RESOLUTION CONDEMNING PERSECUTION BY THE SOVIET UNION OF PERSONS BECAUSE OF THEIR RELIGION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP66B00403R000200190034-1
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 4, 2005
• Sequence Number: 34
• Publication Date: April 7, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN

196.E
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
alongside awaiting its turn. The workman
is explaining to his friend that the small
box contains an electronic data processing
system and in the big box are, of course, the
instruction manuals for the system.
MAGNITUDE OF PAPERWORK COSTS
To return to the serious side of our dis-
cussion this morning, the paperwork prob-
lem has been with us for a long time. As
many of you know, back in 1810 the House
of Representatives established a committee
to determine what was happening to im-
portant old public records and to provide
for the orderly preservation of them. The
emphasis then was on preservation, and
while the list of paperwork management
problems has expanded considerably, records
preservation is still extremely important.
The trick, of course, is to preserve the right
records- and have reasonable accessibility to
them. How many times have you set about
to research a problem and found that a
voluminous clutter of records is available
to you, but that the one record which would,
give you the answer to what you really need
to know is nowhere to be found.
I am sure much work was done on records
management between 1810 and 1934 when the
National Archives Act was passed which.
established the Office of the Archivist of the
United States, but it was not until 1943,
during World War II, that the Records Dis-
posal Act was put on the books. In tracing
this history briefly, we find that there was
a shift In emphasis over the years from rec-
ords preservation to records disposal.
Later, the Federal Records Act of 1950,
put the Federal records manager in business,
so to speak, and it was high time. Shortly
thereafter, the Hoover Commission esti-
mated the cost of the Federal Government's
paperwork at $4 billion a year. I think this
is a statistic we have been passing over all
too quickly, so let me suggest we refresh
ourselves about it for a minute. The Hoover
Commission reported that the lion's share
of the $4 billion, 70 percent or $2,800 million,
goes for creating records. They estimated
that 485,000 Federal Government employees,
or about one-quarter of all Federal workers,
were engaged in collecting, compiling, and
analyzing reports of all kinds. Almost all
of the remainder of the $4 billion was de-
voted to maintaining files and records.
About 1 percent of the total, which still is'
a large sum-$30 million-was used for the
records disposal program.
THE COST TO THE PUBLIC _
Now, whether you accept the Hoover Com-
mission's estimates or not, they are the best
figures we have so far on the dimensions of
our paper problem and, of course, they are
now almost 10 years old. More recent in-
formation leads us to believe that today we
are about holding our own; or, in other
words, we are disposing of about as many
papers each year as the Federal Government
is creating. And, if, as they tell us, the Fed-
eral records created each year laid end-to-end
would reach the moon 13 times, maybe we
ought to turn this whole problem over to
NASA. But I hate to think where we would
be today if our records disposal program did
not exist.
A good example of records disposal has
come to my attention, and I am sure you will
enjoy hearing about it. The example is cited
in an editorial which appeared in the Com-
mercial Appeal of Memphis, Tenn., on Feb-
ruary 6, 1964, and is one of the few kudos
I've seen for good records management work
outside of the trade journals. The editorial
is entitled "Bouquet for Census," and reads
as follows:
"Someone ought to make up a bouquet and
present it to the Census Bureau.
"Despite the rise of the microfilm method
of record keeping, there are times when we
wonder whether the population can keep its
head above the rising flood of stored Govern-
ment records.
"Now we are informed, by the Census
Bureau, that 1960 questionn$ires on popula-
tion and housing have already been de-
stroyed. There were 837 tons of them. As
wastepaper they were packed into 1,200-
pound bales. It took 20 freight cars and 17
trucks to move them out.
"But the main point is that this has been
done, and less than 4 years after they were
collected. A few more items like this will
give us hope that we can hold back the
flood."
The ' second observation I should like to
make is that if the cost to the Federal Gov-
ernment is $4 billion to make, maintain, and
dispose of its records each year, how much
is it costing individual citizens, businesses,
and manufacturing plants around the coun-
try to meet the paperwork requirements of
the Federal, State, and local governments?
Let's look at the problem in somewhat
more detail, and let's take first the situation
in which the small businessman finds him-
self. How much are Government reports
costing him, and how are they affecting him
otherwise?
The example I am going to give you is
actual and probably occurring more fre-
quently than you and I would like to think.
It comes to me from Congressman O'BRIEN,
of New York, and describes the plight of a
druggist back home in his district. The
druggist has a small business and hires one
or two employees to help him run it. After
a full day at the store, ordinarily one would
expect that the druggist could go home and
relax, but not so. He must go home and do
his bookkeeping, a significant amount of
which is generated by Government report
requirements. If this were the end of it, the
situation would be bad enough, but I have
not finished the example. The druggist finds
it necessary to hire an accountant, who gets
more money per hour than the druggist, to
prepare his income tax return and other
Government reports.
This is the very point I have made before.
Government reports can play havoc with the
small businessman and can go so far as to
turn his profits into losses. There are se-
rious side effects, too. These good, honest
people get the idea that the Government is
breathing down their necks and that the
Federal Government in Washington is al-
most an enemy, because of this heavy bur-
den of paperwork. These people want to
obey the law, but it is becoming increasingly
difficult for them because so much reporting
is required. We simply cannot allow the
causes of this type of feeling to go un-
checked, nor do we intend to.
Next, let's review the paperwork expe-
rience of a private corporation. Some of
you may remember that back in 1959 our
subcommittee looked into this matter, using
case histories of -individual companies. I
would like to read from our "Report on the
Business Reporting Requirements of the
Federal Government," citing the case history
of a large manufacturing company in the
Midwest:
"In 1 year, the company handled 173 dif-
ferent Federal forms ranging in frequency of
filing from daily to annual, and involving
the filing of 37,883 reports. The workload
amounted to 48,285 hours. In addition, the
company received a number of other Fed-
eral forms, presumably voluntary, which it
did not respond to because it objected to the
apparent duplication, felt that the data re-
quested were confidential, or for other rea-
eons. In this group were 33 different forms
which would have involved 1,098 reports and
an estimated workload of 424 hours.
Requests from State agencies which were
complied with included 63 different forms,
involving the filing of 1,145 reports at a cost
of 3,266 hours. State requests which were
not filed included 6 different forms which
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Requests from cities, other local govern-
ments, and private groups (e.g., trade asso-
ciations, chambers of commerce) which were
honored included 36 different forms requir-
ing 385 filings and 676 hours. Requests
from similar sources to which response was
not made included 27 different forms which
would have involved 110 reports and an esti-
mated cost of 234 hours.
