ultimate expenditure. It should also be borne in mind, that a large part of the building space is occupied as quarters for over 800 midshipmen, necessitating a greater expendi ture for up-keep and replacement than is required for the usual type of buildings in the Navy yards. The cost of watchman, care and cleaning of buildings, policing and cleaning of grounds, is also relatively more expensive in proportion to the property valuation. At the Naval Academy the entire cost of operation of public utilities must be defrayed from the appropriation available for maintenance, while at the yards a large part of the expense is charged against the departments using them.

Mr. GREGG. Will you please make that a part of the record?
Capt. GIBBONS. Yes, sir.

Thereupon, the committee adjourned to meet on Monday, February 12, 1912, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.

[No. 9.]

THE COMMITTEE ON NAVAL AFFAIRS, Monday, February 12, 1912. The committee this day met, Hon. Lemuel P. Padgett (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, we have with us this morning Gen. Biddle, Col. McCawley, and Col. Richards, of the Marine Corps. STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. WILLIAM P. BIDDLE, COMMANDANT, LIEUT. COL. CHARLES L. M'CAWLEY, ASSISTANT QUARTERMASTER, IN CHARGE OF THE QUARTERMASTER'S DEPARTMENT, AND COL. GEORGE RICHARDS, PAYMASTER, IN CHARGE OF THE PAYMASTER'S DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS.

The CHAIRMAN. The first item is, "Pay, Marine Corps," where there is a reduction of about $500.

Col. RICHARDS. $485. Mr. Chairman, there are some words under this title, "Pay of Marine Corps," namely the words, "pay of officers, active list," which I wish to explain. I am under the impression that they were drafted in the bill through inadvertence. It has always been our practice in writing these estimates to put certain words in as a title to the items in the estimates, but it has never been the committee's practice to draft such words into the bill. That they were in the estimates, I judge, is the reason they were put in the bill. There seems to me to be no necessity for putting them in the bill.

The CHAIRMAN. And "pay of officers, retired list," just below?

Col. RICHARDS. The same titles run all the way through various items of this appropriation. I was speaking now of the one item "pay of officers, active list." Those words were written in the estimates. It has been our practice to title the items in the estimates, but there is no real necessity for them to appear in the bill because the language of the act explains exactly what that money is appropriated for.

There is a slight reduction in the item "pay of officers, active list, of $485, which is explained in this way: The longevity pay of officers has been increased by $2,640 and there are miscellaneous items which act as a decrease of $3,125, and the difference is a net decrease of $485. This decrease in the "pay of officers, active list" is also due to a reduction in the amounts heretofore appropriated to cover the additional pay to officers below the grade of major for providing themselves with suitable mounts; also to a decrease in the amount hertofore estimated as necessary for the payment of gratuities to the beneficiaries of deceased officers. These decreases follow on account of the comparatively small expenditures that have heretofore been made on this account.

The CHAIRMAN. Is this item a mathematical calculation?

Col. RICHARDS. It is entirely a mathematical calculation. I will put in the hearings the details. The item is made up, however, of what is known as the base or the minimum pay of officers, $757,800, $117,520 as longevity pay, $32,993 as foreign-service pay, and then miscellaneous items amounting to $13,975.

The statement referred to by Col. Richards follows:

The CHAIRMAN. Could that item be reduced?

Col. RICHARDS. It can not be reduced for this reason: The number of officers is fixed by law, the rate of pay is also fixed by law, and there is only one fluctuating element, namely, the number of officers that we estimate will be on foreign service during the year.

Of course, if such number is increased it will mean more money than we here ask for for foreign service pay, and if the number is decreased it will mean less.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is, "For pay of officers prescribed by law on the retired list." That is a mathematical calculation? Col. RICHARDS. That is purely a mathematical calculation, as shown in the calculations herewith:

The increase in the item for the "pay, officers, retired list," of $15,552.50 is due to the increased number of officers added to the retired list during the past year.

Cols. Wood and Murphy have been added to the retired list, also one lieutenant colonel, one major, three captains, one first lieutenant, and one paymaster's clerk. The list has been decreased by one brigadier-general, who died, also by five retired officers who were on active duty and have since been restored to their status on the retired list. The new words, "pay of officers, retired list," were not in the bill last year.

The CHAIRMAN. It is just a repetition?

Col. RICHARDS. Yes, sir; it is just a repetition of the title words written in the estimate.

Mr. MACON. I would like to inquire whether they are on the active or retired list?

It

Col. RICHARDS. "Pay of the Marine Corps" is one appropriation. is one fund, "Pay of the Marine Corps," and as an appropriation it is put before you in a little different form than the other specific appropriations for the Naval Establishment. It is put before you itemized. There are various items all laid out in specific amounts, but the whole appropriation represented by some $3,000,000 is the appropriation, "Pay, Marine Corps."

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is, "Pay of enlisted men, active list," and the language is the same in that item down to the middle of page 93. Then I see you have inserted new language in the proviso:

Provided, That the gunnery sergeants of the Marine Corps shall hereafter receive the same pay, and be entitled to the allowances, rank, continuous-service pay, and the retired pay of a first sergeant in said corps.

Col. RICHARDS. This has been brought before the committee on the authority of the Navy Department. It was presented to the Department in a letter dated July 27, 1911, by the commandant of the corps. Shall I read the letter?

The CHAIRMAN. Just state the substance of the letter and put it in the hearing?

Col. RICHARDS. Gunnery sergeants are now and have been since the establishment of the Marine Corps regularly detailed to duty as first sergeants, both on shore and on vessels of the Navy. The act of May 11, 1908, increased the pay of first sergeants of the Army from $25 to $45, and the pay of all other noncommissioned officers was also increased in the same act. This grade of gunnery sergeant was the only one where the pay was not increased by legislation. The purpose of this language is to so provide that gunnery sergeants will have the pay which corresponds to their rank and duty of first sergeant. Originally their pay was $35. The pay of a first sergeant is now $45, and the intent is to establish their pay exactly upon the same footing as that of first sergeants. The letter of July 27, 1911, is filed herewith.

[Subject: Recommends increase of pay of gunnery sergeants of the Marine Corps.] HEADQUARTERS UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, Washington, July 27, 1911.

ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY:

1. The rank of gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps was established by the Navy personnel act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 1009):

"SEC. 23. That the enlisted force of the Marine Corps shall consist of five sergeants majors, one drum major, twenty quartermaster sergeants, seventy-two gunnery sergeants with the rank and allowance of the first sergeant, and whose pay shall be thirty-five dollars per month; sixty first sergeants, two hundred and forty sergeants, four hundred and eighty corporals, eighty drummers, eighty trumpeters, and four thousand nine hundred and sixty-two privates."

The following qualifications are required for appointment to the rank of gunnery sergeant:

"A candidate for appointment as gunnery sergeant in the United States Marine Corps should be sufficiently proficient in the drill regulations to thoroughly drill recruits and to drill the squad and company. He should be thoroughly conversant with the nomenclature of the rapid-fire and machine guns used in the naval service