PAGE SIXTEEN aspects . . . concern for the health of especially vulnerable groups such as pregnant and ‘nursing mothers and the el- derly, the whole work of the food industry from food safety, packaging, labeling, new foods, and of course, especially all of the programs dealing with the “delivery of food to the hungry. ~ Q. In your opinion, pawticu- Q. Since you are an authority on a rather voluminous report to be submitted to the Presi- dent, can you give us your opinion as to what you think must be done currently to curb hunger in the nation that we are now aware exists? A. In terms of the immediate issue of those people really suffering from hunger and mal- nutrition we must use whatever avenues we have to get either commodity programs or food stamp programs or emergency food programs into every county in the nation. In terms of a long range answer to the program, that’s a much more complicated area. Q. Do you think that the government is moving in this direction to involve itself in each county as such. A. This is one of the pledges the President made to the con- ference last week. that within SiX months, and we hope much faster than that, there will be a food program in every county. Q. In the study that has re- cently been done do we get an indication as to where the really serious problems are occurring, what part of the country they are in, and how bad off the peo- ple really are? A. You'll find it everyplace from the Indian reservation to the Southwestern part of the ~ country, Appalachia, in the South; you'll find it in urban areas as well as rural areas. You'll probably find those with no income at all most often lo- cated in the South, but you will ~ find across the board in every community some people, at ~ least, who are unable to buy an adequate diet out of what money comes into the home. ~~ Q. This includes northeast- ern Pennsylvania as well? A. Yes, it does. Q. Have you been involved, to: ° any extent, from a local stand- point with the problem of hun- ger. ‘A. I have been attempting to motivate groups to do a survey of what the local condition is based on the fact that we do ‘have food stamp programs and since, in Lackawanna County, we have over 9000 people on welfare. This statistic in itself indicates that they don’t have “an adequate amount for food because the food dollar is the first one cut and welfare pay- ments are not adequate to have housing, clothing, and medicine and so forth without cutting into the food dollar. Q. You mentioned Lacka- ~ wanna County. Do you have the figures for Luzerne County as well? A. No, I do not. The welfare ~ proposal at present in Pennsyl- ~ vania overall allows 21 cents : per meal, but this includes not only money for food but for household products and other items like laundry soap, tooth paste, etc. Q. There seemed to be some discontent among the people who attended the conference who complained that the con- ference was a lot of talk when hunger was a terribly pressing problem in America today. What was your reaction to those people who seemed to be im- patient with what was going on? A. First of all, I was com- pletely sympathetic because I ~ have been in the Southwest and the South and I have seen the hungry babies. There weoe over 400 people of the legitimately ENJOY INSTANT HEAT _—_.y pn hard corps poor at the con- ference; Indian-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, blacks, Appalachia blacks and whites. They all had the same complaint that there are people actually going hun- gry. When you yourself or your children are literally hungry and going without meal after meal, it’s awfully hard to see people talking about how much iron should go into the milk that you buy. They just want food, fortified or unfortified. And so the dynamics of the sit- uation of bringing this confron- tation contributed, I'm sure, greatly to the fact that I feel it was the most spiritual ex- perience that I have ever been a part of. Q. When the six of you had your hour-long conversation with the President did you represent this point of view? . Did you let him know the feel- ings of the more militant participants, and if so, what was his reaction? A. This was really the main thrust of our conversation; the call for him to take emergency action. It was based not only on the militant voice but the fact that even if it was a man who had a multimillion-dollar in- come as a result of being presi- dent of a food company or if it was a poor, illiterate person, there was total unanimity in the call to do something now about hunger. This was the main thrust of our message because the publicity that had come out indicated that it was just a lot of angry voices criti- cizing the President, and the implication was that these angry voices were only the poor. But it was really a universal call, and so we emphasized to him that this was not an abstract question, that it was a guts kind of question. I got so seri- ous about it that I even cried a little. But the fact that we did not come back from the meeting with a specific prom- ise by the President in words to do something that day con- tinued, to frustrate the poor because they felt that we had not done the job we were sent to do. Q. When the conference was over, what was the