The Washington times., 1936-11-20

ClJy WIllCh CAllplOyS III bIlC LIdlIl,
white-collar workers or skilled
mechanics and construction work.
ers. There is plenty of work here
for skilled people. 1t is the un-
skilled who present the problem
and those who are getting along
in years so they cannot stand up
in competition with the younger
people who are coming along.
Cost OF Depression
You ask how much prosperity
this city has to have before
the relief problem drops back to
even normal proportion and what
could be done now to expediate
that return Of relief to normal.
We have to realize that we as
community must face a new
normal load of relief and Of
unemployability. The flood of
the depression has left a new
level of social stagnation and
Wreckage and a new level of
necessary relief. The cost Of
this relief is one of the costs
of the depression. European
countries have learned this from
their experiences with the world
wide depression. The United
States also has to learn it-and
to provide for it.
All of the unemployed en-
ployabLes who we're on relief
before July (there are none
now were required to register
with the District of Columbia
Employment Center. 1t is pre-
Sumed that all the employed are
continuing to do this. That
center is being increasingly used,
because of it's competent service,
by the employers of Washing
ton. To the extent that employers
do use that service and do en-
ploy local people, although the
Employment Center cannot limit
it's services to local people, to
that extent Washington's en-
ployable unemployed will get
work.
Jobs For WaShingtOnianS
We have to remember how
ever. that this is the nations
capital. People do come here
from all over the United States.
Many of them are competent.
Our local employable people have
to compete with them for the
available jobs.
If Washington's employers were
to adhere to the practice and prln.
ciple of employing only local peo-
pie and of using the District OF
Columbia Employment Center for
that purpose so far as possible,
that would help considerably.
I am not sure that such paro-
chialism would be altogether de-
sirable from the point of view Of
national policy because tradition
ally it has been the vigorous young
people from the country and the
small towns who have come to the
big cities who have built up our
urban prosperity-but it is one
way which would help to cut down
the number of employable people
in need of relief or of work relief
through the WPA.
Another measure which would
help would be the development,
in Washington, of fairly large
scale industries and businesses
which would employ unskilled
workers. That presents an obvi-
Gus difficulty because Washington
has been trying to develop a non
industrial community with free
dom from the smoke and the usual
ugliness of manufacturing develop
ments. If, however, Washington
wants to absorb the unemployed.
who are mostly unskilled in jobs
which they can do, this is the way
out for a good many Of them.
Residential Restrictions
Does washington want that way
or does it prefer to maintain its
character as the most beautiful
city in the world of high grade
residential quality-and carry the
necessary burden of relief for
those who are unemployed and
employable?
I have heard some talk to the
effect that the people on relief and
unemployed but employable and
in need of relief or jobs are not
residents. That depends upon
what you mean by residents. Re
lief is not given to people who
have not been here for a year or
more and a study a year ago OF
the people on relief showed that
IS per cent of them had lived
here five years or more.
1t is quite true that many Of the
unskilled workers in washington
were brought here by contractors
on Government building jobs and
dropped at the completion of the
job BY that time these people had
lived here for we'll over year, had
lost their residence in the places
from which they came and had no
place to which they could go ex-
cept the District of Columbia. After
all, they were employed in the Dis
trict in perfect good faith as far
as they we're concerned and they
contributed to its prosperity by the
spending of the earnings they had
here. The community to whose
prosperity they contributed now
has the obligation of providing
them with either work or the
means of support until they can
again get work suited to their abili-
ties.
Combined Resources
The conclusion seems inescap-
able that we do have new normal
load of the unemployable and the