Mr. JUMP. You understand, Mr. Chairman, this could be applicable not only to the sale of Department of Agriculture bulletins, but to any publication issued by the United States on any subject.

Mr. BUCHANAN. I understand that.

DEFICIENCY IN APPROPRIATION FOR 1933, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Mr. BUCHANAN. Is your bureau going to ask for any deficiency? Mr. EISENHOWER. No, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Will there be any deficiency at all in the Department of Agriculture?

Mr. JUMP. The only one that I know of at the present time is the regular forest fighting deficiency. We have that every year, of course. It is unavoidable.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Of course, that is expected.

Mr. JUMP. That is the only one I know of at the present time. Mr. SANDLIN. None for roads?

Mr. JUMP. I think not. I think the road situation will take care of itself on the basis of the estimates as submitted, in so far as existing authorizations are concerned. If there is a new authorization for 1934, of course the funds will have to be provided.

AMOUNT OF APPROPRIATION REQUESTED FOR PRINTING AND BINDING, 1934

Mr. BUCHANAN. I will say we may have to call you back before we mark up this bill. How much more than you had this year do you want?

Mr. EISENHOWER. We are asking for $240,000 more than we are spending under section 302 of the economy bill; at the same time this estimate is a decrease of $25,000 under the appropriation for 1933. Mr. BUCHANAN. You want more than you will spend this year by $240,000?

Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes, sir.

Mr. BUCHANAN. What would happen if this committee and the Congress just continued your work by granting you the same appropriation that you are now spending or can spend this year and did not give you an increase of $240,000?

Mr. EISENHOWER. We would have to continue to do the very things that I have indicated we are doing this year and the difficulties would be cumulative. We would postpone still more research manuscripts, including Soil Surveys. We would not be in a position to do justice to the public in supplying information through popular publications. I think we would not have efficient administration within the department itself because administrative publications do promote efficient operation by keeping all employees mutually inspired and working in a common direction.

Mr. BUCHANAN. How far are you behind on publishing of research manuscripts?

Mr. EISENHOWER. Soil surveys, as I say, are about three years behind. As to technical bulletins, it is difficult to express the arrearage in time; we have about 50 research manuscripts now on hand that we are not able to print. As for popular publications, we have simply ceased writing manuscripts for the popular distribution of information unless we know in advance that they can be printed. Expressing the

arrearage in terms of money, we would require about $600,000, in addition to the regular appropriation, to make the program current. Mr. BUCHANAN. In addition to the $900,000?

Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes, sir.

NECESSITY OF INCREASED APPROPRIATION FOR BLANK PAPER

Mr. Chairman, I do not know who will discuss the item covering blank paper. The Office of Information has no specific appropriation for paper; I doubt if any appropriation in the department does. Section 303 of the economy act resulted in a limitation on the amount the several departments may spend for blank paper.

For 1932 the department as a whole spent about $127,000 for this purpose. The economy act resulted in a Budget Bureau limitation of $47,000-a huge decrease. Mr. Jump, is some one to discuss the paper item with the committee?

Mr. JUMP. We have not planned to make any general discussion of the paper item. I should be glad to have you do it, unless the committee asks some one else about it.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Do you mean that all the bureaus pay for their own paper?

Mr. EISENHOWER. Yes, sir; blank paper, such as blank books, memorandum pads, blank correspondence paper, wrapping paper, and so on. This provision has reduced us to such poverty that we are answering as many letters as we can on the incoming correspondence and are keeping no record of these letters. We are reluctant to use even a scratch pad for fear that we will run out of paper before the year is ended. We are salvaging waste paper from waste baskets, cutting it, and making it into rough memorandum pads. Our duplicating work has been reduced more tham 50 per cent, despite the fact that mimeographed material greatly facilitates the work of the department. I merely wish to mention that this is one type of reduction that has caused great turmoil, while effecting only a relatively small saving.

Mr. BUCHANAN. What is the amount of the reduction there?

Mr. JUMP. The figures run something like this. The Director of Budget had the job given to him under the economy act of apportioning a certain amount, $400,000, among the Government departments to cover the limitation on paper bought at the Government Printing Office.