reaction on the militant side? A. Still frustrated. They had felt all along, and wrongly I might say, that the con- ference was structured to keep their voice out. This wasn’t true. Dr. Mayer (chairman of the conference) from the very beginning had tried to include them at every level. But, they’ ve had so many written words and technical discussions and structure meetings, none of which have come out with any answers, and then the fact that they had the meeting and we still didn’t come out with something they could hang onto. They were frustrated. They don’t have enough faith in this administration or enough faith in this system that it can work for all the people. This is what we have to demonstrate by taking action, and not just by the President and Congress taking action. It has to happen at the local level, too. Q. I recall that Senator Mc- Govern, shortly after his trip to the South earlier this year, said that he was very much afraid of the same thing . . . that the people were in arms against the system rather than against any one administration. Did you get this same feeling? A. When you have been kept out of the system and its bene- fits for so long I think this is understandable. Q. In what order of priority would you put ending hunger in- sofar as what the government must do for America today? A. Since food means life and ‘With amazing ASHLEY thermostatic Wocd Burning Cir- culator. In the morning turn up the thermostat. Just add wood every 12 hours. One fire lasts all season. Fully automatic, simply dial the heat you want. Hand- some console heater for up to six rooms or more in cold- est weather. CLEAN, NO SOOT, LITTLE OR NO ASHES. USES AS LITTLE AS 115 CORDS OF WOOD A SEASON. USES ALL KINDS OF WOOD, GREEN OR DRY. Backed by over 100 years experience in making quality heating equipment. if we can’t guarantee life to our citizens I'd say it was first priority. But, in a general sense, the priority of individual human worth is, to me, the important thing whether you are discuss- ing the issue of Vietnam or how a welfare program is admini- stered or anything else that Americans should be interested in. It is the fact that each in- dividual life is important. fact that-each: individuatdiferis important. Q. If you had the opportunity to draw up a program for at- tacking hunger that you knew wouldbeinstitutedimmediately, how would you go about setting it up? A. Most of the recommenda- tions are good that have been made about simplifying the food programs under a federal eligibility standard so that lo- cal politicians can’t keep some- body out of the program. We ‘need a certification that is a simple statement of need rather than all of the fantastic red tape. We must make the food program easily available not at a certain day of the week at an out of the way location, but when and where it is convenient to the hungry. Q. Where would the money come from? A. The amount of money actually needed to reach the 10 or 12 million hungry with food stamp or food commodity programs is not that great . . . $2 or $3 billion a year. In two or three years Dr. Mayer, who is my authority, estimates we really could do it. So it is not a major amount of money. It is a matter of making sure the programs reach the people they are intended to reach. Q. Since the needed money is not that great, do you think the problem lies in a lack of com- mitment or is the system set up just inefficient? A. The first thing is that, as of now, a lot of people that would be eligible for the pro- grams are not even aware that they are eligible because there has been, I don’t know whether it is a deliberate effort to hide the programs, but there cer- tainly has not been a deliberate effort to publicize them. We are suggesting as women at the conference, among other things, to get this to be a spot announcement on radio ¢and’ television like the Peace Corps or Vista, just to educate the people that it is available. Then there is the problem that some- times you need an advocate to help you go to a bureauocracy and ask to be included. When you have a limited amount of money the mere cost of trans- portation to and from the source of food may keep you from hav- : ing enough money to get the food. There are a lot of ways that just the public sector can enter into helping people. Q. Is the $2 to $3 billion figure that you use the estimate to completely eliminate hunger in the United States? A. The hunger of the hard- core poor. Now, there are esti- mates that maybe there are 25 million Americans on incomes that keep them from getting an adequate fully nutritious diet. But that is different from those people that just are under- nourished or with no nourish- ment part of the month. Q. How many hard-core hun- gry are there locally? A. It is just the same as na- tionally. We have not done the survey to determine who they are, and so just as the poor Education . . THE DALLAS POST, DEC. 11, 1969 unger at the crossroads: 10 million to feed continued from PAGE 15 were frustrated by all this tech- nical business about surveying and monitoring programs na- tionally, this is a very good il- lustration of why there has to be a survey to find the people locally. Q. In the 9000 people that you mentioned are on welfare in