DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. ELMER THOMAS, Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate. MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Further reference is made to your request for a report on S. 2758 for the relief of Wade Crawford, formerly superintendent and special disbursing agent of the Klamath Agency. The bill would authorize and direct the Comptroller General to allow credit in the accounts of Wade Crawford for certain payments made by him to Vochatzer Bros. of Klamath Falls, Oreg., under a contract identified as I-52-Ind-ECF-27. These payments have been disallowed by the General Accounting Office as a result of the disbursing officer's failure to make discount deductions. The original contract on Standard Form No. 23, with Vochatzer Bros., did not provide for the 5 percent discount for payment in 10 days, but the original bid on Standard Form No. 33 attached thereto and on which the contract is based does provide for that discount. Apparently the copy of the contract on Form 23 which was used when the vouchers were checked for payment did not have a copy of Standard Form 33 attached and consequently appropriate deductions were not made from the payment vouchers. It has been impossible to collect the amount of the discount from the contractors and unless legislation is enacted for the relief of Mr. Crawford in connection with the vouchers listed in S. 2758, he must refund the sum of $294.41 from personal funds. Attention is invited to the fact that the voucher listed in the bill as 496 for March 1935 should be 596. In view of the foregoing, I recommend that S. 2758 receive favorable consideration. Sincerely yours, JUNE 10 (legislative day, MAY 28), 1940.-Ordered to be printed Mr. ASHURST, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. 3972] The Committee on Indian Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 3972) authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to exchange certain tribal lands within the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona for privately owned mineral lands within the boundary of such reservation, having had same under consideration, report thereon with the recommendation that it do pass without amendment. After the receipt of this bill by your committee, it was referred to the Secretary of the Interior for further consideration and report, and thereafter received favorable consideration and report, and thereafter on June 7, 1940, he submitted his report recommending that this bill receive favorable consideration. A full explanation of the purposes of this proposed legislation is contained in the said report of the Secretary of the Interior, dated June 7, 1940, a copy of which is attached hereto and made a part of this report, as follows: Hon. ELMER THOMAS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate. MY DEAR SENATOR THOMAS: Further reference is make to your request for a report on S. 3972, a bill to authorize exchanges of Indian tribal lands for privately owned mineral lands within the Navajo Indian Reservation, Ariz. I recommend that S. 3972 receive favorable consideration. Within that part of the Navajo Indian Reservation lying in the State of Arizona there are 35 known valid mining claims of about 20 acres each. Some of the claims have been patented; the others are being maintained under the United States mining laws. Although the claims are within the boundary of the reservation, the rights of the mineral claimants antedate those of the Indians. The mineral claims are badly scattered, making it difficult for either the Indiant or the mineral claimants to make the best use of the lands. One mineral claimane has indicated a desire to exchange lands with the Indians to consolidate ths holdings of both. It is thought possible that other mineral claimants also will 8. Repts., 76-3, vol. 351 desire to consolidate their holdings. The purpose of S. 3972 is to authorize exchanges of this nature. The exchanges will make it easier for the mineral claimants to develop their holdings, and will facilitate the utilization of the reservation lands by the Indians for grazing purposes. They will also increase the possibility of the Indians leasing their lands for mining purposes, if minerals in paying quantities are developed. The Director of the Bureau of the Budget has advised me that there is no objection to the presentation of this report to the Congress. Sincerely yours, HAROLD L. ICKES, Secretary of the Interior. JUNE 11 (legislative day, MAY 28), 1940.-Ordered to be printed Mr. JOHNSON of Colorado, from the Committee on Interstate Commerce, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany S. J. Res. 267] The Committee on Interstate Commerce, to whom was referred the joint resolution (S. J. Res. 267) providing for the acquisition by the Railroad Retirement Board of data needed in carrying out the provisions of the Railroad Retirement Acts, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the joint resolution do pass. The resolution empowers the Railroad Retirement Board to require from each employer, and each other company, association, or person, to furnish data with respect to service and compensation prior to January 1, 1937, of its employees, such data to be comparable in substance with that which has heretofore been required for the adjudication of claims for annuities under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 and the Railroad Retirement Act of 1935. In the event any employer does not exercise due care and diligence in the preparation of data for