Mr. BUCHANAN. That was the printing provision of the economy act?

Mr. JUMP. It was a separate section for paper. When we came to make up the figures in the Department of Agriculture we encountered great difficulty in determining what we had been spending specifically paper, because the construction of what is paper as distinguished from "printing" or "binding" is something no two people would agree upon.

for

Getting up the best figures we could, we found that the Department of Agriculture had spent at the Government Printing Office last year about $127,000 for paper. It was impossible for the Director of the Budget to allocate us anything like $128,000, because the total amount for the entire service was such an arbitrarily low figure, $400,000, as I have already stated.

So we made up another compilation, in which we took into account all of the paper requirements that could be met by field purchases for field use, in the event that such method of purchase became necessary. You see, we are limited by law to the purchase of paper at the Government Printing Office for Washington use, but in the case of field use, under the law, paper can be purchased elsewhere for delivery and use in the field. However, we greatly prefer to buy in Washington, because the prices at which we can get paper from the Government Printing Office are only a fraction of what we have to pay for small lots in the field. Some of the prices we pay in Washington as against field procurement for paper are unbelievably small.

But, in view of the absolute necessities of the situation, and, due to the fact that the Bureau of the Budget could not give us an authorization that anywhere near met our requirements, we had to make up another analysis, based upon field purchase of all paper that could be bought in the field for field use, if that had to be done.

On that basis, and after paring down our 1933 requirements to an absolute minimum, my recollection is that we got down to a figure of something in excess of $65,000 for Washington and $18,000 for the field, instead of $128,000, and when we got the allotment, it was only $47,000.

So we distributed the $47,000 around the department as best we could, requiring all the paper of the department to be bought by our general purchasing agent, who keeps a check on what each bureau draws against its portion of the allotment.

So the best statement I can make is that on the basis of a real need for at least $83,000 for the purchase of paper from the Public Printer this year, we have only $47,000.

One thing that is helping us out this year is the stock of paper we had on hand at the close of the last fiscal year. That stock of paper will be drawn on as the year goes on, to relieve the severity of the present paper cut, and we will not enter the next year with such a

reserve.

The present paper cut has interfered with the operation of all the bureaus. Miss Barnett, the librarian, who will be the next witness, will tell you about certain things she has done, certain services she has had to discontinue, just on account of a lack of paper, as a result of which we have had complaints from libraries all over the country, particularly the agricultural college and experiment station libraries that are accustomed to getting certain things from the central library here. But we have had to do that on account of a lack of paper. Here and there throughout the department the paper limitation has had such an effect.

I agree with Mr. Eisenhower as to the relatively small sum that we have been able to save on paper. Personally, I question whether, in the last analysis, any real saving will result from the current limitation, because, while we have estimated a saving of $27,000, before we get through the year, in view of the paper that we will have to buy in the field and for which we will have to pay higher than Public Printer prices, the paper provision probably will not save the Government a cent in this department. That is my own personal theory and I think the Bureau of the Budget has recognized that that is true, because, as I understand it, they have left out the

paper provision in their resubmission of such sections of the economy act as they felt should be continued. If the paper savings were believed to be real savings, I personally do not feel that the Bureau of the Budget would have omitted it.

Mr. BUCHANAN. In any event, whatever is done on this question of paper will apply to every department of the Government. It will be incorporated in every appropriation bill.

Mr. JUMP. It will be a Government-wide proposition, yes.

Mr. EISENHOWER. I brought the question up merely that we might give you our experience regarding it.

Mr. BUCHANAN. Mr. Eisenhower, will you send up to this committee a copy of each publication that you issue that could be styled a newspaper or a magazine, so that we may look at them?

Mr. EISENHOWER. We do not have any publication that could be called a newspaper, but we have a number of periodicals or magazines. Mr. BUCHANAN. That is what I have in mind.

Mr. EISENHOWER. I shall be glad to place a note on each one, showing what it is and to whom it goes.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1932.

LIBRARY, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

STATEMENT OF MISS CLARIBEL R. BARNETT, LIBRARIAN

SALARIES AND EXPENSES

Mr. BUCHANAN. We will take up the item for the library, Department of Agriculture, which is as follows:

Salaries and expenses: For purchase and exchange of books of reference, law books, technical and scientific books, periodicals, and for expenses incurred in completing imperfect series; not to exceed $1,200 for newspapers, and when authorized by the Secretary of Agriculture for dues for library membership in societies or associations which issue publications to members only or at a price to members lower than to subscribers who are not members; for salaries in the city of Washington and elsewhere; for official traveling expenses, and for library fixtures, library cards, supplies, and for all other necessary expenses, $100,223, of which amount not to exceed $70,820 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia.

Miss BARNETT. The following statement is submitted:

(1) During 1933 it has been necessary to curtail seriously the allotment for acquisition of books and other library material in order to provide funds for furniture and similar equipment essential to the installation of the library in the new south building of the department. It will be possible to restore part of this allotment, which is urgently needed, during 1934 by making a corresponding decrease of $3,605, as here proposed, in the allotment for general expenses. (2) The decrease of $3,705 as shown under this project includes:

(a) A reduction of $3,650 in order to provide for acquisition of essential books and other library material as explained above.

(b) A reduction of $100 to be met by further economies in operation.

(c) An apparent increase of $45 by transfer from "Salaries, office of the Secretary," which has been correspondingly reduced, as pro rata of supply handling charges for 1934.

(3) $5,822 reduction on account of continuation of legislative furlough.

WORK UNDER THIS APPROPRIATION

The department library is one of the basic units in the scientific research extention and regulatory work of the department and the State agricultural agencies, and its maintenance on an adequate basis is therefore essential to the economical and effective prosecution of the work of the department as a whole. With its branch libraries in the various bureaus it contains approximately 225,000 volumes on agriculture and the related sciences, technology and economics, and is the largest special collection of this kind in the country. It makes this literature readily available through its catalogues and special indexes, numbering more than a million cards, and through special bibliographies. It supplies books and periodicals to department workers as needed in their work, especially in research, and assists them in gathering references on scientific and economic subjects and problems which are being investigated or are to be investigated. It supplies reference material and bibliographical information needed in answering the various inquiries addressed to the department and assists the State agricultural colleges and experiment stations and other scientific institutions through the loan of its books. In general, it acts as the national agricultural library and as the clearing house of bibliographical information relating to the literature of agriculture in all its phases.

Mr. BUCHANAN. For 1934 you are asking $100,223 as against an appropriation for the current year of $106,100. There is a decrease of $5,877. Will you give us a statement about that?

Miss BARNETT. There is a reduction of $5,822 in the salary fund on account of the legislative furlough. Aside from this reduction, the changes in the estimates are slight, the most important change being the shift of $3,650 from the allotment for equipment to the allotment for books and periodicals. It has been necessary in this fiscal year to spend an unusual amount for equipment, due to the moving of the library to its new quarters in the south building. This has made a serious reduction this year in the amount available for books. It is hoped that in the next fiscal year this sum will again be available for the acquisition of needed books and periodicals.

In addition to the statement on the work of the library contained in the explanatory notes regarding the library estimates for the fiscal year 1934, I should like with your permission to explain still further the need of the library for the funds requested.

It is realized that there is a general demand this year for reduction in the national Budget. Nevertheless, it is essential that there should not be recourse to remedies which involve future consequences of an unfortunate nature. It is believed that the withdrawal of support for scientific institutions comes within this category. Among institutions of this kind libraries occupy a most important place. Libraries contain the results of studies brought down to the present day and furnish at the same time the necessary material for their continuation. They are both the storehouses, the workshops, and the instruments of science. If the funds of important scientific libraries are curtailed. either in book-buying power or in a diminution of staff, they are inevitably prevented from playing their part as centers of studies and as an indispensable means for furthering research.

The number of scientists who are able to secure by their own efforts and at their own expense the printed material which is necessary for their work is so limited as to be almost negligible. It is therefore essential that scientific institutions should have adequate libraries.