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BREEDING ACTIVITIES

Mr. SNYDER. For breeding activities, the estimate is $71,590. How many stallions are you planning to buy?

Colonel DANIELS. Seventy-six.

Mr. SNYDER. That would give you a total, then, of how many stallions?

Colonel DANIELS. Seven hundred.

Mr. SNYDER. And those are located in how many places?

Colonel DANIELS. They are located by States; 1 in Alabama, 10 in Arizona

General GREGORY. They are in practically every State.
Mr. SNYDER. How many are there in Pennsylvania?

Colonel DANIELS. Six.

Mr. SNYDER. The second State in the Union has six. And Arizona

has how many?

Colonel DANIELS. Arizona has 10. That is not a reflection of the amount of breeding activity. Those are Government studs.

Mr. SNYDER. Are you experiencing any difficulty in placing them? Colonel DANIELS. No, sir; there is a definite demand for them. Mr. SNYDER. Are you getting good returns from those that you place?

Colonel DANIELS. Yes, sir; 1 think there have been excellent results. For the first time in the history of this country we have had a good reserve of usable war animals that we never had before.

Mr. SNYDER. The statement on page 466 may be inserted at this point. (The matter referred to is as follows:)

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Mr. CASE. Colonel, according to the justifications here, you are going to return to the purchase of horses in at least four categories in which no purchases were made in the fiscal year 1943; is that correct?.

Colonel DANIELS. We plan to purchase three classes of horses during the fiscal year 1944, only one class of which was purchased during the current year.

Mr. CASE. The unit costs that are listed here are substantially the same in the case of horses, as I recall, as they were 2 years ago. Is that also true as to the mules?

Colonel DANIELS. No; there have been more mules used throughout the country, and there are more mules being used now than previously.

Mr. CASE. Is it necessary to pay the prices listed here to get the mules?

Colonel DANIELS. $225 to $250 is about the right prices; yes, sir. Mr. CASE. I notice that the price for draft mules is approximately 50 percent higher than it is for horses.

Colonel DANIELS. Yes, sir. The draft mule is a hard animal to purchase, and the few that we buy cannot be secured for less than that. Mr. CASE. Has there been no increase in the price of horses in the last few years?

Colonel DANIELS. No, sir; the horse stays about the same. They still run about $165 to $170.

Mr. CASE. Do you expect to carry on this horse purchase program, in the pack, riding, and draft categories on the same plan that you used in the previous procurement of horses?

Colonel DANIELS. Yes, sir; identically the same. It will not be necessary to go into the dealer market except probably for the majority of our mules.

ARMY TRANSPORTATION, ANIMAL

Mr. SNYDER. Next we take up Army transportation, animal, for which the estimate is $9,987,000. Is any carry-over contemplated? Colonel Hoss. No carry-over; no, sir.

USE OF TRANSFERRED FUNDS

Mr. SNYDER. I notice you have been stocking up quite a bit this year by employing transferred funds. What made it necessary for you to do that? Why were we not asked to appropriate for that purpose in the 1943 Budget?

General MCKINLEY. The fact of the matter is that the increased expenditures represent the purchase of requirements which were not known when our program was presented last year. It was brought about by changes in standardization of equipment since that time. For example, there was a tremendous increase in the requirements for canvas water buckets for use with motor vehicles. Also the standardization of carbine cases and scabbards for carbines, and submachine guns, and things of that character, all new requirements which developed on account of the standardization of equipment since the appropriation of last year, had to be provided for by addition to the program.

EQUIPMENT ON HAND

Mr. SNYDER. Considering the animal strength, I wish you would take up each of the equipment items, where the quantity runs into six figures, and tell us the quantities on hand as disclosed by your latest inventory.

Colonel Hoss. The following are the quantities on hand:

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Mr. SNYDER. What about bridles? How many of the three types do you have on hand now?

Colonel Hoss. We have on hand 18,639 of the bridle, Cavalry, M-1909; 1,369 of the bridle, Field Artillery, M-1914; and 147 of the bridle, halter, M-1917, russet, Sad. P. P.

ARMY TRANSPORTATION, MOTOR

Mr. SNYDER. For the motor subhead of Army transportation, the estimate is $2,265,000, but you are figuring on a very large carry-over— $452,000,000?

General GREGORY. Yes, sir; that is correct.

Mr. SNYDER. What is the reason for that large unobligated balance? Did you hold it back from the allotment to Ordnance?

General McKINLEY. Of that amount, $75,000,000 represents the amount that will be unobligated of the segment now administered by. the Quartermaster Corps; $377,000,000 is the amount which the Ordnance Department estimates will not be obligated for the segment which they have administered this year. Next year the Ordnance segment will be included in the Ordnance appropriation. Therefore the unobligated amount is applied to our segment.

Mr. SNYDER. As indicated by you yesterday, General Gregory, the motor subdivision of Army transportation has become largely a maintenance proposition, and that only for certain branches. Procurement is now an Ordnance responsibility. Does that extend to all types of motor-propelled vehicles?

