The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-01-08
US. Must Give
Proper Relief,
Says Leader
Delegates Told United
Action Will Win Real
Social Insurance
BY HOWARD B0LDT
Daily Worker STAFF Correspondent

" AN(ANf IL Oss OnAls
The main report of the National
Sponsoring Committee for the Ma
tional Congress for Unemployment
Insurance was delivered by Herbert
Benjamin, national executive secre-
tary, and was unanimously en-
dorsed by the assembled delegates.
The report, delivered yesterday
and punctuated with the ringing
applause of the host of delegates
from the shops and trade unions,
the unemployed workers and those
in the fraternal organizations,
searched into the so-called achieve
ments of the Roosevelt New Deal
and examined into the ever increas-
ing attacks upon the employed and
unemployed masses.
Yesterday" Benjamin said, "the
Chief Executive of the United
States government. speaking in the
midst of the sixth year of I'M
paralleled crisis, in the course of
which millions have been deprived
Of their livelihood, in the course of
which millions have lost their homes
and suffered the breaking up Of
their families, speaking in the sixth
year of crisis, which still leaves
sixteen million unemployed in this
country, the chief executive of this
nation saw fit to direct his entire
message to the one focal point that
the Federal government must and
shall end the business of relief
we therefore must meet here to-
day with the very serious purpose
of issuing as against this pro-
nouncement of President Roosevelt,
our declaration that now in the
midst of this sixth crisis winter, it
is high time that the government
shall understand that it is our pur-
pose that the government shall
finally begin and not end the bust
ness of providing relief for the I'M
employed"
Benjamin then pointed out that
1t has taken these six years for one
President to come around to the
viewpoint of his predecessor, Her
bert Hoover, who at the beginning
of the crisis stated that there was
no cause for concern. This policy
of Hoover, Benjamin stated, was
again expressed by Roosevelt.
Cash Relief Called Dole
Giving cash to the unemployed, "
he continued, lis described as dole,
and in place of this we are told
that works program will be de-
velooed and that that will be the
source of our salvation. We are
told of a works program after more
than two years of the New Deal
and after nearly two years of the
N. I. r. A.. which, on its Inaugural
ton, was supposed to have provided
jobs for at least six millions of the
unemployed by Labor Day, 1888. We
are told that jobs will be provided
for us now on the following condi-
tons: firstly, on the basis of useful
work, which useful work, however,
is not to compete with private in
dustry. We are told that on the
one hand the administration has
no intention-and we can believe
that-of in any way interfering with
the profits of those who own the
wealth and the sources of wealth
of this country, that in no way will
they suffer competition, and that,
on the other hand, we are never
theless to be provided with useful
work"
The nature of such work, Benja-
min declared, has ben clearly pre-
sented In the Civilian Conservation
Corps, which Roosevelt has declared
will be continued and enlarged, a
program of work, in one phase, the
militaristic and concentration ma
ture, is akin to the same camps in
fascist Italy, fascist Germany and
fascist Poland.
Another phase of this, he con-
tinued is expressed in the Roose-
velt intention to enlist the unem-
ployed into isolated poverty stricken
communities, where they will exc
out bare existence and be re-
moved from society and civilized
life.
Political Character Of Farley
Still another, Benjamin said, is
the support given by the Roosevelt
regime to the starvation self-help
schemes where workers are sent to
scratch each others backs.
Every section of the population
was taken under the searching
microscope of Beniamin's scintillat-
ing analysis-farmers, Negro people,
the industrial population, the I'M
employed masses, foreign born-and
the class relations and forces
brought into play as each group
seeks to find political expression for
its needs.
we see the reflection of this in
the broadened political character of
our Congress. Today it is not only
the more advanced among the
masses that realize the problem be-
fore us, today vast masses who are
still divided on other questions, par
ticularly on political questions, still
retaining many differences of opin-