RELIEF: For 1940

The cheerful West Pointer who shouldered the load of grief which Harry Hopkins put down just in time, Administrator Francis Clark ("Pink") Harrington of WPA, last week went up to the Capitol armed with a 39-page statement and a heart full of spunk. The subcommittee charged with producing a Relief bill for 1940. headed by Virginia's urbane Representative Woodrum, had heard scores of witnesses. Now at last it was the turn of "Pink" Harrington, the one man most vitally affected by changes the bill they had already drafted would make in his regime.

He testified to the Congressmen earnestly; begged them not to limit WPA construction projects to $25,000, not to kill the Theatre Project, not to believe that the Workers Alliance could dictate to him, not to cut his administrative cost allowance below 5%. He invited the committee to cross-question him, but when he finished, he got the silent treatment. Mr. Woodrum just said, "Thank you, Colonel, for your appearance," and sent the committee's bill to the printer.

Three days later the House sat through 14 hours of tumultuous debate. At 1 a. m. it passed and sent to the Senate a measure designed to make Relief in 1940 quite different from previous years. > Total money voted: $1,735,000,000.

>For WPA: $1.477,000,000 (the amount asked by President Roosevelt). This is down $773,000,000 from the total spent by WPA in fiscal 1939—but no one supposed it will not be added to before fiscal 1940 ends.

> With that much money, WPA can give work to 2,000,000 clients, one-third less than the 1939 average. But $125,000,000 of it was earmarked for PWA, which is required to hire only 25% of its labor from Relief rolls. Off WPA's 2,000,000 that will knock 170,000 workers.

> PWA was limited to projects noncompetitive with private enterprise. That made Secretary Ickes yelp, because it ruled out a lot of power projects.

> Instead of one man, the House called for a WPA administration board of three, bipartisan, to ensure against WPA's being wielded as a political sledgehammer. This simple provision was an indictment aimed at Harry Hopkins.

> The limit on WPA building projects was raised from $25,000 to $50,000.

> WPA was instructed to pay a "security" wage instead of matching prevailing wages, which might be higher.

> It must reckon its apportionments of aid by jobs instead of by dollars among the States.

> Its administration costs must come down to 3.3% (from 5%). > WPA workers (except veterans or heads-of-families aged 45 or more) may work only 18 months at a stretch, then be furloughed two months without pay. Every six months the rolls must be combed to en force this rule.* > WPA workers shall work no more than 130 hours a month.

> WPA shall employ no aliens, require the oath of U. S. allegiance from all enrollees (to expose Communists to perjury).

> The Federal Theatre Project was killed (Illinois' Republican Dirksen buried it on the House floor by reading some of its play titles : Lend Me Your Husband, The Mayor and the Manicurist, Up in Mabel's Room, Did Adam Sin?, A New Deal for Mary). Other white-collar projects may be continued only if "sponsored" (partly paid for) by communities.