I get credit for making the protest about the nine different architects for nine different school buildings, which is absolutely correct. I do not believe any other city in the United States would dare to do anything of that kind.

I do not think all the members were here at the time I made that statement. I have been do.ng a little investigating since, and I think it would be proper for the committee, as a whole, to go and visit the site of the Eastern High School and see what they are doing up there.

They are talking about more playgrounds for the children of the District. They go out here to a place on Nineteenth Street and buy four blocks of ground, about 14 acres, to put up a high school. I had the chairman over there yesterday morning. East of the school building there is nothing but a swamp for almost as far as you can see. It will not be built up in the next 50 years, if ever.

They have bought 14 acres of ground at a cost to the District and the Government of $8,600 an acre. They have let the contract for the school in two different bites-let it to the contractor to put in the foundation and carry it up to the first story, and they are going out now for bids. They are going to request them in the next few days on the three additional stories and finish the building.

In my mind there is only one thing that can happen there. The contractors are going to say, "We are not going to be unprofessional and go in and figure on that job when there is another contractor who is on the job and has got his tools and equipment there."

I am a contractor, and I think I know what I am talking about. I have kept out many times when another contractor put in the foundation, and let him get his price for the rest of the building. I think it would be a very profitable thing if the chairman would give this committee an invitation to go over there and see how the people's money is being wasted.

Mr. WHEELER. Is the neighborhood thickly populated?

Mr. SPROUL. No; and there are no grammar schools anywhere near where they are erecting this high school. The streets are not improved within three blocks of where the building is going to be. There are nothing but swamps as far as you can see, east of the building.

Why do they need 14 acres of ground for a high-school building? Half of that would have given them plenty of playground space. Where I think the great mistake has been made is that Congress goes ahead and appropriates two or three million dollars for a project and then passes it over to a commission that does what it pleases with the money, and after the ground is bought and the buildings are started, then we start an investigation. I believe the investigation should be made first; and if the commission comes to Congress asking for an appropriation for any public buildings or any public grounds it should come before this committee or before Congress and show where they are going to select the ground and how they are going to select it.

The CHAIRMAN. They did that.

Mr. SPROUL. I do not know whether the chairman is going to ask the committee to go over there and take a look at the site or not, but I wish he would. Mr. FIELDS. In what part of town is it?

Mr. SPROUL. On Nineteenth Street.

Mr. KUNZ. It is just north of the jail.

Mr. SPROUL. I think when the commission comes here for an appropriation we should investigate it and see what is being done.

I am in favor, Mr. Chairman, of pushing this complaint on the nine buildings that are going up now and find out why we are paying the commission for getting up plans and specifications on one building as much money as it costs to run the architect's office for practically a year. I understand that one of the reasons was that he did not have sufficient force up there to get out his own plans, and that was because no appropriation was made for it.

There must have been an appropriation made for getting up the plans, or he could not have gone out and got those other architects. He paid $6,500 for simply drawing plans and specifications for one 12-room building and $2,100 for a 4-room building. They do not superintend the work. They simply draw plans and turn them over to the District architect.

Mr. Woods. I want to make a statement here, gentlemen, and I want the privilege of making it before this full committee.

My name was associated with other members of this committee in a rather unfavorable attitude. I want to say that my relation with street car companies was known to my constituents before I was sent here. They, I take it, are

the best judges of whether I can faithfully and honestly represent this Government and the people that sent me here.

I have no stock in any street railway company and never had any except 10 shares, which I sold 15 years ago. I have not a dollar's worth of stock or investment of any kind in any public utilities. I have been an attorney for a street railway company. I know something of its problems. I feel that I know something of the street railroad situation.

I might digress here to say that well-organized companies and honorable companies, such as we have, do not employ crooks.

The thing that I wish to say to this full committee-and it is unnecessary for me to say it to the members who served with me on the subcommittee-is that an article appearing by Maj. Newman suggested that I had deliberately put a 'joker" in the bill.

If I know what a joker is, it is something inserted in a bill that will deceive the committee and slip through without the committee's having knowledge of the real purport and effect.

