made in the Department of Defense. I think it was, in one of the cities in America, where they used to hire Spanish-surnamed Americans but they kept them behind a screen so that no one knew about it.

And this sentence seems to me to be a throwback to that attitude: "Significant appointments of Spanish-surnamed persons to positions involving public contact."

Not contacts with Spanish-speaking Americans, but public contact. That is suspiciously representative of the attitude that you keep minorities behind screens so the public isn't contaminated by contact with them.

Mr. McCLORY. If the gentleman will yield., it makes reference to a Federal district judge for Puetro Rico and U.S. attorneys for New Mexico and Puerto Rico. I think that he has in mind the same approach, the same improvement which I think is essential in having people who are dealing with offenses involving frequently those of Spanish-surnamed to have a Federal judge also of the same group and Federal attorneys, I would think would be far superior in that type of job in that environment.

Mr. WALDIE. I hope you are right. If I were writing this article I would instruct them to say, "Involving public contact with Spanishspeaking Americans," and it would make sense.

Mr. McCLORY. If the chairman would yield, I think we all agree that this policy, which I am sure some in public life particularly have employed, of hiring minority persons and putting them in the front office for purposes of display is just as reprehensible and it is the kind of tokenism which does offend people and I am sure we don't subscribe to that and I don't believe the Department of Justice is following any such policy.

Mr. WALDIE. Mr. Roybal.

Mr. ROYBAL. It seems to me that many agencies of Government are using the technique that Congressman McClory has just described, that is that of putting a Spanish-speaking person or ethnic minority in front so that everyone can see that they have not discriminated, but the truth of the matter is that the Justice Department hasn't had any increase of Spanish-speaking personnel at all from 1969 to 1971. I have the latest figures here.

The Department of Justice had in 1969 2.4 percent Spanish-surnamed employees and it was exactly the same in November of 1971 as it was a year before and a year before that.

In the Department of Agriculture, and I understand that this is another Department which is supposed to be making so much progress, they had 1,613 employees back in 1969 and 1970, and in November 1971 they had exactly the same, 1.8 percent.

So it is not true when they tell us that progress is being made simply because they put certain individuals out in front. The figures definitely tell what the real story is and in this instance, those two Departments in question have not had any increase at all.

Mr. WALDIE. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. EDWARDS. The gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. SARBANES. I have no questions.

Mr. EDWARDS. Ed, thank you very much for coming here today. We are going to proceed in this area. We are going to be of all the help we can to the Civil Service Commission in their implementation

of the 16-point program and we expect to have up before us in the not too distant future some of these agencies who are not doing their job.

We are appreciative of your valuable contribution.

Mr. ROYBAL. Thank you.

Mr. EDWARDS. We have a telegram from the vice president of the New York Urban Coalition who regrets that he will be unable to be here today and asks unanimous consent that his testimony that will follow be inserted in the record.

(The document referred to follows:)

STATEMENT BY MR. MANUEL DIAZ, JR., SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NEW YORK URBAN COALITION

I welcome the interest of the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the employment of Puerto Ricans by Federal agencies.

The U.S. Civil Service Commission has long been under Executive Order to strengthen its efforts in this direction. The facts, however, indicate that little or no significant progress has been achieved.

Many reasons have been cited for the failure of Federal agencies to attract Spanish-speaking personnel. Failures are explained by lack of interest in Federal service by Spanish-speaking communities, ineffective recruiting methods, the bureaucratic policies and procedures of the Civil Service merit system and the lack of educational or trained skills. Each of these has some validity.

Yet, ways have to be found to attract the Spanish-speaking, especially Puerto Ricans, into the Federal establishment. There are over 100 communities across the United States with 1,000 or more Puerto Ricans totalling 1,250,000. Puerto Ricans, along with other Spanish-speaking, make up a significant percentage of the potential workforce in this country. This is a wealth and resource public agencies have not by and large turned to and utilized. The consequences are a clear relationship between racial discrimination in employment and burgeoning welfare rolls; the costs being borne by those who are employed. Government cannot expect the private sector to meet its equal employment opportunity responsibilities when Federal agencies fail to carry their proportionate share of the same responsibility.

The U.S. Civil Service Commission sees as its task and has set up structures and procedures to assure Federal agencies function on the basis of the merit system. This is indeed a noble objective. However, through Executive Order it is also mandated to bring into Federal service citizens of all races, religions, nationalities and both sexes. It seems to me that occasionally clashes emerge between these two objectives.

Our society is pluralistic. It is composed of various economic, ethnic and religious entities that have emerged out of differential opportunity systems. While the Civil Service system has to maintain a recognition of universal similarities in the human experience, it has to also respond to the differences which differentiate various communities.

