such units working, one out of Hibbing, one out of Virginia, and one out of Duluth. Timber stand improvement work was done in county forest plantations and county forest lands. Site selections for the timber stand improvements were made by Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation foresters and county land commissioners. The general term "timber stand improvement" is used to describe the type of work which was done. Survival of young trees can be aided by removing competition such as grass, weeds, and brush. We weed our gardens to achieve this. As the trees become larger, we may keep them crowded or remove the lateral buds from the terminal branch to encourage height growth. We might remove some of the trees to allow more growing space and encourage a more rapid growth. If our interest is in Christmas trees, clipping back the growing branch tips will aid in producing the desirable bushy compact tree. Trees crowded at an early age will tend to become tall and will have relatively few branches on the lower stems. Some crowding in a stand is desirable in the production of pulpwood. Crowding and removal of lower branches in the lower crown will aid in the production of piling and bridge timbers. Logs for lumber should be large, straight, and free from knots. To produce sawtimber, the trees should be given as much space to grow as they can use and their lower branches should be removed to reduce the size and number of knots in the lumber. Production of resins, sap, and fruit, or nuts are greatly increased if each tree has ample room for expansion and the crown is allowed to fully develop. Available moisture, side and overhead sunshine are more important than growth rate of the tree when these products are desired. Timber stand improvement practices are more profitably employed in the production of quality products for specific markets. A large demand for timber products will enable the forests manager to profitably apply a variety of cultural practices to his timberlands. A limited market reduces the number of different cultural practices that may be used profitably, and may often cause monetary loss to those owners not willing to properly care for their timber producing lands. This type of work is something of a long range nature. Immediate cash returns are not immediately available but in the long run this type of work greatly improves the quality and quantity of timber, therefore, natural growth, following good practices bring a higher cash value to the timber stand owner. In addition to providing improvements on county timber stands, this program provides gainful summer employment to a number of boys in certain northern Minnesota areas to enable them to continue their education. The boys are not only given gainful employment during the summer but they receive valuable training in conservation and in working together. In a few years the cultural work they have accomplished will begin to show as a reflection in an increased growth rate of quality timber products. When the trees mature and are sold the approximately $30,000 expended on this project will be returned in full in addition to providing quality material to better support local timber-using industries. For the coming summer this program of timber stand improvement work has been expanded to include additional boys in Aitkin, Cass, and Lake Counties. This comming summer this department intends to employ approximately 200 boys for a period of 5 weeks each, plus 8 foremen to work on county and State lands in the northeastern part of the State. In addition to the timber stand improvement work in county forests, part of these boys will be employed in work in State parks and camping areas. On the parks program the work is as follows: 1. To develop new camping areas by brushing and cleaning. 2. Plant additional shrubs and trees to use as a screen. 3. Replace shrubs and trees to repair heavily used areas. 4. Brush and clean for scenic vistas, and also to do thinning and pruning in the heavy timbered areas of the parks. This work in the parks is also a very much needed project, due to the increased use of our State parks and camping areas and the lack of funds in the State parks department for such improvement work. We hope the foregoing information will be of some benefit to you in your fight for the creating of a new Youth Conservation Corps. Sincerely yours, KAARLO J. Otava, Commissiorer. U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE, Milwaukee, Wis., April 3, 1958. Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR HUMPHREY: Thank you for your thoughtfulness in sending a copy of your April 1 letter to Dr. Selke concerning his interest in the appropriation for assistance to States in tree planting and reforestation under title IV of the Soil Bank Act. The State of Minnesota under Dr. Selke's able leadership has a fine tree planting program underway. It is a much-needed program. Thank you also for the copy of your March 31 press release concerning your proposal for a Youth Conservation Corps. This is a most interesting proposal. There is even more natural resource work to do today than there was when the CCC program came into being in 1933. Very sincerely, A. W. GREELEY, Senator HUMPHREY. Furthermore, I wish to emphasize that while the benefits to the natural resources of the country will be concentrated in some States, the benefits in terms of improved human resources may very well be concentrated in other States with large metropolitan populations. A fourth point of discussion has concerned the opening of the corps to girls. I am sympathetic to a program for girls and young women. As many