The United States Maritime Commission was created by Public Act 835, Seventy-fourth Congress, approved June 29, 1936, and amended by Public Act 705, Seventy-fifth Congress, approved June 23, 1938, and Public Law 259, Seventh--sixth Congress, approved Aug. 4, 1939. The act vests in the Commission new functions, powers and duties and, in addition, those of the former United States Shipping Board under the Shipping Act of 1916, the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, the Merchant Marine Act of 1928, the Intercoastal Shipping Act of 1933, and amendments to those acts.

The policy declared in the Act is that "It is necessary for the national defense and development of its foreign and domestic commerce that the United States shall have a merchant marine (a) sufficient to carry its domestic waterborne commerce and a substantial portion of the waterborne export and import foreign commerce of the United States, and to provide shipping service on all routes essential for maintaining the flow of such domestic and foreign waterborne commerce at all times, (b) capable of serving as a naval and military auxiliary in time of war or national emergency, (c) owned and operated under the United States flag by citizens of the United States insofar as may be practicable, and (d) composed of the best-equipped, safest, and most suitable types of vessels, constructed in the United States and manned with a trained and efficient citizen personnel. It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States to foster the development and encourage the maintenance of such a merchant marine."

In January, 1938, the Commission started a 500ship long-range replacement program whereby overaged cargo and passenger-cargo ships in the American Merchant Marine would be systematically replaced with new and faster ships of the latest design, including many new safety factors and equipment not heretofore contained in either foreign or American flag ships. Each ship also has special national defense features built into its structure.

As of Sept. 1, 1941, 283 of these new standard type merchant ships were ordered and under construction for this particular program, of which 104 had been delivered. In addition, there were also ordered during the first eight months of 1941, 312 emergency type cargo ships; 107 coastal tankers, coastal cargo vessels and harbor tugs; and 115 more of the same standard type vessels as made up the long-range program, all of which were units of the National Defense and Lease-Lend aid programs. During August, 1941, Congress passed authorizing legislation requested by President Roosevelt for building another 566 merchant ships. This made an overall program of 1,383 ships either contracted for or proposed, the great bulk of them to be completed and delivered by the end of 1943. The division of this total is: 283 ships for long-range program, and 1,100 ships for National Defense and Lease-Lend Aid programs.

Of the 283 ships in the long-range program, the

U. S. Navy had acquired 59 and the U. S. Army three. In addition to new ships, the Commission also effected the transfer of 66 other merchant vessels to the Army and Navy or 18 to the former and 48 to the latter. This made an overall total of 128 ships acquired by the two defense services as of Aug. 15, 1941.

To hold to a minimum, interference with the construction of standard type ships at the regular established shipyards, the Commission had organized and constructed nine new shipyards on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts for building the emergency type ships, while the small coastal tankers, coastal cargo ships and harbor tugs were placed with smaller yards located on the Great Lakes and in the State of California.

By Dec. 31, 1941, approximately 78 standard type and 20 emergency type ships had been completed during the calendar year, and delivered either to the Navy, Army, private operators or for lease-lend purposes. This compared with 41 completed in 1940; and 20 in 1939. The total deliveries for 1939, 1940 and 1941 were approximately 159, of which 139 were standard type and 20 emergency type. To provide adequate and efficient personnel for manning all American flag ships, the Commission has two systems of training. One, known as Cadet training, is eligible to young men between the ages of 18 and 25, unmarried and American citizens. They must be psysically fit, high school graduates and are required to submit references from responsible citizens as to character. The course of study is 4 years, and prepares the enrollee for becoming either a Deck or Engineer Officer in the American Merchant Marine.

The other system deals with improvement courses for both licensed and unlicensed seamen with at least one year experience at sea and also trains apprentice seamen who after an adequate training period are able to obtain certificates for their ratings. This is known as the United States Maritime Service.

By act of Congress and Executive Order of the President, the Commission also has been charged with the maintenance and repair, and placing in operation of approximately 84 foreign owned merchant ships that were requistioned during June, July and August of 1941. These ships were laid-up in American ports as the result of the outbreak and spread of the European War.

The Commission also fixes the maximum rates of charter for all American flag ships in both the domestic and foreign trades; and through negotiation and cooperation arranges for comparable charter rates for all foreign flag vessels operating in the U. S. foreign trade. Through a system of ship warrants issued to all American flag vessels, and to foreign flag vessels where requested by the owner, it provides for priorities in transportation of strategic materials for National Defense including the use of shore and other facilities for ships. It also has authority to underwrite any hull or cargo war risk insurance on American flag ships that cannot obtain this in the regular insurance market on reasonable terms and conditions.

derived from Series "G" notes and future note issues shall be subject to all Federal taxes, now or hereafter imposed. The notes shall be subject to surtaxes, and estate, inheritance, gift or other excise taxes, whether Federal or State, but shall be exempt from all taxation now or hereafter imposed on the principal thereof by any State. municipality, or local taxing authority.

As of June 30, 1941, total of commodity loans outstanding was $359,357,412.63. Of this amount, $244,321,640.35 represents loans held by Commodity Credit Corporation and $115,035,772.28 represents loans held by private lending agencies. Disbursements as of that date were $1,885,469,962.03 with repayments, acquisitions and adjustments on commodity loans of $1,641,148,321.68.*

Under the Reorganization Plan, effective July 1. 1939, the Commodity Credit Corporation was transferred to the Department of Agriculture and functions as a Bureau of the Department under the general direction and supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture.

*Includes amounts charged off and credits for outstanding balances of loans against commodities taken over by CCC.

The Tennessee Valley Authority was created by Congressional Act, approved May 18, 1933, and amended August 31, 1935, July 26, 1939, and June 23, 1940. Its general purpose is to develop the Tennessee River system in the interests of navigation, flood control and national defense, and to generate and sell surplus electricity to avoid the waste of water power.

The Tennessee River drainage area starts in the extreme western end of Virginia, sweeps southwestward in a wide arc across western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, northern Alabama and a corner of northeastern Mississippi, swings north again across Tennessee and Kentucky, and finally ends at Paducah, Kentucky, where the Tennessee River joins the Ohio.

Elevations in the Tennessee Valley vary from about 300 feet above sea level near Paducah to more than 6,000 feet on mountain peaks in the eastern part of the Valley. There is abundant rainfall. Annual precipitation averages 52 inches and is heaviest in the mountains where 80 inches is sometimes recorded. Some 2,500,000 persons inhabit the Valley's 41,000 square miles and another 4,000,000 live in territory under its immediate influence.

To control the waters of the Tennessee and its tributaries requires two lines of action by the Authority. The first is the construction of a system of publicly-owned dams on the principal tributaries and on the Tennessee itself. Unified operation of these storage and main river dams will reduce destructive floods, maintain a channel suitable for nine-foot navigation, level off seasonal fluctuations of the river, develop a valuable by-product in the form of hydroelectric power, and secure an economy from multi-purpose planning and operation which would be impossible with developments having but a single purpose.

The second line of action on the problem carries the Authority beyond the publicity-owned 'streams to privately-owned land, the source of run-off. Control here requires the cooperation of individual landowners in the development and popularizing of improved land management and agricultural practices, creating thereby increased retention of rainfall in the soil to supplement artificial river control.

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In 1940 and 1941, TVA assumed a major role in the national defense, acting with emergency speed in the fields of electric power for industry, manufacture of munitions, and housing for defense inTVA'S million kilowatts dustrial workers. capacity aided substantially in meeting a southeastern power emergency resulting from a rapidly growing defense load accompanied by a severe drouth. The TVA particularly took the leading part in keeping the Alcoa, Tenn., plant of the Aluminum Company of America, one of the largest in the country, in full operation, by supplying 140,000 to 150,000 kilowatts of emergency power.

