SECTION 6 Section 6 provides for the application of the United States Employees' Compensation laws. SECTION 7 Section 7 authorizes the Director of the Bureau of Mines to request assistance from any Government or State organization capable of giving assistance. SECTION 8 This section provides for a separate and complete accounting system for operations pursuant to this act. SECTIONS 9 AND 10 These sections provide for a transfer of $100,000,000 of the relief funds to the Bureau of Mines for the purposes of carrying out this act, and authorizes that proceeds from the mining operations be placed in a revolving fund to be reinvested in the work. The committee feels that the bill will accomplish a twofold purpose. First, it will place relief in States having gold or deficiency minerals, on a partially self-liquidating basis. Second, it will add to the monetary stocks and will build up a supply of deficiency minerals for such national emergencies as may occur in the future. The production of gold and deficiency minerals will not compete with private enterprise; the price of metals used in the monetary basis is set by law. Further production cannot lower the price. On the other hand, increased production of monetary metals would be an important and valuable source of revenue to the Federal Government. With regard to deficiency minerals, the price is ordinarily set by foreign countries. The United States could well afford to develop domestic supplies even though it may entail some loss in order to be prepared for the time when off-shore sources of supply will not be available. The United States is deficient in the following metals and nonmetallic minerals: Antimony, chromite, manganese, mercury, nickel, tin, tungsten, asbestos, barite, china clay, graphite, gypsum, magnesite, natural nitrates, and potash, according to the report of the National Resources Board for December 1, 1934. Little or nothing has been done by Congress toward producing new wealth. This bill provides an opportunity to utilize production of new wealth as a relief method. In conducting the work, moreover, the Bureau of Mines would be supplied with field stations for experiments which would be likely to result in considerable improvement in mining methods. 74TH CONGRESS 1st Session SENATE { REPORT No. 329 CITY OF PERTH AMBOY, N. J. MARCH 13 (calendar day, MARCH 14), 1935.-Ordered to be printed Mr. BLACK, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 156] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 156, conferring jurisdiction upon the Court of Claims to hear, determine, and render judgment upon the claim of the city of Perth Amboy, N. J., having considered the same, report favorably thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment. Under the terms of the bill jurisdiction is conferred upon the Court of Claims to hear, determine, and render judgment upon the claim of the city of Perth Amboy, N. J., for the recovery of money expended in 1918 by the city pursuant to an alleged agreement with the United States to extend the city's water system for the purpose of supplying water to the Raritan Arsenal and Colonial Base Hospital, No. 2, less the present estimated value of the equipment installed under such agreement. The city of Perth Amboy has endeavored in many ways to have its rights determined. The city claims that it did not file suit within the time allowed by law, by reason of the fact that negotiations for settlement were pending. Board of Army officers have investigated the matter. It appears conclusively from the record that the city of Perth Amboy did issue bonds and expend a large sum of money with the idea of supplying water to the Government in its Colonial Base Hospital and Raritan Arsenal. It further appears that the expenditure of this money would not have been justified but for the expectation that the Government would use the water, and that if the city had not provided this water supply itself, the Government would have condemned the water supply and expended the amount necessary to increase its needs. Your committee believe that the city of Perth Amboy is entitled to have its rights tried out in the Court of Claims, and it is accordingly recommended that the bill do pass. S. Repts., 74-1, vol. 1-24 There is appended and made a part of this report extracts from House Report No. 1596, Seventy-second Congress, on a similar House bill. These extracts consist of certain correspondence, and statements submitted by the House Committee on Claims. CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON CLAIMS, House of Representatives. DECEMBER 2, 1929. Dear Mr. CHAIRMAN. Careful consideration has been given to H. R. 828, a bill for the relief of the city of Perth Amboy, N. J., which was transmitted to the War Department under date of November 13, 1929, with a request for all papers on file relating to this claim, and an opinion as to its merits. The claim arises out of installations by the city of Perth Amboy to increase the capacity of its water supply system to meet the requirements of Federal Government activities in that vicinity. The facts in connection with the claim are set forth in substance in an approved memorandum of the Judge Advocate General dated October 18, 1928, copy of which is enclosed. There are also enclosed copies of papers pertinent to the claim. As the enclosed file is voluminous, no copies have been made to retain. After the file has served its purpose, it is requested that it be returned to the War Department. There is no existing law authorizing the settlement of this claim by the War Department. Any right of action against the Government which might have accrued to the city out of the transaction has become barred by expiration of the 6-year statute of limitations (28 U. S. C. sec. 41 (20) and sec. 262). Such relief, if any, as the city might have enjoyed under the act of March 2, 1929 (40 Stat. 1272), which authorized the Secretary of War to adjust, upon a fair and equitable basis, any agreement, expressed or implied, that had been entered into in good faith during the emergency, is not now available to it by reason of the claim not having been presented on or before June 30, 1919. In considering the claim the War Department reached the conclusion that it should not take the initiative by favorably recommending to Congress legislation for the relief of the city, but that upon a more complete presentation of the claim a recommendation for relief might be justified, in case the claimant