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From Washington D.C. National Educational Television presents the WGBH TV production Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt prospects of mankind. On the day President Kennedy issued the executive order creating a Peace Corps. Mrs Roosevelt went to the White House to discuss it with him. Mr. President feel they need to give us a few words of introduction to the program prospects of mankind which is to be the Peace Corps which is one of your great interests. I would like to know how you originally thought of this. It seems to carry out an appeal for everyone to be of service in your inaugural address. But how did you come to think to think of it. Well of course it had been discussed by a good many Americans and this idea of. Taking the young Americans. Using their desire for service for the benefit of mankind. Congressman Ed Royce in
the house of the Humfray you and others. Have been talking a good deal about it. And I felt during the fall that it should be a matter to which we should address ourselves. We've now organized it and we hope by the end of this year we have between 500 and a thousand. Young men and women though perhaps later on we can go to all eight years. In service around the world. In the service of peace. So that I'm very hopeful that this will do a good deal for other countries but we'll also do something for. Our own people. This of course is a great opportunity. And in. This beginning is a pilot project. I imagine you hope that it will develop. And the new things will help you with it. It seemed to me that it was the beginning of a broadening of our whole idea and perhaps I'm wrong in this but. Possibly that. We had been thinking so much in the past and so many
questions on a national scale. And this was the beginning of thinking on an international scale. Well I agree and I think that the fact that this concept of service. To our country really in a broader way to the cause of peace the fact that there's gotten such an overwhelming response. By in schools and colleges across the country show that it shows that there's a strong thread a strong court of. Service. And a desire to be involved in a great effort which really runs through our people. With all the emphasis on. The life of ease which we hear so much about in this country. I think the fact that this response has come forward is one of the most encouraging things that I've seen these young men and women will not be paid any salary. They live among the people of the country to which they are accredited they will work on that particularly on teaching. On. Health. Care education and so on and on agriculture they can improve the food production those three areas will
send men and women who can serve and. Be a credit to this country and to the causes of obviously sanitation to this day and possibly. Helping people to use to better advantage the things that they have had as scientific discoveries make it possible. Because I know that certain areas of the world there are foods available that people do not choose which might be. Of great value to the people. Well I'm hopeful that this will be as I say I think it can do a good deal abroad but I think you can also do something here at home and turning our attention to. Public service national service. Instead of really following our own pursuits. Tis a great opportunity also for young people to learn about the wisdom which they live. But also I like the idea that it may be extended. And. To older people also and I understand. Your hope is that other
countries will coming in and. Also. Do much of this with kids as we begin it. That's right. The British have been doing some on a limited scale and a group has been set up and a group of volunteers and they've had. Done remarkable work. I'm sure that they're used to the whole free world community a great desire by younger men women do. To be of service and I hope that that great asset can be tapped. So this is a beginning. We want to use as much as we can private institutions private universities private organizations which have been in this work so that we can make the most effective use of our talent. Yes. And will it be possible for instance when for the U.N. to call upon. People for cities see have project. That's right. We're going to attempt at the beginning to cooperate as closely with them as possible. Well that would be a very valuable service because. If. We do move.
Cost in a great many cases that could be a very valuable thing. And will they be able to work and experts in countries for instance where you are sending an expert in the city or you could send young people who were really getting that training still couldn't you. Yes I think the people that we send abroad should be. Have skills which could be sharp and I think by study that in this country or in the country to which they're going so that we can make the most effective use of our talent it is expensive to send people abroad. It requires a good deal of effort by their part. We want to make sure that those that we send and can bring a return on what I was interested that to for instance among the groups you mentioned you mentioned labor. It seems to me. That there is a great deal that could be offered by labor for instance many countries that want to technicians. And. Attrition have. A plumber. Then there is this which perhaps would not get out of many young people.
That's right. I think that after we've gotten started we should attempt to cover every age group because there is a desire to serve among and a capability among all Americans and not just though I think at the beginning we'll probably have the biggest response from younger people I hope that those with special skills who are older language skills as well as technical skills will find it possible to vote. So it is it is possible for them to have a period of orientation to learn the language isn't it. Well I would feel that in order to do it most effectively that there should be some skill in the language before they. Become the author before they offer their services. If we're only going to we're only going to be to send really relatively a limited number of people considering the need and therefore they should really have a skill and a desire that's still there are not many people. Who know certain languages where the need is greatest. So I should think that there would have to be an effort made to give them at least some basic training
and then. They can acquire more on that. Well I agree some of the. Esoteric dialects would require but even if it takes many months to really learn to be effective in a language and if we. And. We really have to balance off we have to wait and see how many volunteers we get and what their skills are. But I would think that those that would be certainly go at the beginning would be those who had some particular. Talent which they could bring to the program. And you think of it also as being valuable. As being valuable to us as Americans in gaining knowledge of the. That's right. They will all come back. With the most valuable experience and as I say one of the most encouraging. Facets of the entire concept of the Peace Corps has been the response. I think that we have really thousands and hundreds of thousands of people in this country who want a chance to be of
service. To the country and to the causes with which we are associated. This gives the one area could we also use some of these people in depressed areas to join a revitalizing of certain things in those areas that needed to be done. One of the matters which we're now studying is how we could use. Americans who desire to serve in our own country slum areas and education retraining and all the rest. And we are going we hope. In the coming months to be able to decide how we can determine that program. It would seem to me that that would be possibly to develop. And that might be extremely useful because. There are people who can go out there their country but I was interested in reading about Cotman in your state or not. That you would send. Papps. Perhaps eventually even couples. If able. Craig let's try to be able to do something and I have seen
couples working together for instance in Israel. In. A in a Children's Village and I think that this might be something which could be used in our own depressed areas very well if you could put. A couple certain kinds of training and to help them rebuild and re really start a new industry. Industries saw something that had to be done in the area. It might help us a great deal that's really helping out the country. Exactly. And. As a matter of fact we are now attempting to see how we can use this reservoir of. Talent and desire here in our own country as well as abroad. I just want to say that it's a pleasure to have participated in this discussion which is going to be carried on and also to welcome Mr. Roosevelt back to the White House. Thank you very much. And I'm grateful to you. Thank you Mr. President.
