Mr. HOOVER. I think in the Bureau of Engraving they do not have a board; they simply fix their salaries..

Colonel SHERRILL. But here in the District of Columbia, it seems to me there ought to be an organization to fix the wages of these people that will apply wherever the conditions are similar, throughout the entire service. I would like to put that table in the record. (The table referred to is as follows:)

Chart indicating scale of wages paid mechanics in navy yard, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Government Printing Office set by Wage Scale Board, as compared with salaries to be paid similar positions in the office of the superintendent, State, War, and Navy Department buildings, in accordance with allocations made by Classification Board.

Mr. SUMMERS. How can that condition be corrected? Mr. Wood. The only way I know it can be corrected would be by some new legislation, or else under the authority they have for the reclassification.

Mr. HOOVER. The thing to do would be to eliminate these mechanics from the classification act and provide for their salaries to be fixed by a wage board.

Colonel SHERRILL. I have, on several occasions, drafted a proviso and sent it over to the Budget which they, in turn, have sent to the Reclassification Committee, with the wording that would be necessary to correct this; but it has never gotten any further and, not knowing exactly what procedure to follow, we have not gotten any results. Mr. WOOD. We can not do it in this bill, because it would be new legislation; that is the trouble about it here. Do your mechanics belong to the union?

Colonel SHERRILL. Some of them do, but we do not begin to pay anything like union rates.

EXECUTIVE MANSION AND GROUNDS.

FOR CARE, REPAIR, REFURNISHING, ETC., OF EXECUTIVE MANSION.

Mr. WOOD. We will now take up the items in the bill. The first one is for Executive Mansion and grounds: You are asking, this year, for an appropriation of $49,240, as compared with $50,000 for 1924. Colonel SHERRILL. That is a reduction of one fireman, due to the installation of a heating connection by which the heating of the Executive Mansion and the Executive Office will be effected from State, War, Navy plant across the street.

Mr. Wood. You could not get rid of another one, could you?
Colonel SHERRILL. No, sir.

FOR HEATING EXECUTIVE MANSION AND GREENHOUSES.

Mr. Wood. The next item is for heating the Executive Mansion and greenhouses, $11,000 as compared with $12,000 for 1924.

Colonel SHERRILL. The change in wording there of "heating" instead of "fuel for," is because we are now heating mainly from the State, War, Navy, and that $1,000 is the estimated saving on coal; so that, altogether, it makes approximately $2,000 saving.

Mr. WOOD. By reason of that scheme?

Colonel SHERRILL. By reason of that connection-a central heating arrangement.

FOR CARE AND MAINTENANCE OF GREENHOUSES, EXECUTIVE MANSION.

Mr. Wood. "For care and maintenance of greenhouses, Executive Mansion," you are asking for $9,900 as against $9,000 for 1924. That is an increase of $900.

Colonel SHERRILL. That is due to the reclassification; there are no additional employees.

Mr. WOOD. There are not?
Colonel SHERRILL. No, sir.

FOR REPAIR AND RECONSTRUCTION OF GREENHOUSES, EXECUTIVE.

Mr. WOOD. "For repair and reconstruction of greenhouses, Executive Mansion," you are asking for $9,860, as against $9,000 for 1924. Colonel SHERRILL. That is the same thing; that is the reclassification increase.

Mr. WOOD. You have some sort of a scheme down there whereby you get enough out of this appropriation to build a new greenhouse every year or two. Is not this the item where you get that?

Colonel SHERRILL. We have 16 of those greenhouses, and we replace one.

Mr. WooD. Each year?

Colonel SHERRILL. We have 16 of those and my recollection is that we replace one each year; so that it takes quite a period of years to get around. It just about keeps them in decent condition.

FOR IMPROVEMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF EXECUTIVE MANSION GROUNDS.

Mr. WOOD. "For the improvement and maintenance of Executive Mansion Grounds:" That item is the same. That used to run along at $5,000 a year until two or three years ago, when they said, the

Wilson sheep or something had poisoned the ground and they put those sheep in there to enrich the ground and it poisoned it in some way or other.

Mr. BYRNES. Is the ground still in that shape?

Mr. WOOD. That poison is still in that ground.

Colonel SHERRILL. I was up here when we first asked you-when we first got the $10,000, I said the ground was so poor we had not been able to keep the top dressed at all, so the top soil was in very bad condition, it was true. In those previous years, where it is shown there was only an appropriation of $5,000, they really spent practically as much as we did in any other year not quite, but practically as much because they spent it out of an appropriation which used to be carried in the same bill as this, known as the "Increased cost of park maintenance," which it took the low prices of 1914 for the different items and, instead of increasing those year by year, as you see, it ran the same, and the extra cost was taken care of in that item for the increased cost of park maintenance. That particular item in the appropriation is carried in the District bill and, therefore, it is not appropriate to expend it for the White House. That is the explanation I made before.

Mr. BYRNES. In other words, you have more in the park maintenance appropriation than you formerly had?

Colonel SHERRILL. No.

Mr. BYRNES. You used to take some of it for this?

Colonel SHERRILL. We used to take some of it for this, but it was partly out of the District money, and since we have put this in different bills I have been very strict in not spending anything for the White House that did not come out of this appropriation.

Mr. WOOD. Did that result in giving you too much in the park appropriation?

Colonel SHERRILL. No, sir; because we never have gotten enough to run the parks. That is impossible.

