TO PROVIDE BETTER FACILITIES FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE CUSTOMS AND IMMIGRATION LAWS

MARCH 19, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. ELLIOTT, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 10416]

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 10416) to provide better facilities for the enforcement of the customs and immigration laws, having duly considered the same, hereby make report to the House with the recommendation that the bill do pass.

The following letter, addressed to Hon. Nicholas Longworth, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and signed by Hon. A. W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, and Hon. James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor, reads as follows:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, February 14, 1930.

SIR: There is transmitted herewith a draft of a bill to provide better facilities for the enforcement of the customs and immigration laws, which it is requested be enacted into law.

The bill specifically authorizes the Secretaries of the Treasury and Labor to use the appropriations for the maintenance of the Customs and Immigration Services, respectively, for the acquisition of sites and the erection of small buildings.

The authority to acquire sites and construct small buildings under a limitation of expense of $3,000 by each service for each project is designed to provide facilities at isolated places or at points where the conditions are such that the expenditure of larger amounts for standard inspection station buildings or Federal buildings is not justified. In many instances the buildings will be of a more or less temporary character.

The following specific cases illustrate the necessity for such legislation:

At Andrade, Calif., and Westby, Mont., the customs and immigration officers are now housed in old freight cars, remodeled to a certain extent, to provide office space. At Andrade, Calif., there are no buildings of any kind available which can be rented to provide living quarters for the officers in charge, and these and their families are now housed in remodeled box cars.

The highways at these points are not permanently improved, nor is there definite assurance that the present locations of the roads will be maintained when improvement is finally made. It would, therefore, be unwise to expend considersble sums of Government funds to provide buildings for office purposes and living quarters at these points. The existing conditions, however, are deplorable and the facilities inadequate. Such situations could be remedied inexpensively if the respective appropriations for the Customs and Immigration Services were available for constructing modest but neat and comfortable offices and living quarters.

The sites in such localities could often be obtained without expense and in all cases at a nominal cost.

Other instances where the use of the appropriations for the acquisition of property and buildings would result in a saving to the Government are the provision of garages and machine shops to care for official equipment. A few years ago, at St. Albans, Vt., an old car barn could have been purchased for a few thousand dollars, which was well adapted for the storage of seized and official automobiles and for the repair of the latter. The appropriation was not available for the purpose, so that space had to be rented at a rate which, in a few years, will equal the purchase price of the old car barn.

Last year the Great Northern Railway constructed a new spur with stations at Whitewater and Turner. This being new and undeveloped territory, great difficulty was experienced in renting quarters of any kind and such as were procured were unsatisfactory. It happens, in many instances, that by renting quarters inspection offices are not located at the strategic points, making the Government supervision ineffective and inconveniencing the traveling public.

The National Park Service and the Forest Service now have similar provisions authorizing the use of their respective appropriations for the construction of buildings within certain limits of cost (act July 1, 1918, 40 Stat. 677; act March 3, 1925, 43 Stat. 1132).

It is believed that the enactment into law of the proposed bill containing the provision above discussed will result in greater efficiency, increased convenience to the public, and in actual saving to the Government.

It may be added that the Director of the Bureau of the Budget advises that the expenditure contemplated by the proposed legislation is not in conflict with the financial program of the President.

Respectfully,

Hon. NICHOLAS LONGWORTH,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

A. W. MELLON,

Secretary of the Treasury. JAMES J. DAvis,

Secretary of Labor.

TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE TO PURCHASE LAND AND TO CONSTRUCT BUILDINGS AND FACILITIES SUITABLE FOR RADIO RESEARCH INVESTIGATIONS

MARCH 19, 1930.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. ELLIOTT, from the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, submitted the following

REPORT

(To accompany H. R. 10652|

The Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 10652) to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to purchase land and to construct buildings and facilities suitable to radio research investigations, having considered the same, hereby make report thereon with the recommendation that the bill do pass.

The following letters, one from the Bureau of the Budget, addressed to the Hon. Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, and one from the Secretary of Commerce to the Hon. Richard N. Elliott, chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, read as follows:

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET,

Washington, February 28, 1930.