Now in the studios of WTVG in the nation's capital Mrs. Roosevelt continues the discussion on the newly established peace corps with her special guest Senator Hubert Humphrey Democrat from Minnesota is sponsoring legislation for the permanent and expanded Peace Corps. He is chairman of the disarmament subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Professor Samuel Hayes is the author of the Peace Corps task force report requested by the president. He is a social scientist in the Department of Economics of the University of Michigan and has served on several government missions to the Far East. And Tucker could you be is here from Makarova college the University of East Africa which will receive the first Peace Corps group of American teachers. He is president of the University of Chicago and is the secretary of Buganda Educational Association. Our Sargent Shriver has been heading the Peace Corps effort for the White House. He is chairman
of the Chicago Board of Education and was twice leader of experiment in international living group. Now here is Mrs. Roosevelt. I'm going to work to welcome our audience again today to what I think is a very important program because the response to the Peace Corps has been phenomenal. And I'm very happy that this is so. I think my first question would be to you Mr. Shriver you've just been designated the director of the Peace Corps and I think the first thing that we all of us want to know is first in your mind is the primary objective. I think the primary objective as Roosevelt is to tap the skilled. Manpower of the United States and to put it at work in the service of foreign governments who requested we don't want to go with Peace Corps
volunteers to any country except a country that has invited us. And in that country we want to do what they want to have us do not what we think ought to be done. Therefore I'd say that the first. Objective is to organize the skilled manpower that's available in this country the dedicated people and put them to work internationally for the benefit of all especially of course for the benefit of peace. Senator Hempfield introduced the first legislation in this field. Could you give an answer what you feel are the important objectives. Well Mrs. Roosevelt I think that Mr. Schreiber has as stated it rather concisely and. Meaningfully. I might just add that it seems to me that the Peace Corps might very well fortify many of the existing programs of public and private groups in depth including even the activities of the United Nations and surely many of our great charitable and
philanthropic organizations. Also one of the aims of the Peace Corps. Is to really permit this great surge of goodwill. That's so ever present in the American community and I'm sure it's in other communities to manifest itself in some practical work and meaningful purpose. I think that when you put together what you've said Mr. Schryver the reservoir of talent plus this great desire of goodwill that we are staying somewhat What is the major objective. Thank you and Halifax you say you must have something particular to offer. Mrs. Roosevelt. I'm thinking primarily of the need in the other countries where this need comes from for the kind of people we're talking about a modern society a modern economy is based upon educated people trained people. It takes a long time to train and educate people what we can do is on the one hand help with the process of education and training.
