 An abandoned coal mine in Luzern County, Pennsylvania, reflects the decline of the area's one basic industry. Situated in the anthracite range of northeastern Pennsylvania, some 40 miles wide and 100 miles long, Luzern County since the 1920s has had an economic history of boom and sad decline. With the closing of this mine and others like it, because of increased competition from fuel oil and natural gas, thousands were thrown out of work and the population declined. The economy faded rapidly. A tractor moves through a field in Sumter County, Florida, part of the technological revolution in agriculture, which has drastically reduced the number of jobs and farming. This north-central Florida county was once a growing, thriving area. But as mechanization came to the farms, technology replaced older methods and products. The skills of many workers were made obsolete, jobs disappeared, so did the incomes they provided. The same story was repeated at Ashdown, Arkansas, where changing farm technology drove people off the land. Consider the problems of American cities, ghettos, slum housing, growing crime rates, juvenile delinquency, and law enforcement. Since its founding in the middle of the last century, Oakland, California has been a busy industrial and shipping center. But in recent years, about 10% of the city's labor force has been out of work. Many are hardcore unemployed who haven't been on a regular payroll since the end of World War II. For one reason or another, Luzern County, Pennsylvania, Sumter County, Florida, Ashdown, Arkansas, and Oakland, California failed to keep pace with the rest of our nation. These areas and others like them have been pockets of economic distress in the midst of this nation's unprecedented prosperity. As President Johnson told the nation, we cannot afford to shut out large numbers of our fellow citizens from the fulfillment of hope which is shared by the rest. For that would be the denial of the promise of America itself. Mindful of the problems and the challenge of bringing economic development to depressed areas, President Johnson and Congress approved the Public Works and Economic Development Act and created the Economic Development Administration. EDA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce, focuses upon the economic needs of depressed areas. EDA's goal is to establish stable, diversified, and strengthened local economies through a partnership of private enterprise, local initiative, and government at all levels. The kit of tools provided by the Economic Development Act includes grants and loans to help build public works needed by job-generating private industry, direct loans to business firms establishing or expanding facilities in depressed areas, and technical and planning assistance to those communities which are not sharing in the national growth. These people in Luzern County, Pennsylvania are among those who have steady jobs at plants like the Radio Corporation of America. Others are at work at the Bendix Corporation, Hart Plastics Company, and the Hazelton Weaving Company. Their jobs are among more than 18,000 industrial positions which opened up in Luzern County over the last 12 years. And these people and their steady paychecks represent the climax of the story of the community's recovery from a grim depression brought on by the decline of hard coal mining. The Federal Economic Development Program has played a substantial supporting role in this continuing story. The demand for anthracite coal was at its peak during the 1920s. Luzern County's economy was booming, but by the 1930s, business was tapering off. After World War II, competition from oil and natural gas grew, and the hard coal market declined rapidly. Jobs disappeared. Young people left the county to look for better opportunities. The population dropped from 445,000 in 1940 to 347,000 in 1960, and still the unemployment rate remained high. It was 17% in 1953. Ten years later it was still 14%. Dr. Edgar Desson, a Hazelton radiologist, was a prime mover in the community's drive to reverse this tide to meet the challenge. In the early 1950s, our prospects in the Hazelton area were bleak, to say the least. We had a 17% unemployment rate, and this did not reflect the seriousness of the picture because all of our young people were leaving the area for jobs. We organized all of the people in a total community effort to raise funds starting in 1956. We used the acronym Can Do because everybody said this could not be done. Actually, we fitted the words into these symbols later and made the words Community Area New Development Organization Incorporated. Starting in 1956, we had three drives raising a total of $2,200,000. With this money, we built speculative buildings and built buildings to the specifications of the industries. Since that time, we have had 32 industrial development projects creating nearly 6,000 direct mail jobs. We believe completely in this individual local responsibility of communities. Our unemployment now is down to the national average in a little over 10 years. And to all intents and purposes, our problem is solved. In April 1962, a $400,000 federal grant helped Wilkes College build a scientific research center. The president, Dr. Eugene S. Farley, says the project and related expansion by the college was a factor in RCA's decision to build its electronics