pital, many other Government officials, prominent doctors in this area, the Chairman of the President's Committee and the Deputy Administrator of the Veterans' Administration. All agree that I am in the wrong position, that I could be of much greater service, and be used to a much greater advantage, if properly placed. Yet no one seems to know just where I should be placed, or exactly what type of placement I should have, or just where to refer me for the proper information. So may I again point out to you that even in my own case, let alone the thousands of less fortunate ones, there is the most urgent and drastic need for a National Committee for the Training and Development of Selective Placement Personnel. Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you very, very much, Mrs. Cleaves, for that very fine statement. I might say that people who have overcome their handicaps, as you have done, are an inspiration to those of us who do not have any handicaps, as well as to the great number of people who do. I am sure of that. Mrs. CLEAVES. Thank you. I feel that I am one of the more forIt is the ones that are so less fortunate who really need tunate ones. the help. Mr. ELLIOTT. Mr. Nicholson, do you have any questions? Mr. ELLIOTT. Our next witness is Mr. Thomas H. Burke, the national legislative director of the United Auto Workers. Tom Burke is a former Member of Congress, and a former member of this committee. I would like to say to you, Mr. Burke, that we are happy to have you back and happy to have your testimony at this time. STATEMENT OF THOMAS H. BURKE, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED AUTO WORKERS Mr. BURKE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I might say at the outset that my testimony is sort of a delayed reaction. I am appearing here in lieu of our director of older and retired workers department, Mr. Charles E. Odell, whom we have recently been very fortunate in obtaining from the Department of Labor, where he served with much distinction for a good many years in this particular field. I might also ask permission, Mr. Chairman, because of the difficulty in transmission between Detroit and here, and the time available, that I can file with the clerk of the committee later in the day the required mimeographed copies of the testimony. I shall furnish to the reporter this copy from which I am reading now. Mr. ELLIOTT. Without objection, the request from the gentleman is granted. Mr. Burke, you may proceed with your presentation. Mr. BURKE. This, Mr. Chairman, is Mr. Odell's statement [reading]: My name is Charles E. Odell, I am employed as director of the older and retired workers department of the UAW. It is my responsibility to coordinate the activities of the union in behalf of older and retired members and to see to it that the needs and interests of these members are, reflected not only in the union's programs but also in collective bargaining, in local, State, and Federal legislation, and in community programs and activities for the aged. Prior to my ap pointment by President Reuther to this job, I was a special assistant to the Under Secretary of Labor in charge of the older workers programs of the United States Department of Labor. I have also worked in the Department of Labor in varying capacities for 20 years as a specialist on the counseling, placement, and rehabilitation of special groups of workers, including the handicapped and the older workers. In the light of this experience, I can say with great conviction that H. R. 9171, as introduced by Congressman Elliott and sponsored by Paul Strachan in behalf of AFPH, is vitally important to the welfare of handicapped and older persons in the United States. No single aspect of the related fields of rehabilitation and gerontology requires more immediate attention than the professional development of quali fied selective placement interviewers and counselors. The work of the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, and of the United States Employment Service, has done much to increase job opportunities for the handicapped and for older workers. However, these programs have not given proper emphasis to the complex and time-consuming job of scientific, selective placement. While much progress has been made in the general training of rehabilitation counselors under the provisions of the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments of 1954, these provisions have not been used effectively to train selective placement personnel. This is so primarily because of limita tions placed on the number of placement personnel who are admitted to such training by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation and on the time and funds authorized to support such personnel in training by 1 the Bureau of Employment Security and by State employment security agencies. H. R. 9171 would overcome these limitations by making clear the intent of Congress that job placement shall become an essential ele ment in the whole program on services to the handicapped and by placing a clear responsibility on the Secretary of Labor in seeing to it that sufficient funds are provided so that professional competent staff is developed and trained to perform selective placement work throughout the Nation. There is an unfortunate tendency in present programs to work primarily with the less severaly handicapped and to pass by as unfeasible of rehabilitation and job placement those who are more severely disabled. This defeats the basic intent of the entire rehabilitation program and denies to the severely disabled their fair opportunity to become taxpayers and producers instead of tax-supported invalids. Only a better trained and professionally competent selection placement staff in local employment offices and in other public and private agencies can significantly improve this situation. H. R. 9171 is a practical, hard-headed, economy-minded piece of legislation. It will save the taxpayers millions of dollars in health. welfare, and hospitalization costs now being expended to support the severely handicapped in state of invalidism. By putting emphasis on the training of competent, selective placement staff, the Congress will be helping these groups to find remunerative employment and curtail ing the high cost of institutional and welfare services. I am proud to say that I have worked closely with Paul Strachan for many years and that I helped him draft the original language which is incorporated into H. R. 9171. I feel it is a good bill and one which will serve well the needs and interests of working men and women everywhere in America. A good job has been done in promoting the idea that "it is good business to hire the handicapped." Now it is time to apply good business principles to the administration of the program. One solid step in this direction will be to mobilize the specialized training resources of the country to select, train, and utilize professional, competent selective placement staff. Mr. Chairman, all I can say is that I add my "Amens" to Mr. Odell's statement. Mr. ELLIOTT. Thank you very much, Mr. Burke, for appearing before us and giving us the benefit of your views with reference to this legislation, and for bringing us the statement of Mr. Odell, who is unable to be here at this time. Mr. BURKE. I might say that Mr. Odell is scheduled this morning to appear at Purdue University to teach a class in just this sort of work today and tomorrow. Mr. NICHOLSON. Do any other colleges have a course in this field? Mr. BURKE. The course that he is teaching will be taught through the facilities of Purdue on behalf of the union for some of their classes in placement. This, of course, has received some attention