1935 May-July

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

May-June 1935

 

TRENTON, (AP) – New Jersey’s still-unsolved problem of relief financing became a subject of study today for Governor Hoffman and Legislative leaders….The governor approached the conference with “an open mind” although he has been committed for weeks to his own plan of relief financing and aid for real estate taxpayers by imposition of New Taxes….The time is approaching when the state must demonstrate to Federal Relief Authorities that it can provide $2,000,000 a month to guarantee continued grants from Washington.  Available funds were expected to be exhausted before the end of May….”  (May 1, 1935, p.1)

“It is interesting to notice that one of the big jobs to be done under the $4,880,000,000 work-relief program is to be the taking of a nation-wide census of unemployment.   Formerly jobless “white collar” workers will be put to work on the task.  Here is something that should have been started years ago.  We have known ever since 1930 that we had a great number of unemployed people, but not until now have we gone to the trouble of counting them and finding out exactly how many there are or in what circumstances they are in.  Our refusal to take such an obviously necessary step is a shining example of governmental folly.  The job is long overdue…”  (editorial, May 1, 1935)

“TRENTON, (AP)—Governor Hoffman and legislative leaders have found half of New Jersey’s $20,000,000 relief requirement for 1935 without resort to new taxes but still face the problem of financing the balance.  At an amicable conference yesterday, with the press attending, conflicting views on the necessity for new taxes were momentarily shelved and suggestions to provide $9,987.000 from governmental resources agreed upon….Dr. Clee, outspoken proponent of governmental economies for relief financing, assented to the whittling down of his original proposals for approximately $18,000,000 savings to the ultimate $9,987,000 after the governor, equipped with data of his administration technicians, demonstrated their unfeasibility….”  (May 2, 1935, p.1)

“MADISON -- Dr. James V. Thompson, professor of administration of religious education at Drew University, discussed “Hoboes” at the weekly luncheon meeting of the Kiwanis Club at the Y.M.C.A. in Main street yesterday.  Twenty-five young men and women were guests of the club as a part of local observance of National Youth Week.  Dr. Thompson estimated five million boys and girls between the ages of 16 and 25 are out of work and declared that these youth are candidates for the “jungles,” common slang for “hobo” haunts.  Present social danger lies not in threats of revolt, but in this vagrancy, the speaker said.  These young people are not the dregs of society, but the best of youth….About half a million of these young people left home during the past three years to aid their parents in paying food bills….One in every twenty are girls and 95 percent of the total are native born….”  (May 2, 1935, p.1)

“PARSIPPANY—A resolution was adopted at the meeting of the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Committee last night waiving all interests on delinquent taxes if paid during the month of June, providing the entire 1935 taxes were also paid in full.  Committeeman MacDougall objected to it but it carried….The committee authorized the payment of all bills up to April 1^st, and all salaries of township employees up to April 15.  The payment of salaries and bills had been suspended due to the slowness of taxes coming in, but as the financial condition of the township has improved somewhat the committee felt that it was safe to make the payments.”  (May 3, 1935, p.1)

“….There has been considerable complaint in recent years over the tendency of the government to assume bureaucratic control of various private enterprises with a public responsibility.  On occasion, no doubt, the government was guilty of needless interference, but more often the refusal of private institutions and corporations to help themselves by correcting abuses necessitated such interference.  In fact, many enterprises that now find themselves under tight government supervision could have escaped it had they acted promptly when weaknesses and abuses were found within their ranks and supplied the necessary remedies.  Instead they delayed until public resentment became so acute that nothing but governmental interference could satisfy it.   The New Jersey building and loan associations have set a good record during the trying days of the depression.  They have experienced difficulties, of course, but their essential soundness minimized losses and prevented the scandals that have manifest themselves in so many other enterprises.  Nevertheless, building and loan leaders, cognizant of their responsibility have profited from whatever abuses and weaknesses were revealed by the depression and devised remedies.  They formulated these in senate bill 55 which set a remarkable pace in passing both houses of the legislature without a dissenting vote before it was signed last month by Governor Hoffman.  The measure is aimed at protecting investors and extending the services provided by building and loans and…eliminating the weak spots…Not only does it strengthen the building and loan association as an institution, but it shows the advisability of self-regulation upon the part of enterprises ready to assume their responsibility before conditions force the government to interfere….”  (editorial from the Asbury Park Press, printed in The Daily Record May 3, 1935, p.14)

From the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, May 6, 1935, p.4:  “….No end of forerunners to the New Deal have been unearthed from history’s pages, but the oldest is claimed by an NRA economist who has typewritten and carboned for distribution among friends a translation from the Chinese statesman Kwantze (or Kuan-Tzu), premier of the state of Chi in the period 684 B.C. to 644 B.C.  Kwantze, seeking to defeat a serious depression, promulgated the following principles for recovery which seem to have anticipated PWA, CCC, FERA, RFC, FCA, HOLC, NRA, FHA, AAA, and others: 

“Agriculture should be advanced by the constructive co-operation of the state with the people, and the residences of the people should be well constructed so they can enjoy a high degree of comfort.  “Dams should be built . . . and bridges . . . Immediate assistance and sympathy may be extended to people when they are in a state of extreme  emergency.”  ”  

Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, May 7, 1935, p.4:  Economic recovery has been only partial.  But the American big business man’s recovery of his morale appears to be complete.  Hanging around the U. S. Chamber of Commerce convention, a curious correspondent had no trouble learning the frame of mind which lay behind the fusillades directed against the Roosevelt administration by speaker after speaker for this great lobby of industry and commerce, which broke definitely with the administration.  Most of these men believe the New Deal contains some threat to the free right to make unrestricted profits.  Anticipating business recover on a rapidly rising scale, they want no interference with their privilege of making whatever money they can.  The average member of the Chamber reacts with especial violence against the administration’s moves against the “power trust.”  It makes no difference to him that a public utility is a publicly granted monopoly, as distinguished from a competitive private enterprise.  He sees the great TVA project as the spearhead…for the government’s entry into other lines of business.  And he sees Roosevelt’s proposed elimination of electric utility holding companies as the beginning of an effort to bust up other huge combinations of corporate power and wealth.  He resists government regulation because that, too, threatens profits—as in the case of hours and wages.  He resents what he considers the administration’s encouragement of labor to organize and present demands.  Usually he believes New Deal policies have hindered business recovery more than they have helped.  But a few members feel that Roosevelt has done more good than harm, though it is now time to “lay off reform” and let business men run business without annoyance from Washington.  A small group feels further government regulation is essential and inevitable.  It sees the financial-industrial structure headed toward another and bigger crash, after a possible boom of unguessable duration, unless Washington is in a position to put on the brakes.  But this group is a tiny, almost inarticulate, minority of the Chamber.  For the first time, the average big business man feels able to yell blue murder about all the things he doesn’t like among the Roosevelt policies.  Two years, and even one year, ago, there was a feeling in his heart that his crowd had made an awful mess of things and that it might be necessary partially to reverse the time-honored custom of letting big business tell the government what to do.  But now much of the confidence he had in pre-depression days is restored… Mr. Roosevelt is no longer considered a miracle worker or a “strong man.”  The more he has compromised with powerful interests represented by the Chamber, the more those interests have kicked his program around as their lobbies here regained their old-time influence.”

“The work handled by the Morris County Welfare Board during the first four months of 1935 was materially increased over the same periods of 1933 and 1934, the report of Miss Edith McCully, Director of Welfare, to the Board of Freeholders…showed.   A total of 510 cases was handled in 1935 from January to April 30 against 330 for the same period last year.  The most of these were new general cases, these totaling 243.  Naturally an increase in the number of visits by investigators and the mileage covered were recorded …”  (May 8, 1935, p.1)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. –A permanent lay-off is facing all employees working at Picatinny arsenal on jobs now financed with PWA funds, it was stated by officials at headquarters of the Ordinance Division of the War Department here today.  With all PWA funds, which have been allotted for this work contracted for and no more available from that source, War Department officials were pessimistic about the chances of continuance of the extra work at the Arsenal after the present contracts expire.  The $405,000,000 special War Department appropriation bill which has been presented by the General Staff of the Army is the only hope for continuation of the work, they pointed out, and the chances of its passage by Congress were described as “pretty slim.”  Under the provisions written into the $4,880,000,000 works relief bill…none of the funds appropriated there can be used for extra work at the arsenals….”  (May 8, 1935, p.1)

“PARSIPPANY—Deductions on salaries of all teachers and employees of the ParsippanyTroy Hills Board of Education were reduced from the ten percent to five percent, at the regular meeting of the board in the Parsippany School last night.  The restoration of five percent of the cuts was adopted unanimously by the board acting pursuant to a report made by the teachers’ committee….due to the “Pay as you go basis”, which the township committee has adopted, the municipality has improved to some extent and the board believed that the five percent restoration was only fair to the teachers who have stayed at their jobs during the financial difficulties which the township has pulled through….”  (May 9, 1935, p.1)

“We have been watching so long for that famous “corner” which must be turned before we pass from depression to prosperity, that our eyes may be getting a little glassy.  It is entirely possible that we may get ‘way past it before we even see it….it is worth glancing at a size-up of the situation just made by the National Industrial Conference Board.  This presents a picture which, while somewhat spotty, is preponderantly bright.  The auto industry…continues to expand….Steel production, on the other hand, slipped nearly 5 percent from February to March….Bookings of fabricated structural steel, meanwhile, rose 34 per cent…machine tool orders jumped sharply…building and engineering contract awards rose in March….Electric power production in March declined slightly…but the decline was somewhat less than seasonal….Bituminous coal production was up in March…and department store sales rose.  On the other hand, textile production in March fell off by more than the usual seasonal amount, security prices sagged, and wholesale commodity prices dropped slightly….”  (editorial, May 9, 1935)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – A double-barrelled plan for quieting future dust storms and moving stranded farm families from the great plains area to the Atlantic seaboard and south Texas was submitted to the department of agriculture.  Walter B. Pitkin, of South Morris street, Dover, professor of journalism at Columbia University…told M. L. Wilson, assistant secretary of agriculture, that he could place 10,000 farm families along the eastern seaboard, and 200,000 in south Texas.  Areas from which these families would be taken…could be planted in grass to prevent a recurrence of the wind erosion so disastrous this year….Already operating a 1,600 acre farm of his own in eastern Maryland, Pitkin is president of Eastern Shore Farm associates, a farm management organization operating 16 farms along the seaboard….“I have found in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Jersey,” he said, “an astounding number of good farms where the owners are willing and eager to bring in good tenants and families….”…” (May 10, 1935, p.1)

