The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1935-09-24
6. P. MAKING
WORKS PLANS
AN ISSUE
BY EARL GOODWIN

Harold Ickes step aboard the Pres
ident'S special train to the West
Coast next Thursday night, PreSi-
dent Roosevelt will have with him
for q transcontinental tour the
two men heading the two work
programs which may make or
break President RooSevelt's politi-
cal future.
With the work program appar.
emily in distress and the country
hearing daily about rows between
Secretary 1ckes and Administrator
Hopkins, the Republican national
committee is naturally making all
the possible political capital out
of the works machinery and in
tends to charge that the Admins
tration is incapable Of carrying
out a constructive program.
Although the President is appar-
emily undisturbed by the row, re-
ports from all over the country
indicate a deep dissatisfaction
with the entire work program.
Much of this complaint, it is ex-
planned, is due to a misapprehen-
sion of the principle underlying
the matter of transferring relief
clients to pay rolls.
Public Dissatisfied
However, the general public is
reported to be dissatisfied with
anything except large permanent
public works of the Ickes variety
schools, bridges, roads, etc.
Members of Congress, who heard
from their home districts, learned
that the voters wanted a perma-
nent share of the huge work-reief
fund in the form of new county
courthouSes, new city halls, new
public Fairgrounds, underpasseS
IN place of grade crossings, and
improvements of like nature.
This, Of course, goes to the
heart Of the bitter controversy be-
tween Messrs. Ickes and Hopkins,
which has been settled largely in
favor of the Hopkins view that
the small, light jobs put the most
men to work quickly. The heavier
jobs, as the President sees it, do
not take enough from the relief
rolls and put them to work.
Bridge Job Cited
AS an Example, 1t Is pointed out
that the huge forty million dollar
Triborough Bridge in Manhattan
is putting only 730 men to work
from relief rolls, the balance of
the money going largely for ma
ter1als. OF course, it is explained
that the manufacture of materials
gives many men employment. but
Administration supporters say
that the manufacturers have
managed to cut down employment
to the minimum.
But the plan of the Administra.
ton Of several months ago to put
every able-bodied person on relief
rolls to work by November l or
soon thereafter, appears to be
fading away as the difficulties of
administering the huge job null
tiply with the passage of every
hour.
One Of the political troubles of
the Administration will arise from
the fact that with all the much
talked Of publicity machinery, the
Administration has not been able
to put over to the mass of people
throughout the country the full
story Of the work-relief program.
The critics of the Administration
have succeeded in making many
people believe that instead of
large works, the Administration
is going back to leaf raking and
''boon doggling."
Legal Obstacles
There is a widespread criticism
of the failure of the housing pro-
gram as it was originally under
stood. Throughout the country
there was general feeling that
many millions would have been
spent by this time getting rid OF
ugly Slum areas and substituting
living quarters of a better stand
ard for people of the lowest in
comes.
The slum clearance program
has slowed down to a snails pace
and in some places it has stopped.
Moreover, the vast housing pro-
gram of the PWA has slowed
down materially and the houses
and housing projects now are far
from being the low cost units orig
dnally expected.
Furthermore, the Federal Hous-
ing Administration appears to
have gathered up burst of speed
and apparently is outstripping
the Public Works outfit with long
rows of actual houses, but none
of them for that submerged por-
ton of the population still said
to be living in slum Squalor.