WORK DURING PAST YEAR

As to our work throughout the past year, with the exception of large timber sales, our work shows no decrease, and in many cases increases. Even in the small sales, that is sales of $500 each and under, we show a greater number of sales during the past year than in 1930, so that the acute depression we are experiencing throughout the country is not reflecting itself in a decreased use of the national forests, except in that particular where it has to do with the operation of large saw mills. That, I should like to develop at greater length later.

The object in calling this general situation to your attention is that I think it is necessary in carrying on the work of the Forest Service that we have a balanced program, one that permits us to make progress so far as that can be done with the funds available for the various requirements which are interrelated, one with the other.

GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES

Mr. BUCHANAN. The next item is:

General Administrative Expenses: For necessary expenses for general administrative purposes, including the salary of the Chief Forester and other personal services in the District of Columbia, $327,819.

Major STUART. The following statement is presented:

(a) Apparent increase of $559 by transfer from "Salaries, office of the Secretary," which has been correspondingly reduced, as pro rata of supply handling charges for 1934. (b) $25,320 reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough.

WORK UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

This appropriation provides salaries and expenses of employees in the Washington office engaged on general administrative and service-wide subtechnical activities pertaining to the national forests and other general service activities. The number of employees in the Washington office paid from this and comparable appropriations has been reduced from 225 in 1920 to 197 in 1932. During this time the volume of work has increased, because of larger appropriations. The Forest Service has long recognized the fact that the number of employees and the amount expended in its central office should be held to an absolute minimum.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I notice in 1932 you had $370,640, and the appropriation for 1933 is $352,580, and for next year the estimate is $327,819, a decrease of $24,761.

Major STUART. In that item, Mr. Chairman, which is the item that meets the expenses of the Washington office of the Forest Service, the decrease is occasioned by the legislative furlough.

I think it is desirable to state that the Forest Service has over the years determinedly followed a decentralized method of administration. I have here, in illustration of that point, a chart showing the appropriations that have been received by the Forest Service from 1919 to

1932, and a dotted line indicating the personnel in the Washington office which has administered those funds and the increased work entailed thereby.

You will notice, for example, that in 1919, when we received an appropriation of $8,000,000 for all of our activities, we had two hundred and twenty odd employees, whereas at this time we have less than 200 handling an appropriation of something like $37,000,000.

Now, that has been a development over the years, as I say, in order to keep down overhead and any Washington office expense that is not necessary, and, similarily, I have here to show how over the years we have exercised every economy practicable in the field, a chart which shows the developments in that direction in the field.

This chart that I have before me indicates that in 1919 with expenditures of some $8,000,000 in these items, we had about 2,600 whereas in 1932 under an appropriation of approximately $37,000,000 we had employees numbering about 2,700 indicating that with the great expansion in our work and the funds made available to us, we have determinedly kept down the number of employees.

I develop that point for the simple reason that we claim we have no funds within the total appropriation of the Forest Service of a surplusage character; that we have continuously sought to conduct our work economically and with the minimum number of employees. I might state also in this connection, as stated in these notes, that the number of employees in the Washington office paid from this and comparable appropriations has been reduced from 225 in 1920 to 197 in 1932.

PROTECTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF NATIONAL FORESTS

Mr. BUCHANAN. The next item is:

For the employment of forest supervisors, deputy forest supervisors, forest rangers, forest guards, and administrative clerical assistants on the national forests, and for additional salaries and field-station expenses, including the maintenance of nurseries, collecting seed, and planting, necessary for the use, maintenance, improvement, and protection of the national forests, and of additional national forests created or to be treated under section 11 of the act of March 1, 1911 (U. S. C., title 16, sec. 521), and under the act of June 7, 1924 (U. S. C., title 16, secs. 471, 499, 505, 564-570), and lands under contract for purchase or for the acquisition of which condemnation proceedings have been instituted for the purposes of said acts, and for necessary miscellaneous expenses incident to the general administration of the Forest Service and of the national forests:

In nation forest region 1, Montana, Washington, Idaho, and South Dakota, $1,457,066: Provided, That the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to use not to exceed $200 in caring for the graves of fire fighters buried at Wallace, Idaho; Newport, Washington; and Saint Maries, Idaho.

