located in strategic railroad centers throughout the Nation. In addition, there are several base-point offices, which are open part time. An itinerant service is maintained at still other points where a field representative is available at scheduled times to assist applicants for benefits and to provide information in matters pertaining to the Board's activities. Applicants are encouraged to go to these offices in person, whenever possible, to receive firsthand, free assistance in completing forms and furnishing supporting documents. Currently, more than 90 percent of retirement annuity applications are filed in field offices.

THE VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION

The Veterans' Administration has been carrying on an extensive program of information and promotion of community interest and action on the special foster-home program developed to provide home care for older homeless, chronically ill, and psychotic patients.

The Veterans' Administration is also carrying on a program of interpretation both within the Veterans' Administration and in the community in connection with their employment projects.

4.

FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITIES

IN THE FIELD OF

AGING

A LETTER FROM PRESIDENT EISENHOWER TO HON. H. ALEXANDER SMITH, UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM NEW JERSEY, AND A SUMMARY OF RECENT AND PROPOSED ACTIONS OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AFFECTING OLDER PERSONS

THE FEDERAL COUNCIL ON AGING

1956

FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE FIELD OF

AGING

A Letter from President Eisenhower to Hon. H. Alexander Smith, United States Senator from New Jersey, and a Summary of Recent and Proposed Actions of the Federal Government Affecting Older Persons

MARCH 21, 1956.

DEAR SENATOR SMITH: Your concern about the future for older persons in our society is shared by me and by large numbers of our citizens.

The first half of this century has witnessed phenomenal improvements in the health of our citizens and equally striking increases in our productive capacity and in our standard of living. These are the achievements of a free and prosperous society. They have also profoundly altered many of our ways of life.

One of the most significant changes that has taken place is the marked extension of the years of our life expectancy-it has doubled since our country was founded. Our Nation now must learn to take advantage of the full potential of our older citizens their skills, their wisdom, and their experience. We need those traits fully as much as we need the energy and boldness of youth.

In considering the changed circumstances presented by the lengthening life span, we must recognize older persons as individuals-not a class and their wide differences in needs, desires, and capacities. The great majority of older persons are capable of continuing their selfsufficiency and usefulness to the community if given the opportunity. Our task is to help in assuring that these opportunities are provided. All of our people, I believe, share the same objectives in this regard: (1) to help make it possible for older persons who desire and are able to work to continue their productive lives through suitable gainful employment; (2) to remove the fear of destitution in the later years; (3) to stimulate the construction of housing and the provision of living arrangements suited to the needs and preferences of older people; (4) to improve health during the later years through research into the aging process and the causes of chronic disease, by making health services more readily available, and by better nutrition; and (5) to help encourage, within our communities, increased opportunities for participation by older persons in civic affairs and voluntary services, and for sharing in the educational, recreational, social, and spiritual life of the community.