of Allocation Order D-1; that the applicant is a producer of primary nitrogen; that the applicant agrees to comply with the applicable conditions of § 338.113 of that order and will use any Army anhydrous ammonia made available to him only for the purpose for which it is made available; and that all information supplied in or in connection with this application is true and correct, to the best of his knowledge and belief."

§ 338.115 ODC action on application. The ODC will notify each applicant, in writing, as to whether this application has been approved or denied. In approved cases, the CDC will notify the applicant how to place his orders with the Department of the Army and will issue appropriate directives to the Department of the Army.

§ 338.116 Appeals. Any appeal for relief or exemption from the provisions of this subpart shall be made in accordance with §§ 336.51-336.61 (Allocation Regulation 3), by filing a letter in triplicate referring to the particular provision appealed from and the precise relief desired, and stating fully the grounds of the appeal and the reasons why a denial of the appeal would result in undue and excessive hardship on the appellant not suffered by others similarly situated or would result in improper discrimination.

§ 338.117 Violations. Any person who wilfully violates any provision of this subpart, or who in connection with this subpart wilfully conceals a material fact or knowingly furnishes false information to any department or agency of the United States is guilty of a crime, and upon conviction may be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both. In addition, any such person may be prohibited from making or obtaining further deliveries of, or from processing or using, material under allocation control.

COMMUNICATIONS

§ 338.118 Communications. All communications regarding this subpart, all reports and appeals, and all applications filed under this subpart, should be addressed to: Chemicals Division, Office of Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce, Washington 25, D. C., Ref.: D-1,

NOTE: The reporting requirements of Parts 334, 336, and 338 have been approved by the Bureau of the Budget pursuant to the Federal Reports Act of 1942. AUTHORITY: §§ 338.111 to 338.116 issued under Pub. Law 793, 80th Cong. Materials Control Reg. 1-A, 13 F. R. 3861.

The foregoing comprising Part 338, § 338.111 to 338.118, shall be effective January 1, 1949.

[SEAL]

OFFICE OF DOMESTIC COMMERCE,
By RAYMOND S. HOOVER,

Insurance Officer.

OREG

EXHIBIT 5.-Distribution of Army ammonia and nitrogenous fertilizer materials, fertilizer year ending June 30, 1949

1 Farm Service, Oakland, Calif.; Columbia Metals, Salem, Oreg.; Greenville Chemical, Greenville, Miss.; A. F. Pringle, Charleston, S. C.

2 Alabama By-Product Coke, The Barrett Division, Commercial Solvents, E. I. du Pont de Nemours, Lion Oil Co., Mathieson Chemicals, Pittsburgh Coke, Schloss Sheffield, Spencer Chemical, Tennessee Products, TVA.

3 Will be distributed to the producer or producers required under Public Law 606 to supply material for 1 outstanding order for China.

Army production originally estimated at 255,000 tons of nitrogen. In March 1949, this estimate was revised to 300,627 tons of nitrogen and 10 percent equals 30,063 tons.

Will be distributed as soon as status of 1 Chinese and 1 Greek order are established.

Total nitrogen in export program, 61,287 tons. Army, under Public Law 606, is to supply one-half or 30,644 tons. Commercial portion of 30,643 tons has been obtained by requiring all producers of primary nitrogen to supply 3.25 percent of their production in one form or another. Total program complete except 2,088 tons for China.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Does that conclude your statement?

Mr. ARDEN. That concludes the statement.

Mr. ABERNETHY. There are four plants which benefit under the hardship clause of section 205, I believe you said.

Mr. HART. That is correct.

Mr. ARDEN. Yes.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Identify those four plants.

Mr. ARDEN. Columbia Metals Corp. in Salem, Oreg.; Farmer Service Co., Oakland, Calif.; Grenville Chemical Co., Greenville, Miss.; and A. F. Pringle & Co., Charleston, S. C.

Mr. ABERNETHY. What is the quantity allotted to each?

Mr. ARDEN. We have not published what went to each plant. I have it here.

Mr. ABERNETHY. It is not secret; is it?

Mr. ARDEN. I think it is probably generally known, but we do not make public the information with respect to any one plant where we can possibly avoid it.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Congress passed a law and intended it to benefit certain plants. I certainly think we have a right to know who is sharing in the supply, and how much.

Mr. BROWN. We will give it to the committee instantly. We were just wondering whether it should be disclosed in a public hearing of this kind.

Mr. ABERNETHY. What difference does it make? It belongs to the taxpayers who paid for it. I think they have a right to know who is getting it.

Mr. BROWN. I think probably they have. The only thing we do not want to do, Mr. Abernethy, is to disclose plant production.

