This contingency having arisen since preparation of the estimates for 1938, it is requested that a supplemental item in this amount be approved.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1937.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

STATEMENT OF A. E. BRADLEY, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARKS SERVICE

SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE FOR KENNESAW MOUNTAIN NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD PARK, GA.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. You may explain this item, Mr. Demaray. Mr. DEMARAY. This is a supplemental item for the Kennesa Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia. It was recently submitted by the Bureau of the Budget, and it appears in Document No. 211.

The act authorizing the establishment of the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield National Park authorized an appropriation of $100,000; and a year ago the Budget submitted $70,000 of the total amount; and with the $70,000 we have been attempting to acquire the lands. I have brought this map along to indicate the progress of that acqui sition.

The total area is about 2,000 acres, and at the present time 585 acres are under contract and 1,043 acres are under condemnation. The additional lands necessary to round out the park amount to about 250 acres, and they are shown in red on this map. The yellow is the land under condemnation, and the green is the land under contract. The red are the additional lands to be acquired.

It is estimated that the red lands can be acquired for $17,000. The additional $13,000 is to begin some development work and to put up some markers showing the principal battle lines and breastworks and fortifications and so on, which is in accordance with the original act of June 26, 1935.

Mr. JOHNSON. This is the project in which Judge Tarver, of Georgia, appeared before the committee recently?

Mr. DEMARAY. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. Is there an estimate in the Budget for this? Mr. DEMARAY. Yes, sir. It is submitted by the President as a supplemental item in Document No. 211.

Mr. JOHNSON. How much does it call for?

Mr. DEMARAY. It calls for $30,000.

Mr. LEAVY. How did it happen to be left out of the Budget originally, Mr. Demaray?

Mr. DEMARAY. At the time that the original 1938 estimates were before the Bureau of the Budget, we were just in the midst of our acquisition program. We had no idea at that time just how we were going to come out.

Mr. LEAVY. You mean that the progress in the acquiring of the lands was more rapid than you anticipated?

Mr. DEMARAY. No. I don't mean it that way. I mean that we had started with the acquisition of lands. You see, the estimates were discussed along in September, the last part of September and the first part of October. At that time we didn't know how far $70,000 was going to take us. We have since contracted to buy these 583

acres.

Mr. LEAVY. You find that it will actually cost you $30,000 more than you estimated last September? Is that it?

Mr. DEMARAY. The amount estimated last September, that $70,000, was a rather arbitrary figure; and I feel that it was the viewpoint of the Bureau of the Budget that if they had allowed $100,000 for that estimate, the amount necessary to buy the lands would have been $100,000.

Apparently on the present basis we will have $13,000 of the $100,000 left for development work. So the chances are that if we had the entire $100,000 in the original appropriation, we would have had to spend the entire $100,000 on the land acquisition.

Mr. LEAVY. That is, you probably drove a better bargain by $13,000 by reason of having it in this form?

Mr. DEMARAY. I think that that is correct.

Mr. JOHNSON. As I recall, Judge Tarver asked the committee for $50,000; and I am wondering if you asked the Budget for $50,000 or $30,000.

Mr. DEMARAY. Judge Tarver was asking $50,000 for another purpose, wasn't he?

Mr. JOHNSON. I may be mistaken about that.

Mr. DEMARAY. He wants to put in some permanent markers on the route between Chattanooga and Atlanta, of which Kennesaw Mountain is only a part.

Mr. JOHNSON. What do you think about the advisability of having some markers along the route?

Mr. DEMARAY. If one is going to understand those campaigns, the route would have to be properly marked.

Mr. JOHNSON. I don't see you we would have to have expensive markers. You could have little cheap markers that tell the story, like you have over many of our highways and routes. They could be inexpensive and at the same time would be educational.

Are there any further questions?

Mr. LEAVY. No.