Now on the other hand temporarily send in educated and trained people to fulfill these jobs while they necessarily long process of building up a core of people who are adequately trained or goes on. So I see this as being temporary and helping with the process of modernization which all of these countries are trying to achieve. Well Mr. catch he'll be here today as the one representative from the countries who may really want to draw on this goodwill that we feel exists in the United States. Have you something you'd like to say about the objectives. Well this is Roosevelt. This puts a great deal of responsibility on my shoulders. I'll make a few comments. There's no doubt at all that in many of these so-called underdeveloped parts of the world the most serious bottleneck is the shortage of trained manpower. And this is one field in which the United States can contribute. So in principle this
idea scheme will be welcomed greatly by people in other parts of the world. However I should like to see that it should not be a one way street in which the United States is giving without feeling that they too will be getting something in return. So I think it should be a mutually beneficial scheme in which the Americans would feel that they too are learning something about the rest of the world and that the rest of the world will have something in return to contribute to the United States. And that's a very important part of it. From my point of view. What would you like to talk about. Mr. Shriver I would like to emphasize that point that you've just made that this is very much a two way street. I think that all of us are looking forward to the impact that this program might well have on American education for example. I hope that if the Peace Corps goes on for a number of years. Professor Hayes and some of the students maybe at Michigan will be going to prepare themselves for Peace Corps service in the sophomore year they might start studying languages that they might not otherwise have attempted to take on. They might study the culture of the
countries that they would not have gotten into. And in that way prepare themselves to be better Peace Corps workers when they actually go abroad. There's no doubt in my mind that would be fine for American education if it's run properly. I'd also be a great thing for the people who go over think of the opportunity of being over there for two or three years and learning the language and the customs. It's a great educational venture for our people. So I think right from the beginning what ought to be really emphasized is the Spirit even before we begin to think of the mechanics of playing virtual The spirit of the of these of the scheme is very important and should be emphasized from the beginning. This mutual benefit from both sides. Yes. And do you feel that if they go in that spirit the spirit of learning as well as offerings for that is that the best can be obtained out that I have found that I have found that if we could approach our first contact with people in other areas of the world in the spirit that we have come to
learn something. It has a tremendous effect in the ability we have to offer anything because they respond to that. I don't know whether to call it a spirit of humility but from. What has been your experience. Well Mrs. Roosevelt I wanted to make two observations. First I think this will be have a very healthy impact upon our political understanding of the world in which we live. We Americans are prone to read a pamphlet or a headline or an editorial about so-called emerging nations or under developed nations and this streak of compassion in you says all we must do something about it or somebody else's Well that's not my business. So we treat it superficially. But when you have a substantial number of young people. That are really living with their neighbors in other parts of the world not living above them not living removed from them. But part of the family so to speak and write down at the basic fundamental parts of community life you're going to have a better understanding of the world
in which we live. I can't help it be that this is one of the more important contributions that we are going to get out of it. I wonder if we can tie this in with what Mr. QB was saying about the mutual kind of a program which we should carry on. We're going to learn more. Other governments are going to find a common purpose here if we can find projects within this country such as Mrs Roosevelt. We're talking with the president about projects in this country and soil conservation and depressed areas in teaching. Mr. Schreiber you're talking about the need to build up training courses. Who can who could better help us with our training than people from these countries themselves who would help train our own peace corps people to go abroad. So there are many ways in which we could have projects in this country to use people from the same countries where our people will then sharply go. Let's say I find a number of questions. I find a great
desire to serve as the male for all of you have received would indicate that I and I also in a much smaller way have had a number of people like me. I find one question that comes up is the question of no pay now. What is the policy really as regards to that. Ms. Roosevelt it was I thought that nobody should be encouraged to come into the Peace Corps to get rich. We've heard a great deal about the ugly American the man who lives overseas and is living so high above the standard of living of the country where he's located that a very bad impression has been made. I can object if some bad guys were accused of taking the girls away from the people who really lived in the country where they were stationed for a while. So I think you are getting a peace corps volunteers are going to have to use other means than money. But.
The basic objective was to focus right off the bat on the fact that there would not be a lot of pay for this service. Now of course we're going to cover the living costs the allowances housing some pocket money and so on for our people while they're overseas. Nobody can leave without any pay that's obvious. And the amount of pay which a person would receive as a volunteer in the Peace Corps will vary from country to country depending on the conditions in that particular country. Now at the same time it's our intention to build up month by month a severance payment a bonus if you will to be given to the Peace Corps volunteer when he or she returns to this country. If in a particular case that person had a home responsibility that they wish to fulfill while they were overseas that bonus could accumulate for the benefit of their family for a brother or sister or something that might be going to be paid out during that period because that's it could be. That's yes. I think the basic idea originally and at this time is that it would accumulate for the benefit of most of the people so that when they returned they wouldn't return penniless to this
country without any little cushion to tide them over for the first few months until they got a degree in that. But I think there are a great many young people who want to go in this war who perhaps have had their education because a brother or a sister younger brother or sister. There's for a little while and they will feel a responsibility to help out a little bit for the younger member of the family or perhaps as soon as they're able to. And they ought to take some small responsibility for an older member of the family. And I think there should be some kind of a lot that could be made from building up the process still some would be building up for that cushion at the end. But I I think there are too many people that you would cut out who have some kind of personal responsibility who don't make some. Let me you that we intend to be flexible on that. There's no question about it that we ought to have it
flexible enough to cover the points that you mentioned and that is our intention. Mr. Schreiber we are in the preliminary legislative discussion of this with Congressman Ed Royce and the late senator Newberger and myself and others. We talked about the allowances which you are indicating. And. Then about equivalent to. Private pay in the Army about $80 a month as a sort of a an extra allowance that would be made available and pretty much along the lines that you've discussed sort of holding it back or making it available monthly for wherever it was designated to be used. I think Mrs. Roosevelt makes a good point. Are a number of our young people that have graduated from college as have taken their turn so to speak in the family and somebody else's turn is coming up and you're required as the older brother or the older sister under the family agreement to sort of help along the younger brother younger sister. I think these all of these matters need to be looked
into. The point that ought to be emphasized here is that we are in an embryonic stage is that this is a developing program. It isn't it isn't cept that the president's executive order and your description of the program Mr. Shriver. Indicate that we're we're feeling our way. And I hope the public will understand that that this is in a sense an experiment and it's an experiment in peaceful pursuit. May I say to my good friend from Uganda. This isn't a part of the Cold War and all of this is a part of the warm heart and an open mind. Well I should like to butt in here and see that from the point of view of the recipient countries what is really important is not how much or how much money the participant receives or does not receive. If Americans are going to go into these countries with a spirit of sacrifice on their faces that we have sacrificed television we have sacrificed these to come and live with you. But coming out
of gaunt and rather condescending manner. This may be more harmful than beneficial. So what will matter to us when these people come to come in a good spirit able and willing to do the job for which they are assigned. And in fact I should say that if they keep living on me or pocket money and are unable to travel around in the countries where they come they are unable to get some person for a cup of tea because they are just living on pitiful money. I think this might drive up a provincial idea within the countries where they happen to be they should be able to move around and see they should have a land rover. Probably possible and see the country learn about it yes it's important I think that they should be able to travel around and important that they should be able to offer hospitality. I think that's a very important thing because that's the way you make contact with them people. One of the points that you just played then and I think Sam you mentioned before that I think it's important is that before any of these people go overseas there's going to be a training program in this country.
