vidual man is assigned to an individual task. In other words, there are a lot of cells which later we brought together.

Regrettably, Mr. Fairbank has not recovered completely and he has not been able to spend more than about half his time, in my judgment, since last summer on this work, which handicapped the bringing together of the factual data and completing the report.

Referring specifically to the effect on various bills, as far as the codification is concerned, that was completed on time by the Bureau's legal division.

As for the other two bills, before we undertook this job I discussed the matter with the Secretary as to the advisability of securing outside counsel and assistance, recognizing the magnitude of the problem. You gentlemen may be interested to know that a consulting firm will take about a year to evaluate the feasibility of a toll road. In this case we were required to do the same thing for the entire United States, evaluate all the roads, within a period of substantially less than a year. So it was a big job.

The Secretary asked me if Public Roads was in a position to do this work and I told him that I felt that there was no question about it, barring unforeseen circumstances. Two unforeseen circumstances have arisen. One, the illness of the man in charge of the work. And secondly, the demands on our staff to supply data to the governors' committee as well as the Clay committee. Regrettably, the data could not be supplied as a complete study on time. It had to be developed piecemeal as the 48 States would bring their data to us, so that it was a constant case of revision and augmenting to complete factual data, so far as highway needs were concerned, from the 48 States.

In the case of the utilities, that was a cooperative study with the utilities. Public Roads was entirely dependent on the utility organizations supplying the data. We had no method whereby we could accelerate or force them to supply the data. The data was not always comprehensive and we would have to go back for further information. The date for the utility study was not completed by the utilities until the 10th of December.

It was just physically impossible, gentlemen, in view of those circumstances, lack of control and other circumstances, illness on the part of the Director, and the demands by the governors committee and the Clay committee, it was physically impossible to comply with the direction of Congress.

Senator GORE. Have you finished with your statement in response to Senator Case?

Mr. DU PONT. To those three points; yes, sir.

Senator GORE. Do you anticipate that the studies, the reports, will soon be available for the committee?

Mr. DU PONT. I discussed that matter at length with Mr. Fairbank, who now comes to the office about half the time, and, while we have asked for a 60-day extension, I should be quite disappointed if it is not available within half that time. That was from February 1. In other words, I should think shortly after March 1.

These reports must be cleared by the Bureau of the Budget. I do not know whether there may be any delay there.

Senator GORE. If I understand your statement correctly, you made available to the Governors Conference and to General Clay's commit

tee segments of the studies, but you felt that your obligation to this committee was to present a unified completed study?

Mr. DU PONT. The law is very clear. We not only must supply the committee with the highway needs, but an evaluation of the financing, the economic aspects, the feasibility of toll roads, and their effect on a free highway system. That is a whole lot more.

Senator GORE. Senator Martin?

Senator MARTIN. I have no questions.

Senator GORE. Do any members of the committee have any questions on that particular point before Mr. du Pont presents his written statement?

Senator CASE. Mr. Chairman, not a question, but I would like to say that I think the reasons for the delay are reasons that are appealing. I do think that the committee should have been apprised of the request for the extension of time and any information given to the members of the committee along this line.

Before he proceeds to his statement, however, I should like Mr. du Pont to state in more detail what his present capacity is, and whether or not he is on the Federal payroll at this time, and if so in what way.

Mr. DU PONT. It became evident to me in the latter part of the fall that it would be physically impossible for me to discharge the prescribed duties of the Commissioner of Public Roads, and at the same time give the maximum assistance to the extent that I am able to assist the Members of Congress in evaluating such highway problems as might be presented to the Congress.

I have visited 40 of the 48 States in the last 15 months. I have met every chief engineer of every State. I visited every highway commission. I do not profess to know all of their problems, but I do state that within 15 months I have visited every State and discussed with those men their problems.

I happen to have been a member of the Association of State Highway Officials for over 30 years, so that it is not a new contact.

