which may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia be increased from $1,800,000 to $1,965,000. The additional $175,000 requested for the Office of the Solicitor will provide 25 additional professional positions and 20 nonprofessional positions, or a total of 45 over that included in the 1951 printed budget. LEGAL WORK INVOLVED Mr. Chairman, this committee has already given a rather complete and detailed hearing to REA with respect to the nature of the telephone program, so I think that I might direct my comments to some of the characteristics of the program which will have a special impact on the legal work we will be called upon to perform. In the first place, it is a new program. We are faced with the necessity of discovering just what the applicable laws are in the 48 States and the Territories. Moreover, we have the task of developing new forms of security documents to cover the particular problems encountered in this field, and documents relating to engineering, construction, materials, switching services, and the like. In the next place, as was already pointed out by Mr. Wickard, these loans will be in smaller amounts than for the electrification program, hence there will be relatively more of them made from an equivalent amount of loan authorizations. Then, further, the loans are more complex. From what I have heard, in many cases we will even be faced with the necessity of finding out who actually owns the property of the applicant which is applying for the loan. Many of these are independents or mutuals that have been in business for some years, and the title to their property or the validity of their corporate set-up may not be clear. Moreover, there will be many enterprises which have had long experience and many of them will have existing liens against their properties. Questions will frequently arise as to whether or not it will be possible for them to give the adequate legal security which the Administrator may need for the loan that he is called upon to make. There will be also a wide variety of types of applicants; there will be independents, mutuals, cooperatives, partnerships, and individuals applying. This situation, in turn, renders standardization of legal work more difficult in the earlier years. While we hope, of course, that eventually we will make real progress toward standardization in this field such as we have been able to accomplish in recent years in the electrification field, that process is going to take some little time. The last factor, I might mention, is that the problem of jurisdiction in the telephone field is perhaps more varied than in the electrical field. By and large, throughout the country, regulation of the telephone industry has been a little broader and more widespread than has been true in the electrical industry. ASSIGNMENT OF LEGAL WORK Mr. WHITTEN. Mr. Blackburn, while I recognize the legal difficulties involved in these matters you have mentioned, from my experience as. lawyer I have developed certain ideas, ideas with which some of my colleagues have differed concerning legal practice, legal supervision, and the amount of work a lawyer can do, and so on. Now, the question that strikes me here is not the importance of this increased job concerning the rural telephone program, but is whether or not the same lawyers that you now have could not to some extent help out in this program. As I understand your operation, all the lawyers in the Department, including those under the REA and those that will be assigned to the rural telephone work, are all part of the Solicitor's Office. They are assigned by the Solicitor's Office to the particular agency in the Department where they do their work. Having standardized the legal work to a considerable extent and having records of the REA from the time that program went into effect, it strikes me that a lot of the legal work in connection with the REA would be applicable here in the telephone program and could be drawn upon. Now, there is no question from my experience that a lawyer can do a lot in a field when, in another related field, he has already had experience that can be applied to the new work, since part of that work has already been handled and worked out as it has been during the history of the REA. PROPOSED STAFF TO BE EMPLOYED IN RURAL ELECTRIFICATION WORK That leads me to wonder whether there is any requirement for these funds to the extent of setting up enough lawyers to do this new job. I do recognize that your new job is big and has got to be done and will take lawyers. How many attorneys do you have now with Rural Electrification? Mr. BLACKBURN. We have 41 attorneys on the rolls as of December 31, 1949, in Washington. That is in addition, of course, to the attorneys which would be provided through the additional funds which the Solicitor is requesting for 1951. Mr. WHITTEN. Now, under present arrangements, you are subject to assignment to REA work by the Solicitor and if you catch up with certain phases he can assign you to some other office. Mr. BLACKBURN. He can do that and he does do that, and there is thus a leveling-off process to make the best use of manpower. Of course, there are certain natural limitations to that. That is, if an attorney has been working on the fruit-and-vegetable program and he can be spared for only a few weeks at most from that work, for utilization in an unfamiliar field of rural electrification, his usefulness for such a short period would, naturally, be rather limited. Mr. WHITTEN. Well, though the