    [U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Annual Report 1955]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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    HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
    4955
    285161
    U.S. DEPAR
    HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
    For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
    Washington 25, D. O. - Price 65 cents
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    . 12-
    U. S. DEPARTMENT OF
    HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE
    As of June 30, 1955
    Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary
    Vacancy, Under Secretary
    OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY
    Roswell B. Perkins...................
    Bradshaw Mintener................
    Chester S. Keefer......................
    Donald M. Counihan.................
    Terence P. Scantlebury...........
    William C. McCamant..............
    Parke M. Banta.........................
    Rufus E. Miles, Jr......................
    Fordyce Luikart.........................
    Robert J. deCamp......................
    J. Stewart Hunter...................
    Frederick H. Schmidt..............
    Assistant Secretary for Program Analysis.
    Assistant Secretary for Federal-State Relations.
    Special Assistant for Health and Medical
    Affairs.
    Legislative Liaison Officer.
    Executive Secretary.
    Assistant to the Secretary.
    General Counsel.
    Comptroller.
    Director of Administration.
    Director of Field Administration.
    Acting Director of Publications and Reports.
    Director of Security.
    SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
    Charles I. Schottland..............
    William L. Mitchell.................
    Victor Christgau...........
    Jay L. Roney...................
    J. Deane Gannon..............
    Martha M. Eliot..............
    Commissioner of Social Security.
    Deputy Commissioner of Social Security.
    Director, Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors
    Insurance.
    Director, Bureau of Public Assistance.
    Director, Bureau of Federal Credit Unions.
    Chief, Children’s Bureau.
    PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE
    Leonard A. Scheele...................
    W. Palmer Dearing...................
    Jack Masur......................
    Charles E. Burbridge . . .
    Otis L. Anderson..............
    William H. Sebrell, Jr. .
    Surgeon General.
    Deputy Surgeon General.
    Chief, Bureau of Medical Services.
    Superintendent, Freedmen’s Hospital.
    Chief, Bureau of State Services.
    Director, National Institutes of Health.
    OFFICE OF EDUCATION
    Samuel M. Brownell.................
    J. Kenneth Little......................
    Commissioner of Education.
    Deputy Commissioner of Education.
    FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION
    George P. Larrick......................Commissioner of Food and Drugs.
    John L. Harvey........................... Deputy Commissioner of Food and Drugs.
    OFFICE OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION
    Mary E. Switzer...........................Director of Vocational Rehabilitation.
    Emory E. Ferebee........................ Deputy Director of Vocational Rehabilitation.
    SAINT ELIZABETHS HOSPITAL
    Winfred Overholser
    Addison M. Duval . .
    Superintendent.
    Assistant Superintendent.
    FEDERALLY AIDED CORPORATIONS
    Finis Davis.................................
    Leonard M. Elstad......................
    Mordecai W. Johnson................
    Superintendent, American Printing House for
    the Blind.
    President, Gallaudet College.
    President, Howard University.
    REGIONAL DIRECTORS
    Lawrence J. Bresnahan...........
    Joseph B. O’Connor...................
    Michael J. Shortley................
    Richard H. Lyle.........................
    Melville H. Hosch...................
    James W. Doarn.........................
    James H. Bond...........................
    Albert H. Rosenthal.................
    Fay W. Hunter...........................
    Region I, Boston, Mass.
    Region II, New York, N. Y.
    Region III, Washington, D. C.
    Region IV, Atlanta, Ga.
    Region V, Chicago, III.
    Region VI, Kansas City, Mo.
    Region VII, Dallas, Tex.
    Region VIII, Denver, Colo.
    Region IX, San Francisco, Calif.
    285161

    Letter of Transmittal
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
    Washington, D. C., December 1,1955.
    Dear Mr. President: I have the honor to submit herewith the
    annual report of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
    for the fiscal year ending June 30,1955.
    Respectfully, lid Secretary.
    The President,
    The White House,
    Washington, D. C.
    ALASKA HAWAII
    Contents
    Page
    The Secretary’s Report........................................ 1
    Social Security Administration........................... 19
    Public Health Service........................................... 83
    Office of Education............................................... 143
    Food and Drug Administration........................... 161
    Office of Vocational Rehabilitation.................... 181
    Saint Elizabeths Hospital..................................... 203
    American Printing House for the Blind .... 215
    Gallaudet College............. ... ................................. 217
    Howard University............................................... 219
    {A detailed listing of the contents of this report, by}
    {topic headings, will be found on pages 223-230.}
    vii

    The Secretary’s
    Report
    “Government must work to stabilize the buying power of the
    dollar, else the value of the pension, the insurance policy and the
    savings bond is eroded away.
    “Government, through social security and by fostering applicable
    insurance plans, must help protect the individual against
    hardship and help free his mind from anxiety.
    “Government must use its full powers to protect its citizens
    from depression, unemployment and economic distress.
    “Government, my friends, must have a heart as well as a head.
    It must encourage, guide, backstop and supplement—but never
    dominate or attempt to regiment our people.”
    This passage from an address by President Eisenhower admirably
    sums up the general philosophy under which the Department of
    Health, Education, and Welfare sought to carry out its responsibilities
    during the fiscal year 1955—the second full year in the history of the
    Department.
    It is the concept, in fact, which led to the submittal to Congress
    in April 1953 of the plan for the founding of the Department—the
    first to be submitted by President Eisenhower for reorganization of
    the executive branch of the Federal Government.
    Establishment of the Department gave appropriate recognition to
    the increasing importance which the American people place on better
    health, improved education, and greater individual security—and to
    the concern of this administration that these factors receive continuing
    attention throughout the Nation.
    Throughout the year, the Department has kept constantly in mind
    the concept of encouragement, guidance, and supplementation which
    1
    2 Department of Health, Education, and W'elfare, 1955
    the President describes as the proper role of the Federal Government
    in these fields. The fact that the Department’s programs deal so intimately
    with the close and varying personal concerns of the individual
    and his family gives cardinal importance to the avoidance of any act
    or attitude that might lead to the domination or regimentation of the
    individual against which the President sounds a warning.
    The opening pages of this annual report deal principally with those
    events of the fiscal year 1955 which are departmentwide in scope or
    are notably significant in the history of the Department. The reports
    of the five major units which make up the Department—the Public
    Health Service, the Social Security Administration, the Office of Education,
    the Food and Drug Administration, and the Office of Vocational
    Rehabilitation—as well as other related agencies and units will
    be found in subsequent pages.
    It is appropriate here, however, to describe the major developments
    of the year which have special importance to the national welfare.
    In certain instances, moreover, these illustrate the philosophy of the
    President, set forth above. In essence, taken together, these represent
    the highlights of a continuing record of achievement on behalf of the
    health, education, and general welfare of the people of the United
    States.
    Progress in Health
    The health of the American people continues to be good. Only a
    few of the health statistics submitted by the States to the Public Health
    Service of the Department and gathered by the Service itself need be
    cited here.
    The general death rate from all causes during 1954, the latest period
    for which figures were available when this report was prepared, was
    9.2 per 1,000 of population, representing a slight decline over the
    previous year. Maternal deaths of only 5.3 per 10,000 live births and
    infant mortality of 26.6 per 1,000 live births also showed a decrease
    in 1954. This is the 18th successive year in which the infant death
    rate continued to decline, one yardstick of the remarkable progress
    in curative and preventive medicine.
    The recent improvements in health are the work of many thousands
    of individuals and many hundreds of institutions—practicing physicians;
    scientists and their aides; the staff members of hospitals and
    research institutions, including those of private industry; the great
    voluntary health organizations which the American people generously
    support; and public health agencies in the States and communities.
    Illustrative of some of the challenges that lie ahead for American
    medicine and science is the fact that cancer and diseases of the heart
    The Secretary’s Report 3
    and circulatory system were responsible for more than two-thirds of
    all deaths in 1954.
    The Federal Government plays an increasingly important role,
    both in the extension, by the authority of the Congress, of its own
    research and control activities and through its grants-in-aid to States,
    private hospitals and laboratories, and individuals. There has been
    some variation, over the years, in the degree and scope of the Federal
    role, determined, in part, by the relative importance of various health
    projects and the capacities of both Federal and non-Federal research
    programs to move forward with maximum productivity. There has
    been occasional and understandable difference of opinion on these
    decisions. The total effect, however, of Federal participation in medical
    research and in the control of illness has been very substantial
    advancement of the frontiers of medical knowledge and improvement
    of mankind’s armament for the ceaseless war against disease and
    disability.
    Public Health Service.—Among notable advances in research conducted
    at the Public Health Service’s National Institutes of Health
    during the fiscal year were extensive field trials which demonstrate
    the effectiveness of a cytologic test to detect early cancer of the cervix
    on a mass basis. New knowledge was obtained regarding the
    cause and prevention of retrolental fibroplasia, a blinding eye disease
    which has been affecting 50 percent of the smaller premature infants.
    Studies of tissue culture which culminated during the year included
    the discovery of a previously unknown group of viruses which affect
    the respiratory system. This discovery has importance for future
    research on infections of the upper respiratory tract, including the
    common cold. Development of a multivirus vaccine for many of these
    ailments by scientists of the National Institutes of Health made considerable
    progress during the year.
    Research activities in air pollution were expanded this year at the
    Robert A. Taft Sanitary Engineering Center in Cincinnati, Ohio,
    a focal point for research on the relationship of the environment to
    human health. An Ad Hoc Interdepartmental Committee on Air
    Pollution (representing the Departments of Agriculture; Defense;
    Health, Education, and Welfare; and Interior; the Atomic Energy
    Commission; and the National Science Foundation) was established
    at the invitation of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.
    It has recommended a Federal program of research and technical
    services on air-pollution problems.
    In 1954 Congress broadened the local-State-Federal hospital
    survey and construction program to include diagnostic and treatment
    centers, chronic-disease hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and nursing
    homes. At the close of the 1955 fiscal year, 28 States had applied for
    4 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    survey and planning funds under this program. Seven States had
    completed revision of the statewide plans required under the law.
    Construction project applications, which can be made only after surveys
    have been completed, had been received from two States.1
    In August 1954, President Eisenhower approved a bill authorizing
    transfer of Indian health activities from the Department of the Interior
    to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, effective
    July 1,1955. During the fiscal year, the Public Health Service worked
    closely with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in anticipation of the transfer
    of this program, which involved some 3,400 employees and real
    property valued at $40 million. A new Division of Indian Health was
    established in the Public Health Service to administer this program.
    The development by Dr. Jonas Salk of a vaccine effective against
    paralytic poliomyelitis was among the most dramatic accomplishments
    of American science during the year. This remarkable achievement
    on behalf of the children of the Nation was signalized by the
    Congress by a substantial monetary award to Dr. Salk and authorization
    of a medal to memorialize his discovery. In April 1955, Dr. Salk
    and Mr. Basil O’Connor, president of the National Foundation for
    Infantile Paralysis, which had supported the work of Dr. Salk and
    his associates, were awarded special citations by the President.
    Licenses for the manufacture of the new vaccine were granted six
    pharmaceutical concerns on April 12, 1955. It was apparent, however,
    that the vaccine would remain in short supply throughout the
    poliomyelitis season. Acting on the direction of the President, the
    Secretary began to develop plans for assuring an equitable distribution
    of the vaccine that was available. The plans were developed in
    consultation with representatives of the governors of the States, the
    medical and health professions, the pharmaceutical and drug industry,
    public interest groups, and others concerned with the problem.
    The Secretary recommended a system of voluntary allocation and
    distribution of the vaccine while it remained in short supply. This
    recommendation was based on the conviction that a voluntary plan
    was the best way to assure an orderly and equitable sharing in the
    benefits of this medical discovery for the entire Nation. The Secretary
    also recommended the creation of a national advisory committee
    to advise on matters associated with the distribution of the vaccine,
    including the establishment of priority groups. These recommendations
    were accepted by the President. A National Advisory Committee
    on Poliomyelitis Vaccine was appointed by the Secretary, under
    the chairmanship of Dr. Chester Scott Keefer, Special Assistant to
    the Secretary for Health and Medical Affairs. Shortly after the close
    1 On July 8, 1955, the first project was approved under the new program-—a nursing home
    for Pinal County, Florence, Arizona.
    The Secretary’s Report 5
    of the fiscal year, at the request of the President, the Congress authorized
    the expenditure of $30 million for grants to the States for
    purchase of the vaccine.
    Additional details on the distribution program, as well as the activities
    of the Public Health Service with regard to safety and effectiveness
    of the vaccine, are contained in the report of the Public Health
    Service.
    The Food and Drug Administration, whose duties are fundamentally
    concerned with health, was subject to thorough study during the
    latter part of the fiscal year by 14 distinguished members of a Citizens
    Advisory Committee authorized by the 83d Congress. The two main
    conclusions and recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Committee,
    delivered to the Secretary on July 7, 1955, were that:
    1. The Food and Drug Administration had insufficient funds, staff,
    and facilities to carry out its statutory responsibilities to protect the
    public health. A three to fourfold increase in personnel and facilities
    should be achieved within 5 to 10 years.
    2. A more effective job of law enforcement could—and should—be
    accomplished. An expanded and improved informational and educational
    program was urged.
    Midway in the fiscal year, the Food and Drug Administration began
    expanded research and educational efforts to improve the sanitary
    handling of grain. The regulatory program with respect to rodentcontaminated
    and insect-infested grain was resumed, with 12 carloads
    totaling more than a million pounds being seized during the year.
    Many times this amount was voluntarily diverted from human
    consumption.
    The intensified grain sanitation program was recommended by a
    17-member technical committee appointed jointly by the Secretaries
    of Agriculture and Health, Education, and Welfare. Both Departments,
    as well as the Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of
    the Interior, are cooperating in this effort. Levels of contamination
    on which seizure decisions are based will be changed progressively as
    growers, shippers, and grain-elevator operators further improve their
    handling of this vital raw food.
    Two amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act
    were put into effect by the Food and Drug Administration during the
    year.
    One amendment facilitates the establishment and amendment of
    food standards by simplifying ponderous and time-consuming
    procedures.
    A second amendment enacted during the year provides a simplified
    procedure for establishing safe tolerances for pesticide chemicals
    which are necessary and useful in agriculture. Under the new pro6
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    cedure, 23 petitions for tolerances or exemptions therefrom were submitted
    during the year. Final action was taken on 4.
    Amended definitions and standards of identity were promulgated
    for several cheeses, cheese foods, cheese spreads, enriched farina, catsup,
    and certain canned vegetables.
    The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, a third unit of the Department
    concerned with health, was engaged chiefly this year in expanding
    its program under the Vocational Rehabilitation Amendments
    recommended by the President and unanimously enacted by Congress
    in 1954.
    “This law is especially noteworthy in two respects,” President
    Eisenhower said at the signing ceremony. “In the first place, it reemphasizes
    to all the world the great value which we in America place
    upon the dignity and worth of each individual human being. Second,
    it is a humanitarian investment of great importance, yet it saves substantial
    sums of money for both Federal and State Governments.”
    Already, this legislative landmark is bringing to a greater number
    of handicapped men and women the increased self-respect that comes
    from earning a living instead of depending upon others. A downward
    trend in the number of disabled workers restored to useful employment
    was halted and turned upward by the close of the fiscal year.
    To achieve a substantial expansion of the State-Federal vocational
    rehabilitation system, Congress appropriated $4 million more for this
    fiscal year than for the preceding year. Although State fiscal commitments
    were determined prior to enactment of the new law, a number
    of States moved to match the increased Federal funds with larger
    State appropriations.
    Money alone, however, will not rehabilitate handicapped workers.
    More rehabilitation workers must be trained, more public and private
    agencies must lend a hand, and rehabilitation techniques must be refined
    and improved. All these are essential if vocational rehabilitation
    is to achieve its goal—prompt and effective help to every disabled
    person who needs it.
    To increase the supply of trained rehabilitation workers, 80 teachinggrants
    were made by the Department’s Office of Vocational Rehabilitation,
    37 short-term workshops or institutes were sponsored, and more
    than a thousand traineeships were awarded. Physicians, nurses, physical
    therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers,
    rehabilitation counselors, and speech therapists are among those being
    prepared for the expanded rehabilitation program.
    To expand further the Nation’s capacity to help disabled workers
    return to useful work, as well as to improve existing rehabilitation
    facilities, Federal grants were made to 130 public and private nonprofit
    organizations. Many sheltered workshops or specialized reThe
    Secretary’s Report 7
    habilitation centers were thus enabled to provide services to more
    handicapped people. To help improve rehabilitation methods, a National
    Advisory Council on Vocational Rehabilitation, appointed this
    year, approved 22 applications for support of promising research and
    demonstration projects.
    Taken together, these measures will make it possible to rehabilitate
    more disabled workers. It is important also that each disabled person
    begin his journey to personal and economic independence promptly—
    as soon as possible after suffering his disabling illness or accident. In
    this way, his skills do not lapse from disuse and his savings are not
    swept away by lengthy unemployment.
    The 1954 “disability freeze” amendment to the Social Security Act
    protected the benefit rights of workers insured under old-age and
    survivors insurance who become permanently and totally disabled.
    During fiscal 1955, 46 States and Territories had designated their
    vocational rehabilitation agencies to determine or share in the determination
    of whether or not an applicant for “disability freeze” protection
    qualified for such protection.
    During fiscal year 1955, the first in which the “disability freeze” was
    in effect, State vocational rehabilitation agencies were notified of
    62,800 disabled men and women interested in securing rehabilitation.
    Saint Elizabeths Hospital, the public mental hospital in the District
    of Columbia, observed its centennial during 1955—marking a century
    of progress in psychiatry and treatment of the mentally ill.
    Major events included a conference of national and international
    leaders in psychiatry; the completion of a new Intensive Treatment
    Building at the hospital; and the production of a pageant, staged and
    acted by patients, depicting the life of the hospital’s founder, Dorothea
    Lynde Dix, and subsequent progress in the treatment of the mentally
    ill. Scenes from the pageant were shown on a nationwide television
    network as part of the Department’s continuing effort to bring about a
    a better public understanding of mental illness and psychiatric
    treatment.
    Freedmen!s Hospital was also the subject of intensive study during
    the year, in a long-delayed effort to chart a future course of services
    to the District of Columbia area and the Nation.
    Distinguished business and civic leaders and members of the medical
    and nursing professions composed the Freedmen’s Hospital Study
    Commission. For the consideration of the Secretary, the Study Commission
    recommended that a new teaching hospital structure be built
    and that Freedmen’s be affiliated with the Medical School of Howard
    University.
    On January 31, 1955, President Eisenhower, in a special message
    to Congress, had outlined a number of measures for the general im8
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    provement of the health of the Nation. As has been indicated, a
    number of these measures were, in one form or another, adopted by
    Congress. Among the measures recommended in the health message
    was a proposal for helping Americans meet the rising costs of medical
    care through establishment of a Federal health reinsurance service to
    encourage private health insurance organizations to offer broader
    benefits to insured individuals and to extend coverage to more people.
    Another proposal was that action be taken to authorize matching
    grants to the States to help finance the costs of medical care for public
    assistance recipients—the aged, the permanently and totally disabled,
    the blind, and children deprived of parental care. No action
    was taken by Congress on these proposals during the period covered
    by the report.
    Progress in Education
    The serious problems confronting the Nation’s schools and colleges
    in terms of shortages in teachers and buildings were of great concern
    to the Department during the year. This concern was expressed in
    legislation developed by the Department and submitted by President
    Eisenhower to Congress to mount an attack on the grave classroom
    shortage in the Nation’s public schools.
    School enrollment, which has continued to increase, reached a total
    of more than 38 million during the year. It is expected to climb to
    more than 46 million by 1960. Factors contributing to the unprecedented
    upsurge in school enrollment are an increased birthrate, an
    increase in the proportion of school-age children attending school, and
    an increase in the proportion of students finishing high school.
    Although construction of schools reached a new high with the
    building of 60,000 classrooms during the year, proper school housing
    for the new students and to replace obsolescent buildings is not being
    built fast enough. President Eisenhower’s special message to Congress
    in January 1954 proposed local, State, and Federal action to
    alleviate this grave—and growing—shortage of classrooms. The President’s
    proposal was for a 3-year program of a fourfold nature:
    1. That the Federal Government buy the bonds of school districts
    which cannot market their bonds at reasonable rates of interest. The
    President asked for an appropriation of $750 million for this program,
    which had the advantage of being able to permit school districts
    to move quickly in offering bonds for sale to the public.
    2. That the States and the Federal Government, acting together,
    encourage more general use of a plan already tested in some States.
    In these States, school districts which are unable to finance new buildings
    rent them from State agencies created to build schools. Under
    the President’s plan, the Federal Government would have helped
    The Secretary’s Report 9
    facilitate the issuance of construction bonds by these agencies by advancing
    one-half of an initial reserve fund and agreeing to replenish
    this share as needed.
    3. That a limited program of direct State and Federal grants be
    authorized. These grants would have gone, on the basis of proved
    need, to those school districts which cannot either repay borrowed
    money or afford the cost of renting a new building and would have
    been sufficient to permit them to qualify for assistance under one or
    the other of the foregoing proposals. An appropriation of $200 million
    was requested for this part of the program.
    4. That programs of statewide action aimed at removing many of
    the long-standing obstacles to local financing of school construction
    be encouraged. The Federal Government under the program would
    have paid one-half the administrative cost of programs of this kind.
    The 83d Congress authorized 53 State and Territorial Conferences
    on Education, to be followed by a White House Conference on Education.
    The State and White House Conferences on Education were
    designed to deal with all the major problems of American education
    in a very fundamental way. The White House Conference was directed
    to “consider and report to the President on significant and
    pressing problems in the field of education.”
    By the end of the fiscal year, all States and Territories had appointed
    conference chairmen and conference planning committees. Seventeen
    State Conferences on Education were held during the year, with 32
    scheduled between July 1 and the fall months. In addition to the statewide
    meetings about 3,800 community and county conferences and 200
    regional conferences had been held or were scheduled in 27 States.
    These conferences were designed to form an opportunity for the
    people themselves to undertake an examination of their school needs
    and to develop solutions for school problems or, when they are lacking,
    to bring them to the attention of the States or the Federal
    Government. They had already, at the close of the fiscal year, produced
    a quickening of interest in the problems of public education on
    the part of many millions of Americans. In the final analysis, these
    citizens are the ones who must determine what their schools should
    accomplish and provide the means by which this can be achieved.
    Gallaudet College, the world’s only college for the deaf, is a wholly
    independent educational institution in Washington, D. C. Through
    the Department, it receives funds appropriated by the Congress in
    support of its unique educational program. Significant steps were
    taken during the year to enlarge the program, broaden the curriculum,
    and generally improve the physical facilities of the college.
    Plans and specifications were completed for a new library building,
    funds for which were appropriated by the 83d Congress. Approval
    was given by Congress to a proposal calling for the construction of a
    368636—56----- 2
    10 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    new physical activities building and a girls’ dormitory. Congress also
    indicated approval of a departmental plan for the progressive rehabilitation
    of the Gallaudet building and campus.
    Howard University is another independent educational institution
    in the District of Columbia which is supported, in part, by Congress,
    acting through the Department. Work on five new buildings was
    initiated on the Howard campus during the year, as part of a program
    to provide larger and more modern quarters for the university. A
    new dental school building with extensive clinical facilities was also
    dedicated and placed in use during the year.
    The American Printing House for the Blind is an independent institution
    in Louisville, Kentucky, which manufactures Braille textbooks
    and tangible teaching apparatus for use in schools for the blind.
    Through the Department, the Printing House receives funds appropriated
    by Congress to support its program, which benefits more
    than 7,000 children enrolled in residential and public school classes
    for the blind.
    Progress in Social Security and Public Welfare
    The growing significance of the social security system in our national
    life is indicated by the fact that over half the persons who are 65 years
    of age or older are eligible for old-age and survivors insurance benefits.
    Nine out of 10 mothers and children in this country can count on
    monthly benefits in case the family breadwinner dies.
    Over 7% million Americans were beneficiaries of the old-age and
    survivors insurance system in June 1955. Of this total, nearly 5.5
    million were retired workers and their dependents and over 2 million
    were surviving dependents of deceased workers. Benefit payments
    in June 1955 totaled $428 million, an increase of 45 percent since the
    close of the previous fiscal year.
    The 1954 Amendments to the Social Security Act, adopted by Congress
    upon President Eisenhower’s recommendation, materially
    strengthened the old-age and survivors insurance protection which is
    now available to 9 out of 10 American workers and their families.
    In the 1955 fiscal year, a principal task of the Social Security Administration
    was to make effective these improvements in the law.
