In other words, he is continuing on a job as a result of Federal funds furnished him, where the public does not desire his services. I have four or five counties in my State now where they have said to me, through a delegation, "How are we going to get rid of this fellow? We do not want him. He is forced on us." I sent out a questionnaire in my district, containing six counties, and asked if they wanted the service continued, and 8 out of 10 have said they wanted it discontinued. Mr. BUCHANAN. It looks like your remedy is with your State administration. Mr. HART. In our county they were going to cut it out, but a Federal man arrived and one from the State. We had a change in the State administration. These fellows have all been strong politically. They will not be as strong next year. I do not think you will get any State funds to match the Federal appropriation this year. Mr. BUCHANAN. Then it will not be expended. Mr. HART. No. Mr. BUCHANAN. These funds are allotted by law. Mr. HART. I understand that. He Mr. BUCHANAN. And Mr. Warburton has no other privilege. allots it not to the counties, but to the State, and the State administers it under the program that the secretary approves. Just so the fund is allotted, the law is carried out. That is correct, is it not? Doctor WARBURTON. Yes, sir. Certain of these funds could be used for extension work and well used without putting a resident agent in any county. Certain of the funds require the payment of salaries to county extension agents, and those could only be used in that way. Mr. HART. The point that I am interested in is that this is more or less of a bribe to the State legislatures to make appropriations which the people do not want. Mr. BUCHANAN. That exists in every cooperative appropriation the Federal Government makes. Mr. HART. I am opposed to every one of them. Doctor WARBURTON. The point was raised in a discussion not long ago that these Federal-aid funds were largely responsible for bankruptcy of State and local governments. As a matter of fact the total of all Federal-aid funds is less than 5 per cent of the governmental expenditures of the State and local districts. That 5 per cent could hardly be responsible for the bankruptcy. Mr. HART. For instance, take in our local county, the cost of the office of the county agent was four times-that is, the county put up four times what the State and Federal Governments did. They got the county agent in there and added a 4-H club, also other activities. Then they added a personnel and bought automobiles. When we got through, we were supplying four times what we received from the State and Federal Governments. I do not know about other counties, but if that were carried out in the other counties you would have a total expenditure in the county-agent system of a hundred million dollars. Doctor WARBURTON. When you vote the county agent out of the county, you save on the average farmer's tax bill about 50 cents a year; and he never knows anything has been saved, because his tax rate the next year is just the same as it was before. Mr. HART. That is what they tell us about every item that goes into our tax bills. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1932. WEATHER BUREAU STATEMENTS OF DR. CHARLES F. MARVIN, CHIEF, AND WILLIAM WEBER, CHIEF CLERK GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. BUCHANAN. We will take up the estimates for the Weather Bureau. Doctor MARVIN. Mr. Chairman, if it is in order, I would like to make a short general statement in regard to the administration of the bureau's affairs for the past three years. Mr. BUCHANAN. We will be glad to have it, Doctor. SAVINGS EFFECTED IN APPROPRIATIONS FISCAL YEARS 1932, 1933, AND ESTIMATED FOR 1934 Doctor MARVIN. We have been effecting savings right along and I would like to call your attention to the amount in the total. Our peak appropriation was made for 1932, when we had $4,497,000 and odd. That was not all expended that year, because the President solicited the cooperation of the departments in saving as much of the appropriations for that year as possible to meet the anticipated deficits in the Treasury, and we were obligated to save an amount of about $200,000 and as much more as possible in the general expenses. At the end of the year we actually had saved the amount of $356,772 from our total appropriation. That was the unexpended balance in 1932. The appropriation the next year was cut $333,000, but out of that we estimate we shall save during this year, $335,710. This includes the economies under the provisions of the economy act, as well as the savings voluntarily effected. Now next year, in the estimates, we have anticipated the continuation of the retirements and the furloughs and submit an estimate here of $425,355 less than for 1933. Those savings, effected in those three years, total $1,117,837 for the entire administration work of the bureau. The last two items that I mentioned are estimates, because at the end of the year we shall probably make an additional saving. That is, we shall turn in an