STATEMENT OF ROBERT A. MANG, FRIENDS COMMITTEE ON
LEGISLATION OF CALIFORNIA

Senator NELSON. Mr. Robert Mang of the Friends Committee on Legislation.

Mr. MANG. Senator Nelson, apparently there was a misunderstanding about the time I was to appear. I apologize to the committee. Senator NELSON. That is all right.

Do you have a prepared statement?

Mr. MANG. Yes.

Senator NELSON. Would you identify yourself for the record.

Mr. MANG. My name is Robert A. Mang. I am testifying on behalf of the Friends Committee on Legislation of California. I am executive secretary of the northern California region. This is a committee widely representative of the concerns of many Friends Quakers— and like-minded citizens in California, but does not claim to speak for all members of the Society of Friends.

We appear today in support of the Scientific Manpower Utilization Act. We have had a major interest in this field for some time. We speak from the basis of our work over the past 3 years in cooperation with persons from the business and academic communities, individuals in the aerospace and electronics firms in California and with State and Federal Government officials who have shared our concern for the nonmilitary diversification potential of aerospace and electronic industries in particular, and for the economic difficulties and possibilities of disarmament in general. In this context, I should just like to comment that we have been heartened by the increasing national and international interest in the subject of the economics of disarmament as evidenced in the United Nations study, "The Economic and Social Consequences of Disarmament,"and the July 1965 report by the President's committee, "The Economic Impact of Defense and Disarmament."

As we became involved in studying the functions of aerospace firms, we learned of the potential these firms might offer to the civilian sector. In a sense, they had created a new resource for the Nation through an integration of technical competence.

We began to understand what the term "systems analysis" might possibly mean for the many other concerns on which our committee also works. We recognized the value of applying this kind of approach to some of the basic problems confronting our Nation; problems such as education, transportation, waste management, and others as mentioned in this bill.

We feel the approach of this bill is fundamentally sound in its perception of such possibilities and wish to commend Senator Nelson for his initiative in introducing it. We should also like to take this opportunity to commend Governor Brown for making available the $400,000 for the four phase 1 contracts on the problems of transportation, crime, pollution, and information in California. It would seem that these have helped to show the feasibility of applying systems analysis to major social problems and should be expanded with Federal funds.

As you are well aware, California has a great interest in this matter, but there is also a nationwide responsibility for confronting many

such problems and we believe that here is an opportunity to confront them in depth. We feel this bill recognizes both the responsibility and the opportunity.

With regard to particular aspects of the bill, we wish to offer a few comments for your consideration.

First, the bill has defined the resources which might be utilized in solving our many social problems as "scientific, engineering, and technical." We merely wish here to emphasize the social nature of some of the problems which the bill goes on to list. We would hope, either through a different wording in the bill or through its legislative history, that there would be a clear understanding that these resources are construed to include social sciences as well.

Secondly, while we recognize that the bill does not limit the field of research and development to the problems it delineates from education to waste disposal in section 2-we would like to mention several other areas of need in the public sector to which the systems approach might be applied:

Health and hospital systems; now with the Medicare Act, it is probable there will be even greater need for more hospitals. We have been told by scientists in the systems industry that modern technology might be applied to the development of hospital and medical systems which would offer greater efficiency to the patient as well as hospital staffs; and which in the long run would be more economical. Modern technology also offers new possibilities in the diagnosing of diseases and their remedies.

Rehabilitation systems are another area of public need. This might include a separate or comprehensive exploration of our mental and penal institutional and postinstitutional needs, with a view toward discovering new approaches toward rehabilitation. We wish to compliment Senator Nelson for describing some of these possibilities in his introduction of the bill last month. It seems that the systems approach could helpfully be applied to this problem to create a continuous and consistent method of approach to the aberrant from the time of his arrest or commitment hearing through his confinement and release, including his post release difficulties of adjustment. It is interesting to note here that presently sophisticated statistical data on the problems which have caused ex-prisoners to return to prison is virtually nonexistent. We know what percentage of prisoners return and what law they broke, but we know little or nothing, statistically, about what percentage were motivated by economic frustrations or social or family difficulties, and so on. There is great need for a comprehensive approach to the rehabilitative process.

