Hearings and Reports on the Evacuation Claims Bills

              Mr .  Engle.    No.
Mr. Walter.    Wasn't  there  a commission that  examined itito the  claims
and   compensated many of them?
Mr.  Engle.    No.     I think you  are  confused with the  General  Mining
Claims Act which had  as   its purpose  compensating  those miners  in the  strategic metal  field who went  out and went  into   operation on the basis  of
Government encouragement,  and  those   claims were  adjusted by that  Commission.
The manganese people were an example  of that;  but there was  nothing  done to
take  care  of the  gold miners after  the   last war  and  the   gold miners  of this
country have never been  compensated for  any losses.
The American Japanese  I think can say without  question this  was  the
only type  of order  issued against  any  racial  group in this  country;  but
the  gold miners are the   only producing  group in this   country who were made
the  subject of  a special  order by the  War Production Board.     They were
made  the guinea pigs  to determine  whether a non-essential  industry should
be  closed up  and nothing  has been done or considered for  them.
I have  a bill pending before  this   committee  now,  H. R.   950, which
operates  in somewhat the same fashion that  this  does  and,   gentlemen,   this
is  something which gets me  to  the point where  I must say  that in this   case
we have  the  Government  agents,   including  the   Department  of  the  Interior,
who come here  and  strongly support this  form  of  relief  for the  Japanese
Americans  and then  they turn around and submit  an adverse  report  on a bill
to-reimburse  the   gold miners   on the  ground it was  one   of the   casualties
of war and if you  go   into it there  is  no limit to it,  and there  should be
set up a general commission to  study the   case   of  all those who were  similarly subjected to  such losses.
Mr. Walter.     Have you considered  the  effect of our refusal to  do
justice  in this  particular matter on the   spread of  Communism in the
Pa ci f i c.
Mr.  Engle.    Well,   I  am not  advocating that you  refuse  to do justice.
Mr. Walter.    We  are  trying to work out  something  that will  compensate
these people,   or any people  for the   losses  they suffered  over and  above
what would have been  the  case  if they  had not been Japanese Americans,  if
they had been just  ordinary citizens.
Mr.  Gwynne.     And   shouldn't we   consider very seriously whether  that
is  not a very desirable thing to  do  on the grounds  Mr. Walter suggests?
Mr.  Engle.     I  do not think  Congress  should  go  completely  "overboard"
just because there is a racial group  involved.     There" is  a disposition
it seems to me  on the  part  of our Government every time  problem develops
to simply go overboard.     I do  not believe  in discriminating  against
Japanese Americans  or  any  other group,  but  on the   other  hand   I  do not
believe  in giving  them preferential  treatment  such as they will get with
this  kind  of  legislation,   and ye t at  the   same time another  economic
group are  not  given equivalent treatment by  Congress,  and the  thing  I
was going  to  suggest,  Mr. Walter,   is  this.
It is  impossible manifestly to  contemplate  all  the   losses which occurred
by reason of certain wartime  orders  and I think anytime  you have  a wartime
order which is  generally in operation,  so that  it applies  on a general  and
uniform pattern  throughout the  United States,  you  should not try to  set up
legislation which should   compensate for  damages  resulting from that type
of  operation,   but where you  have  discriminatory legislation which picks
out a certain group, whether racial  or economic,   such as was  inflicted
against  the  gold miners,   such as was  inflicted against the   Japanese  Americans,   such as was  inflicted against  certain portions  of the  aircraft
industry  	
Mr.  ITalter.    As  far  as that aircraft situation is  concerned,   I  think
37.