More Boon Than Doggle

Since its inception in August 1964, the many-faceted, $2.5 billion anti-poverty program directed by Sargent Shriver's Office of Economic Opportunity has experienced a predictable pattern of controversy, red tape and scandal.

There have been beatings, riots and extortion at Job Corps camps, where underprivileged youths from 16 to 21 are housed and given job training. Bureaucratic delays in processing Job Corps applications have caused countless prospective trainees to lose interest in the program. In Chicago and other cities, critics of anti-poverty youth programs object chiefly that they are uninspired make-work projects patterned after the boondoggling Depression-era WPA.

Last week the problems of the anti-poverty program seemed to be increasing rather than diminishing. In Johnston, R.I., it turned out that the 91 youths enrolled in an anti-poverty program came from families whose incomes average $5,004, far above the $2,400 ceiling set by OEO. Five members of the Colorado Springs anti-poverty governing body were found to have police records for such offenses as sodomy, escape from a mental institution, burglary, operation of a disorderly house, and suspected assault with intent to commit murder. In Manhattan, Negro officials of HARYOU-ACT,* which has received $2,400,000 from OEO, were subpoenaed by the district attorney, whose suspicion was aroused when a youngster complained that he had not been paid in five weeks. A suspended aide then accused the officials of misusing city and federal funds, paying excessive executive salaries and falsifying their accounts.

Long, Cool Summer. Though these and other charges made the headlines, the great, little-noted majority of federally aided anti-poverty programs in 13,344 different U.S. areas seem by contrast to be more boon than doggie. Nearly 350,000 underprivileged youngsters (the majority of them Negro) are currently working in the most effective of all the organizations: the Neighborhood Youth Corps. Their new-found employment has put money in their pockets, taught them work skills and hobbies, and--despite fears of Wattslike racial violence--helped make the past summer a long, cool one for most of the U.S.

In Philadelphia, where 4,700 youths employed in nine Youth Corps projects work in the city's parks, housing projects and schools, Mrs. June Moore, district director of the corps, is convinced that the program has brought peace --if not brotherly love--to Philadelphia. "These are strenuous jobs," she says. "These young people are tired when they go home, too tired to be standing on corners all night."

Escape from Suffocation. The Youth Corps has provided more positive dividends. In Chicago, where 9,400 youngsters held corps jobs this summer, nearly a thousand high school dropouts have been lured back to classes with offers of part-time corps jobs during the school term. Atlanta's Youth Corps claims that its projects have kept another 1,000 youths in school, placed 300 dropouts in job training or permanent employment and successfully integrated Negro and white supervision in every one of twelve neighborhood centers.

To Robert Roselle, 39, in charge of corps projects that employ and counsel 4,000 Detroit youngsters, the program has yielded other valuable, if less tangible, benefits: "The corps has taught them that they had to be some place on time, to dress better and to manage money. It also got them away from the suffocating environment at home." Perhaps the most striking success of the Youth Corps and the whole OEO philosophy to date was demonstrated in Los Angeles last August, where, despite interminable political wrangling over the program, more than 8,000 youngsters were at work on corps projects at the time the Watts rioting erupted. Though many came from the Negro community, not one corpsman was among the 4,000 Negroes arrested there; not one missed a day of work.

* For Harlem Youth Opportunities Unlimited and Associated Community Team. The war on poverty has probably spawned more hopeful acronyms than any other federal program. Detroit hopes to TAP (Total Action Against Poverty) youthful energies, while Portland, Me., seeks to PROP (Portland Regional Opportunities Program) the poor. The OEO boasts VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America). Denver's youth program, embroiled in political controversy, is prophetically entitled DWOP (Denver War On Poverty).

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