    The big job of changing the payment rates of some 6.6 million
    beneficiaries was completed on schedule. As a result, the checks for
    September 1954 were mailed on time at the new, higher rates. Over
    6 million people receiving benefit payments from old-age and survivors
    insurance were also advised of the new, liberalized “retirement test.”
    This provision of the 1954 amendments affords greater opportunities
    The Secretary’s Report 11
    to retired individuals to supplement their benefits through earnings
    from part-time or intermittent work.
    Coverage by old-age and survivors insurance was extended rapidly
    to the new groups made eligible by the 1954 amendments. Every rural
    mail delivery box in the Nation received information about the eligibility
    of farm operators and additional farm workers. Procedures
    were worked out for the coverage of ministers on a voluntary basis.
    By the end of the fiscal year, 44 States, 3 Territories, and 13 interstate
    instrumentalities had arranged for certain of their employees to receive
    the protection of old-age and survivors insurance.
    Special efforts were made to put the “disability freeze” provisions
    of the 1954 amendments into operation as soon as possible. The disability
    freeze enables workers covered by old-age and survivors insurance
    to preserve whatever eligibility for benefits they have earned up to
    the time they were permanently and totally disabled. During the fiscal
    year, about 400,000 potential applicants were identified, and 155,000
    applied for the disability freeze of their social security benefit rights.
    Procedures were also established to carry out provisions of the 1954
    amendments calling for withholding of benefit payments from persons
    living outside the United States and working 7 or more days per
    month.
    The State-Federal programs of public assistance reflected the
    growth and improvement of the old-age and survivors insurance system
    during the year, following enactment of these amendments.
    Four groups among the needy are eligible for public assistance
    payments—the aged, the blind, dependent children, and persons permanently
    and totally disabled. Of the $2.6 billion spent for all types
    of public assistance this year, 55.2 percent was from Federal funds,
    36.1 percent from the States, and 8.7 percent from local sources.
    For the most part, the 5.1 million persons receiving public assistance
    in June 1955 are not eligible for benefits under old-age and survivors
    insurance. Therefore, as more persons provide for their future security
    through personal thrift and contributions to the Old-Age and Survivors
    Insurance Trust Fund and other pension systems, there will be
    fewer people needing public assistance.
    In February 1951, the number of persons receiving old-age benefits
    outstripped, for the first time, the number on the old-age assistance
    rolls. Although the aged population has been increasing yearly by
    350,000, the number of old-age assistance recipients has continued to
    decline—by 34,000 in the past year—to a total of 2,549,000 at the end
    of the fiscal year.
    Old-age assistance—the public assistance program that serves almost
    as many needy people and costs more to maintain than the three
    12 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    other public assistance programs combined—should decline appreciably
    in the years ahead. About 18 percent of all people over
    65 years of age were receiving public assistance this year. Because of
    recent improvements in the old-age and survivors insurance program,
    fewer than 16 percent of the aged are expected to need this aid by
    1960.
    Extension of old-age and survivors insurance coverage to more farm
    workers and farm operators will be chiefly responsible for this saving
    to the Nation. A majority of those now receiving old-age assistance
    live in rural areas or small towns, although a minority of all Americans
    65 years of age or older live on farms or in villages. At present,
    the proportion of aged persons receiving public assistance in rural
    places and small towns is two-thirds higher than in metropolitan
    areas.
    The 1954 improvements in old-age and survivors insurance will also
    help many widows and orphans who would otherwise have been dependent
    upon public assistance. About 17 percent of the families who
    now receive aid to dependent children funds are in need because of
    the death of a wage earner. By 1960, this should be reduced to 10
    percent.
    The Children's Bureau of the Social Security Administration has
    emphasized, in recent years, improving conditions of life for infants
    and preschool children. Other groups requiring special attention are
    adolescents in conflict with society, children of migratory workers,
    mentally retarded children, and children in unprotected adoptions.
    Help was given these groups of children and others this year through
    research studies, publications for parents and professional workers,
    and grants to the States to support programs for maternal and child
    health, crippled children, and child welfare services. A new Division
    of Juvenile Delinquency Services was established to aid States and
    communities working to prevent and treat this serious social malady.
    The Bureau of Federal Credit Unions of the Social Security Administration
    was operated at no cost to the taxpayer this year. Fees collected
    by the Bureau covered the direct costs of chartering, supervising,
    and periodically examining federally chartered credit unions,
    which are voluntary associations encouraging thrift and offering
    credit “for provident and productive purposes.” The number and
    assets of Federal credit unions continued to increase during the year.
    For the first time, total assets exceed $1 billion.
    Progress in Program Development
    Civil defense responsibilities of considerable importance were delegated
    to the Department at the beginning of the fiscal year by the
    Federal Civil Defense Administration, with the approval of President
    The Secretary's Report 13
    Eisenhower. In general, the Department will be responsible, in the
    event of attack, for control of hazards to health and the provision of
    clothing and temporary financial assistance to civilians. Substantial
    progress was made during the year in the assumption of these responsibilities.
    Assistance was provided, through the States, to local communities
    to help alleviate health hazards, suffering, and hardship caused by
    hurricanes and other natural disasters during 1955. This tested working
    relationships with Federal Civil Defense Administration regional
    offices and with State agencies in the utilization of Federal resources
    to cope with disaster.
    Significant research progress was made by the Public Health Service
    and the Food and Drug Administration in studying health and
    sanitation problems related solely to civil defense. A sizable buildup
    of the Public Health Service Reserve Corps was begun, and arrangements
    were made for specialized civil defense training for its members.
    For State and local food and drug officials, a civil defense training
    course was developed which will ultimately reach 50 strategic areas
    and an estimated 1,000 officials.
    Stimulation of civil defense interest on the part of State health
    departments and voluntary medical and health groups resulted from
    a series of regional conferences and seminars, with all States represented.
    Representatives of all State welfare departments met in a
    series of regional conferences to develop plans for emergency financial
    and clothing assistance to victims of an attack. “Pilot centers” were
    organized in selected States to prepare civil defense teaching materials
    for use in the schools.
    The Department also participated in two governmentwide test
    exercises involving relocation of staff and the continuity of essential
    headquarters functions outside of Washington. The first of these, in
    November 1954, involved only the headquarters relocation plan. The
    June 1955 exercise, “Operation Alert,” required extensive activities
    by both headquarters and regional office staff.
    Surplus Federal property is donated, through the Department, for
    public and private health and educational uses. During the 1955
    fiscal year, surplus personal property with an original acquisition
    value of $132.2 million was allocated to the States for distribution.
    Transfer of real property was made to 225 institutions, which thereby
    acquired 1,521 acres of land and 669 buildings, valued at $16.2 million.
    Legislation enacted near the close of the fiscal year assures that
    millions of dollars worth of useful Federal surplus property will
    continue to benefit health and educational activities in the States. The
    new statute also improves the operation of this program, especially
    by enabling the States to assist in its administration.
    14 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    The Committee on Aging of the Department coordinates activities
    related to the great increase in the numbers and proportion of older
    people that has characterized America in recent years.
    Recognizing that the rapidly growing number of aged persons in
    the population poses new challenges of great significance to the Nation
    in social and family responsibility, in health, education, employment,
    and income maintenance, the Secretary of Health, Education, and
    Welfare initiated a study of the Department’s Committee on Aging
    during the fiscal year. In June 1955, a departmental order designated
    an Assistant Secretary to head a reorganized committee made up of
    the heads of the Department’s constituent agencies to advise the Secretary,
    develop programs of departmental action, and to serve as a
    clearinghouse for information and aid the States, local communities,
    and voluntary organizations in programs for the benefit of the Nation’s
    senior citizens.
    During the year, the Committee issued a pamphlet entitled “Aging
    A Community Responsibility and Opportunity,” completed a revision
    of its 500-item “Selected References on Aging,” and commenced a new
    “Fact-Book on Aging,” an “Inventory of Official State Groups in
    Aging,” and “An Inventory of Federal Programs and Activities in
    Aging.”
    The Committee also maintained its extensive program of public
    information and consultation with foundations, organizations, and
    State and local governments. The Department was a cosponsor of
    the eighth annual Conference on Aging of the University of Michigan.
    One of the most significant developments was the initiation by the
    Department of an approach toward closer coordination of the activities
    of all Federal departments in the field of aging. A plan was presented
    to the sub-Cabinet by the Department for the organization of an Inter-
    Departmental Working Group on Aging, and approval was obtained.
    At the invitation of the Secretary, 10 departments and agencies designated
    representatives to the Working Group. The first two meetings
    were held at the Department, on June 10 and July 15. The initiation
    of the Working Group quickly demonstrated the interrelationship of
    Federal programs and the need for closer coordination. Plans were
    commenced for placing the Working Group on a more formalized and
    permanent basis.
    International Activities.—“In the four quarters of the globe, who
    reads an American book? Or goes to an American play? Or looks
    at an American picture or statue ?” Such was, in 1820, Sydney Smith’s
    now-famous criticism of the United States. He continued by inquiring
    derisively, “What does the world yet owe to American physicians and
    surgeons? What new substances have their chemists discovered?”
    The Secretary’s Report 15
    Since Smith asked his questions, the world has come to respect, not
    only American writing and art but American education, science, and
    medicine as well. Every year thousands of people from many lands,
    experts and students alike, journey to the United States to study
    developments in health, education, and social welfare. This Department
    is proud to be one of their principal “ports of call.”
    This year, for example, the Department supervised the programs
    of study and training of 174 United Nations Fellows. In all, some
    3,464 foreign visitors received training planned or supervised by the
    Department. In addition, about 400 American technicians in health,
    education, and social welfare were recruited for foreign assignments
    with the International Cooperation Administration. Technical assistance
    missions in 38 free nations were aided in this manner.
    Interdepartmental Activities—Two matters of interdepartmental
    concern that should be recorded occurred during the year. One was
    the participation by the Department in a study made by the Department
    of Agriculture and the Department of Commerce on the problems
    of low-income farm families. The report of the Secretary of Agriculture,
    which contained summaries of work of the committees of the
    three participating departments, was published in early June 1955.
    It pointed out that the joint study provides an excellent base for the
    development of specific plans for definitive action to deal effectively
    with the difficulties encountered by low-income farm families.
    The other was the establishment of the President’s Committee on
    Migratory Labor. The Committee included the Secretary of Labor,
    as chairman; the Secretary of Agriculture; the Secretary of the
    Interior; the Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance
    Agency; and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.
    The formation of this Committee constituted a first step toward
    considering and dealing with the problem of migrant labor—a problem
    that for 50 years had been under study and investigation but had
    failed to command the continuing attention of the Federal Government.
    During this year the Department also participated actively in the
    work of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations—the
    Kestnbaum Commission. The Commission gave special attention to
    the various grant-in-aid programs, and the Department prepared
    extensive analyses of its activities for the use of the Commission and
    reviewed and commented upon the Commission’s proposals and recommendations.
    It is gratifying to note that after such thorough
    study the Commission found relatively little wrong with the Department
    s programs. Most of the Commission’s recommendations were
    16 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    in accord with views of this Department. The report of the Commission
    should go far toward promoting a better understanding of
    the Department’s work and its relationship to the several States.
    Progress in Management
    Of the important and far-reaching proposals for government reorganization
    proposed by the Hoover Commission, 13 were applicable
    to the work of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
    without any further action required by other agencies of government
    or Congress. At the close of the fiscal year these proposals were under
    careful study by the Department.
    Congress appropriated $2.1 billion to the Department during this
    fiscal year, for all purposes. In addition, receipts of the Old-Age and
    Survivors Insurance Trust Fund totaled nearly $5.6 billion and disbursements
    totaled nearly $4.5 billion. Of the funds appropriated
    by Congress, 89 percent was distributed to States, communities, institutions,
    and individuals, in the form of grants, scholarships, traineeships,
    etc.
    At the end of the fiscal year, the Department had 39,927 full-time
    employees working in its offices, hospitals, and laboratories throughout
    the Nation and overseas. Nine regional offices coordinated activities
    throughout the Nation.
    An organization of such size, dealing with complex matters vital
    to the well-being of every citizen, requires the best possible structure
    and management. More efficient, effective, and economical operations
    were constant goals of the Department during the 1955 fiscal year.
    The first comprehensive and long-range study of the Department’s
    managerial responsibilities was made this year by the consulting firm
    of Cresap, McCormick & Paget. The Office of the Comptroller was
    established to give increased attention on behalf of the Secretary to
    all budgetary and fiscal matters. The Office of Administration was
    reorganized to provide more effective guidance to the units of the
    Department with respect to such problems as organization, work
    planning, and executive development.
    In addition to the special surveys and reorganizations described
    elsewhere in this report, inventories were made of real and personal
    property for which the Department is responsible and a survey was
    completed of the procedures for auditing the Department’s grants-inaid
    to the States. A Departmental Staff Manual on Physical Security
    was issued, containing detailed information concerning the Department’s
    physical security program, policies, and procedures.
    The Secretary’s Report 17
    Net increases in staff were necessary only at the National Institutes
    of Health and the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, in
    both cases because of new legislation involving major expansions of
    program.
    During the year, cash awards totaling $14,250 were made to 350
    employees who suggested better ways of doing the Department’s job.
    Estimated savings as a result of employees’ suggestions amounted to
    $119,998, and most of these savings will recur annually. There were
    also many improvements not measurable in dollars that were rewarded
    by cash awards.
    Illustrative economies made in the course of the Department’s operations
    this year include:
    1. Installation of an electronic data processing system in the Bureau
    of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance which will cut costs by more
    than $1 million annually.
    2. Freeing 9,775 pieces of office equipment, valued at $651,160, for
    reuse elsewhere in the Government.
    3. Turning in an estimated $41,855 to the Treasury from the sale of
    useless records as waste paper.
    4. A host of reductions in the volume of paperwork. For example,
    the variety of postcards used by the States to report morbidity data
    to the Public Health Service was cut from 82 to 5.
    From the standpoint of the general management of the Department,
    as distinguished from individual problems associated with specific
    programs, perhaps the major concern is with the important and continuing
    task of welding together the many programs of the new
    Department into an operating whole. The job remained complicated
    because of the width and the breadth of programs which fall within
    the Department’s responsibilities. These programs cover a spectrum
    as broad as the human needs—and, indeed, the human aspirations—of
    the many millions of Americans who every day, in one way or another,
    are touched by the work of the Department of Health, Education, and
    Welfare. Although much, certainly, remained at the end of the year
    to be accomplished—as will, indeed, always be true in a changing and
    dynamic society—it can be recorded that substantial progress was
    made in the endeavor to give coherence and unity to the management
    of the Department and to enhance the effectiveness of its work on
    behalf of the American people.
    18 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    [On checks-issued basis]
    Table 1.—Grants to States: Total grants under all Department of Health,
    Education, and Welfare programs, fiscal year 1955
    States, territories, and
    possessions Total
    Social
    Security
    Administration
    Public
    Health
    Service
    Office of
    Education
    Office of
    Vocational
    Rehabilitation
    American
    Printing
    House
    for the
    Blind
    Total______________ $1,815,694,000 $1,455,855,874 $95,048,735 $238,974,453 $25,599, 938 $215,000
    Alabama_______________- 38, 356,842 30,321,541 2, 923,962 4,417,953 687,890 5,496
    Arizona____ . _______ 13, 246, 513 9,572,158 374,108 3,148, 719 150,123 1,405
    Arkansas. _ . ___________ 27,948,611 22, 598, 593 2, 399,141 2, 509,425 437,238 4, 214
    California 210,869,101 162,032,415 4, 409, 545 42, 573, 053 1,840, 255 13,833
    Colorado.. . 33i 010, 492 27, 242, 618 966,097 4, 600, 514 199,034 2, 229
    Connecticut___ _ _ 16,149, 786 11, 747,820 514,193 3, 536,341 348, 501 2,931
    Delaware.. __ _______ 2, 646', 810 1, 604, 620 504,421 369, 509 167, 924 336
    District of Columbia____ 5,345,213 4, 521,103 320,225 110,139 392,616 1,130
    Florida__________________ 43,826,138 35,430, 301 2,385, 047 5,186,416 819,244 5,130
    Georgia ___________. 60,354, 768 46,625,370 4, 222,608 7,953, 966 1, 547,175 5, 649
    Idaho_________________ _ 7,283,258 5,325, 806 426,172 1,455, 968 74, 213 1,099
    Illinois____________ _______ 70,379, 066 61, 093, 586 2,950, 476 5,048, 707 1, 274, 632 11,665
    Indiana_____________ ____ 25i 185, 941 20,147, 518 1, 644,409 2,998,101 392, 249 3, 664
    Iowa______ _____________ 24, 765,357 21,756, 514 1,495,118 1,196, 551 313, 632 3, 542
    Kansas__________ __ __ .. 27,003,359 19,141,309 1,294,301 6, 280, 570 284, 919 2,260
    Kentucky________________ 35, 203,446 30, Oil, 463 2, 582, 215 2,404,880 201,376 3,512
    Louisiana ______________ 70,374,839 65,212,221 2, 506,024 2,091, 656 560,724 4,214
    Maine 10, 998, 702 8,307,190 794, 220 1,789, 914 107,378
    Maryland. .. 22,127^ 419 Hi 309; 808 1,306, 211 9, 202, 216 305,001 4,183
    Massachusetts________ 59; 835, 200 5< 860, 594 2,681, 601 1, 965,333 319, 947 7,725
    Michigan________ ______ 56, 737, 364 45,701, 864 2, 663,826 7,277,073 1,084,372 10, 229
    Minnesota - ____________ 29, 599; 000 26,185, 285 1, 270,068 1, 788, 762 350,030 4,855
    Mississippi______ ______ 29,889,972 25,090,656 2, 598, 521 1, 778,164 418, 692 3,939
    Missouri________________ 80, 435,684 73,911, 717 2,045, 651 3,865,391 608,345 4, 580
    Montana______ 7, 967,021 6, 240,097 306,966 1, 272,253 147,033 672
    Nebraska_____ ___________ 12,142,029 9,216, 839 912, 589 1,778,760 232, 528 1,313
    Nevada 3, 486,068 1, 355,645 327,121 1,777,956 25,346
    New Hampshire 4,983', 124 3', 605,768 623,840 ' 695', 289 58, 227
    New Jersey______________ 20, 214, 949 14; 283', 426 1,918; 751 3, 508, 970 496; 840 6,962
    New Mexico_________ .. 16; 326; 560 10, 277, 772 629,736 5, 287,021 129,802 2,229
    New York _____________ 122,150, 966 108, 542,388 4, 018, 911 7,869,339 1,702,678 17, 650
    North Carolina. ______ 38, 955,322 32, 539, 509 2,942, 336 2, 538,487 924,364 10, 626
    North Dakota___________ Si 763; 692 L 888,609 200,825 564,726 108, 524 1,008
    Ohio.. _ ___________ ... 69; 394, 706 54', 903,083 4, 691,042 9, 245,196 545,400 9,985
    Oklahoma_____________ _ 60,819,349 50, 607,348 1,890,892 7, 789,277 529,175 2, 657
    Oregon__________________ 15, 016, 891 12, 669,806 523, 747 1,470,870 349,934 2,534
    Pennsylvania____ ____ 64; 408, 586 53; 078, 951 5, 565,047 3,859,025 1,891,364 14,199
    Rhode Island 9; 146, 890 6, 912, 220 190,108 1, 923, 278 121, 284
    South Carolina__ _______ 26,160,352 19; 968', 776 2,815; 726 2; 909; 521 463,367 2,962
    South Dakota__________ 8,423, 508 6, 519,319 451,079 1,350,150 101,739 1,221
    Tennessee____ _.__ 43, 036, 435 36, 234, 880 2, 904,300 3, 217, 645 674,999 4, 611
    Texas________ _______ 112; 996; 222 90, 600, 452 6,036,172 15,179,437 1,171,733 8,428
    Utah __ ______ 10; 750; 643 7; 135; 395 667, 885 2, 816,026 130,146 1,191
    Vermont 4,184,213 3,654,470 91,376 336, 579 101,788
    Virginia ________________ 33', 109; 068 12; 19L 817 2,305; 932 18, 027, 649 578,113 5, 557
    Washington. .. 46,899, 718 32, 524,184 1,562,587 12,300, 913 509, 744 2, 290
    West Virginia______ . 24,429, 637 2i; 724', 769 i; 472,487 652,907 576,451 3,023
    Wisconsin____ __ __ 27,069, 713 22, 902,013 2,148, 715 1,445,491 568,028 5, 466
    Wyoming 3', 42i; 551 2; 425,318 ' 304,852 675,054 86,327
    Alaska 5, 407, 596 1,814, 678 221,195 3,326,368 45,355
    Hawaii___ _____________ . 7; 553; 148 3,921,982 568,194 2,895,897 166,678 397
    Puerto Rico__ __________ 9, 403, 904 5; 008, 581 3, 441,707 673,956 277,461 2,199
    Virgin Islands ' 429, 258 ' 355,709 36,457 37,092
    Social Security
    Administration
    Social Security in 1955
    As the fiscal year ended, the twentieth anniversary of the Social
    Security Act was drawing near. Appropriately, this year’s report
    takes stock of the achievements of the past 12 months against a background
    of two decades of progress.
    The last year has been one of the most significant, in many respects,
    in bringing the old-age and survivors insurance program within sight
    of its goal. As a result of the 1954 amendments, signed by President
    Eisenhower on September 1, about 9 out of 10 of the Nation’s jobs are
    now within the coverage provisions of the contributory plan to maintain
    income after retirement or death. Nine-tenths of the young mothers
    and children in the country have survivorship protection that
    would assure them of monthly benefits if the breadwinner were to die
    today.
    The basic social insurance program has made long strides since it
    first provided old-age benefits for industrial and commercial workers.
    The expanded program of broad coverage, protecting against the risk
    of wage loss resulting from the death as well as from the old age
    of the worker, is still far from mature. No one has yet been under
    the program for a full working lifetime nor will the beneficiary rolls
    reach their full growth until practically everyone who works for a living
    has had an opportunity to gain protection. Significantly, however,
    the 1954 amendments, by achieving almost universal coverage
    and other desirable modifications of old-age and survivors insurance,
    provide the assurance of future protection for all segments of the
    economy.
    When the Social Security Act was formulated 20 years ago, there
    was clear recognition of the continuing need for public assistance as
    well as social insurance. The Committee on Economic Security, in
    19
    20 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    suggesting a dual attack on the insecurity of old age, stated: “An oldage
    insurance program could be expected in time to carry the major,
    but never the entire, load. . . . Assistance programs have a definite
    place, even in the long-time planning for old-age security.”
    Since February 1951, the social insurance program can be said to
    be carrying “the major load.” In that month, the number of aged
    drawing old-age and survivors insurance benefits passed 2.8 million,
    exceeding slightly for the first time the number on old-age assistance.
    At the beginning of the 1955 fiscal year, the 5.1 million aged beneficiaries
    receiving insurance benefits was almost double the assistance
    load. At the close of the fiscal year, 6.1 million aged persons drew
    insurance benefits and 2.5 million assistance payments, a ratio
    approaching 2}/> to 1.
    The number of recipients of old-age assistance has declined since
    the autumn of 1950, ranging between 2.5 million and 2.6 million in the
    past 2 years. In relation to our growing aged population, the decline
    has been impressive. And increasingly as the old-age and survivors
    insurance program has reached more of the aged group, the public
    assistance program has served as a backstop for individuals whose
    insurance benefits are inadequate for their needs, either because of low
    benefits due to low or irregularly covered wages or because of special
    needs such as medical care.
    The growth of insurance protection for the aged over the past
    20 years and the increasingly supplementary character of public
    assistance is illustrated in chart 1. In December 1934, only about
    5 percent of the aged received payments under the social insurance
    and related programs then in existence—public employees’ retirement
    systems and veterans’ pension and compensation programs. Another
    5 percent received public assistance including work relief. Just over
    one-fourth were earners or the wives of earners. Perhaps 1 out of
    every 2 persons aged 65 and over was mainly or wholly dependent on
    relatives and friends for support.
    In contrast, at the end of 1954 all but 15 percent of the aged had
    income from employment, social insurance and related programs,
    and/or public assistance. Social insurance has made the major contribution
    in improving the income situation of the aged. Almost half
    the aged population in December 1954 was actually receiving payments
    under social insurance and related programs. Old-age and
    survivors insurance alone was then paying benefits to some 5.3 million
    while an additional 1.4 million aged workers (of whom from 300,000
    to 400,000 had aged wives) were insured and could have received
    benefits if they had retired. Together these groups aggregated 7
    million or one-half of all aged. Public assistance provided the principal
    support for more than 2 million aged persons and supplemented
    old-age and survivors insurance payments for another half million.
