(c) on what terms should the property be distributed? Should educational users pay current market prices for such property? If not, what will be the basis for and character of the price policy with respect to such property? (d) Under what conditions and terms should educational institutions acquire equipment which has been changed in design or is obsolete? (e) What conditions should be laid down with regard to maintenance or use? With regard to recapture by the Government? (a) More material will be held by the agency than would be needed in backward areas. The policy undoubtedly should be to dispose of the material in terms of expressed needs by the various institutions. (b) The material should be handled directly by the Federal agency, thus decreasing the need for further salaried employees. (c) The material should be sold on the basis of an appraised price. It presumably would be a considerable discount over the market price. (d) If, in the opinion of the institution the changed design is usable, then it should be sold at an appraised price. (e) It should be an outright sale with full title passing to the purchaser. 6. Property which is susceptible of educational use can also be sold commecially, or can be utilized in connection with other public programs. How shall the determination be made as to the volume and type of property which will be acquired for educational use, as contrasted with those which will be devoted to other public uses or disposed of commercially? (a) Should the surplus property acquired by the Federal agency in charge of the educational program be limited by the amount of appropriated funds available to that agency for such acquisition? (b) Should the transfer of surplus property to that agency, without a charge against appropriated funds, be authorized by Congress? (c) In either event, should the Federal educational agency be given the opportunity to satisfy the full needs of the Federal educational program before the property is allocated to commercial disposition? (d) Should an over-all Federal administrator be given authority to determine the allocation of surplus properties as between educational uses, other public uses, and commercial disposition? Educational institutions should have the first opportunity to purchase educational material without competing with commercial interests. Public programs of the Government or of charitable nature should be in a similar category with educational institutions. (a) No. The agency should be charged only for that portion retained for its usage. The balance for resale could be carried as an inventory to be accounted for. (b) Not unless congressional authorization is necessary to carry out plan suggested in (a). (c) Yes. Since the Government has purchased the material once, let the agency keep what it actually needs, charging that agency for it and giving credit to the agency from which the transfer is made. (d) Someone must have charge of the program and he should be a person familiar with educational needs and not an appointment of political expediency. CARL O. FLAGSTAD, Secretary-Treasurer. ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS OFFICERS IN SCHOOLS FOR NEGROES, Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, Washington, D. C. SIR: Following receipt of your letter of August 4, I have communicated with the members of our association and have had to this time replies from many of them. Due to the urgency of this matter, I am writing you the wishes of those members whose replies have been received and will be glad to make available to you at a later date, if necessary, any additional information that may be applicable to your inquiry. A list of the institutions, members of our association of business officers, together with the names of the president and business manager of these institu tions, is attached. If you think that your needs require this, and that the time will allow, I am making the suggestion that a group of four or five of the presidents of these institutions be given the opportunity to meet with your committee. You would get a much more accurate and complete picture of the needs of the schools for Negroes if your committee would listen to a group of the chief administrative officers of these institutions. There are within 150 miles of Washington about 11 of our member institutions. While this is the vacation season, I am sure that, with a few days' notice, 5 or 6 of the presidents of these institutions would come to Washington to meet with your committee and discuss this subject in person. Meantime, I am answering your letter on behalf of this association as follows: 1. The types of surplus property that are most likely to be used in educational activities include, among other things, the following: (a) Equipment in industrial and engineering training, including agriculture. (b) Material and equipment for laboratory teaching in the fine arts--books. (c) Laboratory glassware supplies and equipment used in the science laboratories-chemistry, physics, biology, etc. (d) Photographic equipment. (e) Visual education equipment. (f) Trucks, tractors, power-generator equipment, including equipment for power plants and heating plants, plumbing supplies, and materials. (g) Office equipment, including office machines. (h) Printing and duplicating equipment. (i) Equipment for the laundry, for hospitals, dental chairs and equipment, hospital beds and the like, bookstore, dining hall and kitchen equipment. Two of the schools have mentioned the need for complete heating plants. The War and Navy Departments and their allied agencies for the most part are in possession of these classes of property. 2. It is not believed that the Federal agencies now in possession of such surplus property, as for instance the War and Navy Departments, could participate directly in a program involving the utilization of such property for educational purposes. 3. There should be a unified responsibility for the disposal of surplus property for educational uses vested in a single Federal agency and Congress should authorize the transfer of property to such a Federal agency for disposal to educational institutions. The United States Office of Education might be best qualified to set up an organization to do this. It is probable that the needs of the institutions throughout the country are best known to the Office of Education at the present time. 4. If a single Federal agency is authorized to handle surplus property susceptible of educational uses: (a) Such a small part of the property, as, for instance, office equipment, could be used to the extent needed for this purpose by this agency during the time that its work is being done; (b) The central agency should have the responsibility to test the needs of the educational institutions that request this equipment and distribute the property under a system of priorities, or comparison of actual known needs. The purpose would be to see that the property is actually put to a useful educational purpose. 