SAN FRANCISCO BAY NAVAL BASE SITES.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1920.

SPECIAL JOINT COMMITTEE OF CONGRESS

ON PACIFIC COAST NAVAL BASES,

San Francisco, Calif.

VARIOUS SITES ON THE BAY OF SAN FRANCISCO.

A hearing before the Special Joint Committee of Congress on Pacific Coast Naval Bases was held at the chambers of the Board of Supervisors of the City and County of San Francisco, State of California, in the City Hall, San Francisco, Calif., November 19, 1920, commencing at 10 o'clock a. m.

There were present the following members of the committee: Senators L. Heisler Ball and Henry W. Keyes, Representatives Fred A. Britten, Frederick C. Hicks, A. E. B. Stephens, L. P. Padgett, and Daniel J. Riordan, together with W. M. Coffin, secretary of the committee; T. E. Peeney, secretary to Senator Ball; and M. J. Bunke, clerk.

Also present, naval officers: Rear Admiral C. W. Parks, Chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks; Admiral R. E. Coontz, Chief of Naval Operations; Rear Admiral W. L. Capps, of the Navy Department; Lieut. Commander H. W. Hill, aid to Admiral Coontz.

There were also present Mayor James Rolph, jr., of San Francisco; Representative John I. Nolan; City Engineer M. M. O'Shaughnessy, of San Francisco; supervisors of San Francisco, Richard J. Welch, Edward I. Wolfe, and Ralph McLeran, together with J. S. Dunnigan, clerk of the board; P. R. Thompson, of the San Francisco Bureau of San Francisco Organizations.

There were also present, representative of the interests of the San Mateo site, J. E. McCurdy, president of the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce, chairman; J. J. Dwyer; and Arthur M. Free, Representative-elect from the eighth congressional district, California; together with A. W. Lasher, engineer of San Mateo.

There were also present, representative of the interests of the Martinez site, Mr. Warren H. McBryde; and, representative of the Richmond site, Mr. H. W. Wernse; and, representative of the Alameda site, Mr. Joseph E. Caine, managing director of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, and others.

The hearing was presided over by Senator Ball, chairman of the Joint Committee, and the following proceedings were had:

Senator BALL. The meeting will be in order. Before the hearing opens formally, if the chairmen of the various delegations representing proposed sites who desire to be heard to-day will arrange as to how their several sites are to be presented, it would, I think, expedite

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matters. We know that we have to hear from the Richmond people and from the San Mateo people, and I think there are others. The committee is now ready to proceed with the hearing, and we will hear first from San Mateo. Mr. McCurdy is, I understand, the chairman of the San Mateo delegation. Mr. J. E. McCurdy.

Mr. J. E. MCCURDY. Members of the congressional committee, we of San Mateo wish to thank you, first, for the courtesy of presenting to you our proposition for a location for a naval base at San Mateo Point. We present this for your consideration and approval, and we trust that, after we have closed our case, that the points which we shall bring to your attention will be sufficiently meritorious to warrant you, when you travel toward Monterey on next Sunday morning, to stop off at San Mateo Point long enough to give it your personal inspection. We sincerely regret the disarrangement of the plan of last Tuesday and the misunderstanding which prevented the members of the committee, under the supervision of the San Mateo committee, from looking at the San Mateo Point site. We want you to look the site over, and it can very easily be done.

I desire to present to the committee and have filed as exhibits and part of the record in this matter the following: First, a resolution of the board of supervisors of San Mateo County.

(The resolution reads as follows:)

Resolved by the board of supervisors of San Mateo, State of California, That whereas a congressional committee is visiting San Francisco and vicinity for the purpose of examining sites suitable for a United States naval base; and whereas, by reason of proximity to the entrance to San Francisco Bay, comparative security from artillery fire, and other advantages, the proposed site off San Mateo Bay, in the opinion of this board, presents superior arguments in its favor; and whereas said congressional delegation will inspect such site this week:

Now, therefore, said board hereby assures said committee that this board fully appreciates the importance of its errand and the desire of the committee that such decision be made as is best for the future welfare of the country, and also appreciates the honor rendered the local community by reason of the congressional visit, and hereby tenders to the committee any assistance which may be within local power in order to facilitate the committee's work.

This board earnestly requests of said committee careful consideration of the San Mateo County site. If, in the judgment of the committee, any special investigation or data be desired, this board assures the committee of its willingness to undertake the procurement of same and to cooperate with the committee and the other departments and officials of the Government with a view, to enable the Government to determine upon the best available site.

