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Show WilfOvemie-Men WilfOvemie-Men Real Jobs Second Stage of Recovery Plan Is Program of Big National Projects By EARL GODWIN WASHINGTON. The second stage of the New Deal's recovery plan now appears with the amendment of the bill granting the President $1,800,-000,000 $1,800,-000,000 to undertake a national program pro-gram of projects extensive enough to furnish work for every employable employ-able man now receiving direct cash relief. It Is difficult to comprehend the scope of this program. The sum involved Is the largest grant of money ever handed by any government govern-ment over to one man to be spent entirely at his direction. While the money phase of the project Is large, the project itself is even larger, for It is but the first step In a 25-year program for the development of the country's natural resources, as outlined out-lined in the President's message at the opening of this congress. The administration boldly struck at unemployment by the appropriation appropria-tion of $3,700,000,000 in the last congress. con-gress. Later it Increased this by $500,000,000, a total of $4,200,000,-000 $4,200,000,-000 used for public works and direct di-rect relief and the great number of projects coming within those two broad divisions. The President himself him-self was responsible for the spending spend-ing of this money, and every one of the 20,000 projects, large and small, have been personally approved by him. One outstanding accomplishment has been to arouse the national conscience con-science to a realization that the country must take care of its unemployed. un-employed. The hunger of millions has been appeased, even though the "doles" have been pitifully small. But a greater thing has also been realized; that Americans don't want charity they want work. It's going go-ing to cost more to end unemployment unemploy-ment by putting 3,500,000 men to work at the jobs for which they are fitted and the belief Is that gradually gradu-ally the economic situation will improve im-prove so that this army of public-workers public-workers will be absorbed Into private pri-vate industry. The materials needed need-ed on this $4,800,000,000 program will start activities in mines and factories and railroads to such an extent that for every man on the public job from four to six men will be working in private industry to supply the goods. Primarily this program is to furnish fur-nish jobs for unemployed; for that reason the work projects will be planned as far as possible in the neighborhoods where the unemployed unem-ployed now reside. The country will be divided into small areas and work will be planned In those areas so that the workers will be within a daily bus ride of the job. This will obviate the mobilization of great armies of workmen who would have to be moved long distances dis-tances and also be provided with temporary housing. The first project to be approved by the President was the doubling of the CCC camps. The personnel of these camps will be increased from 300,000 to 600,000; the number num-ber of camps will be increased from about 1,400 to approximately 2,900. These camps take boys from towns and cities where they have been denied a decent chance at life, under the depression, and put them at useful paid work on conservation projects. It Is one of the most popular pop-ular of the New Deal Items. Incidentally Inci-dentally it has been administered by a combination of the army, the Labor department, the bureau of forestry and other agencies without setting up new bureaus of government govern-ment Furthermore, the President intends to spend his $4,800,000,000 without setting up any new agencies. agen-cies. There are already too many bureaus and offices in Washington. There is more than ordinary importance im-portance attached to this second step in the recovery program. Critics Crit-ics of the New Deal spending policies poli-cies should remember that nearly a sixth of the population (including women and children) are dependent on relief If this vast section of the people should be left to helter skelter, disorganized charity, some day there would either be a revolution revolu-tion or a war. Nations with great problems of that sort have either had to adopt a strong Internal domestic do-mestic policy ; or have had to reach out and start a war. Look at Japan. The few, but politically powerful, who are whining at the cost of President Roosevelt's work-relief program will do well to contemplate contem-plate the more costly alternative. HOLDING COMPANIES Back In the nineties, those days when people fell down flat on their faces and worshiped high tariff and were glad that benevolent corporations corpora-tions were good enough to pay wages at the rate of $0 to $12 a week, there grew up a system of corporation laws which produced those things the cartoonists begun to call "Trusts." Those giants took 'he place l:i modern life of the ;irmor clad barons of the Middle :iu'es, who owned everything in sight, including the people, and who stalked around the country knocking knock-ing folks over the head with a battle-axe. We've got