Mr. FERNANDEZ. Can you get by with the amount requested for 1951 if it is granted in full?

Mr. ASKEW. Yes, so far as I can tell now, we can unless there is some new legislation which increases our work above what we anticipate at the present time.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. In other words, in this particular item you have not been forced to present figures that really are below what you actually anticipate might be necessary?

Mr. ASKEW. No, we have not.

FREE MAILING

Mr. PASSMAN. Do certain publications have free mailing or franking privileges, such as weekly and county newspapers when mailed within the county?

Mr. BURKE. Free in county.

Mr. PASSMAN. Does that apply to all recognized weekly publications?

Mr. BURKE. All those that meet the requirements for entry as second class. That does not apply to any matter that is delivered at a letter carrier office. It is free in the county of publication except in cities where letter carrier service is maintained.

Mr. PASSMAN. Where letter carrier service is maintained is payment made by the pound?

Mr. BURKE. They pay a special piece rate of postage for that.

Mr. PASSMAN. Do you have any idea what it is costing the Post Office Department per year to render that service?

Mr. BURKE. We have it here in the cost ascertainment which Mr. Strom can furnish you.

Mr. STROM. Free in-county mailings cost the Department $11,173,$70 in 1949.

FORTY-HOUR WEEK

Mr. PASSMAN. Mr. Burke, when did the 40-hour workweek become effective for postal employees?

Mr. BURKE. Technically we do not have a 40-hour week as such. What we have is a law that requires that we repay in compensatory time for all service performed on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays. In effect it works out to a 40-hour week but it is not so stated in the law. It is a compensatory time arrangement that the law requires. We have had it, how long, Mr. Strom?

Mr. STROM. I think it went into effect somewhere about 1935.
Mr. PASSMAN. Would you be able to get that?

Mr. STROM. We can give you the exact date. The law became effective October 1, 1935.

MAIL VOLUME AND EMPLOYMENT

Mr. PASSMAN. Mr. Burke, would it be too much trouble to prepare a table in four columns showing the first full year's experience you have had with the so-called 40-hour workweek through fiscal 1949, giving the number of pieces of mail, special transactions handled during

those years, the man-years of employment, and the number of employees during those years?

Mr. STROM. We can put it on the basis of paid employment but I do not think we have any data on productive employment at that time. We had nothing in the way of a record of productive employment before 1938.

Mr. PASSMAN. Could you give me the pieces of mail, special transactions handled, and the number of employees in those years? Mr. STROM. That we can do.

Mr. PASSMAN. I think that will suffice.

(The information requested follows:)

Comparative statement of mail volume and employment since the 40-hour week law, effective Oct. 1, 1935

3 Number of substitutes on rolls for 1950 and 1951 estimated on basis of 1949 relationship of number on roll to substitute man-years.

FREE NEWSPAPER SERVICE

Mr. PASSMAN. Is it not also true that when you started that many, many years ago it was disseminating news to the public. Since that time of course there has been developed the radio, the television, and better systems of transportation, so, in effect, is it not a subsidy?

Mr. BURKE. Definitely. It was started in the days when it was an infant industry, when it was important and in the interest of all the people to disseminate information as cheaply as possible. It has continued in effect ever since even though now there are many means of dissemination of information other than the paper.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. Unless that is continued and that encouragement is still extended to rural weekly papers, those valuable publications will go out of existence pretty quick, will they not?

Mr. BURKE. I do not think so. The rates they would be required to pay definitely would not put them out of business, Mr. Chairman.

POSTAL ACCOUNTS DIVISION OF GAO AT ASHEVILLE, N. C.

Mr. CANFIELD. Mr. Askew, your office has a representative at Asheville, N. C., who serves as a liaison officer between the Bureau of Accounts and the Postal Accounts Division of the General Accounting Office and according to the Budget Digest this representative is responsible for the receipt and delivery to the General Accounting Office of paid postal notes, the microfilming of accounts rendered by postmasters of third and fourth class offices, and other essential duties at that point. Now the General Accounting Office is here in Washington, is it not, Mr. Askew?

Mr. ASKEW. The Postal Accounts Division is in Asheville, N. C. They actually complete the final audit of our accounts and this man has always worked with them. We had one man who worked in the General Accounting Office to procure and furnish us information that we might need from the records. When they moved in 1942 we moved him down there with them. He is continuing the work he formerly did when they were here. That is a temporary arrangement down there. They expect to come back here when they have available space.

Mr. CANFIELD. You mean the General Accounting Office set-up along with your representative?

Mr. ASKEW. That is right. That Division was sent to Asheville, N. C., as a temporary arrangement and I think ultimately it will come back to Washington.