    Social Security Administration 21
    Chart 1.—ESTIMATED PERCENT OF AGED PERSONS WITH MONEY INCOME FROM EMPLOYMENT,
    SOCIAL INSURANCE, AND PUBLIC ASSISTANCE, DECEMBER OF SELECTED YEARS,
    1934-54
    1 Includes persons with casual employment whose main support was from other sources.
    3 Old-age and survivors insurance, railroad and public employees’ retirement, and veterans’ pension
    and compensation programs.
    3 Excludes persons supported by public institutions. Includes persons on work relief projects in
    the 1930's.
    In December 1954, the proportion of persons with some earnings from
    employment was at about the same level as 20 years earlier, a decline
    from the significantly higher levels of the war years.
    The effect of the 1954 amendments in greatly strengthening the
    gains of the last two decades will be evident even within the next
    few years. By 1960, the proportion of the aged population who either
    are receiving insurance benefits or could receive benefits on retirement
    from gainful employment will have risen from one-half to
    about two-thirds.
    Provisions to improve the economic security of children have also
    been greatly strengthened in the past 20 years. Because the original
    Social Security Act did not include survivors insurance, the full bur22
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    den. of income support for childfen in need due to the death of the
    father was placed on the program of aid to dependent children.
    Assistance payments under the Federal-State program were first
    made by the States in February 1936. By the end of that year, some
    285,000 needy children deprived of support by reason of the parent’s
    death, absence, or incapacity were receiving these payments and an
    additional 119,000 were receiving payments under State and local
    programs. Five years after the adoption of the Social Security
    Act all but a few States were administering their aid to dependent
    children programs with Federal financial participation. Of the case
    load of 854,000 children in August 1940, fewer than 5 percent were
    receiving payments financed exclusively by State and local funds.
    Survivor benefits under the old-age and survivors insurance program
    were first payable in 1940 and were awarded to some 50,000
    child survivors during the first year. Insured status for survivor
    benefits could be acquired after relatively short periods of covered
    employment. Hence the insurance program quickly assumed the
    major role in caring for the Nation’s fatherless children—a diminishing
    group dropping from about 2.8 million at the end of 1934 to about
    1.9 million 20 years later.
    In December 1954, just over one million children were receiving
    benefits under old-age and survivors insurance because of the death
    of the father and another 40,000 because of the death of the mother.
    Some 240,000 needy children received aid to dependent children because
    of the father’s death. With the drop in the total number of
    orphans and with social insurance payments reaching an increasing
    proportion of them, fatherless children have made up a decreasing
    part of the caseload of the aid to dependent children program. Of
    the total caseload of 1.6 million children at the end of 1954, about
    85 percent had been deprived of normal support, not by death of the
    father but because of the continued absence from home or the incapacity
    of either parent.
    Altogether, about 3.3 million children received financial support in
    December 1954 under a public income-maintenance program—including
    programs of the Veterans Administration but not including children
    in families receiving unemployment or disability insurance.
    Many of the children receiving income support under public programs,
    as well as hundreds of thousands of others, have benefited under
    the Social Security Act provisions for services for maternal and child
    health, child welfare, and crippled children. The contributions of
    these programs over the last 20 years in improving the well-being of
    children and in saving the lives of infants and their mothers have been
    immeasurably great. Had the mortality rates of two decades ago not
    been improved, 24,000 mothers would lose their lives in child birth
    this year—twelve times as many lost lives as the 2,000 which are
    expected under present-day rates.
    Social Security Administration 23
    In carrying forward the gains for the Nation’s younger generation,
    the Children’s Bureau gave special attention in 1955 to the problems
    of four particular groups of children. A coordinated approach to
    problems of delinquent children was facilitated by the creation, early
    in the fiscal year, of a Division of Juvenile Delinquency Service. The
    other groups which received Bureau emphasis were children of migratory
    workers, mentally retarded children, and children in unprotected
    adoptions.
    Other programs of the Social Security Administration—-not all of
    which are 20 years old—made further contributions during the year
    to family security. The Federal-State program of aid to the permanently
    and totally disabled, established under the 1950 amendments,
    was aiding 236,800 persons in 43 States at the end of the fiscal year.
    The increase of more than 10 percent over the number of recipients in
    June 1954 reflected the relatively recent introduction of the program
    in some of these States. Aid to the blind, included in the original
    Social Security Act, went to 104,000 persons in June 1955, about
    3,000 more than a year earlier.
    The program of Federal credit unions, too, has a role in increasing
    family security. Credit unions promote systematic savings and use
    the funds thus accumulated for consumer loans at reasonable rates of
    interest. During the fiscal year 1955—marked by the twenty-first
    birthday of the program of federally chartered credit unions—the continued
    growth of these credit unions brought their aggregate assets
    above $1 billion.
    Program Administration in 1955
    Implementation of the 1954 amendments was accomplished smoothly
    and speedily. Over 6^ million old-age and survivors insurance benefit
    checks were recomputed at new rates and released in October, the
    month following the signing of the amendments. For the Bureau of
    Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, the first half of the fiscal year saw
    emphasis on public information activities and on preparation for the
    new coverage and other provisions which became effective on January
    1, 1955.
    The 1954 amendments to preserve rights to old-age and survivors
    insurance benefits in the event of disability resulted in a new and major
    work load. A Medical Advisory Committee was established to advise
    on the medical policies and standards needed in implementing the new
    provisions. By the end of the fiscal year, agreements for the administration
    of the disability freeze had been negotiated in almost all
    States, and a total of 143,000 freeze applications had been taken. The
    increase in benefit amounts resulting from the disability freeze provisions
    was about to come into effect as the fiscal year closed, and much
    work had been done toward completing determinations of disability
    24 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    for individuals who were aged 65 or over and therefore potentially
    eligible for immediate increases.
    Early in the fiscal year, arrangements were completed to implement
    1954 legislation transferring to the Bureau of Federal Credit Unions
    the supervision and examination of credit unions chartered by the
    District of Columbia. This was the second year in which this Bureau’s
    operations were financed entirely by fees collected from the
    credit unions.
    A total of 18,514 employees, the vast majority of whom were in
    district, area, and regional offices, were on the payroll of the Social
    Security Administration at the end of June. The staff had been
    increased by about 4,000 over the previous year’s total to meet the
    demands of the expanded and growing program.
    Through participation in international meetings and similar international
    activities relating to social security, the Social Security
    Administration added to its own knowledge and insight while contributing
    its experience to other countries.
    The high point of the year’s international social welfare activity was
    the Tenth Session of the United Nations Social Commission, held in
    New York in May, with the Commissioner of Social Security serving
    as principal adviser to the United States member of the Commission.
    The Interdepartmental Committee on International Social Welfare
    Policy, chaired by the Director of the Bureau of Public Assistance,
    had given major attention to preparation for the session of the Social
    Commission. Through this Interdepartmental Committee and
    through the Interdepartmental Labor Policy Committee, staff members
    participated in the consideration of important social welfare items
    coming before the United Nations, its various organs, the International
    Labor Organization, and the Inter-American organizations, and developed
    policy statements for the consideration of the Department of
    State.
    The Chief of the Children’s Bureau continued to serve as United
    States Representative to the United Nations International Children’s
    Fund and attended the World Health Assembly in Mexico City.
    Other international meetings in which staff members participated
    included the Tenth Pan American Child Congress in Panama City, the
    Fifth Inter-American Conference on Social Security in Caracas, and
    the Fifth International Congress on Mental Health in Toronto. Another
    important phase of the Social Security Administration’s international
    activities was its active cooperation with national agencies,
    committees, and conferences.
    There was a slight increase in technical missions for which the Social
    Security Administration recruits and nominates qualified personnel
    in social welfare, social insurance, child health, and credit cooperatives
    under an agreement with the Foreign Operations Administration
    Social Security Administration 25
    (now International Cooperation Administration). During the year,
    23 specialists were on duty in 12 countries.
    Nearly twice as many persons from foreign countries as last year
    requested training in the establishment of social security systems following
    recent legislation, in management of credit unions, in management
    of institutions and welfare agencies, and in staff and personnel
    development to meet new agency requirements. There was a marked
    increase in the numbers studying technical aspects of maternal and
    child health. A total of 714 visitors from some 50 countries came
    to the Social Security Administration for planning and training in
    various fields. Of these, 127 were long-term trainees under the
    auspices of the United Nations, the World Health Organization, or
    FOA.
    During the year there was major movement forward on the aspects
    of civilian defense for which the Social Security Administration
    would have planning or administrative responsibility. The program
    administered by the Social Security Administration under normal
    conditions was analyzed and those functions which would be essential
    in time of major emergency were identified and reported through the
    Department to the Office of Defense Mobilization. Participation in
    the two “Exercises” under the direction of ODM and the Federal
    Civilian Defense Administration afforded opportunity to evaluate the
    program activities so identified and to make further progress in the
    development of plans related to relocation, protection of essential records,
    and other administrative aspects of defense planning.
    During the year the Secretary assigned to the Social Security
    Administration two of the programs delegated to the Department by
    FCDA: emergency financial assistance and emergency clothing for
    civilians. These were assigned by the Commissioner to the Bureau
    of Public Assistance for administration.
    Participation in Operations Alert by all Bureaus and the Commissioner’s
    Office tested not only the continuity of essential functions
    under emergency conditions but also the initial plans developed for
    the administration of the delegations. The Social Security Administration
    has participated in the analysis and planning preliminary to
    the development of other defense plans of the Department related to
    the fields of income maintenance and welfare services.
    Old-Age and Survivors Insurance
    The 1954 amendments in the old-age and survivors insurance program,
    added to those made in 1950 and 1952, have equipped the
    program to perform its functions well. It now provides protection
    for almost all American families against the loss of the earnings they
    368636—56----- 3
    26 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    depend on for their support when that loss is caused by retirement
    or death of the family earner. And, for several reasons, the protection
    it provides will be more nearly adequate in the future than it
    has been up to now.
    First, the coverage of the program has been made very nearly universal
    ; this means not only that more people are protected under the
    program but also that those who move from one kind of work to
    another have all their earnings covered, rather than only a part.
    Before 1951 major areas of work were outside of the coverage of the
    program—work in agriculture and domestic service, farm and nonfarm
    self-employment, and employment for Federal, State, and local
    governments and for nonprofit organizations. The only major areas
    that still remain excluded are Federal employment already under a
    retirement system, members of the Armed Forces (whose present
    temporary coverage expires March 31, 1956), and self-employment in
    certain professions. Of particular importance is the extension of
    coverage to both self-employment and wage employment in agriculture
    that was accomplished by the 1950 and 1954 amendments.
    Second, the “new start” adopted in 1950 will increase the benefit
    amounts of those coming on the rolls in the future. Under this provision
    most retired workers will have their benefits based only on
    earnings after 1950; the relatively low wages of the late thirties and
    forties therefore will not operate to depress their average monthly
    wages and benefit amounts.
    Third, the provision for the “drop-out” adopted in 1954, under
    which as many as 5 years of low earnings may be disregarded in
    determining the average monthly wage, will improve benefit amounts.
    It will permit the exclusion of periods of temporary unemployment,
    apprentice earnings, or “tapering off” toward retirement, so that an
    individual who by and large has worked throughout his life may
    receive benefits based on an average at or not far below that of his fulltime
    earnings.
    Fourth, the provision adopted in 1954 for “freezing” the benefit
    rights of workers who become totally disabled will mean that such
    workers, if they have been substantially attached to the work force
    ;before incurring their disabilities, will have their insured status
    preserved and will be able to receive full-rate benefits when they reach
    retirement age.
    The effect of all these changes will be that the program will pay
    higher benefits in the future to individuals who have worked throughout
    their adult lives and supported themselves and their families but
    who have had gaps in their earnings records because of noncovered
    jobs, unemployment, or disability, or who under prior law would have
    had periods of low earnings counted against them.
    Social Security Administration
    An additional reason why protection will be more adequate in the
    future is that the benefit formula itself has been revised to pay a
    benefit which is a higher proportion of previous earnings and the
    amount of earnings that is creditable annually under the program has
    been increased. Finally, the retirement test of the program has been
    improved to apply more equitably to beneficiaries regardless of the
    kind of work they do and to make it possible for beneficiaries to engage
    in more part-time and seasonal work without forfeiting benefits.
    The sections that follow describe the contribution that the revised
    old-age and survivors insurance program is making to the security
    of the Nation’s families and how that revised program has been put
    into effect.
    What the Program Is Doing
    The following summary of significant statistical indices gives a
    brief picture of the program in 1955. Neither the figures on beneficiaries
    and benefit amounts nor those on the protection provided
    by the program reflect the improvements brought about by the disability
    freeze, since increased benefits resulting from the freeze were
    not payable until the beginning of the 1956 fiscal year. Preliminary
    figures on the substantive effect of the freeze are presented in the
    section describing its administration.
    BENEFICIARIES AND BENEFIT AMOUNTS
    In June 1955 about 7.6 million people were receiving monthly benefits
    under the program. Some 6.1 million of these beneficiaries were
    aged 65 and over—4.2 million of them retired workers and 1.8 million
    the wives and dependent husbands of retired workers and the widows,
    dependent widowers, and dependent parents of workers who had died.
    Of the remaining 1.5 million, some 300,000 were mothers and 1.2
    million were children.
    In June 1955, the average insurance benefit paid to a retired worker
    who had no dependents also receiving benefits was $58.20 a month.
    When the worker and his wife both received benefits, the average for
    the family was $102.20. Families consisting of a widowed mother and
    two children received, on the average, $132.30.
    The benefit awards for persons now coming on the rolls for the first
    time are considerably higher than those given above for all beneficiaries.
    The higher amounts reflect the more liberal computation
    provisions of the 1954 amendments, under which up to 5 years of low
    earnings may be dropped from the computation of the average
    monthly wage. Among beneficiaries who had come on the rolls by
    28 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    June 1955 and whose benefits are based on earnings after 1950 with
    eligibility to omit years of lowest earnings, the average for a retired
    worker with no dependents receiving benefits was about $78, for an
    aged couple about $130, and for a widowed mother and two children
    approximately $182.
    THE PROTECTION PROVIDED
    Of the almost 14 million people aged 65 or over in the United States
    in December 1954, 51 percent were eligible for benefits under old-age
    and survivors insurance; 38 percent were actually receiving them.
    The percentage of aged persons who are eligible is expected to rise to
    65 percent by 1960.
    Of the population under 65 years of age, 65 million were insured at
    the beginning of the calendar year 1955. Some 24 million of these
    people were permanently insured—that is, whether or not they continue
    to work in covered jobs they will be eligible for benefits at age 65
    and their families are assured of protection in the event of their death.
    An additional 41 million were insured but would have to continue in
    covered work for an additional period to make their insured status
    permanent. Nine out of 10 of the mothers and young children in the
    Nation were assured that they would receive monthly benefits in case
    of the death of the family earner.
    THE COVERAGE OF THE PROGRAM
    About 67% million people will have contributed toward old-age and
    survivors insurance during calendar year 1955. An estimated additional
    1% million people will have been afforded insurance protection
    jointly by the railroad retirement and old-age and survivors insurance
    programs. In June 1955, about 91 percent of all jobs in paid civilian
    employment were covered by the program or were eligible for coverage.
    An additional 3 percent of the Nation’s paid civilian jobs, not
    covered by old-age and survivors insurance, were covered by Federal,
    State, or local government retirement systems. The residual group,
    comprising about 6 percent of the Nation’s paid civilian employment,
    was not covered under any public retirement program. This group
    consisted mostly of self-employed persons whose annual net earnings
    were less than $400, certain self-employed professional people, and
    domestic and farm workers who did not earn sufficient wages from any
    one employer to meet the minimum coverage requirements of the law.
    Members of the Armed Forces, while not covered by old-age and
    survivors insurance on a contributory basis, are granted wage credits
    of $160 for each month of active service after September 15, 1940,
    and before April 1,1956.
    Social Security Administration 29
    INCOME AND DISBURSEMENTS
    Program expenditures during the fiscal year totaled $4,436 million,
    of which $4,333 million was for benefit payments and $103 million
    for administrative expenses. Total receipts were $5,534 million, including
    $5,087 million in net contributions, $438 million in interest on
    investments, and $10 million in transfers from the railroad retirement
    account. Receipts exceeded disbursements by $1,098 million, the
    amount of the increase in the trust fund during the year. At the end
    of June 1955, the fund totaled $21.1 billion.
    On June 30, all assets of the fund, except $560 million held in cash,
    were invested in United States Government securities as required by
    law; $2.3 billion were invested in public issues (identical with similar
    bonds owned by private investors), and $18.2 billion were invested in
    special certificates of indebtedness bearing interest at the average rate
    paid on the total interest-bearing Federal debt at the time they were
    issued. The average interest rate on all investments of the trust fund
    at the end of the fiscal year was about 2.3 percent.
    Administering the Program
    EFFECTUATING THE 1954 AMENDMENTS
    Immediately after enactment of the amendments, recruitment objectives
    were established for each part of the Bureau; these objectives
    were related to anticipated loads, the ability to recruit qualified personnel,
    and the rate at which new staff could be successfully trained
    and absorbed. The net personnel increase required by the 1954 amendments
    was approximately 3,400. This brought Bureau staff at the
    end of the fiscal year to just over 17,600 employees—the staff needed
    for operations at the new and continuing workload level at which the
    Bureau will operate.
    Training on the amendment provisions and on new policies and
    procedures was essential for both experienced and new personnel. One
    device followed was to train groups of key supervisory and technical
    people, who then carried the new knowledge back through the supervisory
    line and to all parts of the country to people already on the
    Bureau’s staff. Central office training classes were established in
    Baltimore for new employees. More than 1,200 new field employees
    received intensive instruction in these courses during the fiscal year.
    One of the first tasks required by the amendments was the conversion
    of the monthly benefit checks of over 6.5 million beneficiaries to
    the new higher amounts. This operation was completed in time to
    permit release of the September checks when they were due. This
    was accomplished through timely procedural planning and testing,
    30 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    the maximum use of mechanical methods for the actual conversion,
    and close synchronization of operations with those in the Treasury
    Department’s disbursing offices.
    The burden of administration stemming from the amendments was
    greatest during the period from January 1, 1955, to the end of the
    fiscal year. In the first 3 months of 1955, over 100,000 more claims
    applications were received than in the first 3 months of 1954. Because
    this influx of claims was concentrated in such a short period of time,
    pending loads in the district offices rose to unprecedented levels. By
    June 30, 1955, substantial inroads had been made in this backlog, but
    the district office pending load was still high.
    ADMINISTERING THE DISABILITY “FREEZE”
    Under the new disability “freeze” provision, persons having both
    substantial and recent covered work prior to disablement are eligible
    to have their insurance rights frozen during the period in which longcontinuing
    total disability prevents them from performing any substantial
    gainful work. Adoption of the disability freeze provision
    not only created an entirely new area of program administration for
    the Bureau, but also, for the first time, provided for Federal-State
    administration of a phase of the old-age and survivors insurance program.
    The law directs the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare
    to enter into agreements with vocational rehabilitation agencies
    or other appropriate State agencies to make determinations of disability
    for freeze purposes.
    A new division in the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance—
    the Division of Disability Operations—was assigned primary responsibility
    for making determinations in cases not covered by State agreements
    and for reviewing certain disability determinations made by
    State agencies. The Division received substantial help in the development
    of policies and procedures from a committee appointed by the
    State Vocational Rehabilitation Council, from constituents in the Department—
    particularly from the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation—
    and from other departments and agencies. To assist in the development
    of medical standards and policies, a Medical Advisory Committee
    to the Social Security Administration was appointed. This Committee,
    composed of members of the medical and related professions
    having a common interest in the problems of the disabled, provided
    consultation on medical policies involved in making disability determinations
    and technical advice on the formulation of medical guides
    and standards. The Medical Advisory Committee is expected to continue
    beyond this initial year of operations to evaluate the medical
    aspects of the administration of the freeze and will assist the Bureau
    in preparing medical policies and procedures and in solving problems
    that have medical content.
    Social Security Administration 31
    A major phase in preparing to administer the freeze was the negotiation
    of agreements with individual States to make determinations
    of disability. The Governors of all States were asked to designate
    an appropriate agency or agencies for this purpose. At the end of
    the fiscal year, designations had been received from all but two jurisdictions.
    In 42 States the vocational rehabilitation agency was designated;
    in four the vocational rehabilitation agency and either the
    public welfare agency or a special agency for the rehabilitation of
    the blind; and in five the public welfare agency. Agreements with
    38 States and advances of funds were approved by the Commissioner
    by the end of the year. Under the law, the State agencies may elect to
    exclude certain cases from the agreement. In general, cases where
    disability began many years in the past and cases where the disabled
    individual is an old-age insurance beneficiary and therefore may be
    eligible for an immediate increase in benefits were currently excluded
    from the agreements.
    In addition to speeding work on negotiations of agreements and
    providing State agencies with funds with which to start operations,
    the Bureau made intensive efforts during the second half of the fiscal
    year to identify potential applicants and to process freeze applications.
    District offices identified several hundred thousand potential
    applicants and accepted 143,000 freeze applications before the end of
    the fiscal year. Because an old-age insurance beneficiary who had
    been disabled before he attained age 65 could, through the freeze, receive
    an increase in his benefit amount beginning with the month of
    July, priority was given to the securing and processing of applications
    from these older people.
    The 1954 amendments included a statement of policy to the effect
    that disabled individuals applying for a determination of disability
    under the freeze should be promptly referred to State vocational rehabilitation
    agencies for rehabilitation services, to the end that the
    maximum number of disabled individuals may be restored to productive
    activity. To carry out this policy, the Bureau, early in the fiscal
    year, began describing the services available under State vocational
    rehabilitation programs to each disabled person inquiring about the
    freeze. Concurrently, contacts were made with State rehabilitation
    agencies to work out arrangements for making prompt and effective
    referrals. As these arrangements were completed State agencies began
    receiving information on many thousands of disabled individuals,
    including many who were not freeze applicants. Although it is too
    early to assess accurately the substantial values that will result from
    this process, experience thus far has shown that a large proportion
    of the disabled persons referred were not previously known to vocational
    rehabilitation agencies.
    32 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    The Division of Disability Operations began making tentative determinations
    on cases in March. About 62,000 applications were received
    in the Division before the close of the fiscal year. Although
    only a scattering of determinations had been completed by State
    agencies, the volume will grow rapidly as the agencies become staffed
    and trained.
    In July 1955 the benefit checks of more than 13,000 old-age insurance
    beneficiaries were raised as the result of the freeze; additional
    cases were in process. The average July rise was $10.43 (in some
    cases a portion of the increase was attributable to the drop-out provision
    in the 1954 amendments). Dependents of old-age insurance
    beneficiaries entitled to the freeze received proportionate increases in
    their benefits.
    OTHER ADMINISTRATIVE DEVELOPMENTS
    Several years of detailed research have gone into the study of the
    possible application of large-scale electronic data-processing equipment
    to the Bureau’s earnings record operation. Studies culminated
    this year in the selection of data-processing equipment which will be
    installed in the latter part of fiscal year 1956 for maintaining earnings
    records and for properly crediting earnings items reported incorrectly
    by employers. This equipment, using magnetic tape to record
    earnings information, will eliminate the setting up of a second summary
    punchcard file for approximately 80 million accounts on July 1,
    1956, which would otherwise have been necessary in order to include
    the additional data required by the 1954 amendments in making benefit
    computations. In addition, its use in the operation to properly credit
    incorrectly reported earnings items will reduce the number of items
    that cannot be credited and will cut the cost of the operation substantially.
    Within a year after initial installation, the use of the
    equipment will be extended to the Bureau’s statistical operations,
    where increased efficiency will result.
    Another major subject of study over the past several years has been
    the plan to combine social security reporting with reporting for
    income-tax withholding purposes. Under that plan the quarterly
    wage reports now filed for social security purposes would be eliminated
    for those employers whose employees were also subject to income-
    tax withholding. The withholding-tax statements (Forms W-
    2) filed by the employer once a year for each employee would be used
    to maintain the wage records necessary in the old-age and survivors
    insurance program. Under agreement with the Treasury Department,
    the copies of the Forms W-2 filed by employees with their
    income-tax returns would also be sent to the Bureau of Old-Age and
    Survivors Insurance for withholding-tax verification purposes.
    Social Security Administration 33
    The plan is expected to reduce the reporting burden of employers
    (about 200 million wage items would be eliminated), to provide an
    automatic method whereby employees may verify annually the accuracy
    of reports of their earnings under old-age and survivors insurance,
    to effect improvements in efficiency in the Government’s processing
    operations, and to strengthen social security tax and withholding
    tax administration.
