1935 September

The Great Depression as seen through the pages of the Daily Record (Morristown, NJ) 

September 1935

 

“Widespread rumors that politics will figure heavily in the allotment of adminis-trative jobs under the new Works Progress Administration here were vigorously denied today by Joseph W. Duffield of Boonton, recently named office director of local WPA headquarters at 2 Park place….The WPA goes into active operation today to supplant the works division of the ERA….Thirty-six administrative workers, including eleven engineers, will be dropped form the ERA works division, which will be completely dismantled by September 1….Applicants for administrative posts are being interviewed today, an engineering staff is under-going organization, and projects are being considered.  “Ninety percent of the manual workers we employ will be drawn directly from ERA relief rolls, and the remaining ten percent will be foremen and supervisors,” Duffield said….Justus Nesbitt, county supervisor of the entire ERA setup, explained the reason for the transfer to the WPA….”Our ERA offices, having served in the dual role of straight relief administrator and work projects administrator, was becoming to be viewed by the general public as an employment office.  Our first function is the adminis-tration of relief and we welcome the placing of the works projects function under another governmental agency”  (Aug. 1, 1935, p.1)

“Somewhere back in January, Congress put through a $4,800,000,000 bill for work-relief.  This was to be the final, triumphant, mopping-up drive of the great campaign against unemployment.  It was to take 3,500,000 men off the dole and restore them to honest jobs.  It was to “prime the pump” once more with such expenditures for capital as would finally set our whole productive machine in motion again.  That was just about seven months ago.  Today, according to the most recent checkup, slightly less than 25,000 people have gone to work under this bill.  The great public works that were to result are hardly past the blue-print stage.  The whole campaign has bogged down in a manner utterly dismaying to anyone who hopes to see the government work its way out of the expensive business of direct relief.  One trouble—perhaps the chief one—seems to be that there are too many bosses….As a result, the whole program seems to be in a state of consider-able confusion. …What seems to be needed is a firm and definite decision from the White House…. Indecision and the conflict of varying plans should not be allowed to cripple it any longer.”  (editorial, August 1, 1935)

“Two of the four “most important officials” of the rapidly dismantling works division of the local ERA have been named to jobs in the new local Works Progress Administration, it was learned from authoritative but unofficial sources today.  The names of persons receiving appointments could not be learned.  The re-hiring of the works division ERA men follows on a statement Thursday by Joseph W. Duffield of Boonton, new WPA office manager, that appointments to his staff would not be colored by political considerations and that they would be made on the basis of previous experience in the administration of work relief projects.  Duffield, A Democrat, scoffed Thursday at widely circulated rumors that works administrators with G.O.P affiliations would not be considered for WPA posts.  Today it was rumored that persons applying for WPA administrative jobs are obliged to present letters of recommendation from three prominent Democrats.”  (Aug. 3, 1935, p.1)

“Virtually everybody has been a little surprised at the signs of some degree of business revival for this fall….Auto production…held up well into late July….Private building construction has risen steadily….the stock market has been rising steadily for many weeks to the highest point of the year….Rising stock market prices…are a barometer of a more hopeful feeling on the part of the scores of thousands of people who invest in the country’s enterprises….better statements have just been issued by such firms as General Mills, Westinghouse, Chrysler, General Motors, Radio Corporation, U.S. Steel, and General Refractories, to name only a few….Business leaders have chorused “let us alone.”  Many of them are getting this fall the first opportunity to demonstrate the business statesmanship they claimed to have learned during the depression years….”  (editorial, Aug. 3, 1935)

“The cost of thinning trees in four wooded sections of Morris County last winter and this spring was $5,968, but the cost of supplying coal to replace the wood given to the needy would have been $12,717, Robert F. Edwards, assistant ERA works supervisor, told the Record today….needy person were given firewood, and forest sections too heavily choked with trees were improved….Near Morristown the Brookside Reservoir and the Cutler Estate at Shongum were reforested, Dover’s needy received firewood cut from the estate of Major George W. Farny at Morris Plains, fuel for Boonton’s unemployed was taken from the Kinnelon Estate in Kinnelon Borough, and Madison and Chatham were supplied from a tree-thinning project in Passaic Township.”  (Aug. 5, 1935, p.12)

“Trenton, (AP) – Governor Hoffman announced today that the Federal relief allotment for New Jersey has been cut to $3,000,000 for August.  Federal authorities also “insist” he said, that the state relief administration “immediately abandon all work projects.”  The Federal government has been contributing from $5,000,000 to $7,000,000 monthly for relief in New Jersey and the State has been contributing $2,000,000.  The reduction does not affect the State’s contribution which is to be financed by sales tax receipts.  The Governor said the Federal order will force 8,000 persons now engaged on State ERA projects out of work.  It was indicated also that administrative and operating forces of the relief administration would be reduced….Lake Mohawk, (AP) – Chester I. Bernard, state relief director, today said works projects will not be abandoned despite instructions to that effect from Washington.  Barnard said he…had wired Harry L. Hopkins, Federal administrator, direct.  “No action will be taken until I hear from Hopkins himself,” Barnard said.”  (Aug. 6, 1935, p.1)

From the Daily Washington Letter by Rodney Dutcher, Aug. 7, 1935:  “Withered NRA, along with its other research tasks, is running a “world’s meanest man” contest with plenty of entries.  At least several score employers, NRA field agents report, are insisting on repayment by workers of some or all of the wage increases received under NRA codes.  Such workers, usually in the lowest wage group, find themselves back on pre-code wage scales—with an additional deduction from their pay envelopes to restore to the boss the money he paid them “illegally.”  On the other hand, some employers are turning out to be good sports.  NRA was left with something like a million dollars collected from those who had chiseled on wages and payable to employes.  Following discard of the codes, the money presumable was repayable to the employers.  But certain of them are saying that they have charged off the sums on their books and that NRA can turn the money over to the workers.…”

“NEW YORK, (AP) – White collar workers joined with laborers today in the strike against WPA rates….General Hugh S. Johnson, Works Progress administrator for the city, was saying that “most” of the leaders of the movement were “reds,” and George Meany, president of the New York State Federation of Labor, was accusing Johnson of drawing “a Communist red herring” across the trail.  Johnson rested on his decision to extend until Monday the time within which the workers must return to the federal projects, which pay a top wage of $94, or be dropped from the rolls….The Workers’ Unemployed Union, made up of 8,000 white-collared and unskilled workers, voted last night to join the strike, but set no date.  The Federation of Architects, Chemists and Technicians, voted to pull its members from WPA projects and planned to take a vote on a full membership strike next Wednesday.  The Bookkeepers, Stenographers and Accountants Union also voted to strike.….Hopkins’s order refusing relief against WPA strikers presented the city and state the alternatives of aiding a strike against the Federal government or allowing thousands to go without relief.”  (Aug. 10, 1935, p.1)

“Union labor in Morris County moved yesterday to join the wide-spread strike against Works Progress Administration projects “unless prevailing hourly wages for this area are paid.”  WPA jobs will be picketed by members of county unions if wage changes are not made, Harold Pierson of 11 Fairview place, secretary and treasurer of the New Jersey State Building Trades

Council, told the Record this morning….”I want to make it clear,” Pierson commented, “that Morris County unions are opposed to the proposed hourly wages under WPA rather than to figures for 120 hours of work in a month.  Workers are anxious to see that the hourly wage scales are as high as those paid by private employers at the present time.  If WPA won’t raise its pay, it would be natural for private employers to cut wages to the level proposed by the governmental agency, and the process would break down the long-standing work of the unions.  It would be better to slash the number of hours worked in a month than the hourly scale.”  Prevailing hourly wages in this county were named by Pierson as 50 cents for unskilled, 75 cents for intermediate, and $1.20 for skilled labor.  From other sources it was learned WPA hourly scales would approximate 38 cents for unskilled, 42 cents for intermediate, and 53 cents for skilled,  The unskilled class includes common labor, the intermediate class helpers and hod-carriers, and the skilled carpenters, electricians, plasterers, bricklayers, and the like.  Morris unions took their stand on the strike at a meeting of the New Jersey State Building Trades Council at the Labor Temple in Newark yesterday afternoon….County members of the Workers’ Alliance of America, a non-union group, are expected to “go along with the Building Trades Council”, according to action taken by the Alliance in Newark yesterday, Pierson declared…. (Aug. 12, 1935, p.1)

