be made to provide for future programs. There has been enough experience with all the programs at this time, I think, to give us stability in trying to provide direct services to people and much of it is administrative policy and it does not get to people and this is what we need by way of a program.

I would like to add that we are in the process of trying, that we are trying, to organize older people in homes and out of homes to more or less let the Government know and other citizens what their plight is. I don't think this is something that has been brought out in White House conferences as we see them because people who have traditionally gone to these conferences are people who are not users of programs. I think if we are able to get people to come out and tell exactly what their problems are then you are going to be able to understand them more.

I am here, as I said before, to represent them because many of our people don't have the means to come to hearings, they are not able to get out of their houses to come to hearings, and I think there are some of us here who have been fighting a losing battle, we feel, for about 5 years from the virtue of not having interest from our Government and from our city fathers.

I would like to commend Senator Eagleton because I think he has been very helpful to older people and he has been responsive to some of the needs. One of the things that we haven't had before are people that have been responsive, our elected officials.

I would like to commend the county courts here for listening to our problems because we are getting more response from them as elected officials than we have from any other persons at any other time.

You did not ask that I bring someone else with me, but we do have one of our State officials here in person that has worked. By official I am saying, referring to the older people. Mr. Tomlinson is here and I think he is with our statewide group and also with the city wide group and working with the court.

If there is anything he would like to add, I wonder if you would like to hear him."

Senator EAGLETON. Surely.

Mr. MURPHY. Yes, we would.

Senator EAGLETON. What is the man's name?

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Mr. Tomlinson.

I would like to thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to tell you what our problems are.

Mr. MURPHY. Thank you for being so patient and waiting.

Senator EAGLETON. Sir, give us your full name so we may have it for

the record.

STATEMENT OF HENRY TOMLINSON, KANSAS CITY, MO.

Mr. TOMLINSON. My name is Henry Tomlinson, Kansas City, Mo. I am the president at the present time of the statewide organization of the State of Missouri that was formed a little over a year ago. We have had agencies, which was a community action program throughout the State. We have annual meetings every month; we have a rally once or twice a year.

At our last rally I believe Senator Eagleton was there, at Columbia, Mo. We had 800 some people at that meeting.

The thing we are most concerned with, like Mrs. Williams said, is the people with the lower income. We think we have all of them in the metropolitan areas. We have them throughout the State of Missouri. I had the privilege in the last few months of being at many points. in the rural areas, some three counties, some nine-county area, it was very educational, and I hope I can give it back to some of the people who can do something about it.

The one that certainly is No. 1 on the items throughout the State of Missouri is transportation, whether it is in a metropolitan area or whether it is in the rural areas. I realize it is a big problem. But as was brought out here today, if you call some department, the Department of Transportation, you don't get anywhere, you get run around the bush. Consequently as older people we give up pretty easy, I guess. It can be very discouraging.

In the last few months I also have accepted an appointment on the city planning board of the agency here of Jackson County.

I find in our Government programs, and Senator Eagleton, I hope you will be able to answer this for me, that the aging are from 44 to 64, inclusive, and the aged are 65 plus. That is the way the Government programs are funded. Now all one funding, I understand. Essentially 90 percent of Government funding is spent in this age group of 44 to 64, inclusive, and less than 10 percent on the aged. Is there any way so that when funding is appropriated there can be some of that set aside for people of the aged groups?

Senator EAGLETON. I am not sure of your figures, sir. I won't dispute them, I will take what you have said at face value, I am not familiar with those percentages. But there are ways, yes, to give an affirmative answer to your last question, moneys can be earmarked. For instance, in this nutrition program there are $250 million in the authorization and that is for people 60 and over and their spouses. Money can be earmarked for certain groups, certain categories, certain age groups;

yes.

Mr. TOMLINSON. That is one of the questions.

Then the other one, on transportation, I don't have anything to do with this, but I have to tell it, I was at a meeting 10 days ago on our local transportation problem

Senator EAGLETON. Our next witness is going to be from the Kansas City Transit Authority, Mr. Ozar.

Mr. TOMLINSON. I will put my two bits in and then I will leave so he can't throw bricks at me.

Senator EAGLETON. No, he is a gentleman, he won't hit you.

Mr. TOMLINSON. At this meeting the statement was made by our new manager of the ATA that he was not in favor of reduced fares for merchants and such as that on, I will say, Tuesday sale day. Well, I got the floor and told him that I assumed that he had concluded he wasn't in favor of reduced fares for senior citizens. He informed me he didn't say that. I realized he didn't say that, but I have no answer

yet.

Senator EAGLETON. Many cities do, as you know, have reduced fares, 15-cent fares, in some cities between like 10 in the morning and 3 or so in the afternoon. The programs, I think, have proven themselves out. Those are the slack times when the buses are leatively empty. It is just as easy to drive a bus with 10 65-year-old people as one

person on it. We are facing this problem, I might add, in the District of Columbia trying to determine what the metro fare is going to be. Montreal is in a real financial bind, they have a 30-cent fare, and in order to make the system pay out they may go to 40 cents. You know what happens when it goes to 40 cents, about 20 perecnt of the riders. are priced out of the market.

So transportation, in my judgment, has to be subsidized by the Government. Interestingly, enough, yesterday on the floor of the Senate there was bill for $800 million of Federal subsidy to service for transportation. So some of that money, when we get it all appropriated, will come to Kansas City and some to St. Louis. Not only can we not afford any higher fares, to be realistic, I think we almost have to roll them back rather than have fares go to 50 cents.

What are the fares here now?

Mr. OZAR. Forty cents.

Senator EAGLETON. St. Louis is what, about 45?
Mr. OZAR. Forty.

Senator EAGLETON. Chicago and some cities have gone ot 50 cents, which is an outlandish fare.

Mr. TOMLINSON. I do thank you for the opportunity to have the city, county, State representatives and national all sit down and talk on the senior citizens' problems.

I thank you.

Senator EAGLETON. My thanks to you, Mr. Tomlinson and Mrs. Williams.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. Yes. I would like to ask one other question before I leave.

We have been told that the money for elderly programs has to be earmarked in Washington, and for this area or for Kansas City, Mo. I would like to ask if there is any way possible that we could get some funds in here for the elderly poor people.

Senator EAGLETON. The money is earmarked in terms of the category that is to receive it, but it is never earmarked to which cities within that category is to receive it. That judgment is up to the President and his budget managers. That is, a hundred thousand dolars can be earmarked for a city, but they can fund that in Chicago, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, Cleveland. It might leave Kansas City out, you know, it is possible.

Mrs. WILLIAMS. How can we go about getting a grant for some of the money?

Senator EAGLETON. Well, the public probably writes to me, then Symington, and Eagleton will try to pass it on to the head of the HEW to make sure that Kansas City, St. Louis, St. Joseph, and many of our cities are included. There is a different situation in Washington now, you have a Democratic Congress and a Republican President. With those adversities and this being an election year we are not certain what States and what cities are going to be benefited. Anything further to say on that I have not.

Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson and Mrs. Williams.

Senator EAGLETON. Our next witness is Mr. I. I. Ozar, Kansas City Area Transit Authority.

You may proceed.

STATEMENT OF I. I. OZAR, KANSAS CITY AREA TRANSIT

AUTHORITY

Mr. OZAR. Not the least of the problems facing the majority of the senior citizens-those 65 years of age and older-is the matter of mobility within the community. It is an accepted fact that the quality of life for the senior citizens and some of the programs designed to meet some of their needs are critically affected by the difficulties they encounter with present-day transportation systems.

It has been reported that inadequate transportation and reduced mobility for the aged has been documented in profiles of loneliness, frustration, inability to benefit from available services, shrinking capacity for self-maintenance, and curtailed activity and social interest. It is essential that transportation services be made reasonably available to the elderly so that they can participate in the opportunities offered to relieve some of their social and health problems.