    Adoption of legislation to carry out the proposal has been recommended
    by the President and a bill (H. R. 7770) embodying the plan
    has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
    In September 1952, the House Appropriations Committee initiated
    studies of the possibility of check writing by benefit payment agencies
    to replace the current practice of certification by agencies and disbursement
    by the Treasury Department. Subsequent to experiments
    by the Railroad Retirement Board, the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors
    Insurance with the Treasury Department and the General
    Accounting Office studied possible applications of this procedure to
    the old-age and survivors insurance area offices. As a result of these
    studies the Bureau’s Birmingham Area Office in July 1955 assumed
    the responsibility, on an experimental basis, for writing benefit checks.
    In the 1956 appropriations bill the Congress authorized expenditure
    of $3,870,000, in addition to amounts previously authorized, for a
    building to house all of the Baltimore operations of the Bureau, and
    also authorized the use for construction of funds previously authorized
    to be used in preparing for construction and not required for
    that purpose. The limit of cost as established by this congressional
    action is $25,370,000. During the year the Government acquired title
    to the site for the building, on the outskirts of Baltimore.
    Financing the Program
    In setting the schedule of contribution rates in the 1954 amendments
    Congress again made clear its intent that the old-age and survivors
    insurance program is to be self-supporting from contributions
    of covered workers and employers. The rates in the schedule were
    arrived at after careful review of long-range actuarial cost estimates.
    According to these estimates, the level-premium cost of the program
    after 1952 on an intermediate basis, assuming interest at 2.4 percent
    and earnings at the levels that prevailed during 1951 and 1952 (the
    latest then available), was 7.50 percent of payroll. The level contribution
    rate equivalent to the graduated rates in the law was estimated
    at 7.12 percent of payroll, so that there was an estimated deficit of
    0.38 percent.
    34 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Revisions in these estimates have recently been prepared that take
    into account the rise in earnings levels since 1951 -1952 and the
    most recent coverage and benefit experience. According to these new
    estimates the level premium cost of the program after 1955, on an
    intermediate basis and assuming 2.4 percent interest, is 7.51 percent.
    The level contribution rate equivalent to the graduated contribution
    rates in the law is estimated at 7.29 percent, with a resulting deficit
    of 0.22 percent. Thus the new estimates show that the deficit has
    been significantly reduced. Taking into account the practice of using
    contribution rates rounded to convenient fractions, the system is as
    nearly in balance as is practical.
    The difficulties involved in making exact predictions of the actuarial
    status of a program that reaches into the distant future are widely
    recognized. If different assumptions as to, say, interest, mortality, or
    earnings had been used, different results would have been obtained.
    Accordingly, no one set of estimates should be looked upon as final.
    As economic and other conditions change, the Department will continue
    to prepare new cost estimates reflecting the latest information
    available.
    A Study of the Minimum Benefit
    Public Law 761, the Social Security Act Amendments of 1954,
    contained the following section calling for a study of the minimum
    benefit under the old-age and survivors insurance program:
    Sec. 404. (a) The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare shall conduct
    a full and complete study with a view to determining the feasibility of increasing
    the minimum old-age insurance benefit under title II of the Social Security Act
    to (1) $55 per month, (2) $60 per month, and (3) $75 per month.
    (b) Such study shall include (1) a detailed analysis of the estimated increase
    in cost, if any, involved in increasing such minimum benefit to each of the above
    referred to amounts, (2) estimates of the financial impact such increase would
    have upon the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, and (3) an estimate
    of the amount, if any, by which Federal grants to the States for public assistance
    would be reduced by reason of such increase in minimum old-age insurance
    benefits.
    (c) The Secretary shall report to the Congress at the earliest practicable date
    the results of the study provided for by this section.
    Tn accordance with this directive a study of the feasibility of increasing
    the minimum benefit to the specified amounts was conducted
    during the fiscal year 1955. The study included, in addition to the
    required analysis of costs and of the impact on Federal grants for
    public assistance, an analysis of the relationship of the proposed increases
    to employment patterns, earnings, and benefit levels of workers
    and of beneficiaries with a view to determining who would benefit
    Social Security Administration 35
    from, and who would be disadvantaged by the proposed increases in
    benefits and cost.
    In connection with the study, estimates were prepared of the benefits
    that are expected to be awarded under the program in the next
    5 years. It is anticipated that about 80 percent of the benefits awarded
    to retired men workers during that period will be based on earnings
    after 1950 and will reflect the changes in the program, described earlier,
    that are expected to improve benefit adequacy. Among these retired
    male beneficiaries whose benefits are based on earnings after 1950
    only 6 percent are expected to qualify for less than $60 a month; over
    80 percent are expected to receive benefits between $75 and $108.50.
    The study was completed and a report on the study was submitted
    to the Congress shortly after the end of the fiscal year. The conclusions
    reached in the study, as summarized in the report, are as follows:
    . . . the proposed increases in the minimum would result in appreciable increases
    in the cost of the old-age and survivors insurance program. The increase
    in cost on a level-premium basis for the $55 minimum would be 0.6 percent of
    payroll; for the $60 minimum, 0.9 percent; for the $75 minimum, 1.8 percent.
    With a $55 minimum the savings in Federal grants to States for old-age assistance
    would amount to about 4 percent at present and about 8 percent in 1960.
    The comparable figures for a $75 minimum would be 10 percent now and somewhat
    under 19 percent in 1960. The additional expenditures for old-age and
    survivors insurance in 1955 would amount to from 5 to 7 times the reduction in
    the Federal share of assistance costs ; for 1960 from 8 to 11 times.
    Those who would benefit from the proposed increases in the minimum, aside
    from those people now on the rolls, would be widows whose husbands died before
    the recent improvements in old-age and survivors insurance, families where
    the wife had barely enough covered work to be insured, and people who had spent
    most of their lives outside of covered work such as doctors, lawyers, Federal employees,
    and investors. In addition there would be some regular lifetime workers
    in low-wage areas, such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, or in farming,
    with its low cash wage and considerable remuneration in kind. The chief group
    that would be hurt by reason of paying additional contributions without any
    benefit increases would be the regular, full-time, lifetime workers who supported
    themselves and their families throughout their lives by work in covered jobs.
    It would seem very difficult to justify to the long-term contributors to the system,
    who even under present law receive less in proportion to their contributions
    than do the short-term contributors that they must pay still higher contributions
    to help finance benefit increases for others while not getting additional benefits
    themselves. Especially would this be true when it is considei'ed that among
    those who would receive the increased amounts would be self-employed doctors
    and lawyers, Federal workers, investors and others whose major source of sup-
    P°rt—income from noncovered work or investments—is not subject to the taxes
    that support the program.
    Thus the provision of high minimum benefits not only would increase the cost
    of the program but it might also jeopardize the financing of the program by decreasing
    the willingness of the long-term regular worker to support the system.
    In the opinion of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare there are
    values inherent in the contributory, variable-benefit system that make it most
    important that no step be taken, however expedient it may seem in the short
    run, that would weaken the financial basis of the system.
    36 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Legislative Developments in 1955
    A bill (H. R. 7770) to consolidate reporting of wages for incometax
    withholding and social security purposes was introduced in the
    House of Representatives shortly before the first session of the Eightyfourth
    Congress adj ourned. Since quarterly reports of earnings would
    not be made under the plan for workers covered by the income-tax
    withholding procedures, the bill provides for changing the insured
    status requirements under the program from the present quarterly
    basis to an annual basis.
    H. R. 7770 also includes a provision under which the Federal
    old-age and survivors insurance trust fund would earn a higher rate
    of interest on its investments. The law now requires that special
    obligations issued to the trust fund bear interest at a rate equal to
    the average rate of interest borne by all interest-bearing obligations
    of the United States forming a part of the public debt. (When the
    average rate is not a multiple of % of 1 percent, the rate of interest
    is the multiple of % of 1 percent next lower than the average rate.)
    In determining the interest rate under this rule all obligations, including
    very short-terms ones, are included. Yet the financial commitments
    of the system are basically of a long-term nature and it is
    appropriate to take that fact into account in arriving at a rate of
    interest that is equitable. Under H. R. 7770 the interest rate on
    special obligations issued to the fund would be the average rate of
    all marketable United States Government obligations having maturity
    dates more than 5 years after issuance; thus short-term obligations
    would not be considered. The bill also provides that the average
    rate would be rounded to the nearest (rather than the next lower)
    multiple of % of 1 percent.
    Late in the first session, the House of Representatives passed H.
    R. 7225, a bill that would lower the retirement age to 50 for insured
    individuals who are permanently and totally disabled, reduce the
    benefit eligibility age for wives, widows, female parents, and women
    workers to 62, continue monthly benefits for disabled children after
    age 18, extend old-age and survivors insurance coverage to self-employed
    professional people not yet covered (except doctors) and a few
    smaller groups, increase the contribution rates, and establish an Advisory
    Council on Social Security Financing. Time did not permit full
    consideration of the measure by the Senate. The Department endorsed
    the extension of coverage provided by the bill but stated that
    the other provisions required study and evaluation more extensive
    than could be provided during the closing days of the 1955 session
    of Congress.
    Social Security Administration 37
    After a number of months of intensive study and public hearings,
    the Select Committee on Survivor Benefits of the House of Representatives
    (the Hardy Committee) reported out a bill, H. R. 7089, that
    was passed by the House on July 13,1955. The Senate Committee on
    Finance is expected to consider the bill at the next session of the
    Congress. This bill would make major improvements in the survivor
    benefit programs for servicemen, including extension of contributory
    old-age and survivors insurance coverage to members of the
    Armed Forces and coordination of the survivor benefits payable by
    the Veterans Administration with those that would be provided by
    old-age and survivors insurance. The bill would substantially carry
    out the recommendations of the President and of this Department
    that coverage be extended to members of the uniformed services on
    a contributory, wage-related basis.
    H. R. 7089 includes provision for reimbursement of the Federal
    old-age and survivors insurance trust fund for past and future expenditures
    resulting from the gratuitous $160 monthly wage credits
    which are provided under existing law for military service performed
    since September 15, 1940.
    When it became evident that Senate consideration of H. R. 7089
    could not be completed in 1955, the Eighty-fourth Congress enacted
    Public Law 325 as a stop-gap measure. This law extended the expiration
    date of the gratuitous $160 monthly wage-credit provision from
    July 1, 1955, to April 1, 1956. If H. R. 7089 is enacted to provide
    contributory coverage of the Armed Forces effective January 1, 1956,
    the social security law will need to be amended so that the $160 gratuitous
    credits will not be granted for military service after 1955.
    In addition to the significant developments that occurred during
    the year in respect to improved retirement and survivors protection
    for members of the Armed Forces, the President took steps to improve
    veterans’ legislation by establishing the President’s Commission
    on Veterans’ Pensions, with General Omar N. Bradley as Chairman.
    At the President’s direction, this Commission began a
    comprehensive study of the Federal laws providing nonmedical
    benefits to veterans and their dependents, including the relationship
    of these benefits to benefits provided under the social security and
    other general programs, as a basis for recommendations to be submitted
    to the Congress. The Department was asked to furnish
    information about the present and potential effects of the old-age
    and survivors insurance program and others administered by the
    Department on veterans.
    Amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act were approved August
    12, 1955. These amendments made no basic changes in the coordination
    of the railroad retirement and old-age and survivors
    38 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    insurance programs; however, they did remove the former requirement
    in the railroad law that survivor annuities be reduced by the
    amount of any old-age and survivors insurance benefit (based on a
    different wage record) payable to the annuitant.
    Some progress was made during the year toward carrying out the
    recommendation of the Committee on Retirement Policy for Federal
    Personnel that old-age and survivors insurance coverage be extended
    to employees covered by the Federal civil service retirement system
    and that the latter system be revised to be supplementary to old-age
    and survivors insurance. The Department of Health, Education,
    and Welfare believes that the recommendation, if carried out, would
    substantially improve the protection afforded to Federal employees.
    Public Assistance
    The twentieth year of administering public assistance under the
    Social Security Act was an occasion for taking stock—appraising
    gains and evaluating needs in planning the future direction of the
    program.
    Gains in Public Assistance
    Benefits of the public assistance titles of the act are now extended
    to the needy aged and blind and to dependent children in all the approximately
    3,100 counties in the United States, and in Alaska, Hawaii,
    the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
    Nevada, since 1945 the only jurisdiction without a federally aided
    program of aid to dependent children, passed legislation authorizing
    the initiation of its program in July 1955. The federally aided program
    initiated in Maine during the year brought to 43 the States
    administering aid to the permanently and totally disabled for which
    Federal grants were provided under a 1950 amendment to the act.
    In addition, States provide general assistance, using only State and/or
    local funds.
    During the past 20 years the State public assistance programs have
    undergone great development in their ability to help people meet their
    needs in ways that are consistent with the dignity of the individual
    and with respect for his rights and responsibilities. Much of the gain
    is attributable to implementation of concepts embodied in the public
    assistance titles of the act reenforced by the knowledge and experience
    of related fields of economics, law, social work, medicine, and public
    administration.
    For example, placement of responsibility with a single State agency
    for statewide operation of the program has contributed to the developSocial
    Security Administration 39
    ment or strengthening of State departments of public welfare throughout
    the country and provided for equitable administration of assistance
    to needy people within a State. Although traditional responsibility
    of the States and localities for administering public assistance
    was retained, certain provisions in the Social Security Act reflect the
    national interest, such as those relating to proper and efficient administration
    and consideration of income and resources in determining
    need for assistance.
    The act also provides for a fair hearing when a needy person has
    been denied aid or is dissatisfied with the amount of his assistance
    payment, or when his application has not been acted upon with reasonable
    promptness. This has protected needy persons against arbitrary
    or erroneous decisions of an individual staff member and strengthened
    State responsibility by providing for State review of a local decision.
    Most States define a needy person as one whose income and resources
    are too small to provide what the State has set as the minimum required
    for basic maintenance needs, and today aid is usually given to
    supplement any income and resources the applicant possesses up to
    this standard. However, standards in many States are still far below
    what many consider necessary to secure the essentials of well-being.
    Much of the increase in public assistance payments during the past
    two decades reflects increased living costs. For example, although
    there was an increase in the average monthly old-age assistance payment
    from $15.04 to $51.89 from 1936 to 1955, the actual purchasing
    power of today’s payment is $26.58 in terms of the 1936 dollar.
    The 1950 amendment to the Social Security Act requiring the designation
    by each State of an authority to establish and maintain standards
    in institutions where assistance recipients reside has provided
    an impetus for a nationwide movement to raise standards of institutional
    care. There has also been increasing emphasis in administering
    assistance in such a way as to help the needy person make the maximum
    use of his capacities for self-help and to deal constructively with
    problems which have contributed to his need for assistance.
    Public assistance has helped to strengthen family life in many ways.
    By aiding the needy aged, blind, or disabled individual within his
    family setting, he has been enabled to remain at home without interruption
    of family life because of need alone. Through aid to dependent
    children the needy parent and child have been enabled to
    remain together, and children have been provided the opportunity of
    growing up in the setting of their own family relationships. Efforts
    toward rehabilitation of the needy disabled have helped some gain
    greater self-sufficiency and others to resume responsibility for the care
    and support of their families. Public assistance, in supplementing the
    old-age and survivors insurance program, has added to the basic
    40 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    economic underpinning which has enabled the needy family to preserve,
    in the face of adversity, the continuity of cherished relationships
    and other strengths of family living.
    Trends in Caseload and
    Expenditures1
    Nearly 6 million persons (5.8 million) received some form of public
    assistance in June 1955—3.5 percent of the total population, or approximately
    1 in 28. This represented an increase of 200,000 from
    the preceding June, with the highest increase between November and
    December. The year’s peak of 6.1 million was reached in March.
    All programs showed increases except old-age assistance.
    Expenditures for assistance payments from Federal, State, and
    local funds during fiscal 1955 amounted to $2,712 million, representing
    about 1 percent of personal income payments in the Nation. The
    Federal share of this expenditure was $1,351 million. The 5.8-percent
    increase in total expenditures reflected increases in average payments
    in each of the assistance programs, owing in part to increasing expenditures
    for medical care through vendor payments and higher standards
    of assistance in some States.
    OLD-AGE ASSISTANCE
    In June 1955, 2,549,000 persons received old-age assistance, a decrease
    of about 33,800 persons, or 1.3 percent, from the previous June.
    The greatest monthly reduction, 8,700, occurred in October 1954 when
    a substantial number of cases were closed following receipt of higher
    old-age and survivor insurance benefits provided by the 1954 amendments
    to the act. Only 14 States had higher caseloads at the end of
    the year than at the beginning. The national average monthly payment
    for old-age assistance was $52.30 in June 1955 as compared
    with $51.45 a year earlier.
    AID TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN
    About 620,000 families received aid to dependent children in June
    1955, an increase of about 38,500 families, or 6.6 percent, from the
    preceding June. Increases in caseloads were general throughout the
    country with reductions in only 7 States. The average payment per
    family in June 1955 was $86.78 ($24.04 per person) as compared with
    $85.08 per family ($23.81 per person) in June 1954.
    1 Caseloads, averages, and total expenditures in all programs except general assistance
    are based on data including vendor payments for medical care and cases receiving only
    medical care.
    Social Security Administration 41
    AID TO THE BLIND
    Nearly 104,000 persons received aid to the blind in June 1955, an
    increase of about 3,000 during the year. Only 16 States had fewer
    recipients, and 11 States had lower average assistance payments at the
    end of the year than at the beginning. The national average monthly
    payment in June 1955 was $57.41, as compared with $55.80 in the
    previous June.
    AID TO THE PERMANENTLY AND TOTALLY DISABLED
    About 236,800 persons in 43 States received aid to the permanently
    and totally disabled in June 1955, an increase of 25,100 from June
    1954, owing largely to the relative newness of the program. The
    average monthly payment was $54.93 in June 1955, as compared with
    $53.51 in June 1954.
    GENERAL ASSISTANCE
    Some 310,000 cases received State and/or locally financed general
    assistance in June 1955, an increase of 11,000 or 3.8 percent from the
    preceding June. This was a decrease of 71,000 cases from the year’s
    high of 381,000 reached in March. That peak represented the largest
    number receiving general assistance since April 1951 but was 271,000
    under the postwar peak of 652,000 in March 1950. The average payment
    per case for June 1955 was $53.78, as compared with $51.62 a
    year earlier.
    Effect on Public Assistance of the
    Expanding OASI Program
    A 1954 amendment extended old-age and survivors insurance coverage
    to about 10 million more people in the course of a year (over half
    of them farm operators and farm workers). This is expected to have
    a significant long-range effect in reducing the number of aged dependent
    on assistance, since many come from agricultural groups to which
    insurance coverage was extended. It is estimated that by about 1980
    a very high proportion of the aged will receive old-age and survivors
    insurance benefits; those who do will need old-age assistance only
    if their insurance benefits are low or if they have special needs. Some
    of those not receiving insurance benefits may also need old-age
    assistance.
    However, the immediate effect in reducing the number dependent
    on public assistance is more limited. Many of those currently receiving
    old-age assistance never had and are not likely to obtain cover-
    368636-56-
    42 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    age under the insurance program because during their working years
    the coverage was limited. Others are eligible for only minimum insurance
    benefits insufficient to meet their basic needs or have unusual
    expenses, such as costly medical and/or nursing care. As a result,
    although the proportion of aged population receiving assistance
    dropped from 22.5 percent in September 1950 to 17.9 percent in June
    1955, the rate of reduction was only slightly higher during 1955, the
    year following the amendments, than in the preceding year (1.3 percent
    as compared with 1.0 percent).
    The liberalized benefits, however, resulted in an average increase
    of $5 a month in the insurance benefit payment of aged persons receiving
    supplementary old-age assistance. A somewhat smaller increase
    was received by most wives of retired workers and most widows
    receiving monthly benefits in excess of $25. Widows’ benefits at the
    previous minimum of $18.80 were raised to $30 a month. As a result,
    although about 86 percent of the aged receiving both assistance and
    benefits in September 1954 continued to receive assistance, the amount
    of assistance was reduced; 2 percent of the cases were closed. Aid to
    dependent children families also receiving benefits had an average
    increase of over $8 a month per family. About 73 percent had their
    assistance payments reduced, and 3 percent of the cases were closed.
    Payments for the other old-age assistance and aid to dependent children
    cases were not reduced.
    The increase in benefits resulted in a reduction of almost $2.1 million
    a month in payments to those receiving both old-age assistance
    and insurance benefits and $197,000 for aid to dependent children
    families also receiving benefits, in September 1954. In many cases,
    the increase in benefits released some State and/or local funds to
    meet current unmet need of recipients.
    AGED PERSONS RECEIVING BOTH INSURANCE AND ASSISTANCE
    In February 1955, about 489,000 insurance beneficiaries received
    old-age assistance to supplement minimum or near minimum insurance
    benefits insufficient for their basic needs or to meet special needs.
    They represented nearly a fifth (19.2 percent) of all old-age assistance
    recipients. The number receiving both assistance and benefits increased
    77 percent since September 1950 and 5.6 percent since
    February 1954.
    As a result of benefit increases provided by the 1954 amendments,
    the average old-age assistance payment for recipients receiving both
    insurance and assistance was reduced from $43.00 in February 1954
    to $40.92 in February 1955. Aged beneficiary-recipients get, on the
    average, a lower benefit and a lower assistance payment than those
    receiving only insurance benefits or only assistance payments. For
    Social Security Administration 43
    recipients who were not drawing insurance benefits, the average oldage
    assistance payment was $54.20.
    FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN RECEIVING BOTH INSURANCE AND ASSISTANCE
    More than 32,000 families received both insurance benefits and
    assistance in February 1955—5.2 percent of the families receiving aid
    to dependent children in February 1955 in comparison with 5.9 percent
    a year earlier. Since only 1 family in 6 receives assistance
    because of the death of a parent—the risk covered by the insurance
    program—the aid to dependent children program is affected to a
    more limited extent by expansion of insurance coverage and liberalization
    of benefits.
    The average assistance payment in February to families receiving
    both types of benefits was $66.71; to families not receiving insurance
    benefits the average assistance payment was $87.17.
    Program Developments
    The need for welfare services, in addition to financial assistance,
    has been increasingly recognized as illness and disability became
    major factors contributing to dependency, and the relatively large
    number of families receiving aid because the father has deserted gave
    evidence of social problems on which further help is needed. Increased
    emphasis was given to the broad purpose of public assistance—
    helping needy persons through the provision of income and services
    to achieve as much economic and personal independence as possible.
    To increase the effectiveness of administration in carrying out broad
    program objectives, work undertaken during the year was based on
    (1) an evaluation of changing program needs in planning to provide
    assistance and services effectively; and (2) an analysis of operations
    in planning for the most appropriate and efficient administration at
    Federal, State, and local levels. Full utilization was made of the experience,
    knowledge, and skill of all those directly concerned with the
    administration of the program—State and local public assistance staff,
    regional and central office staff of the Bureau, and those in other agencies
    and organizations both within and outside the Department. This
    was evidenced, for example, by requesting and utilizing State consideration
    of policy material in early developmental stages; joint participation
    of Federal, State, and local staff in projects in specific subject
    areas; wide regional and central office participation in work planning;
    and utilization of technical and lay advisory groups in evaluating
    program needs and legislative proposals, detailed below.
    44 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Five major areas were identified on which Bureau work was focused
    during the year: (1) improvement in services to needy individuals;
    (2) increased understanding of the public assistance program through
    citizen participation; (3) improvement in public assistance administration;
    (4) improvement in methods of carrying out Federal responsibilities
    in working with States; and (5) development of the defense
    welfare services program.
    IMPROVEMENT IN SERVICES TO NEEDY INDIVIDUALS
    Improvement in services available to needy persons, including both
    clarification of policy on services and obtaining skilled staff to provide
    them, was considered the most important problem on which further
    work was needed.
    Chart 2.—MAJOR CAUSES OF DEPENDENCY OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE RECIPIENTS,1 1955
    5.1 MILLION
    Need for welfare services.—Dependency of one and a third million
    persons receiving federally aided assistance today is attributed primarily
    to disability, chronic illness, or severe infirmities of old age.
    In addition, absence of a parent accounts for need in more than half
    of the 620,000 families continuing to receive aid to dependent children.
    As shown in chart 2 2 nearly a fifth of the aged receiving assistance—
    a These data were obtained through studies, undertaken by the Bureau with participation
    of State public assistance agencies, of the characteristics of recipients of old-age
    assistance, aid to the disabled, and aid to dependent children ; and more recently through
    participation in the study of the homebound made by the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation
    at the request of Congress.
    Social Security Administration 45
    some 460,000 persons—are bedridden or require a substantial amount
    of care from others because of physical or mental impairment; 235,000
    persons receive aid to the permanently and totally disabled; more than
    100,000 persons receive aid to the blind; and 450,000 persons in 125,000
    families receive aid to dependent children because of need due to the
    incapacity of a parent. In addition, a high proportion of the other 2
    million aged caring for their own daily needs have health and other
    problems relating to aging; their average age is 75 years.
