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Show 1ivnjTorics IntcrprctcJ 1 few f by William Bruckart ffi!il!!K It is slight" nmre : since President (he conRrtsalo'inl 1 ,rosoU.tloQ appro- . hy the miinlnls- : .ccordlnu to the : -Vrt nd of ... ' .ly three hundred U turned over to .conservation corps, a !t; ' "hod of the admin s-' s-' ' ? Its public works andprway Is giving ; -"immense amount of i cne la to believe the !of discussion in Wash-driving Wash-driving more concern . sponsible for siend-duo siend-duo of money In the 'tn effort of the New : . projects have been rejected In turn, so 7.as have been brought : nailybooed and so ''motions have been In-'ji In-'ji Washington observers : reaching the conclusion a was correct when, in : (!l said the adminlstra-" adminlstra-" ;Wiirrete plan for uUlla-; uUlla-; -,: fund. ,'; :be developments since .' - a the President signed ' -:a:lng resolution. Is to '.' editions have been one : -j of confusion. First, j walled the President , :it the wishes of con-;:' con-;:' !:;:fssed In debate by re-' re-' ' . -ary Ickes, public works L ji, of much of the re-' ; ' - md authority he held. 1 iwmpllshed by the new :;js reported to you here-;(, here-;(, It seems, the new ' :i!ed to function and the 1 ' , mnagement of expendi-i-ttled down Into the lap j-jkins, the relief admin- X still has some authority. " : '1 Is enough to Irk Mr. These two men differ ',i v;lr views. Mr. Hopkins 'X. (! looked upon as a re-j", re-j", ;::esslon; Mr. Ickes has ; insofar as he has been of practical methods in ' : .in of his share of the - , :iie the personal equa-- equa-- Is best exemplified by ,. Hopkins differences it : i ;i frankly that next to a been accomplished. ircevelt has stated and I ill the expenditure pro- ling underway gatisfac-' gatisfac-' "ie discussion among ob-; ob-; 'i to show an alarming ; ' '-rdination, and f ind- -e newest projects ad- 'HI has Just passed the Btage of an execu-' execu-' live order setting ' :m UP new agency, ; Is the so-called ; ' :li administration. This i; ''Heal unit the NYA 1 1 1 fifty million dollars to 'll1r"g boys and girls be-! be-! :"s of sixteen and twen-r twen-r apposed to be a means ! Idleness among the 1 ! who are of the age :' Unless they are occu-' occu-' "ible tendencies de- the new program, :! at parted from his ! jounced Intention of ; Krsons now on relief. sParture means that "1 aside definitely the n last winter that the "' r whether this Is to ! exception to that I ''immediately determln-! determln-! ;iln as a fact that the - : Stance under the ; available to needy , are not on the dole ; ""ise who are on re- Ptrkin8, of the Labor the plan had been - .', ' her and her asso-; asso-; i' !'8 breau. She would be el-i el-i ," under the plan. - r. W WU1 be selected . .committees, thus . . Mch community an- .. ' m to federal dom-, dom-, , Itral guidance. :'bT)pe 0f the NYA Mr- Roosevelt in- -'tl private in- ! y.'sf for Industrial, lrfesSlonal employ- ; n' " ntlnued attend-. attend-. :i f0ulh"n high schools ; ;'Sr?ef on Projects , vj'af youth. la. an as.sis- ' 'llll!e treas"ry. and : v J'"". assistant to ;- 'A tibr bepD ! alphabetical agency. The selection of Miss Roche was said by the President to have bM. In recognition of her long service serv-ice In the social field and her thorough thor-ough iinderstnmling of problems of the growing gcnei ntlons. High schools Hiul colleges, of course, are available to provide the educational requirements forming form-ing one Idea In the general program. pro-gram. Those youths who desire to continue their education certainly are deserving of help and the NYA offers a means to that end. It is too early to forecast what the requirements re-quirements will be or what sort of rules will be laid down respecting applicants for educational assistance. assis-tance. Rut even the administration's most vigorous critics hnvst omitted throwing any barbs at this feature of the NYA. Almost simultaneously with the President's announcement of the NYA he made Non-Federal known that the Projects Wfly was c,ear for construction on what he said was the first group of non-federal projects under the public works section of the five billion bil-lion dollar fund. He gave his approval ap-proval to 63 projects, the total cost of which was figured at approximately approxi-mately twenty-one million dollars. Each of the loans made in this allocation al-location of funds was based on a grant of 45 per cent of the cost of the particular project by the community com-munity where the work Is to be done. The federal government loans the other 55 per cent In this way the cost to the government In most Instances is expected to be held within the limitation of $1,143 per man per year. Some weeks ago the President figured fig-ured out that the cost of no project In which the federal government put money should exceed an amount greater than $1,143 for every man employed. This was designed to spread employment. But the rule thus far has been Inoperative because be-cause not a single man has been put to work under any of these projects. In the meantime, numerous and sundry other proposals for expending expend-ing parts of the federal money have either been thrown overboard or have been held In abeyance pending further consideration. This Is true of a gigantic housing program worked out by Secretary Ickes. It was planned then to spend $250,-000.000 $250,-000.000 and when It was announced a press statement was forthcoming from the Public Works administration administra-tion that hundreds of men would be offered Jobs within a month, so far had the plans advanced. Also, since April 8, nothing whatsoever what-soever has been done toward elimination elim-ination of dangerous railroad grade crossings. I was told at' the Interstate Inter-state Commerce commission and again at the bureau of public roads that their plans were all ready to proceed with reduction of these highway traffic hazards and eliminate elimi-nate potential death traps where highways cross railroads. Something Some-thing has blocked the effort In this direction, however, and as far as present Information goes actual work on grade crossing elimination will not be started for the next several sev-eral months. While the administration Is seeking seek-ing to develop new projects to aid unemployment Pet Scheme and relieve destl- Runs Amuck tl,tion' one of its pet schemes appears ap-pears to be running amuck. I refer to the effort to transplant 200 Middle Mid-dle Western farm families to the Matanuska valley of Alaska. This colonization project was carried on with federal relief money and those families which were uprooted were taken to Alaska to find the end of the rainbow. According to activity around the Federal Relief administration adminis-tration here it Is made to appear that the end of the rainbow was, as usual, some distance further on. Certainly It was not in the Matanuska Mata-nuska valley because a number of the families already have determined deter-mined to quit and return to their home communities In the states. Members of congress who are acquainted ac-quainted with Alaskan conditions tell me that the Matanuska valley Is probably the most fertile spot in continental United States. They hold to the conviction that almost any kind of food can be grown in the soil of that valley. But these men are under no illusions. They know the hardships that confront those settlers who were being planted there by the federal government in the hope of colonizing that area, !w of them, the house members assure me, can live there very long unless Uncle Sam Is willing to spend millions In providing at least some of the modern conveniences of this day and age and supplying in addition addi-tion means of transportation and communication. The word that comes direct from Matanuska colony to the Relief administration shows, in my opinion, that the project was conceived con-ceived and executed without any thought having been given to the practical problems to be met. I Q, Western Newspaper Union. |
