creases from year to year. We now have four telegraphers, and it has been necessary, from time to time, to call on the private companies for operators to help us out. We have no leeway if there are holidays or leave is taken by one of them, or if there is any sickness. There is no expansion joint, as you might say, and they have to increase their number of hours of working, a good bit to their own hardship, and that all reflects on the efficiency of the work. If another one is allowed, the question of holidays and leave can easily be taken care of; they can have the leave they are entitled to without any hardship to anybody. These men work in shifts of seven and a half hours, day and night, with 'several on duty during the rush hours of the day. They also take turns in doing a trick of three hours in the morning and evening of Sundays and holidays.

MESSENGERS.

Mr. BYRNS. You have two assistant messengers and three messenger boys, and you are asking for one additional. Why do you need so many messenger boys?

Capt. CHASE. Of the two assistant messengers, one is assigned to the material division and the other is in the chief's office, as he has a great deal of use for him. Of the three messenger boys, one is assigned to the Office of the Director of Gunnery Exercises and Engineering Performances and the remaining two are assigned to the Communications Office. Those boys are very actively used. Telegrams are being received and sent all over the building, and we find it necessary to have this other one chiefly because of holidays and leave. Also, our experience shows that the work can not be handled very well without another one.

Mr. BYRNS. Is there anything else you wish to say, Captain?

PAY OF CHIEF CLERK.

Capt. CHASE. No, sir; except that it has just been called to my attention that the chief clerks of the bureaus, I think, have put in a request for increase of salary of $2,500. An increase in the salary of our chief clerk, of course, is not in our estimate, because we did not know that that was being contemplated, but I think that as a matter of justice our chief clerk should be included, if practicable. Mr. GOOD. Has there been an organization of the chief clerks to organize and ask Congress for an increase?

Capt. CHASE. Not that I know of, sir. I am quite sure our chief clerk did not know a thing about it.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1916.

BUREAU OF NAVIGATION.

STATEMENTS OF COMMANDER L. M. OVERSTREET, REPRESENTING THE CHIEF OF THE BUREAU OF NAVIGATION, AND MR. HENRY L. BALLENTINE, CHIEF CLERK.

Mr. BYRNS. You are asking for an increase of 7 clerks, ranging from $1,200 to $2,200 in salary. In the general deficiency bill passed last September you asked for 14 additional employees and were

allowed 10. You ask, in addition to those that were allowed, for a clerk at $2,000, a clerk at $1,800, and 2 clerks at $900, which were not allowed in that act. What is the reason for this increased estimate for clerks over and above what was asked for two months ago, in September?

Commander OVERSTREET. We have found that even if we had gotten the increase we asked for they would not have been enough to handle the increased volume of work. The work of the Bureau of Navigation consists in looking after the records of all the officers and the men-that is, the enlisted men-and the transportation of the same in addition. We have had practically no increase since 1910, except an increase of 2 in 1916 and the 10 allowed last year under the general deficiency act. In that time, however, the number of officers has increased from 2,600 to 4.100, an increase of about 57 per cent. The clerical force must handle all the appointments of those officers and keep their records very carefully.

During the past week the clerical force has been working very hard to get up the records of the officers and tabulate the same for the selection board which meets in December to pass upon promotions under the new selection bill. Then the number of midshipmen has increased from 900 to 1,762. Although the academy is not filledthere being about 1,200 there, althought the number allowed is 1,700we have as much work, if not more, in connection with the 500 vacancies than we have with the number now at the academy. Those vacancies require more clerical work in the bureau, because there is a great deal of correspondence with all of the Congressmen and Senators about making appointments to fill these vacancies, and with all the applicants and their friends who write in about them. Of course, you know, the number of enlisted men has been increased. The last Congress increased the number of enlisted men by something like 25,000, and that has increased the work of the clerical force in the Navigation Bureau. We are finding difficulty in recruiting men, and we are bending every effort in the bureau in getting up information, circulars, and everything like that, to send out to all the people of the country. Of course that makes a great deal of work in the bureau. The transportation of those recruits falls upon the transportation branch of the bureau and additional work is caused there. Briefly, the increase in the number of men means an increase in the volume of work. The bureau must care for all of those enlistments and there has to be a very careful record kept of every man, a record as to his physical characteristics, so that in the future, when he is dismissed or asks for a pension, or anything, we will have our records complete. A record is also kept of his finger print.

