Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-15
Sets Up Relief Agency.

OCSS Up hCACA hBChCys
The President set up in the Depart
ment of Commerce under the direction
of Col Arthur Wood an effective ma
tional agency 70 cooperate with State
| and local authorities in providing and
| securing employment.
Congress sent to the President yes
terday the Elliott bill expanding the
| Federal public building program and
increasing the limitations on the amount
available the coming year.
I have made these hurried references
| to the things which have been done by
the administration and by Congress for
relief. of unemployment along the lines
urged by the President IN his message
to Congress in December. Let me now
address myself to the other disaster
| problem-relief for the drought-stricken
areas. In his message of December 2
| the President urged:
I'm order that the Government may
meet its full obligation toward our
countrymen in distress through no fault
of their own, recommend that an ap-
preparation should be made to the De-
partment of Agriculture to be loaned for
the purpose OF seed and feed for ami
mails. Its application should as hitherto
in such loans be limited to a gross
amount to any one individual, and
secured upon the crop. The Red Cross
can relieve the cases Of individual dis
treSs by the sympathetic assistance Of
our people"
In accordance with that Recommended
| ton, Congress passed an act approved
December 20, authorizing an appropria-
ton. which was made available jan
uary is, of S45, 000, 900 for the relief of
| farmers in the drought and storm
stricken areas in the United States. The
expenditure Of this sum Is available for
advance or loans to such. farmers for
the purchase of seed for suitable crops,
! fertilizers, feed for work stock and or
| fuel or oil for tractors used for crop pro-
| duction, first lien on such crops being
| taken as security for such loan" Some
relief measures have been passed by
| Congress 10 meet similar emergencies
in the past and such aid has been
| found very helpful in the agricultural
and financial rehabilitation of stricken
areas. The farmer who through this
| loan can make his crop has improved
| credjt at the supply houses for other
needs as well. Past experience shows
that such loans are very generally re-
paid to the Government. The transac-
| ton, therefore, is a matter of extended
| credit upon liberal terms to areas where
the normal credit system has broken
! down rather than any act of charity.
| The Secretary of Agriculture is actively
! administering this fund and advises
| Congress that In his judgment the
amount appropriated is sufficient to ac-
complish the purposes intended.
For Rural Sanitation.
In the first deficiency bill which be-
came law February 6, there is included
an appropriation of $4,000, 900 for rural
! sanitation, including the purchase and
distribution of medical supplies in the
drought-Stricken areas. This appropria-
ton is to be expended by the surgeon
| general of the United States Public
| Health Service in cooperation with
stated counties and municipalities, due
consideration being given to State and
local economic conditions and human
needs" The purpose of this appropria-
ton Is to make certain ample cooper
alton in protecting the health of the
stricken areas guarding against the
dangers of typhoid pellagra and malnu-
triton. The medical services rendered
hereunder by the Federal Government
In cooperation with States or communi-
ties Is not the furnishing Of medical
care to individuals, but is rather the
furnishing Of advice in sanitation, etc.,
to communities. Here is an enlightened
a and generous provision for the exercise
! of proper governmental functions for
the preservation Of the public health
| Under this appropriation Surg Gen
Cumming has himself been in the
drought area the p7St week making ar
rangements fer this important work.
All OF these things have been done
without serious controversy and the pro-
gram which have not at all adequately