To supply aditional power, Congress on July 31, 1940, authorized TVA to construct Cherokee Dam on the Holston River and a new steam plant which, with additional downstream installations, will add 360,000 kilowatts of capacity. First unit of the steam plant was scheduled for operation early in 1942.

On July 17, 1941. Congress authorized a fourdam development on the Hiwassee River system to add 212,000 kilowatts of capacity to the system. Work commenced immediately, two storage dams to be completed in eight months and two power dams in 18. In addition, construction schedules on Watts Bar, Fort Loudoun, and Kentucky Dams have been moved forward from eight months to a full year to provide power at earlier dates.

For munitions manufacture, TVA is rehabilitating and modernizing the ammonium nitrate plant constructed at Muscle Shoals during the World War and maintained in stand-by condition by the Authority. The plant will produce 300 tons of ammonium nitrate daily. As a part of the work, TVA is constructing a modern synthetic ammonia plant, supplanting the cyanamide process installed in 1918. The cyanamide portion of the old plant is to continue in use for production of phosphate fertilizers, or elemental phosphorus, useful in defense.

As agent for FWA, TVA constructed and is managing a 250-house project for defense workers in nitrate, aluminum, and electrometallurgical plants at Muscle Shoals and assisting in defense housing projects at Alcoa, Milan, and Humboldt. Tenn. In the Muscle Shoals project, 150 houses were of a

new portable type developed by TVA, constructed in section by factory assembly line methods with all utilities installed and trucked to sites for assembly. A private contractor is building TVA demountable houses at Wolf Creek Ordnance Plant in west Tennessee.

As of July 31, 1941, TVA had completed six major multi-purpose projects; eight projects, including the five defense power dams, were under construction and eight additional generating units were being installed at downstream plants. The completed dams had provided more than 4,000,000 acre-feet of useful storage and made available an all-year channel of six feet from the mouth of the river to Chattanooga. The installed capacity of the system, including acquired plants, totaled 1,050,000 kilowatts, to be increased to nearly 1,600,000 kilowatts by the end of 1942 by new construction.

The first dam of TVA's unified system was Wilson Dam, built by Congress as a World War measure and transferred to TVA by legislative action. Its 151-mile reservoir submerges Muscle Shoals, barrier to navigation for generations. Its power plant contains eight generators with a capacity of 245,000 horsepower. Storage from upstream TVA dams is increasing the prime power (available the year round) at Wilson. Six additional units of 25.200 kw. each have been authorized and will be in operation in 1942, and early 1943, bringing total installed capacity at Wilson to 335,200 kw.

The first TVA-built dam is Norris, whose gates were closed March 4, 1936. At normal level the reservoir holds 2,047,000 acre-feet of water and covers 34,200 acres. Total storage is 2,567,000 acre-feet, of which about 2,000,000 acre-feet is flood storage capacity.

Norris Dam, essentially a storage project, is 25 miles northwest of Knoxville on the Clinch River. The total cost of the dam, power plant, switchyard and reservoir was $30,900,000. The powerhouse contains two 66.000-horsepower turbines and two 50,400-kw. generators.

TVA in 1936 also placed in operation a main river project, Wheeler Dam, at the head of Wilson reservoir. It forms a lake 74 miles long. When filled to its capacity of 1,150,000 acre-feet the lake There are four 45,000-horsepower turbines and four 32,400-kw. generators. And space has been left for two additional units. Total estimated cost, including 4 units, is $35,400,000.

covers 68,300 acres.

Pickwick Landing Dam, 53 miles below Wilson Dam, was completed in 1938. Its reservoir has a total storage capacity of 1,091,000 acre-feet and when holding this amount of water will cover 46,800 acres. The initial power installation consists of two 48,000-horsepower turbines and two 36,000 kw. generators; two additional units are to be installed and provision has been made for possible installation of two more units. Total estimated cost including four units is $35,700,000.

