The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-23
CHARITY FUNDS FAIL AS
THE CRISIS DEEPENS

tress, which later often rebounds upon society
in terms Of illness inefficlency and moral de-
gradation.'
Assuming the number of unemployed in New
York City as only 1000, OO0-the estimate of e.
C. Rybicn, director of the citys employment
bureau-we can take it that about half of these
are so-called "breadw1nners" for families. We
thus have some 100000 families to be cared for
for at least ten months. At the charity feeding
rate of 800 month per family, this means
S50O000,000 alone for the unemployed heads of
families, not including the additional half mil
lion individual workers in the city who must also
eat while the capitalist system refuses them a
lob
In the face Of this unprecedented need for I'M
mediate relief. banker Gibson says that only
about $650OoO00 will be raised from all sources,
public and private He tells us thai his relief
funds cannot hope to care for more than 10000
to 10000 of the worst cases. AT the same time
even he admits there are in the city 10000
workers including 10000 completely destitute
family supporters and another $4,000 individuals
without families who are in the most acute need
of immediate aid
But it is very doubtful If even the Gibson esti-
mate of $65,00Oooo from all sources both public
and private, will be raised in spite OF all the
speeches of the politicians, the free sob ads In
the magazines, the benefit football games, the
house-to-house panhandling committees of AL
Smith, the charity balls attended by drunken
millionaires, speeches by Mrs Astor to the un-
derpaid sales girls in the department stores, and
the frequent save-our- system letters from Cal
Coolidge and Col Lindbergh
Stealing Plenty.
Assuming that the city appropriates It's esti-
mated $15,O00000 and that another 100000
comes to the city from the state funds-and
making due allowance, of course, for the large
measure of graft involved in the administration
Of these expenditures-and assuming also that
Gibsons committee raises its s12o0o,oO0 and
that Mayor Walkers police distributions are set
up out of some $1,5ooo0 of funds taken largely
in a levy from the wages Of municipal en-
ployees-this makes only about $35,o0oo0o in
sight. Set this alongside Of the actual need for
about $5oo,o0Ooo0 and you begin to see what all
the present emergency relief ballyhoo is ex-
pected to cover up
1t is clear that when the Unemployed Coun-
ellis ask for only $3.50 for winter relief for each
worker and another $50 for each dependent,
they are making a very moderate demand 1t is,
in fact, much less than any worker needs to
get by the winter in any kind of minimum
health and decency.
No Better Elsewhere.
1t may be thought that in other committees
of New York State, outside Of New York City
the relief given will be more adequate. But Of
fetal reports refute this hope In report called
Prospects for Unemployment Relief in 1882
in As Cities of New York State" made by a Joint
Committee on Unemployment Relief of the State
Board of Social Welfare and the State Char
tiles Aid Association it is pointed out that the
scale of relief in many cities last winter was
dangerously low" Many public relief depart
ments have more or less rigidly fixed maximum
food order which they seldom exceed, regard
less of the size of the family or the extent of its
need In Is cities 81 week was the usual
maximum food order allowed to family Only
Sc was the limit in cities, 81 in cities, SO
in cities, So in one CITY, and So every other
week in another city. Many Departments of
Public Welfare spend little for milk clothing,
Shoes gas and electricity.
This was last winter-and the prospects for
this winter are much worse for, as the report
states, 1T is doubtful whether the private funds
available for unemployment relief this winter
will be substantially larger than last winter and
And towns and cities are all complaining of
heavy taxation and are unable to meet the sit
uation out of their budgets
This is in the face of the obvious fact ad-
mitted in the report, that "a greater number of
the unemployed will need relief this winter and
the amount of relief needed by each family will
be greater, because there will be lessened re-
sources of savings, credit and assistance by fam
lilies and friends" And thanks also to the
Hoover stagger plan, many more persons with
part-time employment will need relief for the
same reason"