Lackawanna County, are you aware whether or not there is: any individual ethnic group that makes up the majority of this number? A. I think it goes across the ethnic lines because I know we have been doing some surveying in terms of our inter-faith pro- gram for meals-on-wheels for shut-ins and we're doing that in West Scranton. We are dis- covering, just as we knew, that there were elderly people on an inadequate diet because of in- adequate income. Q. You mentioned long range program. Can you elaborate on that. A. In the area of surveying and monitoring, we, as a nation, have done over 30 surveys of hunger in other nations and only one in our own country. So, number one, we have to look for the specifics in our own country, and this has been be- gun by Dr. Shafer of the Public Health Service. On the basis of his first study he says it is a conservative estimate that there are 10 million hungry in this country. In terms of reaching special groups, one of ‘the specifics is that we now have adequate pre-natal care for only 55 percent of our pregnant women. This must be increased at a rapidly rising rate because it has now been documented that if a pregnant woman or an infant up to one or two years old does not get adequate pro- tein they are permanently re- tarded physically and mentally. . . . it’s not just the poor who must have knowledge about the right foods to buy, it’s all of us; but a corollary to that is that the right foods must be there to buy. Thirty years ago we were enriching our milk and having iodized salt, and today it is not unusual to buy non-fortified milk, non- fortified bread and salt which has not been iodized, which ef- fects our health. Q. President Nixon said that he would work toward eliminat- ing hunger’ in Anerica ‘altos gether, and he has pledged that within six months he will be in- volved county by county through- out the country. Has he, in your opinion, shown that he means what he says. Did you get the impression from your confer- ence with the President that he would really push on this hun-. ger program? A. Very definitely. I asked him specifically what I could say to the press about the promises he was making to us. He said that he would immedi- ately investigate the sugges- tions that we had made for emergency action, but that he wasn’t interested in saying something without backing it up with action. Secondly, that as soon as he got the report he would include the recommen- dations in his budget message to Congress. Q. Getting back to President Nixon’s pledge to eradicate hunger in America, did you come back from this conference with the impression that the country would be well on its way towards solving this prob- lem by the end of Mr. Nixon's current term? A. Yes, because we are al- Unique SETH THOMAS CORDLESS WALL DECOR Of LAMPS Gift Items SHAVERTOWN 675-2127 Christmas Giving! WALL CLOCKS Large Selection Hundreds of Other BACK MOUNTAIN |GIFT' SHOP STORE HOURS 8 AM.— 9 P.M. "TIL DEC. 24 NEBR ready up to about the $2 billion figure on the basis of the ad- justment between the House and Senate bill which will be some place between $610 million and $750 million, and this will have to come in the last six months. If you cost that out over where it is projected for the next fiscal year it is a tre- mendous increase, up close to the $2 billion figure. Finan- cially, therefore, we have a good start. Most of the reforms that I suggested are written into either the administration bill or the McGovern bill. Therefore, most of the reforms will take place. The President’s pledge to follow through on some of the other programs, like a survey that will tell us precisely where the people are . . . all of these things combined should do it. But I still say that it cannot be done alone by a conference or by a President. It is going to take local people caring. The fact that if we discover that there are any people in that desperately poor, hungry group it should not be morally accept- able for us to sit still and allow it to happen. It’s just that sim- ple; whether or not we can move the American conscience. I'Ve been saying in a lot of speeches that I think we are moving into a new isolationism that bothers me far more than the isolationism I was aware of when I lived in the midwest before World War II where we sort of put two oceans to sepa- rate us from everybody. Now I think we are closing our front doors. Whether we are doing it because we say the problems are too big and therefore my puny efforts aren’t going to ef- fect it or whether we are doing it because we say I've got all I can do to take care of my fam- ily and my own and I just can’t be bothered; either way to me is a frightening attitude. I would think that the concern for hunger would be the kind of - issue that might draw us out and make us realize that we are, in our single effort, able to ef- fect the problem, and that it is our problem if our brother is hungry. fire reported at taundry center A fire was reported at the Shavertown Laundercenter in the Back Mountain Shopping Center Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 8:30 p.m. Shavertown Volunteer Fire Company responded to the alarm and extinguished a small blaze caused by a ceiling block falling on a dryer. It is believed that a leak in the roof of the building caused the ceil- ing tile to fall. The Launder- center is owned by Robert H. Schalm, Dallas. 