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navy yard district was affected, thereby demonstrating again that navy yard organizations are for peaceful methods in disputes of any kind.

Labor conditions to-day in the bay district have made it such that mechanics of ability are seeking employment elsewhere than Oakland and San Francisco, and at the present time Mare Island is one of the establishments where men of a marine trade prefer employment; the board of labor records at Mare Island will bear this out.

EFFICIENCY AND PRODUCTION.

Efficiency of production at Mare Island by the workers employed thereon could be no better demonstrated in the cost of construction of the battleship California; destroyers Ward, Shaw, and Caldwell; the conversion to war craft of private yachts; tugs; the reconstruction of damaged German craft; the rebuilding of liners from passenger vessels to hospital ships; the construction of facilities for the successful operation of the yard, and many other items that stand out as a foremost record in the achievements when they are necessary during an emergency situation.

The records thus established are now jealously guarded by the men who made them.

WORKMEN OWNING THEIR OWN HOMES.

Vallejo in 1916 had close to 1,200 home owners who were employed upon Mare Island Navy Yard since 1916. Employees of Mare Island Navy Yard have increased in home ownership to 3,600, or practically 200 per cent increase. A visit to the outskirts of Vallejo will demonstrate the thrift of some employees.

The combined banks of Vallejo are now carrying upon their books aggregate loans of $2,510,551.70 which is only 60 per cent of the full value to home builders of this community.

Bank deposits in the past four years have shown a gain of $5,009,073.11 which consist mainly of naval employees, providing for their future welfare. Note Exhibit "C." General civic improvements and figures as to their cost are herewith attached and marked Exhibits "C," "D," "E," "F."

CONCLUSIONS.

Assuming conditions are reported favorably by the naval commission. The majority of the workers of Mare Island will at once proceed to acquire their own homes, a number of the local investors will extend their holdings. Commercial institutions will provide to meet the general community needs, thereby facilitating a general betterment of the rudiments that go to make up a contented "labor city" which in the end creates harmony and efficiency of production.

Respectfully submitted.

Wм. J. MITCHELL.

[Vallejo News, Dec. 1, 1920.]

HAD DIFFICULT TASK TO

DOCK CALIFORNIA AT HUNTERS POINT-EXAMINER SAYS SEVERE TIDAL CURRENTS COMPLICATED WORK.

Hauled along by eight powerful tugs and presenting a majestic sight to persons assembled along the water front, the huge United States superdreadnaught California safely completed her maiden journey down the bay yesterday and at 1.30 o'clock gracefully slipped into the Hunters Point Dry Dock.

It was a most difficult task. The maneuvering of the propellerless 30,000-ton vessel and severe tidal currents complicated the work. But the eight tugs under direction of Capt. W. H. Randall, well-known river pilot, accomplished the undertaking successfully.

When the big water gates of the dry dock slammed in on the California, the duty of the tugs was over. The authorities of the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation then assumed the difficult work of pinning the great vessel into the dock preparatory to emptying the basin of water.

The California started on her journey Monday afternoon from Mare Island Navy Yard, where she was built and launched. She was taken to a point opposite the Union Iron Works, where she anchored overnight and awaited the daytime high tide.

Amid a tooting of whistles and a waving of handkerchiefs and hats by ferry passengers, two tugs operated by the Rolph Navigation Co., under direction of Capt. Clem Randall, took the big war craft in tow. The other tugs had lines attached to the sides and stern to swing the vessel when needed.

The California will be thoroughly inspected at the dry dock by a naval board and he underpinning, which is stuck to her bottom from the launching ways, removed. After this she will be placed in the bay and additional work done, after which she will again be placed in the ways and her propellers attached.-San Francisco Examiner.

The article written, as he found conditions, by the Examiner reporter, in which he states that the severe tidal currents complicated the work of docking the superdreadnaught California at Hunters Point Dry Dock yesterday comes in at an opportune time, as it will help to make Mare Island's fight to secure the naval base docks bordering on the Carquinez Straits site more effective. The navy yard boosters have claimed right along that the Hunters Point site was not fit for a naval base because of the severe tidal currents and also because it is not safe from the guns of an attacking fleet, and the above, which is taken from the Examiner, but confirms the contentions of Vallejoites.

EXHIBIT A.

FEBRUARY 21, 1919,

Mr. W. J. MITCHELL,

Chairman Local Placement Committee,

United States Housing Corporation, Vallejo, Calif.

MY DEAR MR. MITCHELL: I take this opportunity of conveying to you my warm appreciation of your earnest and successful efforts as chairman of the local placement committee of the United States Housing Corporation. The duties were arduous and required a great deal of your time. The commandant is informed by Maj. Crist that your work has been very successful in reconciling differences between landlords and tenants and in promoting contentment among the employees of this yard. As you know, contentment among employees is closely associated with efficiency, and for this reason your efforts have received my highest commendation.

In taking leave of you the commandant desires to wish you every prosperity.
HARRY GEORGE,

Sincerely, yours,

Captain, United States Marines, Retired, Commandant.

EXHIBIT B.

EXTRACT FROM WEEKLY LETTER TO CALIFORNIA METAL TRADES ASSOCIATION.

A great many of our plants had lost approximately five months in 1919 through strikes, but we believed that those men who were employed beginning November 24, 1919, when we opened under the American plan, would work steadily and without the interruption that had been so costly to all concerned during the two years of 1918 and 1919. And we desire to state in this connection that our confidence has proved well placed, because we have all worked nearly a full year without the loss of one day due to interruption or interference from outside influences.

EXHIBIT D.

Vallejo City and subdivisions, assessed valuation and taxpayers.

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The Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches are constructing new structures of worship at a total cost of $300,000.

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2 Indicates an addition of 25 per cent to this figure, as private loans by individuals, otherwise than the financial institutions.

WAR DEPARTMENT, AIR SERVICE, OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR, Washington, December 7, 1920. DEAR MR. CURRY: I am answering your question of yesterday regarding the location of Mare Island Navy Yard from the standpoint of aerial offense and defense.

The fact that the Mare Island base is 26 miles from the coast line gives it a slight advantage over a station situated nearer the coast. The important factor is having aerial defense stations located close enough to provide the proper defense. The naval base at Mare Island is not located near any large center of population and, therefore, is not dependent on any big city for lines of communication or supplies. This in itself is a good point, inasmuch as a successful bombardment of a big city could easily disrupt all lines of communication in the immediate vicinity.

A rather general survey of the question would lead me to believe that the Mare Island naval base is strategically located from the aviation standpoint in the scheme of national defense.

Sincerely,

Hon. CHARLES F. CURRY,

Washington, D. C.

WM. MITCHELL,

Brigadier General, United States Army.
By MAXWELL KIRBY,
Major, Air Service, Assistant.

Mr. CURRY. After Mr. Smith has answered what questions you care to ask him, we will finish the matter up very rapidly, if it is your desire to go through with it now, before luncheon, or we can adjourn now for lunch.

Senator BALL. The committee would like to have all of the statements that are to be made to it made at this sitting.

Mr. PADGETT. Before we recess.

Mr. CURRY. Very well; it won't take over half an hour. I will call upon Mr. Smith, consulting engineer.

Mr. FRANCIS BETTS SMITH. There has been some reference made to the cost of Dry Dock No. 2 here at Mare Island. I had charge of the construction from 1905 up to the time of its completion in 1910. The cost of the construction of this Mare Island dry dock has no reference to the cost of any future constructions. There is no similar condition of formation at any other point along the water front. It is built in a geological fold; that is, the formation dips at this point. We have the shale outcropping back of the storehouse to the westward, and there is the shale hill at the lower end of the island where the magazines are located.

The head of Dry Dock No. 2, which is located to the eastward of the small dock, was wholly built in the shale formation. This shale formation, with impervious clay, underlies the bottom of Dock No. 2, but it was at such a depth that it required a special method of construction, which accounts for the excessive cost. At the outer end the hard bottom shelves off very rapidly until at a location 100 feet from the end of the dock, where 125 piles are driven, they were still in the mud.

The location was selected by the Miller Board with the idea that it was a natural dock location because there was a dip in the formation, and, as I remember, in questioning some of the oldest inhabitants here, who were conversant with the deliberations of the Miller Board, they decided that the dredging could be done at a less cost because it was mud. Therefore the cost of the Mare Island dry dock is no criterion of the cost of any other dry dock in this location.

So far as the other base locations are concerned, all my information is hearsay. I am not competent to make any statement in the

matter. If there are any questions you gentlemen would like to ask me in regard to the Pearl Harbor dry dock, I will be glad to answer them. I spent nine years constructing that dock.

Mr. Hicks. That was a peculiar formation that does not exist here; that was a coral formation, was it not?

Mr. SMITH. Yes; a coral reef. You have the same water-bearing strata; and one thing that we developed there which was peculiar to that location was that there was no arching action to the bottom, and when we removed the water from the cofferdam the weight of the surrounding reef, resting on the mud strata, forced up the underlying bottom with the failure of the whole temporary structures which formed the cofferdam.

Mr. HICKS. The whole bottom blew up after you got into it?
Mr. SMITH. Yes.

Mr. HICKS. I want to ask you if you know anything about the Alameda site?

Mr. SMITH. Just from hearsay. Looking at the borings, I would say that the formation is water bearing, just the same as that which we struck at Pearl Harbor.

Mr. HICKS. Would it have to be a gravity dock, similar to that? Mr. SMITH. Yes, it would have to be a gravity dock, and the Pearl Harbor method of construction would be very adaptable to that location, and probably would be the cheapest method to be used.

Mr. BRITTEN. Would it not be much easier, also, because of the soil conditions in Alameda, to build a dock there, than it was at Pearl Harbor?

Mr. SMITH. You would have the arch action, I think, in that bottom, and it would not be as precarious to construct, but it would be the cheapest method-that is, to follow the method that they followed at Pearl Harbor.

Mr. PADGETT. You would have the benefit of your Pearl Harbor experience there?

Mr. SMITH. Yes.

Mr. CURRY. I will ask Mayor Roney, of Vallejo, to address the committee.

Mayor JAMES RONEY. Gentlemen of the committee, I do not propose to make any attempt to enlarge upon the presentation that has been made by the gentleman who has preceded me. I am not going to consume any of your time unnecessarily, except to say the few things connected with the city of Vallejo.

As has probably been impressed upon you by this time, the city of Vallejo is wrapped up fully in the existence and in the full activities of the Mare Island Navy Yard. We have practically more than doubled our population since the beginning of the war. The assessed values, as the actual values, have more than doubled.

You will realize that the average workman, when he comes to a Government establishment, believes he has secured a somewhat permanent source of employment, and his first desire, when the means are available, is to provide himself with a home, and probably not 5 per cent of the people who have built homes and other structures in Vallejo since the beginning of the war have given the slightest consideration to analyzing the permanence of their investment. Therefore, there is probably eighteen or twenty millions of dollars invested over there, the permanence of which is wholly dependent upon the

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