down through the Seventy-second Congress. We have them in the National Archives. Building, filed properly and taken care of. A resolution is now pending to transfer the House files. Of course, do not know what will be done about it. I I might say that we had requests from the House last year for 25 services, and since the 1st of July 25 additional requests, and from the Senate 75 during the year and 12 since the first of the year. Mr. HOUSTON. When your guide is printed undoubtedly colleges and universities will take advantage of the information to make requests of you for information. Mr. CONNOR. Yes; I am sure of it. Mr. HOUSTON. And that will entail increased personnel, undoubtedly? Mr. CONNOR. Yes. The committee of 1930, to which reference has been made, thought that for the first 7 or 8 years most of the use made of the material in The National Archives would be by Government agencies. But as time went on, in their judgment, a greater use of it would be made by private investigators. Mr. HOUSTON. And by libraries, too? Mr. CONNOR. Yes. APPOINTMENT OF PERSONNEL Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Getting back to the matter of personnel, did you say that there are no contemplated increases in personnel next year? Mr. CONNOR. We are asking for 29. We said there is no increase contemplated in the Division of the Federal Register. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. How many do you have employed in The National Archives? Mr. HARRIS. Three hundred and one as of this date. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. Is the personnel under the civil service? Mr. CONNOR. No. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I am wondering on what basis you employ personnel, whether or not you try to give each State anything like its pro rata share of employees, or not? I have heard that you did not. Mr. CONNOR. I know you have heard that. You have heard that certain States cannot get anybody and other States get more than they are entitled to. I do not agree with either statement. Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I know that I have not been able to get anybody even considered. I do not think you will find anybody employed down there that I ever recommended. Mr. HARRIS. All States are represented except New Hampshire. From Oklahoma there are six employees on the staff. PRINTING AND BINDING Mr. WOODRUM. You have an item for printing and binding in the amount of $14,000 as against a current appropriation of $17,000. Mr. CONNOR. That is correct. Mr. WOODRUM. That is all, gentlemen; thank you. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1937. NATIONAL CAPITAL PARK AND PLANNING COMMISSION STATEMENTS OF THOMAS S. SETTLE, SECRETARY; JOHN NOLEN, JR., DIRECTOR OF PLANNING; AND NORMAN C. BROWN, LAND PURCHASING OFFICER ACQUISITION OF ADDITIONAL LAND Mr. WOODRUM. We will take up the estimates for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, the item being as follows: For each and every purpose requisite for and incident to the work of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission necessary toward carrying into effect the provisions of the Act entitled "An Act for the acquisition, establishment, and development of the George Washington Memorial Parkway along the Potomac from Mount Vernon and Fort Washington to the Great Falls, and to provide for the acquisition of lands in the District of Columbia and the States of Maryland and Virginia requisite to the comprehensive park, parkway, and playground system of the National Capital", approved May 29, 1930; personal services, including real estate and other technical services, at rates of pay to be fixed by the Commission and not exceeding those usual for similar services and without reference to civil-service rules and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended; travel expenses; expenses of surveys and searching of titles, purchase of options, and all other costs incident to the acquisition of land, operation and maintenance of passenger-carrying vehicles for official use, $625,000, to be expended in carrying out the provisions of section 4 of said Act, and to remain available until expended. Your current appropriation is $893,700, and the estimate for 1939 is 625,000, or a reduction of $268,700. We will insert at this point, the justifications that you have furnished us. (The justifications are as follows:) JUSTIFICATION OF ESTIMATES OF APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 1939 Decrease.. $893, 700 625, 000 268, 700 The act of May 29, 1930, Public, No. 284, Seventy-first Congress, authorized the acquisition of land by the National Capital Park and Planning Commission for a comprehensive park, parkway, and playground system for the National Capital and environs, and appropriations of $7,500,000 for the George Washington Memorial Parkway, contributions and advances of $4,500,000 to the MarylandNational Capital Park and Planning Commission for acquisition of the extensions of Rock Creek Park and of Anacostia Park into Maryland, and $16,000,000 for acquisition of lands in the District of Columbia. Of the amounts authorized, a total of $7,293,700 has been appropriated, and $7,154,330 will have been expended by June 30, 1938. Section 4 of this act, providing for the development of the District park, parkway, and playground system authorizes appropriations to be made "as required for the expeditious, economical, and efficient accomplishment" of these purposes. Under this and