All through these years we have been very much interested in the training and retraining of the physically handicapped adults. Here we are probably the largest facility for such training in the United States. Many States regularly send their handicapped and blind students to us for this training when they are unable to find suitable training facilities in their own States. We enrolled disabled veterans of World War II before Congress passed the GI bill in 1946. Naturally when this bill was passed we saw quite an influx of veteran students, both disabled and nondisabled. We presently are offering courses in the following fields: aviation mechanics, automotive, diesel, heavy construction equipment, carpentry and building construction, wood and metal pattern making, electrical construction, industrial electronics, radio and television, welding, sheet metal, machine shop, toolmaking, plumbing, masonry, business, distributive education, agriculture, architectural drafting, mechanical drafting, structural drafting, tool-and-die design, office appliance repair, industrial power sewing, sign painting, neon sign fabrication, letterpress printing, and offset lithography. Some of these courses are on a craftsman basis and others prepare for higher technical occupations. Much of this equipment has been secured from Government surplus, for which we will be eternally grateful. We maintain close relationships with business and industry. We always have, because we are not merely training our students-we are training them for existing jobs; we are not merely giving courseswe are giving courses designed for the needs of today's industries and they are continually being modified as the requirements of industry change. While our adult courses are on a post-high-school level, they do not lead to a college degree, nor do they carry any college transfer credit at the present time. They do, however, lead to jobs. Our present adult full-time (30 hours per week) enrollment is as follows: Since the beginning of the World War II GI bill, we have enrolled 6,681 veterans of all types. Of this number 1,138 have had serviceconnected disabilities, including the totally blind. We are proud of the veteran students we have had and now have enrolled. Most of them have proven to be excellent students. While we have not kept accurate records of the placement of all of our veterans, I can say that since January 1, 1957, we have graduated 735 veterans and all, to the best of our knowledge, have been placed or secured jobs on their own, in the occupation for which they were trained or in an occupation related to their training. To the best of our knowledge every disabled veteran whom we have trained in our school has been placed in a position in the occupation for which he was trained or in a related occupation. This statement includes the totally blind veterans we trained in production machine operation. This statement may easily be checked by contacting the Veterans' Administration office in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., through which office all veterans enrolled in our school are processed. The veterans we have had have applied themselves diligently to their studies. They have not been coming to school to collect checks from the Government. The Public Law 550 veterans feel that their educational allotment which is paid to them after they start to school is "their" money to pay their school costs and room and board. Since this money is usually insufficient to pay all costs and it costs them an additional sum of money beyond this allotment, they feel that they must "take home" some learning each day. In some cases, if the school did not live up to their expectations, they transferred to another school that did. The Korean Public Law 550 bill was an improvement over the World War II Public Law 346 bill to this respect. In our local State employment office there were in March 1959, 4,200 people registered as unemployed. Of these, 1,902 were veterans. In the State of Pennsylvania as of January 31, 1959, there were 446,754 unemployed people. This was one-tenth of the unemployment in the United States. Of this number, 128,115 were unemployed veterans. We do not know what percentage of these veterans have no educational entitlement under the GI bill, but we may safely assume that a very large number of them lack the skills which are the passports to jobs in modern industry. Moreover, unless they soon receive the training necessary toward acquiring these skills, it will be too late, because as time goes on they will take on obligations of marriage and family, which will make it virtually impossible for them to gain the education they need to obtain worthwhile employment, and thus raise their economic level above that of the unskilled laborer for which we are seeing a marked declining need in the employment picture. I should like to mention a survey I completed in June 1959 for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. I found that in Pennsylvania with one-tenth of the unemployment of the United States in January 1959, we had jobs available. Through a survey of the 14 major labor market areas of Pennsylvania I compiled a list of 228 occupations for which there were jobs open, and 197 of these occupations were seeking people with less than college training but with very definite skills. All of these occupations were listed with the Pennsylvania State Employment Service. Jobs are going begging in the midst of serious unemployment. But, I emphasize they are skilled jobs-jobs for which prior training or experience is a "must." The answer surely is in training our unskilled, and perhaps in retraining those among our unemployed whose skills have become less important to our economy due to the swift changes that are taking place in our industries as a result of technological advancements and automation. Permit me to turn to the economic aspects of the situation. I speak only of Pennsylvania. From 1950 to 1958, a matter of 8 years, the taxpayers of this State paid almost $1 billion in unemployment compensation. During these same years, a further $870 million was 52087-60- -56 paid in direct relief by the department of public assistance. I could not attempt to calculate the loss to the State and the Nation by this state of affairs. An unemployed citizen pays few taxes. He takes from the pot rather than contributing to it. The skill of the worker is in a very real sense a brick in the foundation upon which the prosperity of our Nation is built. We are greatly concerned about our unemployment problem in Pennsylvania. We know the occupations we need to train for; we have surveyed the unemployed people and find that 65 percent of them are interested in learning a new occupation or further updating in their skills. We inventoried our educational facilities and the numbers that can be accommodated but we simply do not seem to be able to find the money that we need to do the job. We are hoping for some assistance from the National Congress in this problem. I believe that unless we educate our youth to their capacity, continually upgrade the skills of our present workers, and retrain those persons whose skills have become obsolete in our scientific and technical society, we will continually be faced with an ever-increasing expenditure for public welfare. We today are quite concerned with the numbers of our superior students that have been found are not continuing their education beyond the high school. Minnesota found, for example, of the 3,368 seniors in the class of 1950 whose test scores placed them in the top 15 percent of their class, more than 1,000 did not attend college. This Nation cannot afford the loss of many of our best minds by not carrying through with their training and education beyond the high school. We need them in our skilled occupations and in our technical fields. The