STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS L. BLANTON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Blanton has a matter that he wishes to present to the committee. We will be glad to hear you now, Mr. Blanton. Mr. BLANTON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I would like to make a few observations regarding stopping the printing of useless bulletins and other documents by the Department of Agriculture, which abolition in all departments I have advocated for a number of years, and I want to give the committee the benefit of some experience I have had relating to them.

There is a precinct in my district which I have in mind populated largely by farmers. There have been elections when I would carry that precinct by practically a solid vote. Because of that fact, and further because I thought they would be interested, I got a poll tax list, and for four years I sent them the Agricultural Yearbook every year, every one of them. I picked 10 of the agricultural bulletins which I deemed of most value to a farmer. I picked the ones on canning fruits and vegetables, meats, drying fruits and vegetables, terracing farm lands, mixing concrete on the farm, the raising of hogs and their diseases, and raising poultry of all kinds. I sent those 10 to every one of them. This year I lost that precinct almost by a solid vote.

After the election I began to investigate, while making speeches for our national ticket, and I found that those farmers considered that I had been wasteful of the people's money in sending them the yearbooks and the bulletins. I asked them the question, whether or not they thought it was a waste and should be stopped; and they all agreed that it was a waste of public money to print them. I said, “Why, I thought that the Agricultural Yearbook was a book of great value,' and many of them said, "Mr. Blanton, we have checked up on those books, and we find that it is a repetition, with just a few changes every year. It ought not to be printed oftener than every 10 years. Let the changes be printed; a very small pamphlet would cover the changes.'

And, to my great surprise, I could not find one of them who had ever read a bulletin. They said, "Why, we know how to can fruits and vegetables; we have canned more this year than we have ever

canned before. We know how to mix concrete. Our demonstration agents teach us how to terrace farm lands, in a practical demonstration."

That convinced me against these yearbooks and bulletins. I do not believe that there is a farmer in my district who thinks a yearbook is worth while or that a bulletin now is worth while. I have tried to stop these publications for several years.

A shrewd politician and demagogue heaped ridicule upon Congress in denouncing many of the foolish bulletins published by the department. He would take up bulletin after bulletin that you and I have tried to stop the publication of, and read foolish extracts from them and refer in his speech to the foolish bulletins that the department has gotten out, and there are many. There are some of the most foolish and nonsensical passages in the various bulletins that I have ever read in my life. We ought to stop it.

I am of the opinion that we ought not to permit a Year Book to be printed oftener than once in 10 years. Let them print annually small bulletins covering changes. And I think we ought to stop them right now from printing these thousands of useless bulletins.

I want to mention one other thing, and I shall not take up the time of the committee further.

I had to go to Brownsville, which is over 600 miles from where I live, although it is still in Texas; it is in Speaker Garner's districtMr. BUCHANAN. Down near Mexico?

Mr. BLANTON. Yes. Just as I got there, there drove up a car with big letters on the outside reading, "United States Department of Agriculture." Two dapper young fellows stepped out of it; they looked like they had just come out of college; and I went over and met them. I said, "Boys, what are you doing down here?" They said, "We are representing the United States Department of Agriculture in Washington." I said, "I could see that on your car; but what are you actually doing here?" "We are checking up on dog ticks." I said, "How long have you been here?" "Several weeks. 'Where are you going?" "Up to El Paso.

Now, Judge Buchanan knows that El Paso is probably 500 miles up the river from Brownsville; is it not, Judge?

Mr. BUCHANAN. Well, not under 400, anyway.

Mr. BLANTON. Every dollar that those boys spent down there, drawing their salaries, drawing per diem, drawing subsistence allowances, and expense of maintaining automobiles-every dollar of that was wasted. Judge Buchanan knows as well as I do that dog ticks have nothing to do with cattle ticks. All of that work was lost down there, and all that money was a waste.

Two or three years ago I was coming from New Mexico through El Paso to my home, down highway No. 1, which runs from El Paso to Texarkana, 900 miles. I got out there in a country where it is practically 30 miles between towns and you hardly see a house-out there in that section around Sierra Blanca and Kent and there was a great big sign in the road reading, "United States Department of Agriculture Stop." And every car that came along there was stopped-passenger cars, limousines coming from California and going to New York-these Federal agents made you stop and let them examine your car and see whether you had any cottonseed.

It was a most ridiculous performance. Every person that went along that highway and was stopped there during that period of a few months, to see if he had any cottonseed in his limousine, immediately became obsessed with the idea that the Government was interfering with private business, and in a foolish way that brought no good whatever to the country.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Where was the last place that they examined the cars?

Mr. BLANTON. It was somewhere near Sierra Blanca; between Sierra Blanca and Ysleta, I think.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Is that on the New Mexico line?

Mr. BLANTON. Oh, no; that is a hundred miles east of El Paso, on highway No. 1, the highway that runs from El Paso to Texarkana, 900 miles across our State.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I presume that was the inspection on account of the pink bollworm.

Mr. BLANTON. Well, it would have been all right for them to stop any kind of truck, or something that could have had cottonseed in it. But you have no idea what a continuous stream of limousines-New York limousines-come along that highway, going back and forth from New York to California and from California back to New York; and to stop those people was simply ridiculous. Why, they stopped my car at 11 o'clock at night to see if it had any cottonseed in it.

The people want the Federal Government to keep out of that business in the States.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I also think that the expenses of that quarantine are paid by the State government.

Mr. BLANTON. But they see the sign, "United States Department of Agriculture," and the fellow stopping them out there in the road in a foolish quest that could bring about no good whatever, and it brings us into disrepute; it brings the entire Congress into disrepute; and that is what is causing the people to rise up and say, "We want the ins out; we want to put every man who is in out." And we can not retain the respect of our constituents when we waste their money so foolishly.

