Senator KENNEDY. So, in other words, merely liberal credit wouldn't be of great assistance to you as far as borrowing for public facilities?

Mayor KANE. That is right. You mentioned pollution in your talk to the mayor from Lawrence. We do have a problem in the Cruikshan River which runs through the center of Fall River. It is a stream that has been polluted for many years, and it has been a problem to the city for 75 years at least.

But it is now the major source of industrial water for Firestone Co., which is now employing about 2,500 people in Fall River. It is very much polluted.

I tried to get some Federal aid to go about cleaning it up. We have had an engineering study made of the problem, and they estimate it would cost us $4 million to bring the water from the South Pond, where it is in a clear state, down to the Firestone plant, a distance of about 55 miles. But in the distance of 55 miles it passes through the Cruikshan River, and several factories polluting it. I was trying to get some aid, but they tell me there is no aid available unless the stream is navigable.

If something like that could be written into the bill, we would appreciate that.

Senator KENNEDY. That is a good suggestion. I think if there was a combination of grants and low interest rates and an extended period of paying it back, you might be tempted in this case to purify the water, but you wouldn't ordinarily feel you could do it with the other demands on your credit. So that might be a possibility.

I just want to ask you one more question, Mr. Mayor, about this distribution of commodities to needy people. As I said, the number of needy persons certified as eligible to receive donated commodities has only been about 12,000 in Massachusetts and the figure has stayed exactly the same for 11 months, which indicates to me that either the program is dead or the figures are inadequate, because they state there have been 12,207 receiving it for a 6 months' period. Obviously the need changes.

Do you know whether you have had any program of any importance in Fall River as far as distributing to needy people surplus foods? Mayor KANE. No; I couldn't say with any degree of accuracy. Senator KENNEDY. Pennsylvania, for example, has had over a million eligible to receive it, and we have only had 12,000.

Mayor KANE. I would like to say a word though, about the Development Corporation which the public-spirited citizens of Fall River got together about a year and a half ago to raise money to build the plant to the specifications of a prospective employer.

They now have in the bank in cash $100,000, and subscriptions and pledges of over $500,000. We have 959 stockholders. It is a crosssection of all the people in Fall River.

The minimum amount of shares you can buy is 60 at $5 each, or $300, paid over a period of 5 years, $5 a month. In the spring we will break ground for our building. The city donated a large piece of industrial property down on the Potowomut River to the Development Corporation and that program is going along quite well.

Senator KENNEDY. If this fund of yours had more money, more credit, could you do more of that?

Mayor KANE. Yes, we could. That is why I mention that particular part of your bill. The low interest rates and the loan would be very good to us right at this particular time.

Senator KENNEDY. I want to thank you for coming up, Mayor. As I say, we haven't had the practical experience that you and Mayor Buckley have had working with these problems, so I think your suggestion would be a very valuable one. I know Senator Douglas is especially anxious to get hold of them. I want to thank you for coming up, and particularly for sticking with us for such a long time. Mayor KANE. Thank you very much.

Senator KENNEDY. The committee will adjourn until 2 o'clock, at which time we will be glad to hear from Mr. Walsh and the mayor of New Bedford and the city manager of Lowell.

(Whereupon, at 1:15 p. m. the subcommittee adjourned. to reconvene at 2 p. m.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

Senator KENNEDY. The subcommittee will come to order.
Mayor Lawlor?

STATEMENT OF HON. FRANCIS J. LAWLOR, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF NEW BEDFORD, MASS.

Mayor LAWLOR. Mr. Senator, my name is Francis J. Lawlor. I hold the position of mayor of the city of New Bedford, Mass.

I have analyzed the provisions of S. 2663, entitled "A bill to establish an effective program to alleviate conditions of excessive unemployment in certain economically depressed areas."

Since January 2 of this year I happened to be mayor of a city, old in tradition and history, which has perhaps experienced more of the vicissitudes of economic depression than any community in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The experience of New Bedford has been cyclical, and unfortunately the cycles have not always been pleasant for the people who have had to earn their living in our city.

