GOVERNMENT 0 i4

Storage

y4

I- 1112_

N 7461

961,- 2-

NOMINATION

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON

,OR AND PUBLIC WELFARE

UNITED STATES SENATE

EIGHTY-NINTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

ERANnEIN A. JOHNSON, OF CALIFORNIA, TO BE AN ASSISTANT

DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

JANUARY 25, 1966

Printed for the use of the

Committee on Labor and Public Welfare

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

58-527 WASHINGTON: 1966
.4r^'"" •

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WELFARE

LISTER HILL, Alabama, Chairman

PAT McNAMA RA, Michigan

WAYNE MORSE, Oregon

RALPH YARBOROUGH, Texas

JOSEPH S. CLARK, Pennsylvania

JENNINGS RANDOLPH, West Virginia

HARRISON A. WILLIAMS, JR., New Jersey

CLAIBORNE PELL, Rhode Island

EDWARD M. KENNEDY, Massachusetts

GAYLORD NELSON, Wisconsin

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, New York

STEWART E. MCCLURE, Chief Clerk

JOHN S. FORSTHYE. General Counsel

ROBERT W. BARCLAY, Profossional Staff Member

STEPHEN KURZMAN, Minority Counsel

II

JACOB K. JAVITS, New York

WINSTON L. PRO UTY, Vermont

PETER H. DOMINICK, Colorado

GEORGE MURPHY, California

PAUL J. FANNIN, Arizona
NOMINATION

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1966

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON LABOR AND PUBLIC WORKS,

Washington, D.C.

The committee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call in room 4232,

Senate Office Building, Senator Lister Hill, chairman of the committee,

presiding.

Present: Senators Hill (presiding), Morse, Yarborough, Clark,

Randolph, Williams, Pell, and Kennedy of Massachusetts.

Committee staff members present: Stewart E. McClure, chief

clerk; John S. Forsythe, general counsel; Robert Barclay, professional

staff member, and Stephen Kurzman, minority counsel.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, we have the nomination of Dr. Franklyn

A. Johnson, to be an Assistant Director of the Office of Economic

Opportunity.

Would you come around, Dr. Johnson, and have a seat?

Doctor, we will be happy now to have you proceed in your own way

and briefly tell us of your qualifications for the position to which you

have been nominated.

STATEMENT OF FRANKLYN A. JOHNSON, NOMINEE, TO BE

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Dr. JOHNSON. I believe, Mr. Chairman, you have a brief biographical sketch before you.

The CHAIRMAN. We will have that appear in full in the record.

(The biographical sketch of Dr. Johnson follows:)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DR. F. A. JOHNSON

Dr. Franklyn Arthur Johnson, prominent educator and scholar, assumed the

post of Director of Job Corps on January 3, 1966, succeeding Dr. Otis A. Singletary, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Job Corps, a major youth program in the war against poverty, provides basic

education and work skill training to out-of-school, out-of-work young men and

women 16 through 21 to help make them employable.

Dr. Johnson, former president of California State College at Los Angeles, is

recognized as the world authority on British politico-military organization and

has written two works on the subject.

A native of Rochester, N.Y., Dr. Johnson attended Rutgers University for

2 years before entering the Army from the ROTC. He served with distinction

with the 1st Infantry Division (Silver Star, Croix de Guerre) in North Africa,

Sicily, and Normandy, where he was felled by a sniper's bullet.

He spent many months in Army hospitals before leaving the service and returning to Rutgers. On returning to Rutgers, he brought with him his wife of I

1
2 NOMINATION

month—Emily Lingle—an Army nurse he met while he was in the Kennedy

General Hospital.

He completed his work at Rutgers, receiving his bachelor of arts degree magna

cum laude in 1947. In 1949, he received his master of arts degree from Harvard

University, where he was a faculty scholar.

Dr. Johnson served with the Central Intelligence Agency for 2 years and then

received a Fulbright scholarship to study at the London School of Economics.

