Evening star., 1932-09-06

standing idle and empty, and the latest
official figures show that this number
has not yet begun to decline.
For every dollar that was before the
depression paid out in factory wages
official statistics indicate that the fac
tory pay envelope still is shrinking.
Il call attention to these few indi
Gators in order to dispel the illusion
which has been accepted in some quar-
tiers that the problem of the depression
is now on the way to its automatic
solution, that We can afford to sit back
and cheerfully watch the recovery. To
act on that assumption is to court
disaster.
Despite the long duration of the
depression some of us still fail TO
realize hcw deep its poisonous roots
have struck. Those who are of that
mind ought to read with special care
the report that 100000 American chill
dren, including boys and girls, are to-
day wandering through the United
States, walking the highways and riding
the freight trains. They are severed
from their homes, separated from their
parents, torn away from every influence
that makes for decent citizenship.
These vagabcnd children, plodding
their way from village to village in
search of food, are the living measure
Of the extent to which we failed to Go
our full national duty during the past
few years. They give warming of how
much there Is yet to be done.
Recalls Warning.
81 cannot help but recall what said
IN the Senate in March. 1928, when
first presented in that body plea for
the earnest consideration of unemploy-
ment as a problem which must be
handled not by emergency devices, but
by every available method of preven-
ton. On that occasion 1 said:
From farm and country there flows
a steady stream of boys and girls to the
city. Many are compelled to JOIN
the aimless floaters of society. Unless
they can be given more permanent and
profitable anchorage they may in time
become a threat to civilized society.
:. II these floating fragments of cur
population are to find mooring some
where we must provide them with some
basis OF security, and, with the excep-
ton of such fundamental things as
religion and education, I know Of 70
more stabilizing influence than the as
surance of a steady job
with 100000 out of work, with
millions of families relying ON relief,
it seems to me quite beyond dispute
that We shall experience a Winter Of
indescribable cruelty unless We i'm
mediately bring into full operation he
$4,000, 100000 relief and construction
act.
Exactly one year ago on Labor day,
1881, in a public address I made the
formal proposal that We should launch
$4,000, 100000 construction program
in order to provide employment direct
ly and indirectly to more than 2,000,-
900 men. 1t has taken 10 months of
unremitting effort. with the combined
corporation of the American Fedora
ton Of Labor, the American Legion and
an aroused public opinion to overcome
the opposition and to secure the enact
ment of that law. Now that legislative
job is done. Congress has performed
its part Of the program. To day the
Federal Government is directly and
through its agency, the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation. the custodian of
100000 jobs and S300.000o00 in re-
lief. The administrative Job remains
to be done, namely, to supplement local
relief funds with Federal relief funds
and to launch the construction pro-
gram with the speed made necessary
by the emergency.
Carries Responsibility.
"The largest portion of responsibility
for the execution of the relief and
construction act is vested in the Recon-
struction Finance Corporation. That is
a corporation in name only. 1t is just
as much a part of the Federal Govern
ment as the Office of the Secretary OF
the Treasury. 1t was not intended as
a profit-making institution. Its policy
should express that view. Its principal
objective must be to bring about a re-
sumption of employment. Unless 1t so
uses its facilities 1t will have wasted
the finest depression fighting instru-
ment any country has ever possessed
and it will not have done its duty in
helping to meet the present emergency.
THE President and the executive de-
partments directly control $325,000,0 600
worth of Federal construction provided
for by the relief and construction act.
Every project designated for construc-
ton in that act was inserted on the
strength of definite assurances from
Government departments that the
work could be promptly initiated.
To-day, more than seven weeks after
the adjournment of Congress, that
work is still being withheld from
the men who are begging for an op-
portunity to earn their bread. Some
dispute has developed as to who is re-
sponsible for that delay. Whoever that
may be is incurring a very grave re-
sponsibility. He is exposing the Nation
to the danger that the returning con-
fidence, finding no foothold in employ