Another area for attention is conservation and recreative utilization of resources. A part of this, which might well interest people on the east coast, might include the development of more efficient water and power systems including contingency reserve planning in case of shortage or breakdown.

Finally on this part of the bill, we would call your consideration to system operations possibilities in conjunction with international development problems and aspirations. We have been told by one very prominent scientist that such a company as this might undertake a regional, multisystems approach to a underdeveloped area. This would

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include the development and integration of transportation, communications, industrial and agricultural systems within a entire region. While we realize there are many other problems which must be taken into account in the area of international development, we are attempting to indicate the wider range of possibilities and benefits these companies might offer if there were markets available to such civilian enterprise.

This leads me to my final comment. We are aware that the aerospace industry to a limited extent has on its own explored some of these possibilities. This bill should greatly encourage expansion of this competitive effort and in doing so might possibly open the way for these civilian markets to develop.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Senator NELSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Mang, for your very thoughtful comments.

Do you have any questions?

Mr. MILLENSON. I note, sir, in your testimony you say "Rehabilitation systems are another area of public need."

Are you familiar with the Correctional Rehabilitation Act of 1965, which the Congress had enacted into law this year?

Mr. MANG. Not in detail.

Mr. MILLENSON. I was just wondering whether you feel putting an item of this sort in this bill might be a duplication of what Congress has done through the Correctional Rehabilitation Act.

Mr. MANG. I am not sure. This would take some exploration. Mr. MILLENSON. Perhaps you might want to add this to your testimony at a later time and submit it to us.

Mr. MANG. Well, that is possible.

Mr. MILLENSON. And have a chance to look it over rather than answer off the top of your head.

Mr. MANG. I could just comment I think we have seen by the crime study here preceding us that there are some new areas and avenues of research we haven't, to my knowledge at least, explored heretofore, and my thought in this testimony was to bring together the possibility of looking at the prison and the mental institutional problems as possibly one or a related problem. I think that the comments here do relate closely to the crime study which has taken place. But my emphasis was to be on the rehabilitation process after prison.

Senator NELSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Mang. We appreciate your coming here to testify.

Is there anyone else who intends to appear?

Yes?

STATEMENT OF PATRICIA ARNOLD, ECONOMIC COMMITTEE OF WOMEN FOR PEACE

Senator NELSON. Will you identify yourself for the record? Mrs. ARNOLD. My name is Patricia Arnold, and I am with the Economic Committee of Women for Peace. We support the Nelson bill.

I would just like to make a few remarks on the reasons for our support.

We feel or we believe in the peaceful settlement of world problems and we feel that a bill of this nature will make a commitment more possible for the peaceful solution of economic conversion. It becomes a reality and this does open the door for this type of possibility.

We are concerned with the public opinion and we are directly connected with trying to influence public opinion to support efforts like this bill, because we feel the American people, if they do not feel their jobs and our economy is dependent upon the prodominance of the defense industry allocation, and we propose peaceful cooperation— excuse me, I didn't have this prepared fully.

Senator NELSON. That is all right.

Mrs. ARNOLD. I was not aware until last night of this meeting. I think these hearings should be more publicly known. I am sure mothers, as I have been, would be here to support you.

That is the end of my statement.

Senator NELSON. Thank you very much.

That will conclude the hearing.

I thank those who came here to make presentations with the charts. We will send the testimony to you, and we will have it so you can fit your own charts into the testimony and then we will ask you to add a summary, or rather an introduction that gives an explanation of what your aspect of the study meant followed by your explanation of the charts. We will send that to you.

Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 4:10 p.m., the hearing was recessed subject to call of the Chair.)