We hold that a democracy which fails to maintain the ideals and responsibilities, voiced by the founders of this Nation, by refusing equal opportunities to any part of its citizens or their children, is gravely endangered in these testing times.

For many years now research statistics have been broadcast which reveal beyond question that millions of our children are being denied the educational opportunities which should be their birthright.

Our penal institutions and our relief rolls are crowded with young people and older men and women who are illiterates. In many instances these unfortunates have been drawn into industrial centers and manufacturing States or those with tourist attractions, from States which today are financially unable to afford all their children adequate schooling.

It is true that the greatest need for Federal appropriations exists in Southern, Southeastern and some of the Middle Western States. But our Northern, Eastern, and far Western States have been heavily penalized by the Nation's failure to assist their sister States in their dire need. They in turn must pay heavy secondary costs of caring for the illiterates, the degenerates and the ineffectuals who, denied proper schooling and training, have turned to crime or given up the battle to maintain self respect and earn their own livelihood.

The problem has become most acute in rural districts of the South and Middle West. There underpaid and in many instances ill prepared teachers are trying to ground children in elementary educational fundamentals. If they fail to give them adequate training for good living they are scarcely to be blamed. Neither can the blame be put upon the education departments of these States which, with the least per capita wealth and taxable incomes, have the largest number of children to be schooled in proportion to the adult population. In many instances these States have made the most heroic efforts to make up for financial shortages with superior planning but the fact remains that they never can hope to attain in any measure the high educational standards of many of our States without direct Federal assistance.

The responsibility for rendering this assistance rests squarely upon the Federal Government and our delegated representatives who voice the demands and needs of our people in enacting Federal statutes. The necessities of 900,000 school teachers and administrators and the countless millions of children with whose training they are charged should not and cannot be ignored. The very life of our democarcy demands that we feed its roots by nourishing and developing the intelligence of its future citizens; and that we return adequate compensation to the teachers and other school forces upon whom this task devolves.

Personally I would urge the greatest possible simplification of Federal legislation to this end. I believe that the Federal Aid to Education Act should be an expression of fundamental conviction and policy that only by Federal appropriations can we give all our children equal educational opportunities and all our teachers the adequate training and compensation to which they are justly entitled. Secondly, I believe that it should be expressly stipulated that the major portion of these Federal appropriations should be set aside to eliminate the great inequalities now existing in salaries paid our

teachers in different sections of the country, especially in rural districts throughout the Southern States.

To accomplish this the percentage of Federal funds needed should be diverted to equalize the present disparity between the salaries paid white and Negro teachers. The thirteenth amendment freed our negro slaves and the fourteenth granted them the franchise. Under this fourteenth amendment it is unconstitutional and has so been declared under three recent decisions of the Nation's Supreme Court for any State to maintain a discriminatory wage scale for its teachers because of race or creed, or to deny any child educational opportunities for these reasons. The South, bled white by the Civil War, has been left too long to cope single-handed with the problem of educating the majority of the Negroes. They have found it impossible through local taxation to raise enough money for a well-balanced school program for both white and Negro children. It behooves the North and the East with their long established businesses and national concentration of wealth to lend a helping hand in solving these problems. Only in this way can the many inequalities now existing in our school systems be eliminated. We do not disparage the North and East for taking our cotton, minerals, bauxite, oil, timber, and other raw products and converting them into the finished products which yield such great profits. But we do insist that wealth must be taxed at its sources that fair return may be made to the many who have contributed so largely to the prosperity of the few.

Thirdly, I believe that a fair proportion of Federal funds for the Nation's schools should be set aside for adequate school buildings and other school facilities where they are most needed.

And, fourthly, that from 2 to 3 percent of the total proposed appropriations should be directed to the various State departments of education for administrative purposes in those States qualified by their needs to receive Federal school aid.

