nothing. The employee sacrifices job rights and is enticed by higher pay, but receives no more money in the long run due to periods of unemployment.

Thus I have described the plight of the aerospace worker. But it is time to recognize a greater problem. Within my close neighborhood are unemployed librarians, a college professor, and accountant, and a computer programer. A great number of these so-called middle-class unemployed come from jobs which are paid by Federal, State, or local funds. Countless millions of Americans are now a part of a segment which depends for its livelihood upon the Federal Government, including a vast military bureaucracy which appears to have no useful part in warfare.

It is beyond my ability to understand how this great bulk of our working population can be supported by taxes from another, and I do not propose to discuss this paradox. Yet one thing is painfully obvious to many of us. It is utterly impossible for the commercial economy of the Nation to absorb the numbers of professional workers now being declared surplus by the Federal Government. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

Many of the Nation's newly unemployed are from firms which depend upon the Pentagon, and who charge the bulk of the labor cost directly to a Federal budget number through computer accounting systems. This system has certain peculiarities. By increasing the number of employees, great increases in capital gains can be realized with comparatively little capital investment. Moreover, in certain cases capital gains through gross billings can be increased by laying off workers while others are working overtime.

Many of us for years have charged our salaries directly to a Federal contract number. Now, we are asking: Of the trillions spent by the Pentagon in the past two decades, how much has gone into workers' salaries, how much has benefited local communities? We suspect that the Federal Treasury could support far more families than it now supports by subsidizing the military industrial complex.

Many local community leaders and businessmen privately admit that we simply do not know what is going on in local economies. We do not know the direct impact of Federal spending. Which firms are actually and in truth part of the military industrial complex?

Do we know the amount of wages lost to the community in the current unemployment crisis? Methods of reporting unemployment rates by an adjusted system of percentages are an archiac left-over from the agrarian economy of the 1930's. Certainly, the loss of wages from the layoff of an executive has far greater impact than the unemployment of a schoolboy.

We have also discovered that gadgetry produced by the military industrial complex is included in the gross national product and listed under such classifications as "durable goods." This is a bureaucratic hoax.

In the past 30 years whole communities have arisen and more than a generation has been spawned around Federal expenditures. Now, the post-World War II baby crop is emerging into the job market with diplomas in hand, and we know nothing about the grassroots economy of America which must provide salaries.

It is well for all of us to remember that there is no case of record of any of us turning down a paycheck for producing shoddy, useless

gadgetry, no stockholder has refused a dividend, no community has refused to accept a new defense plant. Colonels do not turn down promotions to general.

So, it is hypocracy to make political capital out of the current unemployment crisis. Nevertheless, it is not a secret to us that some political leaders and the business community in general are sympathetic to the growing propagation of a dangerous, placebo that the economy at grassroots is now on the upswing. Many of us have realized for a long time that competition for jobs has become oppressive.

Pressure for jobs is growing from extreme ends. On one end are the veterans and young graduates, many with master's credentials, some with a doctorate. On the other end is the professional at middle age. And this is not a recent syndrome. It has been creeping up for several years. Were it not for the shabby inflation of the obscene Vietnam boondoggle a far more serious condition should currently prevail.

By far the greatest crisis facing this nation now lies obscured by the violence of its own symptoms. Unemployment is not an ethnic problem; neither can it be placated by education. Our lopsided economy has declared the human being surplus!

As this new decade of the 1970's dawns, America faces problems brought about by subtle population and economic changes. The Federal Government has become the dominant national "growth industry." The rationale of solving community financial problems by attracting defense industry is destroying middle America at its roots. Federal grants to education have created a race of academic freeloaders and neglected, bored students. Federally sponsored industries amount to a giant concentration of socialism which is eroding our nominally free enterprise economy. Yet millions of honest, decent citizens whose primary responsibility is earning a livelihood have become tragically dependent upon the caprice of Federal, State, and local employment. Citizens entered the service of the military industrial complex because they honestly felt that skills and talent were needed. And over the years this notion was blatently advertised. Now many of these citizens have been cast aside at middle age without means of support. Legitimate primary commercial industries cannot absorb the growing army of middle class unemployed. Immediate realistic financial relief is imperative for middle class unemployed. Men with perfect credit ratings can no longer pay their bills. Families are faced with destruction. It is defense expenditures that have made us a nation on welfare.