“NEWARK – Authorization to commence work on 57 projects was released to the field today by William H. J. Ely, New Jersey Works Progress Administrator, launching the WPA program in this State.  The work is to start at any time subsequent to August 15^th….The 57 projects involve an expenditure of $1,424,479.30, made up of $1,218,769 in Federal funds, and $205,710.30 contributed by sponsors.  They will provide employment, at the beginning, for 3,217 persons….The location, nature, and cost of each project, together with the number of people expected to be employed in Morris County, follows….Dover: Construction of paths and walks, Hurd Park, Federal Funds, $7,685; sponsor’s contribution $175.  Construction public parking space, Federal funds $8,991; sponsor’s contribution $295….”There is no conflict here with union labor over wages or terms of employment,” Mr. Ely said today.  “In practically every instance the work undertaken by WPA is confined almost solely to projects designed to offer somewhat better cash payments than possible under direct relief.  Under the Federal program of reviving industry, a great many skilled workers in New Jersey, particularly in the building trades, have found work on construction stimulated by the modernization and mortgage features of the Federal Housing administration.   Still others are employed or will be employed under the Public Works Administration program, which provides for construction with the cost borne jointly by PWA and sponsoring municipalities.  Under both FHA and PWA prevailing wage rates are paid.  “WPA offers employment only to those who are receiving direct relief.  An occupational survey recently completed by the State Emergency Relief Administration shows that 65 per cent of the able-bodied persons eligible for work under the WPA program are in the unskilled labor classification.”  (Aug. 13, 1935, p.1 & 5)

“….A hundred thousand young men and women were enabled to attend college during the year 1934-35 because the government paid them $15 a month for work on or near the campuses of nearly 200 colleges.  This coming college year of 1935-36, some 250,000 will be so aided….This is the newest effort to answer the pressing problem of youth, a problem that is answered in Germany by labor camps, and in Italy by the army.  The answer means a chance to work one’s way through the college of one’s choice, studying what one wishes.  The chance is given only to those who could not otherwise attend….Note that for the time being, such young men and women are removed from competition for jobs with the unemployed.  The work given them at college, assistantships, community work, surveys, library, nursing, community center direction, research of one kind and another, is generally work not competing with wage-earners.  It is usually work that impoverished colleges would not be doing at all were it not for this youth program….” (editorial, Aug. 14, 1935)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – One hundred thirty-three workers at the Picatinny Arsenal will lose their pay raises of July first, through a ruling of Comptroller General McCarl announced today.  They probably will have to refund the extra money received during July and August.  This ruling of the Comptroller General keeps these men from being “classified” workers and puts them back in the “per diem” class.  The order does not affect the 358 other workers who were also classified on July first.  The Government will save only $862 a year through the Comptroller General’s ruling.  All the pay increases were merely small ones which made the salaries of the newly classified workers conform to the scales set up by law.  Wages of the per diem employees are fixed according to wage surveys made at the arsenal at the direction of the Chief of Ordinance, U.S. Army, as none has been made at Picatinny since before the depression, a new survey may be made in the near future.  As a result of a new survey there might be some increases in pay but there will be no cuts, as this is forbidden by law.  The only difference between classified and per diem workers at the Picatinny Arsenal is pay for overtime work.  Per diem workers must be paid time and one-half extra for all work they do over 40 hours a week, while this law does not apply to the classified groups.”  (Aug. 15, 1935, p.1)

“…The Boonton Board of Aldermen requested the Freeholders to apply for WPA funds for building a bridge to connect the Lake Hiawatha section with the town and a petition signed by a number of Boonton business men to the Aldermen was referred by that body to the Freeholders. It said the business men were alarmed less the Boonton Manor residents take their business elsewhere.  On the other side of the fence was Lena Irene Lyon, who…opposed the bridge.  She marked in large letters on top of this “not for public press” but before the Board in open meeting it was public property.  She referred to the racial membership of the residents of the new development and of Boonton merchants and attached to her long letter a copy of a speech in the Congressional Record on communism….”  (Aug. 15, 1935, p.1)

“MOUNTAIN LAKES—By the payment of a $5,000 tax revenue note, held by the National Iron Bank in Morristown, the Borough Council at its meeting last night cleaned out the indebtedness of the Borough of Mountain Lakes.  Attorney Frank Kelley suggested that the pencil, which wrote the motion, authorizing Councilman Harry Wilson to pay the note, be preserved or enshrined….”  (Aug. 15, 1935, p.1)

“A check for $542.50, representing a $500 legacy and interest, was received from the executors of the estate of the late Mrs. Elizabeth F. Waterbury, of Convent, by the Board of Freeholders yesterday and turned over by it to the County Welfare Board for the use of patients at the Welfare House….County Judge Albert H. Holland decided that the intent of the will was to give the money to the inmates of the home….The WPA wrote that one of its duties was to provide clerical help to complete records in tax offices, County Clerks’, Surrogate’s offices and similar places and said it would be glad to aid the Board in any projects.  The matter was referred to the miscellaneous and damage committee….”  (Aug. 15, 1935, p.1)

“About half of the regular street department employees of the town have been laid off temporarily due to the fact that they have earned more than set aside for them.  This is because many of the men have been working six days a week whereas the appropriations were for a fiveday week….”  (Aug. 15, 1935, p.6)

“It has recently been brought to the attention of the Morris County Emergency Relief Administration that farmers, farm agents and members of the Jersey Grange are experiencing difficulty in recruiting farm labor from the ranks of relief recip-ients.  Offers of employment that would net the relief client a sum greater than that received from the relief are meeting with little response…. Prospective employers who meet this experience in their search for laborers have been requested to advise the Morris County Emergency Relief Administration, 17 South street…giving full particulars governing the case so that it may be referred to State Headquarters and to the Commissioner of Labor.  The Emergency Relief Administration has reiter-ated its intention of striking from its rolls all those relief recipients who deliber-ately refuse reasonable offers of employment.”  (Aug. 16, 1935, p.1)

“DENVILLE – Despite the wishes of residents and civic organizations, a Civilian Conservation Corps camp is to be established here.  White workers are to make up its roster….Captain C. M. Cormack, engineer in charge of construction, is on the ground and expects to have the camp ready for the 200 or more men to use it in from six to ten weeks.  Between eighteen and twenty buildings are to be construc-ted, water, gas and electricity installed and company streets built.  Whether a new street to connect with Savage road will be built or the towpath along the old canal bed used remains to be decided.  Local union labor is to be used in camp construction work, the men being obtained through the placement bureau offices of Morristown….any one in the county is eligible for selection.  Denville was selected as a site for a CCC camp last Winter; one of the units now in Southern Jersey being scheduled to be transferred to the new camp.  Pressure was brought to bear to block the move without success until Governor Hoffman refused to give the order for the transfer.”  (Aug. 17, 1935, p.1)

“DENVILLE – Twenty different classifications, with ribbons for winners of the first three places in each, will be featured at the Denville Community Dog show spon-sored by local ERA officials and the Recreation Commission, it was announced today by Mrs. Arthur H. Dill, general chairman of the exhibition.  Contestants entering dogs in the show…will meet in front of Main street school and will parade from that point to the corner of Main street and Bloomfield avenue where the judging will take place.  The list of divisions in which entries may compete: …..4. Longest tailed dog—no stretching allowed.  5.  Longest eared dog—no stretching allowed….7. Dog with crookedest tail—no twisting allowed….9. Dog with most appealing eyes.  10. Dog with most spots—natural spots only counted (a) Coach dogs; (b) other dogs.  11. Dog with longest beg—(Time starts when dog sits up, stop watch to be used)….14. Best dressed owner.  15. Dog with (a) loudest bark, (b) shrillest bark….17. Dogs with pleasantest and ugliest expressions. 18. Dog with most toes…20. Dog coming longest distance to entry.”   (Aug. 17, 1935, p.4)

“In a world distraught and cluttered with ERA’s, WPA’s, PWA’s, NRA’s, CWA’s, and all the rest, Harding and Chatham Townships in Morris stand distinguished as two places where local authorities still minister to the poor….Committeemen in Chatham and Harding are well enough acquainted with all their citizens to manage public charity with a directness impossible for county- or state-wide agencies.  What is more important, they are in constant first-hand touch with the needs of all their poor.  Every year the “poor account” is included as an item in the township budget.  At every meeting, the unemployed are discussed and necessary approp-riations are voted.  The situation is in tragic contrast with the dilemma Chester Township committeemen found themselves in last Spring.  Although in that municipality the population is smaller than in either Chatham or Harding, the place decided to handle its poor through the ERA.  When it was reported the number of people on relief in Chester Township embraced over a quarter of the population, committeemen wrote frantically to Morristown to find the facts.  After typical redtape delays, Chester was actually able to find just how many and what persons were receiving relief.  While home administration of poor funds is plainly imprac-tical in large towns financially jeopardized by the depression, small places, even if they continue to operate under the ERA, should demand the right to handle relief directly.  Chatham and Harding point the way for townships not heavily populated.”  (editorial, Aug. 17, 1935)

“State-wide opposition to the sales tax as an unnecessary drain upon the average citizen’s pocketbook has been crystallized in assemblyman McCampbell’s open defiance of the levy.  When he sold potatoes to poor families at Red Bank Friday night and refused to collect the tax the militant Holmdel legislator assumed leadership in a campaign that ha already given expression to the resentment of citizens in every corner of New Jersey.Mr. McCampbell’s extraordinary tactics will doubtless inspire thousands of others to demonstrate their aversion to a tax that has been shown to be designed to provide political spoils rather than the “relief” under whose name it was passed.  Sponsors of the sales tax have already assumed a sanctified pose of horror that a legislator who has sworn to uphold the state Constitution should openly violate a law passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.  But as Mr. McCampbell has already replied, those who foisted the levy upon the citizens of New Jersey have little conception of what the Constitution of New Jersey really means.  Not only have they mocked it, but they have broken faith with the people of the state in rejecting the economies pledged in their party platforms and adopting a needless tax in their place….The tax depart-ment claims it will prosecute him, a plan to which the Monmouth assemblyman has heartily subscribed.  For his arrest will amplify the impression he had already created in leading the drive against the sales tax.  More than rough treatment will be necessary to answer Mr. McCampbell’s challenge to the sale tax, for the people of New Jersey are in no mood to be bludgeoned into paying a levy the need for which is yet to be proved….”  (editorial from the Asbury Park Press, published in The Daily Record August 17, 1935, p.4)

“New WPA Manager Talks Over Old Days as Boonton Ball

Player  Joseph Duffield, office manager of the newly-setup Works Progress Administration at 2 Park Place, wiped the sweat which drenched his powder-blue shirt and shriveled his polkadot four-in-hand.  The heat made “Joe,” as he is affectionately known in the office, loquacious and reminiscent….He took his group of listeners aside, to a more breezy corner of the headquarters, where once the palatial Club Juan held forth during the days of needled-beer and upcountry applejack. ”Yeah, I’m the same Duffield who played third base for Boonton in the old

Collinsville Field embroglios.  Those were the days all right.  The battles between Boonton and Morristown were for ‘blood.’  Why, they bet as much as $2,000 on the outcome of a single game.  And the crowds—well, there were no radios, few automobiles, no Sunday movies to distract people.  It was as much a Sunday event to hie to old Pop Righter’s ballfield in Collinsville as it was to get the kids off to Sunday School….”  (Aug. 17, 1935, p.6)

“The Guy Who Has Been Taxed The Most, So Far” is the editorial

cartoon by Herblock on August 19, 1935, p.4.  It depicts a white-bearded ancient bent double and sweating, supported by a thick knobby cane on uneven ground.  He is called PATIENCE, and he is heavy-burdened by a mammoth stack of papers tied to his back called TAXATION TALK.

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – Additional non-federal works projects for New Jersey, including two for Morris County have been approved by President Roosevelt ….The new Morris County projects are as follows:  Morristown—Clearing, spreading top soil, riprap at Brookside Reservoir, Mendham township Federal funds, $2,444; sponsor’s contribution, $155.  Denville Township—A two-inch water line along Tomahawk trail, Iroquois trail and Palmer road.  Federal funds, $1,834; sponsor’s contribution, $371.” (Aug. 20, 1935, p.1)

Sign of the times:  three photographs of the Dionne quintuplets dressed in “track shorts and athletic shirts”:  “An All-Star Team For The Olympics “Amateur Champions” Of The World Already, Dionne Quintuplets Appear Pointed For Fresh Laurels—In Another Decade Or So!”  (August 20, 1935, p.3)

And  “Readers Here’s Your Choice In The DIONNE

QUINTUPLETS’ BATHING BEAUTY ELECTION” followed by

pictures of the quints in order of selection.  “Fascinating Quintuplet Pictures Appear Regularly In The Morristown Daily Record.”  (Aug. 20, 1935, p.3)

“The average man is the favorite figure of cartoonists, editorial writers, statisticians and orating Congressmen.  Unfortunately, however, he does not seem to be the favorite of anyone else, and of late he has been getting it in the neck with dismaying and monotonous  regularity.  Who is the average man, anyhow, in these days when all averages have failed?  Well, he is a hard-working American citizen who has somehow managed to keep his job, his farm or his source of business all through the depression.  He is the chap who buy the new autos and goes to the new movies and trudges hopefully off to the polls every so often to say who shall govern him.  He is the fellow who provides the retail stores with their patrons, the railroads and bus lines with their passengers and the morticians with their clients.  He is the wage-earner, the small-scale business and professional man and the ultimate consumer, all in one.  And he is the chap whose nose has been fixed firmly against the grindstone ever since the bottom fell out of the stock market.  Do the city fathers misgovern his town so flagrantly that real estate taxes go up, schools deteriorate, street paving goes to pieces and stick-up men roam the back alleys?  The average man pays the taxes, sends his kids to the deteriorating school (and provides the teachers with such pay as they are able to collect), rides on the bumpy streets and submits to the stick-up artists.  Does employment subside, so that some former workers are supported by relatives, others are carried by the Community Chest and still more are taken care of by Uncle Sam?  Mr. Average Man plays the triple part of kindly relative, Community Chest contributor and federal taxpayer.  Do mismanaged banks fail and utility empires collapse?  Mr. Average Man had his savings in the banks and his investments in the utility stocks; and he also pays light and phone bills which financial phenagling has caused to be higher than is necessary….It is the average man who supports the army and navy and furnishes them with the needed recruits; the average man who pays the real estate tax, the income tax, the sales tax, and all the hundred and one indirect taxes which keep the wheels turning.  He gets it going and coming and in between, and all the time he keeps his mouth shut and hopes for the best.  But if he ever decides that he has had enough of all of this, and really gets up on his hind legs to squawk about it—then let politicians of all parties, persuasion and colors hunt for the nearest storm cellar!”  (editorial, Aug. 20, 1935)

“The liberal terms for deferred financing of home construction made available through provisions of the Federal Housing Administration have resulted in a quickening of new activity in home building in various communities of Morris County….In Dover, Denville, Rockaway, Mountain Lakes and Morris Plains, residential plots have been improved with attractive new dwellings during the present building season.  One of the first homes to be completed is already occupied by the family of Leo T. Powell of Dover at Lake Arrowhead, in Mountain Lakes.  This residence was constructed under FHA provisions and was the first to be arranged for, through the First National Bank of Morristown….

Building permit aggregates are being swelled by increased issuances in almost all nearby municipalities.  Contractors, architects and investors, alike are turning to the economic terms of the FHA to effect new work, predicating the educational program undertaken in the past year by local municipal “drive” committees of citizens to promote local building activity as a means of increasing employment among building trade artisans.  The Lake Arrowhead dwelling was planned and supervised by Seth H. Ely, Jr., of Dover, who also was the architect who prepared design and specifications for the new model home being erected in Denville Center in a new development project, as well as for half a dozen present constructions in Rockaway, Morris Plains and Dover….”  (Aug. 20, 1935, p.12)

“MOUNTAIN LAKES—The financial condition of Mountain Lakes is still very healthy according to Councilman Harry Wilson, chairman of the Finance Committee, who reported to the Borough Council at a special meeting last night that the cash on hand account totaled $5,729.21 while the trust figure was $6,929.80.  The Borough wiped out its current indebtedness last week with the payment of a $5,000 tax revenue note.  Councilman Wilson reported that the Borough would not need to draw out any more money until October 15 when a principal payment of $15,000 falls due….”  (Aug. 22, 1935, p.7)

“Foster the Printing Industry and Welfare of Morris County

. . . Keep the home wheels turning by placing your printing orders with firms that have the UNION LABEL AND THEIR PRINTING PLANTS IN MORRIS COUNTY.  Dollars paid to local printers will return to you through orders and their purchasing power….The following is a complete list of printing offices affiliated with Morristown Typographical Union:

BOONTON TIMES-BULLETIN, Boonton, THE DAILY RECORD,

Morristown, THE MADISON EAGLE, Madison, MORRISTOWN

NEWS, Morristown, REPUBLICAN BANNER, Morristown, STUART R. WHITENACK, Morristown….”  (Aug. 23, 1935, p.3)

“WASHINGTON, D. C.—At least $1,275 of the proposed limit of cost of the new Madison post office will be used to paint murals on the lobby walls or provide suitable sculpture for the building….The procurement division of the treasury has created an “arts section” for the purpose of “arting up” federal buildings, an official said.  The arts section will ask artists of New Jersey and surrounding states to submit sketches for the Madison post office murals.  Selection of the artist or artists to do the work will depend upon the quality of their art as shown by the sketches, which must have a theme dealing with postal affairs, local industry, or local history….The art project will be scheduled to begin coincident with completion of construction.”  (Aug. 23, 1935, p.6)

