AORK'ULTl'KAL Al'PRoiMUATION BII.U l'.'«4. 263 



ISHI'KrTION OK IMI'OUTKIi »«)0|) A Mi l>UI i.h 



In addition to looking iiftcr llu> doinoslii- truilir vsc nrv r(><|iiin'd 

 also, as yoii know, lo ^i\»' allrntioii to import atioiis. The law ap- 

 plies t«> f)olli import and rxooit Iraliic. 



Siiic«» thn war we have hau n'ally more work to do than we had at 

 any time pnnious to that, with(»iit regard at all to the volume of 

 food imported into tlie rountry. Hefor«' that tiim- tlirre had heen 

 something in the naturi' of a ( lassilication or standardization in certain 

 chusses of food products in certain sections «)f foreign count ri«*s fnun 

 whicii they came. But that was torn to pieces (hirin<; the period 

 of the war. and we hav*? found products that seem<'d to he made 

 formerly in an unohiectionahle way hein<^ od'erj-d for entry in thi.s 

 country with entirely diirerent composition from that which wo 

 originally knew. 



vSo the work really has increased very materially from tlw standpoint 

 of imj)ort control. We are not ahh' to m(>«'t the situation at all with 

 our present force, and 1 do not pretend to say that we will completely 

 meet it at all if we are «jranted the increase that is asked here. 



1 told you last year of a visit that we had rec<Mved from a committee 

 of importers represenliuf; the import trade in New York, who had 

 come to Washini^ton for the purpose of seeing you and the correspond- 

 ing committee in the Senate to ask for an increase to this appropria- 

 tion, to he applied specifically to the Xew York field, to increase the 

 force and the facilities there for doing our import control work in a 

 more expeditious way. After we explained the circunistances to 

 them they went hack to Xew York. But the industry realizes the 

 situation and has dealt with us in a sympathetic way on the score of 

 our limitations. 



It is a serious thing when you effect delays in import products 

 particularly. You take the congested sections in Xew York, where 

 they do not have adecjuate storjige facilities under Government 

 supervision, and it is only a very short time until the demurrage 

 will eat up all of the importers' prohts. vSo it is imperative that such 

 action as we do take he taken promptly if we are to give any con- 

 sideration at all to the welfare of the trade; and we do this hv using 

 our judgment, in so far as our experience will permit, in discrimi- 

 nating in the class of products that we give atUnition to. 



4 



M.MNTENANCE OF LABORATORIES. 



It is necessary to nuiintain laboratories at certain of the jiorts 

 of the country for the pui'])ose of e\])edilious consideration of im])ort 

 shi])ments. The overhead is fixed and definite. But u]) to the 

 present time we have not the operating funds to make our activity 

 economical, because it is not at all a(lc(|uate from the stand]>oint 

 of our existing overhead. If we get this money that we are asking 

 for here our ])urj>ose is to employ it in bringing the force u]) to some- 

 thing approaching normal, by the ap])ointment of additional in- 

 s])ectors and additional chemists. 



