ecords showing segregation of revenues prior to establishment of the National Park Service as a au of the Interior Department, 1917, not available

Records showing segregation of revenues prior to establishment of the National Park Service as a bureau
he Interior Department, 1917, not available.
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The above revenues from Lassen Volcanic are received for grazing.

$228.66

277.27 1:300.00

Hotels

Stores

$100.00

$6,097.60

265.91

3, 654. 75

264.91

6, 264.76

387.80

11, 540.52

758.74

ZION

Transportation

$100

7. Question: Description of the method or methods used in operating the various facilities in the parks, such as hotels, restaurants, transportation agencies, etc., from the establishment thereof to date, showing which facilities are owned or operated by the Government and which by private persons. Where facilities are owned or operated by private persons the committee desires to know whether a price is paid for such privileges. Where conces sions are given information is desired as to whether the concessions are exclusive, how the concessions are let, viz, by public bid, by negotiations, etc., and by whose authority.

7. Answer: The method of operating the various facilities in the parks, such as hotels, restaurants, transportation agencies, etc., since the establishment of the parks to date has been by entering into contracts with individuals and with companies providing for the furnishing of such facilities as are deemed necessary, in the judgment of the Director of the National Park Service, to adequately meet the needs of the visiting public to the parks. No appropriations have ever been made by Congress providing for the operation of such facilities by the Government, and therefore private capital has thus been resorted to to install the needed facilities. These contracts rigidly protect the Government and the public. They provide that the hotel, the camp, the auto line, or other enterprise shall be run and kept up in a safe, adequate way. satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior and the tourists. Any person or company licensed in this way to operate a business in the parks enters into the contract with the understanding that Congress intends that the park shall be preserved in its natural state; that no private interests are allowed to operate in it except for the comfort and convenience of visitors. Every oper

ator must agree not to commit any waste, or to mar, alter, or destroy any timber or mineral deposit or any natural curiosity, or to injure any of the birds or wild animals. There are, of course, many other conditions, all of them fair, which operators must observe. For example, no service to tourists can be charged for at more than the regular tariff of rates and fees as approved by the Secretary of the Interior. In return for these permits to operate in the parks the Government is paid each season a sum determined by a flat percentage of the gross receipts; or, occasionally, the Government's share of an operator's receipts is set on a sliding scale. Under this plan private operators have invested about $14,000,000 in providing park utilities for the use of tourists.

No exclusive operating privileges are granted in the parks. However, in order to protect the operators, who are required under their contracts to furnish adequate accommodations and uniform service during the entire park seasons, regardless of the number of visitors touring the parks, it has been the policy of the Interior Department not to duplicate contracts for any particular service where the operator satisfactorily meets the needs of the public in his particular field.

With the exception of the Grand Canyon National Park-where the law creating the park provides that all concessions for hotels, camps, transportation, and other privileges of every kind and nature for the accommodation or entertainment of visitors shall be let at public bidding to the best and most responsible bidder-the contracts are granted as a result of negotiations, during which a full and complete investigation is made as to the ability, financial and otherwise, of the applicant to provide adequate facilities meeting the requirements of the department as well as the visiting public. In the Grand Canyon National Park, as required by law, all concessions are granted to the best and most responsible bidder.

All final concession contract awards are made by the authority of the Secretary of the Interior.

8. Question: Description of the method or methods pursued in purchasing equipment and supplies for the Park Service showing the authority therefor, by whom purchases are made, and the manner of making, viz, by bid, negotiation, etc.

8. Answer: Purchases in the national parks are made in compliance with sections 3709 and 3744 of the Revised Statutes. Small purchases of $100 or less are purchased without compliance with these two sections in accordance with the act making appropriations for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1926, approved March 3, 1925, but in most all cases these purchases are after securing competition, verbal or otherwise.

After the appropriation bill becomes a law, authority is obtained from the Secretary of the Interior to expend the funds for the purposes for which the appropriations are made. The superintendents of the national parks and the custodians of the national monuments are then authorized to proceed with the work under their direction, making purchases necessary to carry on the work. Orders are placed directly by the field offices, all payments being later submitted to the Director of the National Park Service for approval, either in the form of vouchers presented for payment in Washington or by special disbursing agent in the field, whose accounts are submitted for approval. In the procurement of supplies and materials competition is usually obtained by circular letter or proposal forms to various dealers. Competition on construction work is usually obtained by advertising in newspapers. The bids received are opened on the specified date and the contract subsequently entered into with the lowest responsible bidder.

All appropriations are apportioned by quarters, limiting the expenditures during the respective quarters of the fiscal year.

9. Question: Names of the principal concessionaires in each park by year from the date of the establishment of the park to date, together with the type of concession given.

9. Answer:

Year

Crater Lake National Park, established May 22, 1902
[Record of concessions prior to year 1912 stored in old files of department]

The Crater Lake Co. (20 years from Hotels, inns, stores, lunch stations, power boats,
June 1, 1912, to June 1, 1932).

1912......

1913.

Year

1913..

1914.

1915.....

1916.

General Grant National Park, established October 1, 1890
[Record of concessions prior to year 1913 stored in old files of department]

Kings River-Hume Auto Service Co... Transportation, passenger and freight.

1917.

General Grant National Park, established October 1, 1890-Continued