Evening star., 1933-06-19
Relief Administration Offices Swamped
AS Country Scralnbles for $5OO,OOO,OOO
Requests Coming
From All Corners
for Federal Aid.

THEY'RE really making things
hum at the Federal Emergency
Relief Administrations head
i quarters on the fourth floor Of
the Hurley Wright Building.
Eighteenth street and Pennsylvania
avenue.
Things are still in the just-getting-
started stage, of course, but the 81 men
and women who are going to handle
the myriad of details incidental to the
handing out of the $500,000 900 set
aside for relief grants to the various
States and Territories are finding plenty
to keep them busy, nevertheless.
And the busiest spot of all is the pri-
vate Office of Harry l.. Hopkins, under
whose direction the huge relief fund
will be distributed. From o'clock In
the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon
there's constant procession OF callers
Representatives of State and terrific
rial relief organizations seeking hand
outs; destitute men and women
down and -outers," they're called by
some of the more hard boiled independ-
ent relief agencies, but to Hopkins
they're lust poor devilS"-apparently
under the delusion the Government will
give them something to eat and place
to sleep, and, of course, job-hunters-
some with the mistaken idea that Hop
kins can find work for them some
where, many in the hope he'll put
them on his own pay roll.
Many Telephone Calls.
Between callers there's the telephone
ringing just about every minute, it
seems. Hopkins secretary, Mrs. Kath-
ryn Goodwin, tries-politely, but none
the less flrmly-to steer as many of the
telephone callers as possible away from
'the boss" either by taking care of
them herself or else by referring them
to his assistant, Langdon w. Post.
Some are so insistent, however, that
Hopkins simply has to listen to them,
whether he has the time or not.
Governors, for instance, seeking
share of the relief fund; heads of State
relief organizations, with the same
thing in mind; politicians-Senators,
Repr epresentatives-even obscure ward
heelers-trying to lasso a job for some
friend on whom, they invariably assure
Hopkins, you just simply can't go
wrong"
Anu III p6LW66u dll ILLS f1OpklIlS HAS
to sandwich a multitude of other du-
visits to the White House, interviews
with the press, what not. His days get
away from him almost before he knows
it, and he has to spend great many
of his evenings-when he'd really
like to be giving some attention to his
personal affairs-taking care of his OFF,
cial correspondence or deciding what
the administrations policy shall be on
this or that question.
Grasshoppers Cause Issue.
Sometimes this matter of policy"
calls for some heavy thinking. The
other day, for example, the head of
a Western relief organization appealed
for grant to be used in a war against
which have been making
life miserable for the farmers of the
State. The question, boiled down to
Its essentials, was whether to spend
money to rid the State of its grasshop-
pers, thereby running the risk of being
short of cash If there should be de-
mand for direct relief later on, or to
let the grasshoppers kill all the crops
in the State, thus putting thousands
OF farmers on the relief rolls.
I2ophulS WdS SIiu IiuilhulB Illdt Oile
over, arguing it out with Post between
times when he left for Detroit to ad-
dress the National Conference of So
cial Work
But Hopkins small. plainly fur
nished Office isn't the only busy room
in the administrations headquarters
Posts Office, next door, is nearly as bad
and during the absence of "the boss
1t Is even worse. Post, with at least a
two-man job on his hands, is in and
out all day-a conference here, con-
ference there, job hunters, relief seek