His dissertation for his doctor of philosophy degree, which he received from

Harvard in 1952, was the study of the British politico-military organization,

later published and widely hailed as the authoritative work on the subject.

Dr. Johnson moved to Winter Park, Fla., in 1952 as a professor of government 

at Rollins College. Dr. Johnson served in that capacity and as chairman of

the division of human relations and business for 4 years.

In 1956, he was named president and professor of government of Jacksonville

University, which in 5 years, became an accredited, degree-granting university.

This unusual performance, a record in the South, brought him many local and

regional honors and, in 1963, he was named president and professor of government

of California State College at Los Angeles.

Dr. Johnson has written and lectured a great deal on the subject of British

governmental operations, as well as on college and university operations, and

general education. He received a doctor of humane letters from Jacksonville

University in 1961 and was named outstanding professor of the year at Rollins

in 1956.

Dr. Johnson served as president of the Florida Association of Colleges and

Universities in 1959-60 and was charter executive director of the Florida Citizenship Clearing House

'

now the Center for Education in Politics. This is the

movement to interest young people in party politics.

In each of the communities where he has served, Dr. Johnson has been active

in community affairs. The Johnsons have three children—two daughters and

one son.

Dr. JOHNSON. Probably all I could add to that would be to try to

avoid our getting into a question of pedigree in relation to the State.

I see Mr. Carter here from Senator Murphy's office and I should

make clear that I was only 2 years in California; despite being listed

as a Californian, I cannot claim credit for a long tenure in the State

of California such as I might want to do.

Actually, I have more a Floridian background than anything else.

Also as I listened to the last part of the discussion here about Rutgers,

Rutgers was my alma mater.

Now, I suppose that speaking perhaps in terms of my experience

and qualifications, the most germane would be what I was doing

during that 2 years in California. The institution referred to as the

California State College at Los Angeles is an institution only 17 years

old but which has now nearly 22,000 students. Several thousand of

those students come from areas such as Watts, and other depressed

and underprivileged areas, and so perhaps the best experience;

although not precisely related to what I have been doing for the

last 2 or 3 weeks, came from that institution and that kind of experience where we had several thousand young people of an underprivileged background seeking to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, so to speak, and get a college education.

That was an interesting and very instructive experience, and one

which I suspect gave me more affinity or sympathy for what I am

presently trying to do as director of the Job Corps than anything

previously.

The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, I note that you served for some time in

the Army.

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir.
NOMINATION 3

The CHAIRMAN. You were with the 1st Infantry Division, and won

the Silver Star, the Croix de Guerre in North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy, and were felled by a sniper's bullet, is that correct?

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes, sir. I was in the wrong place at the wrong

time.

The CHAIRMAN. You were there serving your country.

Dr. JOHNSON. I was trying to, yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. And you completed your work at Rutgers, where

you got a B.A. degree, magna cum laude.

Dr. JOHNSON. I received my bachelor's degree at Rutgers, and

went on to the graduate school at Harvard for my other work.

The CHAIRMAN. You also served with the Central Intelligence

Agency for 2 years and then received a Fulbright scholarship to study

at the London School of Economics.

Dr. JOHNSON. That is correct, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. You then went down to Florida and became active

at Rollins College and were president and professor of government at

Jacksonville University. Your work there was such that it became

an accredited, degree-granting university and this brought you many

local and regional honors, is that correct?

Dr. JOHNSON. That is correct, late in 1963, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. You also served as president of the Florida Association of Colleges and Universities and were the charter executive

director of the Florida Citizenship Clearing House, now known as

the Center for Education in Politics.

Are there any questions?

Senator YARBOROUGH. Dr. Johnson, we have one statistic in the

State of Texas which we regret very much and want to remedy, and

that is the fact that in our State we have so many people of low income—despite the fact that we have 10.5 million people and New

York and California have 18 million—we still have more people who

gross below $3,000 income than any other State with lower educational attainments, and we have about a million and a half people who

are Spanish-speaking, or bilingual who are attempting to become

acculturated in our type of culture with different languages and

customs. They have had financial difficulties, so we have great work

to be done there.

