Hon. CHARLES A. BUCKLEY, House Office Building, Washington, D.C.: HARRISBURG, PA., May 29, 1964. Amendments presented by administration to Appalachian bill for mine-area restoration still are not satisfactory to accomplish what needs to be done. We believe that the amendments presented to your committee by Pennsylvania are superior. Other amendments suggested by Pennsylvania are also most important if the Appalachian program is to be effective. Deeply appreciate your continued interest. We are at your service at all times. WILLIAM W. SCRANTON, Mr. DAVIS. I should like to announce that the House meets at 11 today. We had hoped that Governor Tawes could be here. He is expected in the building at 11:30. They, too, have been rather busily engaged, and they have completed a cycle in their State's history. He is right here, but I hope that the gentleman will go along with hearing him at 2 this afternoon, because we have only taken 1 hour, and it shows you what preparation will do, because the Governor of Pennsylvania has shown this morning that in 1 hour's time, he has accomplished so much, and it is the preparation behind it. Mr. KLUCZYNSKI. And experience. Mr. DAVIS. Dedication, intelligence, and ability. Thank you again, Governor, and we will resume our hearings at 2, promptly. (Whereupon at 11 a.m., the ad hoc subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 2 p.m. the same day.) AFTER RECESS (The ad hoc subcommittee reconvened at 2 p.m., Hon. Clifford Davis (chaiman of the ad hoc subcommittee) presiding.) Mr. DAVIS. The subcommittee will resume its session. We are highly honored to have as our one and only witness this afternoon the distinguished Governor of Maryland, Governor Tawes, and Governor, will you come forward? Please take that chair and proceed in your own way, because you are a man of experience, and know how to present these matters, because you have been on the other end, with so many people trying to present matters to you. I understand you have with you Mr. Josiah E. Mullenox, Mr. Alvin H. Wilson, and Mr. Harry W. Boswell, Jr., all from Maryland, who appear with you in support of the program. You may proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. J. MILLARD TAWES, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND; ACCOMPANIED BY JOSIAH E. MULLENOX, PRESIDENT, WESTERN MARYLAND CENTRAL LABOR COUNCIL, CUMBERLAND, MD.; ALVIN H. WILSON, GENERAL CONTRACTOR, WESTERN MARYLAND, MEMBER, MARYLAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, CUMBERLAND, MD.; AND HARRY W. BOSWELL, JR., CHAIRMAN, MARYLAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION, ANNAPOLIS, MD. Governor TAWES. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman and members of the special committee of the House Public Works Committee. Mr. DAVIS. Pardon me, Governor. Here is George Fallon. I want to give you the very great pleasure of introducing your Governor. Mr. FALLON. Well, Mr. Chairman, I am sorry I was 30 seconds late. Our subcommittee chairman, here, is very prompt in calling his meetings, and if you hadn't been here, Governor, I would be admonished a little bit for being so tardy as 30 seconds, but the fact that you are here serves as some protection to me. Certainly on behalf of the committee, I would like to tell you how pleased we are that you were able to take the time out from running the great State of Maryland to come over here. Governor Tawes has been not only the fiscal officer of the State for many years, but the Governor for the past two terms of 4 years each, and certainly I have been privileged to get his advice on many matters pertaining not only to the State but to the Federal Government, over the years, and he brings an abundance of experience and knowledge to this committee which I am sure the committee will benefit by. Governor, on behalf of the people of the committee and the people of the State of Maryland, let me welcome you here today. Governor TAWES. Thank you very much, Congressman Fallon. Mr. DAVIS. Governor, before you start, I want the record to show that we have the very highest regard to the fine work of Congressman George Fallon, who is the senior man on the Democratic side of the Committee on Public Works. You may proceed, sir. Governor TAWES. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, at the outset, I should like to say that this is a day I have looked forward to for approximately 4 years, because 4 years ago today, on May 20, 1960, the first Conference of Appalachian Governors was held at my invitation in Annapolis, Md. In my opening address to that conference, I made this statement: Nothing significant can be accomplished for our distressed counties of western Maryland except as part of a program whose aim would be to rebuild and revitalize the economy of the entire Appalachian region. Today this committee has such a program before it. It is a program which has been evolved during the past 4 years through continuing effort by the Appalachian Governors Conference and the Federal Government. It is a program which has been developed from the bottom up, not from the top down. It is a program based on the recognition by the Governors of 10 States that they shared a common problem which could only be solved by common action. The conditions in the Appalachian area are familiar to all of you, and I will not take your time to