community and to our country as there are in the population generally. As a matter of fact, there probably are more.

The sad and tragic thing about the way we are treating the aged of our period, particularly sad and tragic because there are so many who are able to work and who are not allowed to work, is that they have a feeling that they are not needed and, as a matter of fact, they are needed, they are needed very greatly.

The criticism that I would have of government in this day is not so much that we are not paying premiums for people's hospital and health care but we are not looking into something that is infinitely more important to an individual, which is his sense of being needed, his sense of being constructive and helpful to his community. This is a sense and a feeling which is much more important than whether or not he gets relief or whether or not he gets social security or whether or not he gets his hospital bills paid for. It is infinitely more important. It is more important to us as young people. It is even more important to people who have advanced years.

So, if you strike some blow for this, I think it will be a blow which is a much more thoughtful thing and a much more appreciated thing than anything else you can do.

My bill was designed to do everything that it could do in this field. That is the whole purpose of this bill. It is not a bill for me to pick up votes back home. It is not a bill for me to find some way for the Federal Government to spend money for any facet of our society. It is a bill to try to bring together all the ways in which we might be able to help the people who are in advanced years to be more constructive for themselves and for our country as a whole.

Mr. BAILEY. Mr. Garland?

Mr. GARLAND. I do not want to appear to be on a cost kick this morning, but I wonder if you have any estimate of the cost of your proposal in section 202 under title II, which would relieve the $30 a month of earned income.

Mr. BENNETT. No, I have never made an analysis of that. This is quite a technical thing and it would cost money.

I am not fool enough to think it would not cost money.

I think the whole bill would cost money.

I think even bringing things together under a new organization does really cost money. You cannot escape it. When you change governments you have a tendency to pick up a few new employees and I think it would cost some money.

This is one thing that I thought would help that would probably cost more than any other thing in the bill.

I do think it would be a helpful thing, however, and I myself, would want to see the figures on it but until there is a thought, until your committee decides that it is the sort of thing you would like to do, the amount of statistical data to get this up, I think, would not warrant my getting it up. You first would have to decide that you thought this was the thing to do and I think the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, in the process of 2 or 3 weeks of two people's work, could arrive at it.

Mr. GARLAND. I just wondered if you had any estimate of the cost. Mr. BENNETT. No, I do not.

This bill was gotten together largely at the request of my mother. She was attending one of these aging conferences a year ago. She

said, "This makes me ill because everyone is talking about how much they are going to get out of the Federal Treasury, and they are missing the main thing that aged people want to do."

The main thing they want to do is to be constructive citizens in their period. They want to do something for themselves and their country. This other stuff, if that is all that people will talk about, about the aged, well, the aged people will talk about it, but if you give them something where they will have an opportunity to contribute something to our life, this is much more important. I am convinced it can be done.

When you look at the marginal labor groups throughout the world, some of these are not necessarily aged but some are aged, of people who do not have anywhere near the ability of people of advanced years in our country, you realize that we are wasting a tremendous opportunity to tap sources of the protection and security of our country and many other aspects.

I am sure it could be done if more thought was given to it and I think it would be worth while doing it.

That is the main purpose of my bill.

I call it a self-help bill. This is not a phony. I am anxious to explore every possibility of utilizing people of advanced years.

One strange thing we do in our community, in our country, is that we insist that the man who has been running a business, for instance, in free enterprise, go out in a blaze of glory as chairman of the board or president of the company. We all know this is not exactly the soundest thing to do. The companies would be much better off if they were headed by people like Mr. McNamara and young, vigorous, able rather than being headed by people who do not have the challenge of creation particularly in their particular age of life as much as a person who is younger.

This is one thing that requires, in my opinion, some study. You cannot force free enterprise to abandon this system but it is among the patterns which are destructive to opportunity for the aged to do something constructive without actually running the company. other words, a man should not be kicked out to do nothing just because he can no longer run this tremendous mechanism or tremendous corporation, particularly when his ambition for additional jobs and payrolls and expansion is no longer probable in his makeup.

This may be actually building into our economic system a self-destructive element of keeping people on after they have gone through the period of desiring to expand.

The Government, of course, could not force a change in this, but studies could be made in this to see if there could be opportunity for dignified labor and dignified work for older people at an earlier age, maybe, so that you would not have to keep the old man on there as president and maybe jellying things into something that is not expanding and not taking advantage of a burgeoning society.

Mr. GARLAND. Along that line, the so-called mandatory retirement plan is one of the problems we have.

I know in our own plant we permit them to retire at 65 if they want to but if they want to work and are still productive we have many people, 75, 76, 77 years old, just as productive today as they were 20 years ago.

Mr. BENNETT. My father faced this in the Federal Government. He was 70 years of age. They made him get out. My father was a very able man and for his day extremely well educated. Not many people had the type of education he had at his period in life. He was a meteorologist and they were looking for meteorologists of his character and quality. He had not slowed up any. He was forced to get out. He had not developed a pattern of retirement, he would much rather have gone ahead when the Government was actually seeking people of his capacity. It was a sort of sad thing, an awful, wasteful thing.

I think we are doing this in the Government. I think we are doing it in industry. I doubt that it makes sense to do it when we are as competitive as we are with other systems and we are creating this large overage population.

Mr. BAILEY. The Chair would like to thank the gentleman from Florida.

Your presentation has been both informative and instructive.

We hope to have an opportunity to have you back again before the hearings are closed.

Mr. BENNETT. I always enjoy coming to this committee. You always make me feel like a real friend. I appreciate it. It is reciprocated.

