Welfare Problems Persist, Demand Complex Solutions
By FRANK SLOVER
Kansan Writer
On Aug. 8, 1969, President Nixon addressed the nation, calling the present welfare system a failure and setting the stage for his Family Assistance Plan (FAP) which was introduced in October of that year. He said, in part:
"Whether measured by the anguish of the poor themselves, or by the drastically mounting burden on the taxpayer, the prosecution system has to be judged a失败 failure."
What began on a small scale in the depression '30s has become a huge monster in the prosperous '60s. And the tragedy is not only that it is bringing states and cities to the brink of financial disaster, but also that it is failing to meet the elementary human, social and financial needs of the river."
The monster still exists in the less-prosperous 70s.
THE PRESIDENT'S bill, now known as H. R. 1, languishes in the Senate Finance Committee after having passed the House last June.
The current delay stems from the bill's only powerful supporter in the committee, Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn.), who wants to stop the committee's details before the committee it lets it go.
Even Ribicoff may not be able to get this bill passed. It has some powerful enemies in that committee and faces opposition from Republicans and Southern Democrats, including Russell Long (D-La.)
FAP has two major aims, according to those who drafted it.
First, it proposes to help those among the poor who are self-supporting to do so. Second, for those who are unable to work it suggests a more adequate level of federal support."
The conservative opposition to FAP is probably directed more at the second aim than at the first, which requires recipients to work for their benefits.
THE "MORE adequate level of federal support" is described in the introduction to the bill as a "ten per cent increase in social security benefits" and an automatic cost of living escalator."
The new program would add $2.9 billion,
$700 million of it to provide fiscal relief for the states, equal to at least 10 per cent of what the states' costs would have been under the old welfare program.
What the added funds would be used for can be described as a guaranteed income without the stigma of the label to draw extra opposition.
FAP allows a family to up to $60 a month with no reduction of benefits. From that level on, the benefits are to be reduced on the basis of a federal benefit floor of $1,600 for a family of four. With food stamps, the framers of the bill point out, "the assistance package for such a family is about $2,350 per year."
THE ELEGIBILITY ceiling for a four-member family is set at "virtuously the same point" for both the FAP and the Food Program. This is approximately $4,000.
That is the part of the bill that is geared to please the liberals and rile the conservatives. The other part does just the opposite.
The other part stipulates that ablédied persons lose their benefits if they
Mothers with children under six are exempted from this requirement.
refuse training or a suitable job opportunity.
The idea that a man should work, if he can, for what he receives is so central to the Nikon philosophy of welfare that the president has called it a "workfare" bill into law last Dec. 24.
The bill is an interim measure and requires most persons receiving welfare assistance to be required to submit
Nixon described his feelings on the work provisions of his programs in the following
"WE ARE A nation that pays tribute to the working man and rightly scorns the freeleader who voluntarily opts to be the ward of the state . . .
"No task, no labor, no work is without dignity or meaning that enables an individual to feed and shelter himself, and provide for his family."
What seems to ink the liberals about the work provisions is that the provisions may not mean much to the welfare problem. The Liberals have made recipients who can work vary from less
than one to around four per cent of the total recipient population.
Ronald Boland, assistant professor of social welfare, said in a recent interview he thought the actual figure was somewhat higher than his estimate, which he called "probably a liberal lie."
Even Boland, however, didn't think the figure was as high as 10 per cent and said the percentage changed when certain jobs were taken or of work who, perhaps, really were.
"The FIGURE GLOWS up," he said, "if you count in the emotionally unfit, women with pre-school age children and high school age youth."
That work may not be the answer to the welfare problem was the subject of a 1970 article for Saturday Review by John Hamilton, a member of the editorial board of the New York Times and a specialist on poverty and welfare.
He observed that in New York City "the availability of employment has seemed to have fallen."
He went on to say, "Jobs of all sorts now go begging, many of them requiring little knowledge."
With high unemployment and a welfare population of "more than one million, up from 500,000 in 1965, there were 900 vacancies for letter carriers, with wages higher than welfare for all except those with very large families, which had been offered to welfare recipients and were still unfulled," Hamilton wrote.