    The aging, the largest group receiving public assistance, have need
    for many types of services. In addition to a high incidence of chronic
    illness, the aging suffer from the loss of family ties and friends, from
    lack of recreational outlets, and from frequent lack of employment
    opportunities irrespective of skill or physical vigor. Many need help
    in getting medical care, in devising arrangements to maintain their
    own homes as long as their health permits, and in obtaining suitable
    institutional care if and when needed. Others can benefit from skilled
    help with personal family problems. Estranged husbands and wives
    might be reunited and the deserting parent helped to resume the responsibilities
    and satisfactions of family living, with benefit to the
    children. Undoubtedly, more old people can be enabled to make
    greater use of their individual capacities and thus participate in and
    contribute more effectively to family and community life.
    Some recipients of public assistance who now require considerable
    care from others because of age or disability could be helped to learn
    how to care for themselves, thus providing the individual with a
    greater degree of independence and releasing the time of others in the
    family for more productive pursuits. The use of homemaker service
    would enable some older people to maintain their own homes for a
    longer period than would otherwise be possible. Vocational rehabilitation
    and other services might help others among the younger groups
    who receive public assistance to engage, as many would like to, in
    some gainful work.
    Emphasis on welfare services.—Federal and State interest was intensified
    during the year in coordinating welfare, medical, vocational,
    and other services with financial assistance to help needy persons become
    self-sufficient to the full extent of their capacities. The Bureau
    of Public Assistance worked with other Bureaus in the Department
    and with national voluntary social agencies in planning for the development
    and utilization of other needed community resources in order
    to make available to public assistance recipients services that will contribute
    to the improvement of their capacity for self-help or self-care.
    Interest in welfare services was stimulated by the release of the
    draft report on services in the aid to dependent children program
    developed by the working group composed of staff from both the
    46 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Children’s Bureau and the Bureau of Public Assistance. The report
    was sent to all State public assistance and child welfare agencies
    and provided a basis for joint study of the need for services in general
    and the specific needs in the aid to dependent children program.
    On the basis of joint planning by regional staff of both Bureaus, seven
    regional conferences including 38 States were held during the year.
    These were attended by administrators, program supervisors of aid
    to dependent children and child welfare services, and in some instances
    by other State and local staff. The report was discussed individually
    with the other States and Territories. Similar group discussion has
    been held in the Bureau’s central office and regional offices, with full
    staff participation. The regional staff of both agencies is continuing
    to encourage, among State and local staff, wider group discussion of
    concepts in the report and the further exploration, testing, and development
    of the quality of the job now being done.
    The Bureau is attempting to give encouragement to the work already
    being undertaken in the expansion of needed services over the country
    by State and local governments, private organizations, and others
    interested in the welfare of people. It has especially continued its
    participation in the activities of many groups in stimulating the development
    of needed services for the aged.
    The Bureau is represented on the Department of Health, Education,
    and Welfare’s Committee on Aging, which is concerned with broad
    needs of the aging population and how the programs of the constituent
    units of the Department may cooperate in meeting them. The Bureau
    continued its collaboration with the National Social Welfare
    Assembly’s National Committee on Aging. A Bureau staff member
    led one of the workshops at the Assembly’s Annual Meeting and is
    also chairing a committee to advise on the development of a pamphlet
    on agency examples of casework services for the aging. Participation
    has also continued on the American Public Welfare Association’s
    Committee on Aging.
    A cooperative project during the year was a joint meeting between
    the Bureau and the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, attended
    by several State administrators of public assistance and vocational
    rehabilitation programs and a selected regional representative from
    each constituent. This conference provided opportunity for comment
    and suggestions on ways to make more helpful to State agencies
    the document on “Working Together To Rehabilitate the Needy
    Disabled,” developed and planned for joint release by the two Bureaus.
    The Bureau also participated with other groups concerned with
    improved coordination between voluntary and public agencies in providing
    casework services, including the Family Service Association
    of America and the National Social Welfare Assembly’s Conference
    Social Security Administration 47
    on Individualized Services. Similarly, work with the National Legal
    Aid Society was initiated in identifying needs of public assistance
    recipients and encouraging State and local agencies to participate in
    the development of legal aid services.
    There also has been increased activity on the part of State agencies
    in developing services and in making maximum use of other community
    resources and a corresponding increase in requests to the
    Bureau for assistance in this area. During the year, work was initiated
    within the Bureau on statements of the broad areas of social
    welfare services appropriately included in public assistance administration
    and the role of public assistance agencies in providing and
    securing them. Background materials are being collected which
    reflect recent experience of public assistance agencies in the development
    of constructive services. Work is also continuing on a statement
    on the use of homemaker services and experiences of several
    States in this area.
    Need for more skilled staff.—The skill and helpfulness with which
    the services of the agency are made available to the needy individual
    will in large measure determine whether he will be encouraged to
    make maximum use of his own capacities. Adequate service, however,
    depends largely on the technical skill of staff. Public agencies generally
    have been unable to establish qualifications and salaries for
    staff at a level that will assure the professional skill needed. Through
    staff development programs, State public assistance agencies in many
    instances have enabled untrained workers to improve the quality of
    service provided. Professional training, however, is needed to assure
    that skilled services are provided to needy persons in order to achieve
    the full objectives of the public assistance programs.
    As indicated in chart 3 less than 2 percent of public assistance staff
    in casework jobs had full social work training—2 years of study in a
    graduate school of social work. Yet public assistance staff was responsible
    in 1955 for dealing with nearly 6 million persons dependent on
    public assistance, many of whom had serious individual and family
    problems. Although an additional 15 percent of the caseworkers had
    some social work training, more than two-thirds of these had less than
    1 year of training. The largest number, 49 percent, had only undergraduate
    college training, or graduate training in other fields, and
    about 9 percent had only high school training or less.
    The low salary of these caseworkers, averaging $2,569 in 1950, even
    though increased since, has contributed to both the inability to secure
    professionally trained workers and the high rate of turnover of public
    assistance personnel. In 1954, for example, more than a fourth of all
    persons leaving public assistance casework positions had been in their
    jobs less than 1 year; the educational qualifications of those leaving
    48 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Chart 3.—EDUCATION AND SALARY OF PUBLIC ASSISTANCE CASEWORKERS
    PUBLIC ASSISTANCE CASEWORKERS
    EDUCATION
    SALARY
    Source: Public Social Welfare Personnel (1950), Bureau of Public Assistance and Children’s Bureau,
    1953.
    were slightly higher than those of the new workers recruited. With
    only 15 percent of the jobs paying over $3,000 in 1950, public assistance
    cannot compete for the limited supply of trained social work staff
    available in the country or induce young people to seek such training.
    In the consultation provided individually to 22 States and to groups
    of States in 6 regions during the year, emphasis was placed on evaluating
    current staff development programs and on long-range planning
    to provide for continuing progress in ways and means of improving
    the quality of agency services. A subcommittee of the Committee on
    Personnel and Training advisory to both the Bureau of Public Assistance
    and the Children’s Bureau will participate in the formulation
    of criteria for States to use in their long-range staff development
    planning.
    Case records and recruitment materials were distributed to the
    States to facilitate their work. Recordings and films, including two
    new Arizona films—“Rehabilitation of the Blind” and “The Rehabilitation
    Team in Action”—and “Family Affair,” produced by the Family
    Service Association of America, were also made available on loan.
    The Bureau has also worked with the American Public Welfare Association’s
    Committee on Social Work Education and Personnel which
    has been active in a variety of areas concerning the education and
    standards for personnel in public welfare agencies.
    Social Security Administration 49
    The Bureau has also continued cooperative work with the Council
    on Social Work Education, primarily on development of recruitment
    and teaching materials on administration and supervision and on curriculum
    content. In an effort to improve the quality of public welfare
    services, the Council has recently obtained a grant from a private
    foundation for a 3-year study, beginning August 1, 1955, on educational
    preparation needed for public social services.
    Emphasis was also placed on following up recommendations made
    by the Committee on Personnel and Training meeting in June 1954.
    The committee meeting in June 1955 recommended that continued
    effort be placed on developing more adequate plans for financing the
    education of public assistance staff and expansion of teaching facilities
    in schools of social work.
    INCREASED UNDERSTANDING OF THE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
    THROUGH CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
    Effort was made during the year to extend understanding of the
    public assistance programs through planning for increased use of
    citizen participation in its administration. Exploratory work initiated
    last year in planning for the use of volunteers to supplement
    agency services for recipients and to increase understanding of the
    public assistance programs was continued during the year, with the
    help of an experienced volunteer. Review was made of selected volunteer
    programs currently in operation; interpretive material was provided
    on the value of volunteer service in a public welfare agency; and
    criteria were developed concerning the provision of supplementary
    services by volunteers.
    The role of Federal, State, and local governments in furthering
    citizen participation in providing supplementary services was considered
    by an ad hoc advisory committee, including representatives
    from North Carolina, New York, the District of Columbia, Ohio, and
    Kansas, and staff of the American Public Welfare Association and
    constituent units in the Department. A report of this meeting was
    distributed to participants of the committee and will be sent to State
    agencies.
    Consideration was also given to other aspects of citizen participation
    in public assistance administration, especially through membership
    on local administrative and advisory boards. Material was prepared
    for State use on the functions of boards in public assistance
    administration. This included detailed information about boards
    currently functioning in public assistance programs throughout the
    country and recommendations for consideration of proposed changes
    in State public assistance legislation concerning types of boards, their
    functions, size, method of appointment, and qualifications and terms
    of office of members.
    50 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    IMPROVEMENT IN PUBLIC ASSISTANCE ADMINISTRATION
    To improve the quality of administration and service of the public
    assistance program, study has been made of many phases of Federal,
    State, and local operations. Reshifting of workload necessitated by
    reduced appropriations and changing program objectives resulted in
    reappraisal and further streamlining of Bureau functions to enable
    it both to assure that provisions of the Social Security Act are carried
    out in practice and to develop materials and provide consultation in
    the welfare services area. Regional and central office staff participated
    in this reappraisal, which resulted in recommendations for a series
    of improvements subsequently used as the basis of further work planning.
    A time study of regional office activities was also initiated early
    in the year. Some progress has also been made in simplifying and
    achieving increased integration in work planning and related reporting
    of the regional offices.
    Analysis was made of variations among States in the cost of administering
    the public assistance programs and the factors causing the
    variations. Policies and operations which appear to have resulted in
    differences in the average caseload per visitor were analyzed, since this
    factor accounted for about three-fourths of the interstate variation in
    costs. State agencies furnished much of the basic information for
    this study and a committee, representing States with high, medium,
    and low administrative costs, participated in exploring the various
    factors affecting cost variations.
    Study was also initiated on facets of administration of large urban
    welfare agencies which present special management problems because
    of their size and volume of assistance and services provided. Representatives
    of State agencies responsible for the administration of
    public assistance programs in the six largest cities in the country met
    with Bureau staff to consider problems of administrative management
    and State supervision resulting from local agency size and urban
    setting. Discussion focused on methods for carrying out the State
    supervisory function, staffing patterns, workloads, and other factors
    affecting the costs of administration.
    Reviews of State and local administration were conducted by
    Bureau staff in 25 States with focus on consideration of eligibility
    determination and correctness of amount of payment in 20 States.
    In the others, one or more of the following subject areas were examined
    : State supervision of local operations, hearings, relatives’ responsibility,
    operation of the State review team, and promptness in applications.
    Findings were discussed with the responsible State officials,
    and summaries of review findings were prepared for adminisrative use
    in the Bureau.
    Social Security Administration 51
    Consultation and other help was provided to State agencies on
    many management subjects, including surveys of administrative and
    fiscal procedures, planning for operational changes, development of
    management guides for local staff, appraisal of the work of special
    investigating units, distribution of illustrative State materials on
    manuals and other types of written instructions, and methods for
    State determination of workloads and staff for local agencies. Developmental
    work by Bureau staff continued on fiscal provisions of State
    operations; principles governing Federal financial participation in
    the costs of office space, medical care, welfare services, defense activities,
    and administrative costs for several States; fiscal accountability
    by State agencies; case recording; and measurement of the quantity
    and quality of the visitor’s job. Bureau staff participated in sections
    on management problems in State conferences, American Public
    Welfare Association regional conferences, and other meetings on this
    subject.
    Legislative proposals.—Although no Federal legislation pertaining
    to public assistance was passed in fiscal 1955, study of program needs
    led to legislative recommendations included in H. R. 3293 introduced
    on January 31, 1955. Bureau staff participated in the preliminary
    work done on these legislative proposals by a task force including
    representatives of interested constituent units within the Department.
    The task force appraised the need for legislation, defined
    possible areas for action, and made estimates of their cost. The legislative
    proposals were reviewed by the executive committee of the
    American Public Welfare Association, including State public welfare
    directors, and leaders of voluntary groups invited by the Secretary
    to advise Department officials on matters requiring legislative action.
    IMPROVEMENT IN METHODS OF CARRYING OUT FEDERAL RESPONSIBILITIES
    IN WORKING WITH STATES
    Attention was also directed toward improvement in methods of
    working with States. Effort was made to clarify Federal and State
    responsibilities, identify principles in working relationships with
    States, determine the best way to present Federal requirements to
    States, and distinguish between these requirements and the objectives
    toward which States may work in bringing about improvement in
    program administration.
    Sections of the Bureau Handbook of Public Assistance Administration
    dealing with Federal and State responsibility, sent to State
    agencies in draft form, provided a vehicle for joint consideration of
    Federal requirements in general, and specific aspects of Federal and
    State working relationships. Reports of regional staff discussions
    52 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    with State agencies were compiled and used in the reappraisal made of
    Bureau functions. Other sections of the Handbook were prepared
    dealing more specifically with the responsibilities of a single State
    agency and the statewide operation of the public assistance programs,
    based on requirements in the act.
    Review was also initiated of Federal requirements affecting State
    administration of public assistance programs. Effort was made to
    identify principles and criteria pertinent to such a review, and to
    identify Federal requirements around which problems have arisen
    or otherwise are in need of further consideration or revision.
    DEFENSE WELFARE SERVICES
    Responsibility for planning national emergency financial assistance
    and clothing programs was included in the delegation by the Federal
    Civil Defense Administration to the Department. This delegation
    was made so that these civil defense activities, as well as others,
    would be built into and become part of the normal functions of government.
    Following assignment of these programs to the Social Security
    Administration, responsibility was given to the Bureau of Public
    Assistance in December 1954, since the network of public welfare
    agencies throughout the country, with facility for extending assistance
    and services to people in need of them in every community, provided
    both the framework for integrating the newly developing
    program and the basic principles and methods to be used in dealing
    with people in time of stress.
    In carrying out its defined responsibility for developing technical
    guidance for States and directing Federal activities concerned with
    financial assistance and clothing for the temporary relief or aid of
    civilians injured or in want as a result of attack, the Bureau has
    been working through State public welfare agencies and is utilizing
    the advice and counsel of State agency staff, as it does in other
    programs for which it is responsible.
    A series of meetings were held with regional and State public
    welfare agency staff in eight regions to discuss proposed plans,
    policies, and procedures for the two programs. This series of meetings
    followed consultation with a committee of State administrators.
    Other activities included the establishment of a Defense Welfare
    Services staff within the Bureau; organization and training of this
    staff; preparation of a memorandum of understanding between the
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Federal Civil
    Defense Administration; conferences with clothing industry representatives
    and other clothing specialists; and analysis of State civil
    defense plans.
    Social Security Administration 53
    Children’s Bureau
    The Children’s Bureau was created in 1912 by an act of Congress
    to investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to the welfare
    of children and child life among all classes of our people. In 1935
    the Children’s Bureau was given the additional responsibility of
    administering the grants to the States provided under the Social
    Security Act, Title V, to enable them to extend and improve the services
    for promoting the health and welfare of children, especially in
    rural areas and in areas of special need.
    In recent years the Children’s Bureau has directed special attention
    toward the conditions of life for the infant and preschool child.
    Its efforts in this direction were continued during 1955 through its
    research studies and the interdependent child health and welfare
    programs, implemented in part by grants to the States for maternal
    and child health, crippled children, and child welfare services.
    The Children’s Bureau placed special emphasis, during 1955, on
    bulwarking opportunities for development for the older child. “The
    Adolescent in Your Family,” a bulletin for parents, was published
    and widely distributed. Technical assistance was strengthened for
    the State and local coordinating committees for children and youth in
    which the young people themselves are active. A Division of Juvenile
    Delinquency Service was established within the Bureau to provide
    technical consultation to States and communities on the prevention
    and treatment of juvenile delinquency.
    Some Facts and Figures About Child Life
    The number of live births in 1954 exceeded 4 million, reaching a new
    all-time high. The estimated birth rate, 25.3 per 1,000 total population,
    is close to the highest in the past 30 years.
    The U. S. child population under 18 years increased from 47 million
    in 1950 to about 54 million in 1954, a 15-percent rise. Between 1954
    and 1965, the number of children under 18 years is expected to rise by
    almost 25 percent to a total of 67 million in 1965. In this period the
    10-to-17-year-olds will increase by about 50 percent as the large
    number of children born in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s enter this
    age group. In 1952, 42 percent of the children in the United States
    were living in rural areas.
    The infant mortality rate for the first 11 months of 1954 was estimated
    at 26.6 per 1,000 live births, the lowest so far recorded. Many
    of the States continue to show marked deviations from the national
    average.
    54 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    About 310,000 infants were prematurely born in 1954. Fifty-eight
    percent of neonatal deaths and 41 percent of infant deaths were reported
    as associated with prematurity. In 1952,4 percent of reported
    pregnancies which reached 20 weeks or more of gestation resulted
    in a stillborn infant or death in the neonatal period.
    The maternal mortality rate in 1954 was the lowest ever recorded
    (estimated at 5.3 maternal deaths per 10,000 live births). Maternal
    mortality has declined without interruption since 1929 when the rate
    was 69.5 per 10,000. In 1952, over 155,000 births occurred among
    mothers who were delivered without a physician in attendance.
    Twenty-three percent of births to mothers in the nonwhite group and
    8 percent of births to mothers resident outside of metropolitan
    counties had no medical attendant at delivery.
    In 1952 accidents took the lives of 17,121 children, 1-19 years of
    age and accounted for 36.3 percent of the mortality of this age group.
    Mortality due to accidents was highest in the 15-19 age group; the rate
    was 37.2 per 100,000 children. Cancer has become the leading cause
    of death due to disease among children 5-19 years of age. Next in
    importance among all fatal diseases are these: diseases of the heart
    and acute rheumatic fever among children 15-19 years, acute poliomyelitis
    in children 5-14 years, and congenital malformations in the
    preschool group.
    The estimated 1,476,000 marriages in 1954 were 4 percent fewer
    than in 1953. The marriage rate of 9.2 marriages per 1,000 population
    in 1954 was the lowest since 1933. However, the proportion of married
    persons in the population, thanks to higher rates in earlier years,
    is relatively high. In 1954 close to 69 percent of the adult population
    were married; in 1940 the percentage was 60.
    Forty-five percent of the 390,000 divorces in 1953 involved families
    with children under 18 years of age. About one-third of a million
    children had their families broken by divorce in this one year.
    In 1953, about 2.9 million children under 18 years, or 1 in 20 of the
    Nation’s children, had lost one or both parents by death. This represents
    a sharp drop from the number of orphans in the country in 1920
    when there were 6.4 million orphaned children, or 1 in 6 children, in
    the population. The decline in the number of full orphans has been
    particularly striking—from 750,000 in 1920 to about 66,000 in 1953.
    An estimated 150,300 children were born out of wedlock during
    1952 (54,100 white; 96,200 nonwhite). This number was about 3 percent
    more than the estimated 146,500 children born out of wedlock
    during 1951. There were 58,700 unmarried mothers 15-19 years of age,
    or 39 percent of those who bore illegitimate children in 1952. Of
    every 1,000 unmarried women between 15 and 44 years, 15.2 gave birth
    to a child out of wedlock in 1952.
    Social Security Administration 55
    Ail analysis of children living in institutions, based primarily on
    data from the 1950 U. S. Census of Population, shows that more than
    a quarter million children under 21 years of age (260,429) were
    living in institutions of all types in the United States in April 1950.
    Almost 23,000 of these children were under 6 years of age. A sizable
    number were in institutions primarily designed for adults, such as
    prisons and reformatories, jails or workhouses, and homes for the aged
    and dependent. Of the 260,429 children under 21 years of age living
    in institutions of all types, about one-third (95,260) were living in
    institutions for dependent and neglected children. This represents
    a decrease of about 34 percent since 1933. For the country as a whole,
    81 percent of the 95,260 children were in institutions for dependent and
    neglected children operated under private auspices.
    The U. S. Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency
    estimated that there are 200,000 to 300,000 boys and girls who
    run away from home annually in the United States.
    Police arrest data reported by the F. B. I. in its Uniform Crime
    Reports for 1,005 cities show that the arrests of juveniles (under 18)
    increased 2.3 percent in 1954 over 1953. In 1954, juveniles represented
    57.6 percent of all persons arrested for auto theft, 49 percent for
    burglaries, 44 percent for larcenies.
    Statistical data available to the Bureau for 1954 showed the sixth
    consecutive annual increase in the number of delinquency cases reported
    by the juvenile courts. An estimated 475,000 children came
    to the attention of juvenile courts in 1954 because of delinquent behaviour.
    This number exceeded the previous high experienced during
    World War II.
    Children With Special Needs
    The problems of certain groups of children call for special attention.
    Some of the more serious are: the adolescent in conflict with
    society, the children of agricultural migratory workers, mentally retarded
    children, and children in unprotected adoptions.
    The Nation as a whole is concerned about juvenile delinquency because
    of its tragic consequences for the individual young person, its
    contagion among youth, and its social and economic costs for the
    community. For the past several years the Children’s Bureau has
    given particular attention to the problems of delinquent children.
    This emphasis is continuing through the coordinated program of the
    new Division of Juvenile Delinquency Service (see page 63).
    For the country as a whole, it has been estimated that there are
    many hundred thousand children of migrant agricultural workers.
    It is difficult for any single State to take responsibility for the health,
    56 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    welfare, and education of the children in those families since they are
    on the move so much of the year. Because these children are not
    residents they frequently do not receive the services that are available
    to other children in the communities through which they travel.
    The Children’s Bureau, working with the Office of Education, the
    Public Health Service, and the Bureau of Public Assistance, is stimulating
    a pilot project along the East Coast. The purpose of this project
    is to encourage the 10 States involved in the East Coast migrant
    stream to do interstate planning for services to migrants so that each
    State can more easily perform its share of the total job.
    The exact number of mentally retarded children is not known, but
    it is estimated that about 1 person per 100 is mentally defective and
    that about 750,000 children of school age are of low intelligence. As
    the birth rate goes up the number of such children increases. At
    the same time the growing complexity of our society makes their social
    and vocational adjustment ever more difficult. Parents, doctors,
    nurses, educators, and social workers are increasingly concerned about
    the health and welfare of these children. The number of parent
    groups pressing for action for this special group of children is growing
    rapidly.
    Unprotected adoptions in which children are placed without the
    benefit of social agency skills is a subject of much study and controversy.
    Because of the seriousness of the black market in adoptions the
    Bureau is seeking advice from legal, medical, social work, and other
    professional groups and from adoptive parents and law enforcement
    agencies. Conferences with the professional groups were begun in
    1955, and the work will be more fully developed in 1956.
    Federal Interdepartmental Committee on
    Children and Youth
    The Congress places responsibility upon a number of the agencies
    of the United States Government for programs which contribute in
    varying degrees to the social well-being of children and youth. In
    1948 the President requested these agencies to form an Interdepartmental
    Committee on Children and Youth to assist each other in keeping
    informed about program developments, to work together for
    greater effectiveness in program planning, and to strengthen working
    relationships between the Federal Government and the States. This
    triple assignment has been carried out during the fiscal year 1955
    by the regular monthly meetings of the full Committee, the work of
    its subcommittees, and an informational exchange with the State
    committees. Twenty-eight Federal agencies are represented on the
    Committee.
    Social Security Administration 57
    Much of the work of the Interdepartmental Committee goes forward
    through the activities of subcommittees appointed to deal with
    special problems which are timely and involve a number of Federal
    agencies. At present there are seven subcommittees. These are concerned
    with Children of Agricultural Migrants, Transition from
    School to Work, Children in the Territories and Islands of the United
    States, Juvenile Delinquency, Mental Retardation, Care of American-
    Related Children Outside the United States, and the Business of Being
    a Parent in This Decade.
    The Committee exchanges information with the 53 State and Territorial
    Committees on Children and Youth. It publishes, irregularly,
    a newsletter, “What’s Happening for Children and Youth,”
    and sends pertinent Federal publications to the State and Territorial
    Committees. The Children’s Bureau furnishes secretarial assistance
    to the Interdepartmental Committee on Children and Youth.
