Evening star., 1936-04-10
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
In a slashing attack on relief pol
icies, Hugh S. johnson said the work
relief program is "as cruel as it is
stupid" in report issued today
shortly after the House Appropriations
Committee had received positive as
Surances" from Harry L. Hopkins that
none of the new 81 500, 900 900 relief
appropriation would be used for the
Florida ship canal or the PaSsama-
quoddy tide-harnessing project.
Johnson's criticisms were set out in
his final report as New York City
w. P. A. administrator, post he gave
up last Fall.
Conclusions by the former N. R. A.
chief included:
Sixty per cent Of this invented
work is needlessly expensive and
fatuous gesture.
THE only argument Is that it pre-
serves time against the humiliation of
home relief Yet to go on work re-
lief, the rules require that man first
go on home relief. To get there he
must submit to the equivalent of a
paupers oath and most humiliating
inquisition.
Claims Ostracism Risked.
IF man on home relief finds a
fugitive dollar in private employment
he risks ostracism from any kind of
relief.
1T is as cruel as it is stupid, because
the area Of available relief money no
where near covers the area Of desti-
tuition and the vast waste occasioned
by this ill-informed dogma subjects
the whole Government to amply justi-
fed ridicule, and insistence on it not
only deprives tens of thousands Of
people Of relief. but involves the Gov
ernment in more inconsistencies than
loyal ingenuity can excuse.
The money should be disbursed as
direct relief except for worthwhile and
necessary work on a basis of cost
competitive with contemporary public
construction.
More than half of all this effort is
prodigal pretense justified by nothing.
Il note the reiteration that new
Government relief plans will be all
work and no dole If it is, imagina-
ton must become more fanciful still,
disregard of expenditure more prodigal
and practical results more parsimoni-
GUS. I earnestly hope that such will
not be the case"
Cites Interference
Condemning what he termed inter-
ference in getting the work program
started in New York, johnson told
Hopkins:
by actual count, 80 per cent of my
letters asking various authorities and
rulings were unanswered and I was
consistently unable to reach you on
the telephone unless I almost literally
turned in riot call"
The assurances given by Hopkins
relative to the proposed use of the new
relief appropriation were revealed by
committee members.
The relief administrator, who spent
two days before a subcommittee in a
hearing on President Roosevelt's re-
quest for $500 ,000, 900 for next year.
has completed his testimony, but it
will not be made public officially until
the committee reports the relief bill
to the House.
Committee members quoted Hopkins
as saying all the proposed appropria-
tion would 60 to his Works Progress
Administration except for a limited
sum to Rexford G. Tugwell's Resettle-
ment Administration.
Republican members Immediately
asked that Tugwell be called, but
Chairman Buchanan said it had not
been decided whether any further
hearings would be held.
Hopkins, committeeman said, testi-
fed the proposed appropriation prob
ably would not last through next year
unless business absorbed a large por-
ton OF the unemployed. He was re-
(See RELIEF paUa Az