1928. Herbert Hoover in presidential campaign speeches recommends the planning of public works with a view to eliminating unemployment.

1928. Governor Brewster announces Hoover's "$3,000,000,000 reserve fund" program to the conference of governors "at the request of Herbert Hoover as an authorized exposition of a portion of his program for stabilizing prosperity."

And more recently another Senate committee reported in 1929. The Senate Education and Labor Committee's report upon unemployment declared: "The Government should adopt legislation without delay which would provide a system of planning public works so that they would form a reserve against unemployment in times of depression."

The purpose of S. 3059 is to create an instrumentality of Government which will keep constant watch upon economic conditions and economic trends in the United States and at the opportune moment, through the creation of public works, either tend to check any curtailment of production or lessen the period of depression once such depression appears upon the horizon.

Briefly, the bill provides for the creation of a board whose function it will be, through the use of definite statistical data which must be prepared by the Secretary of Labor, to inform the President when in its opinion, business depression is approaching. In such an event, the President is requested to direct the members of his Cabinet who have charge of construction to accelerate "to such an extent as is deemed practicable, the prosecution of all public works within their control."

The acceleration of public works in order to be effective assumes that plans and blue prints will be available which will make it possible immediately to undertake construction when business conditions demand a stimulation of economic activity. Unless advance plans have been made, unless the actual working blue prints are available, no building undertaking of any size can get under way, as a practical proposition, within a period of six months.

Experience, both in the Federal and State Governments, has proved that this length of time is necessary for the creation of plans and blue prints before a single clod of earth can be upturned.

In view of the size of this country and in view of the fact that industrial depression does not fall upon all sections of the country with equal severity, it is necessary, if Federal construction is to be undertaken at points where it will do most good, that certain emergency projects be undertaken. In order to make this possible it is necessary temporarily to modify certain provisions of our laws which have to do with Federal appropriations. This is particularly true of the Federal highway act which allocates a certain proportion of Federal expenditures to the individual States. It is similarly necessary to modify the public buildings act in order that public buildings might be erected at points where the unemployment problem is most acute. Taking up specifically the individual amendments as made by this committee the following criticisms must be made:

(1) Section 7: This section specifically provides that the Secretary of Labor shall prepare and publish a monthly index of employment. It has been stated that Secretary of Labor already has this power and indeed that he already has been exercising it. It should be noted that the Secretary of Labor now prepares and publishes an index of employment in manufacturing industries alone. His monthly index does not include the multitude of industries and boards such as mining, lumbering, distribution, accumulation, etc., which employ mil

lions of workers. Consequently this section of S. 3059 is a specific direction to the Secretary of Labor to prepare and publish a monthly index of employment as contrasted to the power he now has under the law creating the Department of Labor.

(2) Section 8: Section 8 relating as it does to the preparation of an index of employment, makes it mandatory upon other Government departments to give to the Secretary of Labor the power to demand from other Government departments, commissions, boards, etc., such information as is necessary in preparing a comprehensive employment index.

(3) Section 9: Although the executive branch of the Government under existing law may at its discretion accelerate Government building such acceleration is entirely subject to the wishes and opinions of the various Cabinet Members.

This section, however, imposes upon the President of the United States a specific responsibility for accelerating public works during periods of depression and, in a sense, contains a declaration of policy on the part of the Congress of the United States that public works should be accelerated during such periods and coordinates such acceleration.

(4) Section 10: Any policy of acceleration of public works, in order to be effective, is predicated on the assumption that work should be undertaken at those times when they will be most effective in preventing further unemployment. As a practical matter, public works can not be undertaken at short notice unless detailed plans and specifications are available at the proper moment. This is the crux of the entire matter of advance planning of public works. Under present conditions months elapse before work can begin. Consequently, it is absolutely essential that detailed construction plans be prepared in advance for all public construction authorized by law. With such detailed construction plans available the time necessary to undertake actual construction can be cut to a minimum. Without such advance preparation the efficacy of any public works program in coping with industrial depression becomes virtually nil.

(5) Section 11: The purpose of this section is to modify the allocation provisions of the Federal highway act in order that emergency Federal aid on road projects may be undertaken in those States where the need for relieving industrial depression is greatest. In other words, this section is supplementary to the normal Federal-aid program and as such is obviously not contemplated by existing law. In a sense, it is a supplementary highway program to be utilized only in case of emergency and without it Federal aid for road projects could not be allocated to certain definite sections of the country where unemployment is most acute.

(6) Section 12: This section has as its purpose the same end which has been described in paragraph above, i. e., that it be possible to erect public buildings in the necessitous areas without meeting the provisions of the public buildings act of May 25, 1926. In other words, Federal authorities will have the power to allocate buildings where they are most needed in time of emergency.