DEAR MR. SECRETARY: On February 6, 1930, you wrote this office with regard to two special radio stations for experimental and standardization work of the Bureau of Standards, inclosing a supplemental estimate of appropriation for $89,000 for the erection of a transmitting station on the Federal property of the Agricultural Department near Beltsville, Md., and a draft of a bill authorizing the purchase of a site for the receiving station.

Under the opinion of the Attorney General of the United States of August 23, 1922 (33 Opinions Attorney General 288), it would appear that legislative authority is necessary to enable your department to utilize the Federal land near Beltsville, Md., for the purpose of a radio transmitting station for the Bureau of Standards, as that land was acquired under specific authority of Congress for agricultural purposes. In view of this I believe that you will agree with me that legislative authorization for both of these stations is a necessary prerequisite to the consideration of estimates of appropriations.

In so far as the financial program of the President is concerned, there is no objection to your now seeking legislative authority for the establishment of the two stations, with the understanding, of course, that such estimates of appropriations as you may submit in the event of the enactment of such legislation will be considered in the light of the financial situation which may obtain at that time. Solely in the thought that it may be helpful to you as a guide in wording your authorizing legislation, I am inclosing herewith for your information a tentative draft of such legislation.

Sincerely yours,

Hon. ROBERT P. LAMONT,

J. CLAWSON ROOP, Director.

Secretary of Commerce.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE,

Washington, March 8, 1930.

Hon. RICHARD N. ELLIOTT,

Chairman Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds,

House of Representatives.

MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN: I have to ask your favorable consideration of a bill authorizing provision for two special radio stations to be used in the experimental work of the Bureau of Standards. A suggested draft of such a bill carrying a total authorization of $147,000 is inclosed. Your attention is invited to the attached copy of a letter from the Director of the Budget, dated February 28, advising that in so far as the President's financial program is concerned there is no objection to this proposed legislation.

You will note that two distinct stations are proposed. For one of these it is necessary to obtain a parcel of land which will fulfill some very special requirements. This station is intended for measurements upon the properties of radio signals as received. Recent observations have indicated that the reception of radio signals of high frequency (short wave length) is very greatly affected by the surroundings of the receiver. Most remarkable results are obtained with these short waves which travel for extremely long distances, but in order to use them most effectively we must know more about the peculiar effects which they suffer in transmission. In order to get such information it is necessary to have a receiving station free from all obstacles and disturbances. With the cooperation of the Bureau of the Budget and the Bureau of Efficiency, it has been determined that no Government property in the neighborhood of Washington will fulfill the necessary conditions for this station.

The other station is intended for the transmission of special radio signals. The requirements for it are not so severe and the area required is relatively small. We are quite sure that an available site for it can be found on Government land, but in accordance with an opinion of the Attorney General it is necessary to have legislative authority to use for that purpose land which may have been acquired for other purposes.

The signals to be transmitted would be of two kinds. Primarily the station is intended to furnish signals of standard frequency but as a secondary use it would also transmit special signals for observation at the receiving station previously mentioned.

The need for the station to transmit standard frequencies arises from the fact that accurate control of frequency is the key to efficient use of the limited number of radio channels which exist and that the Bureau of Standards is expected to provide the basis for all measurements of frequency in this country. Incidentally these standard frequency transmissions would also serve for several other scientific and technical purposes besides the control of radio stations. A full discussion of their usefulness and the need for them can hardly be given in the scope of a letter but at your convenience Doctor Burgess, Director of the Bureau of Standards, will be glad to give you as full an explanation as you desire. If you find it expedient to do so I would be very glad to have you introduce the bill in the House. I am sending to the Hon. Henry W. Keyes, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, a letter similar to this.

Very sincerely.

R. P. LAMONT

SPECIAL FIELD STATIONS FOR RADIO WORK OF THE BUREAU OF STANDARDS

Authorization is requested for the appropriation of an aggregate amount of $147,000 to cover land, structures, and special equipment for a transmitting station and for a receiving station to be used in radio work of the Bureau of Standards. Both stations would be in the vicinity of the District of Columbia, but the character of the work to be done is such that the two stations must be located away from the bureau and at some distance from each other.