I think it would be advisable to eliminate that part of subhead C under section 7 of this proposed bill regarding the appointment and tenure of the personnel of State education departments. In my opinion this condition imposed upon commissioners of education and superintendents of public instruction opens the door for criticism from some who have opposed Federal aid to education on the grounds it might invite Federal control. No method could be devised to enforce the intent of this provision in States which do not have civil service. Those States operating under civil service do not need it. It is a matter of record that the character of the personnel of our State education departments is very high, frequently above the average of other State departments. Also as a rule the turn-over is very small in the personnel of State education departments operating under noncivil service. I therefore would omit entirely the last phrase of section 7 which reads: "If the appointment and tenure of the personnel of such departments (other than members of boards. within the State, elected officials therein, and the chief State school officer) is upon the basis of merit and efficiency and without regard to political considerations."

I do not believe that specific provision need be made for the children of migratory workers as the committee charged with the allotment of appropriations under this or any other Federal aid to education bill will have authority to deal with these needs.

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I would eliminate any provision for appropriations to cities to meet temporary inconveniences or overcrowding brought about by our national-defense program. Today there are approximately only two or three hundred localities with defense projects of any magnitude. Most of these are in States and cities with adequate taxable property and income to maintain a well-balanced school program for these additional children of defense workers. In fact the President might decline to approve Federal aid for education legislation which included such provision. States such as California, Pennsylvania, and New York where many of these defense projects are located, have enough taxable income and property to maintain their school systems without Federal assistance. I understand the President is opposed to the policy of assisting such States.

I regret to disagree with Gov. Paul McNutt, Dr. Floyd W. Reeves, Dr. Howard Dawson, and other outstanding educators on this point, but it seems to me that it would be better in this instance to concur with the House bill already introduced which proposes appropriations to provide for these defense projects. Should the President fail to approve this bill (if passed during this session of Congress) because of this one provision, the main essentials of the Federal aid to education bill would not be affected.

At this time I believe we should concentrate in the simplest possible terms on giving relief and assistance to underpaid school teachers, to the construction of permanent school bulidings, and a 2 to 3 percent of the total appropriations to the various State education departments qualified to receive Federal aid, thus working toward a high and equitable national standard of training and compensation for all teachers and school administrators and our goal of equal educational opportunities for all the boys and girls of our country.

The foregoing is a statement of my own personal opinion and not that of the advisory committee or the active management of the Federal Education Legislative Agency, Inc.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Scott.

There are two or three persons who merely wish to file statements for the record, who are probably waiting and want to leave. I have a note that Ralph D. Hetzel, Jr., wishes to file a statement for the

C. I. O.-is that true?

Mr. HETZEL. Yes.

STATEMENT OF RALPH D. HETZEL, JR., REPRESENTING CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS

Mr. HETZEL. I have here a statement from Philip Murray, the president of the C. I. O., in support of this bill, and I simply want to say, in introducing it, that you have heard expert testimony and therefore we don't seek to add to it. We simply seek to add what I think is the genuine expression of some four and a half million working people and their families, that this aid to the education of their children is essential and imperative at this time.

I will submit this statement of Mr. Murray.

The CHAIRMAN. We will be glad to have the statement.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT BY Mr. Philip Murray in Support of SenaTE BILL No. 1313, on BEHALF OF THE CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS, APRIL 30, 1941

The Congress of Industrial Organizations has been since its inception strongly in support of the principle of Federal aid to education. Mr. John L. Lewis placed a statement before this committee in support of a similar bill in March 1937.

The first convention of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1937 passed a resolution in support of the principle of Federal aid in schools and the general program laid down by the President's Advisory Committee on Education.

The President's committee itself has had the strong support of organized labor and a representative from the Congress of Industrial Organizations was a member of that committee.

Organized labor has always been in the forefront in seeking improved public education. It is well known that perhaps the strongest proponents of public education, when it first was contemplated in this country, were the organizations of working people.

The Congress of Industrial Organizations believes that democracy cannot be effective unless every child, no matter to what economic station he may be born, nor to what religion or color, shall have an educational opportunity limited only by his capacities to make use of that education. The technical experts before this committee have pointed out that this Nation is still woefully short of that goal in spite of the fact that it is foremost in the world.