Mr. BYRNES. And you never will.

Colonel SHERRILL. The increased appropriation is very much less than the percentage of increased cost of labor and materials since 1914, according to the chart I have here.

Mr. WOOD. Does the fact that these grounds are kept open to the public add anything to the maintenance of them?

Colonel SHERRILL. Yes; it does, indeed. We have several roads in there that have to be maintained, the ground has to be cared for and swept more carefully than general park grounds and, being entirely open to the public, there is more wear and tear.

Mr. BYRNES. And you have to maintain them properly?

Colonel SHERRILL. We have to maintain them better than the parks generally.

Mr. SUMMERS. I have never thought the lawn of the front part of the Executive Mansion, on the Avenue, was really what it ought to be. It does not compare with lawns I am accustomed to.

Mr. WOOD. Oh, well, that is your specialty out in your country. Colonel SHERRILL. Under this appropriation now, we are able to enrich that by a top dressing, and we will probably do some of that this spring; but the main difficulty we have there is this, that in this Washington climate we have two different kinds of grasses. One is a summer grass, that grows readily during the summer and absolutely

dies down in the fall, and, unless it is replaced by either blue grass or red top or some other grass of that kind, you will have no grass at all until late in the spring. And then, under the heavy trees in the White House grounds, it is very hard to get any of these grasses to grow, and the only way to do it in the winter is to sow something like Italian rye or oats for the winter grass and to rely on the crab grass for the summer.

Mr. WOOD. I understand the Department of Agriculture has perfected what is called a golf-course grass for the 10 or 12 places they play golf on.

Colonel SHERRILL. That would be wonderful for this, except that these grasses require the spending of some large sums of money to keep the crab grass out, as they do on the greens of a golf course, German bent and the Colonial bent will be ruined in one season on golf courses, unless you have people all the year round digging up the crab grass; otherwise the crab grass will destroy the finer grasses. Mr. WOOD. Does not crab grass destroy most any kind of grass? Colonel SHERRILL. It destroys anything unless it is kept out, but it is a very satisfactory summer grass for the parks, for general purposes.

Mr. WASON. Do not the trees affect it by taking the moisture out of the ground?

Colonel SHERRILL. Yes. The Department of Agriculture has not been able yet to give us an entirely satisfactory grass that will thrive under the trees, under the conditions we have around here.

FOR LIGHTING THE EXECUTIVE MANSION, GROUNDS AND GREENHOUSES.

Mr. Wood. The next item is "For lighting the Executive Mansion, grounds and greenhouses," the same amount as for last year; but you have some new language in here "electric power and the installation and maintenance of electric fixtures of all kinds."

Colonel SHERRILL. That new language, instead of splitting up the expenditures of the different electrical installations there, is to allow us to use this appropriation to cover all of them. You see, we have elevators and various things to run by power, and the other language did not exactly describe it. The other was "including all necessary expenses of installation, maintenance, and repair," whereas this gives us the power to expend for electric power and electric fixtures of all

kinds.

Mr. Wood. It does not broaden the possibility of the expenditure of this money in any way?

Colonel SHERRILL. No. They are all the same class of expenditures as they were before.

WHITE HOUSE POLICE.

Mr. WOOD. Now we come to the item "For White House police." Mr. BYRNES. What is the object of the new language "contingent expenses and" for the White House police?

Colonel SHERRILL. There is one feature I want to mention about the White House police; that is, that under the law they draw the same pay as the Metropolitan police. The Metropolitan police, under the reclassification law, were not included. Consequently, a new bill

has been introduced and is before the House, that will automatically change, if it passes, the amount authorized for the White House police. Consequently, if this goes through and the other bill passes, it will be necessary to put in a small deficiency estimate to cover that difference.

REPAIRS TO WHITE HOUSE.

Mr. Wood. In the bill last year we appropriated $20,000 for extraordinary repairs to the White House. Was that money spent, or is it being spent?

Colonel SHERRILL. It is being spent; yes, sir.

Mr. Wood. I see somebody is coming along now and saying you have to build a new one.

Colonel SHERRILL. A new White House?

Mr. BYRNES. No; they just want to repair it at an expense of $450,000.

Colonel SHERRILL. $400,000.

Mr. BYRNES. What would it cost to build a new one instead of repairing it?

Colonel SHERRILL. It would cost about $1,000,000.

Mr. Wood. At the time we made that allowance, we were led to believe that, when you got that fixed up, we would be able to do with that old White House forever. As I understand, there was something the matter with the roof or the rafters-they were sliding off their base, or something like that.

Colonel SHERRILL. What you did last year, you kindly gave us $4,000 to make plans only for that work of fire proofing and those plans are now nearly complete; but the actual expenditure for fireproofing the entire roof, putting on a fire proof roof and fireproofing the building down to the first floor, would amount to around $400,000. It is a big job. We have the plans nearly completed but they have not yet been presented in detail to the President.

FURNISHING UNIFORMS, ETC.

Mr. WOOD. Now, "For uniforming and equipping the White House police, including contingent expenses, and the purchase and issue of revolvers and ammunition," you ask the same appropriation as for last year, $3,500. You have some new language in there "contingent expenses, and" preceding "the purchase and issue of revolvers and ammunition."

Colonel SHERRILL. The officer in charge of the White House police states that this change is desired in order to permit the annual purchase of miscellaneous office and other supplies required for the police offices, such as record books, stationery, and so on..