Mr. Downs. Are the offices in New York and Chicago in leased quarters?

Mr. LATIMER. In Chicago we occupy leased quarters, and in New York we are housed in the post-office annex. We leased quarters in New York until early this year, when we were finally able to get into Federal space.

Mr. Downs. When an employee of a railroad retires, is the rate of retirement pay determined by the Railroad Retirement Board?

Mr. LATIMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. Downs. It is?

Mr. LATIMER. Yes, sir.

Mr. Downs. Is that uniform?

Mr. LATIMER. Yes, sir; it is uniform, and it is applicable to every employee of all railroads on a uniform basis. The formula for detérmining the amount of benefit is specified in the Railroad Retirement Act, and the determination as to the eligibility of any employee to receive a benefit and the amount he receives are determined by the Railroad Retirement Board.

Mr. Downs. I understand from your testimony here that you are of the opinion that because of the large number of contracts that the Railroad Retirement Board has with other governmental agencies that the agency would not be as effective as it is at the present time if it were moved to some other city.

Mr. LATIMER. Yes, sir; we are firmly of that opinion, and I would like to emphasize that again. I have here 25 or 30 pages giving lists of our contacts, their nature and frequency. I would like to ask for permission to put the details in the record.

Mr. Downs. That would be fine. We will be glad to receive it. Mr. LATIMER. It is in great detail and is a fair analysis. It was made about 6 months ago. There are changes in the contacts, for example, as we have a new and rather important one now with the Veterans' Administration and the War Department. Recently credit has been given under the Railroad Retirement Act for military service. Now, in order to get that claim cleared, we must clear with the Veterans' Administration and sometimes with either the War or the Navy Departments, as they raise various questions about the records. Mr. Downs. You can submit that report to the reporter. (The data above referred to is as follows:)

CONTACTS WITH OTHER AGENCIES OF THE GOVERNMENT LOCATED IN WASHINGTON

A survey has been made of the contacts that various organization units within the Board have with other government agencies in Washington. The survey discloses the following:

BUREAU OF LAW

1. Interstate Commerce Commission. Much of the data on which coverage determinations are based is derived from Interstate Commerce Commission sources, requiring personal search and examination of records and consultation with Interstate Commerce Commission employees. One member of the staff devotes virtually his full time to this work, and the other members of the staff have occasion to make such contacts approximately 30 times per month.

2. Department of Justice. The fact that the Department of Justice handles tax litigation under the Carriers Taxing Act and fraud prosecutions under the Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Insurance Acts, plus the fact that litigation under the Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Insurance Acts requires service on the Attorney General when action is brought against the Board, requires the maintenance of fairly constant contact with this Department. Occasions for such contacts arise approximately 20 times per month.

3. Treasury Department.-Coverage determinations are constantly coordinated with the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and, in addition, other questions arising in the course of administration involve contacts with the office of the General Counsel and the Bureau of Accounts. There are approximately 25 personal contacts with the Treasury Department per month.

4. Social Security Board.-Coordination of coverage determinations principally but to a lesser extent other problems also, require frequent consultation with representatives of the Social Security Board. These consultations occur approximately 20 times per month.

5. National Mediation Board.-Since the Railway Labor Act and the Railroad Retirement Acts have substantially the same coverage, there is occasion for consultation with persons in that Agency, or for the consultation of records in that Agency, approximately eight times per month.

6. Wage and Hour Division, Department of Labor.-Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, an industry committee for the railroad industry has been established and its jurisdiction defined in terms substantially identical to the coverage of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. Mutual problems arising through this circumstance, plus other matters of mutual interest arising from time to time through peculiarities of the railroad industry, are responsible for about five contacts per month with the Wage and Hour Division. 7. National Archives.--In the conduct of research upon legal problems, there is occasion to consult documents stored in the National Archives about twice a month.

8. Veterans' Administration.-A variety of questions arising out of a general similarity of our activities to those of the Veterans' Administration result in approximately four contacts per month with the Veterans' Administration.

9. General Accounting Office.-On legal problems relating to administrative expenditures, the General Counsel and members of his staff have occasion to consult three or four times per month with the General Accounting Office.

