The Redwood gazette., 1936-04-02

Handling Of.
Proble1n1Hit
Town Boards, at Meeting In
WabassO Tuesday, Talk of
Dropping WPA
Commissioners Indicate Aid
Of Boards Will be Asked
In Investigations

In Investigations
Thoroughly alarmed over the
problem of relief, members of the
township boards and village coun-
clls at a meeting in WabassO Tues
aay afternoon requested the board
or county commissioners, now that
1T again has authority in admins
tration of the problem, to give
them a voice in the certi6cation OF
relief cases as means of cut
ting down the load which they con-
tend has been encouraged to grow
under state and federal authority.
A dozen or more local officials
who asked questions or offered op-
inions at the meeting, voiced COM
plete disgust and dissatisfaction
with CWA, ERA, WPA and other
federal and state agencies con-
cerned with relief in recent years,
frequently urging the board to
give consideration of proposals to
Withdraw entirely from federal
and state setups and ''go it alone"
by providing for the worthy on re-
lief rolls and leaving the "chislers"
to shift for themselves.
The meeting was an Outgrowth
of discussion among Redwood
Falls township board members at
their annual town meeting and
was called by officials of that
township, with the county commits
sioners invited, for frank and
thorough discussion of the subject.
The aim of the sponsors was real
lied, the meeting refraining from
personalities and being given over
to clearing up matters of policy,
explaining the position of the
board through recent years and
offering and receiving suggestions
for improvement in the setup.
George A. Barnes, county attOr-
ney, was the principal speaker and
was aided in the explaining of
many points by Richard Cook,
county engineer, both men having
been in close touch with relief
matters for several years. Four
members of the county board, E.
A. Pease, chairman, Phil Raveing,
j. P. kragh and Herman Beckman,
also were present and contributed
to the discussion. D. M. Tiffany
was chairman Of the meeting.
After an explanation by Mr.. Tif-
fany of the circumstances which
prompted calling the meeting, Mr..
Barnes dealt briefly with the his
tory of the relief question begin
ing in 1880 when he said the coun-
ty had 100 relief cases Of which
about 20 were year-around wards
and the remainder were on the
county from one to five months of
the year. The county levied $780,
900 for relief that year, he said, of
which $19,317 was expended in
cluding the county home, Univer-
sity hospital fees and tuberculosis
sanitorium and feeble-minded in
stitution cases.
In 1881 the expenditure jumped
to $34, 200, the next year it went to
$4,000 and in 1888 to $4,000 up
to November when the Civil Works
administration took the matter out
Of county hands and spent $4,000
in succeeding months before evol-
wing into the ERA in April 1884.
The next change was to WPA in
September 1885 after gap of two
months in which, he said, the coun-
ty found greatly aggravated re-
lief situation on its hands after
the premature curtaiiment of
ERA.
The county's relief load reach
ed a peak in March 1885 of 598
active cases, families and single
individuals, costing the govern
ment $17,274 or $28.8S per case.
In February this year the county
again became it's own relief boss,
exclusive of WPA still handled by
the government, and in March, he
said, the per case cost had been
reduced to $18.84. He informed
the meeting that the commission
ers ordered a fiat 20 per cent cut
in relief expenditures at their last
meeting.
Mr.. Barnes declared frankly
that the county officials are not at
all satisfied with the way the
problem has been handled and
have been studying many possible
reforms in the one month it has
been theirs to command. He ask
ed for questions and suggestions.
Investigators and the relief Of
flee came in for criticism immed-
lately, several town board MEM
bers declaring that persons have
been encouraged in recent years
to take advantage of generous
government help, destroying, they
said, their morale and what stig-
ma remained to being county
charge. The county board declar-
ed stopping any such tendency
was its first act in taking over the
problem.
The high wages paid under
ICWA and ERA and the lack of
any supervision of the spending of
WPA checks, much of which it
was charged goes for liquor and
| gasoline, also was attacked. Other
speakers told of Ioafing on WPA
work. even card playing during
the brief hours when work was ex-
lpected. Still others told Of exper-
fences in trying to get heIp on
farms and being refused because
Iof the governments generosity