Mr. WOOD. What do they aggregate?

Mr. SUTHERLAND. They are not added up in these statements, but I will insert that amount.

I have been scaning that class of expenditures very closely and I have had to settle with some of those attorneys. I will say that I have not paid them all that they hoped to get or expected to get.

I told the Ways and Means Committe of one case in which a man put in a fee bill for $60,000 for services in a case involving several million dollars, the Von Zedwitz case. It was a very large case and required a great deal of work upon the part of the attorneys. I asked him if he expected to get that sum and he said he did, that he thought it was very reasonable, that he had asked a good many attorneys about it, and some of them thought he ought to have more. I said: "You certainly are some optimist, because the sum you are going to get will have no relation whatever to $60,000."

I finally settled with him for $10,000 in full and dismissed him from further connection with the case.

Mr. WOOD. It seems to me that that opens up an avenue for charges that ought not to be made, because of the fact that the Department of Justice should take care of that work, it occurs to me. Mr. SUTHERLAND. Mr. Chairman, with all due respect, we, of course, consult with them constantly and get their approval of anything that they ought to approve. If there is any question about these fees, I take it up with them and find out what they think about it, as a matter of corroboration, but I am satisfied that I am handling this thing with as much economy as the Department of Justice would handle it, and possibly more so.

Mr. WOOD. There is not any doubt about that in my mind. It has come under my observation, not only in my own State, but throughout the several States, that United States district attorneys resign their positions and then are immediately employed by the Government to prosecute some particular case, and they receive more in one fee than their salary for the whole year previously amounted to. Mr. SUTHERLAND. Yes. It sometimes has happened and it has happened here frequently, Mr. Chairman, in the District of Columbia that a man becomes very expert in one case and becomes especially well fitted to deal with that case. It may actually be cheaper to take a man out of the office and employ him because of his familiarity with the case than to hire some of these big, outside attorneys, who put in very heavy fee bills and who would have to go through all the preliminaries of learning the case. In fact, our office would have to teach him all about the case. times cheaper to take a man and give him a moderate fee. I have done that in one case that I have in mind. This man was employed in the Department of Justice. He became very familiar with a very large case in Canada. He was getting a good salary over there and his expectation was much more than I gave him. But I found that it was cheaper to employ this man than to hire some others who were suggested to me, who would have put in bills very much larger than the sum that I agreed to pay this man.

It is some

PRINTING AND BINDING

Mr. WOOD. The next item is for all printing and binding for the Alien Property Custodian, $500. In 1927 you had an appropriation of $650. Have you any surplus?

Mr. SUTHERLAND. I do not think we have very much. We have been paring it down. Congress has been printing our annual report without expense to us. We have very little of printing and binding to do. If we can save anything, we will do it.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1926.

AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION

STATEMENT OF MAJ. X. H. PRICE, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ARMY, SECRETARY AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION

LOCATION AND COST OF CHAPELS

Mr. WOOD. Major Price, have you any general statement that you want to make with reference to this American Battle Monuments Commission item? It might be well to give us a résumé of what you have done up to this time and what the status of your work is.

Major PRICE. Of the 8 chapels and 14 monuments planned by the commission for erection in Europe, we have at the present time contracted with architects for the designs of all the chapels and six of the mounments, including the three largest ones. The total cost of these memorials for which designs are now being prepared will be about $2,000,000. The contracts are for the designs, and not for the construction work.

Mr. WOOD. Do you mean that you are paying that amount for the architects' work?

Major PRICE. No, sir; that will be the total cost of all the memorials now being designed.

Preliminary designs for all chapels and two of the three large memorials have been received by the commisison and considered during the last two or three months.

I have a number of the designs here which you might like to examine.

Mr. WOOD. It might be well to put into the record the history of these different designs, what they are, where the memorials are to be placed, what the project is, and so forth.

Major PRICE. This map which will appear in our annual report shows the location of the cemeteries. There will be one chapel in each cemetery, and the total cost allotted to the chapels is $1,000,000. Mr. WOOD. How many of those chapels are there to be? Major PRICE. Eight; one in each cemetery.

Mr. WOOD. And where are they located!

Major PRICE. One in England; one in Belgium; one near Paris; and the other five scattered over the battle fields in France.

Mr. Wood. Why are you putting one of those in England? What have you to commemorate there?

Major PRICE. Those are chapels, sir.

Mr. Wood. I understand, but they are memorial chapels?
Major PRICE. Yes.

Mr. Wood. What have you to memorialize in England?
Major PRICE. We have a cemetery there.

Mr. WOOD. You have?

Major PRICE. Yes, a military cemetery. It is about the same size as the one in Belgium.

Mr. WOOD. How many soldiers are buried there?

Major PRICE. 437. They are the soldiers who died in or near England during the war.

Mr. WOOD. What is the tentative cost of each of these chapels? Do they run about the same?

Major PRICE. No, sir; the allotments were figured out scientifiically. They vary in general with the number of bodies and the size of the cemetery.

Mr. SANDLIN. What is the total cost of all?

Major PRICE. $1,000,000. Shall I give you the cost of each one of them?

NUMBER OF GRAVES AT VARIOUS CEMETERIES

Mr. Wood. Now, do you say that at Brookwood, in London, there are about 400 buried?

Major PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOOD. What would be the cost of that memorial?

Major PRICE. The amount allotted is $70,000, although it looks now as though we may have to increase that item somewhat, due to the high cost of construction work in England.

Mr. WOOD. Now, you might take these other chapels, in Belgium and in France, and give the number that are buried in those various places and the cost of each chapel.

