That under the provisions of this section there shall not be expended or contract or contracts entered into involving the Government in an aggregate expenditure exceeding six million five hundred thousand dollars, nor an expenditure on the part of the Government in any one fiscal year in excess of two million dollars, and all guns and materials purchased under authority of this section shall be of American production and furnished by citizens of the United States.

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DISPOSITION OF USELESS PAPERS IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS

MARCH 4, 1930.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. WASON, from the Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers, submitted the following

REPORT

The Joint Select Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers, submits the following report on disposition of useless papers in the executive departments for the second session of the Seventieth Congress:

1 Because of the confidential nature of the papers, they were disposed of by burning.

EDWARD H. WASON,

Chairman Committee on Disposition of Useless Executive Papers.

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HONOR THE MEMORY OF THE HEROES OF THE FIGHT AGAINST YELLOW FEVER

MARCH 5, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. MCSWAIN, from the Committee on Military Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 4124]

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 4124) to honor the memory of the heroes of the fight against yellow fever, introduced by Mr. McSwain, having considered the same, report thereon with the recommendation that it do pass with the following amendment:

Strike out all the language after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following:

That the Secretary of War is hereby authorized and directed to set apart a suitable plot of ground in Arlington National Cemetery for the burial of the bodies of the heroes of the fight against yellow fever, as specified and mentioned by name in Senate Document No. 822 of the Sixty-first Congress, third session, entitled "Yellow Fever," and to erect an appropriate and imposing monument to the memory of the entire group, whether buried in said plot or not, and to provide appropriate approaches and curbing about said plot of ground, at a cost not exceeding $95,000; also to provide individual regulation headstones for the bodies of such individuals as may be interred in said plot of ground from time to time.

SEC. 2. That the Secretary of War be authorized, and, upon written request of the responsible and legally recognized relative and next of kin of said individual heroes of the fight against yellow fever, is hereby required to have exhumed the bodies of such heroes, wherever the same may now be buried, and to transport the same to said plot of ground in Arlington National Cemetery, and to have the same buried there with military honors.

SEC. 3. The Secretary of War is further authorized and directed to prepare for burial, transport, and inter in said plot of ground the bodies of such heroes of said fight against yellow fever as may die in the future, including the exhumation, preparation, and shipment of those dying in the future and interred elsewhere, when properly requested in writing by the responsible and legally recognized relative or next of kin. The appropriation "Cemeterial expenses" as made from time to time is hereby made available for this purpose.

SEC. 4. That the sum of $100,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of sections 1 and 2 of this act.

This amendment is in the form suggested by the War Department in the report of the Secretary of War, which is as follows:

The CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS,

JANUARY 11, 1930.

House of Representatives.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Careful consideration has been given to the bill H. R. 4124, a bill to honor the memory of the heroes of the fight against yellow fever, which you transmitted to the War Department under date of October 2, 1929, with a request for information and the views of the department relative thereto. There are no applicable provisions in existing law on the subject, and no changes will be brought about in existing law by the proposed legislation, except that the appropriation “Cemeterial expenses" as made from time to time will be available for purposes referred to in section 3 of the proposed act.

Examination of the bill as introduced shows need of amendment in the following particulars:

(a) The Secretary of War should be charged with carrying out the provisions of the act for the reason that the Arlington National Cemetery is under his control and the work should be done under his direction.

(b) The bill as originally drawn would require a no-year appropriation.

(c) The bill should specifically indicate the amount to be spent on the monument.

(d) It is understood that most of these men are still alive, and, in view of that fact, it is not believed than an appropriation to cover the cost of their burial should be obtained now. The cost of exhumation, transportation, and reburial must be authorized by law, but further authorization should be obtained to use for this purpose current appropriations for the disposition of remains of officers, soldiers, and civilian employees.

(e) The bill does not authorize burial expenses or the cost of transportation of the bodies of those who may die in the future.

If amended to conform to the inclosed draft, I favor the passage of the bill for the following reasons:

The outstanding acts of heroism of the group of American soldiers who voluntarily offered to sacrifice their lives in the interest of science and humanity are fully set forth in Senate Document No. 822, Sixty-first Congress, third session, and No. 61, Sixty-first Congress, third session. The ecomonic loss and the toll of lives avoided through their acts are of inestimable value. There is a strong sentiment in this country that some special honor should be given to this group, and it is believed that the plan proposed in the bill would effect that purpose.

This report has been submitted to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, who advises that if this proposed legislation be amended as recommended by the Secretary of War the expenditures contemplated thereby would not be in conflict with the financial program of the President.

Sincerely yours,

PATRICK J. HURLEY, Secretary of War.

The purpose of this bill is to honor in a very distinct and emphatic manner those men and officers who risked their own lives for the promotion of science. It is a matter of common knowledge that as a result of their experiments, vast tracts of territory in the Torrid Zone and in semitorrid areas have been rendered habitable and of great benefit to the human race. Without the knowledge that they enabled us to obtain of the means of transmitting yellow fever and thereby of the means of controlling its transmission, it is altogether probable that we would have failed in our effort to construct the Panama Canal, even as the French had failed before us. Many thousands of human lives are annually saved through proper sanitation and preventive measures now controlling yellow fever.

For these reasons we think that these heroes of a peace-time fight deserve special recognition. Such special recognition would tend to encourage peace-time heroism. It would also impress the truth that the heroes of such a fight for science and health are of equal importance to the progress of the race as the heroes of war-time fights for independence and liberty.