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replace some of these cars if the cars are available, and it would be sound business to buy a new car rather than to keep paying more on repairs than the old car is worth.

Mr. CANNON. My understanding is that the supply of new cars has been entirely exhausted. Would you be willing to take a used car that still had some service left in it?..

Mr. PRICE. We would take what we could get, if we could not get a

new one.

Mr. TABER. How many miles have you gotten from what you have? Mr. POPE. These cars have gone anywhere from 15,000 to 35,000 or 40.000 miles.

Mr. TABER. My car has got 75,000 miles on it, and it is going strong. It runs just as good as any of them.

Mr. POPE. These meter readings were taken several months ago; and by next year our cars should have 10,000 or 15,000 more miles on them. Government cars do not always get the same treatment as our personal cars and therefore need to be replaced more often.

FURCHASES WITHOUT REGARD TO SECTION 3709, REVISED STATUTES

Mr. LUDLOW. I note that you have authority to make purchases without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes. That authority is eliminated from this bill as presented to us. What is the explanation of that?

Mr. POPE. That is due to a technical ruling given by the Comptroller General to the effect that the language in the general provisions of the last war agencies bill was worded in such a way that it automatically excluded all agencies from that statute, and therefore there was Lo reason for including it in our appropriation language this year. Mr. LUDLOW. That is all. Thank you.

Mr. CANNON. Mr. Taber?

Mr. TABER. I have just one or two questions.

PERCENTAGE OF ACTIVITIES IN EUROPE

Mr. Price, what percentage of your activities have been in the direcon of the European set-up, so far?

Mr. PRICE. I think that would be a very difficult question to answer. Mr. TABER. You can tell us better than anybody else can.

Mr. PRICE. I do not think anybody can answer that question adsedly, because we do not censor on that basis.

Mr. TABER. You will not be censoring anything going out from here for Europe from now on, will you?

Mr. PRICE. Oh, yes; we certainly will.

Mr. TABER. Of course, you understand what I mean?

Mr. PRICE. Yes; but the question is difficult to answer. We have censor a great deal that goes out from here to Europe, because we not know where it goes from the place to which it is addressed in Trope.

E:

Mr. TABER. Do you expect the activities of anybody who is mixed in the German business to continue after the fall of Germany, so at they will follow through on the Japanese end of it?

Mr. PRICE. I have no reason to think that they will not follow rough. They certainly have cooperated very closely up to this

int.

Mr. TABER. Do you figure that those who were German sympathizers over here, if planted anywhere else, would be apt to continue their activities?

Mr. PRICE. I think the natural assumption would be that they would continue work for Japanese espionage for whom they have been working all along, in conjunction with Germany.

BASIS OF REDUCTIONS IN ESTIMATES

Mr. TABER. On what basis were your reductions made, if you will have as much censorship to do as you had before?

Mr. PRICE. There are a great many things that we will not have to do. We are getting rid of our censorship of motion pictures, which I think will no longer be necessary. There are certain telephone circuits on the Mexican border which do not lead anywhere; I think it is no longer necessary to bother with them. I have set forth in this letter, which is a preface to this book, a considerable number of things in which we expect to make reductions. We expect to reduce the number of agencies in Washington who are receiving censorship information, which automatically will take off a considerable load.

Mr. TABER. That is all in the record.

Mr. PRICE. Of course, along with that will go certain reductions of administrative functions and administrative personnel.

Mr. TABER. I do not think I have any more questions.

OVERTIME COMPENSATION

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Mr. Price, you had overtime this year of something over $4,000,000, and you said you hoped to turn back about a $5,000,000 unexpended balance.

Mr. PRICE. That is right.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. So that your actual expenditure estimated for this year is in the neighborhood of $20,000,000?

Mr. PRICE. It is about $24,000,000, because we are paying overtime.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. On a comparable basis your estimate for 1946 is ex overtime?

