The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-02-12
At The National Capitol
Digest of Who's Who and What's Whs
DAILY WASHINGTON LETTER
By RODNEY BUTCHER

Washington The hard fact
 ton forces and the Senate demo-
 crats who co-operated with them
 under the leadership of Senator Joe Robinson to defeat the LaFol-
 lette -Costigan federal unemploy-
 ment relief bill, was that they had to depend on Senators LaFollette and Costigan for the facts as to the extent of distress and actual need.
 Hardly anyone disputed the facts as poured sOut on about 175 Con- gressional Record pages, mostly in tiny type, by LaFollette. The op-
 position had only the testimony of Walter s. Clifford, head of the presidents organization for unem- ployfnent relief, to the effect that things seemed to be in fairly good
 shape.
 And MT Gifford's evidence
 turned out to be a feeble thing to
 lean upon. The politicians, conse- quently, were forced to defend their substitute measures with
 pleas for Fundamental principles of government" .,. It was LaFollette's flood of evil dence indicating distress-a sur vey unprecedented in it's compre- hensiveness and authenticity-that forced Leader Robinson quickly to abandon his confidently announced intention of having the bill recom-
 mitted and thereby sunk. The sub-
 stitute calling for a $750,0OO,OOO
 combination public works and re- lief loan program was hastily de- vised, it is understood, when warn ing came from the Democratic Ma tional Committee that the party couldn't afford to repudiate federal
 unemployment relief in an election year.
 Mir Gifford's previous testimony examination that he always found it pleasant to be hopeful was fal from helpful to the opposition. l, It was shown that he had ad- mitted lack of knowledge concern ing actual unemployment need that he could not testify as to the accuracy of estimates made by other experts, that his information ! was indefinite, that he knew of nc one who might be advised as o' relief needs of smaller commun1- ties. In other words, he knew o1 no way to tell how many Ameri- l cans were on the verge of starva- tion. LaFollette and Costigan, how ever. had gone to an enormous amount of labor in surveying un- employment distress conditions bS every practicable means. Lafol' lette piled statistic on top of sta. tistic to prove that millions o1
 wage earnefs, 'in the front Nne trenches of this depressoin, faced | a third depression winter Tn oes' perate straits. First the statistics of depres- sion. Hot,
 Then the federal record to date Then the past record of fedora cash relief-for floods, grasshop'
 per relief, fires, earthquake. tor nadoes-for destitute CuDans
 French colonials, Germans, Rus
 sians. | Then the testimony or many ol
 the foremost social workers, some
 representing large national organ.
 zations, presenting more statistlcS
 and urging the necessity or 1eoera
 relief.
 Then recommendations or tne
 American Federation of Labor, the
 railroad and clothing Workers
 unions, estimating the need ol their own people. Alarming data from the Chil.
 dren's Bureau and more natlona
 surveys from national welfare or.
 ganizations which have dlrec'
 contact with the unemployed.
 Finally, the replies of mayors ol