With the conversion of buildings from 25-cycle alternating current and direct current to 60-cycle alternating current during the past several years, there are now to be maintained under this allotment seven electrical substations located in the Capitol group of buildings. All but the Capitol, which is yet to be converted, are 13,200-volt transformer substations. The old substations were 6,600 volts.

IMPROVEMENTS, OFFICE OF SERGEANT AT ARMS

General annual repairs and alterations, $14,700. Nonrecurring increases under this allotment asked to provide $12,700 for the installation of a new modern fireproof cashiers' counter and a new rubber tile floor in the office of the Sergeant at Arms of the House. This equipment is very much needed and the item is submitted at the request of the Sergeant at Arms. The Architect of the Capitol concurs fully in the need for the new equipment. The present outmoded equipment is of wood construction with metal cages and was installed in 1919. The new installation would be similar to the present modern installation in the Senate disbursing office. The estimated cost of the new counter is $11,500 and of the new rubber tile floor, $1,200.

Mr. STEED. In that connection, is this a real need or is it just a desirable thing?

Mr. STEWART. Mr. Clancy knows about the physical condition and can testify on that point.

Mr. CLANCY. The wooden counter is in bad repair. This facility is really needed for the employees who work back there. The present construction is of wood and presents a serious fire hazard. We are fortunate we never had a fire there. I consider this improvement urgently needed.

Mr. STEED. What condition is the floor in? Mr. CLANCY. The floor is in bad condition. I have been here 26 years, and that floor has never been touched in all that time except to patch it up.

BRONZE HANDRAIL, WEST STAIRWAY, SENATE WING

Mr. STEED. Proceed.

Mr. STEWART. $2,000 for the installation of a bronze handrail on the west stairway, Senate wing, between the first and principal floors of the Capitol Building. There is no handrail on this stairway at present and several persons have fallen on this stairway due to the lack of a rail. The installation is recommended in the interest of the public safety, particularly in view of the large number of persons using this stairway annually; also, to avoid the possibility of Federal

tort claims.

PURCHASE OF POWER SHEAR

Maintenance, air-conditioning system, $5,200. Nonrecurring increase under this allotment for the following: At the present time. there is in use for cutting metal for ducts and other requirements of the air-conditioning system a hand shear that has been in operation for the past 25 years and has now reached the point of wear and tear where it is in need of replacement. Under the amount of $5,200, it is proposed to replace this worn, obsolete equipment with a new 8foot power shear.

Mr. STEED. What sort of gadget is this?

Mr. CLANCY. It is for cutting metal, a breaker about 8 feet long. We have one old machine down there now that is obsolete. We have had several accidents in the past couple of years. Only about 2 months ago one of our boys hit his knee against the treadle on it and got water on the knee and spent 3 weeks in the hospital. He just returned to work recently.

Mr. STEED. Is it power operated?

Mr. CLANCY. This is the old-fashioned treadle kind.

Mr. STEED. Will the new one be power operated?
Mr. CLANCY. Yes, sir.

REPAIRS OF WORKS OF ART

Mr. STEWART. Repairs, works of art, $5,300. Nonrecurring increases under this allotment asked to provide: $3,000 for replacement of a large section of highly decorated ceiling at the main entrance to the Senate dining room. This ceiling is decorated with water colors and the plaster is flaking off. If this condition is allowed to continue, the pattern of the decorations will be lost. Under the amount of $3,000, it is proposed to trace the decorations for pattern and color, remove all loose plaster, replaster the ceiling and redecorate the ceiling as it originally was, but in oil colors.

Also, $2,300 is requested for minor restoration work on the large painting, "The Landing of Columbus," located in the rotunda of the Capitol. This is one of the eight large paintings in the rotunda. It was painted by the artist, John Vanderlyn, and was acquired by the Government, through purchase, in 1847. It is proposed to apply a protective masking to the frame where necessary; remove all old discolored varnish from the painting and repaint where necessary; retouch and apply glazes where necessary; refinish the surface with a semigloss synthetic varnish.

All restoration of paintings is done by experts who do similar work for the National Gallery of Art.

