realized more fully for people who cannot support themselves, and who need money and sometimes other kinds of help. EDITORIAL SUMMARY The clear intent of the original Social Security Act was to provide a child (or children) continuity in family life with the one available parent, or with close relations, if the income of the family wage earner was terminated for specified reasons. Stated another way, the lack of money only was not to be a reason in our country for public support of children away from home. The most recent amendment to the public-assistance title affirms the importance of family life for children, and spells out the desirability of services to strengthen family life. Nationally speaking, the aid to dependent children program is unpopular. It is repeatedly attacked. Just for instance, in one State legislation was introduced not long ago which would have prohibited an aid to dependent children grant to a mother and her children, regardless of number of children in relation to financial need, if the mother used cigarettes, or liquor stronger than beer. Some of the popular assumptions on which the unpopularity of aid to dependent children is based are the beliefs that (1) it encourages men to desert their families; (2) it encourages illegitimacy and other evidences of immoral behavior on the part of the mothers; that (3) it encourages a small fraction of our population not only to let Uncle Sam do it, but to expect him to keep on footing the bill; and that (4) no able-bodied adult, man or woman, should be paid by the Government to care for his children. Instances individual instances-are cited to prove each of these beliefs. It is out of individual instances that charges are made; for example, that the increasing national rate of illegitimacy is directly attributable to the existence of the aid to dependent children program. Such a generalization has yet to be proved. Just as it remains to be proved that the withdrawal of aid to dependent children grants, or the threat of withdrawal (depending on the mother's sexual behavior), reduces illegitimacy, modifies sexual behavior, or increases maternal responsibility for the children she has. The chicken and egg are interwoven into what is belief, what fact, what is cause, what outcome. The actual lives, total well-being, and the potential adult contribution of a million and three-quarters children (now able to live with one parent or with relatives) are at stake. In the District at the end of September 1958, the present and the future of 11,237 children with aid-to-dependent-children grants are involved. Therefore, as citizens we face a stiff issue: Some people feel that unless very low income parents behave-by whatever standards are set-Government should put no funds into the support of their home and children. If this viewpoint is accepted, what chance lies ahead for aid to dependent children to assist parents to hold their families together? What does it mean for planning for the lives of children who become public charges, primarily because impoverished parents are not yet ready, or perhaps not yet able, to behave as to the wider community believes they should? Senator MORSE. I also include in the record at this point, a series of letters received by the subcommittee urging favorable action toward the provision of a hot lunch program in the public elementary schools. (The series of letters is as follows:) FOREST HILLS CITIZENS ASSOCIATION, CLERK, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COMMITTEE, DEAR SIR: At its regular meeting in December the Forest Hills Citizens Association unanimously adopted the following resolution introduced by Mr. Maurice Friedman: Be it resolved, That the Forest Hills Citizens Association deeply deplores the sad plight existing in many of our schools in the District of Columbia where a substantial number of our schoolchildren are undernourished and suffer from malnutrition because of the dire economic problems suffered by their families; and recognizes that this is a public problem bespeaking action by the Congress of the United States, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, and the District of Columbia Board of Education, to make available funds to defray the cost of school luncheons for these underprivileged children in our Nation's Capital; and while public-spirited organizations, including the Forest Hills Citizens Association, will make nominal contributions to alleviate this situation, such action will serve only as a stopgap measure, and will not resolve the long range problem. Therefore, it is the hope of this organization that the Congress, and the other public officials charged with this problem, will take speedy and effective measures to bring about a prompt and happy solution to this vexing problem in our Nation's Capital. Very truly yours, MATHILDE D. WILLIAMS, Secretary. AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION, Senator WAYNE MORSE, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR MORSE: I am enclosing a copy of our letter to the press, which all three Washington daily papers carried on December 12, for your consideration as chairman of the subcommittee on Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety of the District of Columbia. We certainly don't need to press upon you the urgent need for swift action in this matter, but we want you to know that we are prepared to exert pressure and persuasion where it will most count. Meanwhile, we will push from this end, in cooperation with like-minded organizations and District officers. With the season's best wishes, Sincerely, REGINALD H. ZALLES, President, Washington Chapter. AMERICANS FOR DEMOCRATIC ACTION, DEAR SIR: The Superintendent of the District schools, Mr. Carl F. Hansen, began a public campaign last week to solicit money for school lunches for 959 District elementary students: children who aren't fed because their working parents must be away in the day; children whose parents are on welfare relief and don't have the money to feed them adequately; children who are exposed to tuberculosis and need supplemented diets. None of these children have been covered by any lunch program for several years. While this incredibly terrible situation was probably outlawed in England by the Elizabethan "poor