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· WAR DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL, 1925

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

UNITED STATES SENATE

SIXTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

ON

H. R. 7877

A BILL MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE MILITARY AND
NONMILITARY ACTIVITIES OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT
FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1925

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EX OFFICIO MEMBERS FOR CONSIDERATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR RIVERS AND

BERT M. FERNALD, Maine.

CHARLES L. MCNARY, Oregon.

HARBORS

DUNCAN U. FLETCHER, Florida.

KENNEDY F. REA, Clerk

WAR DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION BILL

TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 1924

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

Washington, D. C.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m., in the committee room, Capitol, Senator James W. Wadsworth, jr., presiding.

Present: Senators Wadsworth (chairman), Capper, Sheppard, Harris, Bayard, and Neely.

The subcommittee thereupon proceeded to the consideration of the bill (H. R. 7877) making appropriations for the military and nonmilitary activities of the War Department for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1925, and for other purposes.

STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. KENZIE W. WALKER, UNITED
STATES ARMY, CHIEF OF FINANCE

The CHAIRMAN (Senator Wadsworth). We will proceed, General. General WALKER. Mr. Chairman, I have a statement which I should like to give you in regard to the bill.

Senator WADSWORTH. Very well.

GENERAL STATEMENT

General WALKER. As compared with previous years, the War Department has few changes to ask this year in the bill from what the House has given us. The House itself has made comparatively few changes from the Budget estimate. The changes that have been made are covered quite completely in the report of the House committee, probably more completely than in any report I have ever seen from any appropriations committee. They have given their reasons in practically all cases for the changes which they have made.

The Budget estimate for the departmental expenses was $4,298,821. The House bill carries $4,396,031, or an increase of $97,210.

For the Military Establishment the Budget estimate carried $253,825,185. The House bill carries $249,791,434.13, or a decrease of $4,033,750.87.

For nonmilitary items, the Budget estimate carried $71,732,765. The House bill carries $72,050,128, or an increase of $316,363.

The total of the Budget estimate was $329,857,771. The total of the House bill is $326,237,593.13, or a decrease of $3,620. 177. 87.

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The appropriation for the entire War Department for the fiscal year 1924 is $336,347,204, while the Budget estimate for 1925 is $329,857,771, which is $6,489,433 less than the appropriation for 1924. From this it will be noted that the decrease of the House bill from the appropriation for 1924 is approximately $10,000,000.

The bill has been rearranged to some extent, the main feature of which is the grouping together of the items to cover the civilian elements of the Army and placing them at the end of the portion of the bill relating to the Military Establishment in the following order: First. The National Guard.

Second. The Organized Reserve.

Third. Military training of citizens, under which are carried the items of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps, and military supplies and equipment for schools and colleges, and items for the Civilian Military Training Corps.

Fourth. The National Board for Promotion of Rifle Practice.

There have been some other minor changes made in the bill for the purpose of securing a more logical order.

The following portions of the bill either meet the requirements of the War Department or represent all that the department can properly present to the committee, and it is not the present intention to ask for changes in them; but representatives of the department will appear if information regarding any item is desired by the committee:

First. Office of the Secretary of War, pages 2 to 4.
Second. General Staff Corps, pages 5 and 6.

Third. The Adjutant General's Department, pages 6 to 8.
Fourth. The Inspector General's Department, page 8.

Fifth. The Office of the Judge Adovcate General, page 8.
Sixth. The Signal Corps, pages 31 to 34.

Seventh. The Medical Department, pages 39 to 42.
Eighth. The Bureau of Insular Affairs, page 42.

Ninth. The Chemical Warfare Service, pages 55 and 56.
Tenth. Chief of Infantry, page 57.

Eleventh. Chief of Cavalry, page 57.

Twelfth. Chief of Field Artillery, page 58.

Thirteenth. Reserve Officers' Training Corps items, pages 73 to 76. Fourteenth. Civilian Military Training Corps items, pages 76 'and 77.

Under the nonmilitary items, the Finance Department, pages 80 and 81; the Quartermaster Corps, pages 81 to 88; the Signal Corps, pages 88 and 89; the Medical Department, page 89; the Engineer Department, Public Buildings and Grounds, pages 89 to 91; miscellaneous civil items, pages 91 and 92; river and harbor works, pages 92 to 94; and Inland and Coastwise Waterways Service, page 94. This statement does not include the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers nor the Panama Canal.

I have also prepared for the convenience of the committee a tentative list of the amendments to the appropriation bill as passed by the House to be requested by the representatives of the War Department. It will be noted that the list refers to the pages and lines which it is desired to amend. I should like to refer in general terms to a few of these proposed amendments at this time, but al will be taken up in detail as they are reached in the hearings.

PAY OF THE ARMY

First, the pay of the Army.

The

With reference to pay of the Army, it may be said that the Budget represents a very close figuring of the needs under that head for an Army composed of 12,000 officers and 125,000 enlisted men. amount contained in the estimate, however, provides for an average of 118,750 enlisted men throughout the year. This average is more or less in accord with the experience of the department in past years, and one that the department thought would not be exceeded at the time the estimate was made last summer. The recruiting organization of The Adjutant General's Department, however, has been so perfected that recruiting is improving materially from month to month, and I am told now that the Army probably will be at a greater average throughout the fiscal year 1925 than 118,750 men.

Inasmuch as this item contains a lump-sum provision, I feel that all the amounts which are contained in the estimate will probably carry us through, even though the recruiting might possibly average slightly above 118,750; but I wish to emphasize the fact that if there should be any reductions from the pay of the Army items, the probability is that we would have to ask for a deficiency estimate if the expectations of the Adjutant General in regard to recruiting are materialized.

Senator WADSWORTH. Do I understand, General, that you are satisfied with the figures of the pay of the Army chapter as they are? General WALKER. In the Budget estimate not as they are in the House bill; no, sir.

SUBSISTENCE AND CLOTHING

The estimate for subsistence and clothing has also been based upon that same average of 118,750 men; and while the figures have not been reduced any in the House, it is very important that they should not be reduced, for the same reason that applies to pay of the Army.

SUPPLIES

Attention is also invited to some of the increases in the supply items of the bill, due to the gradual exhaustion of war stocks. It is quite certain that these items will be increased from year to year until the stocks are exhausted and some stabilized figure is arrived at and this appropriation is the first one that shows some considerable increases because of the depletion of war stocks.

PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT OF RETIRED OFFICERS

There was written into the bill last year a provision which deprived retired officers who had employment with certain organizations doing business with the Government from receiving pay from the Government during the period that they were employed by these organizations. The House has changed the wording of this provision, and has really made it somewhat more drastic than it was last year, although it does carry a provision which exempts officers who are serving these corporations at places outside the United States and its insular pos

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