FORTIFICATION APPROPRIATION BILL. FEBRUARY 5, 1906.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. SMITH, of Iowa, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 14171.] The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the accompanying bill making appropriations for fortifications and other works of defense, and for the armament thereof, for the procurement of heavy ordnance for trial and service, and for other purposes, submit the following in explanation thereof: The estimates on which the bill is based will be found in the Book of Estimates for the fiscal year 1907, pages 215-222, and aggregate $8,953,112.90, of which sum there is recommended in the accompanying bill appropriations amounting to $4,838,993, which sum is $1,908,900 less than was appropriated for the same purposes at the last session of Congress. During the Forty-ninth Congress (fiscal years 1887 and 1888) no appropriations were made on account of fortifications, their maintenance and armament, and for the twelve fiscal years 1875 to 1886, inclusive, the appropriation by Congress on this account averaged only $540.750 per annum, and only $463,500 per annum for the fourteen years, including 1887 and 1888, for which latter two fiscal years no specific appropriations were made, as stated. The bill reported herewith contains appropriations in continuance of the policy adopted by the Fiftieth Congress in the passage of the acts approved September 22, 1888, and March 2, 1889, and by the Fiftyfirst, Fifty-second, Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, Fifty-fifth, Fifty-sixth, and Fifty-seventh Congresses, and by the present Congress, in acts approved August 18, 1890, February 24, 1891, July 23, 1892, February 18, 1893, August 1, 1894, March 2, 1895, June 6, 1896, March 3, 1897, May 7, 1898, March 3, 1899, May 25, 1900, March 1, 1901, June 6, 1902, March 3, 1903, April 21, 1904, and March 3, 1905. H R-59-1-Vol 1-21 The appropriations by said acts for the eighteen fiscal years 1889– 1906 aggregate $97,561,744.72, or an average of $5,420,096.93 per annum. Of the whole sum, $97,561,744.72, appropriated by the fortification acts covering the eighteen fiscal years 1889-1906, the sum of $75,072,520.22 was appropriated in the ten fortification acts enacted by the last five Congresses. The fortification appropriation acts enacted during the Fifty-fifth Congress appropriated $14,287,396, in addition to which amount sums aggregating $8,674,898 were provided in deficiency appropriation acts for fortifications and the armament thereof, and the further sum of $12,865,840.60 was allotted for the same objects from the general appropriation of $50,000,000 made for the national defense in the act of March 9, 1898, making in all $35,828,134.60 available for fortifications and the armament thereof under appropriations made during the Fifty-fifth Congress. The total appropriations made for fortifications and other works of defense since 1888, and since the recommendations of the Endicott board of 1885, including the appropriations made in deficiency acts and allotments made from the national-defense fund, amount to $119,102,483.32. The scheme of seacoast fortifications contemplated by the Endicott board, and which has been followed by Congress in the appropriations made since 1888, it is now estimated will cost in the aggregate $99,392,222, of which sum there has been already provided $64,094,042.24, the Engineer Department having received $28,693,434.02 and the Ordnance Department $35,400,608.22. The difference between the sum, $64,094,042.24, already provided toward the scheme of the Endicott board and the sum total of appropriations, $119,102,483.32, for fortifications since 1888 is represented in expenditures for erecting and equipping the gun factory at Watervliet, the gun-carriage factory at Watertown, the Ordnance and Fortification Board, purchase of land for fortification sites, torpedoes for harbor defense, providing ammunition for service and for tests, manufacture of field guns, fortifications in the insular possessions, and for sundry other objects incident to providing and maintaining a system of seacoast defenses. The following shows, by items, the appropriations made in the last .fortification act, the amounts submitted at this session in the annual estimates, and the amounts recommended in the accompanying bill: |