THE CITY of Anaconda, Mont., has been suffering from severe unemployment for some time, chiefly due to the erection of automated smelting facilities in Butte, Mont. This new plant has drastically affected employment in the city of Anaconda. Senator Mansfield informs me that the situation in Anaconda is apt to get worse as the new plant gradually increases its production to full capacity.
Accordingly, I am directing the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to send a task force of experts to Anaconda to determine how present Federal-State programs can be utilized, immediately, to help the unemployed there. The task force will meet with State and local officials and will make a concentrated effort to bring the full resources of the Federal-State employment service, vocational education, and the Manpower Development and Training Act to bear on the Anaconda situation. The Area Redevelopment Administration of the Department of Commerce has approved an Overall Economic Development Plan for the area, and several training programs under this act are already underway.
Specifically, I am directing the Secretary of Labor and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to do the following:
1. Establish the maximum number of training and retraining programs under the Manpower Development and Training Act.
2. Extend concentrated guidance, counseling, and job placement services to unemployed Anaconda workers.
3. Provide on-the-spot coordination of all Federal activities with the officials of State and local government.
This administration will make every effort to aid individuals and communities who suffer economic misfortune. Today's action, as well as that taken in South Bend and other communities throughout the Nation, is based on this policy.
Note: On January 18 the White House announced plans for training 200 unemployed workers in Anaconda for new jobs as an initial step to relieve the severe unemployment in that area. The release stated that courses, to run from 20 to 52 weeks, would teach trainees 11 occupational skills, such as those required for obtaining employment as electronic technicians, heavy duty mechanics, and auto repairmen. Trainees would be eligible to receive allowances at least equal to the amount of unemployment insurance they otherwise would get.
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President on Unemployment in Anaconda, Montana. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/242235