ence on Old Age." This conference was attended by 250 people representing such areas as social work, the medical profession, business, and industrial executives, teachers, ministers, rehabilitation personnel, and the general public. The proceedings were mimeographed and sent to 250 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. Gov. Okey L. Patteson appointed a State committee composed of personnel from the fields of social work, medicine and sociology, to conduct a State survey on "The Needs of West Virginia's Aging Population." Such areas as public health, education, public welfare, industry, and recreation were included in the survey. Information for the report was secured by sending questionnaires to the proper authorities in the 48 States. This approach was used since nothing had been done in West Virginia prior to that date, and it was thought that the experiences of other States would be a good premise upon which to start a program here, in West Virginia. The report was turned in to Governor Patteson but no official action was taken since the Governor's term of office was soon to be concluded.

Following the study on the State level in West Virginia the Senior Citizens Club of Huntington, Inc., was organized on July 9, 1952. This group, some 150 in number, has been sponsored by the Womans' Club of Huntington since its inception. The National Federation of Women's Clubs selected gerontology as its topic for the year's study, some 2 or 3 years ago, and the Huntington Club won first prize for the State of West Virginia, in sponsoring a worthwhile community project, because of its work with the senior citizens of Huntington.

During the 7 years that have passed since 1952 the Senior Citizens Club has made reasonable progress. Several of the Huntington churches have organized the senior citizens of their congregations, the YWCA has established a chapter of senior citizens for the section of the city it serves, and the Stella Fuller settlement has a comparable group in the section of Huntington where it is located.

The purpose of Senior Citizens as outlined in its charter is to provide "recreational and cultural activities for the Senior Citizens of Huntington." There are adequate facilities and financial resources in Huntington to provide a very high type of program for its senior citizens. The greatest need, just now, is for the general public to realize that such a program is not only desirable but also essential if our senior citizens are to live complete and satisfying lives. Steps are now underway to secure a permanent home for the senior citizens of Huntington, and also to have the organization included as one of the participating agencies of the United Fund. This is a common practice in many of the cities where senior citizen groups have been organized. When this is accomplished it will be possible to launch a program with much more variety than is true at the present time.

The department of sociology continued its interest and activities in the field of gerontology by presenting a one-day seminar on "The Role of the Senior Worker in Industry," on June 14, 1956. Leaders from all types of industry in the tristate area attended this seminar. Some of the topics discussed included psychological implications of the older worker, analysis of retirement ages in selected industries, and the attitude of organized labor toward the senior worker.

Some time after Gov. Cecil H. Underwood took office he appointed a State commission to make a thorough study of West Virginia's

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elderly citizens. This commission has been active and is now making plans for West Virginia's participation in the White House Conference on Aging that is to take place in 1961.

THE INTANGIBLES

There is much more to establishing a successful senior citizen's program than is incorporated in such thing as physical facilities, financial resources, and community recognition-as important as these things are. The greatest and most widely prevalent obstacles to overcome are timidity and lack of self-confidence on the part of the citizens themselves. This is often aggravated by a very sensitive attitude regarding age itself. To be associated with a senior citizens group is to automatically stamp oneself as being ancient.

We are what we are and the pattern seldom changes overnight. If a man or woman did not take part in social and recreational activities during the course of their working careers it can hardly be expected that they will rush into such activities following their retirement. Home and work is the pattern of life many people follow, and they do not break it just because they come to a certain date on the calendar. Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you, Professor Richardson.

Have you found as a result of the increasing of the facilities available to the older citizens in Huntington that perhaps the attitudes of these senior citizens have been more positive toward general community problems, not only the problems of the aged, per se, but the overall problems?

Mr. RICHARDSON. Not as much so as we had anticipated. As indicated in the paper we have an average attendance of around 30 or 40. We have about 150 members on our senior citizens rolls. There are 6,000 people in that age bracket in that city. There would not be room in the place to accommodate them if they turned out just reasonably well. But the response has been just so-so. That has not been true in Bluefield. It isn't true in Cincinnati or in Cleveland. I don't know what the local situation is.

Senator RANDOLPH. Professor, I recall in the hearing in San Francisco last week that we had some objection to the words "senior citizen." I took, I hope, appropriate recognition by disagreement with that statement. I notice you have spoken of senior clubs.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Yes, we were groping around for another term because they didn't like "elderly," they didn't like "golden years," they don't like "old," so I am about to run out of resources.

