In consideration of the above facts, and without equivocation or desire to mislead, we come to you for relief, and would respectfully ask at your hands such action as will raise our pay to a living level and commensurate with the duty performed.

Most respectfully,

THE CAPITOL POLICE.

We beg to subjoin the following figures, which show the salaries paid to the Capitol police from 1866 to 1875, and pray that, if, in the judgment of your honorable committee, present conditions warrant it, the rates prevailing in 1875 be now restored.

Sergt. PRICE. The privates receive $1,050 a year, and there are 16 who are known as privates that were authorized on the force after the explosion took place in the Senate wing. As I said, the privates receive $1,050, the lieutenants $1,200, and there is another set of privates, composed of 16 men, who were designated as privates, although they were first placed on as watchmen after the explosion in the Senate wing, at the rate of $60 per month. Then, at the last session, Congress placed them on as additional privates at the same salary of $60 per month. We have four sergeants. The office of sergeant on the Capitol police force has never been designated as sergeant that is, the office has never been created, but there is a sergeant for each relief-that is, for the first, second, and third reliefs and one in the House Office Building. Their pay is the same as that of a private, but I should think there should be a little difference between the sergeants and privates, for the simple reason that the sergeant has charge of the men on his shift, day or night. Mr. BUCHANAN. Does your proposition to fix the salaries as they were in 1875 involve a decrease in the salary of any of them? Sergt. PRICE. No, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. It does not decrease the salary of the captain or any of the officers?

Sergt. PRICE. The captain receives, I believe, $1,800 a year and the lieutenants $1,200 a year.

Mr. SISSON. When the salaries were changed was there a regular reorganization of the service?

Sergt. PRICE. No, sir.

Mr. SISSON. This $60 per month proposition was put on by Mr. Woods without any authority of law, and he paid it out of the contingent fund which was in his hands, with the expectation that Congress would ratify it. They did so and reimbursed that fund. They were put on in an emergency. When the European war broke out, there was some little disturbance here in the absence of Congress. Congress was not in session, and Mr. Woods selected 16 men and put them on duty in three shifts, I believe.

Sergt. PRICE. A part of them were scattered through the different shifts.

Mr. SISSON. These men have not yet been put on the permanent force, but they have been simply provided for by reimbursing that fund, and then, for this fiscal year, only the $60 per month has been provided for them in accordance with Mr. Woods's recommendation. They are not on the permanent force at all.

Sergt. PRICE. They were designated in the last bill as additional privates instead of watchmen, as previously.

Mr. SISSON. That is true, but it was simply done on the annual appropriation. They are not statutory places at all as yet. Sergt. PRICE. No, sir.

Mr. SISSON. How many men are on the force, including the lieutenants, captain, privates, and watchmen?

Sergt. PRICE. The Capitol police force, including the Capitol and House Office Buildings-I can not state the exact number, but it is about 69, I believe.

Mr. SISSON. Are there 69 including the House Office Building and Senate Office Building?

Sergt. PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. How many shifts do you have?

Sergt. PRICE. Three.

Mr. SISSON. Does that include the 20 extra men?

Sergt. PRICE. There are 63 privates, including the 16.

Mr. SISSON. Counting the officers and privates together, there are 69?

Sergt. PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. That gives 20 on each shift?

Sergt. PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. When do you use the greatest number?

Sergt. PRICE. From 8 to 4 o'clock; and a part of the force, which we designate as the plainclothes men, comes on just before the convening of Congress and are placed on duty, and they continue on duty until the session closes. The force that is on from 4 o'clock until midnight is a little smaller than the morning force, and the midnight force is still smaller that is, the force from midnight to 8 o'clock.

Mr. SISSON. They are really watchmen?

Sergt. PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SISSON. You lock most of the doors at night?

Sergt. PRICE. After midnight; yes, sir; but there are men here to open and close them.

Lieut. WHITE. Mr. Chairman, I am here for the House Office Building police and indorse what has been said.

Mr. WOLFE. Mr. Chairman, I represent the plainclothes privates, or additional privates, as they are designated. They are designated eight in the Senate and eight in the House. Now, in view of the fact that we are performing the same duty that the uniformed men perform and work the same number of hours, although we have never been placed on this regular roll, I think we should receive the same pay. These men are employed at the rate of $60 per month. or $720 per annum, and I have been told by one of the employees of the office of the Clerk of the House that in making out the estimates for this fiscal year commencing the 1st of July the amount is increased. It was done on his own initiative, because nobody asked him

to do it, but he thought that it was not fair to pay the men who are doing this same work $60 per month. He has put us in the estimates at the present rate of the Capitol police, and my belief is that that figure will be entirely satisfactory to the men I representthat is, the present figure which has been put in the estimates for the next fiscal year. That is what the uniformed men are getting now, and we perform the same duty and work the same hours at the rate of $60 per month. Under the present condition of things that is pretty hard sailing for the man with a family to look after.

I will not take up any more of your time, because I know you are very busy.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1916.

WATCHMEN IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS.

STATEMENT OF MR. H. A. RAINES, REPRESENTING THE WATCHMEN EMPLOYED IN THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

Mr. BYRNS. Where are you employed?

Mr. RAINES. I am employed as a watchman in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Mr. BYRNS. We will be glad to have any statement you desire to make.

Mr. RAINES. Mr. Chairman, we come before you this morning asking for an increase in our pay there in order to meet the present high cost of living. We have been trying for the last year or two to do that, but our salaries have been inadequate to meet those conditions. The cost of living has now advanced more than one-third-within the past six months, even-and we are not able to reach it at all now. We are paying now fully one-third more for everything we buy. Mr. Sisson. What is the salary of the watchmen there?

