Evening star., 1935-07-17
j. s. MAP PROJECT
MAY Be HALTED
Dispute Over Pay Rate
Menaces Coast and Geo.
detic Activity.

A vast work project on which the
Coast and Geodetic Survey has been
engaged for three years collecting
basic data of incalculable value for
engineering operations all over the
United States is threatened with
abandonment on August l due to a
reported denial of funds by Harry L.
Hopkins, works progress director,
growing out of g dispute over the
rate of pay.
If the program dies, $500 men will
be thrown out of work, 400 OF them
here, and some of the work already
completed will be valueless.
The trouble rests in the restrictions
thrown about use of the work-relief
funds with which it was proposed to
carry on the project, which those con-
cerned with it say cannot be APPLIED
feaSibly in this instance.
The crux is this: About 60 per cent
of the men on the project are college
trained, many with engineering de-
grees and experience. The pay for the
Washington staff is running from
81 800 to $1,000 annually. In the
field, the average for both trained and
unframed is about Sis monthly.
Relief Wage Scale.
Under the work relief set up, q
"top" of $94 would be allowable for
the skilled and SIS for the unskilled,
monthly. is prescribed by executive
order. Further. the average for all,
including overhead or operating costs
per man--thiS would bring in mate
rials also-is about l,l43 annually.
When the Commerce Department
asked for s5.0000O0 for the work for
another year, at the present rate of
expenditure, the National Emergency
Council is reported to have sent back
the application without fiat denial but
with a request for possible revision
and resubmiSSion. This was traced
to Hopkins inSiStence on the $1,143
cost unit, for it is felt that if the sur
vey pay rates had complied with those
in the executive order, the allotment
would not have been questioned.
Paradoxically, the survey program.
| which was designed to give work to
| engineers. faces another stumbling
block in the terms Of the work relief
executive order which provides that
80 per cent of those employed under
the $4980, GOO, 600 grant must come
from relief rolls Very few, if any,
of the survey workers were on relief.
Exception Cited.
Any change in the executive order
provisions would have to be made by
President Roosevelt, but it was said
today that he had made an excep-
tion for public roads.
The present survey was started in
small way in the last year of
the Hoover administration and then
adopted as public works project un-
der President Roosevelt. From $7,0O0,-
| 900 to $4,000, 900 already has been
expended. and when the appropriation
expired July i, Secretary Roper sue
ceeded in getting $350,0OO more to
carry on for another month.
1t was pointed out that the work
has been conducted in a very eco
nomical manner, costs running from
10 to IL per cent below those in former
years for comparable work. Employees
for the most part are living away from
home, naturally increasing subsistence
costs.
Work Highly Praised.
The work itself. has been highly
commended by scientific societies and
the former National Resources Board,
among others. Its value, it was
pointed out, lies In the fact that it
forms the basis for mapping, and only
about rs per cent Of the country is
adequately mapped. In support of this
argument it is recalled that when the
Tennessee Valley development was
undertaken it was first necessary to
map the region. Such activities are
| being carried on as establishing fixed
elevation bases and fixed distances
and direction between marked points;
earthquake investigation work, in an
! effort to reduce loss of life and prop
erty IN populous areas by designing
bridges, dams and other structures to
resist earthquake stresses; air map
ping, undermining sailing charts and
other related labors.
While the personnel, most of which
has been engaged in the past two
years, is not under civil service, the
workers, 1t was said today, were
chosen on the basis of fitness and, as
one said, little political influence was
exerted by any Of those concerned.
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