Evening star., 1935-07-28
New Deals Four.
BilliOn-Douar Bear
By Oteen l.. Scott.

the tail. They don't dare let 60: yet
are concerned about the consequences
of holding on.
Those four billions, Mr.. Roosevelt be-
lieved, would perform miracles. The
Federal Government must and shall
quit this business of relief" he told the
country last January. The billions were
to turn that trick. Slums were to be
cleared, grade crossings eliminated, soil
erosion checked, farms electrified, ma
tional highways built, forests reclaimed,
farm homes constructed-all part Of
national plan.
In the process of doing those things
3,5OO,00O jobs were to be created, most
of them by July l. Those jobs were to
be useful mot just for day, or q
year, but useful in the sense that they
afforded permanent improvement In liv-
ing conditions" They were to yield
security payments" in place of wages,
were to be applied largely to self -liqui-
dating projects, designed to compete as
little as possible with private industry.
4
Mr.. Roosevelt laid down this outline
nearly seven months ago. Congress
voted the billions and blanket authority
w AAsC tAiCAA tlldIl tilACC hlOhAOALo
ago. Mr. Hopkins, who had turned ON
and turned OF 100000 C. w. A. jobs,
got the job of filling in the outline with
performance. He thought he was deal
ing with q tame bear.
What has happened?
More than six months have gone by
since planning started. Relief rolls that
were to disappear are nearly 400 600
larger than a year ago. The cost of
that relief is nearly $50 900 900 a month
larger than at this time last year. In
other words, about 100000 families,
composed of about l9, 600 900 individuals,
are being cared for at a cost of approx
mately $3.50, ,000, 900 each month.
Those figures are for persons ION re-
lief" Add $4,000, 900 a month for C.
C. c. camps and $120 900 900 a month
for Public Works expenditures, and it
is discovered that total of $3.50, 900
a month, under the old plan of relief
and pump printing. still goes out of
the Federal Treasury.
Multiply that monthly total by IL
and the result shows that the cost of
relief, direct and indirect, has been
running about $3.50 ,OOO,O a year, or
Just short of the four billion mentioned
by the President as the amount that
would revolutionize the method of meet
ing this country's unemployment
problem.
So the situation SINNERS down to
this: Mr.. Roosevelt expects by work
relief to show the country bigger and
better results for its money than he was
able to show for the same amount of
money spent on q combination Of relief
and public works.
What does that mean? Simply that
less money will be spent on such projects
as Boulder Dam, flood control, grade
crossing elimination, surfaced highways
and heavy construction in the building
field; more will be spent on making sur
veys, grading farm roads, touching up
rural school houses, putting bridges over
creeks and other inexpensive projects.
But today 2,500,00 persons on relief
are employed in just that type of occu-
patton. They work one or two days
a week and draw an average of $26
month for their relief labor. Under the
new plan they will work longer hours
and give more service on much the
same sort of project in return for a
security wage" amounting on an aver
age to $50 a month.
4 y
Primarily the object is to raise the
standard of living for the employable
persons now receiving relief. at the ex-
pense of persons now supplying labor and
materials on the heavier kinds of public
works jobs. And that object, in turn,
is part of Federal cropping for some
tn hrfF. ha alnFrr1
problem into national focus for perma-
nent treatment.
Ofhcials who study the problem have
about made up their minds that relief
is here to stay, in some form or other.
Why? Because they are convinced in
dustry has adjusted itself to function
with fewer workers. Even in the midst
of depression, technical improvements
have been made that displace human
labor. Higher N. r. A. code costs, Gov
eminent studies show, have resulted
in perfection of machinery to bring labor
expense down to the level at which
goods can be sold.
Unemployment in fact, is larger this
year than last, according to all available
reports. This is true in spite of the
fact that production in industry has
increased and business has been more
active. Out of the countrys unem-
ployed, only about one-half are 'on
relief" The remainder are supported
from savings or by relatives.
But the Government finds that the
pressure from the unemployed who had
not been ION relief" but who finally ran
out of resources and had to ask for
keep, offsets the absorption of workers
in industry and offsets, too. the attempts
to cut the relief program by cleaning
up the rolls.
Just now relief is being denied able
bodied men in the Middle West, where
labor is needed for the harvest.
x 4
If relief is here to stay, what can be
done about it? The New Deal has been
seeking an answer. Three systems have
been under study. One is the dole. This
is England's method. Mr.. Roosevelt
doesn't like 1t because he believes that
merely to supply subsistence for work.
ers, without asking labor in return, Is
to undermine morale and to destroy
ability. Others don't like it because the
dole tends to create a pool of idle labor
that can press down on wages in in
dustry as the idle workers seek to COM
pete with industry workers for jobs.
This is the relatively inexpensive relief
in dollar cost.
The second is the third economy. DR..
Rexford Guy TueWell provided that