    Programs of the Bureau
    RESEARCH IN CHILD LIFE
    The Bureau’s small research staff, working under the guidelines
    of a newly developed plan, is helping to carry out the legislative
    mandate “to investigate and report upon all matters pertaining to
    the welfare of children.” Research on programs for disadvantaged
    children has been emphasized this year. In addition to its own studies
    and those conducted jointly with others, the Bureau has sought to
    stimulate research in child life by other agencies by formulating
    the questions requiring study and developing research methods and
    has assisted agencies engaged in such research.
    In its technical research, studies of the costs and effectiveness of
    various programs have received major emphasis. Study subjects included
    the unit costs of child placement and institutional care of
    children, methods of evaluative research as illustrated in studies of
    psychotherapy, and a review of studies on the evaluation of school
    health services. Improvement in methods of reporting for maternal
    and infant mortality studies has been stressed as a guide for the preventive
    programs of the medical profession. Work continued on
    assembling information about programs and services for mentally
    retarded children. Throughout the country juvenile delinquency is
    being studied from both the psychological aspect of the inner motivations
    of the child and the sociological factors in the environment. In
    an attempt to bridge the gap between these two approaches, the
    Bureau conducted a conference of experts from both fields. A report
    of this conference for use by research workers is in preparation.
    368636—56------5
    58 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Statistical reporting of State expenditures and services under the
    grant-in-aid programs was improved. A new report on maternal
    and child health services was developed. Special report forms have
    been developed which will provide an unduplicated count of the number
    of children served by public child welfare agencies annually, data
    on persons granted educational leave from public child welfare programs,
    and information on the professional training of child welfare
    workers in the State programs. A reporting system to provide more
    accurate data on juvenile court cases has been initiated.
    As part of its research interpretation activities, the Bureau published
    The Adolescent in Your Family and a revised edition of Infant
    Care and proceeded with a revision of Your Child From One to Six.
    Two supplements of Research Relating to Children were issued to
    help investigators in the field of child life keep informed about
    studies being conducted in their areas of special interest. More than
    1,000 individual letters were written in reply to personal inquiries
    concerning a variety of problems relating to children.
    The research staff provided technical consultation requested by
    State health departments on studies in areas such as evaluation of
    child health conferences, health records for children of agricultural
    migrants, maternal and infant mortality, pregnancy, hospital care of
    premature infants, use of vital records, and fetal and neonatal wastage.
    State welfare departments and voluntary organizations were assisted
    in studies on such problems as unit costs in child placement, independent
    adoptions of children, delinquency prevention, training
    school staff development, drug addiction among juveniles, and community
    services for children.
    MATERNAL AND CHILD HEALTH SERVICES
    All the States, the District of Columbia, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto
    Rico, and the Virgin Islands receive Federal funds to extend and
    improve services for promoting the health of mothers and children.
    The State maternal and child health agencies report that increases
    occurred from 1953 to 1954 in most maternal and child health services
    provided. The number of expectant mothers receiving services at
    prenatal clinics increased from about 178,000 in 1953 to 192,000 in
    1954. Mothers receiving postpartum medical examinations also
    increased.
    Well-child clinics provided services for about 1 million infants and
    preschool children in 1954. One-and-a-half times that number received
    nursing service through State maternal and child health programs.
    About 2% million examinations by physicians and slightly
    over 3 million dental inspections were provided to school children,
    who also received over 2 million home and office nursing visits. More
    than 2 million children were given diphtheria immunizations and
    Social Security Administration 59
    about the same number received smallpox immunizations in 1954.
    Various other services were also provided to mothers and children.
    During 1955 the Bureau analyzed the total expenditures of combined
    Federal, State, and local funds for the maternal and child
    health programs in fiscal 1954. This was of particular interest because,
    for the first time, the States reported the estimated total cost of
    the program. In previous years, reporting had been limited to expenditures
    of Federal and of legally required matching funds. Total
    maternal and child health expenditures for 1954 amounted to over
    $53 million, or more than 2i/> times the Federal and required matching
    funds reported in 1953.
    To better prepare health personnel for their maternal and child
    health programs many States carried out institutes and other special
    training projects. In fiscal 1954, the State agencies spent almost
    $250,000 for training programs to improve the skills of professional
    personnel in the maternal and child health field. In addition, special
    projects having training as the major objective were maintained by
    a quarter of the States, with the help of Federal funds. For example:
    the California State Department of Public Health with the School
    of Social Welfare of the University of California established scholarships
    and an internship program for medical social workers interested
    in public health and medical care programs; the Massachusetts Department
    of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health
    held a 2-week institute on child growth and development for medical
    social work teachers; and the special project at the Homer Phillips
    Hospital in St. Louis for improving training in pediatrics for Negro
    physicians became a reality.
    Increased regional interest in care of the premature infant has
    developed since Colorado initiated a one-day postgraduate institute
    program on care of premature and newborn infants for physicians,
    public health nurses, hospital nurses, and hospital administrators.
    The team has presented six such programs this year in Colorado and
    Wyoming. Requests for next fiscal year have been received from other
    areas in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, and Nebraska.
    The premature institute program conducted by the Cornell-New
    York Medical Center continues to prove a popular training opportunity
    for both physicians and nurses. A total of 109 teams coming
    from 24 States and Hawaii has attended the institutes between 1949
    and 1954.
    The following publications relating to maternal and child health
    were prepared and/or published during the year: Medical Social
    Service for Hospitalized Children; Children’s Shoes and Footwear:
    Nutrition and Health Growth; Your Premature Baby; and The
    Child 'With Rheumatic Fever.
    60 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    The Bureau sponsored two conferences on Health Services and
    Juvenile Delinquency which brought together workers concerned with
    the various facets of the problem of juvenile delinquency.
    CRIPPLED CHILDREN’S SERVICES
    All the 53 States and Territories, with the exception of Arizona,
    are participating in the crippled children’s program. The expenditures
    of Federal, State, and local funds for this program for the
    fiscal year 1954, totaled more than $36 million, of which $11.1 million
    represented Federal funds. The objective of these programs is to
    locate children in need of care and provide the means of restoration
    through diagnosis, medical and surgical treatment, and alleviation
    of unfavorable social and psychological influences which contribute
    toward the degree and duration of the disability.
    In 1954 an estimated 271,000 children—more children than in any
    previous year—received physicians’ services from State crippled
    children’s agencies. The 1954 total for children served represents an
    8-percent increase over 1953 and an increase of 26 percent since 1950.
    Substantial gains were reported in the number of children receiving
    clinic service (an increase of 9 percent) and in the number receiving
    physicians’ services through home or office visits (an increase of
    almost 13 percent). Children served in clinics numbered 221,000 and
    constituted more than four-fifths of all children under the program;
    about 48,000 children received physicians’ services through home or
    office visits. Hospital inpatient care was provided to over 43,000
    children.
    State crippled children’s agencies are broadening their programs
    to include more kinds of handicapping conditions and are experimenting
    with new types of services. A notable example of this is new
    approaches to the preschool blind child. The Michigan Legislature
    has approved a special project of the State department of health to
    provide more extensive services for preschool blind children and their
    parents. Indiana is holding an institute for parents of preschool
    blind children.
    There is increasing interest by the State crippled children’s agencies
    in the care of children with amputations. A team for care of these
    patients has been trained at Duke University and another qualified
    team is at work at the new rehabilitation center at the University of
    Louisville. Plans have been made for facilities for amputee children
    in West Virginia. At Grand Rapids, Michigan, a midwestern amputee
    training center is opening to serve handicapped children from nearby
    States. Plans have been worked out cooperatively with the Army
    Prosthetic Research Laboratory for the production of the improved
    ARRL hand in children’s sizes. Hands, mechanisms, and gloves will
    be produced and paid for in Michigan and will be available to child
    Social Security Administration 61
    amputees in other States. A service for children requiring upper
    extremity prosthesis has been established in Los Angeles which will
    serve children from other States as well as California’s own.
    CHILD WELFARE SERVICES
    Over 280,000 children were receiving child welfare services from
    State and local public welfare agencies according to a cross-section
    count on the day of March 31, 1955, as reported to the Bureau. In
    the 50 States and Territories reporting, 40 percent of the children
    receiving services were living with their own parents or relatives, 42
    percent were in foster family homes, and 18 percent were living in
    institutions or elsewhere.
    In its child welfare services the Bureau consults with State public
    and voluntary agencies in planning and operating their child welfare
    program. It also administers the grant-in-aid funds for child welfare
    services and develops guides, recommendations for practice, and informational
    materials in relation to the child welfare program as a whole
    and for specialized services, such as social services to children in their
    own homes, homemaker services, services to unmarried mothers, and
    foster family and group care programs.
    The marked increase in child population gives all aspects of developments
    within the child welfare program added importance. The
    past year has seen some basic changes in administration in several
    States. Connecticut, which has had a State-operated program for
    children under 6, enacted legislation to bring responsibility for the
    care of “neglected and uncared for” children over 6 years of age into
    the same program. Kentucky, Maryland, and Pennsylvania have consolidated
    the various statewide public services for children in one
    program within the public welfare department. Tennessee has given
    permanent status to the State Commission on Youth Guidance whose
    early work resulted, this year, in a completely new juvenile court law.
    Many State legislatures are showing a greater awareness and concern
    over the need for increased child welfare funds and are making an
    effort to find more adequate revenue. Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania,
    and Vermont are greatly expanding services and are recruiting
    additional qualified staff. Michigan has succeeded in legislative
    efforts to provide grant-in-aid State funds for foster home care to
    counties on an equalization basis, and both Alabama and Florida are
    increasing their State funds for child welfare.
    Nationwide shortages in personnel, affecting all professions, are
    reflected in social work. Lack of staff and turnover continue to be outstanding
    problems for State agencies and all groups interested in
    child welfare. The Council of Social Work Education, the schools
    of social work, State and local departments of welfare, and Federal
    agencies are working together to enrich staff development programs
    62 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    as a means of developing the competence of existing workers. The
    States are focusing on increasing supervisory and consultant skills.
    The Bureau has been helping States strengthen the work of their staffs
    in casework practice, supervision, policies, procedures, and attitudes
    through institutes and consultation. Educational leave, made possible
    through the use of Federal child welfare funds, continues to be a
    mainstay for the States in developing staff competence.
    Among new State projects financed by child welfare services funds
    are: strengthening of the adoption program under public auspices in
    Vermont; a forestry camp for older delinquent boys in Maryland;
    four additional child welfare workers in Cook County, Illinois, to
    strengthen the public social services with respect to independent placement
    of children.
    Cooperative work with other agencies within the Social Security
    Administration has included Bureau participation on several interbureau
    committees. These include: the Ad Hoc Working Group on
    Guardianship with the Bureau of Public Assistance and the Bureau
    of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and the interbureau Committee
    on Common Social Welfare Matters which includes representatives of
    the Office of the Commissioner in addition to the Bureaus named
    above.
    The Children’s Bureau continued its joint planning with the Bureau
    of Public Assistance on services to children in aid to dependent
    children families. The document prepared in draft last year was
    discussed with State agency staff members in conferences under the
    cooperative leadership of regional child welfare and public assistance
    representatives.
    There have been other evidences of progress in the provision of
    services to children in their own homes. Massachusetts has passed
    basic legislation for the protection of dependent and neglected children,
    with a declaration of policy toward the strengthening and encouragement
    of family life. The southeastern States are proud of
    their high percentage of children receiving public casework services
    in their own homes rather than in institutions or foster homes. Many
    States are voicing a realization that, if social services for children were
    adequate, more children could remain in their own homes and delinquent
    behavior might be greatly reduced.
    Social agencies are giving increased attention to those children
    whom neighbors, the police, and others report for serious abuse or
    neglect and children whose families may, at first, be reluctant to take
    advantage of community aids in times of trouble. In addition, special
    projects to identify and plan for the hard core problem families in
    the community have been initiated in San Mateo County, California;
    St. Paul, Minnesota; Washington County, Maryland; and St. Louis
    and Kansas City, Missouri.
    Social Security Administration 63
    Homemaker service is provided by 104 agencies in 74 cities in 29
    States and Puerto Rico. Of these, 83 are voluntary and 21 public.
    A great many are for services to the aged but a number are devoted
    to children and their families.
    Unmarried mothers present a dual challenge for the Bureau and
    the State and voluntary child welfare agencies. In the first instance,
    over one-third of these mothers are themselves adolescents and in
    need of protection and guidance. Secondly, the babies need to be protected
    from the special hazards which confront them. The Bureau
    is taking leadership in exploring the extent of the problem and the
    contributions which the several professions of law, medicine, and
    social work can make in safeguarding the mother and child. Basically,
    the need is for adequate medical, social, and legal services
    available to the mother under conditions she can accept.
    The spotlight has been on adoptions with their tremendous increase
    from around 16,000 in 1934 to around 95,000 in 1954, approximately
    half of these being with nonrelatives. The National Conference on
    Adoptions, held in Chicago on January 26-29, 1955, under the
    auspices of the Child Welfare League of America and the exploration
    by the Children’s Bureau of the “black market” in babies have contributed
    to nationwide thinking. In June 1955 the Children’s Bureau
    called a conference of 31 national agencies and organizations
    directly concerned with the three parties to adoption—the child, his
    natural parents, and the adoptive applicants. The Bureau has also
    been working cooperatively with Federal agencies having statutory
    responsibility for intercountry adoptions and for bringing foreign
    children into the United States for adoption and care.
    Foster care of children, both in foster family homes and institutions,
    is a heavy responsibility of State public welfare agencies both in terms
    of numbers of children and expenditure of public funds. The number
    of children receiving foster family care under public agency
    auspices increased from 49,000 in 1933 to 114,000 in 1952, or 133 percent;
    during this same period, the Nation’s child population increased
    14 percent. The majority of the children receiving foster care are
    cared for in foster family homes. About 56,000 additional children
    are estimated to be in foster family care under the auspices of voluntary
    child welfare casework agencies. An important trend in group
    care is the development of small group homes in the community for
    adolescents who cannot take root in foster family homes and children
    who need temporary shelter. Specialized group facilities are also
    being developed for emotionally disturbed children.
    JUVENILE DELINQUENCY SERVICE PROGRAM
    For the sixth consecutive year there has been an increase in the num64
    Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    ber of delinquency cases reported by juvenile courts. Public interest
    in the problem of juvenile delinquency remains at a high level. Newspapers
    continue to devote considerable space to the problem, and additional
    funds were provided by Congress to permit the Senate subcommittee
    to continue its investigations of juvenile delinquency.
    Evidence of this general interest is also reflected by activities taking
    place in the States. In at least a third of the States some action at
    the State level relating to delinquency has been taken. This has taken
    the form of new legislation, either relating to the juvenile court
    statute or the statutes relating to the administrative structure of State
    agencies providing service to delinquent children, or both, or in the
    form of studies or surveys of State services for delinquent children.
    For the fiscal year 1955 the Congress made a supplemental appropriation
    of $75,000 to enable the Bureau to expand its services in the
    field of juvenile delinquency. On October 6, 1954, the Secretary of
    the Department authorized the creation of a Division of Juvenile
    Delinquency Service in the Children’s Bureau.
    The primary responsibility of the new Division is to provide technical
    consultation to States and communities relating to the following
    types of service or care: police work with juveniles; courts and probation
    services; institutional care for delinquent children including
    training schools, forestry camps, and detention care; legal aspects of
    delinquency including legislation, community coordination, and planning
    for the prevention, control, and treatment of delinquency; group
    work activities with potentially delinquent gangs; and training programs
    for personnel, professional and nonprofessional, working with
    delinquent youth.
    Working relations have been established by this Division with many
    national organizations concerned with juvenile delinquency, as well
    as with the several Federal agencies carrying some responsibility for
    its prevention, control, and treatment. In response to State and local
    requests, consultation has been provided in the areas of training
    schools, juvenile police services, statewide surveys, State legislation,
    juvenile courts, and the training of institutional, probation, and police
    personnel.
    The major attention given by the Bureau over the past year in the
    field of juvenile delinquency is reflected in 9 publications on the subject.
    Six new bulletins issued were: Training Personnel for Work
    With Juvenile Delinquency; Parents and Delinquency ; The Effectiveness
    of Delinquency Prevention Programs; Tentative Standards for
    Training Schools; a directory of Public Training Schools for Delinquent
    Children; and a report on the Secretary’s National Conference
    on Juvenile Delinquency held in June 1954. Three more
    bulletins in preparation were: a revision of Some Facts About Juvenile
    Delinquency; a bibliography on Juvenile Delinquency: Practice and
    Social Security Administration 65
    Research; and a report on the Bureau’s conference on Health Services
    and Dissocial Behavior.
    The Special Juvenile Delinquency Project, which was supported
    by voluntary organizations and foundations and closely coordinated
    with the Bureau, was dissolved in July 1955.
    INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
    The international program has moved along this year with no
    radical internal changes in policy or administration. The trend
    toward increase in the training load in the health field has continued—
    the Foreign Operations Administration group coming from the less
    developed countries and the World Health Organization group from
    both highly developed and less developed countries. In the FOA
    program in both maternal and child health and social welfare, the
    grants generally have been for 12 months with 8 or 9 months for
    academic training in a school of public health or social work, or for
    graduate work in a school of medicine. The WHO fellows, in general,
    have been highly qualified persons who have come for a few months
    of observation of new developments in their fields.
    During the year, training programs have been planned for 69 longterm
    trainees and observers and 133 short-term visitors. Of the 69
    long-term trainees and observers, 36 were in the health field as follows:
    maternal and child health 17, pediatrics 6, obstetrics 3, gynecology and
    obstetrics 2, nursing 2, other 6; 25 were in child and youth welfare
    as follows: group work 5, child welfare 5, juvenile delinquency 8,
    other 7; 8 were in medical social work.
    The child health and welfare specialists recruited and back-stopped
    by the Bureau are contributing to the programs in six countries. The
    Maternal and Child Health Demonstration in Samawa, Iraq, continues
    to increase. The Government in Iraq has constructed 3 new buildings
    on the grounds to handle the increasing number of patients and
    trainees.
    In Egypt the major responsibility of the American maternal and
    child health physician has been the development of a rural health
    demonstration with special emphasis on maternal and child health
    at the village of Shubra Mant, near the Pyramids. Health visitors
    are being trained for work at the new center.
    The medical social consultants, working in El Salvador and Panama,
    have turned over to local medical social workers the hospital
    social service units which they had initiated. They are now functioning
    on a truly consultant basis to the medical social workers in the
    several hospitals, to hospital administrators, and to health centers.
    They are active also in the field of social work education and have
    had teaching responsibilities in connection with the schools of social
    work in each country.
    66 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Ill Mexico the American consultant nurse-midwife has been working
    with other nurses on nursing curricula at schools in various parts
    of the country and has given assistance in the organization of a new
    division of nursing in the Mexican Ministry of Health and Welfare.
    She and an American physician were loaned to Uruguay for 2 months
    when that country had the most severe polio epidemic in its history.
    In February the Director of the Division of International Cooperation
    attended the tenth Pan American Child Congress in Panama as
    a member of the United States delegation. She also attended the
    technical conference of Public Health Chiefs of U. S. Operations
    Missions for the Near East, South Asia and Africa, and the Far East,
    which was held in New Delhi, India, from February 22 through
    March 7. She visited the All India School of Hygiene and Public
    Health in Calcutta. From there she went to Iran, Pakistan, Iraq,
    Lebanon, Egypt, and Libya, as a consultant on maternal and child
    health activities of the Foreign Operations Administration program
    in these countries.
    The Chief of the Bureau serves under Presidential appointment
    as United States representative on the Executive Board of the United
    Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF). In May 1955,
    she was a member of the United States delegation to the World Health
    Organization Congress in Mexico City.
    Federal Credit Unions
    During the fiscal year ended June 30, 1955, the aggregate assets of
    all Federal credit unions exceeded $1 billion for the first time. The
    program was 21 years old on June 26. On June 30th, there were 7,562
    units in operation. Their 3.8 million members owned assets totaling
    $1.1 billion, of which $767.7 million consisted of loans outstanding to
    members. Federal credit unions were operating in Alaska, Hawaii,
    the District of Columbia, the Canal Zone, Puerto Rico, the Virgin
    Islands, and in each of the 48 States. About 83 percent were serving
    employee groups in commerce, industry, and government—local, State,
    and Federal; 15 percent were serving associational groups such as
    labor unions, churches, and fraternal organizations; and 2 percent
    were serving residents of small rural communities or residents of welldefined
    neighborhood groups in urban areas. About two-thirds (67
    percent) of those operating on June 30 had assets of less than $100,000,
    and more than half (58 percent) were chartered after January 1, 1947.
    Between July 1, 1954, and June 30, 1955, the number of operating
    Federal credit unions increased 572 or 8.2 percent; membership increased
    358,378 or 11.2 percent; total assets increased $203 million or
    22 percent; and amount of loans outstanding increased $145 million
    Social Security Administration 67
    or 23 percent. Outstanding loans to members accounted for 68.4 percent
    of total assets at the end of fiscal year 1955 as compared with 67.8
    percent at the end of fiscal year 1954.
    Each Federal credit union is a separate corporation. Each is managed
    and operated by officials elected by and from the group it was
    organized to serve. The field of membership of each unit is specifically
    defined in its charter, and the Federal Credit Union Act specifies
    that it may provide cooperative thrift and small-loan services only
    for its members. The Federal Credit Union Act specifies the maximum
    size of a loan that may be made to a member ($200 or 10 percent
    of the credit union’s paid-in and unimpaired capital and surplus,
    whichever is larger) ; the maximum loan maturity (36 months); and
    the maximum rate of interest (1 percent per month on the unpaid
    balances, inclusive of all charges incidental to making the loan). The
    treasurer of a Federal credit union is the only elected official who may
    be paid for his services to the credit union. His compensation, if any,
    must be authorized by the members. Although each unit is authorized
    to borrow from any source up to 50 percent of its paid-in and unimpaired
    capital and surplus, borrowing has not been an important source
    of capital for most Federal credit unions. Funds used to make loans
    to members are the accumulated savings of members in their credit
    union. Such savings are called “shares” and are risk capital in the
    corporate sense of the term.
    Program Operations
    The Bureau of Federal Credit Unions grants charters to groups that
    voluntarily apply and are determined to be eligible and qualified under
    the terms of the Federal Credit Union Act. The Bureau does no promotional
    work; information and assistance is furnished only upon receipt
    of a bona fide request. Interest in the organization of Federal
    credit unions is stimulated by the Credit Union National Association,
    a nationwide voluntary organization, through advertising and through
    the efforts of its staff of field men. State credit union leagues, which
    are voluntary associations of credit unions on the State level, also
    actively promote and assist in the organization of new credit unions.
    In an increasing number of localities volunteers, usually officials of
    operating credit unions, are generating interest in the establishment of
    Federal credit unions. Many assist groups to apply for charters and
    later follow through with the instruction of the newly elected officials.
    In addition, new credit unions are established through the efforts of
    persons who learned about these self-help organizations at their previous
    places of employment. During the year, the Bureau granted 794
    charters to groups that were found after investigation to be eligible
    and qualified.
    68 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    A complete set of manuals is furnished to each newly chartered
    Federal credit union, and, when necessary, instructions and assistance
    in conducting the organization meeting are given by one of the Bureau’s
    field examiners. In a number of States, Credit Union League
    personnel and volunteers are providing personal instructions for the
    officials of new credit unions. In fiscal year 1955, less than 1 percent
    of the official time of Bureau examiners was devoted to organization
    work and to the initial instructions of officers, directors, and
    committeemen.
    In fiscal year 1955, 6,716 examinations of Federal credit unions
    were completed by the Bureau’s staff. This was an increase of 425
    over the number completed during fiscal year 1954. A total of 24,812
    man-days was devoted to the making of these examinations for an
    average of 3.694 days per examination. The average time for the
    6,291 examinations completed in fiscal year 1954 was 3.560 days. The
    average assets of those Federal credit unions whose examinations were
    completed in 1955 were $131,314 as compared with $119,692 for those
    completed in 1954. Of the examinations completed in 1955, 66 (or
    about 1 percent) were in cases of actual or suspected defalcations.
    These 66 examinations accounted for 5.4 percent of the total field examiner’s
    time devoted to examinations during the year. The corresponding
    ratios for fiscal year 1954 were 1.2 percent and 4.6 percent,
    respectively.
