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Mr. NELSON. Yes, sir.

Mr. CANNON. Have you any record of a decrease in the amount of taxes paid for these buildings?

Mr. NELSON. The tax rate this year drops from $1.70 to $1.50. Mr. SANDLIN. You mean the assessed valuation?

Mr. CANNON. Yes. Have you a record of such changes?

Mr. NELSON. No; I haven't it with me, but in some cases there has been a material reduction.

Mr. CANNON. Would you say more than 10 percent?

Mr. NELSON. Not more than that; no, sir.

We are showing this apparent increase of $18,000 for 1935, but actually what we have been compelled to do is to ask for an authorization to use some of our miscellaneous expense money to permit us to continue to occupy these structures during the current year. It is manifestly impossible for us to house the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and at the same time abandon these temporary rented

structures.

ALLOTMENT OF P.W.A. FUNDS

Mr. SANDLIN. These emergency funds, amounting to $340,800, were allotted under the National Industrial Recovery Act?

Mr. NELSON. Yes, sir. The following statements is presented for the record:

Allotments under the National Industrial Recovery Act, aggregating $340,800 have been made for the physical improvement of Department buildings, as follow ::

Replace obsolete elevator in 300 Linworth Place SW..

Install car position indicators and replace guide rails on all elevators in
east and west wings..

Supply reserve rotating element for all elevators in Department.
Complete the change from direct to alternating current throughout the
Department..

Install additional distribution transformers

Extend fire-alarm system to east and west wings and 300 Linworth Place SW.; also the enlargement of the central fire signal board in guard office..

Equip chemical laboratories with explosion and fire-prevention devices.
Provide automatic water sprinkling system and other automatic ex-
tinguishing systems in basements and subbasements of permanent
structures, also ventilation as required........

Erect fire walls, fire doors, and provide certain extinguishing equipment
as required for adequate fire protection throughout the Department.
Install incinerator equipment for the disposal of trash_
Provide sidewalk at south end of South Building..
Cleaning the marble work on the east and west wings-

Modernize toilets and cleaning gear rooms in the east and west wings.
Replace terrazzo flooring in corridors of east and west wings.
Modernize the steam, compressed air, and vacuum distributing systems
in the east and west wings.

Painting the interior of the east and west wings and the Administration
Building, where required...

Extend direct current service in the South Building, for apparatus where
direct current only can be used and volume when Department labora-
tories concentrated will justify direct service...

Total....

$12, 000

5, 000

5, 000

20, 000

7, 800

20, 000

30, 000

125, 000

25, 000

6,000

1,000

6,000

10, 000

10,000

20,000

30, 000

8,000

340, 800

After these allotments were made, responsibility for building administration and maintenance was transferred to the Department of the Interior pursuant to Executive Order No. 6166, and the bulk ($338,108) of these funds was therefore transferred to that Department effective November 1, 1933, for expenditure.

Subsequent to the compilation of the Budget, an addicional allotment of Public Works funds has been made in the sum of $10,725 for alterations, installation of additional equipment, etc., in connection with the Department cafeteria. Mr. SANDLIN. Does your Department have anything to do with spending that money?

You

Mr. NELSON. Not since the issuance of the Executive order. will note that on November 1 the transfer of this amount, $338,108, was made to the Secretary of the Interior in order that he might assume responsibility for the performance of the work authorized by the Public Works Administration under these projects.

Mr. SANDLIN. Then you cannot tell us what he is doing with these sums now?

Mr. JUMP. This list, I think, Judge, will cover what will be done, because the same things will have to be done. It is just a question of whether we would do it or whether the Interior Department would make the contracts.

Mr. SANDLIN. Is there any further information that you can give us other than that which is already given in this statement?

Mr. NELSON. No, sir; I do not think so. If you have any one item in mind, I would probably be able to explain what was contemplated. The largest item there is $125,000 for installation of automatic sprinkling systems in the buildings in order to reduce the existing fire hazards. With the number of laboratories operating in the Department, it has been recommended by the fire marshal that we provide either automatic water or carbon dioxide sprinkling systems in order to eliminate the dangers that now exist from explosion and fire.

Mr. SANDLIN. Are any of these projects now being worked on? Mr. NELSON. Yes; they are all being carried on under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. SANDLIN. Now?

Mr. NELSON. Yes.

Mr. CANNON. With the completion of this building, do you expect to eliminate all rented quarters?

Mr. NELSON. If we can shrink the Agricultural Adjustment Administration down to the proper point, we can occupy just the Administration, the South Building, and the building at 300 Linworth Place. However, we are put in a position now of abandoning quarters on the Mall in front of the new Interstate Commerce Building, which may necessitate our having to provide quarters elsewhere. They are widening Constitution Avenue and the buildings that we have are in the way of that widening operation. We expect momentarily to be notified of the necessity to vacate.

Mr. HART. Is that a Government building or rented building?
Mr. NELSON. It is a Government building.

Mr. CANNON. You do not expect, then, even eventually to house all of your activities in the main building?

