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Show HAS Ollt "RELIEF" BECOME A "DOLE"? Harry Carr, in his column, "The Lancer," in the Los Angeles An-geles Times, calls attention to federal relief or "Dole." According Ac-cording to Mr. Carr, it has been the bitter and disastrous experience exper-ience of oil countries at all periods per-iods of the world's history that It is much easier to put people on the dole than to un-dole them, so to speak. England which always sees with a clear vision has recoun-ciled recoun-ciled her self to the fact that there will always be from now on a definite class not of unemployed, un-employed, but of unemployables. The money for their support will have to be put down to profit and loss as a definite charge against the public treasury. treas-ury. The dole by whatever name you choose to call it has saved the United States from a social disturbance of the first magnitude; magni-tude; no doubt about that. Many complaints have been heard from people In distant parts of this county to the effect that they cannot get men to leave town to work especially carpenters. carpen-ters. Locally, the sheep men in particular have complained of not being able to get men to work, since they claim that families are abli to get as much or more from our relief agencies than they coulf ? at this work and similar wo- at the farmers are PbTe to off&5 Today, in the words of the United States News, "the biggest business in America is the administration ad-ministration of relief to the needy. More people are living on the funds they obtain from the Government Federal, state and local than live on the revenue re-venue from professional service, from transportation, or irom clerical occupation." Most accurate flgures place the number of persons now on relief re-lief rolls at 17,000,000, Best estimates say that this number num-ber will rise to 20,000,000 and perhaps more during the winter. win-ter. Two millions of those on relief give work in exchange 'for the money they get the balance, bal-ance, many of whom receive rent, clothing and jrrocery orders in- stead of cash, do not work. They are simpuly "on the dole," whether whe-ther that term is used officially or not. The number of persons receiving receiv-ing relief, in comparison to the total population, is staggering. Conditions are worst, of course, in the great, heavily-populated industrial sections New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. These five states account for nearly forty per cent of all who receive relief. In Illinois, fourteen per cent of the total population is on the relief rolls; in New York, sixteen six-teen per cent; in Ohio, fourteen per cent; in Michigan, twelve per cent. Highest percentage is reached in New Mexico, where twenty-seven per cent of all the people are given aid but, by number, they naturally total much less than do the needy in a representative industrial state. These figures may give the impression that unemployment is more severe now than at any time during depression. It is not the worst employment month was March, 1933, when 13,000,000 men who would normally nor-mally be employed were out of work. There are no relief figures fig-ures for that period as, at the time, there was no organized governmental gov-ernmental relief. Since then, three or four million men have gone back to work the nine or ten million who are still out account for the 17,000,000 persons per-sons receiving relief. Government national and local lo-cal is frankly stumped for a solution. It has spent billions and the problem has barely been touched. Present efforts are designed to keep sufferers from dire want until jobs can be found for them they are in no sense a solution of our most crucial cru-cial and most difficult problem. The Federal government is carrying carry-ing the bulk o-f the burden state and municipal aid has been inadequate for the most part. Many believe that government will be forced into adopting a definite de-finite pension system for those who are unemployed through no fault of their own, and for those who have out-lived their usefulness useful-ness as workers. But the gigantic gigan-tic cost involved stands In the way of this u n t o 1 d billions would be necessary if these people peo-ple are to be given even a subsistence sub-sistence allowance. And In the meantime we lace a bleak winter win-ter so far as the needy are concerned con-cerned and what the story of next year will be no one knows. |