It may be as long as this first batch of prospect of volunteers as three or four months and during that time we would like to have in the training program in this country. Students from the country to which our peace corps volunteers are going to go. For example if we were going to send hopefully perhaps to Uganda your country prospective teachers let's say 50 and we had them at a training course this summer. We would hope to have a number of let's say 15 or 20 students from Uganda going to the training program this summer with our people giving them the point of view for example that you just expressed I think it's very important that they hear from people like you exactly what they're expected to do when they arrive. I think so but that's the way I'd like to ask you one question. I believe of course that one thing that has to be taught of course to many of the people who are going young or old in this program is a sense of discipline and a sense of doing that to do whether they understand it always completely or not. And I wonder
how you think that can be done and what you think. I'm thinking of helps you succeed and then other ways of living while they're there it seems to me that this ought to be part of the training program of which there should be several parts. We of course have language although in some circumstances language a new language isn't particularly necessary something in some of these countries English is used already as a as a teaching language or as a common language or for the positions these people would have in others they would have to have the language they'd need to have training in culture and economics and the politics of the country they're going to need to know something about the United States so that they would be good interpreters of American culture American society and there's something about religion. Yes but they need also a training in how to live in a foreign country which is what you're talking about in terms of self-discipline how to avoid disease and what to eat and all the rest of
it and this is something I suppose we can we can develop a training course for perhaps the military have had something of this sort. Actually it's been suggested that after the people arriving in any particular country that they stay in a staging area after arrival for a week or 10 days to become a climatologist you might say to that particular situation it hasn't been decided whether or not that would be done. But that's certainly a possibility. The training area. Problems in different countries are different. The dietary and the problems of disease often are different. I think we ought to get a little more information about the recruitment program. This is Roosevelt Mr. Shriver about also the cooperative relationships that will exist between government organizations such as the one that you had up Mr. with the Peace Corps and the voluntary agencies. I say this because. Misinformation can cause considerable difficulty. We have a large number of people that would just like to rush right on the Indian Ocean and just help as much as they
could and we are deeply appreciative of that spirit of generosity. But. As you've disgusted with me and we've had our little visits about this and as Mrs. Roosevelt and the president have discussed it it seems that one of the first. Criteria will be a very selective recruitment process and then. A rather intensive training process on top of what abilities that you already have. And then I like your idea of a staging area so to speak to get some kind of conditioning to not only the the climate and the food but to the customs. I'm on the on the on the spot. This is Roosevelt at a moment here. She said we also need to know something about their religion just the mores of the foods they're at sea and water and and the way in which you do things. I think it's important that people who go should know something about the
religions of the countries and the customs where you have both the recruitment and the selection problem together don't you. I'm a little worried about the political problem of a hundred thousand people wanting to go and you're sending five hundred or a thousand this year and perhaps 5000 in another year or two. Don't you see something above. How are you going to handle this. Well we don't have any pat answers to those questions. What we do know is that we want to have a national recruiting drive which would enable every person who wants to apply our loss of race color or religion to make an application or age to volunteer then add to those volunteer forms have been completed the selection process will begin. Now we're going to have to select people who are equipped to fulfill the job which are on the ledger so to speak. And this is only going to be determined after we've talked to the countries in question to find out what kind of people they want from us. Naturally we're going to have to select the best ones that we can. How do you determine who is best. I'll tell you the answer that nobody knows. Well now you have to have some standards. That's true. But I've talked to
a lot of people here in the last two weeks and a lot of research institutes. Professor Hayes and everybody agrees on one thing that there's no test that you can get one test or to test or three test which can tell who's going to be the perfect person overseas. There is going to be some mistakes. You were talking about earlier drugs. We have to be prepared for some some failures. So it might take more in perhaps than you could know about. I am out for. That's right for example to go back to a gone or any country if we were trying to get 100 teachers let's say to go to a particular country this fall. We should certainly start off with twice that number in preparation and training for that country and then we on to trial and error basis. We would wash out as we used to say in the Army or the Air Force we wash out some of these prospects by the time they actually got over that we might have only one out of every two who started what was going to be tough work and people are going to have to find that out. We do have some background of experience so we have the in the international voluntary services for example you could argue and you have this British experiment. We have a number of our