detail them here. At that meeting in Annapolis 4 years ago I said: It is shameful and intolerable that in this year 1960 there should be children in the United States who are dying of malnutrition, and entire families who are living on a Government subsistence handout which is only 30 percent of minimal nutritional needs. Mr. DAVIS. Governor, will you hold just for a moment? Those three bells signify a quorum call. Now, while I am criticized at home sometime for missing quorum calls, that simply records your presence. Well, thank you. We will check to see if it is an automatic rollcall. If it isn't, and Mr. Baldwin, you rave no objection to proceeding? Mr. BALDWIN. It wouldn't be an automatic rollcall. They would be starting to work on that appropriations bill. Mr. DAVIS. If anybody feels obligated to go over to get on that roll, why you will understand if Mr. Baldwin leaves or Mr. Fallon, because they will come right back. Governor TAWES. Yes, sir. Mr. DAVIS. But I will take my chances on staying right with you, and you may proceed. Governor TAWES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am quoting from the statement I made 4 years ago: It is intolerable that we should have whole counties where the yearly ramily income is less than $400 and where children can't go to school because of lack of clothes and shoes. These feelings have been echoed many times since then, and I know that they underlie President Johnson's deep and burning desire that something finally be done to eliminate the appalling conditions which are plainly visible to any traveler in Appalachia. To me one of the most significant features of the present bill-in addition to its being based on a cooperative Federal-State-regional approach is the fact that it is aimed specifically at the causes, and not merely the symptoms, of the economic distress of the region. If you will permit, I would like to quote again from the address which I made before the first Conference of Appalachian Governors 4 years ago: We can never I said at that time— arrive at a permanent solution to the problems of the Appalachian region until we stop thinking of the mountains as a "distressed area" and begin to think of them as an underdeveloped region with vast untapped human and natural resources-a region that can only find its rightful economic level through a plan of overall economic development, programed for a period of 5, 10, or even 20 years. This program must not only deal with the basic problem of correcting the growing imbalance between manpower and job opportunities, but should also concentrate on the building of new highways, flood control projects, and increasing educational and vocational training levels throughout the region. This approach, I am happy to say, is exactly the one to be found in this bill. In that connection, I am especially pleased to note the emphasis which this bill has placed upon highway construction. Here we see an approach to roadbuilding that was first developed by the ancient Romans the use of roads not simply to serve traffic already there, but to open up a region for economic development and economic growth. Isolation has long been the curse of Appalachia. The high mountains running north and south effectively blocked the region from the primarily east-west flow of American economic development. Highway and rail builders usually found it easier to bypass Appalachia than to traverse it. Only a good modern road network can end this age-old condition. And this condition must be ended, not only for the good of Appalachia, but for the welfare of the trading areas that lie east and west of the mountains. Our port of Baltimore, for example, would benefit greatly from increased economic activity in Appalachia-activity which would provide products for export from the port and an interior market for goods and supplies coming into the port. As a Governor of a State which has three counties in the Appalachian region, I can only add my own voice to the call for urgency which has been sounded so clearly by our President. The people who live in the Appalachian area are no strangers to promises. They have stood on their street corners and outside their homes for many a year in the past and listened to the brave promises of well-meaning candidates for political office. All too often these promises have turned to ashes, not because they were insincere, but because, once in office, the former candidate found himself powerless, with the limited means at his disposal, to accomplish anything truly meaningful for the people of Appalachia. No State has the resources to cope with conditions that are as widespread and as economically deep-seated as we find in Appalachia. This is why the present program is so desperately needed. This is also why the people of Appalachia-for the first time-have permitted themselves to believe that at least something effective is really about to be done. I travel frequently in the three Maryland counties in the Appalachian region, and I can assure you that the usual skepticism of the people has been put aside as far as this program is concerned. They have faith in President Johnson, and they have faith in this Congress. As far as this bill is concerned, they have laid aside their normal protective shield of pride and silence. They have exposed themselves and their plight for all to see. It