The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1935-01-02
SOciaiized Distribution
New York HeraId- Tribune

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Mr.. Hopkins program of trans
ferrlng to the states and localities the
burden Of supporting the "unemploy-
ables' on the relief rolls will in the
main amount to little more than a
bookkeeping transaction. since in most
cases the present state and local con-
tributlonS to the general relief SyS-
tenn are adequate to cover this part
of the total load. The idea, however,
of segregating the unemployables
from the rest Of the relief burden rep
resents a growing understanding of
what relief has come to mean, while
the estimate Of their numbers has a
rather ominous interest. F. E. r. A.
believes that no fewer than 20 per
cent of the cases now on relief, in
volving some 100000 souls in all,
are without employable breadwinners.
II SO, they can never be directed re-
absorbed by reviving industry while
it is impossible to convert them into
permanent federal pensioners.
There is logic in dividing them now
from the remainder of those on re-
lief and returning them to the direct
charge of the states and localities,
which have always been responsible
for the relief of restitution of this
sort. If the federal government can
then make work for the others its re-
lief problem will be over. Assuming
that the work relief project succeeds
(Which is a pretty large assumption)
this may be well enough for the fed
eral government. Unfortunately, the
states will be left with heavy relief
burden of their own. considerably ag-
grayated by the history of the last
four years. They will not only have
the normal" load of incapacity, old
age and Indulgence always present In
good times and bad; they will also
be supporting great numbers who
were formerly carried by relatives
and friends and by means of all sorts
OF desperate personal expedients, but
who have now relapsed into the arms
of government
To meet this situation, as we'll as
to fill the inevitable gaps in the fed
eral governments efforts to re-em-
ploy the employable, the states are
to be urged into old-age pensions and
unemployment insurance and perhaps
health insurance as we'll. But what
all this will really mean is not the
passing Of temporary relief "emer-
gency": 1t will mean the "socializing'
of a considerable part Of our system
Of distribution, as the British have
done through the elaborate "socia
security" schemes which they have
developed. Recent figures show tina,
in 1882 the British people spent Cr
national and local taxes and con-
tributions to the insurance schemes)
nearly $4,000, DOC, 900 in all on theil
social services, the equivalent for the
larger population Of the United State!
Of about $4,000 O00, 900. This cannot
be regarded as an out-of-pocket
cost since much Of it represent.
the spending through the social Sc
curly schemes Of money that woule
have been spent individually. Blu
the magnitude Of the figure does sug'
gest the far-reaching scope of thu
whole social security idea ard the ex'
tent to which it alters the nationa
economy. The New Deals attack OF
the relief problem is not ending re-
Lief: rather it is tending to perpetual,
under another name the new kind o.
economic adjustment which Is i'm
piled by the relief idea. It is tend
| ing to confirm great extension o.
socialized distribution, which Is itsel1
bound materially to affect the course
and character Of industrial revival.