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Senator THOMAS. Thank you very much, Doctor.

Mr. McDonald of the Farmers' Union. Have you a prepared statement?

Mr. McDONALD. Yes, sir; Senator. I unfortunately, due to an emergency, do not have copies. I will have them before the day is out. Senator THOMAS. Have you one for the reporter?

Mr. McDONALD. I am afraid not because this is the only one I have, and I have made some remarks on it that I would like to have in the prepared statement, so that it will be a perfect copy.

Senator THOMAS. If you will make your opening statement and then if you will present your statement to the clerk of the committee after it is prepared, we will see that it goes into the record in proper form.

STATEMENT OF ANGUS MCDONALD, FARMERS' UNION,
WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. McDONALD. I wish to say that we endorse S. 1670.
Senator THOMAS. Mr. McDonald, you represent the Farmers'
Union?

Mr. McDONALD. The National Farmers' Union. My name is Angus McDonald. I live here in Washington.

Our organization endorses the principles outlined in S. 1670, although in regard to the other bills we have no principal objection except that we feel that this bill, due to the fact that it is planned under its provisions to appropriate a larger sum of money, we prefer that.

We also have another preference in regard to this legislation. I am referring to the provision providing that minority races in areas where schools are segregated be insured of getting their fair share of the money.

I will not take any more of your time. I know you have to leave. The details of why we prefer this legislation are in this statement here, and before the day is over I will have an ample supply of copies for the committee.

(The document above referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF ANGUS MCDONALD, ASSISTANT LEGISLATIVE SECRETARY OF THE NATIONAL FARMERS UNION ON S. 1670, A BILL WHICH PROVIDES For a School CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am here to state the position of the National Farmers Union in regard to S. 1670 which provides $500,000,000 per year for 5 years for a school-construction program. Although we also favor the principles set forth in S. 287, S. 1699, and S. 137, we believe S. 1670 is to be preferred to any of these. Primarily because it provides substantially more funds and because it also makes mandatory the distribution on an equitable basis funds expended under the program in racially segregated areas. We also favor the provision in S. 1670 which provides that a State must match Federal funds with not more than 75 percent of State money or less than 33% percent.

There are three principal reasons why this program is especially needed in rural

areas:

The first is the crisis which has been brought about in school housing by the abnormal birth rate which existed during the war and postwar years. Authorities estimate that by 1958 there will be 10,000,000 more children eligible for public schools than there were in 1947. At the present time, there are several million more children crowded into our substandard and delapidated school buildings than there were before the war. Building programs have lagged far behind even the

meager programs carried out during the 1920's. In rural areas the high birth rate, as to be expected, has had even a greater impact on our educational system. Birth rates in the rural areas and in so-called agricultural States are traditionally much higher than those in urban States. For example, in South Carolina the latest census figures indicate that there are 282 children per thousand in population, while in Connecticut, a highly industrialized State where urban population predominates, there are only 174 children per thousand.

The second reason why we feel this program should be enacted is that the States are unable to finance the building of needed schools. In this respect also, rural areas and States which are predominantly rural suffer even greater handicaps than urban areas. Southern States in particular, where the educational systems are below even the low standards of other areas throughout the Nation, suffer from the lack of taxable resources necessary to bring our educational systems up to date, in spite of the fact that they are spending a higher proportion of their per capita income for education than States in other sections of the country.

But even in so-called "rich" States a broad school construction program is needed. It is needed especially in rural areas where population is relatively sparse and where per capita taxable income is generally low. For example, in Michigan, taxable income in rural areas is only about one-fourth of taxable incomes in urban areas.

The third reason why this program is especially needed by rural areas is that educational programs in rural areas have lagged far behind those in urban areas. Because of the problem of declining population in agricultural sections, because the population is more widely scattered and because education has been primarily concentrated on improvement of schools in cities and towns, the condition of schools in rural areas is deplorable. The little red schoolhouse, extolled in verse and story, far from being something for Americans to be proud of is a disgrace to the Nation. Thousands of our rural school buildings are little more than shacks where modern facilities, such as running water, sanitary toilet facilities and adequate school equipment, are completely lacking. With the tremendous increase in the number of children, these deplorable and neglected buildings literally cannot contain the children eligible for school age.

