Employer of Last Resort

Reformers have argued for years that the ultimate weapon of the poverty war should be a program of guaranteed work for every adult willing and physically able to hold a job. Last summer's urban violence gave new impetus to the idea. The Urban Coalition--a group of business, labor, political, religious and civil rights leaders--backed the proposal, and a bipartisan group of Senate liberals fought for legislation to implement it. But the Johnson Administration actively opposed the bill.

Last week Lyndon Johnson surprisingly came out hard for making the U.S. Government the employer of last resort for the "halfmillion hard-core unemployed in our principal cities." In his television interview, he declared: "I am going to call in the businessmen of America and say one of two things has to happen: you have to help me go out and find jobs for these people, or we are going to find jobs in the Government for them. I think it will have to be done, as expensive as it is."

How expensive, Johnson did not say. The unsuccessful Senate bill would have provided $2.8 billion for two years to employ 500,000. Congress gave just $1.77 billion to the entire poverty program for the current fiscal year, and that only after a rough fight. If Johnson seriously pushes a major new job scheme in an election year when taxes and Government spending are already high on the agenda of bitter issues, he can expect a more grinding scrap on Capitol Hill than he had in 1967.

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