Mr. JOHNSON. All right. I guess that is all on this.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1937.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA

STATEMENT OF PAUL W. GORDON, SUPERVISOR OF ALASKAN AFFAIRS, DIVISION OF TERRITORIES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

PURCHASE AND DISTRIBUTION OF REINDEER TO NATIVES OF

ALASKA

Mr. JOHNSON. Will you just make a brief statement of your purpose in asking for this item?

Mr. GORDON. Our request, which is a simple one and a rather small one, comes from the fact that when we appeared before the

Bureau of the Budget and before this committee on our 1937 estimates, we did not include any item for a receipt limitation appropriation for funds which come from the sale of Government-owned deer in Alaska.

The reason for not including it at that time was that we felt that all of the funds would be expended in 1936, and we did not expect any additional deer to be sold in 1937. As a matter of fact, at the close of 1936, when all of the bills were in and paid, we found that we had a balance of $353.

Now, in the 1937 appropriation act there was by courtesy of this committee, I believe, included an item of $1,000 for the distribution of reindeer, an activity toward which the receipt limitation of $353 is usually applied.

Delegate Dimond, appearing before this committee, justified a language change allowing $1,000 to be expended for the distribution of reindeer. His justification was based upon the need of the people on two islands in the Aleutian chain. Those islands are Unalaska and Sedanka.

In the middle of last winter we had urgent calls, almost starvation calls, from the Eskimos east of Point Barrow, on Barter Island, near Demarkation Point, for deer. After an investigation as to the conditions there, we decided to use a part of the available $1,000 to drive a herd of 3,000 deer into that region. Consequently the total amount of $1,000 is not available for the purpose for which Delegate Dimond pleaded before this committee. The $353 is needed to round out the program.

The $353 was included in a 1937 deficiency request. But delays on the appropriation of such a deficiency bill would mean that the $353 could not be used prior to July 1.

Mr. LEAVY. Is that the only sum that you are asking for?

Mr. GORDON. That is the only sum that we are asking for in this "receipt limitation" appropriation.

Mr. LEAVY. There has been a strong case made out for it, and I think it should be granted.

MOST URGENT NEEDS OF ALASKA

Mr. JOHNSON. I would like to ask a question or two in a general way. Actually I think you have made a case.

I have never been in Alaska. I hope that this committee will be able to go there in the next few years. I wonder if you would mind saying right here for the record what in your judgment is the greatest and most urgent need for the people of Alaska at this time.

Mr. GORDON. In my personal opinion the most urgent need for the people of Alaska at the present time is better transportation facilities.

INCREASING OF TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES IN ALASKA

Mr. JOHNSON. What do you mean? By air or by improvement of the railroads, or do you have in mind the proposed highway from the United States to Alaska?

Mr. GORDON. I would like to include them all. But, if I must make a priority rating of the things which you have mentioned, I would say that at present increased air transportation facilities in the form of landing fields would be first; second, road extensions and improvements; and, third, improvements to the Alaska Railroad.

HEALTH CONDITIONS IN ALASKA-TUBERCULOSIS

Mr. JOHNSON. There is one other question that I want to ask, with reference to the health conditions in Alaska. There is something in this record about that. Somebody has testified that the conditions among the natives, the Indians and the other natives, are bad, especially as to tuberculosis. Just what is the situation?

Mr. GORDON. Eskimos and Indians of Alaska have a death rate of 600 per hundred thousand rising to about 800 per hundred thousand in southeastern Alaska. The white death rate is about 50 per hundred thousand.

Mr. JOHNSON. Have you any suggestion as to the cause of that? Mr. GORDON. There are several causes.

Mr. JOHNSON. Undernourishment?

Mr. GORDON. Understand, I am not a medical man.

Mr. JOHNSON. I understand, but you have observed the conditions. Mr. GORDON. I would say that the causes are these: First of all, the introduction of a disease to which the Eskimos and Indians of Alaska had not acquired any degree of immunity. Second, susceptibility due to unfavorable economic and living conditions. Third, the lack of treatment and prevention.

Mr. LEAVY. Your hospital facilities are extremely limited?

