The acting president submitted estimates for the quarter ending December 31, 1889, which, after careful revision, were agreed upon, as follows: Resolved, That the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers estimate and appropriate out of the moneys which may be provided by law the sum of $746,588.88 as necessary to meet the current expenses of the six branches of the National Home for the quarter ending 31st December, 1889, and for construction and repairs, out-door relief, and incidental expenses of the National Home, and aid to State Homes; and that the acting treasurer be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to take such means as may be necessary to obtain the sum of $746,588.88 from the Treasury of the United States, and to receipt therefor in the name and behalf of the National Home. General Hyde offered the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved, That the Kennebeck Central Railroad Company be granted a right of way through the grounds of the Home at the Eastern Branch, the location to be determined by the local manager. Also the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolve That the sum of $1,500, or as much thereof as may be necessary, be appropriated from the post fund at the Eastern Branch for a station and restaurant at that Brai ch, the same to be located and built under the control of the local manager. General Sewell offered the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved, That in addition to appropriations heretofore ordered from the post fund, the sum of $2,800 be borrowed from the posthumous fund of the Southern Branch for the completion of the restaurant at that Branch, said sum to be repaid from the post fund. General Black offered the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved. That the members of the Board who are about to visit the Pacific Branch at Santa Monica, Cal., be directed to investigate certain charges recently made through the public press against the management of that Brauch, and make report at the next meeting of the Board, and that such members have power to employ a stenographer if necessary. The acting president offered the following resolutions, which were adopted: Resolved, That the Soldiers' Home Electric Railroad Company is hereby granted permission to build and operate a double track electric railroad upon the boundaries of the grounds at the Central Branch, as follows: A 5 It may enter upon and occupy the county road on the line between Jefferson and Harrison townships from a point 43 feet south of the northwest corner of Col. J. B. Thomas' acre tract, northwardly to a point 300 feet on said road north of the northwest corner of the 13.41 acre tract lying in Harrison township. All the work to be done under the control and to the satisfaction of Colonel Harris, local manager, and the governor of the Brauch Home. On the south side of the lake in Harrison township it may use so much of the road along said lake as the local manager may deem proper in connection with the property of citizens on the south side of said lake. The rails shall be girder rails, Philadelphia pattern, wherever laid in the road surrounding the Home. Resolved, That the application of the Dayton and Soldiers' Home Railroad Company for the privilege of entering the Home grounds, be referred to the local manager and the governor of the Home, with power. The acting president appointed the following committee to audit the accounts of the acting treasurer of the Home: General W. J. Sewell, Col. H. H. Markham. The committee subsequently presented the following report, which was received and ordered on the minutes: MILWAUKEE, Wis., September 22, 1889. The undersigned have this day examined and audited the accounts of General W. B. Franklin, acting treasurer of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, for the quarter ending 30th day of June, 1889, and find the same correct and supported by proper vouchers, except vouchers Nos. 23 and 24, State aid fund, for $2,260.51, payable to the State of California, missing. The balance in his hands on the 30th day of June, 1e89, was $35,779.70 belonging to the general fund and $36,844.21 belonging to the Marion Branch fund; total, $72,623.91. W. J. SEWELL, On motion of General Black, General W. J. Sewell, for the committee, was directed to file a supplementary report when the missing vouchers referred to are furnished. The secretary presented the following reports of the committee here. tofore appointed to audit the accounts of General T. C. Moore, treasurer of the Northwestern Branch, which were received and ordered on the minutes: Having examined the accounts of General T. C. Moore, treasurer Northwestern Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, belonging to general fund and post fund, for the period commencing October 1, 1887, and ending September 30, 1888, we find them correct and supported by proper vouchers. The balance on hand September 30, 1888, in general fund was $13,109.91 and in the post fund, cash and bonds, $2,130.58. See memoranda on books at close of quarter's account. JOHN C. BLACK, Committee. MILWAUKEE, WIS, August 30, 1889. Having examined the accounts of General T. C. Moore, treasurer Northwestern Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers belonging to general fund and post fund, for the period