39, 374

FUNCTIONS OF OFFICE OF EDUCATION UNDER APPROPRIATIONS MADE FOR COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND THE MECHANICAL ARTS

Mr. TARVER. I would like to have you give us a statement, Doctor,. indicating just what the functions performed by the Office of Education are in relation to these funds referred to here.

Dr. STUDEBAKER. I think that is a very good question, Judge. One of the reasons that I do not have all these details in mind is that there never has been any appropriation made to the Office of Education with which to relate our work to that in the land-grant colleges and universities. The appropriation you make merely passes through our office and is allotted to these institutions.

Mr. TARVER. You have no supervision or control over its expenditure and nothing to do with it except to allocate it to the States. Dr. STUDEBAKER. I think there is implicit in the law that we should do more, but there has never been any appropriation made to our office.

About 4 or 5 years ago I went to Chicago and attended the annual meeting of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. I proposed to that group, and they approved it, that there be a small appropriation made to the Office of Education to assist us in cooperating with all of the land-grant colleges in carrying on certain studies having to do with their operations and their instruction.

There was a man by the name of Shinn in the Department of Agriculture who was trying to do something of that kind, but who said it was really not his function, and it is not.

Mr. HARE. That is not an unheard of statement by Government officials, is it?

Dr. STUDEBAKER. No; but our thought was, and the Land-Grant College Association representatives agreed to it, that if we had a small appropriation in the Office of Education we would have two or three people there to carry on such studies cooperatively with the land-grant colleges and universities and help them to exchange ideas concerning their service. That is always one of our main functions. But we do not have any people there under a special appropriation for that purpose. So we simply allot the money and require the expenditure of the allotment to be audited and certified, and sent back to us, and that is all.

Mr. TARVER. You are not in a position to advise us what is being accomplished with these funds?

Dr. STUDEBAKER. That is right. We have not any means of doing that.

Miss Goodykoontz calls my attention to the fact that among the land-grant colleges there are colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, and the funds are appropriated, as Miss Schutt tells me, on the basis of the general population in the State in proportion to the general population of the whole country.

Mr. TARVER. That is, the Bankhead-Jones funds are so appropriated?

Dr. STUDEBAKER. That is right.

Mr. ENGEL. On a straight per capita basis?

Dr. STUDEBAKER. That is right, and the other was a flat grant of $50,000.

FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE OF EDUCATION RELATED TO THE APPROPRIATIONS FOR COLLEGES OF AGRICULTURE AND MECHANIC ARTS

Administration.-Both the permanent appropriation and the annual appropriation to the colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, commonly called landgrant colleges and universities, are administered in the following manner: The Federal Security Administrator, on or before the 1st day of July in each year, ascertains through the Office of Education and certifies to the Secretary of the Treasury as to each State and Terirtory whether it is entitled to receive its share of the annual appropriation and the amount which each is entitled to receive. In case the Federal Security Administrator withholds from any State or Territory a certificate of its appropriation, the facts and reasons therefor are reported to the President, and the amount involved is kept separate in the Treasury until the close of the next Congress. If the next Congress does not direct the sum to be paid, it is covered into the Treasury. Payment is made to the State or Territorial treasurer or to such officer as has been designated by the laws of the State or Territory to receive it.

The land-grant colleges and universities make annual reports to the Office of Education on the following forms supplied by the Office:

(1) Staff and students for the academic year.

(2) Financial report for the fiscal year.

(3) Federal funds (detail of an item in the financial report).

(4) Report of the treasurer on the land-grant fund created under the first Morrill Act.

(5) Report of the treasurer on supplementary Morrill funds (both the permanent and the annual appropriations).

The blanks on which the reports of the treasurer are made specify the purposes for which the Federal funds may be expended, and they are designed to indicate whether the funds have been used in accordance with these purposes. The reports of the treasurer are certified by both the treasurer and the president of the institution.

The data in these reports are studied to determine whether the institutions have expended the Federal funds in accordance with the law. The information is compiled in an annual report, a preliminary edition of which is issued in November. The final report is published in the Biennial Survey of Education.

Through various direct and indirect contacts the Office of Education keeps in touch with the institutions. In 1930 it completed an extensive survey of the landgrant colleges and universities. The Office is fairly well informed concerning their work.

Controls-Control is exercised through the annual reports made to the Office of Education by the colleges and universities. No audit is made of the funds. For years no instance has arisen where the reports from the institutions have appeared to warrant the withholding of funds. If question arises concerning the legality of the expenditure or use of the Federal appropriations, the Office of Education sends a representative to the State or Territory to make the necessary investigation.

Allotments.-There are 69 land-grant colleges and universities, of which number 17 are for the education of Negroes.

Allotments are made to the several States and Territories rather than to the individual ainstitutions. In 17 States the funds are divided between two institutions, one for white students and the other for Negro studients. In one other State the fund is divided between the agricultural college and an institute of technology.

LIBRARY SERVICE AND RESEARCH

Mr. HARE. The next item is for "Library Service and Research." We will insert at this point in the record, page 35 of the justifications, which shows that the appropriation for this service for 1943 was $20,830, and the estimate for 1944 is $20,800, a decrease of $30.

(The statement above referred to is as follows:)

Library Service and Research, Office of Education

Regular appropriation, 1943 act-

Supplemental appropriations for 1943

$20,830

20,830

20,830

Mr. HARE. The amount of the estimate for personal services for 1944 is $20,270. I note that there is no change in this work or the activities contemplated for the next year.

But I also note that you are requesting a change in the language in the item for library service and research, as shown on page 95 of the committee print.

The language provides for the deletion of the words "typewriters and exchange thereof," and also the words "purchase of."

I assume you will not need any typewriters next year. Miss SCHUTT. That was suggested by the Bureau of the Budget in the interest of simplification. It is the common understanding that they are going to insert a paragraph at the end of the Independent Offices appropriation bill to cover such items in all appropriations. Mr. TARVER. Dr. Studebaker, the language of this appropriation for the Library Service, Office of Education, is impressive, reading as follows:

For making surveys, studies, investigations, and reports regarding public, school, college, university, and other libraries; fostering coordination of public and school library service; coordinating library service on the national level with other forms of adult education; developing library participation in Federal projects; fostering Nation-wide coordination of research materials among the more scholarly libraries, inter-State library cooperation, and the development of public, school, and other library service throughout the country

and so forth, and so on. But when it concludes with an appropriation of $20,830 it is not so impressive.

NATURE OF SERVICES RENDERED TO STATE LIBRARY AGENCIES

Mr. TARVER. I was wondering how you are able to do efficient work in all of the subject matters detailed in this appropriation with such a small amount of money.

Dr. STUDEBAKER. Judge Tarver, we originally drew up a request for $40,000, and cooperated with the various organizations, including the American Library Association, but the amount was not recommended that year by the Bureau of the Budget. It was not recom mended, therefore, by the House committee, but it was put back on the floor of the Senate by a motion from the floor at a flat amount of $25,000.

Mr. TARVER. Just what can you do with this small amount of money along the lines indicated in the appropriation item?

Dr. STUDEBAKER. Dr. Goodykoontz can give you some detailed explanation of what we are doing.

But I would like to say as a preliminary, the final appropriation which was made several years ago, $25,000, has since been reduced, and as you will see, we had made quite an extensive study of the needs for public libraries, especially, and the outstanding fact which impressed me, and which still impresses me, was that there are about 35,000,000 people in the United States who did not have public library service available and another 45,000,000 of our citizens who had only the most meager public library facilities available in their neighborhoods anywhere.

There are something like 6,500 public libraries, half of which have annual budgets of $1,000 or less each for all costs, including personnel, books, maintenance, and so forth.

That should be considered in connection with the second fact in reference to the meagerly supported libraries that I mentioned for the other 45,000,000 people who have only such meager facilities available. What we wanted to do to carry forward the development of our American culture was to stimulate further development of public libraries all over the United States.

We know we cannot educate people fully in the elementary and secondary schools and colleges. Most of us are adults, over 21 years of age in the United States. We live three times longer in adult life than before we arrive at our majority, and we want access to reliable sources of information. In some way the whole library system in the United States should be developed. How we have tried to do it Miss Goodykoontz can tell you. She can tell you about some of the specific ways by which we are trying to do that.

Dr. GOODYKOONTZ. Mr. Chairman, as the Commissioner has said, the professional librarians had in mind having a service somewhat comparable to what the rest of the Office of Education does in its service to schools and school people. They felt that a similar type of service was necessary to be given to the library profession for the public, school, and college libraries. Therefore, the small staff we have represents those three fields, the public libraries, with one person, the school libraries with one person, and the college libraries with one person, who is also the Chief of the Division. We have tried with that small staff to outline a useful type of service for each of the three groups.

One of the fields in which the American Library Association was particularly interested was the organization of a regular statistical reporting service covering the status of libraries in this country. So we have planned a rotating schedule of statistics about all libraries. We get out each year one statistical report on libraries, one year covering detailed statistics of public libraries, the next year covering the statistics of school libraries, and in the following year covering statistics of college libraries, and then go back around the schedule. That takes a great amount of time in working with the libraries and State library boards in planning for the orderly collection of statistics, because the libraries of this country have not had a very long experience in the recording and reporting of their operations.

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