A BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE LEGISLATIVE, EXEC-
UTIVE, AND JUDICIAL EXPENSES OF THE GOVERNMENT
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1918,

AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

1917

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HJ10 ·B43 1918

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, AND JUDICIAL APPROPRIATION BILL.

› LEGISLATIVE, EXECUTIVE, ANDJUDICIAL APPROPRIATION BILL.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1917.

UNITED STATES SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met in the room of the Committee on Appropriations at 10.30 o'clock a. m., pursuant to call.

Present: Senators Overman (acting chairman), Bryan, Smoot, and Oliver.

The subcommittee thereupon proceeded to consider the bill (H. R. 18542) making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1918, and for other purposes.

STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY F. ASHURST, A SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA.

ASSISTANT CLERK, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS.

Senator ASHURST. Mr. Chairman and Senators, I wish to ask your attention to an item that will be found on line 21 of page 5 of the bill:

Indian Affairs: Clerk, $2,500; assistant clerk, $1,440; messenger, $1,440.

I am chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs. The clerk of that committee is paid, in my judgment, an adequate and proper compensation, although he is employed every day in the year. We handle every year $10,000,000 of appropriations, 8,000 employees, 300,000 Indians, and a billion dollars' worth of property. My assistant clerk, who also works every day in the year on that committee, gets $1,440 a year, whereas in the case of the Committee on Private Land Claims, which never meets, and of which Senator Lodge is chairman, the position analogous to my assistant clerk pays $1,800.

The Committee to Investigate Expenditures in the Interior Department, of which Senator Smoot is chairman, never meets. I am a member of that committee. The position analogous to that of this young man, who is my assistant clerk, pays $1.800. In other words, there is a very wide disproportion. I am not complaining because other committees having assistant clerks pay them $1,800: they ought to get $1,800; but here is a gentleman, the assistant clerk of Indian Affairs, who is employed every day in the year to keep up with the Indian work and who only receives $1,440. It is clearly an oversight-an omission. I will show you why it is an omission.

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