Our favorable response to the idea of the Corps has been partially based on our observation of the Peace Corps, including the selection process and the preparatory training which have resulted in what seems to be a splendidly equipped group. We are assuming that similar standards of selection and training will apply for the National Service Corps. The selection of projects will be of great importance, and it seems essential that clear criteria for selection be developed. We think that the functions of the Advisory Council named in the bill are broad and general and we are in agreement with the contention of the National Social Welfare Assembly that the Advisory Council should "advise and consult with the administrator and staff of the national service program in the development of all standards and policies. Projects selected should be subject to the Council's approval." The qualified citizens, both volunteer and professional, from the fields of welfare, health, and education should be brought into direct and responsible relationship to the Corps at the operational level. In the same connection, it seems essential that local communities be involved in the planning and that Corps projects be related to the local community services. Social planning councils are the instruments which have been created locally for setting priorities in service, and for examining relative community needs. These local planning instruments should be utilized by the Corps wherever possible. In summary, there are many details of operation still to be worked out, details which will determine finally the soundness and usefulness of the Corps. The federation supports the general purpose of the bill and believes the Corps can be a very useful program. Thank you very much for your time and attention. Senator BURDICK. I am sorry, I only heard the last portion of your testimony so I will yield to Senator Tower. Senator TOWER. I do not have any questions. I should just like again to thank you for taking the time and the effort to come and testify before this subcommittee this morning, Miss Berry. We appreciate your constructive suggestions. Thank you. Miss BERRY. Thank you. Senator BURDICK (presiding pro tempore). The subcommittee will be in recess until 2:15 this afternoon. (Whereupon, at 11 a.m., the subcommittee recessed until 2:15 p.m. of the same day.) AFTERNOON SESSION The subcommittee reconvened in room 1318, New Senate Office Building, pursuant to recess at 2:15 p.m., Senator Burdick presiding. Present: Senator Burdick (presiding). Subcommittee staff members present: Harry Wilkinson, associate counsel; Woodruff Price, research assistant; George Denison, minority associate counsel; and Robert Locke, minority research assistant. Senator BURDICK. The first witness will be William Truitt of the National Farmers Union. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM TRUITT, NATIONAL FARMERS UNION Mr. TRUITT. Mr. Chairman and members of this subcommittee, the Farmers Union is pleased indeed to appear before this distinguished group in strong support of the bill now before you which would establish a National Service Corps. The President's challenge to all Americans to ask what they can do for their country has had an initial answer in the exemplary support of the Peace Corps. However, for many Americans who have not been able to participate in such an expression of service, the paradox remains a desire to serve but no clear path to meaningful volunteer commitment. There is a need for these people's services. We know that America has the highest standard of living the world has ever known. No other nation has done more to give its people an opportunity to live in comfort and self-respect. We have much of which to be proud. Yet we know that much remains to be done. In the midst of our prosperity, there are pockets of great need. There are millions of people who live outside the mainstream of American opportunity. These people need and deserve help. We face no greater national challenge than to help these people help themselves. Our Nation has a long history of volunteer service. There exists today, as there always has, a great reservoir of goodwill— citizens who want to use their talents and energies to help others less fortunate than themselves. We need to offer guidelines to give more people useful outlets for their desire to serve. The best way to offer significant opportunities for service in the United States is to organize a National Corps. Such a Corps would help direct the great potential of volunteers to areas of human need made critical by the lack of sufficient numbers of persons to provide human services. Farmers, of course, are just as concerned as their urban neighbors about the critical social needs of their areas. Therefore, the Farmers Union agreed at our New York convention to support any legislation which would do the five following things: (1) Give national visibility to the value of all volunteer efforts; (2) On invitation, assist in supporting and enlarging local volunteer efforts; (3) Provide technical assistance and clearinghouse information to those local communities seeking more effective volunteer programs; (4) Provide additional manpower addressed to the Nation's most pressing problems; and (5) Provide an opportunity for significant numbers of our citizens to better understand the need of our people and thereby stimulate the recruitment of persons choosing careers in the helping professions. Rural areas have specific needs and one of the greatest of these is the need of the migratory worker. Migratory workers are among our most neglected citizens. Our 500,000 domestic migratory workers and their 1,500,000 dependents have been excluded from virtually all the benefits enjoyed by most Americans. The children are generally retarded 2 to 5 years behind their nontransient counterparts. Established schools cannot cope with the migrant child's transient pattern. The adults are unaware of normal health and dietary standards. Communicable diseases threaten every community through which these migrants travel. Economic instability is the pattern; their average annual wage is $911. Due to the transient nature of their existence no one has assumed the responsibility to provide the personnel to meet the problems of these migratory families. Time does not permit the use of the vast statistics available on the need of the farming communities older citizens. Suffice it to say, Mr. Chairman, the average farmer in this land is now 54 years old and approaching his age of need. Despite the vast increase in knowledge of mental health and mental retardation, it is estimated there are in the United States 5,400,000 retarded children and adults. We have 777,000 institutionalized persons who are mentally diseased or defective. Our hospitals have been judged to have less than 50 percent of the nursing and social worker staff they need. As a recent study has strongly suggested that environmental conditions play the major part in producing mental health, community mental health programs must be greatly expanded. Since even the mentally retarded can lead productive lives if given continued personal warmth and understanding, the shortage of valued personal service in this field is a national scandal. Among our 285,000 American Indians living on reservations, the continued dependency on the Federal Government, coupled with the minimal level of existence and high rate of communicable diseases indicates that despite Federal efforts much remains to be done in working with Indians to overcome their apathy and restore a sense of dignity long denied. Many Indians exist on a family income of less than $500 per year. The need is evident for professional service personnel to live among the Indian tribes in situations contributing to mutual understanding. Jails, reformatories, and prisons throughout much of the Nation are filled with individuals desperately in need of basic education and training. Our jails alone hold 100,000 persons. In many of these institutions illiteracy and absence of skills remain dangerously high, not complying with the needs of today's labor market. Volunteers can be of immense assistance in attacking the kinds of problems described above. To be effective these problems must be approached on a local basis; thus, the problem of recruiting volunteers is primarily a local one. However, the current supply is inadequate to the demand. The role of the Federal Government in facing this issue must be one of example and technical assistance to local communities. In closing, Mr. Chairman, we would like to comment that we have a great disparity in this country between social needs and their fulfillment, and because we feel that this bill can lessen this imbalance, we urge strongly that it be sent to the Senate at the earliest possible date. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I thank you. Mr. TRUITT. Thank you, sir. Senator BURDICK. The next witness is Mr. Dean Conrad. Before Mr. Conrad commences I would like to advise the members of the subcommittee that he comes from Bismarck, N. Dak. His parents were among my dearest friends, and because of that it is a pleasure for me to welcome him here today. STATEMENT OF DEAN CONRAD, STUDENT RELIGIOUS LIBERALS Mr. CONRAD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to be able to be here this afternoon to testify before this subcommittee on behalf of Student Religious Liberals, the Unitarian Universalist College organization. Several students from our organization have participated in service programs sponsored by a branch of our parent body, the Universalist Service Committee. During the summer of 1961, I myself worked with a group of 11 other college students at a mental hospital in Hastings, Minn. After a rigorous 2-week orientation session we 12 students, representing both black and white races and several different denominations, took our place among the staff of the hospital. We were given access to the case histories of the patients with whom we had daily contact and were encouraged to study the past experiences of these patients. Each student was assigned to several mildly regressive patients with whom he spent a major portion of his time during the summer. The objective here was to establish a patient-worker relationship which could be transferred to a permanent staff member after our departure. We worked in all departments of the hospital, but our main emphasis was on recreational and occupational therapy. Our presence in the hospital allowed the recreational department to expand its outdoor activities greatly during the summer months. Our financial compensation for a 46-hour week was far below what any of us could have earned elsewhere. Our objective in undertaking this project was not financial gain but the deeper personal satisfaction that comes from helping people less fortunate than ourselves. It is this dedication to service which would be the backbone of the National Service Corps. For this reason Student Religious Liberals passed a resolution last February in favor of the formation of a National Service Corps. We feel such a corps would be consistent with the humanitarian concept of our faith. This summer the Universalist Service Committee has more than 50 college students in four different mental hospitals in the United States. With one exception, the units are interracial. All are interdenominational. In only one instance is financial compensation given to students. All the others receive only free room and board for their work. In spite of this necessarily voluntary approach, the service committee has had no difficulty in finding applicants. Rather, the problem has been to find positions for all those who wish to volunteer. During the several years of this particular program 300 to 400 students have worked in more than a score of hospitals throughout the country. The majority of these have worked under the voluntary system. I think this personal financial sacrifice, so acute during the college years, speaks for itself. It is unfortunate that the service committee's organizational limitations do not permit greater participation in this program. Student Religious Liberals envisions the National Service Corps as an increased opportunity to those of us who are willing to serve. Our hopes are not limited to work in mental hospitals. We want to see the corps at work in education and housing, on Indian Reservations, and in migratory labor camps. Another large area we expect the corps can participate in is job training and job placement for the high school dropout. We feel that the corps is needed to supplement, not replace, the type of service programs engaged in by our parent organization and other citizen groups. Mindful of the great success the Peace Corps has had abroad, Student Religious Liberals believes that the National Service Corps can prove equally successful. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator BURDICK. Mr. Conrad, your statement with reference to the service committee of your group is very interesting. You say there are more than 50 of these people who are now doing service work in various hospitals throughout the country? Mr. CONRAD. The Universalist Service Committee this summer has more than 50 employees in four different hospitals in the continental United States and one in Honduras. Senator BURDICK. Will you briefly describe the kind of work they do in these hospitals? Mr. CONRAD. They do occupational therapy, taking the patients to the occupational therapy wards and helping them make things like ashtrays, and recreational activities, specifically recreational activities during the summertime when you are able to be outdoors and play baseball and participate in sports. Senator BURDICK. In how many States is this activity now going on? Mr. CONRAD. The four hospitals in the United States are located in Lexington, Ky., Hastings, Minn., Napa, Calif., and Takoma, Wash. Senator BURDICK. Will you state briefly how this service is being received by the administrators of the hospitals? Mr. CONRAD. The Hastings, Minn., hospital has had this program since its inception at its hospital. This is the one I am most familiar with, the one I worked in. They are eager each summer to have the service group come because they add vigor to the permanent staff, and they allow the permanent staff to take a longer more relaxed vacation during the summertime. So we are greeted with great enthusiasm at least in Hastings, Minn. The other three hospitals are new ones this year. Senator BURDICK. I do not suppose that the student receives compensation? Mr. CONRAD. The Hastings Hospital does have compensation. When I was there it was at the rate of $50 a week minus $35 every 2 weeks for room and board, which came out to about $130 a month. The other three hospitals in the United States have just free room and board and no financial compensation. Senator BURDICK. Will you tell me if there is any difficulty in enlisting young men and women in this kind of work? Mr. CONRAD. As I said in my statement, the difficulty is not in enlisting them; the problem is that we have too many who apply. The problem is selection rather than enlistment. Senator BURDICK. You think this pattern which has been developed in this service committee of yours could be followed with the National Peace Corps? Mr. CONRAD. I certainly think so. Senator BURDICK. Mr. Conrad, you have given us some very interesting testimony. I am sure it will have great value when we get to the markup on this bill and when we consider it in its final form. Thank you very much. |