The Waterbury Democrat., 1936-05-22
II BEHIND lTf7E SCENESl
 M WASHINGTON RY RODNEY DUTcHER-A Democrat Washington
 Correspondent)
Harry Hopkins Knew All the Answers, So House PrObers Were Baked Bewilder- ing Array of Facts and Charts Hurled at Quizzers '. For Every Complaint a Ready Reply.


 Charts Hurled at Quizzers
 q. For Every Complaint a
 Ready Reply.
 Washington. May 22.-Harry Hop kins came of unscathed from his appearance before the house appro- priationS subcommittee, considering the administration request for $l,- 800 100000 more for WPA. That was because nobody had any afn- intuition to shoot at him.
 The record, now public, shows that this fast-talking head of the vast WPA organization was armed with an overwhelming array Of facts, figures, tables, and charts while the hostile committee mem bers, in no position to dispute this evidence, could explode only a few pop-guns in the form of iso- lated incidents which previously had been mashed and rehashcd In congress and the press.
 Hopkins large research and
 statistical stan had prepared all
 the answers and anyone who
 wanted to check over the WPA
 program would have needed a
 more or less similar stan of his
 own.
 When Hopkins pointed out that
 WPA had 17O,OOO projects and
 that only 100 or l5O had been held
 up to public gaze aS horrible ex-
 amples of "bOOndOggllng" or
 waste--whIch he insisted was Q
 good record--nOne could say him
 nay. .
 But Hopkins went on farther to insist that in most instances even those criticisms were un- justified.
 Hopkins Gives the Answers
 Defending the WPA whitc-collar program, he asserted that nearly all its projects had been sponsored by communities, which in many cases were bearing a large part of the cost. He answered Q number of specific project criticisms as fol- lows:
 Complaint that SOOO,OOO was ale
 located to make brIdle paths more attractive for hOrsemen In BOr- Ough of Queens, New York. HOp-
 klns: Project was sponsored by
 New York and Long Island park authorities as detail of long
 needed park improvement pro-
 gram and only y2O,OOO was al-
 lOtted.
 Complaint that $72,0O0 was be- ina spent to grade, drain, and Bur- face one mile of road, specified to run from Calhoun to Meadow vile by way of Bethel church, all in Virginia. Hopkins: Project calls for b.7 miles of road, serves as farm to-markct and school bus road, and connects two impor- tant U. s. highway routes. Fossil Hunt Upheld
 Complaint that $23,030 was being spent on an arboretum at Hyannis, Mass. Hopkins: Project is to pro- vide on adequate athletic field for State Teachers college, eliminate q swamp, create handicapped park with tennis court, running track, and walks lined with trees and shrubs, thereby greatly incrcasing tha ingtiLutiof'R value to the state.
 Complaint that project for cons pIetc illustrated Catalog of the fossils, involving classification and BB-indcxing of some 12,000 species in New York city, was silly. Hopkins: Sponsored by New York univcr- sity geology department, this one will enable geologlsts to study subsurface conditions more thor oughly, will produce great bcnc- fitS for science, agriculture, and industry, and will enable mining and petroleum industries to save millions of dollars.
 
 Defends Rat Crusade
 Complaint that rat cxtermination project in Cleveland, O., was Just SO much "boondoggling." Hopkins: Cleveland Food and Drug Adminis- tration, sponsor, estimates at least 100000 rats have been killed by 35O,OOO poisoned baitB set by WPA workers. Federal health authoriticH cgti mate each rat causes average of @ damage n year, meaning the city is saved q potential damage Of S200,000 at q federal cost Of 8,860.
 Complaint that road costing WPA 88i, ,0il was Go be built between Skull Valley and YaVa, Ariz., because 30 residents of Skull Valley and 70 of Yava sometimes visited one an- other and found the road too rough. Hopkins: County board of super visors contributed $l3,305 to this project. Road serves large cattle, goat, and mining districts, three school districts, numerous farms And So On and On
 Complaint that expenditure of e4308 to rcnovate books in Louls- vile, Ky, libraries was more boon- doggling." Hopkins: This employs an average of seven women other wise unemployable who in four months mended 4245 books, made 2O84 magazine covers, and perfor- ated. pocketed, labeled, and stamp cd 2406 books.
 Hopkins could go on like that indefinitely.
 His point was that, even though administration iS sometimes criti- cized. hardly anybody ever op- poscs a WPA project when it's in his own home town.
 (COpyright, 1886. NEA Service, Incl
 Grandmother and granddaughter Mrs. Catherine Wilmington, aged 7i