5. Among other policies to be followed by the Federal agency in distributing the surplus property among educational institutions: (a) Determination of actual need would cause the distribution to assist in developing educational activities in backward areas. The first purpose would seem to be for direct teaching purposes; a second possibility to increase and enlarge physical teaching facilities, as for instance, the installation of the heating plant. The third purpose would be the promotion of research and similar activities in educational institutions. The inadequate hospital facilities in certain areas served by the Negro schools should cause a large amount of this surplus property to find a useful purpose. (b) The distribution should be in charge of a single Federal agency with overall responsibility for direct contacts with these educational institutions rather than to allot the property to any State agency. This is an urgent request of the members of our association. Should the distibution be allotted to the State governmental agencies, differentials of policy can be established which would cause institutions in certain areas to receive more favorable consideration, which might result in unfairness toward institutions that are most in need of such surplus equipment. (c) It is the belief of the majority of our membership that surplus property once allocated to educational uses should be distributed to institutions supported directly by the taxpayers or operated other than for profit, without cost to the institution. This is for the reason that such institutions put the property directly into use for the benefit of the taxpayers without profit to the institution, as in the case of the commercial sale of such property. The taxpayers themselves support these institutions directly or indirectly, and have already paid for this property. The institutions in our membership, without exception, are operating on limited budgets for students who have inadequate resources for their education. If questions of policy require that a charge be attached to this surplus propertyi. The charge should be nominal or just sufficient to indicate an actual need rather than a wish; and ii. The institution should be allowed to pay for the property in deferred annual payments, for instance, over a period of 10 years. This last suggestion is made in order that the institution may avail itself of property actually needed at the moment the property is available before a so-called surplus is transferred from educational allotment to commercial sale. Unless some such condition is attached, a school that actually needs $20,000 of such surplus property may be able to avail itself, from its current annual appropriation, of only $2,000 worth of this particular property in the particular year in which the property is declared surplus. The remaining $18,000 of surplus property would be turned over to some commercial salvage concern, in position to borrow the money to finance the purchase and sell and resell the property over a period of years at a profit, perhaps to the same educational institution that has no more than $2,000 in any one year available for such teaching needs. A little consideration will indicate that the educational institution operating without the opportunity for a sale and a profit, and limited in its borrowing capacity is different from the commercial concern that can finance its operation over a period of years by sale with a profit, borrowing to restock and sell again with another profit. (d) The conditions and terms for educational institutions are set out perhaps ina equately in the paragraph above. Considerable equipment that is obsolete or changed in design, like an airplane engine or a Diesel motor, is still firstclass equipment for teaching purposes. (e) Educational institutions that acquire this property under conditions different from a commercial concern would be required to maintain the property, keep it in use or release it to the central Federal agency for reallocation and should not be allowed to resell any of the property. 6. There will be such a large volume of surplus property when the war is over that it can not be possible that needs for educational purposes will deprive the public of any amount needed for commercial purposes. Following the last war, such property was being disposed of over a period of 6, 8, or 10 years after the war had ended. There will undoubtedly be a much larger volume of surplus material at the end of this war. (a) The surplus property needed for educational purposes should be turned over to the Federal agency in charge of the disposition to educational institutions without limit as to appropriated funds; (b) This transfer without funds should be authorized by Congress; (c) The full needs of the educational institutions should be satisfied before any of this particular property should be reallocated to commercial disposition; (d) There will have to be a central point or agency responsible for determination of the allocation of surplus property as between (1) educational uses, (ii) other public uses, and (iii) commercial disposition. These allocations should be made by a central responsible Federal agency rather than on any decentralized basis. The central responsible agency should be one that can have an understanding of educational purposes and work in cooperation with such understanding. Respectfully, V. D. JOHNSTON, Secretary. Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, THE EDUCATIONAL BUYERS ASSOCIATION, Chairman, War Contracts Subcomittee,“ United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: Your letter of August 5 addressed to Mr. C. L. Hough, Jr., 45 Astor Place, New York, has been referred to me because Mr. Hough is in the United States Navy, hence the delay in answering it. You have asked many questions which would require some sampling of member opinion which we cannot do since you require an answer in 2 weeks from the date of your letter and the time is now up. There are now about 470 colleges and universities among our membership, some of which we should contact before attempting to give you definite answers to the questions put. I wish to assure you, however, that this association should be glad to cooperate with and to assist you in any way it can in formulating plans for disposing of surplus properties. To that end I should be glad to have the association represented at one or more of your conferences. Whatever plan is finally adopted, we should