Mr. STUCKY. No, this is a 2-year project to determine why some small firms have gone out of business. In other words, it is a study of a matched sample of one firm in a certain kind of industry that went out of business and a matched sample of a firm that is still in business, looking at the reasons why this one firm had to go out of business. That has been a 2-year study. It is about to be concluded. Chairman DAWSON. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Our next witness will be Mr. Arnold Feldman, executive director of the American Veterans Committee. STATEMENT OF J. ARNOLD FELDMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON, D.C. Mr. FELDMAN. I am J. Arnold Feldman, executive director of the American Veterans Committee. The American Veterans Committee thanks you for the opportunity to present its views on the very important question of the creation of a Department of Urban Affairs. We are pleased to appear before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations which is chaired by the distinguished Chairman William L. Dawson, Congressman from Illinois, The United States is a very different nation today from the one it was when our Federal system was adopted at the close of the 18th century. We were essentially an agrarian society then. We were a society that had no real conception of the problems of urban life; of providing for necessary transportation, health, housing, human relations, and hundreds of other things. It will be to the everlasting credit of the framers of our Constitution that a document drawn in that period not only lives but provides a framework for government today unsurpassed in the world. Today 112,885,178 Americans out of a total population of 179,323, 175 live in metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, because of malapportionment of their State legislatures these Americans have found it difficult, and at times impossible to look to their State governments for help in solving the many problems resultant from urban living. At the same time the Federal Government has been slow in giving equal attention to these problems. I do not intend to downgrade the work of the Agriculture Department, for it is important. However. I must point out that aid for agriculture amounts to billions annually while aid for urban areas is difficult to pinpoint. This is not because agricultural problems are more expensive. It costs more to build a school in a city than it does in the country. Housing is also more expensive in urban areas, as are police and fire protection. The costs of education, sanitation, police protection, and other urban problems have strained the capabilities of many metropolitan areas to deal adequately with them. The property tax rate in many communities is at its legal limit, and in many central cities has passed the point of diminishing economic return. State constitutional or statutory debt limits have been reached by many municipalities. The problems of metropolitan areas are complicated by political boundaries established many years ago. Bergen County, N..J., is an example of an entire county becoming urbanized as part of the New York metropolitan area. Bergen County consists of over 70 municipalities, some of which consist of only a few blocks, and none of which has a population of 100,000. Some of its problems in finding overall solutions become apparent. However, a bigger look will make the problems loom even bigger. Bergen County, N.J., is part of a tremendous tristate metropolitan complex that demands overall solutions. It is part of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut complex known as the New York metropolitan area. This is merely one example to point out the necessity of Federal participation in the solution of our metropolitan area problems. Many of our greatest metropolitan centers are interstate. Indeed, some, like the Detroit area, are international. The Chicago area certainly includes Lake County, Ind., and perhaps southeastern Wisconsin as well as Illinois. The Philadelphia metropolitan area includes Camden and other New Jersey counties as well as northern Delaware and many counties and municipalities in eastern Pennsylvania. The Washington, D.C., metropolitan area includes two Maryland counties and several counties in northern Virginia. Missouri's two greatest metropolitan centers, St. Louis and Kansas City, spill over into Illinois and Kansas, respectively. There are others. We do not here even attempt to go into the nature of many of the problems mentioned. Indeed, we made no attempt to mention each and every problem of metropolitan life and government. The vast majority of veterans and the cast majority of members of the American Veterans Committee live in urban areas because most Americans do. These citizens deserve the attention to their problems that can be developed only by a Department of Urban Affairs. The American Veterans Committee endorses H.R. 6433. Thank you. Chairman DAWSON. Mr. Fascell? Mr. FASCELL. I have no questions, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ANDERSON. Just a question or two about your organization. How many members do you have in the American Veterans Committee? Mr. FELDMAN. About 25,000 members. Mr. ANDERSON. Where do most of them reside? Mr. FELDMAN. I would say that about 65 percent reside along the East coast from Massachusetts through northern Virginia. There is a concentration in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and then along the West coast. Mr. ANDERSON. Largely residents of urban areas? Mr. FELDMAN. Largely residents of urban areas. We have membership in 49 of the 50 States, but our main concentration of membership is as I described it. Mr. ANDERSON. That is all. Chairman DAWSON. Mrs. Granahan? Mrs. GRANAHAN. No questions. Chairman DAWSON. Thank you very much, sir. Mr. FELDMAN. Thank you. Chairman DAWSON. We will continue with our hearings on this matter tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock. (Whereupon, at 12 noon, the subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Wednesday, June 7, 1961.) DEPARTMENT OF URBAN AFFAIRS AND HOUSING WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 1961 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, EXECUTIVE AND LEGISLATIVE REORGANIZATION SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10:05 a.m., in room 1501-B, New House Office Building, Hon. William L. Dawson (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives William L. Dawson, Dante B. Fascell, Clarence E. Brown, and John B. Anderson. Also present: Elmer W. Henderson, subcommittee counsel; James A. Lanigan, general counsel; J. Philip Carlson, minority counsel; and Dolores Fel