Guntersville Dam, providing a lake 82 miles long from the head of Wheeler reservoir to Hales Bar Dam, was placed in operation in 1939. The pool covers 70,700 acres when the reservoir is filled to its controlled total capacity of 1,018,700 acre-feet. Initial power installation consists of three 34,000horsepower units, with space for an additional unit. The dam cost $31,640,000.

Seven miles upstream from Chattanooga, Chickamauga Dam was placed in operation in 1940. Three 36.000-horsepower generating units have been installed, with space provided for one additional unit. The dam cost about $35,000,000.

Hiwassee Dam, TVA's second storage reservoir, also was placed in operation in 1940. The dam, on the Hiwassee River in North Carolina, has a reservoir volume of 438,000 acre-feet. One 80,000horsepower generating unit has been installed and there is space for an additional unit of the same size. Cost of the dam was $17,000,000.

Largest of the dams authorized expressly to provide national defense power is Cherokee, under construction on the Holston River, 52.3 miles above its juncture with the Tennessee. This is a storage project. 175 feet high and 6,700 feet long. Its reservoir, 58.5 miles long, will provide nearly 1,500,000 acre-feet of useful storage. Initial power installation will be three 41,500-horsepower units, with space for a fourth. The project will cost about $34,500,000.

The Hiwassee development consists of Apalachia, Ocoee No. 3, Chatuge, and Nottely Dams. The Apalachia site is below Hiwassee Dam, on the Hiwassee River. The Dam, a concrete structure 110

feet high, will divert water into a 43,000-foot tunnel, providing 385 feet of head at the 75,000-kilowatt powerhouse downstream. Ocoee No. 3 project. on the Ocoee River, will provide 300 feet of head by a 100-foot concrete dam and a 12,000-foot tunnel. Power installation will be 27,000 kilowatts. Nottely and Chatuge Dams, on streams above Hiwassee Dam, are to be storage projects without power installations, each being of earth and impounding 200,000 acre-feet of water. Storage in the Hiwassee development will make feasible 106,000 kilowatts of downstream installations. The dams, with downstream installations, will cost about $42,000,000.

Construction is also under way on the Kentucky Dam, 22.4 miles above the mouth of the Tennessee River near Gilbertsville, Ky. This, the largest of the Authority's projects, will not be completed until 1945. The dam will provide 4,570,000 acre-feet of controlled flood storage which will contribute to protection of the lower Ohio and Mississippi Valleys from flood damage. Total reservoir capacity will be 6,100,000 acrefeet. The reservoir will extend 184 miles upstream, almost across the State of Tennessee, and will provide a 9-foot navigation channel to Pickwick Landing Dam. It will have five 44,000-horsepower units. Total estimated cost is $105,000,000.

The Authority commenced construction in 1939 on Watts Bar Dam, which will back the water 72.4 miles from the head of the Chickamauga reservoir. Initial power installation will consist of five 42,000-horsepower units. Total estimated cost is $38,400,000.

Fort Loudoun Dam is located at river mile 602.3. Work started in July, 1940. Total storage will be 365,500 acre-feet; flood storage 105,000 acre-feet. It will provide 9-foot navigation to Knoxville, Tenn. Initial power installation will consist of two 44,000 horsepower generating units. Total estimated cost is $29,500,000.

On Aug. 16, 1939, in connection with the purchase of the electric system of the Tennessee Electric Power Company, the Authority acquired five major dams and hydro plants. The largest is Hales Bar, on the Tennessee River 33 miles downstream from Chattanooga at the head of the Guntersville pool. The reservoir, with 124,800 acrefeet of storage, extends to Chattanooga. menced in 1905, the dam and hydro plant were placed in commercial operation in 1914. Power installation consists of three 7.000-, five 7,700-, two 4,200- and four 4,100-horsepower units.

