Evening star., 1933-02-12
HOLIDAY ATTACKS
LOAN FOR DISTRICT
High Salaries Paid in Relief
Work and Local Influence
Cited.

Finance Corporation was discussed in
the House late yesterday by Representa-
tive Holiday. Republican, of Illinois,
member of the subcommittee of the
District Of Columbia appropriation bill
He based his opposition on the
opinion that II this fund were made
available various organizations and In
dividuals especially interested In relief
work would exert influence on the Dis
trict Commissioners to have these funds
borrowed when there was no particular
need and taxpayers would be left
to carry the Burden.
Last year, for the first time in the
history of District affairs we appropri-
ated $350,000 for emergency reliet." said
Holiday, This year we were con-
fronted with q request for $1,25o,-
Gc0, one-hah OF which has already been
appropriated In the deficiency bill and
tho balance Is carried in this bill.
I'm 1892 the Washington Community
Community Chest collects the money
and divides 1t among IS organizations.
The Community Chest itself does not
do any relief work. It cost the Com
munity Chest in 1882 in overhead ex-
penses and administration $124,879. 80,
or 5l2 per cent of all the money col
lected, The Community Chest has So
annual year-round employees One of
these men draws $1,000 year; another,
S5,400; another, sS,420; another. $2,808,
and the remaining draw lower salaries.
Six Classifieations.
"The Community Chest divides the
65 agencies into six classifications.
Those In class A in large part admins
ter direct. and material relief of food,
clothing, housing, fuel and so forth.
The organization which receives the
largest donation from the Chest is the
Associated Charities. In 1892 the Asso-
ciated Charities dispensed $476,104 at
a salary cost Of $85.284 Their total
operating expense was $101 ,060 or 81
per cent of the amount they received
from the Community Chest, SO that
by the Associated Charities, 81 per cent,
plus 52 per cent taken out by the
Community Chest, went for overhead
expenses. The Associated Charities has
81 employees with top salary of $3.50.
Another class A organization Is the
Bureau Of Rehabilitation. 1t cost them
to operate 60 per cent of all the money
they received from the Community
Chest. They have three employees with
top salary of $500.
''The Travellers Aid Society has IA
employees with top salary of $4,000
They spent for salaries and administra-
tion 81 per cent of all the money they
received from the Community Chest"
Representative Holiday gave sta
tistics on the work of other organiza-
tions, including the Washington Insti-
tute Of Mental Hygiene. He also re-
viewed the work of a number of Or
ganizations classified as character
building" including the Neighborhood
House, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Boys
Club. He said that the Social Hygiene
Society spends 100 per cent of Its funds
for salaries. The Washington Animal
Rescue League. he said, with an appro-
prlatlop from the Community Chest of
$4'oss'as Is spending $4,S%e for salaries.
|. Future Is>Questioned,
"Wh. Is the future to be?" Repre-
sentative Holiday asked his colleagues.
i think the people Of the District of
Columbia Who donate to these organi-
zations are entitled to know Just how
the money is being spent. II it is salts
factory to them. 1t is satisfactory TO
me; and SO sar ; as know all these or
the general purposes TOR which it is
supposed to be expended except a large
percentage Is being expended on high
salaries.
The same organizations that take
credit for the passage of the $350,000
last year and the $1,250, 900 this year
are now backing proposition to give
the District authority to borrow from
the Reconstruction Finance Corpo- |
ration. From moral standpoint I be- |
lieve the District of Columbia should
nave the same right to borrow from the |
Reconstruction Finance Corporation as
any other State, but from the stand
point OF the taxpayers of the District I |
90 not believe it Is wise for them to |
nave the right, for If 1T is granted the |
SAFE lobbyists and every other organi- |
zatlon or person that has some particu- |
lar thing in mind for which public |
FUNDS are wanted win be exerting pres |
sure on the District Commissioners,
whoever they may be. to take advantage
OF the right and borrow the money. It |,
must be remembered that when the
money Is borrowed 1t must ere long he
paid back and that the money for the |
repayment of these loans will be COL
Iected through taxes levied ON the resi- |
dents OF the District of Columbia"
Street Issues Statement.
Informed of Mr.. Holaday's remarks, |
ElWooo street, director of the Com,
munity, Chest, issued the following
representative Holiday is the vic
TIM OF misunderstanding, both as 10
the nature OF work done by the organ
lzations he criticizes and also as TO the
total income of at least one of them.
He evidently regards the Associated
Vheritles merely as a dispenser of re-
llef. 1t Is not only that 1t Is a service
organization. whose workers more than
pay their own salaries by preventing i'm
pcsltion and helping to develop help on |
tns part OF friends and neighbors and
IsiatiVes: churches and other groups, for
the families and individuals they serve
In other words. the Associated Char
lilies would have required probably sew
eral hundred thousand dollars more |
than received from the Community
Chest to meet the demands of those
who would have asked for aid If 1t had
not been for the services of its work. |
ers, admittedly underpaid who have
saved money and brought in many
thousands of dollars of supplementary
relief to their services.
The greatest weakness. as matter of |
Iact. OF the congressional appropriation
Tor relief to the emergency relief di-
vision of the Board of Public Welfare
Is that Congress, in its first appropria-
tion OF 600, last year limited the
adnllnlStfatlve cost to 10 per cent of |
the total amount and In the present
appropriation of $625,oOO limited the
administrative cost to per cent. II
y safe to say that at least SlOO 600 of |
this sum will have been spent unneces-
sarily because the staff, although it is
made of high-grade persons, is so
limited in number, that 1t cannot pos
sibly cover adequately the people who
apply for aid, and accomplish in their
service the kind of results which have
been secured by the more adequate
statfs. numerically speaking, Of the AS
sociated Charities,
Differ on Bureau.
Representative Holiday apparently
completely misunderstands the nature
OF the Bureau Of Rehabilitation. It ia