Mr. Bow. I thought we had all those down not long ago.

Mr. STEWART. Mr. Clancy can tell you about that.

Mr. CLANCY. We did not have that one down for 20 years that I recall. It has to be retouched. We had the artist up from the National Gallery, and this is his recommendation and this is the cost he gave us for the work.

INCREASE FOR SUPPLIES AND MATERIAL

Mr. STEWART. Supplies and materials, increased from $31,000 to $33,000. This increase is requested to meet increased maintenance costs. Cost of supplies and materials continues to rise from year to year and an allotment of $33,000 is needed to meet current require

ments.

Mr. STEED. Could you give us a few examples of what supplies and materials refers to here?

Mr. CLANCY. We have locks, bolts, hinges, all kinds of hardware for all over the building. These items alone have gone up from 5 to 10 percent in the last couple of years. In order to keep the building up, we will have to have an increase for such items.

Mr. ROOF. Mr. Chairman, on page 46 of the justifications we have a complete breakdown by category showing the various supplies and materials: Cleaning, $2,500; electrical, $6,400; carpentry, $3,100; plumbing, $2,000; stationery, office supplies and books, $3,000 hardware, $775; electric light bulbs and tubes, $11,625; gasoline, $500; miscellaneous supplies, $3,100; total $33,000.

Mr. Bow. Do you have any inventory of your present supplies on hand?

Mr. CLANCY. Yes, sir; everything is inventoried each year.

Mr. Bow. I walk down through the catacombs in the basement and I see this material. I wonder how you keep track of it since it is scattered all over the place.

Mr. CLANCY. We inventory it every year. Some of it has been taken out during the remodeling of the lighting system.

Mr. Bow. You have different areas of storerooms and stockrooms. Mr. CLANCY. That is all for bolts and nuts which we have to keep on hand. That is all inventoried.

Mr. Bow. What is your inventory control? Who has access to it? How do you hand out the material?

Mr. CLANCY. There is a storekeeper and an assistant storekeeper and a foreman, who are the only ones allowed to draw the material out. They sign it out. The same with electric lamps, pipe, steamfittings, valves, et cetera.

Mr. Bow. It is all done on a written requisition?
Mr. CLANCY. Yes, sir.

Mr. Bow. That is all.

The record is kept of where it is going.

DUST COLLECTOR CARPENTRY SHOP

Mr. STEWART. Equipment-increased from $2,000 to $5,000; $3,500 is requested for purchase and installation of dust-collecting equipment in the carpentry shop in the Capitol Building. A similar installation was made in the carpentry shop in the Senate Office Building several years ago and has proven highly satisfactory. Installation of the dust collector is recommended for the protection of the health of the employees in this shop. The shop is located in the basement terrace of the Capitol, House side, in a space without windows. Mr. Clancy may want to elaborate on that.

Mr. CLANCY. The safety engineer recommended the improvement down in the carpentry shop because dust was blowing all over. It is explosive and a hazard to the workmen. A spark from the motors could set off an explosion. He recommended we put in the dust collector.

Mr. STEED. Are there any questions on any of this section we have just covered?

FIRE HAZARDS IN CAPITOL BASEMENT

Mr. Bow. I have been concerned while walking through those areas we just talked about. Is there not quite a fire hazard all through that area?

Mr. CLANCY. Yes, sir.

Mr. Bow. There is a lot of stored paper and old wood and scaffolding, et cetera. What would we ever do if that ever started to burn?

Mr. CLANCY. I adjusted every fire extinguisher all over the building and recharged them in the past 8 weeks. We just got through with it last week.

Mr. Bow. Fire extinguishers would be all right if we had the manpower down there at the right time. It seemed to me you could get a terrific fire with terrific damage.

Mr. CLANCY. It could be.

Mr. STEWART. I do not want to be an alarmist, but

Mr. Bow. I am alarmed about it.

Mr. STEWART. I am very much

years.

concerned and have been for

Mr. Bow. What can we do to clean up that situation? I am afraid someday we are going to lose a good bit of this Capitol with a very severe fire. I do not know, Mr. Chairman, whether you have walked down through that basement.

