that Secretary Baker was going to do the best he could for us, and probably order the soldiers to be housed in fireproof buildings. In Surg. Gen. Ireland's office, when Surg. Gen. Ireland said: "What you want is a fireproof building for the soldiers?" Mrs. Sevey said: "We want the best there is," and Surg. Gen. Ireland said: “Well, then, you need a fireproof building." I said: "Are there none to be had?" He said: "Yes; I have recommended several to the War Department." He said: "The Speedway Hospital is one." We got more information in regard to the Speedway Hospital and its excellences in the department in Washington than we did in Chicago. We found out it was very good; and then Mrs. Sevey said: "In God's name, then, why is not this hoptial used for the boys, instead of these frame structures, or some other similar hospital constructed on fireproof lines? And Surg. Gen. Ireland threw up his hands. He had

no answer.

Now, that is the question that the women of the United States are asking: Why let any little political feuds or fancies or former things interfere and keep our boys from having the proper place?

Senator HARDWICK. The best hospital they can get?

Mrs. FISHER. The best they can get.

Now, to show you, when we went back we had a mass meeting. These protests are coming in. This [indicating package of cards] is one day's protests-"I am in favor of fireproof hospitals for wounded soldiers "that came in from Chicago in one day, unsolicited, nobody going around on a salary to get them, women bringing them in. Here is a telegram I got to-day:

Two thousand protest cards signed to-day. Request for speakers from 18 clubs.

That shows that the campaign is still going on, and the women are not satisfied, and they will not be satisfied until they get a fireproof hospital for their boys.

I should like now to have you gentlemen hear the other ladies, who will give you some technical information more exactly than I could do. They are a little bit better versed in such matters. I am simply a newspaper woman and also a mother.

Senator HARRDWICK. Let me ask you one question there. I saw or heard in some way in some telegram which one of these ladies sent me that there was some complaint that they were subjected to criticism, or shadowed, or something of the sort, when they came down. here about this hospital matter. Do you know anything about that phase of it?

Mrs. FISHER. Yes, sir. We have been interviewed by gentlemen purporting to be from the Department of Justice, asking us questions, inquiring as to our motives, impugning them. I want to say right here and now that the Women's Press paid for all the expenses of this. It paid the expenses of the campaign before, in the "dry fight. We were the only newspaper in Chicago that did that. Some of these ladies were quite able to pay their own expenses, but we insisted that it was a fight that the Women's Press was making at the request of these women, the heads of various clubs, and we wanted them to be doing this for the Women's Press, to help us in our campaign, and the Women's Press paid all the expenses, and nobody else had any interest in it.

Senator HARDWICK. Has Mr. Edward Hines, or any other person connected with the Chicago Speedway proposition, promoted this propaganda in any way that you know of?

Mrs. FISHER. I think the only thing that has helped is that I read his wonderful article which appeared in the Chicago Tribune; but that is all the help that I have ever had.

Senator HARDWICK. He has never done anything

Mrs. FISHER. I never heard of the gentleman and never saw him, to my knowledge, or any member of his family.

Senator HARDWICK. You have no prejudice in his favor; you just want the best hospital you can get?

Mrs. FISHER. We want the best fireproof hospital the boys can have.

Senator HARDWICK. Thank you very much, madam, for your statement. Do you gentlemen want to ask this lady any questions! Mr. ADCOCK. I do not.

Senator HARDWICK. Do you, Mr. Bennet?

Mr. BENNET. Just one question. Dr. Ireland told me that he had made a statement to you ladies-I presume it was to you ladies—that if you so desired he would see that no Chicago soldier was ever housed in this wooden hospital at Fort Sheridan. Is that correct?

Mrs. FISHER. He did; he made that statement, and one of the ladies I think she is right here said it was not fair to take better care of our Chicago boys; we were just as much interested in the boy from Peoria as we were in the boys from Chicago; they were all entitled to the best possible hospital accommodations.

Senator HARDWICK. You do not want any American boy put in a hospital that is not good enough for a Chicago boy, do you? Mrs. FISHER, No.

Mr. BENNET. There is just one other thing. I did, as Mr. Hines's attorney, come to look you up in the New Willard, and from my good appearance you mistook me for a newspaper man? [Laughter.]

Mrs. FISHER. I thought you were a reporter from the Tribune, and I was rather fighting shy of you.

Senator HARDWICK. The committee excuses you, madam, with its thanks for your statement.

(Mrs. Fisher stated that Mrs. Sevey would be the next witness.) Senator HARDWICK. I forgot to swear the first witness. Mrs. SEVEY. I wish to be sworn, sir.

TESTIMONY OF MRS. GEORGE E. SEVEY.

(The witness was duly sworn by the acting chairman.)

Mrs. SEVEY. Mr. Chairman, I do not know that I can add anything to what Mrs. Fisher has said, except to say that my motives in this matter were purely humanitarian. My attention was called to it first by being called to the telephone and receiving a complaint from a woman with a foreign accent who said she had two boys over on the other side, one of them wounded, and other ill. She wondered if these boys were going to be housed in this building that she said was going to burn up, and I of course could not give her any information. Later on Mrs. Fisher called me, and in view of the fact that I have been interested in all the work that has been going on

Senator HARDWICK. I beg your pardon; just a moment: Are you connected with the organization of which Mrs. Fisher spoke? Mrs. SEVEY. Yes, I am. I am one of the committee.

Senator HARDWICK. The executive committee?

Mrs. SEVEY. No; I am just a mother that had a boy in the service. Senator HARDWICK. But, I say, of what committee are you a member?

Mrs. SEVEY. The Women's War Hospital Committee.

Senator HARDWICK. Oh, yes; the Women's War Hospital Committee.

Mrs. SEVEY., Mrs. Fisher, as I say, called me and asked me if I would go out to Fort Sheridan, investigate the condition out there, and, if I found it warranted a protest, would I join with her committee in protesting against this building? I questioned her very closely as to her motives, not wishing to be identified with any propaganda for any particular building, as I had been reading considerable in the papers, first one side then the other, relative to the Speedway Hospital and the Marshall Field Building, etc. She satisfied me that the hospital situation was a serious one and asked me to go out, and I did.

I found a situation at Fort Sheridan that I could hardly believe existed in a time when we had been at war for 18 months, and we knew when we were sending those boys over there that some of them were going to come back ill, if not wounded; and it occurred to me that some suitable place should have been provided for these boys. I had in mind that there were a great many large buildings, fireproof, in the city of Chicago, and also in the outlying districts of Chicago, such as North Shore, or such as South Shore, that could have been fitted up for hospital purposes. . I knew that if I had the authority for 24 hours I could have gone out and found fireproof buildings, and added to that fireproof construction the fire safety which Sur-geon General Ireland's office thinks is a very important thing in this matter, and I would have had a safe place for our boys.

I found a hospital out at Fort Sheridan, one end of it on flat ground, the other end of it approximately 16 feet from the ground. Standing up alongside of it, gauging my own height, and then doubling that again, it occurred to me that it was just about 161 feet from the ground. The underpinnings were, I think, cedar posts, 8 and 10 inches through the center. On the side were 2 by 4's of pine, very porous and rich in rosin. The clapboards that closed the building in were seven-eighths of an inch pine. This is a piece of the wood, Mr. Chairman [producing sample of wood]. It was not sorted out from any particular spot, but was picked up at random from a great lot of wood that had been sawed off generally.

I am the mother of two children, one a boy who is now out of the service. He was in the service for 18 months. My first thought was, How comfortable would I feel if my boy, injured or sick, should be in those buildings? I do not think I could have quietly and calmly gone about the even tenor of my way with the knowledge that my boy was in a building like this. I think I would have been on my knees to everybody in authority in Washington.

I then investigated the exits of these buildings. I found on the 16foot side of the building that there were no exits at all; just windows.

I found that those windows had an old-fashioned plunger clasp, which you have to take hold of in this way [indicating], and then push with all your might, such as we used down in rural Ohio when I was a girl some years ago.

Senator HARDWICK. Not so long ago.

Mrs. SEVEY. Yes, sir. [Laughter.] There were no pulleys and no ropes-nothing whereby a man might use his elbow if his hands were off, or his feet if his arms were off, to push open that window. Latterly we found that it took two men, two big men of full strength, to try and get open the window, and they could not open it at all. Mr. Sollett, the constructing engineer, was one of these men. The windows were stuck down-all stuck down as far as I could see-in this particular building on account of the paint having dried in. Leaving aside the fact that a man could not get out of those windows, there is not any chance for fresh air to get in to sick men. That, to me, is a serious thing, too.

Ón the well side of the building-Mr. Chairman, may I show you this [producing plan]? This is the outside of this building, of the east building here. This is exactly or approximately 16 feet from the ground, and these 2 by 4's that are here support the building, and they are reenforced by other 2 by 4's put this way, as you see, right there [indicating].

