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QUINQUENNIAL CENSUS OF INDUSTRY

AND BUSINESS

63971

HEARINGS

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON THE CENSUS

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS

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QUINQUENNIAL CENSUS

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1941

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
COMMITTEE ON THE CENSUS,
Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10 a. m., the Honorable Guy L. Moser (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. Gentlemen, I will call the committee to order. Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Jones, is here and he would like to testify, and I would like to have the committee's attention while he testifies, that he may return to his other duties. I gave him my word that we would not hold him any longer than absolutely necessary. Secretary Jones, we will hear you.

STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE JESSE H. JONES, SECRETARY OF COMMERCE

Secretary JONES. Mr. Chairman, I am here to stay as long as I can be of any service, and I am here to testify to something I do not know a great deal about, because there are men in the Department, particularly the Director of the Census Bureau, who are qualified to discuss the bill in detail.

It is my understanding that the bill does not give the Bureau any power it has not had for a good many years. It does add the right to make information available to national-defense agencies under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of Commerce. The bill will, I am informed, enable the Census Bureau to engage in current statistical work, which will make speedily available, rather than after some lapse of time, information which is badly needed by the O. P. M. and the War and Navy Departments. As I understand, they inspired the legislation.

The bill provides that the Census of Manufactures, which is now taken every 2 years, will be taken every 5 years, and that the Census of Distribution and Mining, which is now taken every 10 years, will be taken every 5 years. The current statistics and the changed census period will give normal users of census figures more information than they now get and not less, as some people seem to think.

H. R. 5232, introduced by Mr. Rankin, is identical in form with S. 1627, already passed by the Senate, with the exception, as I understand it, that the Senate bill somewhat lessens the penalty for violations of confidence. Our people do not seem to think that is particularly serious, but that would be for you gentlemen to consider.

The change made by the Senate in passing the bill is satisfactory to the Department of Commerce.

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