Mr. DAVIDSON. It is distinct from any village school outside? Col. TILLMAN. Yes, sir. It is for the children of the enlisted men of the post and for the children of people employed at the post.

Col. TIMBERLAKE. The average enrollment was 145 pupils from September to December, and the average attendance was 135.6 for the same time.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "For the purchase of desks, chairs, and proper office furniture for the instructors' office in the riding hall (submitted), $200."

Col. TIMBERLAKE. This office is being used continually by three or four instructors for the transaction of routine business in the interval between riding sections, making out the schedules, and so on, for what is to follow the next day. They would like to have some desks and ordinary furniture amounting to about $200, two or three chairs, and a couple of common desks.

Col. TILLMAN. The hall is divided into three halls by movable partitions, and there are three squadrons drilling at one time. They have to arrange for the exercise of each one.

The next item I do not approve of, for the purchase and installation of a dictaphone.

The CHAIRMAN. You do not approve of that?

Col. TILLMAN. No, sir; I do not think it necessary at all.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is "For purchase and repair of fire extinguishing apparatus, $1,000."

Col. TIMBERLAKE. That is the same as last year.

The CHAIRMAN. The proviso is the same?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. That takes us down to buildings and grounds. The first item is the usual appropriation?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is the same?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir.

In the item for general repairs to the cadet laundry building I should like to have that made immediately available, because they really need that money right now, sir. The officer in charge of the laundry was in my office the other day and was wondering what he was going to do for some absolutely necessary repairs needed there right now.

The CHAIRMAN. In the next item there is a decrease, $1,400 last year and $1,000 this year?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. That is a mistake.

The CHAIRMAN. That is a mistake. It was $1,000 last year.

Col. TIMBERLAKE. The specifications for the laundry building are for the building itself without the necessary plumbing, electricity, power, and approaches to it. The abstract of the bids shows the result of those things. These estimates were put in to cover that, but I think the $130,000 item will cover the whole thing, if it is permitted.

The CHAIRMAN. You want that to go in?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. I had intended that the labor and material for the construction of the new cadet laundry should go in there instead of that.

The CHAIRMAN. You have explained that?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. GORDON. I notice every year that we have estimates for some article of new equipment or some extraordinary expense that in the very nature of it is a replacement which would come once in a long period of years. Where an article of that kind is included in the appropriation and the bill comes before us with the same appropriation as the year before, it would be only fair to eliminate that item, or at least call the attention of the committee to it.

Col. TIMBERLAKE. That is done, just as I explained this morning that there was a reduction of $100 in an item for stationery and that now the estimate was $75 due to the mimeograph being eliminated. Mr. GORDON. Those are the cases that I have reference to. I remember your calling attention to that.

Col. TIMBERLAKE. We have eliminated those things. If the item still remains the same we generally have an estimate to cover other special apparatus.

Mr. GORDON. You will put in the record the itemized estimates?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir. We always put in itemized estimate for first time asked for and then when there is a change. I have also for the committee, when you get through, a list of the expenditures for the fiscal year 1917 and a list of the expenditures for the different items up to and including January 1 of this year, which will go into the record.

Mr. GORDON. That will be very helpful.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item "For waterworks" and you are asking an increase of $500?

Col. TILLMAN. This item is precisely the same as that for past years, increased in amount from $2,500 to $3,000. Disbursements under this item are largely for personal service. The additional $500 requested is necessitated mainly by the advance in the cost of labor incident to the increased demand therefor, and to the higher cost of living. It is difficult or impracticable to secure suitable labor in this vicinity at less than $2.50 per day, whereas a year ago perfectly satisfactory service could be had at $1.50 to $1.75. That is the necessity for the increase.

The CHAIRMAN. The other items that follow are submitted items? Col. TIMBERLAKE. Those are all new, sir; it is just a mistake in printing. Construction of shed over hopper and unloading terminal at power station, $1,000; the coal that comes there this kind of weather is all frozen up and to unload it we have to run steam pipes through the coal, and by the time it gets down to the hopper and to the conveyor which carries it to the coal bin it is almost impossible to handle the coal. If we thaw it out, it is wet, and just as soon as it strikes the belt it freezes again and goes sliding down the belt. It is almost impossible to handle. The idea is to build a shed over the hopper, where we can now put four cars and thaw it out by dry heat. Then dump it and we can handle it. The amount of $1,000 I consider very reasonable for that shed. We have the steam power there to do this if we can get the shed to hold the steam around the cars. The CHAIRMAN. That seems to be a right important proposition. Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir. It is a mean situation to handle as it is. Sometimes we have to dig the coal out with pick and shovel and throw it into trucks and haul it up the hill to the power plant, costing a considerable amount of money.

The CHAIRMAN. You think this would really save money? Col. TIMBERLAKE. I think this would save the Government money in the long run; it certainly would in transportation.

The CHAIRMAN. The next item is, "For installation of automatic stokers under four 440-horsepower boilers in the power plant (submitted), $40,000."

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Your committee was very kind in 1917 and appropriated $15,000 for the installation of these stokers, which we were compelled to return to the Treasury, because it could not be used. I think an explanation is necessary. Some time before we came before the committee I had gotten an estimate from the Lehigh Stoker Co. for the installation of those four stokers. They sent their representative to West Point to examine the situation. They drew up the plans and submitted an estimate of $12,000. About three days before we came to the hearing I telephoned down and asked their representative to come up and go over the situation again, because we wanted to be sure that we had enough money in the estimate. He said he thought $12,000 would be sufficient, but to be on the safe side he recommended that we ask the committee to increase it to $15,000, which we did, and which the committee. granted.

