tions and submit recommendations therefor. Advice is furnished by this section on matters relating to construction or apparatus. Under a recent order of the Secretary of the Treasury the preparation of the plans and specifications for construction work will hereafter be performed in the office of the Supervising Architect of the Treasury. Authorizations.-Under this head are grouped four clerks, whose dutics pertain to the issue of authorizations for miscellaneous supplies and for construction and repair work. Of these, three are concerned with the purchase of general supplies for stores and preparing authorizations for miscellaneous supplies used at the various life-saving stations, such as equipment and life-saving apparatus. These contracts are based, so the Treasury Department committee report, January 16, 1911, upon estimates prepared in the New York office. and revised in the office of the general superintendent. This group is also charged with the receipt and examination of inspection reports of the superintendents of life-saving districts and of assistant inspectors of life-saving stations. The fourth clerk attends to work in connection with the issue of authorizations for the construction of new stations and repairs and improvements to old stations. He also passes upon requisitions for draft animals, forage, and fuel. One of the clerks in this section attends to the matter of making requisitions on the departments for all office supplies, printing, etc. In this capacity he acts directly under the principal clerk. Personnel. Two clerks attend to matters connected with the personnel of the service. One clerk is charged with the administrative work in connection with the selection, appointment, continuance, etc., of surfmen, keepers, and superintendents of life-saving districts, and conducts all the correspondence relating to these matters. The second clerk is assigned to similar work in connection with the employees of the office of the general superintendent and of all miscellaneous outside employees. He also has charge of the time record, the office pay roll, and the distribution of documents and the handling of the miscellaneous correspondence relating to the same. Correspondence and files.-Three clerks have charge of general correspondence and files. The incoming mail is received and opened by the assistant general superintendent, who classifies it. It is then indexed by the mailing clerk and distributed. The mailing clerk assembles the outgoing mail and arranges press and carbon copies for distribution. Bookkeeping and accounts.-This section consists of five clerks, under the immediate supervision of the principal clerk, and is charged with the bookkeeping and accounting work of the service. It prepares the annual estimates for appropriations for the maintenance of the service. the establishment of new stations, and the salaries of officers and employees in the general superintendent's office and allots appropriations. It draws requisitions for funds to be placed to the credit of district superintendents in accordance with estimates submitted by them. It keeps an authorization blotter in which all authorizations of expenditures are entered chronologically. This section is further charged with the examination and preparation for settlement of all bills, covering expenditures for the service. In this work a bill index is maintained. The auditing of the station. pay rolls, the disbursing clerk's monthly accounts, and the district superintendents' quarterly accounts is performed by this section. A journal and ledger are used in the bookkeeping. These are in charge of the principal bookkeeper. Double-entry accounts are kept of the appropriations made to the service; also of the subaccounts according to the nature of the expenditure. Similar accounts are kept with the disbursing clerk of the Treasury Department and the district superintendents. At the end of each year a thorough check is made between the books of the general superintendent's office and those of the division of bookkeeping and warrants. The bookkeeping division of this section makes an examination of the district superintendents' weekly statements of public funds showing the unexpended balance on hand with a designated depository. Miscellaneous correspondence with reference to the above subjects is conducted within the division. CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF LIFE-SAVING STATIONS. An account has been given of the work performed in the central office at Washington in respect to the selection of, and requiring of title to, sites for stations and the preparation of plans and specifications for construction work. Field operations in respect to this work are carried on through two offices, one located at New York, N. Y., for the Atlantic and Lake coasts, and the other at Portland, Oreg., for the Pacific coast. The following statement shows the organization of, and personnel attached to, these offices: 2. Construction and repair of life-saving stations: 1. Atlantic and Lake coasts (headquarters, New York)— 1. Superintendent (captain, United States RevenueCutter Service). 4. Assistants to superintendents of construction (at 5. Assistants to superintendents of construction (at 6. Assistants to superintendents of construction (at 2. Pacific coast (headquarters, Portland, Oreg.)- 2. Assistant to Superintendents of construction... Total..... 37542-H. Doc. 670, 62-2-7 In respect to these offices, it should be remembered that a section of the act of March 3, 1873, still in force, prescribes: That all life-saving stations hereafter erected shall be erected under the supervision of two captains of the Revenue Service, to be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury, and to be under his direction. Agreeable to this legislation, two captains of the Revenue-Cutter Service are now detailed as superintendents of construction. One is stationed at Portland, Oreg., the other at New York City. In order to comply with the law, the superintendent in New York acts with the one stationed at Portland in matters relating to construction work. These two officers are assisted by the clerks shown in the statement and by assistant superintendents. Of these a few work in the office and the greater number in supervision of construction work in the field. The activities of the offices of superintendents of construction have been extended beyond the express provision of the act cited. They are now permanently detailed in the foregoing capacity and are charged with the supervision not only of the erection of new stations. but also the making of