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they could stay there and pick them up in the afternoon and bring them back home, and I think some of us are afraid to leave our people at home, and then if we do, then somebody may break in, steal, and they may break themselves up, and then we would have day care centers for senior citizens, I think that would be a help.

The thing we need to do is to have people like you and the other senators to get these laws together for us and see if we could get some money so we could start that, and that would give the older worker work to do.

He would feel better working with his own peers?

Senator RANDOLPH. That is true. Thank you very much.

There is no law against me cheering, you know. In the Senate, if the galleries cheer-or we will say do a little hissing-then the presiding officer says that there can be no demonstrations in the Senate galleries or people will be removed.

I want you to know we do not mind you cheering, and let the chairman do a little of it himself.

Clyde.

Mr. MURRAY. I think we should have more and more of the programs like Mainstream, senior aides, SCORE, all of these different programs, but I think we have to do a better job in letting our people know what these opportunities are, either paid or volunteer.

Many older people do not know. It does not reach the hinterland. I do think the Mayor's Office of Senior Citizens is really trying to provide this communication so that people can know about the opportunities, and I am also hoping that we can tie into these volunteer jobs such things as transportation in getting people to and from the jobs-the volunteer jobs as well as the paid jobs.

I think we have enough ingenuity in this country to work out new ways to do this.

Senator RANDOLPH. I was just checking with Dave here. We were talking about the number of older people, 65 and beyond, and the updated figures indicate that we now have 22 million persons in our population of approximately 211 million-22 million that are 65 or older. And we are adding to that number of course, in the overall. We are adding 350.000 persons a year. That is the net increase. So it is not only a problem, but it presents an opportunity. Thank you very much.

[Applause.]

[The prepared statement of Clyde E. Murray follows:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CLYDE E. MURRAY

This testimony is based on my present experience as president of the Senior Citizens Employment Service, vice president of the Chicago Area Council of Senior Citizens Organizations and on my professional work as a social welfare planner and administrator. Although I retired from full-time work in 1970, I still consider myself active as I have accepted periodic employment during the last 5 years.

My remarks will focus on three matters: (1) the importance of social security, (2) the need for a specialized employment service for persons 55 years and over in Chicago, and (3) a recommendation that the age 65 top limit of the Age Discrimination Act of 1967 be removed.

A few days ago I asked a fellow board member of the Chicago Area Council this question, "What is the most serious problem faced by older people as a result of the recession?" His immediate reply was one word, "Money!" He explained that most older people whom he knows have found it difficult to make

ends meet as the cost of living continues to go up and up and income from pensions and savings have remained at a fixed level. The only exception has been the increases in social security benefits. Although these increases have not kept pace with inflation, they have helped older citizens in two ways. They have more money to use. They have been given a "lift" in realizing that Congress really cares about their tight financial situation.

No one can overestimate the importance of social security to us millions of older people. The monthly social security check provides the basic income for most senior citizens and is the only income for some. From my experience, I know of people who worked for private social welfare agencies which had no pension plans up to the 1960s. Other acquaintances worked in business or industry but were not able to build up any adequate pension reserve as present workers do. Many older citizens receive small pensions but these can provide only supplemental support. These people must depend on social security for basic income. I know of no better way for America to show that it cares about its older people than to provide adequate social security and medicare benefits, and to furnish opportunities for them to engage in challenging occupations either on a paid or volunteer basis. Such programs as senior aides, RSVP, foster grandparents, and operation mainstream have been valuable to the older persons as well as to the people they have served. Part-time and full-time paid employment in industry and business has also been available for a limited number of senior citizens. Dr. Leonard Z. Cosin, an internationally known leader in the care of old people who is in charge of health services for the aged in Oxford (England) Area Health Authority, was quoted in the July 27, 1975 issue of the Chicago SunTimes as follows:

"The only solution to the problem of growing numbers of old people is to keep them as fit as possible as long as possible or any society will run itself into bankruptcy."

PHYSICALLY AND EMOTIONALLY FIT

Work in community affairs, business, industry, government, labor unions, social welfare agencies, churches and other areas can keep people challenged and interested in life and keep them physically and emotionally fit.

In 1970 I became convinced that more attention should be given to job funding, counseling, and placement of older workers who wish to continue working on a paid basis. The small number of placements made by public and private employment agencies convinced me that these agencies gave a low priority to those older persons who want to work, and in many cases need to work in order to support themselves. I found that my interest was shared by Arthur Levin, a retired businessman, who had estabilshed a not-for-profit corporation, "Senior Citizens Employment Service." I joined the board of this new organization during that year soon after I retired as a social welfare planner.

Since 1970 the board of directors of the Senior Citizens Employment Service has been trying to set up a senior employment center, similar to the ones in Baltimore and San Diego, for men and women 55 years of age and over who want employment. Recently a plan was developed with the Jewish Vocational Service of Chicago and the local unit of the National Council for Jewish Women to oper ate a senior employment center as a demonstration or pilot project. CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) personnel will be provided through the Manpower Office of the City of Chicago who will find job openings, interview and place people 55 years and over in full-time or part-time work. Private foundation funds will be used to pay for staff training and supervision, supplies. office space and other expenses. Volunteer workers will be enrolled to help in locating jobs and in interpreting to potential employers and to the public the need for a senior employment center.

Mr. Benjamin R. Cohen, one of our sponsors, has stated the purpose of the Senior Employment Center well:

"I am mindful of the desperate need for a viable, aggressive employment service to invest in human dignity and security by providing suitable job opportunities for the elderly men and women who are an invaluable reservoir of fine skills and experience, but whose self-respect and pride have been subjected by sheer disregard, disdain, and neglect."

Mr. Levin, the founder of the Senior Citizens Employment Service recently wrote:

"In June and July 1966, Sylvia Porter, columnist, wrote a series of four excellent articles in the Chicago Daily News and headed them in very large type: 1-JOBS, NOT TALK, FOR THE ELDERLY. 2-JOB DOORS CLOSED TO

ELDERLY. 3-HELP WANTED FOR THE AGED. 4-AGED NEED WORK, NOT PLANS. That was 9 years ago and it is worse now than it was then.

"The elderly are especially discriminated against in the job market. Louis Harris and Associates have recently completed the most definitive study of people 65 and over, ever made. One of their important findings is: "Those 65 and over citizens who did not want to retire and would like to be employed gainfully came to 4.4 million. They are not counted as unemployed in official statistics; if they were counted, the unemployed figure for the nation would now be close to 10 percent. The Illinois State Employment Service placed a mere 342 senior citizens in fiscal year 1972 for the entire state, which has a population of 1,500,000 senior citizens. Mandatory retirement should be eliminated. The 65 and over group say: Give us less pity and give us more opportunity.'"

SPECIALIZED EMPLOYMENT SERVICE FOR SENIORS

We citizens who are working to set up this employment center feel strongly that older men and women have mature skills which can be used in business, industry and community service and that they should have the opportunity to engage in worthwhile occupations to supplement their income and to continue service to their communities. We hope our efforts will demonstrate to city, State, and Federal officials that a specialized type of employment service for seniors should be established on a permanent basis either as an essential part of a comprehensive program or as a separate entity.

One stumbling block in finding jobs for persons 65 years of age and over has been the Age Discrimination Act of 1967. This legislation should be removed from the statute books.

The chronological age of 65, or of any other arbitrary age, is a poor measuring stick for determining whether a person can carry on his or her work. No two persons have the same potential or ability at any age. One person may have gone past his potential on a job at 40 while another may do his best work at 75. The “GULHEMP" theory should receive more attention and much wider use as these seven factors taken together provide a fair basis for judging a person's ability to carry on. These factors are: G-general appearance, U-upper extremities, L-lower extremities, H-hearing, E-eyesight, M-mentality or intelligence, and P-personality. These criteria make much more sense than the single age criterion.

Senator RANDOLPH. Our next panel is made up of Government witnesses, Samuel C. Bernstein, assistant to the mayor for manpower, Mayor's Office of Manpower; and Robert J. Ahrens, director, Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens.

Those of us in public and often private business, know how important it is to have good people working with us. We could not do our jobs without them, and Kay Dann is here, our assistant chief clerk of the majority. Kay, will you stand up please?

John Guy Miller is the staff director for the minority. John, will you stand, please?

And, David, you can stand too. This is David Affeldt. He is the chief counsel of the majority.

We have no partnership, senior, or junior. We just all work here. Now, we will have two witnesses give their names and their positions, the people they represent.

I hope we can do this in about 10 or 12 minutes, if possible.

PANEL ON GOVERNMENT

STATEMENT OF SAMUEL C. BERNSTEIN, ASSISTANT TO THE MAYOR FOR MANPOWER, MAYOR'S OFFICE OF MANPOWER

Mr. BERNSTEIN. Mr. Chairman, my name is Samuel C. Bernstein, and I am assistant to the mayor for manpower, Mayor's Office of Manpower.

Mr. AHRENS. Mr. Chairman, my name is Robert J. Ahrens, director, Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens.

Mr. BERNSTEIN. First let me say, Senator, in listening to you and the activities of this subcommittee, I think it is not only the State of West Virginia that is exceedingly fortunate in having you there for some 44 years or more, but the country as a whole. It has benefited exceedingly by it, and I want to join the mayor in expressing our appreciation.

Senator RANDOLPH. You want me to run again?

Mr. BERNSTEIN. I would say if you would be in the Senate for another 25 years, we would all benefit immeasurably.

I suppose I am speaking about your longevity, because I started in State government about the same time and drafted legislation in dealing with all of the social security pieces at the State level, including unemployment insurance, which I offered in Illinois in 1973. So, I have been around for a long time, and I can speak from personal experience about the senior citizens, because I happen to be one over 65 years of age.

I do not believe yet that I am slipping. I think that the mayor would be the first one to let me know if I were, and I assure you that the feelings I have with respect to not letting age act as an arbitrary limitation on employment was felt so strongly by need, because of my feeling, that I have more to contribute now than I ever had in my whole life to public service, and it is with that kind of framework that I offer what little I may to the committee.

First let me tell you that we are dealing with a program which has provided for the authorization and responsibility for managing manpower, and at the local level, and a program which originated at a time when, we thought that we were going to experience a relatively good employment, and wound up, as you know, in a period when we were in the depths of a recession. Of course, too, employment manpower programs become all the more difficult.

COMPREHENSIVE EMPLOYMENT TRAINING ACT

Also look at the unemployment in the larger cities. In every city that you can look at, it is more than the national average in unemployment. With some strange paradox of approach, the development of a formula in the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, which provides funds for manpower programs in the large cities the quirk which says, in essence, that we are to get less by 10 percent of what we got the previous year from now on in. So when we look at 1975, we get 10 percent less than in 1974, and when we go to 1976, we will get 10 percent less than in 1975. That, theoretically, is an amount which, under title I for manpower training which provides us at the rate in 1974 some $36 million, slips down to $22 million in a period of 10 years on the premise that the Congress makes no more money available in the overall than it is presently making available for all of the consequent manpower programs in the Nation. We, of course, in the large cities we in Chicago, in particular-feel very strongly that we cannot deal with any of the problems of unemployment of many of our citizenry, including the older worker, in the face of that kind of desire or clearly irrational application of a formula.

The needs of the city are continuing to grow, and built into the system is a continuing reduction in the amount available for the program. Now, looking at the recession as it applies to the older worker, you have got the recognition that presently your Congress, and our Congress, has approached the problem of unemployment with some concern about its implications for reasons other than the employment status of individuals.

A good part of what has been the design of manpower programs, has stemmed from concerns about the kinds of things that you need to do to prevent riots and demonstrations-a complete distortion of manpower programs.

There are ways, and if you want to provide funds to buy peace, there are ways to do it, but my point is that if you use manpower programs and manpower funding to buy peace, then you are diverting from the people who really need those funds for true manpower purposes.

One of the things I am referring to is the fact that we deal with. the unique problems of providing summer programs for youth. We provide a very significant amount of money that adds up to almost one-half of the total amount of manpower moneys that are made avaliable for all programs, for all of our citizenry in the United States, to deal with the 9 weeks of summer for youth.

Now, I am not saying that that kind of program is not necessary or advisable, or that there are not very definite benefits derived from the summer program. But to treat it as a special need and not recognize that those funds are to be pooled into some total manpower resources, so that we locally can make decisions as to how we utilize those funds, not presently limited to the summer youth program, on a year around program. That would mean a lot more to the youth of our Nation, so we feel that that has to get, it seems to me, very specific attention in the Congress.

OMBUDSMAN NEEDED FOR OLDER WORKERS

With respect to the issue of the older worker you need an ombudsman. I am not a specialist in the older worker program, because I run manpower programs city wide for all ages and all target groups.

Thank God, we have Bob Ahrens in the Mayor's Office for Senior Citizens and that we have the Department of Aged which stems from Neil Hartigan's personal devoted effort at the State level, to provide the kind of pressure and levers which forces Sam Bernstein and others like me around the Nation-in all kinds of programs, not only manpower to realize that there are special needs that are not presently so low on the totem pole, that they do not get their fair share of what they are entitled to.

Senator RANDOLPH. Now, I want to interrupt you there.

Your perception, what you are saying here, indicates that you can look at the overall. You can separate the parts, and yet know they must all be brought together, and that is your strength.

Mr. BERNSTEIN. It is the strength, really, of the people who run the programs in the city of Chicago.

Senator RANDOLPH. How old are you?

Mr. BERNSTEIN. Sixty-six.

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