This is a national. and not a local or State problem. We can no longer bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the problem does not exist. Madam President. in August of 1959 the Subcommittee on Migrant Labor was created. The chairman of this subcommittee. the distinguished junior Senator from New Jersey . deserves the commendation of all Americans for the magnificent work he has done. and is doing. in bringing this situation to the attention of the public and in urging action to remedy it. This subcommittee has recommended an extensive program of legislation. National support is proposed for local programs to bring migrant children into the educational system. Also proposed are a housing program. child welfare services and day care centers. extension of public health services. and measures to increase wages. This legislative program should be acted upon during this session of Congress. With each month that goes by without doing so. thousands of children are denied the right to a full education and a better life while their parents continue to toil under deplorable conditions. Madam President. on June 27. 1961. an excellent column by Peter Edson. "Migrant Workers Plight." appeared in the Washington Daily News. a member of the ScrippsHoward league of newspapers. Mr. Edson clearly reveals the deplorable situation of migrant farmworkers and the inequities that exist between American migrants and those imported from Mexico and the British West Indies. His column points out the need for new legislation which would give native Americans the same protection and benefits enjoyed by immigrant migrant laborers. as well as the need for legislation to improve pay and working conditions of American migrants in their own rights. Madam President. I commend this column to my colleagues and request unanimous consent that it be embodied in my remarks and printed at this point in the RECORD.
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