With the discovery of oil in Pennsylvania, the whaling industry began to decline, and New Bedford, as the chief whaling port in the world, suffered the loss of its principal source of income.

When the whale fishery was replaced by a booming textile industry, New Bedford regained economic prosperity, and with a stable and industrious labor force, it was able to surge forward to a place of prominence as an industrial center.

But starting with a disastrous strike in 1928, and aggravated by the economic depression of the early 1930's, New Bedford witnessed a decline and the loss of its textile industry to the admittedly more favorable southern locations.

Since New Bedford has always been primarily a producer of consumer goods, it has also always suffered adverse economic effects from depressions which have affected other geographic areas in our country. The people of my city, therefore, can speak from grim and bitter experience about unemployment and economic depressions.

My purpose in appearing here today, therefore, is to subscribe wholeheartedly to the principles embodied in S. 2663. I do this because I believe that in this day and age it is the responsibility of the Federal

Government to take every constructive step necessary to alleviate conditions of excessive unemployment whenever such conditions are brought about by dislocations in our economic machinery.

More than once in the past New Bedford has been a depressed area. Its crying need, of course, has been diversification of industry. With local self-help and municipal encouragement, we are trying to fulfill this need.

I think it will be conceded, however, that all of the self-help in the world sometimes will not be enough to ward off effects of economic depression which are not locally generated.

The design and purpose of S. 2663, therefore, as I view it is to create a reservoir of Federal assistance to which communities like New Bedford can turn in a time of economic adversity to sustain and maintain the level of prosperity and employment to which our citizenry is entitled.

The only agency of Government which can erect and fill such a reservoir is the Federal establishment. Its competence in this field was dramatically demonstrated in 1932, when the entire Nation had approached the brink of economic disaster. By bold and constructive action, the Federal Government rescued local communities from State and municipal bankruptcy.

I believe that the principles embodied in S. 2663 reflect the same governmental philosophy, and insofar as I am able to commit the people whom I am elected to serve, I wish the record to show that my community is wholeheartedly in favor of a bill which would prevent recurring labor surpluses in an area where we are already surfeited with economic depressions.

I thank you, Senator.

Senator KENNEDY. Mayor, I appreciate your statement very much Have you had a chance to look at that section of the bill in which the depressed area is defined? It says when 9 percent unemployment has existed for at least 18 months or in areas where at least 6 percent have been unemployed for 3 years.

Some question has been raised whether we should not have a higher percentage for a shorter time.

Mayor LAWLOR. That might well be, Senator, because George Carignan, representing the CIO in New Bedford, has figures he will present to you after I am through, I am sure. But I do believe that that percentage could be raised for a shorter time. I think that is very important. It would allow more flexibility to the bill, Senator. Senator KENNEDY. Do you think the need for credit has slowed up and made the task of bringing industries in more difficult through the shortage of credit? And do you think this provision in the bill which provides for loans and grants to communities for public facilities, and loans to 623 percent for private companies, would be of any substantial assistance?

Mayor LAWLOR. Yes, I do. I have inherited, Senator, a situation in New Bedford whereby the capacity of borrowing within the debt limit now requires authority from the emergency finance board.

I came across a situation only this week that I have been thinking seriously of discussing with the New Bedford library trustees, which I think embodies my thoughts on the matter of the Federal Government establishing a fund for city borrowing.

The New Bedford public library was willed a million dollars by a fund called the Wilkes fund. This particular fund is being invested to get as much profit as we can from the investments.

However, investments are limited as to what this particular fund can invest in. I recall when I was mayor back in 1953, when I borrowed $2 million for a construction of a junior high school, that the interest rate at that time was 214 percent. Here we have the library investing in short-term notes sometimes, and most of the time at less interest than what the city borrowed $2 million at back in 1953, and the market is no different now.

In fact, it may be a little higher at times, than it is lower.

