reasonable compared to foreign countries, for in most countries an inventor is charged a fee or tax each year his patent is alive and in some countries these fees progressively increase from year to year. With one exception, all of the attorneys who appeared before the committee testified that it was their belief that the inventors of the country would cheerfully pay the increased fees if they could only get reasonably prompt service from the Patent Office.

Your committee therefore having in mind the recommendation of the committee on Patent Office procedure, as above quoted, recommends that the bill (H. R. 10076) be passed.

PUBLIC WORKS AT UNITED STATES NAVAL HOSPITAL, WASHINGTON, D. C.

FEBRUARY 24, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. WOODRUFF, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 9676]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 9676) authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to proceed with certain public works at the United States Naval Hospital, Washington, D. C., having considered the same, reports favorably thereon without amendment, and with the recommendation that the bill do.

pass.

The purpose of this bill is to replace certain antiquated, inadequate, and unsafe structures at the naval hospital in Washington with a modern, fire-proof building that will not only enable the Navy to care properly for its own hospital patients, but also, as a matter of economy and efficiency, continue to provide beds to meet the increasing local demands of the Veterans' Bureau. In addition to the hospital proper, it is planned to relocate the present Naval Medical School with laboratories, class rooms, library, and dental department-under the same roof, the combined institutions constituting, in accordance with current practice, a medical center commensurate with modern advances, for the diagnosis and treatment of patients and the postgraduate instruction of the personnel of the Navy Medical Department.

During the extensive hearings held upon this bill, H. R. 9676, the Surgeon General of the Navy, the Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Department, Hon. Melvin J. Maas, of Minnesota, recently a Veterans' Bureau patient in this hospital), and representatives of the Veterans' Bureau and of the national rehabilitation committee of the American Legion appeared before this committee and testified in favor of this legislation. Moreover, the committee visited the hospital reservation, carefully inspected the buildings

thereon, and inquired into facilities for the care of the sick and postgraduate education; this inspection fully confirmed the deplorable conditions as to material hereinafter set forth.

The present site of the naval hospital, Washington, was acquired in 1894 and then consisted of 21 acres of ground. Subsequently 5 acres of the western part of the site were transferred to the Public Health Service and now contain their laboratories.

At the time the site was acquired it contained the old Naval Observatory building, erected in 1845. This building is now being used as a school for postgraduate instruction, and also contains laboratories and the medical library.

In 1906 the present main hospital building was erected. During the war period eight emergency buildings were constructed at a cost of $401,534.

The proposed new hospital construction would replace the old Observatory Building, all of the emergency war-time buildings, and the main hospital building. None of these buildings is modern or adequate for present needs, and the temporary buildings constitute a real fire hazard for their occupants.

The location of the buildings making up the entire hospital group is disadvantageous to efficient and economical administration. Observatory Hill, on which the main building is situated, has an elevation of 94 feet above the Potomac River. The temporary buildings are situated on the level ground at the foot of the hill. The food for all the sick is prepared on the hill and carried for distribution to the various wards at the foot of the hill. Ambulatory patients in wards at the foot of the hill are obliged either to walk up the hill for their meals in the main mess hall or they must be conveyed by ambulance. Also, patients on the hill requiring physiotherapy or occupational therapy must walk or be motored down the hill where these two activities are located. With the proposed hospital construction all activities would be concentrated on the hill, high ground overlooking Potomac Parkway, admirably suited for this purpose.

The main hospital building, constructed 24 years ago, was planned to meet the demands of the naval service at that time, and has long since failed to measure up to modern standards. This building accommodates 96 beds. The sick officers' quarters are constantly overcrowded, and frequently sick officers are awaiting vacant beds. This condition of affairs renders it impossible for the hospital to accommodate officer Veterans' Bureau patients in private rooms, as they should be; if admitted, they must be treated in the open wards. The growing demands upon the hospital have made it necessary to convert most of the basement of the main building into spaces for special treatments and examinations, including such indispensable facilities as the hydrotherapy, X-ray, and eye, ear, nose, and throat departments. These rooms had been originally designed for storage; hence, they are most unsuitable for the present purposes, being poorly lighted, ill-ventilated, congested, and so arranged that they are difficult to administer. The commissary of the hospital (especially the main kitchen) in like manner is now wholly inadequate for current requirements.

Of the 435 beds in the hospital as a whole more than 50 per cent are located in the eight temporary buildings erected during the late

war. These buildings are of wood, lightly constructed, two stories in height, and hence constitute a fire hazard of the first importance. Nevertheless they contain many bed-ridden cases. The true situation as to these temporary buildings is well indicated by the following quotations:

Hon. Melvin J. Maas:

I have been through these temporary buildings, and when you gentlemen of the committee go there to observe them I think you will agree with me that it is a disgrace to house our men in shacks that would be condemned and discontinued by any municipality in this country. Those temporary buildings at the naval hospital are the worst sort of fire traps imaginable. Just think of housing sick men in such places. The cost of upkeep is far beyond their value as hospital facilities.

Naval inspecting officer (January 7, 1930):

All temporary buildings are regarded as serious fire traps, yet of the 390 patients 238 are necessarily housed in these buildings, of which number 144 are quartered on the second floor, subject to an extra and ever-present fire menace. At fire drill two lines of hose, attached to a fire plug in the vicinity of building G (tuberculosis ward), evidenced such feeble pressure as to be ineffective against fire. The temporary buildings are dilapidated and deteriorated, the floors sag and are uneven-in some instances there is a difference of 6 to 12 inches in their levels, in some places they vibrate when walked on-the window frames in places have dropped; only by constant repairs, expense, and attention have they been kept habitable.

Robert M. Tolson, national rehabilitation committee, American Legion:

We feel that these temporary buildings at the naval hospital here in Washington, which were constructed 13 years ago, should be demolished. I think it high time that our veterans be accorded the best possible treatment known to medical science. I very much doubt that such treatment can be accorded them in those temporary buildings. The facilities, as we know from personal observation, are inadequate.

Chief of Bureau of Yards and Docks, Navy Department:

More than half of the patients at present in the naval hospital at Washington are accommodated in temporary buildings constructed during the war. The fire risk is great, and the buildings, by reason of their age, are not suitable for the purpose for which they are now used. The existing so-called permanent hospital, which was constructed many years ago, is inadequate for present needs. Three times during the past year, while these buildings were crowded with patients, a majority of whom were bedridden, small fires therein were detected and immediately extinguished. Had any one of these fires gained headway, it is the consensus of opinion that serious loss of life would have been almost inevitable. While such risks were warranted, indeed inevitable, during the war period when these buildings were erected, the committee is unanimously of the opinion that such a condition is now intolerable and should be remedied with the least possible delay.

The proposed hospital would have a normal capacity of 524 beds, but capable of emergency expansion to 742 beds without serious overcrowding. These figures are exclusive of 38 beds in the existing building for sick officers which, being well designed and constructed, is to be continued in use.

The size of the new hospital was determined upon after due consideration of (a) the needs of the Navy personnel, (b) the number of Veterans' Bureau patients in the Washington region for whom beds. are not otherwise available, and (c) the policy of the Veterans'