I strongly supported this antipoverty legislation—the Office of

Economic Opportunity—and shall continue to do so and endeavor to

get even further help for it. I wish you every success in this work.

I think it is very important as an undertaking. It has one mission

and one principle I find most admirable; that is in teaching others to

help themselves.

I know in the beginning there was a thought that this would just

be the Government giving something away, and I had made many

talks in my State pointing out that it was an educational program in

every facet, in the Job Corps, VISTA adult training and all. This is

an educational program to help people lift themselves to selfsufficiency and help themselves.

I also want to comment on the wonderful background you have

here. I am glad to have the President pick someone with all the

varied experience that you have had particularly in organizing colleges and work such as you did in Jacksonville where the school

became a degree-granting university in 5 years.
4 NOMINATION

Out of curiosity, having served in the ETO staff in an imantry

division, I want to ask you, You were with the 1st Division and went

through North Africa, Sicily, and Normandy before the sniper got

you? You were really pretty lucky, were you not, Doctor, to last

that long?

Dr. JOHNSON. That is true. However I think the really rough fight

came a little later on. At that time we were experimenting in tactics

and strategy in rather low key campaigns up until D-day, Normandy,

and then as the casualty lists became longer, more of my very close

friends were lost and it showed that the really rough going came later.

Senator YARBOROUGH. Wasn't the 1st Division the one that had

about three times as many casualties as the others, or as its original

strength?

Dr. JOHNSON. It went through a little more than that, about 375

percent casualties.

Senator YARBOROUGH. There were close to 60,000 men that went

through the division.

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes.

Senator YARBOROUGH. Where a normal strength division was

15,000.

Dr. JOHNSON. We had completed about 100 percent casualties right

up to the time we landed on D-day, on the beach, and a few days

thereafter so that the great bulk of those tragic losses did come on

the continent of Europe later.

Senator YARBOROUGH. 3% casualties for every one that started out?

Dr. JOHNSON. Approximately.

Senator YARBOROUGH. A terrific rate, so I say, we are glad you are

here with us.

Senator RANDOLPH. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Randolph.

Senator RANDOLPH. Last week Sargent Shriver in testifying before

our Special Committee on Aging gave to me the unequivocal assurance

that as he undertook just the one job, rather than two, there would be

an improvement in the administration of the Office of Economic

Opportunity. I believe that will happen, and I think it is important

that that does happen.

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes.

Senator RANDOLPH. In the State of West Virginia and other States,

it has been said that a good law poorly administered is worse than a bad

law well administered. From this committee flowed this legislation

on the broad front to lessen poverty in our Nation. I have been

discouraged in the last few weeks as I studied the problems in our

State and the application of the legislation to those problems. I have,

of course, conveyed that in specific instances to the Office of Economic

Opportunity.

This is a big job and Sargent Shriver is big enough to keep all of his

talents engaged and I know, Dr. Johnson, that you are going to join

him in making this program effective. This is not a gratuitous

statement. I just feel that you have almost a commitment here to

lift this program from the area of uncertainty and make it function.

Dr. JOHNSON. I have made such a commitment, and I restate it at

this time.

1f I might comment briefly, although you didn't exactly raise the

question, if I might have the privilege, Mr. Chairman, of commenting
f

NOMINATION 5

on the Senator's comment, I agree completely with you, sir, and believe

that it is inevitable in a crash program such as this that there are

going to be even more mistakes made perhaps in this early phase than

later on, that there probably will be by the nature of things more

money spent erroneously in trying out an approach, finding it does

not work, backtracking and starting on another line of effort. I

think there has been this kind of experience and we are now attempting

various things such as a decentralization in regions with which you

are no doubt familiar under Mr. Shriver's leadership which we believe

will rectify some of these questions in my own area and that, of course,

0E0-wide, and I only want to say at this point with the Job Corps

itself, we are doing such things as a reexamination of all contracts

which were let in the first group of contracts.

Many of these come up for renewal anyway at the end of this fiscal

year, others do not, but we are making it our business to restudy

these to ascertain whether as much efficiency and as much economy

has been accomplished and still completing the program which has

been set for us by the Congress, just as much as possible is carried

on, and I certainly accept that as my primary responsibility.

We have a great many creative thinkers, idea men in our organization and I expect to encourage them to try out methods to solve these

tragic problems. I must think of myself as an administrator of a program rather than a man creative in the field of efforts, and I want to

say that my own thinking of my immediate goals for the next 2 or 3

months are right along the lines of your suggestion.

Senator RANDOLPH. Thank you.

There is no dearth of ideas, and there is certainly a need for good

administration. I am sure that you will bring this to the position.

Your qualifications and record commend themselves to me, sir, and

I wish you every success possible.

Dr. JOHNSON. Thank you very much, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Williams?

Senator WILLIAMS. Dr. Johnson, the Job Corps program at Kilmer,

N.J., is one of the significant centers of the Nation 

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes, it is.

Senator WILLIAMS. Have you been there?

Dr. JOHNSON. Yes, I have, sir.

Senator WILLIAMS. How did you evaluate the program there?

Dr. JOHNSON. I would say, sir, that we have an excellent program

there. I know there has been controversy about it. In fact, in one

form or another I suppose there has been controversy about each of

the Job Corps centers because they are a new experiment in this

country's history. Perhaps the only antecedent that is at all similar

was the CCC, which my father was acquainted with and about which

he has written a master's thesis, about the only thing actually extant

on the CCC, but there is a significant difference and that is, this is an

educational program as well as a work program whereas the CCC was

almost exclusively a work program, as you know.

I would evaluate this center, without having made more than a

2- or 3-hour visit to the center, as an essentially fine one and one that

is doing its job. The return statistics, for example, of our Christmas

leave for young people showed an excellent return there; the overall

was between 95 and 96 percent; I don't remember precisely the exact

figure on the Kilmer return, but it did not deviate substantially from
6 NOMINATION

the norm. I suspect that philosophical differences of viewpoint which

have been evidenced in that particular center are going to be with us

for a long time and I would say that this is probably a healthy thing.

The centers are not meant to operate on some kind of a norm laid

down from on high; they are expected to vary in terms of the geographical location, the views of the contractor, the extent of control

perhaps which we exert from the center now and will later exert

through the regional office of 0E0. I cannot answer in precise terms

as to what deviations from norm may have taken place there but my

reading of reports from that center and the personal visitation would

not reveal really too much substance to some of the charges that have

been made, particularly relative to dictatorship and so on. I do not

accept those.

Senator WILLIAMS. I was there when Vice President Humphrey

rather opened the center, although it had been operating for some

weeks. It looked good to me. I think it is doing the job that we

had hoped for the Job Corps when we passed that legislation.

The CHAIRMAN. If there are no further questions, Doctor, we

want to thank you very much.

senator YARBOROUGH. May I ask a question?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Senator YARBOROUGH. Dr. Johnson, was your father's thesis on

the CCC published?

Mr. JOHNSON. It was not published, sir, because it was only written

and submitted to Stetson University in Florida last summer. He is

now attempting under some encouragement on my part to develop

this into the first full-length book on the CCC, but it has not been

published. I will be glad to supply you with a copy, sir, if you

would like.

Senator YARBOROUGH. We have some material written, I believe,

within the Department of Labor that we studied when we passed the

antipoverty program, the Economic Opportunity Act, when we went

into that area. We took the burden of it in the Senate and supported

it. Does the staff remember the authorship? We had a summary

of the work done, not a thesis like this but a summary which we did

use in the study.

Mr. MCCLURE. I believe it was the former head of the National

Park Service who wrote it.

Senator YARBOROUGH. Conrad Wirth. We had some discussion at

that time, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Doctor, we certainly thank you, sir, for your

appearance here and appreciate very much your coming here.

The committee will now go into executive session.

Thank you.

(Whereupon, at 11 a.m., the committee proceeded into executive

session)

0