letters to this Department as chiefly frauds, fabrications, and forgeries. It appears that Crafton and some parties who had been clerks under him were indicted, but the finality of the prosecutions I do not know. "Mr. Cockrell inquires whether this Department will examine cases; also, whether any list or statement of the cases has been prepared in this Department and of which a copy can be furnished. "There is no law of the United States under which this Department has been or now is authorized to make any official examination of the cases, and for that reason there has been no occasion in this Department to make any detailed list or statement of them." The present bill authorizes an examination with a view to ascertaining "what amounts, if any, may be due the State of Missouri for expenditures incurred or amounts assumed by said State for supplies furnished or in raising, paying, and supplying troops to aid the United States in the suppression of the rebellion." So far as this office is informed the State of Missouri has not paid any of the items for which claim is presented in this installment, nor has it assumed said amounts except upon the condition that the amounts shall be first paid by the United States to the State of Missouri. In view of the fact that these claims are largely tainted with fraud, it is doubtful whether any ordinary examination which might be made in this office would satisfactorily determine what portion of these claims are proper charges against the United States and what portion are fraudulent. In this connection your attention is invited to the following copy of a letter addressed to the Attorney-General by the United States district attorney for the district of Missouri, under date of February 1, 1876, the original of which is on file in this office: UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, SIR: My attention has been called by the adjutant-general of this State, Hon. George C. Bingham, to the claims now on file in the Third Auditor's office of the Treasury Department, and known and designated as the third installment of the war claims of Missouri. The claims purport to have been audited, adjusted, and paid under an act of the general assembly of Missouri approved March 19, 1874, and abstracts and vouchers therefor were returned to Washington, December 21, 1874, by the Hon. John D. Crafton, then adjutant-general of the State, and filed in the Third Auditor's office to the amount of $2,382,132.67. The vouchers are alleged to be for payment for service of troops of the State engaged in the suppression of the rebellion and for property alleged to have been destroyed or taken by military officers for the service of the United States. The act referred to, under which these claims were audited and allowed, provided for a commission to examine and approve such as were found to be justly due, and also for the issue of certificates by the adjutant-general for the amount found due to claimants. A certified copy of this act was forwarded by General Crafton to the Third Auditor at the same time the vouchers were transmitted, to which I respectfully beg to refer you for detail of the regulations required to be observed in the adjustment of the claims and the issue of certificates therefor. An extended and somewhat thorough investigation made by myself in conjunction with General Bingham has developed gross frauds in the claims themselves and the manner in which many of them were allowed, to the extent of over one million dollars. In many cases the claims of entire organizations that were not properly or never in the service of the United States have been allowed under vouchers and pay rolls that were false and forged for the occasion. Certificates to a large excess of the claims filed have been issued in the names of fictitious persons, and in many other ways frauds have been perpetrated either with the active cooperation of consent of General Crafton, then adjutant-general; so much so that any payment of the claims in their present condition by the United States would be a manifest injustice and an imposition. It is true these claims can not now be paid, nor without further legislation by Congress can they be paid at all, but as they are on file and a part of the records of the Third Auditor's office, and in all probability an effort will be made to secure their payment and allowance in their present condition, I have thought proper to call your attention to the true character of the burden thus sought to be imposed upon the Government and to ask your advice as to the policy of taking such action through the courts here and by means of a criminal prosecution against the proper parties to expose and place upon the record the infamous means by which they were made, presented, "audited, and allowed" by General Crafton and his confederates, and thereby prevent, as far as can be done, the perpetration of a fraud of this great extent upon the United States. I would respectfully ask your consideration of the premises and await your action thereon. The next grand jury of this district will be in session from and after the first Monday in March next. A reply before that time will greatly oblige me. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. EDWARDS PIERREPONT, Attorney-General, Washington, D. C. JAMES S. BOTSFORD, United States District Attorney. Attention is also invited to the fact that all papers and vouchers now on file in this office are the result of an ex parte examination and audit by a commission appointed by the State of Missouri, on which the United States was not represented in any manner, and that no examination has been made on the part of the United States with a view to determining whether the claims were based upon services actually rendered and supplies actually furnished for the benefit of the United States. While the examination of these claims as proposed by the inclosed bill will require a large expenditure of time on the part of the clerical force of this office, it would appear to be absolutely necessary, if it is the intention of Congress to assume any liability by reason of these claims, and there would, therefore, appear to be no objection to the bill as presented. Mr. WARREN, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 17984.] The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 17984) making appropriation for the support of the Military Academy for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1906, and for other purposes, have given the same careful consideration and report it back with sundry amendments and as amended recommend that it do pass. The amount of the estimates, as shown in the regular Book of Estimates, House Document No. 12, Fifty-eighth Congress, third session, pages 158 to 172 and 269 to 277, inclusive, and in House Document No. 221, Fifty eighth Congress, third session, is $726,391.38, and the total amount appropriated by this bill is $677,978.38, and the amount. appropriated by this bill as it passed the House was $669,233.38. The amount appropriated by this bill is $48,413 less than the amount of the estimates and $295,968.88 less than the amount carried by the bill of last year. The details of this bill are shown by the following table: Appropriations for the Military Academy for the past six years have Decrease from last year.. The first amendment of your committee, found on page 4, line 5, corrects a typographical error in punctuation. The amendments found in line 25, page 5, and lines 1 and 7, page 6, provide for a slight increase of the detailed regular army detachment made necessary