For these reasons, we urge that the committee give serious consideration to the approval of this legislation. We in the Farmers Union believe that the first obligation of the Nation and the Congress is to our children. Without an adequate educational system our democratic institutions will suffer and ultimately our economic and political democracy will be undermined.

Finally, I would like to add that while we favor S. 1670 primarily, we hope, for the above-stated reasons, that no differences among the committee in considering the different bills will hamper or delay favorable approval of a school construction program. We therefore urge the committee to report out as quickly as possible some kind of school construction bill which will contribute substantially to State educational funds and thus alleviate the terrible school housing situation. Every American is entitled to at least a common school education. Without adequate school buildings, this right remains a pious wish.

Senator THOMAS. Thank you very much, Mr. McDonald.
Our next witness is Mr. Marrow.

(Discussion off the record.)

STATEMENT OF ALFRED J. MARROW, HARWOOD MANUFACTURING CORP., NEW YORK CITY

Mr. MARROW. I am the president of the Harwood Manufacturing Corp. We are a textile company employing about a thousand people in the manufacture of products such as men's and women's leisure

wear.

I was interested in this bill, having recognized that the question today would be one with which I would be familiar. In sitting on boards we frequently have recommendations for capital improvements, and the question is always asked, Is the expenditure necessary, and what are we going to get for our money? Very frequently in the last couple of years we have said "No" to such requests for appropriations,

and I was eager to be here today to express my opinion as a businessman as being fully in favor of the Federal Government participating in expenditures that would be directed toward the construction of new school buildings.

In summary I can only state that the attitude of industry toward new construction is best evidenced by the functional architecture that we see driving across the country of new plants, mills, and factories. The contrast between the new buildings for industry and the outmoded grade schools for our school children in the very same communities is evidence enough, I think, of how industry feels toward the construction of buildings as a way of gaining increased productivity, better morale, and, on the whole, improved human relationships. It is for that reason, in summary, that I have come here today to express as a businessman our concern for this problem and our hope that you will recommend this bill to the Senate.

Senator THOMAS. May I just ask one question, Mr. Marrow? In your travels across the country, noticing the improvements that factories and various kinds of industrial plants have, where you have seen new schools, are we showing the same sort of progress in those schools that we are showing in industry?

Mr. MARROw. You mean on the educational level?

Senator THOMAS. No; I mean on the building level for education purposes; that is, are school architects growing as fast as our industrial architects?

Mr. MARROw. I must confess the architecture that I am familiar with is either that of 50 years ago or that built by the Federal Government in the early 1930's. There has been so little school architecture or so little new school construction since then as compared with the last 7 or 8 years, whereas there has been a tremendous amount of industrial construction, I would think industrial coustruction is far ahead.

Senator THOMAS. Well, as an industrialist you have definitely come to the conclusion, have you not, that a plant to fit the welfare of your workers is a paying proposition?

Mr. MARROW. Clearly so.

Senator THOMAS. There is no doubt about our having got to the place where we realize that if we want to get the best out of a worker, we want to give him an opportunity to do his best. Now that is pretty generally recognized, is it not?

Mr. MARROW. I think it is universally recognized.

Senator THOMAS. Now, is it extremely progressive or extremely out. of harmony with things as they are to suggest that if you want to get the best out of our pupils, out of our teachers, that they have plants wherein they can give the best?

Mr. MARROW. No, I cannot see that anyone would advocate a high efficiency in outmoded quarters, whether it be a school or a plant. The basic physical needs, the human needs are the same.

Certainly we in industry feel the shortcomings of education when we have a turn-over due to what we term unemployables or unpromotables. Industry is getting constantly more complicated. New machines and new skills require more know-how, and more technical know-how, and so many people are unable to keep pace with technological developments because their basic fundamentals never were learned properly.

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Senator THOMAS. Well, once upon a time I read that in the beginning of Sunday schools, people were worried about some sort of slogan that they had been taught that an idle hand is the devil's workshop, and since that had to be respected when the industrial system got started the factory system got started-they were afraid that Sundays off would lead the people into bad habits in places like that, and so that children especially would not be led astray through this idleness, Sunday schools were set up, not so much to teach about the Lord and all that goes with Sunday school, but to see to it that there would be no idle hands for this devil's workshop that we hear so much about.

Now in our modern plants where there are cafeterias, decent washrooms, meeting facilities, and all the rest of it, how about that old devil's workshop?

