releases which seemed not to be filling the needs of the business community. The circulation and reaction indicated it was not doing so. We conducted a very extensive statistical and editorial analysis, and interviewed scores of subscribers. As the result of our recommendations, the Office of International Trade is working on extensive changes in gathering, organizing, and releasing the information used in the series for more effective dissemination to the foreign-trade community, as well as in eliminating limited-interest material in favor of more useful and important items.

Mr. FLOOD. Do you have jurisdiction over it from the Secretary? Mr. BURGESS. We edit it only; when it comes in, we copyread it. Mr. FLOOD. But you do the publishing?

Mr. BURGESS. Yes, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. Is there anything further?
Mr. BURGESS. That is all, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. Thank you very much.

OFFICE OF TECHNICAL SERVICES

STATEMENTS OF JOHN C. GREEN, DIRECTOR; ALBERT H. SMALL, ASSISTANT TO THE DIRECTOR; JOHN L. DEMAREST, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT; AND JAMES R. GARDNER, MANAGEMENT ANALYST

Mr. FLOOD. If there is no objection, we will proceed to the Office of Technical Services.

COMPARATIVE SUMMARY OF POSITIONS AND OBLIGATIONS, 1948-50

We will insert at this point in the record the summary of estimated obligations.

(The summary is as follows:)

Mr. GLADIEUX. We have Mr. John Green, who is the Director of the Office of Technical Services.

Mr. FLOOD. We have with us as well, I understand, the assistant to the Director, Mr. Albert H. Small; the administrative assistant, Mr. John L. Demarest; and the management analyst, Mr. James R. Gardner, who are present with the Director.

Mr. Green, we are very glad to have you with us. I understand you have a preliminary statement you would like to make.

GENERAL STATEMENT

Mr. GREEN. If I may, please.

An appropriation of $175,000 is requested for the Department's program of disseminating technological information to business and industry during fiscal 1950.

The constant demand by United States firms for the services of this office indicates that the need for technological assistance for the fostering and promotion of the Nation's industry stands parallel with the needs for statistical and economic information.

In accordance with programs operating during the current fiscal year, the funds requested are for the maintenance of activities having to do with the collection, compilation, and dissemination of technical and scientific reports from United States Government and foreign sources; the notification to the business community of such acquisitions through the regular publication of a bibliography of scientific and industrial reports; the sale, or arrangement for sale, of such reports; and the professional handling of these functions, as well as service on special business inquiries. In addition, the National Inventors Council, established in 1940 as a link between the Nation's independent inventors and the needs of Government agencies, is to be continued for the purpose of meeting increasing demands by both the Government and the public for its services.

This request reflects a 12/2-percent deduction from currently authorized levels.

DEMAND FOR DOCUMENTS

Mr. FLOOD. Have you had any reaction from any business sources with reference to the kind of work you do or propose to do?

Mr. GREEN. We have a regular demand for our documents by purchase. We estimated today the current rate of purchase, as an indication of the interest to the business community, at $186,000 a year. I should make very clear that is not profit for the Government; that is the cost of those documents, of the equipment, labor, and material used in providing them. We sell them at a cost which recoups the work done in the preparation, but the business community is a very steady

customer.

Because of the last appropriation cut, we were restricted from putting out the weekly notification journal and had to reduce it to a

monthly notification journal, which meant that the business community was only made aware of about 25 percent as much technical matter as before. However, our sales have held up to a surprising rate of 60 percent.

Mr. FLOOD. What was the reaction generally by what we might describe as the business community to the reduction of the reports from a weekly to a monthly basis, if any?

Mr. GREEN. We have found it necessary to provide more reference service, and we have been criticized quite severely because we no longer provided abstracts or brief descriptions of the contents of the docu

ment.

Mr. FLOOD. How widely read are your information services; have you any idea?

Mr. GREEN. I would say they are world-wide. As a matter of fact, we find comparable information services abroad exchange information with us in order that they may have access to our data.

I would like to mention at this time that no Soviet or satellite country has access, although they have striven very vigorously to obtain information through a number of sources.

SERVICE TO BUSINESS

Mr. FLOOD. How do you serve the typical businessman who might ask you for help?

Mr. GREEN. We maintain a complete card catalog broken down by subject matter of all the documents we have collected and compiled. When we receive an inqury, such as we recently did, from the chamber of commerce in Alliance, Nebr., for information on industrial items made from agricultural byproducts, our people go to our card file and select those documents which they feel best fit their needs, make them known to them, and then they are purchased by the individuals. We are running, I believe, around 2,000 letters of that type a month at the moment.

AUTHORITY FOR WORK OF OFFICE

Mr. FLOOD. What legislative authority is there for the existence of this unit?

Mr. GREEN. Basically, it is the legislative authority of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce to foster and promote commerce by collecting, compiling, and supplying information valuable to the United States manufacturing industries. It has been specifically reinforced by Presidential directive that we should make the results of Federal research available to the business community, and we do tailor the most of our activities to Federal research.

Mr. FLOOD. You make available for the public or business Federal research?

Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir.

ECONOMY OF THE WORK OF THE OFFICE

Mr. FLOOD. Is there a cheaper way than this of doing it? Mr. GREEN. No, sir. I think we have found the very cheapest way, because, basically, what we do is to collect the material and list it in a sales catalog which we publish monthly, and then the purchaser has an opportunity to purchase the document he wants. Our function is restricted to notification. With the cooperation of the National Library of Congress, these documents are stored there for reader inspection, and purchase orders for the specialized documents are transferred directly to the Library of Congress and copies of these documents are made photographically. The popular documents are mimeographed and made available as stock copies. We believe that this technique of selecting and presenting documents and making them available in mimeographed form is the cheapest reproduction form. We then make the more specialized documents available photographically only as the cheapest feasible technique. And that belief has been echoed by experts in industry and other Government areas.

RECEIPTS

Mr. FLOOD. How much money did you return to the Treasury last year? Do you have any evidence of that?

Mr. GREEN. I do not want to say that we return money to the Treasury. We received last year upwards of $200,000.

Mr. FLOOD. How much money did you put in, whether you returned any or not? How much did the Government recoup in any way from these sales of your pamphlets or articles or services, in dollars?

Mr. GREEN. There were received in dollars between $200,000 and $300,000, but that is not a true recoupment.

Mr. FLOOD. I understand.

Mr. GREEN. I do not want to give the impression that it is a self-supporting operation. The costs are the labor and the material in the preparation of this material.

Mr. FLOOD. What was the figure that you say you received in funds? Mr. GREEN. It was around $250,000 last year.

EXAMPLES OF PRODUCTION

Mr. FLOOD. Do you have a list of pamphlets, articles, brochures, books, that you publish for the public market?

Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. Will you insert in the record a list of those?

Mr. GREEN. It is upwards of 100,000 items, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. A hundred thousand items?

Mr. GREEN. Yes, sir.

Mr. FLOOD. Will you insert in the record then a very select few of those 100,000 items?

Mr. GREEN. I will be very happy to do that.