the remnants of this race of giants with us today in the shape of a dozen or so "holding companies" which own or control all the electric light and power companies com-panies ln the country. These holding hold-ing companies are responsible for the high electric light rates which could be cut in half, according to the National Power commission. The New Deal program Includes putting these holding companies into the side show as relics. The bill for this purpose is the Wheel-er-Rayburn legislation to regulate holding companies and abolish the worst of them by 1940. It Is a measure to protect Investors Invest-ors from watered stock and prevent collapses like that of the Insull empire. But Wall Street and the power trust are acting Just as their banker bank-er friends did in the Woodrow Wilson Wil-son administration when the federal fed-eral reserve system was being created cre-ated to take the control of money out of J. P. Morgan's office at the corner of Broad and Wall streets, New York city. The power trust is more than a mere abstraction. It consists of a dozen corporations with ominous names and vast financial ramifications. ramifi-cations. They are In the electric light business; but they don't pro-duce pro-duce a single volt or an ampera of power. All they do Is to milk the operating companies; and to get enough cream they keep local electric light rates high. They can fool a state or local utility commission commis-sion most any time. They dazzle the eye with financial gyrations, stupify the average mind with mountain peaks of figures and treat the public like babies lulled to somnolence som-nolence with soothing sirup In the way of regular dividends. While they are paying $5 or $6 in dividends, they are making a select se-lect group of inside millionaires. The New Deal aims at cutting down these power trust corporations, corpora-tions, without hurting Investors, until electric light rates are as low as they should be and permit and encourage a greater use or home electric power. But the holding companies are strongly against such a program. Space does not permit a description descrip-tion of all these companies; but one illustration will suffice. One certain cer-tain holding company was started in 1921 by two men who put up $10,000 (ten thousand dollars) In cash. By the use of the old-fashioned corporation law they were able without investing another nickel to collect dividends of $2,-131,632 $2,-131,632 In the years 1925-1932, inclusive; in-clusive; also to gain control over electric light company property amounting to $640,000,000. Now the New Deal wants to get rid of this parasite and Its associates. asso-ciates. Solid investment does not depend on trick bookkeeping. The widows and orphans who rely on these holding companies for their Investments may some day be left holding an empty bag, while the heads of the power trust go down a side street with the property. prop-erty. OLD AGE PENSIONS The old age pension legislation is now in shape, reported to the house of representatives, and it Is possible to specify exactly what is outlined in the administration's measure known as the social security secur-ity bill. One purpose of the bill is to encourage en-courage the states to adopt old age pension laws and to help the state carry the burden. The bill provides pro-vides that for the Immediate pensions pen-sions the federal government shall match the expenditures of the states for old age pensions at sixty-five, providing that the federal share shall not exceed $15 per month per Individual. States can go as high as they please. (The average pension pen-sion now paid by the 29 states with aged-pension laws Is about $16.50.) It Is not a law for the free dis tribution of money to all people at age sixty-five; pensioners must need the pension and must prove it. Right now there are about 1,000,-000 1,000,-000 men and women sixty-five or over dependent on the public for support, the great majority of them being on relief. The number Is expected ex-pected to increase in the future due to several reasons, among them the fact that many older workers will never again be employed; the disappearance dis-appearance of savings during the depression and the lessened ability of children to support their parents. par-ents. The experts believe, then, that the problem of old age dependency de-pendency Is great today and growing grow-ing more acute. The government would take care of people who are sixty-five years old right now; but expects that a system of contributions will be set up to provide for the future. In the course of a few years every working person will be contributing contribut-ing a little bit out of his or her pay into a fund which will be kept In the United States treasury at Washington, where no state politician poli-tician can monkey with It. Under this plan the monthly old age pension pen-sion would depend on the age, the length of time of work, the Income, but It would range from $lo a month to $S."i a month. The strong feature of this ultimate plan is the safety of the funds, which are placed In the hands of the Unlled States government. (c). Western Newspaper Union |