Mr. MARROW. I think that is a stereotype that is not more than a couple of hundred of years old. I think it came along with the industrial revolution, the whole change in thinking of capital gain being the ultimate objective in life rather than salvation or some other more spiritual purpose.

Senator THOMAS. The reporter will see that Mr. Marrow's statement will appear in its regular order. Thank you.

(The statement above referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF ALFRED J. MARROW, PRESIDENT, HARWOOD MANUFACTURING CORP., NEW YORK CITY

This committee is being asked to approve a substantial expenditure for the construction of public-school buildings. It is pertinent, I believe, to subject this requested appropriation to the same kind of examination that industry makes before allocating its own money for physical improvements in plants and equipment. It is important to know, for example, whether the expenditure is really necessary and what the company-or in this case the Government--is going to get for its money. As an industrialist who has participated in the discussion of many such proposals, I should like to present my reaction to the public-schoolconstruction bill.

Every businessman would agree that the technology of American industry grows more complicated continuously. The new machines that are being invented and the new skills the worker has to acquire to operate the more complicated machines result in a constantly increasing demand for workers with a more comprehensive background. Even if the trend toward job simplification continues to grow, the need to hire workers with a greater basic knowledge of mechanical, chemical, and physical fundamentals will continue to grow even faster. overcrowded and in many cases obsolete facilities now being used by the public schools of our country cannot be expected to provide such an education to the individual child.

The

We in industry are frequently appalled by the large number of workers who are unable to cope with even the simplest problems arising in their day's work. Our personnel officers believe that the backwardness of these poorly equipped workers is directly traceable to the interior schools they attended. I suppose even using the phrase "attended school" needs qualification since under the dismal and discouraging settings in which so many of our workers received their schooling, it is likely that they may have attended physically but not intellectually. It is clear to me as a citizen and it is certainly clear to educators that the debilitating effect of a decrepid classroom with outmoded facilities can have only the most unfavorable reaction on an impressionable child.

The education of the child today is a far more complicated process than the learning of the three R's that were adequate in the past. If he is to be fitted into the industrial structure of the future he will have to study a new curriculum that is sure to demand more of the child's effort than the comparatively simple curriculum of the past. This imposes a responsibility on our educators that they can achieve only with the most modern physical equipment, with small classes and with surroundings that will encourage study and learning.

American business was quick to recognize the advantage of providing functional architecture and modern structures for the housing of its own industrial plants. Statistics are readily available to demonstrate the greater productive efficiency of modern buildings as compared with outdated structures. There was

a time when town people would point proundly to a modern building erected by an industrial firm. Today this is accepted without much comment. Yet the contrast in many communities between the modern industrial buildings and the neglected primary schools cannot fail to make one wonder why it is so. If industry finds new buildings improve productivity why isn't it feasible to assume that the same is true in education.

Progressive firms have built modern plants because they seek to maintain the highest productive standards. They, therefore, utilize every available device to create the type of working conditions that are most conducive to comfort, clear thinking and high morale. The same criteria should be applied in the schools which house our children for the same principle applies to them.

The fact that we don't probably explains the large number of workers who are either unemployable or unpromotable. To a great extent both of these groups reflect the handicap of improper education.

I believe too that there is a clear and direct relationship between adequate education and the likelihood of good labor-management relations. It is important for workers to understand more than the highly specialized job they perform. They should know something about their company, their company's products and its relation to the national economy. It is important too for them to have some broader understanding of the principles of management engineering, of assembly line set-up, of rate setting. They must be well enough informed to be able to grasp some of the technical know-how of the chemical and mechanical processes in the plant in which they are working. If we seek more satisfactory workers and if we seek better labor-management relations, then we must provide a better educational background for more of our young citizens. Then and then only will they be equipped not only to understand and intelligently discuss their own problems, but to see how they interrelate with the problems of others. The world today is becoming much more competitive, not just in the political sense but also in an industrial sense. Technical know-how along with the basic educational background of workers may well prove to be the deciding factor in the world balance of commerce.

For these reasons and the many more presented by the other witnesses today, I strongly urge that this committee recommend to the Senate of the United States that it approve the school-construction bill as a lasting investment in the future citizens of our country.

Senator THOMAS. We will stand in recess until 10 o'clock tomorrow. (Whereupon, at 11:25 a. m., the hearing was adjourned to reconvene on Tuesday, June 14, 1949 at 10 a. m.)

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