Galbraith Presents Program to Ban Severe Poverty in Depressed Areas

Poverty can only be eliminated by a massive federal education program in depressed areas, John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, told the Young Democrats last night.

Speaking at a dinner meeting in the Union, Galbraith urged that education be made the "strategie pivot" of an all-out war on poverty along the lines proposed by President Johnson in his State of the Union Message.

Galbraith asserted that in spite of general increases in national and personal income, some people remain poor today because they lack necessary mental and physical skills. These people are now located principally in congested urban areas and in the rural Appalachian Plateau running from eastern Pennsylvania to Alabama.

To solve the problems of poverty in these areas, it will be necessary to see that children there get the best possible education. The federal government must provide special schools and a corps of highly paid good teachers to bring educational standards there up to those of the most affluent suburbs, Galbraith said. Such projects cannot be financed locally because sufficient funds do not exist where they are needed most.

In addition to education, federal aid to depressed areas should include slum clearance and public housing, a stronger mental health program, and assistance in vocational training and retraining, Galbraith said. Once people are healthy, educated, and skilled; work can be found for them in the expanding economy, or in the exploitation of natural resources in the areas in which they live, he maintained.