Senator RANDOLPH. Well, "senior" is an expressive designation. I just think of the seasons in West Virginia, the summer, spring, autumn, and winter. These are periods of a season, and I think they are periods in the life of an individual. Sometimes I know people think in terms of autumn as a time of passing. I have often thought of autumn as a time of color coming to our beloved hills. It has a strength-this autumn season-with its browns and golds, and is frankly a time of change, with a significantly important impact. I just hope we can keep the term "senior citizen."

Mr. RICHARDSON. I think it is largely a matter of semantics, because your face tells the story any way.

No social problem can be understood by just a few simple statements, the statements might run into 15 or 20 pages of mimeographed material, and you still wouldn't have all the background. That is true of this problem of aging in the United States.

Perhaps we should start with the Western attitude on aging. It is so different from the Orient where age and advanced years of maturity have a respected place and status in life. The Western concept has never paralleled it at all. The emphasis as indicated in the statement has always been on youth in this country. We even have a slang expression, "you should have lived so long." And as you notice the United Funds and different activities that are included in the various categories over the country under United Fund drives, you seldom see a place for senior citizens. It is true in some places, but very few, in comparison to the total number of communities that launch such drives.

WASTE OF HUMAN RESOURCES

I think today, and I am speaking in all sincerity as a sociologist, that our waste of resources because of age in this country is one of the greatest tragedies of our modern culture and civilization. I think we are wasting human resources in a number of ways.

Here are some of them. Early retirement-if you want to retire at 65, all right. I have had some students who should have retired at 20, but as a rule people do not want to retire. As one person put it, "Sit down, lie down, be carried out," and sometimes that is the pattern following retirement.

We are wasting human resources in the isolation that a lot of people seem to surround themselves with when they retire, they seem to go into a shell, especially if they have not been active in the social realm of their community before they retire, and they literally wither on the vine.

Third, there is great need for further development in the field of geriatrics, which is a comparatively new field of medicine.

The restrictive clause of the Social Security Act, saying you can make only $100 after you retire at 65, is a very foolish thing in my opinion. Age is no barrier to accomplishment. You can fill the walls in this Senate Chamber with beautiful murals of people who have accomplished wonderful things after 65, 70, 80, and even 90. Some of the best music in this world was written by composers in their seventies and eighties. Some of the best literature that has gone to the printing presses has been written by men and women in their seventies and in their eighties.

In West Virginia, as in all other States, but especially in West Virginia, because of the nature of its economy, this thing, the problems of an aging population, comes to us with a compelling sense of attention. The replacement of workers through automation and mechanization of industry makes it a crucial problem.

When I came to West Virginia 10 years ago from Texas, they had 120,000 miners in this State in the bituminous fields. Today we have 60,000 miners and the number is going down steadily.

NEED FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION PROGRAM

There will have to be a national program of public education on this whole national problem of aging. It has already been launched by the Federal Government, it can be carried on by the State government-but local universities, high schools also need to make it a part of their curriculum. We have a course we call "Aging in Our Culture," at Marshall College. When we offered it the first time just five people took it, barely enough to fulfill the requirements of the dean's office. The room should have been full. Perhaps they thought they would age prematurely if they took the course, just like some people think if they take out insurance they will die a little earlier. There is another side to the coin. The responsibility of getting ready for age rests on my shoulders, on your shoulders, and on the shoulders of the one getting ready to retire.

General Motors published a book called "My Time Is My Time,” and it is on the 12 to 15 years, according to the table on life mortality, most people can expect to live after their 65th birthday. The Federal Government has indicated you need almost as much money during that time, inflation being what it is, as you needed when you were on a regular job, and had a regular income coming in. So, hobby wise, and from every point of view, the responsibility of getting ready for that time of inactivity is my responsibility.

Someone has said, and well said, that as long as you retire from something to something, you are all right, you are on pretty good ground, but when you retire from something to nothing you have had it.

The structure of our society, finally, is of such a nature today that many of the efforts in behalf of our senior citizens must come from outside the home. We are an urban people, 80 or 85 percent live in cities. Cities are crowded. Apartments are small. Bedrooms are at a premium. And we are no longer an agrarian society, and as indicated in one of the remarks this morning, there is not much hope of going back to it.