correspondents have pointed out, girls have difficult employment problems and potential delinquency problems as well as boys. The problems are many, of course, not the least of which is that the projects of the corps would involve heavy and arduous outdoor work. My feeling in this case, as in the question of accepting delinquent boys for a separate program, is that a study ought to be made of the possibility of a separate program for young women. I know that the Girl Scouts of America and the Campfire Girls have proved the healthful nature of outdoor recreation and training for girls. The question is only whether a work-education program for large numbers of young women within the Youth Conservation Corps would be feasible. EDUCATIONAL EMPHASIS The bill emphasizes that the purpose of the corps is to provide training and education as well as employment for young men. The present provisions of the bill under section 7(6) may be too restrictive. What is important, I believe, is that the administration of the corps should include a definite, specific educational program, certainly including both vocational training and remedial education for those who have been denied adequate basic educational opportunity for one reason or another. This provision in the bill is extremely important; it emphasizes that we are considering a program primarily concerned with the needs of young people. I can think of many ways in which existing school facilities, such as the classrooms and shops of consolidated high schools, could be used. Too, the provision of mobile classrooms, audiovisual equipment, and educational television facilities should be encouraged to make possible a flexible and effective program even in remote areas. 41258-59 Provision for qualified instructors might be made either through the regular appointment of educational advisers in the corps or through contractual arrangements with local school boards and educational institutions. COSTS OF THE CORPS The bill now provides that enrollees, in addition to their quarters, subsistence, transportation, equipment, medical and hospital services, would be paid a base salary of $78 per month. In many discussions of this point, I have come to the conclusion that it would be preferable to have an average salary of $78 per month, with a base or starting salary commencing at $60 per month, and step increases up to perhaps $110 per month. The bill provides in section 9(a) (2) for allotments of monthly pay, a provision which is designed in part to insure that the boys would have at least a small nest egg when they leave the corps. Under section 10 of the bill we provide that the Federal Employees Compensation Act will cover enrollees in the event of permanent disability or death. I recommend further that the bill be amended to insure that adequate sick leave and life insurance be provided for the enrollees. The bill looks toward an eventual enrollment of about 150,000 young men, about half the size of the Civilian Conservation Corps, plus supervisory personnel. It may well be that the committee will wish to authorize a first year's enrollment of a smaller number of enrollees, to permit the orderly establishment of the corps and to permit the construction of needed additional facilities. In this connection, I suggest that section 11 of the act be amended to provide that the corps shall be authorized to receive surplus materials from any other Federal agency. Once facilities have been established, and the corps is on a regularly operating basis, we estimate that the annual cost of maintaining each YCC enrollee, including pay and an amount for supervisors' salaries, would be about $2,500 a year, a very modest amount indeed for the return which we are convinced the American taxpayer will receive from the work of the corps. I know that the chairman, with his detailed knowledge of the operation of the CCC, will be able to develop in the report on the bill more specific estimates of cost. A WISE INVESTMENT In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I believe I am reflecting the feeling of each sponsor of this legislation when I say that the investment of public funds in such a Youth Conservation Corps would be a wise and prudent and businesslike decision. We have the magnificent record of the CCC. We have the more recent experience of youth camps. operated by States and local communities, pilot projects, in a sense, for what we are proposing. Above all, we have the overriding need to take action against two blighting and disheartening conditions in our society. In one act we can transform two liabilities, unemployed young boys on the one hand, and on the other, undeveloped, deteriorating public lands, into national assets. Seldom do we have such an obvious opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I strongly urge the committee, Mr. Chairman, to act favorably on this proposal, and to send it to the floor for early action by the full Senate. Also, Mr. Chairman, I have a number of letters from Governors relating to the Youth Conservation Corps, and I ask unanimous consent. to their inclusion. Those letters are from Governor Rosellini, of the State of Washington; Governor Brown, of the State of California; Governor Lawrence, of the State of Pennsylvania; Governor Chandler, of the State of Kentucky; and Governor Stratton, of the State of Illinois. Then I have a number of letters from our colleagues in the House and Senate. I ask that all of those be made a part of the record. Senator RANDOLPH. That will be agreeable. (The documents referred to follow :) Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, STATE OF IOWA, DEAR HUBERT: I