25 



sometimes the government has to be listening to the people out 

 there. 



I do not know what the answer really is. There are changes in 

 the auto industry that I cannot control and the government cannot 

 control. There are changes in the timber industry which the gov- 

 ernment cannot always control. But there are some things we can 

 do. 



After my mother died, she had left a house in which she had 

 raised five of us children and the house at one time was worth at 

 least $30,000, not a mansion, but I finally sold it for $10,000 and 

 was happy to get that. I tried to give it to the Catholic Church and 

 they would not even take it. It was too much of a burden for them 

 to take. So that community has really been affected, and I know 

 your community has been affected. 



I really want to work with you and try to find out more what 

 government's role can and should be in this as I try to find out 

 what government's role can and should be in the auto industry. I 

 did think that NAFTA, which has moved some of the 40,000 jobs 

 in Flint that have been lost down to Mexico, some of them, it actu- 

 ally had people almost like Judas goats packing up the very ma- 

 chinery in Flint, sending it down to Mexico so that they could 

 produce the same parts down there. 



So we have to look at what government does and ask some ques- 

 tions, and I want to work with you. I do not know the answers, but 

 you can help us find the answers and I appreciate your testimony 

 here today. 



Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Hansen. Thank you. 



Mrs. Linda Smith? 



Mrs. Smith of Washington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



I just have a brief question for Bob Olson. First of all, thank you 

 for coming. This is not exactly a dropoff to get here from anywhere. 

 I think the message about what is happening in the Pacific North- 

 west needs to be said over and over and over. We are not just 

 nameless numbers that get added to the economy. You said you are 

 in the Portland market. I am in the same area. I am a neighbor. 

 I just come out of Morton and Yakalt and Amboy, and those people 

 do not come down and go into the metropolitan market. There is 

 a big problem with retraining or lifestyle. They chose that. They do 

 not want to go work on a computer. 



I think the point that you made between the two mills is impor- 

 tant. That 2,000 jobs you mentioned that could go down are in my 

 backyard. Back when Crown Z went out and James River took it, 

 I managed a lot of the, I call it the rent for families that were on 

 strike for two years, worked with a lot of the community families 

 to pay their bills, working on benevolence groups, and remember 

 the pain and how much that one mill affected the whole job market 

 in the whole region. I look at that happening again. 



I think that what you have now, though, is people understanding 

 it, after going through that. A lot of those same folks are there. We 

 lost some. 



But you made a statement that I think was real important, that 

 we that have grown up in the woods or are mill families, and that 

 is a lot of my background, too, we are not anti-environmentalists. 