It is noted that the proportion of total
workload attributable to Federal forms was
much greater in the case of this company
than has been observed in other cases. This
company deals largely in agricultural prod-
ucts, and 61 .percent of its Federal workload
comprised work on the U.S. Department of
Agriculture forms. In addition, the work-
load for the year included filing for the cen-
sus of manufactures, which is conducted only
once every 5 years. Hours chargeable to
the census forms amounted to 26 percent of
the total time spent on Federal forms.
It is probably true, however, that the
larger the company the greater the relative
impost of Federal filing requirements.
Many Federal inquiries are limited to the
larger enterprises, or require more detailed
reporting from the larger ones. The work-
load tends to vary also according to the na-
ture of the industry. Firms operating in -
an economic area in which the Federal Gov-
ernment has a strong regulatory interest,
such as agriculture or railroads, or a strong
procurement interest, such as aircraft and
missiles, are likely to have heavier reporting
burdens than firms in other areas.
Now in fairness to the Federal agencies,
I should say that they are often criticized by -
persons who do not know all the facts. In
our hearings last month on the 1963 Eco-
nomic Censuses, one witness complained
about a form used in the census of busi-
ness for restaurants and cafes or as the
Census Bureau calls them eating and drink-
ing places. The census schedule asks for
figures on sales of such things as clothing,
shoes, hardware, and many other mechandise
lines not usually associated with "eating and
drinking places". Our witness who comes
from New York, ridiculed this form and im-
plied that this was typical of government
bureaucracy at work. -
Now in New York City, I'm sure that most
eating and drinking places sell only food -
and beverages, but out in my district in
Montana, eating and drinking places sell
everything under the sun.
But some of these complaints are justified
and our subcommittee plans to look into
the businessman's cost for Federal reports
in connection with hearings to be held in
April and May. If we are unable to put a
dollar value on these costs, I think we'll be
able, at least, to state them in employee
manhours. My impression now is that, on
the average, the cost to the public for Fed-
eral reporting may be as high as 10 times
the cost to the Government. And, I will
predict to you now that before long we will -
require Federal agencies to submit a state-
ment about the cost of a survey or form to
the business community before the question-
naire can be placed in the mails. We may
not like to do this, but in my opinion, we
will be forced to do it.
PAPERWORK AND EDP -
Now, I would like to turn to the subject
of EDP and briefly discuss its effect upon
the paperwork problem. I would liek to
quote from my speech in the House on
February 8, as regards EDP:
"The possibilities of paperwork reduction
through or as a byproduct., of electric data
processing automation in the Government
are enormous. Exploration of machine-to-
machine reporting is only in its infancy, but
a few applications reported by the agencies
suggest what the future has in store. As
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE April 7
described in this repor:, an outstanding ex-
ample of paperwork reduction through in-
teragency data exchange is the Treasury
Department's arrangement whereby the
Division of Disbursements receives check
issue information on magnetic tape from a
number of cooperating; agencies (Veterans'
Administration, Department of Health, Edu-
cation, and Welfare, Internal Revenue Serv-
ice, and others). Another example Is the
arrangement whereby the Bureau of Old-
Age and Survivors 1n3urance (BOASI) re-
ceives Federal Insuran:e Compensation Act
(FICA) earnings statements on magnetic
tape; some 4 million earnings items are re-
ceived quarterly, 3 million from the Armed
Forces and 1 million from State agencies and
private employers. A third, which may point
the way to greater paperwork savings, is the
Census Bureau's use of BOASI Data and em-
ployer identification r_umbers in the 1963
Censuses of Business e-id Manufactures."
In my speech, I wens on to say that some
of us are disappointed so far, in that EDP
in some cases has actually Increased the
paperwork flow and I cited the 600 million
forms now used by the Internal Revenue
Service in the collection of Income taxes.
I may have been a little severe on the In-
ternal Revenue Service In my remarks, and
Mr. Caplan told me as much in a four-page
single-spaced letter. But. I plan to pursue
this matter further in our hearings. I have
never understood why the financial and
banking agencies are exempt from the Fed-
eral Reports Act of 1942, especially when
they are among the worst offenders when
it comes to the proliferation of paperwork.
Nor do I understand why It is necessary
for the Treasury Department to retain In-
come tax forms and other records for as long
as 30 years. As a lawyer and former attorney
general of my State, I can understand keep-
ing records for a reasonable period of time,
If only because of the delays in the courts
and the statute of limitations, but what
about the records storage costs involved in
these systems. We wi;l soon have 100 mil-
lion persons filing income tax returns each
year and the information retrieval problems
must be enormous. In contrast, we have
the example of the 1300 census schedules
which have already been destroyed, as I
described earlier.
Speaking of EDP, r wonder how many of
you have actually stood In front of a high-
speed printer. I don't mean the 1,200 lines
per minute outputs of .he printers now gen-
erally In use, but thenew generation printers
with speeds up to 3,030 lines per minute.
These machines spew out paper at such a
tremendous speed that. If you do stand in
front of them, you would literally be buried
in paper in a matter of minutes. One of
these machines could engulf this room In
printed paper in no time at all.
How important It is, then, that the entire
EDP system be intelligently managed and
monitored; and how important it is that we
bring the best management tools at our
command to this new technology. These and
other EDP matters are discussed in consider-
able detail In our subcommittee report on
the "Use of Electronic Data Processing
Equipment In the Federal Government," re-
leased last October.
WHERE DO WE GD FROM HERE7
In my remarks this morning, I have had
to highlight certain aspects of the paper-
work problem. I have not discussed. for In-
stance, information retrieval via EDP and
the work of my colleague, Congressman Pu-
crNSxl, is doing In this area, nor the study
the Library of Congress has undertaken re-
garding the feasibility of automating some
of its operations, your own correspondence
management projects, and so on. I m afraid
this is one of our problems. We have so
many paperwork projects, there Is a real
question as to whether we can do all of them
justice and keep our eye on the ball at the
same time.
Before closing, I want to say that the Sub-
committee on Census and Government Sta-
tistics Is going tb continue to fight in this
paperwork jungle. We are planning hear-
ings in April and May. Throughout, we are
hopeful that we will have your support and
that you will use your excellent vantage
point to lighten the Government paperwork
burden on the citizens and businessmen of
this country. I know that most of you have
active programs in paperwork reduction, but
If you don't, you certainly should. If you are
in doubt as to how to proceed, you might
contact the Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion, which, In my opinion, hasdone an out-
standing job In this matter, and I praised
them for It on the floor of the House.
Also, If any of you have any suggestions
which should be Included in our forthcoming
hearings, please get in touch with me or the
staff. It may come as a surprise to some of
you that under the Legislative Reorganiza-
tion Act of 1946, the House Post Office and
Civil Service Committee has jurisdiction in
matters concerning the National Archives and
this responsibility has been delegated to our
subcommittee. So, your ideas and. sugges-
tions are doubly welcome.
