Mr. REGAN. That is well to have in the record. Mr. D'EWART. I was the one that brought that up yesterday, and the appropriation bill before the House the other day showed funds available during the present fiscal year of three billion dollars, two of which would probably be used by June 30, and one carried over, and I raised the question why some of that billion that was being carried over hadn't been used for this purpose. Mr. MEDLEY. I would like to say for the benefit of the committee that, in those cases to which Mr. Gumbel alludes, at the time those contracts were executed we were operating under the "prudent reserve" theory to which Dr. Morgan previously referred, and prior to the time when the policy decision was made. Now, it has been the opinion of the Administrator-and I think it is shared by many Members of Congress and the public generally, sir-that the stockpile appropriation or the stockpile itself is something that is pretty sacred and is a part of the security of this country; and, therefore, those funds are only legally available to finance contracts for which deliveries would actually be made into the stockpile. Mr. D'EWART. I don't think that is altogether true. I think Public Law 520, which is the Stockpiling Act, you will find is available not only to take the materials to stockpile but also for the study of processing and experimentation as well. Mr. MEDLEY. I believe that is the Bureau of Mines function; is it not, sir? Mr. D'EWART. That is right. But the funds made available for stockpiling are made available for those purposes, according to the testimony of the Munitions Board. They are available to buy the materials, and we had it put in there so you could pay over the market for developing or the processing of those ore bodies. Mr. REGAN. Mr. Harding, counsel. Mr. HARDING. Buy to the extent it could be developed by a purchase contract; I think that is correct. There is a portion of Public Law 520, dealing with exploration and development, which is a function of the Bureau of Mines, and the appropriated stockpile funds are not available for just in that connection. Mr. D'EWART. That was not the impression given to us. Mr. HARDING. To the extent we are able to develop it through a purchase contract, then General Services Administration can use the stockpile-appropriated funds for that purpose. Mr. D'EWART. We found quite a bit of fault 2 or 3 years ago with the Munitions Board because they were not using their funds for that purpose. They were using them all overseas, and not in this country. Mr. HARDING. I think that since then the situation has changed. Mr. D'EWART. That is right. The President issued at that time an order an Executive order to ignore the buy-American clause, and since that time I understand it has been withdrawn and we can now proceed. Mr. REGAN. Dr. Morgan, I believe there is one of the clerks of the committee that you would like to see to revise your original statement before it goes in the record; is that correct? Dr. MORGAN. No, sir, I was making reference to your statement this morning, I believe, that those people who had statements in the record could revise them before they were finally printed. Mr. REGAN. Yes, sir. Dr. MORGAN. Did you have reference, sir, to those printed statements where there was no testimony? Mr. ENGLE. The chairman spoke of that this morning. His purpose for that was to let those people who submitted statements which were not in the record, because they weren't called at the preceding hearings, to revise them up to date and we will put them in the record. Dr. MORGAN. All right, sir. I will direct our people to do that. Mr. ENGLE. Your statement is in the record. You have a right to correct it as you know. Dr. MORGAN. We have already corrected those in the normal process. Thank you, sir. Mr. ENGLE. Is the Tungsten Mining Corp. contract being signed! Mr. GUMBEL. Mr. Engle, I couldn't tell you. Do you know whether it has been signed, Mr. Harding? Mr. HARDING. I don't think so. I am not sure. Mr. GUMBEL. My understanding was it was being held up. It had not yet been signed. Mr. ENGLE. In North Carolina? Mr. GUMBEL. Yes. That has not yet been signed. Mr. ENGLE. Thank you very much. Mr. REGAN. Any further questions from the committee? (No response.) Mr. REGAN. The committee will now stand adjourned. We thank all you gentlemen for the information presented. (Whereupon, at 4 p. m., the committee adjourned.) THE DEFENSE MINERALS-PRODUCTION PROGRAM THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 1951 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MINES AND MINING, The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to notice, Hon. Clair Engle presiding. Mr. ENGLE. The Subcommittee on Mines and Mining will be in order for the further consideration of the defense minerals-produc tion program. I am calling the meeting to order this morning in the absence of our chairman, Mr. Regan, of Texas, who will be here shortly. STATEMENT ON MANGANESE We are interested this morning in finding out what is happening on manganese. The hearing this morning, which is another in the series of hearings held by the Subcommittee on Mines and Mining, on the defense minerals-production program, has been called primarily for the purpose of obtaining up-to-date information on the proposed program for increasing the domestic production of man ganese. The manganese program has been under consideration and