Evening star., 1934-11-04
Continued From First Page.)

successfully to the sympathy Of
women case workers. having de-
veloped every excuse for refusing the
gardening. from a deep-rooted fear
of snakes to incipient paralysis.
A sad number of potential laborers
are convinced that our President
would be very unhappy if they worked
for small wages on jobs they do not
happen to like Il wouldn't be helpin'
Mr.. Roosevelt's plans If I worked for
40 cents an hour" a second-rate car
penter tells me. wonder what street.
corner orator has impaired this wis
donor that of the steady relief pa
irons who inform me that the Gov
erment intends for workin' people to
get groceries when they wants 'em.
and one little Office amt got no right
to make us work for what we was
meant to get free"
The problems of unemployment
bureau are difficult when emergency
relief projects pay wages that private
industries cannot meet. II the F. E.
R. A. pays carpenter rs cents an
hour, how can we induce him to work
for private contractors at so cents an
hour? II F. E. r. A. pays unSkilled
laborers 35 cents an hour, how can
we get workers for employers who
cannot pay more than 80 cents an
hour? If Federal project pays 500
a month to an inexperienced stenog-
rapher who can take no shorthand,
types feebly, spells worse and has
never heard of Harry Hopkins or
Frances Perkins or anybody connected
with Government except President
Roosevelt and the local politician who
put her in her job, does it make it
easy for us to send a good stenogra-
pher to Smith & Co., who will pay
$50 a month and, considering their
decreased business, do well to pay
that much?
Danger Is Universal.
My notebook is so full of cases that
I do not know which to choose. I
used to think that my Southern city
might be in class by itself until
went to a convention and talked to
other employment workers and until I
read reports from bureaus all over the
country. I have found that mine is
not the only city which contains men
and women who had rather be en-
gagged in parades for the unemployed
and union activities than accept job
that would get them off relief.
realize now that the great danger
of breeding idlers is universal rather
than local. I try to be philosophical
when at 1890 in the morning, after
locating an opening with a private
concern for a young man who has
besought our Office to find him job
I am told by his mother that Frank
isn't up yet, but I'll tell him to call
your Office as soon as he awakes."
try to be philosophical. but I must
confess that I ask my boss If I may
strike Sleeping Beauty off my list of
worries.
As long as there are self-respecting
people who honestly want work and
will accept it gladly when they can
get it. don't see why an employ
ment bureau maintained by the Gov
ernment should be bothered too much
by our Sleeping Beauties or, to carry
the tale further, men like Mr.. C. Mr..
G. is a pianist who, if you listen to his
Paderewski. He has a wife and five
children-and people have stopped
taking piano lessons. F. E. r. A. pro-
vides for Mr.. c., who is supposed to
be searching for job. He comes to
us. We cannot offer a concert tour
or piano pupils, but we can offer a
labor time-keeping job at SIS week
which, one might think, would be
preferable to relief.
Poses Question.
would you take such a job?" says
Mr.. c. to me. He has picked the
wrong person. I know what he is
thinking. I am a Government en-
ploye, he figures, and I ought not
to mind it if other people get little
easy money. too. 1t is not my place
to tell him that I am getting
smaller salary than the bricklayers
and plumbers whom I send out on
jobs, and that I need work, not being
in the category with the worker across
the hall, who spent last year in Eu-
rope at the expense of rich father
and is spending this Winter at the
expense of F. E. r. A.
Why tell him that I work rather
iard at times and that I go home
at night wondering what is fair. after
all, and what will become Of people
like himself If the Government, like
a weak parent, continues to spoil its
less enterprising children? ! happen