can industrial progress, particularly since they have provided the national security needed to nurture that progress.

Because of these limitations and general inadequacies, the student loan program will not help the cold war veteran. As a matter of fact, the student loan program-because it helps the student take advantage of the student deferment policy of the draft law-has added another inequity to the already unfair situation of today's veterans. This new inequity arises because every time the Federal Government puts up money for a college student loan, it is helping that individual stay in college and stay out of active military service.

If the student becomes a father in his third or fourth year of college he manages to escape the draft altogether-all with the aid and abetment of the Federal Government. But fatherhood is not the only to do to escape the military obligation is to obtain a NDEA fellowship grant, which would enable him to continue in graduate work until age 26, the maximum age on inductions under present operation of the draft.

So I think we will find many situations under NDEA where a student gets a 4-year college degree on a Government loan and then gets a graduate degree on a Government fellowship. And as an extra bonus gets a Government-sponsored escape from the draft. I am not complaining about these fortunate students but I am bringing them to your attention to disclose the need and justification for this bill.

As if this were not enough favored treatment for civilians who have not performed military service and who, incidentally, are not required to perform military service or any other public service in exchange for these benefits, the National Defense Education Act has another valuable benefit to confer upon the loan recipients. This benefit is in effect a direct grant of money amounting to as much as $2,500 in each individual case. The grant can be earned simply by teaching in a public school for a period of 5 years, because the student loan is canceled automatically at the rate of 10 percent of the loan for each year of teaching up to a limit of half of the loan.

Now I am not contending that this cancellation feature was not a wise thing for the Congress to enact, because I believe it is in the national interest to encourage more qualified persons to enter teaching. I do believe, nonetheless, that paying out this $2,500 under the National Defense Education Act without giving the cold war veteran any educational help constitutes a gross inequity to the young veteran who has performed one of the highest types of national service.

EDUCATIONAL ALLOWANCES ALREADY MODEST

The educational allowances provided by the pending legislation are already set at modest figures, and are the barest minimum needed to cope with the educational problems of post-Korean veterans. In view of the fact that average tuition costs of college education have increased 71 percent during the last 9 years, it is thoroughly impracticable to consider offering loans or otherwise offering less help than that proposed by the pending legislation. The fact is that the proposed allowances are already about 20 percent less, in terms of actual value, than an identical allowance provided in 1952. Furthermore, and again because of the high cost of education, the cold war veteran

will pay a much greater proportion of his educational allowance for tuition than was the case with similarly circumstanced veterans enrolled in school in 1952. The comparative percentages are these the cold war veteran will pay 43 percent of his educational allowance for tuition, as compared to only 28 percent paid by the Korean veteran in 1952.

Mr. Chairman, the facts and proof on the high cost of tuition and increase in the cost of living are brought out rather sharply in exhibits A and B, which are attached to my statement and which I have receive permission to insert in the record.

SELF-LIQUIDATING LEGISLATION

The cold war GI bill will be a sound, self-liquidating investment. The training afforded veterans by the educational allowances will greatly raise their earning power and the resulting increase in their income tax payment will more than pay the cost of the program. This self-liquidating characteristic has been demonstrated by actual experience under the WWII and the Korean conflict GI bills, and we know that the same thing will happen under the cold war GÍ bill. Since the budget has already taken care of the Korean veterans program without difficulty, and since the Korean is now phasing out, there is every reason to conclude that the cost of the cold war legislation will not upset the budget. The cold war veterans educational program should more properly be regarded as a replacement item in the budget, for it will simply move into the place previously occupied by the Korean program.

Another favorable fact in regard to budget considerations, concerns the reallocation of moneys in the unemployment compensation program presently available to cold war veterans. The experience under the unemployment program for the last year showed that each veteran applying for the unemployment benefit averaged 8 weeks of benefits for a total Federal outlay of $66 million.

