as a messenger for the circuit judges. Most circuit judges need the full-time services of an individual messenger, however, to attend them when they are working in chambers, to take the place of the bailiffs now assigned to them. Circuit judges who are away from their headquarters holding court for long periods badly need a person to take charge of their chambers, receive visitors, and forward mail when they and their secretaries and law clerks are away on court business. A messenger could well be entrusted with these duties as well as with the regular duties to be performed when the judge is at home. Messengers for circuit judges are expressly authorized by section 127 of the Judicial Code and therefore all that is presently required to secure them is an appropriation for their salaries. We recommend that funds for a suitable number of circuit judges' messengers at annual salaries of $1,500 be included in the Budget estimates for the Judiciary for the next fiscal year. Respectfully submitted.

ALFRED C. Coxe,

JOHN P. BARNES,

JOHN C. BOWEN,

ELMER D. DAVIES,

ALBERT B. MARIS, Chairman.

Many of the district judges have written in support of the legislation, stressing the necessity of improving the present unsatisfactory conditions for the bailiffs and the desirability of having a confidential officer to serve the judge in the capacity of crier-bailiff-messenger.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with clause 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill are shown as follows (existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman; new matter is printed in italic; and existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets):

SEC. 5. [The district court for each district] Each district judge may appoint a crier for [the] his court, who shall perform also the duties of bailiff and messenger, and who shall receive a salary of $1,800 per annum and, when necessarily absent from his designated post of duty on the business of the court, his actual traveling expenses and in lieu of his actual expenses for subsistence a per diem allowance to be prescribed by the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts at a rate not to exceed $6. [; and the] The marshal for each district may appoint such a number of [persons] additional bailiffs, not exceeding [five] four for each court, as the district judge may determine, to maintain order in the courtroom, to wait upon the grand and petit [other] juries, and for other necessary purposes, who shall be allowed for their services the sum of $6 per day to be paid only for actual attendance on days when the court is in session or the judge or a jury is present.

SECTION 715 OF THE REVISED STATUTES, AS AMENDED

[The district courts may appoint criers for their courts, to be allowed the sum of three dollars per day; and the marshals may appoint such a number of persons, not exceeding five, as the judges of their respective courts may determine, to attend upon the grand and other juries, and for other necessary purposes, who shall be allowed for their services the sum of three dollars per day, to be paid by and included in the accounts of the marshal, out of any money of the United States in his hands. Such compensation shall be paid only for actual attendance.]

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AMENDING THE UNITED STATES EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION ACT (CONCERNING STUDIES AND INVESTIGATIONS WITH RESPECT TO SAFETY CONDITIONS IN EMPLOYMENTS UNDER THE ACT)

MAY 18, 1944.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. WALTER, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 4159]

The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 4159) to amend section 33 of the act of September 7, 1916, as amended (39 Stat. 742), having considered the same, report the bill favorably to the House with the recommendation that it do pass. The purpose of the bill is merely to give the United States Employees' Compensation Commission the authority to make studies and investigations with respect to safety provisions and the causes of injuries in employments under that act as the Commission now has with respect to employments under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act.

Section 41 of the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act provides (44 Stat. 1444; U. S. C., title 33, sec. 941):

SEC. 41. (a) The commission shall make studies and investigations with respect to safety provisions and the causes of injuries in employments covered by this Act, and shall from time to time make to Congress and to employers and carriers such recommendations as it may deem proper as to the best means of preventing such injuries.

(b) In making such studies and investigations the commission is authorized (1) to cooperate with any agency of the United States charged with the duty of enforcing any law securing safety against injury in any employment covered by this Act, or with any State agency, engaged in enforcing any laws to assure safety for employees, and (2) to permit any such agency to have access to the records of the commission. In carrying out the provisions of this section the commission or any officer or employee of the commission is authorized to enter at any reasonable time upon any premises, tracks, wharf, dock, or other landing place, or upon any vessel, or to enter any building, where an employment covered by this Act is being carried on, and to examine any tool, appliance, or machinery used in such employment.

The Commission is authorized by section 33 of the United States Employees' Compensation Act (39 Stat. 749; U. S. C., title 5, sec. 784) to make a report to the Congress at the beginning of each regular session, the report containing among other things recommendations for legislation. It is desirable that the Commission be authorized to make studies and investigations, and to make recommendations with respect to safety provisions and causes of injuries concerning which injuries it makes payments and handles claims for compensation under the last-mentioned statute.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with clause 2a of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by the bill are shown as follows (existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman with new matter printed in italic):

SEC. 33. That the commission shall make to Congress at the beginning of each regular session a report of its work for the preceding fiscal year, including a detailed statement of appropriations and expenditures, a detailed statement showing receipts of and expenditures from the employees' compensation fund, and its recommendations for legislation.

The provisions of section 41 of the Act of March 4, 1927 (ch. 509, 44 Stat. 1424), as amended, shall, insofar as not inapplicable, apply in the same manner and to the same extent as though such provisions were incorporated in this Act.

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CONDITIONS IN PUERTO RICO

MAY 18, 1944.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. BELL, from the Committee on Insular Affairs, submitted the

following

REPORT

[Pursuant to H. Res. 159]

The Committee on Insular Affairs, which was authorized and directed by the resolution (H. Res. 159) to conduct a study and investigation of political, economic, and social conditions in Puerto Rico, herewith presents the second interim report of its subcommittee regarding another of the temporary problems of Puerto Rico which it investigated.

PROCUREMENT OF MOLASSES FOR WAR NEEDS

Alarmed by reports that the Federal Government's administrative agencies were not proceeding with speed necessary for the prosecution of the war and the maintenance of essential civilian life in the matter of the procurement of stocks of blackstrap molasses in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, the subcommittee of the Committee on Insular Affairs charged with studying conditions in the island of Puerto Rico launched an inquiry in an effort to get this task completed.

That prompt governmental action was necessary was indicated by recommendations last July by the Board of Economic Warfare, the War Production Board, and War Food Administration, that the blackstrap molasses, a byproduct from the making of sugar, was urgently needed to meet demands for industrial alcohol for rubber and munitions making and to relieve the shortages of livestock feed in the Middle West and other areas. Furthermore, use of the molasses in the industrial alcohol program would release millions of bushels of grain for livestock and human food.

While the subcommittee's jurisdiction, as defined in House Resolution 159, extended only to affairs in Puerto Rico, it soon became apparent that Puerto Rico's problem in disposal of its molasses was