The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1938-10-03
RELIEF PROGRAM HAS BEEN
CARRIED TOO FAR
September 30. 1898.
Editor, waterbury Democrat:

6epVeNper eV, AGO.
Editor, waterbury Democrat:
There are few employed persons
In the United states who would not
feel anxious 10 come 10 the relief
OF their fellows In times OF en- en-
Urgency or catastrophe. The desire
10 relieve human suffering and deS-
titution arising out OF unemployment
Is still universal.
Tho facts, however, OF six years
experience demonstrated that no In.
crease In the number OF Jobs artl.
ficially created, Rnd no amount Of
pump printing aS stimulation 10
production can put men back TO
work permanently. After six years
OF trial, II has been demonstrated
that relief beyond an emergency
measure or 90 q pump printing OPP
Grafton Is not justified as o perman.
ent policy. The only hope Of our
permanently relieving unemployment
Is TO put men on self-supportins
Jobs In private enterprise.
The National Industrial Confer.
enee Board has estimated that the
potential or available labor supply N
1920 was 40 million persons. or this
potential labor force less than ] per
cent were unemployed In ie2o. I'm
employment reached It's peak OF over
II million, or Is per cent OF the
available force In 1888. II receded 70
q low OF seven million, or IL per
cent In 1897. II came back 10 over
II million In June, 1888, which was
20 per cent Of the available labor
supply. As against the above, the
government was able 10 employ on
various relief projects an emergency
labor force which reached O maxi
mum OF only four and one.quarter
million In January. 1884. In June,
1898, u stood at three and one
quarter million. II has probably IN"
creased slightly over that figure
now. Since 1883 the government has
not been able 10 find emergency Jobs
at any time for more than one.quar.
ter OF those who were unemployed
The emergency expenditures Of the
federal government from 1899 up to
July !, 1898, not including the
amount spent by local communities,
was something In excess OF IL BILL
lion dollars. In q truer sense, the
greater part Of the federal deficit o.
~ billion dollars accumulated since
1892 has been spent In one way or
another on the plea that II would
decrease unemployment. As result,
considerably less than ore-quarter
OF those unemployed on the average
have been given work on less than
O half time basis. Our unemploy-
ment load 10 now approximately II
million persons, or 20 per cent OF the
total available labor force. Obviously
the policy has failed TO permanently
decrease unemployment.
Equally, the attempt has failed 70
stimulate O business recovery by ar
officially pumping money into the
system with the hope Of restoring
the purchasing power OF the people
In 1880 the federal debt was l6 bill
lions; today, including five billions
Of contingent liabilities, It is some
thing In excess Of AZ billions. In sew
en- years the federal government has
spent the incredible sum OF over AZ
billions and adedd 20 billions to the
public debt. Within these seven
years at least 20 billions is account
ed for directly by expenditures for
recovery and relief, and yet obvious
ly the expenditure Of these vast
sums has failed TO stimulate bust.
ness by creating q temporarily in
creased purchasing power. AS al
ways, the thirst for temporary and
artificial aids Is like the thirst for
any stimulant. It feeds upon itself
and requires constantly increasing
doses. The last one upon which
Congress ventured was to give the
President q blank check for sS,T00,-
100000.
AS soon as 1t was recognized that
great sums were available, commu.
mites were encouraged to enter into
extravagant projects thinking they
would not have TO pay for them.
without local responsibility the
projects have been carelessly and
extravagantly executed IN many
cases. We all know examples Of this
kind. Since we must be taxed heav-
fly to pay for the federal relief in
other states. Lets get ours while
the going Is good and charge It to
our children" has become the all
too general practice.