For fiscal year 1960, the Labor Department estimates that initial claims will approximate 260,000 for a total Federal outlay of $70 million. Since almost all of the applicants for next year will be post-Korean veterans and since many of them can be expected to enroll in school under this legislation, it is certain that a good portion of the $70 million now allocated for unemployment compensation will actually be channeled into education of veterans. This, in my judgement, is not only a helpful fact in terms of the budget, but it is also a far, far better use of Federal funds to give a young man money for doing something, rather than money for doing nothing.

TIME OF ESSENCE

Finally, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I should like to stress the need for early action of the cold war GI bill. Time is of the essence to the thousands of young men who are trying to make up the time lost in the military service.

It is already too late for many of them to take advantage of the educational program. Marriage, children and other obligations have closed the door on their educational opportunities forever. Every day that passes, circumstances change and economic hardships grow

worse, causing large numbers of these young men, from all across the Nation, to march through that door of lost opportunity. We cannot reopen this door, but we can lock it from this side and open another door of opporunity for those men still able to take advantage of the program.

I therefore urge you to give this legislation your most prompt, sympathetic consideration, so that a cold war GI bill may be favorably reported at a very early date and so that simple justice and equity may finally be afforded our cold war veterans.

Now, Mr. Chairman, there is one thing on cost that I would like to speak to briefly.

Every time a bill affecting veterans and their dependents comes up, the item of cost becomes a paramount one with many people in official positions in this country. Naturally, we should consider the cost of anything, but may I invite your attention to the fact that World War I and World War II cost this country about $300 billion, I mean in the form of a national debt. That is over and above what was paid by the taxpayers during the time the wars were going on. In fact, a large part of World War I was paid as the war progressed and only a small part of World War II, but the Korean war, I guess, is the only war in all of our history which was fought on a pay-as-you-go basis. It was paid for as we went along. But the national debt that we owe now is because of World Wars I and II.

Now the urge for men serving in both of those wars at a low wage, we will call it, was because other people were making sacrifices and they were considered as hot wars and that everybody should come in and do their part and should not think too much about wages or salaries or things like that. Secondly, we had the people who furnished the money. It takes two things to run a war, men and money— so the men were not getting too much. And the people who were furnishing the money, their interest rates were low, too, around 2 or 22 percent; so they felt that was a pretty good deal. The men going into the service were going in for wages that were only about a small percent of what they could have gotten on the outside, say in a munitions plant, and the people who furnished the money received only a low rate of interest.

That certainly looked like teamwork, men and money, the men not asking too much and the money not asking too much."

But after the war is over, this national debt of ours becomes the biggest business in America, not only in the way of refinancing but for speculation and even almost gambling on the rational debt, some parts of it, and it is becoming the biggest business in our Nation. Also, in the last several years we have been increasing the interest on this national debt nearly $1 billion a year. Now the same people who screamed to high heaven that the little cost that will be entailed here because of this bill, why are they not saying anything about this increase on the interest rate on the national debt that was caused by the two major wars, World War I and World War II? They are not saying anything about that. So in 1952, I think the veterans for all purposes, and their dependents, for service-connected compensation, for pensions, for hospitalization, for benefits to all dependents of all types and kinds, and for all purposes, the moneys paid to the

veterans was less than $5 billion. Now it has not exceeded that to any alarming extent up to now.

But, during that time, let's bring the national debt up to date. We are paying interest on the national debt, which in 1952 stood at just about the same amount as our veterans benefits in that year. Although I can see there is no logical relationship between the two, since it is always being mentioned, I will mention it here. The veterans were getting a little less than $5 billion and the interest on the national debt was a little less than $5 billion, but since that time for every year the interest on the debt has gone up near $1 billion a year. Nobody says anything about that.

You can have something happen here where our interest rate will go up to where it will cost the people $1 billion and nobody says a word, but if you offer a bill which costs only a few hundred million for the men who served, why that is a terrible thing. That is going to unbalance the budget, cause ruinous inflation and just_absolutely destroy our country. So I think we ought to get these two things in perspective and look at them together and not just scream to high heaven every time we try to help these veterans who are actually the ones on the firing line and who are the ones protecting our country in time of peace and in time of war. Certainly these young men are making a sacrifice, and I just feel that honestly and sincerely they are not getting as good a deal as we have been giving the servicemen in the past and I believe that if we do not do this now, this question will be with us from here on out. It will be cheaper for the U.S. Government to handle this thing right, it will keep up morale in the services, and we can treat these veterans right and give them educational opportunities now.