    At the end of fiscal year 1955, the Bureau had a budgeted staff of
    238—24 departmental and 214 field. At the end of the previous year
    there were 23 departmental positions and 195 field positions provided
    in the budget. Recruiting for field examiner positions during the
    year proved to be more difficult than in prior years owing to the
    relative shortage in the available supply of trained accountants to
    meet the demand for such trained persons by Government agencies,
    private industry, and public accounting firms. Toward the end of
    the fiscal year the Chief of Field Operations worked out, with the
    assistance of the Bureau’s Regional Representative in Chicago and
    in New York City, a procedure for direct recruiting of graduating
    seniors of colleges and universities. The experience gained and contacts
    made are expected to be even more helpful in the future than
    they were this year.
    Fiscal year 1955 was the second year that the Bureau’s operations
    were financed entirely by fees collected from Federal credit unions.
    The Federal Credit Union Act specifies four kinds of fees and
    provides that the revenue from these fees shall be used to defray the
    costs of administering the law. A charter fee of $5 and an investigation
    fee of $20 are paid by each group when it makes application for
    a charter. For each calendar year after the year in which its charter
    is granted each Federal credit union pays a supervision fee the
    Social Security Administration 69
    amount of which is determined by the amount of its assets as of December
    31 in accordance with section 5 of the act. The fourth fee is paid
    to the examiner at the conclusion of the examination. It is computed
    in accordance with a schedule fixed by the Director in conformance
    with the act and regulations published in the Federal Register. The
    schedule in effect during fiscal year 1955 was $56 per examiner day
    or 50 cents per $100 of the Federal credit union’s assets as of the
    effective date of the examination, whichever was lower, with a minimum
    fee of $25 per examination, except that no fee was assessed for the
    first examination made within 1 year after the charter was issued.
    Revenue from these fees totaled $19,850 for chartering, $335,774.21
    for supervision, and $1,154,519.95 for examinations during fiscal year
    1955, as compared with $21,575, $277,619, and $993,596, respectively,
    during fiscal year 1954.
    Strengthening the Program
    The growth in numbers and size of Federal credit unions is an
    important factor in the administration of the Bureau’s program responsibilities.
    Solutions to new problems must be developed, trends
    must be studied, and probable developments anticipated in order that
    the necessary changes in procedures can be ready for installation at
    the appropriate time.
    Manuals and instructional materials furnished to the officials of
    Federal credit unions are revised from time to time to keep them up
    to date and pertinent. Advice and suggestions of the operating officials,
    of the field examiners, and of the leaders of the organized credit
    union movement are solicited. This procedure has fostered good cooperation
    with instructions issued by the Bureau and has been of
    material assistance in the development of practical aids to credit union
    operations. This procedure of proven value is being continued.
    An integral part of each examination is the instruction of the Federal
    credit union officials. Since these instructions can be and are
    geared to prevailing or anticipated conditions in the credit union concerned,
    the examination program is a progressive rather than a static
    influence on the development of sound credit union service in the
    Nation. The knowledge this experience gives the field examiners is
    a valuable resource in keeping the Bureau’s policies and regulations
    in tune with the times.
    The Bureau is continuing efforts to collect and maintain basic statistical
    data on Federal credit unions and to encourage research by
    graduate students and faculty members of colleges and universities in
    this field. The results of these efforts will provide the means for
    detecting need for change and for evaluating proposed legislation,
    proposed amendments to published regulations, and proposed revisions
    of manuals for Federal credit union officials.
    70 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    During the fiscal year, after considerable study and analysis, regulations
    prescribing minimum standards as to amount and type of
    surety-bond coverage for officials and employees of Federal credit
    unions were promulgated and published in the Federal Register.
    These regulations implemented the amendment to the Federal Credit
    Union Act approved during the second session of the Eighty-third
    Congress to clarify provisions as to the authority of the Director to
    specify minimum surety-bond standards.
    Responsibility for the supervision and examination of credit unions
    chartered by the District of Columbia was transferred to the Bureau
    during fiscal year 1955 by the provisions of Public Law 656, enacted
    by the Eighty-third Congress.
    OTHER SOURCES OF SOCIAL SECURITY INFORMATION
    GENERAL
    Social Security Bulletin—the official monthly publication of the
    Social Security Administration, available through the Superintendent
    of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 25,
    D. C. An annual statistical supplement, with calendar-year data, is
    included in each September issue.
    Selected Social Security Research Reports—a list of reports of the
    Division of Research and Statistics, Office of the Commissioner, including
    selected Research and Statistics Notes, available through the
    Director of the Division.
    Old-Age., Survivors, and Invalidity Programs Throughout the
    World, 1955, Division of Research and Statistics, Report No. 19.
    Social Workers Abroad Assess Their Training in the United States,
    April 1955, International Service Office, Office of the Commissioner.
    OLD-AGE AND SURVIVORS INSURANCE
    The Minimum Benefit Under Old-Age and Survivors Insurance—
    A Report on a Study Called for by Public Law 761, 83rd Congress,
    1955, available through the Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors
    Insurance.
    Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund: Fifteenth
    Annual Report. U. S. Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and
    Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. (S. Doc. 39, 84th Cong., 1st sess.)
    Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1955.
    Actuarial Studies, Division of the Actuary, Office of the Commissioner:
    Long-Range Cost Estimates for Old-Age and Survivors Insurance,
    1955 (No. 39) ; The Financial Principle of Self-Support in the
    Old-Age and Survivors Insurance System (No. 40); Analysis of Benefits,
    OASI Program, 1955 Amendments (No. 41); Present Values of
    OASI Benefits in Current Payment Status, 1950-55 (No. 42); EstiSocial
    Security Administration 71
    mated Amount of Life Insurance in Force as Survivor Benefits Under
    OASI—1955 (No. 43).
    PUBLIC ASSISTANCE
    Administrative Costs of Public Assistance, Variations Among
    States, 195V Public Assistance Report No. 25.
    State Methods for Establishing Workload and Staffing Standards.
    How They Do It Series, June 1955.
    Kit on the Development of Manuals and Written Instructions for
    Use in State Public Assistance Agencies, Part I, July 1955.
    Recipients of Old-Age Assistance in Early 1953, Part I, State Data.
    Public Assistance Report No. 26, June 1955.
    Aid to Dependent Children: Continuing Effect of the Requirement
    That Law-Enforcement Officials Be Notified of the Furnishing of Aid
    in Cases Involving Desertion or Abandonment, July 1952-December
    1953. June 1955.
    Staff Participation in the Evaluation of a Policy on Case Recording.
    Current Practices in Staff Training, No. IX, June 1955.
    CHILD HEALTH AND CHILD WELFARE
    For current reports, see the Children’s Bureau section of this Annual
    Report.
    Table 1.—Social Security Administration: Funds available and obligations incurred,
    fiscal years 1955 and 1954 1
    [In thousands; data as of June 30,1955]
    Item
    Funds available1 2 Obligations incurred
    1955 1954 1955 1954
    Total____________________________________________ $1, 552,994 $1,496, 414 $1, 538, 748 $1,483,196
    Grants to States_______________________________________ 1,467,000 1,428,000 1,453,199 1,415,420
    Public assistance__________________________________
    Old-age assistance___________ _______ _________
    1,437,000 1,398,000 1,423,943
    f 920,791
    1,386,931
    931, 711
    Aid to the blind_______________________________
    Aid to dependent children_____________________
    Aid to the nermanently and totally disabled...
    | 1,437,000
    1,398,000 I 36,467
    j 385,233
    [ 81,452
    35, 561
    347,236
    72,423
    Maternal and child health and welfare services____ 30,000 30,000 29, 256 28,489
    Maternal and child health services_____________ 11,928 11,928 11, 919 11, 787
    Services for crippled children. _ _______________ 10,843 10,843 10,614 10,601
    Child welfare services___ __________ . _ ___ 7,229 7,229 6,723 6,101
    Administrative expenses3_____________________________ 85, 994 68,414 85, 549 67, 776
    Office of the Commissioner4. ... _ _ ... ________ 309 298 304 286
    Bureau of Old-Age and Survivors Insurance 5 *_____ 81,020 63,746 80,688 63,188
    Bureau of Public Assistance_____ ... ... _______ 1,501 1,551 1,487 i 1, 529
    Children’s Bureau8____________ ___________________ 1,629 1,525 1,617 1,521
    Bureau of Federal Credit Unions__________________ 1,535 1,294 1,453 1,252
    1 Funds available and obligations reported by administrative agencies.
    2 Funds made available by regular and supplemental appropriations, authorizations, transfers, allotments,
    recoveries, and fee collections for services rendered.
    3 Funds made available and obligations incurred for salaries, printing and binding, communications,
    traveling expenses, and reimbursement items for services rendered to other Government agencies.
    4 Appropriations by Congress from general revenues accounted for approximately 57 percent of the administrative
    expenses of the Office of the Commissioner in 1954 and 1955; balance from old-age and survivors
    insurance trust fund.
    5 For administration of the old-age and survivors insurance program, which involved benefit payments
    of $3,275,000,000 in 1954 and $4,333,000,000 in 1955.
    8 Includes expenses for investigating and reporting on matters pertaining to the welfare of children authorized
    by the act of 1912, as well as expenses for administration of grants to States.
    72 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Table 2.—Financing social insurance under the Social Security Act: Contributions
    collected and trust fund operations, fiscal years 1953—55
    [In millions]
    Item 1955 1954 1953
    Contributions collected under—
    Federal Insurance Contributions Act1_________________________ $5,087 $4, 589 $4,097
    Federal Unemployment Tax Act2_____________________________ 279 285 277
    State unemployment insurance laws 34________________________ 1,142 1,246 1,368
    Old-age and survivors insurance trust fund:
    Receipts, total_________________________________________________ 5, 534 5,040 4,483
    Transfers and appropriations 1--------------------------------------------- 5,087 4,589 4,097
    Interest and profits on investments 5_______________________ 448 450 387
    Expenditures, total___________ _______________________________ 4, 436 3,365 2, 717
    Monthly benefits and lump-sum payments6_______________ 4, 333 3,276 2,627
    Administration____________________________________________ 103 89 89
    Assets, end of year_____________________________________________ 21,141 20,043 18,366
    State accounts in the unemployment trust fund:
    Receipts, total_________________________________________________ 1,333 1,454 1,560
    Deposits4__________________________________________________ 1,146
    187
    1,246 1,371
    Interest________ __________________________________________ 208 189
    Withdrawal for benefit payments_______________________________ 1, 760 1,605 908
    Assets, end of year_____________________________________________ 7,983 8,409 8,559
    1 Contributions on earnings up to and including $3,600 a year in 1953 and 1954 and $4,200 a year beginning
    Jan. 1, 1955. Contribution rate paid by employers and employees: 1^ percent each in 1953 and 2 percent
    each beginning Jan. 1, 1954. Contribution rate paid by self-employed: 2J4 percent in 1953 and 3 percent
    beginning Jan. 1, 1954. Includes deposits by States under voluntary agreements for coverage of State and
    local employees. Includes deductions to adjust for reimbursement to the General Treasury of the estimated
    amount of taxes subject to refund on wages in excess of wage base.
    s Tax paid only by employers of 8 or more. Employers offset against this tax—up to 90 percent of the
    amount assessed—contributions which they have paid under State unemployment insurance laws or full
    amount they would have paid if they had not been allowed reduced contribution rates under State experience-
    rating provisions. Rate is 3 percent of first $3,000 a year of wages paid to each employee by subject
    employer; because of credit offset, effective rate is 0.3 percent of such wages.
    s Contributions plus penalties and interest collected from employers and contributions from employees,
    reported by State agencies.
    * Contributions and deposits by States usually differ slightly, primarily because of time lag in making
    deposits.
    5 For 1954 and 1955, includes interest transferred from the railroad retirement account under the financial
    interchange provision of the Railroad Retirement Act, as amended in 1951.
    6 Represents checks issued.
    Source: Compiled from Monthly Statement of the U. S. Treasury, other Treasury reports, and State agency
    reports.
    Social Security Administration 73
    [In thousands, except for average benefit; data corrected to Nov. 25, 1955] )
    Table 3.—Old-age and survivors insurance: Estimated number of families and
    beneficiaries in receipt of benefits and average monthly benefit in currentpayment
    status, by family group, end of June 1955 and 1954
    Family classification of beneficiaries
    June 30, 1955 June 30, 1954
    Number
    of
    families
    Number
    of beneficiaries
    Average
    monthly
    amount
    per
    family
    Number
    of
    families
    Number
    of beneficiaries
    Average
    monthly
    amount
    per
    family
    Total- __ __________________ 5, 542.3 7, 563. 5 4, 690. 2 6, 468.8
    Retired worker families. ... ___________ _____ 4, 214. 8 5, 462.3 3, 519. 4 4, 577.6
    Worker only___________________ __________ 3,067.4 3, 067. 4 $58. 20 2, 545.4 2, 545 4 $49 40
    Male_______ ____ ___________ _ _____ h 962.0 1, 962. 0 63. 70 1, 669. 9 1 669. 9 53 80
    Female_______ _______________ ____ 1,105.4 1, 105.4 48. 60 875. 5 875 5 41 10
    Worker and wife aged 65 or over__________ 1, 066. 6 2,133. 2 102. 20 904 9 1 809 8 86 30
    Worker and wife under age 65 1 . .4 . 8 105. 00 . 6 1.2 95 60
    Worker and aged dependent husband-.___ 9.2 18. 4 86 50 7 3 14 6 75 20
    Worker and 1 child-. ..._____ . .-. 10. 0 20.0 98 70 9 2 18 4 76 00
    Worker and 2 or more children. _ ... 6.1 22.2 102. 20 5.8 20.4 79.40
    Worker, wife aged 65 or over, and 1 or more
    children____________ __ ___ 1. 0 3 0 123 30 8 2 6 98 90
    Worker, wife under age 65, and 1 child_______ 34.5 103.5 119.20 28. 5 85.5 100. 70
    Worker, wife under age 65, and 2 or more
    children_______________________ 19. 6 93.8 112.90 16 9 79 7 93. 40
    Survivor families_____________________________ 1, 327. 5 2,101. 2 1,170.8 1, 891. 2
    Aged widow.___ _ .. _________________ 688. 2 688. 2 46 60 585 1 585 1 41 00
    Aged dependent widower_____ .. . 1. 2 1.2 40 70 9 9 34 40
    Widowed mother only >___ ......___ 1. 5 1. 5 48.10 2 0 2 0 45 20
    Widowed mother and 1 child.._ ... _______ 120.9 241.8 104. 90 118 5 237 0 91 50
    Widowed mother and 2 children___________ 84. 5 253. 5 132.30 78. 5 235 5 114 50
    Widowed mother and 3 or more children___ 74.5 349.5 129. 20 68.8 322.6 111.80
    Divorced wife and 1 or more children _______ .2 .4 124.00 . 2 6 111 50
    1 child only_____________ ____________ __ 202. 3 202. 3 47 90 175 5 175 5 42 20
    2 children____________________ ._ ________ 80.8 161. 6 81. 60 73 5 147 0 72 20
    3 children___________ _. _________ ._ 29. 5 88. 5 100 20 25 9 77 7 88 30
    4 or more children_________________ _______ 19.9 87. 2 104 80 19 1 83 0 92 60
    1 aged dependent parent___________________ 22.3 22. 3 48 00 21 2 21 2 42 60
    2 aged dependent parents__________________ 1.7 3.4 92.60 1.6 3.2 81.40
    1 Benefits of children were being withheld.
    368636—56------6
    74 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Table 4.—Old-age and survivors insurance: Number and amount of monthly
    benefits in current-payment status at end of fiscal year 1955, and amount of
    benefits paid in fiscal year 1955, by State
    [In thousands, distribution by State estimated; corrected to Nov. 15, 1955]
    i Less than $500.
    Beneficiary’s State of residence
    Monthly benefits in
    cur rent-payment
    status, end of fiscal
    year 1955
    Benefit payments, fiscal year 1955
    Number Amount Total
    Monthly 1
    benefits
    Lump-sum
    payments
    Total_______________________________ 7, 563. 5 $384,025 $4,333,148 $4, 232, 609 $100, 539
    Alabama ______________ -___ _______ 109.7 4,464 50,705 49, 487 1,218
    Alaska ________________ __ __________ 3.8 172 '2,085 2,022 63
    Arizona - - - -------------- - - 33.9 1,630 18,346 17, 929 417
    Arkansas _______________________________ 66.4 2,689 30,235 29, 551 684
    California ____________________ ________ 616.4 32,181 362, 502 354, 303 8,199
    Colorado _____________________________ 62.2 3,035 34,183 33,424 759
    Connecticut_____________________________ 129.4 7, 424 83,422 81,488 1,934
    Delaware _________________ _ _ _ 17.4 908 10, 290 10,007 283
    District of Columbia ____ ______ ______ 28.5 1,428 16, 229 15,749 480
    Florida._________________________________ 196.8 9, 991 110, 775 108, 778 1,997
    Georgia __ ____________ --_____ ______ 112.2 4,549 51,906 50, 350 1, 556
    Hawaii - _________________________ -___ 16.9 772 8,886 8, 760 126
    Idaho -_______ ____- 25.1 1,162 12, 994 12,765 229
    Illinois __ ________ __________________ 456.5 24,665 278, 588 271,483 7,105
    Indiana - -________________________ 218.5 11,043 124,193 121,454 2,739
    Iowa -- -- ---------------- - -- 114.0 5, 460 61,022 59, 745 1,277
    Kansas - ___________________ _______ 83.4 3,938 44,199 43,177 1,022
    Kentucky________________ - - - ----- 119.9 5,231 59, 223 57,812 1,411
    Louisiana _ --------------- 86.6 3,687 42,118 40,931 1,187
    Maine _________________ ___________ 63.8 3,072 34,727 34,019 708
    Maryland - - __________ ____- _______ 104.8 5,290 60,077 58,365 1,712
    Massachusetts____________ __ ___ 321.9 17, 670 199,730 195,607 4,123
    Michigan _______________ _______ -- -- 328.2 18,035 203,390 198,608 4,782
    Minnesota______ __________________ _____ 134.9 6, 792 76,173 74, 538 1,635
    Mississippi - ------------ - __ 54.9 2,080 23, 450 22,880 570
    Missouri ________________ ________ 192.8 9,535 107,437 104,819 2,618
    Montana - - ______________ _________ 26.8 1,304 14,636 14,327 309
    Nebraska - __ _______________ _______ 52.2 2,464 27,456 26,906 550
    Nevada _ . __ __________________________ 7.7 392 4,442 4, 298 144
    New Hampshire__________________________ 39.2 1,980 22,359 21,921 438
    New Jersey___________________ _________ 290.9 16,319 184,118 179, 742 4,376
    New Mexico ___________________________ 19.8 804 9,089 8,854 235
    New York _ - - -------------- 850.5 46,176 521, 563 508,868 12,695
    North Carolina _______________ ______ 125.6 5,142 58,440 56,944 1,496
    North Dakota____________________ ___ 14.7 639 7,165 6,992 173
    Ohio _____ _____ 449.3 24,100 272,105 265, 744 6,361
    Oklahoma______________________ ___ 82.4 3,686 41, 586 40,604 982
    Oregon ___ ____________ - ____ - 96.6 4,987 55,938 54,882 1,056
    Pennsylvania _ _ _ _____________ _____ 617.3 33, 313 376, 669 368,058 8, 611
    Puerto Rico ____________ ______- - - 24.5 724 7,478 7,346 132
    Rhode Island . __________ _________ 54.6 2,960 33,459 32, 718 741
    South Carolina _ ___ _____ __ 64.7 2,541 29,107 28, 249 858
    South Dakota __ _____________________ 20.3 919 10, 244 10,009 235
    Tennessee___ ____________________________ 111.5 4, 659 52, 770 51, 517 1,253
    Texas - --------------__ ____ 253.5 11, 202 126,731 123, 310 3, 421
    Utah _______________________ 28.3 1,369 15,416 15,080 336
    Vermont _____ - __ -- __________ 22.1 1,074 12,024 11,827 197
    Virgin Islands____ -- - --____ - - -- .3 11 106 106 (>)
    Virginia - ___________________ 125.5 5,588 63,411 61, 685 1,726
    Washington _____________ ____ __ 142.9 7,503 84, 540 82,925 1,615
    West Virginia _ ________ _______________ 104.6 4,909 55, 747 54, 719 1,028
    Wisconsin ...._______ ______ ______ 183.9 9,589 107,311 104,965 2,346
    Wyoming____________________________ _____ 10.4 511 5, 728 5,600 128
    Foreign--------------- -------------------------------------- 44.5 2,257 26,625 26, 362 263
    Social Security Administration 75
    Table 5.—Old-age and survivors insurance: Selected data on benefits, employers,
    workers, and taxable earnings for specified periods, 1953—55
    [In thousands except for average monthly benefit and average taxable earnings; corrected to Nov. 15, 1955]
    Item 1955 1954 1953
    Fiscal year
    Benefits in current-payment status (end of period):
    Number_______ ___ _______________ _ __ 7, 563. 5
    4,214. 8
    1,131.3
    1, 220. 9
    6, 468. 8
    3, 519.4
    959.1
    5, 573. 6
    2, 977. 5
    826.6
    1, 003.3
    499.0
    Old-age__________________ ____ ______ _______________
    Wife’s or husband’s. ______________ __ _____ ______
    Child’s__________________________________________________ 1,111.9
    Widow’s or widower’s. ___________________ ________ ' 689. 8 586.3
    Mother’s__ ________________ ____ _ . . ____ 281. 2 267. 7 244.8
    Parent’s_______________________________________________ . 25. 6 24.4 22. 5
    Total monthly amount _______________ ________________ $384,025
    257, 230
    37, 011
    43, 730
    32,150
    12, 677
    1,226
    $278, 702
    182,334
    26,302
    34, 770
    24,016
    10, 249
    1,030
    $232,999
    150,124
    22,050
    30, 541
    20,332
    9,015
    936
    Old-age ________________________________________ ___
    Wife’s or husband’s_____________________________ ____ ___
    Child’s__________________________________________ ____ _
    Widow’s or widower’s____________________________________
    Mother’s_________________________________ __________
    Parent’s __ _________________________________________ _
    Average monthly amount:
    Old-age____ ___________________ ____ __________ _______ $61.03
    32.72
    $51.81
    27.42
    $50. 42
    Wife’s or husband’s__________ ___________________________ 26. 68
    Child’s___________________________________ 35.82 31.27 30. 44
    Widow’s or widower’s_____________________________ ____ 46. 61 40. 96 40. 75
    Mother’s___________________ ____ ... 45.08 38. 28 36.82
    Parent’s______________ . . _____________ 47.86 42.26 41. 68
    Benefit payments during period:
    Monthly benefits____________ ______________ . . .. $4, 232, 609
    2,802,967
    428,847
    1,000, 795
    100, 539
    $3,185,282
    2,068,404
    318, 614
    798,264
    90,175
    $2, 551,224
    1, 624, 605
    252 994
    Old-age_____________ ________________ ... ________ ___
    Supplementary________________________________
    Survivor____ .’_______ ______________________________ .... 673, 625
    Lump-sum payments______________________ ______________ 76,268
    Estimated number of living workers with wage credits (midpoint
    of period—Jan. 1):1
    Total__________________ ______ __________ _______ . ._ 95,200
    69,800
    600
    93, 600 91,000
    67, 700
    (1 2)
    Fully insured________ _ ______ . _____________________ 70,800
    Currently but not fully insured. ____________ ___________ (2)
    Uninsured_______________________________________ 24, 800 22,800 23,300
    Estimated number of employers reporting taxable wages, 1st
    quarter of fiscal year_________________________ ___ 3, 700 3, 650 3,663
    Calendar year
    Estimated number of workers with taxable earnings____ _____ (<) 60,000
    $134,000, 000
    $2, 230
    61. 000
    Estimated amount of taxable earnings_______________________ (4) $136,000; 000
    Average taxable earnings3. _______ ______ ___________ ____ (4) $2, 230
    1 Estimates of insured workers have not been adjusted to reflect changes in insurance status arising from:
    (1) provisions that coordinate the old-age and survivors insurance and railroad retirement programs and
    (2) wage credits for military service. Estimates are only partially adjusted to eliminate duplicate count of
    persons with taxable earnings reported on more than 1 account number. The effect of such duplication is
    substantially less significant for insured workers than for uninsured workers.
    2 All persons currently insured on these dates are also fully insured.
    3 Rounded to nearest $10.
    < Not available.
