Again I want to thank you gentlemen for your statements.

Mr. BLIVEN. Thank you, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. The next witness is, I believe, Dr. Joseph M. Babcock, from the American Optometric Association, Portsmouth, Ohio. Doctor, we are glad to have you before us.

STATEMENT OF DR. JOSEPH M. BABCOCK, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION

Dr. BABCOCK. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I have a statement here that is about four pages long. Would you rather have it summarized or do I have time to read it?

Mr. ROBERTS. If it is all right with you, you may summarize it and file the statement, or if that is not satisfactory, we will be glad to have you read it in its entirety.

Dr. BABCOCK. I think with the assistance of my attorney here we

can summarize it in the interest of time.

My name is Joseph M. Babcock. I reside in Portsmouth, Ohio, where I have been in practice for 40 years.

I have also been secretary to my State association for 20 years.
We would like to submit amendments to the bill.

Congressman Fogarty is in sympathy with our amendments and is for them.

I might say that we have about 20,000 practicing optometrists. We have 10 schools and colleges. Five of them are in universities. They consist of 5- and 6-year courses at college level.

Our primary interest in these bills is scholarships in research.

We have at the present time facilities for taking care of our people, but we would not want to rule ourselves out if in the future we did need some assistance along that line.

In the research field one of our problems is research in the nonachieving student and we have a rather expensive thriving research program going on now.

We have some TV viewing, glaucoma detection, work on contact lens, and reading speed and also visual recognition.

If I remember rightly, you took a course at Ohio State in recognition, I believe, if I am informed correctly.

Mr. ROBERTS. Yes. That was about the time that Dr. Renshaw was there.

Dr. BABCOCK. I would like to have you come back and see the university as it is now.

Mr. ROBERTS. If I get an invitation, I might.

Dr. BABCOCK. I might say that the legislature out there just recently gave $600,000 more to improve our facilities.

A few years back they had appropriated $200,000 and the men in the State raised $100,000. So we are interested in our facilities and would like to have you see them.

In the Army we have 1 man to 7,500 people, and in everyday practice I think we have only 1 man to a higher number, in some of the Southern States it runs up to 1 man to 10,000.

So we are in need of more students and more scholarships.

I believe that sort of sums up the statement. I hurriedly went through it here. I will submit the statement and try to answer any questions that you may have.

Mr. ROBERTS. Thank you, Doctor.

Without objection, the statement will be made a part of the record. (The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF DR. JOSEPH M. BABCOCK, PORTSMOUTH, OHIO, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, AMERICAN OPTOMETRIC ASSOCIATION; ACCOMPANIED BY WILLIAM MCCRACKEN

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Joseph M. Babcock. I reside in Portsmouth, Ohio, where I have been engaged in the practice of optometry for more than 40 years. I have been in charge of the department of national affairs of the American Optometric Association for nearly 18 years, and until recently I also served as secretary of the Ohio State Optometric Association.

Our national association, like most others in the health field, is composed of individual members in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia. In most instances the individual joins the local or State association and at the same time becomes a member of the national organization.

These bills are designed to provide Federal assistance to States for scholarships to be awarded to students of medicine, osteopathy, dentistry, and grantsin-aid to public or nonprofit universities, hospitals, laboratories, and other public and nonprofit institutions to strengthen their programs for research and research training in sciences related to health.

In this day of intercontinental missiles, supersonic passenger-carrying aircraft, the launching and operation of manmade satellites, new visual problems of vital importance arise daily and remain unsolved. But these are not the only ones, important as they are, with which our profession is concerned.

Every individual in this country, from infancy through the first hundred years and beyond, is called upon to perform visual tasks in their everyday life which were unknown at the beginning of this century. Our association, as the representtaive of our profession, is vially concerned with the solution of these problems.

It was during World War II that Admiral McIntyre, then Surgeon General of the Navy and himself an ophthalmologist, recognized the importance of our profession in connection with the national defense and offered commissions to optometrists as Reserve officers in the Hospital Specialists Corps. The Army, unfortunately, took the opposite view and denied optometrists the right to practice their profession in commissioned status and attempted to supply their needs with drafted optometrists in enlisted status, and what were known as 90-day wonders, enlisted men given a 90-day course of training in examining eyes and prescribing glasses. The result was so appalling that Congress, over the strenuous objections of the American Medical Association and the War Department, passed a bill to establish an Optometry Corps in the Army. It reached the White House between V-E Day and V-J Day. The result was that President Truman vetoed the bill but only after being assured by the War Department that they would sponsor legislation to commission optometrists in what is now known as the Medical Service Corps. Today there are more than 350 Optometry officers on active duty with our armed services, in grades ranging from second lieutenant to colonel or their equivalents in the Navy. There are several times that number on inactive status who hold Reserve commissions.

