(2) Before property is sold it must be appraised by a board of three, appointed by the constructing quartermaster. This board may consist of commissioned officers or other Government employees, not responsible for the property, or civilians especially retained and paid for their services. (3) The cost of Government property which might be sold by the constructing quartermaster without reference to the Chief of the Construction Division was at first fixed at a limit of $5,000 and later changed to $25,000. (4) Sales of property, the cost of which exceeds $25,000 and is less than $100,000, are submitted to the board of sales of the Construction Division for approval. (5) Sales of property, the cost of which exceeds $100,000, are referred by the board of sales, with its recommendation, to the director of sales for final action. (6) The constructing quartermaster must not sell any property by negotiation for less than the value fixed by the board of appraisers appointed by him. (7) Property may be sold for less than its appraised value by sealed proposals if three bona-fide offers have been received, or by auction. Sales were discontinued on March 7, 1919, at all projects of the Construction Division, as it was decided to concentrate the remaining property at a few points for storage and distribution. It is expected that when this property is assembled and carefully inventoried the War Department will have determined what property it may require for future needs and the remainder can be sold. The concentration points for the property are located at projects where the Government holds the land in fee. The director of sales has organized a superior board of sales control, composed of the heads of the boards of sales of the bureaus or corps of the Army, for the purpose of coordinating the sales work. HOSPITALS. In the salvage of hospitals constructed by adding improvements to existing buildings, it has often been found that the cost of restoring the premises in manner required by lease is much more than the salvage value of the improvements, and an attempt is being made to have the owners take over these properties at a fair valuation as an offset to damage claims. PROCEEDS OF SALES. On June 30, 1919, the board of sales of the Construction Division had consummated 5,178 sales to the amount of $1,496,995.40. SECTION 38. ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSE OF THE CANTONMENT AND CONSTRUCTION DIVISIONS. WASHINGTON OFFICE ADMINISTRATION. The Board of Review obtained from the personnel section of the administrative division the following figures giving estimated total disbursements to employees of the Cantonment and Construction Divisions from June, 1917, to June 30, 1919, inclusive: Salaries and allowances to all officers, including Washington office and its The board also obtained from the requirements section of the building division the following figures giving disbursements on projects built to June 30, 1919, by: (1) Construction Division... (2) Ordnance department under the supervision of the Construction Division.. $925, 951, 971 86, 790,000 (3) Supply division, division of military aeronautics under the supervision of the Construction Division.. 12, 324, 904 (4) Total..... 1,025, 066, 875 Cost of Washington office administration in percentage of item (1). 0.75 .68 FIELD OFFICE ADMINISTRATION. The Board of Review obtained from the accounting division the following figures respecting the total costs of the field offices of the constructing quartermasters and contractors on 143 projects covering examples of substantially every kind of work built by the Construction Division and including Army supply bases, arsenals, bagloading plants, cantonments and camps, flying field, hospitals, housing projects, nitrate plants, ordnance depots, picric acid plants, power stations, proving grounds, shell-loading plants, quartermaster stores and water works: (1) Total cost of constructing quartermasters' offices, including sal aries (exclusive of officers' pay); transportation and expenses; (2) Total expenses of contractors' offices, including salaries; trans- (3) Total cost of field office administration... $5,992, 230. 93 8, 314, 007. 15 14, 306, 238. 08 (4) Total disbursements on 143 projects... Cost of constructing quartermasters' offices in percentage of total disbursements.... $212, 963, 196.88 2.8 Cost of contractors' offices in percentage of total disbursements.. Total cost of field office administration in percentage of total disbursements... 3.9 6.7 SECTION 39. GOVERNMENT LIABILITY. LIABILITY FOR DIRECT DAMAGE TO REAL PROPERTY. Government liability incurred at emergency projects was due principally to land damage claims. In most cases the property, is held by lease. Under the terms of these leases, the damage to crops, which occurred when the Government first occupied the property, was usually agreed upon and added to the first year's rental. The leases, however, call for the restoration of the property to the same condition as when taken over by the Government. To accomplish this it will be necessary for the Government to make further expenditures. In the case of cantonments it has been proposed that the Government acquire the property and use it for future training and other purposes. LIABILITY FOR INDIRECT DAMAGE TO REAL PROPERTY. A class of liability claims for damages