Hon. GEORGE D. AIKEN,

NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE,

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION,
Washington 5, D. C., May 6, 1947.

Chairman, Subcommittee on Education,

Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C.

DEAR SENATOR AIKEN: I regret my inability to appear before the committee this morning to present orally the testimony submitted by the department of education, National Catholic Welfare Conference. May I ask that this testimony be incorporated in the record.

Very sincerely yours,

FREDERICK G. HOCHWALT, Director.

STATEMENT BY VERY REV. MSGr. Frederick G. HOCHWALT, Director, DepartMENT OF EDUCATION, NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE, BEFORE SUBCOMMITTEE ON EDUCATION OF THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE, MAY 6, 1947

My name is Frederick G. Hochwalt, and I am director, department of education, National Catholic Welfare Conference. In the United States there are 196 Catholic universities and colleges, enrolling 148,515 students.

I am grateful for this opportunity to express my views on S. 971, a bill authorizing the Federal Works Administrator to make grants to institutions of higher learning for the construction of educational facilities required in the education and training of war veterans.

Other witnesses who have made careful and rather exhaustive studies of the anticipated enrollment of war veterans in colleges and universities have presented to the committee substantial evidence indicating the urgent need for a public works program which will enable many institutions of higher learning to provide suitable educational facilities for veterans. Without repeating any of the statistical data already known to the committee, may I simply note that Catholic colleges and universities are in the same predicament as nonsectarian and other denominational institutions (see appendix). They must have immediate financial assistance if they are to accommodate in suitable buildings the thousands of veterans who will apply for admission next September.

It is indeed gratifying to observe that S. 971 is not a subject of controversy between the representatives of public education and those of the private institutions of higher learning. The disputes inevitably aroused by other bills for aid to education have been set aside so that all educational interests might together plead for Federal aid for all colleges and universities which are now expending themselves to the limit in one of the most remarkable education projects of our time the federally subsidized education program for veterans. This cooperative interest in the educational welfare of the veteran is a continuation of a policy developed during the war when all colleges and universities gave their facilities and services to the Army and Navy for various specialized training programs. By permitting the veteran to choose his own school, the GI bill has virtually demanded that all qualified colleges and universities work together constantly on behalf of the veteran. Hence, section (i) of S. 971, stating that both public and nonprofit schools are eligible for grants-in-aid, is fully consistent with the general policy of the Federal Government in its educational program for veterans.

I wish to comment briefly on several commendable features of this bill: (1) No Federal_control.-Section (b) explicitly forbids any interference with the educational affairs of an institution receiving a grant-in-aid.

(2) A program for the emergency.-Section (c) requires that the colleges and universities begin their projects promptly after enactment of the law. Hence, institutions which might be inclined to procrastinate in the hope that building costs will come down will be compelled to begin work immediately on permanent buildings which will be available for the peak veteran enrollment during 1919-50. (3) Permanent buildings.-Section (d) will make it possible for the colleges and universities to finance the construction of permanent buildings. An investment of $250,000,000 by the Federal Government will yield a return to the Nation of at least $500,000,000 in permanent buildings for higher education. These buildings will stand for generations as testimony to a wise investment by both the Federal Government and the institutions of higher education. It should be noted also that when the Federal Government bears no more than half the cost of permanent buildings, it spends no more than the amount required for the erection of temporary buildings which bring no lasting benefits to higher education.

(4) The formula.-The inclusion in the bill of a formula (sec. e) directing the Federal Works Administrator to allocate 75 percent of the funds to the States in the ratio that the number of certified veterans within the State bears to the total number of certified veterans in the Nation will relieve the Administrator of what otherwise would be practically an impossible task of determining on his own authority which institutions were most deserving of aid. At the same time the formula gives the Office of Education and the Administrator discretionary authority over the balance of the funds so that institutions which have an exceptionally critical need for aid may be assisted.

I gather from the statistical data presented to the committee that, if this bill is not passed, thousands of veterans will be turned away from our colleges and universities during the next few years. Among these veterans will be the thousands of young men recruited on the promise that during a 3-year enlistment period they could, as it were, "earn their way" toward a college education. It appears to me that no effort should be spared either by the Federal Government or by the institutions to provide the buildings and equipment necessary to accommodate these deserving young people who responded so generously to an urgent call for voluntary enlistments in the armed forces.

The financial investment authorized by S. 971 will produce valuable educational dividends. College administrators are amazed and thrilled by the high caliber of the veteran-student, by his studiousness, his seriousness of purpose, his energy, and, above all, by his sincere appreciation of the advantages of higher education. In many colleges and universities the veterans are excelling the nonveterans in scholastic achievements. Few of them are dropping out. We may hope that the veterans now in college will not be discouraged by the unsatisfactory living accommodations and by the inadequate classroom facilities and equipment which they have tolerated in all too many cases.

I am particularly pleased that so many veterans are manifesting a lively interest in international problems and are pursuing courses which will acquaint them with the historical, political, economic, and sociological elements of these problems. We may trust that these young men and women who experienced first-hand the tragedies of war will devote their talents and their industry to forming a world order in which peace will be secured for all nations.

I recommend that this bill be reported favorably by the committee so that Congress may take early action on this important measure.

'Catholic Men's Colleges, Allan P. Farrell, America, Jan. 18, 1947, p. 435.

Catholic Men's Colleges, Allen P. Farrell, America, Jan. 18, 1947, p. 435.

Senator AIKEN. It is quite probable that there may be some other material that will come in within the next 2 or 3 days. There usually is. Statements submitted after the hearings have been concluded can be printed in the record.

Dr. Akridge is here now and he will be the last witness to testify on this bill so far as the committee knows.

Dr. AKRIDGE. If you do not mind, I shall read this statement that I prepared.

