Hon. STEVEN B. DEROUNIAN, [Telegram] Member of Congress, House of Representatives: JULY 16, 1955, Nassau County Civil Defense Organization strongly urge enactment of proposals to authorize donation of surplus Government property for civil defense purposes. In the event the city of New York is attacked and Nassau County not hit it is estimated that Nassau would receive minimum of one-half million evacuees from New York City. Therefore dire need for clothing and medical supplies. Surplus property should be available for use in natural disasters as well as emergency caused by enemy attack. Electronic and office equipment needed for organization and training of volunteers at community level. Col. LEWIS M. MERRICK, Director of Civil Defense, County of Nassau. Mr. DEROUNIAN. Mr. Chairman, it goes without saying that I am strongly in favor of this bill. My county is the first county northeast of New York City where some 500,000 evacuees would go in case of an attack; it is the fastest growing county in the United States, and it is one of the great counties of our country. Mr. BROOKS. I think he lives there, gentlemen. Mr. DEROUNIAN. Mr. Chairman, I would like to offer for your consideration the following suggestion: This bill presently before you might also take into account that this property could be used in natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods, and things like that. That might be helpful for the whole country. With that, Mr. Chairman, I will leave you, with my thanks for allowing me to testify. Mr. BROOKS. Thank you very much. We are glad to have had you with us. It has been nice for you to come down. Mr. Ewing, you may proceed now. STATEMENT OF SHERLEY EWING, CIVIL DEFENSE DIRECTOR, STATE OF MARYLAND Mr. EWING. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, Maryland is one of our smaller States, but because of our important city of Baltimore and our proximity to the Nation's Capital, we have one of the tougher civil defense problems. We are very proud to be here supporting our good friendly colleagues of the larger States. Bill McGill and Clarence Huebner have expressed the picture very well and completely. I do not have any real statement that I would like to make. A couple of questions have come up that I perhaps can give a little light on. There has been the question of safeguards against overstockpiling. General Huebner answered that question a bit. The State of Maryland and our major political subdivisions and our civil defense organizations operate on a minimum budget and the civil defense organizations are basically volunteers. That will be a real safeguard. When they face the possibility of the transportation charges and the storage responsibility and cost, there is very little possibility of their wanting anything that they are not very clearly sure they need. I am sure that it will work that way in our State. It is impossible to figure out the savings this might have amounted to in the past. Through the next fiscal year we will have spent out of the State budget pretty close to $1 million in the matching funds program, and that will mean another $1 million of city and county money and $2 million of Federal money. So there is a total of very close to $4 million of property. How much of that would have been surplus, I do not know. Even if it had been a small percentage it would have amounted to a big savings to our State. I would like to say also, without pinning them down to specific legislation, or the details of the administration of it, that both the directors of the State health department and the State education department of the State have assured me that they are heartily in accord and entirely support the idea of this surplus property being made available for civil defense. That is all I have to say. Mr. BROOKS. Do the gentlemen of the committee have any questions? We thank you very much. I would now like to present to the committee Col. John Maginnis, civil defense director of the State of Massachusetts. STATEMENT OF COL. JOHN MAGINNIS, CIVIL DEFENSE DIRECTOR, STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS Colonel MAGINNIS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I would like to state that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is very much in favor of H. R. 4660, or 7227. I think the decision will have to come on a little higher level than ours as to exactly how it is to be handled at the Federal level. As you gentlemen know, in Massachusetts the Massachusetts delegation down here has been very interested in this whole matter and the majority leader, Mr. McCormack, has taken a personal interest in it. I think the reason for that is because we have so many problems in Massachusetts that are going to be materially helped if surplus material is made available to the States. In a meeting of this kind it tends to become repetitious, and I do not want to go into a lot of detail about the money to be saved. I think that we all understand that. We all have much matching fund accounts of some size. We feel that much money can be saved on those. Please realize, gentlemen, these matching funds come from towns and cities, some of which can ill afford to spend the money for civil defense. We are now faced with the problem of evacuation. Whereas in the past the