Evening star., 1935-04-08
Relief Administration.

Relief of the destitute is out of the
hands of Congress at last. President
Roosevelt returns to Washington from
Florida with a check on the Federal
Treasury for $4,880 900 900 made out
to his order The responsibility of re-
lief now becomes entirely his. 1t is
a huge sum which he has been given
to administer and it is huge task
that confronts the Chief Executive.
His announced plan is to put to work
100000 persons. now on relief rolls.
At the same time the President is
placing this huge number of the un-
employed, another 100000 now on
relief rolls are to become the sole care
of the States and municipalities in
stead of looking, as at present, to the
Federal Government for their support
The separation of the workers from
the drones in the unemployed hive is
likely to be a touchy affair. However,
that is the plan. Political pull, it must
be hoped, will not be the determining
factor in the selection of the unem-
ployed now on relief rolls for paying
jobs.
The country still waits for the de-
tails of the Presidents plan to operate
this great work relief program. There
has been a great deal of guessing
The only official statements forthcom-
ing from the White House to date.
however, have insisted that the Presi-
dent himself is to be the boss spender.
He will say how much money is going
to this or that project. The country
has way of weighing governmental
agencies by the men who head them
1t realizes that the President must
have advice on all the details of
spending this vast sum of money, that
he must have first lieutenants who
will do the real spending. Many per-
sons would like to know whether the
job of dispensing all this money, or
a very large part of it, is to go to
Harry L. Hopkins, who seems to have
an unlimited ability for spending, or
to a man like Secretary Ickes, who
spends with much more care. They
would like to know If the relief is to
fall into hands that are first political.
The announcement of the set-up
for administering the work relief pro-
gram has been awaited with interest.
Apparently it has been withheld until
after the Congress had finally passed
the work relief bill and sent it to the
President for his signature. There
has been feeling that premature an
nouncement of the administrative
plans might contribute to the delay
of the bill in the Senate, already too
long.
The proof of any pudding is in the
CdIIllSs llC dGlOIl lids
the work relief program a prime ISSUE
II it does not live up to expectations
there will be criticism. Millions of
persons have waited while Congress
has fought over this relief measure
and many of these millions have
looked forward to sharing in this Gov
eminent money.
One of the big questions which con-
fronts the President and his advisers
is the wage scales that are to be paid
workers on relief. The President has
said frankly that the wages are to be
lower than those paid in private in
dustry. The reason advanced for this
is that the Government does not wish
to compete with private industry for
labor, that it is desirous of having
labor return to private employment
as soon as possible. Some of the ad-
ministration spokemen have insisted
that the average wage on relief prof.
ects for labor is to be $50 a month.
Obviously, if it is more, it will not
be possible to give employment to
3,5O0,0oO with $4,000 900, 900, when the
cost of materials, transportation, etc,
are taken into consideration.
The work relief program, on all
counts, presents big problem. 1t
will require the best brains and the
soundest common sense to be worked
out effectively and for the best inter-
ests of the unemployed and of the
country