bers of Congress in reference to the question of the use of Reserve officers. As I understand it, your policy now is that you turn over these lists of officers from time to time, at certain periods. Mr. MCENTEE. General Tyner will answer that for you. The Army have, I think, a sincere belief that that is the thing to do, but the Director and myself do not feel that way. Mr. MCMILLAN. I quite agree with you, in regard to these positions where these men have demonstrated their ability and their experience in the jobs. It seems that many of these Reserve officers are there only for a temporary period and desire to be there only for a temporary period. But in a case where a man has been on the job in a key position and has demonstrated his ability, I think it is the custom to take him out of that position simply because you have some other man who wants to take a shot at it. Mr. McENTEE. May I say, in answer to your question directly, that on May 13 the War Department sent out a directive which practically amounted to transferring a great many of these officers and terminating the services of a great many of them after a certain period. The War Department has an idea about that, and it is their responsibility in the handling of the Reserve officers. You asked the question and I am trying to give you our opinion in reference to it. At that time I wrote to the Adjutant General pointing out some fears I had, and I also wrote to the President. Later on a conference was held with General Craig, General Tyner, and myself. Some changes were made in that directive. The fear I had was that we were going to have very young officers put in command of these camps. Our experience has been that with the new officers coming in it is a very expensive proposition. The work is new to them, and I believe that sort of thing costs considerable money. General Craig and General Tyner assured us that I was entirely in error, that it was not going to destroy the morale of the corps and was not going to be more costly. We asked them to furnish us with some detailed information as to just what the effect would be if these changes are made. That information will come in later; we have not had it yet. From our standpoint, from the standpoint of the Director, we feel that the corps is a business proposition, and it is not good business, after you have trained your personnel, to have them moved after they are trained. Mr. MCMILLAN. We do not do it in other governmental services. Mr. McENTEE. But it is the Army's responsibility to handle the Reserve officers, and they have some very cogent arguments as to why that policy is better. General TYNER. We had about 3,000 applications at the time this policy went into effect from Reserve officers, requesting that they be given a chance to serve in these camps. In my opinion, we would have had a great many more had the Reserve officers around the country known that they would have had a chance. I think there would have been a greater number who would have applied. We had a great many officers who had served in these camps, and many who wanted to serve in the camps. In one corps area for some time they have had a policy that a man could serve in a camp for 6 months and then he went on a waiting list, and when his name reached the top of the list he went to another camp. That is a very successful corps area. We do not anticipate any trouble whatever in connection with the administration of the camps. We do not expect the efficiency to be lowered. Under instructions that we issued on the 29th of May, no man will be placed in command of a company who has not had 6 months' duty as an officer with the C. C. C. This change is being made, 50 percent between the 1st of July and the 31st of December, and the remaining 50 percent between January 1, 1938, and June 30, 1938. In the case of medical officers and chaplains we are not making any changes unless we have a Reserve officer in that branch of the service as a replacement. Mr. WOODRUM. That gives an opportunity to other officers to have that service rather than giving it to a select few? General TYNER. Yes, sir. Mr. BACON. How many Reserve officers do you have at each camp? General TYNER. We have two. Mr. BACON. And a commanding officer does not become a commanding officer until he has served for 6 months? General TYNER. That is right. Mr. LUDLOW. How long is the tour of duty? General TYNER. Six months, with a renewal each 6 months. Mr. MCMILLAN. That will apply to camp officers. What about district officers, where they have experience in the methods of accounting used? General TYNER. Take, for instance, the Quartermaster General. He is allowed 18 Reserve officers in the different depots, and he has 15 on duty now, as I recall. He has new officers detailed for duty as understudies, and later on he will put them in charge of that same work, after they have learned the work. When officers are relieved, the jobs are given to those on the eligible lists. When those officers who have been relieved reach the top of the eligible list, they may be re-detailed. RATION COST Mr. TABER. What was the cost of your ration during this current year, that is, the individual per-diem cost? General TYNER. For the fourth quarter that we are in now it was 47 cents plus. Mr. TABER. You are estimating how much for this year? General TYNER. 47.23 cents. Mr. TABER. How much was it last year? General TYNER. It was 46.76 in September, 1936. That was the actual cost. EMERGENCY CONSERVATION WORK COMPLETED Total work completed during the period April 1933-April 1937 STRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTS (100 SERIES) Total work completed during the period April 1933-April 1937—Continued TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS (200 SERIES) FLOOD CONTROL, IRRIGATION. AND DRAINAGE (400 SERIES) 44, 772, 777. 0 6, 780, 500.0 22.016.0 Acres.. 379, 325.9 8,613.0 Tons. 1, 360, 006. 0 554.0 Tons. 573, 187.0 100.0 Tons. 498, 963. 0 277.0 Man-days. 967, 883. 0 11,098.0 Miles. 13, 514. 8 3,073.9 Acres.. 146.0 |