STATEMENT OF GARTH H. AKRIDGE, PRESIDENT, JACKSONVILLE JUNIOR COLLEGE, JACKSONVILLE, FLA.

Dr. AKRIDGE. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, when the Congress enacted the GI bill of rights it incurred, among other obligations, the clear and definite obligation to make it possible for veterans desiring and qualified to do so to secure for themselves and the Nation the benefits of college and university education. Our educational institutions, tax-supported and non tax-supported alike, have evidenced remarkable ingenuity and strained every resource at their command to convert your promise into reality. They will continue to do so to the limit of their ability. That I can promise you.

The plain, if uncomfortable, fact is that our higher educational institutions have about exhausted all bags of tricks by which their plants,

which were crowded with a prewar enrollment of approximately 11⁄2 million students, have been stretched to the breaking point by today's record enrollments. Our plant capacity will bear very little, if any, additional stretching. Indeed danger signals are already apparent that, in many instances, the present strain can not continue without inviting destructive results.

If the higher educational provisions of the GI bill of rights is not to be converted into a worthless scrap of paper and an empty gesture for hundreds of thousands of veterans, the colleges and universities. must provide during the next 2 years expanded facilities equivalent to that expected normally in a 15-year period and at almost double prewar building costs.

You gentlemen must know, as we know, that such an unprecedented step will require boldness and close cooperation on the part of the institutions and the Government.

We are not prone to come to Washington for assistance. As a matter of fact many of us are extremely cautious of such proposals. You can be assured that nothing short of this real emergency of your own making, commendable though it be, could muster such unanimity among us in support of this bill. The need of which we speak is no phony or trumped-up excuse for a raid on the Federal Treasury. It is real. It is immediate. Furthermore, it is basic to the integrity of the GI bill of rights itself.

If the task before us seems impossible, let us recall how, during the war, Government funds uncovered the know-how to far exceed our fondest hopes. The colleges will not be found wanting in this important element we call know-how. What we need is your assistance as authorized by this bill.

Private donors and State and local governmental bodies are reluctant to provide such an unprecedented amount of funds for capital outlay at current peak costs. The result is that the plant expansion, which is so urgently needed is either being held up or is proceeding at a snail's pace largely because of current costs.

What this bill proposes, essentially, is that the Government will assume the difference between current and normal costs in the interest of getting the job done in time to insure that the promise of the GI bill of rights will be as sound as that of our currency and our evidences of indebtedness. You would not be reducing, materially, the outlay that the colleges would normally expect to expend over a 15-year period. You would, in effect, bear the additional cost in the interest of encouraging bold and immediate action.

College and university enrollments in Florida are now more than double the 1939-40 peak. Sixteen thousand veterans account for about 60 percent of our present enrollment. The Veterans' Administration estimates that approximately 24,000 veterans are currently receiving institutional training in all types of approved institutions in Florida, and that about two-thirds of that number, or approximately 16,000, are in colleges and universities.

To give you some idea as to rate of increase in the number of veterans receiving institutional training in Florida, I should like to cite the approximate figures for September through March of this school year as follows: September, 10,600; October, 13,900; November, 17,000; December, 20,000; January, 20,000; February, 21,000; March, 24,000.

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In an address delivered before the Florida Association of Colleges and Universities on April 25, Mr. H. F. Dickensheets, manager of the Pass-a-Grille regional office of the Veterans' Administration, estimated that at least 30,000 additional Florida veterans would seek entrance to our colleges and universities within the next 2 or 3 years. The peak enrollment of all Florida colleges and universities in 193940 was about 11,500, and we must continue to provide higher educational facilities for nonveterans as they come to us from the secondary schools.

The Jacksonville Junior College, of which I am the president, enrolled more than 500 students during the current semester of which more than 300 are veterans who reside in or near Jacksonville. We have completely outgrown our plant and cannot expand our facilities on our limited site.

About 6 weeks ago our board of trustees purchased a beautiful new site of approximately 135 acres on the historic St. Johns River. The board is ready to embark on an extensive building program except for the fact that resistance is being encountered in providing the funds necessary to build at current costs. We firmly believe that we could finance a plant for double our present enrollment with the encouragement that this bill would provide with respect to our veteran enrollment. In doing so we would thereby relieve the strain of housing facilities at other colleges and universities. I cite this comparatively small operation as an example of some of the problems confronting the smaller institutions, which in the aggregate are accommodating a large number of veterans.

In closing I should like to admonish you to steer clear of the private college straw man. The simple truth is that all approved nonprofit institutions must be mobilized for the job that lies ahead. No single segment can hope to do the job alone without much larger Federal participation than this bill proposes.

In the true sense you would not be aiding institutions but making it possible for the veterans to attend the institutions that they respectively choose to attend. The free choice of the veteran, in fact as well as in theory, is a fundamental principle of the GI bill of rights.

The private institutions of which we speak might be better thought of as non-tax-supported institutions. In other respects they are as public in their objective as the tax-supported institutions and regularly contribute a sizable proportion of their graduates to our National, State, and local agencies of government.

I should also like to impress upon you, with all the vigor at my command, the necessity of speedy action on the part of both branches of the Congress in order that the necessary appropriation may be made before the summer adjournment.

I sincerely believe that you gentlemen are convinced of the fundamental soundness of the bill. It represents an almost negligible percentage of the total cost of the higher educational phase of the GI bill of rights and is a necessary step in upholding its intended value. Last, if not least, let us not forget that after GI Joe received his college degree he may be expected to repay the Government for its investment in his education through the additional income and other taxes that he will pay as the result of a lifetime of increased earnings. Let's stand hand in hand in a pledge to GI Joe that we will not let him down. Let's do it now.