Evening star., 1933-08-20
Three Billion for New Jobs
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occupations, in thousands of places
throughout the length and breadth Of
the land They will be employed at
decent wages. under fair conditions and
under properly limited hours of labor
They will work for thousands of en-
ployerS, who will be required to furnish
honest value for the taxpayers money
which is being spent. Contractors viii
be held to strict accountability. They
must do honest work at a reasonable
profit. We are not opening a grab-bag
contest, with the peoples money the
stake. Rather we are embarking on q
construction program that will be use
full to the public and add to the COM
fort, convenience and welfare of the
people in every part Of the Nation.
have stated our purposes and plans
generally, so as to give broad view of
what is being done to promote the well
fare of the country. The extent of the
program, the expected cost, should
frighten no one. Three billion dollars
| is a huge, almost incomprehensible sum.
But that money will be paid to our own
citizens, to thousands upon thousands
of people who have been on relief and
charity lists and rendering no service,
creating nothing, in return for the dole
they were obliged to accept because
work was not available. The fact is
that the total amount authorized by
the law under which we are operating Is
less than the three and one-half billion
dollars spent for public works, National,
State and municipal, in the United
States in 1923. In 1929 the expendi-
ture for such purposes was three and
one-ouarter billion dollars, but by 1882
and a half. The amount spent during
the present year probably would be less
than half q billion dollars were it not
for the emergency Federal public works
program.
Labor to Get Money.
The money that will be paid to labor
and that includes clerks and execu-
tives and engineers and many other
classes Of employees as well as those
who work manually-will go into
grocery stores for food, into clothing
stores and shoe shops. into automobile
show rooms, factories and steel mills
And as a result of spending this money
there will be new and better roads, i'm
proved sewage and water systems and
electric light plants that are urgently
needed by towns and cities; bridges,
public buildings and model tenements-
to mention only few OF the many
public improvements and utilities that
will be constructed
It is difficult for the person who has
been constantly employed to visualize
what a LOB" means to one who has
been cut of work months and even
years. The other day heard of So
called hard boiled" railroad brakeman
living in an Ohio Valley mill town who
actually wept when he saw his name
go up on the call list for service for
the first time in three years. He had
eked out a bare existence for his wife
and three children by maintaining
subsistence garden on small piece OF
donated land, and by occasional jobs
of painting, automobile repairing and
the like The grocer with whom he had
traded for years, in times Of prosperity,
had trusted him for the little sugar.
coffee and baking powder that were
| needed to supplement the potatoes and
other vegetables which he grew.
But when steel and cement and other
heavy freight began to move in volume
| recently and this man. with others,
! was called back to railroad duty, prac-
tically every one in the town was bene-
! fitted. Men who had not had 50 to
rub together for several years suddenly
found themselves with pay envelopes
at the end of the week. As soon as the
brakeman have mentioned found that
he was on the call list, he had a tele-
phone installed in his home-a neces-
sity for a "railroader" That meant
work. of course. at the telephone plant.
which in its turn placed orders that
have created work in electrical equip
ment factories. Out of his first pay,
the re-employed brakeman gave his
grocer some money on account and
began buying butter and meat again
items that had been absent from the
family menu for a long time His wife
bought some cotton dress goods to make
dresses for the children and herself
1t is such partially revived buying
power as this that already has created
increased employment in textile mills
and shoe factories
Buying Power Needed.
A beginning. very good beginning,
has been made in recreating buying
power. But with so many millions out
OF work for so long a time, some strong
and sustained impetus must be given
to the massive wheels of our industrial
system before they can again function
automatically and steadily That i'm
petus is now being supplied by the
public works program we have under
taken. I am not talking of something
Intangible and merely dreamed of. I
am talking of something that is ac-
tually starting railroad car wheels that
nave been rusting on side tracks to roll
! again on the main line, and that is
causing smoke to belch forth again
from long -disused factory stacks.
One of the first things the Public
Works Administration did, with the CO.
operation of the Secretary Of Agricul-
ture, Henry A. Wallace, was to divide
among all the States the S40O.O 900 900
allotted by law for road construction.
This will put many thousands of men
directly to work building roads, bridges
and culverts but it will create much
more work indirectly. For instance. in
addition to the men actually employed
in mixing and laying concrete, there
Will be many more men working in
cement mills and quarries and on
transportation lines The indirect work
generated by the road program will
be double the direct work. For every
s2960 in pay rolls on the construc-
ton job for the average highway,
$61.40 will be spent on indirect pay
rolls for production of materials and
other services. This form of expendi-
lures creates employment in Summer,
usually the dull period for industry
generally. Peak employment on roads
is scheduled for September.
This employment will be spread over
every State and practically every county.
For example, In Massachusetts, the
money will ho epept in - ~ %h> -