O.-Statement showing articles of clothing, camp and garrison equipage, issued by the Quartermaster's Department to the Lady Franklin Bay and Point Barrow expeditions during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881. To whom issued. Object. Articles. Quan. tity. Lieut. A.W. Greeley, Fifth Cav- Lady Franklin Bay expedition. Buffalo coats alry, acting signal officer. Drawers. German socks. tion. Lieut. P. H. Ray, Eignth Infan- Point Barrow, Alaska, expedí- Buffalo overcoats. try Tinners' fools Arctic overshoes Respectfully submitted. S. B. HOLABIRD, Assistant Quartermaster-General, U. S. A. WAR DEPARTMENT, QUARTERMASTER GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 13, 1881. P.-Statement of returns of clothing, camp and garrison equipage received and examined," and of letters received and written, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881. Number of returns on hand for examination June 30, 1881 ... 1,316 Number of letters received pertaining to settlement of accounts and to inspection reports and boards of survey. Number of letters received, pertaining to purchase, manufacture, and issue of clothing and equipage.. 3, 461 2,078 Total.... 5,539 Number of letters written pertaining to settlement of accounts and to inspection reports and boards of survey. 6,726 Number of letters written pertaining to purchase, manufacture, and issue of clothing and equipage.... Q.-Statement of the clerical force employed in the clothing, camp and garrison equipage branch of the Quartermaster-General's Office during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881. In addition to this force, one general-service clerk has been detailed for duty in the clothing supply branch since January 7, 1881. Respectfully submitted. WAR DEPARTMENT, S. B. HOLABIRD, Assistant Quartermaster-General, U. S. A. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, 4.-Annual report of Lieut. Col. J. G. Chandler, Deputy QuartermasterGeneral, United States Army, of the operations of the QuartermasterGeneral's Office, pertaining to transportation and indebted railroads, regular and miscellaneous supplies, and miscellaneous claims and ac counts, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881. QUARTERMASTER-GENERAL'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., September 30, 1881. GENERAL: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this office pertaining to transportation and indebted railroads, regular and miscellaneous supplies, and miscellaneous claims and accounts, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881. TRANSPORTATION. During the year the Quartermaster's Department provided transportation by rail, water, wagon, and stage for 46,658 persons, 10,355 beasts, and 136,632 tons of material, as exhibited in statement hereto appended, marked A. The reports of payments for transportation made by disbursing officers of the department show an aggregate cash expenditure for this service of $1,802,931.37, of which $393,156.27 was for the transportation of persons, and $1,409,775.10 for the transportation of beasts and material. The larger movements of troops during the year were as follows: Third Cavalry, Companies C, G, and L, from Department of the Platte to Department of the Missouri, 291 miles. Second Artillery, Companies E, G, and L, from Department of Texas to Department of South, 1,080 miles. Sixteenth Infantry, headquarters and ten companies, from Department of the Missouri to Department of Texas, 705 miles. Twenty-fourth Infantry, headquarters and ten companies, from Department of Texas to Department of the Missouri, 608 miles. A statement showing these movements, with the length of march or movement in each case, is appended, marked B. Union Pacific. Kansas Pacific Sioux City and Pacific Total. RAILROAD TRANSPORTATION. By railroad 32,820 persons, 8,782 beasts, and 83,510 tons of material were transported under direction of the Quartermaster's Department during the fiscal year. Five hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and forty-two dollars and fifty-six cents was paid to the railroad companies in money for this service out of the appropriation for Army transportation, $212,729.90 being for the transportation of persons, and $307,912.66 for the transportation of live stock and freight. Eight hundred and thirty-six thousand six hundred and thirty-eight dollars and five cents was earned by the bonded Pacific Railroads in military transportation during the year, as indicated by accounts rendered, which will not be paid in money, but which, after adjustment and settlement through the accounting officers of the Treasury, will be applied, as directed by law, to the liquidation of their debts to the United States. Two hundred and fitty thousand dollars was earned by land-grant railroads in military transportation, estimated at ordinary rates for the services performed. No appropriation is available for payment for any military transportation over land-grant railroads during the fiscal year. * By decision of the Supreme Court the United States is entitled "to the free use of these railroads; * the companies are entitled to compensation for all transportation performed by them respectively of troops and property of the government, subject to a fair deduction for the use of their respective railroads." Assuming this fair deduction to be fifty per centum of ordinary rates, $125,000 is the estimate of the debt of the department for transportation over these roads during the year. Unsettled railroad accounts aggregating in amount about $200,000 are outstanding and cannot be paid until a deficiency appropriation is available, for the reason that the Army transportation appropriation