One last word before I close. We don't as-
sociate paperwork with the struggle In Viet-
nam but if we're not doing too well over
there, this report by Jim Lucas, of Scripps-
Howard, might explain why:
"Men in the field often work for three com-
manders: the Military Assistance Command,
Vietnam (MACV), the Military Advisory As-
sistance Group (MA.AG), and the Military
Assistance Command, Thailand (MACT).
Theseare In addition to the 'Support Com-
mand,' the 'country team' headed by Ambas-
sador Lodge. Fleldmen must report to all
three commands. The paperwork is horren-
dous."
Lucas goes on to say that organization on
the Vietnam side is equally confused. This
report from Vietnam only bears out what
we've been saying right along that poor
organizatioiland management breeds exccs-
sive paperwork. So don't let anyone tell you
that paperwork is not important.
Thanks for asking me to come here this
morning. I enjoyed being with you.
TRIBUTE TO THE HONORABLE
RICHARD F. TAITANO
(Mr. O'HARA of Illinois asked and
was given permission to address the
House for i minute and to revise and
extend his remarks.)
Mr. O'HARA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker,
on February 19, 1961, Richard F. Tai-
tano, a native of Guam, became the Di-
rector of the Office of the Territories In
the Department of the Interior. It was
the first time that a native of one of the
territories had been placed in the com-
mand post over the destinies of the
islands in the Atlantic and the Pacific
over which files the Stars and Stripes.
Mr. Taitano Is retiring to become Dep-
uty High Commissioner of the trust ter-
ritories after an outstanding record of
accomplishment. It is said of him by
those closest in position to judge that in
3 years he has accomplished more, es-
pecially in the field of education and
health, than has been accomplished in
the preceding half century.
Here are the Islands under the juris-
diction of the Director of the Office of
the Territories: Virgin Islands In the At-
lantic. Palmyra, and Canton near Ha-
waii, Guam and American Samoa in the
Far Pacific, and over 2,000 islands that
comprise the Trust Territories of the Pa-
cific.
When Mr. Taitano was summoned
from Guam by President Kennedy and
Secretary Udall to take over the Trust
Territories of the Pacific, although under
American care' and guardianship, were
perhaps the most desolate and neglect-
ed areas in the world. Few of the island-
ers spoke English. There were six native
languages and the language spoken on
one little Island might be quite differ-
ent from that spoken on another island.
There were no doctors, no medicine.
That was 3 years ago. Now there are
75 schools and by next year the number
will be 400. Several hundred teachers
have been brought from the United
States, more are being recruited. The
children of these faraway islands are
responding splendidly and already are
handling English with ease and delight.
Progress also has been made in im-
proving health conditions.
Three years ago there was one small
school in American Samoa. Today there
are school accommodations and quali-
fied.teachers for every child on the Is-
land.
What Director Taitano accomplished,
the miracles he worked, would not have
been possible, of course, without the in-
terest and the help of the gentleman
from Ohio [Mr. KIRWAN], chairman of
the subcommittee that handles the ap-
propriations for the territories.
Congressman KIRWAN spent days on
some of the desolate and neglected is-
lands observing painfully and uncom-
fortably at first hand, came to the con-
clusion that all this constituted a na-
tional disgrace and came back to
Washington to do something about it.
As chairman of the subcommittee, the
gentleman from Ohio has consistently
and faithfully been the friend and cham-
pion of the Virgin Islands, Guam and our
other unincorporated territories.
Credit also is due the gentleman from
Colorado [Mr. AsprNALLI, the distin-
guished chairman of the Committee on
Interior and Insular Affairs, and the
members of his committee who work to-
gether on a bipartisan nature for the
advancement of the interest of our un-
incorporated and trust territories.
Mr. Speaker, I know I speak the senti-
ment of all my colleagues In extending to
Mr. Taltano our warm congratulations
on the outstandingly good job he has
done in a post of the greatest importance
and our every good wish for a future of
expanding accomplishment and con-
tentment. He and his charming wife,
Magdalena and their children, Miss
Taling and Master Richard, Junior, will
be missed by the many friends they made
during their 3 years in Washington,. ~,..
RESOLUTION CONDEMNING PERSE-
CUTION BY THE SOVIET UNION
OF PERSONS BECAUSE OF THEIR
RELIGION
(Mr. ROOSEVELT asked and was
given permission to extend his remarks
at this point in the RECORD and to in-
clude a speech by the president of
B'nai B'rith.)
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
Mr. ROOSEVELT. Mr. Speaker, it is
with the deepest and most heartfelt con-
cern not only for the Jewish people in
the Soviet Union but for all mankind
throughout the world that I have intro-
duced a resolution condemning persecu-
tion bi the Soviet Union of persons be-
cause of their religion.
I hope that this resolution, which is
similar to Senate Resolution 204, intro-
duced in the Senate by the Honorable
ABRAHAM RIBIcoFF and cosponsored by
63 fellow Senators, will receive equally
representative backing in the House.
The terrifying situation of Jewish
persecution in the Soviet Union has
reached such intensity and alarming
proportions that leaders of 24 major na-
tional Jewish organizations in the
United States have gathered together in
Washington these past 2 days to conduct
a conference on Soviet Jewry.
I would like to bring to your attention
by including in my remarks the opening
address of the chairman of the confer-
ence, Label A. Katz, president of the
B'nai B'rith, whose articulate thoughts
and whose presentation of alarming
facts on the treatment of the Jews in the
U.S.S.R. must be heeded by every human
being who cares for his fellowman. ,
I hope that the Committee on Foreign
Affairs will take action on this resolution,
so that somehow our voices may be
heard by the Soviet leaders and will help
to put an end to the insidious cultural
and religious genocide that is being per-
petrated on the Jewish people in the
Soviet Union.
ADDRESS BY LABEL A. KATZ TO THE AMERICAN
JEWISH CONFERENCE ON SOVIET JEWRY
I call to order the American Jewish Con-
ference on Soviet Jewry.
This is an assembly of historic dimensions.
It is an assembly predicated on Jewish
unity-unity of mind and of purpose.
We, the representatives of 24 organiza-
tions, are gathered to bear witness and to
protest.
We do so with that most formidable of
witnesses and most potent of protesters: our
collective conscience as a free people.
We are here to speak that conscience.
We are here to proclaim moral indignation
that makes the free spirit shudder when an-
other man's spirit is enslaved.
We are here for a singular purpose. It is
without political overtones. It is removed
from cold war problems.
We are here to speak for a community of
Jews in the Soviet Union that is trapped in
silence; it cannot speak for itself.