Com

Ocoee No. 1 is on the Ocoee River, 12 miles above the mouth, in Polk County, Tenn. Its reservoir, extending 71⁄2 miles upstream, has a storage capacity of 25,800 acre-feet. It has five 7,400-horsepower generating units. Ocoee No. 2 at the head of the Ocoee No. 1 pool, is used for diversion only and the powerhouse is five miles downstream. It has two generating units of 10,000 and 15,000 horsepower.

Blue Ridge Dam, on the Toccoa River in Fannin County, Georgia, has 197,500 acre-feet of storage in its 10-mile-long reservoir. It has one 30,000horsepower generating unit.

Great Falls Dam, on the Caney Fork River, a tributary of the Cumberland, has a storage of 49,400 acre-feet. Its power installation consists of one 19,000- and one 22,200-horsepower unit.

The new steam plant, authorized with Cherokee Dam, is under construction near Watts Bar Dam. It will have a total installation of 180,000 kilowatts, consisting of three 60,000-kilowatt units. The authority operates three steam plants acquired from the Tennessee Electric Power Company, Hales Bar, 40,000 kilowatts: Nashville, 48,000 kilowatts; and Parksville. 13.000 kilowatts. It also operates Sheffield steam plant, constructed at Muscle Shoals during the World War, with an installed capacity

of 60,000 kilowatts, and leases a 54,000-kilowatt steam plant at Memphis, Tennessee.

Congress directed the Authority to give preference in the sale of its surplus electricity to States, counties, municipalities, and co-operative associations. On June 30, 1941, TVA power was being used by approximately 450,000 customers. about 335,000 of whom were residential and farm customers. The power was being distributed by 75 municipalities. including Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee, 38 co-operatives and in several districts operated temporarily by TVA. In addition, TVA sells power to power companies and industrial plants and uses its electricity for dam building and in the fertilizer plant. With the exception of customers of the Alcorn County, Mississippi, Electric Power Association, and the Tupelo, Mississippi, Municipal System, where lower rates are in effect, residential and farm consumers were paying the following basic rates: 3c per kw-hr for the first 50 kw-hrs per mo. 2c per kw-hr for the next 150 kw-hrs per mo. lc per kw-hr for the next 200 kw-hrs per mo. 4 inills per kw-hr for the next 1,000 kw-hrs per

mo.

71⁄2 mills per kw-hr for all over 1,400 kw-hrs per mo.

The year 1939 saw a rapid expansion of the market for TVA power among preferred customers through the acquisition of the electric facilities of a number of privately owned public utilities. culminating in the purchase of the system of the Tennessee Electric Power Company by the Authority, 21 municipalities, and 11 co-operative associaions on Aug. 15. Of the contract price of $78,300,000, the Authority paid $44,949,000 for dams and hydro plants, three principal steam plants, and a number of other small fuel plants, transmission lines, and some distribution properties. The remainder of the price was paid by municipalities and co-operatives for distribution properties. The system served about 142,000 customers.

Other large acquisitions of privately owned electric properties by TVA in conjunction with local agencies included purchases of Memphis and Knoxville, Tennessee, electric systems in 1939. Total purchases up to June 30. 1941, amounted to $116,977,000, paid by TVA and by local agencies.

Congress in June 1940 amended section 13 of the TVA Act to provide for increased payments to the states in lieu of taxes and for more equitable distribution of the payments among states and counties. The amendment provides that in the fiscal year 1941 the Authority shall pay to the states in which it sells or owns power property 10 percent of its gross revenues for the preceding fiscal year.

The Authority received $50,000,000 from the National Recovery Act of 1933, $25,000,000 from the Emergency Appropriations Act of 1934, and $36,000,000 and $39,900,000 in direct appropriations by the Seventy-fourth Congress for the fiscal years ending June 30, 1936, and June 30, 1937. The Seventy-fifth Congress appropriated $40,166,270 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1938, and gave TVA the authority to make commitments for an additional $4,000,000. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1939, Congress appropriated $40,000,000 for TVA. The sum of $39,003,000 was appropriated for the year ending June 30, 1940, and $40,000,000 for the year ending June 30, 1941.