In national forest region 2, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, $649,452: Provided, That not to exceed $1,000 of this appropriation may be expended for the maintenance of the herd of long-horned cattle on the Wichita National Forest;

In national forest region 3, Arizona and New Mexico, $618,495;

In national forest region 4, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, and Colorado, $817,251;

In national forest region 5, California and Nevada, $1,151,613;

In national forest region 6, Washington, Oregon, and California, $1,136,029; In national forest region 7, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, New Hampshire, Maine, Puerto Rico, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Vermont, $489,356;

In national forest region 8, Alaska, $112,280;

In national forest region 9, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, $137,338; In all, for the use, maintenance, improvement, protection, and general administration of the national forests, $6,568,880: Provided, That the foregoing amounts appropriated for such purposes shall be available interchangeably in the discretion of the Secretary of Agriculture for the necessary expenditures for fire protection and other unforeseen exigencies: Provided further, That the amount so interchanged shall not exceed in the aggregate 10 per centum of all the amounts so appropriated.

Major STUART. The following explanation of this item is submitted: Appropriation, 1932__.

Appropriation, 1932_
Budget estimate, 1934.

Decrease...

The reduction is explained as follows:

$7, 289, 240

(a) A reduction of $131,244 has been uniformly distributed to all projects since it will affect all of them approximately proportionately. The decrease to be effected will be made by a general reduction in all projects under this appropriation for expenditures for temporary labor, supplies and equipment, travel expenses, transportation of things, furnishing of heat, light and power, and repairs to equipment. (b) $431,120 reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough.

CHANGE IN LANGUAGE

It is recommended that the amount of the authorization for caring for fire fighters' graves in national forest region 1 be changed from $500 to $200, since the amount needed for the fiscal year 1934 is only for the care of graves. It is also recommended that the following language be omitted since the work authorized will have been performed in the fiscal year 1933:

", and in removing the remains of fire fighters to the cemeteries at Newport, Washington; and/or Saint Maries, Idaho."

WORK UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

This appropriation is used for the general operating expenses of the national forests and national forest regional offices, including the following items:

(1) Salaries and travel expenses for the men in charge of the various units or organization such as national forest regions, national forests, and ranger districts.— There are now nine National Forest Regions, 140 National Forests and 700 Ranger districts. These men direct the administrative, protective and improvement activities carried on in the units for which they individually are responsible and during the course of a year will devote varying portions of their time to practically all of the projects listed. For some of the projects worked on and supervised there are special appropriations, but the salaries and, except under certain special conditions, the travel expenses of the men in charge of administrative units are paid entirely from this appropriation. It would be impossible to exert financial control over the many general and special appropriations if an attempt were made to pay the salaries and expenses of men in charge of physical units from special appropriations in proportion to the varying amounts of time spent on the different projects. This method of financial management accounts for a large part of the charges from this appropriation to projects for which there are special appropriations.

(2) Salaries and expenses of the assistants to these supervisory officers including the salaries of clerical employees.-Exceptions are that when such an assistant or clerk is wholly employed on an activity such as tree planting or road construction, for which a special appropriation is available, his salary and any necessary travel expenses are paid from the special appropriation; also when the time of an assistant is divided between work for which there is no special appropriation and work for which there is a special appropriation in a way which calls for adjustment as a matter of law and fairness between appropriations, the cost of his time and travel expense, if any, is so divided.

(3) Salaries of fire guards, scalers and other short-term employees engaged on work for which there is no special appropriation.-Three thousand three hun

dred fire guards are employed as required by the fire danger in each locality. Periods of employment vary from one to six months and average about three months.

When such work as building or fence construction is needed at the station of a fire guard he is employed on such work, if arrangements can be made, so that he can be called by telephone when a fire is discovered. Also, if periods of wet weather occur during the fire season, fire guards are used so far as possible on any other work needed, such as improvement work of all kinds. In both of such instances the guard is paid from the special appropriation if funds are available. If the special appropriation concerned is exhausted the guard is nevertheless used on the special work as a matter of good business management, but his wages are paid from the protection and administration appropriation which is used while the man is required for straight fire duty.

(4) Fire protection equipment is purchased from this appropriation to the extent that funds can be made available therefrom.

(5) Miscellaneous costs of operation, such as rent of offices, telephone and telegraph tolls, freight, express, supplies, and equipment not provided by special appropriations.

The activities provided for wholly out of this appropriation include the following:

The activities listed in the project statement for this appropriation for which there are also special appropriations, are given below:

Fire suppression.

Construction of improvements.

Maintenance of improvements.
Timber surveys.
Planting.

Administrative investigations.
Range reconnaissance.
Land adjustments.

Land exchange and acquisition.