extension of the veterans' entitlements which you are considering is one method by which this country can educate further those who serve their country, whether in war or peace. Not every veteran wants or needs an educational entitlement, but there are those who do want it and do need it. We hear comments by some people that Federal aid will lead to Federal control of our schools. I have never heard such a comment concerning any veterans' education benefits. I believe that because of the interruption by compulsory military training, many of our post-Korean veterans fail to continue their education or vocational training beyond high school. This represents a great loss to their families, communities, States, and to the Nation. It is not only a great loss financially to them personally, but to their country as well. The increased income tax alone, which would normally be received because they would be employed at a higher pay scale in higher job classifications, would be enough for this entire program alone in only a few years. We believe this when we retrain and educate the physically handicapped, and if it is true for them, it should be also true for this group of nondisabled young veterans. These young men and women would also contribute to the semiskilled, skilled, technical, and scientific manpower so badly needed in this country. Let us look at the facts: In one small aspect of our skilled manpower situation the U.S. Department of Labor indicates a need for 2 million graduates a year from apprentices to journeymen; in 1957 only 28, 748 were graduated and 14,771 in the first 6 six months of 1958. It is also predicted by the U.S. Department of Labor that 26 million new workers will be needed in our labor force in the 1960's and that the need for unskilled people will further decrease. It therefore adds up, does it not, that we will need all of the highly trained people we can get during these years. It certainly seems a shame that we should have high unemployment in certain areas because many of our people are unskilled and not educated to their capacities. Others have skills that are outdated or as in the case of some of our post-Korean war veterans, have skills developed in the armed services that are not transferrable to civilian life, and at the same time we have thousands of job openings that cannot be filled in business and industry for lack of people with adequate education and vocational training. In conclusion, the extension of the veterans' educational entitlement which you are considering will make it possible for thousands of young men and women to obtain further education and training. This Nation cannot afford not to give these young people who have served their country well the opportunity to secure the education which will assure their entry into the economic life and prosperity of their country. In addition, may I say that the national defense education funds are not available to students below college level classes such as we operate and many of the students, of course, would like to get such loans, but they are not available. Thank you very much. Mr. HALEY. Are there any questions, Mr. Mitchell? Mr. MITCHELL. No questions. Mr. HALEY. Mr. George? Mr. GEORGE. No questions. Mr. HALEY. Mr. Flynn? Mr. FLYNN. No questions. Mr. HALEY. Thank you very much. Mr. MITCHELL. Mr. Chairman, I would like to ask Dr. Mobley if he would just briefly state their position on the proposed bill. Dr. MOBLEY. Yes. The American Vocational Association, which is the largest educational organization in the country, is on record by resolution in support of this measure, S. 1138. We think that the enactment of this law would be a great benefit, not only to the veterans who will be served, but to the country also. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say we have one other witness. First, Mr. Perrow, I understand you were supposed to appear before the committee some time back but you had a little snow out in Virginia. Mr. PERROW. Yes, that is right. We had quite a bit. Mr. HALEY. Well, we had quite a bit of snow here, too, so that many members of the committee did not even get down to the Hill and I can understand you were certainly unavoidably detained. Mr. PERROW. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, my name is Ray C. Perrow. I am a farmer of the Concord community near Lynchburg, Va., and a former president of the Young Farmers of Virginia, an organization of young farmers enrolled in vocational agriculture classes in the high schools. I am a veteran of World War II and, as one of some 20,000 Virginia veterans who received institutional on-farm training offered veterans of service in the Armed Forces in the past 12 years, I am happy to relate my experiences as a young farmer and to tell you how this type of training has benefited me. I am sure my story is no different from that of thousands of young farmers throughout our State and the Nation. Unlike most young farmers, I was born and spent my early years in the city. Although my family moved to the country when I was a young man, my father did very little farming. He is a carpenter and is still engaged in this type of work. Upon completing high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After 3 years in the Armed Forces, I returned to the farm. With my limited farm experience, but with a desire to live and work on a farm, I realized I would need training in this field. I enrolled in the institutional on-farm training program for veterans at my local high school. While in this program, I determined more than ever to make farming my lifework. I also found out how much one has to learn to be successful in the business of farming. With the instruction received in this program and with the advice and guidance of my teacher of vocational agriculture, I have been able to establish a grade A dairy farm. In 1952 I purchased a onehalf interest in the home farm and in 1958 the other half. I now own 153 acres and have a 36-cow herd. Ours is solely a family farm operation. I have continued to keep up to date in farming methods and latest improved practices by attending Young Farmer classes regularly. Members of these classes are affiliated with the Young Farmers of Virginia, of which I served as president last year. Although this organization has no direct relationship to on-farm training for veterans, it is an outgrowth and one result of that program. A majority of our Young Farmer class members are veterans who received onfarm training under either Public Law 346 or 550. Without the training and benefits received from the veterans farm training program, I could not be farming today. I can name many others in this same category. I would like to give you a summary of acomplishments of veterans enrolled in institutional on-farm training in Virginia during 1953-54. Enrollment for this period was 1,469, which was many times smaller than the peak enrollment of 8,469, for 1949-50. I use figures for 1953-54 because during that year about half of the enrollment was made up of veterans training under Public Law 550 and the remainder under other GI training provisions. Significant accomplishments of the 1,469 veterans in on-farm training classes in Virginia in 1953-54 are : Number who were farm owners. Number, breeding animals purchased (dairy, beef, swine). Number items made in school farm shop__. Number farm soil conservation plans developed.. Number home orchards established. Number acres of pasture developed. Number of tractors purchased___ Number of other farm machines purchased_ Number of acres of forestry improved__ Number of new homes constructed. Number of homes in which running water was installed.. 614 11, 080 11, 952 638 529 7,785 553 3,284 1,796 200 403 Of course, some of the above would have been done if no training had been available; however, I know from experience that a major |