So whatever we do for the senior citizens, a lot of it will have to come from outside the home, from the community, from the State, and from the Nation.

Thank you, sir.

Senator RANDOLPH. Professor Richardson, for a transplanted Texan you are doing beautifully.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you.

Senator RANDOLPH. And we are very happy to have your testimony. It has been helpful.

And the same, Mr. McGowan, to you.

(Statement of Professor Richardson follows:)

PREPARED STATEMENT BY DR. J T. RICHARDSON

INTRODUCTION

There are nearly 16 million men and women in the United States who are 65 years of age or older. It is estimated that by 1975 we will have 21 million in this age bracket. National, State, and local attention is now being focused on their needs by means of Federal agencies, State commissions on aging, medical associations and societies, religious organizations, industrial corporations, research in colleges and universities, and foundations.

Public emphasis has long been placed on youth in this country. This can be seen in nearly every aspect of American life. Such an emphasis has a place in our pattern of living. However, it is difficult, as well as improper, to ignore the needs, one might say rights and privileges, of 16 million men and women. Until the very recent past they have been the lost legion of American society. It so happens that aging is inevitable and it should not be looked upon as something reprehensible-a period of life that is to be treated with disdain and impatience.

THE PROBLEM

West Virginia and Huntington are glad to share in this survey being conducted by a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate under the title: "Problems of the Aged and Aging." There are 164,000 senior citizens in West Virginia and approximately 6,000 in the city of Huntington. They are confronted with all of the problems of senior citizens in other States and cities. The number in both West Virginia and Huntington will increase rapidly in the years that lie ahead. It is indeed timely that the Federal Government has taken recognition of the problem, because it is national in scope, and will try to institute measures that will help this group of citizens.

ACTIVITIES

In order to attract the public's attention and interest to the magnitude and importance of the problem of an aging population several conferences and surveys were held in West Virginia and in Huntington. The first regional meeting in which some of the problems of our older citizens were discussed took place on the Marshall College campus in June 1950, under the title: "Living the Later Years: A Conference on Old Age." This conference was attended by 250 people representing such areas as social work, the medical profession, business and industrial executives, teachers, ministers, rehabilitation personnel and the general public. The proceedings were mimeographed and sent to 250 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.

Gov. Okey L. Patterson appointed a State committee composed of personnel from the fields of social work, medicine, and sociology, to conduct a State survey on: "The Needs of West Virginia's Aging Population." Such areas as public health, education, public welfare, industry, and recreation were included in the survey. Information for the report was secured by sending questionnaires to the proper authorities in the 48 States. This approach was used since nothing had been done in West Virginia, prior to that date, and it was thought that the experiences of other States would be a good premise upon which to start a program here in West Virginia. The report was turned in to Governor Patterson but no official action was taken since the Governor's term of office was soon to be concluded.

Following the study on the State level in West Virginia the Senior Citizens Club of Huntington, Inc., was organized on July 9, 1952. This group, some 150 in number, has been sponsored by the Womans' Club of Huntington since its inception. The National Federation of Womens' Clubs selected gerontology as its topic for the year's study, some 2 or 3 years ago, and the Huntington Club won first prize for the State of West Virginia, in sponsoring a worthwhile community project, because of its work with the senior citizens of Huntington. During the 7 years that have passed since 1952 the Senior Citizens Club has made reasonable progress. Several of the Huntington churches have organized the senior citizens of their congregations, the YWCA has established a chapter of senior citizens for the section of the city it serves and the Stella Fuller Settlement has a comparable group in the section of Huntington where it is located.

The purpose of Senior Citizens as outlined in its charter is to provide: "recreational and cultural activities for the senior citizens of Huntington." There are adequate facilities and financial resources in Huntington to provide a very high type of program for its senior citizens. The greatest need, just now, is for the general public to realize that such a program is not only desirable but also essential if our senior citizens are to live complete and satisfying lives. Steps are now underway to secure a permanent home for the Senior Citizens of Huntington and also to have the organization included as one of the participating agencies of the United Fund. This is a common practice in many of the cities where Senior Citizen groups have been organized. When this is accomplished it will be possible to launch a program with much more variety than is true at the present time.