In July, 1940, Congress appropriated an additional $25,000,000 to commence a $65,800,000 program to provide additional electric power for national defense, particularly the production of aluminum for airplanes.

The Seventy-seventh Congress appropriated $79,800,000 for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1942. In July 1941, it appropriated an additional $40,000,000 for fiscal year 1942 for the beginning of the Hiwassee River development. This brings the total appropriations to $454,869,270.

The United States Travel Bureau was established Feb. 4, 1937. Legislation, signed on July 19, 1940. authorizes it to serve as a national coordinating agency for the promotion of travel by the Federal Government, State governments, private industry, and service clubs. A Travel Advisory Committee composed of representatives of the foregoing interests will assist in formulating a national travel program.

The Bureau supplies free and impartial informa

tion on the recreational and travel attractions of the United States, its Territories, and possessions; publishes brochures on the United States for circulation abroad; sponsors travel radio programs; issues semi-annual Calendar of Events, monthly informational bulletin, and research findings on economic and sociological significance of travel. Program is designed to supplement, not to duplicate, activities of transportation companies, commercial travel agencies, and similar enterprises.

The major function of the Work Projects Administration (created in 1935 and incorporated in the Federal Works Agency on July 1, 1939) is to provide useful work on public projects for unemployed workers in need of jobs. During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941, WPA activities were coordinated with the national defense effort, and roughly a third of the employment and a fourth of the funds were devoted to defense projects.

To facilitate the participation of the WPA in the national defense program, Congress enacted special provisions which authorize the exemption of projects certified by the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy as important for military and naval purposes from many of the restrictions that normally apply to project operations. Defense projects may be exempted from the requirements concerning sponsors' contributions, from the limitations on hours of work and earnings of project workers, and from the limitations on the use of Federal funds for nonlabor costs. In connection with the nonlabor exemption, Congress authorized the use of $50,000,000 in WPA funds to pay for supplementary nonlabor costs of certified defense projects during the fiscal year 1941.

The War and Navy Departments through their to a certification of projects have determined, considerable extent, the scope of WPA defense activities. In addition, projects which have been certified for exemption have been given first preference in operation, to speed their completion. Nevertheless, many other defense projects, which did not require certification for successful operaiton, have also been undertaken.

As a matter of fact, most of the kinds of work required in the program to strengthen the national defense had already been undertaken by the WPA in the years prior to the present emergency.

In addition to its work that is related directly to the national defense, the WPA has continued to operate projects that extend community facilities and contribute to the physical and cultural welfare of the civilian population. Work on highways, roads, and streets has continued to account for the largest number of jobs, but the 471,000 persons working on such projects at the end of June, 1941, represented less than 36 percent of the total, as compared with nearly 43 percent a year earlier. On the other hand, airport projects were providing jobs for 68,000 workers, or about 5 percent of the total, as compared with only a little more than 1 percent in June, 1940. Projects for the construction of public buildings accounted for about 10 percent, and those for the development of water supply and sewer systems for 9 percent of the total employment in June, 1941; these percentages were only slightly different from those applying to the same kinds of work a year earlier.

Most of the remainder of the WPA workers were employed on various kinds of community service projects, including sewing projects and many educational, recreational, and clerical projects. Nearly 3 percent of the workers, however, were employed on projects for the training of workers in manual occupations needed in defense industries. (This type of project was first authorized in the ERA Act for the fiscal year 1941.) About 35,000 WPA workers were in training on such projects at the end of June, 1941, and nearly 120,000 had been employed on them during the course of the year.

The number of workers employed on all WPA projects averaged about 1,700,000 during the 1941 fiscal year. This average is about 17 percent less than that for the preceding fiscal year and is lower than that for any other year since the program began. It is only a little more than half the average for the fiscal year 1939, when operations were at their peak, and some 200,000 below the 1939 average, the previous low level of WPA activities.