like to urge you to see that (a) endowed and tax-supported institutions be treated on the same basis, and (b) that any Federal bureau not experienced in the markets be not permitted to do more than advise in the matter of surplus property allotted to educationo. Please feel free to command the assistance of this association if you feel it can be of some help in disposing of surplus properties to the educational institutions of the country. Yours very truly, G. H. MEW, Treasurer and Business Manager, DEPARTMENT OF CLASSROOM TEACHERS, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, Committee on Military Affairs, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. DEAR SIR: In reply to your letter of August 17 with regard to the disposal of war surpluses, I should like to make the following recommendations: 1. That all properties and materials suitable for use in the public schools and colleges be turned over to the Commissioner of Education of the United States. The following list is suggestive, but not exhaustive: Beds, motor vehicles, typewriters, vistual education apparatus, scientific apparatus, boats, obsolete planes, engines, and even buildings and grounds. 2. That the United States Commisisoner of Education allocate these properties to the State boards of education in the various States on the basis of (a) school population, (b) need, and (c) special adaptation, e. g., boats for a State with many lakes and rivers. 3. That the school to which an item is allocated by the State board of education be required to pay only the cost of crating and transportation of the item. I appreciate the honor to be asked for my opinion on this important matter. Very truly yours. ROBERT J. HANNELLY, THE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON PHARMACEUTICAL EDUCATION, Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. MURRAY: In response to your inquiry of the 4th instant, addressed to the secretary of the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education, Inc., you are informed that it is the opinion of this organization that 1. The types of surplus property which are most likely to be useful in educational activities are projection apparatus, films, and other materials for visual education, laboratory supplies and equipment, office furniture, such as desks and files, etc. The Federal Government agencies likely to be in possession of these classes of property are the military services and the temporary research agencies which have been set up to conduct investigations and researches to speed up the progress of the war. 2. The Federal agency in possession of such surplus property can best participate in the programs involving the utilization of such property by turning it over to the existing educational institutions. 3. It is our opinion that the disposal of this surplus property for educational uses can best be accomplished by setting up some agency through which all material of this character can be cleared and distributed in existing educational institutions. Congress should authorize the transfer of all surplus property of this character to such agency. 4. (a) If an agency of the foregoing character is set up, none of the property handled by it should be used directly in its own operations; provided, however, that such property may be used in its own operations when it is of such a character that existing educational institutions cannot make use of it. (b) This property should be distributed to established educational institutions in the extent to which the need for it is established. 5. (a) The purpose of such distribution should be to assist established educational institutions to give instruction to returning ex-servicemen, to promote graduate study and research. (c) For property which has been used, a nominal charge only should be made. Property which has not been used and has not been damaged or has not deteriorated by storage should be disposed of at or near current market prices, unless such property is obsolete, when it should be placed in the first category. 6. (b) The transfer of surplus property to the clearing agency should be made without charge against appropriated funds to be authorized by Congress. (c) The Federal educational agency should be given the opportunity to satisfy the needs of the Federal educational program before the property is otherwise disposed of, provided that this shall not be construed to mean a great expansion of the Federal educational program. (d) That an over-all Federal administrator be given the authority to determine the allocation of surplus properties as between (1) educational uses, (2) other public uses, and (3) commercial disposition. Sincerely yours, Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY, A. G. DUMEZ, Secretary. JESUIT EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: Thank you very much for your telegram of August 21, 1944, in answer to my night letter of August 18, 1944. As I promised I am hereby giving more detailed answers to the questions you asked in your letter of August 5. 1. Since the activities of elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning are so varied it would be impossible for me to list all the types of surplus property that would be useful to educational institutions. However, the following types naturally suggest themselves: All types of office furniture and equipment, school supplies, scientific equipment and supplies, a certain amount of medical and first-aid supplies, physical education and athletic equipment, kitchen and cafeteria equipment, etc. It is quite possible too that some educational institutions might be interested in buildings located near their campuses. 2. This question could be better answered by the Government agencies themselves and will depend largely on the post-war activity of these agencies. It is to be hoped that programs of a strictly educational nature will be left to State and local educational agencies to whose control they have always been left in accordance with the American tradition. 3. It appears to me that in the interest of a unified policy it would be well if responsibility for disposal of surplus property for educational uses were vested in a single Federal agency provided certain general principles or guiding norms were laid down by Congress so that no group of tax-free educational institutions would be given unfair preference over any other group. Since all tax-free educational institutions, whether they be publicly or privately controlled, are doing a public service for the good of the Nation they should be given an equal opportunity to secure surplus goods that will assist them in doing this work. It has been made abundantly clear on more than one occasion that privately controlled edn |