forced to turn down 42 applications for aid last year and unless we receive some additional funds it will be impossible to expand. There are 37,000 farm boys between the ages of 16 and 20 attending school in this State. At present we are able to reach only about 3,000 with the funds that we have available. There are 47,000 farm boys between the ages of 16 and 20 who are out of school. Thus far we have reached practically none of these. There are 252,000 farmers in the State of Tennessee. We have been able to reach only eleven or twelve hundred of these through evening class instruction. There are at present 139 departments of vocational agriculture in this State and our present system of supervision is very inadequate. We need more funds in order that we may be able to carry on district supervision.

8. Ohio: The survey of the 1,100 first, second, and third grade high shcools in Ohio just completed indicates that in addition to the 196 communities which offer the opportunities for vocational agriculture to 6,930 boys, there are 188 high schools with an enrollment of 6,506 boys which merit full-time departments. In addition there are 279 high schools with over 5,500 farm boys enrolled which merit half-time teachers. This makes a total of approximately 12,000 boys enrolled in high schools which have the facilities for offering vocational agriculture work provided Federal-State funds can be secured to meet local funds. It means that our present program is meeting but little more than one-third of the need for vacational agricultural instruction in the rural high schools of Ohio, based upon actual survey.

Local communities in Ohio, especially rural communities, can not be expected to bear any higher percentage of the cost of the vocational agriculture work. Last year local expenditures for the vocational agriculture program amounted to $198,818.11. This year the local expenditures will be approximately $221,000. In addition to the above amount spent for salaries, many rural boards of education have been required to provide additional room space in buildings in order that proper facilities might be afforded for the work. With farm inventories and the price of farm lands in rural districts cut in half or lower local communities can hardly be expected to make further additions to local tax rates in order to provide the work. Even with a 50 per cent reimbursement basis at least one-half of the 196 high schools offering vocational agriculture work in Ohio have been forced to go to the people for additional levies in order to provide for the work.

It is the opinion of the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, the Ohio State Grange, the Ohio Parent-Teacher Association, the farm press of Ohio, and others that the Federal Government should participate along with the State and local communities in the furtherance of the vocational agriculture program. These organizations and agencies stand ready to support further appropriation measures in Congress at the proper time.

Hon. CHARLES L. MCNARY,

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C., February 8, 1928.

Chairman Committee on Agriculture and Forestry,

United States Senate.

MY DEAR SENATOR: Replying to your request of December 23 for a report on S. 1731, introduced by Senator George, I note that the purpose of this bill is to provide Federal appropriations for vocational eduction in agriculture and home economics. Federal aid to vocational education is administered by the Federal Board for Vocational Education rather than by the Department of Agriculture, and it is understood that the committee also has called upon that board for a report. The language of the bill is such, however, that it might be interpreted as duplicating certain work conducted by the Department of Agriculture, and I am calling this language to your attention so that your committee may give it consideration if it desires.

The act approved May 8, 1914, commonly known as the Smith-Lever Act, provided for Federal aid to the States in the establishment of a cooperative extension service in agriculture and home economics. Federal funds provided by the Smith-Lever Act are administered by the Department of Agriculture and the State colleges of agriculture. The act of February 23, 1917, known as the Smith-Hughes Act, provided for Federal aid to the States for the vocational teaching of agriculture, home economics, and trades. Funds provided under the Smith-Hughes Act are administered by the Federal Board

for Vocational Education and by State departments of education. In the minds of the framers of the two acts and the Congresses which passed them there were clear lines of demarcation between the activities for which they provided. In brief, the purpose of the Smith-Lever Act was to provide for carrying to the rural public the information available on agriculture and in this department through meetings, demonstrations, campaigns, and other outof-school activities. On the other hand, the primary purpose of the SmithHughes Act was to provide for regularly organized teaching of agriculture, home economics, and trades in school classes. While there has been some confusion in a few of the States as to the division of responsibility as between Smith-Hughes and Smith-Lever workers, in general there has been a clear differentiation between the two lines of activity and little conflict or duplication.

