The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-27
Letter on Wagner Bill
Attempts to Kill Fight
for III. r. 1898
By CARL REEVE

By CARL REEVE
IN the face of the deepgoing in
l dignstion of the 100000 unem-
ployed workers. against Roosevelt's
liquidation of the G. w. A., and his
attempts to drsstically cut all forms
Of relief, Roosevelt has issued a
letter supporting the Wagner "un-
employment insurance" bill. Roose-
welt, in this letter, comes forward
with congratulations in favor of
unemployment insurance" in order
to trick the angered workers with
cheap demagogy, at the same time
that he takes the bread out of their
mouths by cutting down relief.
Roosevelt's shifty letter again
directly conflicts with his campaign
promises. In half dozen speeches
during the 1882 campaign, Roose-
welt time and again promised that
the Federal government "owes a
positive duty that no one shall be
permitted to starye." He said that
"the minimum requirements these
days are unemployment, old age
and social insurance" Boston
speech.
work Relief Only
But after election Roosevelt for
got these promises. In launching
the G. w. A., Roosevelt came out in
principle against both unemploy-
ment insurance and cash relief, de-
claring it not to the mental good
Of the iobleSs to receive "the dole"
and other form of relief other than
work relief forced labor. Again,
a few weeks ago, in announcing the
liquidation Of the G. w. A., Roose-
welt repeated his opposition to
either cash relief or unemployment
insurance and advocated work re-
lief only, declaring that any other
form of relief is against American
principles Hopkins, last week,
once more advanced Roosevelt's
program against unemployment in
surance when he announced that
in cities over 5000 the only form
Of relief will be temporary work
relief" forced labor and this will
be "transitory" only. (Cities under
5000 do not even get work relief" y
Now, in his new letter, in the face
of the overwhelming demand of the
masses of workers and farmers for
real unemployment insurance, for
action at this session of Congress
by enactment of the Workers I'm
employment and Social Insurance
Bill Oh. r. 1899, Roosevelt boosts
the Wagner Bill, claiming it to be
unemployment insurance"
pOOSEVELT'S letter in itself is a
II reputation of his campaign
promises of security" to the work
ers, guaranteed by the federal gov
eminent. He states emphatically
that the Democratic Party is OPP
posed to federal unemployment in
surance. He proposes "unemploy-
ment insurance under state rather
than under national law" He adds:
Under our system of government
the task of caring for the unem-
plOyed falls primarily on the
States" Thus Roosevelt once more
violates his campaign promises of
security from starvation guaran-
teed by the federal government and
gives notice that the federal gov
eminent does not intend to grant
any unemployment insurance funds.
But Roosevelt's letter goes a step
further. Roosevelt announces fur
Their cuts in cash relief to the Job
less. He says: I'VE have in the past
relied almost entirely upon private
charities and public treasures to
sustain the cost of seasonal and in
ternittent unemployment. This is
a practice that necessity will com
pei us to change to a very substan-
tial degree"
Roosevelt here serves notice that
the public treasury" is going to
substantially" cut down the
amount of unemployment relief.
and that is exactly what Roosevelt