considering during these hearings. I might add that I and my colleagues on the Juvenile Delinquency Subcommittee have argued for some kind of legislation similar to the type before you today for the past 5 years but to no avail. I am appalled when I think of the tremendous amounts that have been appropriated for the various projects that I consider not as worthy as helping the children of our Nation.

To begin with, I would like to relate to you a few figures which have been published recently by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. J. Edgar Hoover. Mr. Hoover states that, in line with the reported increase in appearances before juvenile courts of children between the ages of 10 through 17 as published by the Children's Bureau, the FBI also finds that this trend is in evidence in the arrest figures for children 18 years of age and under. These figures also show that children are increasingly committing more of the very, very serious offenses.

For example, Mr. Hoover reports that in 1957, of all the people arrested for stealing automobiles, 68 percent were under 18 years of age; of all the people arrested for burglary, 55 percent were under 18 years of age; and, of all the people arrested for rape, 20 percent were children under 18 years of age. Further, while we sometimes think of juvenile delinquency as mainly a big city problem, we find that Mr. Hoover claims that delinquency is increasing twice as rapidly in small towns and rural areas as in the larger cities.

While this has been going on for the past 5 years, the Congress has done nothing but talk-and they have done precious little of even that—about helping the States alleviate this problem. I cannot plead too strongly for favorable consideration and passage of the two bills introduced by Senator Hennings, my colleagues, and myself which you are considering today.

The Federal Government must take this action if we are to eradicate from our national life some of the following distressing facts, including:

1. The 200,000 children who annually run away from home, ending up either in jail or sentenced to institutions on charges of vagrancy.

2. The approximately 25,000 babies who are sold each year by doctors, lawyers, midwives, and other individuals to couples desiring children without any investigation as to the suitability of the parents or child.

3. Of the thousands of juvenile narcotics users in the United States, only two cities have followup clinics for the cure of these young narcotic addicts. 4. Every year, over 100,000 children are confined in common jails. One of the major reasons for this is the lack of trained people to handle these childrenone of the prime targets provided by the legislation before you today. In addition, 52,000 children a year are committed to various State training schools and institutions, a great many of whom are released prematurely because room must be made for the new delinquents coming in from overcrowded juvenile courts and detention centers.

5. In some of the slum areas in our large cities upward of 20 percent of the juvenile population gets into trouble with the police.

6. In the elementary schools in these neighborhoods, it has been determined that as high as 50 to 60 percent of the children have some sort of emotional problem or family difficulty.

As you gentlemen know, I have always been interested in the problems of the American Indian and of the difficulties they have in raising their children both on and off Federal reservations. I feel a great sympathy not only for the Indian, but for any minority group in our society that is at a disadvantage. The economically and educationally poor Negro families from the South who move into the large industrial cities in the North, similarly disadvantaged families from Puerto Rico who migrate to the city of New York, Mexican families in the southwestern part of the United States-all of these groups, wherever they settle, seem to produce greater numbers of juvenile delinquents than the rest of the population.

I feel that the Federal Government has a great responsibility in raising the standards of living for these people and by so doing I feel that we will reduce the great number of delinquents that they produce. In many cities, it is the offspring of these minority groups that take up the time and effort of the majority of trained personnel in not only the field of delinquency, but in all kinds of social work. These families are in effect immigrants, or in a migratory status, having no legal right many times to claim for long periods of time any State as their home and they are many times denied the services and help they

need. I feel this makes them all the more the problem of the Federal Government.

Whenever these families settle in great numbers in a community, they greatly overtax and burden that community's welfare facilities. We, therefore, must make provision so that these communities which attract such families have the ability to handle the problems that are attendant to being poor and illiterate. As the matter stands today, it is impossible to expand the welfare services in any of these communities to deal with these problem families and their delinquent children without also making sure that there are enough trained people to fill these social work positions. The passage of Senate bill 766 would be a step in the direction of ensuring more of these much-needed people.

Senate bill 765, the special projects bill, which has as its purpose the developing of improved programs for the control and treatment of juvenile delinquency, has had meager beginnings in several parts of the country where entire groups of these immigrant families are taught mental and personal hygiene and are given the basic necessities for living what could be considered a minimum standard when compared to the average American family.

I urge that we, as Members of Congress, must show a willingness to face up to the true proportions of the problem of juvenile delinquency in our country. We must recognize the horrible effects this plague will have on our future as a Nation if it is allowed to go on with only half-hearted efforts at stopping its progress, and we must provide the Nation with the wherewithal and leadership that is necessary to halt this terrible plight.

Senator CLARK. Our first witness today is the Assistant Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Elliot Richardson. Mr. Richardson, we are always happy to have you with us.

I understand you have a prepared statement. I would be happy to have you either read it or put it in the record and comment, whichever seems to you to be most appropriate.

