Parcel-post business: 39,920 packages received during year ending November 30, 1914. No record kept of parcels dispatched.

Special delivery business: 1,827 pieces delivered, year ending June 30, 1910; 7,183 pieces delivered, year ending June 30, 1914.

Increase, 393 per cent.

Having given the foregoing very careful consideration, the committee begs to report the bill favorably.

POST OFFICE AT SHENANDOAH, IOWA.

FEBRUARY 18, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. ASHBROOK, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 11299.]

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 11299) to authorize an addition and extension to the post-office building at Shenandoah, Iowa, having considered the same, report thereon with an amendment and as so amended recommend that it pass.

Amend the bill as follows:

Page 1, line 14, strike out the figures "$25,000" and insert in lieu thereof the figures "$18,000."

The present post-office building was authorized May 30, 1908-for building, $50,000; for site, $5,000. It was completed in 1911. Because of the large increase in the price of labor and materials it was found the building as planned must be modified in order to bring it within the appropriation. This was done by leaving off a large semicircular extension of the workroom and substituting wooden for stone cornices.

The building is ample in every particular except in the workroom. Shenandoah, although a little city of but 5,000 people, is in the firstclass rank of post offices. The receipts of the last fiscal year were $53,240.39 and were more than $9,000 in excess of the receipts of the previous year. The receipts for the present fiscal year will probably reach $60,000. They were $11,455.81 for the quarter ending December 31, 1914.

The remarkable amount and increase of the receipts is due to the fact that at Shenandoah there are established and in operation a number of large wholesale and retail nurseries, several very large seed houses, and a number of establishments producing stock foods for horses, cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry. The catalogues and circulars issued by these houses alone make a large business for the post office; besides most of the seed and much of the other products

is delivered by mail. These institutions are sound financially, the growth of their business has been continuous and promises steadily to increase.

The workroom of the post office at present has a floor space of 1,280 square feet. The cases and equipment for the rural and city carriers, together with the racks, cases, tables, and canceling machines, take up 1,029 feet of this space, leaving only 251 feet for working purposes. Notwithstanding such limited space the force during 12 days last January dispatched 130,000 catalogues of one seed company, 150,000 circulars of another, many thousands of pieces of mail for the nurseries and stock-food companies, which, with the other business, amounted to over 50 tons, or 100,000 pounds of outgoing mail matter in 12 working days, and this not including the receipt, distribution, and dispatch of ordinary first and second class mail and parcel-post matter.

The postmaster, Mr. Henry E. Deater, writes:

The building is in every way ample and adequate to the requirements of the city except in the size of the workroom. That is entirely inadequate because of the fact that the semicircular part of the original plan was cut off. When that part of the plan was eliminated, the very heart was cut out of the building. We can not handle the business we now have as it ought to be handled, and if it increases as it has in the last two years even in another year or two it will be impossible to handle the large amount of mail matter in the present limited workroom space.

Hon. W. D. Jamieson, a former Member of this House, who is a resident of Shenandoah, writes:

The room in the present building is entirely inadequate for the work that has to be done there. This condition is occasioned by the enormous growth in the postoffice business in Shenandoah. The increase last year was over $9,000 more than the previous year. The increase this year will be as large or larger, and the indications are that there will be a continued increase in the demands. The workrooms are crowded full and the vestibule and the back porch have to be used very frequently for piling up mail matter. The necessity is certainly great for an addition to the present building. While I question if an addition would add to the general appearance of the building, yet the business demands are such that this addition is almost imperative.

In view of these facts, it is thought by the committee that this bill may very properly be considered an emergency measure.

The proposed addition will increase the present working space of the workroom fourfold and will be sufficient for many years to come even with the expected growth of the business.

When the matter was called to the attention of the Supervising Architect for an estimate of the cost, he strongly recommended that when the addition is built the stone cornice originally contemplated be substituted for the wooden cornice now on the building, so that the whole building shall have a uniform stone cornice. In his letter he said:

Referring to your request of the Supervising Architect to be furnished with an estimate of the cost of extending the building at Shenandoah, Iowa, to conform to the drawings as originally prepared, you are advised that to construct such an extension, using a wood cornice similar to that on the building at the present time, would cost $14,000. If a stone cornice was used, it would cost $3,000 more, or $17,000. It is estimated that to remove the present wood cornice and replace the same with a stone cornice, in accordance with the original design of the building, would cost $18,000.

O

PUBLIC BUILDING AT MANCHESTER, N. H.

FEBRUARY 18, 1915.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed.

Mr. GUDGER, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 18505.]

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 18505) authorizing the acquisition of additional land for the Federal building at Manchester, N. H., and constructing an addition thereto, having considered the same, beg to report thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass

amended as follows:

After the figures "$300,000" in line 13, insert the following: "Provided, That title to that portion of Derryfield Lane situated between the present Federal property and the property sought to be acquired shall be vested in the United States without additional cost."

The purpose of this bill is to acquire certain property located to the north of the Government building in the city of Manchester, N. H., and to authorize the construction thereon of an addition to the present building. The passage of this bill will greatly relieve the congested condition of the Manchester post office, as well as the other offices of the Government located in that city. The various activities of the Government located in Manchester include the Civil Service Commission, United States court, Bureau of Animal Industry, national-bank examiner, internal-revenue office, pension examiner, and recruiting offices. Several of these various offices are in urgent need of additional floor space, their present quarters being cramped and very much overcrowded.

Illustrating the growth of the Manchester post office, the postal receipts for the years 1904 and 1914, respectively, were $84,232.12 and $155,760.86, showing an increase of nearly 100 per cent in the 10 years.