Show ri washing cisal e ngtai IX I 1 digest D e ks t national topics interpreted U by WILLIAM M L 41 NATIONAL PRE PRESS S I 1 WAS washington hington D C pl f washington president roosevelt again has changed courses on re lief this time he tries G r 0 P n has launched an relief plan experiment t that h a t becomes most sigi ant and interesting because he is trying out in a small way the very heart of the relief proposal contained in the republican platform without any ballyhoo or any detailed statement the president has allocated of public works administration funds lor for use in direct grants to states and has laid down a formula for use of 0 this money that takes it into the same category as the republican plan the president took this action personally so nally he lias has not only prescribed the conditions under which the grants will be made but has laid down rules for which will in effect bring to his attention any completed arrangements involving these funds the program provides that the federal government will bear 45 per cent of the cost a municipality or county contributing the other 55 per cent out of its own funds and before the allocation is made definitely the municipality or county receiving the funds must agree to employ per cent relief labor in this manner the need for relief becomes the measuring stick it if the local community is unable to supply only unskilled labor from the relief rolls and the project of construction planned for the community requires the use of skilled labor it does not get the money the projects considered to fall within the category of this new experiment include a great many worthwhile construction jobs such as school houses sewage systems and water systems the things proposed therefore may be said to be of permanent value and to that extent represent a veering by the president to the theory which secretary ickes of the department of interior always has held namely that if federal funds are expended they should be uselin the construction and maintenance of perman permanent t improvements although the general idea of this new experiment in relief new to the new deal was i handled practically forced locally upon the president by the necessity of the present relief mess it nevertheless represents a return to a method long regarded by many students of the problem as the only way in in which relief funds can be properly handled it places back in the hands of local communities the task of looking after their own destitute and charity cases the federal government contributes a share of the funds of course but it does not boss the job as has been the practice under harry hopkins and his works progress administration further than the requirements that relief labor be employed As stated above the plan now on trial constitutes the very heart of the republican proposal for handling federal relief the republican platform calls for federal grants in aid to the states and territories ri while the need exists upon compliance with these conditions a fair proportion of the total relief burden to be provided from the revenues of states and local governments all engaged in relief administration to be selected on the basis of merit and fitness adequate provisions to be made for the encouragement of those persons who are trying to become self supporting I 1 hear much discussion around washington that the presidents experiment peri ment meets the republican program in every way except as to the second provision which relates to the selection of the administrative personnel upon the basis of merit and fitness there are many who believe mr roosevelt has reached the conclusion that there is considerable merit in the contention that unless steps are taken to get relief of the unemployed back into the local communities muni ties it will become an unworkable monster a frankenstein on the other hand some of the bitter critics of the roosevelt administration are contending that mr roosevelt seeks to try out the republican proposal in this manner in order to demonstrate that it is unworkable they point also to the emission omission of the second brov provision ision just mentioned and declare that the president will use political patronage rather than merit as the means of creating supervision while the ne new W method method has not been made fully operative so that anyone can s see ee it way to in full detail the t h e dodge restriction which mr roosevelt has laid down that only relief labor shall be used is looked upon aa a providing a means of dodging complete operation of the plan it is to be noted that the republican plank does not limit the workers wholly to relief in making such a restriction as the president has done it is held in some quarters that there will not be too many communities able to take advantage of the fresh federal funds the reason for this is that particularly in the smaller communities there is not a great amount of skilled labor this comparatively ively small proportion ol of skilled labor comparatively small when measured against the amount of common labor or unskilled labor available makes it impossible in a good many instances for the smaller communities to obtain money the situation is simply this in the construction of sewage and water systems and most other construction st jobs there is more skilled labor required than will be available in the communities where these public works are to be undertaken der taken further with the pick up in industry however small it may yet be the skilled artisan has more chances to get jobs than has the common laborer in addition I 1 think it can be fairly said that a skilled worker is of the type to be among the last to go on relief rolls in any event he will not go on the relief rolls until there is no other alternative he is able to earn a much higher rate of pay than is available to him as a relief dole and naturally is not content to remain on the relief rolls longer than is absolutely necessary in this direction then trouble may lie possibly some communities will be guilty of seeking to induce skilled workers to go on beliel rolls for a sufficient length of time to enable them to carry out an agreement to employ only relief labor this is a regrettable possibility but it is a very real one in all fairness to the president I 1 think it must be said that he is proceeding on a method to reach communities and unemployed that hitherto have been rather like stepchildren the big relief projects under the former system and the harry hopkins method of handling bandling relief in some way or other have managed to be concentrated in the great cities while some persons may be unkind enough to say that the president is expanding his vote getting machine to the small communities it nevertheless remains as a fact that the system now undertaken will let some relief dribble down to those who have not had it before in any event since it is the republican proposal and it is being tried out by the new deal it is an experiment very well worth watching the nations of the world find themselves in one of those peculiar and almost humor quirks of ous situations that diplomacy can develop de celop only from t the h e queer quirks of diplomacy it has not progressed far enough yet for anyone to say what the outcome of this new diplomatic situation will be but it is not devoid nevertheless of possibilities both from the serious as well as the humorous side it may have escaped general notice that under orders king victor emanuel is now not only king of italy but he is also emperor of ethiopia he was given this new title immediately after the conquering hordes of italians had held their triumphant march in rome and as far as mussolini was concerned ethiopia had gone out of existence a dead nation despite the fact that mussolini would like to have emperor haile selassie known only as a plain mr jafari most of the nations of the world still are compelled through treaty agreement foreign policy or plain desire to consider that mr air jafari still has the title of emperor of ethiopia which he and his ancestors so long bore there is however this circumstance since no nation has extended formal recognition to italy as embracing ethiopia no diplomat can be formally received hecei ved in that capacity for example the new italian ambassador to the united states will come to washington as the plenipotentiary of the king of italy and emperor of ethiopia b but ut our ambassador to italy mr welles will go to rome when he returns to his post this fall fail as the ambassador to the court of king victor emanuel nothing being said about ethiopia all of this results from american foreign policy and the foreign policies of other nations who oppose the taking of territory of another nation or race by force it is a policy firmly footed as witness the course of all of the nations excepting only salvador in their attitude toward manchuria which is now under japanese control salvador recognized japanese sovereignty over manchuria largely because it was thereby enabled to consummate a great coffee sale 0 newspaper union |