mittees of the Senate and the House and proved acceptable to Members of Congress. It has been proved in the furnace of experience and found workable, which ought to, and I believe will, commend it to the Members of the Eighty-second Congress.

Gentlemen of the committee, the problem is briefly this: Under the tragic necessities of our present situation, you are taking young men out of the normal courses of their lives. You are depriving them of the opportunity to earn a livelihood in the normal commercial pursuits of every day life and to set up homes as would be their privilege and right under normal peacetime economy. Our young people today face a very difficult world but they are for the most part carrying on their lives bravely. Your committee should realize that if it were not for the courage of these young people in undertaking the responsibilities of parenthood under these very difficult circumstances, our country might be deprived of her most essential line of defense, for guns, no matter how scientifically designed, do not fire themselves; even guided missiles require the guiding hand of someone to start them on their course. We need the brains of the scientists and the technicians to prepare the weapons of defense. And if there are no scientists and technicians, no men to guide the missiles and fire the guns, there will be no defense.

Therefore, the young women who are the wives of the men in our Armed Forces, who undertake the responsibilities of motherhood under all the difficulties created by this situation, are rendering a service to their country not less than the service being rendered by their husbands. I think I may say, without exaggeration that if our troubled world fails to right itself for another 8 or 10 years the defense of the United States will be largely borne by the babies whose health you helped to defend by the EMIC Act in World War II. No bill that was passed in Congress has returned to you greater value for the money that you spent.

One of the difficulties that that act was intended to, and did, help to remedy was the fact that young wives, expecting to be torn from their husbands at any minute, followed them to the various camps throughout the country where, being in States of which they were not citizens, they found themselves without the protection of State law, and State hospital facilities were denied them. Again, especially as our armed services are increased in number to meet the demands of both the European and Korean fronts, this situation is repeating itself. The rising cost of necessities of life, including those for medical care, are adding to the difficulties of these young people. Our soldiers in Korea are getting a very understandable, but very unfortunate, complex. They say we have forgotten them. Blood banks are neglected. Life appears to them to be going on here as usual. They feel that we do not appreciate their sacrifices. I know nothing that could add more greatly to their morale than the passage of this bill. It would say to them, "Now, we have not forgotten you. Congress is aware of your problems. We will give to your wives and babies the care that we gave to the wives and infants of the men who fought in Germany and north Africa and on Okinawa in World War II.

We would urge you to do the far-seeing, the humanitarian thing, and contribute to the present morale of our men in service, and the future defense of our Nation by favorably reporting S. 2337.

Senator LEHMAN. Thank you very much indeed for this very clear and excellent memorandum.

The question that has been raised most frequently is as to the need for legislation of this sort.

Miss SMART. Yes.

Senator LEHMAN. Have you or your organization any information bearing on that question?

Miss SMART. We have not made a survey ourselves, Mr. Chairman, but we do understand that the Red Cross is receiving applications for help, and that they only are able to take care-I think they received some 110,000 and are only able to take care of 10,000 of these applications. I am not positive of those figures, but it runs something like that. That would indicate that there is a very real need for these services at the present time. They are the organization to whom these people naturally go, as you understand.

Senator LEHMAN. Do you think it would be a fair assumption, too, that there may be many people requiring this aid, but knowing that it is not available, they hesitate or do not make application for it, since they would feel it was a waste of time?

Miss SMART. I understand that at present to some extent the need is being met by the military hospitals. These servicemen's families. do have the right to the use of the military hospitals only, of course, when the facilities are available. If the war in Korea should become active again, or if you should have epidemics or any active fighting on the European front, those military hospital facilities are going to be absorbed, and that will throw quite a large number of women who have been having some help back on some civilian provisions, and I think that is not an impossible situation. I hope it will not arise. But I think Congress has to take that into consideration.

Senator LEHMAN. Thank you very much indeed.

Miss SMART. Thank you.

Senator LEHMAN. The next two witnesses have been delayed by other hearings, but I hope they are on their way. Tomorrow we have a long roster of witnesses. I am not at all certain that we will be able to hear all of them in the limited time we will have. Are there any witnesses who are scheduled for tomorrow who are here today, and who would be prepared to testify at this time?

