Welfare Administrators and a member of the board of directors of the American Public Welfare Association, which is the organization I am representing here today. That includes all 52 welfare directors in the country and the Territories. Mr. ELLIOTT. Is that the job that the lady from North Carolina used to Mr. WAXTER. Dr. Ellen Winston? Mr. ELLIOTT. That is who I am speaking of. Mr. WAXTER. She has testified before you on this subject? Mr. ELLIOTT. Two years ago. Mr. WAXTER. I really am testifying for the same organization. Mr. WAXTER. Personally, I am employed by the State of Maryland as their welfare director. I have been for some 6 years the judge of the children's court in Baltimore City and for the last 15 or 20 years I have been director of welfare in Baltimore City and in the State of Maryland, where we run in accordance with the size of the State of 3 million people, a small State, a comprehensive program in the field of juvenile delinquency. I am going to drop this statement; you can take it because you are in a hurry. The American Public Welfare Association wants to go on record as saying that the country needs as badly as it needs anything a congressional appropriation, in the same manner that we have money in the fields of child welfare, or the appropriations for crippled children, or the appropriations for maternal and child health to do something about the problem of the troubled child. And let me play with that for a moment, Mr. Elliott, and then I will leave you, telling you how strongly we in this organization, which is in every State and Territory and has a larger membership of people interested in public welfare, feel about it. The way we feel is that in this business of working with the troubled child the family is the focus of most of our attention, because if you have parents, if you are lucky enough to be born into a home where the man is well related to what he is doing and is leading a satisfying life and the woman is getting her modest modicum of satisfaction out of what she does all day long and they have a fairly decent relationship between the two of them, whatever this thing called love is, they are well adjusted and warm and are well adjusted to each other, you do not have delinquency. Basically it is concerned with parent identity and with attitudes. Now the thing that comes through my mind, Einstein once said in making a speech in Baltimore, that he had lived in Princeton for many years and he never could understand why in America it made so much difference to see, of young men running down a road, who came in first-the impact of all materialistic civilization on growing children. Those two things are the fundamental problems we face in organizing a program in juvenile delinquency. Of course those of us in the field feel that of all the millions and billions of dollars that are going into all kinds of scientific research, we should have from the Federal Government the kind of leadership we have had in the crippled children's field or in maternal and child health. Let the States under supervision from HEW run some projects in testing the efficacy of various ways of handling children on probation, children from the division of special education. These kids mani fest problems in the first few years of school. Then we splinter off a group of children and we form a special institution that we call training schools, because we have yet to test and develop the kind of real therapy we need for the kids and then aftercare when they get out. If we could have in that whole broad field, the child in trouble from the time he is born right through, and be able to test and do research, not research in the sense of the physical sciences, but in the course of cultural lag, to try to get ourselves up so we can focus on these kids and families in trouble, we would be able to return things that would be infinitely greater than the money we spend on all kinds of mechanical contrivances. People in the field of public welfare, working with children, are shocked when we read in the paper that it costs millions of dollars to put out one jet bomber, and the Congress has authorized $17 million a year for child welfare, and you find it difficult to find that money and appropriation only $12 million when you have already authorized $17 million. It means that we are not looking at the thing, according to us, in the proper perspective. What we want to drive home to you is we can spend money under proper supervision and proper controls for this purpose as well as for crippled children or maternal child health. Juvenile delinquency, it speaks for itself, is the same kind of general field. We see all this money going into missiles and these other things. Lack of money is our basic problem. We would love to be able to have money from the Federal Government for projects of various kinds and, speaking without respect to individual bills, secondly to do something about training personnel. As an example, we need trained personnel in the courts of America. I ran a juvenile court for 6 years in Baltimore City. The probation force that we have throughout America in some of our courts needs standards, they need qualifications. We need somebody to take leadership in terms of standards and qualifications in the things that they do. We want to tell you that every welfare department in America is strongly on record as wanting the Federal Government to take the same kind of leadership as they have in child welfare, crippled children, and maternal and child health. We have filed a very good paper if anybody will read it. But we want to go on record as forcibly as we can. Mr. ELLIOTT. I want to say to you, speaking for myself, your paper will not only have my reading, but my very careful reading and consideration. I want to thank you for your kindness in respecting our time and the situation. We have several witnesses and we have an hour in which to try to hear them, and that is always difficult. I will forgo questions at this time and recognize the gentlewoman from