ington. Then he went to Washington and explained the subject to the Assistant Secretary of War and to a War College committee, which approved and adopted his plan. The Government used his films and continued his methods, and military testimony appears to be unanimous that very great savings in expense and time resulted, especially in the time necessary to make recruits fit for service. In all this Mr. Brennan seems to have had no thought whatever of personal advantage to himself. He evidently thought only of serving his Government and helping to win the war. Accordingly he asked for no contract and turned over his ideas and his films to the Government without asking either compensation or reimbursement. The subject does not appear ever to have been mentioned between him and any officer of the Government, and the Government appears to be under no obligation even to make good his expense, which amounted to a good many thousands of dollars. He appears to have rendered very unselfish and patriotic as well as useful service. I do not know whether the policy of your foundation will cover such a case as this, but I should be glad to have for it your attentive consideration. With great respect and good wishes, I am, very sincerely yours, ELIHU ROOT. Remember, gentlemen, this letter was written to the Woodrow Wilson Foundation by some friends of Mr. Brennan, who thought he had done a tremendous service, who set up the claim that he was entitled to consideration for his service in assisting in the preparation of soldiers for the war. Mr. REED of New York. What is the date of that letter? Mr. SNYDER. June 24, 1924. Now, I have another one along the same line. Senator Bruce and Senator Wadsworth were the sponsors of this bill in the Senate. This is the report of Senator Bruce to the Senate, and it contains all of the argument there is in the proposition: This bill appropriates the sum of $16,419.97 for the reimbursement of Leslie W. Brennan, of Utica, N. Y., for that amount_expended by him in taking and distributing motion pictures used by the War Department in instructing troops during the World War. It is admitted by Brennan that the United States Government never entered into any positive contract with him to use his motion pictures and to pay him therefor, but the circumstances were such as to make him believe that he is equitably entitled to have the expenses incurred by him in taking and distributing the pictures made good to him. The papers in the case show that Major General Bell and General Kennon actually used the pictures and in an official report, made at the request of the War College to The Adjutant General of the United States, reported that they were a great help to him; that Assistant Secretary F. P. Keppel, who is familiar with Brennan's work, wrote the Judge Advocate General that in his opinion a quasi contract relationship existed between Brennan and the United States Government, and that the Government would properly repay Brennan for his work; that after examining the documents, etc., in 1920, Assistant Secretary Crowell wrote to Senator James W. Wadsworth, of New York, a letter in which he recognizes that the Army had received a benefit from the pictures; and after the acknowledgment of the results accomplished by the pictures, and after the examination of the documents, etc., the acting adjutant general of New York State wrote to Senator James Wadsworth on November 1, 1923, that his department had put the stamp of approval on Brennan's work and expressed an earnest desire that the matter receive the consideration of the Senator. It would also appear that Brennan was the originator of the system of training troops by the use of motion pictures; and that after incurring the expense of producing the films and reels of the pictures, Brennan, at the suggestion of one of the officials of the War Department, attempted to recoup the expense by selling the pictures to military schools, academies and colleges, but found that the pictures taken by the War Department were being supplied to them without cost; which, of course, made it impossible for him to get back what he had expended in that way. Attention is expecially called to a letter among the papers in the case from O. Ellis, of the office of the Chief of Staff of the War Department, dated December 15, 1917, to Brennan, in which the writer says: "I want to assure you that I appreciate the pioneer work you did and only hope that it may be my pleasure to some day be instrumental in helping you recover the money you put into it. In my opinion it would be an unconscionable thing for the Government to be the beneficiary to the extent that it has been of Brennan's ideas and exertions and not to repay him the expenses actually incurred by him in the successful demonstration of their value to the War Department. În my judgment, therefore, the bill in this case should be passed. That is the report of Senator Bruce which passed the bill. Now, the facts are just as stated there. Mr. Brennan is a man of large familyhe has six children. All of his other relatives had gone and were going to war, and he wanted to do something. He enlisted and went down to West Point to see what he could do there, in the way of perfecting himself for the service, and it occurred to him while he was there that if what he had seen there did him so much good, it would be a great thing to put the West Point drilling schemes into a film and then present it at other places for the purpose of assisting in the drilling of the men. He talked it over with some of the officers, and, as is stated here, he went to New York and got the best photographer he could find, took him up there, made the films, used them in four or five colleges, after getting permission from the officers, and then brought it down here to Washington to the War Department. They adopted it and went to work making the pictures themselves, and used them all through the war everywhere. Now, all that we are