The producers news., 1931-07-31

relief organization occurred
last week-to be specific. on
Tuesday afternoon, July 21.
The report of this meeting and
the outline of the relief afford.
ed by the Red Cross as detailed bv
Z. f. Rowland, a disaster repre-
sentative from the Red Cross head
quarteds, as prepared by a Local
Red Cross official, appeared in
these columns last week.
A casual reading of this article
Will inform one we'll of Just what
the Red Cross is. There can be M
hopes raised of any real relief
from that source, SO there need be
no disappointment; for il is the
history of the Red Cross that he
who asks that capitalistic organiza-
ton for bread gets a stone. And
further, a casual notice of Red
Cross procedure discloses where
most of the Red Cross money goes
1T goes for office expense, big sal
aries for executives, and salaries
and expense money for disaster
agents who travel for motnhs MAX
ing surveys, spending a thousand
dollars to extend five hundred dol
lars IN aid; spending money in set
tlng up numerous committees, and
IN printing quadruple order blanks.
one of which goes here and anoth-
er there.
Red Tape! There is no end of it.
A man with hungry children. with
a wife whose baby nurses at q
mllkless breast, who has DELAYED
until there is not and has not been
mouthful of food in the house for
several days, must walk miles to
see district committeeman. Then
ne must fill out an application
and a QUESTIONABLE then he must
have the Committeeman okay the
application. If the applicant sue
ceeds In getting committee No. /
to recommend his application, then
ne must get the district commit
tee of three to endorse it and then
mail it to the county committee
who must consider it and then the
the application gets favorable con-
slderatlOn an order in quadrupli-
cate is made out. The county com
mlttee tears off one and send three
to the applicant who takes them
to the merchant indicated in the
order where the merchant fills the
order and tears off two, one of
which he keeps for his file, and
the other he mails into the Red
Cross headquarters at the end of
the month, which, in time. sends
him a check payable anywhere at
par, for the orders that he has
filled for the month. The appli-
cant keeps the last copy for his
own records.
After going thru this rigamarole
the drouth stricken farmer gets a
little food.
At first the Red Cross made a
ruling that no relief would be
granted to farmers coming with
automobiles but we are now in
formed that this rule has been
withdrawn owing to the universal
ridicule with which it was receiv-
ed by everybody. Of course after
the first application for aid has
been granted, no further applica-
tion is necessary. The order is
planned to be adequate for a
month. Each month the applicant
notifies the local committee man if
he still needs aid, and he notifies
the county committee to continue
the relief, and another order is
mailed to the applicant. This is
continued during the relief period.
Persons desiring to contact the
county committee may get in
touch with Carl B. Peterson,c clerk
of the district court as chairman,
or Niels Madsen as secretary of
the county Red Cross Relief com
mittee. In case the local commit
tee reports against an applicant,
the applicant may take the mtter
up with Niels Madsen, the secre-
tary for investigation. This is
provided to prevent discrimination
by local committeeman sometimes
local committeeman take advant-
age of their position to punish
friends and reward enemies. If
anything like this happens, the ap-
plicant is urged to notify the Pro-
ducers News or Rodney Salisbury,
the county secretary of the United
Farmers League, and a special in
vestigation will be made and re-
ported in the paper and to the
county committee of action of the
U. F. L. who will look into the
matter Immediately.
The Red Cross does not under
take to, furnish relief to unemploy-
ed workers or to others who are
destitute by reason other than by
catastrophe or "acts of God" such
as fire, syclone, flood, drouth, or
epidemic. Economic depression or
personal misfortune is not consid-
cred an act of God so a person
starving by reason of lack of work
or by death of breadwinner or sick
ness, other than, epidemic, must
look to other sources for relief.
These must apply to citv or
county for aid. The Red Cross aid
extended in this area is to farm
ers only who are in destitute cir
cumstances as a direct result of
the drOuth and crop failure.
The relief at present is onlv in
the way of food, nothing IL allow
ed for clothing, tho it is under