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Uniontown-Connelsville.

Wilkes Barre-Hazleton.
Williamsport.

Rhode Island: Providence.

South Carolina:

Walterboro.

Tennessee:

Texas: Texarkana, Tex.-Ark.

Vermont:

Burlington.

Virginia:

Washington: Tacoma.

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West Virginia:

Puerto Rico: Mayaguez.

Wisconsin: La Crosse.

1 Data are on a net basis, representing the value of new awards and contract increases
minus value of contract terminations and decreases reported by the military departments.
2 Data cover the period July 1 through Dec. 31, 1955, except that those areas and indus-
tries which have been designated as labor surplus areas subsequent to July 1, 1955, include
only contracts awarded after the date of designation, and those areas whose surplus desig-
nation have been withdrawn include only contracts awarded prior to the withdrawal
date. Contracts awarded prior to July 1, 1955, are summarized in preceding issues of this
report.

3 Prior to Jan. 1, 1954, the date of Office of Defense Mobilization approval. Beginning
with Jan. 1, 1954, this is the date the Department of Labor designated the area as an

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List of rapid tax amortization certificates issued for facilities to be located in surplus labor areas

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Mr. BATT. I would hope, too, that the defense limitation could be stricken out of it, because that defense limitation has certainly impeded its usefulness, and in the Douglas bill the defense limitation is out.

The only other point I was anxious to make was the one that Mr. Ashley brought up about ever-available plants built in these areas would vastly help lick the problem, and you said that you weren't limited by any of the provisions that are in this bill.

This idea is not included in this bill, although it was recommended in the Sparkman committee's report.

Very briefly, sir, of the two bills, it seems to me the Douglas bill is rather the better instrument. However, I would like to see many of the administration bill proposals included in whatever comes out of this committee. I feel if you can provide loans in realistic amounts, at realistic terms, if you can provide technical assistance to help these areas help themselves, if you can provide public works, if you can provide channeling of Government contracts, if you can provide special tax amortization, if you can provide readjustment assistance for the individual worker which is provided in the Douglas bill, not in the administration bill, and if you can provide a workable and centralized and responsible administration, you will have an instrument that holds out the greatest promise of solving this critical problem of area unemployment in the United States of any proposal that has ever come out of the Congress.

I wish you every good luck.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Batt. We are very glad to have your statement. It has been very clear and very convincing. Now we will let you go and catch your plane.

Mr. BATT. Thank you, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. The next witness I understand is the Honorable James Mead, of New York, who for many years served with great distinction in the House of Representatives, and then he has served with great distinction in the Senate and our relation with him was such that we are always glad to see him come before our committee and give his views about any question we are investigating.

STATEMENT OF HON. JAMES MEAD, OF NEW YORK

Mr. MEAD. Mr. Chairman and members of the committeeMr. MULTER. Mr. Chairman, before the distinguished commissioner starts, I think we ought to mention that he rendered yoeman service as a member of the Federal Trade Commission and now he is rendering distinguished service as an official of our New York Department of Commerce.

The CHAIRMAN. I didn't intend to mention the positions he has held or the great work he has done. We are always glad to have him come before our committee.

Mr. MEAD. It might also be said I was also an advocate of law and order, since I started on the Police Force here in the Capitol.

Mr. Chairman and members of committee, I certainly appreciate those complimentary remarks, both by the chairman and Representative Multer.

I am here as a director of commerce for our State, to express the approval of the New York State Department of Commerce for the

principle included in this measure, and that probably applies equally for the principle that applies in the legislation that has been introduced, both here and in the Senate, having to do with the rehabilitation of depressed areas.

Our principal interest probably stems from the fact that we have a major depressed area in our State. It is sometimes referred to as the entire Mohawk Valley area.

At one time a very prosperous area, but with the glove market diminishing, particularly among males, with consolidations affecting our carpetmaking industry, and with textiles relocating, the Mohawk Valley area, including the communities of Rome, Amsterdam, Gloversville, and Útica, have at times in the last several years reached an unemployment of 8 percent.

Now, we wouldn't be able to qualify under the terms of all the bills because for minor periods within the limitation of 18 months prescribed, particularly in one of the bills, we may have increased employment so that it amounted to, say, 7 percent, and therefore, I would suggest an overall review of the provisions of these bills, together with a study of the areas that we are attempting to improve, because where an area over a long period of time is depressed, and at times above and at times below the prescribed percentage, it may be entitled to equal consideration to a community that is just under the required percentage for the limit prescribed, which in one of the bills in 18 months. Therefore, I recommend a sort of a study of that provision so as to take in areas where unemployment has occurred for longer periods, but not always of a percentage of eligibility as prescribed by the bill.

New York State is well prepared to meet the requirements of the bill before us, and the other bills that have been introduced.

We have a department of commerce that is both effective and efficient, and well-financed by the legislature. It can give planning, guidance, technological help, to the business community of our State. We have a business development corporation that is now about ready to make its first loan. I believe that this development corporation, which is created by act of the legislature and entirely financed by private capital, has a loaning capacity as of today of 10 or 12 million dollars. They will help serve the business community, and so we are in a position to go along with the measure enacted by the Congress for the rehabilitation of these depressed areas. We will have a plan. We will have local guidance. We will have the required financing.

Now, in view of the fact that I am only to give general approval to the legislation, rather than recommendations for amendments and to furnish you with a lot of statistics, I will say to you that from my experience over a period of years, this is a very timely and a vastly important study on your part. There is great need for legislation of this character, first of all and above all, and from my experiences as a member of the Truman committee and later as its chairman, we require the rehabilitation of these depressed areas as an important adjunct to our national security.

It is as essentially necessary that we have an industrial capacity that has no depressed pockets, or pools, as it is that we have a prosperous agriculture or a big Army or Navy.

We made a study, a sort of a hasty study, of some of these areas during the war, to see if we couldn't get their skilled workers and their

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