asking is that Mr. Brennan he did not have any money; he borrowed the money from the Citizens Trust Co. up there in Utica to do this work with, and they hold his notes yet, to-day, for this amount of money. The CHAIRMAN. What were the character of the pictures? The CHAIRMAN. Of what? Mr. SNYDER. Drilling at West Point. The idea was to put into the films the system of drilling the cadets at West Point for the purpose of showing that at various mobilization camps, in the interest of showing the raw recruit, and giving him the benefit of observing proper drilling, and what the movements amounted to when an order was given. Mr. SIMMONS. What is the amount? How much is the bill? Mr. SIMMONS. Do I understand the War Department approves it? Mr. SIMMONS. Has the War Department approved it? Mr. SNYDER. Oh, yes; it passed the Senate. You could see the attitude of the War Department if you had time to read these papers all the way down. Mr. LOWREY. You spoke of when he attempted to sell these to the military schools that it was found that the War Department were furnishing them pictures. Were the War Department furnishing them with pictures, his pictures, or ideas they had gotten from him? Mr. SNYDER. They took his ideas and made films themselves and used them everywhere throughout the country, in all the mobilization stations, but the idea was wholly and solely his, which was recognized by all of the officers, even up to the Secretary of War, but he was in a patriotic frame of mind, and he did not go to the trouble of making an actual contract, because each officer told him, "You go ahead and do this," and he expected there would be no trouble about his getting paid for the actual amount of money spent in making the pictures. When he got through he found he had no contract and they could not pay him anything. The CHAIRMAN. Does it appear he made contracts or sought to make contracts at a profit with other institutions? Mr. SNYDER. No, sir; nothing of that kind. Mr. Brennan is here, and I have stated the case as clearly as I can, but he will be glad to answer any questions. STATEMENT OF MR. LESLIE WARNICK BRENNAN The CHAIRMAN. What was your business, Mr. Brennan. The CHAIRMAN. How did you come to get into this? Mr. BRENNAN. As Mr. Snyder told you, I had many relatives in the war, every relative I had was in the war, and I had six children, and I could not go, and I determined to learn how to drill, so that in case a year went by that perhaps conditions would change, and I could get into the Army, and we tried to drill, to learn how to drill, in this home-guard organization without any success whatsoever. And I had a cousin who was a colonel down at West Point, and I stopped to visit him, and I thought I might as well stay over and see the West Point cadets drill and get some idea of knowing what I am trying to do before I do it, and the idea naturally came, if I am anxious to know and to learn how these drill movments benefit, and can not learn it under the few officers that know anything about it, why would it not be a good idea to take pictures of these West Point cadets and show them to the mobilization camps throughout the country, and I wrote to General Bell and to others, and they all thought it was a good idea, and they sent me to West Point, and I have original letters showing they wanted the pictures taken, and they tried it out and they found that it was a tremendous success, and then they brought them to the War College, and they said they had tried many systems of using pictures and never with any success, but that mine was the basic idea, and then, of course, in the meantime I had hired this photographer. Every nickel that was spent by me was secured from the bank The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean to say that without means of your own you went and incurred rather a large indebtedness without any idea of getting back your money? Mr. BRENNAN. It is not quite that; no, sir. I did not know how much it was going to run until after I started. In the second place, I was a director of this bank, and we thought the Government would pay it. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, you thought the Government would pay it, but did anybody give you to understand that? Mr. BRENNAN. Absolutely not; therefore this other letter I have here is the only reason I can not be repaid by any branch of the Government, is because there was no actual contract, and that is why we have to come to the Senate and the House to be reimbursed. The CHAIRMAN. What I am getting at is this, this only represents your actual outlay? Mr. BRENNAN. I would not quite say that; every nickel of this bill was spent by the bank on this work. I probably spent three to five thousand dollars in all, personal cash, that I am not including in this. I probably lost $15,000 because I did not attend to my cotton business, because there are some gentlemen here from Alabama who know about profits in those days, and I lost at least ten to fifteen thousand dollars in the time I gave up to this work. The CHAIRMAN. Do you mean you did that without any expectation of getting your money back? Mr. BRENNAN. I thought the Government would pay me. Mr. BRENNAN. No, sir; I did not. The CHAIRMAN. You mean to say you gave up fifteen to twenty thousand dollars, without expecting any profit? Mr. BRENNAN. Yes, sir. Mr. SNYDER. Mr. Strong, he comes from a family of patriots; every single member of his family went into the war, he could not go, and he tried to do his bit with this proposition. The CHAIRMAN. You started in to tell us what these items amounted to. I wish you would go further with that. Mr. BRENNAN. They are just the amount paid to the photographer, and the amount paid the other man to try to sell it to high schools and colleges, at the suggestion of Government officers, and when we hired this man, and he did a rotten job of it, and by the time we come to selling to high schools and colleges we found out, and