Major PRICE. At Waereghem, in Belgium, there are 365 graves, and the cost of the chapel is $50,000. At Bony there are 1,826 graves, and the cost of the chapel is $90,000. At Suresnes, there are 1,506 graves, and $100,000 is allotted. At Fere-en-Tardenois, there are 5,946 graves, and $140,000 is allotted. At Belleau, there are 2,212 graves, and $110,000 has been allotted. At Thiaucourt, there are 4,141 graves, and $140,000 has been allotted; and at Romagne there are 14,107 graves-almost half the number of graves we have in Europe and $300,000 has been allotted.

These allotments were made taking into consideration the relative sizes of the respective cemeteries, the number of graves in each, the importance of the operations in the neighborhood and the cost of construction in the locality.

NUMBER OF SOLDIERS BURIED ABROAD

Mr. SANDLIN. How many soldiers, about, are now buried in France?

Major PRICE. Thirty thousand five hundred and forty are now buried in our cemeteries. In addition there are 130 American soldiers buried in Europe outside of these cemeteries.

Mr. WOOD. Does that include the cemetery in England?

Major PRICE. Yes, sir.

Mr. Wood. How many were brought back?

Major PRICE. Firty-six thousand two hundred and fourteen. Mr. WOOD. What was the total loss?

Major PRICE. The total loss was 76,984.

Mr. SANDLIN. How many were killed in battle? I realize that that is a little out of line, but do you know, approximately?

Major PRICE. There were 50,510, according to the last report of the Secretary of War, who were killed or died of wounds.

Mr. WOOD. That is my understanding. And how many were there who died from disease?

Major PRICE. Twenty-six thousand four hundred and seventy-four died from causes other than wounds.

NOTE. The following statement of deaths occurring in the American Expeditionary Forces was subsequently transmitted to the committee.

Hon. WILL R. WOOD,

THE AMERICAN BATTLE MONUMENTS COMMISSION,

Washington, December 17, 1926.

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN WOOD: As requested by you and other members of your committee on Tuesday, I am sending you herewith some data obtained from the office of the Surgeon General of the Army concerning deaths in the American Expeditionary Forces during the World War. I am also inclosing a copy of the 1926 annual report of the Secretary of War, on pages 191 to 247 of which you will find tabulations of battle casualties arranged by units. operations, branches of service, etc. It is believed that these inclosures will answer completely the questions you had in mind.

Copies of these papers are also being sent to Congressman Wason and Congressman Sandlin.

Sincerely yours,

X. H. PRICE,

Inclosures, 2:

Major, Corps of Engineers, Secretary.

(1) Report of Secretary of War, 1926.

(2) Copy letter from Office Surgeon General United States Army, dated December 16, 1926.

Maj. X. H. PRICE,

The American Battle Monuments Commission,

State, War, and Navy Building,

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MAJOR PRICE: In reply to your communication of December 15. with reference to the deaths which occurred in the American Expeditionary Forces during the World War, the following information is furnished from Part 2, Volume XV, of The Medical Department of the United States Army in the World War:

1. Total deaths from all causes, 74.383.

2. Total number killed in action, 36,694.

3. Total number who died from wounds, 13.691.

4. Total number of deaths from diseases and other causes not directly related to battle, 23.998.

5. The ten leading causes of deaths shown in item 4 were:

These

You will observe that there are 1,238 deaths from tuberculosis. deaths occurred among the men who were hospitalized for the condition while in the American Expeditionary Forces, but a certain number of the deaths occurred in the United States after the patients were returned to this country for treatment for the disease.

Probably the majority of the 392 deaths which were charged to bronchitis were due to influenza, since the diagnosis of the two diseases is sometimes confused.

The Secretary of War published in his report for this year, tables which were prepared in the office of The Adjutant General, showing the number of men killed in action in the American Expeditionary Forces as 37,568, and the number of deaths from wounds as 12,934, a total of 50,475 or 90 more than shown above. In addition to this number, he shows that 35 battle deaths occurred among the American forces in Siberia.

Very truly yours,

ALBERT G. LOVE,

Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Corps, United States Army.

LOCATION AND COST OF CHAPELS

The $1,000,000 allotted for the chapels includes not only the cost of the buildings themselves but any other changes in the cemeteries which should be made on account of the construction of the chapels. I have some drawings here showing designs for certain of the chapels. You might like to see them.

Mr. WOOD. I wish you would put those drawings up here and tell us where you propose to put those chapels, those that have been adopted.

Major PRICE. This one [indicating] for the Thiaucourt chapel is the one furthest along. You can get a better idea of it from this other sketch. Here [indicating a photograph] is a view from the entrance of the cemetery. The chapel will lie here [indicating] in the rear of the cemetery, on the central axis. The front elevation will be like that [indicating]. The plan of the building includes a raised central terrace, with columns around it. This terrace will be open at the top. On one side will be the chapel proper and on the other a room to be used as a sort of a museum. this room will be placed information concerning the operations in the vicinity, so that a visitor to the cemetery can get some idea of the fighting. This cemetery is located on the St. Mihiel battlefield-America's first big operation in the war. From the terrace of the chapel there will be a fine view of the cemetery and the neighboring country.

Mr. WOOD. Where is that supposed to be located?
Major PRICE. At Thiaucourt.

Mr. WOOD. And what is the estimated cost of that?

Major PRICE. $140,000.

In

This drawing is a rough sketch of the way the completed building will look. On the circular terrace there will be a central block of marble surmounted by either a sculptured figure or an urn.

Mr. WASON. I do not quite understand your plan, especially that oval there.