“CCC Company 241’s baseball team registered its second consecutive victory of the season when it defeated the Rockaway Rangers at the latter’s field by the score of 6-5. …”  (May 10, 1935, p. 9)

Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, May 10, 1935, p.14:  “Strange as it may or may not seem, the big business gentry now so bitterly attacking the New Deal are manfully concealing one of their chief sources of grief….the cynical insiders chuckle rudely as they agree that what’s really biting the big corporation executives hardest is the spotlight the New Deal has turned on their frequently enormous salaries.  Between questionnaires of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, it’s got so a corporation president can’t even conceal his salary from the company’s own stockholders.  The most deplorable phase of it all is that some of the stockholders are beginning to squawk….it is annoying for such tycoons as Charlie Schwab and Eugene Grace of Bethlehem Steel at annual meetings to have to defend their respective salaries of $250,000 and $180,000 against stockholder complaints that such payments are too high in view of the fact that Bethlehem’s 1934 profit was only $550,000….This sort of thing threatens to spread and big business men figure it will be all Roosevelt’s fault.  …John T. Flynn has pointed to the case of Chairman Francis B. Davis of U. S. Rubber, who was boosted from $96,136 in 1933 to $125,000 in 1934 while the company was estimating its 1934 deficit would about equal its 1933 deficit of $600,000….”

“They put society on trial in the high school building at Orange, N.J., the other day, accusing it of failing to give youth a square deal, and after a great deal of talk they found it guilty as charged.  “They” were some 3500 adults, drawn to the building by agencies of the Welfare Federation and civic societies; and this odd trial took place because a number of groups of young people had recently drawn up a series of charges against society.  Society, said the youngsters, fails youth because it makes it hard for youth to get jobs, makes proper marriage difficult, fails to provide institutions for the furthering of friendship, offers many moral pitfalls in the shape of erotic literature, gambling joints, and gin-mills, and fails to teach youth how to use its leisure time to best advantage….It isn’t so very much that these Jersey youngsters are asking, when you stop to think about it.  Just a chance to earn a living, a chance to found a home without too many of those delays and trials that take the heart out of a person, a chance to grow up to decent manhood and womanhood, and a fairly even break in the age-old struggle for ordinary human happiness.  That isn’t much—it’s about the minimum that could be asked.  And yet youth seems to feel—if this case can be taken as a fair sample—that society is failing to provide even that minimum….We are rather fond of talking about the follies and the wildness of our younger generation.  Grown people have been doing that since the days of Job.…But we need to realize that youth is very often more sinned against than sinning.  The indictment returned by these young people in New Jersey is a measure of the imperfections of modern society….Until we can meet this criticism, and make our society the kind of place in which youth gets the break it is looking for, we have small reason to talk about youth’s own shortcomings.”  (editorial, May 11, 1935)

“TRENTON, (AP) – New Jersey legislative leaders studied the picture puzzle of state finances today, seeking funds for emergency relief without resort to new taxation.  Doggedly refusing to accept the position of Governor Hoffman that new taxes must come eventually, the assembly leaders held up the $32,000,000 annual appropriations bill, already passed by the Senate, to search for possible diversions of funds to relief…. Approximately $10,000,000 of the total of $20,000,000 needed this year for relief has been earmarked among state resources for relief by agreement of the governor and legislative leaders.  The problem of the balance still remains unsolved after weeks of study which produced plans which were not acceptable to one group or another.”  (May 13, 1935, p.1)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – Income tax returns from Morristown in 1933 were 8 above the number for 1929…according to figures made available today by the internal revenue bureau….In 1933 the number of Morristown returns was 1,658, while the 1929 number was 1,650.  In 1932, the Morristown returns totaled 1,792.  All New Jersey reported 206,515 returns in 1933, as compared to 223,796 the previous year.  Figures for leading communities in Morris County other than Morristown are:…” [a list of towns follows] (May 13, 1935, p.1)

“Failure of the railroad pension bill to get by the U. S. Supreme Court suggests that we shall have to revise the Constitution before we can put through any really comprehensive social security program.  As the Constitution stands, we have to go sideways when we want to embody social reforms in the national law….There is nothing in the Constitution giving the federal government any direct control over the railroads, for the very excellent reason that no one on earth had ever heard of steam railroads at the time the Constitution was written.  What the Constitution does do is give Congress power to regulate interstate commerce, and it is under that authority that all our railroad legislation has been devised.  In the pension plan, Congress tried to extend this power in a new direction.  It set up a social security program—for that is really all the pension plan was—to affect one particular group of employes and one particular industry, and put it through under the plea that such legislation was a proper part of the regulation of interstate commerce.  The supreme court didn’t see it that way, and it is hardly to be wondered at.  It ruled that the pension plan was not in any real sense an integral part of the regulation of interstate commerce, and that, since it was not, Congress was powerless to order it.  If we lay aside our preconceived notions about the intrinsic merit of pensions, we have to admit that the ruling is pretty sensible….The logical thing to do would be to amend our Constitution, giving Congress the powers it needs.  Then when a social security law comes up, it could be decided strictly on its merits, and not on an obscure legal point arising from a document which was drawn up before anyone imagined that social security legislation would ever seem advisable….”  (editorial, May 13, 1935)