repairs, additions and improvements, the selection, purchase, and the inspection of outfits therefor. SUPERINTENDENCE OF CONSTRUCTION OF LIFEBOATS, APPARATUS, ETC., NEW YORK, N. Y. This branch of the work is under the charge of one captain, retired, of the Revenue-Cutter Service, who is detailed by Executive order for duty with the Life-Saving Service. His headquarters are in New York, where he is furnished an office in the customhouse. This officer has entire charge of the construction of power lifeboats and surfboats, and repairs thereto, and certain other life-saving apparatus in connection therewith. Power lifeboats are built under contract at Bayonne, N. J., under the personal inspection of this officer, and power surfboats are built under contract at Greenport, Long Island, under the personal supervision of the assistant superintendent of construction, referred to above, and the infrequent periodic inspection of the revenue-cutter officer. The following statement shows the organization and personnel of this office: 3. Superintendence of construction of life boats, apparatus, etc. 1. Superintendent (retired captain, United States Rev enue-Cutter Service)... 2. Assistant officer in charge. CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE OF TELEPHONE LINES. The Life-Saving Service maintains telephonic communication between many of its stations. These lines make it easy to concentrate the crews of two or more stations at any point where additional force is required. This service is under the supervision of a superintendent of telephone lines, with headquarters at Newark, N. J. He is assisted by nine linesmen, as shown by the following statement of organization and personnel: STOREHOUSE AND INSPECTION OF LIFE-SAVING STATIONS, NEW YORK, N. Y. By what appears to be an anomalous arrangement the operation of the general storehouse for the service and the conduct of the work of field inspection are intrusted to the same subdivision of the service. Section 8 of the act of June 18, 1878, provides: That the Secretary of the Treasury may detail such officer or officers of the RevenueMarine Service as may be necessary as inspector and assistant inspectors of stations, who shall perform such duties in connection with the conduct of the service as may be required of them by the general superintendent. Pursuant to this legislation one officer is detailed as inspector of life-saving stations. Nominally he is the administrative head of the branch. Nine other officers of the same service are detailed as assistant inspectors. The inspection headquarters are maintained in New York City, where the inspector has his office. The inspector makes no inspections personally and his direction and supervision of the assistant inspectors is but nominal. Reports from the assistant inspectors to the general superintendent pass through the inspector's office. The field-inspection work is performed by the assistant inspectors, who are permanently assigned to duty in particular districts with headquarters in their respective headquarters. These officers are given rather wide discretion in the administration of their work. For inspection purposes districts 1 and 2, 3 and 4, 8 and 9, and 10 and 11 are combined. Article 47 of the regulations makes provision for a quarterly inspection of all stations except those on the Lake coasts, unless it is omitted by direction or consent of the general superintendent. No inspections are made of the stations on the Great Lakes during the first quarters. These inspections go to the efficiency of the personnel, condition of life-saving apparatus, and general fitness of station and equipment. In the thirteenth (Pacific coast) district the positions of inspector of life-saving stations and superintendent of construction are combined. A five-story and basement fireproof building, located at 379, 381, and 383 Washington Street, New York City, is leased by the LifeSaving Service. Here are located the offices of the superintendents of construction of life-saving stations and of the inspector of lifesaving stations (the latter official being one of the superintendents of construction) and the main supply and store house of the service. The inspector of life-saving stations is in charge of the supply house. The office of the inspector of life-saving stations is concerned almost entirely with the handling of stores. Supplies for the store are purchased upon directions of the general superintendent. The procedure observed in distributing these supplies to the field force is described in the report on the Life-Saving Service by Treasury Department committee (Jan. 16, 1911): During the early spring district superintendents make annual requisitions covering the estimated needs of life-saving stations for the ensuing fiscal year. Each requisition includes detailed needs for all stations within the district. These requisitions are forwarded to the general superintendent, and after examination are referred to the storehouse for notation as to articles in store. They are then returned to the general superintendent, where action is indicated, the requisitions returned to the storehouse, supplies assembled from store or purchased and shipped to the respective stations. The service also maintains minor storehouses at Grand Haven, Mich. (for supplying stations on the Great Lakes and one station at the falls of the Chicago River), and one at San Francisco, Cal. (for stations on the Pacific coast). There is one employee at each of these stations. The methods of distributing supplies which prevail at the New York storehouse are observed. The following statement shows in detail the organization and personnel of this branch of the service: 5. Storehouse and inspection of life-saving stations, New York, N. Y.; 1. Inspector of life-saving stations (captain, United States Revenue-Cutter Service-detailed).. 2. Assistant inspectors of life-saving stations (officers of the Revenue-Cutter Service-detailed).. 9 3. Storehouse (general)— 1. Chief clerk.... 2. Assistant to inspector (class 4). 3. Clerk (class 4) 4. Clerk (class 3) 5. Clerk (class 1). 6. Skilled laborer. 7. Messenger.... 8. Handler and packer.. 9. Handler and packer. 10. Janitor.... BOARD OF LIFE-SAVING APPLIANCES. The organic act of June 18, 1878, entitled "An act to organize the Life-Saving Service," provides as one of the functions of the general superintendent that it shall be his duty to cause to be properly investigated all plans, devices, and inventions for the improvement of life-saving apparatus for use at the stations which may appear to be meritorious and available. |