General GREGORY. We still procure certain technical semitrailers. We do not buy the prime movers; just the trailer part.

Mr. SNYDER. Why should Ordnance buy passenger-carrying vehicles, or nontechnical vehicles?

General GREGORY. It is so assigned by War Department orders. Mr. SNYDER. Where does the Air Corps come in? Does it buy its own technical and nontechnical vehicles?

General RICHARDS. I think I can answer that question, sir. The motor vehicle proper and the chassis are procured by the Ordnance Department. If the vehicle calls for a special body, it is procured by the using service.

Mr. SNYDER. In other words, the Air Corps has not been purchasing its passenger-carrying vehicles before this? General GREGORY. No, sir.

REFRIGERATION AND OTHER EQUIPMENT

Mr. SNYDER. What branches are using the equipment covered by

project 171, on page 373 of the justifications?

General GREGORY. All types of troops are using those.

Mr. SNYDER. All branches of the service?

General GREGORY. Yes, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. In what quantity have we purchased them in the past?

Captain COOKE. Of the particular refrigeration type referred to there, sir, we have purchased this year 617.

Mr. SNYDER. You have some of those overseas now?

Captain COOKE. Yes, sir.

Mr. SNYDER. Most of them are out of this country now? Captain COOKE. No, sir; not most of them, but a good percentage of them is out of the country. We will have approximately, as indicated here, 679 more by the end of this program, at which time we will have a very large percentage of them out of the country.

Mr. SNYDER. Will you give a description of one of them, please? Captain COOKE. The vehicle is a 10-ton semitrailer equipped with a self-contained refrigeration unit. It is fully automatic and takes care of its own temperature controls. It is used for the transportation of perishables to the troops——

Mr. SNYDER. Right back of the line?

Captain COOKE. Yes, sir; at points where there are no fixed refrigeration establishments.

Mr. SNYDER. I think that will be good for the parents and others to know.

What I am trying to get at is whether or not there will be other branches buying this sort of equipment.

General GREGORY. No, sir.

Mr. MAHON. What does one of those 10-ton units cost? Captain COOKE. The semitrailer alone runs about $4,000 under present procurement. The equipment and everything that goes into it, plus the transportation and so on, runs the total to about $4,770. That is the 10-ton semitrailer, complete with refrigeration equipment installed.

MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION OF VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT

Mr. SNYDER. Your large project applies to fuels, oils, grease, and so forth, mostly on account of vehicles of the Medical Corps, Signal Corps, and Quartermaster Corps. Have the Medical Corps and Signal Corps needs been financed this way before?

General McKINLEY. There has been an addition in this particular case of a small amount of money which previously the Signal Corps got for itself to operate the technical Signal Corps equipment on motor vehicles. That has been combined in our estimate. Otherwise there is no change.

Mr. SNYDER. It is stated here that the project excludes the Ordnance Department, Chemical Warfare Service, Corps of Engineers, and Transportation Corps.

General McKINLEY. Those are their technical requirements, sir, such as fuels for flame throwers and things of that nature. They

are technical requirements, but the requirements for the operation of other than technical vehicles have always been purchased by us.

Mr. SNYDER. How has this type of procurement for those agencies, with the exception of the Transportation Corps, been financed heretofore?

General MCKINLEY. The financing has been in the appropriation of the agency which controls the activity. However, the purchase has been centralized. The Quartermaster Corps is purchasing it centrally.

Mr. SNYDER. In your judgment, General Gregory, is this good practice?

General GREGORY. Yes, sir; I think it is very much so.
Mr. SNYDER. Why?

General GREGORY. Because the procurement situation is such that

the purchase of these petroleum products must be centralized. Mr. SNYDER. What is back of this adjustment or this change? General GREGORY. Well, there is not any substantial, major change, except that there were certain branches of the service that were purchasing some of their requirements of petroleum products, which have now been combined here under a central procurement set-up.

CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES OF QUARTERMASTER CORPS

Mr. CASE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have one general statement put in the record by the general.

General Gregory, you have probably the largest group of civilian employees scattered through the Quartermaster Corps of any branch of the service, or at least one of the largest. Are you taking any steps and if so, I wish you would make some statement on that-to keep the number of civilian employees at the minimum?

General GREGORY. Yes; we are.

Mr. CASE. You recognize that there is a general manpower shortage? General GREGORY. Yes, sir.

Mr. CASE. I wish you would make a little statement on that. General GREGORY. The largest number of employees that we have in the field is in our depots. We get monthly reports of the amount of tonnage handled, and watch very closely the tonnage costs. We match the overhead of the depot and the warehousing labor costs against the tonnage handled. If it ever shows up that there is a rising curve of costs, we immediately investigate and find out why it is, and take steps to reduce the number of civilian employees to correspond with the amount of tonnage and other activities which that depot carries on.

OVERTIME PAY

Mr. CASE. General Gregory, do you think it would be possible for you to absorb the overtime pay by lapses and by better efficiency in your civil employees during the coming year?

General GREGORY. No, sir; I doubt it, because the overtime is such a substantial percentage of this total-it averages about 25 percent.

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