Senator CAIN. They were low throughout the country.

Mr. CORNING. And we were low in comparison with that.

Mr. BATES. When we get the bill before us we will have further testimony on that, Mr. Corning.

Mr. CORNING. We will be prepared to testify any way you want. Mr. BATES. We are very much obliged to you.

Mr. FOWLER. Mr. Chairman, do I understand you are finished with the schools?

Senator CAIN. Only on a temporary basis, probably until such time as we get

Mr. FOWLER. Will you proceed this afternoon with other witnesses? Senator CAIN. No; we will adjourn now until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning, asking first if the engineers can confer with us; and I would suggest that we would like to hear, if it is convenient for him, from General Young, in order that he may lay down the broad over-all pattern.

Mr. BATES. Did you have any testimony to offer in respect to the operation of the recreational facilities in connection with the District operation and national park operations? Did you have any comment that you wish to make on that?

Mr. CORNING. Except to say, and I can say it in just a moment, that we have a very fine relationship with the recreational department. Mr. BATES. Of the District.

Mr. CORNING. They use our facilities, our buildings and grounds, and we are cooperating in the purchase of sites so that in certain centers complete recreational facilities will be provided both for the schools and the community. We have a very fine relationship existing there.

Mr. BATES. Thank you, Mr. Corning.

(Whereupon, at 11:50 a. m., the committee took an adjournment until 10 a. m. Thursday, March 26, 1947.)

(Statement later received for the record from Public Schools of the District of Columbia.)

NOTE. The above-mentioned increases from 1937 through 1946 were provided by Congress for the following purposes:

1. To provide increases in personal services as follows:

(a) New positions for officers, clerks, teachers, and custodians, to staff 20 new buildings and 26 new additions to buildings which came into use during the 10-year period from 1937 through 1946.

(b) Salary increases required by law, including automatic longevity increases for teachers and school officers, within-grade promotions for classified employees, and additional funds required by legislation increasing the basic rates of pay for all public school employees.

(c) Additional new positions to provide for expansion of existing services.

(d) Additional personnel required to equalize work loads in the public schools.

(e) Increases for per diem personal services, including personal services for evening schools, summer schools, and other activities under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education.

2. To provide increases in other obligations as follows:

(a) Additional funds to provide for increases in normal maintenance and operation costs.

(b) To provide funds for special repair and replacement items, such as replacement of furniture and equipment, repair and replacement of boilers, heating plants, toilet facilities, drinking fountains, and other repairs to buildings.

(c) Increases required by law, such as funds for the education of children of deceased World War veterans, maintenance and instruction of deaf, dumb, and blind children, and increases required in the teachers' retirement appropriated fund, based upon actuarial valuations of the teachers' retirement fund made by the United States Treasury Department.

(d) Increases required because of rises in prices.

BUDGET REQUIREMENTS OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 1947

JOINT SUBCOMMITTEE ON FISCAL AFFAIRS OF THE

COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,

UNITED STATES SENATE,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, D. C. The joint subcommittee met at 10:15 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in the Senate District Committee room, Capitol, Washington, D. C., Representative George J. Bates (cochairman of the joint subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senators Cain (chairman of the joint subcommittee) and McGrath; Representative Bates.

Present also: Parker L. Jackson, special adviser to the House Committee on the District of Columbia.

Mr. BATES. Gentlemen, this meeting will kindly come to order. I am sorry that I am the only member here present, but the House is in session. Senator Cain will take over the meeting entirely this morning because the House Members cannot sit during the meeting of the House, and we will proceed in regular fashion until Senator Cain comes in presently to conduct the hearing.

All of this is being made a public record, and those members who are not here at the meetings will have an ample opportunity to study this record and to confer with the members who have been here all the time as to what has been going on, and a thorough study will be made of all the facts.

Now, as I understand it, the Engineering Department is the one to testify this morning, and we would be very glad to hear from Gen. Gordon Young.

General, it is a pleasure to have you with us this morning.

STATEMENT OF BRIG. GEN. GORDON YOUNG, ENGINEER COMMISSİONER FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, WASHINGTON, D. C.

General YOUNG. It is a pleasure to be here, sir.

I have a prepared statement which I should like to read.
Mr. BATES. You may proceed, General.

General YOUNG. The departments of the District government which come under the administrative control of the Engineer Commissioner are the following: The Department of Highways; the Department of Sanitary Engineering, which has three principal divisions, the Sewer Division, the Refuse Division, and the Water Department; the Department of Vehicles and Traffic; the Department of Building Inspection; the Director of Construction; the Municipal Architect; the

Surveyor; the Water Registrar; the Chief Clerk; the Veterans' Service Center.

The Director of Highways, in connection with his discussion of the highway fund, presented a rather full statement of his situation and problems to this joint committee. He has prepared no additional statement, although he is available for questioning if the committee desires.

The Director of Sanitary Engineering, the Superintendent of the Sewer Division, the Superintendent of the Refuse Division, the Superintendent of the Water Department, the Director of Vehicles and Traffic, and the Director of Inspections are prepared to submit statements to your committee.

The Municipial Architect will submit a joint statement for himself and the Director of Construction.

The Surveyor and the Chief Clerk are also prepared to submit statements if your committee desires, although they have relatively few personnel.

In the case of the Veterans' Service Center, the agency has been in existence for less than 2 years, and therefore could not present any useful data dealing with increased costs over a long period.

I will not deal in detail with the conditions in these different departments. Speaking of them.as a group, I may say that they require more money, and a great deal more money, today than they did 10 years ago to function.

There are four reasons for this:

First, we have many more people in Washington and a larger area to take care of. Since 1937, the population of the District has increased by 40 percent, or over 240,000 persons. This estimate is as of today, and allows for the considerable number of persons who have left the District since the wartime peak.

This increase of population has already been accompanied by a considerable expansion of the District's built-up area. The built-up area did not expand as fast as the population, on account of wartime restrictions on building. This, of course, accounts for the acute overcrowding in the District. But with the removal of restrictions and the progress of peacetime reconversion, construction of new hous ing has already gone forward at considerable speed, which will be accelerated during the coming spring and summer.

Any of you gentlemen who have had occasion to travel to outlying portions of the District, especially east of the Anacostia, will be struck by the speed with which vacant areas are being built up. A large part of the remaining vacant land in the District will be occupied within the coming year.

Both our additional citizens and our additional new built-up areas require capital improvements and continuous service from my depart

ments.

Secondly, wages and salaries have greatly increased in the past 10 years. These increases have, in general, been ordered by the Congress of the United States. That statement, of course, is in no sense a criticism. The increases are in line with those granted to Federal and private employees, and it is right that our District force should receive living wages. But the fact remains that the bill must be paid.