[SEAL.]

T. L. HICKNEY. ROSALIO M. BROWN. JOHN MACBAIN. ELIZABETH M. NASH, Clerk.

Also a resolution of the trustees of the city of San Mateo. (The resolution reads as follows:)

Resolved by the board of trustees of the city of San Mateo, State of California, That whereas a congressional committee is visiting San Francisco and vicinity for the purpose of examining sites suitable for a United States naval base; and whereas, by reason of proximity to the entrance to San Francisco Bay, comparative security from artillery fire, and other advantages, the proposed site off San Mateo Point, in the opinion of this board, presents superior arguments in its favor; and whereas said congressional delegation will inspect such site this week:

Now, therefore, said board hereby assures said committee that this board fully appreciates the importance of its errand and the desire of the committee that such decision be made as is best for the future welfare of the country, and also appreciates the honor rendered the local community by reason of the congressional visit, and hereby tenders to the committee any assistance which may be within local power in order to facilitate the committee's work.

This board earnestly requests of said committee careful consideration of the San Mateo County site. If in the judgment of the committee any special investigation or data be desired, this board assures the committee of its willingness to undertake the procurement of same and to cooperate with the committee and the other departments and officials of the Government with a view to enable the Government to determine upon the best available site.

Foregoing resolution adopted at regular meeting held November 15, 1920, by unanimous vote, a quorum being present and voting in favor thereof. Witness my hand and the official seal of said city.

(SEAL.)

E. W. FOSTER, City Clerk. Also a resolution of the board of trustees of the city of Burlingame.

(The resolution reads as follows:)

Resolved by the board of trustees of the City of Burlingame, State of California, That whereas a congressional committee is visiting San Francisco and vicinity for the purpose of examining sites suitable for a United States naval base; and whereas, by reason of proximity to the entrance to San Francisco Bay, comparative security from artillery fire, and other advantages, the proposed site off San Mateo Point, in the opinion of this board, presents superior argument in its favor; and whereas, said congressional delegation will inspect such site this week:

Now, therefore, said board hereby assures said committee that this board fully appreciates the importance of its errand and the desire of the committee that such decision be made as is best for the future welfare of the county, and also appreciates the honor rendered the local community by reason of the congressional visit, and hereby tenders to the committee any assistance which may be within local power in order to facilitate the committee's work.

This board earnestly requests of said committee careful consideration of the San Mateo County site.

Attest.

W. H. PEARSON, President of the Board of Trustees of the City of Burlingame. J. R. MURPHY, City Clerk.

Mr. MCCURDY. All of these resolutions not only heartily indorse the project, but pledge cooperation to this committee in all its investigations in this matter and showing generally a public-spirited attitude on behalf of our citizens for the location of the naval base site.

Senator BALL. If you will hand the papers to the stenographer they will be made a part of the record.

Mr. MCCURDY. Gentlemen, in presenting this site to you we do so solely as public-spirited citizens of San Mateo County. Not a single member of this committee owns a foot of land in the site that is presented for your consideration. We have no interest in this matter except as patriotic Americans, believing that this committee is interested in every site which is at all meritorious, and finally in its deliberations will decide, without political fear or favor, the most meritorious site for the establishment of this naval base.

In presenting our case to you, San Mateo is fortunate in securing the services of a man who for six years, from 1911 to 1917, was the chief executive officer of the San Francisco Harbor Commission, and as president of that commission had entire supervision of all the affairs of the San Francisco Harbor. During that period of six years the San Francisco Harbor was entirely remade, reformed, to meet the exigencies of the completion of the Panama Canal. As you know, the entire San Francisco water front is publicly owned and is State property, and during that period of years you may ascertain the magnitude of his service in the fact that $12,000,000 was spent in the improvement of San Francisco Harbor during his régime as president.

I now, Mr. Chairman, take pleasure in introducing to you and to the committee Mr. J. J. Dwyer, who will present San Mateo's proposed site to you.