We are here to articulate its plight; to
appeal, in its behalf, for reason and civilized
decency; to mobilize,. in its support, those for
whom freedom of thought and conscience is
an ideal to be cherished-and therefore to
be shared.
And with the Passover festival still fresh
in our souls, we are here in obedience to
the commitment of the Haggadah:
"B'chol doer vo'do'er chiyov oh'dom: lee'ros
ess ahtz'mo key'loo hoo yo'tzo mi'mitzryim.
"In every generation, one ought to regard
himself as though he had personally come
out of Egypt."
My assignment of the moment, as prelude
to the eminent voices we will hear this eve-
ning, is to examine briefly the problem of
the Soviet Jew in its historic perspective.
The core of that problem can be found
in a current Russian joke that asks: "Why
is the sputnik Jewish?"
No. 35-16
And it answers: "Because it wanders
around the'earth and has no place to stop."
As with all grim humor, the jest is com-
pounded of bitter truth. The Soviet Jew-
who wants to remain a Jew-has no place
to go and no place to stay.
His is a dilemma foisted upon him by the
conformities of a closed society, and by his
unwillingness to fit neatly into orthodox pre-
conceptions laid out by Soviet ideology.
The Soviet Jew is a creature of Soviet law-
and a victim of Soviet dogma.
He is, in the promise of Soviet law, upheld
as a full and equal citizen of his mother-
land. In terms of his right to be Jewish,
there is nothing wrong with the Soviet con-
stitution-except that the ruling authori-
ties choose to forsake it.
But in the practice of Soviet dogma, the
Jew is cast as an alienated element in Soviet
society-this because his Jewishness has not
freely and conveniently faded away, as So-
viet dogma predicted it would.
So the Soviet Jew finds himself between
the colliding forces of Soviet law and So-
viet dogma. A collision shatters; this one
has fragmentized his Jewish community,
crushed his Jewish culture, splintered his
Jewish existence.
Despite all this, the destructiveness has
failed to achieve its ultimate: it has not
yet been able to kill off his Jewish con-
sciousness.
Each of the two forces has made of So-
viet Jewry a unique component, unlike any
other, of Soviet society.
The law has invested Soviet Jewry with
a dichotomous status. It has recognized
Soviet Jewry as a religious community, with
a legal right to practice Judaism as it
chooses. And it has established Soviet
.Jewry as a major Soviet nationality, with a
legal right-in fact, if you consider basic
Soviet theory you would almost call it an
obligation-to maintain a national culture
and language.
The dogma, with its perspective of a Jew-
ish community disappearing through assimi-
lation, has singled out Soviet Jewry for
disabilities and oppressions that contradict,
not only the law, but the dogma as it is
interpreted and practiced for every other
major Soviet nationality.
Unlike any other Soviet nationality, the
Jews are dispersed, without a province or
land area of their own. The experiment of
Birobidjan, ineptly conceived and haphaz-
ardly implemented, was doomed from its
start.
Unlike any other Soviet nationality, the
Jews are denied the national institutions-
the schools, the books, the newspapers, the
theaters-of their Yiddish culture.
Unlike any other Soviet nationality, the
Jews are without a structure or program-
or even an identifying address.
There is today in all of the Soviet Union
only one "Jewish address"-that of the har-
assed synagogue. And what remains of the
synagogue is little more than a caricature
of the old East European shul that had been
the lively stronghold of piety, scholarship,
and communal life.
The suppression of Judaism in the Soviet
Union is the suppression of all religions.
But Soviet practice decrees that for Judaism
it be more so. s .
Unlike the Russian Orthodox Church-
which has a privileged status-the Baptists,
the Buddhists and others, each of which is
able, in some fashion, to conduct an Organ-
ized establishment, to produce Bibles and
prayer books, to manufacture or import re-
ligious articles, and to maintain some forms
of contact with their denomination outside
the U.S.S.R.-unlike these, the practice of
Judaism is quarantined-insulated from its
every means of sustenance.
6945
I recently came across a handsome and re-
vealing volume that tells about the Russian
Orthodox Church. It was published several
years ago by the Moscow patriarchate. Its
230, pages, nicely illustrated with scores of
photographs, report on the church's multi-
tude of religious activities, its extensive edu-
cational program of training seminarians,
and its formal contacts with Christian
churches outside the U.S.S.R.
There is no such volume for Yudaism in
the Soviet Union-there could not be. The
number of synagogues in the Soviet Union
has dwindled to 97. There were 450 in 1956.
Each of the 97 is kept apart-unaffiliated
with and unrelated to any other synagogue.
The struggles of Judaism under Soviet
dogma are summed up in this poignant in-
cident of a visitor who met an old man at
worship in one of the few remaining syna-
gogues. The visitor's questions were really
rhetorical.
"Do you need siddurim-prayer .books?',"
The old man answered with a shrug.
"Have you enough talesim-prayer
shawls?"
Another shrug.
"Do any of the children learn Hebrew?"
A third shrug.
"Can we help you in any way?"
The old man stared back. "My friend," he
finally whispered, "you have asked four
kashes-four questions. This is not the
time for such a dialog. Four kashes are for
Pesach-and Pesach in the Soviet Union is
along way off."
We are this evening following in the tra-
dition of those who aroused the conscience
of this Nation against the persecution of
Russian Jews during the days of the czar.
The restrictions, the quotas, the pogroms,
the pale of settlement-these were the in-
dignities that an earlier American Jewish
community protested about to the highest
councils of our Government.
Yet such is the character of Jewish per-
sistence that in the very midst of the op-
pressions and pogroms there flourished a
rich and variegated Yiddishkeit-a throb-
bing, vibrant culture that grew abundantly.
And that culture was transported by those
who fled to escape the barrieys-to America,
to England, to Palestine.
If Yiddishkeit bloomed in the dark
shadows of these barriers, how much
stronger a culture would it become when
the politcal fetters were unchained? This
was one of the false promises of the Rus-
sian revolution.
The Jews were certainly a nation when the
Soviet era began. There were 31/2 million*
Jews in Russian territory alone-another 11/2
million if you include the present borders of
the U.S.S.R. Soviet Jewry had its own
idioms-Yiddish and Hebrew; It had a vigor-
ous press, communal institutions, hundreds
of synagogues and schools, and a popular
national culture.
In the formative days of the U.S.S.R.., So-
viet leadership encouraged these develop-
ments. It did so while simultaneously seek-
ing to suffocate the Jewish religion and the
political philosophies of Jewish peoplehood,
since these were anathema to an atheistic
and closed society. But a proletarianized
Yiddishkeit was evident wherever there were
Jews in the Soviet Union.