Mr. PRICE. Without overtime; yes.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. So it amounts to something like $6,000,000 reduction on a comparable basis?

Mr. PRICE. The second column of the table is, I think, the comparable figure-$24,000.000.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You add to the $14,000,000 some $4,000,000 for overtime if overtime is to be paid?

Mr. PRICE. That is right. This does not take into account overtime at all.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. When did you first go before the Budget on this estimate?

Mr. PRICE. In February, I believe it was.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. That is the first time they asked you to appear? Mr. PRICE. It was early in February.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. This revision has been very recent?

Mr. PRICE. Yes; within the last week or so.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. You have given us a statement as to the num ber of reallocations upward, 3,000 salaries or more? Mr. PRICE. Yes. We sent that to you.

You asked for that.

PENALTY MAIL

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Could you give us a statement for the record that would show the amount you have spent for penalty mail for the fiscal year, including fiscal 1946 that we are now considering? I do not want it now, but will you put it into the record?

Mr. PRICE. Very well, sir.

(Information requested is as follows:)

[blocks in formation]

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Do you have any control over O. W. I? For instance, do you censor their material at all?

Mr. PRICE. We censor only what they send out of the country, their broadcasts; and we censor them only for military information, not for policy.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Anything under the general heading of propaganda is wholly outside of your jurisdiction?

Mr. PRICE. Entirely.

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Have you had any instance in the last fiscal year where either F. C. C. or O. W. I., or both, have invaded your jurisdiction of censorship?

Mr. PRICE. No. I think there may have been cases where minor officials or field officers were a little overzealous, but certainly no case in which the agency itself, or any responsible official of it, countenanced any such thing.

Mr. CANNON. I have been very much surprised during the entire war at the lack of criticism of the administration of your office in comparison with the constant strictures of similar service in the First World War. You have evidently handled the matter in a very diplomatic manner and, at the same time, a very satisfactory manner; and as far as I can observe, the service has been as successful as any activity in this war.

Mr. RABAUT. Supplementing your remarks, Mr. Chairman, I think that the reason for your observation as to the results of his activities is indicated in the very manner in which he comes before Members of Congress. It is well recognized that there must have passed over his desk letters of importance that would be very disturbing to Members of Congress if they were presented here, saying, "Look at what was attempted to be done. We discovered this letter," or, "we discovered that information, or this information." But instead of that, he comes here and tells us his whole story, accompanied by a suggested great reduction in his budget. He is to be commended for the manner in which he has presented his case.

Mr. CANNON. Thank you, Mr. Price.

72467-45-17

MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1945.

WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY

STATEMENTS OF DILLON S. MYER, DIRECTOR; MALCOLM E. PITTS,
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR;
DIRECTOR; AND ARTHUR J. MUIR, BUDGET
OFFICER

ESTIMATES AND APPROPRIATIONS

Mr. CANNON. We have an estimate before us, Mr. Myer, for the War Relocation Authority for 1946 for $25,140,000, which represents a net decrease of $12,521,352 below the 1945 appropriation of $39,000,000, if you take into account the overtime of $1,338,648.

This appears to be a liquidation budget, with the exception of the Tule Lake segregation center and the emergency refugee shelter.

SCHEDULE FOR RELOCATION OF THE EVACUEES

We will insert in the record at this point page 7 of the justifications and the first three paragraphs of page 8, which gives a statement of the schedule for the relocation of the evacuees.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

The following tentative time schedule is our aim in liquidation of the program: War Relocation Authority centers other than the segregation center, will be closed to evacuee residents within 12 months after revocation of the general exclusion orders.

Not later than 15 months, after revocation of the general exclusion orders, all evacuee property services to persons other than excludees (including segregees) will terminate, and all evacuee property warehouses not utilized for the property of such persons will be emptied.

Not later than 15 months after revocation of the general exclusion orders all War Relocation Authority field oflices will be closed except (1) evacuee property warehouses, (2) an office in San Francisco servicing excludees.