unexpended balance rather than create a deficit. Savings effected by Weather Bureau since 1932 Savings Mr. BUCHANAN. That saving means the amount that you expended less than your peak appropriation in 1932? Doctor MARVIN. The total does, yes; but the item of $335,710 is a saving effected through the economy act under the appropriation for that year. Mr. BUCHANAN. For this year? Doctor MARVIN. Yes; for this year. And the $425,000 carries those items forward and, of course, that is an estimate; the estimate itself is $425,000 less for next year than the appropriation for this year. Mr. BUCHANAN. I understand. In other words, the Budget carried those savings into next year's estimate and reduced next year's estimate by that amount. Doctor MARVIN. By that amount, yes. I want to emphasize the fact that we have been effecting very important savings, and these have been effected in addition to the furloughs, and so forth. There is an item of $97,000 which we will come to later that is a voluntary reduction in the costs of the service. That particular item has been effected by the appointment of an interdepartmental committee between the Bureau of Aeronautics of the Department of Commerce and the Weather Bureau and arranging for the cooperation and coordination of the work of the two bureaus so as to effect economies in the conduct of the air commerce work. I just want to emphasize the fact that we are making very extensive savings in our activities, carefully studied out and worked out by our experts, and we hope they will be gratifying to the committee and that we won't be cut further than we have been. Mr. BUCHANAN. Well it is very commendable-your making of these savings. Doctor MARVIN. We are trying to make the utmost savings we can and, of course, we think we are in a position to know just how we can make the greatest amount of savings without injury to this important public service. It is a service that needs to go on every day and while these savings have heavily borne on the personnel in their salaries and retirement privileges, yet there are additional economies in the administration of the service, without as yet a very serious impairment of the public service; there are some curtailments in the distribution of publications and things of that kind, that we are getting letters about, but they do not represent real serious losses of service to the public as yet. On the other hand, the failure to carry out the extensions provided in the 1932 appropriation, of course represents work that was at one time contemplated but has been deferred, and there are deferments in the equipment and maintenance of station establishments that can not be continued indefinitely. However, we are trying to make a very effective showing of economies in the administration. That is all I need to say, perhaps, at this point on that subject; but it may help to make some of these other items understandable. GENERAL ADMINISTRATION EXPENSES Mr. BUCHANAN. All right, we will take up the items. The first item is: For carrying into effect in the District of Columbia and elsewhere in the United States, in the West Indies, in the Panama Canal, the Caribbean Sea, and on adjacent coasts, in the Hawaiian Islands, in Bermuda, and in Alaska the provisions of an act approved October 1, 1890 (U. S. C., title 15, secs. 311-313, 317), so far as they relate to the weather service transferred thereby to the Department of Agriculture, and the amendment thereof conatined in section 5 (e) of the air commerce act of 1926 (U. S. C., Supp. V, title 15, sec. 313), for the employment of professors of meteorology, district forecasters, local forecasters, meteorologists, section directors, observers, apprentices, operators, skilled mechanics, instrument makers, foremen, assistant foremen, proofreaders, compositors, pressmen, lithographers, folders and feeders, repair men, station agents, messengers, messenger boys, laborers, special observers, display men, and other necessary employees; for fuel, gas, electricity, freight and express charges, furniture, stationery, ice, dry goods, twine, mats, oil, paints, glass, lumber, hardware, and washing towels; for advertising; for purchase, subsistence, and care of horses and vehicles, the purchase and repair of harness, for official purposes only; for instruments, shelters, apparatus, storm-warning towers and repairs thereto; for rent of offices; for repair, alterations, and improvements to existing buildings and care and preservation of grounds, including the construction of necessary outbuildings and sidewalks on public streets, abutting Weather Bureau grounds; and the erection of temporary buildings for living quarters of observers; for official traveling expenses; for telephone rentals, and for telegraphing, telephoning, and cabling reports and messages, rates to be fixed by the Secretary of Agriculture by agreement with the companies performing the service; for the maintenance and repair of Weather Bureau telegraph, telephone, and cable lines; and for every other expenditure required for the establishment, equipment, and