Senator DOUGLAS. I wondered if you would be willing to include the following pages in your statement and then resume your verbal presentation on State and local efforts to overcome the depressed-area problems, in the interest of conserving time. Mr. WINGEARD. Yes. I did want to make one addition to my prepared statement on the distribution of surplus-food commodities. Senator DOUGLAS. I appreciate that very much. Mr. WINGEARD. I had omitted that. For the first 11 months of 1955, a monthly average of 948,000 needy persons were certified as eligible to receive surplus-food commodities in Pennslyvania. Senator DOUGLAS. I want to get those figures again because that is startling. Mr. WINGEARD. 948,000. Senator DOUGLAS. Álmost a million people? Mr. WINGEARD. That is right. Senator DOUGLAS. And the population of the State is about 11 million? Mr. WINGEARD. Yes. Senator DOUGLAS. So that you had almost 9 percent of the population? Mr. WINGEARD. That is right. And that is the average for the first 11 months. Senator DOUGLAS. In some months it was above that? Mr. WINGEARD. In the top month in 1955 it was as high as 1,109,000 persons, and in no month did it go below 768,000. That is from the records of the Agricultural Marketing Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. Senator DOUGLAS. Is it your experience that the people may abuse the distribution of food or does their pride restrain those who really need it from asking for the food? Mr. WINGEARD. Well, I can't say that I am too familiar with this program. I really wouldn't be able to answer that. Senator DOUGLAS. Would your associates care to make any statement on that? That is, are there many who asked for food in your judgment who do not need it, and are there many who need food, but do not ask for it? Mr. HOFKIN. I would make this statement, Senator, that knowing the type of persons who are in the coal areas, particularly, they are a pretty pround group of people. I would say that they would certainly not abuse the program, and whether they are too proud to ask for it, that is a difficult thing to say because you don't know what the feelings of people are when they are in that situation. But I certainly don't think that they would abuse that privilege because as I say they want work and they are very anxious to get it and when they do get it they are very good workers. Mr. WINGEARD. I would like to say that that average for the first 11 months of 1955 is almost 4 times the average number certified for the next highest State. Extensive efforts have been undertaken by the State government and by local communities to increase employment in the depressed areas. Scores of local community groups have been extremely active for many years in extensive self-help activities and programs of local industrial development, expansion, and diversification. These activities have covered everything from organizing and conducting community action committees and promotional cam paigns to carrying out comprehensive economic self-appraisal surveys and substantial fund-raising and plant-building programs. The State government has assisted the loal community efforts by stimulating, encouraging, guiding, and assisting local activity, making economic and labor-market surveys, disseminating information regarding the industrial assets of various areas, attempting to steer new industries and contracts into such areas; trying to procure substantial Government installations and defense facilities for such areas, and stepping up State programs of roadbuilding, hospital construction, stream clearance, and public housing. These efforts have produced creditable results, but the gains have not been sufficient to stem the rising tide of unemployment flowing from continued job losses in problem industries. In view of the experience of the depressed areas in the State, it appears that there is little likelihood of any adequate solution of Pennsylvania's chronic unemployment problems unless some substantial and effective additional outside assistance can be provided to the affected areas. Senator DOUGLAS. The three paragraphs dealing with Scranton, I would like those three read into the record, because, as you show, here is a community which has probably done more than any other and yet the decline in the basic industries has been much greater than the increase in the number of jobs in the new industries which have been brought in. (The three paragraphs are as follows:) The Scranton areas has probably been more aggressive and successful in its undertakings to promote new industry than any other community in Pennsylvania. Its efforts have been publicized nationally as "the Scranton Plan." Several million dollars were raised locally through public contributions and the sale of mortgage or debenture bonds in order to provide substantial funds for acquiring plant sites, constructing or purchasing industrial facilities, and otherwise financing industrial development activities. Approximately two dozen new community-financed plants were built and leased to new industries on a long term rental-purchase basis. In addition, more than that number of privately financed new plants have been built and expansion has taken place in scores of existing establishments. Although many thousands of additional new jobs have been created in the area as a result of these activities, there are today more than 12,000 workers, chiefly men, currently unemployed in the area, representing more than 12 percent of the area's total civilian labor force. Continued employment declines in the anthracite mining industry, textile manufacturing industry, railroad transportation industry have virtually canceled out all of the new employment gain. Mr. WINGEARD. That has been the story in most of our areas. Senator DOUGLAS. In other words, as Alice in Wonderland remarked, you have to run faster in order to stay in the same place? Mr. WINGEARD. That is right. The present administration in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania has framed and introduced a broad and comprehensive program aimed at bringing about economic recovery in the State and most particularly in its depressed areas. This program embraces the following three major points which are awaiting approval by the legislature: (1) The creation of a State industrial development authority, empowered to provide aid to individual industrial employers, and to acquire industrial sites and construct modern industrial facilities for lease or sale to new employers in depressed areas. An appropriation of $20 million is being requested for this purpose as seed money in conjunction with other funds provided by the Federal Government or local communities; (2) The appropriation of $5 million as seed money for grants-inaid to local communities on a matching basis for redevelopment projects; and (3) The provision of technical and financial assistance to local community industrial development groups. The State administration economic recovery program also includes additional features which are detailed in the full prepared statement. It is believed that this State program constitutes a big step in the right direction, and that it will afford an appreciable measure of effective assistance to the depressed areas. However, the job to be done is enormous, and it is recognized that the problem of chronic