The globe-independent. (Hagerstown, Md.) 1943-19??, 1944-02-24
THE WELFARE
BOARD ISSUE

of whether the State Welfare Board
was legally entitled to collect from
the Washington County Board of
Commissioners, their pro rata share
of the increased salaries granted by
the board TO the staff of the local
welfare board, in order to bring
such salaries in line with Federal
ratings for welfare workers.
MIR. Patterson, state director of
the Welfare Board, said yes - the
County Commissioners said no.
That question was, and still is,
purely legal one and one that, If
real showdown comes, can only be
settled by the courts.
But unfortunately, before even a
start could be made toward settling
it, charges and counter charges be-
gan filling the air, until the original
question involved has almost been
lost sight of.
One of these charges, attributed to
MIR. Patterson, was that Is Public
Assistance cases in Washington
County had been closed, because of
the drastic cut made by the County
Commissioners in the 1914 Public
Assistance appropriation.
Because this charge has attracted
state wide attention Git was used by
the Baltimore Sun" in an editorial
on the subject last Friday and be-
cause the Commissioners emphati-
cally deny it, we made a careful
study of the figures in the case, and
here is what we found:
The actual cut in the 1914 Public
Assistance Fund appropriation over
the 1943 appropriation is $1,O02.61,
Surely it requires a stretch of imag-
inatiOn to call that drastic!
Now let us go a little further.
In 1913, the County Welfare
Board requested an appropriation
of S17,5OO for General Public As
sistance; the Commissioners gave
them S11 ,999.38. But in 1914 the
Welfare Board requested an apprO-
priation of S26,377.5O for General
Public Assistance (nearly ten thou
sand dollars more than they asked
for in 1943) and the Commissioners
gave them S1O,996.77 (Or about a
thousand dollars less than they gave
them in 1943).
From these figures it is very evil
dent that: ID While there was a
drastic difference in what the Wei
fare Board asked for this year and
what they actually received, there
was only a difference of thousand
dollars between what they got in
1913 and what they got in 1914, and
(2) since the board was able to take
care of the rs cases in question on
their 1943 appropriation, the fact
that they got a mere thousand dol
lars less this year, hardly justifies
the sudden closing out of these Is
cases now.
No one will deny that the MEM
bership of the County Welfare
Board is composed of men held in
the highest esteem in the county.
Men who, without compensation,
give freely of their valuable time
and effort.
By the same token, no one can
deny that the Board of County Com
missiOners have been duly elected
by the voters of Washington County
to represent them in the affairs of
the county and that whatever be
the criticism of their deliberations,
they are doing a conscientious job.
Isn't it about time then, that this
whole question cease to be another
political football; that both sides
stop issuing statements to the press;
that tempers be given a chance to
cool off?
We well remember when, after
one of our OutburstS of temper, our
dear Mother said, "Son, the best
cure for temper like that is good
cold shower" We seem to remem-
Der, too, that Abraham Lincoln
once said, when you are angry,
count up to ten; when you are very
angry, count up to hundred"
May we suggest then, that both
sides take good cold shower, count
up to hundred, and then sit down
together at the conference table and
settle this vexed question once and
for all.