STATEMENT OF ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY; ACCOMPANIED BY MRS. KATHERINE B. OETTINGER, CHIEF, CHILDREN'S BUREAU; MARGARET EMERY, ASSISTANT CHIEF, CHILDREN'S BUREAU; PHILIP GREEN, DIRECTOR, DIVISION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SERVICE; AND CHARLES HAWKINS, ASSISTANT TO THE COMMISSIONER OF SOCIAL SECURITY FOR LEGISLATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Let me first introduce the people who accompany me this morning.

On my right is Mrs. Katherine Oettinger, the Chief of the Children's Bureau, who also has a statement which will follow mine. her right, Miss Margaret Emery, Assistant Chief. And on the far right Mr. Philip Green, who is Director of the Division of Juvenile Delinquency Service. On my left is Mr. Charles Hawkins, who is Assistant to the Commissioner of Social Security for Legislation.

Senator CLARK. Mrs. Oettinger, Miss Emery, Mr. Green, Mr. Hawkins, we are happy to have you here, and look forward to hearing from you in the course of the testimony.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I think, if there is no objection-and I assume there is not-I will not read my statement.

Senator CLARK. Suppose I ask the reporter to have it printed in the record at this point, and then you may proceed in your own way. (The statement follows:)

STATEMENT OF ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION AND WELFARE

Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, I appreciate this opportunity for myself and my colleagues to appear before your committee in connection with your consideration of legislation concerned with juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency continues to be one of the major problems in the United States and few communities have escaped the impact of its continuing national rise. With the increased mobility of population, the expansion of suburban areas, and more rapid transportation, among other trends, juvenile delinquency can no longer be thought of as being confined within the boundaries of neighborhoods, local communities, or even States.

The continuing rise in juvenile delinquency extends throughout the Nation. It is not confined to any one group of States. Nor is it confined to any one geographic area. Rural and urban areas alike are confronted with this problem. Reduced to its simplest terms, juvenile delinquency grows from the inability of far too many of our young people to live with themselves, their families, and with each other in the fast moving and unstable world in which they find themselves.

The Department I represent, dedicated to conserving and developing the human resources of the Nation, has a tremendous interest in the problem of juvenile delinquency. Either directly or indirectly, nearly every unit of the Department touches upon this problem.

In the Social Security Administration, the Children's Bureau, with an overall responsibility for helping improve the conditions under which children are born and grow up, has a particular concern for those youngsters in conflict with the law. In 1955, it established the Division of Juvenile Delinquency Services, whose staff members on request give professional consultation in cities and counties all over the country. The Bureau's Division of Research collects and analyzes statistics on juvenile delinquency and on services to delinquents. It also conducts, or provides technical consultation on studies relating to the reduction of delinquency and the treatment of delinquent youth.

A very heartening advance was made for children when the Congress last fall amended the Social Security Act to extend grants for child welfare services, which are administered by the Children's Bureau, to children in urban areas on the same basis as to rural children. These are services that help to keep children in their homes, and strengthen family life; services that protect babies who are going to be adopted; services that provide good foster homes when this is necessary; and, as provided in the act, services to children in danger of becoming delinquent.

In 1956 the Congress amended the Social Security Act to give emphasis to social services in public assistance programs, services that lead, importantly, to the strengthening of family life, that help stimulate city and community efforts to help families and individual people get back on their feet, and to tap all sources of help for families in trouble.

By incorporating in the legisaltion the word "services" the Congress gave a powerful incentive to the States to move in the direction of prevention-prevention of the human disasters that so frequently happen when a family undergoes a social breakdown. To move in the direction of helping people off assistance rather than helping people on assistance, is the goal toward wihch all these programs must strive.

The "family approach" to social problems is of real significance in the treatment of juvenile delinquency problems, for of course disturbed youngsters so often come from disturbed families. And when we, as a Nation, are able to do a better job providing social services to families receiving public assistance then we will have come a long way in helping prevent juvenile delinquency and other social ills. For, among the individual members of these families will be found not only juvenile delinquency but combinations of all the other problems that confront our society today; mental illness; physical disability; alcoholism; unmarried parenthood; broken homes; drug addition and many others. These are the marginal families, dependent, or potentially dependent.

The Department is currently fostering emphasis on social work in the public assistance programs. This approach is gaining momentum all the time. But the full potential of public assistance programs will be approached only when all the resources of the community, public and private, that could possibly be of help to families in trouble are brought together in an organized way to bear upon immediate problems.

The Office of Education, alerted to the role that schools can play in identifying and helping delinquents or potential delinquents, has contracted with a number of universities and colleges for research studies on various aspects of juvenile delinquency in its relation to education.

One of the provisions of the new National Defense Education Act should have an extremely beneficial effect in the prevention of juvenile delinquency. This is the title that sets up a nationwide system of testing, backed up by counseling and guidance programs. It seems to me that when special talents in boys and girls are identified when they are young, and when they are encouraged to pursue these talents, and make the most of themselves, there will be a good deal less risk that they will become members of street gangs, or get in trouble with the law. And the school counselors in many cases should be able to identify potentially delinquent children, and bring community resources to bear on their problems in time to prevent real trouble.