work of the rural-telephone program will be difficult, still as to the legal principles involved, they are not too different. While I do not mean a man could go into it without having to do his preparation first, still you could assign a man and after a time he would be a good lawyer in that job. Mr. BLACKBURN. Well, sir; the question you raise is very, very pertinent. If we were trying to handle this rural telephone legal work with merely the staff which is provided for in this item, I think anyone would have to throw his hands up in despair. The fact that we do estimate we can get along with this amount requested means that we lean very heavily on the very factor you mention that of maximum utilization of the talents of the entire office. I can illustrate that by the fact that I was one of the original REA lawyers when REA was set up in May of 1935, when we had many of the very same problems that we are going to be faced with in the telephone program. I do not think that the first REA loan was made until late 1935 or early 1936, yet it was necessary to have quite a staff of lawyers to do the spadework and the preparation of forms and things of that sort. We would, of course, like to do the telephone work sooner. Mr. WHITTEN. Well, I realize that if you want to get going in a hurry, you do need a lot of lawyers. But the only thing I see from my experience with the Government is that additional funds will not speed it up. Mr. BLACKBURN. The only point I am making here is that we propose to integrate these new 25 positions with our present staff. Such 25 new attorney positions would not be more than half of what you would need if you attempted to handle the telephone work separately. We are figuring very heavily, also, on finding, in the course of the year, ways and means of getting the job done with less people than you would deem necessary merely by looking at the electrification separately and adding to that the telephone needs separately. I think that is the point you are getting at. Mr. WHITTEN. Yes; that is what I want to find out. Mr. BLACKBURN. Replying to the question you asked earlier, Mr. Bawcombe tells me that the request for 1951 would make available 53 attorneys for the electrification work. Mr. WHITTEN. How does that compare with the number you had through the past 4 or 5 years? Mr. BLACKBURN. Mr. Bawcombe can supply those figures. I do have a very distinct recollection that just before Pearl Harbor the REA legal staff numbered either 69 or 70 attorneys. That does not mean we are a whole lot better than we were then. It merely reflects real attempt at simplification and it reflects further the fact that we are just getting more and more overworked. In fact, many of our people have reached the stage where they are really hardpressed. (The information requested follows:) Attorneys engaged in legal work incident to rural electrification Mr. WHITTEN. Off the record. (Discusion off the record.) Mr. WHITTEN. Back on the record. Are there any further questions? If not, we thank you, Mr. Blackburn. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION WITNESSES DR. F. P. CULLINAN, ASSISTANT CHIEF, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, SOILS, AND AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING V. H. BEACH, BUDGET OFFICER, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, SOILS, AND AGRICULTURAL ENGINEERING DR. G. E. HILBERT, CHIEF, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY DR. GEORGE W. IRVING, JR., ASSISTANT CHIEF, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY HENRY A. DONOVAN, ASSISTANT CHIEF, BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL AND INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY E. L. STRUTTMANN, BUDGET OFFICER, AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH ADMINISTRATION EUGENE B. WILHELM, CHIEF, DIVISION OF ESTIMATES AND ALLOTMENTS, OFFICE OF BUDGET AND FINANCE BUDGET AMENDMENT FOR RESEARCH ON CORTISONE Mr. WHITTEN. Gentlemen, we will now consider as an amendment to the 1951 budget for the Agricultural Research Administration, an item which would provide $200,000 for research on the discovery, propagation, chemical composition, and utilization of plant materials potentially valuable as sources of the drug cortisone, which promises spectacular success in the treatment of arthritis. I think this committee fully appreciates the need for this work and the high promise that it holds for relieving this terrible disease. I would like to have the justifications inserted in the record at this point in its entirety. (The information referred to is as follows:) For research on the discovery, propagation, chemical composition, and utilization of plant materials potentially valuable as sources of the drug cortisone which promises spectacular success in the treatment of arthritis, $200,000 NOTE. This increase is being requested as follows: Bureau of Plant Industry; Soils, and Agricultural Engineering, $60,000 140,000 Total 200,000 For convenience, a consolidated justification is shown at this point with distribution of the increases by activities and objects for each agency shown in the accompanying schedules. Objective. To discover in plants an abundant and economical source for the drug cortisone or other related products and to develop practical methods for their separation from the plant. Problem and need for increase.