SECOND SUPPLEMENTAL NATIONAL DEFENSE

APPROPRIATION BILL, 1943

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1942

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS,

Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met pursuant to call at 2 p. m. in the committee room, the Capitol, Hon. Kenneth McKellar (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators McKellar, Hayden, Thomas of Oklahoma, Överton, McCarran, Bankhead, Nye, and Brooks.

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FOREST SERVICE

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, Jr., A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

FOREST PRODUCTS LABORATORY AT MADISON, WIS.

PURCHASE OF ADDITIONAL LAND

Senator MCKELLAR. You may proceed, Senator.

Senator LA FOLLETTE. Mr. Chairman, I desire to submit an amendment which I hope the committee will adopt. It relates to the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis. It provides that not to exceed $30,000 of their existing appropriation may be used for the acquisition of additional land adjacent to the present site of the laboratory.

Senator MCKELLAR. Is that the 20 acres that was up before the committee last time?

Senator LA FOLLETTE. The Senate committee placed a similar amendment in the first supplemental national deficiency bill for 1943, but it went out in conference.

I ask leave, Mr. Chairman, to insert here that portion of the estimate which was provided for the first supplemental national defense appropriation bill for 1943.

(The document referred to follows:)

EXTRACT FROM HOUSE DOCUMENT No. 764, JUNE 3-4, 1942

SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICUL TURE COMMUNICATION FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES "FOREST SERVICE

"Forest products: Not to exceed $30,000 of the appropriation for experiments, investigations, and tests of forest products at the Forest Products Laboratory, or elsewhere, fiscal year 1943, shall be available for the acquisition of additional land adjacent to the present site of said laboratory at Madison, Wis."

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The present space available in the permanent laboratory structure and the adjacent grounds owned by the Government at Madison is inadequate to take care of the greatly expanded war program already under way. Future expansion will necessitate an even greater land area in order to meet emergency requirements. There is immediate need for more yard space for logs, lumber, and other products, for additional wood buildings for kilns and drying equipment, and for shed storage space for other equipment and supplies. Anticipated needs in the near future include space for pilot plant installations to demonstrate possibilities of commercial production and uses of wood plastics, plastic wood, and compregnated wood, and space will also be needed for fireproofing work, humidity temperature control requirements, and for boiler-plant expansion.

Immediately adjoining the laboratory site is a tract of land of about 15 acres which is most desirable and large enough to accommodate all expansions at present required or contemplated. The assessed valuation of the land per acre

is lower than other sites of comparable size in the vicinity, and its owners have recently offered it for sale at the same price at which it was acquired by them 15 years ago, or at $2,000 per acre.

Acquisition of this property to meet urgent needs for additional land area, at a price not in excess of $30,000, is recommended. It is felt, however, that the cost of acquisition should be met with funds provided for the fiscal year 1943.

NEED FOR ADDITIONAL LAND

I understand, although I am not officially advised, that there will be another estimate for this bill sent down today. I wish to point out to the subcommittee that the need now is far greater than it was last June when the committee voted to place this authorization or permission in the statute. Since then a greatly expanded program, aggregating over $700,000 annually, and involving the doubling of the organization, has been undertaken for the War and Navy Departments by the Forest Products Laboratory. I sincerely hope that the subcommittee will see fit to reincorporate this amendment in the second supplemental national deficiency appropriation bill, and that the committee will be more successful in persuading the House that the need is now not anticipated but it is demonstrated. It is an actual fact that they are hampered in their war program by their inability to use this money to buy additional land, and I wish to reemphasize that they are not asking for any additional money, but simply permission to use $30,000 of funds already appropriated.

TEXT OF SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE

Senator MCKELLAR. We have the Budget estimate, and at this point I will insert it in the record.

(The estimate follows:)

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington, D. C.. October 10, 1942.

The PRESIDENT,

The White House.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith for your consideration a draft of a proposed provision to authorize the acquisition, by the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture, of additional land for the Forest Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis. The item is as follows:

FOREST SERVICE

"SALARIES AND EXPENSES

"Forest products: Not to exceed $30,000 of the appropriation for experiments, investigations, and tests of forest products at the Forest Products Laboratory, or elsewhere, contained in the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Act, 1943,

shall be available for the acquisition of additional land adjacent to the present site of said laboratory at Madison, Wis."

This provision was included among several supplemental estimates of appropriations transmitted to you under date of June 2, 1942, and by you to Congress on June 3, 1942 (House Doc. No. 764). Although considered in connection with the first supplemental national defense appropriation bill, 1943, it was not included therein when the bill was enacted.

The requested authorization is again submitted because of the more critical situation which has developed at the Madison laboratory during the past few months. The facts upon which the first submission was based still exist, and in addition thereto, the laboratory has been called upon to provide space for 150 to 160 inspectors detailed from various branches of the Army and Navy for training at the laboratory. Under plans proposed by the Army and Navy this number will reach 200 to 300 in the near future. Classroom space for these trainees is available neither at the laboratory nor at the University of Wisconsin. Nor is there hotel space in Madison to accommodate the additional numbers who will come to the laboratory for these courses. Provision will be made to have abandoned Civilian Conservation Corps buildings moved to the land to be acquired to serve for quarters and classrooms and to provide for needed additional storage facilities.

Acquisition of the property proposed for purchase is urgently necessary to meet the present critical situation caused by the expanded war program and, I am informed, is strongly recommended by the War Department. It will provide, also, for the future land requirements of the research program at this laboratory. The foregoing proposed provision is made necessary by reason of contingencies which have arisen since the transmission of the Budget for the fiscal year 1943. I recommend that it be transmitted to Congress.

Very respectfully,

(Signed) HAROLD D. SMITH, Director of the Bureau of the Budget.

