what is known of the offices outside of Washington it is thought that it is in this field that the largest opportunities for economy will be found partly due to the fact that these offices have not been brought under scrutiny, and partly due to the fact that a large number of them are dominated by political appointees.

As illustrating the relative importance of services outside of Washington, it is of interest to note that the cost of clerk hire at the New York post office alone is more than that incurred in the Departments of War, Navy, State, Justice, and Commerce and Labor at Washington; that in the customhouse at New York the cost of clerk hire is greater than in any one department at Washington.

In my opinion the technique and procedure of every branch and office of the Government should be submitted to the same painstaking examination as has been given to those on which reports have been made. To do this, however, ample funds must be provided. As stated in previous messages to Congress on the subject, there is no greater service that can be rendered to the country than that of the continuance of the work of the commission until some form of organization is provided for continuously doing this kind of work under the Executive. I have asked, therefore, that $250,000 be provided for the continuation of the investigation which has been so well begun, and that these funds be made available March 4. In my opinion this. is not a matter in which the Congress should assume that public money will be unwisely spent. At a total cost of about $230,000 during the 21 months covered by the work of the commission, facts have been developed and recommendations have been made that, if followed up, will result in savings of millions of dollars each year. This has been done under the handicap of inadequate funds and uncertainty of continuation, which interfered with the making of plans which could not be completely executed within a few months. It would be very much to the advantage of the administration if the President were authorized to spend whatever amount he may deem to be necessary within the next two years, the only condition attached being that he render an account of expenditures.

WM. H. TAFT.

[NOTE: Accompanying this message was the report of the commission's inquiries and work relating to the organization and personnel of the various executive departments of the government, as well as their functions and activities, including the budget, accounting and standardization of office equipment and service, both individual and by groups; inquiries and work relating to navigation, health, statistical cartographic and survey services and relating to the subject of a central accounting and auditing service; a complete report of the business methods of the Adjutant General's office; the handling and filing of correspondence and the doing of statistical work in the Mail and Record

division of the office of the Chief of Engineers, the Bureau of Insular Affairs, the Signal Corps and Chief of Ordnance of the War Department, the Mail and Record division of the Department of Justice, and the methods of keeping efficiency records of employees in the National Bank Redemption Agency of the Treasury, and a report on the lighting of the buildings in the same department.

The commission recommended that a permanent central executive control be established to maintain uniform methods and to develop expertness and efficiency and to harmonize the relations between the bureaus and departments, to the end that duplication of work and conflicts of jurisdiction might be avoided and time saved.

Frederick A. Cleveland, Walter W. Warwick and Merritt O. Chance were the commissioners.]

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

[Transmitting certified copies of franchises granted by the Executive Council of Porto Rico.]

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 9, 1913.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

As required by section 32 of the act of Congress approved April 12, 1900, entitled "An act temporarily to provide revenues and a civil government for Porto Rico, and for other purposes," I transmit herewith certified copies of franchises granted by the Executive Council of Porto Rico, which are described in the accompanying letter from the Secretary of War transmitting them to me. Such of these as relate to railroad, street railway, telegraph, and telephone franchises, privileges, or concessions have been approved by me, as required by the joint resolution of May 1, 1900 (31 Stat., 715).

WM. H. TAFT.

Following is the substance of the letter from the Secretary of War:

To the PRESIDENT: I have the honor to inclose herewith, for transmission to Congress, two certified copies of franchises granted by the Executive Council of Porto Rico, as follows: Granting to Thomas D. Mott, Jr., authority to construct, maintain, and operate a system for the manufacture, distribution, and sale of gas; approved by the Governor, July 30, 1912, and amended Oct. 23, 1912. Granting to the municipality of Fajardo permission to take 30 liters of water per second from the Fajardo River; approved July 30, 1912. Granting a revocable permit to Pavenstedt Land Co. to take and use for irrigation purposes 286 liters of water per second from the Tanama River; approved Aug. 10, 1912. Granting to the Porto Rico Railway, Light & Power Co. the right to reconstruct and widen its bridge over the San Antonio Channel and to extend its double track to a point approximately 234 feet west of Stop Eleven; approved Aug. 27, 1912. Granting to the Fajardo Development Co., a corporation organized under