It seemed to me the maximum contribution that I could supply would be through making myself available to the Members of Congress, knowing full well I could not do this and also discharge the other responsibilities as Commissioner. I discussed the matter with the Secretary of Commerce in October and announced at the meeting of the Association of State Highway Officials in early November that soon after the first of the year I would resign as Commissioner, and coincidentally announced that my deputy, Mr. C. D. Curtiss, who had been in charge of the administration and finance work of the Bureau for many years, would succeed me, and that I would be assigned to the Secretary's Office.

That action was not finally completed until about a month ago. It was understood that I was to be an Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce. Frankly, I did not know until last week, when I went over to get my commission, that I am a Consultant to the Secretary of Commerce. The reason for that, I believe, was that I refused to accept any compensation acting in a capacity which is not a prescribed one, and there is some question as to whether one can act as a special assistant to the Secretary without compensation.

I therefore am officially a consultant to the Secretary of Commerce without compensation, in which position I am very happy to continue

to serve so long as I can be helpful in solving this very vital problem to our future.

Senator MARTIN. Mr. Chairman?
Senator GORE. Senator Martin.

Senator MARTIN. For the benefit of the new members of the committee, I think it would be well if Mr. du Pont would explain his work with highways. You know it and so do I, but I think it would be of benefit to the newer members of our committee.

Mr. DU PONT. Senator Martin, as a young man, in those days we did not have the diversion, shall we say, that we have today, of motor vehicles and highways. Many of us accepted employment during the summer holidays, and since I happen to enjoy outdoor life, I did some surveying.

Subsequently I went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which university I am a graduate. At that time the First World War interrupted the lives of many of us and I became an instructor at the United States School of Military Aeronautics which was established by the United States Government in Boston, Mass. I had become a licensed airplane pilot in 1915, and therefore became available for that service.

On the termination of the conflict I accepted a position with the du Pont Co. and that, if you will recall, was the beginning of the importation of German chemists for the development of the chemical industry in this country, and I was with what was then called the experimental department.

I continued in that position for some years and subsequently terminated by association with the du Pont Čo. About that time, in 1922, which goes back to the beginning of the Federal-Aid Highway Acts, I was made a member of the highway commission in Delaware. That position at that time did not and still does not pay any compensation. There were five commissioners. Within 3 years I was chairman of the commission, which position I retained I think for approximately 24

years.

I came to the Bureau of Public Roads on April 1, 1953. My interests in highways has always been an avocation, and not a profession. Senator GORE. Are there further preliminary questions? Senator MCNAMARA. Yes. Are you on some contract now where you receive some compensation, or are you just a free agent?

Mr. DU PONT. I have no compensation whatsoever from the United States Government.

Senator MCNAMARA. I know that. I mean from some private organization.

Mr. DU PONT. No, sir.

Senator MCNAMARA. Do you sell your services to States?

Mr. DU PONT. I do not sell my services. I have no commitments to anybody.

Senator CASE. Not even a dollar-a-year man?

Mr. DU PONT. Not even a dollar, as far as I know.

Senator GORE. I am sure I can voice the sentiment of all of the members who have previously served on this committee, and I dare say the new ones, that we appreciate the service that you have rendered to the cause of good highways in this country.

Mr. DU PONT. It is a privilege to continue one's hobby.

Senator GORE. If there are no further questions, will you proceed with your prepared statement?

Mr. DU PONT. Mr. Sinclair Weeks, Secretary of Commerce, was invited by your committee, by letter on February 14, 1955, to testify at hearings today on S. 1048. However, as you were informed by Secretary Weeks by letter on February 16, 1955, other matters would require him to be out of the city today, and he requested me to appear in his behalf.

There is widespread agreement that positive steps must be taken to insure that the Nation's highway deficiencies will not become a straitjacket to the continued growth of important aspects of our economy. Last July, before the Governors Conference, Vice President Nixon, in behalf of the President said that the building of an adequate highway system is one of the big domestic jobs we must commence without delay in order to secure the future of America. The President called for "a Grand Plan for a properly articulated system" to overtake the accumulating obsolescence of our present facilities and to meet the needs of a growing population and expanding economy together with the requirements of the military and civil defense. He subsequently stated that under existing State and Federal laws and authorizations our highway improvement programs could not be sufficiently accelerated to realize this objective.