largest cities like Boston, Springfield, and Worcester have been able to finance their civil-defense organizations because of their size, we are now faced with a situation where we are going to have to move the people from those centers and we are going to have the rely upon the small towns, the small communities in the State, to take care of the situation. We have 5 million people in the State of Massachusetts. We are going to have to move 3 million of them. Obviously, where some of the smaller communities can sit back in the past that day is now gone. They cannot do it any more. Everyone is going to have to do something. They are either going to have to move people, or receive them. They are going to need supplies to do it. The cities themselves have to give a lot of thought to mobile control centers. I am sure that some of that equipment is going to be available under this program. This program also is going to do something else outside of the money part of it; it is going to put actual materials and equipment in the hands of the people that have to use it. It is going to act as a training program in a practical way; one which I am sorry to say we do not always have now. I think it is going to be a big morale factor also. I think it is going to assist local civil defense directors who certainly have a hard time recuiting people for civil defense in allowing materials to be put in the hands of these people. Now, some mention has been made here of disaster and the value of this material in a disaster. I think perhaps in Massachusetts we are in a position to realize, probably more than any State in the Union, the value of this material for disaster. We have had the Worcester tornado and we have had two rather destructive hurricanes of last fall. I can tell you quite frankly we had cause for a great deal more equipment than we are able to supply. That equipment chiefly was of things like pumps and of course generators. I think that we must have this material in our hands. It is not going to do any good to have it some place else in the Government if the emergency strikes. We have to have it, and we have to be able to distribute it and use it. I would say if the Congress acts favorably upon allowing civil defense to obtain surplus materials, it is going to put money in our pockets and I think it is going to put tools in our hands, and I think it is going to put courage in the hearts of the civil-defense people that have to do a rather thankless job. Thank you very much. Mr. BROOKS. We want to thank you for your time and trouble and for a good statement. If there are no questions, I would like now to present to the subcommittee Dr. Richard Gurstell, civil defense director, State of Pennsylvania. That is the State of Pennsylvania, not the Commonwealth? I made that error a moment ago. STATEMENT OF DR. RICHARD GURSTELL, CIVIL DEFENSE DIRECTOR, STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA Dr. GURSTELL. It is the Commonwealth, sir. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee, and I might say by way of introduction, if you have not already received it you will shortly receive from the Governor a telegram indicating the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's wholehearted endorsement of this proposed legislation, and that, of course, represents all departments of the Commonwealth including, health, education, welfare and all the others. I do not want to go into any more repetition. I think the case has been pretty well stated. I would like to make several points. First of all, we consider this equipment, materials, and supplies, vital to not only emergency operations, but to everyday operations. We feel that civil defense basically should be but an expansion of existing facilities. This equipment and these materials and supplies can be used to expand on a commonsense basis public agencies that are already in existence and doing the job. The material will not only be used in the event of a disaster, but it can be used every day. As far as its being taken care of, I can assure you that that which might be made available to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania will be treated and cared for properly, just as all other Commonwealth property. I feel the same is true with regard to the counties and the bureaus and the cities and the other political subdivisions. They are in a position to accept the equipment and to use it, house it, and care for it properly, and I think there will be no problem there. The only possible difficulty I can see as the result of the passage of the pending legislation would be that we might get bogged down in paperwork in trying to account for numerous minor items some 20, 30, or 50 years hence. I think that there is undoubtedly a part of this equipment that would fall in that category; numbers of 3-cent police whistles, and we could get bogged down trying to keep a permanent record on where every 3-cent police whistle went. I think that some of the material will have to be written off, but the major items of equipment I am sure can be, and will be, accounted for, cared for and properly used for essential public service. Mr. RIEHLMAN. That would come under your direction in the State of Pennsylvania? Dr. GURSTALL. Yes, sir. Mr. BROOKS. Gentlemen of the subcommittee