Congressional Record
Keenotes
Extension Of Remarks
Of
Hon. Elizabeth Kee
Of West Virginia
In The House Of Representatives
Friday, March 20, 1959
Mrs. KEE. Mr. Speaker, under leave to extend my remarks in the RECORD I include copy of my newsletter for this week:
(By Representative ELIZABETH KEE)
What is it like to dine on surplus agricultural commodities - the sole source of food supply for about 300,000 unfortunate West Virginians?
Members of the West Virginia congressional delegation found out at its weekly delegation breakfast in the Vandenburg Room of the Capitol recently. The meal was prepared exclusively from the food items which are now available to recipients of surplus commodities.
Each breakfast consisted of 1 3/4 ounces of flour, three-quarters ounce of meal, two- thirds ounce of powdered milk, one-third ounce butter and one-third ounce of rice. But the breakfast served to each of the two Senators and six Members, of the House was equivalent to a one-meal ration for an entire family up to three persons.
As I ate the breakfast I could not help but think of the thousands of families who have nothing more to look forward to each day than the skimpy meal which can be prepared with available commodities. And I was further reminded of how tragic it must be for a family of three to have to make an entire meal from the amount which I was eating for breakfast.
The diet of surplus commodities is wholly inadequate, especially for growing children. It provides only 26 percent of the needed calories, 36 percent of the necessary protein, and 46 percent of the necessary calcium.
Yet, many families have to depend entirely upon the commodities made available to them from Government warehouses. They do not have the means to supplement them in any way. .
Members of the delegation hoped, by dining on the surplus commodities, to dramatize the plight of so many of our people. It is a part of our campaign to convince leaders in the executive branch of our Government and in the Congress of the need to start a coordinated program to provide both immediate and long-range help to West Virginia.
We have hammered away at this one thing ever since Congress reconvened. We are working as a team to bring flood control and other public works projects to the State to create desperately needed jobs. We are demanding that other commodities be added to the list which is now available to our unfortunate families. And more importantly, we want an economic redevelopment program under which West Virginia can attract new industries and businesses to provide permanent jobs for our people.
It is tragic that with warehouses literally bulging with surplus commodities of all kinds a more adequate diet cannot be provided to people who are unable to find employment. This is not a problem confined to West Virginia. Other States, in all sections of the country, are also suffering from substantial and persistent unemployment.
In West Virginia able-bodied men simply cannot find work. At the end of January 67,928 active applications for employment were on file. Regular State unemployment benefits had been exhausted by 47,432 of our people, and 18,468 unemployed had exhausted benefits under the temporary extension program. Thousands of others have joined them in the last 3 months.
People should not be permitted to go hungry in this land of plenty. I am more convinced than ever now that people who must live on the skimpy diet surplus foods provide are hungry citizens. And I am afraid that their children will carry through life the effects, of the insufficient diet they are now forced to eat.