"Gas production for helium plants", is for operation of the gas field from which the helium-bearing natural gas processed in the plant is drawn. Under "Helium production", three cars purchased in 1930, 1931, and 1932 will be replaced at an estimated net cost of $1,800. Under Gas production" one car purchased in 1935 will probably have to be replaced. Service in the gas field is unusually hard and the average life of a car in this service is about 3 years.

Mr. O'NEAL. Governor Scrugham, do you care to go into the question of this helium production? That was stated very clearly, I think, in our hearings last year. It seems to me a general statement on that is hardly necessary at this time unless you want it? Do you agree with that?

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. Does any other member of the committee have any questions on helium production?

HELIUM PLANT AT AMARILLO, TEX.

Mr. RICH. We have only one plant which the Government is operating?

Dr. FINCH. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. That is down in Texas?

Dr. FINCH. Yes; at Amarillo, Tex.

PRIVATE COMPANY ENGAGED IN PRODUCTION OF HELIUM

Mr. O'NEAL. Doctor, is there any private company in the business of producing helium? Í understand there is one.

Dr. FINCH. There is one; yes, sir.

Mr. O'NEAL. And the Government has practically taken over thac operation, has it not?

Dr. FINCH. No.

Mr. O'NEAL. I mean insofar as the market is concerned. Is there much of a market left for any private company in the helium business? Dr. FINCH. They are still selling some helium. The Girdler Corporation of Louisville has a permit to export certain quantities approved by the President, on the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of War, and the Secretary of the Navy. Just how much the company is producing altogether, I do not know.

INCOME FROM SALE OF NATURAL GAS

Mr. O'NEAL. May I ask about the sales of gas, and how much income is derived from such sales by this Department, and also if that is covered right into the Treasury?

Mr. HEDGES. It is covered into the Treasury. Formerly receipts nt into a working fund that was used for operation of the gas field. When the Permanent Appropriations Repeal Act was passed this fund was converted into an annual appropriation limited by the amount of receipts, and that varies, of course, with the scale of operation of the plant. The amount of residue gas for sale depends upon the requireents of the Army and Navy for helium.

Mr. O'NEAL. Have you indicated what the receipts were for the fal year 1936?

Mr. CATTELL. Around $12,000. At the present time it runs around $12,000 a year, but the largest amount received from this source any year so far was around $40,000. That $12,000 is all the money we have to look after 50,000 acres of gas lands, a gas field which

cost the Government about $1,500,000. We have four wells there with rock pressures of around 700 pounds per square inch. If one of those wells gets loose and gets out of control we are in bad shape with only $12,000.

TRAVELING EXPENSES

Mr. O'NEAL. The next item is for traveling expenses.

May I ask for an explanation of the increase of $500 in this estimate over the current appropriation?

Mr. HEDGES. The increase in the "Necessary travel expenses of employees" item is for attending meetings of technical and scientific societies.

Mr. O'NEAL. Is there any particular reason for the $500 increase? Mr. HEDGES. This paragraph imposes a limitation on the amount of money that may be expended for attendance at meetings.

Mr. O'NEAL. It has been inadequate in the past?

Mr. HEDGES. It has been inadequate in the past.

PRINTING AND BINDING

Mr. O'NEAL. Under printing and binding, on page 23 of the bill, there is an increase from $65,000 to $75,000 being asked by the Bureau of Mines.

Will you explain that?.

Dr. FINCH. I should like very much to present a little statement that I have prepared on the printing situation.

Mr. O'NEAL. Will that explain this item?

Dr. FINCH. Yes, it sets forth our needs in that respect.

Mr. O'NEAL. I believe that you have a table in the justification showing that situation?

Dr. FINCH. Yes.

Mr. O'NEAL. All right, Dr. Finch. We will be glad to hear from

you.

Dr. FINCH. In whatever units an organization's output is measured, maximum production is possible only if a nice balance of all contributing factors is maintained. This problem gives rise to many an administrative headache. Bottlenecks throttle the productive flow and conditions creating them must be discovered and remedied.

In the Bureau of Mines inadequate provision for publishing reports of the results of Bureau work stifles expression and dams up at the source valuable information that should be disseminated without delay for the benefit of the public at whose expense it was gathered. The bottleneck created by shortage of printing funds is one of the Bureau's most serious handicaps. Efforts to remedy this condition have met with indifferent success in the face of recurrent drives to reduce Government printing.

A relatively small number can profit by the Bureau's work through personal observation or direct contact with Bureau investigators The vast majority of those engaged in the mineral industries for whose benefit the work is done must depend on printed reports for the information derived from Bureau research information often invaluable to them in their business of producing mineral materials and converting them to usable form.

