qualified people that this bill would provide to make the final matching of the man and woman with the job.

I thank you very much.

Mr. ELLIOTT. I would like to say to Mr. Strachan for the record that I know of no one who has been more dedicated and more devoted to the principle of rehabilitation of the handicapped and providing legislation for not only their rehabilitation, but their employment as well, and it is with that background that I say his testimony has been most helpful and is most appreciated by the committee.

Mr. STRACHAN. Mr. Chairman, I am most grateful. However, I may say that because of health this may be my last appearance before Congress. I am going to leave this thought with you: To you I throw the torch and I want you gentlemen to grasp it and run down the road hollering "We have got to have a handicapped program." I beg of you, Mr. Chairman, do not let us down on that basis.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you very much. The committee will suspend for 1 minute. (Discussion off the record.)

Mr. ELLIOTT. The committee will resume.

Off the record.

Our next witness this morning is our beloved friend, the Honorable Louis Rabaut, a Member of Congress from the State of Michigan, who over the years has been most interested and most devoted to this He is one of its greatest supporters in the Congress and we are happy to have Congressman Rabaut and shall be glad to hear you at this time, Mr. Rabaut.

cause.

STATEMENT OF HON. LOUIS C. RABAUT, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN

Mr. RABAUT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee.

Thank you for this opportunity to appear in the interest of the problems of the handicapped. Early in this session I introduced H. R. 4524 to establish the Federal Agency for the Handicapped and to define its duties. My bill is an omnibus bill comprising 19 sections. I understand Mr. Chairman, that you have introduced a new bill, H. R. 9171, to establish a national committee for the training and development of selective placement personnel, and that a part of my bill is included.

Mr. Chairman, while your bill is not as detailed as mine, I am here today to support it because I know that job placement is the weak spot in our present handicap program. An infinitesimal number of our total population understand the complexities of the 24,339 varied jobs for the handicapped and how to fit them into these positions so that their particular disabilities are not factors for job placement. I concur with your thinking that we must have teachers for the handicapped and that there must be a long-range program designed and applied such as is provided for in our bills.

Gentlemen, I know you have given a lot of thought to this serious problem and I know that you agree with me that it would be a grave mistake, as well as a sad lack of Christian charity, for society to discount its contribution to the handicapped. On the contrary, we should show a special interest in developing their limited abilities, and as far

as possible, placing them where they may gain a livelihood and share a part in normal activities.

Man is born into society as a vital member, to make his contribution, according to his powers, toward the advancement of the common good and some men, and their number is not very small, are heavily handicapped by various disabilities.

Job placement for the handicapped is a must. Rehabilitated and Vocationally trained men and women make not only good employees, but frequently superior ones in the matter of production, safety, attendance records, and steadiness on the job. They are the equal and frequently superior to the average of other workers. Some of our rehabilitated handicapped men and women in the United States are now successfully filling every type of position and job in every occupation in our complex industrial and business structure-from top executives to skilled operators of machine tools.

Mr. Chairman, I have done some research on the need for the training and development of selective placement personnel for job placement for handicapped individuals, and have prepared the following background data for the information of the committee:

BACKGROUND DATA ON THE NEED FOR THE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT OF SELECTIVE PLACEMENT PERSONNEL FOR JOB PLACEMENT OF HANDICAPPED INDIVIDUALS

According to the most recent estimates there are approximately 2,230,000 physically handicapped adults in the United States who could become employable if rehabilitation services were made available to them, and each year an additional 250,000 disabled persons come to need rehabilitation. The fact that present programs are barely skimming the surface of this problem is indicated by the figures which show that just 66,273 disabled people were rehabilitated in fiscal 1956, and this was a record year, being an increase of 14 percent above the 57,981 who were rehabilitated in 1955.

The cost to the public of maintaining those disabled people who could use rehabilitation services in public assistance programs alone is about $537 million annually of which about $73 million goes for aid to the blind; $165 million for aid to the permanently and totally disabled; $128 million for aid to dependent children, and $171 million for general assistance.

The savings which could be made by an expansion of the rehabilitation services to more people on public assistance are shown by further figures. Only 11,600 people on public assistance received rehabilitation services in 1955, but this small group not only saved the taxpayers an estimated $9.6 million per year in assistance paymentsthey will also earn an estimated $21 million in the first year after rehabilitation. The $7,700,000 spent to rehabilitate these people is only about 80 percent of what it would cost to maintain them at public

expense.

Moreover, the 57,981 people rehabilitated in 1955-including the 11,600 on public assistance-contributed $105 million to the economic wealth of the Nation through their earnings during the first year and added 11 million man-days to the Nation's productivity.

One of the major factors limiting present activities in the field of rehabilitation is the lack of trained personnel. The President's Com

mission on the Health Needs of the Nation put the objective of an increase in personnel as the first of its recommendations for an expansion of rehabilitation programs. In her testimony in connection with the appropriations for the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation this year, Mrs. Mary E. Switzer stated

No responsibility lays more heavily on the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation than the training of personnel. Qualified and dedicated workers are fundamental to any program of service. We have been faced with a difficult dilemmameeting short-range "crash" requirements and building for the future-in major areas of shortage.

The latest estimates show that there are in this country today only 5,500 registered occupational therapists, as against a total additional need of 8,000. In 1956 the 29 approved schools of occupational therapy graduated only 500 additional people. The same shortages exist in other fields which are part of the rehabilitation process. For example, we have an estimated supply of 7,800 physical therapists and we need 5,800 more; we have about 1,500 rehabilitation counselors and we need at least another 4,000.