In performing its task the Commission maintains its first objective, it reluctantly seeks out ways and means of achieving the second. It should recognize the many historical, cultural, racial and economic makeups of the various populations composing the United States. It should seek out ways of bringing into Federal agencies individuals who can demonstrate specialized insight into the varied and multicultural society we live in and utilize their skills and capacities.

There are agencies that monitor and regulate private and public employment activities but they lack full effectiveness.

The Cabinet Committee for Opportunities for the Spanish-speaking needs to receive more executive and legislative support.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission needs to be endowed with more direct and effective regulatory power. The additional authority to go directly into court on a case in lieu of referral to the Justice Department is a step in the right direction. Yet, a more effective measure would be the combination of subpoena with cease and desist powers.

The U.S. Civil Rights Commission needs to spead out more aggressively and reconstitute its composition to refect representation of Blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, Asian-Americans, and Indians.

The Congress has to legislate with deeper conviction to the goal of making our federal establishment more redective of the beterogenous society that is American today. The rules of the game need to be charged. The merit system must give some ground or be supplemented by a set of criteria and procedures dedicated towards recognizing special talents, insights, cultural sensitivity and historical circumstances of individuals from various population groups

Yes, we must safeguard our commitment to individual worth. But we cannot afford to have our society torn apart by a refusal to recognise differential factors New premises are needed. Language differences should be recognized and declared an asset and rewarded.

The following circumstances should be considered:

First, that Puerto Ricans do not go into Federal service pro-forma or the normal route. He does not know a specific job exists that he may qualify for. He does not receive this information through the media he relates to. Furthermore, he dis trusts his acceptance by Federal agencies. He has persenally experienced or has heard about a pattern of rejection by the Federal Service Entrance Exam route. If he makes an initial probe he runs into a maze of bureaucratic procedures which lock him out. He also sees few role models or possibilities for moving up a career ladder. In his mind Federal jobs as promotions are largely a function of political patronage systesm. He may see himself being limited only to those agencies that deal with his specialized problems: H.E.W., D.O.L., H.U.D., etc, * * * the weakest agencies in recruiting and in employing minorities are the line agencies of government such as Department of State, Commerce, Defense, etc.

Secondly, a strong commitment has to develop for local and community recruitment instruments. Federal agencies are not, by and large, familiar with local or neighborhood institutional fabrics.

Techniques in the media developed for ethnic recruitment can be exceptionally productive, especially in making the idea believable that Federal service can open up real opportunities.

Employment in Federal service has to become clearly visible and concrete. Specific job functions and salaries have to be translated into day to day realities for minorities. The "We Need You" slogan of the Armed Forces is a good starting point.

Thirdly, Recruitment Task Forces are to be encouraged and welcomed. They should, however, be assigned specific goals. The methods have to be institutionalized by the Civil Service Commission, however. A Task Force is a transitional instrument.

Fourthly, Train! Prepare people for specific jobs. Business has developed sophisticated training instruments and procedures. War time priorities demonstrated that when a job was needed, we created the knowhow to train and produce a product on a short-term basis.

The American dream is built on the notion that the poor, the oppressed and the miserable can come here and make it in due time. This is a myth. America never accepted newcomers without resistance and a struggle. Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Indians, and Chicanos have exploited this myth. We have been here hundreds of years and still stand only on the threshold of the American opportunity system.

Update the Civil Service System. Create new titles and careers in government. Revamp procedures and entry tests to conform with cultural realities. Utilize non-English forms and credit "foreign" languages as an asset. Bar academic credentials that keep out capable victims of a faulty educational system. Recog nize cultural differences and insights.

Only in this way can Federal Government demonstrate that the American way is meant for everyone *** on a fully equal basis, but with equality being based on a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, truly pluralistic society.

Our next witness represents the National Urban Coalition. The Urban Coalition, which was organized in 1967, includes businessmen, civil rights, labor, religious, and civic leaders who have joined together to seek solutions to the problems which affect the Nation's urban centers.

Since its inception, the Urban Coalition has concerned itself with the problem of unemployment. The Coalition's Task Force on Private Employment has utilized the unique alliance represented by the Coalition to involve the private sector in its employment programs.

The Coalition works directly with businessmen in cities throughout the country to design and promote innovative programs for the recruitment, training, and private employment of the hard-core unemployed in ghetto areas. At the national level the National Urban Coalition speaks out strongly on issues such as housing, education, welfare, and employment which affect the inner city.

