National Convention remarks

              We badly need to bridge the wide gap that has grown between the world of education and the world of
work.   This is especially true at the secondary level but is of well-nigh equal concern at the junior college and
technical institute level.
For many of our disadvantaged youth, education to be meaningful and provide motivation must bear a
clear relation to a job down the road.    The present lack of that manifest connection leads to ineffectiveness at
the high school and even the elementary level.   Our failure to develop an adequate system of junior colleges
and technical institutes is costing our youth jobs and our industry badly needed technically trained manpower.
These things I have been talking about will bear fruit in the near future.   I am,  in addition, concerned
with the immediate present.    How can we get as many jobs to as many people as quickly as possible?   I have been
giving the matter a lot of thought and while I have not checked it from every angle,  I believe there are a number
of things that are worth giving a good hard try.
It seems to me that the State of Illinois and the federal government between them are,  through recipients
of relief,   in effect renting somewhere around 90,000 dwelling units in the City of Chicago.   Checking the census
figures it seems likely that these units constitute the bulk of the so-called slum rentals in the city.   Many,  if not
most of these units, are in violation of the city building code.    Given the huge rental demand of the state and
federal government — some $60 million a year — it should be possible to work out arrangements that would
persuade and make it possible for landlords to bring these units up to code standards.
In the event the landlord could not himself do this in all probability he could be induced to let the state
do it in lieu of rents.    Bringing the bulk of substandard rental units up to code in a city the size of Chicago would
generate a lot of work.    I am confident that the unions would welcome the opportunity both to make a major contribution in eliminating the slums of the city and in the process to provide skills and education to many of the
disadvantaged minority youths and adults now unemployed.
I believe a major program to bring substandard rental units up to code standards could be the means of
providing jobs as apprentices and perhaps journeymen to many now unemployed.   I believe further it would be a
source of pride to those employed that they were making the neighborhoods in which many of them now live better
places in which to live.
Along with the massive lever of the millions now spent in rentals in the central city I am sure architects,
engineers, planners and businessmen would contribute to what might be called "Project Upgrade, " designed to
bring the whole city up to building code standards.
What would provide a major assist to city betterment and employment in Chicago would be feasible in
every major city in the country.    I am going to urge my fellow governors at our annual conference at Miami Beach
to request the cooperation of the President and the federal departments and organized labor in studying the feasibility of what I am here suggesting.   It seems to me to make sense and be urgently needed.
The growing edge of jobs in our economy is in services.   Most of the large industry labor force will in all
probability remain stable or even decline as the process of automation continues.    However, as incomes have expanded more and more people are prepared to pay for services and here there are unfilled jobs that are going
begging.   These jobs, unlike many in the other growth areas of the economy,  do not place a heavy demand on
prior education and training.
I think we need to make a major effort to mobilize the unfilled job potential in the service areas and
bring it to bear on relieving our unemployed who lack education and skills.   This is a job in which the state and
federal employment services, industry and the schools can play a vital role.
Lastly,  I think we can make better use of government employment as an assist to solving our problem.
While we have emphasized our discontent with our modest role in the procurement plans of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Defense — and rightly since we want our scientists and
engineers to at least have the chance of being employed here — this is not the only area of federal employment
in which we are interested.   The United States Post Office has played an honorable and largely unsung role in
providing a major source of minority employment.   The State of Illinois is lacking in comparable federal employment.   There are other federal operations similar to the Post Office in their requirements that could be located in
Illinois and provide useful avenues for the employment of many of the disadvantaged who are now unemployed.
I would also urge Illinois industry to raid the Post Office for talent.   Many persons educated far beyond
their job requirements could be moved from government service into private industry with gain to themselves and
industry.   Their removal would create new opportunities all along the line.   This but illustrates the fundamental
truth that the way to help the marginal unemployed worker is to upgrade those in the entrance jobs of industry.
Here is where you create jobs for those whose lack of education and skills now keep them out of the labor market.