“DENVILLE --  A resplendent black Scottie, already voted the blackest dog in competition, was voted best dog in show at the Community Dog Show staged under ERA and local Recreation Commission auspices here yesterday afternoon.  A collection of more than 50 dogs, varying from sleek pedigreed animals to some of dubious distinction competed in the affair which was declared such a success it will be repeated as an annual future event….  (Aug. 23, 1935, p.11) “Petitions asking for the continuance of Morris County Junior College have been circulated throughout the county during the past few weeks, it was announced today by Marguerite de la Haye, 23 Phoenix avenue, acting chairman and secretary of a student committee.  Churches, chambers of commerce, political groups, social clubs, and the Association of American University Women are among the organi-zations that have been asked to lend support for the continuance of the college which was inaugurated two years ago under the E.R.A.  According to Miss de la Haye, the petitions are being circulated to insure continued public interest in the college and to show county sentiment regarding the possibility of a permanent institution….Director of the college for the past year, Dr. Robert W. Bond, announced at the end of June approximately 1,000 Morris County youth had been enrolled in courses during the two years that the college has operated….”  (Aug. 24, 1935, p.1)

“DENVILLE – A protest against the exclusive use of union labor in the construction of the CCC camp being established here has been dispatched to U.S. Senators A. Harry Moore and W. Warren Barbour, it was learned today.  Following the pleas of several unemployed carpenters living here who are not members of the Carpenter’s Union, Thomas Moses, chairman of the building and grounds committee of the Denville Township Committee contacted Captain C.M. Cormack, in charge of operations here, with a view to securing work for local non-union men.  Captain Cormack declared he was under orders to use only union labor and could not deviate from his commands.  In his letters to the two Senators, Moses expressed sympathy for union labor but asked that local workmen with dependents be given a chance to earn money on local projects.  Moses said he told the Senators that Denville taxpayers “deserved a break” when they got a chance to earn money.  The union carpenters are being recruited through Morristown employment offices.  Moses declared quick action on the part of the part of the Senators would be necessary in view of the fact the construction will be completed in less than ten weeks….”  (Aug. 24, 1935, p.1)

“Workers who leave jobs in private industry in order to gain employment under the WPA will be immediately discharged by the new federal relief agency, J. Francis Moroney, local district director of the Works Progress Administration, warned today.  Several instances in which persons employed in private industry have made application to the Morristown WPA office were reported today.  Moroney said that these persons, in applying, say they either hope to get better wages under the WPA or that they expected to be fired by their employers shortly….State WPA Administrator William H. J. Ely issued a statewide…press release in which he termed the forbidden practice “insidious” and nothing less than a deliberate attempt to ‘chisel in’ on jobs which rightfully belong only to the unemployed ….”  (Aug. 24, 1935, p.1)

“With a works program allotment of $2,500,000 for the eradication of Dutch elm disease, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has put nearly 4,000 men—mostly from relief rolls—into the 5,000 square miles in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, centering around New York City, where the principal known infection in this country is concentrated…. Destruction of infected trees is the only method of eradication yet developed.  Since the Federal campaign to stop the spread of Dutch elm disease began two years ago, 10,545 cases of the disease have been confirmed by laboratory tests.  All but 720 of these trees have been already destroyed.  In addition, 483,201 dead or dying elms have been removed as possible sources of new infection, and 231,312 more have been marked for destruction.  The tri-State area has been scouted once this season.  The scouts are now going over it again, with special attention to the critical safety zone—a strip of land 10 miles wide outside the outer line of known infection.  This zone is extended slightly from time to time as scouts discover diseased trees within the zone.”  (Aug. 24, 1935, p.2)

“….The Morris County committee of the American Legion asked cooperation of the Freeholders in graves registration and requested an appropriation of $300 so that a PWA setup could be secured under which the state would give $97,000 and the federal government $4,500 for state work in marking graves.  This would give 272 veterans employment for five months….”  (Aug. 29, 1935, p.1)

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – All of the WPA projects in Morris County for which allotments were approved early this week were submitted by the State Works Progress Director for New Jersey, it was declared today at headquarters of the Works Progress Administration.  Officials expressed surprised when told that municipalities which had received grants had professed ignorance of any application for the funds allotted…The mystery surrounding the WPA grant for fixing up the Alexander Hamilton School grounds was cleared up following a conference of WPA heads with Henry W. Peck, President of the Board of Education.  The approval of the project, announced from Washington earlier in the week, was for $3,457 federal and $2,466 being furnished by the local sponsors for improving the Alexander Hamilton School grounds.  At that time the local Board knew nothing of the project and had not asked for any such appropriation or considered work of that magnitude on the school grounds.  The answer was found today in that the project requested covered work at all schools except Maple avenue and included a slight bit of draining at the Alexander Hamilton, which name was listed first.  The press release, instead of including all the work contemplated, just took the first named school as the subject for the project. ….”  (Aug. 29, 1935, p.1)

“Capt. John R. Bedell, active in Civilian Conservation Corps companies here for the past two years, leaves today to assume command of a C.C.C. unit in Rahway.  During Capt. Bedell’s command of Company 241 since January 25, 1934, the unit was strengthened to the point where it was consistently adjudged by Army inspecting officers one of the outstanding camps in the nation.  His enthusiasms were concentrated on the balanced development of the hundreds of young men who have come under his jurisdiction.  About 170 of the 200 men in Company 241 were active in either local sport leagues or in adult education courses at one time last winter, when Capt. Bedell maintained that activities beyond their daily work was essential to the wellbeing of the boys.  There were C.C.C. teams in basketball, bowling and volley-ball leagues throughout the two years of the captain’s leader-ship.  The men of the company last winter financed the transportation expenses of New York City ERA players who appeared fortnightly here in a series of theatricals arranged by Capt. Bedell, who cooperated with committees from the Y.MC.A. and the Board of Education.  The plays were presented at the “Y,” and at the Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, and high schools.  Camp improvements sponsored by the captain leaving today were beautification of the grounds at the old Speedwell avenue school, of the mess-hall, recreation room, and officers’ quarters….”  (Aug. 30, 1935, p.1)

Caption of a photograph showing a line several people deep snaking around a city block:  “Anxious to substitute jobs for the charity they had been receiving, more than 10,000 formed lines leading to the New York offices of the Works Progress Administration, headed by General Hugh Johnson.  This is only the beginning of the task of transferring great numbers of unemployed from direct relief to $55-a-month Federal jobs.”  (Aug. 30, 1935, p.8)

“NEWARK—William H. J. Ely, State Works Progress Administrator, today authorized work to commence on 25 new projects involving an expenditure of $281,018 and providing employment for 918 workers.  The WPA appropriation is $244.130 and the sponsor’s contribution $36,888.  With the authorization of today’s allotment the total number of New Jersey projects released to the field to date is 221.  The total cost is $4,290,893, divided as follows:  Federal funds, $3,737,796 and sponsor’s contribution $553,097….The number of projects now under way in New Jersey, as officially reported to WPA Headquarters here by the several District Administrators, is 70, and the number of workers, 2,956.  The 221 projects so far released by Mr. Ely will provide employment for 10,925.”  (Aug. 31, 1935, p.1)

“….the trend of the time is forward [sic] tolerance, sanity and decency on both sides of the perennial labor problem.  One need draw no sugary picture of a silk-hatted capitalist shaking hands with a paper-capped laborer to recognize this essential truth:  labor and capital are indispensable parts of the same machinery that keeps us all alive.  Capital is necessary even in a socialist state—all that is changed is the manner of control of capital, and a driving bureaucracy may be as hard a master as the unenlightened capitalist.  Before there can be enterprise and production under modern conditions there must be capital.  There must be labor, too.  And Siamese twins, thought they may not like each other at all times, have no alternative than to live together as harmoniously as possible.  Neither can be well if the other is sick.  It is in this spirit that American workmen and employers must approach the coming year if the present signs of improvement are to fulfill their promise.”  (editorial, Aug. 31, 1935)

“The frontier of medical knowledge should be pushed back appreciably by one of the relief stunts presently to be launched from Washington.  Some 5000 unem-ployed “white collar” workers will go out during October to start ringing doorbells and asking people how they have been feeling during the last year.  Before they get through, they expect to get a comprehensive idea of health conditions among fully 3,000,000 Americans.  Thus, for the first time in medical history, it will be known just how diseases and disabilities are distributed throughout the nation by geographical divisions, by age, by sex, and by occupation.  The U.S. Public Health Service expects this knowledge to be of vast importance.  Here, evidently, is at least one case in which relief expenditures are going to bring in a worth-while return.”  (editorial, Sept. 3, 1935)

