vigorous. The New York Times article of a month or so ago had, as I recall, two prescriptions for cardiacs climbing the Himalayas and piloting jet aircraft at 20,000 feet at the speed of sound.

Do I recall correctly?

STATEMENT OF JAMES MICHENER, AUTHOR, RESIDENT OF TINICUM, BUCKS COUNTY, PA.

Mr. MICHENER. You do, sir.

It is very good to see you, Senator.

Senator WILLIAMS. I haven't seen Mr. Michener since we were together about a year ago on a political evening.

I commend you on your success.

Mr. MICHENER. My interest, Senator, in this problem stems from the fact that both because of my work in Asia and because of the fact that I married a very distinguished American citizen of Japanese ancestry, I am sort of thrown into two cultures in seeing this problem of the aging, and I think I may be in a position to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the two patterns these two large areas of the world have in caring for this problem.

Our own is rather well known; that is, the individual family of the older person quite frequently does not want the older person to live within the family, but makes an economic sacrifice so that the older person may live well in some other system, either in a home of her own, as in the case of my own family, or in some kind of group living, as in the case of some brilliant examples I have seen recently in Colorado and in Utah. That is our pattern.

The pattern in Asia is a radically different one. There, the family holds it as a responsibility to care for every member of the family until the time of death, and it is quite likely that the home you visit in Japan or China or southeast Asia in order to meet with a person of your own age, will also have people in their eighties and people just out of the cradle. The entire family lives together. And a great many of the problems that I have heard discussed here this morning and elsewhere simply do not arise under this system. If you are living within this system, it is your gravest responsibility to see that your parents and your parents' brothers and a very extended range of your relatives live either with you are right near you, and you assume full responsibility for them.

Government programs are not necessary under that system. Some kind of Government assistance is sometimes given, but it is the responsibility of every family to keep all of its members together, and care for them.

Now, this has certain advantages, obviously, in that the unit is kept together as a unit. The heartache of old age has certainly diminished in these countries.

There is a solidity of life experience which is very appealing to me. I have a feeling that the generations should work and live together. And I think that if one looks only at the externals, Senator, one comes to the feeling that the Old World way of handling this problem has many advantages over the way that we use.

But I believe that this is only a superficial judgment, because the weaknesses of the Asian system are manifold, and the strengths of our system are many, indeed.

To go to the weakness of the Asian system, the fundamental one is this: that because all of the generations live together in the family, the weight of family opinion rests more heavily with the older people than with the vigorous younger people. And it is not at all unusual, in Japan-or China, before the revolution-or in the other parts of Asia that I know, to have a man of 35 or 40 married to a woman, say, 3 or 4 years younger, who makes no decisions for himself at all, until the full family discussion is held, and they tell him pretty much what to do.

This is a constant inhibition of the younger and more vigorous members of the society. And I have talked with dozens of these men, and I know the very heavy burden that they are under; not an economic burden in taking care of their parents; this is simply an accepted fact that is never up for discussion.

I would like to stress that. I know in the case of my own family, there has recently been an instance where an elderly member needed some assistance. And to hear these Japanese people get on the telephone and talk for hours about how to handle this, and whose responsibility it was, and all of them fighting for the responsibility, but never a question as to the fact that it should be done, is very heartening indeed; and it moves me to think that there is a degree of spiritual responsibility there that we don't have.

But the other side of the picture is very destructive.

The strength of our system is that at a relatively early age, say, in the early twenties a man like you or me is thrown on his own resources. He sets up his own household with his own wife. He raises his own children. There is not that dead hand of the older generation on him. And I think that much of the energy that America has had and much of the vitality that our people have in looking for new ways and doing great new things stems from the fact that we do turn our people loose at a younger age and tell them: "All right. This is your life. You make it. You make the decisions. You rise or fall."

And as between the two systems-having thought about this a great, great deal, I think that our system is the preferable one. I think that young people should be turned loose. I think that the dead hand of the past generation should not weigh too heavily upon us. I think that families should start out in their own homes with a minimum of incumbents. And I think that the freedom of action and vitality that results is one of the great strengths of our Nation; and I would hate to see this diminish.

