The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-05-04

| JOxLS ! VA ASNA
Soviet Republics five-year plan for
the advancement of Russia-moment-
| Gus ideas, yes, but they're just a drop
| in the bucket compared to President
Roosevelt's now longtime program for
the rehabilitation and advancement Of
the United States" That was the
answer T. C. Spaulding, director of
state relief and FERA, gave me when
I asked him what the new FERA pro-
gram was.
I had asked the question in the in
terest of the public of Montana who
knew that a relief program had re-
placed the CWA; that Director Spaul-
ding had announced the successor to
this program, designed to fit in with
national planning, during the recent
state planning conference, which was
of tremendous scope; and that all over
the nation much was being said OF
the new program 49,. yet few people
could comprehensively explain it.
Accordingly I had asked the man
who knew nor about the program
than any one else in the state. Here's
what he told me:
This is the lull before the storm,
speaking literally. We are organizing
rapidly for the new program. 1t has
already taken immediate care Of the
men who were employed under the
CWA. But the planned program will
soon go into effect as rapidly as we
can formulate Jul organization to take
car Of it. Once under way, it will be
the biggest single concerted effort ever
put forward for the advancement of
Montana and her people, as a unit in
the complete readjuStment, rehabilita-
ton and advancement of the United
States.
Let us go back for a moment. 1t be-
came necessary for the people of the
United States to assist their destitute
first in 1882. 1t was an emergency,
and the only thing that could be done
was to make arrangements to feed
them, to clothe them, to house them,
with little expectation of return. When
the Federal Emergency Relief admins
tration was formed, came the first in
ception Of the idea that relief, after all,
was not merely a problem of giving a
man or a woman OF a child something
to eat and something to wear, but that
it was the task of the nation, the state
and the recipient Of that relief to e
ward the nation or the state with
something in return. After all, that
did not suffice. The Civil Works adj
m~inistration was hurriedly thrown to-
gether in order to provide for labor,
but I may say frankly that the original
RFC, the FERA and particularly the
CWA were emergencies, wartime meas
ures, to meet a critical situation. Those
things have been changed now, and a
new plan has been formulated by the
federal government in meeting a ma
tionwide planning program for the re-
Mobilization of our citizenry and the
rehabilitation of III natural resources.
The president, in his wisdom, in this
new plan has seen fit to divide the
communities into two divisions; first
of all, industrial centers, which may
be broadly termed towns of five thou
sand or more, and second, the rural
areas, the farming regions including
towns of less than five thousand.
Those who need help and assistance
in towns of five thousand or more are
to be put to work at once. It is in
tended that this work program shall
offer employment for needy unem-
ployed persons who are able to work
in the urban and industrial sections
of the United States. It is necessary
that the projects upon which these
people work shall be of the highest
social value, planned to be Of the
greatest efficiency and the greatest
benefit to the community or state and
c~o-ordinated with larger plans for
local or state improvement. All prof.
ectS shall be undertaken INDEPENDENT
ly Of work under a contract or for
which an annual appropriation has
been made and must be, in general,
apart from normal governmental en-
terprises.
Under the work division, working in
cooperation with u state planning
board, the following things may be
done in towns of over five thousand:
First of all we are authorized from
funds appropriated to the state Fed
eral Emergency Relief administration
to take over and provide for the plan
ming. Second, we may construct those
things that are needed as far as public
property is concerned, the widening of
streets, the construction of sewers, the
Identification of cities-anything that
will tend to make the city a more
beautiful place in which to live, and
a more comfortable place. Third, we
may undertake and are authorized to
undertake the housing problem, re-
modelling and repairing of houses in
lieu of rent for relief families, demoli-
ton of useless and condemned struc-
lures, assistance in publicly owned
housing, resettlement housing for re-
settled families, and subsistence home
steads. By subsistence homesteads we
mean a garden plot, for workers whose
employment is more or less intermit-
tent and whose wage scale is not suf-
ficient to maintain the worker and
his family in comfortable circum-
stances. I quote from the federal ad-
ministration plans:
Production and Distribution Of
Goods Needed by the Unemployed:
The production of goods for persons in