on account of the additional work occasioned by the increase made in the Corps of Cadets at the academy a few years ago. The amendments on page 11 insert words evidently omitted in a redrafting of a present statute and add nothing to the existing law, but make it more clear, and this section of the statutes as worded by these amendments covers the organization of the band as authorized by Congress and makes no other changes. The amendments in lines 11 and 13, page 12, provide for one additional instructor in French, making the number of instructors in French the same as already provided for by law for instruction in Spanish. It has been found, after practical operation under supervision of the Superintendent of the Academy, that with the present number of instructors in Spanish, beginning with the cadets of the first-year class and continu ing up to the time of their graduation, they can so perfect them in the language that they can not only read and write it, but that they may also speak it in a practical manner, and this additional instructor in French, it is hoped, will be sufficient to perfect the students in that language, so that they can speak the language fluently as well as read and write it. In connection with the amendment on page 12, lines 17 to 21, attention is respectfully invited to the following extract from a communication from the Superintendent of the Academy, which communication came to your committee with the indorsement of the Secretary of War: The purpose of the above appropriation is to perfect the training of cadets in military gymnastics, so that upon graduation they can at once conduct this work in the Army. At the present time instruction in these duties is compulsory in the fourth class year only, and the intention is to continue such instruction throughout the four years' course. The instructor in military gymnastics is unable to do this work without additional expert assistants. For several years the Army Athletic Association has engaged and paid for an expert fencer, who has assisted the instructor in gymnastics in the development of the fencing team. A fair standard of proficiency in the general athletic training of the fourth class has been attained, but the classes have become so large that it is impossible for the instructor in gymnastics with his one unprofessional assistant to make the instruction of all cadets as thorough, complete, and satisfactory as it should be. The importance of military athletics is now fully recognized in the Army, and it is desirable that the training given to cadets in all the branches of this subject should embrace both their theory and practice as applicable to the needs of the service. With the appropriation asked for it is the intention that there shall be engaged by the superintendent three civilian instructors, probably as follows: One in fencing, broadsword exercises, etc... One in boxing and military gymnastics. One in the Japanese art of jiu jitsu $1,500 1,500 1,500 It is desirable that the employment of these men should be directly in the hands of the superintendent so that the precise qualifications of each instructor may be determined by him in order to meet existing conditions and in order to insure the obtaining of competent and satisfactory assistants. The amendment on page 13, line 13, restores the number of firemen to that now employed. The amendment on page 15, lines 18 and 19, corrects the total amount appropriated for civilian employees. The amendment on page 25, lines 9 to 12, inclusive, is identical with the provision which passed this body last session but failed to become law. This legislation has been earnestly recommended by every Board of Visitors to the academy for the past several years. Attention is respectfully invited to the last annual report of the Board of Visitors, pages 15 to 18, inclusive, and also to the following note from the Book of Estimates: NOTE.-The object of this item is to put the children's school upon a basis to enable it to provide, at least, the foundation of a common school education for the more than 250 children permanently residing here. The conditions at West Point are such that there must always be many young children among its residents. The place is isolated, and especially in winter the difficulties of access to neighboring towns are so great the maintenance of a children's school is a necessity. The responsibility is very largely the Government's, and it is but right that it should assume the burden. The existing children's school is most unsatisfactory, and, contrasted with the educational work done at the Military Academy proper, it is the subject of constant and just criticism upon the part of the public aware of the situation. The teachers in the school are enlisted men, and the building occupied is one devoid of proper fixtures and of the simplest educational aids or any of the equipment required to make the school the attractive place it is desirable it should always be. The use of soldiers as teachers is objectionable for several reasons. In the first place it seriously cripples the military organization from which they are taken, and the saving in employing them is hardly appreciable, as their actual cost closely approximates the amount necessary to obtain trained teachers. Though the best men for the purpose are taken, they are not suitable to teach small children. Women should be employed for this purpose, as men are not comparable to them in handling little children, a principle recognized in all civil communities. Due to existing poor facilities, many children have been attending the public schools in Highland Falls. The authorities of that village complain of this, and they object to the burden it imposes upon the village. They claim that they have expended in the past year the sum of $1,800 for the tuition of West Point children, an amount their community is entirely too poor to spare for work, the expense of which they feel the United States is honorably bound to bear. The provisions made for improvements at the Military Academy include an adequate school building for children, and it is the purpose to establish, with the appropriation now asked for above, a regular graded school on the same basis as the State schools and governed by their regulations. It is the purpose to employ one male teacher at $1,000 per year as principal, and three women at $500 each as teachers. The balance of the amount is to be used in providing necessary educational aids for the school.-Brig. Gen. A. L. Mills, U. S. Army, Superintendent U. S. Military Academy. Extract from annual report of the Board of Visitors for the year 1904: "The Board wishes to insert under this head_the letters of the superintendent of the academy, Gen. A. L. Mills, and Lieut. M. J. McDonough, the officer in charge of the school. These letters explain fully the conditions as they exist, and bring out quite fully the rather peculiar situation in regard to education of children at this post. The Board indorses, after a thorough personal investigation, every statement made by General Mills and Lieutenant McDonough, and approves of the recommendation for the employment of three female teachers and a male principal, as suggested by General Mills and the officer in charge, Lieut. M. J. McDonough." The amendment, page 25, lines 14 and 15, simply corrects a footing. The amendment, page 27, lines 9 to 22, inclusive, strikes out four separate items and consolidates them under one head, thus simplifying the matter of accounts and bookkeeping. The total amount involved is but $120. SR-58-3-Vol 2- -13 |