Evening star., 1934-05-27
lob PLANNING
HELDESSENT|AL
Street Declares Communi-
ties Must Organize to Gre.
ate New Occupations.

positive conviction that every
American community must set up q
permanent organization immediately
to plan new occupations for millions
of workers who will be left on the
scrap heap of unemployment" even
after the depression Is ended, Is held
by Elwood Street, who will become
District director Of public welfare
next Friday.
He proposes that each city estab-
lish employment planning councils tO
tackle the problem OF residual un-
employed" which he finds arising in
the wake of the depression.
Mr.. Street has outlined his proposal
in the current issue Of The Forum, in
which he makes a distinction between
the normal army Of three or four
million unemployed during days prior
to the depression who casually drifted
from place to place, and a new mass
Of workers who have lost their Jobs
and will not be able to 60 back to
old occupations.
Specialized Effort Needed.
Even when prosperity has returned
and all the forces Of the administra-
ton have done their utmost to put
America back to work, he writes, a
permanent army Of unemployed still
will remain, unless effort of a spe-
cialized kind is made.
These residual battalions of the
jobless cannot be completely and per-
manently demobilized by a 4O-hour
working week, a 35-hour working
week. or a 30-hour working week; by
a Civilian Conservation Corps; or by
public works or civil works programs
no matter how valuable these devices
are or will be for the majority Of the
unemployed" Mr.. Street writes in the
magazine. The detected doughboys
Of this tatterdemalian army will be
the men and women who have been
disinherited by industrial change
They'll be bnleted on us, one way or
another"
The incoming welfare director paws
tribute TO the major programs of the
Government to spread employment
but he cites three trends which are
forming the army Of residual un-
employed" He lists these as the
displacement OF men by machinery
the displacement OF whole industries
or parts OF them by new industries
ana lowering Of age limits in in
duS.ry at which workers are let out
in preference for younger employees.
Leading up to his plan for employ
ment councils, Mr.. Street outlined four
devices which have been set in motion
10 salvage the unemployed, all OF
which he terms essential elements in
the program. These are:
Old-age pensions and other forms
OF :ocial insurance, the United States
Employment Service, the Nationwide
system Of vocational education and re-
education and the development of
services to provide for the demands of
the new leisure resulting from short
work week programs.
Concerted Plan Needed.
None OF these devices for unscrap-
ping the human scrap heap will oper-
ate themselves, and they must operate
unitedly, not separately" Mr.. Street
states. Ahmed at one object. thev
must function through concerted
planning"
This situation calls for local en-
ployment planning councils, ne de-
clares. Such groups should include
representation Of all groups interested
in finding and creating employment,
in training people for employment and
placing them in employment. in pro-
viding relief for the unemployed and
in promoting wholesome use of leisure
time.
In the councils. he contends, there
should be Representatives of local and
national governmental employment
and educational services, as we'll as of
all races. creeds and classes.
Mr.. Street already is on record here
favoring closer coordination of the
efforts of public and private relief and
welfare agencies. A committee of the
Council of Social Agencies nov is max
ing a study Of means Of reaching this
objective.