2 9990953243993 00TETTRY | Wondering About FETJETEET send your orders now. J BUICK EEE BUICK En BUICK The Ideal Gift? IT'S IN THE BAG Give gifts that are easy to give and a joy to receive — SUBSCRIPTIONS for THE POST A Subscription for THE POST is like getting a visit from Santa Claus every week of the year. Think of the lasting pleasure your gift will bring the entire family. THE POST is enjoyed in more than 1,200,000 homes weekly. Your gift shopping problems will be “in the bag’ if you een eel | JpBUICK si BUICK 1968 Buick Electra , 4 door hard top. Burgundy, black vinyl top, black interior. Automatic, power steering and brakes, air conditioning, power seat, power windows, door locks, cruise control. Many more extras. Locally owned. Priced right for Christmas. Ad Pemember ole You Ci Get Letter ei Car Deals Ar or COMMUNITY MOTORS 588 MARKET ST., KINGSTON Phone 287-1188-Open Evenings ’til 9 = BUICK Buick Bll 1.2% township Eagle editor adopts budget The budget for the year 1970 was adopted at the Dallas Town- ship supervisors meeting Dec. 3. The amount is $142,546.09. In- cluded in this amount is the $2000 expected to be used for hooking into the emergency communications network. The tax ordinance for 1970 is to be advertised. It amounts to a $3 per capita tax per person, a $2 per month fee on house trail- ers and a 1 percent real estate transfer tax. Ken Rice, developer of Or- chard View Terrace, appeared before the board to request that Windsor Drive be taken over by the township. Chairman Fred Lamoreaux had inspected the road and said it was not up to township specifications. The board of supervisors approved the road base and black top but said a five foot berm must exist on either side of the road to per- mitproperroaddrainage. Chair- man Lamoreaux said the de- fects must be corrected before the street can be taken over. In its present condition it cannot be maintained by the township. It was announced that a spe- cial rezoning meeting will be held by the Dallas Township Planning and Zoning Commis- sion Dec. 16 to review the appli- cation of Paul Schalm to build a 150 unit apartment complex ‘Brandywine’ on a 25 acre site off Route 309 overlooking the Country Club. Solicitor Frank Townend com- mended a township resident, Albert E. Torr, Highland Drive, New Goss Manor, for rendering aid and assistance to a motor- ist whose car had run into a cornfield. Secretary Glen Howell was authorized to advertise for a loader needed by the Road De- partment and to put it up for bids. A letter was received from the Dallas school board request- ing a light at the crossing of Route 309 and East Center Hill Road. It was reported that the crossing was surveyed by traffic engineers over two weeks ago, but the township "has not re-; ceived any official notification from Harrisburg yet. It was reported that the heat in the new township building is still not satisfactory. Chairman Lamoreaux said there is a 30 degree difference in tempera- ure in the garage. A bill for aeating and lighting for the last billing period was estimated to be too high. Secretary Howell was authorized to write a letter to the UGI Corporation com- plaining about the excessive amount. dezzrezassasine power BUICK OPEL Bo =n MN ism at hi Siri ARM to tour country by DORIS MALLIN William Scranton 3d, editor of The Mountain- top Eagle, will be temporarily leaving his desk for an extended trip throughout the United States, particularly the West, J.R. Freeman, news direc- tor of Northeastern Newspapers Inc., announced this week. Northeastern publishes The Mountain- top Eagle, The Dallas Post and The Abington Journal. A Durie his travels, Mr. Scranton will dispatch to Northeastern readers a weekly column devoted to his impressions of other parts of the country, as well as its media. The latter effort will entail close examination of what other weekly news- papers and newspaper chains are doing and why. While Mr. Scranton is away from his editor’s desk, his responsibilities will be absorbed by others on the NNI staff. Linda Garman of Moun- taintop will act as assistant editor, Mr. Freeman also announced. Mr. Scranton, a recent Yale graduate and son of former Governor and Mrs. William Scran- ton, joined the NNI staff in September, and be- came editor of The Eagle shortly thereafter when the former Mountain View newspaper was oh quired by Northeastern. The newspaper’s name and format was changed to what is now The Mountaintop Eagle. The three newspapers are published by Henry Null 4th. GRAVE BLANKETS our specialty Christmas Greens for cemeteries JAMES’ NURSERY 375 Warren Ave. Kingston = 287-5363 Weekend Special L4oPrice Knit Suits Half sizes - Misses Ann 3 Apparel 95 Main Street Luzerne Thursday and Friday Night Open Until 8: 30 p-m. he a the 5 accurate time. With ACCUTRON & he'll never he Without it. 2 CAROLINE $350 ALSO FROM 200 WEDDING - RING 75 MAN'S RIN 125 REGISTERED LK cepsake® DIAMOND RINGS ACCUTRON CALENDAR “AF” $175. You'll never forget the day . you chose your Keepsake. 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Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers