Evening star., 1937-04-05
Another No Mans Land.

AHOt1ltI 1NO IldI L91Ius
No legalistic mo Mans Land created
by the courts can compare with the mo
Mans Land" created in the local rehet
field by arbitrary application of system
plus the paralysis of responsible officials
entangled in their own red tape. Arbi-
trary rules have shut down on the avail
ability of created work to as many as
5000 destitute persons here who are
technically "employable," while equally
arbitrary rules and a lack of funds have
denied other relief to the same indi-
viduals because they are technically
employable. Repeated pleas in their
behalf have fallen between the Commls-
sioners and the Budget Bureau, each
passing the responsibility for action to
the other.
Yesterdays mass meeting of citizens
called in behalf of these unemployed
employables, whose needs are causing
such suffering to themselves and such
concern to those familiar with their
plight, was a remarkable exhibition of
determination to correct q condition
which has been permitted to go too
long without remedy. The citizens who
expressed their own and the views of
local organizations dropped supplica-
ton in favor of a demand for action.
Their resolutions and plan of procedure
may be effective if they are followed
vigorously, although the nature Of the
obstacles in their path is not difficult
to recognize.
First of these is the division of re-
sponsibility between the Commissioners
and the Budget Bureau, which leaves
the Commissioners helpless in recon-
mending expenditures to Congress with
out the explicit approval of the Budget
Bureau and which enables the Budget
Bureau to say that the recommendations
cannot be made to Congress unless the
Commissioners persuade the bureau of
the needs and the availability of revenue
to meet them. And this impasse must
in turn be considered against the back
ground of condition which places the
revenue-raising powers and the appro-
priative powers in the hands of Congress,
largely dependent, in turn, upon Budget
Bureau recommendations.
The spirit of yesterdays mass meet
Ing OF local citizens seemed to be that
responsible oficialdom has made a sorry
mess Of the local relief problem and that
the only prospect of remedy lies in the
hope that local citizens, as politically
powerless as they may be, will be able
to win their case before what is now the
court of last resort-the Senate appro-
priations ubcommittee-and there OBJ
tain the necessary grant OF funds.
Last year Senator Thomas, chairman
of this subcommittee, heard budget Off
cials In private regarding another i'm
passe then existing, which at that time
had tied up manifestly necessary funds
for health work. The Senator was i'm
pressed with the charges and counter
charges regarding responsibility passed
between the Commissioners and the
bureau. This year, it is to be hoped, the
6enate committee Will devote a part OF
Its time to thorough investigation of
the relief problem and especially the
informal exchanges between the Com
missioners and the official of the Budget
Bureau whose personal sociological pre-
dilections led him to express himself so
vigorously in opposition to any more re-
lief funds.
AS one OF the speakers at yesterdays
meeting emphasized, the relief problem
is not merely "job of charity" but a
local civic problem for which solu-
tion must be found. A thorough inves-
tigation of the situation by the Senate
committee might reveal the cause of
the condition now existing, as well as
provide the remedy.