GENERAL EXPENSES Mr. FITZPATRICK. The next item is general expenses, which is as follows: For every expenditure requisite for and incident to the authorized work of the Geological Survey, including personal services in the District of Columbia and in the field, including not to exceed $30,000 for the purchase and exchange, and not to exceed $55,000 for the hire, maintenance, repair, and operation of motor-propelled and horse-drawn passenger-carrying vehicles for field use only by geologists, topographers, engineers, and land classifiers, and the Geological Survey is authorized to exchange unserviceable and worn-out passenger-carrying and freight-carrying vehicles as part payment for new freight-carrying vehicles, and including not to exceed $3,000 for necessary traveling expenses of the Director and members of the Geological Survey acting under his direction, for attendance upon meetings of technical, professional, and scientific societies when required in connection with the authorized work of the Geological Survey, to be expended under the regulations from time to time prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, and under the following heads: Dr. MENDENHALL. The justification in support of this item is as follows: General authorization for the conduct of field surveys, laboratory investigations, and office work under each of the specific appropriation items that follow is contained under this heading. No changes are proposed in the limitations on "the purchase and exchange" and on "the hire, maintenance, repair, and operation" of passenger-carrying vehicles, though the present amounts are scarcely sufficient for the purposes. The use of automobiles by scientific and technical workers is a recognized necessity for the efficient and economical conduct of field work. Light trucks continue to be used whenever possible; in fact, more than three-fourths of the Survey's automobiles are trucks, of which there were 524 in the fleet as of June 30, 1936. But in the year-round work of some of the Survey units, passenger-carrying vehicles must be used. The actual funds for their operation and replacement are derived from the several appropriation items that follow, and the figures stated here are simply limitations on the amounts that can thus be spent from those appropriations. The limitation upon the amount expendable for necessary attendance at scientific and technical meetings was $5,000 through 1929, $4,000 and $4,500 in the period 1930-34, $3,000 in 1935, and $2,000 in 1936 and 1937. This great reduction in the limitation is seriously hampering the work of the Bureau by preventing attendance at very significant meetings (through which a research and technical organization must keep in close touch with the advances and latest developments in scientific and engineering thought and practices), and partial restoration of the former amount is much needed. TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEYS Mr. FITZPATRICK. The next item is topographic surveys, which is as follows: For topographic surveys in various portions of the United States, $650,000. of which amount not to exceed $250,000 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia: Provided, That no part of this appropriation shall be expended in cooperation with States or municipalities except upon the basis of the State or municipality bearing all of the expense incident thereto in excess of such an amount as is necessary for the Geological Survey to perform its share of standard topographic surveys, such share of the Geological Survey in no case exceeding 50 per centum of the cost of the survey: Provided further, That $227,750 of this amount shall be available only for such cooperation_with_States or municipalities. Mr. MENDENHALL. The justification in support of this item is as follows: TOPOGRAPHIC SURVEYS A ship trying to enter an unknown harbor, without adequate charts or an experienced pilot, may reach port in safety; but its captain is taking an unwise risk of serious loss or disaster. Similarly, a nation that enters upon great programs of administrative and industrial planning and development without adequate basic information is unnecessarily handicapping itself; it may avoid some of the shoals, but inevitably it will encounter delays, wasted efforts, and grave losses that will cost far more than would be required for obtaining the information in advance. Such basic information is furnished by modern topographic maps for a wide variety of national and State governmental purposes as well as for countless private and commercial uses. The past few years have brought an intense realiaztion of the imperative need for accurate topographic maps to be used in the study of long-range plans for land utilization, for flood control, and for industrial, economic, and urban development. As Government and private administrators and engineers face their problems they quickly find that one of their first needs is for a map which, with engineering accuracy, will lay before them an exact picture of the land surface with which they must dealthe true shape of every hill and valley, the elevation of every point above sea-level, the gradient of every slope and of every stream, and the location of every natural and man-made feature. Only with such information before them can they proceed intelligently and with safety; if standard topographic maps are not available they must either delay the projects indefinitely until the maps can be made or else make costly special-purpose surveys of their own which are then not usable for other purposes. Unfortunately, all too often is such a lack encountered, for this country as a whole is but 47 percent covered by topographic maps and many of those maps are now so out-of-date and inadequate that they urgently need revision. The United States is the only large industrial country in the world that is not covered with accurate topographic maps, and thereby suffers under a handicap to its national planning. its industrial development, and its national defense that