short time to retrain a man and make him into a good machine operator of almost any kind, and that they did wonderful repair work. The company hated to move out of the State when the Government closed down the contract at South Charleston, because it had had a very happy experience there with training workers. That is another feature of this bill, the retraining provision. It won't take a long time, but it does take a concerted effort to take a man out of a coal mine, for instance, and retrain him to go into a fabrication plant of some kind. It must be a concerted effort. This bill gets to the core of the problem, because the pattern of industry in the United States of America is constantly changing. It is constantly keeping 2 or 3 jumps ahead of the rest of the world, and to do that, you have to train your people to take up any new phase of work. For instance, I remember when one of the big Swiss companies came to this country and put in a plant here. Why? Because they could train workers to turn out greater quantities in less time here than they could in Switzerland, and they therefore established a plant in this country. Mr. Chairman, the situation in West Virginia is so critical I understand this subcommittee will hold hearings there in the near future, where the picture can be presented in greater detail. I know your hearings in Washington, and in West Virginia and in other hard-hit areas, will prove the inescapable need for immediate passage of Senate bill 2663, followed by prompt implementation of the farsighted provisions contained in it. Mr. Chairman I would like at this time to introduce an editorial from the United Mine Workers Journal of December 1, 1955, on this bill, and have it made a part of my statement. Senator DOUGLAS. That will be done. Senator KILGORE. I also would like to put in the "Area Classification Summary" covering West Virginia taken from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Employment Security, and have it made a part of my statement. Senator DOUGLAS. That will be done. I only want to ask one question, Senator Kilgore. What has been the experience in West Virginia of the work of the Small Business Administration? Has that been of any appreciable help? Senator KILGORE. May I say that they may have done their utmost, but that it has not been very successful. They may have worked hard, but they haven't been able to help the small plants. Senator DOUGLAS. Have many loans been made? Senator KILGORE. Some, yes. They have made some loans, but the question is not just a loan. The question is getting the work. The Government procurement agencies simply wouldn't break down their needs into smaller components so that the smaller plants could bid. I found that constantly. For instance, one plant in West Virginia put in an electric furnace to produce steel. They got a Government loan and put the furnace in. At that time they were having to buy their billet from Belgium. The Government required the company to make available to it all or any part of its production of any specialized steel that the Governement asked for. Immediately military ordnance asked for 60 percent of their total output in shell steel, the hardest steel to make. They had to cancel orders that they had from coal-mining companies and railroads in order to divert 60 percent of their output to that. Then, when the pressure for steel slacked up, they suddenly found themselves out and the order was given to United States Steel. The same thing was true of another company that had an excellent record in making the tail piece for rockets. A big company got the contract. They had to lay off the men they had spent 2 or 3 years training during the Korean crisis. They had worked the thing out, but they found themselves asked to stand by. Unfortunately, men can't eat standing by. You can keep your plant standby, but the men have to earn something to eat along with this standby business. Senator DOUGLAS. Senator Neely? Senator NEELY. No questions. Senator DOUGLAS. Senator Goldwater? Senator KENNEDY. Only the question you asked about small business. I think it would be worthwhile getting the statistics on the amount of loans they made to these areas, particularly unemployment, because the figures are relatively small in Massachusetts; a million and a half dollars in loan, and 14 in total, was it not? Senator DOUGLAS. Will the staff ask the Small Business Administration for a list of loans and the amounts in the given areas of distress, and when those are received, we will make them a part of the record. (The figures referred to appear in the appendix, p. 1150.) Senator KILGORE. May I add something on that? Senator DOUGLAS. Yes. Senator KILGORE. I ran into this in 3 or 4 instances. A loan would be requested, and it would be granted conditioned upon the award of a contract. When a bid was made on a contract, the contract would be conditioned upon their getting the loan. The loan wouldn't be granted until they got the contract. The contract wouldn't be let until they got the loan. So they were at a stalemate. Senator KENNEDY. This is such an important part of the bill, it might be worthwhile to have somebody from the Small Business Ádministration. Senator DOUGLAS. I think we should do that later in the hearings. Thank you very much. (Senator Kilgore's material follows:) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR BUREAU OF EMPLOYMENT SECURITY OFFICE OF PROGRAM REVIEW AND ANALYSIS AREA CLASSIFICATION SUMMARY, NOVEMBER 1955 (Advance Release of "Bimonthly Summary of Labor Market Developments in Major Areas") 1 Employment statistics for these areas have been developed entirely or in part under the Bureau of Labor Statistics-Bureau of Employment Security-State agency joint employment statistics program. Group E: (Employment statistics for these areas have been developed entirely or in part under the BLS employment statistics program jointly with an agency other than the State employment security agency.) 1. The number of workers now seeking employment in the area is considerably in excess of currently available job opportunities, and this situation is expected to continue through the next 2- and 4-month periods. 2. Unemployment is approximately 9.0 to 11.9 percent of the total labor force. 3. Net nonagricultural labor requirements for 2 and 4 months hence indicate declining employment levels or no significant labor requirements. 4. The current or anticipated labor suplus is not due primarily to seasonal or temporary factors. Information not available. Group C: 1. The number of workers now seeking employment in the arca is slightly in excess of currently available job opportunities, and this situation is expected to continue through the next 2- and 4-month periods. 2. Unemployment is approximately 3.0 to 5.9 percent of the total labor force. 3. Net nonagricultural labor requirements for 2 and 4 months hence indicate no significant increases in employment. NOTE.-The data presented here are derived from the regular bimonthly area labor market reports received by the Bureau of Employment Security from affiliated State en ployment security agencies. Each area listed consists of a principal city or cities and the surrounding area within a reasonable commuting distance. More detailed information on any of these areas may be obtained from the Bureau of Employment Security or from the appropriate affiliated State employment security agency, listed in the inside back cover. Employment data relate tototal wage and salaried workers for the payroll period ending nearest the fifteenth of the month. Self-employed, unpaid family workers, and domestics are excluded. CLASSIFICATION OF LABOR MARKET AREAS IN WEST VIRGINIA DECEMBER 14, 1955 There are 10 smaller labor-market areas in West Virginia currently classified as labor-surplus areas by the Bureau of Employment Security of the United States Department of Labor. There are also two West Virginia counties included in labor-surplus areas of other States. These are Mingo County in the Pikeville, Ky.-Williamson, W. Va. area, and Mineral County in the Cumberland, Md, area. The Charleston metropolitan area, which includes Kanawha and Fayette Counties, is also currently classified as a labor-surplus area. The Huntington-Ashland and the Wheeling-Steubenville metropolitan areas are currently classified as group C (job seekers slightly in exess of job openings; this situation expected to continue over next 4 months). The Clarksburg, Morgantown, and Parkersburg areas will be removed from the labor-surplus area classification this month (December) as unemployment has dropped below 6 percent and is not expected to exceed 6 percent during the coming 4 months. The remaining 7 West Virginia smaller labor-market areas of Beckley, Bluefield, Fairmont, Logan, Point Pleasant-Gallipolis, Ronceverte-White Sulphur Springs, and Welch, and also the Cumberland and Pikeville-Williamson areas are expected to remain laborsurplus areas until there is substantial improvement in the economy of these areas by expansion of present industry and/or entrance of new industry. |