“There are critics a-plenty of the administration’s spending program….Gov. Eugene Talmadge of Georgia broadcast a severe arraignment of the spending program the other night.  He urged that AAA benefits and the bonus be paid out of the $4,880,000,000 workrelief fund….Let’s see, now:  the bonus would take two billions and the triple-A payments half as much more, and half a billion is already earmarked for direct relief.  Take all that away, and what is left for work-relief?....”  (editorial, May 13, 1935)

“The taxpayers of New Jersey are indebted to the Newark News for having exposed the fraud in the economy pledges coming out of Trenton….A total increase in payrolls of close to a half million dollars is indicated.  And this from an administration which still answers demands for economies by announcing that it favors “reasonable economies!”  There is no justification for the estimated 400 new jobs for which the appropriations bill and the highway budget provide….Is there any tenable justification for the “grab” and if so what is it?  Certainly it must be axiomatic even among the politicians at Trenton by this time that taxpayers cannot afford larger public payrolls.  With the governor demanding additional taxes to raise relief funds and denying the possibility of effecting economies as a substitute for new taxes it is indeed a questionable circumstance which finds his administration appropriations a half million dollars more for state salaries than was spent last year.  Is the governor who tolerates this outrage the same governor who recently told an audience in New York that the federal government was frustrating his efforts to economize in his home state?  What New Deal measure compels him to permit the addition of several hundred new employes to the state payrolls?...” (editorial from the Asbury Park Press, printed in the Daily Record May 15, 1935, p.4)

Herblock’s editorial cartoon on May, 15, 1935 is entitled “Composite Picture of Opinion On Government Spending”.  Two men in suits and hats and protruding bellies briskly stride to Washington bearing placards.  The first reads “WE VIEW WITH ALARM

THE ENORMOUS GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS”.  Behind him, the second placard reads “BUT WE WANT OURS”.

“SEA GIRT, (AP)—Governor Hoffman informed legislative conferees on relief financing today he had received new notification from Federal road authorities that any re-allocation of state highway money would result in immediate reduction by one-third of grants from Washington.  Among relief financing proposals before the conference was diversion of approximately $6,000,000 of state highway funds from construction projects.  The federal government proposed to contribute approximately $14,000,000 to the state this year and the penalty would reduce this $4,500,000….For the May and June costs, the Governor intends to use his emergency powers to divert any funds available….The Governor expects to have $900,000 available by the end of June and surpluses in the State treasury.  The $3,300,000 available for the last half of the year will include $1,800,000 in contributions from municipalities and $1,500,000 in anticipated surpluses and possible economies….” (May 16, 1935, p.1)

“The Morris County ERA is extending to the residents of Morristown an appeal for discarded and worn out shoes.  These will be repaired by a cobbler, (himself a relief client), and distributed to the local families on relief.   To date the cobbler, besides his regular work of repairing the footwear of relief clients, has salvaged a considerable amount of this material and has thereby contributed towards the reduction of relief costs in the County.  Donors of shoes are requested to leave them at the Morris County ERA office at 17 South Street.  Men’s shoes are particularly in demand.”  (May 16, 1935, p.1)

CHESTER – Recommendations that delinquent taxes be given attention and that interest be collected on all delinquent taxes were contained in a summary of the audit of Chester Borough, presented by W. W. Case to the Borough Council….The audit listed $13,023.90 as the total of taxes delinquent for all years prior to 1935, and this amount is listed as within $3,000 of the total assets of the borough….Although there was some discussion of a tax sale to wipe out delinquencies and although several offenders in large amounts were named, the council delayed action on the recommendations….”  (May 16, 1935, p.1)

CHESTER – Anxiety about alleged relief chiseling by Chester Township residents was relaxed last night when J P. Nesbitt, county ERA director, told the township committee that only six families representing thirty-two persons are now on relief.  Previous to last night’s meeting, committeemen were under the impression that one hundred and twenty two persons were benefitting from ERA checks.  Nesbitt showed that a report released from county headquarters on March 15 designated that large number on relief, but he said the report was only an estimate by the Morristown office of the number who would be on relief during the month of April, rather than a count of the number who actually benefitted.  According to Nesbitt, only ninety-six persons were on relief within the township limits during April, and he told committeemen this figure dropped to thirty-two during May.  Seasonal employment on local farms is held responsible for the great decrease in ERA cases….The committee, expressing its pleasure in regard to the improved relief situation, declared that continuous publication of relief chiseling stories in the Morristown Daily Record might have been responsible for the elimination of some of the alleged abuses…. The holding of a tax sale involving all delinquencies incurred during and prior to 1933 was seriously considered by the committee last night.  It was pointed out that certain residents are “holding out” on tax monies, and that the township is in no condition to permit the accumulation of sizeable delinquencies….”  (May 17, 1935, p.1)