is a source of deepest concern. The rate of progress toward eventual completion of the map is lamentably slow; any means of expediting it is of national benefit. THE TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING PROGRAM The Geological Survey is the authorized topographic mapping agency of the Federal Government. The work of mapping is financed through Federal appr priations made direct to the Geological Survey; through funds transferred from time to time by other Federal agencies for specified areas; and through funds contributed by State, county, and municipal agencies for cooperative projects. The direct Federal appropriation for the current fiscal year is $650,000; and the estimate for 1938 is the same. There follows an analysis of the funds appropriated, expended, and estimated for under the item "topographic surveys" in 1936, 1937, and 1938, giving first a summary of the whole and then a more detailed explanation under each subheading. TABLE 1.-Summary of appropriations, expenditures, allotments, and estimates STATE COOPERATION In the fiscal year 1936 the total expenditure for meeting State cooperation was $207,608.33. This sum is $17,391.67 less than was restricted for use only in cooperation with States or municipalities. The State offerings were $20,000 less than was anticipated. For the current fiscal year 1937 the amount appropriated to meet cooperation offered by States and municipalities is $217,000. Of this sum, $197,075.59 has been allotted to meet State offerings; $5,964.41 is held in reserve to meet additional cooperation; $60 represents savings because of railroad rate reductions; and $13,900 is held as a Budget reserve. It is probable that before the end of the current fiscal year $25,000 will be offered by the government of Puerto Rico for cooperative surveys. The Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico has passed Act No. 76, appropriating $25,000 a year for 5 years to be expended in cooperation with the Geological Survey for the topographic mapping of the island. This cooperative project is held in abeyance pending definite information that territorial funds are available for that purpose. Adequate authority exists for the Geological Survey to cooperate with the Territory of Puerto Rico in topographic surveys under Public Resolution No. 29, Seventyfourth Congress, approved June 17, 1935. The amount set up in the Budget for 1938 for the Federal share of cooperation is $227,750. This represents the estimated amount that will be required to meet State cooperation offerings which the State agencies assure the Geological Survey may be definitely anticipated, and, based on past actions by State legislatures in the several States, is the minimum that will be needed. The estimate, however, does not include funds for possible cooperation by the Territory of Puerto Rico or by the State of Connecticut, hence the estimate may be too low. The details of cooperative expenditures, allotments, and estimates are summarized in the following table: TABLE 2.-Summary of expenditures, allotments, and estimates for topographic surveys in cooperation with the States NONCOOPERATIVE PROJECTS That part of the appropriation for the fiscal year 1936 which was available for noncooperative projects was $175,000; of that amount, $166,602.45 was expended, leaving an unexpended balance of $8,397.55. As contrasted with the sum made available in the preceding year, this amount provided more adequately for Federal administration and for the replacement of field instruments and parts by purchase, permitted a moderate expansion of office projects, and provided for the resumption of mapping in areas of primary Federal importance for which map data are urgently needed. For 1937 the total amount available for noncooperative projects is $433,000, an increase of $258,000 over 1936. The allotment of these funds is shown below in table 3 and subsequently in more detail under the headings of "Federal administration", "Federal office projects", and "Federal field projects." The estimate for noncooperative work for 1938 is $422,250, a decrease of $10,750 below the amount available for that purpose in the current fiscal year. Federal field projects, which constitute all but a small part of the noncooperative program, include surveys of areas in the national forests, national parks, and Indian reservations, and on other public lands in which the States have no direct concern and responsibilities. The uses of noncooperative funds are set forth in the following summary: Recent rapid developments in apparatus to adapt airplane photographs to topographic mapping make it highly desirable and an obviously economical procedure to increase the Survey's stereoscopic mapping equipment. It is anticipated that about $70,000 worth of this equipment will be purchased from noncooperative funds in 1938, and the distribution of funds indicated in this table prepared late in the calendar year 1936, will probably be modified accordingly. That part of the administration of the Topographic Branch which has no relation to State cooperation. FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION "Federal administration" is that part of the topographic branch administration and operations which is not directly related to current field and office projects. The expenditures in 1936 were $32,452.88, the increase over the allotment anticipated for this purpose being caused by the necessity for replacing equipment which was worn or damaged beyond repair, by the purchase of parts and of new surveying instruments, and by the purchase of another unit of a stereoscopic plotting instrument. The allotment under this heading for 1937 is $31,940. It provides for essential items of administration and operations, for the purchase of field-surveying instruments and repair parts, for field stationery, and for combined plate-proof checking. The estimate for 1938 is $28,540, all subitems being the same as for the cur rent year except that the subitem of instrument purchase (field) is reduced to $5,600. |