Hon. PETER NORBECK, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, Chairman Committee on Banking and Currency, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR SENATOR NORBECK: In his speech in explanation of the public works bill for the relied of unemployment, Senator Wagner urged that "the several deapartments of the Government come forward with constructive suggestions which will be of assistance in perfecting the bill." In the absence of the Secretary of Commerce, but with his approval, I suggest that of the total sum contemplated in that bill, $1,250,000 be made available to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The Coast and Geodetic Survey is engaged on the gradual performance of certain continuing programs of engineering field work which have two principal purposes: (a) Safeguarding lives and property at sea and the orderly and economical movement of maritime commerce, and (b) Reducing the cost and assuring accuracy of many diverse engineering projects, including the topographic map of the United States, highway construction, irrigation and reclamation, flood control, maintenance and building railroads, power and pipe-line extensions. There is scarcely an extensive engineering enterprise throughout the United States to which this part of our work is not an important prequisite. In the orderly execution of these programs the survey is spending $3,023,933 during 1932. About 75 per cent of this sum is paid out directly in salaries and wages. For 1933 a reduction of $624,120 is imminent. This reduction means that field work must be discontinued, ships tied up, large volumes of surveying equipment stored here and there throughout the country, and labor discharged. The great burden of the reduction falls on people least able to bear it; the crews of our ships and the hands on our shore parties; men drawing generally from $80 to $125 per month. Hundreds of them throughout the United States will be deprived of work. These reductions are freezing a large capacity to aid unemployment. I am now suggesting that that capacity be thawed out and put to work. We will have reserve capacity in storage adequate to handle any increase up to about $1,250,000 above the proposed 1933 appropriation of $2,399,813. The following factors pertinent to such an increase deserve careful consideration: Seventy to eighty per cent of the money would be paid out to low-salaried labor. The money could be made to give work to approximately a thousand persons. This labor would be employed along both coasts and in half or more of the interior States. The work is urgently needed now. Within the past 10 days two States have offered to contribute funds in order that the proposed reduction need not compel discontinuances of certain work within their areas. The expenditures which would be made do not involve additional subsequent expenditures for operation or maintenance of results. There are no public buildings to be maintained, navigable channels to be periodically redredged, or roads to be kept in repair and after a few years rebuilt. There are no specifications to be written, contracts made, lands purchased, or other sources of delay. The program can be in full swing within a month or less after the money becomes available. The work accomplished will be in the nature of a permanent national investment and not merely a temporary expedient to relieve unemployment. It will prevent jeopardy to lives and property at sea which must otherwise result from the reductions now pending. It will make it possible to reduce the cost of Federal, State, and local engineering projects hereafter undertaken in every State in which our work is done. I think that the foregoing facts have escaped notice solely because the Coast and Geodetic Survey is a small service which does not loom up prominently in the huge and complex Federal structure. Our contribution to the present emergency must be correspondingly limited in size. Within that limit, however, I know of no Federal activity in which a larger percentage of the money spent would go directly to those in need, or in which the results accomplished would have relatively greater permanent value to the Nation. As a means of accomplishing this inclusion I suggest that paragraph (6) of section 4 (a) of the bill be amended as follows: (6) For expenditure by the Department of Commerce for air navigation facilities, including equipment; for the construction of lighthouses, vessels and other construction projects of the Lighthouse Service, and for the engineering work of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, Department of Commerce, heretofore authorized, $8,750,000. Respectfully yours, R. S. PATTON, Director. STATEMENT OF HON. JOSÉ L. PESQUERA, RESIDENT COMMISSIONER FROM PUERTO RICO Senator FLETCHER. Proceed, Mr. Commissioner, in your own way. Commissioner PESQUERA. The organic act of Puerto Rico, which is our constitution granted by the Congress of the United States in 1917, provides in section 9: That the statutory laws of the United States not locally inapplicable, except as hereinbefore or hereinafter otherwise provided, shall have the same force and effect