the laws of the State of Connecticut, the right to construct, maintain, and operate a railway between the towns of Mameyes, Luquillo, Fajardo, Ceiba, and Naguabo in the Island of Porto Rico; approved Aug. 27, 1912. Repealing an ordinance granting to the Robbins-Ripley Co. authority to construct, maintain, and operate a pier on the harbor shore of San Juan; approved Sept. 4, 1912. Granting a revocable permit to Francisco Antongiorgi to take and use for irrigation purposes 1 liters of water per second from the Brook Cristales, municipality of Yauco; approved Oct. 12, 1912. Granting a revocable permit to the Porto Rico Railway, Light & Power Co. to take and use for industrial purposes I liter of water per second from the Hondo River, Bayamon; approved Oct. 23, 1912. Granting to Sosthenes Behn the right to construct, maintain, and operate a system of long-distance telephone lines between the towns of Carolina and Hormigueros and other intervening towns and cities, together with local telephone systems in certain of said towns and local stations at other points, and authorizing the Porto Rico General Telephone Co. to construct, maintain, and operate telephone systems in San Juan, Mayaguez, and the eastern end of the Island; approved Dec. 12, 1912.

Very respectfully,

HENRY L. STIMSON, Secretary of War.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

[Transmitting report from the Secretary of State concerning claims of American citizens growing out of joint naval operations of the United States and Great Britain in and about the Town of Apia, in the Samoan Islands, March, April, and May, 1899.]

THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, January 10, 1913.

To the Senate and the House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report by the Secretary of State of the action taken by him in pursuance of the act of Congress approved June 23, 1910, authorizing and directing him to ascertain the "amounts due, if any, respectively, to American citizens on claims heretofore filed in the Department of State, growing out of the joint naval operations of the United States and Great Britain in and about the town of Apia, in the Samoan Islands, in the months of March, April, and May, 1899, *** and report the same to Congress."

Accompanying the report of the Secretary of State is the report of the officer who, pursuant to the Secretary's direction, visited the Samoan Islands for the purpose of collecting evidence regarding the claims mentioned. Of the total amount of American claims, of about $64,677.88, payment of $14,811.42 is recommended by the agent. This finding is approved by the Secretary of State, who submits for the consideration of Congress the question of an immediate appropriation for the payment of the claims recommended.

WM. H. TAFT.

Letter of submittal from the Secretary of War:

To the PRESIDENT: I have the honor to submit, with a view to its transmission to Congress, the accompanying report, together with copies of the evidence collected, relative to the action taken by this department in response to the act of Congress approved June 23, 1910, authorizing and directing me to ascertain the "amounts due, if any, respectively, to American citizens on claims heretofore filed in the Department of State, growing out of the joint naval operations of the United States and Great Britain in and about the town of Apia, in the Samoan Islands, in the months of March, April, and May, 1899, * * * and report the same to Congress." For carrying into effect this act there was appropriated in the diplomatic and consular appropriation act approved March 3, 1911, the sum of $750.

Pursuant to my instructions of April 15, 1911, Mr. Joseph R. Baker, of the solicitor's office of this department, visited the Samoan Islands during the summer of 1911 and remained there for about two months collecting evidence regarding the claims in question. Under date of Oct. 12, 1911, Mr. Baker submitted his report in the matter, including recommendations as to the amount properly payable, if any, on each of such respective claims. This report and the evidence in writing collected by Mr. Baker have been carefully considered by the department, and the conclusion has been reached that the amounts indicated by him are to be regarded as equitably due the various claimants.

were

By decision given at Stockholm Oct. 14, 1902, by His Majesty Oscar II, then King of Sweden and Norway, to whom the matter had been referred by the convention of Nov. 7, 1899, between the United States, Great Britain, and Germany, it was held that the Governments of the United States and Great Britain responsible for the losses caused by certain military action, found by the arbitrator to be unwarranted, in the Samoan Islands in the spring of 1899, namely: (1) The bringing back of the Malietoans (to the island of Upolu) and the distribution to them of arms and ammunition; (2) the bombardment; (3) the military operations on shore; and (4) the stopping of the street traffic in Apia. There was reserved for future decision "the question as to the extent to which the two Governments or each of them may be considered responsible for such

losses."