Mr. ABERNETHY. I realize that is your policy, but here is the way I feel about it. This is a congressional program. This is not a program of the Department of Commerce. The plants that are benefiting by this program are benefiting as a result of the action of this Congress. I think the Members of Congress and the public, so far as that is concerned, are entitled to know who is getting this ammonia which the taxpayer is paying for. I do not appreciate the policy of the Department that it should not be made public. Certainly the people who are benefiting by it are not ashamed of that fact. I think the record ought to show, and the people ought to know who is getting it and how much and why.

Mr. BROWN. We will give it to you.

Mr. ABERNETHY. We would like to have it.

Mr. HART. Columbia Metals Co. gets 96 cars. They are in Salem, Oreg. They get 96 cars a quarter.

Mr. ABERNETHY. That is 32 cars a month?

Mr. HART. That is correct. Farmer Service Co., Oakland, Calif., gets 22 cars per month, or a total of 66 cars for the last quarter. A. F. Pringle & Co., Charleston, S. C., gets 26 cars per quarter. The Greenville Chemical Co., who formerly were in that category of the preference group, as you call it, got 18 cars per quarter, 6 cars a month. However, they elected to take some export business, which, of course, meant that their plant was not shut down. Therefore, they were not entitled to any ammonia under the preference group. However, we understand they have applied for their position in the preference group in view of the fact that they state that by March 31 they will have completed their export program and will face an imminent shutdown, so we have allocated to that company the same amount as is allocated to the A. F. Pringle Co., or 26 cars.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Columbia Metals gets 32 cars a month. How much does Farmer Service get?

Mr. HART. Twenty-two a month.

Mr. ABERNETHY. Pringle gets how much?

Mr. HART. Twenty-six per quarter, a little less than nine per month. Mr. ABERNETHY. So for the present all of the supply of ammonia that is being allocated under the hardship clause goes to these three plants?

Mr. HART. That is correct.

Mr. ABERNETHY. When was the Farmer Service Co. at Oakland, Calif., established?

Mr. HART. It was established prior to the enactment of the act.
Mr. ABERNETHY. How old a concern is it?

Mr. HART. Not too old.

Mr. ARDEN. About 3 years old. I do not know how old the concern is, but that sulfate plant was put in, I think, in the early spring or late winter of 1946 or 1947. It was around the end of that year.

Mr. ABERNETHY. When was the Columbia Metals organization established?

Mr. HART. The Columbia Metals organization was established about 2 years ago. They acquired their plant from the Government. During the last fertilizer year, Mr. Chairman, they were very largely engaged in the export program.

Mr. ABERNETHY. And how old is the Pringle Co. ?

Mr. HART. They erected that plant about a year ago. It did not operate, however, for a while because of the inability to get anhydrous ammonia.

Mr. ABERNETHY. And the Greenville Co. ?

Mr. HART. The Greenville Chemical Co. came into existence about the same time as the Pringle Co.

Mr. ABERNETHY. So all of these plants were established just, you might say, immediately prior to the June 28 dead line?

Mr. HART. That is right.

Mr. ABERNETHY. There is a total of 54 cars a month that moves to the two west coast plants, and a total of 26 cars moves to the Charleston plant. You say that the Greenville plant, when it completes its export business, will come back in for 26 cars?

Mr. HART. That is right.

Mr. ABERNETHY. In fairness to the other companies whose plants were constructed subsequent to the June 28 deadline, what do you think of the advisability of amending this act, if it is continued, to benefit those who due to that hairline of time are not getting any of the hardship supply?

Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, there is just a little something we have to consider here. Let us assume for the sake of argument that we do allocate to each company who may now come into production. You can readily appreciate that plants will go up overnight if there is a sufficient amount of ammonia.

Mr. ABERNETHY. The object was to take care of these particular plants which had just been established, undoubtedly. You must agree that is giving preference to these particular plants. Do you think it is fair and right that just these four plants which happened to have been established just prior to that date that we should be making an allocation for their benefit and excluding the others who need it just as badly as they do?

Mr. HART. Mr. Chairman, the Department of Commerce did not write that law, you know.

Mr. ABERNETHY. I agree with you.

Mr. HART. It was given to us to administer. With the administration of it there is a considerable difficulty. I would like to address this to the member who yesterday brought up the question of New England.

There is a concrete example. Through this medium of dividing up the material that is left and giving it back to the primary producers of nitrogen, the gentleman from New England will find he will get more material, whereas he would get none if we gave it to the so-called preference groups. There is not a converter in New England. Therefore, the New England group would get nothing whatever out of it through this medium.

Mr. ABERNETHY. The New England group is not getting anything out of this.

Mr. HART. Sure, they are.

Mr. ABERNETHY. From whom?

Mr. HART. We are giving it back to the primary producer of nitrogen and making available about one and a half percent more of his own production than he normally would have.