laws" of the 16th century, it is comforting that some District officials in this 20th century city have finally awakened. These oversights of the needy and underprivileged are running sores which the District should never have allowed to fester unattended. fact that our city has no funds of its own to disburse offers no excuse for its failure even to attempt to secure required appropriations from Congress. The Our chapter, the Greater Washington Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action, has contributed to this campaign. However, the campaign poses larger issues than the one of quota fulfillment. Mr. Hansen says that even if all the funds are raised, over 6,000 children will still not get the lunches they need. This campaign is only to establish a pilot program, which in the fall of 1959 may be expanded, by congressional appropriation, to feed all needy students. We do not think there is a need to test the proposition that hungry children must be fed. If, as Mr. Hansen suggests, the appropriate congressional committees are interested-"horrified" should be the word-let's try and correct this cruel oversight right now. When Congress convenes, the District must seek an immediate emergency appropriation so that all these 7,300 children will be fed just as soon as possible. Sincerely yours, REGINALD H. ZALLES, President, Washington Chapter. Copies of this letter have been sent to the Washington daily papers, radio stations, District officials, and other interested persons. Senator WAYNE MORSE, Washington, D.C. ALEXANDRIA, VA., February 21, 1959. DEAR SENATOR: Read in the Washington Post the article about the hungry children in the Nation's Capital and the hot lunch program that should be compulsory for all schoolchildren. Boy, how backward can our Government be in this day and age when the welfare and health of our children is denied. Being a mature married man with no children, greatly interested in the future of America, I want to pass along the following information in that when I was young myself and started school sometime back about 1920, 1921, 1922 I attended school at Spina, Minn. (disbanded), then at Kinney, Minn., under the Buhl-Kinney school board. As much as I can remember when attending the grade schools that we were given free lunches and I can remember some of the favored lunches that are still my favored. I thought our Government goes along with progress, but we are as backward as possible when it comes to giving something like free lunches to our schoolchildren. I realize that one should do some research back to those days before arriving at a conclusion but my point is that this idea actually happened back in those days and just look at us today. How backward are we and I wish I could just go back to my former hometown and dig up the information you want to get at the real facts to prove to the general public how far behind they are. Don't know what good this information is to you, but wish that all schoolchildren get free lunches throughout the United States and the other problems attached would take care of themselves. Keep fighting the good fight. STANLEY A. GOLDEN. WASHINGTON, D.C., January 21, 1959. Senator WAYNE MORSE, U.S. Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. A DEAR MR. MORSE: We would like to join the many other schools and organizations in urging Congress to appropriate funds to the Board of Education to provide hot lunches for the needy children of the District of Columbia. generous donation has been realized from private contribution but when public sentiment wanes, 7,000 District of Columbia children will still be hungry and undernourished. We feel that only by a designated appropriation through Congress can an effective program be sustained. Respectfully, Mrs. J. C. GILBERT, Secretary, Fillmore PTA Executive Council. WASHINGTON, D.C., January 13, 1959. Hon. ALAN BIBLE, Chairman, Senate District of Columbia Committee, DEAR SENATOR BIBLE: I have been directed by, and on behalf of, the more than 1,000 members of the Paul Junior High School, Washington, D.C., Home and School Association to write to you concerning the elementary school children who are desperately in need of free lunches. A plea has been made by Superintendent of Schools Hansen for public gifts to furnish free lunches for 1,000 children. It will require only 27 cents per day to give each of these 1,000 children a nutritious lunch. A sum of $30,000 will satisfy this requirement from January 1959 through June 1959. In addition, there are at least another 6,000 pupils in the District of Columbia elementary schools who also require free lunches. A little more than a year ago, the distressing predicament of hungry children in the District of Columbia was disclosed by extremely disturbing newspaper accounts of children who searched in garbage cans in an effort to obtain sufficient food. Volunteers at Barney Neighborhood House established a program to attempt to sustain 200 hungry children in southwest District of Columbia. Since that time, the hungry children in the District of Columbia have been forgotten again. It is hoped that the Congress will not permit this condition to continue. It is extremely doubtful that this problem can be solved by voluntary contributions, which are a temporary expedient at best. This problem is of such magnitude and urgency that it will be resolved satisfactorily only when the Congress provides funds for a program of school lunches at the elementary level, similar to that which now exists in the junior and senior high schools in the District of Columbia. It is urged, respectfully, that appropriate steps be taken to correct this situation, in order that these children will become healthy, and grow into adult citizens equipped with the proper outlook to assume their responsibilities in the future. Respectfully, RAYMOND STROMBERG, Chairman, Legislative Committee, Paul Junior High School, Home and School Association. WASHINGTON, D.C., February 2, 1959. Hon. WAYNE MORSE, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR MORSE: The Home and School Association of Hyde Elementary School wishes to endorse heartily the program which you are sponsoring to provide school lunches for needy children of elementary school age. They believe, however, that while