In 1920, for example, there were 96 Yid-
dish or Hebrew newspapers and periodicals.
Today, not a single Jewish daily newspaper.
There is one bimonthly magazine-begun 3
years ago largely in response to protests from
outside the Soviet Union.
I was in Moscow the day the first copy of
Sovietish Helmland came off the press. I
was delighted to se a Yiddish vort in print-
and said so to Aaron Vergelis, its editor.
Yet Vergelis spent most of the time of our
visit insisting that Jewish mothers did not
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE April 7
want their children kept separate in Yiddish eluded that only through assimilation could
schools or familiarizing themselves with the the problem be solved.
Yiddish language. This pose of a Yiddish But the Jews of czarist Russia did not dis-
poet and editor rejecting any future for the appear through any such assimilation. And
language to which he contributes his the Jews of Soviet Russia are not willing to
talents was its own classic form of irony. bury their traditions or inter their heritage.
In the midthirtie3, there were 17 per- Jewish consciousness has a survivalist
manent Jewish theaters In the U.S.S.R. To- q silty. There is an ironic aftermatch to
day there is none. the depotism of Stalin's black years. Ob-
As late as 1938, there were 800 Jewish servers of the Soviet scene say that nothing
primary and seconc.ary schools in White In the postwar years did more to heighten
Russia and the Ukra_ne alone. Today there Jewish consciousness among Soviet Jews-
Is no such school anywhere in the U.S.S.R. particularly among the untaught, Jewishly
There were millions of copies of Yiddish Illiterate youth-than the tyrant's efforts to
books coming off the presses; hundreds of achieve just the opposite.
courts in Jewish districts that insisted upon We are called to order this evening to
Yiddish as the officie.l court language. The strengthen that survivalist spirit-to help
Soviet Communist party, the government, the Soviet Jew preserve and make meaning-
the military, the diplomatic corps-all of the ful his Jewish consciousness.
institutions of the state-were open to Jews. We do not seek special privilege or status
Soviet posters shouted of a new dawn of for our Soviet brother-but the equality of
justice and equality for all the national- st.$tus that is guaranteed him by Soviet law.
sties-the Jews too. We do not challenge Mr. Khrushchev's view
It was a short-livel promise. By the late of a world of good goulash and ballet. We
1930's it had already begun to fade. The simply propose that good goulash tastes bet-
megalomania of Stalincrushed it completely. ter and ballet is more inspiring when the
In 1948, with a sin?:le brutal sweep, Stalin human spirit is free and untrammeled.
toppled every institution of Jewish cultural We are here to appeal for the restoration of
and intellectual life. He did so with a show an Inalienable human right that cannot be
of force, with hie famous trumped-up challenged in any civilized society. It is the
charges-the Doctors' Plot, the secret purges right of the Jew to be Jewish; the right of the
~ ~ ~.
ents
a
l
l
.
g
self.
reign of terror that lasted until his death in
1953.
+KKA
There remains forever in Soviet history
the infamous day of August 12, 1952-the AMERICAN JEWISH CONFERENCE
day when 26 of the leading Soviet Yiddish ON SOVIET JEWRY
writers and intellectuals were summarily (Mr. RYAN of New York asked and
executed. These wcre not Zionists. They was given permission to extend his re-
were not religious Jews. Most of them were marks at this point In the RECORD and
practicing Communists. They were purged
because they were the leading exponents of to include extraneous matter.)
Yiddishkelt-which titalin intended to purge Mr. RYAN of New York. Mr. Speaker.
with them. Soviet Jews still speak of that yesterday I called the attention of the
era as the "shvartze yohrin-the black House to the American Jewish Confer-
years." ence on Soviet Jewry which was held in
Mr. Khrushchev and his de-Stalinization Washington on April 5-S. Sponsored
policy have exposed ;he corrupt and fraudu- by 24 Jewish organizations and attended
lent nature of that e:-a. But while denounc-
ing Stalin, they have said little of Stalin's
anti-Semitism, and have done nothing to re- was called to protest the Soviet Union's
move It, or to restore cultural and nationality discrimination against its citizens of the
rights to Soviet Jewry. Jewish faith. At the conclusion of the
The standardized Soviet response to this conference yesterday the delegates
Is that Soviet Jews are not interested in adopted an 18-point resolution which I
maintaining a Jewish cultural life. But include at this point in the RECORD:
even Soviet leaders have difficulty with this The American Jewish Conference on So-
facts evasive and weary cliche; first, because the viet Jewry protests the denial to Soviet Jews
f disprove it; second, because it leads of the basic institutions 'and facilities
them into a mess of dialectical contradic-
tionr. to other religions and nationality
.
It Is they who ha',e decreed a Jewish na- groups within the Soviet Union. require Considera-
tionality in the Soviet Union. It is they who tions of humanity and justice require the
have decreed that the Soviet Jew be iden- 1Soviet C}decr re Its policy of eradicating tifled as a Jew on his internal passport. by y re a vigorous Its Tadeueducational effort Semitlam It is they who single out the Soviet Jew bparty
effort
for exclusion from positions of special trust conducted . To permit the free government and functioning pa. of syna-
in the government End In the economy. g es and meetings.
It is they who indulge in the curious re- 8. He To remove private hindrances vh prayer rto the observance
tionalization that tie Soviet Jew can best c8. cr rites al and
such as religious he buburial
d
enjoy equality In the Soviet Union by being circumcision.
treated unequally among other Soviet nationalities. 4. To make possible the production and
distribution of phylacteries, prayer shawls,
It is they who ha ,,e thrust the Soviet Jew
mezzuzoth, religious calendars,
a consummate contradiction, on the one , and other
us articles.
hand requiring him to maintain his identit re To restore
as a Jew, and, on the other, forcibly pushing 5 e. . all rights and facilities for
hili toward assimilation, the production and distrlbutlon of matzoh
and kosher food.
It Is they who have created a senseless, 6. To make available facilities to publish
neither-nor world ic?r the Soviet Jew, which Hebrew Bibles, prayerbooks. and other rell-
says to him: "You are a Jew-but you can't gious texts In the necessary quantities.
be Jewish." 7 To permit the organization of a nation-
The Soviet dogma that commands the dis- wide federation of synagogues.
appearance of Jewish consciousness is -de- 8. To sanction the association of such a
vied by history ant. by current events. It federation with organizations of coreligton-
is worth recalling that 80 years ago a Russian late abroad.
high commission, a liberal and, by the stand- 9. To permit Jews to make religious pil-
ards of the times, enlightened body that gr[mages to the holy places in Israel.
sought to reduce t.ie intensity of Russian 10. To make It possible to allow all qual-
anti-Semitism, spent 5 years studying what flied applicants to attend the Moscow Yeshl-
it called the Jewish problem. It finally con- vah. to provide facilities for the establish-
ment of additional Yeshivot as needed, and
to enable rabbinical students to study at
seminaries abroad.
