The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-09-15
10000 TO GET
JOBS At ONCE
ON HIGHWAYS
Million Dollar Program of
Widening Roads Will Be
Started by State.
MACHINERY is BANNED
Projects Will Be Handled by
Pick and Shovel Crews;
40 Cents an Hour.

Plan to put 10000 unemployed
men at work Immediately on a
81 100000 pick and shovel state
highway widening program was an
nounced today by Chairman James
D. Adams of the state highway
commission.
The announcement followed ap-
proval by Washington of the states
program for more than $4,000,000
of street widening projects in cities
of more than $500.
This program is expected to give
employment to $4,000, but the major
portion may not get under way be-
fore spring, Adams explained.
Plan for immediate employment
of 10000 men for the next ten weeks
has been approved by Governor
Paul V. McNutt.
Paving by Contract
It differs from the program
authorized by the government,
however, in that the paving will be
done by contract. The 10000 men
will be employed directly by the
maintenance division of the state
highway department.
Another difference is that the Nc
Mutt administration has decided to
pay 40 cents an hour for a thirty
hour week. The federal projects
provide for a minimum wage of Al
cents for unskilled and SIS cents for
skilled labor on a thirty-hour week.
Adams said that the laborers will
be employed on a five-day week,
six hours a day. They also will be
on one week and off the next.
This will give them $12 week
when they work, or Sc a week for
the fortnight. They are to be
drawn from the local township re-
lief rolls and will receive no char
ity baskets while working on the
ten-week program.
Most From Cities
Most of them will be drawn from
the larger cities, Adams said.
The NRA blanket code provides
for minimum wage Of $14.50 weekly
for common labor steadily employed
in metropolitan areas. Although
state governments are exempt from
the code provisions, McNutt wired
President Roosevelt his support
when the blue eagle plan first was
announced.
Governor McNutt explained today
that the main thought behind the
program was to get as many per-
sons as possible off relief rolls. He
said that the 40 cents an hour scale
had been the highway department
Standard wage for some tine.
The program is rather in the light
of made work." he said, but he
also asserted that more study would
be given its social significance in
the light of the MIRA code.
1t was limited that the $14.50
weekly wage scale might be adopted.
Cooperation of landowners along
SIdC6 TOdQS Was asked Dy AUdLIlS.
The employment plan means wild
ening of the right way to eighty
or 100 feet
Crews of men then will be used
to move back fences and build up
berms and shoulders, the work to
be done by pick and shovel and
without machinery, to increase jobs.
Some Already at Work
Some of the crews already are
at work in Fit. Wayne and South
Bend, Adams said They are ex-
pected to start in Indianapolis and
other cities on Monday.
Maintenance engineers have been
called into department headquarters
and instructed on how the work is
to be handled. Workers will be
employed through employment
agencies set up under the Cover
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