Other obligations.-The sum of $576, including $456 for communication service and $20 for travel expense, is provided in this estimate for other obligations in the publications project for the fiscal year 1943. This represents an increase of $100 over the amount available for other obligations during the fiscal year 1942, which is necessary to furnish new personnel with the normal equipment and supplies and materials.

To cover all obligations in the publications project during the fiscal year 1943, provision is made in this estimate for the sum of $86,253.

III. ADMINISTRATIVE PROJECT

The administrative project embraces all the business and administrative activities of The National Archives. Operating units in the project are the offices of the Administrative Secretary and the Executive Officer; the Divisions of Building Management and Service, Finance and Accounts, Mail and Files, Personnel and Pay Roll, Printing and Processing, and Purchase and Supply; and the Stenographic Pool.

Personal services.-Provision is made in this estimate for 159 positions in the administrative project during the fiscal year 1943, at an annual net cost of $269,065. Compared to the amount provided for similar purposes in the regular appropriation for the fiscal year 1942 this represents an increase of $45,290, of which $6,360 is to provide for the net cost of within-grade promotions required by law, $5,605 is to carry positions that were lapsed in 1942 for a full year in 1943, and $33,325 is to provide for 32 additional positions. These 32 new positions are contained in the item for The National Archives now under consideration by the Appropriations Committee for inclusion in the third supplemental national defense appropriation bill.

All the 32 new positions provided in this estimate for the administrative project will be allocated to the Division of Building Management and Service. This Division is essentially a service unit for the agency and as such it must be able to meet the demands upon it promptly and efficiently. It has been and will continue to be vitally affected by the increased activities of The National Archives.

Requests for the transfer of records from other Government agencies to The National Archives cannot be effected promptly unless this Division has adequate transportation facilities, including truck drivers and sufficient laborers to load, unload, and deliver to the receiving clerk all records coming to the building; to prepare stack areas for the receipt of records by making such physical rearrangements of the records and equipment already in such areas as are necessary; to move records in the Division of Repair and Preservation following each operation involved in their preservation; and to load and unload empty containers. In order to meet this need, provision is made herein for 23 additional laborers and 1 additional truck driver.

At present one driver and one half-ton truck are available to transport to and from The National Archives Building all archival material temporarily loaned to other Government agencies. Mention has previously been made of the large increase in the number of these loans, and it is expected that there will continue to be an increase because of the present emergency (at present the number of loans and returns of records averages one every 12 minutes of the working day). Under such conditions it is impossible for one driver to handle this work. Accordingly, it is proposed to allocate another truck driver to man an additional half-ton truck, provision for the purchase of which is contained in the item for The National Archives included in the third supplemental national defense appropriation bill.

The large increase heretofore noted in the number of service requests being received has accelerated the volume of archival material that this Division has to deliver to and from the various records divisions and the Division of Reference or the Division of Repair and Preservation to such an extent that the two messengers now assigned to it are able to handle less than half the calls, and it is necessary to provide two additional messengers to deliver archival material. Another additional messenger, also provided herein, is needed to serve as attendant in the checkroom, which must now be kept open throughout the working day as a convenience to employees and visitors.

In order to afford the maximum protection to records in the custody of the Archivist, clerks must be on duty at all times during prescribed hours to control all ingress to and egress from the National Archives Building of persons and

equipment. Whenever it is necessary for the senior and assistant control clerks and the checkroom attendant to be relieved, someone must be available to furnish this relief. This is not now possible and it appears necessary, therefore, that one additional junior control clerk be provided for the control unit in order that it may operate efficiently.

The amount of work required of the engineering draftsman has increased twofold in the past 6 months. This has been caused by the large amount of work involved in preliminary studies pertaining to the protection of The National Archives Building and its contents against the hazards of war which has required the full time of this draftsman and has resulted in deferring practically all the work that would normally be performed by him in connection with the designing of minor equipment, the preparation of construction designs, lettering, and the drafting of charts. An assistant statistical draftsman to assist in such work is also provided in this estimate.

The administrative work of this Division, in keeping with its other activities, has increased to such an extent that two assistant record clerks are needed to maintain the necessary administrative records; to issue keys, identification cards, and building passes; and to check fire, burglar, and patrol tapes, records of the transportation of archival material, messenger records, motor-vehicle daily logs, and reports of temporary loans of archival material. Provision is made herein, therefore, for two assistant record clerks to perform these duties.

The work of the Division of Building Management and Service is essential to the successful operation of the professional divisions. Therefore, unless this Division is supplied with the necessary personnel and equipment to perform its functions effectively, much of the work of The National Archives will be seriously retarded. It is believed that the 32 additional positions provided in this estimate for the administrative project are required to enable The National Archives to continue to render satisfactory and prompt services to other agencies of the Federal Government.

Other obligations.-The sum of $21,116 is provided in this estimate for other obligations in the administrative project for the fiscal year 1943, which includes $8,765 for supplies and materials, $100 for the care and storage of vehicles, $1,311 for communication service, $900 for travel expense, $5,000 for repairs and alteratious, $300 for special and miscellaneous, and $4,740 for equipment. This sum represents an increase of $70 as compared to the amount provided for this purpose during the fiscal year 1942.

Of the sum of $4,740 for equipment, $1,400 is for the purchase of a 12-ton truck with which to transport_small accessions, materials to or from the Division of Purchase and Supply and dealers, and to or from freight yards and The National Archives Building. Such transfers have to be made on numerous occasions and, with no small truck available, one of the large trucks utilized for transferring records has to be used. This slows up the transfer of records and costs more for operation than would the use of 11⁄2-ton truck.

To cover all obligations in the administrative project during the fiscal year 1943, provision is made in this estimate for the sum of $290,181.