Some progress has been made in meeting the urgent need for more trained personnel through the traineeship program established by the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1954 (Public Law 568). Under these amendments, teaching grants were made available to universities and other educational institutions to partially meet the cost of establishing or expanding or improving profesisonal curriculums in fields which bear upon vocational rehabilitation work. These teaching grants are generally made for one full academic year. Traineeship grants are also awarded for scholarships to enable selected students to train in the various shortage fields. During the years this program has been in operation considerable progress has been made. The amount appropriated by the Congress for teaching grants has increased from $536,386 in 1955 to $1,006,790 in 1956 and $1,313,050 for 1957. The amount Congress has allowed for traineeship has similarly been increased from $253,834 in 1955 to $1,037,687 in 1956 and to $1,596,950 in 1957. So far 142 participating universities and teaching institutions have received training grants.

But the fact that rehabilitation training covers a variety of skills has tended to limit the number of people in the field of placing handicapped people in jobs, in training programs now in existence. Every rehabilitant requires the services of one to a dozen highly-skilled people. For this reason traineeship and teaching grants must include courses in social work, nursing, medicine, psychology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy as well as rehabilitating counseling. In its recommendations for the extension of its existing program of providing traineeship and training, the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation has-in view of the shortages in all areas-put special emphasis on the need for more training programs in medicine, in speech, and hearing therapy, and in prosthetic education, as well as in the broad field of rehabilitation counseling in which job placement is only one small segment. Moreover, the majority of trained workers now on the job are engaged in other programs. The cash disability program of social security approved by Congress only last year, for example, will result in additional workload since tens and thousands of difficult cases are being referred to State rehabilitation agencies

already having a huge backlog. A substantial proportion of trained rehabilitation counselors were, moreover, shifted into the area of performing the disability determinations and rehabilitation evaluations on applicants for the "disability freeze" established by the Social Security Amendments of 1954.

The need for more emphasis upon the training and development of selective placement personnel concerned exclusively with job placement for the physically handicapped is clear. State employment services, all of which have special job-placement programs for the physically handicapped, will require many more placement specialists who can devote most or all of their time to disabled clients. Such specialists cannot only give necessary services to applicants but also develop job opportunities in the community for the handicapped. By providing such emphasis through a program in the Department of Labor (as in H. R. 9171) this special need could receive special emphasis leaving the authority for the training program in the other areas of rehabilitation skills where it now is, in the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The need for more job-placement training is suggested by estimates prepared by the Department of Labor showing that in February 1957, there were only 262 full-time placement specialists for the disabled in all of the 53 United States Employment Service systems now operating in our States and Territories. Another 1,549 placement specialists were engaged in part-time activities on behalf of handicapped people. The need for more, and better, personnel is also indicated by the fact that, during fiscal year 1957, United States Employment Service offices received 411,182 new applications from handicapped people of whom only 296,703 were placed on jobs and only 169,189 received counseling service.

Mr. Chairman, it is a great privilege to come here before your committee devoted to such a fine project as this, and I think you for the opportunity of having been allowed to come here.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you, Congressman Rabaut. It is a great privilege to have you and I want to thank you for the wonderful statement that you have just made available to our committee.

We thank you very much.

Our next witness this morning is Mr. Arnold Mayer.

Mr. Mayer, the top of your statement shows that you are publicrelations director and Washington staff member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO. Mr. MAYER. Yes, sir; I am.

Mr. ELLIOTT. We have a copy of your statement and you may proceed in any manner you see fit, Mr. Mayer.

STATEMENT OF ARNOLD MAYER, PUBLIC RELATIONS DIRECTOR AND WASHINGTON STAFF MEMBER, AMALGAMATED MEAT CUTTERS AND BUTCHER WORKMEN OF NORTH AMERICA

Mr. MAYER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Arnold Mayer. I am the public-relations director and Washington staff member of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America, AFL-CIO.

The AMCBW is a labor union with 350,000 members organized in more than 500 local unions throughout the United States and Canada. The AMCBW and its locals have contracts with thousands of employers in the meatpacking, retail, poultry, egg, canning, leather, fish processing, and fur industries.

You can well imagine from the above list of industries that industrial injuries pose quite a problem to the members of our union. For example, poultry processing has the third highest injury rate among American industries studied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in the meatpacking and leather industries some jobs pose serious

hazards.

Our union is deeply concerned about industrial injuries and the suffering and economic hardship they inflict on workers. One of the major reasons for our union's campaign for compulsory poultry inspection legislation, which will shortly become law, was to cut the health danger to poultry workers.

Most industrial injuries are not permanent. But all too many are. In addition, workers, like all humans, fall prey to millions of cases of off-the-job accidents and illness, some of which also bring about permanent physical handicaps.

Modern medicine has made wonderful strides in bringing these men and women back to the maximum health possible. And many excellent organizations devote themselves toward helping them financially and otherwise materially.

But those who have been partially disabled by injury or illness or in birth, want to go one step further. They want to be independent and productive members of the community. They must be trained for jobs and they must have jobs.

A study now being conducted (reported by the National Health Education Committee) estimates that some 250,000 handicapped persons need vocational rehabilitation each year. Providing the training for them to take jobs is not only important from the human point of view of helping men and women toward a productive and satisfying life, but also from an economic standpoint. Our nation cannot afford to lose the benefit of the manpower of the brains and brawnof the millions of handicapped.

That is why the AMCBW believes H. R. 9171 by Mr. Elliott is good and needed legislation. It provides a sensible and reasonable approach to helping the handicapped to help themselves. In our opinion, its step-by-step approach to the establishment of a service of persons to train the handicapped for employment is both necessary and desirable.

We, therefore, urge this committee to approve H. R. 9171.
Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayer.

Mr. MAYER. Thank you for the opportunity of presenting our views, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Our next witness is Mrs. Marilyn Woods.

Will you identify yourself for the record, Mrs. Woods, and then proceed?