As a novelist, as a humanitarian, I can only say that it is tragic that we have not at the same time figured out some way to take care of our older generations more effectively. If we could do just a few things, there, I think that we could retain the strength of our system, and yet acquire the wisdom and the humanity of the oriental system.

Those things would be the kind of health care that we have been talking about, certainly housing, at an advantage for older people, certain kinds of group living, perhaps, group medical care, group

activity. If we could do those things, then I would think that we would have come close to achieving the best of the two systems.

Senator WILLIAMS. We are very grateful for your contribution to the hearings. This has been a recently created committee of the Senate. We are having hearings this fall in 29 cities in the country. In Philadelphia last week Senator Clark had a hearing. And it is our mission to find those ways where we can more effectively take care of the problems of older people within the system in which we live, which is pretty much a family-fragmenting system.

I would be interested in this: Is the Asian system of total family applicable both in rural and in urban areas of Asia?

Mr. MICHENER. In the rural areas, of course, it is almost universal. In the urban areas, it is much more honored than you would suspect. In Tokyo, for example, which I know quite well, a large number of the people I met live within a large family unit.

I recently had an investigation of some 35 women of 40 years old. I happened to be working on a problem like that. And in every instance, they came from a large, unified family. And of the 35 women-33 of them had older members of the family working with them in the kitchen and keeping the house going. So that even in large cities it is more common than it would be here.

Senator WILLIAMS. In this country probably it only persists as a system of living on our diminishing family farms.

Mr. MICHENER. Yes. And I think therefore that as a society—I don't say necessarily as a government, but as a society-we really ought to give attention to this problem.

Senator WILLIAMS. I was very much impressed this morning, in the city of New Brunswick. We went to an area where there has been regular public housing, and now, within the same area, they are creating a magnificent building of 60 family units for elderly people, elderly housing under the public housing program. And I can just imagine the happiness these folks will have when they are in their homes and look out these great windows and there are the kids in the playgrounds. They are part of all generations. I would imagine it should be a great success.

Mr. MICHENER. I am very strongly in favor of the approach from the housing angle, because our system will simply not permit us to have the large family unit that I know so well in Asia. It just isn't part of our system. And I have become quite convinced that it wouldn't be good if we could make it part of our system.

I think, therefore, that wise people take the system they have and try to perfect it and eliminate its discrepancies.

Senator WILLIAMS. Well, if we can make our housing programs more responsive, if we can have an insurance program for medical care, and if we can improve these programs that have been mentioned here, I would think that we will be working toward the noble objectives that you have addressed yourself to.

We are very grateful to Mr. Michener for coming over and being with us today.

Mr. MICHENER. Thank you.

Senator WILLIAMS. I thought I saw Mayor Joseph Regan of Edgewater in the audience a moment ago. Edgewater is quite a distance from Trenton.

We are grateful for your contribution to the hearings, Mayor Regan.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH REGAN, MAYOR, EDGEWATER, N.J.

Mayor REGAN. I would like you to meet Mrs. John Rosenberry. She is the director of our senior citizens program.

Senator WILLIAMS. Won't you be seated there at the table and give us the benefit of your experience with the program?

Mayor REGAN. Senator, I am going to be very brief.

We are happy to be here this morning; mainly to try to pass on to the committee the actual putting in operation of a senior citizens program at a local level, at a nominal cost, mainly through the cooperation between the local mayor and council and the senior citizens of our community.

Now, early in 1957, we conceived the idea of creating a senior citizens program in the borough of Edgewater. And rather than take up your time, Mrs. John R. Rosenberry is our senior citizens director, and she has a short statement that will take about 5 minutes, that she would like to read into the record, which is self-explanatory.

Senator WILLIAMS. Fine.

Mrs. Rosenberry, will you proceed?