EMANUEL CELLER.

O

H R-71-2-VOL 4-70

TO PROVIDE FOR THE ADVANCE PLANNING AND REGULATED CONSTRUCTION OF CERTAIN PUBLIC WORKS, FOR THE STABILIZATION OF INDUSTRY, AND FOR AIDING IN THE PREVENTION OF UNEMPLOYMENT DURING PERIODS OF BUSINESS DEPRESSION

JUNE 23, 1930.—Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. LAGUARDIA, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the following

MINORITY REPORT

[To accompany S. 3059]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill S. 3059, has ostensibly reported the same favorably, but the favorable report is coupled with a recommendation that the committee amendments be adopted and the bill as amended pass.

The committee amendments take the very life and vigor right out of the bill. The committee amendments cripple and destroy the purpose of the bill. Senate bill 3059, known as the Wagner bill, is a wellthought-out and balanced plan creating the machinery and providing the means for advance planning of public works. The bill as amended by the Judiciary Committee leaves intact the machinery created by the Senate bill but takes from it the fuel and lubrication. With the Senate bill the machinery could function at full speed in periods of business depression and unemployment, while under the Judiciary Committee bill at such times it could only have the desire to function. To be specific, the bill establishes a Federal employment stabilization board having at its head a director assisted by such experts, clerical, and other assistants as may be necessary. The board is charged with the duty of advising the President from time to time of the trend of employment and business activity and of the existence or approach of periods of business depression and unemployment, either general or in any portion of the United States.

The purpose of the bill is to provide advance planning and regulated construction of public works, so that construction work may be commenced promptly on such public projects at times of unemployment in order to decrease unemployment and stimulate business during periods of depression. The committee amendments defeat

that purpose. The committee bill provides only for the board. It is insufficient to provide for an employment stabilization board and to give the President authority to submit supplemental estimates as he may deem advisable for emergency appropriations to be expended during such periods upon public works in order to prevent unemployment if such public works are not all planned in advance and in the blue-print stage. It will be no actual practical relief to appropriate public funds if the money can not be promptly expended in the actual employment of labor and the purchase of material for public works. Authorized public works in the course of construction may well be accelerated or increased for the current fiscal year, but never to the extent of providing sufficient work to meet a crisis, which is the real purpose of the whole plan. It is at this time that new projects, already studied and planned, must be put into actual construction.

While there may be some argument for the proposed committee amendments striking out sections 7 and 8, provided the House will take action and pass Senate bill 3061, there certainly is no justification, and the committee is unable to advance any sound argument, for its amendment striking out sections 10 and 11. It must be assumed that the committee is desirous of promoting this legislation, and that being so it is puzzling to reconcile such a desire with a recommendation to take from the bill the provisions which would give life and make certain and practical the law to provide advanced planning of public works in periods of depression. The idea of the construction of public works in periods of unemployment has been repeated so often that it is now a bromide. Here is the opportunity of putting this idea into practice. If it is to be put into practice, it must be done so completely and properly. Section 10 is the advance planning section; it directs advance planning of—

public works to be accomplished (a) in the case of river and harbor and floodcontrol works and projects and public-building projects by means (1) of preliminary reports, made under the subsequent provisions of this act or existing law as to the desirability of the project; (2) of annual authorizations of projects the total estimates for which are sufficiently in excess of the annual appropriations made for the work thereon to result in uncompleted projects being available for the expenditure of public works emergency appropriations when made; and (3) of advance preparation of detailed construction plans and (b) in the case of public roads projects by means (1) of advance approval of projects in accordance with the provisions of the Federal highway act, and amendments and supplements thereof, and of this act, and (2) advance preparation of detailed construction plans. Section 11, known as the public roads project, provides:

In addition to the projects authorized to be approved under the Federal highway act, and amendments and supplements thereof, the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized to approve emergency Federal-aid road projects for the construction, reconstruction, and maintenance of Federal-aid highways, the share of the United States in the cost of which is to be paid primarily out of public works emergency appropriations made for the purpose. Such emergency projects may be approved in advance of any such appropriation but only to such extent as the Secretary of Agriculture deems advisable in order that uncompleted projects for the expenditure of money so appropriated may be immediately available at the time such appropriation is made. If the amount apportioned to the State of the public works emergency appropriation made for the purpose is insufficient to meet the share of the United States in the cost of all approved emergency projects within the State, the balance of the share of the United States shall be paid out of the amount apportioned to the State from any subsequent appropriations made for Federal-aid highways.

(b) The approval of emergency projects for roads within a State shall be deemed a contractual obligation of the Federal Government for the payment of