The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-09-09

Washington. - The unemploy- ment relief issue is the biggest story in the country to-day and everyone in touch with the situa- tion agrees that it is going to get bigger.
 Seldom in peacetime has thought been so generally directed at any problem. The president, governor, politicians of all sorts, labor lead CTS, business men and, goodnes knows, several million jobless per sons, are intensely concerned ant will become more intensely con- cerned as cold weather approaches as drives are launched for unpre- cedented sum and as congress pre- pares to assemble.
 It is no secret that many sub stantial persons, especially those who have a great deal of money, are nervous. It is automatic that almost anyone who accumulates money or inherits it soon begins to worry about the possibility, however remote, of losing 1t. So the specters of Communist riots and "socialistic" legislation bother a select few whereas they do not worry the great majority of us who realize that there will be no Com munist uprising and that the coun- try isn't going to turn Socialist overnight.
 Nevertheless, the aforesaid nerv- ousness is perhaps the best bet President Hoover and Walter s. Clifford, head of the national un- employment relief organization. have as they try to raise big enough subscriptions to local re- lief funds to take the steam out of the movement for federal relief appropriations. Figures are avail able to indicate that in last win ter's relief drives the very wealthy citizens bore approximately puny share of the burden.
 At the same time, however, the agitation for direct federal relief is becoming steadily stronger. There is now even a respectable body of opinion which holds that
 President Hoover himself, stout defender of rugged individualism and proponent of the theory that there must be community and state "doles' but no federal dole. is getting ready to jump in case popular and political pressure be- come too heavy.
 It is no great comfort for the administration to hear William Green, the conservative president of the American Federation of Labor who says there will be 7,- 900, 900 jobless persons this winter predict that federal appropriations will be necessary.
 Green apparently is not pri- marily bent on pleasing the ad- ministration because he also as- serts that wage reductions already tressing period of unemployment" The capital anticipates with inter- est the annual A. F. of L. conven- tion early in October. The fedora tion may not demand federal re- lief, but if not there probably will be some real fireworks.
 Governors of the two most pop ulous states. Pinchot of Pennsyl- vania and Roosevelt of New York. after looking over their situations, respectively have demanded an extra session of congress to grant federal relief and asked the New York legislature for a $20,000. 1000 relief fund to be raised by increas- ing income taxes. MT Hoover, ac- cording to his spokesmen, sees a Pinchot- Roosevelt plot to embar- rass him and force him to act. At any rate, the two governors have added to the strength of the move- ment for federal aid.
 The current idea that the presi- dent may yet back down from his vigorous opposition to federal re-