We are honored to have Mr. Vicente T. Ximenes before us representing the National Urban Coalition. Mr. Ximenes, who has held the position of vice president for field operations in the Coalition since July of 1971, is a former commissioner of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission. He has had a long and distinguished career in and out of government, first as an instructor in economics at the University of New Mexico, then as an economist with the Agency for International Development. He served as Deputy Director of the AID mission to Panama in 1966 and 1967. From 1967 to 1969 Mr. Ximenes was Chairman of the President's Cabinet Committee on Mexican-American Affairs.

Mr. Ximenes was born in Floresville, Tex., on December 5, 1919. He was a major in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross during the North African campaign. He is founder of the American GI Forum and served as its national chairman for 2 years. He is a recipient of the United Nations Human Rights Award and the GI Forum National Leadership Award. Mr. Ximenes you are truly a distinguished witness and we look forward with great anticipation to your testimony.

On Mr. Ximenes' left is Mr. Roberto "Olly" Olivas, who recently arrived in Washington from Carpinteria, Calif., where he was elected to three terms of office in the city council and served in the capacity of mayor pro tem. Currently he is national services officer for the Southwest Council of La Raza, an organization working nationally for the betterment of Mexican-Americans and other Spanish-speaking groups. His interest in the health and mental health of the Spanish-speaking stems from his work on the Southwest Task Force on Rehabilitation Services, which helps to organize Mexican-Americans in various phases of the health and mental health system.

Both Mr. Ximenes and Mr. Olivas have statements.

We will next hear from Mr. Ximenes and will you be so kind as to introduce Mr. Ochoa, who is on your right, sir?

TESTIMONY OF VICENTE T. XIMENES, VICE PRESIDENT FOR FIELD
OPERATIONS, THE NATIONAL URBAN COALITION; ACCOMPANIED
BY ROBERTO "OLLY" OLIVAS, NATIONAL SERVICES OFFICER,
SOUTHWEST COUNCIL OF LA RAZA, AND RALPH M. OCHOA,
DEPUTY DIRECTOR, GREATER LOS ANGELES URBAN COALITION
Mr. XIMENES. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Diaz from New York was supposed to be the third person here representing the Urban Coalition. Mr. Ralph Ochoa is from Los An

geles. He is the deputy director of the Los Angeles Urban Coalition and an attorney and civic leader. He has a statement to make after I have made mine and I would like to proceed in that fashion because I would like to have the Urban Coalition's point of view presented together.

Mr. EDWARDS. You may proceed. Mr. Ochoa is a personal friend of the chairman and we welcome him.

Mr. XIMENES. I am not going to go over ground that the Congressman presented. He gave you some rather fascinating statistics, many of which I have included in my statement and I will try not to repeat them.

I have a report that was prepared by the Washington, District of Columbia chapter of the GI Forum that I would like to submit for the record, because it is a very comprehensive report of Federal employment throughout this Nation. It gives the data agency by agency for a 3-year period.

It gives you a chance to compare progress or nonprogress.

So I would submit that for the record and then just give you the highlights of that report.

Mr. EDWARDS. Without objection, it will be included in the record. (The information referred to appears at page of this document.) Mr. XIMENES. There are now some 10 million Spanish-speaking people in the continental United States. They represent about 6 percent of the total population. We hold about 2.9 percent of the Federal jobs in Government. We are therefore short something like 3.1 percent or an estimated 80,000 jobs.

Now that is really what we are shortchanged insofar as Federai employment is concerned. And that is using the 3-percent parity, which really is a very reasonable goal to attempt, because the Mexican-American is not the businessman of the Nation. He is in the labor force. He constitutes a much larger percentage in the labor force than he does in the population, so we are really being very reasonable in attaining 6-percent parity in Government employment.

Not as much as we ought to have, but certainly reasonable. We figure we lost, as a result of nonemployment in Federal Government, something like $13 billion since World War II. These are real losses, and means no housing, no education, no recreation, no opportunities, when you lose $13 billion as a result of nonemployment in the Federal Government.

In 1967 to 1969 there was some perceptible improvement in Federal hiring of the Spanish-speaking. The date has been presented to you so I will not repeat it.

During 1970 only 0.7 percent of all Federal positions, GS-13 through 15 were held by Spanish-speaking people. A total of 18, or 0.3 percent, of all Government supergrades were held by the Spanish-surnamed. These figures of 0.7 and 0.3 of course do not even approximate the 6percent parity.

Similar gross underrepresentation of the Spanish-speaking occurs in Federal positions in the Washington, D.C., area-the area in which policy, planning, resource and allocation, interpretation of legislative action; in short, top-level decisionmaking takes place. Only 0.4 percent of the total Metropolitan Washington area Federal work force is Spanish-speaking.