Mr. STEED. I have been down there.

Mr. Bow. There is old paper and lumber. If fire ever gets started there, we are in for real trouble.

Mr. STEWART. Let me point out two features that are dangerous. Take this floor, for instance. Here is hundred-year-old wood that is dried out and papers. Today my office, your office, and the committee offices have stacks and stacks of papers, books, et cetera. All are fire hazards. If it is going to be approached, it has to be approached as a coordinated effort by both Members and employees of the Capitol. Mr. Bow. I recognize that, but it seems to me that we could do a cleanup job in that area down in the basement around the workshops and these rooms where we have thrown in, I imagine, old volumes of records and other things down there that have not been used for years and probably never will be.

Mr. CLANCY. That is very true.

Mr. Bow. As one member of the committee, I am willing to furnish the necessary money to do a safety job in the basement of this building to take care of these fire hazards. I am terribly concerned. I often wonder where the fire department is and why they have not been condemning some of the situations that exist.

Mr. STEED. Has any thought ever been given to what it would cost to replace doors, filing cabinets, tables, and things with metal instead of these wooden firetraps?

Mr. CLANCY. Yes, sir. Mahogany doors like the one behind you would cost in the neighborhood of $500.

Mr. STEED. I mean metal doors.

Mr. CLANCY. You mean metal doors? They would be a little cheaper.

Mr. STEED. I would not think it would be wise to do any major replacement of any of this if it was not done in the interest of fireproofing. Metal is the best fireproofing that I know of for furniture. Mr. CLANCY. Most of that paper you see down there we have no control over. That is under the Clerk of the House and the Doorkeeper of the House.

Mr. Bow. The responsibility of bringing these matters to the attention of these people rests with the Architect of the Capitol, whose responsibility it is to maintain the safety of the building. I would

be willing to help you. We talk about a door here, which is one thing, but it seems to me that basement down there is a terrific fire hazard and that something ought to be done. I do not know whose responsibility it is, but the maintenance of this building is the responsibility of the Architect of the Capitol, and I am sure Mr. Stewart is concerned about these fire hazards and we ought to do something about it.

Mr. STEED. I wonder if it would be possible through this coming year for some survey or some thought being given to that, so that perhaps next year you could come up with some suggestions that might help cure the situation.

Mr. STEWART. Let me bring something close to home to all of us. The Appropriations Committee have in the basement in this wing underneath us several storerooms. In putting the three elevators in this wing, in connection with the transportation tunnel from the Third House Office Building, they will have to be dislodged. It is our plan that in the storage area you may have there or other storage areas you have in the basement, we will put in a sprinkling system, especially at critical places.

You have a condition in the Old House Office Building in the attic. It should have had sprinklers in it years ago. If you depend on fire extinguishers or manpower, as you say, the manpower may not be present at the right time.

There have been some studies made. In conjunction with that, there ought to be key boxes at regular places in the corridors, so that policemen or watchmen here at night will have a patrol area to take care of.

Mr. Bow. Are there not also control boxes that can be used that will pick up a fire and telegraph it?

Mr. STEWART. We have fire-alarm boxes.

Mr. Bow. This is the one somebody rings in. Are there not automatic signals that smoke will set off?

Mr. STEWART. We have none.

Mr. Bow. There are some that could be made available that would bring the signal into the police booth.

Mr. CAMPIOLI. There are rate-of-rise detectors that could be put on the ceiling, and when the temperature gets to a certain level a central station would be notified.

Mr. STEED. In isolated places like storerooms the sprinkler system is the best, is it not?

Mr. STEWART. Yes; there might be some water damage, but you would save the building. In all our new construction work fire-protection features have been approved by the fire marshal. All our layouts have been approved, the location for hoses, fire extinguishers, everything on new work.

It might be of interest to note there has never been filed in any of the fire houses-the six that are supposed to take care of the Capitolany sort of layout of the electrical system in any of these buildings until we brought them up to date lately in the office buildings. We have none for the Capitol Building.

When we finish with our electrical conversion, we will have a complete layout of the plan, where the switchgear is, where the circuit breakers are located, where the circuits are, etc. The plans can be