In S. 1731, page 2, lines 8 and 9, it is stated that the funds appropriated thereunder "shall be used for the further development and improvement of agriculture in such States." On page 2, lines 15 to 17, similar language is used with reference to the funds appropriated for home economics. In lines 19 to 21 the purpose of the appropriation provided in section 2 is stated to be "to further assist the States in the development of agricultural and home economics programs for the rural districts." Except for the limiting language in section 3, which states that the appropriations made by the act shall be subject to the same conditions and limitations as the appropriations made by the act of February 23, 1917, the purposes in sections 1 and 2 would appear to provide for a complete blanketing of all activities of the cooperative extension service conducted under the Smith-Lever Act and appropriations made by States and counties and for many other activities conducted by State departments of agriculture and State colleges of agriculture. "Further development and improvement of agriculture" is extremely broad language. the purpose of the bill is simply to provide additional Federal aid for the teaching of agriculture and home economics in vocational schools under the terms of the Smith-Hughes Act, it would appear that limitations should be placed in sections 1 and 2 in order to avoid the possibility of conflict and duplication with other activities for which specific provision has been made by the Congress.

Very truly yours,

W. M. JARDINE, Secretary.

If

Submitted to the Bureau of the Budget, pursuant to Circular No. 49 of that bureau, and returned to the Department of Agriculture under date of January 19, 1928, with the advice that the proposed legislation is in conflict with the financial program of the President.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator George, I am sure that we shall be very glad to have a statement from you concerning your bill.

STATEMENT OF HON. WALTER F. GEORGE, A SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES FROM THE STATE OF GEORGIA

Senator GEORGE. I do not care to make an extended statement, Mr. Chairman. I merely wish to say that the purpose of the bill is to provide for the further development of vocational education in the several States in conformity with the act approved February 23, 1917. and as amended.

The letter from the Department of Agriculture and the report from the vocational board have suggested certain changes in the bill, and on a study of the suggestions I have undertaken to harmonize and to incorporate in the bill the suggestions referred to.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, of the Department of Agriculture?
Senator GEORGE. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. You have no objection to those suggestions? Senator GEORGE. None at all, nor to those of the board. They are substantially the same.

I have here a bill which I have corrected in accordance with their suggestions.

The CHAIRMAN. May we not at this point have the bill as amended by you inserted in the record?

Senator GEORGE. I would like to have the privilege of putting it in, in that way, Mr. Chairman.

And another thing, Mr. Chairman: I have also deemed it wise to insert in line 5 and thereafter, at the appropriate places, the words. "authorized to be appropriated," so as to make it an authorization. I am quite familiar, of course, with the attitude of the committee and of the Senate, so that I make this an authorization bill, leaving it to the Senate from time to time to make appropriations.

With these suggested amendments, I will submit a copy of the bill to show that the amendments really carry out the original design and change it in no substantial particular. They merely clarify and make more definite the language and confine this present authorization and the provisions of this bill to the exact purpose contemplated in the act of February 23, 1917, known as the Smith-Hughes bill.

(The amended bill referred to and submitted by Senator George is as follows:)

[S. 1731, Seventieth Congress, first session]

A BILL To provide for the further development of vocational education in the several States

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That for the purpose of providing for the further development of vocational education in the several States there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1929, the sum of $500,000, and for each year thereafter, for eleven years, a sum exceeding by $500,000 the sum appropriated for each preceding year, and annually thereafter there is permanently authorized to be appropriated for each year the sum of $6,000,000. One-half of such sums shall be allotted to the States in the proportion that their farm population bears to the total farm population of the United States, exclusive of the Territories and insular possessions, according to the United States census last preceding the end of the fiscal year in which any such allotment is to be made, and shall be used for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors of agricultural subjects in such States. The remaining half of such sums shall be allotted to the States in the proportion that their rural population bears to the total rural population of the United States, exclusive of the Territories and insular possessions, according to the United States census last preceding the end of the fiscal year in which any such allotment is to be made, and shall be used for the salaries of teachers, supervisors, and directors, development and improveinent of home economics subjects in such States.

SEC. 2. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this act there is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Federal Board for Vocational Education out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated the sum of $100,000 annually to be expended for the same purposes and in the same manner as provided in section 7 of the act approved February 23, 1917, as amended October 6, 1917.

SEC. 3. The appropriations made by this act shall be in addition to, and shall be subject to the same conditions and limitations as, the appropriations made by the act entitled "An act to provide for the promotion of vocational education; to provide cooperation with the States in the promotion of such education in agriculture and in the trades and industries; to provide cooperation with the States in the preparation of teachers of vocational subjects; and to appropriate money and regulate its expenditures," approved February 23, 1917, except that the appropriation made by this act for home economics shall be subject to the conditions and limitations applicable to the appropriation for agricultural purposes under such act of February 23, 1917, with the

exception of that part of section 10 thereof which requires directed or supervised practice for at least six months per year, and that the appropriations available to the Federal Board for Vocational Education for salaries and expenses shall be available for expenses of attendance at meetings of educational associations and other organization, which, in the opinion of the board, are necessary for the efficient discharge of its responsibilities.