10. Miscellaneous. In addition to the agencies with which fairly constant personal contact is maintained, problems arise from time to time, which in the aggregate are fairly numerous, requiring personal contact with such other agencies as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Department of Agriculture, the State Department, and the subcommittee of the Senate Interstate Commerce Committee Investigating Railroad Financing.

BUREAU OF RESEARCH AND INFORMATION SERVICE

1. Bureau of Research and Statistics of the Social Security Board.-A minimum of 10 to 15 contacts by telephone and personal conference per month is required in connection with the joint publication of periodic and special articles on railroad retirement and railroad unemployment insurance for the monthly bulletin of the Social Security Board. Also, the Social Security Board obtains for its own purpose monthly data on railroad-retirement and railroad-unemployment insurance operations for inclusion in periodic general surveys of social-security operations. From time to time the Social Security Board publishes annual reviews and summaries for which data are either furnished or checked by the Railroad Retirement Board.

2. Bureau of Old Age and Survivors Insurance of the Social Security Board.A study of wages of railroad workers with employment under the Social Security Act is being carried on in cooperation with this bureau of the Social Security Board. This study requires frequent conferences with respect to the organization of the material, the analysis of the results, and the form or publication. The current study covers the period from 1937 to 1939. The study completed last year was limited to the year 1937. Studies of this type are likely to be of current character, because they help to solve and anticipate complex administrative and financial problems of overlapping coverage.

A study is also being made of individuals receiving annuities and survivor benefits under the railroad-retirement and old-age and survivors' insurance system. 3. Bureau of Employment Security of the Social Security Board. It is frequently necessary to compare the results of operations under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act with those under the general Federal-State unemployment insurance system, the operation of which is supervised by the Bureau of Employment Security. The contacts consist of obtaining unpublished material from the Bureau of Employment Security and assistance from the members of its staff in checking the results of the operations of the general unemployment insurance system. On the other hand, the Bureau of Employment Security frequently

requires our assistance in interpreting data on operations under the railroad unemployment insurance system.

In addition to these periodic contacts by the Bureau of Research and Information Service of the Railroad Retirement Board and the several branches of the Social Security Board, there are frequent contacts relating to all manner of problems requiring mutual aid and reciprocal action, including such matters as proposals for new legislation or amendments to old legislation; the determination of standard terminology and reporting procedure; general conferences on research methods, objectives, and accomplishments, etc. These are in many respects more important than the periodic contacts and are arranged by telephone conversation or personal conferences.

4. Interstate Commerce Commission. The Bureau of Research and Information Service has very frequent contacts with the Bureau of Statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The classification of employers used in the statistics and reports of the Railroad Retirement Board follows that of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and it is frequently necessary to determine by telephone or personal contact the classification assigned to particular employers by the Interstate Commerce Commission. In addition, the adjudication of special types of annuity claims requires wage data by occupations from the unpublished wage reports of individual employers to the Commission. In the estimation of probable annual collections under the Carriers Taxing Act, on which congressional appropriations to the railroad retirement account are based, and in the estimation of current liabilities under the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, it is necessary to obtain from the Interstate Commerce Commission, in advance of publication, the reports received from individual railroads on employment and earnings.

There are many studies essential to the operation of the Bureau which are undertaken and carried through on the basis of easy access to the records of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

5. Bureau of Internal Revenue.-Contacts with this Bureau have been very frequent since the passage of the Unemployment Insurance Act in connection with determination of the amounts due the railroad unemployment insurance administration fund under section 11 (b) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act. There have been frequent telephone and personal contacts to determine methods and procedures to be followed. In carrying out this work, it is necessary to have members of the Bureau occasionally work for several days at a time at the Bureau of Internal Revenue checking against the tax returns from individual railroad employers. In checking the amounts due the railroad unemployment insurance fund from State funds under section 13 (c) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, it is occasionally necessary to reconcile the figures reported by States for particular employers with the returns to the Bureau of Internal Revenue. 6. Division of Research of the United States Treasury.-Annually it is necessary to reconcile estimates of tax collections under the Carriers Taxing Act, on which congressional appropriations to the railroad retirement account are based with the budgetary estimates of the Division of Research of the United States Treasury. This reconciliation involves a number of conferences and the interchange of data on which the several estimates are based. Throughout the rest of the year there is some contact to see whether actual results are in line with estimates.

