Mr. VAUGHAN. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. And the work in that respect is a vital part of the war program? Mr. VAUGHAN. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. Of course, these men whom you are sending abroad are not soldiers? Mr. VAUGHAN. Oh, no, sir. The CHAIRMAN. They are scientists; they are experts? Mr. VAUGHAN. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. And if they go to South America, there is no reason why they should not live with their families there peacefully, just as they would in the United States; it is just as peaceful there as in the United States? Mr. VAUGHAN. That is right. The CHAIRMAN. I think that is a rather reasonable assumption, if they are going to stay two or three years in South America. If they were going to Europe, that would be different. Mr. LAMBERTSON. It is just as far from here to countries in South America as it is to Europe. This might apply to South America as well as to Europe. Mr. LAMBERTSON. But there are submarines between here and South America. The CHAIRMAN. There is no war hazard after they get there. Mr. VAUGHAN. We temper the family question with judgment. We have representatives in Africa, but we have sent no wives there. An individual would probably not want to take his wife to that sort of zone anyway. The CHAIRMAN. I would not want to go there in a perfectly peaceful occupation and leave my family here for 2 or 3 years. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What other agencies are in this particular field you are talking about now? Mr. VAUGHAN. Who will work with us in this field? Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Working in that particular field. What other agencies are in that field? Mr. VAUGHAN. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Commodity Credit Corporation, and we also work with the Rockefeller organization. Mr. LUDLOW. Do they ever send their families down there? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes, sir. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. What other agencies are there, the State Department and the Commerce Department? Mr. VAUGHAN. That is right, but the commercial attachés are a part of the embassy staff. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Are there any other of Jesse Jones' corporations? Mr. VAUGHAN. No. We do get some help from the Bureau of Mines. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. The Bureau of Mines on top of that? What else? Mr. VAUGHAN. Those are the principal ones. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. All of those were there before you got in, were thev not? Mr. VAUGHAN. Before we got in this field? Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Yes. Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes; but only to a limited extent. Mr. LAMBERTSON. Let me make this observation, which may be a little bit harsh. This is not really a part to be played in the prosecution of the war. This is more of an after-the-war set-up as a part of our control of the world, our world dictatorship. The CHAIRMAN. My understanding is that this Board ceases to function at the close of hostilities. Mr. LAMBERTSON. The President said in his Labor Day speech that automatically the powers we give him now would revert at the end of the war, or the emergency. It takes Congress and the President to end the emergency. This promise of everything of this sort ending with hostilities seems like a lot of hooey to me. That is my observation. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. If the Government has these other departments down there doing the same sort of work you are doing, what is the necessity for you entering into this field? Mr. VAUGHAN. They are not doing the same work there. I mentioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. Its subsidiary corporations handle the direct purchasing. We have the responsibility and authority to determine what shall be purchased and how, based on broad consideration of requirements and over-all necessity. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. That is what Jesse Jones was doing before you got in there, was it not? Mr. VAUGHAN. So far as I know, not in the foreign field. The need for most of these off-shore procurement programs has developed recently. The CHAIRMAN. The question here is not a question of the advisability of this service, which has already been provided for. The only question here is in connection with a change in language, which will permit the loosening of the limitation. Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Involving a limitation of $600,000. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Your work is in connection with the natural resources in these countries? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes, sir. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. You are trying to uncover them. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. For the Reconstruction Finance Corporation? Mr. VAUGHAN. No; we are trying to uncover them— Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. For our own Government? Mr. VAUGHAN. The various agencies we have referred to handle the financing. We have no funds for the actual procurement. They handle the buying and accounting end. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. And you folks do the physical end? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes; we direct the whole program. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Have you talked with representatives of the foreign countries? Mr. VAUGHAN. Yes, sir; through the State Department; that is where we cooperate with them. We work with the various representatives of foreign governments through the Department of State. Mr. JOHNSON of West Virginia. Suppose you discover a very rich copper mine, or a rich deposit of tin down there; how do you propose to get that out, with the present shipping conditions? Mr. VAUGHAN. That is worked out with the War Shipping Administration. These are the materials-for which there would undoubtedly be a priority for shipment. Shipping is one of the many considerations with which we have to deal. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1942. OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE TESTIMONY OF JAMES M. LANDIS, UNITED STATES DIRECTOR OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE; MAJ. GARLAND FIELDING SMITH, CHIEF, PLANNING CONTROL DIVISION, F. S. B.; COL. G. M. PEEK, FACILITY SECURITY BRANCH; JOHN B. MARTIN, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE; SAMUEL T. PARELMAN, BUDGET OFFICER, OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE; REPRESENTING THE OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE. MALCOLM B. ARTHUR, IN CHARGE FACILITY SECURITY PROGRAM, FOREST SERVICE; EDWARD I. KOTOK, ASSISTANT CHIEF, FOREST SERVICE; HENRY WOLD, BUDGET OFFICER, FOREST SERVICE; REPRESENTING THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE. C. W. WARBURTON, DEPUTY GOVERNOR; T. F. MURPHY, ASSISTANT COMPTROLLER; REPRESENTING THE FARM CREDIT ADMINISTRATION. JOSEPH WHEELER, OFFICE, BUDGET AND FINANCE. S. C. SKEELS, ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, RAILWAY PROTECTIVE SECTION; PATRICK B. MCGINNIS, EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, RAILWAY PROTECTIVE SECTION; REPRESENTING THE OFFICE