    76 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    Table 6.—Special types o f public assistance under plans approved by the Social Security Administration: Number o f recipients
    and average payment, June 1955, and total payments to recipients, by program and State, fiscal year 1955
    [Includes vendor paym ents for medical care an d cases receiving only such paym ents]
    [Corrected to N ov. 15, 1955]
    Aid to th e perm anently and
    to tally disabled
    T otal,
    fiscal year
    (in th o u sands)
    PS
    g ! ¥
    co : '.w
    Sg-SS
    COC)
    '3s S82
    -F <6- : lef ;«T nWUAverage
    paym ent,
    June
    BBS
    g—
    35.85
    31.08
    322S I 5538 1 !3 ,;5£ 558
    55S8 ! 2855 : ':§ :S8 SgS
    N um ber
    of
    ients,
    Ju n e
    10,148
    4,913
    53S8 I S355 ! IS ISS 888
    5.8.2.
    t—i 04 i Ci C© । ICO । 04 -^0 04
    Aid to th e blind
    P aym en ts to
    recipients
    T otal,
    fiscal year
    (in th o u sands)
    ggg
    gw
    §“§§33522“ §-“§53832“ “35
    of r-r w cirtrt ww -in
    Average
    paym ent,
    June
    835 383525335S £§388532.23 355
    5885S88S88 5S38888588 588
    N um ber
    of
    ients,
    Ju n e
    r-T cscf of co coi-hw of of t-Tw
    A id to dependent children
    P aym en ts to recipients
    T otal,
    fiscal year
    (in th o u sands)
    __________
    $562,026
    561,100
    620,545
    g§§2§“23l8 §“§§§§£§23 33“
    coN^o^edco cjcd^ocd^coco^
    Average
    p aym en t
    per recipient,
    Ju n e
    1__________
    gsis
    5382S82388 5388582835 £§£
    2335538332 3585353223 333
    iiil SSK £888583335 2gS£5S882£ 322
    83S83B385S £333322885 333
    N um b er of recipients, Ju n e
    ___________________________
    C hildren
    §“3335S““£ 8§“S£833“§ 5S§
    S“S318—1 22”“8 82-3322882 333
    T o ta l1
    U-efef
    W§83S3£§ 35£8§58S85 §83
    £-28§32-“£ S2“33328£2 358
    F am ilies
    388
    s¥§
    §““3S5§222 “53“££§§5§ £§S
    WHVooeioVrtN-4 TfcoWg-odo-^-cgog^ ocog
    Old-age assistance
    P aym en ts to
    recipients
    T otal,
    fiscal year
    (in th o u sands)
    $1,581,052
    1, 589, 618
    |1, 589, 802
    5£38§§2282 S8£§“§28§5
    3-^5552 -§ 8-^853332- «S8
    । Average
    paym ent,
    Ju n e
    §83 5S52825S85 5S83588353 352
    8888888388 £855858888 828
    N um b er
    of recipients,
    Ju n e§
    83
    §“¥
    ef ci" cd
    8g£3§8§S5S “§£5£22^§ §28
    £-“53S2-“3 §-“8885832 235
    X>
    os
    bo
    N um -
    &
    £
    CO
    .2
    77
    <
    .ca
    A m ount
    co
    c
    CT
    OC
    103,081
    498,684
    396,395
    1,188,132
    1 Num-1
    o&
    cc
    31
    159
    CO i
    1
    CM
    '-r
    co

    I co
    •i c0o0
    1 co
    4,688,950
    T rain
    N um -
    oc
    1 1 1
    •Olli
    1Q I I I
    I I I
    11 CcOo 1 CM
    CCDT CM
    in? grants
    A m ount
    $2,196,261
    2,361,834
    567,848
    5,125,943
    o
    rt
    N u m -,
    &
    1 1 1
    i CO 1 i
    1 1 1
    109
    52
    cr> CM
    cao
    •t-time
    A m ount
    1 1 1
    ’ ' o !
    I 100*1
    i i CO i1
    0,368
    123,984
    162, 432
    3
    School enrollments in the continental United States, 1953—54 and 1954—55 1
    Elementary schools (including kindergartens) :
    Public_____________________________________
    1954—55
    24, 091, 500
    1953—54
    22, 801, 400
    Private and parochial_______________________ 3, 506, 200 3,325,400
    Residential schools for exceptional children2_____
    Model and practice schools in teacher-training
    65,000 65,000
    institutions 38, 300
    27, 400
    37, 900
    Federal schools for Indians___________________ 27, 500
    Federal schools under Public Law 874---------------- 9, 600 7, 800
    Total elementary______________________
    Secondary schools:
    27, 738, 000 26, 265, 000
    Public_____________________________________ 6, 582, 300 6, 388, 000
    Private and parochial________________________ 774, 800 751, 200
    Residential schools for exceptional children2_____
    Model and practice schools in teacher-training insti-
    11,100 11,100
    tutions and preparatory departments of colleges— 40,500 40, 000
    Federal schools for Indians___________________ 12, 300 11, 800
    Federal schools under Public Law 874---------------- 1,000 900
    Total secondary_______________________
    Higher education:
    Universities, colleges, professional schools, includ-
    7, 422, 000 7, 203, 000
    ing junior colleges and normal schools-------------
    Other schools:
    2, 740, 000 2, 444, 000
    Private commercial schools---- ,---------------------
    Nurse training schools (not affiliated with colleges
    144, 000 131, 000
    and universities)--------------------------------------- 69,500 71,900
    Total other schools-------------------------------- 213, 500 202, 900
    Grand total----------------------------------------------- 38,113, 500 36,114, 900
    1 Office of Education estimates.
    2 In addition to those provided for in day schools.
    Office of Education 147
    Approximately 60,000 public elementary and secondary classrooms
    and related facilities were constructed in the United States during
    the 1954-55 school year. It is estimated that the capital outlay
    investment for these facilities was in excess of $2 billion. In spite of
    this all-time high in school construction, the country still faces a large
    school building program because of increasing enrollments, population
    mobility, school district reorganization, and wide demands for an
    extended and enriched program of education and community services.
    The nationwide School Facilities Survey conducted by the Office of
    Education revealed that States have projected their plans for meeting
    school plant needs to the extent of 476,000 classrooms during a period
    of five school years (1954-55 to 1958-59, inclusive), at an estimated
    aggregate capital outlay cost of more than $16 billion, exclusive of
    planned rehabilitation.
    The primary source of school construction funds has been school
    district bonds supported by local property taxes. There are trends,
    however, toward school district reorganization and State aid for capital
    outlay which will broaden the fiscal base and improve methods of
    financing school construction.
    Planning school plants is becoming more and more a cooperative
    procedure. School architects, administrators, supervisors, teachers,
    pupils, furniture manufacturers, and lay citizens cooperate in planning
    school facilities. School buildings and equipment are thus becoming
    more functional and better adapted to educational requirements.
    Specialists in curriculum, school buildings, and furniture and equipment,
    in Federal and State governments and in colleges and universities,
    are assisting local school officials and architects in the initial
    planning for the space required for different courses and learning
    activities, the equipment needed for effective instruction, proper lighting
    for a variety of seeing tasks, and suitable heating, ventilating,
    sanitation, and sound control. Final decisions on these matters, however,
    are made by local school officials, subject to State regulations.
    School programs today include a variety of learning situations
    which entail many activities and instructional materials. Such programs
    demand classrooms designed for multiple purposes. The trend
    in elementary school planning is toward a self-contained classroom of
    900 or more square feet with work counter, sink, toilet, storage compartments,
    chalk and tack boards, display cases, and movable furniture
    and equipment. Such rooms are readily adapted to accommodate a
    variety of activities. Secondary school plants are usually designed
    with special classrooms for science, art, music, homemaking, business
    education, crafts, and various types of vocational and prevocational
    shops. The trend in secondary school planning, however, is toward
    148 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    some multi-use classrooms which will serve more than one specialized
    subject area.
    The shortage of teachers continued during 1954-55, and elementary
    and secondary schools will need a total of 229,700 new teachers when
    the schools open this fall. These teachers will be required (1) to
    replace 91,200 emergency teachers; (2) to replace 83,300 qualified
    teachers who will leave the profession; and (3) to provide the 55,200
    teachers needed for the increase in enrollment. It is estimated that
    25,000 of the emergency teachers will become qualified by the time
    school opens. In addition, 95,186 teachers completed certification requirements
    in 1955, but only 63,400 of these are expected to accept
    teaching positions. With only 88,400 new qualified teachers entering
    the profession, there will be a deficit of 141,300 teachers when schools
    open in the fall. The 141,300 shortage will have to be made up by
    more emergency teachers, by teachers returning to the profession who
    did not teach during the last year, and by more overcrowding. The
    figures given above do not include any teachers to reduce present
    overcrowding nor to enrich the curriculum.
    The annual estimates submitted to the National Education Association
    by the State departments of education showed an average annual
    salary per member of instructional staff in 1954—55 of $3,932.
    The average elementary school classroom teacher’s salary was $3,615;
    among secondary school teachers the average was $4,194.
    Supply and demand for elementary and secondary public and nonpublic school
    teachers, 1955—56
    r Elementary
    Item and Supply: secondary
    Total teachers, 1954-551--------------------------------------------------- 1, 201, 800
    Less emergency teachers, 1954-55_________________________ 91,200
    Total qualified teachers, 1954-55_________________________ 1,110,600
    Less 7.5 percent turnover------------------------------------------------ 83, 300
    Qualified teachers returning for 1955-56----------------------------- 1, 027, 300
    Emergency teachers qualifying for 1955-56-------------------------- 25, 000
    New supply of qualified teachers (79 percent of elementary and
    56 percent of high school teachers trained in 1954-55)_______ 63,400
    Total qualified supply, 1955-56_______________________1,115, 700
    Demand:
    Total teachers, 1954-55__________________________________ 1, 201, 800
    Teachers needed to meet increase in enrollment in 1955-561----- 55, 200
    Total demand, 1955-56____________________________ 1,257, 000
    Shortage of qualified supply______________________________ 141,300
    1 See footnote 1. on following page.
    Source : Office of Education Circular No. 417, Revised, and estimates for 1955-56;
    and The 1955 Teacher Supply and Demand Report of the National Education Association.
    Office of Education 149
    JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL
    During fiscal 1955 the staff of the Office of Education gave considerable
    attention to the reorganization of secondary education and
    problems associated with the junior high school. Studies indicate
    that the reorganization of schools to include some form of junior high
    school has gone forward rapidly in recent years, especially since 1946.
    The number of seventh- and eighth-grade pupils enrolled in the
    secondary schools rose almost continuously from 142,000 in 1920 to
    1,993,000 in 1952. During the same period, enrollments in these
    grades in the 8-4 schools fell from 2,778,000 to 2,025,000. This drop
    is due chiefly to the shifting of these grades to the new junior high
    school forms of organization.
    In 1920 there were less than 5 percent of the seventh- and eighthgrade
    pupils in the reorganized schools; by 1952 this proportion had
    risen to almost half (49.6 percent) of the total. The rapid increase in
    total secondary school enrollments coupled with the reorganization of
    secondary schools has necessitated the construction of many new
    school facilities.
    These developments have caused some educators to raise questions
    concerning the junior high school as a unit in secondary education.
    Has the junior high school been set up because of expedient administrative
    and building considerations, or is it the best organization
    to provide general education for early adolescents 12-15 years of age?
    Does it clearly demonstrate superiority over the traditional 8-4 plan?
    Have its purposes changed so much since its origin in 1909 as to
    suggest that the junior high school needs a new redirection? These
    questions have stimulated a surgence of professional interest in the
    junior high school.
    Because of the wide and growing interest in the junior high school,
    the critical demands for more buildings for youth of this age group,
    and the unavailability of recent data the office staff sponsored a
    National Conference on Junior High Schools. An analysis was also
    made of State department of education policies and regulations affecting
    the junior high school. As a result of these activities several
    national professional organizations and State departments of education
    are now making studies of this important segment of secondary
    education.
    1 The number of elementary and secondary school teachers in public schools, in the fall
    of 1954, was 1,065,803 (Office of Education Circular No. 417 Revised). To this must be
    added the number in nonpublic schools (private and parochial), in model and practice
    schools of colleges and universities, in residential schools for exceptional children, and
    in schools operated under Federal auspices. The number of teachers in this group of
    schools was estimated as 136,000, on the basis of 1 teacher to every 33 pupils—the ratio
    prevailing in the Roman Catholic schools which enroll 88 percent of the pupils in this
    group.
    150 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    EDUCATIONAL TV
    At the beginning of fiscal 1955, there were 7 non-commercial educational
    television stations in operation. During the year, 1 of the 7
    suspended operation pending reorganization, and 9 new stations went
    on the air, bringing the total of the educational television stations
    to 15. At the close of fiscal 1955, 11 additional stations were actually
    under construction, 16 more had already received their construction
    permits from the Federal Communications Commission, and applications
    for 13 more had been filed.
    A look at the 15 educational TV stations in operation at the end
    of fiscal 1955 reveals 5 distinct types of licenses. Six of the 15 are
    owned and operated by State universities. Four stations are owned
    and operated by non-profit educational television corporations formed
    specifically to serve educational and cultural needs of all elements of
    the population of the local metropolitan areas. Three of the stations
    are owned and operated by State educational broadcast councils
    financed from State appropriations. One station, KUHT of Houston,
    is owned and operated by a city university, the University of Houston.
    One station, WGBH-TV of Boston, is owned and operated by the
    Lowell Foundation, an endowed foundation serving educational and
    cultural needs of the Boston metropolitan area.
    On the whole, educational television station development, already
    involving an expenditure of more than $10 million for equipment
    alone, is showing a decidedly healthy growth. Now that educational
    station planners no longer feel themselves under compulsion to get
    their stations on the air immediately, lest locally reserved educational
    television channels be re-assigned for commercial use, more attention is
    being given to planning educational program services, and to developing
    sound bases for financing station operating and programing costs.
    In fact, the trend today seems to be to select and train the production
    staff first, starting actual production over closed circuit facilities on
    an experimental basis while funds for station construction and operation
    are being raised.
    The growth of educational television development seems in no way
    to have dimmed the interest of schools and colleges in radio broadcasting.
    In the year just ended, some 30 new educational FM stations
    have gone on the air, bringing the total of non-commercial
    educational radio stations in operation to 160.
    EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
    During the year, the Office of Education continued to give leadership
    to the nationwide study on the Qualification and Preparation of
    Teachers of Exceptional Children. A study was made of the distinctive
    competencies needed by teachers of the blind, crippled, deaf,
    gifted, hard-of-hearing, mentally retarded, partially seeing, special
    Office of Education 151
    health cases, socially maladjusted, and speech-handicapped. Included
    also was an evaluation of the competencies needed by special
    education personnel in colleges and universities, and in administrative
    positions in State and local school systems.
    Four publications have now come from the study and others are
    nearing completion. The results of the study were presented at various
    National, State, and regional meetings throughout the year. It
    is anticipated that the findings will form the basis for improved
    programs for exceptional children through the development of better
    in-service and pre-service preparation of teachers.
    CIVIL DEFENSE EDUCATION
    A delegation of authority by the Federal Civil Defense Administration
    to the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare gave
    the Office of Education the responsibility for planning, developing,
    and distributing materials which will assist schools in teaching civil
    defense skills, knowledge, and fundamentals of behavior during emergencies.
    Contractual agreements were made with State departments
    of education in Connecticut, Michigan, and California to establish
    pilot centers for the development of civil defense instruction materials
    for teachers in various subject areas and at all levels. The Office of
    Education aided the State pilot center staffs by reviewing and evaluating
    technical reports developed by the Federal Civil Defense Administration
    and other government and non-government agencies.
    ASSISTANCE TO SCHOOLS IN FEDERALLY AFFECTED AREAS1
    A major activity of the Office during the 1955 fiscal year was administration
    of the grant programs authorized for those school districts
    which have experienced a severe financial burden as a result of activities
    of the United States. The fiscal year 1955 was the fifth year these
    programs, authorized by Public Laws 815 and 874 of the 81st Congress,
    had been in operation. Public Law 815 authorizes financial assistance
    for construction of school facilities needed to house increased school
    enrollments resulting from new or expanded Federal activities, mostly
    military installations. Public Law 874, the companion law, provides
    Federal assistance for current operating expenses each year to take
    the place of local revenues lost primarily because of the nontaxable
    status of federally owned land on which the school children live or
    on which their parents work.
    Passage of these two Acts in September 1950 marked the first attempt
    by the Congress to establish a uniform policy governing the allocation
    of financial assistance to school districts seriously affected by Federal
    1 For a more detailed discussion of the operations of this program under Public Laws 815
    and 974 (81st Cong.), as amended, see Fifth Annual Report of the Commissioner of education
    concerning the administration of Public Laws 874 and 815.
    152 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    activities and to place the administration of this program in one administrative
    agency. The Laws also attempted to establish an objective
    method of determining the extent of the Federal financial burden
    and the amount of Federal assistance to which each district was entitled.
    Accordingly, each Act established specific requirements for
    eligibility, defined the categories of Federal impact for which payment
    would be made, and included a formula for determining the amount
    of assistance. In addition to grants to local educational agencies Public
    Law 815 recognized the necessity for and authorized the construction
    of temporary schools in certain situations and the Federal construction
    of schools on Federal bases where necessary in order best to
    serve the children. Public Law 874 recognized the necessity for and
    authorized the Commissioner of Education to arrange for providingfree
    public education for children living on Federal enclaves when
    no State or local educational agency was responsible for or was able
    to provide suitable education for such children.
    The original Public Law 815 provided Federal assistance for increases
    in school enrollment which resulted from Federal activities
    which occurred from the beginning of World War II in 1939 to June
    30, 1952. This program was extended in August 1953 by the passage
    of Public Law 246 to provide for increases in school enrollment occurring
    from June 30,1952, to June 30,1954. Early in the 1955 fiscal year,
    Congress again extended this program by the passage of Public Law
    731 to provide for school enrollment increases occurring during the
    period June 30, 1954, to June 30, 1956. An appropriation of $70 million
    was made early in the 1955 fiscal year for allocation to projects
    filed by June 30, 1954, and for completion of that program. In April
    1955 Congress made available an additional $70 million for the first
    year of the newly authorized program. Thus, a major activity of the
    Office during the year has been the analysis of applications submitted
    for the new 2-year period, an allocation of funds to approved projects,
    and the completion or moving toward completion of projects already
    approved from prior years’ appropriations.
    By June 30, 1955, a total of $585,000,000 had been appropriated for
    construction of school facilities in federally affected school districts.
    In addition, an estimated $230,000,000 had been added to the projects
    from local funds. These funds were used or will be used to help build
    2,700 school buildings in local districts and 134 federally constructed
    projects located on 83 Federal installations. It is estimated that this
    program will have helped provide approximately 25,000 classrooms
    and related school facilities which will be sufficient to house an estimated
    750,000 children.
    During the fiscal year, 2,831 school districts applied for assistance
    under Public Law 874 for maintenance and operation of school plants.
    Of these, 2,700 were determined to be eligible for approximately $75
    Office of Education 153
    million. In addition there were 31 federally operated on-base projects
    under the provision of section 6 of the Act. The eligible school
    districts had an average daily attendance of 910,000 federally connected
    children on which payments were authorized and an estimated
    total attendance of over 5,500,000 pupils.
    While Federal activities, particularly those connected with defense
    contracts, have stabilized throughout the country there continues to be
    a number of new Federal impact areas resulting primarily from new
    or expanded Air Force installations, reclamation project activities, and
    atomic energy projects. Continued construction of housing for military
    personnel on or near military installations also increases school
    enrollment in the Federal impact areas. Thus there was an increase
    of 177 eligible school districts in the 1955 fiscal year over 1954 and
    an increase of about 3 percent in the cost per pupil resulting in an
    increase of approximately $10 million in the cost of the program.
    Another major activity occupying the Division during the year was
    securing compliance with the January 1954 order of the Secretary of
    Defense that no school located on military installations could be operated
    on a segregated basis after the fall of 1955. There were 24
    schools located on Federal property operated by local educational
    agencies on a segregated basis during the 1954-55 school year. Compliance
    with the order of the Secretary of Defense required ascertaining
    whether local educational agencies operating on-base schools
    could in the 1955-56 school year operate those schools on an integrated
    basis or whether Federal operation under section 6 of the Act would
    be necessary and, if so, preparing the necessary budgets and arranging
    for such operation.
    Of the 24 schools located on Federal property 20 were federally
    owned schools located on military installations and operated by local
    educational agencies on a segregated basis during the 1955 fiscal year.
    Four of these have been discontinued, 8 will be operated on an integrated
    basis by local educational agencies in the 1956 fiscal year, and
    8 will be operated by the Federal Government on an integrated basis.
    Die remaining 4 projects are locally owned schools located on property
    leased by the local educational agencies from the Department
    of Defense. These schools will be operated on the same basis as are
    other schools in these districts.
    VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
    The Office of Education administered approximately $31,000,000
    of Federal vocational education funds appropriated for allotment to
    the States and Territories for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1955.
    This was an increase of $5,000,000 over the previous year. The additional
    funds were used primarily to extend the program to communities
    not previously having vocational programs.
    368636 ■ 56- ■ 11
    154 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1955
    The Assistant Commissioner for Vocational Education was made
    an ex-officio member of the Federal Committee on Apprenticeship.
    The Office participated in several Federal-State apprenticeship agency
    joint conferences called by the U. S. Department of Labor. Closer
    working relationships were established in the apprenticeship program
    in the matter of understandings of the respective responsibilities of
    this Office and these agencies in the gathering of statistics and the
    development of programs of related instruction for apprentices conducted
    by public schools.
    A conference of State directors of vocational education was held to
    consider policy matters in the administration of the total program of
    vocational education. Areas studied included vocational guidance,
    distributive education, home economics, trade and industries, and agriculture.
    The recommendations of the conference will be used as a
    basis of future considerations of policy.
    The Office also held a planning conference on research in agricultural
    education in which recommendations made by the National Committee
    on Research in Agricultural Education were considered. As
    a result, a comprehensive study is to be made of the Young Farmer
    Program and a publication on the subject issued for use by vocational
    leaders in agricultural education.
    Staff members met with representatives of producers of both natural
    and synthetic fibers to plan a training program in textile fibers for
    salespeople employed in stores, including high school students enrolled
    in cooperative distributive education programs.
    The shortage of teachers of home economics persists although 7,693
    persons were enrolled in college courses in 1954 preparing for the
    teaching of home economics. The shortage is due to the facts that
    home economics teachers marry after a few years of teaching and leave
    the profession, and that programs of home economics are being established
    in many more schools each year.
    The shortage of coordinators of local cooperative programs in distributive
    education and persons qualified for State level positions in
    the program has become acute. The shortage in this field is due in
    part to the fact that increased Federal funds were available for 1955
    following several years of decreases in Federal funds which resulted
    in the curtailment of teachers and coordinator training programs in
    some of the States.
    The shortage of vocational agriculture teachers has become more
    acute than at any time since World War II despite the fact that 3,479
    persons were being trained by the colleges as such teachers. The
    shortage in this field is due largely to the fact that most of the vocational
    agriculture teachers are trained in the land-grant colleges
    where they take military training and become reserve officers. After
    serving several years, many go into other than teaching occupations.
    Office of Education 155
    Increased demand for agricultural college graduates by commercial
    concerns and State and Federal agricultural programs also contributes
    to the shortage.
    LAND-GRANT COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FUNDS
    Each year the Office of Education initiates certification as to each
    State and Territory (1) whether it is entitled to receive its share of
    the annual appropriations for the land-grant colleges and universities
    and (2) the amounts it is entitled to receive. The certification for
    the year ending June 30,1955, for the Bankhead-Jones funds (annual
    appropriations) amounted to $2,501,500 and that for the Morrill-
    Nelson funds (permanent appropriation) amounted to $2,550,000, a
    grand total of $5,051,500.
    COLLEGE HOUSING PROGRAM
    The Office of Education provided advisory service to colleges and
    universities and the Housing and Home Finance Agency on new applications
    in the amount of $70,000,000 during fiscal 1955. These loan
    requests are anticipated to provide residential facilities for 20,928
    single students, 1,020 married students, and 323 faculty members.
    The prevailing interest rate of 3.25 percent deterred many applicants
    from completing loan requests and financing needed residential
    facilities. Privately operated institutions used the program to a
    greater extent than publicly operated institutions because the 3.25
    interest rate is still favorable to the private college or university.
    Publicly supported institutions tended either to delay construction or,
    in some favorable instances, to secure loans at interest rates slightly
    under the College Housing Program rate. Associations in higher
    education continued to request lower interest rates, preferably under
    3 percent, and a release of all remaining funds for immediate use.
    Private investors continued to participate in the program. During
    Fiscal 1955, individuals and syndicates are reported to have purchased
    approximately $8,000,000 in college housing revenue bonds when
    opened to competitive bids under the College Housing Program. A
    few 40-yeax issues were sold to private investors, but the usual pattern
    was that only the earlier issues were purchased by private investors.
    ADULT EDUCATION
    During the year the Office of Education gave recognition to the
    rapidly growing movement of adult education by creating an Adult
    Education Section. Its purposes are to: (