The work for which these additional facilities are needed includes (1) the study of the variations which radio waves undergo in transit between the transmitter and the receiver, (2) the transmission of standard radio frequencies, and (3) transmission of special signals as an auxiliary to the bureau's development work on uses of radio in aviation, and for other experimental purposes.

All of these projects are being carried on in a fragmentary way at present by means of temporary, borrowed, or rented facilities. Such extemporized and inadequate equipment is located at several points, including Kensington, Bethesda, and College Park, in Maryland, and Potomac Yards, in Virginia. The

work can be performed with much greater efficiency by grouping all the studies on received signals at one point and all the transmitting apparatus at another, with better housing and more substantial installations, such as would be justified in a permanent location.

Reasons for the work.-Radio has already reached such widespread use that space is crowded with it. Transmitting and receiving equipment has been brought to a high degree of perfection. Additional uses and more satisfactory service for those uses already established seem to depend largely on attaining more precise control of frequencies and more complete knowledge of the way in which radio waves are transmitted through space and of their characteristics as received. The projects for which the two proposed stations would serve are intended to meet these two needs.

Receiving station. The studies most urgently needed on received radio waves have to do with (a) fading, one of the most serious limitations on broadcasting; (b) changes in direction, of great importance in navigation of ships and aircraft; and (c) the behavior of short waves (high frequencies).

None of this work can be done at the radio laboratory located on the bureau grounds, because electrical disturbances necessarily arising from other work in progress make the measurement of weak radio signals practically impossible there. In such temporary outlying stations as have been used, troubles have arisen from changes in power lines, trolley service, and other disturbances. Furthermore, these temporary locations have never afforded a free space large enough for the work; this difficulty is now accentuated by the recent development of high-frequency radio.

The remarkable results which can be obtained with the high frequencies are illustrated by the British Empire's world-encircling radio beam system, but in order to use these high frequencies most effectively we must know more about the nature and the causes of the continual changes which occur in the strength and direction of the received waves. Because of the urgency of immediate development of high-frequency communication in this country it is proposed to give special attention to this part of the work.

Radio has developed so far largely by the use of waves several hundreds or thousands of meters long. On such waves ordinary obstacles have little effect, but for waves a few meters long a tree may become a selective absorber or re flector, or rolling ground may have the effect of giving false signals by reflection. The peculiar effects which the waves suffer in transmission, such as rotation of the plane of polarization, and reflection and refraction by conducting layers in the atmosphere, with consequent changes in apparent direction and strength of the signals, can be studied systematically only at a station where accidental variations are avoided. For some experiments the ground must be flat enough so that it serves practically as a regular mirror for the down-coming waves. The surrounding terrain must be free from conducting wires, trees, or buildings for a distance of at least 300 yards. Power lines are, of course, especially undesirable in the neighborhood of the field. Furthermore when several kinds of measurements are to be made, the different antennas must be separated by distances of 150 to 300 yards so that interaction between them will be avoided.

The projects which it is highly desirable to provide for immediately are as follows:

(1) Studies of fading by simultaneous observations with different types of antennas.

(2) Study of direction shifts in the horizontal plane.

(3) Regular daily measurements of field intensities of signal from selected distant stations.

(4) Measurement of echo signals (reflected or refracted from atmospheric layers).

(5) Records of atmospherics on different frequencies.

(6) Transmission with 60-cycle modulation to synchronize recorders at this station with those used in the bureau's laboratory car for similar observations at different distances and locations.

These projects are, of course, closely interconnected. It is hardly practicable to give here the purpose which each serves or the justification for including it in the program. It is significant that the British radio administration has thought it worth while to establish several fields for work of this nature, one of which, at Slough, is about 200 acres in extent.

There is no Government-owned site, and there are very few sites of any kind within 30 miles of Washington suitable for the receiving station. The only land found which meets the requirements and would not cost an excessive amount, is located along the Fairfax-Winchester Road. The most suitable is near Pleasant Valley, Fairfax County, Va.