However, I should point out that all three services are anxious to recruit new officers from this year's senior class. They are having some difficulty because of the preferential treatment accorded to physicians and dentists who are initially commissioned as first lieutenants, and are given credit toward promotion for the time spent in obtaining their professional degree and also are offered bonus pay. The Director of the Office of Civil Defense Mobilization in a recent letter to the chairman of our Committee on Civil Defense said: "We consider the optometrist a valuable member of the health team and a capability which could not be done without during the period of postattack recovery."

The report of our Committee on Visual Problems of Children and Youth, which was submitted about 2 months ago to the Golden Anniversary White House Conference on Children and Youth, gives some idea of what our profession has contributed in the past toward assisting the boys and girls who, because of their visual problems, have been classified as nonachieving in their

school work. Their failure to achieve has in many cases been responsible for their becoming juvenile delinquents who have crowded our penal institutions instead of our schools and colleges of higher learning.

Our Committee on Vision Care of the Aging is cooperating with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and those responsible for the conduct of the White House Conference on Aging, which is to be held in the Nation's Capital next January.

Only last month, the president of our association accepted the award presented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce at its leadership recognition dinner "for its vision improvement program to foster auto accident prevention." Mr. Chairman, you and the other members of this committee have devoted a great deal of time in an endeavor to promote highway safety. Over 90 percent of the decisions which the driver of a motor vehicle is called upon to make come to his attention through his eyes. His ability to see, to read signs, to judge relative speeds and distances are all important factors in determining whether or not an individual is a safe driver. Most of our highway accidents, as you gentlemen are well aware, occur between sunset and sunrise. So far there has been very little research dealing with the subject of night vision for motorists. The American Optometric Foundation which is a nonprofit organization sponsored by our association and supported almost entirely by members of our profession, has undertaken such a program of research along with other research problems including TV viewing, glaucoma detection, contact lenses, and the use of instruments as prognosis on effectiveness of visual training.

Many industrial firms have found it to their advantage to employ optometrists not only to prescribe protective corrective eyewear, but to analyze the visual problems in their particular plant, thereby not only increasing their manufacturing output, improving their products, reducing spoilage, but also making for better employer-employee relationships.

Our profession is small in numbers. There are something less than 20,000 optometrists engaged in active practice and their incomes on the average are substantially less than the incomes of physicians and dentists. Thus, it is obvious that our profession cannot be expected to carry the entire burden of the research in vision which is of such vital importance to the safety and welfare of our people and particularly to our national defense. Nor should we be excluded from programs financed by Federal funds to which as taxpayers we contribute. Today there are only 10 schools and colleges of optometry in the United States. One of these is a part of the Ohio State University. Last year, the Ohio Legislature appropriated $600,000 to enlarge the school of optometry at Ohio State University. We are proud of this school and of its graduates, but there should be more students enrolled and more funds available to carry on their research programs.

Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that you yourself, as a naval officer in World War II, obtained some training in visual recognition of aircraft at Ohio State University. I hope that you will have an opportunity to revisit the campus and to see the improvements which have been made during the years that have elapsed since you were there.

Right here it might be appropriate to give you briefly what is required of a student to obtain a degree from one of our schools or colleges of optometry. In order to enter, he or she must have satisfactorily completed 4 years at the high school level and 2 years in preoptometry subjects at the college level. He or she is then required to devote at least 3 years to studying optometric subjects and some of our schools require a fourth year before awarding the candidate a degree of doctor in optometry.

The approved schools are: Massachusetts College of Optometry; Ohio State University, School of Optometry; School of Optometry, Indiana University; Illinois College of Optometry; Los Angeles College of Optometry; Pacific University, College of Optometry; Penn. State College of Optometry; Southern College of Optometry; University of California, School of Optometry; University of Houston, College of Optometry.

The present enrollment in these colleges and schools is approximately 1,200. We estimate that in order to take care of the growing needs of our population for optometric care, there should be enrolled at least 2,000 students. There are some scholarships available to optometric students, most of which are financed by members of our profession or the auxiliary which is composed of the wives of the members of our profession. There are also a few scholarships which

have been financed by industry, either as part of their general employees relations programs or because of some special interest in vision. Considering the size of our profession, and the present student body, we believe that we have made a creditable showing but we realize it is not adequate to meet the needs of this great and growing Nation. Something must be done to stimulate enrollment in our schools and colleges of optometry.

During the last 4 years, the total number of licensed optometrists has fallen from 22,126 to 21,876 while our population has increased. This may not be impressive but look at the falling off in the enrollment of our schools and colleges during the past decade. In 1950, the student body numbered approximately 3,000; even this was about 1,000 less than the peak reached right after V-J Day when our exservicemen resumed their education. Today the optometric student body numbers less than half what it did 10 years ago, and yet the needs and the demands for our services have steadily increased. Something must be done to correct this situation. It is for this reason that I am here today, and submitting for your favorable consideration certain amendments to H.R. 6906, 10255, 10341, and 11651. These suggestions are indeed most modest but if adopted they will give us an opportunity to prove that the money invested is productive of results.