to real estate adjacent to the Government projects is arising from depreciation of value due to the kind of structures built by the Government. None of these claims has as yet reached the stage of negotiation. LIABILITY FOR DAMAGE TO ADJACENT REAL PROPERTY. A class of liability claims arises from damage done to property adjacent to Government property by artillery or rifle fire. Congress has passed several small appropriations in the supply bills to take care of such cases, but up to the present time the amount is insufficient to cover damages claimed and probably caused. LIABILITY FOR ACCIDENTS TO INDIVIDUALS. The Federal workmen's compensation law furnishes protection in the case of personal damages to persons in the direct employ of the Government, or caused by the acts of employees of the Government. State workmen's compensation or workmen's liability insurance has been provided on all projects and the premiums charged to the cost of the work. These furnish protection in the case of injury to persons in the employ of, or due to the acts of employees of contractors. In the case of particularly hazardous projects, such as explosive plants, ordnance magazines, bag loading plants, etc., where the liability insurance companies refuse to insure the workmen because of special hazard, such men have been made direct employees of the Government and so covered by the Federal workmen's compensation law. This relieved the contractor from the taking out of accident insurance. Damage claims arising from personal injuries or injuries to real or personal property from explosion, such as that which occurred at the shell loading plant at Morgan, N. J., will presumably be met by special acts of Congress similar to that providing for the victims of such explosion. SECTION 40. QUESTIONNAIRES. The Board of Review issued on November 1, 1918, a questionnaire in the form of a "Memorandum of Desired Information." A copy of this, together with the entries made thereon for the Norfolk Army supply base, Norfolk, Va., is annexed hereto as Exhibit No. 6. This questionnaire comprised 9 pages of questions to be answered by the constructing quartermaster and contractor of a project.. The object of this inquiry was to secure pertinent and parallel data on each of the important construction projects of the War Department; to obtain a complete statement, in concise form, of its history, character, location, purpose and cost; and to show the local organizations of the Government and the contractor. A form was attached calling for a statement of the rates of wages at the commencement of the project and for changes in these rates during construction. This information has been received from a large number of the projects built by or under the supervision of the Construction Division of the Army and also from most of the projects built by or for the Signal Corps and the Division of Military Aeronautics formed therefrom and are in the files of the board. They are believed to be of value as a record of the emergency war work and to constitute a more concise and complete description of many important projects than it would be possible at a later date to create. PART IV. SECTION 41. EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION DONE BY, UNDER, OR FOR THE VARIOU BUREAUS OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT. In the first part of the war-many War Department bureaus use their own construction organizations for building necessary housing storage plants, training and transportation facilities. The Ordnance Department reports that to June 30, 1918, its pro curement division had expended $325,000,000, and its productio division $420,000,000; that these amounts included constructio work on 230 factories for developing manufacturing facilities; an that the foregoing did not include $25,000,000 expended for its suppl division by the Construction Division, nor the construction expendi tures on nitrate plants by its nitrate division, nor its construction ex penditures on proving grounds, arsenals, armories, gas plants, and ordnance depots. Most of these Government expenditures on manu facturing facilities were made by contractors for the supplying of wa materials and were in addition to the cost of such materials. A lis of the projects which called for these construction expenditures wil be found in the annexed Exhibit No. 1. The Signal Corps, prior to the entry of the United States into the war, had organized a construction division which had constructed a number of flying and testing fields, aeronautical schools, storage and other facilities. After the order of the Secretary of War, issued October 5, 1917, directing that all construction work rendered necessary by the emergency should be done by the Construction Division, it gradually took over such work for all the War Department bureaus. ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT. A large amount of construction had been undertaken prior to the order of October 5, 1917, under the direction of the plant facilities section of the production division of the Ordnance Department. This construction consisted largely of extensions to existing plants of manufacturers with whom the Government was contracting for munitions or war materials, and was included in these contracts as plant facilities. Usually payments for this construction were made 252 |