1 old and 1 new car on mine inspections. 900 850 5, 460 1, 100 1 old and 2 new cars on fleld work, mineral classification, in 2 new cars on field work, water and power classification, in 1 old car used by branch chief in general supervision. 1 old car and 2 new cars used by 3 field supervisors in public 12 old and 7 new cars used by oil and gas engineers on field 7 old and 6 new cars used by oil and gas engineers on field work 9 old and 6 new cars used by oil and gas engineers on filed work Do 2 1, 100 2 200 900 1,650 1 old and 2 new cars on mine inspections. Total. 70 41, 130 58 11, 130 30,000 127 55,000 Dr. MENDENHALL. That is the same amount of limitation, Mr. Fitzpatrick, that we had in 1936 and 1937; and that is now estimated by the Bureau of the Budget for 1938. It is an amount based on our experience with our large fleet of cheap cars, nearly all of them trucks. Mr. FITZPATRICK. There is a table here showing new cars-70 in all I believe in the amount of $41,000. Dr. MENDENHALL. The net purchase cost, after exchange of wornout vehicles, is limited to $30,000. We had on June 30, last, 170 passenger-carrying vehicles and 521 trucks. That is nearly 700 cars to be serviced. This $55,000 is the limitation on the amount that may be expended for the servicing of the 170 passenger-carrying cars. That is practically all maintenance, operation, gasoline, and so forth. Mr. FITZPATRICK. That $55,000 is under the cars as I see it here. Dr. MENDENHALL. One hundred and seventy cars. That is about $300 annually per car for gasoline, oil, repairs, tires, and all of the rest of the expense, including storage when necessary. Mr. FITZPATRICK. The total cars there is not 700. The total is 127, and then there are 70 new ones. Dr. MENDENHALL. That item is for the servicing of a total of 170 passenger-carrying cars; and 170 goes into $55,000 about 300 times. That means something like $300 a year for complete maintenance of s passenger-carrying vehicle, including its gas, its oil, equipment, and tires. Mr. FITZPATRICK. That includes gas and everything? Dr. MENDENHALL. Yes. That is the result of experience. These cars, of course, are given very rough usage; some for a considerable portion of the year. I have not the figures on the periods of service. Some, of course, run the year round. Forty-four of those cars are more than 4 years old. Thirty-two are more than 2 years old. The rest are relatively new cars. From our own experience we find that it costs something like that to maintain a car for a year. USE OF OFFICIAL CARS ON PERSONAL BUSINESS Mr. LEAVY. Do any of your people ever use these cars for personal purposes, private use? Dr. MENDENHALL. I think we can safely say "No." There may be an occasional use contrary to regulations. Mr. LEAVY. Is there a regulation prohibiting the use of them for personal purposes? Mr. SEARS. Yes. Mr. LEAVY. Do you have your cars identified by some insignia indicating whom they belong to? Dr. MENDENHALL. Oh, yes. Mr. SEARS. They are all required to carry the Survey's emblem on their doors. Of course, they also carry Government tags. Mr. LEAVY. There has not been a single instance where you had an employee making use of those cars on holidays and Sundays? Dr. MENDENHALL. I do not know of any single instance. Questions like this, however, have arisen: Government cars have been used all day on Government work, and in some instances they have been taken home in the evening by the Government employees living in that town, who have stored them in their own personal garages. I don't know the details, but there has been a Comptroller General controversy over that. Also, we may have Government garages, public garages, Survey garages, that are not adequate or which were crowded at the time. I cannot say that there have not been sporadic misuses of this kind. I should not dare to say that among the hundreds of our employees that kind of thing has never been done. But certainly it has not been done in any general way. Certainly it is contrary to regulations. And certainly these men are constantly impressed with the fact that they should not do it. Mr. LEAVY. Then, in addition to this group of cars that you have here, do you have employees who use their own personal cars, and you allow them on a mileage basis? Dr. MENDENHALL. Yes. Where we do not have Government cars available for a particular assignment we make an arrangement with them and give them mileage or actual expenses. Mr. LEAVY. How many cars of that type do you have? Dr. MENDENHALL. There are relatively few. I could not give you an intelligent guess as to the number. When they are used, it is apt to be for a single trip out from a point where there is no public car available. Mr. LEAVY. Do you have a fixed schedule of compensation for use of a personal car by an employee by the mile? Dr. MENDENHALL. We use a schedule by which in each case a mileage rate is selected so that the cost is less than that by a common carrier. Our figures run 2 and 3 cents a mile in many of these trips. Only in certain types of work do we allow as much as 5 cents a mile. Mr. SEARS. That is in straight field work, where men use their cars away from the routes of common carriers, just as they would use an official car or truck. Dr. MENDENHALL. It is our intention that there shall be no abuse of this, and I do not think that there is. Mr. LEAVY. I want to get this into the record: Do you find that the Government ownership of an automobile is more economical as it whole than it is to have the employee furnish the car and operate a on a mileage basis? Mr. SEARS. Where we find that a car is required to be used constantly, and we have the funds available to purchase a Government car, we ordinarily do so. But in certain types of the work where there is only an occasional requirement for a car for official purposes, Government ownership would not be economical, and it proves preferable to allow either actual expenses or a mileage reimbursement for the use of a personal car. In practically all such cases, I believe the owner of the car loses, and the Government gains at his expense. TRADING IN OF OLD CARS IN THE PURCHASE OF NEW Mr. LEAVY. Do you have any basis upon which to exchange cars after they have had so many miles or after so many years of service? Do you have any arbitrary basis? I see that you are going to exchange a large number of cars this year. Mr. SEARS. If we have worn-out and unserviceable cars, we can offer them as trade-ins on the purchase of one or more new cars. Mr. LEAVY. Do you take a car when there is 50 or 60 thousand miles on it or when it is 2 or 3 years of age and make that a basis on which you trade it in for a new car? Mr. SEARS. There is no arbitrary determination either on a mileage or a time basis. It depends simply on the condition of the car, whether it is more economical to turn it it or continue running it. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 1937. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY LIBRARY STATEMENT OF HON. ROSS A. COLLINS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI Mr. SCRUGHAM. The first witness today will be Representative Collins, of Mississippi, one of our colleagues. We are very pleased to have you with us, Mr. Collins, and if you wish to make a statement we will be glad to hear you. Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I am exceedingly interested in the upbuilding of the Geological Survey library, not that I have any special knowledge about the books, or the publications, or the documents, or the data that are in them, but I have been informed that it is, perhaps, the greatest collection of geological literature that can be found at any one point in the entire world; but that, nevertheless. a large amount of important material is missing from its shelves, and that the funds available to acquire this missing material and to keep abreast with current literature are wholly inadequate. Twenty-five or thirty thousand dollars annually for a few years for the purchase of books and equipment would be a modest sum for the Government to invest to round out a specialized library that even now serves the Government, the mining industry, the univer sities, and the geologists and mining engineers of the entire country. My attention was first directed to this magnificent library because of the gift that the heirs of Dr. Kunz made of his wonderful collection of works on precious stones, radium, platinum, and early mineralogya collection of books and pamphlets which I have been told represents a value of perhaps $150,000 or $200,000. I have been in the Geological Survey library a number of times I know its librarian, Dr. Mitchell, very well. He objects to the "Doctor", but I persist in calling him by that title. LIBRARY INADEQUATELY STAFFED It seems to me, from the examination that I have made, that not only is the library fighting a losing fight, through inadequate financing. in attempting to keep up its book stocks, but that it is inadequately staffed. I mean as far as the number of employees is concerned. Its hours of operation are not as long as they should be. I have always maintained that a library should be open from a given hour in the morning until about 10 o'clock at night, so that a person who is interested in reading material that is contained in it can secure that information during a student's working hours. ADDITIONAL FUNDS NEEDED TO BIND BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS In addition to that, there is valuable book material there that is going to decay because of the failure to preserve it. There are not sufficient funds available to bind the books and the documents. I think it is one of these libraries that has been lost sight of. It is more or less a forgotten child among them, and for that reason, I am making an appeal to this committee to authorize, or to appropriate, sufficient money both to acquire additional library material and to properly staff the library and the survey administration. I think $25,000 or $30,000 a year for each of these purposes, or say $50,000 in all, would be ample and I think it is poor economy not to appropriate these modest sums. I would like ultimately to see Washington the cultural center of the world. I mean the cultural center, not from the literary or the accepted arts standpoint, but in a scientific way, and in all other ways. There are a number of men here to address you on this subject, and there will be another gentleman here tomorrow at 2 o'clock, the head of Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, and one of the most eminent scientists in the country. I would like very much to have you gentlemen listen to them testify as to the needs of this library, as they can go more into detail than I can, because of their familiarity with the subjects embraced. I would like first to present among them Mr. J. D. Conover, secretary of the American Mining Congress. Since I must leave, I should appreciate it, at the finish, if you would hear Mr. Walter Reid, who is one of the most eminent authorities on precious stones that we have. Tomorrow afternoon I should also like to have you hear the President of Johns Hopkins University on this same subject. Thank you very much. Mr. SCRUGHAM. Mr. Collins, will you have the president of Johns Hopkins University here at a quarter of 2? Mr. COLLINS. We will have him here about a quarter of 2. Mr. SCRUGHAM. Our regular hearings are scheduled to begin at 2 o'clock, and we have a very heavy schedule. Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Conover. STATEMENT OF JULIAN D. CONOVER, SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN MINING CONGRESS Mr. SCRUGHAM. Mr. Conover, give your name to the reporter. Mr. CONOVER. My name is Julian D. Conover. I am secretary of the American Mining Congress, located here in Washington. I am a mining engineer and geologist, and have been engaged in geological investigations and mining work in a good many parts of the country, including Idaho, Utah, Arizona, the Lake Superior region, the Joplin district in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas, as well as Alaska, Mexico, and South America. I am very much interested in the subject that Mr. Collins has introduced here and am glad to accept his invitation to appear. IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE OF PREVIOUS GEOLOGICAL WORK All mining men find, in connection with their work and particularly in the exploration for ore deposits, or the extension of known ore deposits, or the geological mapping of mines, that it is very essential |