Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-13
Bv Charles G.. Ross.

mately 1,045,000 Federal jobholders, al
compared with STOOL in 1888.
Work Projects Administration worker,
number for October 1900 900 persons
there was none Of these seven years ago
Incidentally, Howard o. Hunter, acting
commissioner of the w. p A., has de-
clared that charges of w. P. A. roll
padding for election purposes are silly
and unfounded" The number now EN-.
ployed is said to be in exact accord with
schedules submitted by the w. P. A. to
Congress. 1t is 5000 less, according tc
Howard, than the number of w. p. A
workers on February % and 100000 les:
than the total for October, 1899, nom
election year.
The number of farmers now receiving
aid from the Federal Government is
estimated at 5000 000
There are 300 900 in the Civilian Con-
servation Corps and 679544 under the
National Youth Administration.
Altogether, the number of persons
drawing Federal checks of one kind and
another is in the neighborhood OF
9,e25, 900.
Benefits to Groups.
A further idea of the extent of the
benefits to various groups under the
New Deal may be gathered from the
following figures:
The farm aid program is costing this
year s1,572 1888 900, as compared with
sl52000000 in 1893.
The expenditures for relief, work re-
lief and N. Y. A. this year are s1,572,-
900 900, as against a relief cost of $751;
100000 seven years ago.
Public works expenditures now total
s949 900 900; the comparable figure in
1888 was s4740OO,0oo.
Outstanding loans by Government
corporations, such as r. F. c.. are ST.
74oO000 900. as against 1881 900 900 In
1898
Total Federal expenditures this year
are So e6s 900 900. as compared with
s5142 100000
Tax revenues have risen from s2,079.-
100000 in 1888 to s5,e24o0O 900 in 1910,
and the gross Federal debt from S22,-
538.0OOOOO to around s44,062 ,O0000
Not only thousands of Federal en-
ployes have a stake in Democratic sue
cess at the polls, but an army of local
employees. The pressure of the machine
always-except where one candidate may
be traded off" for another's benefit in
a piece of political shenanigan-is al
ways for straight voting; thus, nor
mally, the man at the top of the ticket
profits from the effort to elect the party S
local candidates, and vice versa. The
great reason why the Hagues and the
KellyS wanted Roosevelt was their belief
that he was the man most likely to carry
their local tickets to success.
Hurja Sees Chance for WilIkie.
1t remains to be seen, however,
whether the Roosevelt machine strength
and his strength in the lower income
brackets and among the beneflciaries
of the rain of checks" from the Fed
eral Treasury Gin all of which cate
gories there is some overlapping will
be decisive.
One recent poll, it is true, gave Will
kie only of the 48 States, but there
are other forecasters who take excep-
ton to these figures.
Notable among these dissenters is Emil
Hurja, whose remarkable success as an
election prognosticator, while an as
sistant to Jim Farley in the Democratic
National Committee, has become q
Washington legend. Hurja is now the
proprietor of the Pathfinder, a news
weekly published at Washington with a
claimed circulation of a million. On the
strength of his own polls, conducted
partly through his weekly and partly by
a sampling process Hurja says the presi-
Dental contest is horse race" He
gives Willkie an excellent chance to
win
Hurja bases his finding very largely
the vote of persons in the income
bracket of $3.50 q year and less, but
not on relief.
Roosevelt Lead Drops.
-Four years ago Roosevelt got 1913 per
cent of the relief vote and Landon got
202 per cent. This year, according to
Hurja's estimates, Roosevelt's percent
age in this category has dropped to 70.l,
while Willkie has 299.
In the income bracket of $3.50 or
less Roosevelt in 1896 had 654 per cent
Of the vote, Landon 346. This year,
Hurja says, Roosevelt has 50!4 per cent
and Willkie 1876. WILKES promise of
"jobs, jobs, jobs" in private industry has
been enormously effective with this
group of voters, Hurja says.
Roosevelt unquestionably will carry
the relief vote by large margin, but,
according to Hurja, the margin may
well turn out to be insufficient to give
him the election.
Hurja estimates that whereas Roose-
welt had 625 per cent Of the total popu-
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