Mr. Chairman, in closing I not only want to thank you and the members of your committee for the courtesies which you have extended to me, but to express through you to the Members of Congress my personal appreciation of the many opportunities which have been accorded me, as director of the department of national affairs of the American Optometric Association during the past 18 years to present the case of optometry to the national congress.

As I mentioned previously, the Optometry Corps bill was vetoed, but 2 years later the Medical Service Corps law was enacted; the 1950 amendments to the social security law expressly provided for the utilization of optometric services in the Aid to the Blind program; the last session of this Congress went on record by including optometry as part of the health team under the jurisdiction of the Veterans' Administration; the House has passed and there is now pending before the Senate a bill to make available to veterans entitled to outpatient optometric care the services of members of our profession; optometrists are included in the old age and survivor benefits of the social security law; the House of Representatives has twice passed H.R. 10 which our association endorsed. It is the bill to encourage self-employed to augment their retirement benefits. That bill is now pending before the Senate. There have been many other occasions on which committees of Congress have listened to statements either by myself or other representatives of our association.

At the end of this month, I plan to retire from the office of director of the department of national affairs, although I expect to continue my practice and to maintain my interest in the welfare of the profession on the national level. Therefore, I do want to close this statement with a sincere word of appreciation of what has been done in the past, and to express the hope that you will accord my successor, whoever he may be, the same courteous consideration which has been given me, and that before these bills now under consideration are reported, you will include at least the substance of the amendments attached to this statement.

Dr. BABCOCK. Thank you, sir.

Mr. ROBERTS. I want to say that I am sorry to read the last part of your statement on page 8 in which you state that you plan to retire as director of the department of national affairs. You have appeared before this subcommittee many, many times and we have always been glad to have you and we have always been glad to work with you.

We feel you have made a great contribution to the work of this committee and to your profession.

Dr. BABCOCK. I want to thank you for all the courtesies that I have received. It has been a pleasure for me to come over here.

But I think after 18 years it is time to send a new face over.

Mr. ROBERTS. We certainly will be glad to have you visit us at any time. I hope you will. I hope you are going to enjoy your retirement. Dr. BABCOCK. Thank you.

Mr. ROBERTS. I did, as you mention, spend some time at Ohio State. We are, of course, very grateful for the work of two members from Ohio who are members of this subcommittee, Mr. Schenck is from Dayton, and Mr. Devine is from Columbus.

I hope that I will have an opportunity to visit the university at some time and see your work there. I know personally that the recognition of the schools has contributed a great deal to various branches of the service, flying officers who had special training.

Dr. BABCOCK. Along that line we are doing research in speed reading too, which will help the Congressmen to read all their mail. Mr. ROBERTS. I will be glad if my good assistants in my office take that course.

Thank you very much.

Dr. BABCOCK. Thank you.

Mr. MACCRACKEN. Mr. Chairman, may I say that as Dr. Babcock pointed out, Congressman Fogarty said the amendments we have prepared to his two bills are acceptable to him.

I have not had a chance to clear these with others, but I will be glad to do so.

Also, if there is any question about them, the staff has them and I will be available if you want to call on me to straighten them out or explain them.

Mr. ROBERTS. We will be glad to get in touch with you if necessary. Mr. Abe Rubin, secretary and editor of the American Podiatry Association.

Doctor, you have a very short statement. Do you want to read it? Dr. RUBIN. I think perhaps since it is short, I will read it.

STATEMENT OF DR. ABE RUBIN, SECRETARY AND EDITOR OF THE AMERICAN PODIATRY ASSOCIATION

Dr. RUBIN. Honorable Chairman and members of the Subcommittee on Health and Safety of the House of Representatives Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, I am Dr. Abe Rubin, secretary and editor of the American Podiatry Association (known from 1912 to 1958 as the National Association of Chiropodists).

I speak for our professional association and with some knowledge of our schools and colleges, having served in one of them for more than 15 years as a member of the teaching and clinical faculty and administrator prior to coming to my present office, just 5 years ago. A little over 2 years ago, on April 22, 1958, I had the privilege of reading a prepared statement before a committee similar to this one. It was considering legislation to provide grants for construction of medical, dental, and public health teaching facilities.

We presented information which we believed justified us in petitioning that any legislation reported would not exclude our institutions from participation in the grant programs. We were pleased to hear the chairman, Hon. John Bell Williams, state that we had "made an excellent case for our profession."

Since that time our schools were asked to reexamine their fundamental needs necessary to maintain a high-quality educational program. They report that by 1965 the six accredited colleges will require $4,787,349 for improvement of physical facilities.

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