Evening star., 1934-08-26
BY OWEN L. SCOTT.


between recovery, rising costs of re-
lief. and what DR.. ReXford Guy Tug
well calls social management" but
what older fashioned economists term
"State Socialism" Important gains
apparently are being made at this
time by the latter, under pressure of
necessity.
President Roosevelt had figured
confidently that private industry
would be able to absorb a much larger
proportion of the unemployed than it
actually has absorbed. His calcula-
tions, for one reason OF another, went
wide of the mark. AS a result, the
figures are beginning to show that,
before many months h ave passed, the
workless, under the present method
of relief, are going to eat the Govern
ment out of house and home.
What to do? That is the question
for which the experts are seeking an
answer. 1t is the object of intense
thought in the White House and ac-
counts for the latest plan to reorgan-
ize the recovery machine for another
try at depression back breaking. This
time, the President desires to CO.
ordinatel the activities of the A. Al A.,
the N. r. A, the new Federal Housing
Administration and other agencies of
recovery.
Figures in the Office Of Corrington
Gill, assistant emergency relief admin
1strator, who does much of the re-
search for Harry Hopkins, serve as
a spur to the present activity. Mr..
Gill's charts show relief costs mounting
rapidly. They reveal that about 80
per cent of the expense of unem-
ployment relief is accounted for by
food purchases. Food prices, he finds,
have gone up sharply in the past
year. They are on the verge of
another advance that promises to add
to the already heavy burden on the
Treasury.
But that is not all. The unem-
ployed, after several years of idleness,
are reported to be increasingly rest
leSSs. They want jobs of some kind.
To create new, more carefully man.
aged civil works program, or to en-
large the present emergency works
program, means greatly augmented
expense at time when ordinary re-
lief is proving burden of startling
size.
That is one side of the picture. The
other side shows industry greatly con-
cerned about the cost of supporting
the unemployed. 1t knows that this
expense eventually must be met by
taxes, and that taxes will bear most
heavily on business. So industry de-
sires to find a way to reduce the
financial burden of relief.
Just at that point is entering the
program that Tugwell would describe
as social management. 1t is a pro-
gram that has many of the earmarkS
Of Upton Sinclair's "epic"-end pow
erty in California-plan. MIR. Sin
clair is Socialist. He hopes, how
ever, to be nominated next Tuesday
for the governorship of California
on the Democratic ticket. That hope
is based on his plan, which really
differs but little from a program al
ready under way here. The idea is
to bring together the idle workers,
the idle factories and the idle land
But the Washington program, al
ready functioning, makes the Sinclair
plan look small by comparison. It
causes an observer to conclude that
those who have\ been attacking the
N. R. A. and the A. A. A. as the
forerunners of a collectivist state
actually overlooked the real agency
for change. That agency is the Fed
eral Surplus Relief Corp:
F. S. r. c. was created October f.
1888, to help correct the depreSsion's s
most glaring paradox-the presence
of want amidst overburdening plenty
On the one side were the millions of
unemployed needing goods. On the
other side were idle factories which
could turn out those goods. In the
middle were great supplies of raw
materials, burdening markets and
complicating depression problems. The
Surplus Relief Corporation was created
to help bring these elements together.
1t is Delaware corporation. The
powers enumerated in its charter are
nearly boundless. Thus, the corpora
ton has the power to purchase. process
and distribute for consumption agri-
cultural and other products. One
paragraph says that the agency can
engage in any activity in connection
with or involving the production,
| carrying. shipping, storing, exporting,
warehousing, handling, preparing,
manufacturing, processing and mar
keting of agricultural and other COM
modities and the products thereof" !"
Through this corporation the Gov
ernment can engage in most lines Of
| business.
4 X y X
But, the question is asked, Just
! where does the F. S. r. c. enter the
relief picture as a means of lowering
costs? Also. it is asked what use Is