would like to stress again that the committee, in preparing a housing program for this most vital of all areas, must look to its broadest possible aspects.

Questions asked by various members of the committee during previous testimony demonstrated that they do not believe the housing problem is one to be solved alone by construction of new housing. It was stated repeatedly in previous hearings that all possible Government agencies should be decentralized. We believe that this war period demands sacrifices of all of us and even though a large number of our members were affected by decentralization, we have taken the position that where decentralization is necessary to the war effort, workers should be moved out of town with, of course, proper attention to the problems of morale and finances that inevitably arise in such large-scale movings. If the maximum number that can be decentralized is 25,000, as indicated by Commissioner Reynolds, we are in favor of that step.

Several members of the committee also have asked whether some concrete program could not be formulated for drawing upon the metropolitan area for more of the new war workers. We believe that such a program should be formulated. We endorse the suggestion which one member of the committee made that an attempt be made to get unemployed wives of Federal workers to accept Government positions.

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We would also like to suggest that there is a vast and, for the most part, untapped reservoir in the Negro population of the metropolitan area. Speaking frankly, only a small number of Negroes have been taken into the Government service. This is largely due to a persisting attitude of racial discrimination. representative of the President's Committee on Fair Employment Practices told the fifth annual convention of the Maryland and District Industrial Union Council in December that widespread discrimination still did exist.

Formerly, the chief source of this discrimination was the policy of requiring applicants to enclose their photographs with their applications to the Civil Service Commission. This has been abolished. But the so-called "rule of three" still remains as a very vagrant source of discrimination. Whereas there are many merits to sending three employees to perspective supervisors, the fact is that this practice is used to discriminate against Negro applicants.

Exact statistics on the number of Negro employees in the Federal service are always very vague, but it is generally conceded that the number is extremely small. We believe that by drawing upon the large number of available Negro help in the District, the housing shortage created by the influx of new Government workers would be materially reduced.

Complaints have come to us that pools of Negro stenographers in certain sections of the War and Navy Departments have been isolated in separate rooms and have been virtually ignored, spending their days in almost complete enforced idleness, while white stenographers have been working at top speed. We are investigating these complaints and have found considerable truth in them, and we feel that the committee, with its much superior resources, would be able to undertake a much more thorough examination of this problem. If the committee desires, we will furnish for the record a more detailed statement on the examples of such racial discrimination that have come to our attention.

Greater utilization of existing forces also was suggested by several members of the committee. Complaints have been made to us that large groups of stenographers have been forced to stand in long lines outside of some divisions of the War Department for hours at a time awaiting assignment. We believe the efficient use of existing personnel would be aided by the committee's inquiring into such practices.

We do not, however, endorse the suggestion made by one member of the committee that workers coming into Washington should be forced to leave their families behind nor do we agree that his statement that workers who refuse to do so would not be patriotic enough to deserve Government jobs. The whole policy of the Selective Service Act is based upon the principle of keeping the home intact. The most widespread demoralization could result from splitting up families to obtain workers in Washington. Crowded defense areas around private industry also might begin to ask the question "Why can't we force our workers to leave their families behind?" There is the paramount problem that Government workers on their small salaries cannot afford to maintain two homes.

As to the question of extending hours to cut down the need for additional employees, the United Federal Workers believes that longer hours should be worked where necessary to the war effort and within the limits of health and efficiency. Various studies have shown that after 48 hours of work, a person's efficiency begins to decline. The average workweek is now 44 hours and is 48

hours in most defense agencies. However, the greatest problem here is the failure of the Government to pay for overtime work. We believe that overtime pay is necessary as a supplement to the salary of fixed income Federal workers who are faced with severe hardships by rising living costs. Time and one-half for overtime pay is almost the rule in private industry in the United States, and government workers in Great Britian are paid time and one-half for overtime hours of work. The Government worker in the United States, however, receives no pay for overtime work, much less time and one-half pay.

We believe this is a discrimination that is detrimental to the morale, as well as the health, of Federal workers.

We do not subscribe to Coordinator Palmer's statement that when this $50,000,000 is expended, no more should be appropriated for public housing regardless of conditions because of the burden it would place on District utilities. We recognize the burden now being borne by District utilities but we feel that the answer is to increase those utilities rather than to cease providing necessary housing.

The estimates for public works submitted by Commissioner Reynolds were considerably lower than those outlined as necessary by J. P. Gordon, Director of Sanitary Engineering for the District of Columbia. We strongly endorse Mr. Gordon's recommendations for appropriations needed to provide more water, sewage disposal, and refuse collection facilities. The health problem in the District is one that is full of dynamite, as witnesses have testified. It is obvious that an epidemic of any kind in the center of the Nation's war effort would be a national disaster. Also, lack of adequate fire protection is a real

menace.

We hope that you will definitely work out a broad and well-integrated program and will reject any attempt to solve the housing shortage by half-way measures.

TO ACQUIRE TITLE, ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED STATES, TO LAND

No. 3

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

S. 2222

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE FEDERAL WORKS ADMINISTRA-
TOR TO ACQUIRE TITLE, ON BEHALF OF THE UNITED
STATES, TO NOT MORE THAN THIRTY-FIVE
ACRES OF LAND SUBJECT TO CERTAIN
RESERVATIONS IN THE GRANTORS

FEBRUARY 20, 1942

Printed for the use of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds

COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS

FRITZ G. LANHAM, Texas, Chairman

ALBERT W. Woods, Clerk