Oregon, Mrs. Green. Congresswoman GREEN. I am sorry I did not hear all your statement. I certainly will read your prepared statement carefully. Mr. WAXTER. We were just going on record, representing all the welfare departments of the country, that we feel that bills like your bills could do a tremendous amount of good to the Nation if we could get them through the Congress and get Federal leadership. Congresswoman GREEN. I appreciate your taking the time to come and give us this testimony. Mr. WAXTER. I am paid for this, Mrs. Green. Mr. ELLIOTT. The gentleman from New Jersey, Mr. Daniels. Mr. DANIELS. Judge Waxter, as I interpret your testimony, you are in favor of study projects, demonstrations, and training of personnel, and for grants by the Federal Government to the States in aid of these various projects. Mr. WAXTER. That is right, in the same way that they have done in so many other of our fields. For instance, in Mr. DANIELS. You do acknowledge, however, that there is a shortage of the necessary qualified personnel in the various fields? Mr. WAXTER. It is pathetic. The department that I had runs a series of training schools. We run an aftercare program, and we run a program for the court to take care of children before they get into court. We call it protective service for the neglected child. We cannot begin to get the personnel that we need, irrespective of money. If we had the money, we could not get the kind of personnel we need, because they are not available; we do not have the educational facilities in the Nation at this point to get the broad kind of personnel. We need education to carry on a continuing program. We can get personnel for projects, for an individual project or an individual thing. We cannot get personnel all the way across the board that we need. There are just not enough social workers in America as of today who have had any degree of training. Mr. DANIELS. Thank you. Mr. ELLIOTT. The gentleman from Connecticut, Mr. Giaimo. Mr. GIAIMO. I will forgo questions at this time, Mr. Chairman. Judge, I will read your statement over very carefully and consider the facts that you have contained in it and thank you very much. Mr. WAXTER. Thank you very much. Mr. ELLIOTT. The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Lafore. Mr. LAFORE. I would like to add my thanks to the Chair's to Judge Waxter for his presentation and assure him that I will likewise give careful study to his prepared document. There is something that interests me. In your vast experience, Judge, what have you found as far as the capabilities of people who take these jobs without any formal background or training, but how has it worked out as far as experience and on-the-job training? Is there any success in this field in that line? Mr. WAXTER. Certainly there is. To be a probation officer or work with children for our department you do not have to have a professional degree, because the people are not available, I mean a master's degree in social work. They have to have a degree from college and many of them work out well. They would be better people if they had formal training, but there is a gift of working with people that all the training in the world cannot give you, either. All the training can do is sharpen out the warmth or interest you have in this field. Many of the people without training are good people, but would be better people if they had formalized training. You are doing a lot of interesting things in Pennsylvania. We know about you because you are right next door. Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you very much, Mr. Waxter. (Prepared statement of Mr. Waxter is as follows:) STATEMENT OF THOMAS J. S. WAXTER, REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WEL FARE ASSOCIATION, CONCERNING PROPOSALS FOR FEDERAL LEGISLATION ON JUVENILE DELINQUENCY Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am the director of the Maryland State Department of Public Welfare. I am also chairman of the National Council of State Public Welfare Administrators and a member of the board of directors of the American Public Welfare Association, which is the organization I am representing here today. I appreciate the opportunity to appear before your committee to present certain observations concerning proposals for Federal legislation dealing with juvenile delinquency. THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WELFARE ASSOCIATION The American Public Welfare Association is an organization of State and local public welfare departments and of persons employed in the field of public welfare at all levels of government. These agencies and individuals are charged with the responsibility for administering the various assistance and service programs, including programs for children and youth, which are established under Federal, State, and local governments. The association gives leadership toward the improvement of the broad range of public welfare services throughout the country. It serves as a clearinghouse for information through publications, conferences, and consultation. It develops statements of principle which represent areas of agreement on significant aspects of public welfare, and which serve as guides and standards for the field. The association is vitally concerned with measures which would provide more effectively for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency. We have followed closely the interests and deliberations of Congress in this important area. The association has for a long period of time participated in the various conferences and avisory groups on juvenile delinquency of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Our own regional and national conferences have also given major attention to this subject. CONGRESSIONAL LEADERSHIP I wish in particular to commend Mr. Elliott and Mrs. Green for the leadership they have taken in introducing the bills which bear their names. These proposals provide a special opportunity for us to direct our attention to the issues involved in dealing more effectively with the problem of juvenile de linquency, especially as they relate to legislative action by the Federal Government. In preparing our testimony we have reviewed H.R. 3464, which would authorize annual appropriations of $5 million for grants and contracts for projects to demonstrate and develop techniques and practices for the prevention, diminution, and treatment of juvenile delinquency, and H.R. 772, which would authorize annual appropriations of $5 million for training of personnel and $1 million for special projects. We have also examined a number of other measures, including H.R. 1084, H.R. 4694, and H.R. 319, which would authorize grants to States to strengthen and improve programs. As an indication of our interest in obtaining Federal action for these purposes I mention also that Dr. Ellen Winston, the commissioner of public welfare in North Carolina, and at that time our president represented the association before your committee in April 1957, and Mr. Fred DelliQuadri, the director for children and youth in Wisconsin, and at that time a member of our board of directors, participated in the panel discussion convened by your committee in May of that year in Philadelphia. We are hopeful and confident that the careful inquiries and responsible deliberations of your committee will result in significant advances throughout the Nation in our efforts to prevent and control juvenile delinquency. THE PROBLEM Juvenile delinquency constitutes a major and a growing hazard to the wellbeing of the Nation's children and youth. The responsibility for carrying out specific measures for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency rests primarily with the States and communities. This is a most complex undertaking which calls for the coordinated efforts of a wide range of agencies and organizations. It should be of concern to schools, churches, courts, police, welfare agencies (both public and voluntary), and to many other organizations and institutions. Actually it is a responsibility which rests with every individual citizen. Solutions can be found only in the coordination and utilization of the resources of every State and community. The objective must be to support and strengthen wholesome family and community life for all children and youth. While juvenile delinquency most directly affects the local community, it is also a problem of State and national proportions. Each level of government must accordingly contribute to the general effort. I have noted with special interest the introductory statements incorporated in the various proposals before your committee which would in effect declare it to be the finding of Congress that juvenile delinquency is a matter of national concern. The American Public Welfare Association would fully concur with such a finding. Any effective approach to juvenile delinquency must enlist the best efforts of a wide range of agencies under both private and public auspices. Because of the magnitude of the problem and the extent and coverage of services required, however, it is clear that these services must be primarily governmental in character. It is true that very substantial efforts are now being put forth in behalf of children and youth, but the fact that delinquency persists in its present proportions is indicative of the inadequacy of these efforts. In broad terms the improvement of services for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency would appear to require the following steps: 1. Expand and strengthen existing services both as to coverage and quality. 2. Bring about a better coordination and sense of common direction among the various agencies and services. 3. Increase the number and competence of personnel available in the professional fields involved in providing these services. 4. Refine the techniques and methods for improving services through various demonstrations and experimental projects which would have general significance. 5. Extend fundamental knowledge through greater emphasis on basic research. FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITY I have expressed the view that the public services to deal with juvenile delinquency are primarily the responsibility of State and local government. I should like to emphasize, however, that in all of the above-mentioned areas of needed improvement there are aspects which are especially appropriate for Federal action. These are grants to States to stimulate program development, and the support of activities that contribute in a general way to the advancement of all services throughout the Nation. The latter includes the training of professional personnel, the increase of basic knowledge, the refinement of methods and techniques, and the provision of leadership and technical consultation. In these functions the Federal Government is in the most advantageous position to make substantial contributions. Grants to States for support of programs The American Public Welfare Association, in its Federal legislative objectives, takes the position that "specific provision should be made for Federal financial assistance to States to stimulate and support programs for the prevention and control of juvenile delinquency. This should include research and the training of personnel." I am attaching a copy of these objectives for the record. While it can perhaps be argued that the States should be able to develop these programs by themselves, there is a considerable body of experience which testifies to the validity of Federal grants for the purpose of stimulating and encouraging State action. Good examples of this type of grant are those which are currently provided for child welfare services, for crippled children's services, and for maternal and child health. Through grants to States, therefore, a great deal could be done to stimulate the development of needed State and local services. In this connection I would strongly urge that if any such grants are to be made for program support, they be made to a single agency of State government. In our view that agency would |