The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-03-01
Plan of Roosevelt
Gives No Cash for
UnempIOyedReliei
Continued from Page u

cent to wages and be confined TO
! needy persons.
Explaining that out Of the four
million people who were reported to
be on the CWA. on February Is,
only two million came from the re-
lief rolls and others were merely
people who were out Of work, Roose-
welt informed the press that his new
plan viii spread employment.
Forced Labor
We want no dole, he said, adding
that it is desired to remove the home
or cash relief and substitute for it
work relief.
The new Roosevelt program, an
nounced, in written form, to coincide
with the plans for the demobiIza-
ton Of civil works, is a threefo,d
scheme to deal with distressed fami-
lies in rural areas" those composing
J stranded populations" of the single
/ industry communities in which there
is no hope Of employment" and
thirdly, "the unemployed in large
cities"
The Administration attitude to-
ward the suffering unemployed is a
variation Of Hoover'S brutal rugged
individualiSm In outlining the pro-
| gram for the unemployed in the
cities, Roosevelt first explains that
/ direct relief as such, WHISTLER in the
form Of cash or relief in kind, is not
an adequate way Of meeting the
needs of able-bodied workers. They
very properly insist upon an oppor-
/ tunity to give to the community their
! services in the form Of labor in re-
/ turn for unemployment benefits. The
federal government has no intention
nor desire to force either upon the
country or the unemployed them
selves a system Of relief which is
repugnant to American ideals OF in
/ diyidual self-reliance."
To Eat Six Months a Year
And therefore, concludes Roosevelt.
work will be given to an individual
for a period not to exceed six months.
This is in order that it may not be
! considered or utilized, as a perma-
nent method Of support" Evidently,
during the remaining six months
"the able-bodied workers" are to live
on their American ideals of indi-
vidual self-reliance, according to
the Roosevelt plans
| This six months work will be ad-
ministered by and under the direc-
ton Of those responsible for the I'M
/ employment relief activities in in
dustrial communicative is, the
industrialists In other words, the
employers are handed another
weapon to crush strikes.
Only in cases such as the drought
areas, will the Administration bear a
heavier responsibility than, the mere
contribution for wages, the Roosevelt
spokesman replied in response to
questioning.
UproOting 100000
Despite the fact that poor and
tenant farmers throughout the coun-
try are being evicted from their
farms every day by the weight of
mortgages and the ploughing-under
program Of the Administration.
Roosevelt's new measure neither
cancels mortgages nor gives them
direct relief. Though he is paying
hundreds OF millions to the rich
farmers to destroy crops. the Door
farmers are to be helped to sustain
a bare subsistence by attempting to
place them "in a relationship with
the soil that will provide them
-ecurity they do not now enjoy"
The farm program, which Roose-
welt declared Completely divorces
relief activities in rural areas from
those in the cities" includes build
N" or rabuilding adeuuote f9-n
homes; the provision Of seed, and of
stock for other than commercial pur-
poses, and opportunities to these
workers to earn modest cash incomes
through part time or seasonal en-
pigment in SmEl industrial enter
prises."
Roosevelt also told the correspond
ents that the administration must
adopt a means Of relief that looks
eventually to taking from 500. 900 to
100000 families, or about 1000 900
people, 'in stranded populations" of
relief.
Can Live On Hope
1.-THE solution of the problem of
these families involves their physical
transplanting. in a large ajority of
cases" said Roosevelt. Subsistence
honesteads" is the panacea planned
for these workers. These measures
will be directed first at maintenance
on small tracts of land and then at
the development Of supplemental in
dustrial opportunities to provide for
a normal standard of living" he de-
clared, in the teeth of an increase
in unemployment, for the fifth sue
cessive month, OF nearly a million
industrial workers during January
and the continuing ploughing-
der program.
Roosevelt, obviously, sees prosper
ity right around the corner" not
Withstanding the tremendous in
crease in unemployment. He stated:
The needy unemployed living in
cities and towns and who, in the
course Of coming months, may reas-
onably look forward to regular Jobs,
are entitled to, and should receive.
insofar as possible, adequate assur-
ance Of means to maintain them
selves during the balance Of the
period Of their enforced idleness."
However, this adequate assurance"
shouldn't exceed six months.
The new plan ends with the for
mula for flexible" starvation. aThis
program expresses a conviction that
industrial workers who are unem-
ployed and in need of relief should
be given an opportunity for lfven-
hood by the prosecution Of a flexible
program Of public works.
Harry L. HopkiYe G WA and Fed