Mr. DRURY. In a general way; yes. We have for each one or our park areas what we call a master plan, which indicates the lay-out. Mr. KIRWAN. Do you have plans and blueprints?

Mr. DRURY. We do have some. I might say one word about the plans for facilities to house visitors. Only a small percentage of those plans would involve that type of construction. Some involve maintenance and building construction, and a great many other items are included in the types of plans to be undertaken out of the $650,000. Mr. KIRWAN. Members of the committee have seen some of the trails in the parks, and it appears that you need a lot of work there. Mr. DRURY. We need a great deal of maintenance.

Mr. KIRWAN. Especially when the snow cuts into the ditches and does a lot of destruction.

Mr. DRURY. We have need of well over a million dollars for deferred maintenance.

Mr. TOLSON. In further answer to your question, Mr. Kirwan, the plans we have on hand would accomplish $948,000 worth of work, not including major roads and parkways work. We have some plans that are from 75 to 100 percent complete for major roads that will accomplish about $4,000,000 worth of work. About $5,000,000 worth of work can be done on parkways with plans which are now about 75 to 100 percent complete. Those plans can be completed within 60 or 90 days.

Mr. KIRWAN. I wanted to know whether you have other plans besides those involved in the $650,000 you are asking for.

Mr. TOLSON. Yes; we have two which I have just mentioned, some of which could be completed within 60 to 90 days.

Mr. KIRWAN. Are not the parks generally well supplied so far as facilities to accommodate visitors and employees are concerned?

Mr. TOLSON. Some parks are; others are not. For instance, Big Bend National Park, for which the State of Texas donated the land, was established last year. It has practically no facilities at all to accommodate visitors. Such facilities will need to be provided for them when peacetime comes.

Mr. KIRWAN. That is one of the parks you had in mind?

Mr. TOLSON. That is one of the parks we had in mind in presenting our estimate for post-war plans for facilities to accommodate the public, for roads and trails, and structures of various kinds.

AVAILABILITY OF PERSONNEL FOR POST-WAR WORK

Mr. KIRWAN. Can you secure the necessary personnel for this postwar planning?

Mr. TOLSON. That remains to be seen, of course, and will depend, perhaps, on the employment situation when the European phase of the war ends. Some of our architects and engineers are now returning from war duty.

Mr. KIRWAN. You think you can get them all right?

Mr. TOLSON. In submitting our estimates for 46 new positions, we have allowed a 10-percent reduction in the funds required as we anticipate it will take some time to secure the personnel for them.

Mr. DRURY. We have had communications from a good many former members of the staff who are now with the armed services who say

they are willing to return to the Park Service when they are discharged from the Army, and many of them are technical men who have the right to return to their positions in the Park Service at the same salary they received formerly in those positions.

REDUCTIONS RECOMMENDED

Mr. TOLSON. There are two items in connection with which we can recommend reductions. One is with respect to the Chattanooga National Cemetery which has been transferred to the War Department by law, and which is included in the item of national military parks in the amount of $7,800. The transfer of that cemetery was effected after the submission of this estimate and after it had been cleared by the Bureau of the Budget.

In addition, the Fort Pulaski National Monument is to be continued under the jurisdiction of the Navy Department, so that $8,287 can be eliminated from the national monuments appropriation item. The Navy Department had advised us that it expected to decommission the unit at Fort Pulaski National Monument but has since decided to retain it for naval purposes.

POST-WAR PLANNING WORK IN THE REGIONAL OFFICES

Mr. NORRELL. I noticed in the general set-up on page 323 of the committee print of the bill there is an itemized statement of your total requests, and I notice that the regional offices made a rather sizably increased request there. You received an appropriation of $262,000 for 1945, and the requested appropriation for 1946 has jumped to $676.925.

Mr. TOLSON. That item includes $434,925 for post-war plans and surveys. We were asked to spread that item through the appropriate appropriation items, so that you will find some of it in the items for "Salaries and expenses," Director's office, and regional cffices. Almost all of it will be found under the regional offices item.

Mr. NORRELL. What do you plan to do with that fund if it is allowed? Will you look into ways and means of beautifying the present national parks, or are you going to look into the matter of providing additional national parks that might be established? What is the purpose of that item?

Mr. TOLSON. That item is to be broken down into the preparation of plans and making surveys for minor roads and trails.

Mr. NORRELL. On the presently established areas?

Mr. TOLSON. On presently established areas. It is also plans for physical improvements and buildings of all kinds and for construction site surveys for building locations.

We also have two items of $62,000 and $68.000 for the archeological surveys, and for park, parkway, and recreational area studies in cooperation with the States.

Mr. NORRELL. That is to be spent in trying to improve the present established areas?

Mr. TOLSON. Largely.

Mr. NORRELL. Is any part of it to be spent in connection with going out and trying to create additional areas?

Mr. TOLSON. No; we have not included any funds in this item for investigating for additional areas.

Mr. NORRELL. Let me ask you one other question at this point. Do you plan on centralizing your efforts to beautify the parks in certain areas, or are you going to more or less do an equalizing job in all of your present established areas?

Mr. TOLSON. It will cover plans for all areas in the national park system, based on our master plan scheme, which involves the preparation of a master plan for each area, and keeping an up-to-date list of priorities of projects to be accomplished. The funds will not all be expended in any one area.

Mr. NORRELL. So the committee could be reasonably sure that each one will receive its pro rata part of this planning fund, if it is allowed. I notice that you have a rather sizeable decrease, so far as national parks are concerned, and then that decrease is practically liquidated because of an increase in the item for national monuments.

I wonder why there is this decrease in the National Park Service appropriation and at the same time an increase in the amount for national monuments?

