The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-12-21


 ment Took Over Full Re-
 spOnsibility for Destitute
 for First Time Lessons
 Will Be of Benefit to Suc-
 cessOr, WPA.
 BY RODNEY BUTCHER
 Democrat Washington COrre-
 Spondent)
 Washington, Dec. 21-The switch board operator at the Work Prog ress Administration still answers Federal Relief" when you call, but the Federal Emergency Relief Ad- ministration-the FERA-is dead. Perhaps you shouldn't allow EZRA to pass out of existence with out quick look back at it. Through EZRA the federal government for the first time took total assump- tion of responsibility for relief of human destitution.
 In the EZRA work program a government for the first time in history laid the pattern for estab- fishing public or civil work with view to fitting jobs to the skill of needy people rather than to community demands for cOnstruc- tion projects.
 The Federal Surplus Relief Cor poration, 8 branch working with AAA, dealt in a big way with the fact that people were starving in the midst of big farm surpluses when it spent $255, 100000 in buying, processing, and distribut- ing 700,000,000 pounds of meat (handling nearly 10,000,000 head of livestock and huge quantities of surplus grams, vegetables, coal, cot- ton, and other commodities.
 
 Transient Peril Reduced
 Through its transient relief sys- tenn, EZRA relieved and reduced a situation which had reached appall- ing proportions. Many other things EZRA did, including the rural re- mobilization program-some of them strange, new, and even bizarre, too many to mention here.
 The worst mistake seen in EZRA policy was in its lack of longtime planning and the i1sistence on month month policy.
 The official view was that mere temporary emergency was being handled and hence projects were planned so they could be terminated almost at once, which meant considerable inefiiciency, on the theory that the amount of destitutiOn couldn't be anticipat- ed.
 President Roosevelt, often over- optimistic, chung to the belief that private industry would rapidly ab- sorb the unemployed. He was about the only person in Washing ton who did so believe.
 Lacked Expert Help The nations social work mechan- isms were expanded at least 10 times by EZRA and the lack of ex- pert personnel to administer this huge job and its quite new tech- nique was often painfully ap- parent.
 Yet that fault was somewhat offset by an eager enthusiasm of EZRA men and women who worked as if they were on an emergency job. (S0me of the energy and zeal has worn off late ly-one reason for the way the WPA program has dragged.)
 EZRA has received many knocks. But Harry Hopkins and his chief assistants, such as Jacob Baker and Aubrey Williams, were engaged in job unprecedented in magnitude and type.
 Cared for Millions
 The organization made grants of slightly more than $3,000, ,000,0 to the states in its fight against starvation and suffering (exclusive of $828, ,000,00 of PWA money for the 100000 CWA workers).
 Its peak load in the task of providing food, clothing, and med- ical care was a relief roll of 20,- 654,O84 persons in January, 1885. In September-thanks to seasonal drop, transfer of 100000 or more rural relief families to Dr. Tug wells Resettlement Administra- ton and early WPA projects the number had dropped to 14,- 100000, who were scheduled by Dec. l to be taken care of by WPA wage projects or the states.
 In two years the average sum of relief per family was increased 88 per cent-from $15.59 month to $29.34. Inadequate, "indefensibly low" relief was 8 problem faced at the beginning.
 In Georgia the average rose from $4.58 to $17.16 and in Mississippi from $3.86 to $15.23.
 Real Economy Baked
 Present New Deal policy-aban- donment of EZRA and direct fed- eral relief, with creation of WPA- is based on the theory that the dole makes "bums" out of "em- ployable" human beings. Also, on Roosevelt's desire to reduce the drain on the treasury. -...t
 But WPA probably will have to be supplemented by 8 renewal of direct cash aid for some states.
 EZRA found out how cheaply the country could have adequate relief, but never got chance to carry the plan cut. Although 13 per cent of relief people were being used in pro- duction of necessities for the un- employed (canned goods, clothing, and so on), 1t was computed by Baker last March that the relief expenditure of $l65, 100000 8 month could be reduced to $60,000,000 if idle factories were hired and relief recipients put at producing as much as possible for their own needs.