Evening star., 1941-05-06
House Inquiry
Into Recreation
Facilities Asked
Subcommittee Wants
F. B. is Assistance
In Conducting Probe
BY JAMES f. CHINN.

The Parks and Recreation Sub
committee of the House District
Committee took steps today to initi-
ate an investigation of concession
eire-operated cafeterias in Govern
ment buildings and in public parks
as well as public golf courses and
other recreational activities here.
The subcommittee, on motion of
Representative Schultz, Democrat.
of Indiana, voted unanimously to
ask the full District Committee to
seek House authority to issue sub
poenas to compel the presence of
witnesses and the production of rec
ords of the various operations and
also to seek the assistance of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation in
conducting the inquiry.
Action was taken following teSti-
mony of Capt. Frank w Hoover
general manager of the Welfare and
Recrea tional Association; Severine
G.. Loeffler, president of the company
which operates the five public golf
courses and other concessions. and
Walter R. McCallum, golf editor of
The Star.
LOeff1er Profits Cited.
Mr.. McCallum began his teSti-
mony by referring to a series of arti-
cles he wrote for The Star in Novem-
ber. 1889, on the operation of the
public golf courses covering COM
parison of local facilities with other
cities, the question of monopoly
control and of turning profits back
into the courses.
Mr.. McCallum also explained the
fees for use of the public golf
courses are fixed by the Interior De-
partment and are extremely low"
He said 1he Loeff1er company took
IN S259 600 from golfers in 1899. paid
the Federal Government S19.966 and
listed operating costs of Sl33,365.
When Mr. Loeff1er took the wit
ness stand he said the figures cited
by Mr.. McCallum were supposed
to have been confidential" and de-
MED that profits in 1889 amounted
to $4,000. The profits that year.
he testified, amounted to S5.O59.
His salary, he said. is $4,000 a year.
Hebert Congratulates McCallum.
Representative Hebert, Democrat
Of Louisiana, questioned Mr.. Loeff1er
At length about the finances of his
corporation and said that even
though the figures were supposed to
be confidential" he wanted to con-
graduate the man who got them"
I'm an old newspaperman myself"
he added
Before coming to Congress, Mr..
Hebert was city editor of New
Orleans daily.
In the last 10 years, Mr.. Loefler
testified, he paid the Government
a total rental of S117,210 for the golf
courses. In addition to this, he said,
he began paying the Government
$658.75 in taxes in 1881. and this
amount increased to S7,668 in 1910,
exclusive of income taxes.
1T should be noted he declared,
that the courses in Washington
have cost the Government practical
ly nothing, but on the other hand the
Government has collected many
thousand of dollars in rental and
taxes"
This thing is going to develop into
a lot more detail than we thought
Mr.. Shuttle said These activities
are not being operated for the benefit
OF Government employees"
Operates 32 Eating Places.
Capt, Hoover testified the Welfare
and Recreation Association operates
81 eating places-restaurants and
lunch counters-and conducts va
rious other activities in the public
parks such as the bicycle renting
stand at the Tidal Basin, the tour
lst camp in East Potomac Park and
the teahouSe at HainS Point.
The association, he said. is a non
profit making organization and has
various types of contracts with the
Government Under one contract.
he explained the association paws
the Government so per cent of its
profits. So far he declared. it has
paid into the Treasury more than
100000.
Capt. Hoover said his salary is
s950O a year and that the associa-
ton has about 1000 employees.
Mr.. McCallum, a recognized au-
thorlty on golf who has written
about the sport for The Star for 26
years, told the subcommittee the five
public courses should be taken over
by the Interior Department and
competent man-one who knows
all the problems assigned to su-
pervise them.
Mr.. Loeffler, head of the corpora
ton which now operates the courses.
he said, is not familiar with golf,
but is "a pretty good businessman
and has proven it