Yet, in the next 10 years, 20 million workers come of age. This is greater than the combined population of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland when Napoleon was the scourge of Europe. It is greater than the number of serfs owned by the czar when Peter Kropotkin was writing "Memoirs of a Revolutionist"; greater than the population of the entire Balkans when a Serbian student fired the shot heard around the world.

Senator Proxmire, by saying the things I have just said, I have made myself unemployable. No bureaucracy will now tolerate me, nor will a corporation hire me. It does not matter. A much greater concern is our future. Within this decade we are faced with socioeconomic upheaval. We cannot find the answer for the future until we state the problem.

No one individual or body alone can solve impending economic problems. Nevertheless, Congress can help by insisting that an exact

count of Pentagon spending in local communities is published. We need laws to protect the rights of millions of workers who cannot bargain in today's crowded market and who cannot report fraud, shady operations and dangerous conditions.

And, finally, all of us must return to intellectual honesty, and the tradition of craftsmanship and excellence.

Thank you for allowing me to be heard.

Chairman PROXMORE. Thank you very much for a fine statement and thoughtful statement, Mr. Bose.

Mr. Wulforst-and I wish to address this to others, too-we would be delighted to have your opinions in any way you would like to give them to us as to what we can do and what you think in analyzing the situation, if you wish, but I think it would also be very useful to the committee if you could concentrate as much as possible on your own particular problem; that is, when you were last employed, what happened to you to cause the loss of work, what efforts you have made to find employment, how this kind of problem has affected others who are in your industry or who have similar problems.

Mr. Wulforst lives in Hyattsville, Md.; and, as I understand, Mr. Wulforst, you have been out of work off and on for the last 6 months.

TESTIMONY OF HENRY WULFORST, UNEMPLOYED PLUMBER, HYATTSVILLE, MD.

Mr. WULFORST. That is correct.

Chairman PROXMIRE. And particularly have tried to get work in Baltimore and that area.

Mr. WULFORST. I have tried; and I have gone around on these jobs, I would say I would say I have traveled at least anywhere from 25 to 30 miles a day looking for work, from Virginia, to Maryland, to all around the District, going around to the jobs, and it is the same old story: "We will put you on later."

I do not see these jobs; this work does not seem to be breaking. I do not know what the reason is. But we have in our union approximately 925 workmen.

Chairman PROXMIRE. What local is that?

Mr. WULFORST. Local No. 5, Plumbers Union.

Chairman PROXMIRE. You have how many people?

Mr. WULFORST. We have 925 working employees.
Chairman PROXMIRE. That is in the Baltimore area?

Mr. WULFORST. This is in Washington, the Washington local.
Chairman PROXMIRE. Washington local?

Mr. WULFORST. That is right, and out of the 925 we have approximately, at least, 170 to 200 men out of work. We have approximately 80 men working out of town, and the way this thing seems to me to be, that is just does not seem to be getting any better.

Now, I have been more fortunate than some of the others, and some of the other men have been out of work approximately on and off for about a year where they work for only about 3 months out of the year, and they are very good mechanics. I have been fortunate in my line of work, because I have specialized a little in some of this glasstype and plastic piping that we have been installing in the last couple o years.

Now, I would like to know, and maybe you people can answer, but the situation does not look to good as far as our industry is concerned. Chairman PROXMIRE. When was your last job, Mr. Wulforst?

Mr. WULFORST. My last job was in June, this past June. I worked approximately 4 days.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Last month, you worked about 4 days?
Mr. WULFORST. Four days, that is right.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Before that, what was your past job experience?

Mr. WULFORST. Well, so far this year I have lost exactly 49 working days due to lack of work, and, actually, you might say 9 weeks of work. Chairman PROXMIRE. You are in a highly skilled trade. We certainly need, urgently need, new houses. We are not getting the kind of houses we need and the kind of construction and activity in that area that we need. But you have been a plumber for the most of your adult life?

Mr. WULFORST. I have been a plumber in this town here for 33 years, to be exact.

