ustxtxb_obs_1963_12_27_50_00004-00000_000.pdf

many are unable to obtain any employment, and others a little more fortunate move from place to place, holding only such unskilled jobs as cooks, general laborers, and construction workers. When a youth drops out of school he appears to have little realization of the drastically changing world in which he seeks employment and the increasing need for an education in the competition for jobs. Statistics reveal that the unemployment rate is three times higher among dropouts than among high school graduates. By early 1963, youths from 16 to 21 out of school and out of work represented one in six of all unemployed, but only one in every 14 persons in the nation’s labor force. High school dropouts can qualify only for unskilled and routine jobs at the bottom of the occupational ladder and for semiskilled jobs. Automation and other technical advances are affecting 1.8 million such jobs a year. By 1965, the Labor Department reports, the nation will have three young people without a high school diploma chasing every two jobs available to them. The outlook, however, is not entirely hopeless for these youths, for despite the over-supply of people for unskilled jobs, there are at the same time shortages of qualified workers in skilled occupations and professional fields. A report in October 1963 from the Texas Employment CornMission in Dallas revealed shortages in such occupations as comptometer operator, bank teller, claims adjuster, refrigerator mechanic, auto mechanic, auto body repairman, aluminum polisher, electroplater, engine lathe operator, ornamental iron worker, tool grinder, furniture repairmen, upholsterer, electronic technician, and numerous others. A survey of employment agencies and large firms by the Dallas Times-Herald in early November disclosed 52 specific skills in short supply in the Dallas area. Listed most frequently were shortages in one or more of three general fieldsengineering, machine shop work, and office work. By 1965, the Labor Department reports, there will be only five high school graduates available for every seven jobs requiring that much education. As I sit in court trying to judge these people who have committed offenses, the thought recurs: What opportunity have these men and women had to make good, who is to blame that they are unprepared for living, and what can be done now to make them self-supporting citizens? FORTUNATELY for our economy and our changing world, prison systems have also changed. The object of confinement is no longer merely custodial care, but is likewise rehabilitation of the individual. The federal system and most state systems now provide vocational training in many skilled trades, as well as facilities for high school and even college courses. 4 The Texas Observer The individuals themselves frequently come to realize that a part of their trouble is a lack of educational and vocational skills that are necessary to compete in society. On Noverriber 10, 1963, an unusual high school graduation took place. At the Texas state penitentiary in Huntsville, 375 persons who had been inmates of the prison system received high school diplomas. 203 were still inmates, while the remaining 172 had been discharged or paroled. Dr. George Beto, prison manager, who acted as master of ceremonies, had this to say: “This graduating class is our most important statistic in the system. It has been proven that men and women com The Aftermath: 1 Austin The Observer learned that Lee Oswald probably was in Austin this fall and tried to get his Marine discharge changed to an honorable one during his visit here. The Oswalds had been in New Orleans last Summer; on Sept. 23 Mrs. Oswald and Mrs. Ruth Paine of Irving drove to Irving, and Oswald left shortly thereafter. He turned up in Mexico City, applying for travel papers to Russia via Cuba Sept. 27. He could have stopped in Austin on his way to Mexico through Laredo. Mrs. Mary Lee Dannelly, assistant chief of the administrative division of the Selective Service system in Texas, says Oswald called on her about six weeks before the assassination in an attempt to get his discharge changed to honorable. Mrs. Dannelly also remembered that Oswald’s visit, which lasted about half an hour, occurred on one of her paydays. She is paid every other Wednesday; one of her paydays was Sept. 25, about eight weeks before the assassination. “He had been to the governor’s office to see how to get his discharge corrected,” she said. “They sent him down here because they didn’t have any of the_informaton that he wanted.” The regular receptionist in the governor’s office and Larry Temple, Gov. Connally’s administrative assistant who usually handles military matters for the governor, agree that they do not recall or have a record of a visit from Oswald. “He just mentioned that he’d gone up to the governor’s office to see about ,getting his discharge changed,” Mrs. Dannelly said. She also mentioned that they had not had the forms he needed at the governor’s office. “He said he had first gotten an honorable discharge, but it was later changed to other than honorable conditions,” she said. “They told him at the time that if he lived an upright life, he could make pleting this course rarely come back once they are released.” Important as are training and educational opportunities in our prison system, they do not reach nearly all prison inmates, and even if they were 100% effective, which they are not, prison training represents only an infinitesimal part of the answer to the dropout problem. We need to do something about dropouts long before a crime is committed. The most hopeful sign is that there is a growing awareness by the public of the needs of the low income, illiterate people and of the necessity to mobilize the talents and resources of the community to solve this problem. It is a test of our wisdom and our humanity. application after two years. He’d been, waiting more than two years. He said it had caused him difficulty getting or keeping a job, and it was embarassing his family.” Oswald was released from active duty in the Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 1959, according to the Associated Press. After he tried to defect to Russia, the Washington Post has reported, he was given an undesirable discharge; early in 1962 he wrote to Connally, then Secretary of the Navy, bitterly protesting this. Mrs. Dannelly is “positive” the man who came to see her was Lee Oswald. She said he gave his name as “Oswald”; she recognized him on television. She thought he must have given her his first two names in some variation, because she could not find a card on him in her files at the time. She has since found a routine card under the name, Lee Harvey Oswald. He told her he lived in Fort Worth, where his mother lives and he worked in 1962. He said he had registered for the draft in Florida; Oswald in fact registered in Fort Worth, but Lt. Col. Boyd Sinclair, chief of the administrative division, says registrants are frequently confused on such details. Mrs. Darinelly said she thought, when she was talking with Oswald, ” ‘Well, that’s the ugliest man I ever saw.’ He was just repulsive to me.” He was not discourteous ; however, and “he seemed very sincere,” she said. She searched in a book of Navy regulations for the provision which would be controlling as to Marine discharges, but did not find it, and finally suggested to him that the Fort Worth office of Selective Service might have the records he needed. Two other Austin residents believe they saw Oswald in Trek’s Cafe on South Congress, 30 blocks from the downtown area of Austin. Oswald could have stopped in there Oswald in Austin