Mr. NELSON. Our present requirements are 1,416,311 square feet. We have in anticipation 1,292,977 square feet. So if the Agricultural Adjustment Administration requires the present ratio of space we will have a shortage of 123,334 square feet.

Mr. CANNON. That is a temporary activity?

Mr. NELSON. It was set up as an emergency for a limited period.

QUARTERS OCCUPIED DECEMBER 1, 1933, AND AVAILABLE ON COMPLETION OF BUILDING PROGRAM

Mr. SANDLIN. Will you put this statement from which you have been reading in the record?

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Space available for occupancy upon completion of present building program Administration-South Building and Weather Bureau groups:

Administration.

East Wing

West Wing.

South Building (Treasury Department estimate)

300 Linworth Place SW.

Weather Bureau group..

Net area (sq. ft.

81, 853

53, 635

65, 501

900, 000

42, 666

38, 723

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NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Mr. THURSTON. How many employees have you in the Department of Agriculture?

Dr. STOCKBERGER. We had in the regular Department, not including the Agricultural Adjustment Administration, on December 31 in Washington, 4,924. In the A.A.A. in Washington on the same date there were 3,794. You see we have that additional force of nearly 4,000 to provide space for in the space in which we had expected to house the regular Department.

Mr. THURSTON. Of course the set-up in the A.A.A. is largely clerical as distinguished from the set-up in the regular Agricultural Department, which needs space for experimentation and other work that naturally requires more room per employee than such a temporary force?'

Dr. STOCKBERGER. Yes; that is largely true. They have a very extensive clerical force in connection with handling statistical records, and so forth. At the same time there is a substantial number of employees in that organization which cannot be successfully crowded into the minimum amount of space.

Mr. SANDLIN. The force in the A.A.A. work three shifts, do they not?

Mr. STOCKBERGER. No; only a portion of them, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. JUMP. But it is a substantial portion.

Mr. STOCKBERGER. Yes.

Mr. JUMP. That is the bad feature. We ought to get rid of that double-shift situation when we can get the space.

Mr. NELSON. A major fraction connected with the record unit works on a 3-shift basis.

Mr. JUMP. A large number of them have to occupy a room in the basement of that building. It is not the kind of place we ought to have to use for that sort of thing, and we will not eventually, but we have had to adopt those makeshifts, in order to get the work out. Mr. SANDLIN. Have you completed your statement?

Mr. NELSON. Yes.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1934.

OFFICE OF INFORMATION

STATEMENT OF M. S. EISENHOWER, DIRECTOR OF INFORMATION

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. SANDLIN. We will take up the items for the Office of Information. The first item, salaries and expenses, is as follows:

For necessary expenses in connection with the publication, indexing, illustration, and distribution of bulletins, documents, and reports, including labor-saving machinery and supplies, envelops, stationery and materials, office furniture and fixtures, photographic equipment and materials, artists' tools and supplies, telephone and telegraph service, freight and express charges; purchase and maintenance of bicycles; purchase of manuscripts; traveling expenses; electrotypes, illustrations, and other expenses not otherwise provided for, $323,641, of which not to exceed $308,394 may be used for personal services in the District of Columbia.

Mr. EISENHOWER. The following statement is presented for the record:

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17, 141

Increase, Budget 1935, compared with estimated obligations, 1934...

The reduction of $52,646 in the estimate of $323,641 below the appropriation of $376,287 for 1934 consists of:

Impoundment of 6% percent of 15-percent pay cut..

Curtailments in 1934 working funds.

3-percent salary restoration__.

WORK DONE UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

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-$22, 842 -46, 945 +17, 141

-52, 646

The work under this appropriation consists of correlating and disseminating useful information and data developed by the economic, emergency adjustment, research, service, and regulatory programs of the Department. This educational program is carried forward through numerous radio stations, in cooperation with the press, and by issuing technical and popular publications. The office of information handles all problems affecting the informational activities of the Department, including the editorial, illustrating, printing, and distribution phases, and supervises the informational activities of the 19 bureaus and offices of the Department. The office cooperates with 300 radio stations daily, which donate to the Department 35,000 hours of time annually. The office prepares annually 3,000 separate manuscript radio programs, approximately 1,200 press releases, and edits about 1,600 technical and popular manuscripts. The office cooperates with all agricultural colleges and experiment stations in maintaining an effective national policy for agricultural information; it also coordinates information of the Department with that of the Farm Credit Administration, Subsistence Homestead Division, Central Statistical Board, and other governmental agencies. In the present emergency, greatest emphasis is placed on economic adjustments to increase the buying power of farm commodities. Because the national farm program depends almost wholly on the voluntary cooperation of producers, the Department must use every means available to acquaint farmers with facts about supply-anddemand maladjustments, prices, and possible remedies; only with such facts at their command can farmers intelligently shape a program to improve their economic status.

Mr. SANDLIN. If you have any general statement to make, Mr. Eisenhower, will you make it at this point?

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