“Morris and Passaic County Freeholders, meeting in conference yesterday, decided to make application for PWA aid in construction of a new two-county bridge over the Pequannock river between Lincoln Park in Morris County and Mountain View in Passaic.…Estimates of the cost of the new bridge ranged from $125,000 to $195,000, of which, under present procedure, the PWA would pay 45 per cent, with the two counties equally sharing the remaining 55 per cent.  One of the obstacles confronting the Freeholders was the fact the time limit for the filing of applications for PWA aid expires today.  Hopeful that there may be some elasticity to the deadline, Passaic Freeholder Clerk William P. Leary, in keeping with a suggestion made by Freeholder Harry Behrman, immediately dispatched a commu-nication to Colonel C.C. Vermeule, state PWA director, urging him to grant the Passaic and Morris County Freeholders an extension of time in which to prepare and file the application for federal aid in the project….” (Sept. 5, 1935, p.1)

“Not more than a quarter of Morris County’s WPA allotment has been assigned to municipalities, although the deadline is September 12, J. Francis Moroney, director of the county area told representatives of county municipalities at a meeting in WPA headquarters last night.  Moroney urged the municipal leaders to have their local governing bodies submit whatever projects they have in mind this week.  WPA projects, he indicated, will be the only source of help municipalities will receive from the federal government in handling relief cases after November 4.  Any project that is constructive and socially beneficial should be submitted.  It is not necessary to have elaborate engineer’s drawings accompanying the application; any reasonably comprehensive sketch and outline will do.  Building, repairing and improving all public property such as schools, roads, dams, clearing and draining swamps, building athletic fields and playgrounds are among the most desirable projects to keep men employed.  Women’s projects include home nursing, teaching of domestic and industrial crafts, playground and office work, and similar occupations….”  (Sept. 5, 1935, p.1)

“The new social security law is a reflection of the greatest single change that has come upon the American people in all their history.  To understand the change you need only try to imagine such a bill having been passed a century ago.  At that time, this country probably came closer to the kind of social order visioned by the prophets of the revolutionary period than any other land on earth.  It was a country of small proprietors—small farmers, small business men, small manufacturers, small traders….There was not a large wage-earning class.  The average American of those days was a farmer, master of his own acres, and proprietor of a plant which provided him with practically all of his food and most of his clothing, year in and year out.  The towns were relatively small, and they were full of small shops, small stores, small businesses.  Hardly anyone went out and got a job with the idea that he would be a jobholder all his life; the job was a makeshift, a time-filler until the moment when he could start some undertaking of his own….In the long run, under those conditions, a man sank or swam by his own efforts.  If we [sic] had energy and even a halfway decent break in the luck, he need not fear the poorhouse or the breadline.  It is almost a waste of breath to remark that the America of 1935 is not in the least like the America of a century ago; or it would be wasted, if some people did not still cling to the attitude of 1835 in appraising social legislation like the security bill.  The individual no longer has his old economic independence.  Our great cities contain millions upon millions of people who are and always will be wage-earners.  With the best will in the world, they cannot be anything else.  And no matter how industrious, frugal and ambitious they may be, a depression can at any time sweep their jobs out from under them, destroy their savings and leave them utterly helpless….”  (editorial, Sept. 6, 1935)

“Completion of the municipal airport at Normandy waterworks at a cost of about $150,000, the bulk of which will be given by the government under a WPA program and 25 other projects were tentatively approved by the Board of Aldermen last night.  A WPA representative appeared before the Board and stated that he was anxious to get the airport started.  He said the government would give from $125,000 to $150,000 for the completion of the project, this to include besides three runways a 68x60 hanger and a 20 foot leanto.  The town will be asked to give $12,000 for this project—it furnishing some material such as a steamshovel while the government supplies the labor.  It was claimed that the town would effect a substantial saving in the amount it would have to pay for relief, and the $12,000 for materials to keep men working would be less than it is now paying for the support of the idle.  Between 150 and 175 men would be employed and when they were not occupied on airport work they would be assigned to other jobs….A couple of years ago, under an ERA project, considerable work was done on the airport but this was handicapped by extremely bitter winter weather and then the work projects were given up in the spring.  Later in the meeting there was a list of 25 other projects read….The big item in this list was the final one, added at the last minute.  It proposes the extension of George street.  As this would include a bridge which the county would have to build and which would cost approxi-mately $60,000, nothing definite can be done on this until it is worked out in cooperation with the Freeholders.  Other jobs included completion of Speedwell Lake to its old time beauty; providing special police for crossings near schools; securing dog wardens, indexing municipal records which is not possible now due to routine business keeping all clerical help busy; construction of a municipal garage, for which plans have already been drawn, on town owned property near Prospect street and doing a general sidewalk and curb reconstruction job throughout the whole town.  The Chamber of Commerce and Citizens’ Division urged approval of as many WPA projects as possible.”  (Sept. 7, 1935, p.1)

“About two hundred persons gathered at the home of Mrs. Lloyd W. Tredway in Chester yesterday for a meeting sponsored by the Women’s Democratic Club of Morris County.  A business meeting of the club was held in the afternoon followed by a supper which brought out a large number of men.  Three resolutions, dealing with New Deal policies, were adopted.  The women dedicated themselves to assist in upholding and strengthening the New Deal in national life and to endeavor to bring the essence of the New Deal into the government of the state of New Jersey and the county of Morris….The club also went on record as endorsing the accomplishments of the New Deal and expressed the belief that the Democratic Party is the most satisfactory available political instrument for coping with the critical problems of the day, and further that this capacity to apply fundamental principles in a progressive manner, inspired by the spirit without being hampered by the letter of old tradition, is absolutely necessary to the peaceful and orderly solution of present problems..…”  (Sept. 7, 1935, p.4)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – Among the PWA projects for New Jersey which have been disapproved by Harry Hopkins, Works Progress Administrator, are the following, it was learned today:  Hanover, firehouse, $34,545; Long Valley, school building, $76,363….Hopkins’ disapproval of these projects was based on the claim they did not provide enough work in proportion to the cost involved.  The Washington Township Board of Education asked for the PWA loan more than eight months ago.  The Long Valley school is a centralized one, taking care of all of Washington township except Middle Valley where there is one teacher.  The building is unsuitable for school purposes, quite old, has outside toilets and is badly situated.  There is no playground attached.  At present there are six teachers employed in this school.”  (Sept. 10, 1935, p.1)

“BUTLER—The council continued to seek reduction in the percentage of relief costs that it paid and at its meeting requested the County ERA to reconsider its refusal to grant a reduction in the amount the borough paid.  A similar request several weeks ago was refused.  Councilman George Strachan declared it was his opinion that the borough’s share of relief was far too much, it being sometimes 75 percent of the total, while most of the surrounding municipalities were paying as little as ten percent.  For August the relief cost was $25, of which the borough paid $234 and the ERA $191 and for September the cost was estimated at $318, of which the borough is to pay $234.  Applications for WPA grants for trimming trees, repairing and replacing sidewalks and sawing 125 cords of wood in the borough’s possession were turned down as the WPA said these must come under the relief administration and not WPA….”  (Sept. 11, 1935, p.1)

“Repeal of the sales tax will be “a real step backward in view of the uncertainty of the costs of relief,” Mrs. Thomas W. Streeter, member of the State ERA council and president of the Morris County Welfare Board declared in a statement issued today.  Candidates elected in November on a repeal platform may find themselves “embarrassed” by January, the first opportunity they will get to take action on rescinding the levy, Mrs. Streeter said.  By January the relief situation may be so acute that successful repeal candidates may be forced to vote to retain the tax, the prominent woman Republican declared….Although “the sales tax is not a perfect tax” and “doubtless some modifications can be made to improve it,” receipts for the first month has shown that “it does bring in the money, a prime requisite of any tax,” Mrs. Streeter argued.  She asserted the State real estate tax has reached the point “of diminishing returns” and cannot be relied upon as a source of revenue.  “Our legislators can have both economy and the sales tax,” the Welfare Board head said in refuting what she termed the “war cry” of “We must repeal the sales tax because we won’t get any economies until we do so.”  Revenues from the sales tax can continue to go for relief, she argued, adding that “any surplus from it, any diversions, or any economies” can go for reduction of the real estate tax.  “One of the most constructive things the Legislature could do,” Mrs. Streeter declared, “would be to reduce real estate taxes enough so that local governments could be put on a pay-as-you-go basis.” …. “I am no calamity-howler,” Mrs. Streeter said, “and I do not think this country is going to crack under the strain.  The most likely prediction is that we shall find ourselves in much the same situation as England, which still has a large problem of unemployment 15 years after her depression and which makes regular provision for its cost.  That is why I continue to emphasize that we, too, need a large, continuous revenue to meet the needs of our unemployed and that it is not safe to experiment with half-way measures.”  (Sept. 12, 1935, p. 1 & 9)

“WASHINGTON, (AP)—President Roosevelt has approved an allotment of $432,000 in federal funds for use by the Works Progress Administration in carrying out the works program in New Jersey….The approved projects for Morris County include… Reconstruction of road from Landing to Netcong Borough line in Roxbury Township; federal, $4,005, sponsor $175. Chester—Clean crystal Lake for public swimming pool; federal $236, sponsor $25….Rockaway—Clean canal bed, fill and surface for public playground; federal $3,657, sponsored $350.”  (Sept. 13, 1935, p.1)