However, such further decision was never made nor requested, inasmuch as agreed upon by the United States and Great Britain that each Government should pay one-half the amounts found to be due to the citizens or subjects of powers and should deal alone with the claims of its own nationals.

it was

other

The German Government, after an interchange of several notes on the subject, finally signified through the German ambassador in Washington its acceptance of the offer of $40,000 in full settlement of the claims, and thereafter Congress appropriated as the moiety of the United States in payment thereof the sum of $20,000.

The French and Danish claims were resubmitted, and the respective sums of $6,782.26 and $1,520 were paid thereon. Congress appropriated in each case for the moiety of the United States, as it did also in the cases of the Swedish and Norwegian claims, upon which were paid, respectively, $750 and $400.

The department is advised that after its contribution to the payment of the said claims of persons of other nationalities the Government of Great Britain several years ago reimbursed its own subjects in the sum of £3,645 for similar losses.

It appears to follow, then, that the American claimants alone, as a class (aside from the native Samoans), remain unpaid for the losses suffered in these Samoan

troubles, and it would seem that the equities of the situation require that provision should be made without delay for such payment where it is shown to be deserved.

Investigation by the department reveals that, generally speaking, the American claims are of the same character as those of other nationalities. The total amount of the American claims is about $64,677.88 and the total amount recommended for payment is $14,811.42.

In conclusion, to show by an eyewitness the condition of affairs in Samoa immediately after the war in question, I desire to quote the following extracts from the report of Hon. Bartlett Tripp, the American representative upon the commission which composed affairs in Samoa following the war:

The country surrounding Apia indeed had much the appearance of a battle field at the time of our arrival The shells from the war vessels fired to dislodge the forces

of Mataafa had left their marks upon the houses and plantations surrounding the town and within a radius of 3 miles from the inner harbor, while the lawless acts of looting and foraging parties from either camp had left them a scene of devastation and desolation which always succeeds the invasion of armed forces of savage and civilized men The

white people whose homes had been pillaged and who had sought refuge in Apia, under the guns of the men-of-war, despondingly awaited events which might again bring peace, and the inhabitants of the unhappy town, whose houses had been unluckily struck by the shells of a friendly fleet, and who sought shelter upon the shore, were about equally divided in their words of censure for the hostile forces of the natives and the vessels of their own fleet. (Foreign Relations, 1899, pp. 621, 622, and 649.)

Respectfully submitted,

P. C. KNOX, Secretary of State.

SPECIAL MESSAGE.

[Transmitting, in response to Senate resolution of January 2, 1913, a memorandum of the Secretary of State submitting a report by the Consul General at Berlin relative to the Friedmann Cure for Tuberculosis.]

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 16, 1913.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit herewith a memorandum of the Secretary of State, inclosing a report prepared by the consul general at Berlin in regard to the Friedmann cure for tuberculosis.

The report is sent in reply to a resolution of the Senate in January 2, 1913, by which I am requested to submit to the Senate the results of any investigation of the Friedmann cure made or being made by the American consul general in Germany or any other officer of the United States.

Secretary Knox's letter of submittal follows:

WM. H. TAFT.

To the PRESIDENT: The undersigned, the Secretary of State, has the honor to lay before the President, in accordance with a resolution of the Senate of the United States of January 2, 1913, a copy of a dispatch from the consul general at Berlin, Germany, transmitting a report in regard to the Friedmann cure for tuberculosis. P. C. KNOX, Secretary of State.

January 15, 1913.