indispensable ideological barrier to world domination by totalitarianism. We urge the passage of this bill as it now stands for a second reason. That reason is also geared to total defense but it is practical rather than ideological. A low morale of one-tenth of the population means that there can be no total defense. But this one-tenth can contribute more than just morale. It can, if given the opportunity, acquire the same skills in any field that any other individuals can. There are perhaps those who doubt this. These doubters remind me very much of the attitude in the camp of the American Expeditionary Forces near Bordeaux in World War I. Colored soldiers were generally prevented from driving an automobile because they were thought incapable of learning to drive. We laugh today at that attitude. But there are those who said Negroes could not become aviators. Fortunately, some officials in the War Department realized that, so long as you prevent men from doing something, you can plausibly argue that they cannot do it. And so today, Negroes are demonstrating at Tuskegee that, given equal opportunity, they can fly a plane with all the coolness and skill that aviators of any other group can. In spite of all kinds of handicaps we have developed scientists, technicians, mechanics, craftsmen. The Government needs all the capable men it can find. The laws of physics are not violated because a skillful black hand operates the machine. The laws of chemistry know no color line. The trajectory of a bullet or of a bomb will not vary simply because a black finger pulled the trigger or released the bomb. But you must give our youth an opportunity to learn modern methods on modern equipment. It is in this respect that this measure can be most helpful. All too many of our southern youth are not receiving any vocational training or vocational training that is outmoded and even antiquated. This Nation was greatly handicapped in its total national defense. in the First World War and it is handicapped today by unwise educational policies which have denied to one-tenth of the population equal opportunities for every kind of education. In the last war the serious and almost inexcusable mistake was committed of trying to make artillerymen out of colored soldiers who came from regions where education had been denied them that would permit them to master the requirements for artillery. I am reliably informed that the same distressing situation is developing in this war. For obvious reasons many of the camps have been located in the South. For equally obvious reasons, since southern Negroes constitute a considerable portion of this racial minority, a large number of colored soldiers from the South are in those camps. But this is the very region in which the most glaring inequalities have obtained. The United States could afford perhaps to maintain this inequality, in peacetime, without evident great danger to herself. But now that total defense means just that, and not one whit less, we are paying an extremely high price for these inequalities. The Government of the United States has adopted a policy of assigning colored soldiers to every branch of the United States Army. I am convinced that the proud representatives of any section of the United States would not want the stigma attached to them of having deliberately prevented the qualifying of any soldiers from their section for any branch of the United States Army or for service to their section and their Nation in defense industries. At this very minute, however, unless the change has taken place in the last few days, there is not a single vocational course for colored students in the Huntington High School of Newport News, Va., the center of a vast shipbuilding industry. There are vocational courses for white students in this city but colored students have to pay 20 cents carfare to go to Hampton Institute and return if they desire training in courses that are of vital importance to total national defense. Contrast this with what has been done in Washington, D. C., for example. Dr. Charles Houston who appeared before this committee yesterday, and I, were both officers in the last war. We, like many other colored officers in World War I, received our early military training in the excellent high school cadet corps of this city. A considerable number of the colored officers of the United States Army today are similarly products of this cadet corps. And, gentlemen of the committee, I particularly ask you to note this. Practically all of the colored officers in the United States Army today are graduates of colleges north of the Potomac and of the Ohio. This is due in large measure to the fact that the only two colored universities that have senior R. O. T. C. units, namely Howard and Wilberforce, are located in Washington, D. C., and in Ohio. I realize that this bill deals with only primary and secondary education in public schools. But what I am trying to point out is this. The inequalities that exist in the elementary and secondary schools south of the Potomac and the Ohio are a part of the general picture of inequality that has prevented a single one of the 17 colored land-grant colleges from having a senior R. O. T. C. unit. The proposed legislation will not change this situation overnight. But who would venture to predict how much time will be required to prevent world domination by the totalitarian powers? And who would be so bold as to deny that this threat to American institutions and ideals may recur 25 or 50 years from now and that just as this menace is greater than was that of the first World War, the next danger may be just so much greater than this one? The totalitarian. powers threaten our institutions, our way of life, our very existence perhaps because they utilize scientifically and skillfully the full energy and the skills of all of their people. We can meet that menace only by total national defense. I beg you therefore to recommend and to vote for this bill as a clarion declaration of your determination to reassure one-tenth of the American people that you are not unmindful of them and to demonstarte to the totalitarian powers that in public education at least the Government of the United States is prepared to take an indispensable first step in the direction of equal opportunities of all the American people whether they live in the North or in the South, in rich States or in poor States, in cities or in rural areas, and whether they be white or black. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Dr. Logan. Mr. L. H. Dennis, Executive Secretary of the American Vocational Association. STATEMENT OF L. H. DENNIS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, Mr. DENNIS. I take it, Senator Thomas and Senator Ellender, that the only thing of interest to you in any presentation from our group would be our position on the bill, and very briefly why. There are many reasons why the American Vocational Association is supporting this bill. Most of those reasons have been adequately presented in previous testimony. One of our reasons was very effectively presented by Senator Ellender this morning. There are two reasons which I can state very briefly, which apply specifically to the field of vocational education, which give us added reason for supporting this bill. In the first place, if school districts have difficulty in maintaining the usual school facilities, then they have added difficulties in attempting to provide additional facilities in vocational education, and the spread of necessary occupational adjustment training facilities is thereby retarded. In the next place and this has been brought out very significantly in the large and effective program of defense training we have found from experience through the years, emphasized in this defense-training program, that if we can have in these vocational classes youth and adults who have a good sound, fundamental general education, the vocational training is much more effective. Now those are two reasons which in themselves would make our group throughout the United States interested in having the schools of this country, in the various communities in this country, in a position where they could adequately finance the entire educational program, including the program of vocational education. We would like to let our case rest with that and ask permission to file this simple statement. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, Mr. Dennis, we will be glad to have it. (The statement referred to is as follows:) The program of vocational education under public school auspices is a part of the program of public education designed to assist our youth and adults in fitting themselves for successful and happy living. The vocational education phase of this program of public education devotes itself to assisting youth and adults in making their occupational adjustments and readjustments. It is concerned with fitting youth and adults for employment in various occupations. The very successful vocational training program now being carried on to prepare workers for essential defense industries is an emergency vocational training program. The experience of many years in the field of vocational education has clearly demonstrated the wisdom and the necessity of giving our people as thorough and as broad a fundamental education as possible. Specific vocational training is more effective when given to a group of youth or adults who have had the benefit of a sound program of general education. For this reason, the vocational education leadership in this country is strongly in favor of ample provision for a strong fundamental program in education. Communities that do not have sufficient resources to provide necessary facilities in the field of general education are doubly handicapped when it comes to providing additional facilities in the field of vocational education. For this reason, many communities throughout the United States have, as yet, no vocational training facilities. The American Vocational Association, representing over 24,000 vocational leaders throughout the country, favors financial assistance to the school districts of this country, through a proper system of Federal aid for education. therefore give our support to S. 1313, the bill now pending in Congress. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Paul M. Cook. We STATEMENT OF WILLARD E. GIVENS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION Mr. GIVENS. Mr. Paul M. Cook and Ira Kline, the president of Phi Delta Kappa, had to leave for an installation at George Washington University, and they asked me to file this statement in favor of S. 1313 for them. I also ask that the two letters addressed to me be made a part of the record. The CHAIRMAN. Thank you. We are glad to have them. (The statement and letters referred to are as follows:) Senator ELBERT D. THOMAS, Chairman Senate Committee on Education and Labor, PHI DELTA KAPPA, Washington, D. C. Honorable SIR: In behalf of Phi Delta Kappa, a professional fraternity composed of nearly thirty thousand men engaged in professional education, largely as teachers and administrators, we endorse the provisions of Senate bill 1313 providing for financial support of public elementary and secondary schools at present restricted in their efficiency because of insufficient financial support. We believe that the provisions of this bill are in the best interests of education the Nation over and essential to