“BOONTON -- ….Unequal assessments were again the subject for attack by Pierce [candidate for mayor].  He said that probably if the assessments were equalized there would have been no need to cut salaries of municipal employees.  He asked, “Is it right that the poor man, who has a damn hard job to live should pay part of the rich man’s tax?”  He declared that “the streets in front of the houses of our aldermen are in excellent repair while elsewhere the streets are in bad condition” and said he would demand equal treatment to all sections of the town….”  (Sept. 13, 1935, p.1)

“MOUNTAIN LAKES – Attacking the Mountain Lakes Board of Education as being inconsiderate and unfair by failing to recognize the business men of the community, Prosper Beneville, an insurance agent, stated in an interview last night that the Board had ignored the interests of Mountain Lakes insurance men by neglecting to request the Charles Cona Building Company of Haledon, who received the general construction contract for the $254,000 high school, to deal with local agents on the insurance guaranteeing the completion of the work.  “The PWA has always indicated that local men, whenever possible be considered first on all their work,” Mr. Beneville stated.  “There are some 16 insurance men in Mountain Lakes, yet the insurance on the bonds guaranteeing the completion of the general construction work was given to some man who has probably never been inside the community.  The 16 agents are paying for the school and should be aided in paying by receiving a share of the insurance business.  Yet they receive not the slightest bit of cooperation.”…”The Board of Education is not the only group in this community which is guilty of this injustice.  When $7,000 worth of road bond insurance was written some years ago, not one dollar of it was written by a local insurance man.  I know of no other municipality in the state where local business men are so mistreated as they are in Mountain Lakes….Mr. Beneville, who has been an active member of the community for the past 12 years, is the Borough Tax Assessor and has long been an outstanding member of the police force.”  (Sept. 13, 1935, p.1)

“Taking issue with the report of similar statements, purported to have come from Mrs. Thomas W. Streeter and Stephen C. Griffith, as recorded in The Daily Record of September 12, the Morris County Tax Repeal Association today issued a statement urging voters not to be misled by inferences that the sales tax is a cure-all for all other taxation ills….The text of the statement follows:  “….The bills passed at the last session of the Legislature and providing that the state share in the cost of dependent children’s care make no mention in their texts that the funds for this purpose shall be supplied by the sales tax.  Actually, this relief must be given to the counties whether there be a sales tax or not.  “Let us not be fooled into believing that real estate taxes or any other taxes can be reduced in any way other than substituting economies for them….Why, if we are so concerned about relieving the burden on real estate, did we not use a far greater proportion of our state aid funds to reduce our indebtedness and curtail our road work in the interests of economy during the depression period?  Had this been done, or if it were done now, the load on real estate would be lightened overnight.  Instead of this policy, however, we used almost all of the funds supplied by the state, which, incidentally, were originally intended to help counties reduce their indebtedness, for actual road building and repair, and real estate paid the bill.  “Sensible retrenchment in highway construction is by all odds the outstanding economy which can bring about a reduction in real estate taxation.  $8,000,000 is provided in the state highway appropriation this year for new road construction on the plea that many would be thrown out of work if the amount were smaller.  But no publicity is given to the fact that on January 1^st of this year there were incomplete contracts from 1933 and 1934 of over $27,000,000 in highway construction; enough certainly to keep a few men busy for a little while.  The road debt per mile in New Jersey is $11,650 as compared to the United States average of $1,446.  The road debt per capita in New Jersey is $47 as compared to the national average of $38.  The percentage of increase in bonded indebtedness in all 48 states in the past ten years was 100.9%.  In New Jersey it was 233.9%.  Among the ten largest states New Jersey’s bonded indebtedness jumped from $56,000,000 in 1924 to $186,954,000 in 1934.  In commenting on these figures the New York Sun says:  “A splurge in highway building accounts for the great increase in New Jersey bonds….”  (Sept. 13, 1935, p.1)

“The solution of the unemployment problem seems to lie in the development of new industries….By creating a series of entirely new jobs, our technological civilization does its best to provide openings for workers dispossessed of their jobs by the decline in older trades.  Figures compiled by the National Industrial Conference Board, for instance, show that in 1929 fully one seventh of all American workmen had jobs in industries which did not even exist half a century previously…. Just how all this applies to our present problem is not quite clear—unless, indeed, it means that a complete recovery must await the development of brand-new, large scale industries to provide a yet unheard-of-set of jobs.”  (editorial, Sept. 13, 1935)

“Four county jobs, involving 105 workers and costing $23,199, were approved for Morris County today by the State WPA Administrator.  They were part of 55 state projects providing employment for 2,189 workers and costing $587,489.45….The federal share is $520,410.80.  The location of jobs, with costs and number of men are as follows:  Roxbury Township – Reconstruct athletic field and tennis courts at Roxbury High School….(54 workers).  Montville –

Improvement of school grounds at Montville Grammar School…. (10 workers).  Rockaway Borough – Constructing dry stone retaining wall 500 ft. long, 2 ½  ft. wide, average height 5 feet….(16 workers).  Boonton—Improve public auto parking space….(25 workers.)”  (Sept. 14, 1935, p.1)

“In a statement by the Morris County Sales Tax Appeal Association yesterday it asks “why did we not use a far greater proportion of our state aid funds to reduce our indebtedness and curtail our road work in the interests of economy during the depression period,” claiming that this would lighten the burden on real estate…. This all sounds very well but if the county used the money to pay off bonded indebtedness—which might not be as easy as imagined as only a certain number of bonds fall due each year and holders of such safe securities would not willingly surrender them in a day when the general run of stocks and bonds are unstable—and curtailed road work, most of the men that had been employed in construction would have to go on relief.  That would increase the burdens of relief agencies and mean greater taxes for municipalities.  So instead of less burden on real estate there would be a greater one, unless the sales tax provides enough to care for relief….”  (editorial, Sept. 14, 1935)

“Frank J. Hogan, the high-priced lawyer who was reputed to have received $2,000,000 in fees for his labors in defending the late E. L. Doheny from oil fraud charges, was asked by a reporter recently whether he thought the depression had been whipped.  “I haven’t any doubt about that,” he replied.  “But really, I’ve come to hate that word—depression.  When I was a boy and a young man, we had flurries and panics.”  That might be a good point to remember, if you’ve been out of a job for three years and are wondering when, if ever, you’ll be able to take care of your family once more.  It’s bad form to call it a depression; that makes it sound too bad.  Call it a panic, instead—or possibly a flurry.  That will soothe the feelings of the gentlemen who can buttress themselves against life’s unpleasantness with million-dollar fees.”  (editorial, Sept. 17, 1935)

From Rodney Dutcher’s Daily Washington Letter, Sept. 17, 1935, p.4:  “Some day, perhaps before election, President Roosevelt will have to admit to the country that business activity has returned to normal, but that there are still six to eight million unemployed.  He will have to explain that the efficiency of private industry, expressing itself in a saving of labor costs, has largely brought about that condition.  And doubtless add that until industry can think up some way of absorbing those millions, it will have to pay for their subsistence through taxes.  This problem—call it technological unemployment or the increased productivity per man per hour, which gained enormously during the depression—is one of the biggest stories in the country….The most scientific chart of unemployment yet devised by the government…indicates that 800,000 more persons were unem-ployed in June, 1935, than in June, 1934.  True, this counts in some 300,000 of “new population available for employment” and about as many more displaced from road building and other public works, but---  In that same period, the Federal Reserve index of manufacturing production rose from 83 to 86, which you might well suppose would have meant re-employment of several hundred thousand men.  Remember that this was in the NRA period, before codes were canceled and employers began to increase hours.  The answer is that workers, at an ever-accelerating rate, are being displaced by better management, elimination of the least efficient plants and equipment—and the least efficient labor—pressure through sweatshop, stretch out and speedup methods, new machinery and new inventions.  This goes on in agriculture, mining, transportation, and other fields, as well as in the factories….Unless something no one can now foresee happens to absorb millions of workers, this problem holds the sprouting seeds of future political issues, future economic progress, future depressions and the future, if any, of national economic planning.”

