Keyserling Asks Two-Part Drive Against Poverty

Leon H. Keyserling, former Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisors, called Saturday for a two-part program to end poverty in the United States--guaranteed federal full-employment, and a minimum annual income.

Speaking at the Freedom Budget conference, Keyserling said that the use of economic power to eliminate poverty is the only economic question of real importance in America today.

Under a guaranteed federal full-employment program, Keyserling said, the government would provide jobs for all unemployed, either by hiring them directly, or by financing private industry to employ them.

Keyserling suggested a guaranteed annual income for all who could not or should not be employed. He estimated its cost at about $6 billion a year.

"There are many good anti-poverty programs today," Keyserling said, but they are moving too slowly, or in the wrong direction. A war against poverty must be a total national commitment, he said.