OHIO: Heartless

Mad as a mother accused of starving her children so she could buy herself new dresses, Governor John W. Bricker of Ohio last week called the whole thing a lie, invited the gossips to mind their own business.

What made the Governor mad were the outspoken criticisms of New York City's Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Interior Secretary Ickes, President Roosevelt—who, without naming names, charged that Ohio's State Government was responsible for Cleveland's scandalous relief situation (TIME, Dec. 4).

Snapped Governor Bricker, who has dark-horse aspirations for the Republican Presidential nomination: "The Federal authorities . . . seem more interested in the politics of the affair than in helping the needy. . . . The lurid catch phrases which are being used by political opponents are no more applicable in Ohio than in any other State in the U. S."

"Why shouldn't there be a political attack on an administration as heartless as his?" snorted Secretary Ickes.

Lurid or political, at week's end the relief situation in Ohio was still critical. Hundreds of tons of foodstuffs from Federal Surplus Commodities Corp. were poured into the State. President Roosevelt approved the expenditure of $1,248,991 for three new WPA projects. Cleveland saw some new money for relief in sight as its City Council approved the sale of $1,200,000 worth of bonds against delinquent taxes. But these were only stopgaps.

No temporary expedient could solve Ohio's problem. Only solution in sight is through the passage of enabling legislation by the rural-dominated General Assembly, which would allow Ohio's cities, now legally hog-tied, to raise sufficient taxes for relief. But the chance of Governor Bricker calling a special session this year, thus opening the floodgates to old-age pension bills, and possibly having the State treasury's handsome 1939 surplus swept away, was remote. This was what still kept the gossips gossiping.