III Use and occupancy of national forest lands, report from the subcommittee_ Statement of Hon. Ruth Bryan Owen.. EXTENSION AND ADJUSTMENT OF LOANS, GRAZING FEES, USE AND OCCUPANCY OF NATIONAL FOREST LANDS, FOREST SERVICE TRANSFER, MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY SURVEY. MONDAY, JANUARY 23, 1933 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MEDITERRANEAN FRUIT FLY SURVEY Chairman JONES. Mrs. Owen has shown such a persistent and untiring interest in this legislation that, in response to her urgent request, the committee will now consider H. R. 6014. [H. R. 6014, Seventy-second Congress, first session] A BILL To provide for an investigation and report of losses resulting from the campaign for the eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a board is hereby created, to be known as the Mediterranean Fruit Fly Board, to be composed of five individuals, to be appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture, two of whom shall be representatives of the Department of Agriculture (one to be chairman of the board), two citizens of the State of Florida, and one man at large. Any vacancy occurring in the board shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment. Each member of the board, other than members holding office under the State or Federal Government, shall receive compensation at the rate of $10 per day while actually employed on the business of the board. The board shall cease to exist upon transmitting its report under section 2 of this act. SEC. 2. The board is authorized and directed to (1) conduct a complete investigation and survey of all losses sustained by growers and farmers in the State of Florida resulting from the campaign to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly in such State; (2) receive claims for losses sustained by such persons in the State of Florida by reason of such campaign, supported by such proof as the board by regulation may prescribe; (3) report the facts and make findings upon such claims as to the amount of actual and necessary loss sustained; and (4) transmit to the Secretary of Agriculture not later than February 15, 1932, a report of the survey and its findings in respect of claims for such losses: Provided, That such report and finding shall serve as information only and not be binding on the Secretary of Agriculture or Congress. The Secretary of Agriculture shall not later than March 1, 1932, transmit such report of survey to Congress together with such recommendations as he may, in his judgment, deem advisable. SEC. 3. The board may, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, appoint and fix the compensation (without regard to the civil service laws and regulations or to the classification act of 1923, as amended) of such employees, 1 and may, with the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture, make such expenditures, including expenditures for travel and subsistence expenses, for personal services at the seat of government and elsewhere, and for printing and binding, as are necessary for the efficient execution of its functions under this act. All expenses of the board shall be allowed and paid upon the presentation of itemized vouchers therefor approved by the chairman of the board and the Secretary of Agriculture. SEC. 4. That there is hereby authorized to be appropriated the sum of $50,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act. In view of the fact that the committee is familiar with the general scope of this legislation, in connection with which very full data has previously been submitted, I will ask Mrs. Owen to condense as much as possible the statement which she makes on its behalf. STATEMENT OF HON. RUTH BRYAN OWEN, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF FLORIDA Mrs. OWEN. I am very grateful to the chairman and members of the Agricultural Committee for their consideration at this time of H. R. 6014. I recognize the emergency nature of much of the legislation before this committee and the heavy pressure of duty now resting upon it. I recognize also the vital necessity for economy in all branches of our Government and the consequent reluctance of the House to favor any measure which either necessitates or implies the expenditure of Federal funds. May I, at the outset of this hearing, call the attention of the committee to the fact that this survey calls for no appropriation whatever. There is now an unexpended balance of the appropriation made for the extermination of the Mediterranean fruit fly of $498,625.42. The House has passed an appropriation of $55,000 to fight the fruit fly in Hawaii, which if enacted into law would leave a balance of $443,625.42, which much more than covers any possible cost of the survey proposed in this bill. Members of this committee will recall how the Mediterranean fruit-fly campaign originated. To the peaceful and unsuspecting growers of my State it was suddenly announced that an insect pest had been discovered in an orange grove in Orange County, Fla., which constituted a serious menace to all the fruit of the South. The Bureau of Entomology drafted a plan of campaign against this insect, which was carried out with the cooperation of the Plant Board of Florida. May I recall to you the large colored diagram which I had prepared to illustrate the methods in this extermination campaign. If a fruit fly was discovered, this one insect was declared to be the scene of a zone 1, and on a radius of a mile a circle was drawn around the spot when the insect was discovered; and inside that circle all fruit and vegetables, either known or suspected to be a host to this insect, was forthwith destroyed. Please note that it was not fruit which had been infested by insects which was destroyed, but all fruit and vegetables which might harbor the fly. Unfortunately, it was later discovered that vegetables which had been destroyed were not-nor could they ever be-host to the Mediterranean fruit fly. But the entire yield of gardens, which represented the sole livelihood of their owners, had already been destroyed. Boxes of sound citrus fruit, all ready for marketing, were seized on the railroad platforms and destroyed by the authorities. Not only was all of this good fruit, representing the sole income of many of the growers, ruthlessly destroyed, but around each spot of infestation a larger circle was drawn within whose borders all fruit had to be subjected to an intensive and hazardous process of sterilizing by heat before it could be marketed. The use of poisonous sprays was compulsory and much serious damage was done to fruit trees before the proper chemical content of these sprays was determined. All this loss through the destruction of uninfested fruits and vegetables and through the injuries to the trees, was suffered in a campaign designed to protect the fruit in all the Southern States, but the loss was not divided evenly over all whose fruit was thought to be menaced. The loss was borne by the growers in Florida. The object of this legislation is to charge a responsible group with the duty of determining exactly what losses were suffered. The people of my State cooperated loyally with the authorities and. bore their losses, grievous as they were, with fortitute, because they believed in the public spiritedness of the Government representatives and in the justice of the Government. It is the part of equity that an accurate statement as to the losses inflicted upon the growers of Florida should be made a matter of record. This will require no appropriation of funds, but such a recognition of their loss as far as this survey represents, would be gratefully received by those citizens whose entire livelihood was uncomplainingly sacrificed at the request of the representatives of government. Mr. DOXEY. Will you tell the committee, Mrs. Owen, what proportion of the State of Florida was involved in this Mediterranean fruit fly extermination campaign? Mrs. OWEN. Approximately one-fifth of the area of the State was involved in the zoned portion. If you can visualize a cluster of round zones as resembling an uneven bunch of grapes, the bunch would have its upper center in Orange County, Fla., about the middle of the State, with the point of the bunch extending south and east. It is difficult to estimate the exact area covered by these overlapping circles, but it would be approximately one-fifth of the area of the State. Mr. ADKINS. Is it the intention to make the result of this survey a basis for future claims for compensation? Mrs. OWEN. The object of this legislation is to find out the facts. The facts will determine the future use to which they may properly be put. Chairman JONES. Was the Mediterranean fruit-fly campaign carried on by the Department of Agriculture or by the State authorities of Florida? Mrs. Owen. It is my understanding that the Mediterranean fruitfly campaign was planned by the Bureau of Entomology in Washington and carried on through cooperation between that bureau and the plant board of Florida. |