Mr. KLINEFELTER. No, sir; this is for a separate purpose. The general act for Vocational Education provides training in the various fields of agriculture, home economics, trades and industry for normal citizens. Those programs are carried on in connection with the

public schools.

The Rehabilitation Act is an entirely separate act which takes care of people who have been disabled by accident or disease and are in such shape that they cannot earn their own living. Under the Rehabilitation Act they are retrained to overcome their handicaps so that they can be self sustaining.

Mr. TABER. Does not that apply to the District, too?

Mr. KLINEFELTER. Yes. This is an amendment to the District Act. The District Act provided $15,000 of Federal money up to this amendment, which adds $10,000, in order to make a total of $25,000 available from Federal sources for this particular purpose.

Mr. WOODRUM. And it is to be matched by District funds?
Mr. KLINEFELTER. That is correct.

Mr. CANNON. Was this matter presented to the District subcommittee when it was holding hearings on the District appropriation bill? Mr. WOODRUM. This is a new bill.

Mr. LUDLOW. During the fiscal year 1937 you had $40,000 of relief funds or emergency funds for this purpose?

Mr. CORPENING. Approximately that much.

Mr. LUDLOW. What did you have before that?

Mr. CORPENING. Under the C. W. A. program we had money for the employment of additional personnel, and under the E. W. A. we had funds for additional personnel and also for artificial appliances Mr. LUDLOW. What would you say was the aggregate of all of these relief funds for this purpose?

Mr. CORPENING. Since January 1934 we have expended approximately $100,000; I cannot give you the exact figure. I would say the total allotments from relief sources have amonuted to around $100,000. Mr. CANNON. This increase from $15,000 to $25,000 was approved by the subcommittee handling the District appropriation bill when you had it before that committee recently?

Mr. KLINEFELTER. We were not asked to appear before the subcommittee handling the District appropriation bill, were we Miss Schutt?

Miss SCHUTT. An appropriation of $25,000 has already been made to the District.

Mr. CANNON. So it was approved by the District subcommittee? Mr. KLINEFELTER. That is right.

Mr. WOODRUM. If there are no further questions, thank you, gentlemen.

THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1937.

GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

STATEMENTS OF ROBERT HERRICK, GOVERNMENT SECRETARY OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE VIRGIN ISLANDS; AND COMMISSIONER OF IMMIGRATION AND RAY A. KLEINDIENST, ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER, DIVISION OF TERRITORIES

ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL FOR ENFORCEMENT OF IMMIGRATION LAWS IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS

Mr. WOODRUM. We have in House Document No. 285, on page 3, an item of $5,000, for an additional amount for salaries of the Governor and employees incident to the execution of the act of March 3, 1917, and so forth.

Mr. Herrick, will you give us a statement on that item; tell us what it is?

Mr. HERRICK. I am the Government Secretary and officially the Acting Commissioner of Immigration. Of course, I am not paid for that, nor is the administrator in the other island, St. Croix.

Until 1924 the laws did not apply to the Virgin Islands. We did not have to have enforcement support. Since then we have used officials of the municipal government. A clerk in the police department is the chief inspector under me and my office does all of the clerical work.

When we have had to have an additional force, we paid them from relief funds, which have now stopped. Either the laws cannot be enforced or we shall have to have a few officials.

The Governor felt that it should be taken over by the Department of Labor, the Bureau of Immigration, and they sent down two officials; one from the Department of State and one from the Bureau of Immigration who reported that we did the job very well and very economically. They have just now told me that it would cost $20,000 to do what we are asking $5,000 for. And they would have to send three officials down from Washington with their clerical and other help.

The physical situation is that we have 100 miles, roughly, of shore line, with a lot of bays. We are within 15 miles of a British possession. Actually, when there is employment with us, our wage scale is higher, and these British citizens want to come in and our effort is to keep them out. In order to do that, we have to look up about a thousand entries per month in St. Thomas alone. Little sailboats come in and they may put ashore somewhere else than in the harbor and drop people overboard.