11. To provide schools and other facilities
for the study of Yiddish and Hebrew, and of
Jewish history, literature, and culture.
12. Topermit Jewish writers, artists, and
other intellectuals to create their own in-
stitutions for the encouragement of Jewish
cultural and artistic life.
13. To reestablish a Yiddish publishing
house and to publish books in Yiddish by
classical and contemporary Jewish writers.
14. To reestablish Yiddish state theaters
in major centers of Jewish population and to
publish Yiddish-language newspapers with
national circulation.
. 15. To eliminate discrimination against
Jews in all areas of Soviet public life.
16. To end all propaganda campaigns
which use anti-Semitic stereotypes, implied
or overt.
17. To halt the discriminatory applica-
tion of maximum penalties, including the
death sentence, against Jews for alleged eco-
nomic crimes.
18. To make possible on humanitarian
grounds Soviet Jews who are members of
families separated as a result of the Nazi
holocaust to be reunited with their relatives
abroad.
We appeal for a redress of these and other
wrongs and sufferings; for the elimination
of discrimination and for the full restora-
tion of Jewish rights in the U.S.S.R.
In addition to the resolution, the con-
ference issued a general statement ap-
pealing to the Soviet Government to
grant equality to the Jewish community
in accordance with the Soviet constitu-
tion and law. That appeal follows:
AMERICAN JEWISH CONFERENCE ON SOVIET
JEWRY, APRIL 6, 1964
We, as representatives of the major na-
tional American Jewish organizations, have
met for the past 2 days in solemn assembly
in Washington, D.C., to express with one
voice our deep concern with and our deter-
mination to protest the plight of our Jewish
brethren in the Soviet Union.
Soviet Jewry constitutes the second largest
Jewish community in the world and is the
last remnant of the once great East European
Jewish community. This remnant exists
largely because of the heroic resistance of
the Soviet Union to the Nazi hordes which
destroyed the great majority of European
Jewry.
The approximately 3 million Jews of the
U.S.S.R. have a special claim on the con-
science of all who are zealous of securing
human rights, and, more particularly, on the
conscience of all Jewry. Soviet Jews are the
heirs of a tradition that stretches unbroken
over 1,000 years of Jewish history in East-
ern Europe. a tradition which produced an
enduring heritage of scholarship, piety and
ethical idealism. They are the kin of the
millions who went forth from Russia to other
countries, bringing with them the social
idealism of their tradition enhancing the
cultures of their new lands.
With the lessening of repression and perse-
cution so widely acclaimed following the
death of Stalin, it was hoped that the Soviet
Jews would share In the new atmosphere of
relaxation of tensions. Now, however, with
anguish and indignation we witness Soviet
Jewry being denied its natural right of group
existence. It is fragmented from within and
kept Isolated from without. Though for-
mally recognized as a nationality and as a re-
ligious group, the Soviet Jewish community
is deprived of those rights granted to other
nationalities and other major religious bodies
in the U.S.S.R. A process of attrition forces
Soviet Jews to live only a most attenuated
Jewish life and threatens to crush their spirit
and sever their ties with the Jewish people.
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
Soviet Jewish youth, traumatized by the
Nazi holocaust and by Stalin's anti-Semitic
excesses are now seeking to reestablish their
links with Jewish life. But they are denied
even the most meager Opportunity to learn,
enhance and transmit their Jewish heritage.
The whole of Jewish culture, and Yiddish
artistic and literary expression in particular,
once so flourishing in the U.S.S.R., are now
represented by the merest tokens. The bonds
of Soviet Jewry with their tradition are being
destroyed by increasing restrictions against
fundamental and sacred Jewish practices.
Synagogues are closed down; the public pro-
duction and distribution of matzoth and of
other essential religious articles are banned.
Soviet Jews are cut off from contact with
their brethren at home and abroad. Jewish
opportunities in higher education and in cer-
tain fields of employment are being limited.
Simultaneously, a campaign of vilification
of the Jewish past and present is conducted
in the press and other official publications.
Judaism and Jewish history are falsified.
Anti-Semitic stereotypes are exploited to
portray the synagogue as a breeding ground
of economic and social crimes.
We are appalled at the discriminatory ap-
plication of maximum penalties, including
the death sentence, against Jews for alleged
economic crimes and that they are singled
out in the press in a calculated attempt to
exacerbate public anti-Semetism.
We are moved by the plight of thousands
of Soviet Jews whose families were shattered
or separated by the Nazi devastation and who
are prevented from rejoining their remaining
kill in the United States, Israel, and other
countries.
We appeal to the Soviet Government to
redress these wrongs, to restore the rights of
Jews and of the Jewish community and to
grant the equality with other religious and
nationality groups as required by Soviet con-
stitution and law.
We make this appeal within the framework
of our ardent desire to see an end to the cold
war and lessen and hopefully eradicate the
existing international tensions. Our aim is
to mobilize public opinion into a moral
force which will save Soviet Jewry from
spiritual annihilation.
We who are assembled here are bound by
the moral imperative of our history, which
demands that we speak out on the fate of
our brothers In the Soviet Union. We pray
that our voice will be heard and heeded.
Mr. Speaker, by bringing to the Ameri-
can public the facts concerning religious
discrimination in the Soviet Union, the
American Jewish Conference on Soviet
Jewry has demonstrated the importance
of vigorous action by the U.S. Govern-
ment. The sponsors are to be com-
mended for convening this important
meeting.
The denial of fundamental rights in
the Soviet Union must not go unheeded.
I.urge the Department of State to protest
to the Soviet Government and to press
the issue in the United Nations.
WILDERNESS HEARINGS
SCHEDULED
(Mr. SAILOR asked and was given
permission to extend his remarks at
this point in the RECORD and to include
extraneous matter.)
Mr. SAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, this is
good news that our chairman of the Com-
mittee on Interior and Insular Affairs
has brought to us. I appreciate the ac-
tion he has taken in scheduling these
necessary further hearings here in Wash-
ington, D.C., on the various wilderness
bills that are before our committee. The
chairman's arrangements give further
hopes that we shall soon have some effec-
tive agreement in our efforts to preserve
wilderness, and in my own behalf, as well
as in behalf of many others who have
long been interested in establishing a
sound national wilderness policy, I thank
him. I am confident that the, way can
now be cleared for committee and House
action that can be satisfactory for all
of us.
