ITEMS OF INCREASES AND DECREASES IN ESTIMATES

Secretary WALLACE. I will call your attention first to table A, which compares the Budget estimates for 1937 with the appropriations for 1936.

The first item has to do with the ordinary activities of the Department, indicating an increase of nearly $6,000,000.

SOIL CONSERVATION SERVICE

The next has to do with certain special items which have come up in recent years. There is, first, the Soil Conservation Service, wherein a rather extraordinary increase is shown. The Soil Conservation Service has been transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. It has been financed by emergency funds. The emergency expenditures will be about $30,000,000 this year, perhaps a little over that. Compared to the emergency expenditures, the 1937 estimate represents a decrease. But now, for the first time, the Soil Conservation Service is estimated for as a regular activity, instead of as an emergency activity, and therefore indicates in these estimates an increase of $26,834,592.

The CHAIRMAN. At the last session of Congress, this was made a permanent activity.

Secretary WALLACE. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. It should have been made that many years ago.

SHELTERBELTS

Secretary WALLACE. Then there is included here funds for plains shelterbelts.

Mr. TARVER. What has been done there so far, Mr. Secretary. Secretary WALLACE. They have started nurseries, and have set out, I think, 10 or 12 million trees, but you can ascertain that from Mr. Silcox when he is appearing before you. I am relying purely on

memory.

CHINCH-BUG CONTROL

Next there is the item, chinch-bug control, for which last year there was appropriated $2,500,000. Practically none of this was used, because the weather stepped in and completely changed the chinch-bug situation.

This item shows a decrease of $2,500,000.

Mr. TARVER. Of course, Mr. Secretary, I am not interested in the chinch bug, particularly, because it does not affect my section, but because the weather conditions took care of that situation last year, does that mean that Congress would be justified in making no provision for it for the coming fiscal year, on the assumption that the weather conditions would again take care of it? Or should we make provision for it on the assumption that that might not be the case? Secretary WALLACE. At the time the Budget was made up, I did not feel justified in including it. It may be that before this committee ceases holding its hearings, information will come to light that will justify the inclusion of an appropriation for that purpose.

I have heretofore advanced the thesis that for purposes of this sort, there might be a certain sum of money held available in case there was an unusual outbreak of a disease or insect pest; such a

fund could be used by the Department of Agriculture without having to wait until Congress met.

However, such a procedure has not been adopted, so we believe that this is the only thing that we can do.

SCREW WORM CONTROL

Next we come to the item for screwworm control.

Mr. THURSTON. Before you get to that, can you give the committee any idea what the dollar value of the crop destroyed by the chinch bug was last year?

Secretary WALLACE. It amounted to very little last year.

Mr. THURSTON. How about the year before?

Secretary WALLACE. It was very great, but I do not have the figures in mind. Do you want them introduced into the record?

Mr. THURSTON. If you have any estimates to indicate either the proportion of the crop or the dollar value, yes.

Secretary WALLACE. I am going to ask Lee Strong to have the figures on that when he comes before you.

Mr. TARVER. I am very much interested in this item with respect to screwworm control. I hope that you will discuss that in some detail. Secretary WALLACE. It is in very much the same category as the chinch bug. It varies a great deal from year to year, depending on the weather. It is one of the native pests of the United States which sometimes causes very serious damage.

Mr. TARVER. Last year very serious damage was done by it in my State. I am not so familiar with what the situation is in the Southeast generally, but in Georgia, with a vastly increased number of infestations, there was infinitely less damage due to the death of livestock than was the situation in the preceding year when there was & smaller number of infestations, and that was occasioned by the advice and assistance given by the field force of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine to the farmers, enabling them to intelligently handle infestations and to apply treatment at such time as the treatment was effective in preventing the loss of the infested cattle.

Now, that epidemic expanded its area of territorial infestations last year considerably, as I am informed, and it has extended now into New Mexico, California, and perhaps one or two other southwestern States.

Secretary WALLACE. I think that it has been there for a great many years, as a matter of fact.

Mr. TARVER. This particular form of screw worm?

Secretary WALLACE. You had better ask Dr. Strong about that, but I think that they found some new forms recently that they did. not realize existed before.

Mr. TARVER. Certainly, however, the failure to submit an estimate for screw-worm control at present does not indicate that the Department has decided that no further expenditures along that line should be made, does it, Mr. Secretary?

Secretary WALLACE. No; it is just a question of policy, a question of the extent to which Government money should be appropriated from year to year for the purpose of handling these native insects.

Mr. TARVER. The abandonment of the control of the screw worm would certainly be disastrous in my State, and, in my opinion, in the entire portion of the Southeast where the infestation during recent years has been quite great, and I certainly hope that consideration will be given to this so that a proper and reasonable estimate will be provided for the continuance of this work.