maintenance of meteorological offices and stations and for the issuing of weather forecasts and warnings of storms, cold waves, frosts, and heavy snows, the gaging and measuring of the flow of rivers and the issuing of river forecasts and warnings; for observations and reports relating to crops, and for other necessary observations and reports, including cooperation with other bureaus of the Government and societies and institutions of learning for the dissemination of meteorological information, as follows: General administrative expenses: For necessary expenses for general administrative purposes, including the salary of chief of bureau and other personal services in the District of Columbia, $125,975. Doctor MARVIN. The following is submitted: Ten thousand two hundred and five dollars reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough. General administration of the bureau is centralized in Washington and this appropriation is for the maintenance of fiscal and administrative units, including offices concerned in matters of personnel, accounting, contracts, files, and property. Mr. BUCHANAN. I notice in the general administration you have $136,180 for this year and are estimating $125,975 for next year. Is that reduction the carrying into the estimates of the fulough and other economies? Doctor MARVIN. Yes. In that particular item it is the legislative furloughs only. Mr. BUCHANAN. No vacancies from the impounding provision of the regular bill? Doctor MARVIN. Well, there may possibly be vacancies and they would be impounded, but we can not estimate vacancies so as to tell about that beforehand, and they would add to this amount. There is $10,205 representing legislative furloughs in the administration. The other items carry larger reductions. GENERAL WEATHER BUREAU SERVICE AND RESEARCH Mr. BUCHANAN. The next item is For necessary expenses incident to collecting and disseminating meteorological, climatological, and marine information, and for investigations in meteorology, climatology, seismology, evaporation, and aerology in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, including $4,650 for investigations of the relationship of weather conditions to forest fires, under section 6 of the act approved May 22, 1928 (U. S. C., Supp. V, title 16, sec. 581e), $2,279,750, of which not to exceed $800 may be expended for the contribution of the United States to the cost of the office of the secretariat of the International Meteorological Committee, and not to exceed $10,000 may be expended for the maintenance of a printing office in the city of Washington for the printing of weather maps, bulletins, circulars, forms, and other publications: Provided, That no printing shall be done by the Weather Bureau that can be done at the Government Printing Office without impairing the service of said bureau. Doctor MARVIN. The following statement is presented for the record: Appropriation, 1932. Appropriation, 1933. Decrease.. $2,585, 200 2, 503, 218 2,279, 750 223, 468 The reduction of $223,468 is explained as follows: Twenty-nine thousand eight hundred dollars decrease to be effected by removal of office quarters from rented to Federal buildings and reductions in office rentals at numerous field stations throughout the country. Fifty-two thousand two hundred and eighty dollars reduction due to compulsory retirements under section 204 of the economy act. Eleven thousand one hundred and thirty-eight dollars decrease to be effected by reduction of operating costs through further retrenchment in the purchase of equipment, travel expenses, and by such other economies as may be possible. One hundred and thirty thousand nine hundred dollars reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough. Apparent increase of $650 by transfer from "Salaries, office of Secretary,' which has been correspondingly reduced, as pro rata of supply handling charges for 1934. WORK UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION The major activities of the bureau, with one exception, are conducted under this appropriation and consist, basically, of the collection and dissemination of meteorological data and of the issuance and distribution of meteorological forecasts, warnings, and advices. They are administered by project leaders stationed at Washington, D. C., through the agency of a large field organization embracing more than two hundred permanent field headquarters located in every State of the Union, and elsewhere, and several thousand minor and cooperative stations with similar widespread geographical distribution. In general weather service and research there is $223,468 reduction in the appropriation. These are all reductions; every item is reduced, you see, a certain amount. In that general weather service and research, one of our voluntary reductions has been in a reorganization of the rents of our offices in the cities. We are estimating a saving of $29,800 there by moving, where we can, into Government buildings as they are erected in the different cities, and getting reductions in |