Evening star., 1935-12-17

That is an overhead Of four or five
hundred million per annum. Some in
crease in relief was necessary, but an
increase of 800 per cent in costs In
! the face of a per cent decrease in
unemployment load is significant. I
will not try to figure the increased
percentage in overhead.
In confirmation Of this, have IL
quired as to the figures Of several cities
and counties. To cite one of them, the
number on relief increased per cent,
the cost $50 per cent. The others con-
firm these increases.
Every community has been forced
to become conspiracy to get their
share from the Federal grab bag. And
saddest of all, the responsibility of
local self-government has been dulled;
we are becoming nation of prayer
wheels directed to Washington.
We may well wonder why local Or
ganization of relief has been shifted
to Federal bureaucracy. Some part
of it has to do with politics and yearn-
ing for sociological experiments. Jobs
have been thereby found for over
100000 new Federal officials. If it was
decided to bureaucratic relief from
Washington, then every call of good
government demanded that the staff
be selected by nonpartisan merit tests
through the Civil Service Commission
But that service which has been built
up over many years by every President,
was ignored and repudiated, and the
spoils system substituted. You know
and know and the people know that
this horde of officials has been ap-
pointed by the advice and consent of
Democratic politicians.
Relief Comes From
Pockets of Citizens.
One thing is certain. A mass of
propaganda spreads over the country
to the effect that relief to the unem-
ployed originates with the New Deal
and would end with the New Deal.
Those in distress will not be misled
Whatever aid they receive comes not
from any official or party. 1t comes
out of the pockets of their fellow citi-
zens. 1t will not end as long as there
Is need.
The inevitable and driving purpose
of any political bureaucracy is to use
its powers to secure its jobs. The
sudden appropriations to cities, coun-
ties and States were singularly timed
to elections. And this is not the only
method of making politics out OF
human misery.
Do you want more proofs of waste,
folly, chiselers and petty corruption?
You know it in your own town, city or
village. Read your own newspapers,
whose columns periodically reek with
accounts of disorganization and waste. |
Their editorials cry to heaven against F,
the use being made of relief for politics. /
If only the money taken from the tax
payers could go to those in distress
there would be less cause for public
indignation.
The administration Of relief needs
reform right now. 1t needs it in the
interest of good government. 1t needs
it in the interest of the 85 per cent 7
of our citizens who have to pay for it.
They include everybody who works. (
The cost of these wastes and follies is
collected by hidden taxes in every
package that comes from the store. Or 1
worse, we are laying it onto, our chill
dren by debt. Reform is needed in the
interest of the Is per cent who are
on relief, that they get better and more
secure service. To the self-respecting
Americans on relief these wastes and /
follies are tragedy. They know it |
disSipates money they need. It delays |
their deliverance to a real job. The |