Mr. HINRICHS. I will be very glad to answer your question, and I think I can answer it very briefly indeed.

The $620,000 increase to which you refer———

Mr. NEELY. Let us begin with the original request of $859,004, to be logical about it.

SURVEY OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS IN HAWAII

Mr. HINRICHS. The first item that appears in the column marked "Increase over base" in the table on page 76 is an item for personal services for $9,360 to make a survey of economic conditions in Hawaii. I assure you that the economic conditions of labor in Hawaii are at the present moment very difficult and disturbing and that there is need of a new study of this kind. The study which we did make in 1939 was regarded in the islands as outstanding.

Mr. NEELY. Let us go to the larger items. That is only $9,000. Let us go to some of the larger items. I do not want you to specify every part of the item, but just the larger items.

AREA EMPLOYMENT AND PAY-ROLL STATISTICS

Mr. HINRICHS. The $374,000 item for personal services which appears next is the item for area employment and pay-roll statistics. It is a tragic fact that at this moment there is no accurate information with reference to the changes of total employment in the leading industrial centers in the United States. There should be. Such information can be made available for 72 leading industrial areas by supplementing the work which we are now doing with the funds requested. Without that information I am sure that there are going to be thousands of unsatisfied demands and that the Nation itself and the national administration will be confused by the conflicting stories that will come out of different localities because of the lack of information.

STUDY OF LIFETIME OCCUPATIONS

The third item that appears there is an item of $82,000 for our work in occupational outlook. This is required if we are to furnish even any substantial part of the information which is required to guide young people in the choice of a lifetime occupation. I have said this is the last time in this generation that an opportunity will be open to help so many at once because of the returning veterans. The information that is presently available for guidance purposes is, by everyone's admission, woefully inadequate.

STUDY OF RETAIL PRICES

The fourth item which appears there is an item of $55,000 for the Prices and Cost of Living Branch. The purpose of that work is to permit us again, as we did in 1944-45, to make periodic comparisons between the prices which housewives pay and the prices which are reported to us by store managers. We have found that work to be an invaluable guide in our general work on consumer prices and would like very much indeed to undertake it again.

86595-46-pt. 1-40

DEVELOPMENT OF STATE STATISTICAL PROGRAMS

The $20,000 item for the Industrial Hazards Division is the work to assist the States in the development of their own statistical programs for industrial accident statistics. It does not involve any tabulations on our part; it does involve having a competent professional staff to give professional advice to States as to how they can proceed in compiling State statistics.

OTHER EXPENSES

In addition to the amounts for personal services which I have read from the table, there is a total of $318,256 for other expenses associated with these five projects.

ASSISTANCE IN THE EMERGENCY HOUSING PROGRAM

The last item for which we are asking an increase involves a grand total of $620,000 for personal service and other expenses and is for work needed by Mr. Wilson Wyatt in conjunction with the planning and execution of the emergency housing program. We speak of this program as a national program. It, as a matter of fact, is a program broken down through thousands of communities. It is in those individual communities where there are going to be housing labor shortages; it is in those individual communities where the houses will or will not be built. If Mr. Wyatt is to have the information which he says he requires in connection with that housing program, he must have local information for all leading city areas with reference to the volume and kinds of home building, the volume of construction employment currently and for the immediate future, the kinds of occupations that are going to be required. This is to be provided for 142 local areas, comprising many more small communities.

Mr. NEELY. This $620,000, then, will be primarily used, if it is allowed, for the purpose of aiding World War veterans?

Dr. HINRICHS. That is correct. In formulating the details of this program, however, we recognized the importance of the program to the building industry-contractors and unions. We therefore discussed our plans step by step with them. We are thus sure that the program is practicable, that the further studies outlined are necessary to answer the questions raised by the veterans' housing program, and that these questions are important to unions and contractors-if they are to help get the job done-as well as to the administration. We know that this program has the support of individual unions, of the Building Trades Council, and of the American Federation of Labor itself on the side of labor; and on the side of the contractors, of the Associated General Contractors and the United States Chamber of Commerce.

Might I insert in the record, sir, a letter from Mr. Wyatt to the Secretary of Labor, dated March 28, 1946, that initiated our plans for work in this field? In the second place, I should like to insert a letter from Mr. Wyatt's assistant administrator, Lyman S. Moore, written to Mr. Dodson, under date of April 26, 1946, outlining the specific requirements that are embodied in this request for $620,000.