goal. As part of achieving this goal, I endorse integrated national action to meet such needs as adequate health care for all, decent housing for every family, and the elimination of poverty. Sincerely, Representative HENRY REUSS, SISTERS OF ST. DOMINIC. SISTER BARBARA FISHER. SISTER WINIFRED EDLEBECK. SISTER ADELINE RICHGELS. SISTER JEAN ACKUMAN. SISTER MARIE IMELDA. LACROSSE, WIS., October 6, 1975. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE REUSS: I write to you concerning HR 50. To say the least I applaud your efforts in sponsoring this bill. I hope and pray that in the up-coming public hearings that you listen carefully to the needs of the people badly in need of employment, the kind of employment that can maintain the dignity of a man. I am pleased to see that HR 50 supports the concept of full employment, meaningful employment for every adult American who is able to work and provides economic programs to achieve its goals. It is my fondest hope that you will endorse a coordinated national action program in the areas of adequate health care for all, decent housing for every family, and in the end the elimination of poverty. Keep up the good work. Sincerely, MARK MOGILKA. KANSASVILLE, WIS. Representative HENRY REUSS, Milwaukee, Wis. DEAR MR. REUSS: You are to be commended for drawing up and sponsoring the bill, Equal Opportunity and Full Employment (HR 50), and for having public hearings on it to discuss its implementation. I support the concept of full employment which guarantees the right for useful and meaningful employment to every adult American able and willing to work and sets up a comprehensive national economic program to achieve this goal. I endorse the provisions of this bill which will meet such needs as adequate health care for all, decent housing for every family, and the elimination of poverty. Sincerely, Representative HENRY REUSS, Sister MARY WIEST. DEPERE, WIS., October 6, 1975. DEAR MR. REUSS: Although I am not in your congressional district, I think unemployment is one of those issues that is of concern to all of us. Thank you for sponsoring HR 50, and for the hearings you have been holding. I am unable to attend the October 13 hearing in Milwaukee, but surely support your effort. I support the concept of full employment, and do not accept 5% unemployment as normal nor as necessary to the wellbeing of America. The contrary is true. Every American who is able and willing to work ought to have a job worthy of a person. HR 50 begins to reverse the present trend. I urge you to continue to support legislation which establishes some sort of policy for eliminating unemployment. Attempting to pass "emergency" legislation as each crisis arises is self-defeating. Thanks again. Sincerely, Sister KAREN WALTHER. OCTOBER 4, 1975. Representative HENRY REUSS, I am very pleased to hear of the bill you are sponsoring on Equal Opportunity and Full Employment HR 50 and for having public hearings on it to discuss its meaning and implications. I, too, believe every adult American willing and able to work ought to have that right guaranteed. As part of achieving this goal, I endorse integrated national action to meet such needs as adequate health care for all and decent housing for every family. S. DOROTHY JACKSON. KENOSHA, Wis., October 6, 1975. DEAR MR. REUSS: I commend you for sponsoring HR 50 and for having public hearings on it to talk about implementing it. We need full employment—the kind which gives every American adult a right to feel that there's a meaning and usefulness to what he's doing. I hope that part of this national program could include an opportunity for decent housing for everyone and a right to health care for all. VERA BARES. EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND FULL EMPLOYMENT Part 4 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1975 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR, St. Louis, Mo. The subcommittee met at 9:35 a.m., in the auditorium of the Mart Building, the Hon. Augustus F. Hawkins (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Members present: Representatives Hawkins and Clay. Staff members present: William Higgs, legislative assistant; Nat Semple, minority legislative associate; and Carole Schanzer, clerk. Mr. HAWKINS. The Subcommittee on Equal Opportunities of the House Education and Labor Committee is called to order. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a brief opening statement which I will present at this time. St. Louis for most of us is a city which is in the very heart of America but here, too, we see the malady of unemployment and other problems which are so deeply afflicting the people of our Nation. This subcommittee is in St. Louis today to hold hearings on H.R. 50, the Equal Opportunity and Full Employment Act, which is a piece of legislation that would comprehensively, I think, more than any other piece of legislation deal with the problem of unemployment of people who able and willing to work and still cannot find a decent job. H.R. 50 has at present 111 cosponsors in the House, including my distinguished colleague from St. Louis, William Clay. It is also in the Senate as S. 50 introduced by Senator Humphrey with five cosponsors. The hearing today in St. Louis is the tenth in a series of hearings on H.R. 50 which have been held all over the Nation by this subcommittee. It is a pleasure for the subcommittee to be in St. Louis because it is, of course, the home of our most distinguished colleague, a member of the subcommittee and full committee, and a personal friend of mine. Certainly with his intercession and demands, threats and everything else he made this meeting possible in St. Louis today because he felt that it dealt with one of the great problems of his particular district. We are very, very pleased to respond to his request and at this time to recognize him, your own Congressman, the Honorable William Clay of St. Louis. Mr. CLAY. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. (131) On behalf of the constituents of the First Congressional District and of the city of St. Louis I at least wish to express our appreciation for your taking the time to bring this committee to our city. It is indeed an important occasion to be holding hearings here in St. Louis at long last on the legislation that can really do something for the thousands of people in our city without jobs. This bill, H.R. 50, the Equal Opportunity and Full Employment Act, is such a bill. I am proud to be one of the original cosponsors of this proposal and the ranking majority committee member on the subcommittee that is considering this historic legislation. Just as unemployment hits first and hardest at the poor and the minorities and women, so, too, are these very same segments of our population who benefit the greatest and first from full employment. As one of our Nation's greatest economists, Leon Keyserling, the man who in 1952 and 1953 as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors masterminded an unemployment rate of 2.9 while inflation was held even lower, Mr. Keyserling has testified before this committee. He testified to the effect that this is the most important single piece of economic legislation to be considered in the last 30 years. I concur in that judgment and I might add that it is possible that this might even be the most important piece of economic legislation for the poor and minorities in all of our country's history. The tragedy only is that we have had to wait until our second centennial as a Nation for legislation such as this. So once again, Mr. Chairman, I express our gratitude for your making it possible to hear the people in our district on this important measure. Mr. HAWKINS. Thank you, Mr. Clay. Seated to my right is Mr. William Higgs who is the counsel for the subcommittee and seated to my far left is Mr. Nat Semple who is the minority legislative associate representing the minority members of this subcommittee. Is the Honorable John Poelker, mayor of the city of St. Louis, in the audience? If not, then we will hear from the Honorable John Bass, the comptroller of the city of St. Louis. Mr. Bass, certainly it is a pleasure to welcome you as our first witness today both because of the position which you occupy and also because of the association of friendship that we enjoyed when you served in a different capacity in Washington. Therefore, both as a friend and as the occupant of one of the truly strategic offices of a great city, we welcome you as the leadoff witness this morning. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BASS, COMPTROLLER, CITY OF ST. LOUIS Mr. BASS. I want to thank you, Congressman Hawkins. I also want to welcome you to St. Louis. I welcome our Congressman and also other members of the committee. I would like to indicate that I am the fiscal officer for this great community. You know that our major cities are experiencing a major urban fiscal crisis. I think much of the fiscal crisis is due to the high unemployment in the major urban areas. As comptroller I am the chief fiscal officer as well as chief administrator responsible for all of its residents. Many years of my public service career were spent in the areas of education and manpower development. I have traveled, observed, and consulted with and for most of the major labor centers in the United States, both rural and urban. I welcome this opportunity to testify on the need for Government action to assure full employment in this country. It is inconceivable that millions of willing and capable people in the United States must lose self-respect and dignity for failure of the American system to supply job opportunities in a Nation endowed with unequaled vast resources and technical capacities. A man or woman consists of more than his or her occupation but a large part of life chances are determined by the income derived from jobs and the concomitant feeling or worth and self-respect that comes along with employment and holding a "good job" as compared with being unemployed or holding a demeaning position. The city of St. Louis is now experiencing an unusually high unemployment rate. The unemployment rate of black males is quoted in some circles as high as 25 percent, black teenagers at 43 percent to 45 percent. Our city has an abundance of unfulfilled community, neighborhood, and business district needs that are unmet because of limited general revenues. A full employment program in St. Louis could lead to a vigorous housing program to assist areas of blight and decay; the development of industrial parks to stimulate local jobs for inner-city residents; the repair and development of inner-city streets, viaducts, and bridges; a massive capital improvement, renovation, and maintenance of existing public buildings. We are assuming that this work is not of the dead-end variety but jobs which allow people to grow and develop to their fullest potential. In the research and development of a full employment approach, every opportunity should be taken to use America's ingenuity and creativity in the areas of public/private business combinations, job reconstruction, job retraining, labor force relocation, et cetera. The cost of an effective full employment program will be costly but certainly in proportion to an investment in our best regarded resource a human being. "The true test of civilization is not the census nor the size of cities, nor the crops; no, but the kind of people a country turns out." That is a quote from James A. Garfield. "If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." That is a quote from John Kennedy. This is the challenge of the seventies for a full employment program. Congressman Hawkins, I wouldn't like to depart without saying something that I think is rather significant for a full employment program and also significant for America-that even in an appearance of prosperity, minority group members have still been in the unemployment ranks, even the appearance of what we consider full employment and I am talking about the 6 percent or below-that we still have a disproportionate amount of minority members that are unemployed. We have tried programs such as the Jobs program, the NAP program. We tried Job Corps, Youth Corps, CEPT, and CETA, and we still have not mastered the underlying problem of unemployment on our country. |