“Whether a CCC camp, conducted by the Federal government, is beyond the municipal and state regulations, is the interesting legal question that has popped up as the result of efforts of the Hanover Township Board of Health to enforce its regulations in regards to the use of milk supplied to CCC Veterans Camp on the Whippany road, just within Hanover Township.  The Board of Health has an ordinance that prohibits milk being delivered from a point beyond fifteen miles from the township.  The ground for this is that it is easier and more economical for the health and dairy inspector of the township to make inspections of dairies that can be easily reached.  The CCC camp has been securing its milk from the Welsh Creamery of Long Valley, which is beyond the fifteen-mile limit.  Learning that an arrest of the driver of the creamery truck was contemplated, the Welsh Producers Association prepared for action under its chairman, John Kane Mills, of Schooley’s Mountain.  Instead of the usual truck one managed by foreman Elwood Hoffman was sent yesterday to the camp.  In the meantime Captain Donald McGrayne, commanding the Monroe camp, was notified and asked to have a Hanover police officer on hand to make the arrest.  Captain McGrayne explained to the truck driver, when he arrived, that it was a job to find a police officer as no Hanover Township police was listed in the telephone.  A searching party finally located an officer who was requested to make the arrest.  Officers from other camps interested in the proceedings gathered and among these was an attorney who explained at length penalties that might be attached to a false arrest.  Freeholder Howard F. Barrett, of Madison, who is Hanover Township counsel, was sought but could not be located.  It was finally decided to lay the matter over for a week while advice of counsel is sought and a gentleman’s agreement was made whereby Mills and Hoffman will come and be arrested voluntarily when the township is ready to move the case and test the legality of the ordinance.  The crux of the matter seems to be whether the local ordinance can interfere with the delivery of supplies to the federal camp.  Recently when a contagious case broke out at the CCC camp it was the camp officials who took action of quarantining the men.  There is another question as to the right of any municipality to exclude any passed and inspected New Jersey milk and the Supreme Court has ruled on this.  It is expected, if the matter comes into court, that the Welsh Creamery will cite this Supreme Court decision as well as the contention that the Federal organization is beyond municipal control.”  (May 17, 1935, p.1)

“CHESTER – Fifty persons will be employed here a week from Monday when the old muskrat factory at Chester Station opens as a fur-dyeing establishment.  While skilled labor will be imported, many of the local unemployed are expected to find work at posts requiring no previous experience.  Benjamin J. Dretel of New York City is leasing the factory from the Sturzenegger estate….The establishment, previously a factory for the production of embroidered handkerchiefs, has been idle for over a dozen years….Local residents say the place may hire more than fifty workers if business is sufficiently profitable.”  (May 17, 1935, p.7)

The May 17, 1935 editorial cartoon by Herblock on page 14 is entitled “ANOTHER LINE TO THINK ABOUT”.  It depicts an endless line of men huddled in their hats and thin coats, hands in pockets for warmth; the line stretches way back to a factory; at the head of the line is a rectangular sign reading “DEPRESSION BREAD LINES”.  The background of the cartoon is a sketchy graph with a line running upward at a slight angle, labeled “PERMANENT UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE U.S.”.

“The public relief problem that has been with us for the last five years has been a good deal like Topsy.  It just growed…so fast and so unexpectedly that we never had time to chart our program very far in advance.  As a result, the transition from private charity to public funds was upon us before we realized it, and we made the change as a matter of necessity rather than choice….it might be profitable to re-examine the whole question and see what attitude should be taken in the future….A few years ago Elihu Root declared that the most notable change he had seen in America during his lifetime was the growth of the spirit of compassion….This new quality of active sympathy he thought a most important factor in American life….What really matters is that we continue to realize that the relief of want is a community responsibility—that when some of us go hungry, all of us are made to suffer.”  (editorial, May 20, 1935)

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U. S. Forest Service announced today that, with the approval of location of a white Civilian Conservation Corps camp at Denville, the project of Dutch elm disease control in Morris county had finally been decided upon.  The colored CCC camp, originally scheduled to move from Tuckahoe to Boonton or Denville, against which there was much protest from New Jersey officials, has been scheduled to remain at Tuckahoe….“Protests against a CCC camp at Denville or Boonton on the basis that it would drive away summer tourist trade are unfounded,” a CCC official said today.  “CCC camps and their work have attracted tourists throughout the entire country.  In addition, the camp at Denville will provide the business men and merchants of surrounding towns with no little revenue.  Soon the U.S. Army will advertise bids for construction of buildings to house the new camp. This project will cost eighteen to twenty thousand dollars, and the money will be expended locally.  Three or four barracks, a mess hall, a recreation hall, cottages for the supervisory personnel, garages, and other buildings will be constructed of local lumber and with local labor.  “Regular expenditures of the camp’s personnel in surrounding towns will vary from three thousand to forty-five hundred dollars.  First, about 250 enrollees will spend five dollars each month.  The supervising personnel and their families, who must exist on their salaries, will spend almost a thousand dollars a month.  Then there will be from five hundred to a thousand dollars in miscellaneous expenditures.  “It seems to me that any community protesting that a CCC camp would drive away trade had better consider first the trade the camp would bring it,” the official concluded.”  (May 21, 1935, p. 1 & 7)

