present mayors, commissioners of public works, city managers, and people of that kind.

So the opinion I have given you, of the small amount of work that has been done, I think, is a fairly realistic appraisal of the country as a_whole, admitting all the time that there are exceptions in various places. For instance, the State of New York requires no assistance, because the State has appropriated money which it will give to the cities on a matching basis for a public-works program. That is one of the outstanding exceptions.

There are always exceptions to these statements, but what I have told you is, by and large, the situation throughout the United States. The amount of advance realistic planning that is being done today is very small.

The CHAIRMAN. One very important message that we should get out to the people is that the Federal Government is not going to be doing all this work and putting out all this money as a bounty. That responsibility is going to rest upon the local communities. If they do not begin to plan from their own resources, they are going to be the ones to suffer, because other cities and other States are planning, and planning at their own expense, to look after this period following the war, especially until industry can be converted to its normal practices. I think it is well, in every way that we can, to get the word out to the people, especially to the cities that have large surpluses but are still hoping that they can keep them and from a depleted Federal Treasury get financial plums, that they are going to have to do their own planning, that they are going to have to do their own work, and that the Federal Government is going to get back to its constitutional authority and limit its operations to the things that are enumerated in our organic law under our dual system of government.

If we can get that message out to the people of the country, and to the various States and various municipalities, I think that it would be the greatest stimulation they could possibly have to begin to do their own work and realize their own responsibility.

Mr. HOLMES. I appreciate the value of the time the witness has put into the study of this subject. I went through one of these periods following the last World War. I happened to be mayor of a community of about 200,000 people. During the last World War, of course, we could not spend any money in the municipality even for essentials, much less public works. We had all we could do-and our means were very limited-to acquire the necessary funds even for maintenance to keep our municipal plant in shape.

We have a similar situation today. Almost every city, no matter how small, has bottled up within it tremendous programs that it has not been able to carry out during this period of time, but they are ready to go ahead with them.

After the last World War, in 1918 and going into 1919, we did not find municipalities running down to Washington looking for help. They had energy and money bottled up at home, so that they could tackle the job the minute the armistice was signed. I hope that we shall not go through the same experience after this war that we went through after the last war, when on November 11, on the morning when the armistice was signed, hundreds and hundreds of millions of

dollars' worth of contracts were canceled. They were canceled that very day, throwing people out the business window.

I think the Federal Government has a responsibility to maintain the large plants it has built and to look out for the hundreds of thousands of employees in tank factories, munitions plants, shipyards, and what not, to ease out of that period. Let us build a stock pile for the Army and Navy for 6 months or 8 months and then gradually eliminate the graveyard shifts, Sunday work, and holiday work, so that private industry can absorb this labor gradually. We had a horrible experience in 1918 when contracts were canceled promiscuously and people were dumped entirely in the lap of the States and municipalities. Mr. McWILLIAMS. Would you not have to provide for the discharge of soldiers, sailors, and marines in the same manner, so as not to dump them all out at once?

Mr. HOLMES. That is true. I think the Federal Government can play a very important part in solving this whole situation if it uses just a little common sense.

Mr. KILBURN. I think the chairman of the committee has made a very good statement. I think it is up to the States and communities not to sit back and look to the Federal Government for money. The planning, I think, is up to them; if they do not do it, they are going to be out of luck, and they ought to be out of luck.

Mr. McWILLIAMS. I too think that the chairman has made a very fine statement. I think that we could back him up by preparing articles for our local press, to go to our daily and weekly newspapers, telling what we are attempting to do down here, and stating the fact that if they receive any money at all, it will be only on the basis of a loan.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Blucher. The committee appreciates the excellent statement you have made.

Mr. BLUCHER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will now stand in recess until next Tuesday morning at 10 o'clock, when it will meet in this same room. (At 11:50 a. m. an adjournment was taken until Tuesday, January 25, 1944, at 10 a. m.)

POST-WAR PLANNING

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1944

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS,

Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in caucus room, House Office Building, Hon. Fritz G. Lanham, chairman, presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD A. O'NEAL, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FARM BUREAU FEDERATION, WASHINGTON, D. C.

The CHAIRMAN. We have met this morning to hear Mr. Edward A. O'Neal, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation.

We are pleased to have you with us, Mr. O'Neal, and shall be glad to receive such information as you may be able to give us along the line of this inquiry.

Mr. O'NEAL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity to speak to you after receiving an outline of what you have in mind. I was a little confused at first, because it seemed so broad and so comprehensive. But it is very important, indeed. Our group, like other groups, of course, has been studying this proposition not only from the viewpoint of the farmers, but also from the viewpoint of all other groups in the United States, as to what should be done in the post-war days.

I was greatly delighted with Speaker Rayburn's speech in Chicago last Friday, in which he said that a committee of Congress, the group of people closest to the American people,. would be set up, and he hoped that all groups would register and collaborate with that congressional committee. So I was a little confused about the activities of your committee and of the other committee spoken of in this most recent announcement.

The CHAIRMAN. I may say that we have been endeavoring to get information along that very line ever since fairly early in December. We held hearings, you know, in December. In January we have so far had before us Mr. Ezra B. Whitman, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers; Mr. Hal H. Hale, of the Committee on Postwar Construction, American Society of Civil Engineers, and executive secretary of the American Association of State Highway Officials; Mr. D. K. Este Fisher, Jr., of the American Institute of Architects; Mr. Hugh R. Pomeroy, executive director of the National Association of Housing Officials; Mr. Samuel H. Thompson, assistant director of the National Planning Association; Mr. Frederick H. Ecker, chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; Mr. Beards

ley Ruml, chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and treasurer of R. H. Macy & Co., Inc.; Maj. Reuben H. Fleet, president-elect of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and former president of Consolidated Aircraft Corporation; Mr. John Clifford Folger, president of the Investment Bankers Association of America; and Mr. Walter H. Blucher, executive director of the American Society of Planning Officials.

