Evening star., 1939-04-30
Welfare Groups
Combinefo
Relief Funds
Benevolent Lobby
Plans to Fight to
Correct 'Injustices'

NOTIeCt IHJuStIISS
About $50 delegates from practi-
cally all the local welfare and re-
ligious organizations dealing with re-
lief banded together as a benevolent
lobby" yesterday afternoon to make
q final appeal to Congress to cor
rect what they termed the made
quacies and injustices" of the relief
provisions in the pending District
supply bill.
Convened by William A. Roberts,
chairman of the Relief Committee
of the Monday Evening Club, the
group ordered the appointment of
a continuing committee to arrange
for the presentation of accurate
facts to .refute what the chairman
called the congressional beliefs"
concerning the administration of re-
lief in the District. They will go
before the Senate Subcommittee on
District Appropriations this week
and concentrate all efforts on
achieving three main objectives.
These are:
!. Removal of the $48 maximum
monthly grant proposed for family
on relief, reduced from $50 as now,
on the grounds the limitation is
"inhuman" as we'll as inadequate.
2. Removal of the arbitrary lin
itation on the amount to be ex-
pended for public assistance admin
istration-8Ea per cent of the to-
tal-and substitution of an appro-
priation for the staff based on
case load of not over 100. However,
If Congress considers that a per
cent limitation is essential, it was
the sense of the conference that
the Senate committee should be
urgd to fix it at no less than 1912
per cent of the appropriation for
relief.
3. Restoration of an adequate ap-
preparation to meet relief needs,
more in accordance with the ST.
494,0OO recommended by the Board
of Public Welfare. (The pending bill
has reduced the amount to $900,0
which includes local funds for aid
to dependent children)
Mr.. Roberts declined to serve as
chairman of the newly organized
group, saying he preferred to rem
der assistance in other ways. Later
he will designate the five members
to appear as the official protesting
group before the Senate subcommit-
tee Several of the delegates COM
planned that the House subcommit-
tee. of which Representative Ross
Collins of Mississippi is chairman,
had made up their minds in ad-
vance" of hearing testimony on the
acuteness of the relief situation.
Mr.. Roberts took issue on this point,
and it was withdrawn.
TOO many of you labor under the
the minds of members of Congress-
he said. Il know it can be done, and
we've got to do it."
During the three-hour session
every conceivable angle of the relief
situation, the minimum needs of
families and the injustices alleged
against proposed limitations in the
bill were discussed. The Rev. John
L. Nixon of the Social Welfare De-
partment, Washington Federation of
Justice, condemned some of the
conditions imposed on families here
by Congress as worse than anything
done by the Fascists in Europe.
The churches are very much con-
cerned from the standpoint of
morality and the increase in the
problems of the Juvenile Court" he
declared. 1--WE can't legislate pow
erty out of the District by trying
to ignore it." The meagerness of
the family relief grant, he objected,
was tearing down family life"
Three Objectives.
The three objectives of the "be-
nevolent lobby" as Mr.. Roberts
termed the group, are based on
number of resolutions adopted which
pointed out some of the major OBJ
jections to the relief provisions of
the supply bill 1t was Mr.. Roberts
opinion that it would be better to
omit a specific recommendation in
terms of total appropriations beyond
standing by recommendations of the
Public Welfare Board
In this connection one resolution
urged that Congress appropriate
enough to provide at least mini
mum of security for employable
families" 1t was pointed out that
8,l00 employables had been certified
for w. P. A. work, but had found no
jobs. The Burdette Lewis study of
the relief situation in the District,
1t was claimed, indicated that 4,300
of these persons would be eligible
for general relief if the Public As
sistance Division had the money to
help them.
Public relief in the District for
the last three years, it was pointed
out, has faced a series of recurrent
crises, each more serious than the
one before. An analysis of the
relief provisions of the bill prepared
for the delegates, declared "the fail
ure of Congress to appropriate funds
commensurate with the proven need
and the imposition by statute of
arbitrary and unscientific limita-
tions on the administration of relief
have created conditions that ought
not to be tolerated in any progress
i've community
The $48 maximum family grant,
1t was claimed, would work even
more unjustly in the case of families
where there is a blind, case, for in
stance. There is no certainty, it
was claimed, that the $26 allowed
for the care of blind person would
be given in addition to the $48 for
the whole family.
Budgets to Be Drawn Up.
The conference also directed that
budgets be drawn up for presenta-
ton to Congress comparing the ac-
cepted minimum food allowances for
families of different sizes in COM
parison with the amount OF food
that can be bought under the $48
allowance Private agencies 1t was