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War on Dependency: Liberal Individualism and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies
Affiliation:
Gareth Davies is Lecturer in American History in the American Studies department, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, England.
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Extract

In 1964 President Lyndon Johnson, professing himself alarmed by the seemingly “endless growth of relief rolls,” declared “war” on poverty. Walter Heller, his chief economic adviser, had recently remarked that it would be quite possible to eliminate the symptoms of poverty by simply redistributing two percent of the national income. Johnson, however, preferred to attack the sources of deprivation, claiming that the range of rehabilitative services provided by his Economic Opportunity Act would allow the poor to engineer their own paths to affluence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , August 1992 , pp. 205 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

1 Johnson's remarks were made at the signing ceremony for the Economic Opportunity Act on 20 Aug. 1964. See “Administrative History of the Office of Economic Opportunity,” 52Google Scholar, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas.

2 Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Hearings before the AdHoc Subcommittee on the War on Poverty of the House Committee on Education and Labor, 88th Congress, 2nd Session, 29.

3 Piven, Frances Fox and Cloward, Richard A., Regulating the Poor: The Functions of Public Welfare (New York: Vintage, 1971), Ch. 9.Google Scholar The quotations are from p. 272.

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5 Patterson, James T., America's Struggle Against Poverty, 1900–1985 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986), 136.Google Scholar Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a contributor to Sargent Shriver's anti-poverty task force, goes further, claiming that “an immense opportunity to institute more or less permanent social changes – a fixed full employment programme, a measure of income maintenance – was lost while energies were expended in ways that very probably hastened the end of the brief period when such options were open.” Moynihan, , Maximum Feasible Misunderstanding: Community Action in the War on Poverty (New York: Free Press, 1969), 193.Google Scholar

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8 For a useful introduction to the dynamics of welfare state formation in America see Weir, Margaret, Orloff, Ann Shola, and Skocpol, Theda, “Understanding American Social Politics,” in Orloff, Weir, and Skocpol, , eds., The Politics of Social Policy in the United States (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1988), 3–27.Google Scholar

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16 Ibid., Title I, Part A, 586.

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32 Myrdal, Gunnar, “War on Poverty,” The New Republic, 8 02 1964, 14.Google Scholar

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34 Ibid., 22 July 1964, 16632.

35 Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, Hearings before the Ad Hoc Committee on the War on Poverty of the House Committee on Education and Labor, 88th Congress, ind Session, on HR. 10440, 67.

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48 Ibid., 23 July 1964, 16742.

49 Ibid., 6 Aug. 1964, 18307.

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53 In 1964, average monthly AFDC payments totalled $140 per family, or less than 25% of average family earnings. Because the Social Security Act allows individual states to set benefits at whatever level they desire, payments varied from $212 per month in Illinois to as little as $39.47 in Mississippi. U.S. Department of Commerce, Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1965, 309.Google Scholar For average family earnings see ibid., 40.

54 Congressional Record, 22 07 1964, 16612.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., 5 Aug. 1964, 18298.

56 Ibid., 6 Aug. 1964, 18310.

57 Ibid., 25 July 1964, 16761.

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60 Ibid., 1.

61 Cited by Schlesinger, Arthur M. Jr., The Crisis of Confidence (New York: Bantam, 1969), vii.Google Scholar

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72 Yarmolinsky, Adam, “The Beginnings of O.E.O.,” in Sundquist, ed., On Fighting Poverty, 49.Google Scholar

73 Myrdal, , “The War on Poverty,” in The New Republic, 8 02 1964, 15.Google Scholar The same hostility to racial preference is evident from the debate surrounding Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which sought to outlaw discrimination in employment). Dismissing the “bugaboo” that the creation of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission indicated a commitment to racial quotas, Hubert Humphrey insisted that “Title VII is designed to encourage hiring on the basis of ability and qualifications, not race or religion.” Robert Kennedy's Justice Department told Senator Joseph P. Clark (D-Pa.) that “any deliberate attempt to maintain a given balance would almost certainly run afoul of Title VII.” Congressional Record, 30 03 1964, 6549Google Scholar; and 8 Apr. 1964. 7207–10.

74 Congressional Record, 5 08 1964, 18198.Google Scholar

75 Reported to John W. Carley: Memorandum to Yarmolinsky, Adam and McCarthy, Wilson, 20 07 1964Google Scholar, Office files of Bill Moyers, Box 38, Johnson Library.

76 Memorandum, McMillan, to Johnson, , 10 08 1964Google Scholar, “Legislative History of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964,” Box 2, Johnson Library.

77 Niebuhr, Reinhold, “Johnson and the Myths of Democracy,” in The New Leader, 25 05 1964, 18.Google Scholar

78 Ibid., 19–20.

79 Walinsky, Adam, “Keeping the Poor in their Place: Notes on the Importance of being One-Up,” in The New Republic, 4 07 1964, 15.Google Scholar

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81 Reagan, Michael D., “For a Guaranteed Income,” New York Times Magazine, 7 06 1964, 20.Google Scholar

82 Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, House Hearings, 429.Google Scholar

83 Economic Opportunity Act, Senate Hearings, 327.Google Scholar

84 Ibid., 287.

85 Ibid., 287–88.

86 “Report No. 4, Resolutions Committee, U.A.W. Constitutional Convention, March 20–27, 1964,” reprinted in Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, House Hearings, 453–63.Google Scholar

87 Harrington, Michael, The Other America (New York: Penguin, 1963), 120.Google Scholar

88 Ibid., 175.

89 Myrdal, , Challenge to Affluence, 46.Google Scholar

90 Rep. Dave Martin (R-Neb.) asked Robert F. Wagner, the Democratic mayor of New York City, whether he would support the notion of a $3,000 guaranteed annual income, helpfully observing that “we have this kind of plan worked out in Communist nations.” Wagner demurred, remarking that all he wanted was “to give some people the opportunity to get some dignity.” Rep. James Roosevelt (D-Cal) characterized the Ad Hoc Committee as “a group of private people who got together to express a point of view.” To suggest that their views had any relevance to the Economic Opportunity Act did “not make any sense at all.” Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, House Hearings, 746–47, 770–71.

91 For good accounts see Matusow, , Unraveling of AmericaGoogle Scholar, and Marris, Peter and Rein, Martin, Dilemmas of Social Reform: Poverty and Community Action in the United States (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin, 1972.)Google Scholar

92 Matusow, , 126.Google Scholar

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94 Ibid., 82.