Mr. GOOD. Have you had a large increase among the enlisted men? Commander OVERSTREET. The last Congress allowed this big in

crease.

Mr. GOOD. But I mean actually?

Commander OVERSTREET. Well, we have not actually gotten a big increase yet, but we are bending every effort to get it. The increase is slowly progressing, and we are organizing our recruiting force a little better every day with the idea of covering the whole country better. There are many sections of the country that we have not covered, and they are all working very hard to get the whole country organized into districts and have inspectors in every district so that

we can actually cover the whole country with our recruiting work. I was up in Detroit and Cleveland and learned that the candidates they get are men who have come from the South to get positions in those automobile factories and who have been disappointed. They do not get their positions and the cost of living is so high in Detroit that they do not know what to do and have no place to go, so we are now organizing our force in such a way as to go all over the country so that these people will not have to go from one part of the country to another for employment, and by having a better organization we hope to recruit a great number of such people.

As I have said, a careful record must be kept of every enlisted man and a record of their finger prints is taken. Our finger-print division has to handle all of that, and with the increase in the number of recruits their work is increased. Our correspondence, of course, increases as the number of enlisted men increases, and the same is true as regards our transportation division. They have a great deal of work to do because they have to furnish transportation for every single recruit. Arrangements are made with the railroads so that by certain transportation orders every recruit is given his transportation to the nearest training station, and from the various training stations the recruits are sent to the ships. That work has increased a great deal. The work has also increased in connection with the Naval Reserve, which was authorized by the last Congress. That force is now being organized and gotten into shape, and we hope by another year to have a big force in the real fleet reserve and also in the various reserves. We are now recruiting from the merchantmen and merchant ships, and have had our officers up through the Great Lakes trying to get all of those shipping men interested and probably take them into the fleet and give them a cruise down to the West Indies while the ships are idle up on the Great Lakes. That has caused a great deal of clerical work, getting up the plans for properly organizing the Naval Reserve. Then we have got to keep a record of all the reserve people in the bureau, so that in case of war we would know where to send the men, either to a merchantman or a man-of-war. We must have a complete record so that we will be in a position to immediately send telegrams everywhere and that they will be in a position to be mobilized and sent to the various ships. So that all of this has really resulted in a big increase in work, and we can not handle it efficiently unless we have additional clerks.

Then, again, there is a large amount of correspondence coming from all over the country asking about the various reserve conditions, which adds immensely to the amount of work in the bureau. have no idea what a vast increase all of this new legislation has resulted in in the way of added correspondence in the Bureau of Navigation. That is the bureau which has charge of all the officers and men, caring for all of their records, issuing all of their warrants and commissions, and everything connected with that part of the service.

OVERTIME.

Mr. BYRNS. Do any of your clerks work overtime now?

Mr. BALLENTINE. Yes, sir; they are not ordered to do it, but whenever a man's work is not up individually he is supposed to work overtime.

Mr. BYRNS. To what extent would you say they work overtime? Mr. BALLENTINE. I have not cast it up for this present year, sir; but it seems to me that for the last calendar year it was something like 770 hours. I can get that information for you.

Commander OVERSTREET. The work is really not up to date now, and in the enlisted men's branch, where we have 54,000 men on the active list, there is kept a record of each man. Then we have to handle the records of at least 25,000 of those who have gone out, because they are writing in to see whether they can not ship over again, asking whether they can not get a pension, or something like that. The clerks can not keep up with the work in caring for all those records now.

