Evening star., 1935-11-28
SPIRIT Of FINDING
JOBS IS REVIVED
Rhode Island Administrator
of w. p. A. Sells Men on
Hunting for Work.


(NAN.A)-From Little Rhode Island,
seething as it is with power-drunk
Democrats and the scene Of the IA
nous anti-New Deal "weather-vane
election" of two months ago, comes
the No. l non-political constructive
suggestion SO far developed from the
$4,000, 900, ,000 job program. i
It's author is j. Burleigh Cheney, a
sort of super-salesman turned State
w. P. A. administrator, who is trying
to turn every relief client working for
him into as good a salesman as he is.
Every worker is trying to sell-him-
self The prospective buyer is a pri-
vate employer.
Cheney's fondest hope is to button
up w. P. A" at an early date by re-
placing his entire employable welfare
load in industrial jobs. OF course he
is not going to accomplish that and
probably nothing like it. But already
he has instilled into his organization
something rarer in relief crowd than
snowballS in the Sahara-spirit.
Ambition Revives.
The old sparkle skill and ambition,
deadened by months of dole, are re-
turning to many men in Rhode Island.
Each day after the w. p A. task is
finished, workers who are following
Cheneys advice go out looking for
another JOB back to the factory, shop
or Office that last employed them,
keeping after the straw-boss or per-
sonnel man or chief clerk or what
have you.
Most of them don't land but some
of them do Rhode Island industry,
textiles excepted, is on the rise.
Cheney is trying to capitalize on it,
and stimulate it as well, by jimmying
his employees" off w. P. A. onto
private pay rolls.
He believes that men working on
w. P. A, if they really work, become
substantially better prospects for pri-
vate employment than they were be-
fore. They regain the habit and skill
of working. If they don't work. he
has a patent little way of handling
them.
The w. P. A. grumbler in Rhode
Island suddenly finds himself fired"
He is told he is working for wages
and if he doesn't want the wages he
doesn't have to take them. No agita-
tors are tolerated.
Taken Back Again.
When the dismissed agitator or
grumbler reappues for relief, he is
refused. Back he goes to w. P. A.
and he is put on another job. II
he makes more trouble, out he goes
again. The idea is impressed on him
that he is earning wages, not going
through the motions to collect dole
check.
IT think w. P. A. can make or
mar a man depending on how it is
administered" Cheney said. Il con-
ceive of it as temporary expedient
that should be ended as soon as pos
sible; not ended so people will starve,
but ended because there is no more
need OF it.
This objective is probably impos-
sible Of attainment. However, I be-
lieve that w. P A. should be ad-
ministered from the broad longtime
perspective. We can't go on spending
Government money forever. The real
job we have is not only to feed these
people now, not only to make them
work so an economic return will be
forthcoming for the Governments
money, but to rehabilitate them.
I'VE have rural rehabilitation. Why
not the rehabilitation Of the average
city workman as well-the man who
has been fat and on relief, who needs
a little boost and a shove to get
going?"
Builds Up Record.
Cheney's ability, believe it or not, is
not confined to convincing oratory.
The record proves otherwise. He used
that ability, however, to help make
that record.
AS soon as he was appointed,
Cheney went into every corner of the
tiny State and made a personal call
on the officers of each of the 80 towns.
He told them all about the program,
and said that before long they would
have to take over the care of all un-
employable relief clients. He ex-
planned what kind of projects he
wanted. And he told them they
would have to contribute money for
materials. They came across.
Everything was ready so that when
the projects gushed forth from the
office of Controller General McCarl,
the ebullient Cheney had his entire
State quota working within five days.
Here was a State where the very
fact Of political mess itself helped
W. p. A. stay non-political. The
Democrats, for years starved for
power because of down-State Republi-
can control of the Legislature, cap
tured the State government by a
coup year ago and passed one ripper
bill after another, tearing up every
thing by the roots from the Supreme
Court down.
In Providence the machine is still
monkeying with the local courts to
such an extent that couple of con-
science-stricken Democratic aldermen
recently arose to publicly express their
penitence and urge their colleagues
to change their tactics.
The uproar has given Cheney a
much better opportunity to keep
w. P. AS nose out of the mess Most
of the administrative employees of
w. P. A., as well as the project"
workers, have come from the relief
rolls.
(Copyright. 1885, by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc)