This census should be invaluable and of keen interest to the petroleum industry and those engaged therein. We should like very much to have a copy of the Survey when it is published. There is great need for information of this kind and I believe it would be to the industry's advantage to have it as complete and accurate as possible. Sincerely yours, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, K. C. SCLATER, Editor. ALABASTINE Co., Grand Rapids, Mich., May 21, 1941. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. (Attention Dr. O. E. Kiessling.) DEAR MR. KIESSLING: We are wondering if you can give us any information with regard to wages paid to employees in the gypsum industry. This would include miners of gypsum, calciners, grinders, etc.; and this would need to apply only to the wage scale in this district of the country. Any help you can give us would be very much appreciated. Yours very truly,. ALABASTINE Co., FRED W. MARE, General Manager. RANGE MUNICIPALITIES & CIVIC ASSOCIATION, Virginia, Minn., January 29, 1940. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. (Attention Mr. O. E. Kiessling, Chief, Mines and Quarries.) MY DEAR MR. KIESSLING: Can you give me the following information: What was the United States consumption of iron ore for the years 1931, 1932, 1937? The reason for asking this is that there has been a claim that imported ore is in competition with Minnesota ore, and in the yearbooks which you have sent me, this is not a fact, but I am missing the consumption for the above years. Can you also advise me the amount of scrap iron which was used in making steel during the past 10 years, and the price of scrap for the same? Do you have comparative study figures of per ton cost of mining iron ore in the open pit mines of Alabama? Your yearbooks contain them for Minnesota and Michigan, but I would also like to have the Alabama costs. I note that the pamphlet for the year 1937 is missing from those you sent me. Was such a study made that year, and if so, I would desire to have a copy of the same. We Are any figures available on whether plastics are taking the place of steel? are running into this proposition and do not have any available figures on the same. I am sorry to burden you with all this, but I know that you are personally interested and might have these figures available. Yours very truly, RANGE MUNICIPALITIES & CIVIC ASSOCIATION, By FRED A. CINA. VIRGINIA STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Mr. OTTO E. KIESSLING, Chief Statistician, Census of Mines and Quarries, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. KIESSLING: I shall greatly appreciate your placing my name on your mailing list to receive publications from the 1940 Census of Mines and Quarries. Very truly yours, WILFRED J. RITZ, Research Assistant. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Bureau of the Census, Washington, D. C. THE GATES RUBBER CO., Mr. O. E. KIESSLING, Chief, Mineral Industries: SALES DIVISION, INC., Denver, Colo., July 18, 1941. Thanks very much for your letter of July 14 and the preliminary reports covering copper, bauxite, tungsten ore, and lignite, issued as part of the Census of Mineral Industries for 1939. Also we certainly appreciate your cooperation in putting our name on the mailing list for future reports covering lead and zinc ore, gold and silver, bituminous coal, and anthracite. This information is very helpful. G. W. LILJESTROM, Manager, Market Research Department. Mr. CAPT. With only a few exceptions these letters have been received during 1941. And by the way, they were received long before this legislation became an issue, and therefore were not inspired as letters being received now may have been. At least there seem to be grounds upon which to base such a suspicion regarding current letters. Thirty of the letters are from large mining companies or interests concerned with mining. Three are from agencies of the Interior Department itself requesting information from the Bureau of the Census. The balance is from large and small business and research organizations. The question arises, "Why do these mining companies and agencies of the Interior Department ask the Bureau of the Census for information on minerals when this information is supposed to be available in the Bureau of Mines with which they are in constant contact?" The answer is, of course, that most of the information collected in the Census of Mineral Industries is not abtainable from the Bureau of Mines or from any other source. If the Census did not collect this information, it simply would not exist. The letters I have just presented, however, show that the major effect of the Census of Mineral Industries is to produce new and interesting information that mining companies and business concerns want and that is not available elsewhere. As further evidence of cooperation already referred to in our testimony I wish to submit herewith as an exhibit the first page of the consolidated schedule used by the Bureau of the Census and the Bituminous Coal Division, Interior Department, in collecting statistics on bituminous coal in the regular decennial census of mines taken last year. This wise and excellent arrangement came about as a result of an agreement signed by the Secretary of the Interior and the Acting Secretary of Commerce which has already been placed in evidence. We of the Census Bureau are eager to develop similar agreements with the Bureau of Mines. Moreover, the Director of the Census has on several occasions given such assurances to the Director of the Bureau of Mines. (The schedule referred to is as follows:) This report is required under the provisions of the Bituminous Coal Act of 1937, pursuant to Section 10 of the Act. The questions are so framed as to supply data needed for administration of the Coal Act and at the same time to provide the statistics for bituminous coal mining for the Sixteenth Decennial Census. Another act of Congress provides for a general census of industry, mines, agriculture, and population to be taken during the year 1940 and to cover operations during the calendar year 1939. By agreement between the Departments of Commerce and of the Interior, the statistics of bituminous coal from mines producing more than 50 tons daily and from mines having rail or river connections are collected on this joint questionnaire. This will relieve producers from answering two different questionnaires and at the same time will effect savings in public expenditure. Employees of the Coal Division are subject to the penalties imposed by Section 10 of the Coal Act for unauthorized disclosure of confidential data, and the disclosure of the operations of individual producers shall be subject to the limitations imposed by the Act. Employees of the Census Bureau are subject to the Act of Congress providing for the census, making it unlawful for the Census Bureau to disclose any facts regarding the business of individual producers. Please reply to the following questions and return the schedule promptly to the Statistical Bureau of the Bituminous Coal Division for your district. Report on this form mines having an average daily production of more than 50 tons; also all mines with rail or river connections regardless of size. Before preparing your report, read carefully all instructions on this schedule. Answer each question and if the answer is "none," please so indicate rather than leave the space blank. A schedule should be filled out if you operated ANY PART of 1939. If you had no output, so state and answer other pertinent questions. Additional blank copies will be furnished upon request to the Statistical Bureau of the Bituminous Coal Division for the District in which your mine is located. This report should cover operations during the calendar year ended December 31, 1939. This report should cover the operations of your mine or strip pit together with its shops, yards, preparation plant, if any, and office. A SEPARATE REPORT SHOULD BE MADE FOR EACH MINE OR STRIP PIT. Omit data relating to coke ovens. Disregard spaces for "Key," "Code," and "Item" numbers, and those marked "DO NOT FILL IN." (These are for office use only in connection with machine tabulation.) INQUIRY 1-NAME, LOCATION, AND DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION: A. Name of mine.. B. Name and address of operator. 1. Is the concern operating this establishment incorporated? [Key-A-1] (Yes or no) 2. Does this concern operate mines other than the one covered by this report?. C. Location of mine workings covered by this report: 1. State 2. County (Yes or no) 3. City, town, or village (within which or nearest which located) 4. Post office nearest to mine 5. Shipping point 6. Coat Act District_ 7. Field or Trade District.. [Key-A-2] D. Was there any production or development work at this mine during any part of 1939?_ (Yes or no) E. If this report does not cover the operations of this mine during the entire year 1939, give dates of period covered and the name and address of the operator for the remaining portion of the year.... F. Name or number of coal seam worked. 1. Average thickness of coal seam: Including partings- Excluding partings___ __inches. _inches. G. If mine produced no coal in 1939, please check below in proper square: Mr. CAPT. This questionnaire shows clearly that it is a vehicle of both the Bureau of the Census and the Bituminous Coal Division, and the legal requirements of the inquiry are indicated in fine print at the top. With reference to this joint work, H. A. Gray, Director, Bituminous Coal Division, Interior Department, wrote the Bureau of the Census on January 4, 1941, in part as follows: This is with reference to your letter of December 20, addressed to Mr. Lamb, pertaining to the 1939 bituminous coal canvass undertaken jointly by the Bureau of the Census and the Bituminous Coal Division. I was glad to learn that the editing and coding work has proceeded on schedule. As I understand, this work was finished on about 97 percent of the tonnage by late November, excluding the questionnaires requiring additional correspondence for completion. I know the canvass will be as successful as originally planned and that your e forts have been important in making that possible. Now, Mr. Chairman, let us not be confounded by all the confusing arguments that have been poured into the record of this hearing. Let us examine the real issues only, laid bare of all the bright and sparkling words by which they have been obscured. When the Congress created the Department of Commerce the organic act gave to the Secretary of Commerce, among other powers, authority to foster, promote, and develop commerce, mining, and manufacturing, and make such recommendations as he deemed necessary for the effective performance of his duties, and also from time to time to make such investigations and reports as he might find necessary and urgent. So, in accordance with that authority, Secretary Jones has made certain recommendations to the Congress and has appeared before this Committee in support of his recommendations which are fairly set out in both S. 1627 and H. R. 5232. Paragraph (b) in both bills is identical and does not give the Secretary of Commerce a single shred of authority that he has not always possessed from the beginning of his office. The Bureau of the Budget has confirmed this fact and its opinion is a part of this record. That, Mr. Chairman, is the simple truth of the matter, all the sound and fury raised here, to the contrary notwithstanding. Paragraph (b) is in this proposed legislation solely for the purpose of making it a part of the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act, so that the penalties already in that law may be made to apply, primarily in the interests of the general public welfare, to the end that a few recalcitrant respondents may not put in jeopardy some investigation or inquiry found urgently necessary for national-defense purposes. With particular reference to the Bureau of Mines, we have shown that passage of this legislation will in nowise invade or even encroach upon the proper fields of the Bureau of Mines with respect to technologic investigations concerning mining, mine development, mine inspection, mine efficiency, health and safety of miners, and related interests, for the very good and compelling reason that there is no grant of additional authority to the Secretary of Commerce by which such invasion or encroachment would be made possible. We have, also, shown that the Bureau of the Census has never in the past gathered or attempted to gather statistics having to do with technologic investigations concerning mining, mine development, mine inspection, mine efficiency, health and safety of miners, and related interests. addition, we have shown that the Bureau of the Census is committed, by long established practice, to the firm policy of arranging cooperative agreements with other agencies of government, to the end that there be no duplication of effort and to the further end that the number of questionnaires sent to businessmen be reduced to the lowest possible minimum. Moreover, we have shown with great reluctance, and only then because the Bureau of Mines has forced the issue upon us, that the Bureau of Mines has itself, in fact, gone far afield into the business of gathering manufacturing and trade statistics, for which it seems to have no authority in law, even though one reads the law with the most liberal imagination. We are compelled further to point out that on some of its forms sent out to respondents it has actually used the word "census" to describe its inquiry. An example of this is revealed on Bureau of Mines Form 6-943b "Census of Refineries and Cracking Plants (as of January 1, 1940)," which schedule I wish to have placed in the record. (The schedule referred to is as follows:) [Confidential-For use by Department of the Interior only] UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BUREAU OF MINES WASHINGTON CENSUS OF REFINERIES AND CRACKING PLANTS (AS OF JANUARY 1, 1940) Please reply to the following questions and return the schedule as promptly as possible in the enclosed envelope which requires no postage. A separate schedule should be prepared for each plant. This information will be used in the preparation of the list of refineries and cracking plants published annually by the Bureau of Mines. Your cooperation is appreciated. If you desire a copy of the published report please check here |