Exclusive of the above amounts, the bill carries appropriations payable from tribal funds amounting to $826,150. RIVERS AND HARBORS APPROPRIATION BILL. DECEMBER 19, 1914.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SPARKMAN, from the Committee on Rivers and Harbors, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 20189.] The Committee on Rivers and Harbors, having had under consideration House bill 20189, files the same and respectfully reports thereon recommending that the bill do pass. The bill appropriates in cash $31,638,580, and in addition carries an authorization of $2,500,000, the whole aggregating $34,138,580. The authorization is a part of a provision furnishing $5,000,000 for the further prosecution of work on the Ohio River. This aggregate is made up exclusively of items for maintenance, the prosecution of work on projects heretofore adopted and yet unfinished, and for surveys and contingencies, no new items having been included in the bill. The estimates submitted by the War Department for this bill, intended to cover the period from the 4th of March of next year to the 30th of June, 1916, amount to $49,033,018, made up of $4,760,540 for maintenance, surveys, and contingencies, and $44,272,478 for work of original improvement. It will therefore be seen that the amount carried in the bill is less by $14,894,438 than the total of estimates submitted by the department. This result was reached by a careful review of the reports bearing upon the respective projects for which estimates were made, only allowing, in the case of maintenance work, a sum sufficient for that purpose; and in that of original work, an amount adequate to carry on the work with economy and efficiency, together with a reasonable degree of dispatch during the period mentioned. In this work of review the committee was aided by the Government engineers, with whom it consulted freely as to the necessities of each and every project, and it is believed that, while more money could be judiciously expended during the 14 or 15 months covered by the estimates, enough has been allowed in each case to carry on the work economically and without loss until additional funds can be furnished in the annual river and harbor bill due under our present plan of appropriations at the first session of the Sixty-fourth Congress. In leaving out new projects and reducing the amounts allotted in the bill so much below the estimates the committee has not been unmindful of the demands of a rapidly growing commerce for the accommodation of which both the work under the old and new projects is designed. In view, however, of the necessity for economy, in Government expenditures, a thing desirable at all times, but owing to the extraordinary conditions brought about by the present European war, more imperative now perhaps than at any time during the past decade, it was thought advisable to omit new projects from the bill and to reduce the appropriations and authorizations therein to the lowest minimum commensurate with efficiency and a reasonable degree of progress toward the completion of each improvement now under way. For this, it is believed, the amounts furnished to each work will be sufficient for the period covered, while the new projects, many of them no doubt worthy, may await consideration at the next or some subsequent session of Congress. The usual provision for the improvement of the Mississippi River between the Head of the Passes and the mouth of the Ohio River is inserted, together with a further provision permitting the use of any funds allotted for levee building between the Head of the Passes and the mouth of the Ohio to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of War in accordance with the plans, specifications, and recommendations of the Mississippi River Commission, as approved by the Chief of Engineers, for levees upon any part of said river between the Head of the Passes and Rock Island, Ill. A similar provision was inserted in the bills of 1913 and 1914, that in the former being changed in the Senate so as to provide merely for an examination by the engineers, while that in the latter, along with other provisions, failed of enactment. There is a strong sentiment in the river valley affected favorable to this provision. As was said in the report accompanying the bill of 1913: Tчere is quite an insistent demand for this extension, the claim being made that there is as much necessity for that class of work above the mouth of the Ohio and Cape Girardeau as below. Attention is directed to the requirement in the law that the money appropriated for that purpose can only be expended in such manner as in the opinion of the Mississippi River Commission and the Chief of Engineers shall best improve navigation and promote the interests of commerce at all stages of the river. So that the commission and the engineers will, as heretofore, be confined in the expenditure of money for levée building to such work as, in their opinion, will benefit commerce and navigation. This, it may be added, is the policy of Congress in making all appropriations for river and harbor improvement, including flood control and bank protection- a policy, too, from which it has up to the present time rarely, if ever, departed. There are 252 items making appropriations in this bill exclusive of the provisions for surveys. Of these, 154 are for maintenance and 83 for works of original improvement. H 3 The bill also carries provisions for 172 surveys, including one for Muscle Shoals in the Tennessee River, which is intended to be very elaborate in its details and primarily to furnish Congress with information to enable it to pass intelligently on a proposition submitted by a company desirous of developing water power at that point in connection with the Government in its efforts, if any further are to be made there, to improve navigation. The items for surveys are somewhat more numerous than those carried in the bill of 1913, there But the larger number having been 122 included in that measure. in the present bill is accounted for by the fact that we are now covering a period of two years instead of one, as we were then. That fact considered, the number of surveys in the present bill shows a gratifying decrease. GENERAL PROVISIONS. The bill contains a provision, to be found in section 6, amending the act approved March 4, 1909, providing that all tugboats using the Potomac River, where the same is spanned by the new railway and new highway bridges, be equipped with devices for lowering their smokestacks, so as to include power boats. This provision is strongly recommended by the War Department, and is intended to minimize, as much as possible, the opening of the draws of these bridges. It is urged by the department that power boats, being largely for pleasure, should have no greater rights or privileges than tugboats, which are used for business purposes. This view was shared by the committee, and the change was recommended. Copy of the letter from the Acting Chief of Engineers, dated February 12, 1914, together with accompanying statement showing the necessity for the amendment, is hereto attached. Another new provision is contained in section 7, which empowers the Secretary of War to define and establish anchorage grounds for vessels in harbors, rivers, bays, and other navigable waters of the United States whenever he deems the establishment of such anchorage grounds desirable and upon the recommendation of the Chief of Engineers to adopt suitable rules for the regulation thereof. It will be observed that these regulations are to be enforced by the RevenueCutter Service under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, except at points or places where there is no revenue cutter available, when the enforcement is left to the War Department. This provision is also strongly recommended by the War Department, and ist regarded by the committee as a very important one. The War Department having charge of the improvement and development of harbors and rivers for the purposes of navigation, is much better qualified to determine the locality, extent, and boundaries of anchorage grounds, and to establish the same with intelligent reference to present and future conditions, and the necessities of navigation, than is any other department of the Government; while the Treasury Department, through its Revenue-Cutter Service, is well equipped, in fact, much better equipped than any other department to enforce the observance of all rules and regulations regarding such grounds. HR-63-3-vol 1-10 Hon. S. M. SPARKMAN, WAR DEPARTMENT, OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, Chairman Committee on Rivers and Harbors, House of Representatives. SIR: I have the honor to submit herewith a draft of a proposed item for insertion in the pending river and harbor bill, relative to regulations governing boats passing the bridges over the Potomac River at Washington, D. C. The desirability of this new legislation is more fully set forth in the accompanying note of explanation. Very respectfully, EDW. BURR, Colonel, Corps of Engineers, Acting Chief of Enginee s. NOTE. By an act approved March 4, 1909, Congress required that all tugboats plying on the Potomac River through the new highway and railway bridges should have their smokestacks equipped with devices for lowering to the level of the pilot houses. This law was intended to minimize the opening of the draws of these bridges, and has served this useful purpose, all tugboat owners having complied with it. Experience has shown that the law should be extended to apply to the numerous pleasure craft plying on the river. Many of this kind of craft are smaller than tugboats, and it seems unreasonable to require the bridges to be opened for such small boats when they can readily equip their vertical projections with lowering devices. Certainly if tugboats used for business purposes are required to lower their smokestacks, there would seem to be good reason for requiring boats used solely for pleasure purposes to do likewise. The suggested amendment is intended to accomplish this. O |