IV. THE FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT LIBRARY PROJECT

Personal services.-Provision is made in this estimate for 15 positions in the field service for the fiscal year 1943 to be assigned to duty on the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library project at an annual net cost of $32,650. While this represents an increase of $670 over the sum available for similar purposes during the fiscal year 1942, it provides for no new positions. The increase is required to provide for the net cost of within-grade promotions for the fiscal year 1943.

The joint resolution providing for the establishment and maintenance of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, N. Y., approved July 18, 1939 (53 Stat. 1062-1066), imposes upon the Archivist of the United States the duty of administering the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and provides that the costs thereof "shall be paid out of the appropriations for The National Archives Establishment as other costs and expenses of The National Archives Establishment are paid."

Briefly stated, the purposes of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library are to collect, preserve, and administer such collections of historical material as shall be donated to it by Franklin D. Roosevelt and such historical books related to and other historical material contemporary with and related to the historical material donated by President Roosevelt as may be acquired from other sources by gift, purchase, or loan.

During the fiscal year 1941 the work of the Library staff was devoted entirely to transporting materials from Washington and elsewhere to Hyde Park, transferring them from the shipping containers into the Library containers, arranging them on the shelves, affixing labels, and performing other similar tasks preliminary to safeguarding the holdings of the Library and making them available for use. This work will have to be continued for several years, of course, but to it has been added the work of arranging and cataloging the historical materials so that they may be made available for use, protecting and displaying the museum exhibits, collecting and accounting for the fees paid by visitors, and performing other tasks incident to keeping the Library open to the public.

This

The material in the custody of the Library on September 30, 1941, most of which had been received from the President, included about 2,200 linear feet of manuscripts, about 18,000 books and pamphlets, and about 2,000 museum objects. The exhibition rooms were opened to the public on July 1, and during the next 3 months 28,261 persons paid admission fees amounting to $7,065.25. money is deposited in a special account in the Treasury of the United States and may be expended for the purchase of historical material or equipment for the Library. No admission fees are charged to persons under 16 years of age, and no fees will be charged for the use of the papers and books in the Library when they are made available.

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL REQUESTED

Mr. WOODRUM. I imagine the increase is just about the amount that would be necessary to take you through 1943 on the basis on which you will be operating under the amount that has been allowed to you in the present deficiency bill which is pending?

Dr. BUCK. That is correct; sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. Is that about the story?

Dr. Buck. That is the story; yes.

Mr. WOODRUM. You have had a hearing before the Deficiency Subcommittee and you were allowed $73,500, as I recall it, for additional personnel for the remainder of this fiscal year, and this statement which I have here is a break-down of those positions, is it?

Dr. BUCK. Yes, sir.

Mr. WOODRUM. Can that go in the record?

Dr. BUCK. Yes.

Mr. Woodrum. It is mostly for minor positions?

Mr. HARRIS. The majority of them are minor positions.
Mr. FITZPATRICK. Are they taken from civil service?

Dr. BUCK. Yes.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. All of them?

Dr. BUCK. All of them.

(The statement above referred to is as follows:)

New positions contained in this estimate for the fiscal year 1943, by operating units [NOTE.-All of these positions are included in the third supplemental national defense appropriation bill[

New positions contained in this estimate for the fiscal year 1943, by operating units-Continued

FUNCTIONS AND DUTIES IN CONNECTION WITH PRESERVING, ARRANGING AND SERVICING OF RECORDS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Mr. WOODRUM. Will you give us a little brief resumé of what you are doing and what effect on the Archives the defense program has had?

Dr. BUCK. Mr. Chairman, as this is the first opportunity I have had to appear before this subcommittee, I would like to make a very brief statement, first, of my conception of the function of The National Archives.

I might say, first, that I came to The National Archives in September 1935, and served as Director of Publications and as a member of the Archivist's Advisory Council until September, 1941; when, as a result of the resignation of Dr. Connor, I was appointed Archivist of the United States.

Mr. WOODRUM. Where did you come from, Doctor?

Dr. BUCK. I came here from Pittsburgh, Pa. I had previously spent 17 years as superintendent of the Minnesota Historical Society and 4 years in Pittsburgh as director of the Western Pennsylvania Historical Survey.

I am glad you asked that question, because it has a bearing upon what I should like to say about my conception of the functions of a public archival agency and specifically of The National Archives. I do not consider, as a result of my experience here, that such an agency is or should be primarily a museum for the preservation and exhibition of a few outstanding significant and interesting documents. I do not consider that it is or should be primarily a historical institute for the promotion of research in history, although it accomplishes that purpose to a very considerable extent. I do consider it as essentially one of the service and control agencies of the Federal Government. It is primarily a service agency but it functions as a control agency to a certain extent in connection with the disposal of useless papers. Its function is, as I see it, to assemble, preserve, arrange, describe, and service noncurrent records of the Federal Government that are worthy of permanent preservation. Now, I think it is important to distinguish between noncurrent records and nonactive records. By "noncurrent records" I mean records that are not needed in connection with the regular activities of the agencies that produce or create them. They may be active for other purposes. They may be frequently consulted by other agencies of the Government, or by the general public. But if they are no longer current in the sense of being needed for the regular work of the agency that created them, then they are, in my opinion, appropriate for transfer to and administration by The National Archives.

Now, the objective of preserving these records is, as I see it, to make available to the Government and to the people of the country the past experience of our Government and of the people themselves insofar as that is reflected in the records of the Government. A body of records is a reservoir of human experience and, unless the records are adequately arranged and serviced, that reservoir cannot perform its proper function.

With reference to this budget that is now before you, as the chairman has indicated, the third supplementary appropriation bill, which