an adequate system of education for total national defense. We maintain that an adequate and fairly equalized educational opportunity for the youth of our Nation is vital to national defense and second in importance only to adequate military defense. We therefore urge the adoption of Senate bill 1313 and pledge our unqualified support of the principles of (1) equalized educational opportunity; and (2) education for national defense. We wish to state that the support of the bill by Phi Delta Kappa is contingent upon retention in the final draft of the principle involved in the statement of policy, line 23, page 2, through line 18, page 3. Respectfully, Dr. WILLARD E. GIVENS, Executive Secretary, National Education Association of the United States, 1201 Sixteenth St. NW., Washington, D. C. DEAR DR. GIVENS: In your letter of April 17 you requested a statement showing the need for Federal aid to education in the State of Ohio. Ohio has a program of State support for its public schools which goes a long way toward eliminating inequalities due to differences in wealth. We do have, though, two or three problems which have become more serious due to the uncertainty of further local support. We have very few districts operating under a single salary schedule. We have raised the standard for elementary teachers requiring 4 years of training. In all fairness, the elementary teachers should now receive the same salary as high school teachers. To bring about this equality, it would require at least $4,000,000 in Ohio. We do not have any problem arising from court decisions pertaining to Negro teachers. In fact, we have a very small percent of Negro teachers in our State. Ohio, one of the leading industrial States of the Union, has been selected by the Federal Government for some of its largest plants for the making of defense materials. These plants are being erected very rapidly and thousands of people are migrating into sections where they are located. This influx of population will render a hardship on local school districts due to the lack of school facilities. The areas around Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus, Ravenna, Canton, and Sandusky will find it most difficult to meet the problem unless the Federal Government renders some assistance. At the rate at which the influx of population is taking place now, I estimate that it will take at least $2,000,000 to provide additional school facilities in the areas mentioned above. Under the laws of the State there is no way for the above districts to secure immediate educational funds for this purpose. There are also in the State several large Government reservations such as the one located near Wright Field, Dayton, and the Federal Hospital and Prison at Chillicothe. There has always been a legal question as to how far the State can go toward paying for the education of children located on these reservations. There is no legal way to collect tuition. During the past few years there has been an increasing migration of families from Southern States into the industrial areas of Ohio. This migration was accelerated by the present defense program. Our State has a tax limitation making it necessary for local districts to vote additional funds for school operation. While it is true in the past we have been quite successful in voting these levies, we are quite fearful with the additional Federal tax, which seems imminent, that the voting of these levies will be much more difficult, if not impossible. I see quite a danger in this to the schools of Ohio. In fact, I am afraid that unless there is Federal assistance, the next 2 or 3 years will see many schools forced to close in Ohio or curtail their school programs. If there is any assistance our department can render toward securing the passage of Senate bill 1313, please call upon us for we realize that something desperate must be done. DEAR MR. GIVENS: Minnesota faces a difficult problem in the equalizing of educational opportunities among the children enrolled in its schools. A wide disparity of taxpaying power influenced the State to set up a system of aids to care for the situation and specifically established a system of supplemental aids under which the State would come to the assistance of the local school districts when a 30-mill levy for maitenance proved insufficient to support a minimum educational program. Fundamentally this aid is sound and would meet the needs of the State except that funds are not available for the payment of the aid. To meet the situation it has been necessary to prorate aids at as little as 50.2 percent, leaving some school districts in a position where they have not been able to carry on and attempts to provide additional funds for distressed school districts have failed through a lack of funds. Our opinion is that the needs of schools in Minnesota can be effectively met only through revenues which would be made available through Federal assistance and, therefore, urge you to use every effort in securing the enactment of S. 1313. The above-mentioned needs will be accentuated as defense contracts more and more bring children into schools adjacent to defense areas, in which districts current revenue is already inadequate to meet the needs of a minimum educational program. Very sincerely yours, WALTER E. ENGLUND, Executive Secretary. The CHAIRMAN. Dr. Howard H. Long. STATEMENT OF DR. HOWARD H. LONG, REPRESENTING THE ASSOCIATION OF PRESIDENTS OF LAND GRANT COLLEGES FOR NEGROES Dr. LONG. Mr. Chairman and members of the Senate Subcommittee on Education and Labor: I appear on behalf of (1) the presidents of land-grant colleges for Negroes in States where these institutions are maintained separately by law for Negroes; (2) the American |