But I am not in favor of 5,000 boys and girls going to the far corners of the world. I want people to go who know, who are Senator SYMINGTON. If the idea is right, why aren't 5,000 better than nothing? Mr. ROLLMAN. I have sent too many young boys and girls in my own business all over the world. Senator SYMINGTON. What is your business? Mr. ROLLMAN. I am an inventor in shoe manufacturing. Mr. ROLLMAN. A shoe manufacturer. Senator SYMINGTON. Where do you make these shoes? Mr. ROLLMAN. I make shoes in Waynesville, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, in every country in Central and South America, and in Africa and India, and I have seen terrible danger when young people go. All young people who have gone wanted to have a ball. You will not create peace by having a ball. Senator SYMINGTON. Have a what? Mr. ROLLMAN. A ball-you know, having a good time. does not work, the excitement at the front. That just The only way how we have fared well, and so have other countries, is sending married couples with their families, and letting them live there, and preferably retired people who have that certain feeling, “I can still use my skills; I am not as much deadwood as everybody wants me to believe." Senator SYMINGTON. So then your chief criticism of the Peace Corps, with which you agree in principle, is that there are not enough people and they are not old enough? Mr. ROLLMAN. And I do not think that an agency can administer it. I think the administration of a Peace Corps has to be handled by as important a position in our form of government as the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense. I believe that is the basic difference, as I see it, from what I proposed in my book. I believe sending you see, when we send 5,000 little boys and little girls overseas, and five come back and five leave pregnant girls overseas, that will travel all over the world. If we send millions of people, the rest of the world will understand there will be some lemons. Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you, sir. Mr. ROLLMAN. Thank you, sir. Senator SPARKMAN. Mr. F. Robert Melina, executive director, Peace Corps desk, National Catholic Welfare Conference, Washington, D.C. STATEMENT OF F. ROBERT MELINA, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE PEACE CORPS DESK, NATIONAL CATHOLIC WELFARE CONFERENCE Mr. MELINA. My name is F. Robert Melina. I am executive secretary of the Peace Corps desk of the National Catholic Welfare Conference and a member of the New York staff of Catholic Relief Services, the oversea agency of the bishops of the United States. I am testifying in both capacities. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the great majority of private organizations which have been engaged in relief and social welfare work overseas since the end of the Second World War are deeply conscious of the hiatus in the vast oversea aid programs conducted by the Government of the United States. NEED THE PEACE CORPS CAN MEET Those of us who have lived for extended periods of time among the penurious, the diseased, the malnourished, the illiterate peoples of the earth realize how great is the need for skilled and semiskilled personnel to act as catalytic agents for the improvement of the socioeconomic conditions of those peoples. This great need, this challenge to the self-sacrifice and ingenuity of the people of the United States, can be met, to a significant extent, by the Peace Corps. For this reason, Catholic Relief Services-National Catholic Welfare Conference warmly supports the legislation recently proposed, which would give permanence to the program established by Executive order of the President of the United States on March 1 of this year. At this point, may I be permitted to thank this distinguished committee for the serious consideration being given to the means of implementing this bold and imaginative proposal. The Peace Corps can be an effective means of directly assisting needy people of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and other areas, to raise their own living conditions above subsistence levels. Their great potential can be realized to the extent that maximum flexibility and freedom are afforded to the Peace Corps participant and the organization through which he will serve. ROLE CONTEMPLATED FOR PRIVATE VOLUNTARY AGENCIES We were happy to note that at the very inception of the program an important role was contemplated for private voluntary agencies. Because of their long experience, because of their objectives, and because they have long been a symbol of the generosity of the American people, they are in a position to be an important partner in this endeavor. PARTICIPATION OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN PEACE CORPS ACTIVITIES It has recently been said that the Peace Corps should not sign contracts with religious groups. We should like to observe that we see a clear distinction between a religiously sponsored activitysuch as a project for socioeconomic development, a cooperative, a clinic or hospital-and religious activity such as catechetical work and other activities which have conversion as their goal. There should be no difficulty in seeing the difference between welfare and humanitarian projects carried out by people of religious conviction and activities which are strictly concerned with conversion, catechetics, et cetera. Catholic Relief Services-a Catholic supported and sponsored organization has worked throughout the world to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, succor the sick without regard to race or creed. We have operated for years in Christian and non-Christian areas. We expect to go on doing so. If the Peace Corps wishes to use the facilities of this agency, we are prepared to cooperate. We are prepared to take Peace Corpsmen without regard to their religious affiliation on our staff. Religious people should be proud of the Peace Corps venture. It is a tribute to religiously sponsored activities, carried on so successfully by voluntary agencies of different religious persuasions, over many years. To those who have difficulties accepting participation by religious groups, we offer this additional consideration: The program is to be carried out on a contractual basis. The agency will be provided with personnel and funds and will undertake specific tasks. Voluntary agencies will do the work which they are asked to do that is, to assist in the socioeconomic development of the underdeveloped areas. The motive of a religious agency does not affect the contract. This must be obvious to those who are aware of the many contracts signed between the U.S. Government and religiously sponsored voluntary agencies. I cite the Public Law 480 contracts as well as the U.S. escapee program contracts as outstanding