in Puerto Rico as in the United States. It is the clear intent of this section that we may claim the benefits and are subject to all the burdens of all legislation unless, first, there is specific exemption in the organic act or, second, that the conditions in Puerto Rico do not permit the application of such laws. The one and one-half millions of American citizens residents of Puerto Rico believe that legislation specifically extending benefits to the States to the exclusion of Puerto Rico constitutes unfair discrimination against Puerto Rico, contrary to the spirit and purpose of the organic act; unless said legislation is based upon recognized economic differences which justify such distinction between the citizens of the island and of the mainland. Such discrimination is as illogical as to pass measures for the States of the United States "except New York, South Dakota, and Tennessee." We contend that common justice and fairness demands that all these measures designed to aid banks, industry, and agriculture, and unemployment, in the present emergency, be extended to Puerto Rico because not only is there no legal bar but the organic act affirmatively provides therefor, if not inapplicable. The economic conditions in Puerto Rico are not distinguishable from those in the mainland. They are distressingly bad, as they are here, and our people must look to Congress for relief, as have the people of the several States. These conditions have been described by Gov. James R. Beverley in his statement before the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, May 17, 1932, in support of S. 4671, providing for the extension of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation act for the benefit of the banks and the agricultural corporations. I refer you to his statement. No further explanation is required. The Governor of Puerto Rico represents the Executive authority of the United States. He is the administrative agent of the President, governing through the War Department and the Bureau of Insular Affairs. Governor Beverley has discharged his duty in pre executive superiors and to the Congress a frank sta conditions and in appealing earnestly for the inclusi Rico in all legislation framed to enable American citi. a winning fight against the unusual forces which t economic life. The Secretary of War and the Bureau of Insular Anairs have approved S. 4671. As resident commissioner I am the only legislative representative of the people of Puerto Rico. I indorse all the governor has said and earnestly second his appeal. We are not asking alms. We are only claiming our rights as we conceive them to be under the organic act. We are prepared to work out our problems if we are furnished the same instruments which are provided for other American citizens. Senator FLETCHER. Have you any specific recommendations as to public works, or anything of that sort in Puerto Rico? Commissioner PESQUERA. Yes. We have undertaken there several municipal works, and private works, which come under the provisions of this bill. Senator WAGNER. You referred to a bill that is pending before our committee now. Commissioner PESQUERA. Yes. Senator WAGNER. Did you want us to consider that separately, or have you in mind amending the bill upon which we are having a hearing now, introduced by me, so as to give you this added power? I am in sympathy with you. Commissioner PESQUERA. I merely want to suggest that this bill be amended by including a paragraph which would read more or less to this effect: Wherever the word "State" is used in this act, it shall be defined to include the Territory of Puerto Rico. That, of course, would not give us all the benefits of the bill, but it would make applicable to us those parts which are not inapplicable. Senator FLETCHER. That refers to section 2 of the bill? Commissioner PESQUERA. Yes. Senator FLETCHER. Section 2 refers to loans. Commissioner PESQUERA. Yes; section 2 would be the one we could avail ourselves of. Senator WAGNER. It would also refer to the provision as selfliquidating projects. Commissioner PESQUERA. The provision to make loans to municipalities, political subdivisions, and to private corporations to carry out the different works, and self-liquidating projects. Senator WAGNER. It would not refer to the public-works projects, because none of those are in Puerto Rico. Commissioner PESQUERA. No, sir. Section I would not be applicable, because, unfortunately, the law extending aid for public roads in the different States has not been extended to Puerto Rico. Senator WAGNER. I know that. Commissioner PESQUERA. Of course, we have always thought that it should have been extended. Senator FLETCHER. You mean to ask to have Puerto Rico included among the States for sharing in this $300,000,000 of aid for relief of the destitute and hungry-section 1? Senator GORE. You do not have to tell me anything about Oklahoma, Mr. O'Neal. Mr. O'NEAL. In other words, the farmers Senator GORE. I am in touch with Oklahoma. Mr. O'NEAL. And I presume you get scores of letters telling you about conditions? Senator GORE. Yes. They are most distressing. Mr. O'NEAL. I am sure you will do something to help them. The CHAIRMAN. The next witness is Mr. Patton, from the Department of Commerce. He is here at the suggestion of the department, I understand, to represent their views on some particular part of this bill. STATEMENT OF R. S. PATTON, DIRECTOR COAST AND GEODETIC SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE Mr. PATTON. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, my name is R. S. Patton. I am director of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. In his speech introducing this bill in the Senate, Senator Wagner closed by inviting the Federal departments to submit suggestions for improving the bill. According to that invitation, and with the approval of the Secretary of Commerce, I have come here this afternoon to suggest that, if it be found necessary to make an appropriation for direct expenditure on public works, a small part of that amount be allocated to the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The Coast and Geodetic Survey is engaged in certain continuing programs of engineering work, which I will not take the time to discuss. Senator GORE. Would that give employment to any additional labor? Mr. PATTON. Yes, sir; 75 per cent of our normal appropriation is paid directly in salaries and wages. Senator GORE. How many new people do you figure you could take on? Mr. PATTON. We are a small bureau, but we have worked out a program whereby an increase of one and a quarter million over the amount proposed for 1933 will take care of from 900 to 1,000 people. In other words, we can spend over 70 per cent directly for low-salaried labor, the type of man who is employed as a hand on a surveying party, and that sort of thing. To be brief, here are some of the advantages that would result from including the Coast and Geodetic Survey. As I say, approximately 70 per cent of the money you would give us would be paid out directly to labor. Senator WAGNER. I am very glad to hear you say that, in view of some of the testimony to-day. Mr. PATTON. It is surveying work. You realize what a large percentage goes to labor in work of that kind. This labor would be employed along both coasts, and in practically all the States in the interior. As a matter of fact, I have a program here that involves work in 45 of the 48 States. In the third place, the work is urgently needed now. Within the past 10 days, two States have offered to contribute of their own funds, in order that work which has threatened with being stopped as a result of the cut in the regular appropriations might be carried on in those States. The States of California is one, and the State of New Jersey is another. Each wants engineering work that we are doing. The State of North Carolina has contributed State funds to carry on a purely Federal project, in order that the work might be completed promptly, because it is of value to them in their highway work. Now we are threatened with having to stop that work, although we entered into an agreement with them and accepted their money. Here is the State of Florida, which has just completed dredging a port, Port Everglades. They need a chart of that port, in order to bring commerce in there. We are threatened with inability to get out that chart. This appropriation would save that situation. In California, they are just completing dredging a ship channel up to Stockton, on the San Joaquin River. They are urging that that chart be gotten out, in order that foreign shipping may come into that port. We are threatened with inability to do that work. This appropriation would save that situation. There are other advantages. These expenditures that we would make do not involve any additional subsequent expenditures for maintenance or depreciation. There are no public buildings to maintain and operate. There are no dredged channels to be periodically redredged. There are no highways to be repaired, and, in time, rebuilt. When this expenditure of ours is once made, it begins to draw a dividend for the country, and there is no subsequent expenditure to maintain it. Senator FLETCHER. When you make your surveys and finish them, and finish your charts, the work is done? Mr. PATTON. The work is done. We are ready to start within a month after we get the money. This program can be in full swing within a month after we get the money. There are no specifications to be written, no contracts to be made, no lands to be purchasednothing of that sort to delay the money getting into the pockets of the people who need it. Senator FLETCHER. You are not included in this bill at all, under the head of public works? Mr. PATTON. No, sir; we are not included in this bill under the head of public works. Senator WAGNER. How much do you ask for? Mr. PATTON. We are a small bureau, Senator, but we could use $1,250,000 in addition to the 1933 appropriation that is carried in the Senate bill. Senator FLETCHER. How much is that? Mr. PATTON. $2,399,813. Senator WAGNER. Have you a memorandum of your program? Mr. PATTON. I wrote a letter to Senator Norbeck. Senator WAGNER. Is that a copy of it [indicating]? Mr. PATTON. Yes. Senator WAGner. You can leave it? Mr. PATTON. Yes, indeed. |