I shall not discuss the report in further detail, but its tone and character are disappainting. It appeals to me as continuing much, doubtless unconscious, special pleading; as academic in many respects; as showing a lack of practical acquaintance with the everyday problems involved in mapping and administration; and as plausible rather than sound. Therefore it does not seem to me to be a safe guide to action. If the report were not sponsored by a committee of the Science Advisory Board, it might easily be interpreted as a brief in support of a predetermined position rather than as a balanced recital of facts and a statement of the conclusions logically to be drawn from them. Moreover, I cannot but be impressed by the fact that three distinguished members of the present committee recommended to me in another report submitted on December 7, 1933, that the Topographic Branch of the Geological Survey remains where it is as an integral part of the Geological Survey.

The Coast and Geodetic Survey organization contains one group which, although not a map-making group, is doing a work that is related to the making of maps. That is the Division of Geodesy. It carries across the continent the precise levels and the triangulation arcs that furnish the control of positions and elevations for other engineering work, including mapping. As has been recog nized in many past discussions of the matter, there is logic and practical advantage in transferring this work to the major mapping organization of the country, namely, the Topographic Branch of the Geological Survey in the Department of the Interior. I have not urged this action heretofore because cooperation be tween the Coast Survey and the Geological Survey has been effective, and I understand that the geodetic work is approaching completion. Nevertheless, the transfer of this unit to the Department of the Interior will round out the Interior Department land-mapping organization and will leave the Coast and Geodetie Survey occupying its logical and now its main field as the shoreline, harbor, and tidal surveying organization of Government. To the Coast Survey, as far as I am informed, there may well be added, as recommended by the committee, the Lake Survey, now in the War Department, thus consolidating similar services. If there be reasons why this should not be done, the Secretary of War will indicate them.

Some form of combination of the major part of the Coast Survey with the Hydrographic Office of the Navy, both being essentially marine services and the products of each being charts in aid of navigation, seems to me to be much more logical and much more likely to result in economies and in increased efficiency than the union of land and marine services that is actually proposed. I am aware of the fact that the committee laboriously argues this suggestion which has been made so often and so logically in the past and dismisses it, but I am not satisfied with the soundness of its conclusion. That problem, however, is not one with which the Department of the Interior is directly concerned. If the transfer herein recommended is made, the result will be a logical and efficient organization of surveying and mapping functions-land mapping in the Department of the Interior; ocean, harbor, and shoreline charting elsewhere. That action will avoid the unnatural combination of marine and land fune tions proposed by the committee and will retain in the Department of the Interior a service that it has developed and whose closest affiliations are with this Department.

I attach a draft of an Executive Order designed to effect the transfer of the Division of Geodesy of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, to the Department of the Interior. I recommend it to the favorable consideration of the President in lieu of the drafts submitted by the Science Advisory Board Committee. Sincerely yours,

GEOLOGICAL SURVEYS

HAROLD L. ICKES, Secretary of the Interior.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. The next item is geologic surveys, which is as follows:

Geologic surveys: For geologic surveys in the various portions of the United States and chemical and physical researches relative thereto, $500,000, of which not to exceed $315,000 may be expended for personal services in the District of Columbia.

Dr. MENDENHALL. The justification in support of this item is as follows:

GEOLOGIC SURVEYS

The estimate under this heading for the fiscal year 1938 is $500,000, the same as the appropriation for the present year. (Considerably less is now available for geologic work than under the appropriation of $500,000 a few years ago, however, for the present appropriation must also cover $38,000 worth of geophysical prospecting studies taken over from the Bureau of Mines last July.) This amount will permit the continuation of work approximately on its present scale, provided the contributions from a few cooperating States, totaling about $20,000, also continue. About 70 projects involving field work are now on hand. Most of them are of major scope and require 1 or more additional years for completion, but in one-third of them the field work has been completed, and the geologists engaged in them will be available for new projects as soon as their reports are completed.

Attention was called last year to the desirability of a systematic study of the mineral resources of the Columbia River Basin and of further local work in the region around the Boulder Dam. Beginnings have been made in both regions during the present year, notably at Metaline, Wash., and Marysvale, Utah, and their continuation in 1938 is planned. Expansion of activity in each region is under consideration, but must depend in part on our ability to recruit the staff with a few well qualified young geologists who would work under supervision of our older men. Other important projects that we plan to continue in metaliferous mining districts are in the San Juan and other parts of Colorado, the Coeur d'Alene district and the old elevated (Tertiary) basins of Idaho, the OklahomaKansas-Missouri zinc region, and the iron and manganese fields of Alabama and Georgia, in all of which our work will provide fundamental information essential to the dsicovery and development of ores. Studies of mineral fuel resources, so important to the discovery and development of new supplies of oil and gas, should continue in the San Juan Basin of Colorado and New Mexico, the Little Rockies, Mont., Black Knob Ridge, Okla., the Big Horn Basin, Wyo., and in the Appalachian region. Work on the granites of the Northeastern States should also continue. New projects are being planned for certain mining districts in Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, and perhaps Arizona, and petroleum and coal fields of California, Utah, and Kansas. Investigations of clays and other nonmetallic resources in Utah, Washington, and other States are under consideration, largely to meet the growing demand for information regarding them.