Senator HARDWICK. I see

Mrs. SEVEY. Crosswise; yes.

Senator TRAMMELL. Braced.

crosswise?

Mrs. SEVEY. Then, through the center are the 8-inch and 10-inch posts, I presume, of cedar. They may be slow burning but they do ignite, I believe.

Then the wiring underneath here is just an insulated wire strung from post to post, put through porcelain knobs right underneath here, all in through here [indicating]. There is also dividing off the partitions here, and then in thirds through the under part of the building, plaster board. I asked Mr. Sollett if that plaster board would not burn. He tried to tell me by taking an incinerator, one of these blowpipes-gas pipes and putting it to the center of the board. I asked him if he would not put it to the side of the board and see if it would not ignite, which he refused to do. I then asked if he would give me the blowpipe and allow me to touch it to any piece of this wood, and he refused to do that.

Coming to the exits here, there are two exits on this side of the building, two stairs that come down from the porch and then return back again-pass themselves a long way. They drop into a well, as we called it here an exit. This exit is closed entirely by this board fence that is around through here. There is not even that much opening now to this particular well space; there is just a door.

I asked Capt. Ludwig how it happened that this exit, the only exit in that wing of the building for men, if they got down here in this well, how they were going to get out. He replied that they were going to arch this place now. I asked him if it was specified in the plan of the building originally, and he told me that the detail was left to him. I called his attention to the fact that this had all been painted and apparently finished-a finished piece of work, with doors hung on hinges, etc. and I asked him if it was fair to presume

that this expense of finishing all this work was going to be undone by arching this out, and what was the reason for arching this, and what called for this arching. He said so that the men could get out of the burning building and so that firemen with fire apparatus could get in. I asked him then if it was not a fact that this had been decided upon since our return from Washington. He did not quite reply to my question, but just smiled. I then told him that our trip was worth the effort if we succeeded in getting that much done. Now, then, the other day a gentleman called me on my phone and told me that he had left for me at the Women's Press a paper. May I read this paper and leave it? It is addressed to Mr. Lucius Teter, of the Chicago Savings Bank & Trust Co., 7 East Madison Street, Chicago. Mr. Teter, as I understand it, is the retiring president of the chamber of commerce. This is a photographic copy.

Mr. ADCOCK. The association of commerce.

Mrs. SEVEY. And it is signed by the commissioner of buildings, Charles Bostrom. It confirms my statement made to Secretary of War Baker.

Mr. ADCOCK. To save duplication, I think that letter is in the Stotesbury report.

Mr. BENNET. Oh, no; there is no such letter as that in the Stotesbury report.

Mr. ADCOCK. There is a letter from Mr. Bostrom in the record. Senator HARDWICK. Maybe this is from the same man; but suppose you read it, if you like.

Mrs. SEVEY. My argument against these buildings was the fact that the first floor is 16 feet from the ground and the second floor is approximately 3 stories from the ground. No well man could jump and get out of that building with any degree of safety. My argument also was that in case of fire-as fire does not creep but comes with a roar and an onrush—the smoke geenrated from these inflammable pieces of wood and the roar of the fire would make it impossible for firemen to get within 300 feet of that building. Both the smoke and the heat would keep them from getting these sick boys out of that building. That is confirmed by this letter to Mr. Teter:

Mr. LUCIUS TETER,

7 East Madison Street, Chicago.

DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS,
Chicago, December 21, 1918.

DEAR SIR: In response to your recent request, as well as to the request of sev eral other prominent business men of this city, I have visited the homes or hospitals for wounded soldiers now under construction at Fort Sheridan for the purpose of forming an opinion as to their safety from fire hazard.

I find after a brief observation of the general construction and the material used for the erection of these buildings and the limited area of the ground they are situated on that there exists a great fire hazard even to this extent: That if a fire occurred during a dry spell, especially if accompanied by a wind of any consequence, it would soon pass beyond control and would sweep all the structures before it. Not only that, it would create such a great volume of dense smoke that it would probably be impossible for attendants to assist patients to leave the adjoining buildings that were threatened with fire.

I am glad that my just ordinary common sense on this matter has been verified by an expert.

I further want to state that I do not feel any frame structure is reasonably safe for hospital purposes where more than one story high and more than 4,500 square feet in area and is nearer than 200 feet to any other frame building.