Mr. GORDON. The hospital facilities are extremely meager. Throughout the Territory we have only seven hospitals. This includes the one at Barrow, recently burned.

Of those only one has any special facilities or any special ward for the treatment of tuberculosis. The beds in that ward in the hospital situated at Juneau, as I remember are 30 in number. The combined bed capacity of the seven hospitals is only 149.

Mr. LEAVY. And when one member of an Eskimo family contracts the disease, the entire family is apt to take it?

Mr. GORDON. The chances are against them. Yes, sir.

Mr. JOHNSON. I believe that is all.

Mr. GORDON. Perhaps I misunderstood a question that Congressman Leavy asked a moment ago. I was asked if this were all we were asking for. I interpreted the question to mean on this particular item. Mr. LEAVY. Yes.

TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1937.

ST. ELIZABETHS HOSPITAL

STATEMENTS OF DR. R. W. HALL, ACTING SUPERINTENDENT, AND MONIE SANGER, ASSISTANT TO THE SUPERINTENDENT

SUPPLEMENTAL ESTIMATE FOR CONTINUOUS-TREATMENT BUILDING

Mr. SCRUGHAM. Which one of you cares to make a statement on this?

Dr. HALL. Mr. Sanger will make the statement.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. All right, Mr. Sanger.

Mr. SANGER. We have two items in the supplement. One is for a $40,000 addition to the appropriation authorized for the fiscal year 1937 for building a building for 190 patients.

The amount authorized by Congress was $250,000. That was for the construction of the building, including preparation of plans, adver tising, the construction of the building, and the equipment. When the bids were opened, the lowest bid was $264,000 for the building itself. Since that time prices seem to be on the increase.

We have contacted the lowest bidder, and he has agreed up to the present time to stand by his bid. We don't know how long that will be. It is estimated that $40,000 in addition to the $250,000 will be required to complete the building and equip it.

Mr. LEAVY. How many additional beds will this make available? Mr. SANGER. One hundred and ninety beds for that building. Mr. JOHNSON. Are you in great need of it?

Mr. SANGER. Yes, sir. At the present time we have 5,600 patients, and the normal bed capacity of the hospital is 4,900, and we are increasing 200 patients a year.

While I say that we have 5,600 patients, we also have a radiogram today that there are two military patients leaving California and will arrive tomorrow. We have a notice that about the 1st of May, I believe it is, 40 prospective patients from the Navy will leave the Pacific coast from the Pacific Fleet on the way to the hospital. The District of Columbia sent 18 patients to us last Friday, on court day. So you can readily see the need for additional beds.

Mr. LEAVY. Your population has grown quite substantially in recent years-your hospital population?

The Army

Mr. SANGER. Yes. It has grown very materially. Dr. HALL. It is increasing about 200 patients a year. Mr. SANGER. We have increases from several sources. and Navy are both increasing their personnel, and that naturally gives us an increased population. The District of Columbia is growing. Congress has enacted legislation permitting expatriated American citizens who are found in certain countries and who do not know what State they came from to receive treatment at St. Elizabeths Hospital under reciprocal arrangements. We get some from the C. C. C. camps. The Employees' Compensation Commission sends a few. So you see there are various sources from which we secure our patient population.

Mr. LEAVY. I have another question on this. You are asking for $40,000 for 1937 and $40,000 for 1938.

Mr. SANGER. In the 1938 bill there is an item for another building of the same sort for $250,000. So, if it will cost $290,000 for 1937, it is estimated that it will cost the same amount in 1938; that is, that the prices will not be less. In order to make it uniform we have requested this item.

Mr. LEAVY. Are you erecting two additional buildings there?
Mr. SANGER. Yes, sir.

Mr. SCRUGHAM. I believe that is all, gentlemen.

Mr. SANGER. That is the cheapest type of a building to construct, we believe, at $290,000. It is less than $1,600 a bed, as compared to most constructions for similar institutions of $2,500 to $3,000 a bed.