The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-03-01
WORK RELIEF BILL
 TO STRUGGLE
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 wage guarantee if 1t is to free the
 measure from the senate tangle
 which has enveloped 1t. An ultimate settlement through a revision of the controversial
 amendment requlring prevailing
 wages on work relief projects, was
 anticipated. But the nature of the eventual compromise was uncertain. Negotiations that began unsuc- cessfully yesterday, will be con- tinued over the weekend, or until some satisfactory basis for pros ceeding with the suddenly halted
 relief program has been reached. Labor forces confident of their
 strength fin thes senate, said they would not yield.
 Mir Roosevelt took charge of the situation after his return from
 Hyde Park, and was using all of
 his persuasive powers to effect a settlement.
 William Green, president of tho American Federation of Labor, last night broadcast a declaration that | the prevailing wage amendment is
 ''more vital to the economic well fare of the nation thany any issue that has faced us since the incep- ton of the recovery program" All of l1te negotiations were se-
 cret but 1t was largely learned they hinged on efforts to revise the McCarran prevailing wage amend
 ment to a form which both the White House and labor represen- tatives would accept. Tentative drafts of such a re- vision were presented to President Roosevelt by Senate Majority Lead- CT Joseph T. Robinson, but were not accepted there. One proposal which figured in the conferences was that the president be given "permissive" powers to pay the prevailing wages wherever he deemed it necessary to maintain American standards of | living.
 This was rejected by represen- tatives of organized labor. Hoover Spent More Chicago, March 1.-CUP)--Ex- penditure for relief during the Hoover administration were "high- CT than they ever had been before or have been since," Federal Re- lief Administrator Harry l.. Hop.
 kins charged to-day. Hopkins, commissioner to carry the Roosevelt administration
 campaign for the $4,SSO, 1000
 work-relief bill to the people, opened his drive with a vigorous defense of relief activities since the present administration. took of- flee.
 At that time," he said, Eve were just getting out of the old Hoover days and relief expendi- lures were the highest in history, only not very much was said about it.
 Hopkins swung off a train from Washington wearing a dark gray overcoat and a matching hat that turned Up sharply in front.
 We're never going back to the old days when 1t was g. policy to let the devil take tn ehindmost'," he declared.
 eve have a relief problem and to take care of 1t. Our program is based on work relief and not bare relief.
 eff an economic system means anything 1t means that the people on the bottom part of the ladder must have enough for decent existence"
 It is Hopkins opinion that the relief load has reached its peaK for the winter.
 with the beginning of April" he said, II anticipate that expen- ditures will start on g downward grade"
 Hopkins described his visit as for the purpose of viewing the situation at first hand, but at tho same time he took time enough to predict passage of the pending relief bill by congress.