The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1936-02-06
INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE
DEFENDS RELIEF REPORT
CONTINUED from Page One)

1IOIll age OHG)
ing to prevent a careful study by the
full membership of the county welfare
board. They have not had a meeting
attended by the full board, although
they have given wide publicity to re-
port in which they claim to have had.
This meeting, however, was attended
by only four of the members and the
executive secretary. The other three
members did not attend.
Their statement is more amusing
than convincing when they pretend
that a mere error in transcribing some
woman's age offers full justification
for disregarding serious facts uncov-
cred by the an investigating commit
tee. We would like for Mr.. Ream to
explain why this particular woman is
employed as his housekeeper in Crel-
lin and at the same time she is receiv-
ing four dollars relief per week at the
hands of the county welfare office.
"They take exception to case
wherein we reported that a man 81
years old had been injured in the mines
and they say he is incapacitated from
a growth on the arm. The only man of
this age that we reported on is Mr..
Elliott, who informed our committee
that he received an injury to his arm
while working in the mines for Mr..
Ream, chairman of the welfare board,
and that later an infectious growth
developed. This is one of the cases re-
ported as worthy by our committee,
although it is possible that the man
should be drawing compensation from
Mr.. Reams' company instead of being
on direct relief.
"The charge that our committee
failed to make report to the county
commissioners seems to be an attempt
to lead the people into the belief that
the commissioners ordered the investi-
CATION. This is not true, and the well
fare board knows it is not true. Mr..
Greenstein requested the commission
ers to appoint the two associate men,
bers of the committee and that is the
full extent to which the board of
county commissioners had anything
to do with the investigation. The Coun-
ty Commissioners did not expect our
committee to report to them and the
relief board knows this. 1t was DELHI
crate attempt by Mr.. Ream and the
executive secretary to mislead the peo-
pie.
"a member of our committee deliv-
cred the report to the welfare Office in
person and sent copy to the Board OF
State Aid and Charities on Wednes-
day, January %, which was a day be-
fore it was published in any paper. We
also wrote letter stating that if there
is anything about the report that is
not entirely clear our committee will
be glad to attend a meeting at any
time in order to clarity our statements.
This we stand ready to do.
"When the committee stated in our
general report that there are farms
growing up into weeds because the
families living on them are receiving
relief we meant just that. We were on
the farms in question and we talked to
the people living there. We are farm
ers ourselves. We are familiar with
the possibilities of those farms. We
know that when farmer fails to plOw
and SOW grain, when he does not pro-
duce hay, when his barns are empty,
and the fences are down, when he does
not raise cattle and hogs, and when he
does not keep any horses or mules for
power, that his farm is going to waste.
A lady executive from Baltimore city
may not know these things, but we are
on familiar ground here and know
whereof we speak
"The feeble attempt that Mr.. Ream
and the executive secretary have made
to justify the tremendous cost CT re-
lief IN this county will not be satisfy
ing to the general public. 1t is indeed
hard for any body to justify the ne
cessity for spending $4,000 in order
to distribute $4370.
eve believe if the full membership
of the welfare board will get together
and give serious and impartial consid-
Grafton to the report and recommen-
dations of our committee the relief
problem in our county will be more
efficiently handled.
Signed:
CLIFFORD FRIEND
TRUMAN C. BITTINGER
A. J. RICHTER.