“BOONTON – About 100 citizens jammed the council chambers in Main street last night to hear representatives of the Boonton Taxpayers Association protest the advertisement of tax delinquents before the Board of Aldermen.  Led by Gibson N. Vincent, chairman of the Association, several officers spoke asking the board to postpone the action pleading leniency for those whose homes are in danger through no fault of their own.  Earlier in the day circulars were distributed telling citizens of the proposed meeting and calling for support in order to prevent their homes from being “sold out.”….Vincent warned that generosity and liberality were necessary to improve the morale and well being of those who cannot pay taxes….The aldermanic defense in this matter is that they are compelled by law to advertise arrearages at certain times….”  (May 21, 1935, p.1)

“Completing its second step in the distribution of materials for Relief Sustenance Gardens, the Morris County E.R.A. has just issued tomato, pepper and cabbage plants to its gardencultivating clients throughout the county.  Thirty-five thousand five hundred Marglobe tomato, 42,600 Copenhagen cabbage and 21,300 World Beater pepper plants were shipped from Virginia to the Rockaway Tool Room and there divided amongst the three District Offices in specially prepared units.  Each unit contained 30 cabbages, 25 tomato and 15 pepper plants.  This constituted an individual Relief family allotment and was delivered by the Family Visitor who had, by previous inquiry, ascertained the number of units that would be required in her own particular municipality….It is estimated that 1500 individual Relief Gardens will be under cultivation this summer in Morris County alone….”  (May 21, 1935, p.1)

“The cost of living seems to be going up again.  This is especially true of food prices, and much of the rise is unquestionably due to the processing taxes by which the AAA is boosting farm incomes….we might remember that these costs are still far below the 1929 level.  Figures just compiled by the National Industrial Conference Board show that food prices rose 2.5 per cent from March to April, and now stand 38 per cent higher than they stood in April, 1933.  But it is important to notice that they are still 17.7 per cent below the level of April, 1929.  It is the same with the prices of clothing and house rent.  The former are 24 per cent above the level of two years ago, the latter 7 per cent above; but clothing costs 23 per cent less than it did in April, 1929, and rents are 25 per cent below the 1929 mark….”  (editorial, May 21, 1935)

“The President has directed the prompt expansion of the Civilian Conservation Corps, including 55,000 veterans of the World War or prior wars….this State’s quota of veterans to be selected for enrollment on or after June 15, 1935 has been increased from 1,093 to 1,800….The primary purpose of the several Acts of Congress establishing and extending the Emergency Conservation Work was the furnishing of relief not only to the enrollee but to his dependent relatives as well.  Therefore, preference will be given to the unemployed veterans who have dependents to support and who have agreed on their applications for enrollment to allot three-fourths of their monthly cash allowance to their dependents.” (May 21, 1935, p.11)

“There is a rumbling noise in the stock markets these days, and it all sounds very much like the machinery of an old-fashioned boom picking up speed to swing into high.  And that, in turn, leads one to wonder if we could be on the verge of repeating the joy ride which ended up against a safety zone stanchion in October, 1929.  A stock market boom in itself need not do much harm to anyone who has the good sense to keep his fingers away from the hot end of the poker.  It is only if we begin to look on stock quotations as the one great sign of national prosperity, and assume that a bubbling stock market is prosperity itself, that the joy ride will really be under way.  That was what we did back in the glamorous twenties.  The stock market was our answer to everything, in those days.  If anybody suggested that technological unemployment was becoming a grave problem, that our foreign trade was being erected on a basis of borrowed money, that we were losing sight of all human values in our race for riches—well, the one big answer to everything was that stock prices were ‘way up and that anyone who didn’t like it would best go back to Moscow, where he came from….The danger lies in the chance that we may again mistake a rising stock market for an end in itself rather than a symptom.   A rising market does not bring prosperity.  Prosperity brings a rising market.  To put our chief energies into stimulation of market values would be to reach for the shadow and ignore the substance.  It would be like the janitor of the country schoolhouse who suggested that on cold days the thermometer be tied to the stovepipe, so that it would register suitably high temperature.  If a high temperature in the thermometer is all we want, we can have it.  If we have the good sense to demand that the room itself be comfortably warm, the thermometer readings will take care of themselves.  In other words—if stock prices are going up, fine and dandy; that must indicate a regaining of business health and confidence….”  (editorial, May 22, 1935)

“The unemployment problem in Germany seems to be giving way before a determined drive by the Nazi government.  And because the German effort to solve the problem is in some respects the reverse of our own, it is interesting to see how it is being handled.  Its chief feature is that it is putting men back to work by cutting the standard of living.  Wages, working hours, and consumption are all being reduced.  There is a strict 36-hour work week, overtime is prohibited, earning by both husband and wife is forbidden, manufacturers are not allowed to buy machinery that would displace workers, and a large portion of every man’s wage is confiscated and given to the unemployed.  The unemployment problem can be solved that way—temporarily, at least—if you have the heart to try it.  But it is a hard grinding program.  Most Americans will prefer their own method, which, despite all its fumbling mistakes, at least seeks to conserve and raise the standard of living.”  (editorial, May 23, 1935)