I resent any such imputation. I resent any man, when perhaps he loses his case on the theory of Government ownership-and he has the right to entertain that theory-attacking personally the members of the committee and saying I was prejudiced and partial and serving my private interests.

He said, in effect, that I had put a joker in this bill, in that it permitted the Potomac Electric Power Co. and the Washington Railway & Electric Co., which owns the power company's stock, to merge regardless of anything else. That was the joker that I had in the bill, and that was the thing that I was going to slip through this committee in the interest of one of these railroad companies. I have no more interest in one than I have in the other-no financial interest in either and no personal interest in either.

Let us see if I was slipping something through, and that is all I need to say in answer to a gentleman-I hope he is a gentleman-who would be so careless of the rights and reputations of others, as my friend has said, as not to investigate the facts, not to read the hearings which were printed and open to him, to know what my attitude was. His conduct in this case and his disregard of the rights and reputations of others border well nigh on the criminal, and he certainly does not commend himself as a high-class journalist. Most of them are high class. I never had a newspaper man violate my confidence before. Mr. KUNZ. Why not bring him in? I move that he be subpoenaed to appear before this committee.

(The motion was duly seconded.)

The CHAIRMAN. It is moved and seconded that the chairman request Mr. Newman to come before the committee.

(After informal discussion the motion was withdrawn by Mr. Kunz.) Mr. Woods. Here is what I said to the subcommittee, on page 16 of the hearings, and I leave it to the subcommittee to say whether or not I made a frank and full and fair statement and took pains to call attention to those features of my bill to which I thought there might be objection. I frankly pointed out the questions that were doubtful in my own mind and asked for the judgment of the committee, as I have always done. But here is what I said: "The Washington Railway & Electric Co. can merge with it"That is, the Potomac Electric Power Co. Does that look like a joker?

"as the subcommittee reported before, an independent proposition-I mean it can, under this bill."

Could language be plainer?

"It should be, in my judgment, allowed to merge anyway, but it is inhibited by the statute at present; it can not merge, although it owns and finances and practically operates it."

In view of that statement, which is an open statement, I take it that Mr. Newman did not read these hearings, as he ought to have done before he attacked members of this committee; and in view of that statement I submit to the members of this committee that he does a gross injustice, if not well-nigh a criminal act.

I called attention to section 8 and said I was not satisfied with it and I wanted the judgment of the committee to see if I could not make it somewhat better.

Mr. KUNZ. In view of the statements that have been made, and in order that Mr. Newman, if he made such a statement as has been attributed to him, may be given an opportunity to retract it, I move that he be subpoenaed to appear before this committee to retract his statement.

Mr. BLANTON. Have we any authority to do that? I say, no.

Mr. KUNZ. He was a witness before this committee.

Mr. BLANTON. Has Congress clothed us with any authority to bring people before us for the purpose of punishing them? I contend that we have no such authority.

Mr. KUNZ. On the merger question, yes. We have a right to investigate the merger question. There is a motive in this witness's statement.

Mr. BLANTON. We have no authority to compel him to come here before us, because Congress has not given us such authority.

The CHAIRMAN. Oh, no; you can request him.

Mr. KUNZ. I move, then, that he be requested to appear before this committee.

(The motion was duly seconded.)

Mr. WOODS. I do not care particularly about taking this up. I feel that I have the confidence of my constituents.

Mr. KUNZ. The gentleman might say that he was not the author of this statement, and if he was not, then the newspaper must retract it.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. He wrote it and put his name over it, and his picture is there. The CHAIRMAN. Yes; and he did it to sell his article. That is the kind of men they had for commissioners in those days when the railroad was wrecked, and probably he knows more about the wrecking than he is willing to admit. Mr. WHEELER. I did not see the entire article. All I saw was a clipping which referred to me, in which he made the statement that I had not denied the fact. Nobody ever asked it. Whether Mr. Newman wrote the article or not I do not know.

The CHAIRMAN. As far as I am concerned I do not care what he charges or what he denies. I think it is pretty low for a newspaper man and for the newspaper itself to publish articles of that kind that are made out of whole cloth and that are lies and for which there is no basis whatever.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. It is done and forgotten.

