ing for new jobs. That also is of great importance to the people in our area, many of whom have exhausted their unemployment compensation.

There are some in our town, as elsewhere, who are against Government aid. I am not here to debate or argue with people who have that viewpoint. They have been against every action taken by the Government since the good old days of the depression when they could hire a maid for $3 a week.

When floods or hurricanes struck heavily in the community, the whole Nation rallied to help, and that was right and proper. Surely men who have invested their all in an industry that heated the homes of the Nation deserve some consideration when the increased use of another fuel renders them jobless. The road marked "Every man for himself" is not the freedom road. Rather, it is the road where lurks the devil of dictatorship and that's a devil who is not just satisfied with taking the hindmost; he takes the hindmost, the foremost, and all inbetween. Our people are good people. They do what they can to help themselves and help each other. Our community chest campaign went over the top this year, but right now we need aid, aid that will help to rehabilitate our region and give it a chance to share in the prosperity of our Nation. I believe this bill will furnish that aid.

Mrs. MATHESON. Congressman Flood has said to you that we are feeding 60,000 people in our county on surplus food. I am sure that there are many who could use it but who refuse to line up and are too proud to accept surplus food as a solution to their problem. There are some people in our towns who believe that publicity regarding unemployment will harm the town. About a year ago, Business Week carried a story on our community with pictures showing the family life where a woman is the breadwinner and her husband an unemployed coal miner, the housekeeper. May I submit this article for the record? It tells the story more graphically than any words I could

use.

Senator DOUGLAS. That will be done.

(The article referred to follows:)

[From Business Week, January 8, 1955]

WHEN JOBS DISAPPEAR

Coal ran into trouble after World War II-trouble largely in the form of competition from oil and gas. Today, coal towns in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky are struggling with unemployment. Hit hardest is the anthracite area in northeast Pennsylvania, centering around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. Higher production costs of anthracite have made the bite even deeper in this area than in the bituminous regions.

Hard-coal mines have been shutting down steadily since the end of World War II. Anthracite production has slipped from a high of 62.1 million tons in 1944 to 43 million tons in 1950, 29.7 million tons in 1953. Estimated production for 1954 is between 20 million and 22 million tons.

And the bottom has not yet been reached. Francis O. Case, president of Glen Alden Coal Co., estimates the industry will stabilize at between 15 million and 17 million tons.

Courting industry.—There is hope in sight, however. Efforts are being made to soften the economic impact on the hard-coal counties of Lackawanna, Luzerne, Schuylkill, Carbon, and Northumberland. These counties all have heavy unemployment-running to 15 percent of the total labor force.

The problem is that these counties have little industry to sop up the surplus male labor. The lack of industrial opportunity for men in the area is laid at the door of the coal companies-many of which, until recent years, opposed bringing in industries that would compete for manpower.

Now, industry is being courted. So far, however, that hasn't provided jobs for the 16,800 unemployed men in, for instance, Luzerne County.

The wives.-Job opportunities for women in the area have softened the unemployment blow and can be credited with preventing a repeat of 1939, when the relief load in the county was $1 million a week. Today, the relief load in Luzerne is running at a rate of $458,000 a month. One big difference is that when the husband loses his job in the mines, his wife is often able to find work

in an apparel or textile plant. Such is the case with Walter Narcum and his wife [pictures].

This is possible because of the fact that while industry using male workers was being discouraged, plants using primarily female labor were attracted into the area. Lackawanna County has 136 apparel plants, employing 9,750-roughly 90 percent women. In Luzerne, 14,100 women work in over 100 apparel plants,

3,200 in textiles.

Roles. With the wife the breadwinner, what happens to the unemployed husband?

In countless instances he has had to take over the woman's role in the home as Walter Narcum has.

It's a role the man-heavy on Old World traits and used to being the bossdoesn't particularly like. But there is little he can do about it.

If he has worked in the mines for as long as 20 years, his chances of getting satisfactory employment are almost nil. The available industrial work goes to younger men.

If the unemployed man has silicosis ("miner's asthma")-and most miners do have it in varying stages-he is a marked man, and no other industry will touch him. But he can't collect disability unless he is flat on his back. So few miners even with third-degree silicosis-collect disability while they are alive. Life. What's left for the unemployed miner?

He keeps paying his union dues into the United Mine Workers-$1 a month if unemployed-in hopes of collecting pension benefits at age 60. But the hardcoal miners are getting disillusioned about their pensions-originally $100 a month, but now cut to $50.

He registers at his local United States Employment Service office for work. Wilkes-Barre last month had 17,826 people hunting jobs. He can collect unemployment compensation for roughly 6 months. Then his only hope for income is odd jobs. So the miner with a wife or daughter who can get a dress-factory job at forty-odd-dollars a week considers himself lucky.

Tensions. What's the sociological impact of this reversal of roles?

Raymond Bartow, director of the Luzerne County public assistance program, says it magnifies discord, creates tensions, and is breeding a second generation of public reliefers.

Mrs. Min Matheson, manager of the two International Ladies Garment Workers Union locals in Luzerne, says it is too early to measure the long-term consequences. But one consequence is already apparent, she says: "It's demoralizing to the man, leads to more drinking."

It's rough on the children, too. They are confused by the reversed roles of their parents, begin to wonder who is the "daddy" of the family. The reversal breeds delinquency; the father often doesn't keep the children in line so well as the mother. And it puts a brake on family growth.

