Evening star., 1935-11-19
FUTURE AID POLICY
WORRIES CITIZENS
Tax Bill Stirred Wonder on
Era After w. P. A. Funds
Give Out.

This is the eighth OF a series OF ,
articles anulysino the economic
and political effects. the proodoie
developments and early Snags oJ
President Rooseuelt's $4,000 100000
job program.
MEMPHIS, Tenn, November l6 IN.
A.N.AD.-Most frequent, bitter ana
serious of all charges made by critics
of Roosevelt relief policies is that un-
counted scores of thousands who could
support themselves if they had to.
have been living off Uncle Sam"
The story takes myriad forms. You
can hear it in any city. 1t Is par
ticularly prevalent among the upper
classes" who are alarmed by the
soak -the-rich" tax bill passed by the
last Congress.
It is not so much the provisions OF
that law. drastic as they are, that
seem to be worrying the Nations tax
payers. 1t is the fact that the law
struck so hard among those most able
to pay" yet accomplished so little
toward balancing the bduget or pay
Ing the shot Tor rellel
If the soak -the-rich" revenue Is
but a drop in the bucket, what sort
of taxation will it take to I'LL that
bucket?
What of Future?
When the $4,000, 100000 is gone, and
another $4,000, 100000 perhaps, and
the synthetic jobs run out, what then?
This chain of apprehensions has
spread like a prairie tire-even among
MANY of those who essentially back
the Presidents program, who know
that a great majority OF relief clients
are honest victims Of system over
which they have no control. and who
will ask you: If not this, what?
Starvation and riots?
1t has built the $4,000,000,0O0 pro-
rram on sands of uneasiness. And 1t
crystalizes in the cry:s
We're supporting thousands OF loaf
ers!"
And one way to cut the load is to
get rid of these "loaferS.
If this city of Memphis, metropolis
of the mid-South, is fair barometer,
there is plenty of substance benlno
the charges of waste which most peo-
pie sense and feel, from their personal
experiences. rather than know.
Dumps 1000 Cases Overheard.
A few months ago, there were 9,OOO
families on relief in Shelby County
,Memphis). A new administrator OF
relief for Western Tennessee was in
stalled by order of Administrator Hop
kins in Washington. His name is w.
r. Browne. He got his training IN
Texas under Lawrence WestbrooK,
now key Hopkins aid at the Capital
Browne does not like to talk about
what he found. But the relief load
suddenly dropped 1000 families. Some
of the decrease was caused by revlvlng
INDUSTRY. But most of the cut SIM
ply was wedding out of families who
had no business getting Government
money.
1t seems that Memphis social work
ers (or some of them, who were paid
for examining Clients and rejecting
them when relief aid was not justified,
had it all figured out that, if they
dropped too many, there would be need
for fewer social workers on the pay
roll. The more relief clients, the more
social workers, and vice versa.
They we're right. Today there are
not as many social workers on the pay
roll in Shelby as there were.
Communists Have Racket.
There are other quaint little GUS
toms which load" the relief rolls. In
New York City, for example. Com
munists purposely register one man
from several addresses-one in Brook
lvn, one in lower Manhattan. one in
the Bronx. The social worker calls
and is told, Yes, Mr.. Doak lives here,
but is out
different worker gets the same
story at the other end of town. One