DEPARTMENTS OF STATE, JUSTICE, COMMERCE, AND THE JUDICIARY APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1952 TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1951 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a. m., in room F-82, the Capitol, Hon. Pat McCarran (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators McCarran, Ellender, Kilgore, and Saltonstall. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF ALIEN PROPERTY STATEMENT OF HAROLD I. BAYNTON, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ALIEN PROPERTY, ACCOMPANIED BY PAUL V. MYRON, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, AND HENRY D. ROGERS, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT SALARIES AND EXPENSES JUSTIFICATION Senator MCCARRAN. Come to order, gentlemen, please. We have before us the item of "Salaries and expenses, Office of Alien Property." You are requesting $4,100,000, which is a reduction of $50,000 from your current year's appropriation. I will ask you to have inserted at this point in the record pages 1, 7, 10, and 11 of the justifications. (The pages referred to are as follows:) SUMMARY OF REQUIREMENTS, FISCAL YEAR 1952 EXHIBIT NO. 1.-Office of Alien Property-Vesting orders issued and total property vested, actual to June 30, 1950, estimated for fiscal years 1951 and 1952 1 Values include only pre-vesting royalties; no estimates are made of the value of those to be vested in fiscal years 1951 and 1952. 2 No estimate. EXHIBIT NO 2.-Office of Alien rPoperty-Disposition of property, actual to June 30, 1949, and for fiscal year 1950, estimated for fiscal years 1951 and 1952 1 This column represents the sum of the dollar figures in the 4 value columns on exhibit No. 1. ? These columns do not include property that may be acquired by the Office subsequent to June 30, 1952. 3 Values include only prevesting royalties; no estimates are made of the value of those to be vested or disposed of in fiscal years 1951, 1952, and after. Senator MCCARRAN. Will you explain why this fund should be cut? Mr. BAYNTON. Senator, it is our estimate of what we can get along with for the next fiscal year, always trying to hold our expenses to a minimum, and at the same time doing the best job we can. It actually means a drop, as I recall, of about 11 positions, and some other cuts that make up that difference. TOTAL PERSONNEL Senator MCCARRAN. How many personnel have you now? Mr. BAYNTON. We have dropped very rapidly in the last 60 days, and our current personnel position, as of February 28, was 656. In other words, we are below the allowed level for our current fiscal Senator MCCARRAN. Will your personnel drop from now on? Mr. BAYNTON. I hope not. What is happening is that they are taking better jobs in the war agencies. year. Senator MCCARRAN. You are losing them, in place of letting them out? Mr. BAYNTON. That is right. We are losing them; they are transferring. Senator MCCARRAN. They are getting better salaries elsewhere? Senator MCCARRAN. There is no question about that. We find that up here in the same way. What is that doing to you? 80513-51-pt. 1—21 Mr. BAYNTON. It is hampering us. We are trying to recruit, but we have the same situation that we run into with respect to our regular employees who are transferring. The average person coming to Washington of the type we would like to hire can normally do a little better somewhere else, so they go somewhere else. EFFECT OF CIVIL SERVICE CLASSIFICATION ACT Senator MCCARRAN. How is the Civil Service Classification Act working out? Why is it that they can get better salaries for the same work somewhere else? Does not the Classification Act operate on these other agencies? Mr. BAYNTON. I don't think it is the same work, Senator. These newer agencies that are expanding have better openings. In other words, a girl who can get, let's say, a grade 4 in our office, if she has the proper civil-service rating to hold a grade 5, can go down the street and find a grade 5 position, whereas we do not have any vacancies in that grade. So it is not so much the same work, but rather that there are better openings. Let's say that a lawyer who is an equivalent to the old P-5-and there are no promotions available in our shop, because those jobs are all filled-can go and find a position in a grade higher somewhere else, where there is an opening. It is a process that I think will slow down after these other agencies are built up. In the meantime it is rather a difficult situation. TOTAL ATTORNEYS Senator MCCARRAN. How many lawyers do you have now? Mr. BAYNTON. As of February 28 of this year, we had 179 attorneys. We had nine other professional grades; that would be economists. We had 456 clerical employees and 12 custodial employees. That is a total of 656. Senator MCCARRAN. Six hundred and fifty-six in the entire agency? Mr. BAYNTON. Yes, sir; that covers all of our offices. I might say that we have had authorized 737 for this current fiscal year. In other words, that is how far down we are from our possible employment. COST OF OPERATION Senator MCCARRAN. What does it cost you to run your institution, the total cost? Mr. BAYNTON. For the fiscal year 1950, when we had an allocation from Senator MCCARRAN. Where is that reflected in the justifications? Mr. BAYNTON. It is on page 7, Senator. We were allowed $4,080,000, of which $100,000 went to the administrative division of the Department. For expenses, we used $4,077,000. In other words, we were within $2.500 of our ceiling. Senator MCCARRAN. I have not gotten my answer yet. Mr. BAYNTON. How much did it cost, sir? Senator MCCARRAN. Yes. What is the total cost of maintaining your institution? Mr. BAYNTON. Well, the cost for the fiscal year 1950 was $4,077,000. I do not have the figure for the current year because we are still in it. ALIEN PROPERTY VALUATION Senator MCCARRAN. You have alien property amounting to ap proximately what?. Mr. BAYNTON. In total value-and this is not a fiscal year figure, but rather a current figure-we have $325,100,000. Senator MCCARRAN. Now, your expenses come out of the funds obtained as a result of running the affairs of the properties you have vested; is that right? Mr. BAYNTON. Yes, sir. Senator MCCARRAN. In other words, you cover into the Treasury as the money comes to you, and you reappropriate out of the Treasury? Mr. BAYNTON. That is correct, Senator. Senator MCCARRAN. How much did you cover into the Treasury this year, up to date? Mr. BAYNTON. From July 1, 1950, through March 21, 1951, we deposited $18,772,048 with the Treasury. I have the figures for the previous fiscal year. Senator MCCARRAN. Let us have that. Mr. BAYNTON. We vested that year $9,623,000. INCOME FROM HOLDINGS Mr. BAYNTON. Yes, sir. And we had income from various holdings, such as stock dividends, amounting to $3,700,000. Now, the $3,700,000, of course, was covered into the Treasury as a whole. I would have to break down the $9,623,000 figure to see what we actually took into possession. It will be the greater part of that, though. Senator MCCARRAN. How much did you cover into the Treasury in the last completed fiscal year? Mr. BAYNTON. There was $3,700,000, in round figures, that was income from the various holdings, and which was covered in. Our vestings for the fiscal year 1950 were $9,623,000. Senator MCCARRAN. Those are new vestings? Mr. BAYNTON. Yes, sir. Senator MCCARRAN. That made a total of how much? Mr. BAYNTON. That totals $13,323,000. However, Mr. Rogers has supplied me with the correct figure, which is $16,710,851. Senator MCCARRAN. That confuses me a little, because I think you gave me the figure here as $325,100,000. VALUATION OF PROPERTY HELD Mr. BAYNTON. No; that is the figure representing the current holdings, Senator. We now hold property of the value of $325,100,000. Senator MCCARRAN. Is that a conservative figure? Mr. BAYNTON. I believe it is a conservative figure. I can give you one illustration. For instance, in making up the so-called balance sheet, we have, let's say, General Aniline & Film Corp. carried in our books at $72,000,000. Now, what it would bring on the market, I don't |