the future of our Nation and the education of all its children who cannot and will not subscribe to the proposition of local control of schools.

The public schools of the United States are local institutions which have been established and are operated and financed by local people on the local level. And all persons willing to view the question dispassionately will admit that to fulfill their role they must be administered on the local level by the school patrons directly concerned. As one who has been close to this issue and who is familiar with all of its ramifications, I wish to state to the subcommittee that unless some step, such as is proposed in the pending amendment, is taken soon to resolve the growing controversy on a realistic, constitutional basis, the ultimate result of the present sequence of events will be to destroy public education in many areas of the South.

Such an eventuality would be an unparalleled catastrophe which no one would deplore more vigorously than I.

It would be a terrible tragedy from which no one would benefit and in which the children of the South would be the principal losers. The importance of education hardly can be overstated.

With the exception of seeking the salvation of his immortal soul, man has no greater responsibility than seeing that his young are educated to the fullest extent of their abilities and are equipped spiritually and intellectually to achieve mankind's highest destiny.

The American concept of universal education, more than any other factor, is responsible for the greatness which this Nation has achieved. And it very likely may prove to be the determining factor in the outcome of our present life-or-death struggle with international communism.

This critical juncture in our national life is no time to permit divisive issues to rob the Nation of the minds and talents of a great segment of its youth by closing thhe doors of the public schools in their faces.

To the young people of the South there is little difference between closing schools with court orders and destroying them with bombs because the end result of both actions is the same to deny them their right to a public education.

The basic question involved is far more fundamental than the mere matter of who attends what school. It goes to the very heart of our concept of constitutional republican government; that is, the right of local people to run their local affairs in accordance with local wishes, conditions, and prevailing attitudes.

The very basis of our form of government is, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, that it derives its "just powers from the consent of the governed." And whenever we in this country, get away from that cornerstone of our freedom, as of that moment we will have ceased to be a nation in which the people govern themselves and will have become a judicial dictatorship instead.

Now, I recognize that on the issue of separation of the races in the schools of the Nation there is a wide divergence of opinion and individual feelings are strong and inflamed on both sides. Many false emotional factors have been injected and those undoubtedly account for the failure of any of the judicial corrective measures to come

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before Congress to date to seek to deal with the illegalities of the Supreme Court's ruling in the school cases.

It is most unfortunate that many of those who are loudest in denouncing the South are the same persons who demonstrate more interest in pandering to the prejudices of minority groups for political gain than in seeking the best possible public education for all the young people of America regardless of their color or place of residence.

And let me state in passing, Mr. Chairman, for the benefit of the professional race baiters and the chronic bleeding hearts, that the races are living together in harmony and mutual respect in my State of Georgia. They are solving whatever racial problems Georgia may have on the local level in accordance with local wishes and I am confident those good relations will continue regardless of what the future may bring.

The constitutional and sociological ramifications of the decision of the Supreme Court that separate, but equal, education is violative of the 14th amendment have stirred a continuing controversy which has divided the best minds of the country.

(At this point, Senator Stennis came into the hearing room.) Senator KEFAUVER. Just a minute, Senator Talmadge. Senator Stennis, we would be glad to have you sit here with us.

Senator STENNIS. I want to hear his testimony, thank you.

Senator TALMADGE. There are those who consider the decision to be the law of the land and who are determined to force its implementation regardless of the results.

There are others, like myself, who consider the decision to be outside the scope of the Constitution and who are dedicated to seeking its reversal by every lawful means.

Therefore, an essential prerequisite to solving the issue without destroying the public schools of the South, is a recognition on the part of all the people of this Nation-East and West as well as North and South of these two incontrovertible facts of the situation.

First, whether one accepts it or not, the Supreme Court's school decision is an accomplished fact which will remain so until it either is reversed by the Court itself, or is nullified or modified by Congress or the people.

And, second, whether one likes it or not, the overwhelming majority of the people of the South will neither accept nor submit to the forced implementation of that decision and there is no prospect of any change in that position within the foreseeable future.

There is only one realistic, constitutional way by which the public schools of the South can be spared the fate of being crushed between

those two millstones, and that way lies in recognizing that public schools are local institutions which must be operated by local people on the State and local levels if they are to survive.

Such a solution is afforded by the amendment now under consideration by this subcommittee.

It is a solution which is compatible with our American constitutional concepts and which would settle the question for all time to come and serve the best interests of the present and future generations of American youth.

It would forever end the threat of Federal control of education from any quarter.

It would assure the uninterrupted instruction of all the children of the Nation regardless of their color or place of residence.

It would assure that whatever change might take place would be with the consent of the governed and by the constructive process of evolution rather than the destructive process of revolution.

It would preserve the constitutional right of the States and their citizens to run their own affairs.

It would create a basis for unity throughout the Nation at a time when it is vitally important that we of the United States present a united front before our enemies.

The principle of State and local control of public education is well established by both law and precedent.

Our Founding Fathers, as I have noted, recognized that education is a local responsibility by leaving it as one of the areas retained for exclusive State and local control under the terms of the 9th and 10th amendments.

It is a principle which is supported both by the local nature of school financing and by the findings of responsible Federal study groups.

According to the Library of Congress, 93.4 percent of all public school revnue and 96.4 percent of all capital outlay funds for public school facilities are raised on the State and local levels. Those figures compare to 4.6 percent of school revenue and 3.6 percent of capital outlay funds which come from the Federal level.

With the permission of the subcommittee, Mr. Chairman, I should like to have incorporated into the record at this point in my testimony the tables on sources of school revenue and capital outlay provided me by the Library of Congress.

Senator KEFAUVER. Without objection, they will be printed in the record at this point.

(The tables referred to are as follows:)