So I am going to take it upon myself to talk with the library trustees to loan the city the money on short-term borrowing notes, and let the city solicitor probably come up with an equitable interest rate, rather than buying securities.

I think the city of New Bedford needs that sort of borrowing that we can get for specific purposes for short-term or a short length of time. I think that the setting up of Federal money is certainly of great importance.

I think all communities will find themselves at some time or other in a position where they would be very happy that that fund would be there to draw from.

Senator KENNEDY. The last question was on this distribution of surplus commodities. Have you done very much of that for people in New Bedford who qualify?

Mayor LAWLOR. We have done very little of that, Senator. I would like to say to you that one of the particular parts of the bill that I really like very, very much is the vocational training. I think that is a very excellent idea. In New Bedford we see in the newspaper every night some 15 or 20 advertisements for trained stitchers. The salaries or the wages for these people are in the neighborhood of $60 or $70 a week. But they want experienced stitchers. It is by and large a female operation.

But in New York State, of course, the predominance is from a male standpoint.

I have been talking with the industry leaders to try to form some sort of vocational training along this line with the help of the city of New Bedford. I think that in itself-set up as a vocational training and with probably better public relations or more thorough education-would enable a man to operate a sewing machine and make $70 or $75 a week.

I think that training is excellent.

Senator KENNEDY. I agree. I think especially by encouraging it through extra unemployment compensation benefits it would be helpful.

I want to thank you very much for coming up. I think your testimony, because of your New Bedford experience, will be very helpful. Is there another representative for the New Bedford area. Mr. Carignan, the manager of the New Bedford TWUA Joint Board.

STATEMENT OF GEORGE E. CARIGNAN, MANAGER, NEW BEDFORD TWUA JOINT BOARD

Mr. CARIGNAN. My name is George E. Carignan. I am the president of the Greater New Bedford Industrial Union Council and also an international representative of the Textile Workers Union of America, working in the New Bedford area.

My presence here today is for the purpose of urging whatever can be done to pass into law Senate bill No. 2663. There are three sections of the bill that I as a labor representative am particularly interested in. Those three are: Vocational training, unemployment compensation, and surplus food.

In New Bedford we have had some serious periods of unemployment. In January of 1950 over 10,000 workers, or 16 percent of the labor force, was unemployed; and as recently as January of 1955 about 7,900 workers, or about 11.8 percent of the labor force of approximately 67,000 people, were out of work.

We have found that during these periods of excessive unemployment, workers who are beyond the age of 45 years of age have had great difficulty in finding jobs. Many of these people, discouraged because of their inability to find work, are for all practical purposes out of the labor market at this time and are dependent upon their relatives, and in some instances their children.

These people, ranging from the ages of 45 to 65, are in their own words, "Too old to work and to young to die.”

The way things have been, they have little hope of finding work and they have had no avenue by which they could be trained for other work.

This applies mostly to a person who reaches the age of 50 or 55 and has worked in a factory all of his life, perhaps has been a card tender in a textile mill or something of that kind all of his life. He applies for work in another plant in the newer industries, and where a man or a woman has done a certain type of work for 30 years, these industries are very reluctant to give them a chance on any other kind of a job.

So I think that this bill we have been discussing today would provide the facilities for the development of retraining programs whereby these older people could be retrained for suitable employment. I have been talking about both men and women.

There is another phase of unemployment in New Bedford that has caused many hardships and misery, and that has been that during the periods of heavy unemployment we have found that jobs for men have been unavailable-and this during the same period or a period where there has been a demand for workers in types of work that previously had been performed by women.

In many instances when the husband would lose his job or be laid off from his job, the wife has found employment and the husband has had to stay at home and take care of the house and the childrenwhich has created a bad social situation and which should be corrected. Here again and I think Mayor Lawlor touched upon the question-there are many jobs-he mentioned one, stitching-where in other parts of the country men have been trained on stitching jobs and have been able to do a good piece of work on that type of a job.