prior authorization, the Commission has undertaken and is now actively engaged in carrying out a progressive, long-time program of land acquisition involving projects throughout both developed and undeveloped sections of the District. Approximately four-fifths of the projects undertaken have been or will be completed with available funds. The program contemplated for the fiscal year 1939 involves 18 items, 9 of which are a continuation of projects already started and 9 are new; 5 projects begun in prior years and 7 new projects are scheduled for completion. Nearly 50 percent of the funds requested are for completing or making further essential progress on projects already started. Of the total funds for land purchase requested in this estimate, 69 percent are allocated to 11 playground and recreation units, of which 7 will be completed. The Commission considers it highly important that playground areas be provided in the older congested sections as well as in the newer sections where development is imminent. Although substantial progress has already been made on the Commission's comprehensive and coordinated recreation plan, it should be pointed out that many sections of the city are still without adequate, and in some cases without any playground facilities whatsoever. The Commission's program is designed to meet these most urgent deficiencies. General statements 1. (a) Amount available for obligation in fiscal year 1937(b) Amount expended and obligated... (c) Unexpended and unobligated balance..... (d) Available fiscal year 1938.. (e) Estimated expenditures 1938 (f) Estimated unexpended and unobligated balance.... 2. No transfers between appropriations during fiscal year 1937. 3. (a) Amount appropriated for fiscal year 1938- (b) Plus ur obligated balance June 30, 1937, available after that date... (c) Plus allotments from emergency funds. (d) Plus transfers in from other appropriations.. (e) Plus amounts reserved by administrative direction... (g) Net amount available for obligations in 19384. No allotments from emergency funds. ADMINISTRATIVE APPROPRIATION RESERVE $1, 182, 628. 11 598, 184. 83 584, 443. 28 1, 478, 143. 28 1, 428, 143. 28 50,000. 00 893, 700. 00 584, 443. 38 89, 370. 00 1, 388, 773. 28 Mr. WOODRUM. Have you set aside any reserve in response to the Executive request? Mr. SETTLE. Yes, sir; we set aside a reserve of 10 percent of our appropriation, or $89,370. Mr. WOODRUM. Will that reserve be maintained? Mr. SETTLE. Mr. Chairman, this is for the purchase of land, and it simply means that if it is not released later, those particular purchases will not be made, but we will have to make the purchases at some future time if we are to have a well-rounded park and playground system. Mr. WOODRUM. If the funds are released, you have power to make the purchase? Mr. SETTLE. Yes. AMOUNT REQUESTED OF BUDGET BUREAU Mr. WOODRUM. How much was your request of the Budge Bureau? Mr. SETTLE. $855,000. That was gone over very carefully with the Bureau of the Budget, and, also, with the District Commissioners, and practically everything that could be deferred, as they thought and we thought, was stricken out. Mr. WOODRUM. Notwithstanding that, you have this cut? Mr. SETTLE. Yes, they cut us down to $625,000. We thought we had a very conservative original estimate. Mr. WOODRUM. Suppose you give us a brief explantion of the work of this Commission, stating what you are doing this year and expect to do in 1939. LETTER OF CHAIRMAN DELANO ON WORK OF COMMISSION Mr. SETTLE. Mr. Chairman, I believe I cannot do better in giving a short explanation than to read a letter that our chairman, Hon. Frederic A. Delano, addressed to you as chairman of this subcommittee, Mr. WOODRUM. We will be glad to hear it. Mr. SETTLE. Mr. Delano's letter reads as follows: MY DEAR MR. WOODRUM: The Bureau of the Budget has submitted under the Independent Offices Appropriation an estimate of $625,000 for the National Capital Park and Planning Commission, all to be spent within the District of Columbia. In addition to the justification filed with the estimates, I desire to submit the following further explanations and comments: This appropriation is authorized, as you recall, by the act of May 29, 1930, Public, No. 284, Seventy-first Congress. After many years of careful study and planning, the Commission submitted to the Seventy-first Congress a comprehensive plan for a park, parkway, and playground system. This plan was given extensive hearings by the committees of Congress, much discussed, approved, and the above-mentioned authorization was passed. It was the intent of Congress at that time that the entire system for the District of Columbia should be acquired within a relatively few years. Owing to the depression, our program has been greatly curtailed. In the past few years, however, we have been able to complete or make usable many of the projects whose purchase was begun soon after the passage of the act. With the last three appropriations of $800,000, $200,000, and $893,700, we have made and are making, real progress toward a usable system. We have also been able to acquire lands where building operations were not only imminent, but even where such activity had actually started. Washington continues to be one of the most rapidly developing cities in the United States, surpassing all other cities of its size in housing construction and ranking nationally about third in building permits. Most of the projects situated in outlying or marginal areas included