foundation groups and church groups that have you have a great great deal of experience. Vincent sure making friends says he's been sending people for years in life and now I've talked to them and even they've met with all their experience and all their tests every one of their cases doesn't turn out perfectly. This is something we need to make quite clear when you start out on this. This isn't an operation in perfection. We're using people and that that poses some problems. And when this happens we may have to see a time where a person is sent to a country or is offered to a country finds. A country finds the person unacceptable or the individual finds the conditions something that he or she can't take. So you have to remove them quickly and iambs. I want to predict something that Mr. Schryver somebody right is going to get in trouble and that somebody is going to say in Congress see the whole program as a boondoggle. Let's let's move that out right now because when you're dealing with people particularly in uncharted areas of human
relations and of hue and of. Social contact you're going to have some troubles. But if we're going to try to get into a program in which there are troubles. Well I don't know just exactly what it's going to be outerspace even has its troubles much less interspace food at this point I'd like to see that in receiving countries every possible effort should be made to seek the cooperation and support of whatever organizations there are in the country. For example in the teaching profession teachers organizations in these countries should be consulted because I mean if you brought the teachers to Uganda. And. It was not the idea Oh you're going to teach and association was not consulted. I mean if this friction came along that might make the implementation of the scheme very difficult. And I think in this respect as far as teaching is concerned we have here in this country the ofI So the WC teepees in this country will finish and we're going to get into the teaching profession which can provide information about
the various teaching organizations of the world so that they are contacted and consulted the Bible teaches us indeed these will be true in other professions too. I think I agree with you. I think we ought to consider bringing representatives of a teacher organization in foreign countries to the training centers in this country to help in the training process and to explain the procedures and say you know what is wrong with this. Also is there many other ways. This is a success is not simply a matter of selection and training. And it's it's very much a matter of working out arrangements with the other country on the situation in which these people work. I've been interested to Schryver that one way of solving some of these problems is of course a pilot program or experimental program. I hear that you are planning to do something right away without waiting for the long process of congressional legislation and appropriations which might be into the into the fall before something would be finalized. Is this that's like we're trying to get underway promptly.
And the reason for that is simply the fact that a huge number of people graduate from schools and colleges each spring around May. If we waited until everything was worked out and all the questions were answered and Bill Senator Humfray had passed both houses of the Congress and signed by the president we would miss probably all of the calendar year 1961 because the students and teachers would have made other commitments for this year. But we ought to make it clear that the Congress has expressed its intent and its interest in this matter and the mutual security act of last year no question of and there is at least broad authority for the executive order that the president issued and for your very limited establishment at the moment and. I. Mentioned actually we were that he was fulfilling the wishes of Congress and I think that's true and I was discussing with some of you earlier that we have a precedent in this. Back with the Rural Electrification Administration pay for our aid which is our rural electric cooperative organization in the
states as you know. Before that was institutionalized or before it was made as a permanent adjunct of government the President Roosevelt set it up under a broad authority that existed for emergency powers for the president and then the next year and that or in fact in that same legislative session ask the Congress to proceed. Now that's what you're going to do Mr. Shrivers I understand that. That's correct. There's general reorganization going on now in the entire overseas program and at the right time in the very near future. Professor Hayes I hope that we'll be able to present in both the House and the Senate a bill that will give a firm foundation to the peace corps and broaden its scope and and give unquestioned authority and funds to proceed. And I don't think we'll have too much trouble. I want to say I think the Congress will be rather receptive in light of the interest of the public. Well I'm I'm hoping very much that a good deal of this can also be coordinated with programs that now exist in the United Nations because
through their specialized agencies they already have programs that are very acceptable in many countries where perhaps they are a little nervous about taking from one country to match for fear of economic control. And therefore I think we should be very careful to explore what the specialized agencies have in Prospect where we could channel some of this goodwill voluntary work which certainly would make it less expensive for some of the agencies and it ought to contribute both to the education of the individual going to the U.N. program whatever it takes. This is Roosevelt I'm sure you know that something of this sort has already been started on a on a pilot basis by Netherlands and West Germany which have been recruiting young people where they have some
expert skills but really quite young people and assign them with the national government paying the salary but assign them to work for specialized agencies in particular projects overseas run under the U.N. auspices. So there's already a precedent for this too of course to have a substantial expansion. You would need to put put in some money along with this for administrative and supervisory costs. But surely there could be a wide increase in the use of exactly this mechanism of simply assigning individuals paid by their national governments at the request of the specialized agencies who work at the request of recipient governments. Well I'll just say Mr. Roosevelt how this task force or organized organization is set up to operate because it does have a section devoted specifically to the point you're talking about. Well we can say about it at this time and all of this I'd like to emphasize as you mentioned a few months ago Senator happy it's experimental The way we're set up now. We have five. Ways of