emergency measures are necessary, the need is a continuing one and they urge that legislation be initiated to meet this need on a long-term basis. Respectfully yours, MARY AGATHA KELLY, Home and School Association of Hyde School. WASHINGTON, D.C., February 25, 1959. Senator WAYNE MORSE, DEAR SENATOR MORSE: It is gratifying to find that there are, on our legislative committees, persons as disturbed as I am over the refusal of the District of Columbia Board of Education to include lunchroom facilities on the standard equipment to be provided in each elementary school building. The justification advanced by the Board majority appears to me to be specious. I think that it would be more enlightening if you were to ask the persons who voted against school lunchrooms to name items that they consider more urgently needed-and then get some account of what that Board member has done lately to achieve the goals to which he gives greater priority. There is another angle of approach which might expose the real reasons for the Board's surprising action. It might very well be that the majority considered that equipment of all existing buildings could not be achieved at once, because the cost would be prohibitive. In that event, it would have been possible to announce a general policy, provide for inclusion of lunchrooms in all new buildings, and commit the Board to a campaign to secure improvements to existing structures at the earliest possible moment. Something of this sort was done by the Board of Education with respect to the pupil-teacher ratio established in the elementary schools. The goal of 30 pupils per teacher was set about 6 years ago. Though it has not yet been achieved, the Board has consistently worked to secure the funds necessary to reach this goal. In the meantime, conditions have been materially improved, and ultimate victory seems to be a distinct possibility in the near future. Why couldn't a similar approach have been suggested and supported by the Board members who voted down Superintendent Hansen's recommendation for installation of lunchroom facilities in all elementary schools? It may be that we are faced once more with District pennypinching. If this is so, I think it might be well to find out from the Commissioners how much the average elementary school building now being constructed costs, as well as how much more would be required to provide lunchroom facilities. Finally, there is a consideration which I think must be present, although I have no idea how it can be exposed-the question of race. I am sure that some of the members of the Board majority were concerned about finances rather than the needs of children. But I cannot persuade myself, with respect to one or two members, that the primary consideration was not the fact that this added service of the public school system will benefit Negro children. It might be nothing more than "realism"-the knowledge that the segregationist bloc in the House District and Appropriations Committees would never approve such an expenditure-and an unwillingness to draw the lines of battle on this issue. However, if this sort of defeatism is responsible for the action of the Board majority, it seems to me that the community is entitled to a frank statement of the Board's position. On the other hand, if racism itself is the basis of the action taken by any of the Board members, they might at least have the courage of their convictions, and come out in the open, instead of hiding behind claims that other things are more urgently needed than lunchrooms. You have, in the past, shown a marked capacity to expose situations of this sort, and I hope that you can find some way to make it clear to the people of the District what really happened last Wednesday, when the Board of Education refused to follow the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools-as well as the current trend in educational practice, as Congress recognized when it established the school lunch program for elementary and secondary schools also. Sincerely yours, HARRY B. MERICAN. FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, Hon. WAYNE MORSE, Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety, Committee on the District of Columbia of the U.S. Senate, Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. MY DEAR SENATOR MORSE: This letter constitutes an appeal for support of the program for free lunches for needy children in the public elementary schools of the District of Columbia. We feel that the undernourished children in the elementary schools of the District of Columbia desperately need free lunches. As demonstrated by the Northwest Settlement House last year, and by the District of Columbia school system this year, a lunch program, even though some schools have no kitchens, is a practical one. Simple, cold, but nutrutious lunches can be distributed to the needy children in an efficient and economical manner. We understand that during these demonstrations, the truant officers reported that there were noticeably fewer absentees. The teachers discovered that children who had seemed dull had become teachable. We believe that free lunches to needy children will be worth far more than the very small cost in terms of better school attendance, more literacy, less aimlessness on the streets and therefore less delinquency. As a downtown church of 900 members, the First Congregational Church urges that the Subcommittee on Public Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety of the Committee on the District of Columbia of the U.S. Senate recommend a sufficiently large sum in the new budget to implement the free lunches for needy children program. Kindly insert this letter in the record of the public hearings on feeding hungry children. Respectfully yours, CHARLOTTE D. KIMBALL, Clerk. AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY WOMEN, Senator WAYNE MORSE, WASHINGTON BRANCH, Washington, D.C., March 4, 1959. Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Health, Education, Welfare, and Safety, DEAR SENATOR MORSE: The Washington branch of the American Association of University Women would like to submit the following statement to be incorporated in the record of the hearings on the lunch program for needy children in the District of Columbia schools. |