The chairman of this sub-committee did report unfavorably, and, as I have already stated, a manufacturer of gloves from an inland section of the country was able to defeat the recommendation for the adoption of a means of defence for this country which the best qualified officers in the United States service of both the army and the navy had recommended as of great value, and superior to other defensive means known to them at that time. It was this type of vessel which Germany later developed and which has so far been able to keep great fleets of almost the entire world from her shores. Recently the ex-member of Congress referred to in this connection was sentenced to imprisonment for attempt to defraud the government in other matters. [Illustration: OFFICIAL DRAWING OF THE CAPTURED GERMAN MINE-PLANTING SUBMARINE, U. C-5 Copyright by Munn & Co., Inc. Published exclusively in the _Scientific American_ by permission of the British Admiralty and here reproduced by its courtesy.] I am a great believer in the value of this type of vessel for harbor and coast-defence work, and I believe that in one country vessels of this type are now engaged as mine layers in the present war. Our own government has to this day no submarine vessel equipped for the laying of mines, although the Commandant of the School of Submarine Defence repeatedly urged their adoption. I quote from the annual report of the Commandant of Submarine Defence, 1904-1905: "As in the case of movable torpedoes, the question of the use of submarine boats as adjuncts to the fixed-mine defence of the country has been under consideration by the board for the revision of the Report of the Endicott Board during the past year, and the Torpedo Board has been called on for remarks on this subject.