OF DEFENSE TRANSPORTATION. DR. JOSEPH W. MOUNTIN, CHIEF, STATES RELATIONS DIVISION; R. E. TARBETT, CHIEF SANITARY OFFICER; REPRESENTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE. WESLEY R. NELSON, CHIEF, ENGINEERING DIVISION, BUREAU OF RECLAMATION; REPRESENTING THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR FACILITY SECURITY PROGRAM SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE FOR 1943 The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Landis, we have an estimate before us in House Document No. 866 for $1,042,000 for the facility security program. I notice that your estimate is divided up into five items, one of $102,000 for the railway protective program of the Office of Defense Transportation; $126,000 for the power and irrigation water program of the Bureau of Reclamation; $214,000 for the domestic water supplies program of the Public Health Service; $250,000 for the forest products industries program of the Department of Agriculture; and $350,000 or the foodstuffs and storage program of the Department of Agriculture. Will you give us a general statement covering the total estimate, and then we will take them up item by item. GENERAL STATEMENT ON PURPOSES OF SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATES REQUESTED FOR 1943 Mr. LANDIS. Mr. Chairman, this request, as you pointed out, is a supplemental estimate for five departments of the Government. I might start off by explaining the position of the Office of Civilian Defense in connection with these five estimates. Our concern derives from Executive Order No. 9165, which created the facility security program. The purpose of the order is to provide for protection against sabotage and other destructive acts, or omissions, to vital facilities in the country which are not under the direct jurisdiction of the Army. The Army has exercised direct supervision over certain plants under its plant-protection program and, also, of certain terribly vital facilities which are sometimes taken over by the Army and guarded directly, but, in addition to those plants, and to those limited facilities that are under direct Army protection, there are in this country numerous other facilities that the plants themselves depend upon, and that the population themselves depend upon, which can be sabotaged and which can be destroyed, the destruction of which would be as bad for the war effort as the destruction of some facilities under the direct charge of the Army. With that in mind, the facility security program was set up. That program takes the facilities in a broad way, and divides them into 11 different categories, and places the facilities in these 11 different categories under 9 different Federal departments that we speak of as the action agencies. It is the place of the Office of Civilian Defense to sit on top of the operation of the programs that are being developed by these action agencies. Those action agencies, like the Office of Defense Transportation or the Department of Agriculture, are responsible, first, for surveying the facilities under their control, and ascertaining just what degree of protection is being afforded already, and then finding out what weak spots exist. Then it becomes our duty to make recommendations as to what should be done. Those recommendations are to be carried out by the owners and operators of the facilities, or by the local or State governments, as the case may be. Then recurring inspections are to be made by the action agencies to see not only if our recommendations had been carried out before but in order to see that the recommendations are being currently carried out. It is the position of the Office of Civilian Defense in that connection to cooperate with all nine action agencies in their activities, in trying to standardize the work, and to develop standards of security, for the protection of all essential facilities of the Nation. The Office of Civilian Defense has the power to insist that certain standards must be maintained. In that connection, as we developed our program, we first, of course, dealt with the Army to discover just exactly what facilities the Army wants to take under its direct control, and in that way we have no conflict with the Army, but quite the contrary. There is a definite tendency on the part of the Army to want civilian agencies to take more and more share in assuring the protection of those facilities. The Army commanders do not care to use their troops for guard purposes, which not only has a tendency to weaken their morale but also a tendency to weaken the force of troops primarily intended for combat service. If they find that civilian measures can be taken that will give a sufficient degree of protection, they are glad to have those agencies come in for that purpose. After dealing with the Army, we then dealt with the various other action agencies, getting them to make their surveys, consulting them with reference to the manner in which those surveys should be made, and consulting them as to the recommendations that should be made to the owners and operators of the facilities. That was done in order to reach standards of security which we, in conjunction with the Army, thought important to be provided in those various fields. This estimate before you covers five of the action agencies, with respect to the particular programs under their control. The Budget estimates submitted by the action agencies have been gone over by us, and we think they are essential for those agencies in order to perform the duties placed upon them. In that manner, the estimates have come before you. I might add that this is not the sum total of the appropriations that Congress has made in behalf of the facility security program. Congress already has provided $12,600,000 to the Public Buildings Administration for similar work; $8,000,000 to the Department of Agriculture, primarily for forest protection, and $812,000 to the Department of the Interior for the protection of forests on land under the control of that Department, and, also, $800,000 to the Department of the Interior for minerals and related facilities, including petroleum facilities. There are three departments which have not submitted estimates as yet, namely, the Department of Commerce, which is concerned with air commerce and related facilities; the Public Roads Administration, which is concerned with highway transportation, and the Federal Power Commission, insofar as it is concerned with gas utilities. I think that explains the general purpose of these estimates, and why they are here. The details will be presented by representatives of each of the departments concerned, or by the representatives of the various action agencies. Mr. LUDLOW. Who took the initiative in the preparation of these estimates? Did the agencies prepare the estimates and submit them to you for approval, or did you prepare the estimates yourself? Mr. LANDIS. No, sir; these estimates were prepared by the action agencies. Mr. LUDLOW. In every instance, they prepared the estimates and submitted them to you, and they were cleared through your office? Mr. LANDIS. Yes, sir. Mr. LUDLOW. Sometimes they were changed, and sometimes you reached an agreement with the action agencies? Mr. LANDIS. Yes, sir; they prepared the estimates, and we got together on them. The initial preparation of the estimates was their function. |