examples. NEED FOR CAUTION IN SELECTION OF PROJECTS AND CHOICE OF PERSONNEL Inasmuch as the proposed $40 million budget of the Peace Corps would permit placement of an estimated 5,500 Peace Corps workers throughout the world, it is imperative that great caution be exercised in the selection of projects and the choice of personnel to implement them. Peace Corpsmen will be entering countries tormented by hunger, disease, and illiteracy, but whose people have nevertheless a deep consciousness of their own dignity, their great traditions and profound spiritual values. The volunteers can successfully meet the challenge they face only if they treat the people of their assigned host countries with true compassion for their needs, accompanied by sincere respect for their cultures and aspirations. EACH VOLUNTEER'S POTENTIAL If we were to conceive of the value of the Peace Corps, rendered in numerical terms alone, it would be fair to estimate that the 5,500 Peace Corps volunteers would, within 1 year, have influenced the thoughts and actions of half a million people. This realistic goal of reaching the mass should not make us lose sight of the fact that Peace Corpsmen and their activities will also have influenced key people in many countries. The potential of each volunteer is limitless. In aiming to reach the maximum number of persons at the barrio, the village, the tribal level, the Peace Corps must seek the medium closest to the inhabitants of these rural communities, the medium through which the volunteers will be able to best impart knowledge of their technical and agricultural skills as well as their enthusiasms for the values of free institutions. SUPPORT FOR PEACE CORPS AIMS To achieve this, Catholic Relief Services gives its full support to the enunciated aims of the Peace Corps: * * * to provide skilled manpower to developing nations through * * * grants to Peace Corps-type programs carried out by private agencies. This would result in the expansion of the existing voluntary agency activities using dedicated Americans overseas, and in the encouragement of other private organizations to undertake such projects. * * * It is important that the Peace Corps supplement and extend the early pioneering efforts of the private agencies rather than bypass them or swallow them up in a Federal program. It was the success of these private efforts which led to the development of the Peace Corps idea. The variety and experimental quality of these projects must not be lost. The quotation is taken from the Peace Corps Factbook, page 16. If this avowed objective is not lost sight of or frustrated administratively, and we are confident that this will not occur, we believe that the Peace Corps will be one of the most successful and least costly of our oversea aid effort. Thank you very much for the opportunity to make this statement in favor of S. 2000. Senator SPARKMAN. Thank you. Senator Gore? PARTICIPATION OF RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN PEACE CORPS ACTIVITIES Senator GoRE. In your statement, you said : We should like to observe that we see a clear distinction between a religiously sponsored activity-such as a project for socioeconomic development, a cooperative, a clinic or hospital-and religious activity such as catechetical work andMr. MELINA. Catechetical. Senator GORE. I did not miss badly. [Laughter.] Senator GORE (reading): * other activities which have conversion as their goal. You heard the testimony of Dr. Van Deusen? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator GORE. He said that in his view, the churches could not accept infringement upon their missionary activities. Now, aren't you talking about the same thing here-missionary activities? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator GORE. And other activities which have conversion as their goal? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator Gore. As I take it, you would not accept a contract which would inhibit the activities of your church group? Mr. MELINA. That is correct. Senator GORE. Missionary activity or activity with conversion as the goal? Mr. MELINA. That is correct, sir. Senator GORE. But like Dr. Van Deusen, you think that there may be an area of cooperation such as you have described here in which the two can have a mutually beneficial relationship? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator GORE. Thank you. Senator SPARKMAN. Senator Aiken. NATURE OF POSSIBLE COOPERATIVE ARRANGEMENTS WITH THE PEACE CORPS Senator AIKEN. Is it your anticipation, Mr. Melina, that your organization might be asked to assume responsibility for certain programs of the Peace Corps in certain areas? Mr. MELINA. It is conceivable. Senator AIKEN. How would you contemplate cooperation between your organization and the Peace Corps? Mr. MELINA. We would make suggestions; we have already made some, to the Peace Corps Senator AIKEN. I see. Mr. MELINA (continuing). About possible projects which might be carried on in the field, which are strictly of a socioeconomic nature, development nature. Senator AIKEN. Would you assume that the Peace Corps in Washington might ask your organization to assume responsibility for recruiting personnel and perhaps having at least partial oversight of programs in certain areas or countries? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator AIKEN. That is the way you understand it? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir. Senator AIKEN. And you do not anticipate that helping recruit for the Peace Corps would interfere in recruiting for your own organization's work overseas? Mr. MELINA. No, sir; we do not. Our lay missionary activity overseas will go on. We are very happy to help in the recruitment for Peace Corps. We have, I personally have, published several stories in the Catholic press. We feel that the people who are interested in doing lay missionary work for the Catholic Church overseas have a different type of motivation. They will never be attracted to the Peace Corps. Senator AIKEN. And they would be more permanent? Senator AIKEN. Whereas you would recruit persons for a temporary 2 or 3 years' service with the Peace Corps? Mr. MELINA. Yes, sir; correct, sir. Senator AIKEN. Thank you. That is all. INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS GROUPS-PEACE CORPS DISCUSSIONS Senator SYMINGTON. Mr. Melina, as I understand the previous testimony, at no time has the Peace Corps approached any religious organization or group or church; they have only received people who represented various faiths and listened to them, but that the initiation of the idea has come from the group or groups in question; is that the way you understand it? Mr. MELINA. That is correct, sir. Senator SYMINGTON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Melina. |