would indeed be a cruel hoax if we let them down now when their hopes are highest. Before closing, I would like to quote once more from my address before the first conference of Appalachian Governors in 1960. Incidentlly, I quote from these remarks, not because I am fascinated by my own words, but to make the point very clear that this bill represents something which was originated by the Appalachian region itself, and is a true example of cooperation of Government at all levels Federal, State, and local. We who have portions of our States in the Appalachian region consider this bill to be our bill, not a Federal Government bill. We conceived the regional approach, we formed the pilot organization, and we hammered out the details of the bill in meetings in Cumberland and Hagerstown and Pittsburgh and Charleston and Lexington and Atlanta-not in Washington, D.C. But to get to the quote. These were the closing words in that 1960 address: I believe that the time is ripe for the launching of some forceful interstate action in regard to the pressing problems of the Appalachian region, and I am most hopeful that this conference today will be the seedbed out of which will grow a new awareness of our obligations to the mountain areas of our States. Now, 4 years later, that wish has been fulfilled. This bill which you have before you has grown from that seedbed. I cannot urge you too strongly to take the steps needed to make this seedling live and flourish for the lasting benefit of Appalachia. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and gentlemen. (Information follows:) [From the Highway User, May 1964] HISTORIC HIGHWAY TO THE WEST The Old Cumberland Road Had a Vital Role in the Growth of (By Harry W. Boswell, Jr.1) The Old Cumberland Road-U.S. Highway Route 40 on present-day roadmaps-played several vital roles in the making of America. There are many who believe that it will soon be cast in still another starring role. Herds of American buffalo, migrating between summer and winter pasture, established the grade for the historic passageway through the mountains of western Maryland. Indians made the Buffalo trace an Indian trail. White settlers widened the trail to 6 feet as they moved westward to the western rivers. Gen. George Washington sent his "engineers" ahead to widen the 6-foot trail to 12 feet to accommodate the hundreds of wagons supporting the combined American-British forces sent westward to drive out the French and Indians. Congressional action.-In 1806 the U.S. Congress enacted a law establishing the route and type of construction for the Old Cumberland Road-later to become the famous "National Pike." A congressional committee recommended construction of the road to "induce many people to travel and carry on trade in and through the province to and from the back country." It was predicted that "growth and prosperity of the West were impossible until the dawning of such convictions as made the Cumberland Road a reality." President Thomas Jefferson added his signature to the statute. When completed to the Mississippi River, a distance of 700 miles, the road had cost the Federal Government $7 million. It was the first major public improvement in the interior by the young Nation. One historian wrote that the Old Cumberland Road is "a monument of a past age, but like all other monuments is interesting as well as venerable. It carried thousands of population and millions of wealth into the West; and more than any other material structure in the land served to harmonize and strengthen, if not to save, the Union." A traffic count made at Cumberland in 1791 recorded 2,886 persons and 4,000 head of cattle moving through that frontier town in a single month. The same survey reported wagon trains comprised of as many as 52 wagons, each hauled by 6-horse teams. The first railroad train from the East arrived at Cumberland on November 1, 1842, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal was completed to Cumberland in 1850. End of prosperity.-The city of Cumberland and the three western counties of Maryland prospered until the end of World War II, when the coal-based economy of the Appalachian region collapsed as competition from both gas and oil increased. The region soon became a distressed area with thousands of jobless in scores of ghost towns. Garrett County in western Maryland boasts the State's tallest mountain, highest waterfall, first ski jump, and last stand of virgin timber, but these assets did not prevent a surge in joblessness that came with the decline in mining and farming. Unemployment reached a peak of 20 percent of the work force. Recreational activities around Deep Creek Lake bring seasonal work, and this plus several new industries produced a 6-year low last September of 7.9 percent. Three months later, however, with the lake season over, the rate was 14 percent. Garrett's problems are complicated by its remoteness-it is closer to Canada than to Maryland's Eastern Shore by poor highways, and by relatively few industries for which to train workers. The population is concentrated in small towns, the largest of which is Oakland, with 2,000. Garrett's economic future depends on how much it can develop tourism and attract some additional manufacturing plants. The overall population is so The writer is chairman of the Maryland Economic Development Commission. |