Evening star., 1935-11-17
By Osuen L. Scots.

urlCaLlOnS LnaL WILL now from the unCers
tainties of the jobs, all combine to raise
serious questions concerning the wisdom
Of work relief in an election year.
As a result, memorandum is reported
going the rounds In the higher New
Deal precincts advocating an end to all
forms of direct Federal relief to the un-
employed, either through the dole or
through jobs. Instead, the problem would
be turned back to the States, with Uncle
Sam conflning his activity to providing
financial aid to individual States.
w. p. A. officials, even before their
program Is fully under way, are worried
over the prospect of complete new shift
in policy. Out of that situation grows
this observation:
Six years Of depression and unemploy-
ment have produced no settled Federal
policy for meeting this dominant ma
tional problem.
President Hoover insisted Is long IS
he could that aid for the unemployed
was not q Federal function. Finally,
he was forced to grant relief subsidies
to States.
Mr.. Roosevelt started out by broad
ening the program Of State aid to finance
the dole. Then, In the Fall of 1888,
when the N. r. A. boom had collapsed
and unemployment was rising again, Mr..
Hopkins sold the President on the Civil
Works Administration. He put 100000
men to work in q month and spent q
billion dollars In four months.
But c. w. A. promised to be Frank
enstein and was dropped like hot po-
tato, to be followed by modified form Of
work relief. About that time Mr.. Hopkins
got deeply interested in use Of labor of
the unemployed to produce goods for
distribution among those without jobs.
Business men, who thought they saw
the beginning Of little socialistic state
in the production-for-usep plan, caused
its death.
Relief then fell back into q rut-at
q cost of about 81 500 900 900 a year
until last January, when President
Roosevelt announced that the Federal
Government would get out Of this busi-
ness of relief"
Mr Hopkins had sold him on the idea
Of providing Federally financed jobs for
those on relief rolls able to work, turn
ing the unemployable individuals back
to the States. Care Of the destitute
always had been . duty Of the sovereign
States Of the Nation.
- 4
But at that point, Mr.. Roosevelt lis
tened to other counsel. He saw visions
Of using the millions Of unemployed to
carry out vast national planning projects.
He would build huge dams, carry
through flood control projects, eliminate
grade crossings, clear slums and do q
large number Of other large-scale things
Mr.. Hopkins knew that these projects,
II carried out, would cost so much money
for each job created. that the goal Of
work for 3,500000 idle could not be
reached. The President, with $4,000,-
10000 to spend, felt that he had to give
q large slice of those billions to Harold
Ickes, with his pump-priming Public
Works Administration and Housing Ad-
ministration. He set aside big slice for
Dr.. Rexford Guy Tugwell, who had Just
had Q TIL with his boss, Henry Wallace,
and wanted to show what he could do In
the way of experimenting with the farm
problem. More went for Embarrassing
elimination.
And with what result In the form Of
Jobs?
DR.. TugweIl, with sls7. 900 900 to spend.
has created $3.50 Jobs.
Mr.. Ickes, with $3.50, ,ooo, 900 to spend.
has created 1900 jobs.
Mr.. Macdonald, with $500 000, 900 to
spend on roads, has created $4,000 jobs.
The War Department. with $l45, 100000
to spend on rivers and harbors, has
created about $4,000 jobs.
Mr.. Fechner, with $523 ,000, 900 to spend
on c. c. c. camps, has created 5S5,000
jobs.
Mr.. Hopkins, with $l,1oo.ooo.ooo to
spend on w. P. A., has created 1,007, ,z08
jobs.
In other words, the G. G. c. camps and
the Works Progress Administration, with
its low-cost projects. hiring relief labor,
are providing the bulk Of the jobs that
are flowing from the four billion dollar
work fund. w. p. A. expects to run its
lob total up to 100000 and above by
December I.
When that happens Mr.. Hopkins will
have proved his thesis that employment
on o large scale can be created to carry
out projects such as street repairing, Sec
ondary road building, park improvements
and other work involving . large amount
Of labor in proportion to total cost.
But then the people, through Congress.
will have to decide:
l. Whether the work being done and
the Jobs being given are worth the money
spent on them.
Z. Whether there IL some other way
that they prefer to use In meeting the
unemployment problem.
Their choice will lie among the fol-
lowing alternatives:
The dole. This would involve . re-
turn to direct relief, unaccompanied BY
any form Of work. It's cost could be
under q, SOC, ,oo0, 900 year on the present
basis Of unemployment. But from the
irst pressure has been applied to end
the dole as such.
production for use. This involves use
Of idle factories, surplus raw materials
and idle labor to produce goods for use
by the unemployed. Belief could be
taken care Of at . cost under one bill
lion dollars year on this basis. accord.
ing to oficial estimates. But business
objects.
state aid. The idea would be to turn
the whole relief problem back to the tn.
dividual States, with Federal subsidy.
States, even now, are crying that they
cannot take care Of the unemployed not
absorbed In the present work-rehef pro.
sram. The cost would probably be about
the same as the dole.
fsornI,1nsfins. vork.relief and puhlic