operating. Number one we can operate by making grants to private voluntary agencies in this country. Now they'll have to live up to certain standards Peace Corps standards if you will. They'll have to recruit according to certain standards trained according to certain standards and do the kind of work that fits in with the Peace Corps objectives. They can't have any proselytizing or propagandizing and so on. But as long as they fit within those standards we would attempt to give money or services direct to private groups that we'd also try to work in a separate section with university groups similar standards would apply. There's also a section set up to work with the U.N. and we would like to offer to the U.N. special agencies as much manpower and woman power as it's possible for us to have them except then we'd also want to work with the rest of government operations that we would institute with host governments. And finally we would like to have. We do have a separate section just providing manpower to some of our own governmental agencies for example the United States Information Services. We would like if they need teachers in their language schools in a
particular court. We would like to try to find teachers and provide them to our own agencies to the existing programs or some of the Universities your university has a lot of programs overseas doesn't it. Professor we have a few. I thought they had three or four I don't. Does Michigan have three or four. We have three or four at the University of Michigan and Michigan State has eight or 10. So together we do have some homophobia as a whole. The whole goal is like putting people into those programs that they can be helpful and improve the depth I think and use that I think what is in World Health where they have made a great deal already in the eradication of the. Malaria this certainly can possibly hope to be able to be of service to that program malaria and Hardhack has Harvard has some programs too. I happen to have a grandson who was actually a Harvard athlete by the way I I get to thinking we maybe letting people feel that most of this is at rather high levels that we're talking of of conduct or activity that we're going to
need skilled workers to help people put up a very modest housing where we're going to need people that work on very simple sanitation projects right. We're going to need people that have skills as bricklayers as plumbers and electricians all kinds of people. That's one we'll maybe have to broaden the program a little more than what you call the younger set to go into a more mature and some of the older people. I feel that what we're really talking about here is bringing in. A backup amount to say you know one of the things that worried me Mrs. Rosabel about so-called United States activities overseas is that most people equate our U.S. activities overseas as the government activities when in fact America is not just government. Thank goodness America is people. And it's it represents these host these thousands of voluntary organisations and the millions of people that want to do things represents our own enterprise our own trade unions our cooperatives our schools. And Mr. Schriver I think what what you're in
charge of more or less is in a sense the cooperative and the cooperative endeavor bringing together so many of these private forces in America to put them to work to do good government gets identified with the Cold War. Regrettably yes I think so yeah we are on the right foot in the housing and health literacy allocation again not just mobilizing US government agencies mobilizing society for this right. Well we hope this is a very important point. I was very happy to note from the president's remarks that the scheme will not be limited to young college graduates only but people in all ages who have something to contribute will be utilized because some of the countries will need more trained personnel in particular specialized fields and so on so that they should be able to be drawn upon. And this idea of the Cold War struggle is a very important one because if Americans come to us as missionaries against communism and so on it's going to have the
opposite effect of what Americans perhaps themselves would like to see. We are not interested in this Cold War ideas ourselves. These are not our problems our problems are the gap gaps in agriculture are not in communism or whatever other political philosophies might happen to be. There's a group up at Princeton as well as valid call themselves. They're organized for creative survival. That's actually what younger people I sense are interested in is not so much the missile gap but proving to people around the world that they're really interested in establishing human contact a human relationship with people of various races and creeds and in different countries. And if they go with that mind I think they will be successful. They go with the other point of view it will be a failure. That's what I fear. Well I think I think it's very well understood that in a program of this kind you want to keep out as far as possible anything but the idea that you are sitting with the hope of
creating greater understanding and of actually helping not of not forcing any ideology on people that would be almost impossible to take. I mean if you tried to do that you'd be lost as far as the program went. But you will have to do some controlling of the people because a great many people have a passion for trying to make other people think the way they do and particularly Americans I'm afraid will be part of training. I am. I feel that there is one other. Program that might very well fit in with what you are now directing Mr. Schriver and that is this like Project Hope. You've heard of the ship Project Hope we we have a program here that we called the mercy fleet. Some people call it the white fleet or the mercy fleet to utilize some of
our hospital ships our supply ships equip them with technicians and make them like floating movable laboratories and experimental stations and universities to go to the great port cities to to work with your doctors your teachers your agricultural specialists sort of upgrade the general professional area of any country. Well now this along with the Peace Corps It seems to me would be a very very powerful force and I noticed that in one of the newspapers this week that the director of the Project Hope ship said that it was enthusiastically received that there wasn't enough dockage space to even accommodate the people that wanted to come visit. And when the youngsters would come down to the to the wharf for the dock they would be yelling Hopi Hopi. And they didn't say Hopi go home. Now he said Oh Hopi stay here. And I think that this this too has.