plant in the area, employing 1,800. In 1959, we agreed to introduce a graduate program in chemistry, physics, and engineering because we understood that RCA would not establish a plant in a region which did not offer opportunities for graduate training to its employees. In addition, we found that if we were to support a graduate program, it was necessary to introduce a research program. And in consequence, the research building was constructed along with a graduate center in 1964. It was this that was supported by a grant of $400,000 from the federal government and supplemented by $600,000 in funds contributed by friends of the college. RCA has since completed an expansion that ultimately will employ an additional 800 workers. Many will be graduate and undergraduate students working on research projects. This is the Valmont Industrial Park. A $325,000 federal loan and grant helped the Hazelton City Authority pay for a water system. As a result, three firms have expanded and two new plants have opened in the park with a total job gain of 467. The park now has 13 plants and a total employment of 2,000. One of the new industries is the Hazelton Weaving Company. Established with the help of more than 1.2 million in loans from EDA, this firm was planning to move out of the area before it received the EDA assistance to build a new plant. But its 340 jobs have now been preserved. Then in 1966, a million and a half dollar EDA loan helped Hart Plastics Company build a plant in the Cresmont Industrial Park. The company is now providing 150 jobs. A $317,000 EDA loan in 1967 helped finance a Bendix Corporation plant building in the park. Its 110 employees are turning out aerospace products. Luzern County developers have made use of all aspects of the EDA program, including technical assistance aimed at helping to overcome special problems. Among them, what to do about the blight caused by stripping pits, comb piles, and other evidence of the once booming coal business. Comb is the earth low-grade coal, rock, and slate left after the usable coal has been removed. This is the Huber Comb Bank near Wilkesboro. It has been burning for years, emitting noxious fumes, endangering the health of nearby residents. Grants from EDA, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Pennsylvania Department of Mines and Minerals are financing a firefighting project at the Huber Bank. EDA made grants in 1966 and again in 1967 to help test this method of fighting such fires, using water under high pressure. While fire is a problem for Luzern County developers, so is an even more pressing problem, water. The water of the Susquehanna River, once pure and clear, is now polluted by raw wastes from towns and industrial plants. The pollution of the river is threatening the jobs of some 9,000 workers, whose employers are forced to spill wastes into the Susquehanna. To do something about this problem, the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority is planning a $20 million project to build a sewer system to serve 22 communities in Luzern County. EDA has approved a grant of almost $5 million to help. The Federal Water Pollution Control Administration is providing more than $5 million, and local citizens are investing more than $10 million. The Economic Development Council of Northeastern Pennsylvania, a seven-county agency, financed partially with EDA funds, hails the cooperative water system. The council believes the system will spur other areas in the Susquehanna River basin to do their share in cleaning up the river and promote economic improvement for the entire region. Luzern County can set an example in the restoration of America's sick rivers to a clean, healthful condition. It already has set an example for areas with sick economies by taking the action needed to create new diversified industries and thousands of new jobs. Sumter County in north-central Florida is where Interstate Highway 75 links up with the Sunshine State Parkway. About five years ago, an economic cloud hung over this county of 14,000 people. The problem? A declining agricultural economy. The mechanical cotton picker replaced hand labor. Livestock production fell off. The tractor and other power machinery substantially reduced the need for workers in the harvest of oranges. In the decade 1950 to 60, Florida's population exploded by more than 78%. Yet during this 10 years, Sumter County lost almost 9% of its people. The median family income was only about $3,000 in 1960, unemployment more than 11%. The next five years brought a change and revitalization to this Florida county. Perhaps the single most important accomplishment was a display of local leadership in planning and developing the county's economy. The next step was formation of two development corporations to stimulate private business activity and create jobs. Their efforts were aided in 1963 when ARA made the county eligible for federal financial assistance. An industrial development board was organized in Wildwood, a community of 2,200 persons. Then in December of 1964, ARA approved a $283,000 long-term loan which helped establish the Florida Corrigating Corporation. In September of 1965, the company president Charles Byrne started turning out cardboard sheets with 12 employees. In September 1965, we started our plant with a workforce of 12 people and a payroll of $4,000 a