Imperial Valley press., 1939-04-30

public bugaboo No. l for the con-
gressional foes of WPA, pushed
back his chair. grinned, and al
lowed that the folks who are try
ing To reduce the WPA rolls are
honest but misguided
They're like a blind man who
hopes everything is rosy outside
when its raining he said. They
think all that's needed is to throw
these people off the rolls and they'll
find Jobs on the outside They
honestly think that if the govern
ment cuts down on the WPA. pri-
vate business will pick up, factories
will open. and unemployment will
90 down
The youthful leader of the Work
els Alliance had Just finished a
long session before a House COM
mittee which is probing into the
affairs OF WPA. He pulled news
paper out OF his briefcase and went
Cn.
Look at this business index and
compare 1t with the rise and fall
of public works projects he said.
For instance: there was a sharp
upsWing late in 1888, with the start
of the CWA program In 1884, just
at the time CWA was discontinued,
the business index takes sharp
drop.
IN the middle Of 1885, with the
start OF WPA the index takes a
sharp upswing which continues to
the latter part of 1897 Then there
was an economy wave which knock
ed 100000 people off of WPA, and
Immediately the business index
went down. Early in 1888 there
was a liberal WPA appropriation
and the index went up again. Then
we got another economy wave, and
the index went down again"
Mr. LASER has no official job
anywhere but he was one of the
first people the congressional COM
mit:ee wanted to talk to. His Work
ers Alliance is by way of being a
sort Of trade union for the people
on relief. and the committee sus-
pected it of taking orders from
Moscow. This could not be proved
through Mr.. LASER, who stoutly
denied under oath that he is Oh
ever has been q Communist.
But when the Workers Alliance
secretary treasurer. Herbert Ben.
jamin. admitted that he himself wa:
a Communist and had been ont
for many years, deep and startled
silence descended upon the whole
committee room. For a while, thC
1 inquiry got a long way from either
WPA or the Workers Alliance a.
the congressman got into a phil
osophical discussion of MarXism Us
hmericaniSm.
All Of this, however. as Mr.. Las
ser construes it, is a side-iSsue. H,
wants to see a full-sized work relic
program continued, and to this enc
his Workers Alliance has called ;
National Right-to-W Work Congress
TO meet in Washington on and afte
May 27 At this conference, which
will draw 1900 Workers Allianc
delegates he says, the Alliance
two-point legislative program vii
be considered.
This program calls for first, res
toration of the $5OOOOOOO which
vas recently cut from the WPf
budget for this fiscal year; second
for enactment by Congress of ;
national work and security bill
for next year.
That bill void provide not les
than 100000 work relief jobs pro
vide a 20 per cent increase il
monthly wages, establish a labo
relations division in WPA with full
power TO handle all labor problems
and relax the eligibility rules gov
erning certification TO WPA. Al
in all, Mr.. LASER estimates that tht
program would cost $2,700,000. 600
OF the current plan TO return
control Of the work relief program
10 CO HAT An ,,.,. ,.,,f Il