REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR.

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should war find this country without a proper defense against iron-clads and their great guns, the responsibility cannot rest on this Department, as the importance of the subject has often been brought to the attention of Congress. An appropriation of $1,449,552 is estimated for by the Chief of Ordnance for the next fiscal year for the purchase of smoothbore guns and for carriages, which sum will provide for one-sixth, only, of the guns and carriages that will be required for fortifications which will be ready by the 30th of June, 1874. This amount is not embraced in the regular estimates of appropriations for the Army, as heretofore alluded to, but it is a subject of great importance, and the question of these appropriations is respectfully submitted.

The heavy rifled guns selected for fabrication and test under the act approved June 6, 1872, are now in process of manufacture, and will be completed during the winter. Valuable information and experience are to be gathered in the trial of these guns, the result most probably leading to the early adoption of an effective rifle of suitable caliber for the service; and in this connection I would recommend the purchase of a suitable proving ground for the proper trial of these experimental heavy guns.

The cheapness of cast iron, and the marked progress attained in the manufacture of gunpowder in the past year, induces a recommendation that an appropriation of $75,000 be granted, to be applied in the fabrication and trial of 12-inch cast-iron rifled cannon, that the capabilities of the metal for rifle constructions of large caliber may be put to the fullest test, in the hope that its practical utilization for this purpose may be conclusively assured or denied.

The powder in the hands of the Department is, on account of the want of proper storage-room, concentrated in large part in the magazines of our sea-coast fortifications, where, under the searching influences of the salt air, it is rapidly undergoing deterioration. For its better preservation a large powder-depot should be established in some region where neither public nor private interests would be endangered by its proximity, and an appropriation of $100,000 is recommended for the purchase of a suitable site and the commencement of magazines.

The abolition of some of the smaller arsenals, and the application of the proceeds of their sale to the erection of a large arsenal of construction on the Atlantic coast, is again urged on strong economical grounds, and it is recommended that a law be passed authorizing the Secretary of War to make sale of any of the smaller arsenals at such times as would be most advantageous to the Government, and to apply the proceeds as suggested.

The sale of Kennebec arsenal, Detroit arsenal, Pikesville arsenal, and the small lot or tract at Sag Harbor, Long Island, now no longer needed for public purposes, is recommended.

By the act of Congress approved June 10, 1872, the Secretary of War was directed to sell the Mount Vernon arsenal, Alabama, pursuant to

a recommendation made for its disposal as a part of the public domain. Subsequent to such recommendation the exigencies of the service required that the property should be used by the Quartermaster's Department for military purposes, and the period when such necessity shall cease to exist is very indefinite. Under these circumstances the repeal of so much of the act of June 10, 1872, as relates to the sale of this property is recommended.

That portion of the same act which directs the sale of the Apalachicola arsenal should, in my opinion, be repealed, for the reason that the property was granted to the State of Florida in 1870, by the act approved December 15 of that year, under the name of the Chattahoochee arsenal.

The Department feels much embarrassment arising from conflicting claims founded on alleged infringements of patent-rights in the construction of breech-loading guns at the national armory. Officers of the Ordnance Corps, in the execution of their official duties, are seriously annoyed by private actions for damages, instituted by persons claiming to hold valid patents which have been infringed in the productions of the Government armory, and some legislation seems to be required in order to enable the Department to dispose of the claims.

The fifth section of the act of July 12, 1870, which provides "That all balances of appropriations contained in the annual appropriation bills and made specifically for the service of any fiscal year, and remaining unexpended at the expiration of such fiscal year, shall only be applied to the payment of expenses properly incurred during that year, or to the fulfillment of contracts properly made within that year, and such balances not needed for the said purposes shall be carried to the surplus fund: Provided, That this section shall not apply to appropriations known as permanent or indefinite appropriations," is injurious to the interests of the Government where permanent buildings are to be erected, and appropriations for this purpose should be allowed to run for three years instead of one, as now limited by that act. It s recom mended that the act be modified accordingly.

Systematic and continuous instruction of the Army in military signaling and telegraphy has continued during the past year at the school of· instruction and practice at Fort Whipple, Va., and in the Department of the Missouri, and the special attention of some of the most powerful for eign goverments has been directed to these branches of military science, and they have taken pains to procure the minute details of our equip ment and apparatus.

Recruiting for the signal-service has been successfully conducted, the standard of acquirement being maintained by special examination of those enlisted. After selection and enlistment, the men are at once placed under a course of drill and instruction, and after a second examination those especially designated for duty at stations are drilled, examined, instructed, tested by practice, instructed in the higher

branches of the service, and again examined and tested before being intrusted with the management of stations of observation.

The Chief Signal-Officer renews his recommendation for the estab lishment by law of a permanent Signal Corps, or for such legislation as will secure a permanency for its details. He insists that the extent of the service and its now material importance should commend this subject to the attention of Congress.

The whole number of stations from which regular meteoric reports are now received is ninety-two, of which seventy-eight are in the United States, eleven in Canada, and three in the West Indies.

The regular telegraphic reports from Havana began on August 6, from Kingston, Jamaica, on September 18, and from Santiago de Cuba on September 29. Three other points in the islands of Porto Rico, Guadeloupe, and Barbados, will be equipped as soon as observers can be designated. It is a matter of regret that there is no international arrangement with the authorities of any of these islands, nor is there, at present, any return of weather-telegrams provided for or officially requested, Steps are in contemplation by which it is hoped the necessary arrangements will be effected.

The display of bulletins and weather-charts at stations, the supply of prompt and gratuitous information to the press, and the exhibition of day or night signals at times of probable special danger, for the benefit of shipping and commercial interests, have been continued.

A plan has been adopted whereby synopses of reports and probabilities have been forwarded to many points in the interior not reached by telegraph, and this plan has given satisfaction to the farming and interior population reached.

There are nineteen special river stations from which reports of the depths of water in the principal rivers of the United States are daily made by telegraph, at particular seasons, during which danger from freshets may be anticipated. River reports are also made from twenty of the regular stations.

These data are widely published and distributed along the line of the rivers, and contribute to the convenience and safety of the river com.merce, by the constant and accurate knowledge given of the depth of water in the channels.

The benefits resulting from these reports, now in the second year of their issue, have been fully acknowledged by the various interests they have advanced.

The total number of special river-bulletins issued has been twentythree thousand two hundred and ten. Eight thousand nine hundred and eighty-two printed copies of the weather-report are displayed daily.

Steps have been taken to carry out the legislation of the last Congress authorizing the establishment of signal stations at light-houses, and such of the life-saving stations on the lake or sea coasts as may be suit

ably located for that purpose, and to connect the same with such points as may be necessary for the proper discharge of the duties of the signal service, by means of a suitable telegraph-line, in cases where no lines are in operation. The plan in contemplation proposes the establishment of signal stations at life-saving stations and light-houses along the oceancoast of New Jersey, from Sandy Hook to Cape May, a distance of twenty-five miles from each other. A line connecting the stations at life-saving stations and light-houses along the coast from Norfolk, Va., to Cape Hatteras, N. C., a distance of one hundred and thirty-seven miles, and on one of the most dangerous coasts of the United States, is being constructed. It is expected that the above-mentioned lines will be completed during the present year.

The ascertained comparative accuracy of the deductions from reports styled "probabilities" has been more clearly presented in this than in preceding years. The percentage of verifications has been mathematically computed for each of the geographical districts mentioned in the reports. With a more rigid and scrutinizing mode of calculation than was before adopted, the percentage of verification has improved. The analysis of the year's work indicates clearly, at once, the wisdom of judiciously increasing the number of stations.

The Department acknowledges, as in previous years, the general support of the popular opinion of scientific men, and of the press, in its efforts to successfully carry on this work. Errors have occurred, but it has been generally recognized as inevitable that some must occur in the present condition of science. The great utility of the work is no longer doubted. It has achieved results, the promise of which, a few years ago, could hardly be hoped for.

It is mentioned in connection with this subject that arrangements have been made with the meteorological officers of Russia, England, and Turkey, to commence on January 1, 1874, an exchange with the United States of the daily reports taken simultaneously at the different stations throughout the great extent of the Russian and Turkish Empires, the British Islands, and the United States. The co-operation of the systems of other nations is expected.

My annual inspection of the affairs of the Military Academy and Corps. of Cadets, in June last, disclosed a very creditable state of discipline, and an attention to study very commendable in the cadets.

One of the effects of the act of Congress approved February 2, 1872, increasing the congressional representation of the several States, was to increase the Corps of Cadets from 293 to 342. This is of marked advantage to the Academy, which, on account of the falure of many of the candidates for admission to pass the necessary examination, has not, in a long series of years, instructed the number of young men that was allowed by law to be educated at West Point. Examinations for admission are held twice yearly, in May or June and in September, and when a can. didate not possessing the requisite qualifications fails to pass, as a

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large portion of those presenting themselves have done, their districts remain unrepresented during the period embraced between the date when they fail and the next examination, and the United States loses a cadet for the same period.

The report of the Board of Visitors, which this year had an opportunity of witnessing the examination of the candidates, comments upon the large proportion of those failing to those admitted; during the past year there were 119 candidates admitted and 87 rejected; of the latter number 13 only were rejected by the medical board; and at the semi-annual examination in January next it is more than probable that a considerable number of those admitted in June and September last will also fail. These facts furnish a strong commentary upon the present mode of selecting candidates for a military education at West Point. The large number of those failing to meet the present standard clearly shows that due regard has not, in many cases, been paid to selecting those whose attainments qualify them for admission. If the members of Congress were a little more rigid in requiring those they propose nominating to be thoroughly conversant with the rudiments of a common-school education, their friends would escape the mortification and expense attendant on their rejection.

The Board of Visitors were thorough in their investigation into the affairs of the academy last June, and the attention of Congress is invited to the recommendations contained in their report.

A new set of regulations for the government of the Corps of Cadets has been prepared, and will very shortly go into execution.

The increase of the Military Academy band, the only one now provided for by law, which is very small and the pay of which is wholly insufficient to attract to or retain in the service competent musicians, when they can secure much larger salaries in the principal cities of the Union, is again urgently recommended to the attention of Congress. This subject was alluded to in my last annual report, and a bill was introduced to increase the number and compensation of the musicians, which, it is understood, passed one house of Congress, but was not taken up in the other. Its re-introduction and passage is earnestly recommended.

During the last session of Congress, the Committee on Expenditures of the War Department made an exhaustive report of the workings of this portion of the executive branch of the Government, and prepared a bill for a full and complete reorganization of the clerical force of the War Department.

I would earnestly represent that this Department has been peculiarly unfortunate as regards the rates of compensation paid its employés. It is hoped, therefore, that the report of the Committee on Expenditures of the War Department, above referred to, may receive careful consideration at the hands of Congress, and that action be taken upon the recommendations of the committee as to the required organization of the clerical force.