-Cortisone, the new drug discovered recently by Dr. Kendall, of the Mayo Clinic, has been shown to have spectacular success in the alleviation and treatment of arthritis. It has been accepted with phenomenal rapidity by the medical profession as a most promising solution for that group of afflictions generally known as "old-age diseases." It is the only drug known which will rapidly bring about the remission of all symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. There is also evidence that it may be efficacious in the treatment of rheumatic fever, gout, and a whole group of vague mental and degenerative diseases. Since July 1949 several other uses for this drug have shown clinical promise in the treatment of anemia and rheumatic heart disease. Many millions of people in the United States are suffering from illnesses which may be alleviated by the use of cortisone. In June 1949 the President directed the United States Public Health Service and the United States Department of Agriculture to undertake whatever steps were possible to promote the production of cortisone and investigate its potentialities. The Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and Agricultural Engineering for many years has been responsible for the introduction of foreign plant materials. With $18,000 advanced to it in fiscal year 1950 by the United States Public Health Service, the Bureau of Plant Industry is now engaged in the procurement of strophanthus, an African plant reported to yield a chemical precursor for cortisone. Dioscorea (yam) has been reported as another potential source, and studies indicate other plants in widely separated groups of the plant kingdom may be even more promising. It is now generally recognized by responsible Federal agencies that a coordinated effort on a more intensified scale will be necessary to make any significant advance within the near future. Cortisone is a complex organic compound, a steroid hormone, belonging to a class of substances which includes bile acids, male and female sex hormones, vitamin D, and digitalis. It is normally produced by the cortex of the adrenal glands. Its use for arthritis does not give a permanent cure, its action resembling that of insulin in diabetes. Relapses almost always occur 1 to 2 weeks after administration of cortisone is stopped. The drug is currently given in daily doses of one two-hundred-and-eightieth of an ounce. However, it is now so rare and costly that a single treatment at present rates may cost $100. There is little prospect that cortisone can be produced cheaply or in quantity from its present sources. It occurs naturally only in the adrenal glands. One thousand pounds of beef adrenals contain only one fifty-sixth of an ounce of cortisone. The compound can be synthesized from bile acids, but again the process gives low yields and is very costly. Some 200 pounds of ox bile yield only 14 pounds of bile acid. After 30 to 40 chemical processes, less than 1 percent of the bile acid is converted into cortisone. Even though cattle were slaughtered solely to obtain this drug, there would not be enough cattle in the world to supply the present and potential demand for this valuable product. The antiarthritic properties of cortisone depend largely on the unique and specific location of the oxygen atoms in the cortisone molecule. The synthetic chemist at present finds it very difficult to place these oxygen atoms exactly where they are needed. It is necessary, therefore, to find naturally occurring chemicals (precursors) having not only the same general structure as cortisone but specifically having oxygen atoms in the same positions as the parent substance. For these cortisone precursors chemists have turned to the plant kingdom. A group of compounds called sapogenins, obtainable from plants, offer possibilities as precursors of cortisone. There are several thousand species of plants, cultivated and wild, domestic and foreign, which have been reported to contain sapogenins. Those plants which contain the best cortisone precursors found to date are an African vine, and a Mexican yam. However, it is possible that better sources for the production of cortisone may be found in the many plant species which have not yet been investigated. The cortisone problem is undoubtedly a difficult one but a timely solution will best be achieved by research teamwork in which Government scientists can and should play an important role. Since agricultural materials are the only sources for the quantity production of this compound, its production in adequate quantities is of vital concern to specialists in the United States Department of Agriculture. Funds for this work are not now available within the Department. The solution to these problems will provide American people with a cheaper and more abundant supply of cortisone, may provide the American farmer with a new and valuable crop, and agriculture will have made an outstanding contribution to American welfare. Plan of work.-Botanists would collect and identify plants belonging to species presumed to contain sapogenins that can be converted to cortisone. Such plants would then be investigated by chemists to determine whether cortisone precursors are present. When the best plant sources are known, geneticists would breed strains with high sapogenin contents and agronomists would determine optimum growing conditions so that quantity production of the crop could be achieved. Chemists would then investigate and develop methods for large scale isolation of the cortisone precursors present in these plants and the conversion of the precursors to cortisone. Plant material and chemical products valuable for |