Mr. RAINES. Sixty dollars per month, or $720 per year. There is not a single article that has not advanced in price even within the last three months, and $60 per month will not reach our living expenses at all.

Mr. BYRNS. What percentage of the watchmen have families?

Mr. RAINES. Most of them have families there, and I think the families average about from three to five members. I myself have four in my family, but some of them have as many as seven or eight in their families. A great many of the watchmen have nothing but this $60 per month to live on.

Mr. EVANS. How many watchmen are over there?

Mr. RAINES. There are 60 watchmen.

Mr. SISSON. An increase was recommended by the chief of the bureau, was it not?

Mr. RAINES. I do not know.

Mr. GOOD. How many hours do they work?

Mr. RAINES. Eight hours, seven days in the week.

Mr. GOOD. In three shifts?

Mr. RAINES. Yes, sir.

Mr. STAFFORD. How many days in the week do you work?

Mr. RAINES. Seven days in the week, including Sundays, holidays, and everything, except that we are allowed a total in the bureau of 10 Sundays and holidays, and also 30 days' annual leave, which, however, does not even cover all the Sundays and holidays during the year. We only get that in lieu of the Sundays.

Mr. BYRNS. Is there anything else you wish to say?
Mr. RAINES. No, sir; that is all.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1916.

STATEMENT OF MR. OTTO HULBE, WATCHMAN IN THE BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING.

Mr. HULBE. Mr. Chairman, I have three children, consisting of two boys, the oldest about 12 years of age and the other 10 years of age, and a girl 8 years old. My wife left me about six years ago with these three children. I put the children in a home, and they charged me $15 for each of them, making $45 per month in all, and I had to buy their clothing. That took up all of my pay of $60 per month, leaving me with nothing. I had to go to my friends and ask them to help me out. Then some friends told me that the children were not treated right and that they did not get enough to eat, and so I had to take them out of that home. I had them in Georgetown. So I rented a house, and I tried first to get the cheapest house I could to live in, but the cheapest house I could find was $18.50 per month. I could not do the cooking for the children, so I had to get a housekeeper, and the cheapest one I could find was $15 per month. I am paying $18.50 per month rent and $15 per month for a housekeeper, making $33.50. The food for the table has always cost me in the neighborhood of $30 per month. I owe everybody that I could get money from, and I have sold out everything that I could possibly spare in order to get money. The children and myself need clothes, and the clothes I have been wearing for the last three years are clothes that friends of mine gave to me.

One man gave me that overcoat, and I have not bought a suit of clothes for over three years. If I can not get anything of that kind that is given away. I must go to a secondhand store and buy some clothing. All my children at the present time need clothes and shoes. Two weeks ago I bought a pair of shoes for each of the boys, and they charged me $2.50 a pair for them. They wore them for two weeks, and they are nearly worn out already. I do all my own shoe repairing as well as I can. I can only nail soles to the shoes, and when they come apart I can not repair them any more. You can not buy as good shoes as formerly. Besides this, I am obliged to wear glasses, and my boy, 10 years old, has got to wear glasses. I can not read without glasses and the boy must wear glasses. I sent him to the Episcopal Eye and Ear Hospital, and they sent me to Franklin, and he charged me four dollars and some cents for the glasses. He wore the glasses about two days, and came back and wanted another lens for them, and that cost me $1.25. Then the other day, a big boy hit them and broke the glasses, and I must now get new glasses. I have a pair of glasses myself, but I can not wear them any more.

My eyes are getting bad, and I must have them reexamined, and I must get some new eye glasses.

Mr. BYRNS. You have made a very strong statement, and I am sure that it is one that appeals to every member of the committee.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1916.

STATEMENT OF MR. DANIEL F. BROWN, WATCHMAN IN THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT.

Mr. BROWN. Mr. Chairman, I am, perhaps, not the proper man to come before the committee to make an impression, because I am a single man, but I get just the same money that the others do. I have two children out West getting $50 per week. Both of them are receiving more than I get working outside of the Government. It takes all I get to live on here as a single man, every bit of it. Five years ago I was laying up a little money, but to-day I am spending what I laid up then. I do not see how married men with families can live on their salaries. Our working conditions there mean 365 days in the year. I got two Sundays off this year in all. We get annual leave if we can be spared, but if not we do not get it. Mr. STAFFORD. What is the salary?

Mr. BROWN. $60 per month.

Mr. STAFFORD. Has a recommendation been made for an increase in that salary?

Mr. BROWN. Not in the Treasury Department.

Mr. STAFFORD. Are you certain that the department has not recommended an increase in the salaries of the lower paid employees?

Mr. BROWN. Not that I know of. If they have done so, it is unknown to us.

Mr. STAFFORD. Most of the departments have.

Mr. BROWN. If it has been, it is unknown to use down there.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1916.

STATEMENT OF MR. JOHN HAYES, WATCHMAN IN THE GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

Mr. HAYS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I am here to state a fact that probably you never heard of with regard to the Government Printing office in Washington. During the administration of President Roosevelt, either in his first term or at the commencement of his second term, there was a Public Printer named Stillings, and the extravagance of his office at that time was called to the attention of President Roosevelt. There was a commission appointed called the Keep Commission to investigate the extravagance of the Printing Office. He had an auditing commission there, composed, I think, of 10 or 12 gentlemen, who were paid the paltry sum of $10 per day, and if you should want to draw anything from the storekeeper, even a tooth-pick, you would have to go through all of this. But laying