Will you identify yourself for the record, please?

STATEMENT OF DAVID WHATLEY, BETHESDA, MD.

Mr. WHATLEY. Mr. Chairman, my name is David Whatley, 7400 Arden Road, Bethesda, Md. I represent no organization. I appreciate your hearing me. I would not have requested appearance on so complex a subject, except that you had this extra time available this morning, sir.

I have, without compensation and as an individual, lobbied actively over the past 13 years in behalf of increased pay and emoluments for the members of the lower grades in the enlisted armed services. I have felt as a matter of social justice a very deep concern that they have been and are at the present time perhaps the only large segment of our population that is underpaid in proportion to the hazards, risks, and unpleasantness of duty they perform. Even the inducements for

hazardous work and unpleasant duty on posts in the Tropics and the Arctic regions are so small for the lower grades of enlisted personnel that their total pay still does not equal that of a Senate page boy.

The schedule of dependency allowances in existence at the present time, and those which would obtain even after the raises proposed by the Senate Armed Services Committee in the bill now on the Senate calendar, which are in excess of those proposed by the House bill are still so obviously inadequate for enlisted men, and, as compared to officers, so inequitable, as to shock the conscience.

The present law provides that a private, E-1, E-2, gets for one dependent only $45 and for two dependents $67.50. If his wife is unable to work, and he has more than one child, the $85 provided by the Government is so obviously inadequate in comparison with present-day living costs that it makes the provisions for some supplementary aid by the Government for complete medical care of his dependents so obviously necessary as in my opinion not to be debatable.

It was suggested by the representative of the American Hospital Association yesterday that it would be undesirable to coddle these men and to encourage them to rely on Federal assistance and destroy their initiative and self-reliance, but yet we have provided over the years this service that you propose in these bills, for officers, their wives, and children, and I have seen no indication that it has militated against their self-respect, initiative, or self-reliance.

The Government has called back to active duty, many fathers with small children from the Reserves and National Guard, and it has been announced by General Hershey that in 1953 and perhaps in the latter part of 1952, the manpower pool will be reduced to such an extent that he will have to draft into service a great many other men with children.

I submit that they simply cannot provide for ordinary medical expenses, let alone the unusual expenses of obstetrical and pediatric care on the small amounts even provided in the bill pending on the Senate calendar, which raises these figures of $67 a month for two dependents, and $85 a month for more than two dependents for the enlisted men only a few dollars. The proposed increase does not even equal the increased cost of medical care and cost of living for one dependent.

Just one other point on that. The Hook Commission, which made an extensive and exhaustive survey of the armed services pay a few years ago, in my opinion concentrated primarily upon the inducements necessary to have a peacetime standing force composed almost exclusively of enlisted men in the higher grades who would have an adequate salary to provide for their families, and for officers. They did not give adequate attention nor study, in my opinion, to the members of the lower enlisted grades, particularly the inadequacies of the dependency allowance scale for the lower enlisted grades. At that time, as you will recall, Mr. Chairman, the armed services were not accepting as volunteers in the lower enlisted grades below E-4 any married men whatsoever. That situation changed, of course, at the beginning of the Korean war, and the allotment allowance bill which was passed shortly thereafter did not adequately reflect in the amendments that it made to the original allotment allowance bill the change of status of the members in the lower grades from that of only single men to that of both married and single men.

I submit that as a matter of justice if we are required to force these men to take the tremendous reduction in pay that they do when they are inducted, and to exist on the small base pay that they now receive, that we should certainly afford in the allowance system an adequate amount to provide for all the medical care and other care of their dependents.

I suggest that this may be accomplished in one of two ways: Either by increasing the dependency allowances or by providing the care as proposed in these two pending bills. I suggest that the most expeditious and more simple manner would be for your committee to make a determination upon this policy, if possible, before the armed services pay bill reaches the Senate floor, and after consultations with the Senate Armed Services Committee, which did not get into this subject of medical and hospital costs in the course of their hearings on the pay bill, to ask their acquiescence in an amendment to the bill which would increase the allowances for those men not receiving such care for their families by the reasonable costs of such care in nonmilitary facilities.