Taxicab industry efforts to hire those on welfare met the same lack of success.
RIBICOFF'S objections to the bill come from its guaranteed income side. He has won his battle with the administration to have pilot programs to test the efficiencies of the provisions and in return, has agreed to support permanent authorization for FAP
No settlement has yet been reached on the specifics of the benefit package. Under the Nixon plan the recipients could keep all benefits up to $120,000, third of additional earned income to the cutoff income of $4,320 a year. Ricbicoff's bill would set the minimum at $3,000 to rise within three years to $4,000, and would keep it there for another year amount of earned income above $720 per year.
See WELFARE Page 5
COLDER
82nd Year, No.113
Monday, April 3, 1972
Child Abuse Up 500% Since 1966
See Page 2
Cyclists Pedal for Lake in 60-mile 'Tour de Perry'
Kentan Photo by TERRY SHI
Eugene Wee, Wichita graduate student, and Roger Oelschlaeger, Plainville junior, had only 58 miles to go Sunday afternoon in the "Tour de Perry." The $80-mile bicycle tour to Perry was part of the Tour de France. This year, the Tour will be by the Mount Oread Bicycle Club. The second tour, the "Lawrence
Peregrination," is April 5 and will cover a 10-mile course in Lawrence. The last tour, the "Lone Star Lake Gallirap," will be a 30-mile trip to Lone Star Lake April 8. The club will sponsor bicycle races on campus April 9.
Busing Fought in Hearings
WASHINGTON (AP)—President Nixon's school busing proposals are meeting stiff opposition in public hearings and have not yet been approved, but vet clear what their final fate will be.
Leaders in both branches have said they would like to solve the problem by shelving the Nixon measures and adopting instead antibus provisions tied to a higher-education bill now in a Senate-House conference.
This could avoid further bitter floor rights sure to erupt if the President's bills demand more.
But it is not certain such fights can be prevented even if the measures are bottled
Foes of busing in both the House and Senate are saying that, if the bills are shelved, they will offer the provisions as floor amendments to other legislation.
Voter Week Starts Today
THE NIXON BILL contains strong restrictions on any further court busing.
KU students will be able to register to vote from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. in the Kansas Union, in addition to the six registration places designated by the county clerk, during voter registration week which starts today.
This registration service on campus is sponsored by Student Vote in conjunction with the University of North Carolina.
Mark Bedner, Lawrence graduate student and member of the Student Vote steering committee, said registration places might also be available evenings in residence halls if qualified personnel can be found to staff them.
To qualify as a voter in Douglas County, a person must have lived in Kansas for 6 years. A resident of Douglas County may
Persons interested in helping with the registration should contact Bedner at 843-360-7152.
billion of federal funds already acted on by Congress to try to improve education in poor schools, largely those with substantial numbers of black children.
Both panels have held several days of hearings and not a single witness has supported the bill except the administration spokesman, Elliot L. Richardson, secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
This measure was referred to the Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee.
Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R I, chairman of the subcommittee conducting the Senate hearings, told the witnesses he doubted presented the sentiment of the country.
Some of these have heatedly denounced the proposals, declaring that the President is trying to stop the desegregation is trying to be held accountable for the doctrine of subsequent educational schools.
OPPOSITION WITNESSES have included blacks and whites, members of Congress, officials of civil-rights and education organizations, spokesmen for women's groups, and labor representatives.
Based on past performance, the members of the House and Senate panels will not approve the bill. Most of the members have taken the position that busing is a proper remedy where essential to carry out a desegregation program and where it is not so lengthy as to harm the children involved.
"ALL OF THESE organizations support busing," he said, "but I am afraid the majority of the people who have expressed themselves on this issue are against it."
Both Pell and Rep, Carl D. Perkins, DKY, chairman of the House committee, asserted that the real answer was more difficult than it looked, and the serious inequalities that now exist.
They emphasized that Nixon had not asked for any new funds. Both have included $75 million in the budget.
Sen. Peter H. Dominick, R-Cole, senate sponsor of the measure, strongly denied this allegation. He said the bill would not all busing and was not designed to do so.