the Board, the Board is authorized to transcribe the necessary data from the records of the employer, and the employer in that circumstance is required to make all such records available to the Board. Should such action become necessary, no payment will be made to the employer; otherwise the rate of pay shall be in an amount not in excess of 50 cents multiplied by the aggregate number of man-years' service reported. Data should provide as completely as possible a complete record of all service and compensation prior to January 1, 1937, of individual employees. Upon the compilation of each individual's prior service and compensation record, the Board must take steps to give notice to such individual of the compilation of his record and the contents thereof by direct communication, transmission to employer for delivery, public advertisements, or such other means as the Board may deem necessary. Whenever the Board, through any means reason ably calculated to give notice to individuals with respect to whom no record of service or compensation is established, determines that due notice has been given, it is required to make an entry to such effect upon its records. The individual who does not, within 2 years after such finding, request the establishment of a record of his service and compensation will, unless he is able to prove to the contrary by new and manifestly convincing evidence, be considered to have rendered no service and earned no compensation prior to January 1, 1937. In the event the individual, within 2 years, claims an error in his record, the Board is directed to make such corrections as may be justified by the evidence. The Board is given power to correct records which are not contested within the 2-year period, if convincing evidence is submitted that such records are incorrect. Senate Joint Resolution 267 will carry into effect the recommendations of the Railroad Retirement Board in its letter of May 14, 1940, addressed to Senator Burton K. Wheeler, chairman, Committee on Interstate Commerce. In that letter the Board stated: Under the Railroad Retirement Act annuities are based on the average compensation calculated according to a prescribed formula and on the length of compensated service with an employer as defined in the act. Such service frequently extends 30 or more years in the past. Under the procedure which the Board has established for the adjudication of retirement claims, employees make application for annuity and set forth in detail the various periods of their service with the one or more employers for whom they have worked in years past. Before the annuity is awarded, the Board verifies the service and compensation claimed by an employee. Insofar as service after January 1, 1937, is concerned, the Board receives complete reports each quarter from all employers, so that the verification process is required with respect to service and compensation prior to January 1, 1937, only. verification process for prior service consists of requesting a report from the one or more employers in a form which will permit of an exact count of the number of months of creditable service and a determination of the exact amount of compensation received in the relevant periods. Railroad records are by far the most important source of verification and except in rare instances are the sole source of compensation records prior to January 1, 1937. Having received the report from the railroad or other employer the claim made by the employee is compared in detail with the employer record. No annuity is certified in an amount in excess of what is claimed and verified. The Because the records involved had not been in use for many years prior to the passage of the Railroad Retirement Act, some had been destroyed and many misplaced. There is still involved an appreciable period of time running on an average of 6 to 8 weeks, and extending in many cases far beyond that period, for the submission of a report in response to a request by the Board. This natural difficulty with records long out of use is made more serious by the presence of certain other factors. Most of the applicants for annuity are advanced in years, and many cannot now recollect exact dates and places of employment. The most frequently used record is the pay roll. The location of an individual's name on a pay roll, month by month, very often on a pay roll containing many thousands of names not in affixed order, is a time-consuming task and has resulted in delays in the payment of annuities to persons entitled to and badly in need of them. These delays have resulted in a vast amount of correspondence to the Board which must be answered but which, since it has served no good purpose, has merely served further to delay the adjudication process. Delays can be avoided, the process in adjudication speeded up, persons entitled to benefits under the Retirement Act can be given more prompt service, and substantial amounts of operating expenses will be saved in the long run if the records on which annuities are to be adjudicated are collected, insofar as possible, in advance. In addition to the desirability of collecting records for administrative reasons, the collection of information in advance in the relatively near future would be. desirable for two further reasons: (1) While the railroads on the whole preserve records well, some have been lost or destroyed, and some will inevitably from time to time suffer the same fate in the future. Where records are known to have been lost or destroyed, the Board can take the necessary steps to fill in |