Evening star., 1936-01-12
Renewal of Federal Relief Is Vital
Question Now Confronting Congress

whose minimum budgets are larger
than that amount. These exceptions
are among the reasons which make
me think that continuing Federal re-
lief may be necessary.
Excellent in principle as is the w.
P A. and p. w. A. idea of equaling
the average wage in a given class Of
work over period Of five years, we
must realize that the people who are
taken on Works Progress jobs have no
backlog of saving. They have prob
ably large debts which could not be
paid while they were On relief. House
hold equipment and clothing have
seriously deteriorated during the period
of minimum relief. These families
, have no savings with which to buy
fuel for the Winter. nothing with
which to get running start in the
new era of five-year average wages.
Therefore, there is going to be some
need for assistance for even those
average budgets are not exceeded by
their normal average w. P. A. wages.
Who should make up that difference
Vi SOul IllC AuCoO1S11 "4AASAA A4ANn'O
be discussed further.
1t is fair to say that theoretically
there should be no difference between
public and private wages, so far as the
principle of experimentation by re-
lief funds goes, and that we should
accept the w. P. A. and P. w. A.
wages as being public wages. From
one point of view then, we might well
ask, what responsibility has the COM
munity for the experimentation of
wages either public or private, and II
there is any responsibility. who should
bear that burden? The answer in the
past in general has been that private
philanthropy must help out If any,
body did. The F. E. R. A. some
months ago issued a ruling that F. E.
r. A. funds should not be used for the
experimentation Of partial employ
ment or Of underemployment and has
recently ruled that Federal relief funds
shall not be used to supplement w. P.
A. wages. That sounds fair enough
from the point of view of carrying out
the principle Of the w. P. A. security
wage, that it should not be sufficiently
high to encourage people not to take
other employment at reasonable wages
when it was available.
Special Problems Up.
Yet even into so regular a system as
the w. P. A. come many special con-
siderations:
What, for example, shall we do
about person who is injured of the
job? 1t is understood, Of course that
If he is injured on the job he has
workmen's compensation insurance.
II, however, he breaks his leg on the
way home from work or while he Is
working around his house, what shall
be done about caring for his family
while he Is laid up. Is that reSpon-
sibility Of private charity or Of local
public funds or is it a responsibility
for Federal funds? will confess that
am not sure.
Again, supposing he gets sick
whether on or of the job. Who then
looks out for the care of himself and
his family?
What is to be done, again, about
the man who feels that his P. w. A.
wages are so much less adequate than
the relief he used to get on a budget
basis that he gets drunk and is fired
from the job? Shall private philan-
throphy. local private funds or Fed
eral funds care, If not for him, at
least for his wife and children?
What Is to be done about case
OF which / recently heard in which
the only employable person was a
boy of 20. His w. P. A. job was his
first job. There was no social worker
available under the w. p. A. system
to see that he remainded steady and
did his duty, because as soon as he
got his w. p. A. pay his case was