Evening star., 1934-01-07

so1@er ssate secretary Oh STATE Oh ne" '0fA
TIME national industrial recovery
act made two distinct and sep
arate attacks on unemploy-
i ment. The first was q frontal
attack on the depression,
launched through the N. r. A. by
spreading work. The second was q
rear guard action by public works re-
serves. This article is on the second
attack.
The experience of the country with
the maddening delay and red tape in
cident to the approval of self-liquidat-
ing projects by the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation led Congress to
liberalize the law and set up a public
works program under an independent
one-man administration, but even Con-
gress could not prevent the new Public
Works Administration from drifting
back to the old involved, time-con-
Stunning r. F. c. procedure. It is a
significant thing that with all its
boards, divisions and subdivisions, the
Public Works Administration lacks a
central production unit, which is the
very heart and driving center Of all
we'll run private business. There are
investigators and plain-clothes men to
spy on the staff and prevent easy COM
munication with applicants for loans,
but no one to see that results are ac-
complished according to schedule.
Major Effects Missed.
AS a result, instead of employing at
any one time the number of workers
optimiStically forecast by the statis-
ticians, there has never been one
fourth this number employed through
the United States because all prof.
ects did not get under way together
because some are not even started yet
and because, when the tagging prof.
been completed. For this reason the
anticipated major effects of a tre-
mendous, concentrated attack have not
been realized
1t has often been said that little
printing will not start the industrial
pump. A delayed, dragged out, shoe
string public works program, spread
over years instead Of months, may In
the aggregate employ many men and
measurably increase general purchasing
power, but 1t is ineffective as a means
of stimulating the heavy industries to
normal action. II the Nation needs a
public improvement tonic, there Is no
use giving it half dose. The whole
does would require dictatorship Of public
works by a forceful efficient executive,
such as the men who directed the
more successful war activities in 1917
and 1918.
I share the opinion of number of
people who, from the beginning. be-
lieved in the theory of great public
works program, that Hugh johnson
would have been an almost ideal pub
lie works administrator and that he
was miscast as the controller of in
dustry. He should have been the
Simon Legree of public works instead
of the Billy Sunday of industrial con-
troll. In the construction field his great
energy, enthusiasm, honesty and
ruthlessness would have brough quick
results. There would have had to be
some mopping up after him, but moth
ing like the dead cats, dust and debris
which have obscured the real achieve
ments of the N. r. A. The trouble
with the general was that he fell into
the very natural error of confusing a
presidential appointment with an au-
thentic divine call to don hair shirt
and lift up the tabernacle Of the New
Deal in the industrial wilderness.
Waiting Theory Wrong.
Contrary to the general impression,
it is not necessary to sit around wait
ing for plans in full detail before con-
struction projects can be started. In
an emergency, sketch plans will do.
Foundation work can begin before an
entire structure is designed. A thou
sand experiments familiar to private
construction can be imported into pub
lie works If the will is there to do it
and If official timidity and the creep
ing paralysis which seem to grip most
good men when they get into a Gov
ernment building can be overcome.
The Public Works Administration has
recently repeated the story that all but
SAB 900 900 of its So, SOC, ,000, 900 has been
allotted Obviously, the conclusion
meant to be drawn by the average
person was that the whole program was
proceeding under full steam and that
all funds authorized by Congress were
being rapidly exhausted. Actually the
total amount spent for public works
out of the $1,000 900 900, at the time
these roseate statistics were being
heralded abroad, was only $131 ,473 900.
The allotment Of funds means next to
nothing. Some of the allotments will
never be spent, and in any case there
will be months of delay before work
actually begins. Last September the
P. w. A announced to the metro
politan press that SIG, 100000 had been
allotted for four housing projects in
New York City The next day men
rushed to get the jobs, but up to date
of this writing not one of these projects
has started.
It was not until the Winter was fairly
upon hs that the realization came to
the public works and relief officials that
they must find some new way to employ
struction jobs. The civil works plan
was then evolved. In a speech at
Washington inaugurating this plan,
pinning the authorship of it on Harry
Hopkins and allocating $400,000.000 of
public works money to him for it, Sec
retary Ickes said: 1.-THE beauty about
this plan of his is that it is going to
fill in the inevitable gap that we
haven't known what to do with in pub
lie works" Perhaps civil works will
fill the bloody gap between relief and
public works, but no one knows how
deep the gap is. and it gets wider as
the public works program Is delayed
OF course, the unemployed must be
cared for. Perhaps there is no way to
Jump the gap, but we should at least
attempt to see how much fill Is needed
before we get too deeply involved. q
Difficulties AnaIized.
What is the trouble with civil works?
It may be admitted that it avoids some
of the stigma Of relief and that 1t puts
money into circulation. On the other
hand, it is contract work without the
contractor. In the main, it is short
time, odd Job chore work with next
to no equipment. with Inadequate ma
terial and poor supervision. It Is re-
lief work without reference to family
need. 1t is an attempt under extraor-
dinarily difficult conditions to substitute
social service secretaries for experienced
executives in the supervision of thou