Memorandum from Harold D. Smith to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachment

3-B 7 APR 25 1945 The Speaker of the House of Representatives 224 2017 315 Sir: In a letter of August 26, 1944, President Roosevelt re- quested the Director of the Budget, in conjunction with the agencies concerned, to undertake the preparation of plans for providing comprehensive information on industrial production, x172 the status of industry, and the woll-being of the nation's workers, needed for the reconversion of the nation's production x172-A energies to peaceful pursuits. The President submitted supple- mental estimates for this program in a communication to you of November 11, 1944, but most of the amounts were eliminated in the House on points of order and were not restored in the Senate. with changes made necessary by the intervening lapse of time, estimates were again subnd tted by the President in a comaunication of January 31, 1945 (House Document No. 54) and are now pending before the Deficiency Subcommittes of the House Appropriations Committee Meanwhile two items directly related to this program were x3 included among the regular 1946 estimates for the Department of Commerce. These were, first, $3,000,000 for a sample Census of Population to be taken in April 1946, and second, $2,235,000 x407 for quarterly surveys of the labor force in the principal pro- duction areas. Preparatory work for both of these activities was included in an item of $990,000 which formed a part of the program in House Document No. 54 still pending before the Deficiency Subcommittee. The House Appropriations Committee eliminated the two items mentioned from the 1946 Commerce bill and a request for their restoration was not granted by the Senate. 396 It is of vital and immediate importance that the nation be equipped with the basic economic information which would be secured by the proposals to which I refer. Without adequate and accurate facts on which to base business and governmental plans in the days ahead we run serious risks. MATIONA ARCIVYES ANO SERVICO Es