“The financial condition of the Morris County Schools during the past year showed a decided improvement, County Superintendent of Schools Walter B. Davis disclosed in his annual statistical report….One of the reasons for improvement is the receipt of more state moneys….After having held off as long as possible, many school boards were forced to make extensive repairs and the bills for this totaled $63,785, or just $20,100 more than in the year before.  Manual training showed an increase from $29,000 to $45,000 with an increase from 4,223 to 4,928 in the number taking it.  As in the past couple of years and due to depression conditions, high school enrollments continued to increase while the number entering grammar school grew less….Mr. Davis put the cost of education per pupil as $98.05 against $97.54 the year previous but on a basis of daily attendance averages the costs were $103.40 and $105.23.  This indicated a better attendance….”  (Sept. 18, 1935, p.7)

“CHESTER – Three years of bitter strife over construction of a water system were apparently ended last night when Borough Council voted to drop the entire proposition.  A resolution voiding the PWA loan-and-grant agreement was passed, 3 to 2.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the notice of an appeal on the heralded certiorari verdict rendered last spring, and the council, seemingly disgusted with an endless string of legal and financial dilemmas, moved rapidly to wash its hands clean of the disputed project….(Sept. 19, 1935, p.1)

“Gives Graphic Picture Of Life As Member of C.C.C. Camp No. 241” by Albert Munne (Sept. 19, 1935, p.10)  “Well you folks want to know about us here in Civilian Conservation Camp Co. 241.  I was all along hoping somebody else would take this task…for you must all know I am no Sinclair Lewis or Will Rogers, when it comes to writing….This place is where a new comer at once feels a great and earnest work is going forward.  Every pupil is made to feel that there is work for him to do, that his happiness as well as his duty lay in doing that work well….when he cannot see a future, he strives for no end and such a man is useless to society as well as to himself….a young man learns to help himself through self-help.  Let men agree to differ and when they do differ teach them to bear and forebear….”  What follows is a description of the daily routine.  “When these young men leave Morristown they leave as Washington left with his soldiers; with new hope, faith and courage of a greater and successful life, and thus history repeats…”

“It is unfortunate that the CCC, the one commendable creation of the present Administration, in making its bow to this community, should set up a standard in the employment of skilled labor that prescribes Union membership as having precedence over citizenship.  It is no business of the Federal Government whether a man is a Union member or not.  Of course, this standard exists only during the construction work on the buildings of the camp itself.  Nor have the officers in charge of this construction any authority to change the regulations made by those higher up.  The plain fact is that no carpenter, painter, plumber, or expert in any construction trade can get a job without a Union card.  As there are few Trade Unionists in Denville, it means that all skilled labor will come from nearby points where there are Unions.  For the six weeks required in this construction, no skilled mechanic could afford to pay initiation fees in an outside Union as never afterward could he receive Union wages in this or contiguous territory.  As an effort to change the regulations, that has been started to permit the employment of men based upon skill instead of Union membership, is commendable but with the usual bureaucratic red tape will probably be decided after the job is finished….A CCC camp is coming here.  That is all there is about it.  It behooves everyone to assume a friendly attitude toward the officers, Agricultural Department experts and the 206 enlisted men who will be quartered among us.  If they rate as highly here as in other places, the extending of a friendly hand will be merited….The labor payroll will be about $8,000.  After the company arrives, the purchase of commissary supplies such as meat, butter, eggs, etc., will be on government contract and not done locally.  Vegetables, canned goods and perishable goods, amounting to about $1,500 monthly, will be bought locally…smoking tobacco and cigarettes, movies, and small stuff generally….Denville should extend a welcome to them, forgetting the prior justified feeling of resentment over the unfair labor standards.”  (editorial from the Denville Herald appearing in The Daily Record, Sept. 19, 1935, p.14)

“….That New Jersey municipalities, at least the majority of them, have come a long ways from the disastrous financial positions in which they were a year ago, is not to be denied.  A great deal of credit for this rapid recovery must be given to the stringent budget and bond restrictions voted by the Legislature early this year and the opening of the municipal doors to sound long term refinancing of the ever pressing temporary loan obligations that were veritably bleeding the municipal treasuries….Unless some state or federal assistance is provided municipalities they will find it absolutely impossible to assume the unemployed care burden without again boosting local budgets….The vital fact remains that municipal budgets next year must reflect further reductions and any move that would defeat this end, will but send the municipalities back into a complicated financial morass.…A bill to allow cities to pay their state and county taxes in proportion to the amount actually collected, was introduced at the last session of the Legislature but failed of passage….The other outstanding point is the question of municipal pensions.  The past Legislature increased the percentage of the contributions being made by police and firemen to pension funds, but the municipal funds are not yet on a sound financial basis and this is a system which should be subject of extensive study and probably complete revision….”   (editorial from the Orange Courier published in The Daily Record September 20, 1935, p.4)

“Experience is a dear school . . . . But Chester Borough escaped the dearest penalties of experience when her Council voted this week to drop an expensive PWA water system proposition.  For three years Chester toyed around with the idea, steered dangerously close to financial reefs . . . and finally profited by the mistakes of others….Denville Township, having installed a water system under the PWA, is laboring with a $600,000 bonded indebtedness that can’t be amortized for half a lifetime….Parsippany-Troy Hills is in about the same kettle of fish after having engineered a high-cost PWA project….A proposition in which Chester would have financed its proposed water system through $11,000 in the form of an outright gift from the PWA and through a $39,000 bond issue appeared seductive enough on first inspection.  But when the borough added up accounts about a month ago, it found that extra preliminary expenses for arranging the system’s building totaled enough to triple the amount to be raised by local taxation next year.  There followed a mad scurrying for shelter, and council voided the PWA loan-and-grant agreement….Those persons favoring the entrance of municipalities into PWA loan-and-grant agreements nurture one pet argument.  We can get an outright gift of such-andsuch a percentage of the total cost of this project from the federal government.  When the PWA finally folds up, we won’t be able to get a cent in the form of an outright gift.  Let’s go ahead while we have the chance.  The argument…generally disregards the existing financial difficulties in the municipality concerned.  If a township or borough is already in a situation where it cannot collect taxes, it is pointless to accept a PWA gift or outright grant that carries with it a heavy bonded burden….”  (editorial, September 20, 1935)

“BOONTON—Committee members of the Community Relief Bureau will begin a campaign shortly to raise $5,000 for supplementary relief work in the town.  The bureau has been operating with a deficit during the summer.  From May to September 16, only $780.82 has been collected as compared with disbursements of $887.52….Work of the bureau has included maintenance of local parks and relief where the ERA, WPA and other agencies of the government fail to reach.  In addition the women’s employment agency shows 157 positions filled out of 245 applications. 

Among those included on the campaign committee are:  Mrs. Fletcher H. Sillick, Mrs. Eduvidge Murphy, Mrs. George Fitzpatrick, Mrs. Saul Nyce, Mrs. Charles Fleck, Mrs. Margaret Southern, Mrs. Charles Kuhn, Rev. L. Harold Hinrichs, Philip H. Wootten, August Moller and R.J. Randall.” (Sept. 20, 1935, p.9)

“CHESTER—The borough may have a water system after all.  Mayor and Council last night passed a resolution rescinding a resolution passed Wednesday night to the effect the PWA loanand-grant agreement was voided….Last night’s action, which leaves the water system again open for consideration, went through the roll-call by a count of three to two.  Councilmen Chester Apgar, Manning Fischer, and Hughson cast yeas, Councilmen Daniel Budd and Leslie Apgar cast nays.  Councilman Fred DeHart was absent.  When the original resolution voiding the loanand-grant agreement was adopted Wednesday night, the situation was exactly the opposite. 

Three anti-water councilmen were present, two pro-water council-men were present, and one pro-water councilman was absent.  Mayor Harry W. Cyphers, who favors water, was unable to vote on both nights since there was no tie on either occasion….”  (Sept. 21, 1935, p.1)

“NEWARK, (AP)—An unidentified blonde woman, whose purse held only five cents, leaped to her death today from the 16^th floor of a building at Broad and Market streets, Newark’s business corner, today.  The leap was made at 9 A.M. as crowds hurried to work.  The woman’s body landed on the roof of a 4-story savings bank building next door.  The victim was about middle age and poorly dressed.  There was nothing in her clothing to identify her.”  (Sept. 21, 1935, p.4) From the Daily Washington Letter by Willis Thornton, September 21, 1935, p.4:

“It’s rather a pitiful little acorn right now, the organization from which the great oak of the social security program is expected to grow.  About 25 borrowed employes in borrowed quarters—that is all that can be seen today of an organiza-tion that is expected eventually to employ 10,000 people in administering benefits that will touch more than 16,000,000 Americans.  Because the bill which was to have provided funds was filibustered to death as Congress closed its last session, nobody can be regularly hired by the Social Securities Board.  A dozen or so employes have been borrowed from NRA, and another dozen from Edwin Witte’s committee on social security which helped frame the plan….The mail is already flooding in, stacks of it.  Most of it boils down to two questions:  “how about a job?” and “When do I get my pension?”  The borrowed staff is hardly large enough yet even to return the simple answer that must go to all such inquiries to the first class.  “We haven’t anything to use for money yet,” and to the second, “Nothing doing for at least two years.”  Plenty of the applications for jobs come sponsored by congressmen who were there the night the appropriation was filibustered to death, and who should know better.  The mailman dumps a big stack of mail on a bare table.  It goes into the file that is beginning to spring up, forerunner of a system that aims in 1937 to begin to be a complete personal account of every employe in the United States—no less—establishing his age and keeping his wage and contribution record for old-age insurance benefits after 1942….”

