We have attempted to keep migration at the lowest possible level, because migration carries in its train many other problems, such as housing, sanitation, and everything else.

With the upturn in the general economic conditions, there has been a continuing decline in recent months in the number of needy persons receiving old-age assistance, aid to the blind, and aid to dependent children. The total expenditures have not declined proportionately because some of the States in which payments have been, and still are very inadequate have increased their grants, or have given aid to eligible applicants who previously could not be cared for because of insufficient State funds. The rising cost of living, moreover, especially affects these families who live at the margin of subsistence, but the recent increase in average payments has not, in general, kept up with living costs. In addition, liquidation of the Work Projects Administration, the food stamp plan, and other emergency Federal measures is throwing certain new demands on the State programs of public assistance.

The chief present problems concerning public assistance arise from the great disparity in the levels of assistance in different parts of the country, which is due primarily to differences in the fiscal resources of the States; from the relative inadequacy of the aid provided for dependent children; and from the inadequacy, or lack, in some parts of the country, of general assistance to care for needy persons whose needs cannot be met through the special categories for which the Federal Government provides grants-in-aid under the Social Security Act.

INCREASED DEMANDS UPON THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE

Wartime health problems have increased the number and complexity of the duties imposed upon our oldest establishment in this field, the Public Health Service.

It was inevitable that the rapidly expanding United States Coast Guard and Maritime Service would place increased demands on the Public Health Service to furnish adequate medical care to these two important war activities. I told you last year that the phenomenal expansion of our Merchant Marine and the plan for the expansion of the Coast Guard would put a great burden on the Marine Hospital Service. This increase has been even larger than was then anticipated and we have felt it to be a major responsibility to maintain the most modern hospitals and high standards of care for these Coast Guard men and merchant seamen.

You are all aware of the kind of work they are doing, and how very important in this war effort that work is.

Cooperative work with the War Department has increased materially in the past year and bids fair to continue. Public Health officers who were on duty with the Burma Road Commission in China-and we lost one or two of our best men out there-and various activities in the Philippine Islands, were detailed to the Army at the request of the Secretary of War shortly after Pearl Harbor.

Those men who are not missing in action or prisoners of war are now with the armed forces in those theaters of operation. In addition, we have continued to work closely with the Army through the liaison officers assigned to each service command and on the west coast have

furnished medical and health service in connection with the evacuation of the Japanese from the coastal area.

Research continues in malaria control-and that is certainly necessary-industrial hygiene, aviation medicine, and tropical diseases at the request of both the Army and the Navy. Some of the most important contributions along that line have come from the Public Health Service.

Practically the entire capacity of the National Institute of Health is now devoted to research directly related to the war. The manufacture of typhus fever and yellow fever vaccine for the use of the armed forces is being carried on in the Public Health Service laboratory at Hamilton, Mont.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. TARVER. What will be the contribution of the Public Health Service to the work of the Bureau of Human Nutrition and Home Economics of the Department of Agriculture which, it is understood, is engaged in the study of human nutrition problems in countries now overrun by Hitler, in which we expect to go and give help, and make this service available to them, and to the authorities who undertake to relieve health problems in those countries after they are recovered?

Mr. McNUTT. I would suppose they would have to come to the Public Health Service for assistance and for aid and we will give them everything we can to the limit of our capacity and personnel.

Mr. HARE. Where the Navy Department requests service by people in the Public Health Service, do they pay for that expense? If so, how is that done?

Mr. McNUTT. By transfer of funds. Take, for instance, the manufacture of typhus fever and yellow fever vaccine for the armed services-of course, they should pay for that, and they do. That is being carried on by the Public Health Service now very successfully.

The Public Health Service has also organized the Medical Division of the Office of Civilian Defense and has participated in the program for the establishment of blood plasma banks in civilian hospitals in coastal and other vulnerable areas.

The program for the training of nurses has probably reached the peak of what we may expect under the present plan of operation. Draft of legislation providing for a broader program has been presented to Congress.

(Discussion off the record.)

The greatly expanding needs of the armed forces in this field make a material increase in the supply of nurses imperative.

The withdrawal of doctors from the civilian population to the number of nearly 40,000 in 1942 and which will probably reach more than 50,000 by the end of 1943, has developed very serious problems in connection with the maintenance of civilian medical services. The Public Health Service and the Procurement and Assignment Service of the War Manpower Commission are working in close cooperation in an effort to minimize the results of this withdrawal of doctors for the military services and to effect a redistribution of the doctors remaining.

The supply of doctors for the civilian population must be provided, and the civilian population must be cared for. We have worked in conjunction with the Army and the Navy to accomplish this purpose.

I think the armed forces are beginning to realize that the civilian population must have medical care, and that there are just so many doctors.

We are going to be in a position where we will need the wisdom of Solomon in dividing what we have left, and we are working on that.

(Discussion off the record.)

Mr. HARE. Of course, the Public Health Service by its handling of the number of difficulties that have occurred in some of these districts has made a valuable contribution to the professional service by taking care of a lot of cases which probably did not require attention.

Mr. McNUTT. And which would not ordinarily come under the Public Health Service.

Mr. HARE. Yes.

Mr. McNUTT. And when you make this distribution between the armed forces and the civilian population the Public Health Service should be given every consideration for what they have done.

(Discussion off the record.)

