MSU corpsmen help teachers by working individually with children and in small groups first seeking to make friends.

They begin by talking with teachers and learning which children need help. Then the corpsmen sit in classes and observe their subjects, following this up by visiting their homes.

HUNT OWN ANSWERS

Corpsmen are encouraged to find their own solutions.

For instance, Bruce Keiden, 21, of Lansing, a prelaw senior, after observing at Franklin School, got a group of foreign students at MSU to record their impressions of both their homeland and the United States on tape. The tapes are to be played in Mrs. Arlean Bailey's sixth-grade social science class. Some corpsmen sing songs and twang a guitar to excite young minds. Sandra Parnell, 19, of Williamstown, Mass., a home economics sophomore and summer camp counselor, and Peggy Meyer, 19, of 18962 Warrington, Detroit, a sophomore in social work, chose playground games as a way of winning the friendship of young pupils.

COLLEGIANS GAIN ALSO

Says Gottlieb, who inspired the corps during a lecture at MSU describing the problems involving economically and socially deprived children:

"We started the corps hoping to incite interest in education-at the elementary level and thus reducing a bigger problem later on.

"I think we also have caused some excitement at the college level."

Senator BURDICK. Thank you, Senator. Now we are pleased to hear from Senator McGovern.

STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE MCGOVERN, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA

Senator MCGOVERN. In his initial report to the President on the feasibility of a domestic Peace Corps, the Attorney General stated that:

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, but for many Americans there is still a paradox-a desire to serve but no clear path to meaningful volunteer commitment. We need to offer visible avenues for service to these people.

This, then, is a primary purpose of the legislation being considered by this committee to provide a totally new concept of voluntarism; a year of full-time service work with Americans in great need, whether in mental hospitals, in urban slums, on Indian reservations, in migrant labor camps, or in underdeveloped rural areas. The Peace Corps has tapped the great well of idealism and desire for service that exists among the people of this country, but has far from exhausted it.

There are other important goals of this legislation: to stimulate still other Americans to join volunteer programs in attacking problems in their own communities; to give the Nation a clearer picture of the vast human needs that are still unmet in this country; and to inspire more Americans to choose careers in what have been described as the "helping professions."

One in every five Americans lives under conditions comparable to those in the underdeveloped countries of the world, yet the average citizen is largely unaware of their plight. Because he does not see their suffering, he assumes that it does not exist. Their plight is made worse by the fact that most are disadvantaged by circumstances beyond their control.

The tragedy—

the President's Study Group put it aptly—

is that they cannot improve their condition by themselves. They need help to help themselves. They need to be shown the way. However, before help for these unfortunate persons can be obtained from the only resource capable of providing it—the hundreds and thousands of Americans who have the knowledge, time, and spirit to aid their less fortunate fellow citizens-their plight must be recognized; the hardship and suffering must be exposed to the warm light of human understanding and compassion which will stimulate help.

Do I exaggerate? Let me cite a few facts about our Indian population which is confirmed by my own experience. The average reservation is rich in land but poor in knowledge of modern farming and irrigation techniques. The population is more subject to disease, eats less well, and suffers more from unemployment than the surrounding white communities. The Indian infant death rate is almost twice that for all races; life expectancy is 20 years less for the continental U.S. Indian population than for the rest of the country; and the incidence of such communicable diseases as measles, tuberculosis, hepatitis, dysentery, and strep throat among Indians is from 4 to 23 times that in the general population.

In his testimony before the Select Subcommittee on Labor in the other body, Henry Black Elk, Jr., of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in my State of South Dakota, described conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The living conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation are among the worst of the Nation. Employment is one of the greatest needs of the reservation. On any day of the week, you can see many men standing around the stores and trading posts, idle for lack of work. Almost 45 percent of our labor force is permanently unemployed. Many of our people used to get harvest-time employment picking potatoes in Nebraska. But this type of work is no longer available due to mechanization.