I may repeat from my remarks of last year that the great mineral industry, and other industries interested in the utilization of mineral products, depend on the Geological Survey for sound, carefully prepared, dependable reports. They and others concerned with the amount, development, and conservation of the Nation's mineral resources are constantly urging the Geological Survey to undertake studies that could be of far-reaching importance and value yet are beyond its power to accomplish under present conditions. We are, however, selecting areas and economic problems for study that are likely to contribute most to such far-reaching studies.

The need for a general inventory of strategic minerals is ever before us, and international conditions at present emphasize that need. Hurried inventories have been made before, but have obviously grown somewhat out of date after a few years because not systematically followed up. We should like to make a modest beginning of a long-continuing inventory, selecting a few minerals or metals about which the need for information is outstanding, and delegating specialists to prepare and maintain such inventories and to pursue such geologic studies as will furnish basic data for them. As mineral deposits are geologic deposits, a geologic approach is fundamental to an adequate inventory of mineral reserves.

I may also repeat that such application of geology is in turn dependent upon the availability of geology to apply; in other words, constant advances must be made in an understanding of geologic laws and principles. Our economic geologists constantly require the continued cooperation of mineralogists, chemists, petrographers, paleontologists, and other specialists. In fact, even the so-called purely scientific work of these specialists is likely, sooner or later, to have its direct economic bearing; for example, one of our recent professional papers on stratigraphic correlation has been very favorably received by the petroleum industry and some of the country's outstanding oil geologists have called this kind of work the most valuable that the Geological Survey is performing. Such work calls for the coordination of geologic mapping and paleontologic and petrographic work. Some of these contributions to pure science are byproducts of economic

studies; in fact, the two kinds of study are mutually dependent, and each should be adequately pursued. Both, furthermore, are dependent on the laboratories, collections, and libraries that have been assembled in the course of the Survey's work.

This mutual pursuit of economic and purely scientific problems has made the Federal Geological Survey a central source of basic information for State geological surveys and for educational institutions as well as for the mineral industry. Some of these basic problems are of such complexity and scope that they can be adequately pursued only by members of the Federal Survey who can devote the greater part of their time and energy to them over a period of years.

The Federal Survey is also called upon from time to time for fundamental and applied geologic information by such other Federal organizations as the Procurement Division of the Treasury Department, engineering units of the War and Navy Departments, the Reclamation, Forest, Indian, and National Park services, and the Public Works and Works Progress Administrations, al! of which have called for service during the present fiscal year. These calls have taxed our available personnel and emphasized our shortage of both scientific and clerical members as compared with a few years ago. In 1931 we had 84 full-time geologists and 30 clerks on the rolls; at present we have 73 full-time geologists, and 4 geophysicists, and 17 clerks. Our inability to appoint young geologists to replace those who have retired during the last 6 years has left our personnel somewhat out of balance. We are making an effort to remedy this condition as much as we can without upsetting a desirable ratio between funds for salaries and expenses.

The Geophysical Section, transferred to our geologic branch from the Bureau of Mines on July 1, 1936, is becoming adjusted to its new surroundings. The present year is necessarily one of transition during which old commitments are being completed. The geophysical program for the coming year will be coordinated with the geologic programs. Projects will be undertaken that have the most complete geologic backgrounds and that are most likely to afford opportunities for the definite application of geophysics as an aid in the location of features that control the occurrence of ground water and mineral deposits and affect engineering projects. Research in the development of geophysical principles and in the construction and refinement of instruments will also continue. No increases in the personnel or the allotted funds of the Geophysical Section are contemplated, at least until the coordination with the other sections is completed.

The appropriation for the current year for geologic surveys is $500,000. You have before you the Budget recommendation for 1938, which is the same amount, meaning no change from 1937 to 1938.

That fund is expended by the Geological Survey as the consulting geologist of the United States Government. The Geological Survey attempts to answer the geologic problems that are put to it by other entities of government.

VALUE AND USE MADE OF GEOLOGIC REPORTS

In the normal course of its work, the Survey makes geologic inves tigations, mainly for the service of the mineral industry. Our group of experts are constantly preparing and publishing reports on areas where there either are developed or we hope there may be developed valuable mineral deposits. Those reports are published and distrib uted and thus become accessible to the general public.

These reports in the past have been revolutionary in their effect upon some of the mining districts. Our chief geologist, Dr. Loughlin, before he became our chief geologist, published one of the reports on Leadville, Colo., a famous old mining camp.

