Shriver was questioned on the point by the Senate committee, and he repeated the same argument of open recruitment and foreswearment of proselytizing. The eventual outcome of the controversy will probably be decided by the committee, and if anything is done it will most likely be institution of a stronger ruling in the legislation.
In any case, nobody expects much trouble in the way of amendments or final passage. Legislative aides to Sen. Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.) and Rep. Henry Reuss (D-Wisc.), co-sponsors of the bill in their respective Houses, and among the first legislators to propose the Peace Corps, have flatly predicted easy sailing when the bill reaches the floor. They each noted that certain clarifying amendments might be offered, but agreed that no legislator "could really vote against the Peace Corps."
People in the Peace Corps office itself were also enthusiastic, but warned of the possibility of an amendment that would take the Corps out of its semi-autonomous position in the State Department, and put it into the foreign aid program and ICA. The effect of such a move, many feel, would be to negate the spirit of personal aid and service that the original sponsors envisaged, and make the Corps just another propaganda weapon in the cold war.
Flexibility Allowed
The bill as it now stands (before amendment) is very general, in order to leave the program flexible and adaptable to any project or problem that might arise. Most of the power is invested in the President and the Director, and very little except basic outlines are in the bill.
The most important feature is the request for a $40 million appropriation, which would insure the autonomy of the Corps, and its operation for the new fiscal year. Congress will almost definitely grant the entire sum, since Sen. Humphrey noted when introducing the bill, "the figure is less than that needed for the firing of one intercontinenal missile at Cape Canaveral--even an unsuccessful firing."
Other sections of the bill deal with broad outlines for selection, training, and service, stipulations for pay, insurance, and future benefits under government plans, provisions for volunteer leaders, married couples, and foreign nationals to help with the training and selection of Corpsmen.
With the legislative situation well in hand, plans for more actual Peace Corps projects are in the works. Six have already been announced--to Tanganyika, Colombia, the Philippines, St. Lucia, Chile, and Ghana. The Ghana and Philippine projects call mainly for teachers; St. Lucia, Chile, and Colombia for agricultural experts and community developers; and Tanganyika for highly-skilled surveyors and geologists. Three of the projects--St. Lucia with Heifer, Inc., Chile with the Indiana Conference for higher education, and Colombia with CARE--will be run jointly by private organizations and the government. The Corpsmen bound for Colombia, Tanganyika, and Ghama are already in training at college campuses around the country; the Chile group will begin soon.
The Peace Corps office is preparing announcements of several other projects. As a result of the talks between Shriver and Prime Minister Nehru of India, a group specializing in agriculture will be sent there, while a number of African countries have requested contingents specializing in education.
When people here can be diverted from such problems as Berlin or Laos, school bills or foreign aid, and made to talk about the Peace Corps, the first reaction is one of caution. They are cautious because they know all too well both the immensity of the task the Peace Corps is undertaking, and the profusion of problems it will have to solve.
People are most anxious to talk about it at the Peace Corps office. Bill Moyers, a 28-year-old former Baptist minister, is Associate Director of Public Affairs. "We are under no illusions that this is a panacea. We aren't overly optimistic, and we don't think we're supermen," he said at the outset.
But just as the first reaction is caution, the second is hope. Many mention the spirit and idealism of the youth who have flooded the office with applications. Moyers thinks it goes beyond that. Speaking of his own office staff he said, "Nobody is here who didn't ask to be here. Adults haven't been given a chance to answer President Kennedy's challenge 'to do something for your country.' There is a great reservoir of energy and talent that needs to be channeled. Not only the youth want to be challenged."
Moyer's secretary is Nancy Gore, the 23-year-old daughter of Sen. Albert Gore (D.-Tenn.), a co-sponsor of the bill. Her words are familiar even though she has a Southern accent, to regular readers of President Kennedy's prose. Yet they retained their impact. "Amricans respond in difficult times by doing the impossible. If Communism had never been born there would still be the basic problems in the world that the Peace Corps is trying to comba. There is a greater war going on, and if this doesn't help I don't know what will."
The caution is justified. The Peace Corps has yet to send one single person abroad, and the first ones will not go until fall. Problems of training, housing selection and a hundred other things still have to be worked out--and most will sot be solved except by experience. The Corps is still operating under extcutive order, and has not even been sanctioned by Congress.
But the hope is justified too. The Peace Corps has challenged American youth as nothing before. Never has a program of international cooperation been brought down to a personal level a program in which an individual can make a contribution to furthering world peace with his hands and his heart, not just his pocketbook.
The problems are many, and the possibility of failure ever present. But if you wonder why so many people, not only in the Peace Corps office, or on college campuses, or on the Hill, but all over the world, have faith in the Peace Corps and its mission, look the eyes of the two little kids in the picture opposite the elevators.