Practically the entire appropriation of the Bureau of Mines is devoted to the study of problems of the mineral industries and the

development of improved procedures that will reduce waste, lower costs, and improve working conditions. Since this information is disseminated largely through printed reports it is apparent that, in a balanced program, there must be some definite relation between funds for investigation and funds for printing. A printing fund of 10 percent of the amount expended in research probably would not be excessive and certainly would be justified as the final and necessary step to complete the work.

The estimate of appropriations for the Bureau of Mines for the fiscal year 1938, now before you, totals $2,227,170. The Budget estimate for printing funds for the Bureau is $75,000, or 3.4 percent of the working fund. This ratio represents an absurd relation and is certainly expensive economy.

In 1932, appropriations for the Bureau were approximately the same as the 1938 estimate, $2,278,765. In that year expenditures for printing and binding were $104,800, or a little less than 5 percent. Even this amount required careful budgeting and elimination from reports of much material that would have augmented their value. I am convinced that this ratio, approximately 5 percent, represents a mininum working balance between investigative and printing funds. This balance was destroyed during the depression years when economy measures reduced our printing funds to a minimum of $37,000, and the relationship never has been restored. You will note that shortage. of funds for publication of reports is an accumulative evil, since each year's shortage swells that of the year before.

I have here an itemized list of reports that will be ready for the Printing Office during 1938. The estimated cost of printing these reports, plus the annual requirements for forms, questionnaires, itterheads, and so forth, totals $153,400. This is more than double the prospective printing fund for 1938 in the approved estimate now before you. It is indicated that there will be a shortage of $78,400 at the end of the fiscal year.

NOTE.-The list referred to has been filed with the committee.

Mr. O'NEAL. I would like to ask you one more question, and if you are not prepared to answer it I would ask that you furnish the answer in the record, in the shape of a table.

EEATIVE APPROPRIATIONS FOR VARIOUS BRANCHES OF THE BUREAU

What are the relative appropriations asked for the following branches of the Bureau: Administrative, technologic, statistical, or economic, and safety- so as to divide it and see what we are appropr.ting for the four different lines.

Mr. HEDGES. The expenditures in 1936 are shown in the annual report, broken down exactly in that form.

Mr. O'NEAL. We will be glad to have that in the record.
The statement referred to is as follows:)

ASSISTANCE OF CENTRAL STATISTICAL BOARD TO BUREAU OF MINES

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Now, I would like to ask Mr. Furness some questions.

You are chief of the so-called Statistical and Economics Branch, are you not?

Mr. FURNESS. Correct.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. What subdivisions are in your organization?

Mr. FURNESS. It is subdivided into six divisions: Coal Economics Division; Petroleum Economics Division; Mineral Production and Economics Division; Metal Economics Division; Nonmetal Economics Division; Foreign Minerals Division.

Mr. RICH. Can you advise me what aid and assistance the Bureau of Mines receives from the Central Statistical Board in compiling data that is valuable to your branch of the service?

Mr. FURNESS. I think that the main service that the Central Statistical Board renders to the Bureau is to indicate to the Bureau where there has been a duplication or where there is a duplication in statistics. They also render to us a service in this way, that when we get out our annual questionnaires, we submit them to the Central Statistical Board for criticism and advice, which we may or we may not follow.

Mr. RICH. If they tell you that the information or data that you are trying to find has been secured by some other branch of the Government, do you accept their recommendation to use that?

Mr. FURNESS. Yes; we accept it, and we attempt then to cooperate with the agency that is collecting that information, because sometimes we find that it is not a direct duplication. In other words, they will not be collecting all that we need, so that it is not a complete duplication.

Mr. RICH. But if they show you that you can get this information in other departments, you accept their advice?

Mr. FURNESS. Correct.

Mr. RICH. Have they been of any assistance to you in cutting down the expense of your Department because of the information that they have furnished you?

Mr. FURNESS. I could not say so, tangibly. Intangibly that is possible. I could not lay my finger on any item and say that they have saved us that much money.

Mr. RICH. Have they rendered you any service?

Mr. FURNESS. As I have said, I think so.

Mr. RICH. If they would notify you where you could get the data that you were trying to secure, would that not be an economy in your Department?

Mr. FURNESS. Absolutely.

Mr. RICH. That is what I am trying to get at, whether the Central Statistical Board has been of any value to you in that respect, in cutting down your own expenses.

Mr. FURNESS. I could not put my finger on anything tangible. I would say theoretically, yes, but tangibly, no.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Mr. Furness, in the Division of Foreign Minerals, do you in any way duplicate the work that the State Department, through its consular service, is doing, or the work that the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in the Department of Commerce is doing?