7. National Mediation Board. In connection with the adjudication of employment relation, it is necessary to consult rules in labor agreements bearing on employment relation. The Board maintains a file of such agreements covering August 29, 1935, only, but the Mediation Board maintains a current file of these agreements. Members of the Bureau consult the agreement files of the Mediation Board when it is necessary to obtain agreements for periods subsequent to 1935. Contacts are also made less regularly with National Mediation Board officials in connection with Adjustment Board decisions bearing on employment relation and the union representation of certain classes of employees.

8. Executive Offices of the President.-The Bureau has been preparing for the National Resources Planning Board a report on the position of labor in the transportation industry. Preparation of this report has required several conferences and telephone contacts each month with personnel of the National Resources Planning Board assigned to this study.

Over the past few months there have been telephone and personal contacts averaging about one a week, to supply data and to review manuscript relating to the railroad retirement and unemployment insurance systems for a study of relief and social insurance being undertaken by the staff of the National Resources Planning Board.

Contacts are maintained with the Division of Statistical Standards of the Bureau of the Budget.

9. United States Public Health Service.-The United States Public Health Service, under the Federal Security Administration, is attempting to obtain as much standardization as possible of disability classification. The staff of the Bureau has participated in several conferences on this subject, inasmuch as the Bureau, in cooperation with the Disability Rating Board, maintains a system of classifying annuitants who have been granted annuities on account of total and permanent disability.

10. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor.-Intermittent, on the average once a week; assisting the Division of Occupational Outlook in making estimates of demand and supply of labor in various occupations in the railroad industry strategic for defense preparedness.

Obtaining assistance from the Division of Mechanical Tabulations in carrying through a number of tabulating projects which our own Bureau of Wage and Service Records cannot handle. The most recent example of this is the study of annuitants and pensioners as of December 31, 1940, completed in May 1941. 11. Division of Labor Standards, Department of Labor.-Intermittent, on the average once a month; helping them in preparation of material for the Federal handbook of labor laws covering Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts.

Obtaining material from them in regard to legislation governing employment of

seamen.

12. Office of Production Management, Labor Division.-Intermittent, on the average twice a month. We are at present conducting a survey for this agency of available labor supply in the railroad industry that could be transferred to defense production.

13. Maritime Commission.-Intermittent, on the average twice a month; the Maritime Commission has prepared in collaboration with us an estimate of the coverage of the maritime unemployment insurance bill now pending in Congress. The Maritime Commission has also undertaken to inform us currently of changes in the maritime labor market concerning employment, wage rates, etc.

14. Maritime Labor Board.---Intermittent, on the average once a month; the Board has made a number of studies concerning union organization, spells of employment and unemployment among seamen, and of other topics, which are important in the preparatory work on maritime unemployment insurance. Such results of these studies as are directly relevant to unemployment insurance have been worked up in collaboration with members of our staff.

15. Association of American Railroads (Bureau of Railway Economics and Finance, Accounting, Taxation, and Valuation Department), railway department of the American Federation of Labor, and the standard railway labor organization.-Frequent, though irregular, contacts. The contacts arise mainly from the need of these organizations for statistical and other material on the operation of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts and on possible amendments to them. Another reason for contacts is the use made both by the management and organized labor of the wage and earnings data compiled by the Board in Nation-wide wage negotiations as well as in cases involving individual carriers or designated groups of employees.

These organizations generally receive the currently published material of the Board as a matter of course. The special contacts, referred to above, arise from the need for material not regularly published. The contact is made either in person or over the telephone. The organization, as to kind of data available, states its purpose and frequently redefines, on the basis of the conversation, the specifications of the table or other statement which it requests us to prepare.

Occasionally there are also situations in which the Board addresses itself to these organizations for assistance. A recent example is the survey being made by the Board for the Office of Production Management. In this survey the assistance of the Association of American Railroads was heavily relied upon in contacting their members, and the labor organizations were particularly helpful in drawing the questionnaire forms.

16. Miscellaneous.-The following table describes briefly the miscellaneous contacts which the Bureau of Research has with other organizations in Washington. Only organizations with which regular contacts are maintained are listed.