News In Brief

When a conference on poverty in America ended here Saturday after 21/2 days of talks, one message was clear: There is nothing on the horizon to propel the estimated 35.3 million poor Americans - 15.2 percent, or one in six - out of poverty.

There was widespread agreement that the best route out of poverty is through economic growth and jobs, not a bigger dole. And there was insistence that the welfare programs are not luring people into poverty and are not the cause of teen-age pregnancy, black joblessness, or social malaise.

The conference was a joint undertaking of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin and the US Department of Health and Human Services.