SALARIES AT SEAT OF GOVERNMENT

Mr. ENGEL. Project 720, "Salaries at the seat of government": The total program is $7,296,479-appropriated, $4,079,000; deferred, $1,200,000, and the balance required for the fiscal year 1949, $2,017,479. Justify that.

Colonel MARSHALL. This, Mr. Chairman, is for the payment of employees at the seat of government in Washington-the employees who supervise the repatriation program and who are charged with the receipt and dispatch of all correspondence pertaining to the deceased of World War II, including contact with the next of kin through agencies and our distribution centers, and the handling of a multitude of various types of correspondence which has grown up in this program.

Mr. ENGEL. I note in 1947 you had 604 employees; in this present fiscal year, 1948, you have 876, and you are dropping down in 1949

to 715.

Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir.

Mr. ENGEL. Is that because the program has started tapering off? Colonel MARSHALL. That is because in 1949 the majority of these letters which we have to send out to next of kin will have been sent out. By that time we will be concerned with the answers coming in and the directives for overseas and the miscellaneous letters which must be written to next of kin who are still undecided. These people will be used to clean up that phase of the program. We expect the number of seat-of-government employees to decline as the field activities progress.

Mr. ENGEL. What is grade 3, stenographers?

Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir; and that is what you can hardly get in Washington. Those people were used to write these letters which went to the next of kin.

Mr. ENGEL. They are written individually; are they?

Colonel MARSHALL. Yes, sir; that is, partially.

General HORKAN. They are written on an electric typewriter. You type in certain paragraphs in these letters and then your electric typewriter takes over and writes the rest of it.

Mr. ENGEL. Thank you, gentlemen.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1948.

THE UNITED STATES SOLDIERS' HOME

STATEMENTS OF MAJ. GEN. H. K. LOUGHRY, GOVERNOR; COL. D. C. CORDINER, DEPUTY GOVERNOR; MISS MARY R. POWDERLY, CHIEF CLERK; WALTER E. MARLOW, JR., BUDGET CLERK; WILLIAM P. PUGH, HOSPITAL STEWARD; AND A. M. KRUSE, OFFICE OF CHIEF OF ENGINEERS

EXPENSES, UNITED STATES SOLDIERS' HOME (TRUST FUND)

Mr. ENGEL. We will now take up the justifications for the United States Soldiers' Home. We have here Maj. Gen. H. K. Loughry, Governor, and a group from the Home to justify these estimates. General Loughry do you have a general statement to make first? General LOUGHRY. A short one.

Mr. ENGEL. You may proceed.

GENERAL STATEMENT

General LOUGHRY. The estimates for the fiscal year 1949 total $2,435,000 which is $24,900 greater than the appropriation of $2,410,100 for the current fiscal year.

The amounts by projects are summarized on page 1004 of the justifications and I propose to explain, during the hearings, the reasons for the increases in each one of them so far as the committee may desire.

SUMMARY OF PROJECTS

Mr. ENGEL. We will insert in the record at this point page 1004, being the summary of the projects referred to. (The matter referred to is as follows:)

PRINCIPAL INCREASES REQUESTED FOR 1949

General LOUGHRY. The principal increases are in four projects which may be summarized at this time.

Project 14, hospital, increase of $107,888: Increases in the number of attendants to provide for a 40-hour week; increases in the salaries of attendants in order to bring them more nearly in line with those of Veterans' Administration employees; increased cost of surgical, medical, and dental supplies.

Project 24, grounds, increase of $23,800: For nonrecurring items as follows: