our agency thinks there may be a safeguard in beginning small, with the hope that evaluative measures will be built into the legislation and the eventual program, in order that assessment can be made of what is being done from one stage to another, step-by-step. It will then become not a massive program attempting to touch all social ills in America, but it can become a testing ground for some of the theories we are trying to put forth about social welfare needs and those who need.

Over and above that the public and private welfare agencies who are trying to cope with the problems of today would be helped immensly by the experiences derived.

In addition to that, I think it could well set our sights in a new direction. If I see anything wrong with the frustrations of young people today, as well as the older ones, it is this sense of futility, not being able to really get their hand on something that ties them to their fellow man-not having the chance to count in their community.

If we did only six projects in America where this type of opportunity could be provided volunteers and actually touch the lives of people, we could build back into the fabric of our social welfare program the kind of enthusiasm and zeal and stimulation that is needed.

Senator WILLIAMS. Thank you very much, Mrs. Johnson.
Mrs. JOHNSON. Thank you.

Senator WILLIAMS. We are now privileged to have Dr. Max Baer, national director of the B'nai B'rith and its youth organization.

We are pleased to welcome you to our subcommittee this afternoon. STATEMENT OF DR. MAX F. BAER, NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE B'NAI B'RITH YOUTH ORGANIZATION

Dr. BAER. Thank you, Senator.

If I can't contribute anything else to these proceedings, I will try to contribute brevity since I imagine that you have many witnesses, and there is probably a great deal of repetitious testimony.

Senator WILLIAMS. Yes, but that doesn't hurt. If there is repetition, it shows that there is agreement on the problems and agreement on this program and how it can effectively work to answer human

needs.

Dr. BAER. It is very dangerous, Senator, to encourage me to be anything but brief.

But, nevertheless, I will try to discipline myself.

Thank you.

Senator WILLIAMS. You are our last witness this afternoon, but we are going to have testimony from hundreds of people tomorrow. We are going to be at the State hospital at Ossawatomie, Kans. Then we will visit the Sioux Reservation at Pine Ridge, S. Dak.

Dr. BAER. Thank you, Senator.

My name is Max F. Baer. I am the national director of the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, which is the largest Jewish youth organization in America.

We have 44,000 national registered members in 1,600 local groups, functioning in 1,100 communities.

Senator WILLIAMS. Is that in this country or outside of this country? Dr. BAER. That includes North America-the United States and Canada.

We also have a limited representation in other countries of the free world.

In the United States, we have approximately 41,000 members and 3,000 in Canada.

We utilize, I would say, approximately 3,000 volunteers in our youth organization. In addition, our youth organization is only one department of a larger organization, the B'nai B'rith.

The B'nai B'rith has a total overall membership of a half million men, women, and young people, functioning in the United States and in almost 40 countries of the free world.

I am being selective, Senator, and citing three reasons for our interest in this proposed Service Corps.

First, as we all know, there is today a tremendous dearth of professional personnel in education and in social work. It is our opinion that the creation of the proposed National Service Corps will serve to dramatize and to publicize the importance of the helping profes sions; that is, professions in social work, education, and in the health fields.

This, we believe, will encourage a greater number of individuals to seek professional careers in the helping professions.

In our judgment, if the proposed Service Corps had no advantage other than this one, it alone would justify the formation of this type of service.

Secondly, we are well aware of the fact that up until about 30 or so years ago, social work in this country was largely performed by volunteers. Then there came a gradual recognition of the fact that social work is a specialty which requires certain trained professional skills.

First, gradually, and then more rapidly, the volunteers in social work were displaced by professional workers. In our judgment, to some extent, this displacement of volunteers by paid workers has taken place more rapidly than it should.

In other words, we feel that the pendulum from volunteerism to professionalism has swung to an extreme, and that too often the volunteers have been crowded out of opportunities to render service. I know that agency after agency is using fewer volunteers than it did many years ago.

It is our belief that the establishment of this Service Corps will greatly help to bring the volunteer back to a position of prominence in our society. We feel that volunteerism and the activities of volunteer organizations represent one of the strengths of a democratie society. In fact, I know that when I was invited by the Adenauer government some 3 years ago to make a study of the extent to which Germany was moving toward democratic institutions, I found that one of the outstanding differences between our society in the United States and the West German society was the fact that we in this country had a history and a tradition of using volunteers to achieve things, whereas in West Germany, even though they have been making great progress toward democracy, they still have not learned the importance of the concept of volunteer organizations.

Indeed, we were told by American officials stationed in West Germany that as soon as the United States began to occupy West Germany at the end of the war, we made strenuous efforts to imbue the

Germans with the idea of the importance of volunteers. Some success was achieved. But the moment that American subsidies were withdrawn and the moment that the American occupation of West Germany was ended, these voluntary organizations in Germany collapsed.

I also learned in connection with this same trip that the whole concept of voluntary effort is peculiarly an American, and not a European concept. I think it accounts significantly for the vitality and the strength of our democratic institutions.

We feel, therefore, that there is great danger that in this country, too, the volunteer may be swept out of the picture and we like the idea of a proposal that proposes to swing the pendulum back somewhat to the point where once again the volunteer will be recognized as a crucial resource for our democratic society.

Our third and final reason for supporting this effort relates to the values which animate our people. All of us know that we are living in an affluent society. We also know that while we enjoy the affluence of our society, there are certain negatives which inevitably flow from such a society. One of these negatives is a materialism that creeps into our values.

We feel that the concept of a person giving of himself to others; the idea of a person rendering volunteer service or services which are subject to such nominal compensation that they can be considered virtually volunteer, is tremendously important in our whole system of values as a people.

Therefore, we feel that the establishment of this Service Corps, which will complement the, Peace Corps, will be a means of imbuing the people of our country, and particularly our young people, with the ethical concept of service to our fellow man, emphasizing some of the spiritual aspects of our American life and deemphasizing the materialistic aspect of it.

Senator, these are the three primary reasons for our support of this legislation.

If you would kindly permit me to, I should like to make reference to two objections which we have heard to this type of legislation from some sources. If I may, I should briefly like to address myself to these.

One of these objections relates to possible duplication or interference with the volunteer services which are being rendered under the auspices of organizations now in existence. In this connection, may I state that if there were any effort to expand this proposed Service Corps to a very large organization involving many thousands of volunteers, we, too, might join such opposition. Because we, too, feel that the basic job of recruiting, training, and supervising volunteers should be done by the existing organizations.

However, this proposed legislation only contemplates a relatively small organization. Its primary function, as we see it, is to dramatize and to publicize, to stimulate, to give emphasis to the importance of volunteer service. So that the use of 5,000 volunteers in this program, rather than displacing the services of existing organizations, we feel will make the work of existing organizations more effective.

We sincerely feel that our organization, for example, will find it significantly easier to recruit volunteers after the establishment of this Service Corps.

A second objection which we have heard relates to Federal-State responsibility. If you will kindly permit a personal reference, I am a graduate of a law school and I have a very sensitive regard for the constitutional differences in the functions of our Federal Government and our State governments. We do not favor the Federal Government generally undertaking responsibilities which are within the province of the States and which the States can achieve with equal effectiveness.

In our opinion, however, this proposed legislation would not represent an intrusion into State or local responsibility. The projects which are to be selected for service will be strictly local projects conceived locally, approved locally, and the Corpsmen who will be at work in these projects will be supervised by local agency personnel.

In our opinion, the substance of this work will be done locally. Only the form of it will be Federal. In our opinion, substance is more important than form, although the value of the form is that it will provide a glamor and a kind of attractiveness which, in our opinion, would not accrue ot a strictly local effort.

Our organization, for example, is a national organization. We have many thousands of young people who would like to join our youth organization but we cannot admit them because of insufficient

resources.

Interestingly enough, many local clubs with a similar purpose cannot recruit sufficient members. We attribute this difference to the fact that we are living in a shrinking nation in which young people are and should be thinking in national terms and not strictly local terms.

Therefore, it is our judgment that a Corps of this type with a national symbol, with the outer trappings of a national organization, with the opportunity for the Corpsmen to cross State lines in performing their services, will have an attractiveness that could not be achieved through any local effort.

That, Senator is my statement.

I think you for the opportunity to present it.

Senator WILLIAMS. Believe me, there was no trace of repetition. You gave us very significant new reasoning and new ideas in support of this effort-perhaps this long overdue effort-in social service. I am sure many times between now and final passage we will come back to the words expressing the ideas you just presented to us.

I have one question. You speak as director of the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization. Do you have any authority or do you have any feeling as to the parent organization B'nai B'rith in regard to this bill?

Dr. BAER. Several weeks ago, the executive vice president of the B'rith B'rith conferred with me in regard to this very matter. He solicited my advice with respect to this matter. As a result of our conference, he informed me that the parent organization was unequiv ocally behind this legislation and I believe a statement to this effect has been filed. I do not know with whom.

Let me say that I did not receive notice to appear here until yesterday. Since our executive vice president was out of the city, I did not have an opportunity to ask him whether I could represent the total organization at this particular hearing. So I must state to you

that, officially, I am representing only the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization in this testimony. However, I can state unequivocally that the entire organization, including the parent organization, is behind this legislation.

Senator WILLIAMS. That is excellent.

Thank you again, Dr. Baer.

Dr. BAER. Thank you.

Senator WILLIAMS. Our next hearing date will be June 18 at 10 o'clock in room 1318 in this building.

(Whereupon, at 3:10 p.m., the committee adjourned, to reconvene at 10 a.m., June 18, 1963.)