Mr. FITZGERALD. I would like to submit a majority report from the subcommittee on H. R. 4089

Mr. Woods. The motion before the committee is, when we shall have a hearing on the street-car matter. I suggested Thursday, but if other members of the committee would prefer Friday I will be willing to change my motion. Mr. LAMPERT. There was a motion made by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Blanton) and seconded by myself, to make it next Wednesday.

(Informal discussion followed.)

Mr. Woods. I move that we adjourn until to-morrow morning at 10 o'clock. Mr. KUNZ. To-morrow we will take a vote on the tariff bill. We will not have much time to spend on this bill.

Mr. Woods. I am afraid that when the tariff bill is passed Congressmen may scatter out. I will make it a point to come here. I do not care when you have it.

Mr. KUNZ. Make it on Friday.

Mr. Woods. I will change it to Friday, then.

The CHAIRMAN. It is self-evident that if we are going to consider the bill somebody has got to be discommoded. It is not going to be convenient for everybody, because we are getting around to a point in the proceedings of the House where there are going to be recesses, and if we are going to dispose of this railroad business, which is standing in the way of a lot of other legislation, it is the suggestion of the Chair that we take the bull by the horns and go at it to-night and to-morrow and to-morrow night and dispose of Mr. Woods's bill.

Mr. LAMPERT. I do not think we will upset the entire community or Congress by delaying it a week.

The CHAIRMAN. If it was my opinion that we were not going to have another opportunity I would agree with you, but as the business is here to be done

Mr. WOODS. Make it 9.30 to-morrow morning.

Mr. LAMPERT. The motion of the gentleman from Texas was made before Mr. Woods's motion was offered. The gentleman from Texas made a motion to adjourn

The CHAIRMAN. No; the Chair heard no motion for an adjournment at all. Mr. Woods. I move that we meet again on Friday at 9.30.

(Seconded.)

Mr. LAMPERT. I move to amend by making it next Wednesday at 10 o'clock.

The CHAIRMAN. It has been moved by Mr. Woods, and seconded, that the committee reconvene on Friday morning at 9.30, which motion has been amended by an amendment offered by Mr. Lampert that when we adjourn we adjourn to meet next Wednesday to take up the street-car merger question. The motion is on the amendment by Mr. Lampert.

(The motion was lost.)

The CHAIRMAN. Is there any question about the vote? If there is, we will call the roll.

Mr. LAMPERT. I do not think there is any question about it.

The CHAIRMAN. The motion reverts to Mr. Woods's motion that we meet on Friday at 9.30 o'clock a. m.

(The motion was agreed to.)

Mr. FITZGERALD. This majority report to which I have referred, Mr. Chairman, consists of nine pages and recommends approval of the bill and its passage, with a great many amendments, most of which are pro forma-that is, renumbering the sections and inserting words and paragraphs.

I have it here in writing. The act is still compulsory as reported.

I want to say at this time that Mr. Underhill expects to present a minority report, which will have some very distinctive features; that is, he does not approve of it, and he tells me that he is working upon a bill as a sort of substitute which he expects to present. Consequently I can not, in fairness, ask that this matter be considered until Mr. Underhill has had an opportunity to present his ideas and to be heard.

I would like to have some time set apart in the order of business, taking into consideration the importance of this matter as compared with the railroad matter, when this committee will give, say, an hour's attention to the consideration of this very important matter.

Mr. ZIHLMAN. Can we not take it up next Wednesday?

The CHAIRMAN. Will it be agreeable to make that the first order of business at the regular meeting?

Mr. FITZGERALD. Yes; I make that request.

Mr. Woods. Will that give Mr. Underhill time enough?

Mr. FITZGERALD. I think so; but if it does not I will consent to such further time as he requests.

The CHAIRMAN. That is agreeable.

Mr. SPROUL. I would like to ask how many of the committee here will go out to the Eastern High School to-morrow morning and look over the site? The CHAIRMAN. I went out there with Mr. Sproul.

Mr. SPROUL. It looks as though now is the time, because they are coming back for more money all the time.

Mr. KUNZ. Why not request the board of education or those in charge to appear before the chairman of the committee?

