vidual survey are not the answer to the present problem of providing a compulsory legal basis for current reports for national defense.

A general extension of the number of inquiries taken under the authorization of the Secretary of Commerce is also not an answer to the problem. The difficulty with such inquiries is that they must be on a voluntary basis. Unless an inquiry is specifically authorized by the Congress as part of the regular decennial or quinquennial canvass or by a special act, no respondent need reply to special current census inquiries unless he is persuaded that it is a good thing for him to do so. In times of national danger it may not be safe to rely on a voluntary basis for crucial data on current industrial developments. It is true, of course, that nearly all businessmen would reply promptly and fully to an inquiry known to be for national-defense purposes, but there always remains the danger that some important group will decline to give information about their operations and thus prevent a summary picture of changes that are occurring, which may be of utmost importance to national defense.

Authorization for defense agencies to carry on their own statistical inquiries is, again, not the answer to the problem. The nationaldefense agencies are already making use of the Bureau's technical staff and specialized equipment for their statistical work. The Bureau of the Census is the only statistical agency that now has appropriate specialized equipment and personnel to take care quickly and adequately of the current statistical inquiries needed on industrial and business developments. Without use of the trained Census personnel using procedures already established, new current inquiries for national-defense purposes could not be carried on efficiently. Setting up entirely new organizations with new equipment and new personnel would be both expensive and inefficient. Such a set-up would duplicate equipment already in the Census Bureau, prevent efficient use of the limited number of trained persons available for the work, and cause a harassing multiplication of questionnaires going to the same respondents.

CHANGES PROPOSED IN THIS BILL

After careful consideration of the present needs of industrial and business data for national defense, and a scrutiny of the content and effect of laws authorizing census inquiries in these fields, I am convinced that a new authorization is required to provide the simple, direct, and flexible reporting system that is needed. According to the provisions of our proposal, there would be a quinquennial census of manufacturing, mineral industries, and business and, whenever a supplementary current or periodic statistical inquiry becomes necessary, it could be made under compulsory provision by the Director of the Census, if the Secretary of Commerce after due investigation finds that the inquiry is necessary to serve a public need.

One other change proposed is important enough for specific mention. At present the information obtained by the census on industry and business is confidential. Employees of the Bureau of the Census are prohibited by law from disclosing any facts or figures which could be identified as pertaining to an individual person, establishment, or business concern. This provision, although essential for obtaining unbiased reports in times of peace, does not meet the necessities of

national defense at the present time when information about the exact location of certain types of material and machinery is needed for national-defense purposes. Unless this prohibition is removed, such information must be acquired independently, perhaps at considerable cost, by duplicate inquiries from national-defense agencies, even though the same information is already on Census records. It is suggested, therefore, that information contained in an individual census report may be used for the benefit of national defense only, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce. The objectives of the measure originally submitted may be summarized as follows:

1. Necessary authority is provided for the assumption by the Bureau of the Census of its proper functions in the collection and compilation of statistics for defense agencies and the public.

2. By eliminating the 1941 Census of Manufactures and substituting for it the collection of current or periodic data in the fields of manufacturing, mining, and business, it will be possible to secure muchneeded data this year instead of a year hence. Furthermore, the funds released by eliminating the 1941 Census of Manufactures can be made immediately available for this current statistical program.

3. Savings of Federal expenditures and greatly improved administrative procedures, as well as better statistical data, will result from the proposed quinquennial census of industry and business and the elimination of the biennial census of manufactures, the decennial census of mines, and the decennial census of distribution, which are now taken at the same time as the census of population.

4. A permanent basis for the improvement of periodic statistical data is provided by this legislation in that it makes possible the application of scientifically proved sampling techniques by the Bureau to many phases of its work.

You will note that in form our proposal provides for a substitute section 17 of the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act of 1929. An important reason for this form is that the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act already contains necessary penalties for illegal acts and provides for compulsory reporting of census information, which is one of the principal deficiencies in the present census current reports that have been authorized from time to time by the Secretary of Commerce.