In response to the President's invitation, the Governors authorized an immediate study and report. The President simultaneously created an interagency committee within the executive branch of the Government to consider the problem from the standpoint of Federal interest in roads and their financing.

Additionally, the President appointed in September an Advisory Committee on a National Highway Program, with General Lucius D. Clay as chairman. This committee worked closely with the Governors Committee and the Interagency Committee. After thoroughly studying the nature of our highway deficiencies, a program was recommended to the President to provide for these needs.

The President, as you know, is studying the Clay proposals and advised the Congress in his state of the Union message that he is preparing his recommendations. Later, in his budget message, Presiden Eisenhower said:

I plan to send a special message to the Congress in the near future recommending a program of coordinated action by Federal, State, and local governments, to overcome major highway deficiencies.

The needs of the several systems for the next 10 years are set forth in the Clay committee report, which found that a major portion of our highway facilities are seriously deficient. We have 58 million motor vehicles now and these are expected to increase to 81 million by 1965, an increase of 40 percent. Miles of travel generated by these vehicles reached the astronomical total of 557 billion in 1954 and are predicted to reach 814 billion by 1965.

The Council of State Governments reported to the President that "an adequate highway system is vital to the continued expansion of the economy." Industry and employment directly related to the highway transportation system and its byproducts account for about one-seventh of our total national product.

Aside from these economic considerations, the paramount factor of highway safety cannot be ignored. As President Eisenhower has said, we have an "annual highway death toll comparable to the casualties of a bloody war, beyond calculation in dollar terms." This tragic toll can be substantially reduced by replacement of obsolete and dangerous facilities with roads of modern design.

In the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1954, the Congress directed that studies be made of all phases of highway financing, including a study of the costs of completing the several systems of highways. The Bureau of Public Roads, in the Department of Commerce, with cooperation of State highway departments and local units of government, undertook this study.

Preliminary findings were utilized by the Clay committee and form the basis for some recommendations. As the Congress has been advised, this financing study is nearing completion and will be forwarded to the Congress within the next few weeks.

While the President's message on this matter has not been delivered to the Congress, the advisory committee's report has been in general circulation for some weeks, and I have additional copies here for the use of your committee.

As you know, a bipartisan meeting has been called by the President for this afternoon with congressional leaders, to which the chairman. of this committee has been invited, to discuss the forthcoming Presidential recommendations.

In view of the foregoing, obviously it would be premature for me to comment, at this time, on any specific legislative proposals.

The Bureau of the Budget has advised that it has no objection to the views expressed in this statement.

That is the end of my statement. Mr. Curtiss has much factual data for the committee.

Senator GORE. We will want to hear Commissioner Curtiss after you have finished. If it is agreeable with the committee I will alternate in the usual way in the recognition of members of the committee. Senator Thurmond?

Senator THURMOND. Mr. du Pont, is it your opinion that this program is essential to the welfare of the country?

Mr. DU PONT. Senator Thurmond, I think the highway program is as essential to our economic well-being, our military defense and civil defense consider it as such, as the circulatory system is to an individual's body. It is part of the production line and the distributing line for our standard of living.

Senator THURMOND. Do you feel that the Federal Government should undertake this program itself entirely, or do you feel it would be better for the States to undertake the program with some funds provided by the Federal Government?

Mr. DU PONT. I feel that that is a matter of the respective responsibilities of the Federal Government and the States. The Governors Conference has recommended that approximately 30 percent of the cost of the program be borne by the Federal Government.

I was not in the conferences held by the governors, but that was their opinion.

Senator THURMOND. Under the plan under consideration, would the Federal Government let contracts, or would the States let contracts? Mr. DU PONT. To which plan do you refer?