We have just had delivered to us three
volumes of printed hearings held, in mid-
January of this year, in Olympia, Wash.;
Denver, Colo.; and Las Vegas, Nev. In
accordance with arrangements made by
our committee chairman, our esteemed
colleague from Colorado, these field
hearings were conducted by the gentle-
man from Nevada, WALTER BARING, as
chairman of our Subcommittee on Public
Lands. It was my privilege as a member
of this subcommittee to participate in
the Denver and Las Vegas hearings and
to appreciate the fair, orderly, and expe-
ditious way in which these hearings were
conducted by our colleague from Nevada.
I can say to you today it is good to an-
ticipate the continuation of such hear-
ings here in Washington.
The record of the January field hear-
ings and the testimony at the forthcom-
ing hearings here in Washington, I am
confident, will give our subcommittee and
committee a good basis for considering
the various bills now facing the House-
and sending a sound measure to the floor.
In addition to the Senate Wilderness
Act passed and sent to us on April 9,
1963, a year ago this Thursday, and var-
ious House bills similar to it that
were introduced in the earlier days of
this Congress, we have some more recent-
ly introduced revisions designed to meet
objections and facilitate effective agree-
ment. Among these latter is one of my
own offered in a spirit of cooperation in
which, I am glad to assure this House
and our committee chairman, I shall be
glad to join in considering all the pro-
posals now before us. In such a spirit I
am sure we can deal constructively and
effectively with the various proposals and
see sound wilderness legislation enacted
in this Congress.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I want to
emphasize that I welcome the opportu-
nity to work further with Chairman
ASPINALL on this legislation, and I appre-
ciate his willingness to work with us. I
am glad the hearing dates have been set.
I am optimistic that we can soon bring to
a good conclusion the long efforts in this
field of conservation to see established
by Congress as a national policy and a
program to make it effective.
CORRECTION OF THE RECORD
Mr. BEERMANN. Mr. Speaker, I ask
unanimous consent to correct the RECORD
at page 6698 thereof of the proceedings
of yesterday. The sentence which begins
on the third line of the first column reads
as follows:
From .this background it Is not logical to
assume that the, Secretary will dump wheat
just like he did feed grains.
6947
The sentence should read:
From this background is it not logical to
assume that the Secretary will dump wheat
just like he did feed grains.
The SPEAKER. Is there objection to
the request of the gentleman from Ne-
braska?
There was no objection.
THE LATE GENERAL DOUGLAS
ARTHUR MACARTHUR
(Mr. BARRY (at the request of Mr.
BATTIN) was granted permission to ex-
tend his remarks at this point in the
RECORD and to include extraneous mat-
ter.)
Mr. BARRY. Mr. Speaker, the death
of one of America's greatest generals, the
gallant and heroic Gen. Douglas Arthur
MacArthur, has ended an era. General
MacArthur combined the rare qualities
of military genius, a flare for statesman-
ship, and political insight. Those of us
who have lived through this era always
will remember vividly his courage and
bravery, often leading his troops under
fire, his vivid rhetoric, his grand man-
ner, and his decisive leadership. It was
my privilege to have known him and to
have had the benefit of his concise think-
ing and insight during ' the Philippine
war claims controversy. Perhaps his
words upon retirement were not so pro-
phetic, for the memory of this "old sol-
dier" will never fade away.
The entire country will remember him
as the youngest and most brilliant World
War I generals and the renowned leader
of the allied forces in the Pacific during
World War If. Called back from retire-
ment, he assumed the command of the
Southwest Pacific operations during
World War II, leading the allies from
Ausfralia to the Philippines and ulti-
mately to Japan. Following the sur-
render of Japan, General MacArthur be-
came the first foreigner to rule that
country and commanded unprecedented
respect and admiration from the Japa-
nese people. As United Nations com-
mander in the Korean conflict, his deter-
mination and strategy caught the enemy
off guard, routing the North Korean
army from Sedul.
His promise, "I shall return," when his
troops were routed from the Philippines,
Will be as true to posterity as they were
then. For General MacArthur will re-
turn-in the annals of history as one of
America's most brilliant soldiers, states-
men, and patriots.
UNEMPLOYMENT-PROFILE OF THE
PROGRAM
(Mr. CURTIS (at the request of Mr.
BATTIN) was granted permission to ex-
tend his remarks at this point in the
RECORD and to include extraneous
matter.)
Mr. CURTIS. Mr. Speaker, an excel-
lent analysis of our unemployment prob-
lem appears in the March 1964 issue of
the Morgan Guaranty Survey. After
pointing out the various type of unem-
ployment, the article asserts that there
is an important need for more informa-
tion that now exists on the relative
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69.18 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - HOUSE
importance of t.ae different kinds of
unemployment.
It is also important to tighten up our
loose definition of unemployment if we
are to understand the causes of the prob-
lem and the cures that are required.
Marked shifts in the labor force also
require greater attention than they have
been given, particularly the remarkable
growth in the number of women, par-
ticularly older women, coming Into the
labor market. About 65 percent of the
increase In total employment in the
United States between 1957 and 1963
came In the nuinter of women employed.
Another factor of increasing impor-
tance is rapidly advancing technology
that is boosting the need for persons
with high skills and pushing down de-
mand for persons with little or no train-
ing. The article points to the need to
modernize vocational educational pro-
grams as well as to orient the Nation's
educational machinery to producing the
kinds of talent at. the required rate.
In conclusion, the Survey makes clear
that trying to bulldoze unemployment
down to some predetermined size with
sheer force of increased demand-as the
administration is trying to do-might re-
quire a push so massive that Inflation
would be sure to rise in its wake.
I ask unanimous consent that the
article be included in the RECORD as this
point.
UNI:MPLOYMENT-PaOFILZ OF THE .PROBLEM
During the coming period of watchful
waiting to see the effects of tax reduction on
the broad economy, one of the leading ques-
tions in observers' minds will be: can ex-
pansion of total demand through the tax cut
bring down to an acceptable level an unem-
ployment rate that almost all agree has been
too high too long?
In the political realm, at least, the case for
tax cutting has taken excessive unemploy-
ment as its point c?f departure-and also as
its basis for contending that a mighty fiscal
shove to the economy will not rekindle the
fires of inflation, bit rather will find unused
resources of manpower ready and able to
meet the new demand to be created.
Put in its statist.cally bleakest terms, the
unemployment problem as cited by the ad-
ministration in support of tax reduction and
other programs, has the following dimen-
slons:
By available yardsticks, 1 of every IS peo-
ple willing to work is unable to find work.
A net addition of some 1.4 million people.
on the average, is e:cpected to swell the labor
force each year between 1964 and 1975.
Automation is a:leged to be eliminating
550 jobs every day in the year.
The unemployment rate I has settled at
progressively higher levels after each of the
three recessions since the Korean war.