I think we are doing the job efficiently and increasingly efficiently. gradually getting all of the alien elements out of the population. I myself drew the recommendation for this and put the amount at $5,810 which I thought was the very least that we needed. It now appears here at $5,000. It means that transportation between the two main ports of St. Croix, 15 miles apart, will have to be done through some other municipal function.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. How long has there been a necessity for this, Mr. Herrick?

Mr. HERRICK. Ever since I have been there we have had to use what we could. As I said, when there was relief money, we used that. We used local municipal officials. But they object to their officials being used, since this is a Federal function. We should have had help ever since I have been there. If we do not have this, we simply cannot carry out the laws.

Mr. JOHNSON of Oklahoma. I wonder if you can tell us, Mr. Herrick, why you or some other representative of the Department did not appear before the regular Appropriation Subcommittee and make such a request at the time of our hearings?

Mr. HERRICK. I think the matter was in dispute well, not in dispute, but there was a question whether the Department of Labor would take it over or not. The Governor wanted the Department of Labor to take it over. I have had an experience of 2%1⁄2 years as Immigration Commissioner. I was against that, because the situation there is very peculiar. These people intermarry and move back and forth that is, they did do that with perfect freedom until 1924. I felt that a beaurocratic handling of things would be quite inhumane and not very thorough. We also have French citizens to look after. I was opposed to it. We had hearings down there and the Department of Labor said that they did not want to touch it. They said that we were doing the job very well and very cheaply.

Mr. KLEINDIENST. May I add there that a representative of the Department of State and of the Department of Labor went to the islands and made a very careful survey of this problem. It was their unanimous report, after they had returned to the Department, that the Government of the Virgin Islands preferably should handle it; that it would cost them in the Department of Labor more to handle it. Furthermore, they felt that the local officials, having a more intimate knowledge of the situation, probably could cope with it better than someone, perhaps, from Washington or elsewhere. Mr. WOODRUM. Is that all, gentlemen?

Mr. HERRICK. May I add one more remark, Mr. Chairman?
Mr. WOODRUM. Indeed; yes, sir.

Mr. HERRICK. One of our functions is to see that undesirables do not get in to the United States through the West Indies. We can do that locally very efficiently. Every permit has to come through my office and be signed by me.

Mr. TABER. What causes the influx of immigrants into the Virgin Islands?

Mr. HERRICK. When we have a call for labor, they are paid about 30 to 50 cents today in the British Virgin Islands and naturally they come over to our side. Also, I must say that they are very good workers. So we have pressure from two sources for them to get occupation, the employers of labor, in order to get them in

Mr. TABER. Do they not have any workers in these islands?
Mr. HERRICK. Yes; but they are not as good workers as the
Mr. TABER. As the British?

Mr. HERRICK. As the British Virgin Islanders.

DISTRIBUTION OF ESTIMATE

Mr. WOODRUM. Will you insert in the record a break-down of this item of $5,000, showing what it is to be used for?

Mr. HERRICK. Yes, sir.

Mr. KLEINDIENST. Mr. Chairman, I think Mr. Herrick has already brought this out, but I would like to confirm this fact, that the Department of Labor has said that it would cost $20,000 for them to do this work as against the $5,000 item that we are suggesting, if this is enforced by the government of the Virgin Islands.

Mr. LUDLOW. And do it much more efficiently?

Mr. KLEINDIENST. That is our contention, to which they agreed, after an investigation by their own people in the islands.

Mr. HERRICK. The estimate that I submitted, the break-down estimate, was for a total of $5,810. Evidently, the Budget removed the automobile item.

Mr. WOODRUM. You may revise that statement on the basis of $5,000, and insert it in the record. Mr. HERRICK. Very well.

THURSDAY, JULY 22, 1937.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

STATEMENTS OF SAMUEL M. DODD, FINANCE OFFICER, INDIAN SERVICE; AND A. L. WATHEN, DIRECTOR OF IRRIGATION, INDIAN SERVICE

EXTENDING SEWER LINES OF PAWNEE AGENCY, OKLA.

Mr. WOODRUM. We have several items in House Document no. 300 for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The first is for Indian Agency Buildings, $15,000. This estimate is required, according to the document to cover the cost of extending the sewer lines of the Pawnee Agency, Okla., to connect with the lines of the town of Pawnee.