Besides that, you will make your country greater and stronger and better if you have an educated citizenship. Today with automation and with electronics we have to have educated people and we are going to need them in our future works. Drudgery is almost a thing of the past now. We do not have drudgery as we used to have it. We are dispensing with drudgery. We have machines and pushbuttons and things like that. The boys have to have a pretty good education. They are going to draw more wages and better salaries, but they have to have more knowledge, more information, and that is what we ought to give these young men a chance to obtain for themeselves if they will work for it.

Thank you.

Mr. HALEY. Thank you, very much, Mr. Patman, for a very fine presentation.

Are there any questions of any of the members?

Mr. BOYKIN. I just want to say that I think Congressman Patman has made a very wonderful statement, which he has always done in the past, and just how he keeps all of these facts and figures in his brain, I just do not know. He has a brilliant brain, all of gold and silver, too, and he is just a great American and he serves his district, State and Nation so wonderfully well. He is a great friend of mine and has been over a quarter of a century and it is going to be just that way as long as we live in this world. God bless you, Mr. Patman.

Mr. PATMAN. Thank you.

Mr. HALEY. Any questions, Mr. Nix?

Mr. Nix. Mr. Patman, it is reasonable to assume, is it not, that if this legislation or some similar legislation is not passed America will continue to lose the benefits of the contribution of this class of people and I might say we have already lost it for a number of years, but we will continue to lose it, is that correct, sir?

Mr. PATMAN. Yes, I agree with you, Congressman, and this question has to be settled sometime and it has to be settled right and we might just as well settle it how.

It will be best for all concerned.

Mr. Nix. Not only will the veterans receive a benefit but America will receive perhaps a greater benefit, would you not say so?

Mr. PATMAN. I thoroughly agree with you, Congressman.

Mr. Nix. And this would supply a reservoir of possible educated people that would you not say we need very urgently?

Mr. PATMAN. We have to have them now.

Under modern conditions, the boy or girl who does not have an education is at a great disadvantage and we are handicapping these young men at the most important time in their lives and we should make up for that.

Mr. Nix. Not only that, sir, but this will be the elimination of an inequity. These people are ill-treated and the least the country can do is to remedy what has been done to these people.

Mr. PATMAN. I could not agree with you more.

Mr. Nix. Thank you, sir.

Mr. HALEY. The Chair will recognize the gentleman from Kansas. Mr. GEORGE. I would just like to compliment my colleague upon his excellent statement and I also appreciate your mentioning Senator Yarborough. He did a great job in the Senate. He sent a wonderful bill over here for us.

Mr. PATMAN. Yes, sir. And I think, in view of his activity, an interest in spearheading this crusade, I think it would be a fitting thing for this committee to report his bill out. I know what it is to spearhead a national campaign. It is not at all easy. You have many problems and they are with you day and night and holidays and Sundays. Mr. HALEY. Are there any more questions?

Thank you again, Mr. Patman, for a very fine statement.
Mr. PATMAN. Thank you.

Mr. HALEY. We have with us another distinguished member of the House this morning, Congressman Wier of Minnesota, and I will ask him to come forward and introduce the next witnesses.

STATEMENT OF DR. MALCOLM WILLEY, ACADEMIC VICE PRESIDENT, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.; ACCOMPANIED BY HON. ROY W. WIER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Mr. WIER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for the record, I am Congressman Roy W. Wier, Third District, Minnesota. and I might say that in the Third District of Minnesota, the district that I have been honored to represent here for 12 years, where the great institution of learning, the University of Minnesota, is located in my district, and I might say I do not live too far from the University, and I was very happy and of course deem it a privilege to