Chairman PROXMIRE. How does this present experience compare with experience throughout that time?

Mr. WULFORST. Well, I would say for the last 4 years, maybe less than the last 4 years, it seems to be in the summertime that we always have men working from out of town who come to this town to work, and we used to have what we called summer apprentices, the high school boys, as plumbers, or some of the men that had no work would come to the local and apply for summertime jobs. We have not given any of those jobs now in the last 3 years, and we have had men leave us to go out of town to work in Baltimore, and instead of in Baltimore the Baltimore men coming over here to work. We have been going to Baltimore to work, and this is the first time in my life when I have ever had to go out of town to work. I am not saying that I would not go out of town to work, but it is one thing about going to Baltimore, and at least, if it rains or something and you are working on construction jobs you can come home; whereas, if you go out of town on some of these jobs, the wages are far less.

Chairman PROXMIRE. You say this is the first time in your life in which you have worked-for 33 years in this area, and that extends back to the late 1930's-that you have had to go out of town to seek work?

Mr. WULFORST. That is right.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Despite the fact of your vigorously looking for work all of this time. And you still have not been able to find work for 49 days in the first half of this year?

Mr. WULFORST. That is right.

Chairman PROXMIRE. How does your position compare with others in the Plumbers Union?

Do you find your experience exceptional, or is it quite common? Mr. WULFORST. Well, I would say it is. I would say it is about the same as any of the other craft. I mean, the other craft seem to be in the same category.

Chairman PROXMIRE. I mean, the plumbers, themselves. Do you find that most plumbers have the same problem of unemployment, 30, 40, 50 days in the first half of the year?

Mr. WULFORST. Some of them are very good mechanics and have been working in this town on Government buildings, and they just cannot find work. I, for one. For instance, I did that east end of the Capitol over there back in 1961, and I know my qualifications should be fine so far as seeking work. Í have got a good reputation. I never lost no time as far as sickness or lack of work. I think I have a good work record. And in going down to these unemployment places, I have gone down there, and the first thing you know you get a job for about 2 weeks, and then you are off again.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Is age a problem for you?

How old a man are you?

MI. WULFORST. I am 53 years old.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Do you find that is a handicap in getting work?

Mr. WULFORST. In a way, yes. Yes, I do. When you go around on these jobs to the contractors, if you look around you will find the majority of the ones will be a little younger than I am.

Chairman PROXMIRE. Well, thank you very much.

We will be back for some other questions.

Our next witness is Mr. Louis P. Lantner of Silver Spring, Md. Mr. Lantner is, as I understand it-and you correct me if I am wrong on any of this--a college graduate.

TESTIMONY OF LOUIS P. LANTNER, UNEMPLOYED VETERAN, SILVER SPRING, MD., ACCOMPANIED BY KARIN LANTNER, WIFE

Mr. LANTNER. Yes, sir.

Chairman PROXMIRE. You would like to work for the U.S. Government. You have had difficulty with the civil service. You had a GS-9 rating, I understand, but were willing to take a GS-7 job or whatever you can get. The VA has helped you somewhat in discovering your numerical rating, which I understand the civil service would not give, and this would have been essential for your being considered by prospective employers.

I understand your wife is also unemployed. Is that correct?
Mr. LANTNER. That is correct.

Chairman PROXMIRE. So, you are living doubled up with in-laws. I guess that is a problem for you.

Mr. LANTNER. Well, I have been very lucky. It is not as uncomfortable as it could be. I have very gracious in-laws.

I am college graduate, and I went to Naval Officers Candidate School immediately upon graduation and was commissioned 4 months later, and I served 3 years in the Navy with an ensign rank. lieutenant, junior grade.

I had one tour here in Washington, D.C., at the Naval Communications Station which is outside of Andrews Air Force Base. I transferred to Vietnam where I served for 1 year, primarily in Saigon. I was a communications officer of the Navy liaison unit to the 7th Air Force which is homebased in Saigon. I traveled in Vietnam, throughout the country, and also on some carriers operating in the area. I was division officer in Saigon. I had 10 to 15 enlisted men in my division, and we had some very interesting experiences.

Chairman PROXMIRE. What was your rating again, your renk?