development for several months. However, I wish to call attention to certain facts: There has been a growing shortage of manganese for both stockpiling and industrial requirements during the past 4 or 5 years. Without manganese the steel production of the United States would be reduced to a mere trickle-both our civilian economy and our defense effort would collapse-yet we continue to be dependent upon distant oversea sources of supply for 90 percent or more of the manganese consumed in the United States. Needless to say, this entire overseas supply of manganese could be denied us in time of war. It has been said that after the outbreak of a third world war we could open and equip new mines and construct the necessary facilities to meet the needs of the United States for manganese. Such thinking ignores the unfortunate experiences of the mining industry and the failure of similar endeavors resulting from shortages of labor, time, and materials during World War II-the facts of which have been so ably set forth by our colleague, the Honorable Wesley A. D'Ewart, in a speech presented on the floor of the House on May 5, 1950. In view of the record and the events of the past several years, we should have made a substantial start toward making the United States self-sufficient in manganese long ago. However, only now, 9 months since the President approved the Defense Production Act, is a domes tic manganese-production program on the verge of being placed in operation. The subcommittee anticipates receiving and discussing at this hearing all significant details of each phase of the domestic manganeseproduction program developed by the Defense Minerals Administra tion. We hope it measures up to our needs. In conformity with our former practice, I would like to ask those who have come here from the various agencies to assemble before the committee so that we can skip from one witness to another, where that is desirable, without having to call the witness from the audience. The witnesses will be seated from left to right in the following , order: Mr. Philip R. Bradley, Chief, Chrome-Manganese-Tungsten Branch, Defense Minerals Administration; C. O. Mittendorf, Director, Production Expansion Division, Defense Minerals Adminis tration; Dr. John D. Morgan, Jr., Director, Materials Review Divis ion, Defense Production Administration; Maxwell Elliott, general counsel, General Services Administration; Irving Gumbel, Special Assistant to the Administrator, General Services Administration; Sam. Mann Ewing, Chief, Metals Branch, Office of Price Stabiliza tion; C. O. Jacoby, Acting Chief, Ferro-Alloys Section, Metals Branch, Office of Price Stabilization. All you gentlemen are at least vaguely familiar to all of the members of this committee. Mr. Ewing, one question that has intrigued me a little since I saw you here last is, Do you still have our friend Lipkowitz down there in your organization? Mr. EWING. No. I think he is over at SEC now. Mr. ENGLE. Who is he troubling now? Mr. EWING. SEC. I think he is working with the Senate Armed Forces Committee. Mr. ENGLE. I congratulate you, sir, and the mining industry will heave a resounding sigh of relief that can be heard clear across the country when it receives that information. I assume you don't have prepared statements. Mr. Bradley is leadoff man here. Mr. Bradley, will you outline to the subcommittee what the manganese program is-where it is and what it amounts to? STATEMENTS OF PHILIP R. BRADLEY, CHIEF, CHROME-MANGA- MANGANESE PRODUCTION TO BE FURTHERED THROUGH "DISTRICT Mr. BRADLEY. The broad manganese program has consisted of a schedule of district encouragement of manganese production. By "district encouragement" I mean encouragement of production in the Butte-Philipsburg area of Montana, the Three Kids district of Nevada, the Deming and El Paso areas of New Mexico and Texas, and the Batesville area in Arkansas. We have accepted from applicants in each of these districts proposals for the operation of their mines and for the operation of mills, and in my branch these proposals have always been approved in principle. Then, of course, there are programs of much broader scope and much less shape that have to do with the extraction of manganese from slags and the future extraction of manganese from the lowgrade iron deposit of the Cayuna Range. Mr. ENGLE. Where is that? Mr. BRADLEY. The Minnesota iron country; some attention is being given to the Aroostook, Maine, deposits and active attention is being given to the Artillery Peak, Ariz., deposits in the Southwest. Mr. ENGLE. That is just about what we had the last time you were here. Mr. BRADLEY. That is correct. That is the over-all. GENERAL PROCUREMENT PROGRAM FOR MANGANESE HELD IMPRACTICABLE Mr. ENGLE. One question further with regard to your program: Is there any general procurement program contemplated for manganese along the line you have initiated in the tungsten field? Mr. BRADLEY. There is none; no, because in each of these five districts have I named five or four-the operating conditions are so very much different and the cost of operation will be so very much. different that specific and individual attention to each district is justified. Mr. ENGLE. I had a letter the other day from Hal Griggs. Do you know him? Mr. BRADLEY. Yes. Mr. ENGLE. He said he had some manganese property up in Crescent Mills and is trying to get it going. Are you familiar with that property? |