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_ ATLANTA. DAILY WORLD. yc" Thursday, Merch -20,-1969,
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~ Atlanta Welfa
Carry Story. To Washington -
Mothers
®
A bi-racial group of four Atlanta mofhers who will be ef-
fected by the “welfare freeze are going to Washington Thurs-
day to personally tell their stories to Senator Talmadge, Senator |
Russell, Congressman Thompson, and Congressman Blakburn.
The mothers will tell their retpresentatives whal the welare cul-
back will do to their families.
The trip is being sponsored by
the Atlanta Community Relations
“Commission. “The four mothers are
representatives of those who are
‘trying to help themselves,” stated
Nat Welch, CRC’s executive direc~
tor who will accompany them.
The “welfare freeze”. on Aid to
Families with Dependent Children
will go into effect July 1 unless
repealed by Congress.
“The maximum $154 monthly
frant for a family is barely enough
to afford sustenance. Any reduc-
tion in payments would bring abot
untold hardships that stagger the
imagination,’’ said Welch,
These hardships could cause fur-
ther breaking up of families, more
school dropouts, malnutrition and |
the subsequent showing down of
mentul processes. Remedial or re-
habilitative programs, which are
not. always successful, are more
costly than programs of preven-
tion in the opinion of the Commis-
sion.
“The Atlanta Community Rela-
tions Commission is concerned that
our nation is spending billions dn
sending a man to the moon and
two-thirds of the national budget
to pay for past, present and future
wars yet unless repealed, the wel-
fare freeze will reduce by up io
40 per cent payments to 35,000 mo-
thers and 114,000 children in Geor.
gia most of whom do not now have
enough money for an adequate)
dict. " :
The Commission calls on the Con-
eress to repeal .the welfare freeze
before it goes into effect July 1,”
said Welch. pls
THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, Friday, March 21, 1969
A at DC.
Urge Kind
Or Freeze
Four Atlanta mothers living
on welfare visited the office of
Georgia lawmakers in Washing-
ton Thursday to plead for elimi-!
nation of the “freeze” on wel-|
fare money scheduled to take
effect on July 1. :
Sobbing, one mother told Sen.
Herman E. Talmadge, “I’m go-
ing to have to give up because
I can’t survive.”
' Mrs. Wanna Mitchell told the
senator, ‘I worked and I tried
to take care of my kids,” but
said the loss of her welfare
money would leave her family
without enough money to live.
The welfare freeze as ap-.
proved by Congress would lock
the level of federal payments
to state programs at their cur-
rent level, a move that Guorgia
officials -says would cause as
much as a 40 per cent reduction
in payments by June 1970.
The freeze was set to take ef-
fect last year, but was later de-
layed until July 1.
In an effort to marshal sup-
port for elimination of the
freeze, the Atlanta Community
Relations Commission arranged
for the four mothers to go to
Washington to describe their
plight to the legislators.
The four also visited the of-
fices of Representatives Fletch-
er Thompson, Ben Blackburn,
W. 5S. Stuckey Jr. and Phil Lan-
drum.
Talmadge told the women that
he had voted last year to delay
the freeze and is Inclined to do
so again. Two of the women
told him they had been aban-
doned by their husbands, and
the senator said, “We have to
‘implement federal laws” to out-
law abandonment.
~~