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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 1963)
!1 i ! i ft t I ' ?! 14 B WEDNESDAY. AUGUST 7. 1963 MEDFORD MALL. TRIBUNE. MEDFORD, OREGON Millions of Americans Remain Desperately Poor in Midst of Plenty ' Editor'! notei The Labor ruiurtnunl announced laii ..ir that U.S. amDlovment roa in July to a racord total o( nearly 71 million jobi. But SS out of avery 1.000 p.rions k nud iobi don't hava have iham. And many who do have job. earn barejy anougn to kaap lbam alie. Thii ii a report on the other aide of the track on poverty. u i nms r&SSELS Washington-fllPD-The average tmaricnn familv had an in. come of $7,140 last year. One family out ot live naa n in come larger than $iu,uuu. These are spectacular fig ures. They thoroughly justify the cliche that Americans are living in an "affluent so ciety," enjoying the highest living standards the world has ever known. But they do not justify the assumDtion widely held to- day even among well-read people that mass poverty has- virtually disappeared from this country. In the midst of plenty, mil lions of Americans remain desperately poor. They may not be as close to actual star vation as some of the people who live in underdeveloped countries. But their poverty is real and grinding, and all the harder to accept because it contrasts so painfully with the prosperity that surrounds them. How many poor people are there in America? The answer depends on what in come level you choose as a dividing line between mere deprivation and actual pov erty. Dr. Robert J. Lampham, a University of Wisconsin economist now on the staff of President Kennedy's Council of Economic advisers, believes it is conservative to say that poverty prevails in any household where a single per son is living on less than $1,250 a year, a couple on less than $1,750, or a family of four on less than $2,700. 34 Million in Poverty Applying this yardstick to the latest official figures on income distribution, he calcu lates that more, than 34 mil lion Americans arc now liv ing in genuine poverty. Others say that Lampham's figures are too low. In a , study published earlier this year, entitled "The Other America" (MacMillan, Mi chael Harrington) estimates that from 40 million to 50 million Americans are "exist ing at levels beneath those necessary for human de cency. The conference on economic progress nsjerl that at least 38 million per sons fall into (he "really poor" category. The AFL-CIO puts the figure at upwards of 42 million. Pinpointing a precise num ber of poor people is not ter ribly important. The signifi cant fact on which all Investi gators agree is that a great many Americans from one- Easy fo Quilt Luxury gifts! Delight a new mom with this elegant quilted crib or carriage cover. Quilted beauty stitch by hand or machine from back of each block. Use taffeta, satin, cotton. Pattern 7202: transfer 0 motifs; directions. THIRTY. FIVE CENTS (coins) for this pattern - add 15 cents for each pattern for first-class mailing and spe cial handling. Send to Alice Brooks, Medford Mail Trib une, Needlecraft Dept., P. O. Box 163, Old Chelsea Station, New York 11, N.Y. Print plainly NAME, ADDRESS. PATTERN NUMBER. 1963's Biggest Needlecraft Show stars smocked accessor iesIt's our new Needlecraft Catalog! Plus over 200 fresh-to-you designs to knit, cro chet, sew, weave, embroider, quilt. Plus free pattern. Send 25c now! fifth to one-fourth of the to tal population are not shar ing in the prevailing abundance. Who are the American poor? Why are they missing the gravy train? Before joining the White House staff, Dr. Lampham conducted a lengthy study of these questions for the Joint Congressional Economic Committee. He found that about one fourth of the very poor -some 8.5 million persons by his present calculations-are over 65 years of age. They are liv ing on inadequate retirement npnsinns. on the charity of relatives, or on "old age as sistance" checks from public welfare agencies, which dur ing 1962 averaged just a little over $75 a month. Another segment of the world of poverty is populated by Negroes. Because they of ten are under-educated, or be cause they lack the skills de manded by an increasingly technological society, or simp ly because they happen to have dark skins, Negroes are the "last to be hired and the first to be fired" in the North as well as the South. Dr. Lampham lound about 7 million Negroes among his 34 million impoverished Americans. That's twice as many as would be expected on a purely statistical basis, since Negroes constitute only 10 per cent of the U.S. popula tion. Thus the circumstance of being born non-white dou bles a person's chances of be ing poor. Aside from old age and race, the factors which loom largest in determining which families are poor are the sex and education level of the breadwinner. Only one American family out of 10 is headed by a wom an. But these fatherless house-holds-whether made so by death, divorce or desertion constitute 24 per cent of the families living on incomes of less than $2,000 a year. A woman who is trying to support young children with out a husband or other male relative to earn a living is us ually entitled to public wel fare under the ever-controversial "aid to dependent chil dren" program. Some Amer icans have formed an unshake able opinion that families on ADC have it pretty soft. This may be. But the figures show that the average ADC pay ment currently is about $128 per month for a family of four. This comes to about $1,500 a year and is way un der Lampham's "conserva tive" cut-off line for real pov erty. Most Poorly Educated Any American youngster who is- thinking of dropping out of school-or who is mere ly wondering why he should work so hard to get an educa tion-should ponder another of Dr. Lampham's findings. About two-thirds of the very poor families in the nation are headed by breadwinners who have no education beyond grammar school. This figure includes persons of both races and both sexes, and thus over laps with some of the previous categories. It is obvious, of course, that none of the factors cited by Dr. Lampham-age, sex, race or educational level-directly cause poverty. What they do is to make it hard to get and keep a good job. The immediate cause of poverty in nearly every instance is the unemployment or under employment of the family breadwinner. Even in a "full employ ment" economy, there would be some people who could not earn a decent living. The far ther a nation slips from full employment-or, to put it dif ferently, the higher its rate of chronic unemployment-the bigger become its "pockets" of poverty. That's why Secretary of La bor Willard Wirtz calls unem ployment "our No. 1 domes tic problem." It is a problem that has been growing stead' ily worse in recent years. Its ramifications will be explored in another dispatch. New Many Wear FALSE TEETH With Little Worry Eat. ulk. laugh or ineeza without fear of inieeur fils tettfc dropping, lipping or wobbling. FASTEETH holds plates firmer nd more com (orubly. This pleasant powder has no) Kmmy. gooey, pasty taste or feeling. 4?sn't cause nausea. It's alkali n aon-acld. Checks "plate odor" (denture breathl. Get FASTKETH af DJ drug counter. 35c Aqua UnSST. 22c 53c Colgate Flouride 22c TOOTH BRUSH & . 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