Housing conditions are deplorable. Most of the 1,900 families on the reservation live in one-room log houses and shacks. A few live in tents. Most houses have no electricity, inside plumbing, or even a reliable source of good water. Right across from my home, for example, three families, totaling 12 people, live in a two-room shack. They cook outside in the summer and on a wood-burning stove in winter. Just last year one of these families lost a newborn baby as a result of contaminated water and poor health practices.

Health cnditions generally are very bad. The infant death rate is four times the national average. Tuberculosis, influenza, and dysentery are still great killers of the Oglala Sioux. Another health problem, which has to a large extent been ignored, is mental retardation of children.

The lack of employment, poor housing, and high disease rates all contribute to demoralization and frustration. Many peole feel there is no way out. This results in apathy and despair. These, in turn, contribute to the problem. Our peole are thus looking for a source of help that can break the cycle of poverty, disease, unemployment, and apathy.

What can a National Service Corps do about such problems? According to Henry Black Elk, corpsmen could help immensely by giving technical assistance to those who wish to build or improve their homes, working as health extension workers, teaching nursery schools, giving instruction in truck gardening and other types of farming under irrigated conditions, providing technical assistance in the administration of tribal affairs, and helping in the establishing of community development programs. These programs are all vital if life on the Pine Ridge and other Indian reservations is to progress toward general American standards. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, con

cerned traditionally only with trustee functions in the narrow sense, cannot assume these responsibilities.

The feeling of many South Dakota Indians was well expressed by Mr. Black Elk when he said:

We would welcome dedicated volunteers who are interested in helping us to solve our problems. I believe that in addition to the work they can do themselves, they will have a great effect by setting an example for our people to follow. I believe they will teach our people the meaning of volunteer work. The fact that they are serving almost without pay will show our people how we can help ourselves. This can do more than any single thing to break the cycle of despair and apathy * * *.

If the corps could have this effect on only one Indian reservation, it would more than repay the effort and expense it would cost. But, in fact, the President's Study Group has found that the need is general and extends to other disadvantaged groups in our population-children in need of care, persons in institutions, the mentally retarded, the mentally ill, those with educational deficiencies, migratory farmworkers, Alaskan natives, the elderly, those in economically depressed areas, and many others. In all these cases, a helping hand from fellow Americans would provide a psychological, as well as a practical, benefit that is almost incalculable. Let us regard this legislation as an investment in our fellow Americans and their right to share fully in the promise of American life.

Senator BURDICK. Thank you, Senator. We welcome the testimony of Senator Long of Missouri.

STATEMENT BY HON. EDWARD V. LONG, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MISSOURI

Senator LONG. Mr. Chairman, America is truly the land of plenty in many respects. We have managed to create a Nation in which the living standard is higher than anywhere else in the world. And, yet, each day thousands of our people suffer hardships as great as those in any of the so-called underdeveloped nations.

Who are these people and where do they live? They live in every section of our bountiful land, from urban slum centers to the Indian reservations of the Middle and Far West. Migratory farmworkers, natives of Alaska and Applachia, the aged, Puerto Ricans, and institutionalized individuals are among those who are not sharing in the fruits of the American experiment.

These people do not live in deprived circumstances for want of initiative or stimulation. Rather, they generally are trapped by circumstances beyond their control. They are willing and anxious to improve their various lots. However, to achieve this, recognition of their existence and their problems must dawn on the vast majority of our citizenry-the portion which is capable of extending a helping hand. Americans have responded favorably to the Peace Corps, created to aid the underprivileged in the less prosperous nations of the world. Currently, we have an opportunity to provide a comparable service for the unfortunate in our own land. Under Presidential impetus, a bill, S. 1321, was introduced by Senator Williams and cosponsored by me and 22 other Senators, which, if enacted, would provide for the creation of a National Service Corps. This would be, in effect, a domestic peace corps, whose aim it would be to "strengthen community service

programs in the United States." It would help resolve the paradox. existent between those living on the brink of destitution and those living in prosperity and abundance.

The National Service Corps would provide opportunities for more than a hit-and-miss program of working with those in greatest need; long-range projects can be instituted under the auspices of this team of volunteers. The attack on poverty and its consequences will be heightened by the enactment of this program. Hopefully, the national interest generated by this new public service program will manifest itself through an increasing number of locally based community service projects.

Essentially, this domestic Peace Corps program is designed to assist people in learning to help themselves. Moreover, if enacted, it will utilize the talents of many of our people who are looking for creative outlets in which to channel their energies.

While the problems abroad where our Peace Corps members are stationed are certainly critical and worthy of our concern and assist-ance, situations exist right here in this country which demand our continuing expending of energy and skill to rectify. Conditions in our mental hospitals, for example, are in many cases abhorrent, primarily because of the lack of personnel. With the assistance of the corpsmen, dedicated to bettering conditions, improvement can be expected.

American families who migrate from area to area following ripening crops are another example of a segment of the population which is in dire need of aid. The camps in which they are forced to live often constitute substandard housing; the children of such families. suffer from continuously interrupted educational training and ofttimes find themselves in areas where no (or very little) schooling is available to them.

Everyone is cognizant of the critical problems existent in every metropolitan area-disease, crime, poverty, and the like. Racial unrest has recently come to the fore as an issue with which all our major cities, both North and South, must deal. Many of these are reflections of urban conditions in which thousands of people are jammed into overcrowded slum areas and are living in the chill shadow of abject poverty. The creation of the National Service Corps will help to alleviate these problems by sending trained personnel into critical areas to work with the people in forging out a better life.

In short, it seems to me, that the creation of the National Service Corps is an opportunity for Americans to pay more than lipservice to the ideals on which this Nation was founded. It is a chance to fashion a society in which all men, while not equal in the amount of material wealth they have amassed, can enjoy a fundamental equality of opportunity.

It is for these reasons that I am happy to endorse this program. I feel its end result can be nothing short of spectacular as it attempts to make the American dream more of a working reality for all of our people.

Senator BURDICK. Thank you, Senator. Now we welcome Senator Inouye's appearance before this subcommittee.

STATEMENT OF HON. DANIEL K. INOUYE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF HAWAII

Senator INOUYE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am most grateful to be permitted to make the following statement: As a result of my own research and analysis of the need for some type of program on the domestic front incorporating the best features of the Peace Corps overseas, and after careful study of the report of the President's study group on the proposed national service program, I have come to the conclusion that passage of S. 1321, a bill to establish a National Service Corps for the United States is a most urgent and needed piece of legislation.

The Peace Corps program has been an outstanding success during the relatively short period since its inception. Prior to its activation, those who opposed it claimed that there were adequate religious and other private, as well as isolated public units, already involved in the business of helping certain of our underdeveloped countries help themselves. However, the Peace Corps plan infused a sense of national commitment and dedication, as well as a sense of collective responsibility to the problems of people living in poverty and the other related problems of underdevelopment. Our Nation's youth, and others perhaps more youthful in mind than body, rallied to the program as they had not previously rallied to similar type programs conducted by private philanthropic organizations.

The national service program also has its due share of detractors who claim that the problems of inadequate health facilities, day care centers, migatory workers' facilities, economic development, and programs for the elderly, are being provided for through various private and public programs. Others decry the intercession of the Federal Government in areas which they proclaim to be the exclusive preserve of State governments.

In addition to the same argument of national commitment which has been amply proven by the Peace Corps, I would add the following: 1. Such a program enlisting the aid of the youth of our country in attacking vexing and continuing problems of poverty amidst plenty, will fill in existing gaps in our welfare professions. There are critical shortages in social welfare personnel, in our nursing profession, and in various therapeutic vocations.

2. By channeling individuals into these welfare oriented professions through practical work in the field, we cannot but help to inspire a sizable proportion of them to become permanently interested in such occupations. This fact has been borne out by the number of Peace Corps volunteers who have opted for further work, both practical and academic, in the international field after ending their tours of duty.

3. A National Service Corps would not mean "Federal intercession" in the affairs of local and State governments in the same way that the Peace Corps has not meant U.S. "intercession" in the sovereign affairs of other governments.

The National Service Corps will work together with and under the guidance of local and State government organizations, helping to solve problems together, rather than dictating what should be done. The ultimate aim of the Peace Corps is to do away with itself by