and I will not take your time to detail them here. At that meeting
in Annapolis four years ago I said: "It is shameful and intolerable
that in this year 1960 there should be children in the United States
who are dying of malnutrition, and entire families who are living on
a government subsistence handout which is only 30 per cent of
minimal nutritional needs. It is intolerable that we should have
whole counties where the yearly family income is less than |400, and
where children can't go to school because of lack of clothes and shoes. "
These feelings have been echoed many time since then, and I know
that they underlie President Johnson's deep and burning desire that
something finally be done to eliminate the appalling conditions which
are plainly visible to any traveler in Appalachia.

To me one of the most significant features of the present bill — in
addition to its being based on a cooperative federal-state-regional
approach — is the fact that it is aimed specifically at the causes, and
not merely the symptoms, of the economic distress of the region. If
you will permit, I would like to quote again from the address which
1 made before the first Conference of Appalachian Governors four
years ago. "We can never, " I said at that time, "arrive at a permanent
solution to the problems of the Appalachian region until we stop
thinking of the mountains as a 'distressed area' and begin to think
of them as an underdeveloped region with vast untapped human
and natural resources — a region that can only find its rightful eco-
nomic level through a plan of over-all economic development, pro-
grammed for a period of five, ten, or even 20 years. This pro-
gram must not only deal with the basic problem of correcting the
growing imbalance between manpower and job opportunities, but
should also concentrate on the building of new highways, flood con-
trol projects, and.... increasing educational and vocational training
levels throughout the region. "

This approach, I am happy to say, is exactly the one to be found in
this bill. In that connection, I am especially pleased to note the
emphasis which this bill has placed upon highway construction. Here
we see an approach to road-building that was first developed by the
ancient Romans — the use of roads not simply to serve traffic already
there, but to open up a region for economic development and growth.

Isolation has long been the curse of Appalachia. The high moun-
tains running north and south effectively blocked the region from the
primarily east-west flow of American economic development. High-
way and rail builders usually found it easier to by-pass Appalachia
than to traverse it. Only a good modern road network can end this

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