STATEMENT OF MRS. JOHN ROSENBERRY, DIRECTOR, SENIOR CITIZENS PROGRAM OF EDGEWATER

Mrs. ROSENBERRY. The report of the Edgewater, N.J., senior citizens program:

We believe that the Edgewater senior citizens program is perhaps the first of its kind to be established in the State of New Jersey. Because others may be helped by knowing what we have done to keep the program moving successfully, we are glad to offer this committee a brief summary of our activities.

In the winter of 1957, Mayor Joseph F. Regan of Edgewater had the understanding of the needs of senior citizens, and the interest, to try to help them. He started the Edgewater senior citizens program in January 1957, by appointing an advisory committee of three prominent Edgewater residents: Mr. Alfred Koski, borough clerk, Mr. Edward Breen, postmaster, and Mr. William Wall, then school principal. Later the recreation director, Mr. Ray Colantoni, was added. Mayor Regan was a member ex officio. I, Mrs. John R. Rosenberry, myself a senior citizen, with many years experience in club and civic work, was appointed director of the senior citizens program on a part-time basis, to serve three afternoons and one evening a week. The members of the advisory committee served without

pay.

The basic aim of the advisory committee was to help our older people help themselves, and to encourage them to believe that they still have a part in the life of the community, instead of feeling that they were "on the shelf." Membership was open to residents 50 years of age and older. The areas where we believed it was both possible and most important to help our senior citizens were employment, recreation, health, and counseling.

The members of the advisory committee met with the director one evening a week for 6 months to formulate and set in motion the principles and mechanics for an effective program. In the opinion of the director, this careful preparation, together with the firm and interested

sponsorship of the Edgewater mayor and council, have been largely responsible for the success of the program.

The report, in booklet form, which we prepared for the New Jersey Governor's Conference on Aging, held in Trenton on April 16, 1959, describes the steps taken to set up the program in Edgewater. A copy of this booklet is attached.

A vital first step was registration. Every senior citizen we knew of in Edgewater was sent a registration card that asked them to tell us whether they could use help in one or more of the areas of employment, health, recreation, and counseling. Out of Edgewater's total population of about 4,000 people, we have had nearly 200 senior citizen registrations.

First, we attacked the problem of getting employment, full or part time, for those who wanted it. Through our personalized employment and homemaker service, 35 applicants have been helped to find work. As one part of this effort, many families in town have been supplied with good help in caring for aged or chronically ill members of the family. Such placement of senior citizens interested in this kind of work gives us double benefit for the aims of our programs.

Second, we set up our recreation program, which also includes community services and crafts. The borough provided a meeting place in the centrally located Public Works Building; over the years we have transformed this into an unusually attractive clubroom. The club, which we call the Pleasant Valley Club, meets there on Friday evenings each week, every week of the year. There is a membership of 80. The four officers, a loyal and enthusiastic group, constitute the executive committee. They meet with the director once a month to plan events for the coming month. We have a variety of programs, including movies, speakers, parties at Halloween, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, et cetera, a turkey dinner at Christmas, bus trips, boat rides, and picnics. The bus transportation for three outings in the summer is provided by the borough.

Much time and effort is given to community services. Members collected 250 pairs of used eyeglasses for the Eyes for the Needy project. They have helped with Community Chest and Red Cross drives. The director organized a regular auxiliary hospital group of 16 members, which meets every Wednesday afternoon to make dressings and sew for Englewood Hospital. In the spring, they have a benefit card party and give $100 a year to the hospital.

We have an active crafts program. A sewing group meets once a week. We have had classes in hatmaking and jewelry work, and are just starting a class in painting.

The cost to the borough in maintaining this program has been small. Wherever possible, existing departments and facilities within the borough are utilized. The recreation director, the socialwelfare director, the department of public works, the board of education, and the board of health, have all helped.

Third, the problem of helping our senior citizens in the area of health has been a real challenge. We have had several health projects. During the past year our local school physician, who is also the doctor for the baby-keep-well service, volunteered his services several times to give physical examinations free to club members. He was