now planned there will have to be a tremendous increase in the number of school buildings constructed because most of this housing will be in areas where there will be groups of houses, and they will have to build additional school facilities in those areas. We are encouraging local people to plan that kind of school program.

For instance, in a community where they know that a town is growing in a particular area, they may plan the over-all school program and then build only one unit that is needed because of housing. I think that the CPA will approve the starting of certain construction of school buildings. There was a man in my office yesterday from Fulton County who had been over to the CPA, and they gave him approval to start the construction of three units of schools in an area around Atlanta.

Mr. DIRKSEN. What has been the effect of these new regulations with respect to materials upon the disposition of communities and local authorities to go ahead with any kind of project until the pressure of the housing program has worn off somewhat?

Mr. FIELD. Well, they have all held back in general-but not entirely because of that regulation, but mainly because of the costs. The same man from Fulton County who was in yesterday. Said that he had $150,000 of bonds voted for a school building. They took bids and the bids were $250,000. They need that school badly. The CPA has given them approval. What has held them back is the money and the cost, and like most public officials, they are going to hold back of their own accord.

Mr. DIRKSEN. If costs are 100 percent higher for this year and the next year and there is an indisposition on the part of local authorities to go ahead, and because they do not want to get in the way of the housing program, and third, if there are some restrictions on roads, and some other projects, why would it not be the sensible approach to this thing to just ease off on this planning business for a while?

Mr. FIELD. Because of the fact that those architects and engineere that normally plan and construct those kinds of public works are available to do that planning now and it would be well to get them planned in advance. I think in 2 years from now, perhaps a year and a half from now, they will be able to move ahead.

Mr. DIRKSEN. Why get them planned so far in advance? What is the necessity?

Mr. FIELD. It takes them about a year to plan a school building and do a decent job of it, and I think the advantage is that then they can make their mistakes on paper instead of making them in construction, and get them ready.

There is another angle to this whole construction industry—at least, this is my feeling about it-that one of the reasons we are short of materials and manpower is not just because of the capacity of the construction industry, or because of the production, but because so much of it is going into repair and improvements. Every farmhouse is being painted and repaired. I think a year from now most of that will be caught up with. After all, when you take the housing program that they have scheduled and compare it with 1925, when there were nine-hundred-and-some-odd-thousand houses built, at that same time in 1925 we had the largest volume of private commercial and industrial construction that we have ever had in the country.

Mr. DIRKSEN. We had the materials for it at that time.

Mr. FIELD. Yes; and I think we have the materials now.

Mr. DIRKSEN. That is at variance with all the testimony that we have received.

Mr. FIELD. We may not have all of them right at this moment, but they are becoming available, and very rapidly.

Down in Miami last winter they were having a hard time building houses because they could not get cement blocks. Inside of 4 months they got more cement blocks in that locality than they could use.

Mr. DIRKSEN. If a school district felt that there was a need for a school in a community because of an increase in population, and they got bids and discovered that it would cost $200,000 to build that school, but that if they waited a year or maybe a little longer, they might be able to build it for $150,000, or $125,000, do you think then the Federal Government, by virtue of availability of advanced money funds, ought to give the slightest encouragement to a community to incur that additional debt, when by waiting a little while, going through some inconvenience, no doubt, they could save a very substantial sum?

Mr. FIELD. No. As a matter of fact, I think that the Federal Government ought to encourage local communities to hold back on construction. I think that we have talked about the timing of public works a long time. Now is the time to hold back on public works and give to private construction all the leeway. But during that period I think that now is the time to do some real planning on it, also. Mr. DIRKSEN. I wonder if you could not confer with the CPA and then file a memorandum in the hearings showing what their best estimate is with respect to what the impact is of these material restrictions now upon general public works construction. I think we ought to have some additional information, because that is the agency which must necessarily give you the word on it.

Mr. FIELD. We will be glad to get that. (The matter referred to follows:)

After conference with the Civilian Production Administration and the Office of the Administrator of the Federal Works Agency, I find that considerable discussion was had with Mr. Wyatt and with representatives of the CPA prior to the recent orders issued with respect to restricting construction, and the use of materials for construction.