commencing October 1, 1888, and ending June 30, 1889, we found them correct and supported by proper vouchers. The balance on hand June 30, 1889, in general fund was $2,186.98 and in the post fund nothing. JOHN C. BLACK, Colonel Mitchell offered the following resolution, which was adopted: Resolved, That in addition to the amounts heretofore appropriated from the post fund $800 be borrowed from the pos humous fund for the completion of the chapel at the Northwestern Branch, the same to be repaid from the post fund. The acting president announced the resignation of Ray P. Eaton, commissary of subsistence at the Eastern Branch. General Hyde thereupon nominated Augustus L. Smith for commissary of subsistence of the Eastern Branch, vice Eaton, resigned. Augustus L. Smith was thereupon duly elected commissary of subsistence of the Eastern Branch. On motion of Colonel Mitchell, it was Resolved, That Capt. W. W. Rowley, commissary of subsistence of the Northwestern Branch, be appointed adjutant of said Branch in addition to his duties as commissary, and that the title of his office be adjutant and commissary of subsistence. On motion, it was resolved that when the Board adjourn it be to meet in Washington, D. C., subject to the call of the president. The application of Dr. A. J. Shores, assistant surgeon of the Southern Branch, for increase of pay, was referred to the acting president of the Board, with power. The application of Mary Secenberger for compensation for the sup port of her disabled uncle, Peter Connoaghton, late Company D, Fourteenth New York Cavalry, was referred to the acting president of the Board, with power. The Board then proceeded to hear and dispose of complaints made in person by members of the Home, and to hear applications for relief of various kinds. Thereafter the Board examined and considered applications for readmission, remission of penalties, and for effects of deceased members, and made the following orders: CENTRAL BRANCH-APPLICATIONS FOR READMISSION. The application for readmission of Daniel Coleman, late Company A, Eighty-second Ohio Volunteers, is referred to Col. L. A. Harris, local manager, with power. The application for readmission of Michael McGonegal, late Companies H and G, Twenty-ninth Pennsylvania Volunteers, is referred to Col. L. A. larris, local manager, with power. John Donahue, late Company B, Eighty-sixth Indiana Volunteers, is readmitted, on condition that he have neither passes nor furloughs. CENTRAL BRANCH-EFFECTS OF DECEASED MEMBERS. The application of C. L. Baumann, executor, for effects of George Gillhoffer, late Company H, Forty-eighth Indiana Volunteers, is referred to Col. L. A. Harris, local manager, with power. NORTHWESTERN BRANCH-APPLICATIONS FOR READMISSION. Leroy Demund, late Company A, Eighty-ninth New York Volunteers, neretofore discharged, is, for sufficient reasons, readmitted unconditionally.. The application for readmission of Thomas F. Burus, late Company I, One hundred and forty-seventh New York Volunteers, is referred to Col. John L. Mitchell, local manager, with power. The following applications for readmission are denied: llerman Zelis, late Twenty-seventh New York Battery. Dennis Street, late Company B, Sixty-ninth Pennsylvania Volun teers. Samuel Malcom, late Company I, Third New Hampshire Volunteers. SOUTHERN BRANCH-APPLICATIONS FOR READMISSION. The following applications for readmission are denied: James P. Ruggles, late Company H, Second United States Cavalry. Dennis Seymour, late Company H, Second Massachusetts Cavalry. SOUTHERN BRANCH-EFFECTS OF DECEASED MEMBERS. The application of Mrs. Harriet Dunbar, widow, for the effects of James Dunbar, late Company D, Ninth United States Infantry and United States Navy, is referred to General W. J. Sewell, localˇmanager, with power. There being no further business before the Board, the Board thereupon took a recess, and the acting president and Colonel Markham, the only members of the Board who were able to make the journey, proceeded to visit the Pacific Branch of the Home at Santa Monica, California. M. T. MCMAHON, Secretary. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS OF THE NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS, JANUARY 21, 1890. WASHINGTON, D. C., January 21, 1890. The Board met pursuant to adjournment, at the Hotel Normandie, Tuesday, January 21, at 11, a m. Present: The President of the United States; the Chief Justice of the United States; The Secretary of War; General W. B. Franklin, President of the Board; Colonel L. A. Harris, first vice-president; General M. T. McMahon, secretary; General John C. Black; Generai Thomas W. Hyde; General W. J. Sewell; Col. H. H. Markham. The minutes of the previous session of the Board were submitted and approved. The President of the Board announced the death of General John A. Martin and of General John F. Hartranft, late members of the Board. The President of the Board submitted the following letter, addressed by him to the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations of the House of Representatives; which, on motion, was approved and ordered ou the minutes. THE NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS, Hartford, Conn., December 13, 1889. SIR: I transmit with this a copy of the estimates of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, as given in the