$2.5 billion of additional money which would be concentrated on the most needy
HOUSE SPEAKER, Carl Albert, D-Doka, Senate Democratic Leader Mike Manstefle of Montana and Senate Republican Leader High Scott of Pennsylvania. Nixon's proposals could be handled as a part of the higher-education legislation.
But Dominick insisted there was little
the appropriations Committees
would be.
Dita Tapes CBS Show In Denver
Antifishing riders were added to this measure in both branches but they did not stop the migrants.
Dow Hewitt, executive producer of "60 Minutes," said Mrs. Brad planned to check out of the hospital for good on Monday at St. John's Hospital where Sunday's interview was filmed.
NEW YORK (AP) - Lobbystiv Dita Beard, diagnosed as too ill to testify before a Senate subcommittee, checked herself out of a Denver hospital Saturday for a television interview in which she said Sen. Vance Hartke, D-Ind., thought of the International Telephone & Telegraph Corp. as "a sort of personal taxicab company."
Mrs.裴Brad, 53, hospitalized with a heart
aliment since March 3, tapped the interview
with Mike Wallace at an unclosed
location in Denver and broadcast it on the
NBC News web site, www.NBCNews.com
After 90 minutes she returned to the hospital.
The senators are investigating reports that Mrs. Beard linked an ITT contribution with an out-of-court settlement of antitrust suits against ITT.
Last Sunday, Mrs. Beard collapsed while testifying from her hospital bed to a Senate subcommittee. Her doctors said she might never be able to testify again.
U.S. Advisers Evacuated
Communists Overrun Territory Near DMZ
SAIGON (AP)—Sparheaded by tank columns, the biggest North Vietnamese drive since the 1968 Tet offensive chewed up large chunks of South Vietnamese buildings and two bases and sent hundreds of government troops retreating in disarray.
At Camp Carroll, a regimental command post eight miles below the demilitarized zone, some of the battered South Vietnamese defenders threw up the white flag of surrender. South Vietnamese soldiers appeared to be trying to mix in with thousands of civilians fleeing south from the DMZ, which divides Vietnam.
Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, the commander of U. S. forces in South Vietnam, was reported to view the situation as grim, and the American ground force lost most Americans involved in ground fighting.
"We're going to do everything we can to protect our people and keep our casualties down," a U. S. military source close to the situation said.
"Where a situation becomes untenable, we're going to pull our people out. Obviously Gen. Abrams is much concerned, and I'm going to give the South Vietnamese is air."
SOURCES IN THE NORTH told Associated Press correspondent Holger Jensen at the front that Abrams had taken steps to limit his strategy to the slow enemy offensive.
But the four-day North Vietnamese campaign appeared to be broadening to other fronts, and one tank column spearheaded a drive that overran Fire Base Pace near the Cambodian border, only 85 miles northwest of Saigon, in the deepest southern penetration enemy armor has ever made in the Indochina war.
The objective of the Communist command, as seen by U. S. officials, is to show that the defeat of the South Vietnamese forces is tantamount to proving failure of President Nixon's Vietnamization program.
A second goal listed by officials is to regain control of some of the population. Psychologically, the offensive is aimed at achieving the maximum impact on the presidential election in the United States in his bid for re-election, sources said.
THE FIGHTING on the northern front continued to overshadow all other action, since North Vietnam has long desired to annex Quang Tri, South Vietnam's northernmost province bordering the DMZ on the north and Liao on the west.
By dusk Sunday, the northernmost South Vietnamese defensive line was just to the south of the district town of Dong Ha, 10 miles below the DMZ, and North Vietnamese tanks pushed to within 300 yards of the town.
The Saigon command claimed too enemy tanks were destroyed. Spokesmen made no mention of South Vietnamese losses, if any.
South Vietnamese air force officers told Associated Press correspondent Richard Blystone that their bombers had knocked out five North Vietnamese tanks on a bridge just to the north of Dong Hai. They believed they were in tanks, tanks were believed to be in the area.
THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE tanks destroyed the bridge, field reports said, to keep the North Vietnamese in control southward from Dong Ha apparently because they
Shelling intensified Sunday night and
Maig Lat and Cam Lo reported were
well.
were out-gunned by the North Vietnamese column which reportedly included T54 medium tanks. The Soviet-made T54s carry 100mm guns and can outshoot the U.s. Buitl M48s of the South Vietnamese which are armed with 90mm cannon.
The most crushing blow to the South Vietnamese Sunday was the fall of Camp Carroll, which had been pounded with explosives and rocket and mortar shells there Thursday.
Field reports said Dong Ha itself was a guest town with no one left. The town lies on the northern side of the Cam Lo River and South Vietnamese marines pulled back to the southern bank of the river and set up a defensive line.
FIELD REPORTS SAID some of the government troops may have escaped and those left ran up a white flag of surrender. All American advisers had been evacuated from Carroll by helicopter just before it fell, sources said.
An undisclosed amount of heavy equipment was destroyed, left behind or captured at other bases abandoned by the South Vietnamese.
A group of 75 U. S. advisers who aban-
doned Quing Tri Sunday blew up their
business by saying they would do so.
THE U. S. AIR ARM of tactical fighter-bombers, which has hailed the Saigon forces out of trouble before, was severely hampered by a sixth day of low cloud cover. More of the same was forecast for Monday and possibly Tuesday.
Nearly 50 U. S. B-32 Stratofortresses using radar unleashed 1,000 tons of bombs against North Vietnamese troop concentrations and supply depots along the frontier, and in the central highlands where the enemy has opened a third front.
Quang Tri City, the provincial capital 20
years south of the DMZ, remains in grave
terms.
Once the weather clears, sources said, the United States is planning heavy air strikes against North Vietnam in retaliation for the offensive.
tower and shot out the tires of their vehicles. The last man aboard the helicopters had an American flag draped around his shoulders.
WASHINGTON (AP)—A Ralph Nader group called Sunday for a congressional investigation into what it called drug-industry influence in the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA), a practice it said could endanger public health.
Nader Attacks FDA And Industry Influence
More than 10,000 shells and a number of ground assaults have caused the fall of 11 South Vietnamese bases along the DMZ during the past four days and the North Vietnamese appear to control a section of Quang Tri Province 10 miles deep and 40 miles across from Khe Sanh bordering Laos on the west to the coast.
In an 18-page report, Nader's Health Research Group alleged that two high Bureau of Drugs officials were demoted or reassigned last month because of industry involvement.
Furthermore, it asserted the FDA hired as consultants men who also were actively involved in research on drugs and medical devices for pharmaceutical companies.
There was no immediate comment from the FDA.
The accusations came on the heels of the first federal conflict-of-interest indictment of a former FDA drug researcher, and Senate Commerce Committee approval of a bill which would abolish the FDA and create a new consumer-safety agency.
"Under the guise of reorganization," the report said, "these actions again raise the serious yet unresolved question of who the manufacturers are and the industries it allegedly regulates."
Nestor was instrumental, the report said, in blocking use in the United States of the country.
The report said Dr. John Nestor, a physician scientist in the FDA's Division of Cardio-Pulmonary-Renal Drugs, was admitted to the hospital March 14, to the office of Compliance.
DR. SIDNEY WOLF, director of the Health Research Group, said much of the story was pieced together from internal sources, which were not made part of the report.
defects in hundreds of European babies, and in taking off the market another drug, Mer-29, after it allegedly caused varying decrees of blindness among U. S. users.
NINE DAYS AFTER Nestor 's transfer, the report said, his boss. Dr. John Winkler, to a demotion rather than be transferred to a lower-grade Dental Division of the Bureau of Drugs.
Fall Kansan Jobs Open
Applications for fall staff positions on the University Daily Kansas are now available to all students. Forms for editor and other new staff positions may be submitted by the instructor's semester editor. Carol Young, business manager, has applications for the business staff.
Editor applications must be turned into Creeks by 3 p.m.
Editor applications for business manager until that time. Applicants for other staff positions have until April 10 to get their applications
The editor and business manager for next fall will be selected April 18 by the Kanan selectors, then begin selecting their staff.