caused a bill to be introduced in Congress. No additional evidence has been submitted by the city since the previous consideration of the claim, and, therefore, the War Department is unable to change its conclusion in this respect and make a favorable recommendation. If any additional information from the War Department is desired, I shall be pleased to furnish it, as well as designate suitable witnesses to appear before your committee, should hearings be held. Sincerely yours, Hon. JOHN C. Box, PATRICK J. HURLEY, Chairman Subcommittee on Claims, House of Representatives. MAY 8, 1930. DEAR MR. Box: Further reference is made to your letter of February 28, 1930, in which request was made for additional information for the use of your subcommittee in the consideration of H. R. 828, a bill for the relief of the city of Perth Amboy, N. J. Enclosed is a map on which have been shown the Raritan Arsenal Military Reservation and the Colonial Base Hospital. The purple lines indicate the water mains belonging to the Middlesex Water Co.; the red lines indicate mains belonging to the city of Perth Amboy; the solid green line from Metuchen to the arsenal shows a main belonging to the Government, and the green dotted line represents the proposed location of the main which the Government was to install in order to obtain water from the city of Perth Amboy. The arsenal has always received its water supply from the Middlesex Water Co. stations near Avon Park by the main through Pumptown, Metuchen, and Bonhampton. Had the enlarged water supply plan been carried to completion, the arsenal would have received its water from the wells near Old Bridge via the mains shown in red, thence through the proposed main shown by the dotted green line, thence through the main shown in purple from Valentine to Metuchen, and thence through the main shown in solid green. The land in use by the city of Perth Amboy for a watershed and basin is shown on the map in yellow. This land is the property of the city and was procured by it prior to the existence of Raritan Arsenal as such. The claim represents funds expended, including interest, to increase the output from this watershed. The armistice took away the increased demand for water and the additional facilities, for which claim is made, have never been used, and with new developments in means of water supply these facilities probably never will be utilized even though there should be a demand for additional water, which does not appear to be at all likely in the near future. No definite understanding between the Government and the city as to the length of the time the United States would need water can be established. Mr. N. S. Hill, Jr., 112 East Nineteenth Street, New York City, who was employed as a consulting engineer by the Government at the time, has been interviewed and he stated that if these improvements had not been made by the municipality the Government would have condemned the city's water system, installed the necessary additional facilities, and operated the plant. In this connection your attention is invited to the accompanying copy of letter dated October 2, 1918, from Hill & Ferguson and addressed to the board of water commissioners, Perth Amboy, N.J. This letter is illuminating in that it contains information as to the additional cost of supplying the water desired and the net revenue the city would realize from the contract with the Government, which, however, was not consummated on account of the armistice. It appears that approximately $38,000 per annum would have represented a net return to the city and that this amount "is sufficient to pay the cost of sinking the additional wells and making the necessary connections within 2 years, as your engineer's estimate of the cost of these improvements is $60,000." The city claims the actual cost of such construction to have been $95,644.02, to which has been added the sum of $45,765.16, representing interest paid by the municipality up to and including December 31, 1927, making a total of $141,409.18. Deducting from this total the sum of $41,622.63, representing the value as of December 31, 1927, of the improvements installed, a net balance of $99,786.55 remains. While it is impossible to utilize any basis for determining the measure of damages suffered by the city of Perth Amboy, it is believed, in view of the extensive delay that ensued before a claim was filed against the Government, that the item of interest should be disallowed. Attention is also invited to the information contained on the top of page 8 of the report of the local board of officers, a copy of which has already been furnished your subcommittee, to the effect that labor charges were apparently incurred through the entire year 1919 on the city pay rolls and included in the claim. It is believed that the city should be requested to submit detail information in connection with the payment of these labor charges before final recommendation on the claim by your subcommittee is made. An effort has been made to ascertain whether the city was notified prior to April 13, 1919, that the water would not be required. Mr. Hill, through whom the Government negotiated with the city, has advised that such a notice was not furnished by him, although he expressed the op 'n n that the city had been so notified by Government officials prior to that time. In view of the circumstances, it is reasonable to assume that his opinion is correct, as immediately after the armistice military activities at Raritan Arsenal were extensively reduced; sufficiently so, it is believed, that the matter could not have readily escaped the attention of the city authorities. There are also enclosed copies of correspondence and papers not heretofore furnished which might assist your subcommittee in its consideration of the claim. If any additional information is desired, this Department would be pleased to furnish same if available. Sincerely yours, F. TRUBEE DAVISON, It appears that this transaction was handled largely on behalf of the Government by Hill & Ferguson, consulting engineers, and certain of their correspondence is pertinent, including the letter from Mr. Hill referred to above in the letter from the Secretary of War, which correspondence is as follows: NEW YORK, November 8, 1918. To: Maj. Gen. R. C. Marshall, Jr. (attention Major O'Brien), in charge of construction division. From: Hill & Ferguson, consulting engineers. Subject: No. 152-1 (Raritan Arsenal-material for city of Perth Amboy). |