month. In May of 1966, we finished our second expansion with the SNS Flexigraphic Box Machine which increased our workforce to 27 people and a payroll now which is $175,000 a year. We are now finishing our third expansion which will be done June the 30th. At that time we will put in a C-Master die press and hire five more people. In August we hope to have two shifts running our total workforce of 55 to 60 people. This plant has helped the local people to the extent that we purchase all our raw materials and supplies in town plus placing all our insurance premiums. I would like to mention that this time without the help of the EDA this plant would have never located in Wildwood or had the growth that it has at this time. By the end of 1968, this firm had expanded twice and had assets of more than a million dollars. Sumter County's unemployment rate, 11% just five years ago, has been cut in half. The new economic activity that is stirring holds promise for even more improvement in the years ahead. A thousand miles to the west, the people of Little River County, Arkansas have faced the same problem. Agriculture has become mechanized. Cattle grazing and timber raising replaced row crops. Family farms have been absorbed into larger units. People moved away. The population of the county declined 33.7% between 1950 and 1960, thus qualifying the county for EDA assistance. The people of Little River and Ashdown, its county seat, decided that industry and jobs were the only solution to their problem. Their first hope came with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Millwood Dam and Reservoir completed in 1966. Although much of the reservoir is preserved for floodwater storage, it contains more than 50 billion gallons of water for other purposes. Little River County officials joined with four other counties, Hempstead, Miller, Lafayette and Columbia, to form the Southwest Arkansas Water District. The district has available 260 million gallons of water a day. County Judge Ray Sykes is president of the 12-county Southwest Arkansas Economic Development District. He says this water supply has enabled Little River County to rise from the bottom of the heap. In the fall of 1965, the opportunity came to make use of the water and the heavy growth of forests in the area. The Inakusa Edwards Company approached Ashdown officials about the feasibility of building a paper mill. The water district turned to EDA and obtained a $1,870,000 grant in November of 1966 to help build a pumping station and canal system to provide water for the paper plant and other industrial uses. The community voted the necessary $46 million in revenue bonds to finance the mill. Inakusa Edwards began operations in July 1968. It buys 25 million gallons of water a day from the water district and has reserved 50 million additional gallons a day to take care of planned expansion. The water flows by pipe and canal, also part of the EDA-assisted project to the mill site near Highway 71. The huge mill consists of 10 different buildings plus other work areas. More than 57,000 cubic yards of concrete were used in construction. It has its own power and water treatment plants. The mill has a rated capacity of 200 tons a day of fine papers and 400 tons of bleached pulp. On an annual basis, this equals 65,000 tons of paper and 140,000 tons of pulp. It will consume about 260,000 cords of soft and hardwood a year, all of it coming from the tri-state area of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. Water is vital in almost all phases of the paper mill's operation. Logs are moved in a flume to the debarking operation. The plant makes use of this bark stripped from pulp wood to fire the boilers for its power plant. The wood is reduced to chips which are piled high before moving into the mill to be reduced to pulp. The pulp then passes through the bleach plant where water is an essential ingredient in several stages of bleaching. A chemist scoops up some of the pulp and conducts a quality control check in the adjacent laboratories. The control panel in the pulp mill monitors and regulates the pulping operation. The bleached pulp moves on to the plant housing a huge paper-making machine. It turns out white writing, offset, register envelope and bond papers. The paper rolls off these reels in maximum widths of 84 inches. In the finishing room, the paper is cut to size and wrapped for shipping. The entire paper-making and finishing area is air-conditioned to a constant 75 degrees Fahrenheit and 50% humidity for controlled finishing conditions. At a shift break, some of the 430 full-time employees leave through the Nakusa Edwards Administration Building. The economic impact of the mill on the area is far-reaching. The annual payroll approximately 4 million. Another 4 to 5 million dollars a year will be expended in wood procurement. It is estimated that at least one full-time job will be created in wood cutting and hauling for each job at the mill, and the company purchases locally about $150,000 a year in supply. The stimulus of this paper plant has brought welcome new problems to Ashdown and Little River County, the problems that go with growth. The community has gained several hundred new residents recently, and the population of Ashdown is up to 3,100. In the fall of 1968, there were 96 new homes under construction in the area to serve the