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Wall Street Journal
1966 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

NDAY, MAY 23, 1966

Senators In No Rush To Bow Out

Age Makes Them Weigh Resigning

By EDWIN A. LAHEY
Chief of Our Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - It's difficult to surrender when time overtakes you, even if your job has been tedious and a good pension awaits you. 

And it's a much harder wrench for the soul to step out of the parade if you have a status job like that of U.S. senator.

A number of senators are doing some soul searching about this problem with the approach of 1966, when the terms of 33 expire. Eight of these senators will be 70 or older in January 1967, when the new senate terms begin.

People differ, in mind and body, so 70 is an arbitrary figure. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine will be 69 if and when she is elected to a new term in the Senate next year. And she is the brightest 69 you could find on Capitol Hill. John G. Tower, the Texas Republican, would be a boyish 41 if and when he begins another term. But there are critics who assert that Tower derives from the last century.

The senators who must decide soon whether to retire or to seek reelection at the age of 70 or more are Clinton O. Anderson of New Mexico, Paul H. Douglas of Illinois, Allen J. Ellender of Louisiana, B. Everett Jordan of North Carolina, John L. McClellan of Arkansas, Pat McNamara of Michigan, A. Willis Robertson of Virginia and Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts.

McNamara, an old steamfitter, couldn't care less about the prestige of being a senator. He probably has made up his mind not to run again, but is holding back his announcement because of political considerations.

Miami's Dick Merrill has logged 40,315 hours of flying, more than any other alive. Though he flies daily, he was grounded from commercial flying 12 years ago by the arbitrary (and silly) rule that pilots become incompetent at 60.

A Shortage of Pilots, Other Workers Vexes Fast-Growing Airlines

Lines Seek New Pilot Sources As Military Supply Shrinks; Complaint of a Stewardess

By RICHARD P. COOKE
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Every silver lining has its cloud. In the midst of a travel explosion and soaring revenues, the nation's airlines are troubled increasingly by labor shortages.

"We aren't hurting yet," says one company spokesman, "but we're running just to stay in place."

In some categories, the carriers' needs already are acute. "We're having real trouble finding enough mechanics for our big San Francisco overhaul base," says a United Air Lines official. Pilots, flight engineers, stewardesses, ramp attendants, engineers and computer programmers also are in great demand. So is unskilled help - baggage loaders, plane cleaners and porters.

This year U.S. airlines will carry some 110 million passengers, more than double the figure for 1958, the last year before widespread use of jets. By 1970, according to the Federal Aviation Agency, they will be carrying almost 150 million travelers a year. There are about 750 jets now in service. On order are 540 more, many capable of hauling 250 passengers. And now being built are the first of a generation of jets that will carry 490 or more passengers.

"We will have the planes," one airline executive says, "What we are going to need is the men to fly them."

One problem is that the industry hadn't counted on the sharp drop in military pilot training as missiles replaced men. Once the military supplied almost all commercial pilots. The figure is down to 70% now, and it is still falling.

No Experience Needed

The industry hopes to hire 4,000 pilots this year alone. United, the country's largest carrier, wants 1,600 this year and next. United now is seeking recent college graduates with little or no flying experience. Working through student publications and school placement offices, the airline has been able to recruit "quite a few" candidates for its "zero time" program.

Those who qualify must acquire a commercial pilot's license on their own time and at their own expense. This takes a year and costs about $3,000, which the candidate can borrow from a bank on a loan arranged by the airline. Afterwards he is put on United's payroll.

The training outlay could be an excellent investment. At Eastern Air Lines, for instance, a new pilot gets $6,200 his first year after training and $7,800 the second year. After that, he goes on increment pay determined by the time and type of plane he flies. In his third year of airline service he can make up to $14,000. Senior pilots make up to $35,000, with the average captain's pay at about $26,000.

Stewardesses are almost as hard to find as pilots. While pilot turnover is almost zero until retirement, stewardesses come and go constantly. The girls get married or tired of the job and usually quit within 30 months. Some complain that faster trips and bigger planes have changed gracious hostesses into harried waitresses.

"You used to have time to sit down and meet people," says one disgruntled stewardess. "Now you rarely get a minute, and when you do the guy is probably plugged into the movie."

In competing for talent, however, airlines
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have a lure few businesses can top - travel. From the board room to the baggage room, airline employes are entitled to some free or inexpensive travel every year. It's a fringe benefit few ignore. At United, for instance, 158,689 vacation and trip passes were used during 1965, with an average value of about $157.

Finding people and hiring them can be expensive - American Airlines says it costs $800 to hire an engineer - but recruiting seems like a bargain when compared with training costs. Industry-wide, the bill for training this year is expected to reach a record $150 million. United estimates it spends $100,000 training a pilot during his career, half of it to make him a captain. As more companies take on pilots with less experience, outlays in time and money are expected to climb still higher.

In downtown Kansas City, in a converted, eight-story department store, 400 people train pilots, flight engineers, hostesses and other personnel for Trans World Airlines. The job is so big, says D. M. Crowley, director of ground training for the airline, that a branch school will open soon in New York.

A major part of the TWA pilot training occurs in a jet simulator, a complex machine that looks like the forward section of a modern airliner. Seated in it, a trainee experiences all the sensations of jet flight, including visual depletion of the airport and sky as he "flies" on practice trips.

Each simulator, says R. W. Dunn, TWA's senior vice president, costs about $1 million, more than one of our original Lockheed Constellations, but we have been able to speed up our work and save money. An hour in a jet costs $750. An hour in the simulator costs about $200."

American Airlines uses its own $80,000 TV studio in Tulsa to make special television tapes for training, Bill Gregg, in charge of mechanics' training at Tulsa, says television has cut hourly instruction costs to 32 cents from $4.50.

Using television, American hopes to compress a lengthy nine-month course for mechanics into 30 days. It's being tested in other departments, too. Sales personnel, for instance, can be shown how they look to the public. Taped management "problems" can be used as the basis for class discussions. The television monitor, says one American official admiringly, "is a tireless instructor."

Much airline training is concerned with teaching people to be polite and helpful. "After all," says a personnel man for Eastern, "service is really the only thing we sell. It's also the toughest thing to teach. In this country no one wants to be thought of as a servant."

He Is 94, Wants Job

GRAND RAPIDS - (AP) - John T. Williams of Grand Rapids is looking for a job, either full or part-time, and he isn't fussy about what type.

The Michigan Employment Security Commission thinks the chances of this 6-foot-1, 185-pounder are pretty good - even if he did celebrate his 94th birthday last St. Valentine's Day.

Williams, a widower and a former Lake County deputy sheriff, filed a job application this week, after President Johnson asked senior citizens to return to work where there are labor shortages and they have needed skills.