Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-11-30
Federal Aid
To Migrants in
Capital Urged
Move to Expand D. c.
Municipal Lodging
House Shapes Up

uOuSe SHuPeS up
An organized movement for gov
ernmental authority to expand the
existing 45-bed District municipal
lodging house to the point where
1t could take care of the needs of
most of its potential beneficiaries,
seemed in the off1ng today as a
result of testimony before the House
Committee on Interstate Migration.
The need for this step was
stressed before the committee yes
terday In its District Day" hear
ing by Robert Bondy, director of
public welfare, and Miss Alice Eliz-
abeth Jones, executive secretary of
the Washington Travellers Aid
Society. Mr.. Bondy and Commits
sioner Young pointed out that the
defense program is bringing more
job-seeking migrants to Washing
ton than ever before.
Mrs. Frank Linzel, chairman of
the Family Welfare Division of the
Council of Social Agencies, gave an
illustration of Washington's pres
ent attraction for those who wander
in earnest search of a lasting source
of income:
Those individuals involved in
financial difficulties in the home
communities oftentimes hear through
their local papers of the need for
workers in connection with the ma
tional defense program.
Invest Last Cash in Trip.
I'VE know of one man and his
wife who read a notice of the many
positions available, took their last
money and came quickly to WASH
ington to be among the first to be
employed, They could not under
stand the lack of resources in the
city to care for them since they
were citizens of our country and
this Is the Nations Capital
They were manifestly unable to
understand why agencies could not
help until the job materialized.
They refused the offer of return to
their home community because
they wished to see their Congress-
man in connection with the job and
an appointment was scheduled a
week ahead because of the Con-
CHEESEMAN'S absence from the CITY,"
All the witnesses urged q system
under which the Federal govern
ment would share a larger burden
of Loo E0 E0 iY1 thu af In
needy migrant than is the case to-
day. The committee makes a sharp
differentiation between the mi
grant" on the road in search OF
work and the shiftless sort of tram
sient known as the bum" or
tramp"
Would Stop Tide at Source.
Miss Jones stressed the need for
the development of program which
would meet the migrant problem
at its source-in the town or locality
which the migrant now deserts in his
search for greener pastures else
where. She said:
IF adequate resources for resi-
dents were available, many people
who now migrate from one place to
another would no longer do so.
Failure and delay by many
agencies all over the country in &C
knowledging responsibility for their
residents who are here in Wash
ington has created a serious prob
lem. If these out-of town agencies
had sufficient funds and adequate
programs to meet the needs of their
residents, that group of people would
not be nonresident problem for
the District of Columbia, and the
same situation is true in other parts
of the country"
j. Milton Patterson, Maryland
director of public welfare, told the
committee of a case illustrating the
difficulty under present conditions
of a migrant persons getting relief
from distress either from the local
ity of present or previous residence.
He said:
"a county in this State has re-
Gently received a request from an
other State to authorize return of
a woman who has become depend
ent upon public hospital care in
another State.
Interpreted Residence Law.
1.-THE woman has never lived in
County x, to which the letter was
sent. Her husband, from whom she
had been separated for Is years,
died in County x two years ago.
Due to the fact that the State
in which she has become Ill and
destitute interprets its residence
law to mean that the residence of
a widow continues to be that of the
State in which her husband dies,
the aforesaid State wishes to have
County x acknowledge legal resi-
dence and authorize return of this
woman.
There can be no question of the
undesirable results for one individ-
ual to be moved to a new and
strange community where she has
no ties of any description"
William H. Stauffer, Virginia pub
Tic welfare commissioner, described
the mass migrant labor movements
which assist in the Eastern Shore
tomato harvests.
THE group generally moves on en-
masse after the harvesting is COM
pleted," Mr.. Stauffer said. Those
who remain behind are there because
of illness and other incapacity. The
welfare department endeavors to
dispose of these cases as rapidly as
possible"
Morals mot AFFECT"
In discussing the morals of the
migrant Virginia workers, Mr.. Stauf-
fer said:
Various and sundry rumors peri
odically get around regarding the
conditions of morality among the
transient group. Such Information
as Is available to the commissioner
leads him to the conclusion that,
while the levels of morality are not
ideal, they are far from being as
abject as they tend to be portrayed
In the popular mind.