Mr. TOLSON. The decrease in the national parks item is due to the elimination of the amount included in last year's appropriation for

overtime.

The increase in the national monuments item is due to the transfer to that item of amounts appropriated for other areas which have been included in the national historical parks and national military parks items. They were largely national monument areas having a historical basis, and in order to group them with the other national monuments, they are being transferred to the national monument item.

NATIONAL MONUMENT FUNDS

Mr. NORRELL. I would like to see in the record at this point a statement showing the total amount of funds you received by appropriation and otherwise for national monuments.

(The statement requested is as follows:)

Fiscal year:

1943_
1944_

1945

$334, 625 300,000 328, 435

Mr. NORRELL. Personally, I think our parks are a great asset, and perhaps some of the national monuments.

SOLDIER VISITORS TO NATIONAL PARKS

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I notice a very beautiful and interesting compilation of photographs in the volume you have shown the committee.

These photographs would indicate that a good many soldiers are stationed in the Yosemite National Yark or else are visitors. Are they convalescents or visitors?

Mr. TOLSON. They are mostly photographs of visitors to Yosemite National Park.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I had supposed they were stationed or convalescing there. I note one picture of probably 100 lined up as if at reveille.

Mr. TOLSON. They come in as visitors from nearbly military camps. They are not stationed there permanently. They are there usually over the week end.

USE OF PARKS FOR CONVALESCENT MILITARY PERSONNEL

The Navy has a convalescent hospital at Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. That is the only permanent establishment in that park.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. How many convalescents do they have in that hotel?

Mr. TOLSON. About 600.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. This committee has suggested several times that Yosemite and several other national parks could be used to good advantage for convalescent soldiers, sailors, and marines. I am wondering if anything has been done yet toward turning over several parks and park facilities for the use of convalescing soldiers, sailors, and marines. As the gentleman is aware, there is a growing need for this now and particularly following the war.

Mr. DRURY. As we have informed you, Mr. Chairman, the National Park Service is keeping the Army and the Navy informed as to the facilities that might be available for setting up such facilities and, in the case of the Ahwahnee, park facilities are being so used.

There have been other examples of rest camps and recreational camps at various national parks, particularly in some of the demonstration areas.

These photographs show the predominant use of national parks by men in the armed services, and apparently it is use that has had the approval of the commanding officers, because these organized trips for men and women in uniform have been arranged by their military commanders. There has been a great deal of travel also by individuals. Many of them are wounded veterans traveling for their health, who can gain the benefit of rest and recreation in the national-park areas as individuals.

REALLOCATIONS AND WITHIN-GRADE PROMOTIONS

Mr. JONES. On page 1 of the justifications you ask for an aggregate increase of $202,293 for purposes for which in 1945 the budget has not been found adequate, and of that amount $40,183 is for within-grade reallocations; is that correct?

Mr. TOLSON. Yes.

Mr. JONES. What part of the $40,183 is attributable to reallocated promotions?

Mr. TOLSON. I do not have that information, but it will be inserted in the record.

(The information requested is as follows:)

Reallocation to higher grades--

Within-grade promotions---.

Total_

$5, 545

34, 638

40, 183

Mr. JONES. Were those reallocated promotions made since the beginning of the fiscal year?

Mr. TOLSON. They were all made during the 1944 fiscal year and prior to September 1, 1944, of the 1945 fiscal year.

Mr. JONES. I notice in the hearings on the independent offices appropriation bill there is a reference to title 5, section 65, of the United States Code, which prohibits upgrading reallocations except to fill vacancies, unless Congress has appropriated funds from which such promotions may be paid.

Do you know about that?

Mr. TOLSON. I do not recall that provision. All of the reallocations we have made have been approved by the Department and by the Civil Service Commission.

Mr. JONES. In the bill for 1945, has Congress appropriated funds with which to pay increases in salaries incident to the reallocations? Mr. TOLSON. We are following the same procedure we have followed in past years in asking for funds to cover reallocations that have been made during the preceding year.

Mr. JONES. So you have not got your reallocations for the present fiscal year out of the 1945 fiscal year bill?

Mr. TOLSON. All of the employees reallocated are now being paid the salaries called for by the reallocated grades.

Mr. JONES. But they are not out of the increases specifically requested in the 1945 bill for reallocations?

Mr. TOLSON. No.

Mr. JONES. Are these reallocations all approved by the Civil Service Commission?

Mr. TOLSON. Yes; they are all approved by the Civil Service Commission.

Mr. JONES. The reallocations are approved by the Civil Service Commission?

Mr. TOLSON. Yes. So far as I know, every reallocation follows the same procedure as the establishment of the filling of a new position. Mr. JONES. If you have not got specific approval in the 1945 bill for the reallocations you have made, there will be a deficit in the appropriation item to that extent?

Mr. TOLSON. Yes, in 1946, except for such savings as may be effected through lapses due to unfilled positions, or leave without pay. Mr. JONES. I gathered from reading the justifications that you had done that, and I wanted to cite to you title 31 of section 665 of the United States Code, which prohibits deficit spending and provides penalties. I wanted to call your attention to that, because the House Committee on Appropriations in reporting the first deficiency bill for 1945 referred to that, and said those things must be stopped. I am citing that for your information.

Mr. TOLSON. We shall be glad to examine that act because we must, of course, comply with the law of the Congress.

Mr. JONES. If you have only one fund in the appropriation act covering general activities, how will you keep account of the expenditures in the different activities?

Mr. TOLSON. They are broken down into the various items, in the amounts allocated, as approved by the Bureau of the Budget for each national park and national monument and other areas administered by the National Park Service.