If it ever gets serious, Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty might be waged all around Hazleton, Pa. (pop. 32,500), which is perched amid deserted coal mines high on Spring Mountain in the heart of depressed and desolate Appalachia. But Hazleton has already fought a valiant anti-poverty war of its own. Moreover, it has done so with a minimum of federal help.
For years, the town lived respectably if not richly from coal mines and textile plants in the area. But after World War II, Hazleton found itself on the skids. One after another, the mines shut down. Between 1946 and 1958,...
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