The recent order issued by the CPA, which limits the less essential types of construction that compete with housing for materials and labor, recognizes the need for certain public works.

This order does not in any essence attempt to halt all construction other than veterans' housing; it merely is designed to insure enough materials being available for such housing. The order specifically exempts many types of public works. Authorization is not required by the CPA to build, repair, or alter the following types of public construction: highways, roads, and streets; ṣidewalks, bridges; tunnels; subways; pipe lines and utility facilities; sewer and water projects; and dams, canals, drainage or irrigation ditches. The order does require public bodies to secure authorization for the construction of buildings, such as schools, hospitals, and municipal buildings.

The Civilian Production Administration has established citizens' committees in various localities to review the requests for construction, including State and local public works. They advise that these committees will give favorable consideration to the State and local public works that are essential to an expanded housing program, such as schools and hospitals. Other public works needed for housing, such as sewer and water projects, and streets and sidewalks, do not require an authorization from the CPA.

Of the 3,644 advances made for planning State and local public works, about 2,000 represents projects which have been exempted by the CPA. A substantial part of the other projects, such as schools and hospitals, is of the type which

The

could receive authorization for materials when construction is necessary. same proportions are true with respect to advances that are now under review, awaiting further appropriation.

In February 1946, Mr. Wyatt, the Administrator of the National Housing Agency, issued the following statement with respect to public works and housing: "The deferment of a considerable amount of construction will undoubtedly be necessary in the months immediately ahead, if the objectives of the veterans' emergency housing program are to be met. At the same time, I want to emphasize that there will have to be a great amount of public works in our communities in order for our housing program to succeed.

"Expansion of community facilities is vitally necessary if the houses built under the veterans' emergency housing program are to be properly equipped for family living and be assets to our communities. The necessary curtailment of such facilities during the war makes action imperative now, since a great share of the sites needed for the present program will have to be equipped with all types of utilities and services. Communities and the responsible Federal, State, and local agencies should accelerate their planning for the expanded program. Housing is only a part-though the major part-of the job ahead."

MAINTENANCE AND OPERATION OF SCHOOLS

Mr. CANNON. Under maintenance and operation of schools, page 5 of the bill, you have an appropriation to permit the use of not to exceed $10,000,000 of available funds for community facilities and for the maintenance and operation of schools during the ensuing calendar year.

This is not to provide new money; it is to use money now available? Mr. FIELD. Yes.. I want to explain that a little bit.

Mr. CANNON. But at the same time, this money otherwise would revert to the Treasury, would it not?

Mr. FIELD. That is right; it would go into the next rescission.
Mr. CANNON. So in effect it is an expenditure of money.

Mr. FIELD. That is right, and that is why we have asked for a reappropriation of it.

Mr. CANNON. I see that you make reference here in your justifications to bill H. R. 5796. That has passed the House, but it has not yet passed the Senate?

Mr. FIELD. It passed the Senate committee last Friday without a dissenting vote, and will be up on the floor of the Senate as soon as they can get it there. There was no opposition to it. I would like to make a general statement about this because you gentlemen are more familiar with it than some of the other people.

ASSISTANCE TO SCHOOLS IN HOUSING AND MILITARY AREAS

You will remember that when we came up last January on our rescission, we said that one of the difficulties we were running into in the closing up of the Lanham Act was the school assistance, because the people were not moving out of the housing areas and something would have to be done.

We

We had three or four kinds of problems. One was that people were on Army reservations, Navy reservations and other military installations, and at other places where they were in Federal housing. thought that the housing would be removed by June 30, 1946, so that this extra load would not be there. But by February 1946 we received indications from the local school districts that the war workers were not moving as rapidly as expected. We found in our analysis, which is in here, that one of our biggest projects was in the State of

Tennessee near that atomic bomb plant where we are putting in about $1,000,000 a year. We went to the Army and the Navy and said that it seemed to us that some of these things were programs that they were going to have to pick up. They were not ready to say that they should have new legislation to take care of that particular project or any other, and they recommended to the Lanham committee that we be given authority to carry this on for one more year. Now, this year we are helping 339 schools.