The first organization meeting of the new Morristown Better Housing Campaign was held last evening at the American Legion Headquarters….former Senator Frank D. Abell, who presided…speaking for the bankers of Morris County, assured those present that the banks are behind the movement in every way and welcome all applications for loans under the various sections of the Federal Housing Act….Mayor Parsons W. Todd, speaking for the Town of Morristown, urged all citizens to do everything they can to cooperate with the campaign by having as much repair work done now as possible.  He also urged the construction of new buildings…Secretary Laird Barkalow stated that the Federal Housing Campaign is in reality an “endless chain-letter of prosperity” for its benefits are very farreaching.  He pointed out that a minor repair job done by a local citizen will even aid a factory worker in some distant town as all increased work accelerates business the country over…” (May 24, 1935, p.1)

“CHESTER – Workmen headed by Werner Sturzeneger of this place are busy renovating the old mushrat factory at Chester Station in preparation for its opening about June 15 as a fur garment manufacturing establishment.  Previous reports said that fifty persons will be employed at the place, and that skilled labor will be imported from outside points. Sturzenneger said yesterday these reports were in error, and that only twenty persons will be hired.   All of them, however, will be residents of this place…”  (May 24, 1935, p.1)

“WASHINGTON, D.C. – Morristown has been named as district headquarters of one of 307 work districts into which the country has been divided for administration of the new public works program….This district of which Morristown is headquarters consists of Warren, Morris, Hunterdon and Somerset counties….All applications for works allotments in the district will have to go through the Morristown office.  All work projects within the district will be directly supervised by the district works progress manager at Morristown.  In addition, the Morristown office will be charged with “coordinating data-compiling projects and research, investigating to insure…honest execution of the program and assuring that as many persons on the works project as is feasible are persons previously receiving relief.” ”  (May 27, 1935, p.7)

 “NEWARK (AP) – Michael Zarra, an elderly widower, collapsed and died in Chancery chambers today when he heard Vice Chancellor Berry deny his plea to be allowed to live in the home at 59 Cutler street he once owned.  Through foreclosure proceedings, the U.S. Savings Bank of Newark, took title to the property last July.  Zarra, almost penniless, had lived on there until today, when the bank applied for a writ to allow it to take possession.  Zarra pleaded in vain.  The court granted the bank the writ, Zarra dropped to the floor, his head striking a table.  Carried to the vice-chancellor’s room he was pronounced dead by two physicians who said he had suffered a heart attack.”  (May 28, 1935, p.1)

Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, May 28, 1935, p.4:  “  “Probably the most far-reaching piece of legislation ever passed by the American Congress” was the description given by Chairman Bob Doughton of the Ways and Means Committee to Roosevelt’s economic security bill as it passed the House and went to the Senate.  Damned from one side as rashly radical and from the other as inadequate, this measure throws the federal government and the states into a huge program of old age pensions, old age and unemployment insurance, child protection, and public health….”

“Political observers at Washington are gasping for breath today as they seek to look into the future and predict what will be the effects on the country and on President Roosevelt of the Supreme Court’s decision, unanimously arrived at, declaring that the NRA and all enforcing codes are unconstitutional….The court held that the code-making provisions of the act constituted an invalid delegation of power by Congress of its authority to legislate, to persons wholly disconnected with the legislative functions of the government….To the Republicans the decision ends the “new tyranny” which the New Deal was endeavoring to install….Whatever view one takes…the ruling of the Supreme Court has… been timely and satisfactory because of its unanimity….”  (editorial, May 28, 1935)

“CHICAGO (AP) – Countless thousands of American employees today received the reassuring answer of “No” to the question foremost in their minds—“Will our hours and wages be disturbed by the Supreme Court’s NRA decision.”…numerous large industries were standing by their present standards of hours and wages…Concurrent with these assurances came warnings from industrial leaders that hasty price cutting might lead to a demoralization of business….”  (May 29, 1935, p.1)

“Dr. Edwin C. Broome, superintendent of schools in Philadelphia, tells the National Society of New England that “there seems to be a country-wide movement” to discredit the school system, on the ground that it is largely responsible for the high cost of government….Our school system is expensive; granted.  It may be that a judicious pruning of the budget here and there would be a good thing.  But in the main, the taxpayer gets more for his money in the education system that he supports than he does in any other single tax-supported venture.  To reduce the cost of government, attack first wasteful and inefficient political control.  See that the so-called “honest graft” as well as the other kind is eliminated and that men are elected who will make some effort to do away with favoritism in government.  Strictly adhered to, such program would sharply reduce taxes and still leave us able to support the schools in the style our children deserve.”  (editorial, May 31, 1935, p.4)

“.…Fear is felt that the curtailment of highway expenditures by the state will lead the federal government to reduce its highway appropriation to New Jersey…It may be, however, that even at a loss of federal appropriations New Jersey should divert the $4,500,000 to relief purposes.  The plan of keeping up with federal appropriations can be carried too far and with New Jersey highway costs having reached staggering figures, perhaps a wise limit has already been reached.  It is fine to receive a dollar for every dollar appropriated to the highway system but whether the state’s taxpayers can afford to proceed with road projects conceived in the boom days of the twenties even with the help of the federal government is doubtful.  Retrenchment should be the order of the present, even when it seems to hurt….”  (editorial from the Asbury Park Evening Press, published in The Daily Record June 1, 1935, p.4)

