Speech #900050510

For one thing. 70 percent of the people on welfare in the State of New York live in New York City. This is one aspect of the citys traditional position as the gateway to the East. and the Nations greatest melting pot. Just as New York City. in the last half of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th. received its steady stream of immigrants from other lands. so is the city now the focal point of a new kind of influxthe migration of large numbers of American citizens from other parts of the Nation. The migrants of today live in our city while they become reestablished and reoriented. like the immigrants of the past. There is one difference: in those days. there were still western lands to homestead. railroads to build. factories to construct and man. Today. demands for technological skills and understanding of language are greater. It often takes newcomers longer to become completely reoriented. The Federal Government recognized its responsibility to the immigrant masses * in the earlier day. by offering homestead * land and other inducements to move the newcomers out into other parts of the country. Today. the Federal Government has a similar responsibility to the migrant arrivals before they can fend for themselves. The food stamp plan. with Federal .Government shouldering its full share. is an important part of the process of reorientation for the 200.000 citizens of lowest income who can be expected to benefit from it in New York City._ Food stamp bonuses averaging about $66 a year for each of these participants in New York City would bring from $10 million to $15 million in additional purchasing power into merchants tills. The merchants increased income taxes would provide a significant return to the Federal Government.