In order to further orderly and planned relocation of e acuees, an approved relocation plan will be required as a condition to the granting of relocation assistance and property transportation assistance to (1) any center resident who wishes to relocate, or (2) any relocated evacuee who wishes to return to the State or Territory in which he resided prior to evacuation.

The relocation of dependent and handicapped persons who may need Government assistance on relocation represents a special problem. Every effort will be made to assist such persons to relocate to a place of their choice and to obtain assistance for which they may be eligible. State agencies administering State programs of general relief, hospitalization, institutionalization, and boarding or nursing home care, and federally aided programs of categorical assistance (old-age assistance, aid to the blind, aid to dependent children), child welfare services, services for crippled children, and vocational rehabilitation, are primarily responsible for determining evacuee eligibility for assistance under those programs. State agencies also administer funds appropriated by Congress to the Federal Security Administrator for temporary aid to persons affected by wartime restrictive action of the Federal Government, and make initial determinations of evacuee eligibility for such aid. Additional funds are included in this estimate to supplement the appropriations to the Federal Security Administrator for this aid where needed.

A number of persons unable at the time of evacuation to move to centers because of tuberculosis or other illness ("deferred evacuees") still remain in insituations in the evacuated States, their expenses paid by the War Relocation Authority. Responsibility for maintenance of these persons will be transferred to appropriate State or private agencies as rapidly as possible.

Only functions necessary to the maintenance of essential operations will henceforth be continued at the centers. All work will be undertaken with the purpose of furthering speedy and satisfactory relocation of the evacuees, pro

viding the essentials of community and administrative services, and closing all centers except the segregation center or centers to evacuee residents by 12 months after revocation of the general exclusion orders. Every effort will be made to reduce center expenditures.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. CANNON. We would be glad to have a statement from you at this time outlining the plan for the liquidation of the Authority. Mr. MYER. Mr. Chairman, I would like to review briefly where we have been, where we are now, and what we plan to do, without going into great detail.

The War Relocation Authority was set up to assist in the relocation of people evacuated from military areas within the United States.

Our major job has been that of helping move evacuees from the Pacific coast, that is evacuees of Japanese ancestry evacuated in March 1942. About 110,000 were evacuated from the coast and made the responsibility of this Authority during the year 1942, and most of that year was taken up in the movement of that group from California, Oregon, Washington, and a part of Arizona into the 10 relocation centers established at that time.

It was a new program. There was no precedent. Policies had to be developed without experience. During that year we outlined general plans for a relocation policy, on the assumption that the relocation centers were simply temporary homes for people to live in until an orderly process of relocation could be developed.

We found that there were a few people who started out to try to prove to the public during 1942 that we had a misconception of our duties, and tried to get the American public to believe that the Japanese evacuees were in internment camps, and that if they were allowed to leave the centers they might be dangerous. I think it has been proven that such has not been the case.

But we had to deal with that problem which we had not expected, because there was a small group of people, particularly along the west coast, who devoted a lot of time to starting propaganda, with a lot of misinformation about the program.

During the first year we recommended to the War Department that selective service be reestablished for boys of Japanese ancestry, because we thought it was essential to the sound relocation of these evacuees, and also, if these youngsters were to live as American citizens they should have the right to fight for their country.

Our first leave program started in May 1942, when a few people were llowed to work in the beet fields in the mid-Mountain States, and before the summer was over I think there were 10,000 working outside the relocation centers and assembly centers.

During 1943, in January of that year, Secretary Stimson announced the organization of what is now known as the Four Hundred and Forty-second Regimental Combat Team, made up of a group of JapaLese-American boys who volunteered for service and who are now fighting in Italy.

That was an important item in relation to this program and in my judgment it was an important historical event, as far as this country was concerned.

About the same time we established our first field offices in Chicago, Cleveland, and other points throughout the country.

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