Evening star., 1933-11-17
The New Relief Experiment.

The New Relief Experiment.
washington's allotment of Federal
funds from the newly created Civil
Works Administration Is, at this
time, not being expressed in terms of
dollars and cents, but in the number
of men and women who must be taken
off the relief rolls and put on the pay
| rolls now being written. That is one,
but only one. highly significant aspect
of the latest experiment in relief, which
has for one of its avowed purposes a
break away from the "dole" system as
it has been understood up to this time
and the substitution of new principle
in work-relief
Heretofore all local relief work has
been carefully measured by the amount
! of money available for relief expentii-
lures. Those who are familiar with the
history of the efforts to obtain from
Congress the local appropriations neces-
sary to meet the burden of public re-
lief and of the national legislation
which set up a Federal fund for care
fully matching local relief expenditures
with Federal dollars understand better
than any one else the sharp limitations
| imposed on the money that could be
spent for relief
And now, within the course of few
short days, all previous conceptions of
the relief problem in terms of dollars
and cents have been discarded. The
District of Columbia, along with the
States, is not asked: How much
money do you need?" The question is:
How many men and women do you
have on the relief rolls?" And, the
answer given the instructions are to
put them to work.
The local authorities have estimated
that $4,000 relief roll bene1ciaries are
Immediately to be employed on made
work" of new character. Today the
Municipal Building is astir with activity
in arranging the many details. As
early as this morning no one had made
an estimate of the money required to
finance the program. The main thing
is to get the men and women to work
The money will be forthcoming in time
to meet the pay rolls.
1t is possible that the humanitarian
oblectives of this program should be
uppermost in the minds of those who
study it in all its Implications, and that
everything else might be forgot in the
thought that men and women who,
through no fault of their own, have
been forced to the demoralizing ac-
ceptance of the dole are now to be
given an honest days work, for which
they are to receive the prevailing rate
of pay.
| But it is, nevertheless, interesting
to look ahead toward the bridges that
eventually must be crossed In the
District of Columbia the relief expendi-
lures have grown to about $4,000 a
week, ten per cent going to admins
tration. II $4,000 men and women
are to be put to work Immediately
for thirty hours a week, the minimum
wage for them at forty-five cents an
hour viii in round numbers amount
to $162,0 week. In addition there
must be considered the expense of ad-
ministration, possibly ten per cent Of
the total, and the expense of purchas-
ing materials with which the work is
to be done. The local authorities have
been instructed to purchase such ma
terials Immediately and to arrange for
the rental of trucks Minor roadways
are to be repaired, grading work is to
be done, school interiors will prob
ably be painted. together with the
carrying out of other projects.
The Federal allotment of s4OO ,O0O,-
600 from the Public Works Admins
tration for civil works is expected to
last until about the middle of Febru-
airy. At the rate of expenditure now
planned the District will probably pay
out something in the neighborhood Of
~SsooosoOo ny tAAob odbC' WAdI 10 W
happen after that?
It is inconceivable that the employ
ment of the millions of men and
women throughout the country under
the Civil Works Administration will be
halted when the present allotment of
money is exhausted. The only reason
able belief is that funds will be re-
newed by another and larger Federal
! appropriation. In the meantime, of
| course, there is the hope that private
employment will be increased to the
point where demands for relief will
| have been materially lessened. But If
the beneficial result Of the new civil
works plan is to remove men and women
from the relief rolls, as those rolls have
| heretofore been conceived, there is an
| offsetting factor in that part Of
! the urge to get off public rolls and
into private employment will also have
been removed. II men and women re-
ceive the same rate of pay for these
new made work" projects that they