unemployment, with its vast waste of manpower and severe drains on the economy, is a matter of great concern to the Nation, as well as the communities and the States. Furthermore, various aspects of the problem are national in scope, and as such are not susceptible to State and local solution. Therefore, the Commonwealth greatly appreciates the Federal Government's interest in this matter, and will welcome any active Federal cooperation and support that may be provided to improve conditions in chronically depressed areas. Such assistance is urgently required to supplement and augment the efforts of the State and local communities. Senator DOUGLAS. Thank you for this testimony, and we appreciate very much the attitude of the government of Pennsylvania that this is a matter for joint action by the localities, by the State government, by the Federal Government, that we are not drivers in any sense, but we each have a share, a task to do. Mr. WINGEARD. It should be a partnership proposition. Senator DOUGLAS. The committee will reconvene on Monday, January 9, at 10 o'clock, and will hear testimony from my colleague, Senator Dirksen of Illinois, Senator Payne from Maine, Commissioner Carl Broggi, State Department of Commerce and Industry, Maine, Paul Dorris, State Industrial Commission of Carterville, Ill., Prof. Leo Fishman, College of Commerce, Morgantown, W. Va., University of West Virginia, the mayor of Woonsocket, Kevin F. Coleman, William J. Farrell, executive director, Industrial Development Foundation of Greater Woonsocket, Rhode Island. Thank you, gentlemen. (Whereupon, at 3:30 p. m., the committee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a. m., Monday, January 9, 1956.) AREA REDEVELOPMENT MONDAY, JANUARY 9, 1956 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, in room P-63, United States Capitol, Senator Paul H. Douglas (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Douglas, Neely, Kennedy, and Goldwater. Also present: Stewart E. McClure, staff director; Roy E. James, minority staff director; John Forsythe, general counsel to the committee; Frank Cantwell and Michael Bernstein, professional staff members; and James J. McTigue, consultant. Senator NEELY (presiding). The first on the list this morning is the distinguished junior Senator from Illinois, Mr. Dirksen. Senator Dirksen, we are glad to have you. STATEMENT OF HON. EVERETT MCKINLEY DIRKSEN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ILLINOIS Senator DIRKSEN. Mr. Chairman, it is a pleasure to come and visit a little with the committee and to advance some suggestions with respect to the matter that is presently before the committee. I notice in a survey, insofar as I have been able to analyze it, that there are roughly 190 counties or parts of counties in the country that are listed in so-called distressed areas. These are divided into 10 major and 74 minor areas, but I notice also that 7 States account for 123 of these counties, so it is fair to assume, I suppose, that the major counties of distress would be found in those States. I know, for instance, in your State Senator NEELY. A year ago there were 26 in our State. Senator DIRKSEN. The last listing I saw for West Virginia was 23. I notice that Pennsylvania also has 23, that Kentucky is by far and away the largest area of distress, with 31 counties, and then considering the size of the State, and the population, percentagewise, it has probably been affected more than any other State. We, in Illinois, of course, have a very abiding interest in this whole problem because in the southern end of the State are some 19 counties, or parts of counties, that are for the moment, at least, classified as distressed areas. Now, I notice that our problem is about the same as yours. While I have looked at the names of counties in West Virginia, in the main you will find major distress in the coal areas. That is exactly the problem in Illinois. I presume it is in Pennsylvania, where there has been a diminution in use of anthracite coal. It has a specific purpose, and cannot be so widely used for industrial purposes as bituminous coal, so when you take the four largest States, Kentucky, West Virginia, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, I believe it is a reasonable inference, based upon my own information on the matter, that distress in large part results from the fact that there has been an abandonment of mines; in some cases, of course, due to competition where mines with good seams are highly mechanized, other mines simply cannot compete in the market, but whatever the contributing factors, it is a problem, and there is a hard core of distress in some areas of the country. I believe that it is the duty and the responsibility of the Congress to deal with it. I note that from time to time classifications will shift. For instance an area will drop from classification B to C, but, on the other hand, as conditions improve, other areas will advance into a higher classification, so that this is a shifting problem. But when you take into account all of those factors you still have a hard core of distress with which we are going to have to deal so as a general observation let me say that if we are going to deal with it then let us do it wholeheartedly. I doubt very much whether a halfhearted program, a major program, or a program that is too little in authority and in funds is going to do the job. Very conceivably a great deal of money could be wasted unless we make a wholehearted attempt to solve the problem. I think we may have a duty. I think we may have a responsibility. As you may know, I was rather instrumental in and gave a good deal of emphasis to the whole question of economic foreign aid over the last several years, and made something of a specialty of it. Now, in the last fiscal year, or the current fiscal year, for development assistance the Congress provided 162 million for foreign countries. Then, in addition, we provided 153 million in know-how or technical cooperation, then we set up 100 million other special Presidential funds, and finally we agreed on a hundred million for the Asian development fund. All those items are economic. When you put them altogether in the current fiscal year we made available either by way of grants or funds for loan purposes, $515 million. We should not be wanting, it seems to me, in our solicitude for the people of our own country where they have a problem to deal with. And so I simply share the hope, quite aside from the pride of authorship in any bill, that we can come to some sound conclusions in the matter and develop a proposal that will squarely and wholeheartedly attack the problem on the domestic front. Finally, as a general observation, the solution has got to be durable. There is no point in going down into an area, spending some money, only to discover that 2 or 3 years hence you still have the problem at hand. So our whole thought, it seems to me, should be directed to durable solutions that will last and the creation of jobs that will continue over a long period of time. I think I should say for the record, Mr. Chairman, that the administration does have an interest in this, but prior administrations did, too. The Area Development Organization was set up in 1946, during the Truman administration. It is a component in the Department of |