Senator LEHMAN. Of course, this committee has no authority to do that. It is entirely outside of our jurisdiction to provide for increased pay.

Mr. WHATLEY. I thought you might be able to do it informally. Senator LEHMAN. I do not believe that could be done by this committee. Our study is confined to the question of providing for medical and hospital care.

Mr. WHATLEY. Yes.

Senator LEHMAN. Thank you very much, indeed.

Mr. WHATLEY. Thank you.

Senator LEHMAN. Mr. Philip Schiff.

Would you identify yourself for the record?

STATEMENT OF PHILIP SCHIFF, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL PUBLIC COMMITTEE, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF

SOCIAL

POLICIES

SOCIAL WORKERS

Mr. SCHIFF. My name is Philip Schiff. I am chairman of the national public social policies committee of the American Association of Social Workers. We had hoped we might testify tomorrow, but in view of the fact that there is an opportunity to do so this morning, orally, I appreciate it very much.

Senator LEHMAN. I appreciate that very much, because we have a very long schedule tomorrow.

Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Chairman, the American Association of Social Workers is an organization of some 12,000 professional social workers throughout the country. We have chapters in every State of the Union, and in Puerto Rico, and Hawaii. We are terribly concerned about this particular problem as it relates to this bill. I say we are concerned, because our membership, which is at the present time very much involved with public and private health and welfare programs, has looked at this problem for a number of years. Our chapters throughout the country from time to time have been in touch with the committee and have made clear to us that not only is this bill in itself important, but deserves special consideration in view of the fact that

the total health and welfare program at the present time, as evidenced by the fact that the Senate, I believe, twice passed the public local health unit bill, and the House has not done anything about them, has really presented the country with a problem that definitely involves the service personnel who are involved in this program.

I might say that we are accumulating-I am sorry we do not have it at this point-for the committee, the kind of information, Mr. Chairman, that I think would be very helpful to the committee in terms of the actual number of cases that our chapters have come across where service personnel or the wives of service personnel have needed the kind of aid that is provided in this bill.

I can say to you that as a result of the experience that some of us have had in UŠO, during World War II, that many of our requests, and I am now talking for USO at this time, except those of us who are in the social-work profession have seen the problem in that regard, we have seen the wives of service personnel. Then we have talked with them, we know the problems with regard to maternity and infant care. Were it not for the fact that the Children's Bureau had a program which involved taking care of these people, I think the country would have suffered a good deal in terms of the lack of services that they require.

We are able from time to time through our chapters and our professional workers to refer these people to those agencies in the Government under the auspices of the Children's Bureau to do something about the problem. We have discussed with the military from time to time throughout World War II, and we know of their great concern in connection with this problem. We propose that if this bill were passed-and we certainly hope that it will be that our chapters will again become very active and make available both to the military and the public and private agencies the kind of information that we who are on the spot in dealing with these problems, can call to their attention.

That, Mr. Chairman, is our concern for the kind of bill as envisioned by the committee at the present time. Our members, as you probably know, must have a degree in social work in order to perform adequately the kinds of services required. They are trained case workers. They are trained group workers. They are trained medical workers. They are trained psychiatric workers. It is our hope that Congress will pass this bill. We will make available whatever services we can to carry out the purposes of the bill itself.

I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have. Senator LEHMAN. I have just one question. A question has been raised here with regard to the need for the program at the present time. Can you testify, on the basis of reports that may have come to you from your members who, I understand, represent a large segment of the trained social workers of this country, with regard to this question of need? In other words, have you had reports of cases where assistance of this kind is essential for the welfare of the prospective mother or the child that is to be born?

Mr. SCHIFF. The answer to your question, Mr. Chairman, is definitely "Yes." When we received information to the effect that your committee was considering this bill, we immediately got in touch with our chapters throughout the country. As I say, they are in every