Workload statement, by fiscal years 1950 to 1956, inclusive-Continued PATENT CONTRACTS AND INTERESTS IN PATENTS UNDER ADMINISTRATION Revised by actual manual count of all title cards which proved a discrepancy of 2,480 in number of patents expired and/or returned to former owners. 3 Claims in these applications have been allowed and patents may issue thereon if proposed legislation is enacted that would extend the benefits of the Lanham Act to patent applications of enemy origin. COMPTROLLER'S SECTION Workload statement, by fiscal years 1942 to 1956, inclusive Vesting, divesting, and amenda- Vesting orders serviced. Receipt and clearance of remit- Disbursements and cash transfers: Number of vouchers paid. Number of checks issued and recorded... $286, 062, 825 $64, 003, 537 $17, 377, 845 $17, 785, 424 $15, 000, 000 $13, 000, 000 303, 000 350,000 4,000 400,000 1,044 421 0 12 0 0 0 33 0 0 0 12, 266 9,497 8,385 8,000 7,500 1 Estimate. LEGAL AND LEGISLATIVE SECTION Workload statement by fiscal years, 1950 to 1956, inclusive Includes 251 items prepared by the Real Estate and Personal Property Section, which have not been transferred to the Management and Liquidation Branch. These items are not included in the statements for 1954, 1955, and 1956. Includes memoranda relative to patent, copyright, and trade-mark matters. Legal and administrative responsibility for vested patents, trade-marks and copyrights and interests therein were transferred to the Legal and Legislative Section during the fiscal year 1954. Includes vesting orders reviewed. Vesting orders are not included in the statements for 1954, 1955, and 1956. Includes 1,145 summary dismissals of claims. Includes 915 summary dismissals of claims. Also includes formal documents respecting vested patents, trade-marks, and copyrights and interests therein. ? Does not include 33 requests for review disposed of without formal opinion. Because of personnel shortages during fiscal year 1954, 22 appeals on title claims and 11 appeals on debt claims were transferred to the Litigation Section for disposition. Does not include 77 claims dismissed by the Director without hearing by the hearing examiners. CLAIMS SECTION Workload statement for fiscal years, 1950 to 1956, inclusive A recount of claims received revealed a discrepancy of 1,150 claims, made up of 914 title claims and 236 debt claims, which has been corrected. This figure represents an actual recount of pending claims based upon the claims docket sheets as of June 30, 1954. This recount reveals an increase of 275 title claims, a decrease of 75 debt claims, and a net increase of 200 pending claims. The final bar date for filing debt claims was Jan. 1, 1954. Two debt claims previously withdrawn have been reinstated and these figures have been adjusted. NOTE.-These figures are for World War II claims only. (See next page for World War I claims.) Workload statement of World War I claims for fiscal years 1950 to 1955, inclusive 2 This figure has been revised due to the reopening of 15 closed cases. This figure has been revised by the reopening of 2 closed cases. It is hoped that during the fiscal year 1955 all claims, both active and inactive, will be disposed of by allowance or new legislation; therefore, no budget is being requested for the 1956 fiscal year. Of this total there are 136 claims filed by nationals of Iron Curtain countries which are inactive. HEARING EXAMINERS Workload statement by fiscal years, 1950 to 1956, inclusive 2 These figures include 3,000 claims based on yen accounts with Japanese banks, which are expected to be consolidated for hearing and decision. LITIGATION SECTION Workload statement by fiscal years 1950 to 1956, inclusive On September 1, 1953, there were transferred to the Litigation Section 2,053 matters pending in the Estates, Trusts and Insurance Unit of the Collection and Custody Section. This figure includes 37 Estates, Trusts and Insurance matters added to correct error in prior inventory. ADMINISTRATIVE SECTION Workload statement by fiscal years 1950 to 1956, inclusive Overall inventory taken during fiscal year disclosed an increase in volume of 4,858 cubic feet. Present plans are to turn all seized records over to Federal records centers in New York City and Honolulu during the present fiscal year. AUTHORIZATION FOR EXPENDITURES Senator KILGORE. This is not an appropriation, but a limitation on the expenditure of money, in other words, obligation to expend money out of earnings. Mr. TOWNSEND. Out of vested assets; yes, sir. Senator KILGORE. That is right. In other words, you do not ask for the money. ing for the right to spend the money? You are simply ask Mr. TOWNSEND. For an authorization; yes, sir. I have a statement here which is very brief, and I would like to read it, if I may. Senator KILGORE. Go ahead. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. TOWNSEND. The efforts of the Office of Alien Property continue to be directed to the accomplishment of three major objectives: (1) The liquidation of vested property; (2) the termination of litigation; and (3) the disposition of claims. Senator KILGORE. All three of which I am doing my utmost to get straightened out some way, not in this committee, but another one. Mr. TOWNSEND. These objectives are consistent with the expressed wishes of the President, the Attorney General, and the Congress; and both myself and my staff have dedicated ourselves to the fulfillment of the tasks involved. But these objectives canot be reached in a speedy and efficient fashion, nor can a consistent volume of production be maintained, or an expeditious liquidation of this Office be assured, if the Congress does not provide us with adequate funds and sufficient manpower. The House of Representatives was requested to approve an authorization of $3 million for the fiscal year 1956. This sum was determined to be sufficient to assure the continuance of the encouraging momentum we have achieved during the past several months, principally through the efforts of additional personnel. HOUSE REDUCTION The House voted to reduce the requested authorization by the sum of $500,000 and based its action presumably upon the statement of the Committee on Appropriations that the decrease was recommended in view of the substantially reduced workload of this Office. I agree, of course, that our workload has decreased. As a matter of fact, I submitted workload statistics and a table to the committee which clearly show that we have made considerable progress toward the attainment of our objectives since the beginning of the current fiscal year. CORPORATION SALARIES Senator KILGORE. Does this amount of money you have requested include the payment for the services of various people in the various corporations in which we have corporate stock? Mr. TOWNSEND. No, sir. The salaries of corporate employees are paid by the corporations. Senator KILGORE. You do not have to pass on that now? Mr. TOWNSEND. No, sir. That is not involved. Senator KILGORE. All right. Mr. TOWNSEND. But this was accomplished only by the adequate manpower which our authorization of $3 million was capable of supplying. I disagree that a decrease in the workload of this office warrants a decrease in the amount of the requested authorization because the overall employee workload has not decreased to a point where it may be processed efficiently. And it is estimated that if the authorization is reduced to $2,500,000, the employee workload will increase 17 percent. BACKLOG OF CLAIMS PENDING In the Claims Section we had anticipated a substantial decrease in the attorney workload, but the Congress extended the date for the filing of claims and as a result almost 4,000 cases were added to a workload which already was enormous; there are 38,000 claims now pending. That figure, I believe, speaks for itself. Senator KILGORE. That is the backlog? Mr. TOWNSEND. Yes, sir; and of those 38,000 claims pending, as nearly as I can estimate, upward of 1,500 of them are claims of American citizens which have been pending about 10 years, and I just have the notion that an American citizen who filed a claim 11 years ago is entitled at some stage of his lifetime to get his claim looked at and processed. In the Litigation Section there were pending on March 31, 1955, 71 9 (a) cases involving the sum of $128,644,000. There were also pending about 1,600 cases which concern estates or trusts and miscellaneous matters; and some of these litigations are extremely complicated. One of them, the Interhawdel litigation, has a record now of 20,000 pages. In the Liquidation Section there are 23 business enterprises being actively managed, 62 being liquidated and 6 involving minor interests which require public sale. To show you the diverse nature of this business, Mr. Chairman Senator KILGORE. I know all about it. I have been worrying about that for the last 10 years. Mr. TOWNSEND. Active management of a business requires considerable supervision and administration. Liquidation of a business is oftentimes a long and tedious process, and that applies also to real estate. LIQUIDATION WORK IN CALIFORNIA Senator KILGORE. How about the work in California, the Japanese nationals? Mr. TOWNSEND. I do not know about that. I would have to get a report from the Liquidation Section. Mr. SMITH. California had the largest concentration of real estate of any State, and we have reduced our holdings out there to a point where we no longer have to have an office in California to handle real estate. Mr. TOWNSEND. The workload statement which I have attached to the justification clearly demonstrates that the workload per employee generally remains constant. In the Business Enterprise Unit and the Litigation Section, it will be noted that the workload has increased. Last year I appeared before this committee and pleaded for sufficient funds with which to do a good job. And it was a source of comfort and relief when it developed that I had convinced this committee of the vital need for the authorization requested-$3 million. This year I ask for the same sum and for the same reasons. A reduction of $500,000, as voted by the House, seems to me to be a penalty imposed upon progress. The action fails to take into account the work in my office remaining to be done. It is perhaps unfortunate that statistical tables cannot be devised to reflect or recapture the effect which the news of the authorization cut produced in the employees of the Office of Alien Property, or to project on paper by means of graphs or rising and falling horizontal lines, the impact upon the morale of an organization which periodically faces a reduction in force. These facts are known only to |