Those men have been before us during this month of January; and, as I say, we had several before us in December. So you will see the scope of this investigation. We have hearings scheduled which will very likely take us through the month of February, meeting 3 days every week. So perhaps we have in a way anticipated the idea that the speaker has in mind.

Mr. O'NEAL. That was the reason why I was a little confused. I think that what you gentlemen have done is a very splendid thing. I did not mean to say otherwise, but I myself was a little confused.

There are a number of groups all anxious to help, and I have sat with members of those groups. It has been my pleasure to sit down with organized groups representing agriculture, industry, and labor to see, if possible, if we might get together and make a few definite recommendations.

Of course, this question has been considered by farmers, because, of all the groups in the country, they went through the mill after the other World War. I think that while in general terms we cover the field from the farmer's viewpoint, more of these definite and specific plans of action, we have all agreed, should be given study, in collaboration with other groups, so as to know where to put into effect some of the broad programs we have in mind.

If I may take your time, gentlemen, I should like to read this statement of my own group. It is their reaction after considered thinking last summer and fall and was adopted as a broad program at our national convention on December 8. I shall be very glad, wherever we have a specific method of doing one of the things we recommend here, to answer any questions you may ask. The first thing I shall read is the preamble. [Reading:]

The United States of America, citadel of human liberty and individual rights, will face grave duties and responsibilities in and to the post-war world. We can discharge these solemn obligations only through policies based on our historic ideals of Christian democracy. It would be a tragedy of world-wide proportions were we to fail to grasp our opportunity for constructive service to humanity on a world-wide basis. Actuated by the principles proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount, we, as a nation, must dedicate our national energies to this monumental task, inspired by the resolute faith and fortitude that are a part of our Christian heritage which has lifted human hopes and aspirations to levels never before attained in the history of civilization.

The position of the American Farm Bureau Federation on specific issues is as follows:

I. We favor the United States of America assuming its rightful share of the responsibility for cooperation with other nations in:

1. Holding aggressor nations in check after the end of the war.

2. Maintaining world-trade policies that will give opportunity to all nations to obtain the materials necessary to maintain a sound peacetime economy, and

3. Providing the opportunity for political and economic freedom for all people; to the end that a just and lasting peace may be maintained among the nations of the world.

II. We favor extending aid to the people of the war-ravaged nations to relieve human suffering, but in every case, in order to avoid misunderstandings and

unfortunate consequences, we should make certain that no commitment is made which our Nation within reason cannot fulfill. The primary objective should be to assist them in their rehabilitation plans and programs so as to enable them to help themselves in meeting their own needs insofar as they desire and request such assistance.

III. We favor domestic policies that will assure full production and full employment, which will result in constantly rising living standards for all groups. To attain this objective, an equitable balance in purchasing power among all groups must be maintained.

We believe that this can best be accomplished by industry, labor, and agriculture through voluntary adoption of price and wage policies based on a philosophy of abundance. Only if each group will do its part to formulate and carry out such a program, can they effectively protect the general welfare against the development of extremely paternalistic policies on the part of government. IV. We recognize that as civilization becomes more complex, government must assume new functions, but we insist

That our historic constitutional form of government with its balance of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches be reverently observed and jealously guarded

The CHAIRMAN. I hope you will pardon me for interrupting you. Mr. O'NEAL. Certainly.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you not think that in addition to the three coordinate branches of the Federal Government carrying on their functions, as provided in the Constitution, our dual system of government should be rigidly adhered to and that the same policy should apply in the States?

Mr. O'NEAL. Oh, assuredly; I shall refer to that later.
The CHAIRMAN. Very well.

Mr. O'NEAL [reading]:

That the continuation of successful democracy demands that individuals and groups shall assume the greatest possible responsibility for the solution of social, political, and economic problems.

To the extent that governmental aid is necessary, it should be carried on as far as possible by governmental units closest to the people, and where Federal action is required, such powers should be administered as far as possible through agencies locally responsible and which can adapt such programs to local conditions.

Too great reliance upon governmental action alone will inevitably destroy our democratic institutions and lead us into some form of stateism with the accompanying loss of our freedom. Government should be the servant and not the master of the people.

V. We favor the adoption of monetary and credit policies, domestic and international, that will encourage and facilitate maximum production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services, on a fair-exchange basis.

VI. We favor adjustment or removal of foreign and domestic barriers so as to facilitate the maximum exchange of goods and services between nations, and between groups in our own country, to the end that maximum employment and production may be achieved throughout the world.

VII. We favor every legitimate and necessary aid by private industry, labor, and agriculture in cooperation with Government, to provide opportunity for profitable and satisfactory employment for men and women demobilized from the armed forces and war plants.

We favor the speedy reconversion of privately-owned industrial plants to the production of peacetime goods. Agricultural land, industrial plants, and unneeded inventories owned by the Government should be disposed of as rapidly as practicable on terms and conditions that will make the maximum contribution to our peacetime economy.

VIII. We believe that fiscal and tax policies should be adopted that will retard inflation, that will be as nearly as possible on a pay-as-you-go basis, and will encourage the system of free enterprise. We urge that prompt action be taken to put into operation a definite program for the retirement of the public debt as rapidly as economic conditions will permit.

IX. Public educational opportunity must be enlarged for the youth of America and for its adult population as well. To the extent Federal assistance is needed