Service, the Office of Indian Affairs, and the Alaska Road Commission. In a few instances, funds have been recommended for building construction but only in cases where such construction could not be postponed to a later period.

RESUMPTION OF NORMAL ACTIVITIES

The President has recommended that appropriations for 1947 provide for a partial resumption of activities which were suspended or placed upon a maintenance basis during the war period. Increases in the appropriation requests for the General Land Office, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and the Office of Indian Affairs, other than funds required for new construction, are accounted for mainly by the need for resuming the normal operation of activities which were suspended or curtailed during the war years. We have developed a tremendous backlog of deferred maintenance work in the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and in the Office of Indian Affairs. We have suspended services in all of these bureaus which will need to be resumed as soon as funds can be provided. The General Land Office has a tremendous backlog of work on all phases of public land administration which must be brought up to date to permit the Bureau to render an adequate public service.

Facilities maintained by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service have been inadequately manned throughout the war years. New positions are provided for in the 1947 budget both for the purpose of providing adequate service to meet postwar requirements and to permit these bureaus to reemploy the veterans who left these positions to enter the armed services.

The suspension of normal peacetime activities during the war years brought about a general curtailment of essential services to the Indians with the consequent slowing down of the program for their social and economic improvement. It is now necessary to expand those services in order that their avdancement may be in keeping with that of the rest of the Nation. In bringing these services to a peacetime level, the 1947 appropriation requests propose a moderate expansion in services essential to the general welfare of the Indians and provide for the reclassification of ungraded positions of Indian assistants to bring their salaries in line with other Government employees. A change in the appropriation structure for the Office of Indian Affairs, also, is recommended to consolidate appropriations under major categories and to reduce the number of appropriation items.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. You suggested all that you save a lot of money?

Mr. CHAPMAN. That is right.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. So that the appropriation would be so much less.

Mr. CHAPMAN. This consolidation of appropriations will simplify administration and eliminate unnecessary paper work.

To meet the postwar needs for the development and settlement of Alaska, the Department is proposing increases in the activities conducted in the Territory by the Office of Indian Affairs, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Geological Survey, the National Park Service, and the General Land Office. The Department of the Interior, through the bureaus conducting programs in Alaska, is responsible

for initiating work which will assist in the sound development of th Territory. Members of this committee who visited Alaska have first-hand knowledge of the possibilities and the limitations involved in the development of Alaska. The Territory needs better transpor tation and more community facilities. It requires diversified develop ment of local sources of supply which will create more diversified industrial, commercial, and agricultural enterprise. The appropria tions requested by the Department are directed toward land settle ment, improvements in transportation, the development of natura park facilities, the development of the fisheries, development of minera resources, and improved management of Indian affairs. I hope tha your committee will approve our recommendations for limited expansion in our Alaskan development program.

CONTINUATION OF WAR EXPANDED PROGRAMS

During the war years, the Congress authorized increased appropriations to the Geological Survey and to the Bureau of Mines to carry out an expanded program for the exploration and development of strategic minerals. In addition, the Geological Survey served the armed forces directly by means of transferred funds to carry out topographic mapping, water resource and geologic investigations which were required in military operations. As a result of these activities, there was a sharp curtailment of work in these bureaus related to normal peacetime operations and a marked increase in the programs which served primary wartime objectives. With the cessation of hostilities, the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines have adjusted their operations to meet peacetime requirements. This adjustment reflects increased rather than decreased needs for appropriations. Increases are required to resume geologic and topographic work postponed during the war; to expand water-resource investigations which are essential to postwar engineering developments; and to continue the geologic, mining, and metallurgical investigations required in the exploration and development of our mineral raw materials.

This Nation, during the war years, was forced to draw upon its natural resources at an unprecedented rate. Thus, ironically, in seeking to preserve the American way of life, we destroyed or seriously damaged much of the very thing which, in a material sense, made that way of life possible. Our reserves of iron, copper, zinc, lead, and many other metals, of petroleum and the higher-grade coals and of certain nonmetallic ores, in which we once complacently thought ourselves more than self-sufficient for many generations to come, have been more ruthlessly depleted by war's demands than is generally realized. If our future standards of living are not to be lowered painfully, if victory is not to cost us the progress of generations, this Government must take the lead in all steps that will restore and promote the development of our natural resources. It must foster and support the labor and ingenuity of scientists and technicians who can pioneer our course to new sources and uses of materials and power. We must develop methods of more efficiently extracting scarce minerals from marginal deposits, devise ways and means of more effectively reutilizing minerals of which we have an inexhaustible domestic supply as substitutes, and establish and maintain a solvent, progres

sive, domestic mineral industry. In these fields the Geological Survey and the Bureau of Mines have much to offer and should play an important role in the development and utilization of our mineral

resources.

INCREASES IN WAGE AND MATERIAL COST

In any appraisal of the relationship between our appropriation requests for 1947 and those of prior years, it is important to recognize that there has been a substantial and progressive increase in wage and material costs since 1939. Wage costs have increased both for salaried employees and for hourly wage employees. Material costs have risen by an average which exceeds 25 percent since 1940. Although the exact effect of increases due to wage and material cost can be appraised only through a detailed study of each appropriation, this increase varies from 15 to 30 percent above the 1940 base for all appropriations. Thus, an activity which could be conducted in 1940 for $100,000 would require in 1947 from $115,000 to $130,000 to carry out the same amount of work.

I have dealt briefly with the basic reasons for the increases in appropriations requests for all bureaus and offices. When the officials. from each bureau appear before your committee, they can inform you in detail as to the programs proposed for 1947 and as to the justifications for the increases which have been recommended. Furthermore, if questions arise during the course of these hearings about which the committee wishes to interrogate the Secretary, he has indicated that he will be glad to comply with any requests made by the committee. Before completing my statement, I would like to take a few minutes to discuss the reclamation and power marketing programs of the Department.

RECLAMATION AND POWER MARKETING PROGRAMS

With the relaxation of restrictions on materials and labor following VJ-day, the Bureau of Reclamation is pressing vigorously its construction program to assure irrigated farms in the West for returning veterans of World War II. The appropriations recommended by the President will speed construction to make available by 1950-51 more than 42,000 new farms where veterans can become self-sustaining and provide supplemental water for nearly 26,000 presently irrigated farms that face shortages.

As a major part of the Bureau's plans for permanent developments in the West, the program looks to speeding the completion of outstanding multiple-purpose projects such as the Columbia Basin in Washington, the Missouri Basin plan affecting six States of that great river area, and the Central Valley project in California. Other developments are in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

The great multiple-purpose projects in the program seek maximum development and use of western water and land resources through the construction of irrigation and power facilities that will assure double or triple use of water. The inclusion of hydroelectric power buttresses the economic feasibility of the projects and paves the way for the wide distribution of publicly produced power through low-cost electric energy for rural and urban electrification and industrial expansion.

The Bureau of Reclamation is pressing its program for the settle ment of reclamation projects through assistance to veterans and othe settlers without wet nursing or regimentation. This activity is di rected to the human considerations in connection with reclamation developments as well as to the protection of the Federal investmen and return of irrigation expenditures to the Federal Treasury.

The river basin reports of potential irrigation, power, and multi ple-purpose developments in the West are being advanced, and severa will be laid before the Congress within a short time. Patterned afte the Missouri Basin plan already adopted by the Congress, the forth coming basin-wide reports will present comprehensive programs fo the development of each river area and for the first time the Congres will have a perspective of the coordinated development of western land and water resources. Following the completion of the basin wide reports, the Bureau of Reclamation will prosecute vigorously the surveys of individual projects which I anticipate will be authorized While advancing its planning, construction, and settlement pro grams, the Bureau through its operating projects in 1945 served mor than 4,000,000 acres of irrigated land that produced 10%1⁄2 million ton of food for domestic and world consumption. Its power plants in the last fiscal year produced 13 billion kilowatt-hours with gross revenu of $20,942,000.

The Congress, through approval of appropriations for transmission lines in the first deficiency bill, reaffirmed the established policy that power produced at reclamation dams should be transmitted over Government-owned transmission lines. The Congress registered its disapproval of attempts to "bottle-up" publicly produced power and limit delivery of the output to a single privately owned utility and perpetuate its monopoly. The action I refer to concerned primarily the Oroville-Sacramento transmission line which is an integral par of the Central Valley project grid and the extension of this and other lines to the delta region for pumping purposes is essential to a wellrounded service to the water users as well as to dispose of the surplus power to municipalities and other public bodies.

We have done immeasurable good with our power program. The record of Federal power in the war was unsurpassed. Moreover, in 1945 revenues from sales of power from Department of the Interio projects totaled $38,891,326. This will drop off, of course, but not for long if we can sell the power where it's needed and at rates people

can pay.

The taxpayer not only wants and is entitled to the repayment of his investment, he also is entitled to some benefit from the projects Congress has said he shall have the benefits. Repayment and benefit to the public will come only if we can get the power to the consumer and only if we can get it to him at sound low rates. The experience we have had in selling billions of kilowatt-hours of energy, in collecting in return millions of dollars for the people of the United States, and in seeing the growth and progress of the various regions where the power has been sold is ample evidence of thev alidity of our position. I know of no evidence to the contrary.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Does that conclude your statement, Mr. Secretary?

Mr. CHAPMAN. That concludes my statement. Mr. Chairman, in previous years, Mr. Fortas, the Under Secretary, has represented the Department in justifying items for the Secretary's Office. He is not with us at this time. I am sorry he is not here to justify them, but : Mr. Northrop is available to justify the items for the Secretary's Office.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. In response to the statement made by Secretary Chapman, let me say I think I voice the sentiment of every member of this committee when I say we have appreciated the very clear-cut statements that have heretofore been made by Under Secretary Fortas, and the committee shall also miss him. But we appreciate the information statement that has been made by the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Chapman. The committee recognizes the presence of Mr. Northrop, also his able assistant, Mr. Beasley. Of course, the committee will use its own judgment as to whether we take their advice or that of the Department, in the matter granting all of the appropriations requested.

REVENUES OF THE DEPARTMENT

I think the committee would first like to know as to the revenues of the Department during the past year. I believe Mr. Chapman stated the revenues were nearly $80,000,000 in 1945.

Mr. CHAPMAN. Approximately.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. As against $69,000,000 which the Department anticipated a year ago.

Mr. CHAPMAN. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. From whence came the bulk of the revenue? Can you divide it?

Mr. CHAPMAN. I think Mr. Northrop has those figures.

Mr. NORTHROP. We can submit for the record a detailed statement of the revenues. I will outline briefly, if you wish, the biggest items involved.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. All right; just give the larger items. We do not want a long statement.

Mr. NORTHROP. The actual revenues in 1945 for oil and gas and mining royalties amounted to $10,955,000.

The interest and repayment of the Colorado Dam fund amounted to $12,500,000.

Other collections from the reclamation fund amounted to $12, 954,000.

The sale of Bonneville power amounted to $20,464,000.

The revenues from the Alaska Railroad amounted to $10,531,000 in 1945.

Those are the principal items that made up our total of $79,623,000 as compared with our earlier estimate of $69,000,000.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. And what were the revenues during the preceding year?

Mr. NORTHOP. They were $67,827,122, I will insert in the record at this point a statement of receipts for 1945 and estimated receipts for 1946 and 1947.