ROAD FUND ITEM

Secretary WALLACE. In glancing down over what we might call the master key of the Budget, I wonder if there are any other items about which you care to have me comment.

Mr. TARVER. I would like to have some discussion on the elimination of the road fund item, Mr. Secretary.

Mr. JUMP. The situation there is that $125,000,000 was authorized, by the Hayden-Cartwright Act, to be appropriated for the fiscal year 1936. Forty million dollars of that was carried in the Agricultural bill last year. There is $60,000,000, included in the Budget for 1937. That will be the second increment of the $125,000,000 authorized for 1936, and will make, in all, $100,000,000 that has been appropriated of that $125,000,000, and that is estimated to be sufficient to meet the demands during the period covered for cash in liquidation of the 1936 authorization.

The CHAIRMAN. And the balance of it has been apportioned and probably obligated.

Mr. JUMP. That is right, and presumably the cash will be appropriated in future years, when needed.

The CHAIRMAN. Whenever the obligations mature.

Mr. JUMP. Yes. As to 1937, there was also another $125,000,000 authorized to be appropriated for 1937, requiring matching on the part of the States.

After the Hayden-Cartwright enabling act was passed, authorizing $125,000,000 each for 1936 and 1937, Congress passed Public Resolution No. 11, appropriating the 4 billion dollars for emergency work relief, and in that resolution set aside $400,000,000 for highway construction, including grade-crossing elimination, not requiring matching on the part of the States. There was also set aside, by Congress, in the 1936 Agricultural bill another $100,000,000 of the 4 billion dollars in Public Resolution No. 11, making $500,000,000 in all, out of the 4 billion dollars, for road funds. The $100,000,000 just mentioned was in fulfillment of an outstanding amount against an authorization of $200,000,000 for the fiscal year 1935. There was also $400,000,000 for Federal aid roads in the $3,300,000,000 N. I. R. Act, you will recall, and still another $100,000,000.

In the 1937 Budget the President has recommended that, in view of the fact that during the period 1933-36 over a billion dollars has been appropriated for road construction and grade-crossing elimination of which $230,000,000 in cash will be still available, according to the best estimate that we can make, in the fiscal year 1937, for which we are now considering appropriations, in addition to the $60,000,000 estimated here for the regular road fund, making in all around $300,000,000 available for road payments during 1937. In view of these facts the President has recommended that that $125,000,000 authorized for 1937 be canceled, for that year, and made applicable nstead to the fiscal year 1938.

That is a fair short summary of the road situation, is it not, Mr. Buchanan?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. THURSTON. Has any State failed or refused to accept the Federal road funds?

Mr. JUMP. Not in recent years, so far as I know, Mr. Thurston, although the $40,000,000 appropriated last year for regular highway payments, as I understand it, is going out slowly, in view of the emergency money available.

The CHAIRMAN. The States are not matching it as long as we have this donation to the road fund.

Mr. THURSTON. Some of them are.

Mr. JUMP. Oh, yes. They are not passing up the money by any means, but it is going slowly, in view of the projects that are being pushed for employment purposes, with the money coming to them from the emergency program. Mr. MacDonald will go into all of these matters fully when he appears.

EFFECT ON DEPARTMENTAL FUNCTIONS THROUGH ACTIVITIES TRANSFERRED TO A. A. A.

Mr. THURSTON. There is one general question that I would like to ask the Secretary. I think it is rather pertinent.

Was there any activity being carried on by the A. A. A. that was regarded as rather permanent in its objective that now may be obliged to cease or terminate, and that cannot be handled by the regular Department of Agriculture?

Secretary WALLACE. No one can see the precise budgetary situation until certain rulings come from other departments than ours. It is impossible to say what the situation is at the present moment. Mr. THURSTON. What I had in mind was this inquiry, as to whether or not some activity of your branch of the Government which normally would come under the Department of Agriculture has been in whole or in part transferred to the A. A. A. and, if that ceases to exist, it would interfere with the permanent functions of your Department in some respects.

Secretary WALLACE. I think that I can give a qualified yes to that statement, but must also indicate that a fully informed opinion cannot be given at this time.

Mr. JUMP. I would like to mention one example of that.

I have not mentioned it to the Secretary, but it is one of a thousand and one problems that have sprung up over night.

Take the Crop Estimating Service of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. That is a permanent part of the national agricultural structure. Agriculture and to a tremendous extent, industry all over the country, depends upon that service for accurate and reliable estimates of production, statistics of supply and demand, and so forth.

That service was cut very heavily in 1932 and 1933, in the last economy wave. Yet it was absolutely impossible to let that essential basic service sag at the same time that the Government was starting to engage in a comprehensive program of agricultural adjustment. Consequently, under the powers given in the Agricultural Adjustment Act, A. A. A. funds have been transferred to the Bureau of Agricultural Economics to supplement the regular appropriation for