The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-07-11
NEWSPAPERS OPINION
AN ENDURING PROBLEM

Federal relief is major enterprise In Norm
CoroIina in terms of expenditure, as it has come
IN he in every other state of the American COM
oonwealth Funds aggregating more than Sl9,-
OOO 600 were channeled from Washington into
This state during the past year for this purpose,
70 kee ppeople from furnishing, to put clothes on
their hacks to give them odd jobs to do and otheg-
,y;sa to maintain them on subsistence OASIS |H
few wears ago one would have been adJudged
fit for the asylum who would have Ventured ehe
,radiction that the time could ever possibly come
whom such state as North Carolina, with It's 81
oOO 600 inhabitants and with every natural adj
vantage of climate and soil and geography IN It's
favor would be compelled, within the narrow Inn
ifs of a single wear, to get $19,000,O00 from the
federal trough with which to keep its people meas
urably comfortable.
And there will be those who say and great
many more who think, that such should never
have developed as a condition in North Carolina,
that the state with all of its resources at It's COM
mand could have avoided much of this physical
distress had its economic planning been wiser and
had it taken advantage of all that Nature had SO
graciously laid in its lap.
But it is not as to this that we now need to be
so much concerned. We are dealing with a fact
and not with theory, with conditions that exist
not with conditions that should not have been
permitted to exist. "
And the immediate question arises as to how
long will this federal paternalism in social and
economic services be continued-hOw long will 1t
be before all of this relief machinery can be
scrapped and our people again enjoy the privilege
of returning to some gainful pursuit and recap
turing their independence as to subsistence needs.
Is the end of all this colossal relief enterprise
in sight? 1t is not.
Back in the Fall of 1882 when three men from
Raleigh directed the initatory relief efforts of the
government for the entire state of North Caro-
lina it was happily remarked and generally agreed
at that time that it would be merely matter of
only few months that relief organizations would
be in the field.
Nobody then could foresee the possibility of
government as great and powerful and financially
resourcefu as that of the states keeping up the
constant stream of millions from Washington with
which it started off. .
But today nearly two years later, the end is no
nearer in sight and the government has progress
sivey increased the flow of such relief funds,
changing the name from one service to another,
but keeping the channel clear for multiplied mil
restitution in every nook and corner of the coun-
try.
It would seem reasonable, therefore, to make at
least one clear deduction from all that has gone
before, namely, that the problem of relieving the
ills of unemployment in the terms in which we
have come to know and to designate them is far
from one of temperatures.
1t is now the duableness of this problem that SD
sharply concerns us.
Perhaps that is not the current and casual view,
but it is the historic and serious view. We must
understand that we have a very sick world our
hands and that it's illness, with all of its moving
and compelling acuteness, has about it, also, the
elements of chronic disorder.
Those who are keeping their hands on the pulse
of our afflicted society and taking it's temperature
are discovering that while there may be occa-
siona symptom of Improvement, the seat of the
trouble lies vexingly beyond human reach so far.
Charlotte Observer. .-..- ..
HOW MANY PEOPLE OVER 65