Evening star., 1935-01-25
The Presidents Program Wins.

President Roosevelt's leadership in
the fight against unemployment was
given firm support once again by the
House yesterday. By vote of 329 to
78 that body passed the $4,000, 100000
work relief bill, to which had been
attached items transferring an addi-
tional item of $3.50, ,OOO, 900 from former
appropriations with the understanding
that this money will be used for direct
relief until the works program gets
fully under way. This total of nearly
five thousand millions of dollars is to
be used by the President as he sees
fit for the relief of unemployment, the
relief of economic maladjustments,"
the alienation of distress and the i'm
provement of living and working con-
ditions" The President asked for
lump-Sum appropriation so that the
purposes of the act might more quickly
and efficiently be attained. The House
gave it to him. 1t is now up to the
Senate, and there seems little doubt
that that body will follow in the foot
steps of the House, although it may
be a little more deliberate about it.
The revolt, so called, of Democrats
in the House against the Presidents
work relief bill petered out. 1t is
true that some amendments were writ
ten into the bill to appease several of
the members. But they did not change
the essential feature of the bill, which
continues to grant to the President
this great sum of money to be used
for such purposes as he finds to fit in
with the relief program. He is to
administer the fund in any way he
desires, either creating new agencies
or making use of existing governmental
agencies. In the final vote on the
measure, which delegates to the Presi-
dent all the power of allocating and
spending this money, only ten Demo-
Gratis were found voting against. To
offset this loss, twenty-six Republic
cans, seven Wisconsin ProgreSSiveS and
three Farmer-Laborites voted for the
passage of the bill.
It was in vain that the Republican
minority pressed for amendment after
amendment. The Democratic machine
turned out to be in good working
order. Not a single one of the pro-
posals sponsored by the G. o. P. men,
bers was adopted. One of these Re-
publican proposals which might well
have commended itself to the House
provided that none of the money
should be used for any project which
would put the Government unwar-
rantably into competition with private
business and industry, and that as far
as possible the work should be done
by private contract. The Republicans
made no attempt to change the lump
sum appropriation feature of the bill.
What they sought was to set up rules
and limitations in the administration
of the fund, one of which would
have provided that there should be no
political test or qualification" imposed
on any one seeking work on relief
projects.
The administrators program to
speed recovery through the stimulus
OF Government spending is apparently
to be maintained. With it is to go
actual relief of unemployed workers
on a large scale. The President aims
to take 100000 of the people of
the dole and put them to work on
public projects of one kind or another.
A Democrat, Representative Connery
of Massachusetts,, chairman of the
House Labor Committee, sought in
vain to amend the bill so that the
wages paid on these relief projects
would be at the prevailing rates for
private employment of similar char
acter in the immediate neighborhood.
The President has indicated that the
wages to be paid for this relief work
will be adequate for decent living for
the workers and their families, but
that they are not to be so high as
to encourage men and women to stay
on the Government pay roll when
private employment offers. The
Connery amendment commanded
good sized vote but failed of ma
jority in the committee of the whole
House.