Mr. BIRNS. How far are you behind, would you say?

Commander OVERSTREET. It would be hard to estimate that in days, but we can not keep up with the correspondence. And I am in and out of the file rooms, and I know that they are unable to keep up the files in the way that they should be kept up and, of course, we are crowded for room; that has been a big handicap; while the work has expanded the number of rooms at our command has not expanded.

Mr. STAFFORD. What is your purpose in creating the unusual grade of one clerk at $2,200?

Commander OVERSTREET. That is really intended for the man who is at the head of the Naval Academy division. His work has been more than doubled in the last six years by the big increase in the number of midshipmen at the Naval Academy, and his work is so important that they want to give him a better-paid position.

Mr. STAFFORD. What salary is that gentleman now receiving?
Commander OVERSTREET. $2,000 now.

Mr. STAFFORD. I assume that if the committee grants you the additional request for clerks at $2,000 you would promote some of those now receiving $1,800.

Commander OVERSTREET. We would unless we found better applicants coming in; it is just a case of getting the best pay and getting the best men suitable; that is all it is.

Mr. STAFFORD. What is the character of work done by those $2,000 men?

Commander OVERSTREET. They are really heads of divisions now; one man is the head of the transportation division, another is the head of the recruiting division, another is at the head of the enlisted men's record division, and another is at the head of the general correspondence division.

Mr. BALLENTINE. The $2,000 men are at the head of the Naval Academy division and the division of enlisted men's correspondence. Commander OVERSTREET. I intended to say that we wanted to give $2,000 to the men at the head of those divisions; I did not really mean to say that they were getting that much now.

Mr. STAFFORD. How many divisions have you in your bureau? Commander OVERSTREET. Well, we have an officer's division, a Naval Academy division, we are working up a division for reserves, we have a Naval Militia division, an enlisted men's record division, a finger-print division, a recruiting division, a transportation divi

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sion, a pension and retired division, a general correspondence and mailing division, and an enlisted men's correspondence division.

Mr. BYRNS. I believe you said that the gentleman you wanted to give $2,200 is at the head of the Naval Academy division? Commander OVERSTREET. Yes.

CHARACTER OF WORK.

Mr. STAFFORD. Does your bureau perform a similar character of work in the Navy Department that is performed by The Adjutant General in the War Department?

Mr. BALLENTINE. Yes, sir; we have similar work; we have the personnel.

Commander OVERSTREET. We have all the personnel of the officers and men.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1916.

OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

STATEMENT OF CAPT. JAMES H. OLIVER, DIRECTOR OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.

Mr. BYRNS. You are asking for an increase of force for the Office of Naval Intelligence?

Capt. OLIVER. Well, you have already given it.

Mr. BYRNS. It is really not an increase but certain promotions? Capt. OLIVER. Yes. There is no increase over the total under the legislative bill and deficiency bill.

Mr. BYRNS. You were allowed, under the deficiency act which was passed in September of this year, in addition to the force provided for the current year, four additional employees?

Capt. OLIVER. Yes.

Mr. BYRNS. And that was the full number for which you asked at that time?

Capt. OLIVER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BYRNS. This estimate proposes to promote a clerk of class 3 to class 4?

Capt. OLIVER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BYRNS. And also to provide a salary of $1,400 for the draftsman who is now drawing a salary of $1,200.

Capt. OLIVER. I do not think I asked enough, sir. If you will allow me to say so, I feel that the principal clerk in that office ought to be paid just as much as you pay the chief clerks in any of the other bureaus. He has been there a long time; something like 25 or more years. His duties are very important, and he is a faithful man. I feel that a few of the principal clerks in all the offices and bureaus, whose services are so valuable and where it is so necessary to retain them, ought to have that increased pay. I do not mean that to include the younger ones who only come in to stay a little while. They come in to study law, or something like that, and I do not think it desirable that they should have pay which would keep them too long. But I feel that a few of the principal ones ought