Mr. KERR. It is more expensive to set up and more expensive to operate? General AKIN. No, sir; I am not prepared to say definitely it is more expensive, because if you set it against the volume of traffic that could be handled, I think you will find the manual operation is more expensive, because you pay the individual who operates the circuit, and I think it would be less expensive to operate the radio teletype circuit than it would the manual circuit, provided you had a full 24-hour period occupied by traffic in both cases; in other words, if you would use the full traffic capacity that you get over the radio teletype. ESTIMATED REVENUE DURING 1949 Mr. SCRIVNER. In answer to the question of Judge Kerr, you stated the income as something above $4 million? General AKIN. $4,850,000. Mr. SCRIVNER. Yet I understood your estimated income was going to be $1,375,000. General AKIN. He was including the estimated money value of the traffic handled for all Government agencies. Mr. SCRIVNER. So the $4,000,000 you designate as income is not cash income? General AKIN. No, sir; only $1,375,000. Mr. SCRIVNER. But the estimated $1,375,000 will be cash income from civilians? General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. SCRIVNER. And the remainder is merely a paper transaction you set up to establish the value of the service rendered other agencies of the Government, if they had been paying for it, which they are not? General AKIN. That is right. SUMMARY OF PROJECTS Mr. ENGEL. We will now take up the budget by objects of expenditures and will place in the record page 253 of the justifications. (The matter above referred to is as follows:) CONSTRUCTION OF TELEPHONE, TELEGRAPH, AND CABLE SYSTEMS Mr. ENGEL. The first project is No. 210, for the construction of telephone, telegraph, and cable systems, for which you have $280,000 in 1948 and are requesting nothing in 1949, so there is nothing to justify. Is that right? General AKIN. Yes, sir. That $280,000 is for the VHF radio equipment instead of the cable I mentioned. CONSTRUCTION OF RADIO SYSTEMS Mr. ENGEL. Project 220 is the construction of radio systems. You have nothing in 1948 and are asking in the fiscal year 1949, $159,000. General AKIN. Yes, sir; justified as follows: we have control lines between signal center and Edmonds receiver station near Seattle, amounting to $12,500. What we would like to do there is to lay a subterranean cable between the receiver station and the shore line, at which we have another cable that will carry on down to the shore line near this point and put another line in there. That will save an annual rental of $12,000. We now rent a circuit from the telephone company, so what we would like to do there is to spend $12,500 and put a cable in and get away from the annual rental of $12,000 to the telephone company. FAIRBANKS-ALASKA YUKON BORDER LAND LINE EXPANSION Mr. ENGEL. That is $46,500? General AKIN. That is new construction. That is to provide additional circuits extending from Fairbanks out to mile 33. There is an installation out here [indicating] at which the Air Corps is making an installation and requires circuits for telephone communication into Fairbanks for their purposes. ANCHORAGE-WHITTIER INSTALLATION OF HIGH FREQUENCY LINK Mr. ENGEL. Then you have for Anchorage-Whittier, $100,000. General AKIN. That is for the VHF system I described, connecting Whittier, which is a port and is rapidly becoming one of the important ports of Alaska. It is to provide a communication system there that we can depend on in all weather rather than the present system which goes out frequently between the two places. Mr. ENGEL. That makes up the $159,000 for this project? CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS, QUARTERS, AND UTILITIES Mr. ENGEL. Project No. 230 is for the construction of buildings, quarters, and utilities. There is nothing in here for that. General AKIN. No, sir. MAINTENANCE OF THE SYSTEM TRAVEL Mr. ENGEL. Project No. 310 is for the maintenance of the system, for which you are requesting $100,000 in 1949 as against $94,500 in 1948. General AKIN. That increase comes in the amount of travel to be done by the per diem for officers and warrant officers and travel per diem for the enlisted men and the civilian employees. The increase is in transportation. Mr. ENGEL. On page 259 you show 10 civilian communication engineers and technicians for engineering and maintenance work between ACS stations in Alaska, for two trips each at $250 per trip, $5,000; five civilian communication engineers from Seattle to Alaska and return for four trips each at $500 per trip, $10,000, making a total of $15,000. General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. The total travel is justified there as $15,000. That, together with the items on the other page, makes up your $42,000? General AKIN. Yes, sir. TRANSPORTATION OF THINGS Mr. ENGEL. The next is "Transportation of things," $39,400. Mr. ENGEL. You have listed there transportation of supplies and equipment, $35,650; parcel post, $750; lighterage, $3,000, making a total of $39,400. General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. I have had reports on this lighterage business up there, and perhaps you can give me some light on the lighterage business. I was told by a party of people who came from Alaska that the lighterage up therein Alaska has gotten to be a regular racket; that they are charging a tremendous amount just for unloading ships; that the rate they are charging for unloading the ships and hauling the supplies from the anchored ships to the shore, a short distance, I think they said was 25 to 33 percent of the total of the freight bill. Have you any figures on that? General AKIN. It sounds right, from my past reading on the subject. Colonel LAWTON. We have no detail on that, but your statement, I think, in general, is true. The labor market Mr. ENGEL. They tell me that this concern up there that has a lighterage