TEXT OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT

Senator LA FOLLETTE. I thank the members of the subcommittee and the other witnesses for permitting me to proceed, and I will submit my amendment for the record.

(The amendment follows:)

FOREST SERVICE

Forest products: Not to exceed $30,000 of the appropriation for experiments, investigations, and tests of forest products at the Forest Products Laboratory, or elsewhere, fiscal year 1943, shall be available for the acquisition of additional land adjacent to the present site of said laboratory at Madison, Wisconsin.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

OFFICE FOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT

OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE

STATEMENTS OF JAMES M. LANDIS, DIRECTOR OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE; COL. G. M. PEEK, REPRESENTATIVE, SECRETARY OF WAR, CHIEF, FACILITY SECURITY BRANCH; JOHN B. MARTIN, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE; AND SAMUEL T. PARELMAN, BUDGET OFFICER, OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE

AMOUNT OF ADDITIONAL FUNDS REQUESTED

Senator MCKELLAR. All right, Mr. Landis, we are ready for you. You have several items, aggregating $1,042,000, which the House took out altogether. Do you wish to address yourself to that?

Mr. LANDIS. Yes; that is what I would like to do. I appreciate the courtesy of being allowed to restate this case before the committee, inasmuch as the House turned down this entire appropriation.

PURPOSE OF FUNDS REQUESTED

The appropriation is for four agencies, the Office of Defense Transportation, Department of the Interior, Public Health Service, and Department of Agriculture. It is intended to carry out the duties entrusted to those agencies by Executive Order 9165, in which the President charged these agencies, among other Federal agencies, to concern themselves with the specific duty of preventing sabotage and other destructive acts in regard to the facilities under the control of those various agencies.

These agencies are charged with, first, conducting surveys to ascertain what the security status of the various facilities is, and then to determine what deficiencies there are in that security status; then to make recommendation for action to the owners and operators of those facilities; then to make recurring inspections to see that those recommendations have been carried out, and to take all other necessary steps that may be required for preventing sabotage and other destructive acts.

EXTRACT FROM HOUSE REPORT

Senator MCKELLAR. Mr. Landis, the House committee, in making its report, had this to say in part:

The rejection of the Budget estimate does not indicate any lack of sympathy or interest in the objective sought. The committee is of the opinion that the private and local public management of these projects is aware of the situation and in many instances amply qualified by technical experience to take remedial steps if fully advised of the necessity. The committee feels that, instead of the employment of a large group of traveling technicians whose vists in many cases may be long delayed in reaching all plants, an educational campaign directed to the ownerships calling forcibly to their attention the need for examination of their protective measures and advising them to secure technical advice and following that up with a requirement to report their action with respect thereto would have an effect almost as wholesome as the proposed program. * * *

What have you to say to that? Address yourself to that.

Mr. LANDIS. I will be glad to. That argument in the House report is also followed by the suggestion that thus far there has not been much in the way of sabotage occurring in this country, and I think it wise to grasp that situation first because, while subversive activities. to date have not appeared to be coordinated, or of a joint character, there have been a number of incidents that are highly suspicious.

You will recognize, of course, that the test of the act itself, of sabotage, is to make the thing look like an accident and, consequently, the only clues to the existence of sabotage may be in the steadily rising fire, explosion, break-down, or accident rate in this country. We have had a substantial increase in those rates, and naturally anything that can be done to reduce the rate of accidents and fire is itself a measure of conservation and is itself a measure of protection against sabotage.

NATURE OF WORK PROPOSED TO BE CARRIED ON

Senator MCKELLAR. What do you propose to do to remedy what you say is a bad situation?

Mr. LANDIS. Specifically, what is proposed under this program is in connection with these facilities, such as railroads, public water supplies, farm products processing plants, private irrigation plants, and the like. The agencies that have a familiarity with those plants will first survey the important facilities or plants in each category and determine what shall be done to preserve the security of those facilities, which, as yet, has not been done, and make recommendations to the owners and operators for doing that kind of work.

The House committee took the position that that could be done through an educational campaign without the employment of any considerable force. In the first place, the suggestion of the House committee is of grave concern to me because it is such an important thing, as I see it, to improve the security condition of those facilities. One would hesitate to leave it simply to a sort of correspondence method, such as the House committee suggests.

The cost involved in a program of this nature is, I think, quite small as against the chance or preserving facilities against sabotage and other destructive acts.

METHODS THAT WOULD BE FOLLOWED IN FACILITIES SECURITY PROGRAM

Senator MCKELLAR. The question is, What methods are you going to adopt? Are you going to employ men to go to the plants, or what are you going to do?

You have $1,042,000 proposed to be appropriated. What is that for? What are you going to do with it?

Mr. LANDIS. Senator, the Office of Civilian Defense will not employ any of those men. Those men will be employed by the four agencies mentioned here.

Senator McKELLAR. Oh, yes. We just pay for it. For instance, if a railroad company wants additional men to look after their protection your argument is to let them employ additional men and the Government pay for it.

Mr. LANDIS. No.

Senator McKELLAR. Just how will it work?

SERVICE THAT WOULD BE RENDERED RAILROADS

Mr. LANDIS. Let me take the railroads as a specific illustration. Senator McKELLAR. Yes.

Mr. LANDIS. Our railroads today are not, in the judgment of the Army, and as shown by such surveys as we have made, as well guarded as they should be. What we are asking for specifically in this appropriation is 14 men in the Office of Defense Transportation to survey the railroad situation; bring out these critical points that exist; bring them to the attention of the owners and operators of the railroads; and the guarding will be done by the regular force of the railroads.

Senator MCCARRAN. In the West the railroads are being guarded by the Army now.

Mr. LANDIS. At some points. But there are more critical points where no guarding is being done.