I wanted to put those ideas before the committee. This committee can stop it. Whenever you cut the money off, you stop these things. You can stop them quicker by cutting the money off than in any other way. The idea of those two college boys spending the people's money on a so-called investigation of dog ticks down there at Brownsville was ridiculous.

Mr. SUMMERS. Do you send the Agricultural yearbooks and the bulletins on your own initiative or on the request of farmers?

Mr. BLANTON. Both. Now, I want to say this to you, and you will find some of our colleagues who have had the same experience. I get lots of requests. I have investigated that matter. I have sent out these lists of bulletins, and I have said, "Mark any 10 bulletins you want, or any 5 bulletins, and I will send them to you." Later I have asked them about them-men who have sent me requests for them. I say, "I got a request from you. Why did you request these bulletins if you have never read them or do not want them?" They will say, "Well, I did it out of curiosity; I wanted to see what they were so I just picked out 5 or 10 at random and you sent them to me, and I threw them in the fire."

Mr. SUMMERS. I never send any of those things except on specific request, and I limit the number of bulletins to five.

Mr. BLANTON. If you will follow them up, you will find that not 1 per cent of them are read, and not 1 per cent of them are appreciated, in my judgment.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I have exhausted all mine. I got 25,000 from New York.

Mr. BLANTON. I will be glad to give you the balance of what I have. I never intend to send out another bulletin or Yearbook, unless specially requested.

Mr. SUMMERS. I have an agricultural college in my district, and they and the students make a great many requests for them, presumably to use them in their class work.

Mr. BLANTON. About the only ones that I think will get any benefit out of them are these demonstration agents and the teachers of vocational education in the schools. Outside of that, I think it is a waste. I think it brings about no good; I think it is bringing us into disrepute every year.

I thank the committee very much.

Mr. HART. You did not ask for any appropriations?

Mr. BLANTON. No; I want them all reduced. I hope this committee will cut off every one possible this year.

REFORESTATION APPROPRIATION

STATEMENT OF HON. HAROLD KNUTSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Knutson, the committee will be glad to hear

you.

Mr. KNUTSON. Mr. Chairman, I am here this morning in behalf of the item for tree planting.

Mr. BUCHANAN. You are speaking of reforestation?
Mr. KNUTSON. Reforestation; yes.

Several years ago Congress passed a tree-planting bill, of which I happened to be one of the coauthors, which carries an authorization of $400,000 annually. Last year the Budget cut that down; I have forgotten just the amount, but it prevented the Forest Service from going ahead and planting some seven and a half million seedlings that they had in nurseries in Minnesota and other Great Lakes States. We were told at that time that probably the full amount of the authorization would be recommended this year. The cut was made, I need not say, as a matter of economy.

Now, these seedlings are coming along, and if they are not planted this year I doubt if it will be possible to plant them on account of their becoming too large. These seed beds, as you gentlemen probably know, are planted very thickly. They are as thick as grass, almost. They kill each other off if they are not planted within a certain period.

There is no money that I know of that the Government spends of which so large a percentage goes to labor as in tree planting. So I am here to-day to urge the committee not to make a cut in the $274,000 that the Budget has recommended for next year. Practically all that money will go to labor, and it is a self-liquidating proposition. Of course, it probably will not liquidate in our time.

Mr. BUCHANAN. There is no "probably" about that. We know darned well it won't.

Mr. KNUTSON. We know it won't; that is true. But we have got to think ahead.

Now, I came before the committee this morning to ask you gentlemen to be as considerate as you can with that item and not make a further cut. These seedlings must be planted this year, otherwise they will have to be taken up and thrown away; and the work in planting the number of seedlings that are now available will provide labor for a very considerable number of unemployed.

Mr. HART. The other day Secretary Hyde said there was not any unemployment. Did you see his statement?

Mr. KNUTSON. Yes; and I thoroughly disagree with him. I do not know of a thing that we could engage in that would employ as great a percentage of labor. We spend money for road building as an unemployment measure, and most of it is done by machinery. The planting of trees is all handwork, and any one of ordinary intelligence can plant these seedlings.

Now, $274,000 is absolutely needed if we are going to plant these seedlings this year; and if we do not plant them this year, we will have to throw them away.

Mr. HART. How about the States planting them?

Mr. KNUTSON. Well, the bulk of the planting would be done in the national forests, Mr. Hart; although the States can get seedlings if they put in a request for them under the law.

Mr. SUMMERS. Where are the nurseries to which you refer?

Mr. KNUTSON. There is one in Mr. Hart's State, and there is one in Wisconsin and one in Minnesota, that I know of. I think there are some more. But we are merely providing for the replenishment of our timber for the future.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Suppose we should carry authority in this bill for the Forest Service to give these trees to States and private exterprisethese trees that have grown up to such an extent that you think, if we should carry them for another year, they would be too large to plant. Would they be utilized?

Mr. KNUTSON. My information, Mr. Chairman, is that if the trees are not planted this coming year they will have to be uprooted and thrown away.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That is my information, too; that they would be too old to plant. But suppose we should carry the authority for the Forest Service to give them free to private enterprise?

Mr. KNUTSON. Yes; but what assurance have we that they will be utilized, even though you do grant such authority? In fact, they have authority now. Any State can put in a requisition for seedlings. I am positive of that.

Mr. SANDLIN. They furnish them to individuals, too, do they not? Mr. KNUTSON. They do; yes.

Mr. BUCHANAN. But that is not these trees?

Mr. KNUTSON. Oh, yes; they are seedlings.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That is what Major Stuart said; that he did not have the authority.

Mr. KNUTSON. They do it, though. I know a number that have gotten several thousand seedlings to plant on private estates. It is better to give them away than to have them thrown away.