Domestic Peace

In less than a month, a budget-hungry Congress will probably destroy President Kennedy's plans for a National Service Corps. This will happen at a time when the service corps is more needed than most of the country realizes. The possibilities for national improvement by using volunteer help are unlimited. By destroying the program, the legislators will have barred from interested citizens an effective method of aiding the country.

The Administration has worked long and with much care on the program. It has sought advice throughout the United States in an attempt to discover how all those concerned can help with the problems of the mentally retarded, the poorly educated, the migrants, the elderly, the poor, and the American Indians. The government's current plans for corpsmen to establish community-run volunteer programs using local resources is intelligently conceived and capable of great potential. By developing programs only when and where communities have requested them the service corps would force local areas to take stock of their own problems.

The corps has announced that it would not give preference to students; anyone over eighteen years old is acceptable and this includes the elderly. Besides this obvious advantage of more employed manpower in the nation the corps would provide for all who participated an understanding and greater awareness of the problems the country faces.

Throughout America there is an untapped source of assistance to communities among students, adults, and the elderly. Opponents of the service corps would do well to realize that it is through the national service corps that community self-help can become a reality.