I have letters here that the Government was giving them away to the high schools and colleges free of cost. The CHAIRMAN. You did go into it with the idea of selling it commercially? Mr. BRENNAN. No, sir; I can prove by Colonel Tillman, secretary of West Point, I did not ask permission to sell it to high schools and colleges until the officers here found out they could not pay me. I The CHAIRMAN. But you did expect to be paid in some way by the Government. I want to make this statement: All of my people were in the war, including my only boy, who was in the most dangerous service the flying corps service; my son-in-law; all of my people, all of my nephews were in the war. I was running a little telephone and electric light company and law office at my home town. devoted that law office-as I was a member of the draft board-I devoted that law office to the filling out of questionnaires. I refused to raise the rates on the telephone and electric light company during the war, although I raised the salaries three times, and the companies around me protested I was unfair in refusing to raise the rates. My idea of it was that if I lost my son I did not want to make any money out of it. I have not asked the Government to recompense me, and therefore I do not understand this claim. Mr. SNYDER. This is a little bit different proposition. Here is a man that at least conceived an idea that saved the Government a lot of money. He got it in shape. They took it and used it everywhere. You will find if you read the reports all the officers state that, and they told him he would be compensated. Mr. SIMMONS. Here is a letter from General Saltzman, in which he says Mr. Brennan's idea was not original: On March 13, 1917, the Signal Corps had similar films made in Texas illustrating the technical work and drilling of field companies aud telegraph companies, and used these films in the training of the first reserve companies of signal troops raised for the war. Mr. BRENNAN. That is very true, sir; but I think I stated that the War College told me they had tried systems of training the recruit without success, and until mine was presented they did not have it. The CHAIRMAN. I would like to read into the record a letter from the Secretary of War: Hon. ARTHUR CAPPER, Chairman Committee on Claims, United States Senate. WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 15, 1924. MY DEAR SENATOR CAPPER: I am in receipt of your letter of February 20, 1924, inclosing copy of Senate bill 2552, for the relief of Leslie Warnick Brennan, now pending before your committee. It is shown by the records in the War Department that Mr. Brennan in the latter part of 1917 conceived the idea that moving pictures of drill movements would be useful in training recruits. Shortly thereafter, having consulted an officer of the Army on duty at Syracuse, N. Y., as to the practicability of this plan, films of the Cadet Corps at West Point were made and exhibited at several cantonments. In April, 1918, this company submitted a bill to The Adjutant General in the sum of $30,000 for outlay and personal expenses of Mr. Brennan in taking these pictures. There being no contractual relation between the company of Mr. Brennan and the United States, he was advised that the claim could not be entertained. To this advice the company, by letter dated April 17, 1918, replied that it did not base its claim on any contractual relations with the Government, but on a moral ground, as the "films were instrumental in starting the immense work which the Government has subsequently done along these lines." Perhaps the best summary of the position occupied by the West Point Film Co., or Mr. Brennan, in this matter is contained in a memorandum to the Third Assistant Secretary of War, dated February 25, 1919, from Brigadier General Saltzman, of the Signal Corps, now Chief Signal Officer. A copy of this memorandum is inclosed herewith, and in view of the statement that Mr. Brennan "took a business chance of marketing what he believed to be a new and unique system of training soldiers,” I do not feel warranted in recommending compensation as provided by the proposed bill. I trust the foregoing will answer the purposes of your committee. Sincerely yours, JOHN W. WEEKS, Secretary of War. Now, the memorandum inclosed is as follows: Memorandum for the Third Assistant Secretary of War: FEBRUARY 25, 1919. 1. Herewith is returned the file of papers pertaining to the claim of Mr. L. W. Brennan for compensation for the use of the "West Point" films. 2. Mr. Brennan's idea was not entirely original. On March 13, 1917, the Signal Corps had similar films made in Texas illustrating the technical work and drilling of "field" companies and "telegraph" companies, and used these films in the training of the first "reserve" companies of signal troops raised for the war. 3. From a patriotic standpoint, Mr. Brennan's efforts were most valuable and deserving; from a commercial standpoint he took a business chance of marketing what he believed to be a new and unique system of training soldiers. He probably did not know that this idea had already been used in the Army nor that the War Department had its own machinery for making pictures. Had he known these two facts, he might not have had the films made. Many similar cases have occurred where business men have built airplanes and other military apparatus for demonstration and test and for which no compensation was paid them. 4. The Brennan films were sent to certain camps for demonstration and test. Perhaps the United States benefited by these tests, and the training of soldiers was assisted and facilitated. There is no data in the attached papers from which to base judgment as to the equity of such a claim, although the legal aspect of the matter is clear. 5. This office does not believe that Mr. Brennan is entitled to compensation. By authority of the Chief Signal Officer. C. MCK. SAltzman, Brigadier General, Signal Corps. |