throughout the years in the automobile industry both on the part of labor and management, I might say. We have had some good placement officers, but not enough of them, people who are handicapped, and who can go in and demonstrate just what handicapped people can do in jobs. Mr. ELLIOTT. Has the automobile industry done a good job in finding employment for people who become handicapped in that industry? Mr. BURKE. I would not say a good job, but I would say a fair to middling job. Mr. ELLIOTT. Have they done a better than average job? Mr. BURKE. Probably, at least in those cases with which I have had experience. In my home area from the time of the beginning of the national defense program in 1939 we started directing attention to the problem, and although I still would not call it a good job, at least some progress was made. Mr. ELLIOTT. Has the matter of reemployment of automobile workers who become disabled or handicapped in the course of their employment been made a matter of contract between the employers and the employees in the auto industry? Mr. BURKE. Not a matter of contract. It is a matter of day-to-day working. Where a person is injured in the plant there is a natural desire on the part of both the management and the union to find a method of employing that person for many reasons. As has been stated, the employer finds that it is more economical to do so than o pay the necessary compensation for that injury. What I was speaking of mostly was incidents where handicapped people who were not injured in the industry were brought into the ndustry where special arrangements were made in the seniority set up, for instance, where special jobs were found where they could be fitted in or their handicap could be fitted into the industry, and special studies were made. For instance, one thing that I remember, or one example that I remember very graphically, is a case where we had what we call tumbling machine, which is an extremely noisy thing. It knocks the scale off forgings by tumbling them with little, steel stars in a big tumbling barrel, and it drove the average hearing person crazy. We were able to place deaf mutes on that particular job, and they just ate it up. It was a wonderful thing for them. It did not bother them in the least. Mr. NICHOLSON. You have done more in preventing accidents probably than taking care of them after they have been incapacitated. Mr. BURKE. Yes; accident prevention has been one of our fortes, as far as that goes. In fact, when I was in Congress, I introduced the uniform safety standards bill that was never passed, but which has been a sort of a perennial bill in this committee with and parallel with the mine safety bill that Congressman McConnell pushed through, I think in the 83d Congress. Mr. ELLIOTT. What is Mr. Odell's office in the United Automobile Workers? Mr. BURKE. He is now director of retired and older workers department. Since the negotiation of the pension and welfare plans in 1950, the problem has been growing. For instance, in my local union alone, we have over 2,000 retired members at the present time. So, the question as to what to do for and with the retired members has been a real problem, and as I said, we were very fortunate in obtaining Mr. Odell. We sort of stole him from the Labor Department for this particular job. Mr. ELLIOTT. To me it has always seemed unfortunate that we have made as little effort as we have made as a nation to employ the phys ically handicapped, and I mean by that finding employment which they can do with pride and with ability, and likewise, that we thus far have done as little as we have done to utilize the wonderful ca pabilities of people who are of the retirement age. Mr. BURKE. That is exactly right. We have had many taboos to tear down. Probably the most outstanding of them is the taboo against having handicapped people come in because they may not be able to do the work. That is the feeling on the part of some people it management, and even some people in labor. Then, there is also the taboo which we have had to overcome of the possibility of a handicapped person being more susceptible to injury in the plant and, there fore, raising the compensation rates of the employer. The finding on that particular taboo has been that usually the handcapped worker is a safer worker than an unhandicapped one, because he has a desire to show that he can do it and that it is possible for him to work safely. I have seen blind people working on drill presses much more safely than sighted people. Mr. ELLIOTT. If there are no further questions, Mr. Burke, we thank you very much for your appearance here today. Mr. BURKE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ELLIOTT. Our next witness this morning is Mr. George A. Crago, of Harrisburg, Pa. Mr. Crago, did I pronounce your name correctly? Mr. ELLIOTT. Mr. Crago has furnished us with a statement which has been made available to the members of the committee, and you may read that statement, Mr. Crago, or proceed in any other manner that you may desire. STATEMENT OF GEORGE A. CRAGO, PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER, THE GENERAL STATE AUTHORITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, AND A NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF THE PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED Mr. CRAGO. Chairman Elliott and members of the committee, my name is George A. Crago. I am public-relations officer for the General State Authority of Pennsylvania and a national director of the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped. I might add parenthetically that the authority is a financing and building organization which builds buildings through the sale of bonds, and rents them to the State. That will explain how the authority operates. The State of Pennsylvania has a $1 million debt limitation by constitution; so it has to have a means of circumventing that in order to obtain money to carry out the program of public works. Mr. ELLIOTT. What does this authority build primarily-school buildings? Mr. CRAGO. No; we build institutions and facilities for departments of the State, all the way from dams and desilting basins up to complete institutions such as prison institutions and State office buildings, and that sort of thing. It serves the needs of the State itself, and does not go into any lower political subdivision except the State departments. It is a high honor and a privilege to appear before this Subcommittee on Special Education to express my support of House bill 9171, which would create a National Committee for the Training and Development of Selective Placement Personnel. The State agency with which I am connected at present is financing and directing the construction of a $9 million rehabilitation center at Johnstown, Pa. This center will have a maximum capacity of 400. It is the only one of its kind in the United States because it was built "from the ground up" for the specific purpose of training physically handicapped persons to become financially self-sustaining. It might be well to add there that I do not mean that this is the only rehabilitation center in the United States, but it is the only one to our knowledge that was built as the result of a survey and a study of previously built institutions. In other words, we have benefited from the experiences of others so that we do have a new approach in considerable detail of the actual construction of this building such as floor type of heating and the use of ramps throughout. There are no steps in the institution, and that sort of thing. This institution has attracted worldwide attention because it reflects the thinking of the handicapped, themselves, in such institutions as |