At the end of June, 1941, about 1,368,000 persons were employed on projects financed with WPA funds. Most of them (nearly 1,328,000) were working on projects operated directly by the WPA. The remaining 40,000 were working on projects operated by other Federal agencies but financed with WPA funds transferred under authority of Section 10a of the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1941, or similar sections of previous ERA acts.

Approximately 96 percent of all WPA project workers are paid in accordance with a standard schedule of monthly wages. This schedule provides for monthly wages that vary with the degree of skill required for the job to which the

worker is assigned and with the section of the country and the degree of urbanization (based on the population of the largest municipality within each county) of the locality in which the worker is employed. A standard schedule of monthly earnings has been the basis of wage payments since the WPA program began, but the schedule in current use reflects changes initiated by the ERA Act of 1939.

Physical accomplishments on WPA projects during the period from the beginning of the program through December 31, 1940, included practically every kind of public facility and service needed by communities, as well as many of those essential to the national defense. WPA workers built or improved about 565,000 miles of roads and streets; a large share of this mileage was on farm-tomarket and other roads in rural areas. In connection with the road work, about 69,000 new bridges were built, and 42,000 existing bridges were reconstructed. WPA workers also built about 200 airplane landing fields and nearly 2,300.000 feet of runways and made extensive improvements to hundreds of other airports and many airport facilities. Many of the 28,300 new buildings erected and 72,000 existing buildings renovated through WPA projects are also of value in the defense of the nation; these include barracks, mess halls, garages, storage houses, and other buildings at military and naval reservations. About 36,000 schools and other educational buildings were also included among the buildings constructed or renovated by WPA workers.

Other project accomplishments in the construction field included the installation or improvement of some 23,000 miles of storm and sanitary sewers and of nearly 16,000 miles of water mains, and the construction or reconstruction of about 3,000 water or sewage treatment plants, pumping stations, and other utility plants. Recreational facilities made available to the public were also numerous, including 7,400 new or improved parks, 1,500 new swimming and wading pools, over 9,000 tennis courts, and several thousand playgrounds and athletic fields.

WPA workers on community service projects of various kinds, during the five-and-a-half-year period through December, 1940, completed 312,000,000 garments and household articles for distribution to needy families and public institutions, made millions of visits to families in need of housekeeping assistance and served 575,000,000 lunches to school children. Through the various arts, educational, and recreational projects, millions of persons were provided with opportunities for entertainment. cultural development, instruction, and recreational leadership.

During the fiscal year 1941, about $1,326,000,000 in WPA funds was expended in the operation of the program. Nearly $1,285,000,000 of this amount was used for program activities operated directly by the WPA, and the remaining $41,000,000 was spent for projects operated by other Federal agencies with transferred WPA funds. Nearly $325,000,000 of the WPA funds was spent for defense projects, including those operated by other Federal agencies. These defense expenditures represented about a fourth of the total for all WPA projects.

As in previous years, the greater part (87 percent) of the expenditures of WPA funds was made for the wages of workers. Nonlabor costs accounted for only 9 percent of the total, despite the increased nonlabor expenditures for certified defense projects. Most of the remainder (3.6 percent) of the WPA funds was used for administrative purposes. A small fraction of one percent represented the payment of property damage

claims.

Local communities that propose and sponsor WPA projects, and take an active part in their operation, also pay a considerable share of the projects costs. During the 1941 fiscal year. sponsors spent a total of nearly $548,000,000 in the operation of WPA projects. This amount, which represented about 31 percent of the total for projects operated by the WPA, is more than the sponsors contributed in any previous year, despite the fact that WPA activities in general were or a lower level in 1941 than ever before.

In the course of the six years since the WPA program began, a total of $9,580,602,000 in WPA funds has been spent for its activities, including projects operated by other Federal agencies. Project sponsors during the same period made $2,341,265,000 available for project operations. These funds have provided Jobs for considerably more than 8,000,000 different persons.