Evening star., 1937-05-29
AID FUND VIEWS
| C[ASHAT HEARING
Subcommittee to Give Sew.
era| Days to Other Ques-
ti0ns Before Action.

After hearing conflicting viewpoints
on the advisa bilty Of raising the un-
employment relief fund for the COM
ing flscal year. the Senate subcom-
mittee handling the 1888 District
appropriation bill has taken this and
all other proposed changes In the
measure under advisement until next
week.
For three hours yesterday after
noon the subcommittee, presided over
by Chairman Thomas Of Oklahoma,
heard one group of witnesses plead
for An additional $l000,000 to pro-
vide for the families of employable
persons out of work, while another
group opposed increasing the relief
figure above the House bill. The
House measure allows sl,41l,500
The subcommittee will devote sew
eral days next week to hearing testi-
mony on other questions before act
Ing on any changes in the bill.
Taking the lead in support OF
more adequate relief fund were Rev.
DR.. Arson Phelps Stokes. presenting
the views of mass meeting OF citi-
zens held on April 4; William R. Rob-
erts, incoming president of the Mon
day Evening Club, and the Society
of Friends, represented by Mrs. Helen
NJ. P. Belts.
On the other side of the question
were the Washington Board of Trade
and the Washington Taxpayers Asso-
ciation contending that the relief
fund be kept at the House figure.
The trade body was represented by
its secretary. Robert j. Cottrell, and
the taxpayers group by Rufus S.
Lusk. Lusk also opposed increasing
any other items in the House meas
ure.
Criticizing both the amount Of the
present relief fund and the standard
Of work relief pay, the District Work.
ers' Alliance asked for a program
that would call for s5,19l 900 for re-
lief during the coming year.
Socialists Ask $3,520,o0o.
The local Socialist party filed a
statement recommending $780, 900 as
the minimum amount needed to take
care of the unemployment problem.
There is some disposition in the
subcommittee to let the relief item
remain substantially at the House
figure on the theory that the fiscal
year VIII be only half over when Con-
gress returns in January, at which
time the subject could be reopened
Chairman Thomas emphasized, how
ever, that no decision has been
reached.
In presenting the report of the citi-
zens' mass meeting, DR.. Stokes was
accompanied by William J. Flather.
William H. Savin and Mai. Campbell
johnson. The Committee on Unem-
ployment was appointed by Coleman
Jennings as a result of the mass
meeting. DR.. Stokes called atten-
tion to the fact the committee in
cluded business and professional men
as we'll as social workers, and that
they were united in four detectives.
namely:
l. To insist that care Of the worthy
and needy poor who cannot secure
employment is a public RESPONSE
bility.
2. To secure modification in the
provisions of the House appropriation
bill for the District, which makes no
provision whatever for relief for local
employables, this situation contrasting
with other representative American
cities Of approximately the same size
where there are from 10000 to 20, 1000
employable families on relief.
3. To relieve the plight Of approx
mately 5000 cases Of unemployed en-
ployables duly certified by the Board
OF Public Welfare as worthy Of aid
and representing about $4,000 peo-
pie. This will require about one
million dollars additional for the
coming year.
4. To remove the restriction in the
present bill that only 10 per cent
of relief money can be used for per-
sonnel, which means that there can
not be adequate investigation to pro-
tect the applicant and the taxpayer.
He showed that relief expenditures
in Washington were lower per capita
than in most other cities and called
attention to Mr.. Hopkins recent
statement that the condition of local
unemployed "employables' Is shock
ing" Mr.. Stokes said that the SUI
fering OF the needy unemployed was
even greater than the COMMITTEES
thought 1T the time Of the mass meet
tn1 un sl,nvad tta A0,,rAs avni1ahlo