Reports

Voluminous bulletins, fresh from the Government Printing Office, last week were laid before the President of the U. S. They were the reports of most of his Cabinet officers,* outlining conditions in their Departments up to June 30 last, and specifying future moneys they would need. Some of the reports were prefaced with perorations to the Executive, some of them were addressed, according to custom, to the House, the Senate, or both. President Hoover by courtesy could and from duty should examine them all.

Treasury. Burr-tongued little Andrew William Mellon, obliged to report only to the Speaker of the House, commenced abruptly: "Sir, I have the honor to make the following report:

"The finances of the Federal Government for the fiscal year 1930 continued the favorable record of recent years. . . . Ordinary receipts amounted to $4,177,941,702, expenditures chargeable against ordinary receipts to $3,994,152,487, and surplus receipts to $183,789,215. The gross public debt was reduced by $745,889,448, and stood . . . at $16,185,308,299 "

As usual, Secretary Mellon also reported on the economic welfare of the nation. This was his version of the great 1929 stockmarket crash: "During the last half of 1929 very marked changes occurred in the business and credit situation. Industrial production, which had reached record high levels at the middle of the year, commenced to decline in July. . . . Security prices commenced to decline in September. At the same time the volume of loans to brokers continued to increase with exceptional rapidity, a fact which . . . was evidence of a movement of securities . . , from stronger to weaker hands. . . . The security market was further weakened by . . . a conspicuous failure in the British market and by withdrawals of foreign funds from this country. On Sept. 26 the Bank of England . . . increased its discount rate. . . . These developments, coming at a time when industry was reacting from an earlier overstimulation . . . culminated in October and November in violent declines in security prices."

War. Discursive was the report of Secretary of War Patrick Jay Hurley. It began with an Introduction which stated that "the efficiency of the Army of the United States has been increased," that this was possible only because of "the wide experience and sympathetic interest of my immediate predecessor, the [late] Hon. James W. Good. . . . His service to the country should not be forgotten."

Secretary Hurley announced that the commissioned, warrant-officer and enlisted strength of the Regular Army, exclusive of Philippine Scouts, was 130,910 on June 30. About 35% of this number were on duty outside the continental limits of the U. S. Enlisted soldiers were divided as follows:

Infantry 41,259

Cavalry 7,794

Field Artillery 14,633

Coast Artillery 12,324

Engineers 4,465

Quartermaster Corps 7,536

Ordnance Dept 2,250

Finance Dept 400

Chemical Warfare 413

Air Corps 12,034

The Secretary declared: "If the policy of building up the enlisted strength of the Air Corps by transfers from the other arms is continued, the Army will soon be unable properly to perform its many missions."

The National Guard stood at 12,732 officers, 198 warrant officers, 169,785 enlisted men. There were 113,523 officers, inclusive of reservists who hold National Guard commissions as well.

In an outburst of sympathy Secretary Hurley wrote: "I feel that increased pay for the Army is a vital subject. . . . The situation confronting the junior officers is particularly to be deplored."

Flood-control projects on the Mississippi, Missouri, and Sacramento Rivers, building and operating at Muscle Shoals, work on other projects of like nature, cost the Department $100,746,269.84 in 1930. Appropriations necessary for completing all such plans will be $306,938,275.

Through the Panama Canal, interoceanic tonnage increased 4.8% because of bigger ships, but revenue therefrom was $18,082,451.78, less than in fiscal 1928, but greater than in any other year. The Secretary stated: "Considering the capital invested and accumulated interest on the investment, the present total capital liability is such that the canal is not as yet earning the annual interest charge at 4%. . . ." The War Department's survey for a Nicaraguan canal is not yet complete.

Justice. The report of Attorney General William DeWitt Mitchell was terse, packing his statements into balanced sentences. It was addressed To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. The Attorney General saved himself labor by saying: "The activities of the department are described in detail in the reports of the division and bureau chiefs [which are appended], and a general review by me would mean useless repetition. . . . [However] some extraordinary administrative tasks confronting the department may be selected." Among these were:

Reorganization of the Federal Prison Bureau, development of a prison-camp system because "it has been demonstrated that large numbers of prisoners do not require confinement in walled prisons; that outdoor work improves them physically and morally and results in a substantial saving in expense to the Government." "The extraordinary administrative task of creating in this department a prohibition bureau and of transferring from the Treasury Department personnel and appropriations."

Post Office. Sad was Postmaster General Walter Folger Brown to report a $98,215,987.43 deficit in his department, as compared with a deficit of only about $85,000,000 last year. He declared: "This mounting deficit . . . of course, was made good out of the general funds of the Treasury--by the taxpayers at large, without regard to the extent of their use of postal facilities. . . . It is my judgment that the Post Office Department should conduct its strictly postal operations without financial loss . . . [and] that there should be a revision of postal rates calculated to make the Postal service self-sustaining."