Dotto, acting clerk. Chairman DAWSON. The subcommittee will come to order. Mr. Anderson has arrived and we can now open the meeting. Our first witness will be Congressman Toll of Pennsylvania. We had Mrs. Martha Griffiths listed as our first witness. She was one of the first to file this year on this subject, H.R. 962. She has given way to Mr. Toll who has a very important engagement. We will hear from Mr. Toll now. STATEMENT OF HON. HERMAN TOLL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA Mr. TOLL. I appreciate the opportunity, Mr. Chairman, of presenting some oral remarks this morning. And, Mr. Chairman, if you will permit, I would like to revise and extend my remarks, and the statement will be submitted in a day or two. Chairman DAWSON. Without objection that may be done. (The statement follows:) STATEMENT OF HON. HERMAN TOLL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA The creation of a Department of Urban Affairs is one of the most vital issues facing the Nation today. Metropolitan area problems have long been under discussion and investigation. From these discussions we can see the necessity to find a more efficient way to solve the problems of the large urban centers. Seven reasons stand out which prove that the most efficient way to handle the problem would be to create a Department of Urban Affairs. (1) The United States today is a predominantly urban country. In the 1860's 80 percent of the population was rural but today 70 percent of the population is urban and 30 percent is rural, farm and nonfarm. The problems of the cities today are much greater than the problems that faced the rural areas and which eventually led to the creation of the Department of Agriculture. These are not simply local difficulties but, rather, are problems of extreme national signifi cance. One must also remember that the urban areas are drastically underrepresented in both the State legislatures and in Congress. (2) The rapid urbanization process has left the cities with major problems in the areas of water supply, water and air pollution, sewage disposal, transportation, crime and fire protection and prevention, highways, streets, housing and slum control, education and recreation, planning and zoning, and general public health and welfare. These difficulties are increased due to the fact that most local governments simply do not have the resources to cope with the problems. Further complications arise when it is realized that the problems are not confined within one governmental jurisdiction; there is an overlapping of social and economic boundaries. Twenty-four of the largest metropolitan areas contain territory in two or more States. The problems must, therefore, be solved by coordinated governmental action and the most efficient method of coordination would be under a Department of Urban Affairs. (3) The Federal Government has taken an interest in many of the problems of the metropolitan areas. Federal authorities have begun programs in air pollution, airport construction, educational facilities, civil defense, disaster relief, hospital and medical facilities, housing and urban renewal, water pollution control and water supply facilities, highways, and public welfare assistance. If the Government is doing all of this for the metropolitan areas then why, you ask is there a need for a Department of Urban Affairs? The answer lies in the fact that these services are provided by numerous and uncoordinated agencies. In order to achieve the necessary coordination of activities affecting urban centers, we must have a Cabinet-level department. (4) Extensive research is being conducted today on the problems of urban growth and development. It is necessary that the fruits of this research be made available to the local government officials. The proposed bill takes cognizance of this need and provides for the collection of information by the Department which would be analyzed and disseminated to the municipal officials; this would enable the local governmental units to more effectively strive toward the solution of their problems. The Department would become, therefore, a reliable source of technical advice. (5) There is a great need for State effort in attempting to solve urban problems. The new Department would enable the State and county governments to more effectively meet the needs of the local units of government. State efforts would be simplified and an incentive to provide more assistance would be established. (6) Governmental units would be encouraged to change their structures in order to take full advantage of areawide assistance which would become available under legislation to be administered by the new Department of Urban Affairs. Until now, little Federal legislation has been directed toward interstate and other cooperative efforts. We have previously seen how the problems of the urban areas have little regard for conventional political boundaries and there is overlapping of the problems into different jurisdictions. The new Department will enable these jurisdictions to solve their difficulties jointly rather than singly. (7) The needs of the urban centers require great financial resources. It is the Federal Government that has the machinery to collect the necessary revenue and to distribute it equitably without being hampered by State and local boundaries. When we add to this situation the fact that local resources are limited and restricted geographically, one can see that Federal assistance administered through a Department of Urban Affairs is a logical step to the solution of urban problems. The creation of a Department of Urban Affairs is further justified when one looks at the reasons for the creation of some of the existing Departments. The Department of Labor, first organized as a Bureau under the Interior Department in 1884, was created March 4, 1913. It was pointed out at that time that the "purpose of the Department of Labor shall be to foster, promote, and develop the welfare of the wage earners of the United States, to improve their working conditions, and to advance their opportunities for profitable employment." Today there is another interest which must be protected-the interest of the urban dweller. Never before have the inhabitants of our cities been plagued with so many problems; never before have the solutions proved so difficult. A Department of Urban Affairs would be the boon to the urban dweller that the Department of Labor was to the wage earner. The Department of Agriculture was created in 1862 and raised to cabinet status in 1889. At the time of the creation of the Department, Congress stated that the general purpose of the Department would be to "acquire and diffuse |