Mr. J. J. DWYER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the senatorial and congressional delegation, and officers of the Navy, I may be asked at the outset why it is that San Mateo appears at what would seem to be a very late date in the matter of the selection of a site for the proposed base. The matter was presented in a very tentative way by a few property owners when the Helm Commission was here, but too late to receive much attention. Later the United States Shipping Board had in their employ, as United States resident engineer, A. W. Lasher for two years, and in pursuance of his duty as such resident engineer he was asked to investigate the San Mateo front as a site for a possible shipyard when the Government was so much in need of the speedy building of ships. That investigation was made by him, and in connection with that it occurred to him from his investigations that the site was suitable also for a naval base. He made a report in both aspects, and in the latter aspect the report is on file in the Navy Department records in the Bureau of Docks and Wharves --it was sent, I believe, to Admiral Rousseau. That was done within the last year, and, of course, too late to be considered by the Helm report or the McKean report. It was these investigations, made by a Government engineer, that brought to the attention of the people of San Mateo in their organized governmental capacity for the first time that they had in the possession of San Mateo County and of its citizens what they consider one of the most meritorious sites on the Bay of San Francisco for the location of this proposed base. Whether it is the most meritorious is for you gentlemen to determine.

Having this fact presented to their minds, the organized officials of San Mateo County, of San Mateo city, and of Burlingame, the adjoining town, felt it their patriotic duty to present the site to this delegation. We apprehend that nothing is decided until the final outcome of the matter is reached. We apprehend also that the suggestion may be made that we have been slothful. But this delegation is not here for the purpose of giving rewards to the vigilant, but for the purpose of selecting the most meritorious site. And in that view, even at this date, we have a desire to present to you for your consideration the San Mateo site.

The hearings this week have abbreviated to a very considerable extent the presentation on behalf of San Mateo, because many of the views I would have brought to your attention are already before you. And those views presented on behalf of other sites are useful and can be aggregated in our statement as applicable in bulk to San Mateo, because of its location, geographic, financial, commercial, and in all other aspects that have reference to the location of a base in this part of the waters, namely, the lower part of San Francisco Bay.

The location is indicated graphically on this map of the bay in color, and I call your attention to it with reference to the locations of the Alameda site, the Hunters Point site, and the San Mateo site this is the San Mateo site. On this map you will see portrayed by the United States Geodetic Survey the channel of the Bay of San Francisco, which is white. The shaded parts of the

map indicate the different mud flats, the darker shading and the lighter shading indicating the different depths. You will observe the most important fact in this connection, and one that must not be lost sight of, throughout the discussion, so far as we are concerned, which is that the white strip, the channel of the Bay of San Francisco, is on the San Francisco peninsula side of the bay, and it passes directly in front of the proposed site. San Mateo is a city on the peninsula of San Francisco, and the site is situated 10 miles south of Hunters Point. The city of San Mateo is distant, measuring from the city hall, 20 miles from San Francisco.

On the land side, communication can be said to be 20 miles in length and about 40 minutes, average running time for trains and fast electric cars and also on motor busses. There is abundant communication in that regard, and I won't expatiate on that feature. But what I want to impress upon you in the first place is the location of the city of San Mateo and the location of San Mateo County in immediate juxtaposition to San Francisco, the county line running through here [showing], which makes it unnecessary to say much more with regard to many of the general features of the discussion than to say that financially and commercially and in all that is involved in those two main propositions, San Mateo is a part, an intimate part, of San Francisco, and everything, consequently, that has been said with regard to San Francisco as a labor market or as a supply market, and in many other respects, applies, without going into detail, to San Mateo. In so far as any additional features peculiar to San Mateo exist, I shall endeavor to state them, and I think I am safe in saying that the major part of my statement will be, not in expatiating upon the substantial and essential characteristics of a naval base as applied to San Mateo, because they are all present, but upon the distinguishing features that are peculiar to San Mateo that justify us, even at this date, in asking for an official examination, an official survey, and official tests under orders of this delegation, of the same kind and character and extent that have been already afforded in the examination of the other proposed sites on this bay and the upper bay, and for the same public reason. We do not ask it for the benefit of San Mateo; we ask it for the benefit of the United States Government and of the proposed naval base, and for the efficiency and success and ease of operation of the proposed naval base.

First, a brief outline of the physical characteristics. This proposed site offers 3,200 acres of submerged land, fronting immediately on the Bay of San Francisco, the natural channel, where the hand of man has done nothing as yet in the way of development of navigation or harbor facilities. Those 3,200 acres have a frontage of about 31 miles on the natural channel of the Bay of San Francisco, that is here over 40 feet deep and about 1 mile wide, over the entire front of the proposed site. Later on we will come to something that may be running in the minds of some of you now, that in between Hunters Point and this channel in front of the city of San Mateo the water shallows to a depth of 21 feet, 20 to 21 feet, which of course would not permit the larger vessels of the Navy to pass through, and when we present this site, we present it in the confident belief that it can be made useful so that the largest vessel that now exists in the Navy can pass through it, and that it can be made, without undue expenditure,