When the bids were opened, this concern did not bid. Other concerns bid on the stokers similar to those we already have under two boilers that Congress gave us about two years ago.

The lowest bid on those stokers was $58,000. That, of course, was impossible. I then wrote to the concern and had their representative come up and asked him why they did not bid. He could not submit a satisfactory explanation at all. I asked him if the concern would bid now that we had rejected all the bids, and if they made a satisfactory bid for this work I could give it to them to do without further advertising. He said that he would have the company submit a proposition of that kind. The proposition submitted was $39,000. Mr. GORDON. When was that estimate given?

I

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Three days before I came before the committee. I told him: "You have me in an embarrassing position. I can not understand why you said that $15,000 would be ample for the work— that is, for the installation of these stokers-and now you come here and bid $39,000." He said, "The cost of material has increased so much." I said, "You can not get that through me. The cost of material has not advanced anything like that." He said, "The man who put in that original estimate did not know his business." I said, "That may be so." He said, "We have fired that man." said, "That does not account for this proposition now, because the man that recommended the $15,000 is your chief engineer, and you are the one right now, you are the chief engineer of the company, the actual man who came up here three days before that time and increased it to $15,000." He hemmed and hawed, but never gave me a satisfactory explanation. That was the Lehigh Stoker Co. The stoker is a mighty good mechanism of its kind and would be very satisfactory if installed, but there is another concern in Canada that makes a similar stoker, and if this money is appropriated, I intend to get the two working against each other. We can not get the stoker we have in there now at anything near this price. The stokers that we have now installed were paid for out of the fuel and apparatus

appropriation, the savings that I made-that is, one stoker out of the savings of one year and the other stoker out of the savings of another year.

There is no doubt that with the installation of stokers the Government will save money. The efficiency of the boilers is about 15 per cent greater using the mechanical stoker over the hand firing, but I am in doubt whether the Government should spend $40,000 for stokers now under the present condition of the steel market. I have already changed the grates under the hand-fire boilers so that I can use this cheaper grade of coal, and if the committee does not feel justified in appropriating the $40,000 this year I can handle the situation as we are now running, but it will be with about 15 per cent decrease in the efficiency of that plant. Ordinarily, as it is now, we use the two boilers that have the stokers under them and they will be sufficient, except in emergencies when we have to go to these other boilers. During the cold weather the arch of one of these automatic stokers fell and it had to be put out of commission some two or three weeks until we could get a new arch built. It takes about a week for it to cool down and you have to spend about a week tempering the new arch.

Mr. QUIN. What function does a stoker perform?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. The coal is fed into the stoker from a hopper which is driven by machinery. The grate is a chain affair that runs around just like a belt.

Mr. GORDON. An endless chain?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir. It takes the coal and carries it to where you want it to burn. You have a uniform depth of fire. By this means you can control the fire because you have the force draft so as to burn the coal wherever you can get the most efficiency; you can burn on one-third of the stoker or two-thirds of the stoker, you can burn it until the ash is dumped. By means of having the fire at a uniform depth you get a more uniform consumption of the fuel and you burn it all. There is no waste. Of course, in shoveling by hand you get it two or three inches thick here [indicating] and probably more here [indicating]. I had a diagram that I had intended to bring down showing the efficiency of the boilers under the fire.

Mr. GORDON. You save labor and waste?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir. As a result of the two stokers that I have there now, I use less coal and I have three less firemen than two years ago. If I could install all automatic stokers, I could cut down three more men.

Mr. GORDON. When did you put in the stokers?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. We started the plant up a year ago.

Mr. GORDON. How many have you installed?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Two.

Mr. GORDON. What did they cost?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Those stokers cost $7,500 apiece.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. What did you say the others will cost? Col. TIMBERLAKE. The two I am talking about were installed at the time the new boilers were put in and they were installed at a less expense than now. To install under the old boilers the fire boxes all

have to be cut out and the stoker arches built, etc.

Mr. QUIN. What is the life of a stoker?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. The concern guarantees that the life is practically unlimited, and that the expense of repairs will not be over $50 per stoker per year.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. What would the new stokers cost if you put them in now?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. $39,000 for four.

Mr. SHALLENBERGER. For four?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir. As they made the price it was $11,000 for the first stoker and $22,000 for the first two and the next would be a little cheaper; any way four would be about $39,000. I can run the plant as it is without them. I had my doubts when I put that in, but I put it in primarily so that I would have an opportunity to explain why the $15,000 was not used. That has been turned back into the Treasury, not a cent being expended.

The item "For installation of mechanical soot blowers" says 44-horsepower boilers, it should read 440-horsepower boilers. Mr. QUIN. That is a new item?

COL. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. GORDON. You would not need them unless you installed the stokers?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, si; they are independent. Our boilers have a space about 2 feet between them and to clean off the flues you have to run a steam pipe, made in sections, in by hand through the holes in the side. That requires ordinarily about a day's labor to blow off the tubes and clean them. Unless they are kept perfectly clean the efficiency of the plant is decreased wonderfully. If you get coal dust over the tubes then your fire does not have its heating efficiency.

Mr. GORDON. And you waste fuel?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes; an immense amount of fuel.

Col. TILLMAN. When the dust collects around the tubes, of course, you can not heat them.

Col. TIMBERLAKE. With this apparatus all you have to do is to turn a valve and blow everything of that kind off the tubes. Mr. GORDON. Has that been tested?

Col. TIMBERLAKE. Yes, sir; I am informed that the General Electric Co. has their whole plant equipped with them and they state that