The woman has become more and more independent. She is becoming the dominant force in the home. And she is playing a bigger role in community affairs. But it is an independence she doesn't relish.

"It's one thing to have an independent income if your husband is working,” said an ILGWU chairlady (equivalent of a shop steward), "but it is no fun being the breadwinner."

Remedies. Many coal communities are doing their best to reverse this trend. One town, Wilkes-Barre, has launched what it calls Operation Jobs. It is spearheaded by a civic-minded "Committee of 100," which concerns itself with trying to attract industry to the area.

Its biggest lure is Crestwood Industrial Park, a 1,500-acre site located 8 miles from the heart of Wilkes-Barre.

Two companies have located in Crestwood since 1952: Foster Wheeler Corp.. employing 350 men; and King Fifth Wheel Co., construction for which began last spring, and which will employ 150. Some 1,200 acres of industrial sites are left.

A half-dozen more nationally known firms have moved into other locations in the Wilkes-Barre area since 1952, bringing new jobs to around 4,000.

In Scranton, United States Hoffman Machinery Corp. began making shell cases for the military in September. It employs 800 now, hopes to reach 1,550 eventually. Also new in the Scranton area: Daystrom Instrument Co., specializing in gunfire-control equipment for the Navy, employing 1,000; W. L. Maxson Corp., making calibrating machinery for the military, employing 1,000. King. But even with diversified industry, coal still is king in the area. provides 40 percent of payroll in Luzerne County. There can be no real comeback until anthracite gets up off the floor.

It

Mrs. MATHESON. In this article and in the pictures, we find a complete reversal of family relationships which gives some idea of the frustrations and demoralizations that unemployment for men brings to the home. And that, multiplied many times over, is what has been happening in our valley not just for months, but for years.

We have a local committee that is set up to try to bring in new industries. It is called the Committee of 100. We have good, generous, warmhearted people who have dug deep into their pockets and have contributed toward bringing in industries. We have succeeded in bringing in several but it is not enough as additional mines have closed down. We do need help from outside sources.

It is just as Congresman Flood said, "Nobody wants the dole and nobody wants handouts." Our unemployed are good workers. Many of them are skilled mechanics, men with ability, men who are willing to work. All they need is a job in order to keep their families together. We have families where the husband has left the area and is working away. It is not good to try to bring up children without a father and when the man has to rent a room and eat at restaurants it is much more costly than having the man in his own home. As a result the mother has to go to work. We had one case where a woman, despondent over the absence of her husband, tried to sell her home so that she could join him. She did not succeed in selling the home, she wasn't managing financially and one day after returning from work she solved the problem, so far as she was concerned, by ending her life. That's something that should never happen in a nation so prosperous as ours. Senator Douglas, there is another provision in your bill which we consider very important. That is to extend unemployment benefits to workers while they are receiving the training that will fit them for other industries. We tried retraining men for the garment industry without success. One of the reasons was that then men had no money to live on during the time they were being retrained. The other, that work on ladies' garments with its flimsy materials is not suitable for the men of our valley who have been working in coal mines.

I would like to say a word on mining. It is still a very live industry and it may improve. Nevertheless, any area that depends on one industry for its complete economy is likely to meet with many difficulties.

Finally, I want to tell the committee that Governor Leader of Pennsylvania came into our town several weeks ago and held a sort of town hall meeting with leaders of industry, union leaders, and other citizens and we placed our problems before him and now, Senator Douglas, we bring our problems to you with the hope and the belief that the enactment of your bill will do a great deal to help end the unemployment situation in our community.

Thank you again for allowing me to appear before this committee. Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you, Mrs. Matheson. May I ask this question? The new industries which have been brought in, are they mostly concentrated in clothing and women's work?

Mrs. MATHESON. Actually most of our women are employed in the women's garment industry. Some of the industries that have been brought in by the Committee of 100 employ men. Others employ a proportion of women.

73437-56-pt. 1-6

AREA REDEVELOPMENT

FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1956

UNITED STATES SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR OF THE

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in room P-63, United States Capitol, Senator Paul H. Douglas (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senators Douglas, Lehman, and Purtell.

Also present: Stewart E. McClure, staff director; Roy E. James, minority staff director; John Forsythe, general counsel to the committee; Frank Cantwell and Michael Bernstein, professional staff members; and James J. McTigue, consultant.

Senator DOUGLAS. The meeting will come to order.

The first witness this morning is our esteemed colleague, Senator John Sparkman, of Alabama, who appears as chairman of the Subcommittee on Low-Income Families. He produced a very able report a few weeks ago.

Senator Sparkman, we are very glad to have you with us.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN SPARKMAN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA

Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I am delighted that you are having these hearings so early in the session, and I certainly hope that they may culminate into action on the legislation which you are supporting.

Mr. Chairman, I have a prepared statement which is not very long. I will read the statement in order to save time.

I appreciate the opportunity to appear before this committee and discuss the problems of underemployment in depressed industrial areas. Of course, depressed industrial and depressed agricultural areas have many common problems, and for many years I have been interested in helping to solve these problems. You will recall that during the last session I introduced S. 1199, which deals with problems of low-income farm people.

As you know, the Joint Economic Committee, operating under the provisions of the Employment Act of 1946, has a continuing interest in ways and means of promoting maximum employment, production, and purchasing power.

As long as there is a significant number of families and individuals in our Nation living at permanently depressed, substandard levels of living, it is obvious the goals set by the Employment Act of 1946 are not being met.