The children who suffer most from the inequities of educational opportunity are the children of working people and farmers. The large part of this inequity exists because in the places where working people and farmers live there are not adequate facilities for education. After all it must be remembered that most of the children in American public schools are children of working people and working farmers.

It is on these grounds that the Congress of Industrial Organization, representing four and a half million American workers and farmers, is in support of this

measure.

The bill does not go as far as we would like to have it. We believe that substantially increased funds are necessary. We feel that there ought to be provision for increased adult education and vocational education in the bill, among other things.

However, we feel that it is most important to establish now the principle of Federal aid and we therefore urge the passage of the bill.

The adequate education of our children is just as important to the defense of our country and of our democratic ideals as the manufacture of arms. The neglect of this vital function of democracy at this time would be to throw away the substance for the husk. Guns alone cannot preserve democracy.

The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Logan. Your name and what you represent, please?

STATEMENT OF DR. RAYFORD LOGAN, CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON THE PARTICIPATION OF NEGROES IN THE NATIONAL DEFENSE PROGRAM

Dr. LOGAN. My name is Rayford Logan and I represent the Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the National Defense Program, an organization which is authorized to speak for several national, State, and local organizations situated in practically all points of the country.

This is a unique experience. My role as chairman of the Committee on the Participation of Negroes in the national-defense program has almost invariably been to protest against something that the Government was doing or failing to do. Our committee has had to appear

before Congressional committees to protest against the exclusion of colored men from the Army in our racial proportion to the total population. We are seeking even now an opportunity to protest to congressional investigating committees against the continued widespread discriminatory practices which undemocratically limit the training and employment of Negroes in defense industries.

It is, therefore, a very pleasant and a most unusual experience to be able to say that we endorse the spirit and philosophy of Senate bill 1313 as a first and necessary step in the direction of equal education for all the American people. We are especially pleased because, as the bill now stands, it contains a substantial assurance that the funds will be spent in accordance with that spirit and philosophy. Although I am appearing on behalf of a special minority group I wish to say that our voice is raised in behalf of others as well as of ourselves. If I speak only of Negroes, it is because of the fact that we are the most underprivileged minority. We need this legislation more than do any others. If we get the equality sought in this bill, it goes without saving that all others will have it.

I wish to urge the adoption of the bill as it now stands for two reasons. First of all, it is the bare minimum that Government can do in bolstering the morale of a depressed and dissatisfied one-tenth of the American population. It would be an act of supererogation for me to emphasize before this committee the importance of morale to the national program of total defense. The morale of our minority group has taken a terrific battering. Few of the racial elements in this country could have suffered as we have and still have their chins and thumbs up, a wan smile and a rugged resistance to subversive activities.

We suffered more than did any other group during the depression. To use a statement that has become an ineradicable description of American life up to now: "We were the first to be fired and the last to be hired." Even today when the national defense has given employment to hundreds of thousands, we Negroes are brutally excluded in large numbers. Almost within the shadow of the Capitol, the Glenn Martin Co. near Baltimore has some 17,000 white workers but not 1 Negro. As yet, Government has been unable or unwilling to exercise the necessary authority to correct this industrial totalitarianism that is as grievous to us as the totalitarianism of Europe is contrary to democratic ideals. Economically, we are still being Coventried.

It is encouraging, then, to find a measure before Congress into which the distinguished sponsors have themselves written an assurance of such equality as is possible within the framework of our existing institutions. That is the most encouraging element to us. It means more than it would if it had been necessary to amend an original law in order to give this ray of hope to a gloomy people. But, gentlemen of the committee, there is an inescapable corollary to what I have said just now. That corollary is this. It would be cruel beyond measure to raise our hopes and then crush them. It would have been better never to have led us to believe that a new spirit was pervading the Government. I earnestly urge in behalf of a people whose morale is declining every day, not to alter this bill in any way that will take its teeth out of it. You owe it to us not to betray us. You owe it to yourselves not to betray those democratic ideals which you have already written into this measure and which you are interposing as an