I should also like to point out that, while this legislation is required for the present emergency and that its provision for permitting disclosure of information for national defense purposes is specifically tied up with the national defense program, the remainder of the act is a forward-looking progressive measure that fits into the permanent program of the Bureau of the Census and is an improvement that would be worth considering on its merits even in normal times, irrespective of its urgency at the present time of grave world-wide turmoil.

COMMENT ON CHANGES PROPOSED IN H. R. 5139

My statement to the Senate subcommittee was with reference to the bill as it was sent by the Secretary of Commerce to the Congress. Certain changes were made, however, in that bill before it was introduced into the House was H. R. 5139. Some of these changes alter the character of the bill markedly and would have serious consequences. I strongly recommend their deletion and the restoration of the bill to

the essential form in which it was originally presented to the Congress. The reasons for this recommendation will be explained as we look at each of the changes made in the measure as originally framed.

First of all, paragraph (b) of section 17 as originally drawn has been omitted in H. R. 5139. This paragraph would authorize the Director of the Census when directed by the Secretary of Commerce to collect current data supplemental to any statistical inquiry authorized by law. This provision is an essential part of the measure since it would provide for collection of industrial data between the quinquennial censuses. Omission of this authorization would constitute, not progress, but a distinct step backward to the pre-World War state of ignorance about our manufacturing activities and products. National defense, in these days, even more than in the first World War, must be dealt with largely in terms of industrial production of munitions, war implements, and other supplies for use directly or indirectly in the defense of our own Nation or those nations whom we are helping. We need a current and complete record of our productive activities. Hence, the defense agencies are now asking the Bureau of the Census to undertake an increasing number of current statistical reports on industrial activities, inventories, and products. As I have already pointed out, there is no provision of law at the present time which makes it mandatory for manufacturing and other industrial establishments to give this information, even though it is needed for national defense. Nor is there now any provision of law, on account of the strictly confidential nature of Census inquiries, whereby the results rom such inquiries, after being collected and tabulated by the Bureau of the Census, may be given to national defense agencies in such form that they can spot with precision the location of specific types of equipment and the causes of bottlenecks or stoppages in the flow of essential war materials.

I should also like to point out again that, quite irrespective of the essential needs of national defense for such current industrial data at the present time, it is desirable as a permanent procedure to have the statistical surveys of industry made up of comprehensive 5-year canvasses, supplemented by current reports covering the most important parts of the field. The larger plants of the more important industries account for most of the rapid fluctuations in industry. These plants, fortunately, have the best systems of internal records, so that the current information desired for a national picture of significant changes is easier to obtain than if all small, widely scattered businesses had to be canvassed. The complaint of too many or too frequent Government questionnaires comes almost entirely from the small establishments that would be omitted for the most part from the proposed current surveys. Quiquennial detailed surveys of all plants, large and small, would give a complete national picture, but we would be entirely without knowledge of what was happening currently between these quiquennial canvasses if there is no provision for compulsory current reporting by which it would be possible to keep our figures up to date and thereby make them of immeasurable value to national-defense officials.

There was a second change made in the measure originally sent to the Congress by the Secretary of Commerce when it was introduced into the House as H. R. 5139. The words "and supply to members of Congress upon request" were inserted in the bill. This insertion

would make available to Members of Congress "any individual Census report or any information contained therein." This provision would break down the confidential feature of the act, which feature is indispensable to the Bureau for the proper discharge of the duties laid upon it by the Congress. The census takers, as they move from home to home and from business office to business office, are constantly required to reassure householders and businessmen that individual information given by them cannot under the law be divulged to anyone.

Most Congressmen, of course, knowing how essential the confidential feature of Census information is for unbiased and correct reporting from persons and business concerns canvassed, would refrain entirely from making any request of the Bureau of the Census for information about a particular person or business. Nonetheless, the fact that the Census would have to accede to such a request under the proposed provision would seriously damage the confidence of everyone in the inviolability of their census reports and would materially hamper the Bureau in its performance of the duties assigned to it by the Congress. The success of any Census undertaking depends upon the extent to which the information obtained from an individual business or person will be held confidential and used only for the compilation of statistical totals that do not disclose facts about any one respondent. As the present Census law reads, the Bureau is prohibited from divulging information taken from individual returns, except upon authorization of the person to whom such information relates. We now propose one exception to this law, but only when the data are to be used in connection with national defense, and to this proposal there can be no valid objection under the present desperate condition of the whole world. However, no further exception to existing law should be made. Efforts have been made before to deprive individual reports of this confidential characteristic. The Congress, however, has been fully aware of the necessity for enlisting public confidence in the basic national surveys and has steadfastly included in the census acts a guaranty of the confidential character of census returns. The first cloak of secrecy thrown around individual reports was inserted in the law providing for the Thirteen Decennial Census, approved July 2, 1909 (36 Stat. 1), and the effect of that provision was strengthened in both the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Decennial Census Acts. To remove this assurance of secrecy for any purpose other than for national defense is sure to jeopardize the collection of accurate information. I am hopeful, therefore, in fact I plead, that no step will be taken which may lead to reluctance on the part of the public in giving information to the Census Bureau and thus increase our difficulties in obtaining full and correct responses to census inquiries. I cannot place too much stress upon the necessity for retaining this confidential feature in census acts, and I earnestly hope that the Congress will make no exception other than in the interest of national defense.

Of the various additions proposed to the measure as submitted by the Secretary of Commerce, one of the most undesirable is the insertion of material on apportionment of Representatives among the several States. To these provisions I must object in toto and for most excellent reasons. First, because a bill incorporating a change in the method of apportionment has already been passed by the House in H. R. 2665, and is now before the Senate. Secondly, because the

two problems of (1) apportioning Representatives in Congress among the several States, and (2) securing adequate information on industry and business for national defense purposes, are not connected in any

way.

There seem to be no advantages and several weighty disadvantages in placing the two unrelated questions together in a single bill. It is known, for example, that between the various possible methods of apportionment of Representatives, all States do not fare equally well. There is, therefore, some incentive for each Congressman, in considering apportionment, to think of the immediate advantage to his own State, which may be contrary to the immediate advantage of some other State. On the other hand, in the bill requested by the Secretary of Commerce, which is intended to provide for a quinquennial census of industry and business and for the collection of current statistics, there is no clash of interest between different States. The principles involved in this proposal are simply those of (1) urgent need of information for national defense planning and operations, and (2) desirability of a suitable permanent arrangement for collecting adequate statistical information on industry and business.

It is most unfortunate to have the proposed bill authorizing the collection of industrial, and business data, the prompt passage of which is urgently needed for national defense purposes, encumbered with a controversial matter, such as apportionment, which may require a considerable period of time for further consideration in the Congress before final enactment. Both measures are important. Each, however, should be considered on its own merits, without placing the other in jeopardy. The prompt passage of the one on collection of industrial statistics is tremendously important to national defense, while the other on apportionment will presumably be taken care of in appropriate time by the Congress, in either the separate measure already passed by the House of Representatives, or by some other act that may be devised by the Congress.

Aside from the provisions that concern apportionment of Representatives among the States, two other provisions have been added to the measure submitted by the Secretary of Commerce. One is the proposed repeal of section 20 of the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act, which provides an appropriation for the Fifteenth Decennial Census period that began in 1929 and extended through 1932. As the provisions of this section of the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act have already been executed, there is certainly no objection to the content of such a proposal. I should like to suggest, however, that repeal of such obsolete provisions could, preferably, wait until some comprehensive bill is introduced on Census matters which are not of such urgency as the matter which is presently being considered. The effect of the proposed repeal is to remove a completely inoperative provision from the statutes which, while it does not affect Census procedures in the slightest, may lead to some confusion and prolong consideration of the pending legislation to the injury of national defense.

The third addition proposed in H. R. 5139, as compared with the draft submitted by the Secretary of Commerce, is the insertion of a provision to repeal the fourth sentence of the last paragraph of section 3 of the act providing for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses. That sentence in the Fifteenth Decennial Census Act reads as follows: