RELIEF: Mr. & Mrs.

Master showman of Relief is David Lasser, president of the Workers Alliance of America. Last week in Washington, Showman Lasser produced a tragedy in 50 acts, designed to show the Administration and Congress that instead of cutting WPA rolls the U. S. should furnish more jobs at better pay.

Present for the opening in smoky, smelly room No. 506 at WPA headquarters were Deputy Administrator Aubrey ("Keep your friends in power") Williams, Assistant Administrator David K. Niles. Before them David Lasser interrogated 50 WPA workers brought on for the occasion from 26 States. One & all declared that WPA wages are too low to keep body & soul together, that they would leave Relief like a shot if they could get private jobs. They also attested that whether or not Reliefers are becoming a permanent class in the U. S., they are certainly becoming a caste apart—shunned as poor credit risks by insurance companies, doctors, landlords.

More gravely than if he were picking Miss America, David Lasser had his witnesses choose Mr. & Mrs. WPA Worker of 1938. As the No. 1 Missus of Relief, they named Mrs. Stanley Jorgensen of Provo, Utah. Provo merchants had chipped in $100 to pay her way to Washington so she could ask for more WPA money to go into storekeepers' tills. Mrs. Jorgensen's husband supports her and two children on $44 a month, of which he pays $15 for rent on a single room, $18 for groceries. A Mormon, Mrs. Jorgensen said her church's famed work-for-relief system is a flop, declared an infant daughter died because of "the conditions I had to live under."

Chosen Mr. WPA Worker was earnest, well-spoken Clyde Brown of Colfax, Iowa, who kept eight children on $44 a month until he was laid off a road project last fortnight.

David Lasser hoped his performance would influence Messrs. Williams and Harry Hopkins to influence Franklin Roosevelt to influence Congress to put up more Relief money. Harry Hopkins last week showed no desire to raise his rolls. Instead, he announced that in the week ended December 10, WPA's total of dependents fell 45,514 to 3,139,045, having declined for five successive weeks from a peak of 3,264,907.