USE OF FACILITIES OF THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION BY WAR AGENCIES

Mr. McNUTT. As I told you last year, immediately after the outbreak of the war, we placed the facilities of the Food and Drug Administration for testing food and drugs at the service of the war agencies. This offer has been enthusiastically accepted. Because of the special skill of the personnel in the assay of foods and drugs, and its unusual laboratory facilities for making special investigations, all the war agencies have used the Food and Drug Administration for many purposes such as testing for purity in compliance with contract specifications for large quantities of food for the Army and for Lend-Lease agencies. All forms of drugs and medicines delivered to Army and Navy depots are examined to see that they are suitable and safe for use in our military hosptals.

With the advent of hostilities the Food and Drug Administration was faced with the following conditions: Pressure for greater production led to the establishment of new manufacturing plants manned by inadequate and inexperienced staffs. Established plants lost experienced personnel which could only partly be replaced by inexperienced substitutes. The shortage of certain staple ingredients created a serious temptation in the direction of substitutions. All manufacturing plants were urged to produce larger outputs of finished goods.

There has been no increase requested in its appropriation by the Food and Drug Administration because of converting to war tasks. Despite the scarcity of qualified professional men to fill stag vacancies, both the volume of work and the results achieved have been above normal. We think they have done a superhuman task; they have worked night and day on it.

While some revisions of the regulatory program have been made so as to dispense with legal actions in certain types of violation, there has been continuous intensive attention to violations which, to quote from the President's memorandum of December 22, 1942, might, if un

checked, "result in permanent harm to the future health and security of our individual citizens."

(Discussion off the record.)

DEFERMENTS OF PERSONNEL OF FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCIES

Mr. HARE. Do you have a general policy in reference to deferment? Mr. McNUTT. In accordance with the Executive order of March 6, 1943, I have designated a committee of three to deal with occupational deferments within the Federal Security Agency.

(Discussion off the record.)

OFFICE OF EDUCATION TRAINING PROGRAM

Mr. McNUTT. The extent of the participation of the Office of Education in the national defense training program is reflected by the estimates before you for consideration, which total $145,262,000 for expenses connected with education and training of defense workers and the providing of visual aids for war training. This is substantially the same amount as is available for similar purposes during the present fiscal year.

The operations of the Office of Education in this field necesarily require close working relationships with the Bureau of Training, War Manpower Commission, which has the duty of developing unified programs and policies to meet training needs of wartime employment and to obtain the most effective utilization of training resources. The programs developed have, I believe, amply demonstrated the value of a new type of vocational education based upon short, intensive courses designed to train for a specific operation.

In carrying on these and other war activities the Office of Education has built upon the existing structure of Federal-State educational relationships established over a period of many years.

The training programs for war purposes have, therefore, been carried on as an integral part of the regular program of federally aided vocational education, utilizing existing personnel both in the Federal office and in the State boards for vocational education. Similarly, as new war activities have been developed, these same welldefined administrative channels have been followed through to State and local community boards of education and school officials.

For the coming fiscal year it is planned to have the office of Education continue to give special attention to the educational problems and needs born of the wartime situation through the administration of cooperative programs of education and training in the States, and by the maintenance of effective liaison between organized education and the various war agencies of the Federal Government.

PERSONNEL PROBLEM OF FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY

In common with all other large establishments, general administrative work in the Federal Security Agency becomes increasingly difficult by reason of the many new types of activities in which we are engaged, and as a consequence of necessary controls and restric

tions incident to the existing emergency. Personnel turn-over is naturally much heavier than normal and competent replacements are difficult to obtain. By changes in our practices and procedures and by doing everything possible to adapt the organization to the altered situation, I believe we have been able to maintain our operations at an acceptable level of efficiency.

Even though it requires the assignment of a greater number of new employees to tasks formerly done by experienced personnel who have gone to the military or other war services, we have not recruited personnel to the full number authorized by this year's Budget. We are making further adjustments to keep within the personnel ceiling imposed by the Director of the Budget pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 170. We are in complete sympathy with all constructive measures to get the most out of our manpower resources, and though some of the Budget personnel cuts were drastic, we have requested only a few minor changes. In the Social Security Board, for instance, the Budget allowance will involve keeping the personnel at a figure 2,200 below that represented by the "man-years" column for 1943 and 750 below the number on the roll. After consultation, the Director of the Budget agreed, because of the organizational changes involved, to permit the Board to make the reduction gradually over the next few months.

In presenting the Budget estimates for 1944, the Federal Security Agency units will, in accordance with instructions of the Bureau of the Budget, utilize the data assembled to support the estimates approved by the President which were on the basis of the 44-hour week then in force. It is our understanding that any savings effected through the adoption of the 48-hour week, or as the result of the personnel reductions now in process, are to be used to absorb, in whole or in part, the increased cost under the overtime pay law. (Discussion off the record.)

NATURE OF TRAINING GIVEN BY WAR MANPOWER COMMISSION AND BY OFFICE OF EDUCATION

Mr. HARE. You spoke of the training given by the Manpower Commission and the Office of Education. What is the difference in the fields of operation in training within industry and in the Manpower Commission?

Mr. McNUTT. Training within industry is done by the industries. That is not vocational school training.

Mr. HARE. I understand that, but I gathered from your statement that the Manpower Commission also had a program of training within industry.

Mr. McNUTT. The War Manpower Commission is responsible for the coordination of all training activities for war industry. The Office of Education carries on a specific part of this over-all training program, under the general policies of the Manpower Commission. Fortunately in this case, where there is a single head of both agencies, we have no trouble.

The purpose of the War Manpower Commission in this training is to utilize everything we have, because we will need them. We are