintenance, Bureau of Yards and Docks," and the estimate submitted through the Treasury Department increases the classified service of the appropriation from $384,000 to $425,000. That accounts for a part of it, and the unclassified service is reduced from $661,000 to $652,000, which would reduce the other; then, material is increased from $358,000 to $389,000, and public bills is increased from $116,000 to $134,000, and for miscellaneous the expenditures in 1912 amounted to $21,840, and there is nothing submitted in the estimates for miscellaneous, making the total estimate submitted $1,600,000. This increase of $100,000 relates to the various items mentioned in this total appropriation. Did you have any deficiency last year?

Admiral STANFORD. Not to my knowledge.

The CHAIRMAN. Did you have an unexpended balance?

Admiral STANFORD. Only such small amounts as it is impossible to obligate because of not having the actual cost obtainable immediately before the close of the year.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you anticipate having a deficiency?
Admiral STANFORD. We do not.

The CHAIRMAN. What do you include in public bills? You have a general item, public bills, in the estimates, $134,000; what does that embrace?

Admiral STANFORD. I will have to look that up.

The CHAIRMAN. We shall be glad to have you do so and state what that estimate of $134,000 embraces.

Admiral STANFORD. This item of public bills, $134,000, does not indicate that this amount of money is to be expended for any particular purpose, but only the method by which payment is made for certain labor and material. Public bills are vouchers covering payments to contractors for public works, or for material purchased in the market when the expenditure is charged directly to the appropriation, instead of being temporarily charged against "General account of advances, and only charged to the appropriation when issued from store for use. The estimate is nothing more than a guess, based upon the amount paid in this way last year, as it is impossible to foresee to what extent payments will be made in one manner or the other.

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Another feature which would tend to increase the need for maintenance funds is the general increase in wage, the general increase in the cost of materials, and the gradual but constant enlargement of the yards and their activities, and it is only natural that these general expenses should increase somewhat as a result of such increased activity. The CHAIRMAN. More vessels?

Admiral STANFORD. More vessels, more buildings, greater length of pavement to sweep and keep clean, greater length of sewers to keep open, greater length of electric distributing lines, the new power-plant apparatus, which has been recently installed, and which is now in operation and which requires attention.

The CHAIRMAN. Can you insert in the hearings an itemized statement of those increases and their location, the items that have been installed during the past year, and that will be taken care of by the appropriation for 1914, which were not in the appropriation for 1913 ? Admiral STANFORD. I can, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. So that we can see what they are?
Admiral STANFORD. Yes, sir.

Work completed or to be completed during present fiscal year which will require "maintenance" expenditures during the fiscal year 1914.

Boston:

[blocks in formation]

Guantanamo: General (under emergency repair appropriations).

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$325,000.00 10, 000, 00

5, 000. 00 20, 000. 00

360, 000, 00

60, 000, 00 5,000. 00 5,000.00

70, 000, 00

10, 000. 00 3,000.00

13,000.00

378, 500.00

2,000.00

6,000.00

8,000.00

455, 000, 00 15,000.00 10, 000, 00 5,000.00

5,000.00

5,000.00

5,000.00

5, 000. 00

505, 000, 00

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