“Emergency relief authorities in New Jersey set out a short time ago to learn just exactly what the average family on the relief rolls is like.  To do this they made an extensive survey of 10,000 of the 165,000 families that were on relief last winter.  Their findings follow:  The average family on relief has native white parents, two children less than 16 years old, and a record of from two to three years of contin-uous unemployment.  The father is between 35 and 50 and has had between five and eight years of schooling.  Before the depression, he was an unskilled laborer, regularly employed, making an annual wage of from $1000 to $1200.  He is the only member of the family capable of taking a job.  The picture that this survey presents is worth keeping in mind in any discussion of the depression.  It shows clearly enough that the average depression-wrecked home was one in which there simply was no human possibility of making adequate preparation for a long spell of unemployment….Such men are a small minority of our total population.  But they are the great majority of the population on relief, as this survey shows.  And as long as they exist in such a defenseless state, any dip in the trade cycle will put the burden of their support on the shoulders of the public.   It is for this class that such features of the social security program as unemployment and old age insurance are most vitally needed.  We can talk our heads off about individual initiative, American habits of self-reliance, and so on, but it is perfectly obvious that a man in that group can’t have more than a trace of initiative and selfreliance.  He can stand on his own feet as long as his job lasts, but not much longer.  The skilled worker, the white-collar man, the small business man—their situation is different.  They can lay aside something for the rainy day.  When trouble comes they can be expected to carry themselves for a time….It is the fellow at the bottom of the heap who is the depression’s first and last victim.  He is the one who makes a broad, permanent social security program a vital necessity.”   (editorial, Sept. 23, 1935)

“WASHINGTON, (AP)—Struggling to speed up the $4,000,000,000 works program the government has been up against the problem of how to make the money go around.  Recent shifting of works money from one category to another was understood today to have resulted from figures disclosing that at the rate the money was being allocated it would not provide the 3,500,000 jobs promised by President Roosevelt.  An unpublished report to the administration leaders showed that so much had been allocated to high cost projects that the balance would not provide the remaining jobs under Harry Hopkins’ low cost works program.  It was after this report was prepared that the President cut the fund for slum clearance housing projects from $250,000,000 to $100,000,000 and limited public works to $323,000,000.  The figures showed that under the housing program it cost almost $5,000 to provide a year’s work for one man, while the WPA plan called for less than $800.  Public works were estimated to provide one man a year to work for each $1,300 spent….”  (Sept. 25, 1935, p.1)

“It seems strange that, with the government giving out twenty million dollars in the country for projects for unemployed women, New Jersey should be one of seven states where the women get not a nickel.  There are 613 projects for women on the list, and 41 states are inclined.  The type of work include Braille transcription, library work, art, music, records, clerical work, research, special surveys, emergency home-making, landscape beautification and community service.  Have we no blind in New Jersey to benefit from the Braille transcription?  Aren’t our people worthy of art and music?  Have we no special surveys worth taking?  Are our streets, our hills, our valleys so well planned that we need no landscape beautification?  Why neglect New Jersey?  We vote, too.”  (editorial from the Jersey Journal, in the Daily Record Sept. 25, 1935, p.4)

“OUR 150^TH Interest Dividend  

Ever since 1874, when this Savings Bank was founded, it has paid interest dividends without interruption to its depositors.  The 150^th consecutive dividend has recently been declared by the Board of Managers, payable at the rate of 2 ½% per annum, to depositors on October 1^st, 1935.  

THE MORRIS COUNTY SAVINGS BANK 

CHARTERED 1874 – MORRISTOWN, NEW JERSEY”

(advertisement, Sept. 25, 1935, p.13)

“The State ERA announced that reductions in the number of persons on relief were made for August, it being the sixth consecutive month and the state total was 504,074 compared to 519,644 for July.  In August, 1934, there were 504,510.   The figures for Morris County showed 8,027 on relief compared to 8,833 in July and 6,871 in August, 1934.  Increases were shown in only two counties and the general decrease occurred before the WPA had developed sufficiently to take many off relief.”  (Sept. 26, 1935, p.1)

“Critics of the sales tax, levied during a period of distress with the definite purpose of banishing the spectre of starvation from the commonwealth, may soon be forced to admit that they were a bit premature in assailing the humanitarian levy.  Indeed politicians who are going about the state castigating the tax as “graft for politicians” may find themselves considerably embarrassed when the levy develops into much sought after relief for harassed property owners and makes possible the discontinuance of assessing municipalities for emergency relief….Governor Hoffman sees the possibility to the tax which is now expected to net $25,000,000 a year, as sufficient to bear the entire relief load, thus relieving municipalities of the usual $4,000,000 annual contribution….Governor Hoffman advises that exemption of the tax on certain articles of food, such as bread, meat, may be brought about shortly because of the effectiveness of the tax.  The greatest hue and cry against the tax came from those who objected to imposing it upon food.  But at the outset this was a necessity.  The federal government laid down a mandate to New Jersey to raise $20,000,000 or forfeit financial aid from Uncle Sam for relief purposes….A new source of revenue had to be found...It was Governor Hoffman’s intention, and it still is, to use revenue from the tax to relieve real estate and thus inaugurate a broader and more equitable basis of taxation….”  (editorial from the Long Branch Record, appearing in The Daily Record, Sept. 26, 1935, p.4)

“WASHINGTON – The Civilian Conservation Corps Company at Butler, has, during the past two years, controlled the Dutch elm disease on 2,756 acres of land in Morris County, according to a work project statement in the CCC offices.  The company has improved forest stands on 974 acres of land; cleared 297 acres of fields; reduced the fire hazards on 1040 acres; planted 416 acres in young trees; completed insect control projects on 20 acres; thinned 24 acres of plantations; surveyed 14 acres; landscaped five acres; built 22 miles of roads and 12 miles of fire lines; constructed various fire towers; laid 1500 feet of pipe line; built seven bridges; cut 4,603 cords of wood and 114,316 feet of logs; and utilized 3,450 man-days in nursery work, the development of young tree stocks to plant in the region….”  (Sept. 27, 1935, p.3)

“In the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn, this week the cornerstone was laid by Mayor LaGuardia for one of the huge sewage disposal plants that New York City is building with PWA funds.  Three more disposal plants are planned in Brooklyn.  The Ward’s Island sewage treatment plant is nearing completion, and more such plants are to be set up before long in Manhattan….It would be well for New Jersey to show similar interest before the PWA funds are all used and the WPA funds are all allotted.  The Hackensack River is being left as polluted as ever, and no steps are being taken to co-operate in the New York moves to clean up New York Bay and the Hudson River….” (editorial from the Jersey Journal, appearing in The Daily Record Sept. 27, 1935, p.4)

“As a move to combat mosquito emergence along the lower reaches of the Rockaway River, theMorris County Mosquito Extermination Commission has asked Federal authorities for a Civilian Conservation Corps camp in the area.  One serious emergence last July brought discomfort to residents of Pine Brook, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Mountain Lakes, Montville, Boonton, and Denville….If the camp is located, VanNote said, the C.C.C. workers would be used to clear out all objects obstructing flow of the river itself, to clean out ditches draining into the river, and to install new ditches at necessary points.  The work would have the effect, he indicated, of speeding the flow of the entire river watershed, with the result that mosquitoes would find few standing pool of water in which to breed….”  (Sept. 28, 1935, p.1)

“County offices of the State ERA will begin accepting applications October 1, for entrance and re-enlistments in the CCC for the sixth enrollment.  Enrollment will continue until October 30.  Some former requirements have been modified, including one which permits lads of 17 years to enter the Emergency Conservation Work, which is the official title of the CCC.   The enlistment period is for six months.  The minimum age heretofore was 18 years.  The maximum remains under 29 years.  Lowering of the minimum was due to the demand of young fellows to enter the service, incidentally helping their families through payment each month of $25 out of the $30 wages the government pays.  It is specified that boys attending school shall not be accepted.”  (Sept. 28, 1935, p.1)

“U.S. Senator A. Harry Moore, in a telegram to Prosecutor Orville V. Meslar today, announced that the President had approved the following WPA projects for Morris County:  Boonton— Improving Spruce and Cedar streets, $2,364 federal share, $386 Boonton’s share.  MountOlive—Improving one and one-third miles of roads, $7,500 federal share and $2,365 local share. 

Rockaway Township—Improving ten miles of road, $12,307 federal funds and $3,880 given by Rockaway Township.”  (Sept. 30. 1935, p.1)