REPORTS OF CONVERSION OF REVENUE TO MAIL VOLUME

Mr. STROM. I think Mr. Askew has covered it but there is one item in connection with cost ascertainment work which is very important to our office. The Bureau of the Budget has requested that we convert revenues to mail volume as quickly as possible. With the force he has had I know from personal experience he has not been able to get that information as promptly as desired. We need it badly in connection with apportionment of appropriations, changes in apportionments, and whenever we come up for deficiencies in order to determine whether or not the mail volume is in line, rather that the estimates we are requesting are in line with the mail volume increases. At the present time the best figures we have to go on are the revenues, which do not always indicate the volume trend or the shifts in classes of mail.

Mr. ASKEW. In that connection I might add that we prepare a quarterly report as soon as we can after the close of each quarter which contains the information Mr. Strom refers to, and the last report we have been able to complete is for the June quarter. We should have completed the September quarter report along in November and we should have the December quarter report substantially completed now. We have not completed either of those. Our last monthly report, which we use to some extent, is for the month of August. Our annual cost-ascertainment report should be completed in the early part of December and we have just completed assembling those figures on the 13th of January. That has not yet gone to the printer.

That gives you an idea of the situation we are facing, and we cannot do any better with the force we have available. The Bureau of

the Budget is constantly complaining about not getting the information earlier.

Mr. STROM. The information is too old to be of current value when we get it.

NEED FOR POST OFFICE PRODUCTION RECORDS

Mr. CANFIELD. Mr. Burke, reference is made to production records in the individual post offices throughout the country. Does the Department feel that fortified with information of that kind, efficiencies might be promoted quite generally?

Mr. BURKE. Yes, undoubtedly. I did want to mention that and I am glad you gave me the opportunity. This work that Mr. Askew describes in the analyzing of accounts and in cost ascertainment is very valuable as an aid to management of the Department. Not only the Bureau of the Budget complains about the slowness of getting this information but we who are charged with the administration of the Department complain to Mr. Askew. It is essential that this information be assembled and furnished as quickly as possible. I do hope that the committee can see its way clear to grant our request for these few additional employees, for that reason.

What we hope to do is to utilize this information we assemble from other sources in the field in connection with the information the Bureau of Accounts assembles from its cost-ascertainment data and coordinate the two and finally come up with a current picture of what is going on throughout the postal service and how one office is operating as compared to another. We deem it very important as an aid to management.

Mr. CANFIELD. I had in mind, Mr. Burke, for instance, an office in a city of 160,000 people establishes an outstanding production record. Other offices in communities of about the same population would have a target to shoot at if perchance those offices were down in production.

Mr. BURKE. That is right.

Mr. CANFIELD. In other words, friendly rivalry would be inspired among the employees.

Mr. BURKE. It is part of our plan to create that rivalry, once we accumulate the necessary information of which this set-up is a vital part.

Mr. ASKEW. Mr. Canfield, we have had some desirable results in that direction already. We gave these 20 offices in which we have pilot installations a copy of our report and they have started comparing their own operations with the other offices and it has created quite a bit of interest. It has done considerable good along that line and it has a potential value that has not been realized yet, but will be as the thing develops further.

Mr. CANFIELD. I know in my home city of Paterson, N. J., the postmaster Mr. Thomas E. Kelly and assistant postmaster Mr. David B. Morgan have striven to establish an enviable record. I think, too, they would be glad to have that compared with the record of other cities with the same classification.

Mr. ASKEW. It has proved very interesting for those who have operated these pilot installations up to now.

OFFICE OF BUDGET AND ADMINISTRATIVE PLANNING

WITNESS

A. B. STROM, COMMISSIONER OF THE BUDGET, POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT

SALARIES, OFFICE OF BUDGET AND ADMINISTRATIVE PLANNING

Annual appropriation act, 1950, Public Law 150-

Second Supplemental Appropriation Act, Public Law 430.

Total amount appropriated, 1950

Add: Estimated deficiency, 1950--

Total estimated obligations, 1950---

Estimate, fiscal year 1951---.

Estimated increase in obligations, fiscal year 1951_-_.

Reconciliation of estimate to current appropriation

Total amount appropriated, 1950----

Add excess of estimated obligations over appropriation due to Public
Law 429.

$206, 300

2,400

208, 700

$17,460
1, 179

500

439

19, 578

189, 122

$53, 591

2,772

8,000

2,500

6, 315

26, 000

99, 178

288, 300

1 Research and development program.

Mr. FERNANDEZ. The next item is "Office of Budget and Administrative Planning," which, together with the item previously carried under the "Research and development program" will be carried under "General administration" in the present appropriation bill.

This table shows an appropriation of $206,300 for those combined items, as I understand it, for 1950 and estimated obligation for Public Law 429 in addition of $2,400, making a total of $208,700, and a request for $288,300, which is an increase of $79,600 over that anticipated for 1950.

INCREASE IN 1951

Will you explain this item to us, particularly with reference to the increase in authorized positions in the sum of $53,591 and the increase in other contractual services in the amount of $26,000.