Mr. BAILEY. You are very welcome indeed.

Mr. BENNETT. Thank you.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN S. MONAGAN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT

Mr. BAILEY. Our next witness is the Honorable John S. Monagan of Connecticut.

Mr. MONAGAN. Mr. Chairman and members of the General Subcommittee on Education, I appear here today in support of H.R. 5030. This bill proposes the establishment of a U.S. Commission on the Aging and the Aged.

While I realize that there are existing Federal organizational groups which are concerned with the problems of our older citizens, I nevertheless, believe very strongly that a specially designated group is urgently needed in this vitally important field.

First of all, it should be noted that this proposed Commission will be a study group which will not have any admnistrative or executive functions. As the bill provides, its duty will be to study existing knowledge and programs related to the problems of the aging and the aged with a view to determining what steps can be taken to provide a better integration of this group in the social and economic life of the Nation.

I should like to point out, too, that this Commission is required to submit two reports, an interim and a final report, and then it is specifically provided that the life of the Commission shall expire 30 days after the submission of its final report.

In this way, this group of experts will be able to perform the vital function of taking a dispassionate and searching look at the problems of our older citizens and the programs which seek to deal with these problems.

May I say that my principal hope and expectation in connection with this Commission would be its ability to make studies and recommendations in the economic field and, in particular, in the field of employment.

While I recognize that funds for the financing of programs helpful to the aged are necessary in housing, in health, and in other fields, nevertheless I believe that it is high time that we recognized that the intangibles are important, too, frequently as important as the simple provision of subsistence funds.

Every individual likes to feel that his existence is important and necessary. Thus, the average elder citizen would rather be busily occupied in a meaningful job than sit home and twiddle his thumbs in enforced idleness.

The unfortunate fact is, however, that our laws and customs, satisfactory in some senses, are creating a rigid, unyielding, and harmful situation when American industry is being deprived of productive genius and American citizens are being deprived of useful occupation by automatic operation of retirement laws and pension provisions. In addition, the employment age is continually being forced down because of the financial demands of financing welfare and pension systems for older persons who will not have a long period of service before retirement. The lack of flexibility and voluntary employment conditions with optional variation of security terms needs careful study.

Thus, through the operation of otherwise beneficent provisions, older people are being relegated to useless lives and young oldsters are being cut off from employment which would otherwise be available and useful both for the employer and employee.

Although the proposed Commission would and should investigate other problems, it is this problem of employment and rigid retirement and security provisions which would be the most fruitful and most urgent avenue of exploration in my judgment.

I hope, therefore, that your subcommittee will report this legislation favorably so that this Commission may be named and may set about what I consider to be a work of tremendous importance.

With the channeling of the skills and knowledge of older citizens into useful activities and with the more efficient utilization of the capacities of the middle-aged group, our Nation and its industrial mercantile and governmental organizations will be infinitely better served, thousands of our older citizens will savor the happiness that comes from leading productive lives, and the social fabric of our Nation will be immeasurably strengthened.

Mr. BAILEY. Thank you, Mr. Monagan. We shall now hear from our colleague, the Honorable Clement J. Zablocki, of Wisconsin. STATEMENT OF HON. CLEMENT J. ZABLOCKI, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WISCONSIN

Mr. ZABLOCKI. Mr. Chairman, first, I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to express my views on this important subject now under consideration. I would also like to commend the committee for its interest in the problems of our elder citizens.

The advent of old age is frequently accompanied by frustrations, hardships, and uncertainties which cannot be overcome without out

side assistance. These hardships are not common just to the sick and the infirm. They also affect some people who are in excellent health. And, at times, they cannot be resolved with the help of the family, or of a local private or public agency.

At times, these problems are statewide, or even nationwide in scope. And this is where special effort has to be expended to resolve them.

EMPLOYMENT AND HEALTH PROBLEMS

Two major problems, it seems to me, stand out in this area and require our earnest attention.

First, there is the serious problem of age discrimination which affects many productive members of our society after they reach age 45.

The solution of this problem is frequently beyond the means of the average family. In some respects, it is national in scope.

And, secondly, there is the problem of income inadequate to enable many of our elder citizens to obtain needed medical and hospital care, decent housing, and a reasonable standard of living.

These problems, and their resultant effects, increase with the growth of our mature and aged population.

AGED POPULATION GROWING

In the year 1900, we had 13.5 million persons age 45 or over. By 1930, according to the 1961 "Statistical Abstract of the United States," it rose to 28 million. And by 1960, according to the same source, it climbed to 52.6 million.

Even more remarkable increases occurred in the 65-years-of-ageand-over group. The population of this group increased over 500 percent since the year 1900-from 3 to 16.5 million.

FEDERAL SERVICES TO THE AGED

Our Nation has not been oblivious to the problems faced by many of our elder citizens. Much effort has been expended-and much progress achieved-in helping to solve those problems on the local level, and by various State governments.

The Federal Government also made considerable progress in this

area.

Over the objections of many people, the Democrats have enacted the social security program. We have continued this program, expanded its coverage, and improved the level of benefits.

This program has had tremendous impact on the well-being of our elder citizens.

In addition, Congress provided various specialized aids to the aged-ranging from additional tax exemptions, grants for nursing homes and other facilities, to the recently approved program of special housing for the aged.

And the present administration has acted on its own in this area. The President's energetic efforts to combat age discrimination serve as an instance in point.

But in spite of these achievements, many persons contend that additional measures are needed to help our mature and elder citizens resolve the problems which face them in our technologically advancing and complex society.