book of estimates, with explanatory remarks upon the various items of expenditures. Such a paper has been required by your committee for the last two or three years. This is supplemented by another estimate which contains the same items and the same amounts in a consolidated form. It is respectfully recommended that the appropriations be made in this form for the National Home as a unit, rather than by branches. The reasons for recommending this change are given in the report of the Board of Managers for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, and are as follows: "The members of the Home wish at times to change their residences, and ask to be transferred froin one Branch to another. Their requests are always granted unless there be some reason why the transfer should not be made. Such reason may be that the Branch to which they wish to be transferred has already its full membership, as justified by the appropriation, or there may be some reason personal to the man, such as his health, as certified by the surgeon, or his inability to pay the cost of transfer. "The Board is sometimes embarrassed from the fact that the changes in the num ber of the members who go away from or return to the various Branches of the Home seemed to be governed by no rule except the fancy of the men. For this reason the appropriation for one Branch is often so seriously drawn upon that great care and seeming stinginess must be practiced to make the appropriation last throngh the year. In other Branches in the same year the appropriation would answer for more men than are actually present during the year. To avoid this sort of embarrassment, it is respectfully recommended that hereafter, instead of appropriating for the maintenance of the Branches separately, as is now the method, the estimates be made as they are now for each Branch, and that they be then consolidated and the appropriation be made for the maintenance of the whole membership in one account for each item of expenditure. Should this change be made, the Board will be enabled to so make its quarterly appropriations for maintenance that all of the Branches will be on the same footing as regards the annual appropriations, and the difficulty due to the increase and diminution of members in any Branch can be at once obviated. The large average number of members now present aud absent for the year, viz, 14,889, a number nearly equal to that of the whole Army as it exists to-day, and which will increase for some time, and the varying number of members of the Branches, as explained above, are-in the opinion of the Board-good reasons for the change in the method of appropriating for the annual maintenance." Under the existing law, with the appropriations made by Branches, there are at least forty-eight separate items that the Board of Managers must look out for constantly, as there is always danger that the branches may overrun the appropriations. By the system recommended there will be only eight such items, and the Board, when it makes its quarterly appropriations, can always keep them within such amounts that there will be no possibility that it can be embarrassed by a careless or inefficient treasurer, and can always increase or diminish the amounts appropriated by it to conform to the greater or less requirements of each Branch. The same system is in force in the Army and Navy, in which there are bodies of men at various places, whose numbers continually change. If the system works well with them it should work well in the National Home, which institution has not the command of the clerical and other force that these bodies have. Another reason for the change is, it will simplify the procural of clothing, bedding, medical stores, etc., which can always be better purchased by contract for the whole Home than they can be for each Branch separately. The cost of each Branch will be quite as much under the control of Congress as it is now, as the Board of Managers in each annual report gives the cost of each Branch for the preceding fiscal year, and the estimates for each Branch before consolidation will show approximately its contemplated cost. Respectfully, yours, W. B. FRANKLIN, President Board of Managers N. H. D. V. S. Hon. J. G. CANNON, Chairman Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives. Also the following letter in relation to State Homes: [Copy.] HARTFORD, CONN., December 28, 1889. SIR: I respectfully call your attention to the fact that Congress, in an act approved 27th August, 1888, appropriated $250,000 to enable the Board of Managers Ñ. H. D. V. S. to pay to the States which have established, or may hereafter establish, State Homes for disabled soldiers or sailors $100 per year for each disabled soldier or sailor kept one year at such a Home. The Board has made the payments so authorized so far as it was able, but the num ber of men for whose maintenance the States were entitled to this payment considerably overran the estimate of Congress, and there is therefore still due the States enti led to the payments the sum of $44,278.39 for the fiscal year ending 30th June, 1889, and if it still be the intention of Congress to carry out the law, that sum should be appropriated in a deficiency bill. The accompanying statement gives the account of the disbursement of the apppropriation, and shows the deficiency. |