pelled to secure assistance in various details of the matter from other persons. At the time that the contract of attorneyship was made the contract was submitted to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The contract was a wholly contingent one and provided, as made by the Indians, for a fee of 20 per cent of the recovery to the attorneys. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs after due consideration of the matter approved the contract with a reduction in the amount of compensation to a wholly contingent fee of 15 per cent, stating at the same time that the Indians had no just claim. This position the Indian Office and the Department of the Interior continued to assert until 1908.

Secretary Hitchcock declined to act at all upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs because of the doubt expressed by the commissioner as to the necessity for any action and the same was returned to the files of the Indian Office. Since then the attorneys for the Indians have prosecuted the case of the Pottawatomies and Congress also passed an act under which an enumeration of the Wisconsin Pottawatomies and a thorough computation was made of the shares to which they are entitled. This work has extended over a period of nearly 14 years.

It was in 1902 that the Indian Office and the Interior Department reversed their position on the merits of the claim of the Pottawatomies and recognized its justice, and the Sixty-third Congress recognized the claim by securing an item of $150,000 in the Indian appropriation bill approved June 30, 1913 (38 Stats., 102; 3 Kappler, 586).

The Secretary of the Interior, in recommending favorably on bill H.R. 1776, also recommends that the claim for services made by the attorneys be referred to the Court of Claims for adjustment on a quantum meruit, and also that the Rev. E. O. Morstad be paid $5,000 for his services to the Indians. Your committee recommends that the recommendations of the Secretary be adopted.

In conformity with the views above expressed, your committee recommends a substitute for section 1, as follows:

That for the purpose of carrying into effect the act of June twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four (Thirteenth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and seventytwo), and the act of June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and two), the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to place upon the books of the Treasury to the credit of that portion of the Wisconsin Band of Pottawatomie Indians now residing in the States of Wisconsin and Michigan the amount of money which shall be found as a balance due to the said Wisconsin Band of Pottawatomie Indians by the Secretary of the Interior, said balance to be determined as follows: By computing the interest on the original sum of $447,339, declared to be due said Pottawatomie Indians at the rate of four per centum per annum from April first, nineteen hundred and eight, to April fourth, nineteen hundred and ten, and on the balance thereafter found by deducting the various amounts spent out of the appropriations made by Congress for the said Pottawatomie Indians under the act approved April fourth, nineteen hundred and ten (Thirty-sixth Statutes at Large, page two hundred and eighty-eight), act approved August twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and twelve (Thirty-seventh Statutes at Large, page five hundred and thirty-nine), act approved June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and two), act approved August first, nineteen hundred and fourteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page six hundred and six), joint resolution approved March fourth, nineteen hundred and fifteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page one thousand two hundred and twenty-eight) act approved June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen (Thirty-eight Statutes at Large, page one hundred and two), said interest to be computed at the rate of four per centum on balance due said Indians between the dates of said acts of Congress and to

July first, nineteen hundred and sixteen. as the proportionate share of the said Wisconsin Band of the Pottawatomie Indians in the annuities and the land of the Pottawatomie Tribe in which they have not shared, as set forth in the report of the Secretary of the Interior to the House of Representatives, embodied in House Document Numbered Eight hundred and thirty, Sixtieth Congress, first session, confirmed in part by the act of Congress of June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and thirteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes at Large, page one hundred and two), appropriating the sum of $150,000 on account. Said sum shall draw interest at the rate of four per centum per annum. And there is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise, appropriated, for the purposes aforesaid, the amount of the balance found to be due to said Wisconsin Band of Pottawatomie Indians now residing in the States of Wisconsin and Michigan, as computed by the Secretary of the Interior by the method herein before set forth: Provided, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to pay to Erik O. Morstad, of Carter, Wisconsin, who has lived with and cared for said Indians for many years, the sum of $5,000, said sum to be paid from the amount placed to the credit of said Pottawatomie Indians.

Your committee reports back H. R. 1776 amended as herein before set forth and recommend that it do pass.

O

CLAIMS OF SISSETON AND WAHPETON BANDS OF SIOUX

INDIANS.

APRIL 3, 1916.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed.

Mr. STEPHENS of Mississippi, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following

REPORT.

[To accompany S. 585.]

The Cornmittee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (S. 585) conferring jurisdiction on the Court of Claims to hear, determine, and render judgment in claims of the Sisseton and Wahpeton Bands of Sioux Indians against the United States, having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it do pass.

Senate bill 585 is identical with H. R. 6022, which was the subject of a favorable report (H. Rept. No. 245) under date of February 21, 1916, and H. R. 6022 is No. 79 on the Private Calendar of the House. Reference is therefore made to Senate Report No. 123 and House Report No. 245 in connection with this bill.

64TH CONGRESS,
64TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
1st

PUBLIC-UTILITY FRANCHISES IN HAWAII.

APRIL 4, 1916.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. HAMLIN, from the Committee on the Territories, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 14071.]

The Committee on the Territories having had under consideration the bill (H. R. 14071) to amend certain public-utility franchises in the Territory of Hawaii, reports the same to the House with recommendation that the bill do pass without amendment.

This is a general bill offered as a substitute for two separate bills passed by the Legislature of Hawaii which have come to Congress for ratification and approval. Both of those bills embody the provision that the per cent of gross receipts which the franchise of each company now requires to be paid to the Territory of Hawaii shall hereafter be paid to the treasurer of the county in which the company operates.

In addition, the Territorial legislature has recently passed two other utility franchises for companies located in two additional counties, and in each case has specified that the per cent of gross receipts should be paid to the county in which the company is to operate.

Your committee feels that it is merely carrying out the intention of the Legislature of Hawaii in drafting this general law to apply to all public-utility franchises granted or approved by Congress, and therefore recommends that the bill do pass without amendment.

1st Session.

FLEET SUBMARINES.

No. 492.

APRIL 4, 1916.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.

Mr. PADGETT, from the Committee on Naval Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT.

[To accompany H. R. 13670.]

The Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 13670) amending an act entitled "An act making appropriations for the naval service for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, and for other purposes," relating to the authorization of fleet submarines, having had the same under consideration, report the same favorably with the following amendment, and as amended recommend that the bill do pass.

In line 3 strike out the word "provisions" and in lieu thereof insert the word "provision".

The naval appropriation act of March 3, 1915, provided for "two submarines, to be of seagoing type, to have a surface speed of 25 knots or more if possible, but not less than 20 knots, to cost, exclusive of armor and armament, not exceeding $1,500,000 each."

In an attempt to carry out the provisions of this act the department advertised for bids but found that it was unable to obtain a bid for a guaranteed surface speed of 20 knots, the minimum mentioned in the appropriation act, and the bill under consideration reduces the minimum surface speed from 20 to 19 knots. The following letter from the Navy Department to the chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs of the House of Representatives sets forth at length the action of the Navy Department in an attempt to carry out the provisions of the naval appropriation act of March 3, 1915.

NAVY DEPARTMENT, Washington, March 3, 1916.

MY DEAR MR. PADGETT: The naval appropriation act of March 3, 1915, provided, among other things, for

"Two submarines, to be of seagoing type, to have a surface speed of twenty-five knots or more if possible, but not less than twenty knots, to cost, exclusive of armor and armament, not exceeding $1,500,000 each."

This provision contemplated a submarine of unprecedented characteristics as regards speed. As the department had not contemplated such a departure, no preliminary investigation of the possibility of building a 25-knot submarine had been