24S 



The first Federal program to use youth in a service capacity, but 

 only domestically, was the 19;');3 Civilian Conservation Cori)s. The CCC 

 was a depression-time organization to provide jobs and improve nat- 

 ural resources. It employed teenagers and young adults to build parks, 

 clean and restore barren lands, plant trees, and work on farms and 

 irrigation projects.*' David Lilienthal, former Chairman of the Tennes- 

 see Valley Authority, advocated a universal public-service plan in 

 whicli every educated American Avould devote a number of years to 

 Federal service at home or abroad.' Various voluntary, nongovern- 

 mental, people-to-people programs of educational and technical as- 

 sistance in developing countries appeared after World AVar II : the 

 Experiment in International Living (for teenagei-s), Cross-Roads 

 Africa (summer work for college students in Africa), and the Inter- 

 national Voluntary Services (established in 1953 to coordinate U.S. 

 religious mission activities in underdeveloped area). When Point IV 

 legislation was being considered in Congress, Dr. Dewey Anderson, 

 director of the Public Affaii*s Institute, recommended that 1^50 work 

 centers, staffed by skilled American workers and natives, be established 

 in underdeveloped countries.^ Similarly, Victor G. Reuther of the 

 United Auto Workers Institute suggested that the United States par- 

 ticipate in a ''Point 4 Youth Corps" to be administered through the 

 United Nations.^ 



Congressional proposals hy Reuss and Neuherger 



Representative Henry S. Reuss, after reviewing American techni- 

 cal assistance efforts in Cambodia in 1958, told an audience at Cornell 

 University that he favored the formation of a ''Youth Corps" under 

 the Point IV program.^° Later Mr. Reuss described this proposal as a 

 corrective supplement to enlarge the scope of the aid program, put 

 more workers in the field, and redress the balance away from military 

 overemphasis. He criticized the existing program as inadequate and 

 "suffering from bureaucratic hardening of the arteries.*' A more fun- 

 damental criticism was its orientation to the status quo — 



Too often we seem to emphasize military alliances with corrupt or reactionary 

 leaders: furnishing military hardware which all too frequently is turned on the 

 people of the country we are presumably helping * * *. Would we not be farther 

 along if we relied more heavily on a group of some thousands of young Ameri- 

 cans willing to help with an irrigation project, digging a village well, or setting 

 up a rural school? " 



In 1959, Representative Reuss and Senator Richard Xeuberger intro- 

 duced bills which called for a study of a bilateral "Point 4 Youth 

 Corps." Their objectives, which resembled those of the program later 

 enacted, were defined by Representative Reuss as follows : 



To make additional technical manpower available * * * in underdeveloped, 

 friendly, foreign countries : 



To assist in broadening the understanding by the peoples of other nations of 

 the ideals and aspirations of Americans ; 



To broaden [the] understanding [by American youth] of the problems facing 

 other peoples * * *. 



« Rov Hoopes, "The Complete Peace Corps Guide" (New York, The Dial Press, 1961). p. 11. 



•Ibid., p. 21. 



''Ibid., p. 22. 



^ Paper prepared at Mr. Rpiither's sng-gestion and distributed at a meeting called by 

 Representative Henry S. Reuss at the Capitol. Dec. 20. 19C0. 



"' Hoopes. op. eit.. p. 24. 



^1 Henry S. Reuss, "A Point 4 Youth Corps," The Commonweal (May 6, 1960), pp. 

 146-147. 