Something of the flavor of service and I like what the President Kennedy has been trying to tell tell us in these early days of his administration. He's telling us that we have a job to do and that little sacrifice is good for the soul. And it might even be helpful around the world. Yes I think it is. Now this is national service certainly. And one of the questions which has been raised a good deal is whether national service of this heart should not be considered the equivalent of service under the Selective Service Act. And I know that there's been some difference in the recommendations made on this. Mr. Stryver you have a recommendation in your report to the president. I think our recommendation. Yes. That's right. Our recommendation was that service with the Peace Corps not be considered an exemption from the Selective Service System. We would hope. That it might be considered a deferment during the period that a person was served with the Peace Corps. It might
even be administratively handled so that subsequently they would not be called up under selective service. But certainly at the beginning we're not asking for an exemption and we're not even asking that the service be a be considered the equivalent and that they not be called up. We believe that the Selective Service System that it has one great advantage and that is that people considered in the Peace Corps perhaps who might not be eligible for military service like all the young ladies. I hate to see you say you better than your women and I have always felt that women should be a part of any service I think. I think it's a very important thing to send women overseas. There are many areas where to find I just tell you I've met a young woman from Sydney area in Africa who had had great difficulty in being allowed to come over here to study welfare with women and children and she wanted teaching here in
what we did. But she had to overcome first of all the tone the feeling that women didn't go out. Now I think it would be enormously useful in many cases to show that a woman could be trained if she was trained she could be useful to more than just a little homesick girl. And I think there are many things that women can do in this program that perhaps the men can do so as I'm sure you're correct that in our fight we've had some suggestions already from the number of the women's colleges. And I'm happy to say from the presidents of those colleges about things that women could do and also that there's a great deal of interest in the colleges and doing some sort of national service. One of the things that interested me on that point is is that you know 10 or 20 years ago it seems to me that the Gallup Poll had a poll and they asked the parents of boys girls why they'd like them to go into government work or into politics and all the parents that say 75 or 80 percent said oh no don't go into politics. Politics is a dirty business and all this kind
of thing. But a poll a Gallup poll just I think about 10 days ago on the peace corps perhaps you saw it as 70 or 80 percent of the parents when asked if they would be glad to have their boy in the peace corps said they would. Yes. That's a complete reversal and I think it's a very significant and I hope it is a significant change of opinion the minds of American mothers and fathers. Well I found it right with my own boys and I think that the young people respond rapidly to it and. Happily want to go back to this military service angle because when we were discussing this legislatively a year ago and the pioneering stages of the bill that I had introduced. I believe the congressman Ed Royce introduced included an exemption from selective service but not from universal conscription in case of national emergency. I mean you don't want to get any release from your military responsibilities. But I am prone to think Mr. Shriver that your approach to it is the better. This may be reason for deferment because this is very vital service
just ask some college students have deferment also because of the volunteering on the part of our young men. We don't have a heavy call and or selective service anymore it's very modest. As a matter of fact. So that there's no use of stirring up the lions as they say about this and getting this program into trouble in some areas of public opinion by letting people say well this is a program for draft dodgers or something. I think it's a whole lot better to put this program on its own feet. And let people serve who want to serve if they get a deferment under selective service they'll get it only because their local Selective Service Board feels that this is the proper thing to do and they will they'll have no special benefits. I don't think young people want. That's an American problem though Senator as far as we are concerned in the recipient countries we don't mind whether a person is eligible to serve or not. So long as he comes as I said at the beginning to do a good job and a good heart. I was thinking of Congress.
I mean this is an American problem from the point that know and that was going to go up. You know I talked to General Hirsch's And I think those are approximate 80000 people now at this age the age of the Peace Corps volunteer who are deferred for work in what are considered essential industries like technicians electronics and so on. So right there we have an indication that we'd have to get up to at least 80000 in the Peace Corps before I would begin to present any problem to the military services. I must say to our good friend Mr. jobi that we have some very delicate political problems occasionally at home where many a good program that is launched with the precision of the outer space satellite even a Sputnik gets off course if you don't do something if we don't talk some of these things out like we're doing here. There's a lot I agree with you. This is essentially our our own domestic. Senator I can possibly say this means that we need to rethink our whole military programs. I have an idea that defense means very different things today from 10 years ago I
should say. And I would think that the time had come to possibly rethink what you mean by the security of the country. What do you mean by the real necessity for defense today. And so I have had a feeling that this of course did not have any tie to the Peace Corps and yet that when you're in the Senate or the house come to reconsider the security of the country you may think quite new things along new lines. And I think it could be good. I surely agree with you Mrs. Roosevelt. I only regret that we're bogged down in the morass of the past on these matters because I have one word of maybe this is an unfortunate word for this very kindly program that in this struggle in which we are faced today. That the economic vitality of our country the spiritual vitality of our country the