privilege at some of the places, Juneau, particularly, is just soaking them for a rate which is outrageous, and that is the reason you have the increased cost of living and the increased cost of wages. General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. I did not take any notes, but I was told the amount they charged per ton for lighterage was a large proportion of the freight rate from Seattle to Juneau. General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. Could I get a report on that from you? General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. I would like to get the freight rate per ton from Seattle say, to Juneau or some other point and then what part of that freight rate is the charge for lighterage for unloading the ship for the distance they go. General AKIN. We will get that. (The data requested is as follows:) There is no lighterage charge at Juneau as suitable docks are available for ships. However, the freight rate for radio equipment from Seattle to Nome, on a boat, per deadweight ton, is $30. The lighterage charge for the same item (from boat to dock) by the Lowen Lighterage Co., Nome, Alaska, is $14 per deadweight ton. The drayage from the dock at Nome at the address is $2 per ton. Lighterage charges at other places are as follows: Kotzebue, Alaska........... Bethel, Alaska. No published tariff but it varies from $1.50 OTHER CONTRACTUAL SERVICES $9.00 per ton General AKIN. For other contractual services, the estimate is $5,000. That is the repair service for this special station equipment, $2,000, to provide for the routine repair of construction equipment and tools, such as hoists, tractors, cargo carriers equipped to operate in heavy snow, particularly at the remote locations; repair services, and so forth. SUPPLIES AND MATERIALS Mr. ENGEL. The next item under project 310 is "Supplies and materials"-cleaning supplies, $500; packing and crating supplies, $2,500; miscellaneous station commercial office and utility supplies, $5,000; fire prevention, $1,600-or a total of $9,600. That is about it? General AKIN. Yes, sir. EQUIPMENT Mr. ENGEL. The next item is "Equipment," $4,000, made up of tools, $1,000; Alaska communication system signal repair shop, Anchorage, Alaska, $3,000-total $4,000. General AKIN. Yes, sir. Mr. ENGEL. That makes a total for project 310 of $100,000. MAINTENANCE OF BUILDINGS AND APPURTENANCES Mr. ENGEL. Project 320 is the maintenance of buildings and appurtenances. You have nothing in 1948 and are requesting $45,000 in 1949. General AKIN. Yes, sir. That is an item we were required to pick up and carry in the system. As a matter of fact, it was in conformity with the plan. We assessed the system with all items, and this is one the Bureau of the Budget said we should carry. We have prepared a statement of how that money is to be expended, based on the experience table, and we can put that in the record. (The information requested is as follows:) OPERATION OF THE SYSTEM Mr. ENGEL. Project 410 is the operation of the system. You have $1,419,105 in 1948 and are requesting $1,500,000 in 1949. General AKIN. Yes, sir. INCREASE FOR PERSONAL SERVICES Mr. ENGEL. Personal services is $812,280. How much of an increase is that, if any? General AKIN. That is an increase for 26 civilian employees at the grade 2 payment. Colonel LAWTON. That is $1,954. General AKIN. The purpose of that is to take care of the increased traffic load, and the justification is on the basis of the messages handled. In other words, in 1947, we had 88 persons per million messages; in 1948, we had 91 persons per million messages; and in 1949, we carry that at 90 persons per million messages. Mr. ENGEL. You have a statement here on page 264: An increase in civilian personnel is required due to the fact that it is not possible for the present short-term enlisted personnel to be trained and to remain assigned to the Alaska communication system for a sufficient length of time to be fully effective in key positions necessary in the operation and maintenance of the system. That looks like a statement contained in there last year. Has not the short-term enlisted personnel about ended now, and are not you getting the long-term enlistments? General AKIN. I was going to add that you have a combination of the two. We have not yet reaped the benefits of the longer term enlistments in the system in the way of the key, trained personnel; so that we have the same problem there of taking care of the increased traffic load and providing the necessary enlisted and civilian personnel to take care of it-the civilians in the lower grades, mainly in the Seattle area. To handle the traffic to be cleared in the key positions, there are no enlisted men, and we are training people in Seattle. I have a total of 24 to be trained in Seattle and put into the system to help out where practical to replace civilians. We are not getting the benefit of that yet. The increase in message is as follows: in 1947 we handled 9,296,000; in 1948, 10,200,000; and in 1949, we estimate we will handle 10,800,000. That gives you the pro rata of persons per million messages that I just stated, namely, 90 persons per million messages for 1949. COMMUNICATION SERVICES Mr. ENGEL. The next item is "Communication services," $387,300, covering leased lines. General AKIN. Those are the circuits I previously related to you. Mr. ENGEL. Those are leased lines, Skagway-White Horse-AlaskanYukon boundary, $34,490, and then for the Alcan (Alaska-Yukon boundary)-Edmonton, Canada-Seattle, $287,040, and space, power rental, and equipment maintenance of ACS equipment, $5,000; remote control circuits, $24,100. General AKIN. We have discussed that pretty thoroughly. Mr. ENGEL. Then under rents and utility services, you have $90,000, made up of pole contracts, $2,130, and electric current, $81,011. Mr. KERR. Where is the principal source of your electric power generated there to operate the Canadian communication service? |