Although expenditures are shown on a project basis for this appropriation in setting up allotments, provisions must first be made for the salaries and expenses of men in charge of physical units, such as ranger districts, national forests and national forest regions, and for their year-long assistants. The term "expenses" as used above includes such items as rental of headquarters, telephone and telegraph, travel expenses, freight and express, supplies and equipment not provided by special appropriations, etc. These allotments for the basic organization of the Forest Service take up by far the greater portion of the appropriation. There are not many specialists, or men who ordinarily work on a single activity in this group, and these few are always used on other work if not needed, temporarily, in their special activity. The charges to the projects listed above represent, to a large extent, a distribution of the time of this group of employees and a proration of the expenses enumerated above.

During the past five years the Forest Service has been revamping the basic organization for the purpose of providing funds for additional fire guards and scalers more adequately to protect the national forests from fire and administer an increasing timber sale business (now temporarily far below normal in activity), In reorganizing the force, an attempt has been made to equalize the load carried by rangers and supervisors throughout the service and this has resulted in the consolidation of many ranger districts and a number of forests.

Provision is also made in this appropriation for the salaries and expenses of men engaged on specific tasks, such as fire, insect and blister rust control, timber sales and supervision of recreational areas. The four projects involved are fire prevention, commercial timber sales, tree diseases and insects, and control of recreational areas, and justifications for continuance of these prjoects are given below: Fire prevention.-A force of approximately 3,300 men is employed for an average period of three months during the fire season for fire prevention purposes. This project must be continued if protection of these public properties is to be maintained. The maintenance of an adequate fire control force during the period of depression is of paramount importance because of the marked increase in the number of incendiary fires which are started in the hope of providing work for the incendiarists. During 1933 the Forest Service is making every effort to maintain this organization at its 1932 level. This means that the substantial reduction which was made in this appropriation in 1933 will have to be taken out of other activities.

A

Commercial timber sales.-On large timber sales, men are employed solely for the purpose of scaling and marking timber and to administer the sales. The timber sale business on the national forests decreased in 1932 about in proportion with the diminished rate of lumber production throughout the country, and is sure to increase with the general revival of business activities. As it is, there has been no complete shutting down of all going operations. Many operators have continued to cut, but at a lower rate, under existing long-term contracts. On such sales the forest officers in charge of the sale must remain on the ground, and on large sales, also a number of scalers. The reduction has been greatest on the west coast where the unit cost of sale administration has been lowest. large part of the reduction in appropriation for 1933 will be met from this activity. Tree diseases and insects.-Separate allotments are set up for project work on this activity. The importance of blister rust and insect control work is evidenced by the fact that during 1931 and 1932 deficiency appropriations were requested for this activity. The 1933 appropriation act provides for the continuance of the blister rust control work on a scale even larger than that maintained in 1932, during which year a deficiency appropriation of $150,000 was made. The protection of Government property, for the public good, makes appropriations necessary for both these projects.

Full advantage is taken in this work, of the economy methods developed by the research and experiment work of the Bureau of Plant Industry.

Control of recreational areas.-A few men are employed during the tourist season to enforce fire and sanitary regulations on some of the larger camp grounds on the national forests. The number of tourists visiting national forests is increasing rapidly and it will be necessary as time goes on to increase the number of such men. The depression has served to increase the number of campers on national forest lands to a marked degree and it has not been possible to reduce the force of men stationed at these camps. However, the greater portion of the charges to this project, as shown on the project statement above, represents the time of rangers and forest guards spent in supervising and cleaning up camp grounds incidental to their other work. The number of men employed primarily for the purpose of supervising, camp grounds is small.

ESTIMATE FOR 1934

Mr. BUCHANAN. For protection and administration, National Forests, in 1932 you had $7,289,240; in 1933 the appropriation being $7,131,244, the Budget estimate for 1934 being $6,568,880. There seems to be a decrease of $562,364.

Major STUART. This decrease, Mr. Chairman, includes both the legislative furlough amount, which is $431,120, and a further reduction of $131,244 as applicable to the various expenditures under the item as indicated. It means, for example, a decrease of $39,104 in our fire prevention work, $5,439 in fire suppression, and as otherwise noted, on page 89, of the project statement.

There again, as is indicated, an attempt has been made to have the reductions broadly applicable so that we maintain a balance in our national forest administration, and there again, as I previously stated, while a reduction has necessarily been made in fire prevention and fire suppression, it has been kept to a minimum figure.

This item in total represents the fund upon which we draw for all of our national-forest expenditures as they have to do with the administration of the national forests. The net sum submitted under this estimate will permit us to retain our skeleton force for forest protection, timber sales, and other national-forest administrative requirements.

In this connection also I might state that it has been necessary for the Forest Service to resort to all of the economic means at its command to have the money appropriated go as far as practicable. Under studies that we have been making in the last five years as to the work of our men by jobs we have been able to make certain transfers and