While acknowledging that tax reduction Is
no panacea for unemployment. and that
other measures are required as well, the ad-
ministration obviously is pinning high hopes
on fiscal stimulus. Treasury Secretary Dillon
stated the official r osition in testimony be-
fore the Joint Economic Committee In late
January:
"Tax reduction, with its stimulating effects
reaching into every corner of the economy,
must be the centerpiece of any effective at-
tack on unemployment and poverty, for the
more specific remedies for these problems
can be fully effective only in a more buoyant
economic environment-an environment In
which a trained man can "find employment
for his skills and 1;r which there are strong
Incentives for upgrading workers and over-
coming barriers of race-and color."
Actually, there Is little room to doubt that
powerful fiscal stimulus will, In fact, have
powerful Impact on the labor market. The
Revenue Act of 1984, which already is pour-
ing new purchasing power into the economy
at the rate of $800 million a month, will give
a hearty lift to hiring. At the same time,
however, It is Important to recognize the
limitations, as well as the potential, of fiscal
policy In dealing with the unemployment
problem. The problem, as It exists in the
United States in early 1964, is a good deal
more complicated than the simple statistics
of an employment total or an unemployment
rate suggest. An increase in the former need
not mean a corresponding decrease In the
latter.
TAKING THE MEASURE
To explain this paradox requires a search-
Ing look at the causes, dimensidns. and meas-
urement of unemployment In the United
States today. It also requires an examina-
tion of the very vocabulary of unemploy-
ment. In basic concept, anyone of age 14
or older who wants a job (full time or part
time) and can't find one is unemployed, In
broad outline. analysts recognize four dis-
tinct kinds of reason why the jobseeker may
fail to'find work:
He may be employed In an industry-con-
struction is an example-where activity
varies sharply depending on the time of year.
This is what economists call seasonal unem-
ployment.
He may be between jobs, having been laid
off or fired or having quit voluntarily and
not yet having found new employment. This
form is called frictional unemployment, and
It exists In all free economies-even where, as
in some Western European countries, job
openings number several times the available
workers.
He may not qualify for the jobs that are
available In his community; he may have
overpriced his skills in relation to what em-
ployers are willing to pay; he may be un-
willing to surrender established union senior-
ity and pension rights by moving to another
line of work; or he may run into the in-
visible barrier of discrimination on account
of race or other reason. These are varieties
of structural unemployment. Retraining
and relocation programs such as the Labor
Department is conducting in various parts
of the country are part of the attack on this
general type.
Finally, employers generally may not be
hiring as many people as are looking for jobs
because the demand for goods and services
does not warrant doing so-either because of
recession or because of a too-slow rate of
overall growth. It's the latter condition that
administration fiscal policies aim to attack.
For public policy to attack unemployment
most effectively and efficiently, more infor-
mation than now exists is needed on the rel-
ative Importanceof different kinds of unem-
ployment In the total. In some respects, the
methods used to count the jobless tend to
obscure, rather than clarify, the distinctions.
The official measure of unemployment Is
based on a monthly survey of 35,000 house-
holds, selected to reflect the lives and habits
of the whole Nation. In making the survey,
the Interviewers' task Is to find out who In
each family is working, who is not, and
whether anyone 14 or over who are are not
working are looking for work. The latter
question Is the key, for an affirmative answer
classifies the person concerned as "unem-
ployed-"
For February 1964 the results of the sur-
vey-blown up to full population size-
showed that 68 million people were at work
during the survey week and 4.5 million were
looking for work. This yielded a seasonally
adjusted unemployment rate (the unem-
ployed as a percentage of the civilian labor
force, which includes those working plus
those looking for work) of 5.4 percent, which
April 7
is right In the narrow Band where unemploy-
ment has been stuck since early 1962.
In late 1981, in response to charges that
the unemployment figures were being ma-
nipulated for political purposes, President
Xennedy appointed a committee under the
chairmanship of Prof. Robert A. Gordon of
the University of California to evaluate the
statistical approach being used. The Gor-
don committee gave both the Bureau of
Labor Statistics (which computes the un-
employment data) and the Census Bureau
(which makes the actual survey) high marks
for good will and good faith. Beyond that,
it concluded that, although the unemploy-
ment statistics are not perfect and prob-
ably can never be, they are adequate as
guides for public policy.
DEMAND VERSUS STRUCTURE
While the Gordon committee summarily
disposed of questions about the integrity of
the unemployment figures, their efficacy as a
policy guide is still the subject of lively de-
bate. In large part, critics center their fire
on the looseness of the definition of un-
employment and on the fact that the census
interviewers do not even attempt to measure
two crucial variables of unemployment: The
Individual's degree of attachment to the
labor force, meaning the urgency of his need
for a job and the seriousness with which he
is looking for one. and the extent of the
individual's qualifications for the type of
employment he says he wants.
Because there Is no appraisal of attach-
ment to the labor force, a suburban house-
wife casually looking for part-time work gets
the same weight In the overall finemploy-
ment rate as a married man with five chil-
dren to support. Even among the 1.9 million
who; in an average 1983 week, collected un-
employment compensation by certifying that
they were seeking work, there may have been
some not actively in search. State laws gov-
erning compensation tend to be loose both
in wording and In enforcement. Thus the
labor-force concept is an extremely fluid one.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not
publish regular figures on gross flows into an
out of the force; however, according to the
Gordon report, during 1960 and 1961 an
average of more than 3 million persons
entered the force every month. In the
same period, however, the net growth in the
labor force was less than 100,000 a month.
For every 3 million people coming into the
labor market, this would Indicate, at least
2.9 million were dropping out-because of
personal predilection, pregnancy, disability,
death, discouragement at inability to find a
job, or any number of other reasons.
The composition of the unemployed group
also is constantly shifting. The average level
of unemployment for 1983 has been officially
set at 4.2 million. During the year, however,
more than 15 million people were classified
as out of work at one time or another. Even
among the "hard core" long-term unem-
ployed--those without work 15 weeks or
longer-turnover is at the rate of 25 percent
a month.
As a measure of the qualifications of the
unemployed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics
has only what the unemployed person says he
Is able to do. Officials of BLS recognize that
there Is a natural human tendency to rate
Somewhat highly one's skills, but they have
no way of discounting this factor. As one
BLS economist has put it: "If a man says he
is a carpenter, that's what we put down: we
have no way to find out whether he's just a
hammer-and-saw man."
These considerations have an important
bearing on analysis of the unemployment
problem, on decisions as to how big it is and
what should be done about It. The Presi-
dent's Council of Economic Advisers Is fully
committed to the proposition that the bulk
of the unemployment problem may be traced
to a failure of "total expenditures in the
economy * * * to generate an adequate
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