Evening star., 1936-01-21
Serious Situation in District
Is Stressed at Special
Meeting.
NEEDS ARE DECLARED
OF Permanent NATURE
Problem Seen Aggravated After
W. P. A. Support Has Been
Exhausted Next Summer.

needs and the inadequacy OF the solu-
ton Of the relief problem by current
and prospective appropriations was
stressed last night by a group OF Is
selected speakers at q meeting OF the
Monday Evening Club at the Y. w. G.
A., Seventeenth and K streets.
With the exception of proposed aid
to the blind and to dependent chill
dren. it was agreed administration Of
the various types Of Categorical re-
lief" all under general supervision Of
the Board of Public Welfare, is rem
dered q "baf1ling" question by lack Of
funds.
THE amount of money being hand
ed to US is really nothing compared to
the whole problem Of relief" declared
Ross Pollock of the Board Of Public
Welfare. in a discussion Of what may
be expected from the old-age benefit
program. the hackers Of which foresaw
general tightening Of the direct relief
load through its operation.
5000 Families Problem.
I'VE are baffled by the problem Of
the 5000 families which will remain
on direct felief after the works pro-
gram has absorbed all employables.
said Elwood Street, director OF public
welfare, after Carroll Robb, District
playground engineer. had posed this
question:
What will come after w. p. A
funds have been exhausted next
Summer"
Further doubt on the possibilities
Of the old-age assistance program was
cast by Leopold v. Freudberg, Dis
trict insurance man. who cautioned
his listeners:
II hope the people Of the country
will not come to the conclusion the
ills OF old age will have been cured
by the old-age pension act"
Pollock added:
THE removal of persons to the old
age pension cannot be construed in
any way as being much help to the
public assistance division"
It has been expected 1900 persons
now receiving direct relief would be
eligible for the old-age assistance, Of
fering an average Of $40 to each re-
cipient, who must be IS years of age
or older. The assistance would come
from Congressional appropriation un-
til 1912, when a tax fund would have
been built up to the point where it
could carry the pension payments.
Declared Here to Stay.
Meagerness OF the appropriation for
public health service here and Federal
abandonment of the transient relief
program were lashed as Street de-
clared relief was here to stay.
Appropriation for the health serv-
ice are a disgrace to the city and a
disgrace to the country" Gertrude H.
Bowling. executive secretary of the
Instructive Visiting Nurses Society told
the group She vigorously criticized
limiting the per capita expenditure
for public health to less than 81, where
$3.50 was needed.
She predicted closing the Tubercu-
losis Hospital. on Upshur street. al
ready ordered, will dump back into
the city dozens of open cases of tuber-
c'llosis to contaminate children and
bring an ultimate cost of millions"
The audience was asked to sign a
petition for presentation to Congress
asking continuation Of the Upshur
street hospital until as many beds as
1t contains are provided elsewhere,
funds enough to provide at least 80
nurses for the 800 children at Glenn
Dale Sanitorium and appropriation of
at least 50 per capita for public
health purposes.
Transients Declared Neglected.
Street assailed the "atrocious in
adequacy of what the community is
doing for the transient man" in COM
menting on a statement by Gilbert
S. Decker. Salvation Army adjutant.
that Federal withdrawal of transient
relief aid effective last Fall. "rele-
gated to limbo all work done in this
line" Street continued:
I'VE are inescapably in need of a
Federal transient program. We will
stay in the midst Of chaos until we
get it. In the transient field we are
worse OF than we were five or six
years ago"
In emphasizing relief permanency.
it was pointed out ty Russell L..
Greenman Of the United States Cham
ber of Commerce and echoed by
Street that while business indices
show Washington, was as prosperous
in November, 1885, as in November,
1929, the month after the market
crash, unemployment remains, and
10000 families today are on the
Capital relief rolls.
The direct relief recipients are be-
ing cared for from 100000 'ap-
preparation. supposed to last until
July l. but probably to be exhausted
by April, according to Robb.