The administration recently sent to Congress a proposal which I believe also has a bearing on problems under discussion today. This is the proposal to help communities build new classrooms, and reduce overcrowding, and split-shift school hours. These classrooms would bring brighter educational opportunities to thousands of our children who reside in needy school districts. Perhaps, with these new opportunities many boys and girls would be motivated to stay in school and complete their education-youngsters who might otherwise have first been "dropouts" and then delinquents.

The Public Health Service is intensifying its efforts in areas of mental health, with a number of significant programs relating to juvenile delinquency. Important fundamental work was done last year by scientists of the National Institute of Mental Health toward clarifying some of the basic mechanisms of psychological development and human behavior.

It is very encouraging to note the widespread expansion of community mental health programs and the high share of the cost of these programs which is being provided from State and local resources. An alltime high of $54 million was expended from all sources for these purposes during the past year, of which 7.4 percent represents Federal funds, granted by the National Institute of Mental Health.

I think that you will agree with me that the Department is already making a meaningful contribution in dealing with this growing problem of juvenile delinquency. Obviously, however, more can and must be done to help these thousands of boys and girls in our society whom we have classified as "delinquent" when society, in some way, has failed.

Just as there is no single cause for juvenile delinquency, there is no single remedy. Successful efforts to combat juvenile delinquency-as efforts in so many other directions-require cooperation of a number of people: The delinquent youth, his parents and relatives, the doctor, the psychologist, the teacher, the social worker, the minister, the lawyer, and the police. And it is a job for citizens groups, voluntary organizations, and Government. The main work, of course, must be done in the communities, for troubled youngsters must be reached in person, in their homes, their churches, their schools, or on streets and back alleys, if that is where they are.

At the same time, juvenile delinquency is a matter of State and Federal concern. Because it is a highly complicated problem, many diversified approaches are required in its solution. The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare welcomes the opportunity to consider with this committee some of the approaches that might be made and some of the priorities for meeting this problem.

Mr. RICHARDSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

As you already know from having read the statement, it is a statement which attests in rather general terms to the seriousness of the problem of juvenile delinquency and describes various approaches to dealing with it being made under one or another program of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

You have already referred, Mr. Chairman, to the report which we have just filed with you on legislation pending before this subcommittee, and I would like to refer to that only to make clear for the record that we are in accord with the objective of all the bills pending before

this subcommittee which would enable the Federal Government to give greater assistance and leadership in coping with the problem of juvenile delinquency.

While the Federal Government could make a significant contribution through each of the approaches suggested by the bills-project grants for research and improvement of techniques, project grants for training, and formula grants to States for strengthening State and local programs-it is, of course, apparent that the rate at which the Federal Government should proceed, and the amount of funds it should devote to any of these approaches during any particular year must necessarily be determined in the broad context of all national needs.

We recognize, moreover, Mr. Chairman, that there are questions of judgment inevitably involved as to the specific way in which it would be most desirable to initiate broader Federal efforts to deal with this problem. We regard it, therefore, as a question peculiarly appropriate for decision by the Congress, which of these approaches, particularly whether through emphasis on training or emphasis on more research and demonstration of the results of research, should be emphasized at this time.

Senator CLARK. Let me ask you what your own view is, Mr. Richardson. I certainly have no convinced views as to whether, with the given amount of money, the relatively small amount, you should scatter your fire among demonstration projects, research, collection and dissemination of data, and perhaps training, or whether it would be wise to concentrate on one or perhaps at most two of those fields in view of the limited amount of funds which would be available. you have any thinking on that?

Do

Mr. RICHARDSON. I would think-and I'm sure Mrs. Oettinger would like to comment on this, too-that research and the demonstration of the contributions to the problem that could be made with the knowledge gained by research are very closely related kinds of undertakings.

A demonstration project, as we would understand it, means showing what can be done, and, if the project is properly controlled, it in itself is a means of obtaining new knowledge.

Senator CLARK. Yes, I think that is true; sort of a laboratory experiment. On the other hand, there has been a good deal of testimony to the effect that the statistical data has not been adequately assembled, that studies have been made here and there which would be quite useful, particularly if they, in turn, were subjected to studies by other experts in the field who perhaps do not have them available.

Some thought that a collation and dissemination of existing data, done at the Federal level, would be useful. I asked the question as to whether that could not be done by some private foundation or civil organization, and got a rather dubious reply as to whether the skills and funds were available to do it outside of the Federal Government. This seems to be a subject on which, at least to some extent, the private agencies have tended, either through inadequate funds or because of higher priorities, to leave everything to the police and welfare departments at the local and State levels.

Mr. RICHARDSON. I think, Mr. Chairman, a great deal is summed up in the word "leadership" in this connection, and that a Federal