needs of local people with better-paying jobs and new people moving in. Local officials were looking forward to even more growth. With the water available through the EDA Assistant Project, they already were negotiating with new industrial prospects, which could mean more permanent jobs for the unemployed and underemployed in this area. In 1966, Oakland, California was one of the few major cities in the United States eligible for EDA financial assistance. Located just across the bay from San Francisco and stretching over 53 square miles, Oakland is sandwiched between a chain of hills and the San Francisco Bay. Oakland's unemployment problem is particularly critical for its minority population. While the unemployment rate for the city's labor force was 10% in 1966, it was almost twice that much for the minority groups. No jobs means no income, and 13% of the white families, 20% of the non-white families are trying to get along on less than $4,000 a year, compared with the national average more than 50% higher. Because of Oakland's tremendous need for new employment opportunities, EDA moved to help soon after President Johnson signed the Economic Development Act. A number of conferences were held in Washington and in Oakland over a period of several months. There were questions about the kinds of projects that would make the greatest impact on Oakland's job problem. How many jobs would they create? There were also questions about the best ways to assure that these jobs would go to those who needed them the most. At City Hall, Oakland's Mayor John Redding was instrumental in getting the spirit of local and federal cooperation into high gear. City Manager Jerome Keithley became involved early and quickly focused on the need for training people for jobs which would give them a future. The publisher of the Oakland Tribune, former U.S. Senator William Nolan, is one of the Oakland leaders supporting the program. Both as the president and publisher of the Oakland Tribune and as president of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, I'm of course widely interested as are other citizens of this community in helping to solve our employment problems, bringing new industry that will help in that matter to the community. We have been gratified by the splendid cooperation of the federal government and by the state and local organizations and governments that have worked together in meeting this common problem. Once the plans were set and agreed to, the Economic Development Administration announced its program to help create new jobs in Oakland. The initial Public Works project involved more than $23 million in EDA grants and long-term low-interest loans. To help Oakland expand its port facilities and provide new jobs, $10 million in EDA assistance is going to help build new marine terminal facilities. It's a big project. First, a dike about one and a half miles long had to be built to enclose the 140-acre terminal site. Most of the earth fill for the terminal area was acquired from excavation work on a vast rapid transit system, which will pass under the terminal. The completed project will require about 4.6 million cubic yards of fill. When the new terminal is completed, there will be 10 berths for container facilities and bulk cargo operations. It's estimated that the new terminal and docks will generate 50,000 tons of cargo a year and create about 500 direct new jobs, plus additional indirect employment opportunities. The biggest single item scheduled for construction is a $10.5 million hanger at Oakland Airport. It will be capable of handling new giant jet transports. When built, the hanger will be leased to private firms who estimate that about 1,000 new workers, many from Oakland's long-term jobless, will be needed. In addition to public works, EDA is also assisting with direct business loan. This small but successful mom-and-pop sweet shop will soon be doing business in a brand new shop built with the help of a $55,000 EDA loan. The operator, Benny Smith and his wife, supplied $13,000 of their money. Another $17,000 came from a local lending institution. The funds are financing a new building, machinery and needed fixtures, and the payroll is expected to hit 25 when the plant is in full operation. Training is the final ingredient in the Oakland experiment. Here at the East Bay Skill Center, training has a dual purpose. The center, which is financed from federal and local funds, provides up-to-date skills that an individual needs in order to get and hold a job. It provides communities with the skill labor force essential to industrial growth. What has been accomplished and continues to be accomplished in places like Sumpter County, Florida, Luzern County, Pennsylvania, Little River County, Arkansas, and Oakland, California, and in hundreds of other areas of the nation is only the beginning. Economic development of a depressed area is not an easy task. Many communities have lagged for a long time. The cure will not come overnight. While we have journeyed a considerable distance toward our ultimate objective, a good life for every American family. There is no doubt we still have a long way to go. Pockets of poverty are a drag on economic expansion. They represent a challenge. The Economic Development Administration is meeting that challenge to make this nation a better place to live and to work.