Mr. Dodd, will you give us a statement on this item?

Mr. DODD. I have here a written justification for this item, which I offer for the record.

Mr. WOODRUM. It may be put in the record.

(The justification referred to is as follows:)

INDIAN AGENCY BUILDINGS

The amount here requested is to provide for the improvement of the sewagedisposal system at the Pawnee Agency in Oklahoma.

In addition to the agency, a 47-bed hospital and a boarding school accomodating about 200 pupils are maintained at Pawnee. Raw sewage is dumped into Black Bear Creek. This situation has been known for some time; in fact numerous complaints have been filed.

The town of Pawnee was also guilty of the same offense and finally was compelled by the State health authorities to install a modern disposal system. Efforts

were made by the Indian Service to have the town include the Federal property

148745-37-32

in the benefits of the new system and to perform the work within the agency grounds. The town was unable to perform the work needed by the Indian Service, but with emergency funds it did install a new disposal system of a sufficient size to permit the agency, school, and hospital to tap its lines. We have delayed requesting funds for this project in the hope that the town eventually would do the work on our property.

On May 3, 1937, the State sanitary engineer of Oklahoma wrote the superintendent of the Pawnee Agency as follows:

"Information has been received in the State health department that the Pawnee Indian Agency is emptying raw sewage into the Black Bear Creek, and such means of disposal is not satisfactory because of the pollution of this creek. An order was issued upon the city officials of the city of Pawnee to construct a sewage-treatment plant and this plant is now practically completed; and as your institution is discharging sewage into the same stream, we must urgently request that some action be taken by the Government for the proper disposal of the sewage from the institution.

"An effort is being made to secure treatment of all the sewage before same is disposed of in the waters of this State, and we hope that it will not be necessary to issue an order as in the case of the city of Pawnee in order that treatment will be provided for the sewage from your institution."

On the same day the State game warden brought the matter to the attention of the superintendent. In his letter he said:

"For the past several years this Department has been trying to eliminate a pollution of the Black Bear stream at Pawnee, Okla., caused by the city of Pawnee and the Pawnee Indian Agency dumping their raw sewerage into said stream. We have repeatedly called this matter to the attention of the city of Pawnee, and have insisted that they cease polluting this stream. We are now advised that the city of Pawnee has constructed a modern sewerage-disposal plant, and that said city will immediately desist from any further pollution. It is also brought to our attention that the Pawnee Indian School, agency, and hospital are also polluting said stream by dumping raw sewerage into said stream in violation of the laws of this State.

"We insist that our Government should not violate the laws of this State, and should not persist in polluting a stream of water. We therefore request that you immediately report this situation to your superiors and recommend that provision be made for the building of a sewerage-disposal plant to take care of your sewerage, or make arrangements with the city of Pawnee to connect with their intercepting sewer line and have said city dispose of your raw sewerage.

"We are of course interested in the preservation of our fish, and also interested in keeping our streams clean and pure, and therefore feel that we are perfectly within our rights in insisting that you do something immediately to eliminate your part of the pollution of Black Bear stream."

The complaints filed are fully justified and there is an obligation on the part of the United States to correct the situation. There can be no criticism for the towns' failure to include the Government property in its improvement program. The Indian unit is outside of the city limits.

To reach the city system it will be necessary to carry the lines across a stream, thus adding to the cost. Regardless of this, it is cheaper to tap the city system than to install a complete disposal plant solely for the benefit of the Indian Service. This is considered an emergency situation requiring immediate correction. Mr. DODD. The purpose of this item is to cover the cost of the installation of a sewer system at the Pawnee Indian Agency in Oklahoma. This was not included in the regular budget and was not discussed with the Interior subcommittee at the time of our hearings on that bill, because we were negotiating with the town of Pawnee, in the hope that it would do the work for us and save this expense to the United States.

They were considering the installation of a sewer system.

The Indian agency property is across the creek and we attempted to have them bring their lines over to that. We were unsuccessful in that effort. We were successful, however, in having them construct their disposal plant with a capacity sufficient to take care of the sewage disposal of our boarding school of about 250 capacity, of our hospital of about 48 beds and our cottages for the agency personnel.