clothing, their medical care, transportation, food, and lodging. We are considering, by the way, providing that at least part of the salary of the boys be set aside for termination of their service or for allotment to parents in need.

In addition, each boy would participate in a regular educational program at least twenty percent of his time. This might be done through night classes or in the form of short courses, utilizing the facilities of local colleges and consolidated high schools. Such training would include not only vocational training but also some academic training and, of course, remedial work in reading, where advisable.

a

The whole operation would be coordinated by a division of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfaredeliberate choice to emphasize that the program is fundamentally one designed for the welfare of young people.

It is my feeling and that of my colleagues that such a corps will offer far more than simply the opportunity to build healthier bodies and to provide employment for young people who find it difficult to enter the labor market in their late teens. We hope that the experience of these young men will be similar to that experienced by the old CCC boys, who found (many of them have told me) a new sense of purpose and direction, a sense of solid achievement, a feeling that both William James and Eleanor Roosevelt have described as the "moral equivalent of war." There is, unfortunately, all too little opportunity for many young men in our society to find an outlet for their creative impulses. It is the young men who are deprived of the opportunity to move ahead in the intellectual life of the nation who need the kind of outlet and encouragement that work in the Youth Conservation Corps could give them.

I believe that it would give many young men a sense of belonging, of creating, of accomplishing, which they find extraordinarily difficult to come by today.

The actual conservation work done by the boys, it has been well demonstrated, would more than pay for the cost of such a corps. Increased timber productivity, retained soil productivity, a broadened water resource base, all these additions to the gross national product of the country would far more than repay the investment. But it is the by-products of this effort, the conservation of the hopes and abilities of the young men themselves, that have caught the imagination of so many thousands of Americans and resulted in the virtually

unanimous support that S. 812 is currently experiencing through a flood of letters to the Congress.

Many improvements have been suggested to me already. Doubtless there will be further refinements and improvements before the bill is finally passed by Congress. These I welcome.

It is only through this process of consultation and discussion that we can hope to reach agreement on detailed and thoughtful legislation which can have a constructive effect in the over-all effort to provide broader opportunity for our young people.

Editor's Note: The Youth Conservation Act of 1959 (S. 812) authorizes an appropriation of $375,000,000 for each of three years (beginning July 1, 1960) for the establishment of a Youth Conservation Corp. YCC will enroll 150,000 young men ages sixteen to twenty-two, each for one year or less. Enrollees will receive compensation at rate equal to pay of lowest rank enlisted Army personnel, quarters, subsistence, transportation, equipment, medical services, not less than ten hours per week of general, vocational, and conservation education, and compensation coverage.

THE NEW PROGRAM

of the

National Child Labor Committee

includes:

⚫ tackling the pressing problems of youth employment, the plight of young people who are old enough to work but are either unprepared for employment, or cannot find work and are exposed to the dangers of unemployment, aimlessness, delinquency.

• acting as a citizens "watch dog" committee to oppose the breakdown of good child labor standards where they exist in most industries.

• continuing the fight against child labor, and for better education especially among children of migratory farm workers.

Senator RANDOLPH. We will resume tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., in room 312 of the Old Senate Office Building. We will have testimony from Senators and from representatives of organizations and also from governmental agencies.

Thank you very much.

(Whereupon, at 3:35 p.m., the hearing was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 12, 1959.)

YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS

TUESDAY, MAY 12, 1959

U.S. SENATE,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE

YOUTH CONSERVATION CORPS OF THE

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE,

Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10:05 a.m., pursuant to adjournment, in room 312, Old Senate Office Building, Senator Jennings Randolph (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Senators Randolph (presiding) and Clark.

Also present: Senators Robert C. Byrd, of West Virginia, and Ernest Gruening, of Alaska.

Committee staff members present: Samuel V. Merrick and G. F. Randolph, professional staff members; and Robert E. Wolf, professional staff member, Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.

Senator RANDOLPH. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We resume our hearings. I am very delighted that I am presiding over the Special Subcommittee on the Youth Conservation Corps of the Labor and Public Welfare Committee to receive testimony on S. 812, and especially so this morning because my distinguished and able colleague, Robert C. Byrd, is to testify.

Would you give us the advantage of your thinking, Senator Byrd, on this important bill?

STATEMENT OF HON. ROBERT C. BYRD, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Senator BYRD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, I am very much pleased this morning to come before your distinguished subcommittee. I appreciate your kind remarks and appreciate so very much the opportunity to present my views concerning this bill to your committee.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bill along with you, my distinguished colleague, and I do not know of any piece of legislation that I have joined in cosponsoring in which I have greater pride than I do have in this measure. I commend very highly those who have spent much of their time on the committee studying the bill, and listening to witnesses who have contributions to make for your consideration.

I sincerely trust that favorable action will be taken on this bill at the earliest moment by your subcommittee and by your full committee, Mr. Chairman, that the Senate then will act with dispatch, and that we might see this proposed legislation enacted into law.