The first report that was prepared by the Geological Survey on that camp was used for 20 or 30 years, and was dubbed "The Miners' Bible." The operators used it to guide their operations. The next

report was often styled "The Revised Version" by the same people; and that is likewise now being used to guide the later developments in that camp.

I remember this incident, which might interest the members of the committee: One of our former geologists, who was working on a geological project in Montana, mapped the geologic structure in detail and published it as one of the many reports that the Geological Survey issues. An alert oil operator, watching the literature that comes out, picked up this report, detected the fact that there was a good geologic structure described fully by the geologist, who indicated that under that structure there should exist at so many hundreds of feet in depth a sandstone that should be oil-bearing.

That man acquired the property and developed a big oil field there. This geologist meanwhile had resigned from the Survey, had done some work abroad, and died. The development of this field was carried out by a man who was so generous that he hunted up the widow of this geologist, who was left without funds. Geologists-in the Government service at least-are always poor men. He sent her a check for $10,000, which we were glad to hear of later. That was just a little bit of gratitude for the Government report that had helped to make a millionaire out of this man.

STATUS OF REPORTS ON MINERAL RESOURCES OF BOULDER DAM AND COLUMBIA

RIVER REGIONS

Mr. LEAVY. I notice that last year the committee requested that you make a special survey of the Boulder Dam and Columbia Basin regions as to mineral resources. What progress have you made in that survey?

Dr. MENDENHALL. The Boulder Dam region report is published. It summarizes the mineral resources within 200 miles of Boulder Dam, and gives a brief description of each; and, where facts are available, it estimates quantities.

The Columbia River region, the region tributary to the Bonneville Dam, and the Grand Coulee, is a tremendous area, on which we have only begun modern work. We started work this past year in the Metaline district in northeastern Washington near Z Canyon on Clarks Fork, where there are lead-zinc deposits of value.

We are at work in the Coeur d'Alene and on the high old placer basins in north central Idaho. There is production there, and we hope we can find facts that will justify additional development.

Mr. LEAVY. Have you gotten up any report on your work on the Metaline district?

Dr. MENDENHALL. We have no report as yet. We have done one year's work. It will take at least another year's work to form the basis of a report.

Mr. LEAVY. Have you made a report on Boulder Dam?

Dr. MENDENHALL. Yes. That has been published.

Mr. LEAVY. And the reports for reference and investigation are not available to the general public now in the Metaline or the Grand Coulee regions at all?

Dr. MENDENHALL. There are a number of old reports that we have published on areas in Washington, but reports are not available on the work that is now under way.

We have to take this position: These are public moneys that we are expending. We have to treat all citizens of the United States alike. We cannot, as we see it, reveal to one man or to a mining company the result of our findings until they can be made available to everyone, because that action would simply make him the beneficiary of all the money that you have voted for this project.

Mr. LEAVY. Of course, I am not even remotely suggesting that you should do that. The district in question, however, is in my own congressional district; and I am deeply interested in the progress that you have made toward reaching a point where you can make a proper report to the whole public, the little man as well as the big man engaged in mining.

There have been tremendous mining activities involved in these regions.

Dr. MENDENHALL. You have many small operators and owners of property all through there, if I remember correctly.

Will you permit our chief geologist to make a more detailed statement about our work there?

Mr. LEAVY. I would be glad to have him do so.

Dr. LOUGHLIN. The area is an extensive one and the geology is complex and the surface is heavily covered with timber. Therefore, we cannot work fast and do thorough work. The results so far have not reached a point where a preliminary report would be worth while or a sound report possible. As soon as the results reach a point where a sound preliminary report can be made, we shall issue one. That has been our practice right along.

Mr. LEAVY. Before you leave this subject, Doctor: When you get out a report, how is the general public advised of its availability? Dr. LOUGHLIN. As soon as the report is off the press, a press notice calling attention to its availability is issued for publication in the local newspapers of the region and the general technical and trade press. Announcement of its availability is also made in the monthly list of new reports which is sent to persons who have requested such notices. Those who have already expressed a wish for the report itself have been listed; and the reports are sent to them.

Mr. LEAVY. Are the Members of Congress advised of that report being ready?

Dr. LOUGHLIN. Those concerned are always sent a copy, and a little note is sent with it calling attention to the report and to whatever particular features cover their own districts.

Mr. EAVY. I have another question before you leave that field. What minerals generally do you find in that region?

Also

Dr. LOUGHLIN. Zinc and lead are the principal minerals. cement materials. Those, so far as I know, are the outstanding products of the Metaline district.

Mr. LEAVY. How about gold and silver?

Dr. LOUGHLIN. There is probably a little, but nothing startling. Mr. LEAVY. What about the Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene districts? Dr. LOUGHLIN. The Coeur d'Alene is also a zinc-lead district, with much byproduct silver and a little gold. In central Idaho, in these old elevated basins that the Director has just mentioned, there are goldbearing formations which, because of their remote position, have not been exploited in the old days when there was a boom in primitive