in the program here submitted are in the line of active subdivision and building operations, thus potentially greatly increasing the cost of acquisition should such acquisition be deferred to future years. The projects included in this estimate fall under four general heads: (1) By means of the above-mentioned appropriations, the greater part of the remaining land to be acquired for the Fort Drive, which encircles the city from the Potomac River on the west to the Potomac River on the south, has been acquired or will be acquired during this fiscal year. The projects included in this estimate will close the final gap in the Fort Drive and make possible the inauguration of a systematic development program. This will provide much needed cross-town connections, as well as realize a city-wide scenic and historic parkway. The four Fort Drive projects in these estimates total $109,399. (2) It was the intention of Congress that the Commission acquire small recreation centers in the outlying sections of the city while the cost of these lands was relatively low. The estimates carry funds therefore for the relatively small expenditure of $124,407, $42,127 of which will complete projects already started and $82,280 will acquire new projects. (3) Unfortunately many parts of the District were built up before any comprehensive recreation system had been planned for those sections, some of which are among the most congested of the city. In these areas, juvenile delinquency is high, tuberculosis and other diseases flourish, and are a drain upon the District budget. The Commission, therefore, proposes as a public necessity, that the three playgrounds in congested areas be provided or enlarged, at a total cost of $285,818. The location of all the above-mentioned recreation and playground areas have been coordinated with the school and other recreation developments, so as to effect economy in development and administration. (4) In certain major park and parkway projects, further land acquisitions are necessary either to protect investments already made, or to continue completion of projects already started. In some cases, residential building is imminent. In others, commercial development is threatened. The estimate for these totals, $78,537. This makes the cost of land acquisition $598,161 and personal services and costs incident to land acquisition $26,839 for a total of $625,000. 33819-37-38 Let me stress two thoughts in conclusion: (1) Appropriations for the carrying out of the act of May 29, 1930, are merely advances from the Federal Government to the District government, and are repaid from year to year, as provided by law. (2) The purchase of land is a permanent investment, which never has to be replaced. Once a neighborhood is supplied with a playground or park, that playground or park endures until the end of time. Yours very truly, FREDERIC A. DELANO, Chairman. Mr. SETTLE. Mr. Chairman, I desire to make the following comments on parts of Mr. Delano's letter. 1. The fiscal year following the adoption of the Capper-Cramton Act, Congress appropriated nearly $4,000,000 to be spent within the District of Columbia. The only appropriations we have had since then, however, have been the ones of $800,000, $200,000, and $893,700. 2. In one place where we have acquired land with the money you appropriated last year, the owner was about to proceed to erect an apartment thereon. Had we waited a few more months, this congested section instead of having a playground would have been filled with apartments and dwellings. 3. George Washington acquired the park and playground land in the original city of Washington extending to Florida Avenue, at a cost of $67 per acre. This land is appraised now on an average of $300,000 per acre. The main purpose in creating this Commission was that it should go into the outlying sections of the District of Columbia and acquire the land while it was still cheap. Of course, we have not been able to acquire any land at $67 an acre, but we have bought considerable land as low as $1,000 an acre in the outlying sections. LAND PURCHASES Mr. WOODRUM. What purchases are you putting through during the present fiscal year, or what are you doing in the way of land purchases? When you were here before, you showed us a purchase map, and pointed out certain places where you would make purchases. Mr. SETTLE. Those proposed purchases that we showed you on the map, and on which we gave you information, we have been carrying out exactly as indicated. Of the properties listed with you and pointed out, many have been acquired, and some are being acquired. We have a map here showing the properties in detail. Mr. FITZPATRICK. You showed in the list where you had to get two or three corners in order to straighten out properties. Mr. SETTLE. Yes, sir; the Takoma recreation center was one, and the Georgetown playground was another. That land was acquired. Mr. WOODRUM. Give us a statement of what you have been buying this year. Mr. NOLEN. For the current year, as the money has been vaailable only since the 1st of July, we are still in the midst of the program and have not finished any appreciable portion of the program as yet. For instance, we will probably have to go into condemnation to finish the Banneker recreation center but we have obtained a contract at 100 percent of assessed value for land along Thirty-sixth Street for the Fort Drive. Mr. Brown reports that negotiations are in progress in our current projects all over the city. |