have read with much interest S. 812 and the reprint from Harper's describing your proposed program for a Youth Conservation Corps. I find myself in solid agreement with the overall objectives of the program. I feel that it would make a substantial contribution to the solution of some of our problems in the area of juvenile behavior, particularly in the larger urban population centers, as well as a significant contribution to the preservation and redevelopment of the Nation's resources. There is one suggestion which I would like to offer, if I may. As I am sure you realize, there are many States, including Iowa, in which there is almost a complete absence of federally owned areas, or appropriate Federal lands, in which such young men might be usefully employed. My suggestion is this: that the director be empowered to enter into agreements with States for the use of the Youth Conservation Corps in State-owned parks and recreation areas. Incidentally, I would suspect that a modification of the type I have suggested would also be useful in your own State. I believe it would improve the degree of support the bill would receive by giving Congressmen from all States a more direct interest in the proposed legislation. I look forward to seeing you in Washington on the 27th or 28th of February. Cordially, Herschel, Governor. STATE OF WASHINGTON, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, Hon HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, Olympia, March 10, 1959. DEAR SENATOR HUMPHREY: This is in further reference to your letter of February 2 regarding Senate bill 812. Officials of our department of natural resources and department of institutions have now reviewed the proposed legislation and have indicated their support. Washington is blessed with an abundance of natural resources that can be used successfully in engaging boys in useful conservation tasks. We also have our share of the troublesome problem of juvenile delinquency. It is, therefore, our opinion that establishment of the Youth Conversation Corps, as contemplated by Senate bill 812, would prove a timely and valuable investment on behalf of the youth of our State and Nation. We are pleased to note that the proposed legislation is open not only to boys of welfare families, as was the policy with the CCC programs of 1933–42, but is available upon voluntary enlistment. Also, we feel that the act is commendable in fixing the basic rate of Army private pay as a salary base. On this basis, service to one's country can be favorably likened to the military by the enlistee in the YCC. We deem the proposed law noteworthy, also, because it recognizes that there are much needed conservation projects which may be profitably undertaken by tapping this labor resource. Could In reading the proposed act we find only one point that is not clear. such camps be delegated to State departments for operation? It may be well to consider an amendment, if required, which would permit the immediate supervision of the camp enrollees and their work assignments by State departments having responsibility for development and conservation of natural resources. It is my personal conviction that the problem which this legislation proposes to attack, by its complexity and size, requires a coordinated national approach as contained in Senate bill 812. This measure has my wholehearted support for its enactment and early implementation. Sincerely, ALBERT D. ROSELLINI, Governor. Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, STATE OF CALIFORNIA, GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, DEAR SENATOR: I was greatly interested in your article in Harper's Magazine concerning the Youth Conservation Corps. At the present time, in California, our youth authority which has jurisdiction over these boys is operating three State camps. In the 1957 session, we instituted a program of State subventions to counties, which provides that the State will pay one-third of the cost of maintaining similar camps at the county level. The progress under this legislation has been most heartening: 25 counties now have camps which are subsidized by the State and it is anticipated that 45 counties will be operating camps before the end of the year. In California, rather than place the emphasis upon State-operated camps, we have placed the emphasis on county-operated camps. We feel that it is advantageous to have the boys as close to home as possible, so that they may visit their relatives and may feel less isolated from their home environment. At the same time, we feel that the camp program is essential to the rehabilitation of youths and have chosen this means of subventions to our local county units to stimulate the development of camps. Sincerely, EDMUND G. BROWN, Governor. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, GOVERNOR'S OFFICE, Hon. HUBERT H. HUMPHREY, DEAR HUBERT: We have been studying the legislation you forwarded to us back in February. Generally speaking we are in favor of the things you propose in S. 812. The only possible suggestions or additions that we might have would be as follows: 1. That new conservation camps be held to 40 or 50 men with provisions for smaller work crews. The old CCC camps had a capacity of 200. 2. That there be provision for a system of promotions, thus making it possible for a youth to work his way up to a supervisory capacity. 3. That there be provision for conservation work on private land where the private owner will share the costs. I congratulate you on the work you have done and wish you well in your efforts to secure passage. With kindest regards, I am, Sincerely yours, DAVID L. LAWRENCE. |