The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-07-09
TN OTHER
WORDS
By JOHN STAHLBERG
WPA WORK STOPPED IN 80

WPA WOhk STOPPED IN 50
COUNTiES-Headline. Peoples Voice
Among working people who have
any conception of the meaning of
workmanship; among citizens, how
ever fortunate or unfortunate econom-
ically who value good citizenship
among men and women of any social
stratum who care enough about civic
decency to protest with all their might
people there is not one person but
would hail the total abolition of WPA
and all forms of politically admins
tered relief with shouts of Joy and a
hearty kick in the nearest racketeer's
pants If enough private jobs were
available to give each American fam
| lily a fighting chance for survival.
That any such number of jobs is
now available will soon be available,
or will long remain available only
professional Pollyanna would venture
to assert. That the WPA neverthe-
less is headed for oblivion seems quiet
likely
Very we'll; goodbye to it, and may
it's unhallowed bones rest in silence if
not in peacei Stick it in the sewer,
pack it off to hell, do precisely what
ought to be done with so foul a rot
tenness and with the fouler maggots
that fatten on it, But don't expect
two or three million able bodied heads
of families to lie down quietly and
entertain one another with Sunday
school verses while their children's
faces wither and their bellies balloon
with hunger. God made neither the
flesh nor the spirit of man in the
image of the jellyfish. Our pious
economic Houdinis had better trot
out their magic, and it had better be
good, or elsel
OF course there are a few people
who have got accustomed to relief, |
accustomed to having their incomes,
their expenditures, almost their diges-
tive processes, determined for them
by stupid old women in stuffy offices. |
They are lost. They are casualties of
our economic idiocy. There is nothing |
to be done with them except to give |
them decent care until they are waited |
to the sweet by and by.
The others, nine times out of ten,
are ashamed of having ever accepted !
relief or relief work. Let anyone who
doubts this engage group of such
workmen in conversation after they
have returned to private employment.
Let him note how carefully they avoid
he subject. This is not because they
are conscious of having leaned on
heir shovels, of having accepted pay
which they had not earned; it is
simply because they know that the
whole political boondoggling system
,tinks. The record of their connec-
ion with it, whatever the compulsion,
weights almost as heavily upon them
Is a prison record might. Is it rea-
,onable to believe that such men
would choose between WPA and star
yation if any third choice were pos
,ible? On the contrary, many of
laul garbage for employers they can
aspect, rather than drive the latest
de luxe model on some
oft job obtained by licking the spittle
If the swollen political pimps who
control WPA patronage.
If that choice is equivalent to plac-
ng oneself ION the bargain counter"
IS one Of the harlots of the daily
,ress not long ago expressed it, then
nay the somewhat nebulous Provi-
Ience which sits on the edge Of the
Milky Way and shakes with cosmic
aughter at mankinds clownishness, !,
t least grant us the grace to be
worth some bargain hunters trip down !
he basement stairs.
(This will be continued next week +,
With some suggestions as to the bet
er distribution of such WPA funds :
s exist.)