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Show ed under the congressional j y- cent limitation, but that the rolls already have been reduced by 350.000 since the last week of October. Oc-tober. No new assignments having hav-ing been made since them, Mr. j Roosevelt continued, there has . been a large accumulation of able-bodied able-bodied persons certified as need- ing relief, but who have been un- ! able to obtain WPA employment. Need Is Apparent "The need of these people is so ' apparent,'" he advised congress, "and so deserving that the rolls, in human decency, ought not to be reduced during February and March by even 5 per cent." Therefore, he explained, it had been decided to keep the rolls at the present 3,000.000 figure. "To employ these 3,000.000 people peo-ple at the prevailing average monthly cost of $61," the message continued, "will require expenditure expendi-ture of $366,000,000. "This will leave $359,000,000 for the months of April, May and June. Under the terms of the joint resolution, this sum must be apportioned over the entire period to June 30. The administrator will have at his disposal an average aver-age of approximately $120,000,000 per month for these three months providing an average employment employ-ment of sligntly less than 2,000,-000 2,000,-000 persons." 150 MILLION MORE ASKED IN MESSAGE relief plan approved last month by congress. His estimate of the number of persons likely to be deprived of aid if congress persisted in refusing re-fusing additional funds was ba.sed on a raio of three dependents for each WPA employe. The president announced that relief rolls would be maintained at 3,000,000 persons during February Febru-ary and March, regardless of economy econ-omy proposals, and called on congress con-gress for funds to permit that rate of employment without unduly un-duly reducing the rolls later in the fiscal years. Fear Drastic Cuts He said the facts constituting the emergency were: 1. WPA rolls should be held to the present 3,000,000 persons through February and March. 2. The $725,000,000 fund provided pro-vided by congress, if not supplemented, supple-mented, would require drastic reductions re-ductions of WPA rolls after April 1, with widespread want or distress. dis-tress. The message announce dthat Mr. Roosevelt had signed the reduced re-duced $725,000,000 appropriation last Saturday, but that he would have refused to sign it except for its provision that WPA rolls should not be reduced more than 5 per cent before April 1. Two Alternatives He contended the 5 per cent limitation suggested that con gress was ready during February and March to "reconsider actual needs in time to increase before April 1 the appropriation for the last three months of the fiscal year" ending June 30. He said WPA had two alternatives alterna-tives under the existing appropriation: appropri-ation: 1. Reduce rolls abruptly by 1,-000,000 1,-000,000 persons April 1, and provide pro-vide employment for an average of 2,000,000 during April, May and June. 2. Commence week-by-week reductions April 1 and carry through on that schedule until June 30. Regarding the first, he said that "on the average every person discharged from the rolls has dependent de-pendent on him or her three other persons in other words the greater great-er part of 4,000,000 Americans will be stranded." He said the second alternative would "require that employment by the end of June will be reduced to a figure well below 1,500,000 persons.'' Alarming Facts "In other words." he continued, "the program of present employment employ-ment would be slashed considerably consider-ably more than one-half within a period of three months. "If, however, preper reserves were maintained at the end of the fiscal year, employment at the end of June would drop still further fur-ther to a figure of only slightly more than 1,000,000 persons. WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (U.R) President Roosevelt today to-day warned congress that an unemployment relief "emergency "emer-gency exists" and recommended recom-mended immediate consideration consider-ation of appropriation of $150,000,000 more for the Works Progress Administration. "In my opinion an emergency now exists," the president said in a special message asking that congress reconsider its decision of last month to reduce his deficiency WPA relief appropriation by $150,-000,000. $150,-000,000. Protests Reduction He protested "inhuman decency" de-cency" any winter reduction of WPA rolls, and said that from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 persons might be deprived of federal aid in the spring under the economy "Therefore, on a program of gradual reduction, from 1.500,000 to 2.000,000 persons would be thrown out of 'Works Progress Administration Ad-ministration employment or, with the addition of those dependent on them, from 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 Americans would no longer receive re-ceive federal aid. "I ask that the congress commence com-mence immediate consideration of these simple and alarming facts." He invited congressional attention atten-tion to the necessity for early and definite knowledge of the sums to be available for relief. The message said that 150.000 WPA employes could be discharg- |