The committee, of course, is advised that under this act of February 23, 1917, there was appropriated for the fiscal year 1917-18 something like $1,860,000. That appropriation gradually increased until, for the fiscal year 1925-26, it reached something like seven million three hundred odd thousand dollars; and that sum is appropriated annually thereafter.

This proposed appropriation is merely to extend the work thus begun and already in progress, and to carry out that work.

Since the committee will be able to hear from me at any time, I am now going to ask the chairman to call Doctor Dennis, in order that he may make a brief statement.

The CHAIRMAN. What amount of appropriation is your bill carrying, Senator George?

Senator GEORGE. The measure carries the authorization for an appropriation of $500,000 for the year ending June 30, 1929, and annually thereafter for 11 years a sum exceeding by $500,000 the sum appropriated for each preceding year, and for each year thereafter there is permanently appropriated for each year the sum of $6,000,000.

One-half of such sums shall be allotted to the States in the proportion that their farm population bears to the total farm population of the United States, exclusive of the territories and insular possessions, according to the United States census last preceding the end of the fiscal year in which any such allotment is to be made, and shall be used for the further development and improvement of agriculture in such States; that is, for the purposes specified in the original act approved February 23, 1917. The other half is for the home economics work.

Now, I should like to have Doctor Dennis make a statement to the committee.

The CHAIRMAN. Very well, Doctor.

STATEMENT OF DR. L. H. DENNIS, DEPUTY STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, HARRISBURG, PA., REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN VOCATIONAL ASSOCIATION

The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, give your name and address for the record, please.

Doctor DENNIS. L. H. Dennis; Deputy State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Harrisburg, Pa.; representing at this hearing the American Vocational Association.

I will make my statement very brief and very much to the point, because we have no wish whatever to consume one minute more time than is necessary to get this before you in a businesslike manner.

This measure is being presented at this time because the majority of the agricultural states of this country demand that it be presented. The American Vocational Association which I represent was not anxious to sponsor any legislation whatever at this time; and the

only reason we are doing it is because we have been forced to do it by the agricultural education situation in the large agricultural sections of this country.

We believe in the legislation-do not misunderstand us-but we are submitting it not because we wanted to originate some measure which would carry some appropriation, not because we wanted to get interested in any legislative matters at all, but because the representatives in our agricultural States have pressed us to do so and have really forced us to take some action.

Our association, in its annual convention in Los Angeles in the month of December, went on record unanmiously indorsing this measure; and I am going to ask Mr. Miller, of Kansas, if he will pass to the members of the committee a newspaper which gives a brief account of the convention. You may not care to pay any attention to the rest of it, other than the part which is included in the red circle, but you can refer to it at your leisure.

(The portion of the newspaper item referred to and submitted by the witness is as follows:)

A petition taking cognizance of the lack of prosperity of the agricultural industry of the United States and asking Congress to help the farmers by appropriating money to educate them in their vocation that they might be able to help themselves was also passed.

The paper contains a record of the action of the American Vocational Association at its annual convention.

I hope that you will appreciate our position in reference to this matter. The crux of the whole matter lies right here, that the agricultural educational program and the home economics program in the rural districts, in large agricultural sections in this country, are at a standstill because the funds appropriated by the SmithHughes law of 1917 have been exhausted in all of those States. There remains in the entire country only 4 per cent of the entire appropriation of the Smith-Hughes law that is unexpended in agricultural education, and that 4 per cent is in just a few States, just a handful of States, some of which receive rather large appropriations in proportion to their farming population, because the Smith-Hughes law of 1917 provided that the money for agricultural education should be distributed to the various States on the basis that the rural population of any State bears to the total rural population.

A significant change in this measure over that is this. In following this matter through a period of 11 years we have come to the conviction that the most money for agricultural education should be appropriated to those States where the most farmers are.

To make that plain, I might state, to refresh your memory, that in many States there is a large number of small towns the population of which comes within the definition of rural population. There are, for instance, small mining communities. Therefore, some States that have a large number of these small mining communities secured under the Smith-Hughes law a much larger agricultural education fund, and the small 4 per cent that remains unexpended is because of that situation.

In the agricultural sections of the country the money has long been expended and the program is at a standstill.