for the last fiscal year has been expended. Therefore the total estimated value of railroad transportation furnished for the Quartermaster's Department during the year aggregates $1,807,280.61. BONDED PACIFIC RAILROADS. Nine thousand and ninety-three persons, 3,840 beasts, and 41,074 tons of material were transported over the bonded Pacific Railroads for the department during the year. The service performed by each road is shown in the following table: The amounts which will inure for this service to the credit of the respective railroads upon the books of the Treasury, computed at the full rates of their published tariffs of charges, aggregate the sum of $836,638.05. The amount inuring to each road is shown in the following table: *Merged into Union Pacific Railway Company, and now styled "Union Pacific Railway CompanyKansas Division." Large amounts of unsettled accounts of these companies have accumulated in this office and the Treasury, involving more work in their adjustment than can be accomplished by the limited clerical force which the office can spare from other current official duties. The following is a statement of the accounts of these companies which awaited examination and adjustment in this office and settlement by the Treasury at the close of the fiscal year: The extensions and consolidations of the Pacific railroad system have brought under the operation of the Pacific railroad laws thousands of miles of new railroad, the earnings of which by services performed for the government are withheld and applied as directed by law, and swell to an unprecedented extent the number and amount of accounts which can only be settled through this office and the Treasury. Hence these accounts are accumulating; the papers accompanying them are valuable. Those now in the office are vouchers to accompanying accounts representing a value of over a million dollars. They remain in the care and custody of this office, in a building not fire-proof, until they are reached and disposed of in their order by clerks who can be spared to work on them. The railroad companies are deprived of the credits due to them for the value of the services shown by these accounts until they are finally settled by the accounting officers of the Treasury. The following statement shows the total settlements for military transportation over these roads from the date when they were first opeued for traffic up to the close of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1881: No law affecting settlements with these roads for military transportation was passed during the last fiscal year. The following are the three laws which govern the adjustment of bonded Pacific railroad accounts for transportation furnished the Quartermaster's Department, viz: [1. Act of March 3, 1873, section 5260 Revised Statutes.] The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to withhold all payments to any railroad company and its assigns, on account of freights or transportation over their respective roads of any kind to the amount of payments made by the United States for interest upon bonds of the United States issued to any such company, and which shall not have been reimbursed, together with the five percentum of net earnings due and unapplied, as provided by law. This law applies to all the bonded Pacific railroads, and all the lines and branches owned, leased, controlled, and operated by them. [2. Act of May 7, 1878, section 2, 20 Stat., p. 58.] That the whole amount of compensation which may, from time to time, be due to said several railroad companies respectively for services rendered by the government shall be retained by the United States, one half thereof to be presently applied to the liquidation of the interest paid and to be paid by the United States upon the bonds so issued by it as aforesaid, to each of said corporations severally, and the other half thereof to be turned into the sinking-fund hereinafter provided, for the uses therein mentioned. This law applies to the Union and Central Pacific Railroads and the lines and branches owned, leased, controlled, and operated by those railroads. It does not apply to the Kansas Pacific, the Sioux City and Pacific, or the Central Branch Union Pacific. [3. Act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., p. 420).] That for the proper adjustment of the accounts of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, Kansas Pacific, Western Pacific, and Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Companies, respectively, for services which have been or may be hereafter performed for the government for transportation of the Army and transportation of the mails, the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to make such entries upon the books of the department as will carry to the credit of said companies the amounts so earned or to be earned by them during each fiscal year and withheld under the provisions of section fifty-two hundred and sixty of the Revised Statutes and of the act of Congress approved May seventh, eighteen hundred and seventy-eight: Provided, That this shall not authorize the expenditure of any money from the Treasury nor change the method now provided by law for the auditing of such claims against the government: Provided further, That this paragraph shall not be construed as to be a disposition of any moneys due or to become due to or from said companies, respectively, or to, in any way, affect their rights or duties or the rights of the United States, under existing laws, it being only intended hereby to enable the proper accounting officers to state upon the books of the Treasury the accounts between the government and said companies respectively. |