Mr. CANNON. You are proposing here assistance to only 250. Mr. FIELD. That is right. I think that the table at page 58 gives you a pretty good idea, a summary of all the projects that we had approved up until April 30, and you will notice there are 77 projects we are helping this year where the percentage of Federal money to the total cost is less than 10 percent. We believe that in the next year the local revenues in those schools districts will be sufficient so that we can drop those out.

Mr. CANNON. What about attendance records?

Mr. FIELD. The attendance record show that this year they have stayed up. As a matter of fact, they have gone up over last year. I think the best table to show this school assistance, that will give you a picture of the financing and everything else, is on page 76. That goes back to the beginning of normal times. There are some figures here, I think, that we ought to bring to your attention.

INCREASE IN COST OF OPERATING SCHOOLS

We took 305 of these 339 schools and made an analysis of their financial arrangements in the normal school year before the war impact, and then what it was this year and the year before. Here you will notice that in the normal years the local funds for these 305 school districts was $21,733,000. This year those local funds had stepped up to $28,000,000. The significant thing is that the State funds in those 305 school districts before the war impact, was $14,313,000 and this year the States are putting in $32,842,000 in those same schools, which shows the results of the efforts made by the governors and the local people to pass additional appropriations.

Now, during that same period of time, the cost of operating those schools per pupil went from $64.78 up to $98, and from a credit of $1,000,000 we are financing a deficit for those particular schools of $12,449,000.

When we made this analysis it looked to us that if the cost had stayed down, we would not have to put any money in it. An analysis of these average figures are on the next page, page 77; we have an analysis of 19 States, which was made to see what had happened to the average cost per pupil in all schools within those States, and then the schools that were built with Lanham money.

You will notice that the cost per pupil of the ones that are helped with Lanham money is less than those that were financed without Federal aid.

We think that this program should not be extended beyond one more year. The only reason that we are asking that it be extended this year is because we see no way in which these people can meet their deficit for one more year.

NUMBER OF SCHOOLS ASSISTED

There is a table here on page 55 that I think would be worth looking at. It shows the number of schools that we have helped each year starting in 1941-42. We helped 328 schools that year, and of those 328 this year we are helping only 57; in other words, the others have been able to pick up on their own and finance their own operations and the amount has dropped off each year.

In the next year we started with 291 new schools and now we are only helping 105 of them. We think that out of the 339 that next year we will not have to help more than 250.

Now, they are all handled on a deficit financing basis. We had extensive hearings before the Lanham committee, and we had a discussion with the Senate committee last week. They feel that the Government should carry this for one more year.

Our estimates are based on our own experience, based on what the State governments say that they can do. We may find that the State governments next January will be able to put more money in so that we can drop some projects out.

Since this table was made up the State of California had a special session of the legislature and it seems that they will be able to take over some of the schools in their State without any Federal funds. Mr. CANNON. Are any of those included in this 250? Mr. FIELD. No.

NEED FOR DISCONTINUANCE OF PROGRAM AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

Mr. CANNON. Of course, this is a war program to meet war emergencies. As you say, there is unquestionably some ground for continuing it, but I think that we are all agreed, and that seems to be your opinion, that the thing should be discontinued as soon as possible. The longer we let it run the more difficult it will be to get out of it. You say it is your belief and your plan that 1 more year with 250 schools will permit you to close out the program completely?

Mr. FIELD. I think that we will be playing fair with the State governments and local governments by giving them extra time, because most of the State legislatures do not meet this year. They will meet next year.

Mr. CANNON. They have ample and sufficient notice now.

Mr. FIELD. I do not believe that the State and local people will be able to take care of a situation like the atomic bomb plant, if it is continued. We do not know, and the Army does not know, how long is will continue.

Mr. CANNON. There is no prospect of its being discontinued at this time.

Mr. FIELD. No. We feel about that kind of a situation-where it is entirely a Federal situation-that there should be some arrangement for the Army and the Navy to take care of that out of other legislation and the other kinds of projects the local people should take care of themselves.

AID NEEDED IN SCHOOLS DUE TO OTHER PROBLEMS

Mr. CANNON. On page 73 you classify the basis for aid, and you show a catch-all category of "Other problems.' What are the most outstanding "Other problems"?