educational competence of our people the technical skill of our manpower is maybe as well. It is the solid fabric and muscle of the nation really and not just the the military which is really merely the reflection of the nation that strength in a sense it's the fine edge. The other part is the is the strong blade. I think we've got a lot of rethinking to do Mr. Roosevelt. I'm so glad you think so. Why is this and this is talking about the political end of it I might just might add one fact that I think might be helpful. Senator Humphrey when it discussed over the hill and that is that the initial budget for the Peace Corps was established by the president as a proxy of the cost of one atlast missile firing. No. 1 1 1. But in the end say just one point to that is there are many thousands of people in this country who come from the underdeveloped parts of the world and as part of this program they should be brought in to do maybe that practice a man who is an enigmatic president now owing to union regulations and so on cannot work in this country and good practice
so that if they are brought in with this idea they get practice and experience here which they can take home our homeland. They will be able to take the place of the youth who will be in the meantime doing the jobs that are required to be done. Yes indeed. That however is a political subject that you have to discuss with this thing or and that is that we are establishing a committee of business men government officials and labor leaders and educators who will watch these Peace Corps volunteers while they're overseas and prepare job opportunities for them when they come return. Yes. I have other stuff too our time is coming to a close. I want to thank each one of you. I want to thank you very much Mr. Shriver used to be and you Senator Humphrey and Tessa Hayes. You have been wonderful to come today. And I hope that we have a better idea of what the pilot project will be and that this is a developing program which is
most important to remember. And now I hope you'll join us again next month at what I hope will be also a timely program. Senator Hubert Humphrey is the leading sponsor of the Peace Corps legislation in the Senate. Professor Samual He's the author of the Peace Corps task force report requested by the president. You is visiting here from knackery college at the University of East Africa where the first American Peace Corps
teachers will be sent. Our Sargent Shriver has been heading the Peace Corps effort. We were proud to it a special introduction to this program by the president of the United States. For putting information on a peace corps right to Peace Corps. And then Columbus Circle New York 19 to New York. And. This program was recorded through the facilities of the Metropolitan Broadcasting Corporation in
Washington D.C.. In the National Educational Television. Yes
yes yes
Series
Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt
Program
The Peace Corps: What Shape Shall it Take?
Episode Number
207
Producing Organization
WGBH Educational Foundation
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-pc2t43j82z
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Description
Episode Description
Guests: President John F. Kennedy. Program opens with a ten minute segment in which President Kennedy is interviewed one-on-one by Eleanor Roosevelt, discussing the advent of the Peace Corps. The opening segment was recorded at the White House in Washington, DC on 3/5/1961, the day the President issued the executive order creating the Peace Corps. Balance of program was recorded in WTTG Studios in Washington, DC. Eleanor Roosevelt moderates, guests: Senator Humbert Humphrey, (D, Minnesota) chief supporter of legislation for the permanence and expansion of the Peace Corps, Chairman of Disarmament Subcommittee of Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Professor Samuel Hays, author of The Peace Corps Task Force Report, requested by President Kennedy, and a social scientist in the Department of Economics, at the University of Michigan. Senteca Kajubi, from Makerere College,University of East Africa in Uganda, which will receive the first group of Peace Corps teachers, presently at the University of Chicago; R. Sargent Shriver, Chairman of Chicago Board of Education, and newly named Director of the Peace Corps.
Episode Description
Eleanor Roosevelt hosts a discussion on new legislation to create a Peace Corps and the objectives of the Peace Corp program. Prior to the group panel discussion, Mrs. Roosevelt interviews President John F. Kennedy at the White House on his view of what the Peace Corps will represent in the international policies of the United States as well as the logistics of training for those chosen to serve. Panelists Senator Hubert Humphrey - D Minnesota; Sargent Shriver, Director of the Peace Corps; Professor Samuel Hayes, Social Scientist at the University of Michigan; and Senteca Kajubi, visiting student from the University of East Africa in Uganda discuss the objectives of the Peace Corps in its beginning and the legislation in process to make it a permanent program. Panel discussion begins with each panelist stating the objectives of the program and the mutual benefits to students, host countries and the United States. Financing and organization is covered with an emphasis on how existing United Nations and charitable organization programs will be involved with implementation. Training and selection of volunteers is discussed in relation to ensuring that the young people involved will be welcomed representatives of the United States.
Created Date
1961-03-12
Asset type
Episode
Topics
Women
Subjects
United States Government; Peace Corps; Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962; Uganda; Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
01:02:42
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Host: Roosevelt, Eleanor
Producing Organization: WGBH Educational Foundation
Writer: Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963
Writer: Noble, Paul
Writer: Shriver, Sargent
Writer: Kajubi, Senteca
Writer: Hayes, Samuel
Writer: Humphrey, Humbert
Writer: Morgenthau, Henry, III
Writer: Michaelis, Diana Tead
Writer: Dunham, Susan
Writer: Dery, Joan
Writer: Fuchs, Lawrence
Writer: Reubens, Beryl
Writer: Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
Writer: Jones, Bob
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: 1f3c55ce18a1070bdc936b6f83b023563e0835ab (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Color: B&W
Duration: 00:00:00
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Citations
Chicago: “Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; The Peace Corps: What Shape Shall it Take?; 207,” 1961-03-12, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-pc2t43j82z.
MLA: “Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; The Peace Corps: What Shape Shall it Take?; 207.” 1961-03-12. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-pc2t43j82z>.
APA: Prospects of Mankind with Eleanor Roosevelt; The Peace Corps: What Shape Shall it Take?; 207. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-pc2t43j82z