Studies have been made analyzing the psychological and medical constraints age places on mobility. There is a relationship between age and automobile ownership, and as age increases the availability of the private, self-driven auto disappears rapidly.

A principal and significant constraint to mobility for the senior citizen is his lack of money for transportation. He cannot afford to pay the full cost of the transportation he requires for access to the social services available to him. Medical services may be available, but, if no means of reaching them is within the limits of their income, they can't make use of the service though their need for it is imperative.

It is a paradox really to develop and program many necessary benefits which the senior citizen must have and forget to provide assistance in the form of transportation to get him to the location where they are administered. Most social and health service programs at the local community level receive financial assistance through grants or subsidies. However, unless these services are accessible to the elderly by public transportation, only those who can afford to pay for taxis or other means of transportation or who can own and drive their own cars can make full use of them.

Reduced fares on public transportation systems for senior citizens should fall in the same justifiable category as the other assistance provided to enable them to enjoy some of the dignities in their everyday activities.

In the seven-county area, which Kansas City Area Transportation Authority serves, there are approximately 122,000 citizens aged 65 or over. This represents 9 percent of the total population which the A.T.A. serves. The breakdown by counties are: Jackson County, 72.360: Clay County, 7,523; Cass County, 3,502; and Platte County, 2.275; for a total of 85,660; Wyandotte County 18,743; Johnson County, 12.755; and Leavenworth County, 4,957; for a total of 36,445. The grand total is 122,115.

These figures are based on the 1970 census figures.

A significant portion of these 122,000 senior citizens could benefit materially in availing themselves of many opportunities established for their age groups if the cost of transportation to deliver them

their homes to the locale of the services provided for them could be within their income limits, senator.

W. H. Auden wrote a poem on "The Unknown Citizen.” I would like to quote a few lines:

"He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be

One against whom there was no official complaint,

And all the reports on his conduct agree

That in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint ***

"Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:

Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard." But these people, Senator, these unknown citizens are not free to pursue happiness in what should be their golden-age years. There is wrong, wrong in not providing these retired workers transportation within their means. I appeal to you, Senator Eagleton, in their behalf, their problem should and must be heard.

Senator, in reply to the gentleman who just went before, as a member of the Area Transportation Commission I have had on a number of occasions asked that we look into assistance for the senior age citizens within this location, local, and the information I brought with me here, Mr. Janison, who was formerly head of the Kansas City Transportation System, shows that we would sustain great losses if this program is inaugurated, he can give you exact figures. That is why I am here today, to ask for Federal assistance so we can provide the service for all these fine senior citizens.

The Revered and I have been adding to the many compliments given to you, Senator. I would like to thank you on behalf of the area transportation authority. You have helped us with many grants when I have called your office. I am not from the part of the country Senator Eagleton is, and I am not related, and we certainly do appreciate it.

Senator EAGLETON. Thank you, Mr. Ozar.

There is no question but that transportation is a vital facet of this aging business. As you well pointed out, and accurately so, you could have potentially the greatest health care facilities in the world but if the elderly couldn't get to those services conveniently and safely they mean nothing if they are just potentially available but not actually available in terms of proxmity by transit, so it is a part of this package and a very important ingredient.

That, ladies and gentlemen, will conclude these hearings.

Let me just summarize what I think I have heard. I will not be able to touch on every point, of course, because we have had so many excellent witnesses who have discussed various issues, and this, of necessity, has to be a brief and almost topical summary.

We have touched almost all of the major facets and problems faced by elderly people. There has been extensive testimony about income, necessity of health care facilities, housing, housing design for not only the elderly but for the handicapped, nutrition, balanced meals, hot meals, meals on wheels, employment opportunity, at a pay scale, how much outside income beyond $1.600 or $1,800 that is allowable under social security.

Last, Mr. Özar promised transit. Now, that relates to the elderly.