Evening star., 1936-05-15
The Vandenberg Substitute.

The relief bill that passed the House
is an administration measure. Senator
Vandenberg, its chief critic in the Senate,
Is a Republican and possible nominee
of his party for President. That is
enough to mean defeat Of his proposal.
No matter how logical or constructive
the substitute may be, 1t runs into
political stone wall as far as adoption
now is concerned.
But the Vandenberg substitute not only
gives point to the widespread criticism
of the Hopkins policy, but poses some
thing in the nature of an issue which
may figure in the coming campaign. 1t
is an issue represented in the choice be-
tween continuation on the one hand OF
a relief policy that is ainless, extrava-
CANT, demoralizing and supported by
tremendous bureaucracy centralized in
Washington, and adoption, on the other
hand, of policy designed to start the
National Government back along the
road to enforcing local responsibility
in relief, with gradual liquidation Of the
Hopkins bureaucracy and all it has come
to represent in the way of inef1ciency
and political abuse.
Senator Vandenberg's chief points are
for return to the original relief policy
of allocating funds to the States on the
basis of population, unemployment need,
local conditions and tax resources; the
adjustment of bipartisan boards in
the States to administer the Federal
grants-to be matched by twenty five
per cent of more State and local funds
and turning over to the States the de-
cision relative to the type of relief work
to be undertaken.
Senator Robinson does not believe this
would eliminate politics from relief. He
does not think it is wise for the Federal
Government to surrender the control
over its hundreds of millions of relief
ALLEGATIONS to bipartisan State boards, and
he does not see that the Vandenberg
proposal forces the assumption of local
responsibility in relief any more than
previous efforts in this direction have
succeeded.
Such objections demand respect. But
do they not apply with equal force to
every policy except the present policy
of dishing out more boondoggling bill
lions through the HopkinsFarley relief
machine? Plenty of logical criticism
can be mustered to riddle any relief plan.
The vandenberg proposals have the merit
of turning back from road that is head
ed toward national bankruptcy without
alleviating the constantly growing de-
mands for relief, and aided by the forces
of recovery now working, to compel the
Resumption of local responsibility. That
is the only. way out of the relief muddle
In the long run.
The substitute will, of course, fail in
the Senate But Senator Vandenberg
has already proposed two of its features
as amendments to the relief bill. One
Of them adds to the penalty clause of the
House bill formal recognition of the Of
tense which consists in soliciting or receiv-
Ing "any political contributions from per-
sons for whom any of the foregoing ap-
preparation is intended" The other for
bids discrimination on account of race,
religion or political affiliations" These
amendments should be adopted in one
form or another as evidence of good faith
in Mr.. Hopkins noble efforts to elm
inate the worst sort Of politics from his
relief machine.