The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1962-05-04

WASHINGTON, d. C.-Back il
the '30s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt
stirred America with his declaration
that lone third of the nation wa
ill-housed, ill-fed and ill-clothed".
Today, almost three decades later
Economist Leon Keyserling, who wa:
head of President Truman's Council
of Economic Advisors, has completed
a study which slows that almost dc
per cent of America still lives in
poverty and deprivation.
These figures are so startling that
| found them hard to believe at first
l still find it Incredible that in a
nation which has made the technolog-
ical and scientific advances we have,
that there has been so much neglect
of a vital segment of the economy.
Mr.. Keyserling's study has been
published by the Conference on Eco
nonic Progress and bears the title
Poverty and Deprivation In the y.
S." 1t is factual and carefully-docu-
mented. which makes it all the more
devastating.
There are great debates now going
on inside the administration as to
what we should be doing about low
economic growth and chronic unem-
ployment. The record, to date, is not
very impressive. But about the facts
there seems to be no argument.
What are the facts?
There are some 38 million Ameri-
cans with incomes under $4,000 per
year and families with under $4,000
per year.. That is the description of
what constitutes poverty in 1862.
Another SO million Americans live in
deprivation, which means midi
vidual incomes of $4,000 to $1,000
per year and families with incomes
of $4,000 to 5000 per year.
This means that there are II mil
nation-living at substandard levels.
This hardly sounds like the "af-
fluent society. The Keyserling re-
port notes with some disparagement
the conclusion of Prof. John X. Gal
braith that poverty in the u. S. is
no longer a massive affliction".
Galbraith said it is more nearly San
afterthought''
Unfortunately that seems to be the
attitude at high levels in the govern
ment and the Keyserling study dis
SCENTS vigorously:
"But this soothing conclusion is
based upon treating as living in pow
erty those families with incomes of
less than $1,000 a year, contraSted
with the $4,000 which many authori-
ties fix as the amount required to
place the multiple-person family |
above poverty in the American con-
text today"
The point seems well-taken. How
many individuals, let alone families,
could live ON 1000 year? Common
sense rejects that as a standard by
which to measure the degree of ma
tional want.
What Mr.. Keyserling finds dis
tressing is the growing complacency
about the poverty and deprivation
still in our midst" While he advocates
the administrator foreign trade
program he believes that this would
be insignificant as a remedy for what
ails the nation. The most he can see,
assuming it's approval, is about an
other SO billions coming in through
the development of overseas markets.
But what actually we need, ac-
cording to Mr.. Keyserling, is another
$50 billion and eventually another
500 billion increased production. If
we were just to look homeward, in
his Judgment, we would discover that
we have an immense "underdeveloped
market. He would give high priority
10 meeting the needs of these IT,
300, 900 Americans. II
Lifting the living standards OF
,hese II million is not only imperative