and Dr. Gurstell, we have already received this telegram that you referred to and I would like to read it and submit it for the record at this point. It is addressed to the Special Government Activities Subcommittee of the House of Representatives on Government Operations. [Reading:] Have just learned that your committee shortly will hold hearings on your bill H. R. 7227 further amending Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 to authorize disposal of surplus Government owned property of civil defense organizations of the States and political subdivisions thereof. As Governor and as a member of the State council of civil defense I ask that you take such steps as may be necessary formally to record the fact that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania strongly favors enactment of legislation which will make vitally needed surplus Government equipment, materials, and supplies available to State and local defense organizations as authorized by H. R. 7227. Your cooperation in this matter will be deeply appreciated. We have received from MARS, military amateur radio system, a radiogram which came in addressed to Mr. Jack Brooks, chairman of the Special Government Activities Subcommittee. It states as follows: We urge favorable action on House bill 7227. It is signed by Mr. Toothman, Council Civil Defense, Greene County, Pa. Now, I would like for you to know that the Commonwealth is very well represented as indicated by this large group of telegrams and letters that have been sent in support of your position. We will submit these for the record at this point. (The material referred to follows:) Hon. JACK BROOKS, HARRISBURG, PA., July 18, 1955. Chairman, Special Government Activities Subcommittee, House Office Building, Washington, D. C.: Have just learned that your committee shortly will hold hearings on your bill, H. R. 7227, further amending Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 to authorize disposal of surplus Government owned property of civil defense organizations of the States and political subdivisions thereof. As Governor and as a member of the State council of civil defense I ask that you take 65810-55-5 such steps as may be necessary formally to record the fact that the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania strongly favors enactment of legislation which will make vitally needed surplus Government equipment, materials, and supplies available to State and local civil defense organizations as authorized by H. R. 7227. Your cooperation in this matter will be deeply appreciated. GEORGE M. LEADER, Governor. TELEGRAMS SUPPORTING H. R. 7227 Judge Paul S. Lehman, director, Mifflin County civil defense, Lewistown, Pa. Norman H. Flores, Lehigh County civil defense director, Allentown, Pa. C. E. Barcelow, president, Emporium Cameron County Chamber of Commerce, Emporium, Pa. Dale L. Murphy, county coordinator, Cumberland County civil defense, Carlisle, Pa. Carl E. Sheldon, McKean County director of civil defense, Bradford, Pa. Dr. K. W. Bertram, Saegertown, Pa. Howard Thomas, Westmoreland County civil defense director, Greensburg, Pa. E. E. Madigan Burges, Linesville, Pa. Foster Eimers, Cambridge Springs, Pa. Bart Petrini, director, southern sector civil defense, Scranton, Pa. John B. McDade, director, Lackawanna County civil defense, Scranton, Pa. Judge Herman M. Rodgers, director of civil defense, Simons County, Mercer, Pa. Grant Wheeler, northern director Lackawanna County Civil Defense, Scranton, Pa. Mayor Frank P. Kelly, Scranton, Pa. Lloyd M. Morris, director of civil defense, Blair County, Altoona, Pa. J. S. Campbell, Jr., director, Butler County civil defense, Butler, Pa. Mayor Raymond E. Garlock, New Kensington, Pa. Wesley Perry, Civil Defense Coordinator, Bradford County, Towanda, Pa. Pat Farrell, commissioner of Cambria County, Edensburg, Pa. Lloyd A. Grammes, executive director, Allentown civil defense, Allentown, Pa. Mayor Kendig C. Bare, Lancaster, Pa. Fred W. Davis, director of civilian defense, Monroe County, Stroudsburg, Pa. Benjamin O. Hertlein, Cameron County civil defense director, Emporium, Pa. William C. Fuellhart, director, Warren County civil defense, Warren, Pa. G. W. Marbach, director, Indiana County Civil Defense Council of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pa. Herbert S. Bolger, president, the board of Blair County Commissioners, Hollidaysburg, Pa. Howard B. Fox, director, Chamber of Commerce of Lewistown and Mifflin County, Lewistown, Pa. Col. A. M. Heritage, director Bucks County Council of Civil Defense, Doylestown, Pa. A. E. Hoover, civil defense director, New Cumberland, Pa. A. E. Barcelow, president, Emporium Cameron County Chamber of Commerce, Emporium, Pa. John B. Sullivan, director of Allegheny County and Pittsburgh Civil Defense, Edward M. Carroll, commissioner of Luzerne County, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Mayor Frank Binda, Jeannette, Pa. Robert Lloyd, president, Board of Luzerne County Commissioners, WilkesBarre, Pa. Edward P. Little, director, Susquehanna County Civil Defense, Montrose, Pa. Herman C. Kersteen, commissioner of Luzerne County, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Max Bloomberg, director, civil defense, county of Cambria, Johnstown, Pa. Emanuel Rodgers, Tyrone, Pa. |