Mr. SPROUL. I would like the committee to see what is going on out there. The CHAIRMAN. At the last meeting of the committee the chair was authorized to make some investigation in regard to the authority the school board or school commission had to employ those extra architects. I am ready to read a lot of reports, but I will say, briefly, that we find that according to the law they had a right to employ them. That was the main point at issue. I can not see anything more in it. A letter was written to Mr. Johnson in 1913 in which the Secretary of the Treasury went into full details about the matter and reported that they had authority. So if there is anything else in connection with the employment of the architect, whether it is desirable or not, they go into infinite detail about the necessity of doing it; that instead of employing a great force continuously they save thousands of dollars to the District by employing them as they need them. That is their theory, and that is the report the Chair has to make. If you want me to read it I will do so. Mr. SPROUL. Why employ them continuously?

The CHAIRMAN. I do not know. I am only telling you what they said. Under the law they have a right to employ those men. Whether it is good business practice or not is no conclusion of mine. I am simply reporting to you what I found to be the fact.

Mr. KUNZ. I thought the question was the selection of sites for building schoolhouses. I was out with Congressman Sproul at the east end of the District, where this building is being put up, and I think it is a mistake to put a building in an unsettled territory, especially near the swamps.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes; that is bad.

Mr. KUNZ. If they are going to give another contract to put any addition on that building I think it is simply throwing good money away. A cry has been` made in Washington that there has not been room enough for the children. That money could well be spent in districts that are thickly populated, where some benefit could be given to the children of Washington. But when you spend money in an isolated district it is throwing it away. I think the fault lies with the Senate in appropriating this large amount of money for school sites for the benefit of the board of education without an investigation being made by the District Committee or by the Appropriations Committee.

The CHAIRMAN. I agree with Mr. Sproul. As soon as I saw the site I thought we ought to have some information as to why it was selected. But they have bought the site and paid for it and they wanted it because they got the ground cheaper. With regard to anything in the future something might be done, but that site was evidently selected and they have got the building up to the first story, and it is all over.

Mr. SPROUL. I only bring it up here in order that we may avoid that difficulty in the future.

The CHAIRMAN. You are right.

Mr. SPROUL. They will pay out $33,900 in commissions. They will not superintend the work. They do not furnish any plans for any of the trades. They will spend that amount of money for simply a blue print and a set of specifications. The architect the other morning said he could do that work if he had a force of 27 men. He will pay $10,000 for getting out those plans as against $33,000 for subletting them. It runs in my mind that he said there were some 30 architect firms doing work in the District. They are spending $1.500,000 on that other high school, saying nothing about the ground, and what have you got? A partially fireproof building. The roof is of wood. The frames are wood.

Mr. FIELDS. What kind of a roof is it?

Mr. KUNZ. It is a semifireproof building.

Mr. SPROUL. There is slate on top of the wood.

Mr. FIELDS. Slate on the sheathing?

Mr. SPROUL. Yes. My opinion is that now is the time to investigate the thing before they go on and spend $5,000,000 of the people's money.

I would like to know how many members will go out there.

Mr. KUNZ. What good will it do to go out unless some action is taken to prevent the letting of the contract? That can only be done by the members of the board of education.

Mr. SPROUL. I want the members of this committee to see how the money is being spent and then avoid mistakes like that in the future.

Mr. MILLSPAUGH. Are we going to meet again on Friday?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes. Shall I file this report that I have upon this question?
Mr. MILLSPAUGH. Let us hold it a little while. I move that we adjourn.
Mr. KUNZ. That report is on the hiring of the extra architects?
The CHAIRMAN. That is it exactly.

Mr. KUNZ. That is not the question that Congressman Sproul has brought to the attention of this committee.

Mr. MILLSPAUGH. All he wants is for us to go out there and see it.

Mr. KUNZ. All he wants is an investigation made of why the board of education has invested this amount of money in the purchase of land and the letting of a contract for a school building in an isolated school district.

The CHAIRMAN. We will adjourn to meet on Friday at 9.30 o'clock a. m. (Whereupon, at 11.55 o'clock a. m., the committee adjourned until Friday, July 22, 1921, at 9.30 o'clock a. m.)