The Postmaster General asked for more stringent legislation against blackmailers, announced that his department had more trouble with lotteries and pornographic literature, both forbidden the mails by law, than in the years preceding.

Navy. Trim and nautical, the report of Charles Francis Adams told the President: "The Secretary and Assistant Secretaries made such inspections of the fleet, its units and activities, and . . . of the establishment ashore as were compatible with administrative duties in Washington."/- It re-outlined the decommissionings and changes to be pursued, as well as the shipbuilding, for construction of the London Treaty Navy (TIME, Sept. 29).

Interior. Ray Lyman Wilbur, president of Stanford University, sent in a thick, beautifully written report which read like a modern college textbook. Sample: "Continental conservation is the key to the future of this Nation. . . . Conservation is a term, around which much confusion has reigned. Conservation means wise use. Wise use means that a natural asset shall be used for the proper purpose and at the right time."

On the Hoover (Boulder) Dam he said: "If one State [Arizona] can block the destiny of a region and a watershed . . . a great part of the West's future control of its water will be relinquished."

Concerning oil & gas, he said that the 17,500 prospecting permits outstanding in March 1929 had been reduced to 5,094. "The conservation policy has resulted in blowing a great deal of speculative paper off the public domain."

Regarding oil shale, on the disposal of which he was challenged recently by an underling (TIME, Oct. 13), he declared: "No leases have been issued under this Administration. But oil-shale claims valid in 1920 can be taken to patent under the. mining law, without any discretionary power in this department to decline to issue the patent."**

Agriculture. Ominously Arthur Mastick Hyde began: "To the 'President: The worst drought ever recorded in this country prevailed during much of the 1930 crop-growing season and greatly reduced farm production. Widespread droughts occurred in 1881, 1894, 1901, 1911, 1916, and 1924. These . . . did not equal the drought of the present year. . . ." He then related the course of the "conference of Governors of drought-stricken States called by you," also of the Federal Drought Relief Committee, of which "at your request I have served as chairman." Production figures given in the report included:

Wheat 840,000,000 bushels

Rice 38,600,000 bushels

Cotton 14,486,000 bales

Corn, oats, barley and grain sorghums 90,000,000 tons

Tobacco 1,500,000,000 lbs.

Flax 25,200,000 bushels

Apples 153,400,000 bushels

Peaches 49,250,000 bushels

Pears 25,000,000 bushels

Grapes 2,350,000 tons

Potatoes 352,200,000 bushels

Under the heading FACTORS IN THE CURRENT DEPRESSION, these statements appear: "Agricultural overproduction existed before the business depression began. . . . Agriculture's added difficulties this year are attributable largely to conditions outside the agricultural industry." Also there are reports of the Department's fight with Japanese beetles, pink bollworms, Mexican fruit flies, pinetip moths, European cornborers.

Labor. Secretary James John Davis, preparing last week to surrender his office to a successor, might be pardoned a sentence or two in retrospect. He began: "From 1921 to 1930 it has been my privilege to have served . . . under Presidents Harding, Coolidge and Hoover, during a most important period in the industrial life of our Nation. . . . Let me briefly mention some of these changes. . . . There has been a gradual decrease in working hours and a betterment of working conditions, with increases in wages . . . with the consequent benefits in the way of better homes, improved standards of living, better schools, civic improvements. . . . But we had another grave industrial problem growing out of the inventive genius of mankind . . . [which] while lifting burdens from the shoulders of the workers . . . released large numbers . . . who were compelled to seek other employment." Among occupations dangerously overdeveloped he named the bituminous coal, textile and agricultural industries. He wrote: "After nearly ten years of experience as Secretary of Labor, I fully recognize the importance of the Federal Employment Service." Also: "I have repeatedly referred to both the strong and the weak points in our immigration policy. ... I shall venture again to bring them to the attention of the Congress." Small space was devoted to the unemployment situation, less drastic in fiscal than in calendar 1930. However, the Secretary declared: "The monthly reports on the volume of employment and on wholesale prices have been greatly expanded and improved. . . . The actual speed of publication has been greatly increased." A Davis truism: "Children are the most precious assets of the Nation." He has five children, all of their names beginning like his with J--James, Jane, Jean, Joan, Jewel.

*Alone of the Cabinet, the Secretary of State is required to make no annual report, on the theory that diplomatic dealings are confidential between nations, hence no matter for public comment.

/-As every one knows, Secretary Adams' activities also included repeated trips to Boston and Newport before and during the America's Cup races.

**Nevertheless, he last week disallowed the claim of Federal Shale Oil Co. to lands in Colorado, asserting the right of the Department to challenge validity of claims on the ground of assessment delinquency.

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