The increase of $9,750 in salaries is to provide additional help and contemplates no promotions. The wireless service, which in 1911 was virtually confined to Baltimore, New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco, has been extended, as far as the 11 inspectors now employed can accomplish that result, to all the principal seaports, ports on the Great Lakes, and to some of the principal interior centers of radio communication. One inspection trip has been made in Hawaii and one in Porto Rico. On April 1, 1913, the wireless ship act became applicable to vessels on the Great Lakes, and since the beginning of the current fiscal year cargo steamers with crews of 50 or over have been brought within the requirements of the act.

During the past fiscal year 3,916 inspections of ship and land stations were made by the radio inspectors, and 1,427 radio operators were examined and licensed, and 1,496 station licenses were issued. Thirty-five thousand five hundred ninety-nine letters were written and received in the field service.

The present force of 11 inspectors is not sufficient to make the necessary inspection of ship stations, and it has been possible to give little attention to the inspection of amateur, experimental, and commercial land stations, with the result that the interference caused by these land stations with the operation of the ship stations is serious. At the port of New York, for instance, during October and the first half of November, 477 vessels cleared with wireless apparatus. Of this number it was possible for our force to inspect but 221, a little over 46 per cent. Of the vessels inspected the apparatus on an average of one in three was found defective.

In a majority of cases the operators on vessels have not the testing instruments necessary to discover the nature of trouble with the apparatus and few of them are qualified to do such work if they had the instruments.

Inspection by competent men provided with properly calibrated instruments is an additional assurance that the instruments will work as required by law while at sea. They are delicate and subject to troubles. It has not been possible with our force to inspect vessels at ports in New England north of Boston, and the inspections at Philadelphia, Norfolk, southern ports except Savannah and New Orleans, and Pacific ports outside of San Francisco and Seattle have been few.

It is estimated that there are approximately 15,000 amateur wireless stations in the United States, located mostly on the seacoast or on the Great Lakes. The department has received numerous letters indicating that the interference caused by these amateurs and by experimental and commercial stations seriously is interfering with the satisfactory use of wireless communication. In a number of instances amateurs have sent out false distress calls throwing the local commercial system into confusion. As the present force is not sufficient to make complete inspection of ship stations, little attention has been paid to the land stations.

Approximately 5 per cent of the amateur stations have been inspected. They are required under penalty to operate on or below the 200-meter wave length. It is practically impossible for an amateur without testing instruments to determine the wave length he is using, and before proceeding against him for interference his station should be inspected and his instruments adjusted to the proper wave length. With the increased appropriation it is proposed to employ four assistant inspectors, at $1,200 each; three stenographers, at $900 each; and at Cleveland and Chicago, stenographers for six months in the year, total $900. These stenographers will relieve the high-priced inspectors who are not experienced typewriters and are slow in such work from clerical duties and enable them to give more of their time to inspection. In the bureau in Washington an additional clerk, at $900, and one for six months in the year, at $450, are necessary to keep up with the work.

The increase of $800 traveling expenses is to meet the increased inspections proposed. The increase for telephone and other small items are incident to the increasing needs of the service.

The increase of $1,800 for instruments, their repair and remodeling, is to enable the department to keep abreast of the improvements in the art. Testing instruments must be as advanced as the instruments tested.

It is unnecessary to call attention to the place occupied by wireless communication as a safeguard to human life on the sea. The recent instances of its use in time of disaster testify to its efficacy.

Of the 10 vessels which went to the assistance of the Volturno 6 entered regularly at New York and the other 4 occasionally. The efficiency of their instruments and the maintenance of a constant wireless watch were factors in the result.

At the beginning of the last voyage of the State of California her instruments were inspected, found defective, and repaired. The wireless operator went down with the ship sending out to the last the distress call which was heard by several vessels.

The Templemore refused to install wireless and was forced to do so under prosecution by the department. After her destruction by fire and the rescue of her entire crew by

help summoned by her wireless instrument, the master personally thanked the inspector at Baltimore for reporting the vessel and compelling the installation.

The Bureau of Standards has been of material assistance in designing, testing, and calibrating scientific instruments used by the inspectors.

The value of the radio service in the saving of life and property is too well known to need further comment. The regulation and supervision of radio communication is in its infancy, and the necessity for more thorough inspections to eliminate interference is instant if this agency for protecting life is to maintain its present effectiveness. The inspection service is now in process of formation, and the expense of conducting it will necessarily increase until a system is established which will provide for the enforcement of the law generally both on land and sea.

Yours, very truly,

WILLIAM C. REDFIELD,

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FINAL REPORT ON

REMOVING WRECK OF BATTLESHIP "MAINE" FROM HARBOR OF HABANA, CUBA

LETTER FROM

THE SECRETARY OF WAR

TRANSMITTING

WITH A LETTER FROM THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS
FINAL REPORT OF A SPECIAL BOARD OF ENGI-
NEER OFFICERS ON RAISING AND REMOVING

THE WRECK OF THE U. S. BATTLESHIP
"MAINE" FROM THE HARBOR
OF HABANA, CUBA

DECEMBER 16, 1913.-Referred to the Committee on Rivers and Harbors and ordered to be printed, with illustrations

WASHINGTON

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 13, 1913.

The SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter from the Acting Chief of Engineers, United States Army, dated 12th instant, together with final report dated April 17, 1913, with illustrations, upon the work of raising and removing the wreck of the U. S. S. Maine from the harbor of Habana, Cuba, authorized by an act of Congress approved May 9, 1910.

Very respectfully,

LINDLEY M. GARRISON,
Secretary of War.

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