RELIEF: Dead Deadlines

Still standing, up to last week, was the latest promise of President Roosevelt and WPAdministrator Hopkins to make at least 90% good on their previous promise to have 3,500,000 jobless citizens at work by Nov. i. Last week the dole deadline was pushed ahead to Dec. 1.

Figures released fortnight ago showed the four billion Work Relief dollars almost all allotted, only 1,125,000 relief workers drawing pay. New employment figures were promised for last week. Because those figures were so discouraging, the announcement was deferred until late this week.

As deadlines crumbled, Work Relief’s fine rules & theories were crumbling with them. Jobmaker Hopkins set out originally to make his WPA employes do a full month’s work (180 hours) for a full month’s pay. Bit by bit, spreading the work, he pared his month to 120 hours. When skilled union men on work relief in New York City struck for “prevailing” (i.e. union) wages, Administrator Hopkins brought them sharply to heel by ordering them barred from home relief (TIME, Aug. 19). Last month, under pressure from American Federation of Labor as well as from the necessity to make more jobs, he permitted New York City’s WPAdministrator to cut skilled workmen’s hours in half, leave their pay the same, thus giving them approximately union wages.

Two skilled workers were now needed to do the work that one had done before. Result: many a project is stalled, many an unskilled worker is left idle by a shortage of skilled labor. From the U.S.S. Houston last fortnight, Presidential Guest Hopkins abolished the rule requiring 90% of workers on PWA projects to be drawn from relief rolls. In New York City, needing 12,000 skilled workers, WPA officials planned to call in non-relief workmen if the shortage was not quickly supplied by volunteers from home relief.

Of jobless citizens actually put to work by last week, a discouraging number were growling about their low pay, threatening to strike. Last week President Roosevelt tossed them another bone by changing the basis of local wage rates from county population to population of the largest municipality within the county.

In Washington last week Acting WPAdministrator Aubrey Williams anxiously announced that eleven Army engineers were in the field, would shortly report on ways to speed up relief construction. Along with this promise to do better, relief officials also let it be known that the lag in relief progress was not all their fault. Tactfully they pointed out that Comptroller General McCarl had released to date only $585,000,000 for $1,900,000,000 worth of WPA projects approved by President Roosevelt.