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? 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 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. 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: 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 -$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? Mr. EISENHOWER. The office of information has two appropriations, one for salaries and expenses, and one for printing and binding. The total of the 2 appropriations in 1932 was $1,420,961. The 2 were reduced to $1,226, 287 for the current year; that is, for 1934. The actual cash withdrawals during 1934 will amount to $916,966. In other words, we have come down from roughly $1,400,000 to roughly $900,000. The estimates for both of these appropriations for the fiscal year 1935 are identical with the current year's cash withdrawals, with the exception of an increase of $17,141 for the 5 percent salary restoration. The first appropriation, for salaries and expenses, was $420,961 in 1932, and $376,287 for the current fiscal year. The expenditures during 1934 will amount to $306,500 and again adding $17,141 for a 5-percent salary restoration, makes the estimate for 1935, $323,641. There have been some slight changes in the allocations to the various units in the Office of Information but they do not change the total of the appropriation at all. These slight shifts in allocations have come about because the national policy for American farming established by the Agricultural Adjustment Act has changed the emphasis of much of the information work of the Department of Agriculture. Our normal function, as the committee knows, is to take the knowledge and recommendations developed by the economic, scientific, regulatory, and conservation programs of the Department and place that new knowledge in the hands of the various individuals who can use it. Mainly, we use radio, the press, and publications as our means of doing that. We have continued this function. In fact, the Department's technical knowledge has become of increased importance to farmers and others; but in addition we now have the emergency program which has necessitated our giving tremendous emphasis to economic and social adjustments which have a single purpose-increasing the buying power of farm commodities. Of course, the Department has for years been disseminating valuable economic information, Now, however, with a positive national policy in economic planning and adjustment, much of the economic and other technical information can be directed toward specific actions that should be taken. In other words, we have had to take the economic facts as known by the Department and teach them to the individual farmer. EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM AMONG THE FARMERS I should like to cite briefly one example; it will serve to illustrate the whole service that we are rendering. The committee understands, of course, that our informational activities supplement the Extension Work which will be explained by Dr. Warburton. Even before the Agricultural Adjustment Act was passed, it was apparent that whatever type of plan was put into effect, it would be voluntary. That meant that each individual farmer had to have facts within his possession that would enable him to decide for himself whether or not he would voluntarily cooperate in a national plan to adjust total production. We reorganized our information machinery in a number of ways to meet the new demands. Arrangements were quickly perfected to clear some of the Departments press material exclusively through the agricultural extension editors in the 48 States. The Federal-State set-up makes it possible to keep extension editors in daily touch with the Department and provides them with material which they can localize for the use of about 10,000 newspapers. Radio activities were similarly correlated, with 41 States cooperating on adjustment information. So, by radio and through the press, primarily, and sometimes supplemented by publications, we did reach every farmer in the Southusing the cotton program as an example-with facts, for instance, about the world supply of cotton, about the domestic supply, about the consequences of unbalanced production, surpluses, and low-purchasing power; the relationship between the price of cotton and the supply of cotton; and what the probable price of cotton would be if the supply were reduced by a certain percentage. The Agricultural Adjustment Administration in the meantime perfected its own organization and established a Division of Information as one of its major units. Working closely with that division, we continued our network and a syndicate radio services and the dissemination of all departmental information that would be helpful to southern farmers. The two organizations worked together. The individual farmer used all these facts in making up his mind as to whether or not he would sign a contract, and I think the fact that more than a million farmers did sign contracts during just a 4-week campaign, indicates that the educational material supplied by extension and information machinery not only reached them but reached them effectively. Mr. CANNON. That was what percentage of the total number who might have signed? Mr. EISENHOWER. I think there are about 1,500,000 cotton farmers who might have signed. One million and forty-two thousand did sign. Mr. CANNON. That would be something like 66% percent? Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes; however, farmers producing less than 100 pounds of list cotton per acre were not eligible to sign, and some contracts covered a number of farms operated by tenants. Mr. CANNON. Did that come up to your program or did pate getting more or less? you antici Mr. EISENHOWER. I think officials of the Administration were quite well satisfied with the showing. My understanding is that if you leave out the farmers who were not eligible to sign contracts, nearly 90 percent of those remaining did sign. That is an astounding record. Mr. SINCLAIR. Did you put on a similar campaign with reference to wheat? Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes, sir; the two organizations put out similar information on wheat, corn, hogs, and so on. We, of course, did not conduct the actual campaign. What we are doing is educating people. Consequently we have put out the basic facts on practically all crops, so that no matter what program the Agricultural Adjustment Administration should undertake, the farmer would have the economic background on which to act. Mr. SINCLAIR. Have you any way of knowing what percentage of the wheat farmers responded? 35962-34- -3 |