“TRENTON, AP – New Jersey was virtually assured of a two per cent retail sales tax today, to provide funds for emergency relief.  The bill would become effective July 1.  The measure, sponsored by Governor Harold G. Hoffman, was passed by the Assembly early this morning when 20 of the 24 Democrats joined 11 members of the majority party to give a bare majority, 31 to 27.  Prompt Senate approval of the bill was indicated by leaders as the Legislature reconvened today….It was a decided victory for the governor over Speaker Lester H. Clee, leader of the Essex Clean-Government group, who has fought him all along the line….Three hours of debate preceded the vote….Clee was unable to hold even his Essex delegation in line….”  (June 4, 1935, p.1)

“TRENTON (AP) – Here is the basis on which New Jerseyans will figure the cost to them of the Retail Sales Tax when it becomes law.  If you spent less than 12 cents, there is no tax.  Purchases between 13 and 60 cents call for one cent.  From 61 to $1.13 the state gets two cents.  Every additional dollar calls for another two cents, plus the fraction.  Retailers must obtain licenses at $1 each by July 1; payments of taxes to the state must be made by the 15^th of the month.  No taxes on commercial foodstuffs, fertilizer, alcoholic beverages, motor fuels already taxed, gas and electricity, water delivered in mains, magazines under 11 cents and newspapers.  The tax is for three years.”  (June 4, 1935, p.1)

Sign of the times:  A large photograph on page 5, May 29, 1935 headlined “Quintuplets’ Doctor’s Birthday Today”, showing the Dionne quintuplets in a row, and behind them, Dr. Dafoe.  

“TRENTON, (AP) – New Jersey will have a two-percent sales tax after June 30 to finance emergency relief for three years….The Senate yesterday followed the House lead and approved the sales tax measure by a vote of 13 to 6, after a long afternoon’s debate, in which the opposition charged that the poor were being saddled with a burden which rested lightly on the rich….A collection system, involving employment of about 400 persons, will be established….Monthly reports will be required on gross sales from the 80,000 merchants in the State….” (June 5, 1935, p.1)

“Members of the two local CCC camps can do more things than merely clear the brush around Jockey Hollow Park and clear the mosquitoes out of the Whippany sector.  Their roles as emergency blood donors at the two local hospitals was graphically described today by Captain John R. Bedell, commander of Company No. 241 located on Speedwell avenue.  “Both hospitals call on our boys for blood transfusions at almost any time of the day and night,” the Captain said.  “The boys give their services willingly although to my knowledge, not a single lad has ever received a cent or a present of any sort for his pains.” ….None of his workers ever showed any bad effect from the transfusions, Captain Bedell declared….”  (June 5, 1935, p.1)

“ROCKAWAY – Protest against recent action of the Rockaway Township Board of Education in restoring teachers’ salary deductions was made at a meeting of the board by Chester Baylis, vice-president of the group.  According to the action salaries of teachers receiving less than $1,200 per year will be restored and half deductions will be returned to teachers receiving more than $1,200.  Although Baylis declared that the financial condition of the township does not warrant increasing present salaries, the measure was allowed to stand.  No vote was taken….”  (June 5, 1935, p.1)

Herblock’s editorial cartoon entitled “THE GREATER ISSUE” appears on June 6, 1935, p.4.  It depicts Uncle Sam looking out from a low hill at a rabble approaching him carrying various placards: “We Demand”, “Our Threat”, “Change The Bank Law To Suit Us!”, “Grant A Bonus Or Be Sorry”, “Pass The Wagner Bill OR ELSE--!”  Above and behind the rabble hovers a gigantic ghostly thuggish presence bearing a cudgel; the words across his chest read “Government By Intimidation”.

“New Jersey has taken the lead in a movement by Eastern industrial States to enact uniform legislation regulating minimum wages, working hours and labor conditions to take the place of the NRA codes.  Common Pleas Judge Richard Hartshorne of Essex, chairman of the recently created Interstate Compacts Commission, has set June 29 as the tentative date for an interstate conference.  Massachusetts compact commissioners asked New Jersey if it would hold a labor conference in the State and Hartshorne acquiesced.  Other States to be invited are New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland.  For New Jersey the leading factor in the conference will be the proposed standard 40-hour week law.  Model legislation is being prepared by the various commissioners.  When agreement is reached it will be put up to State legislatures.  New Jersey, as well as other Eastern States, already have a minimum wage law on the statute books, but little has been done about enforcement.  One of the things the interstate conference will endeavor to agree upon is uniformity of enforcement of existing minimum wage acts.  Members of the New Jersey commission feel that the NRA decision greatly increases importance of interstate action.  With the Federal government removed from the field of regulating intrastate business, the necessity for co-operation among the States is said to be greater….”  (editorial from the Newark Ledger, appearing in The Daily Record on June 6, 1935, p.4)

From the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, June 7, 1935, p.4:  “….NRA, at least as it was, is dead….What happens when industry is left to itself and “chiselers” are allowed at large?...Or were certain economists right when they insisted that recovery was being retarded, unemployment continued, and industrial activity hampered by code restrictions?  What will happen to the “little fellow in business….According to one version, he is now released from oppression and bound to be happier and more prosperous.  But in NRA files is impressive evidence that “little fellows,” prior to the code era, were being gobbled up at a terrific rate through bankruptcies and mergers.  Will the gobbling process be resumed?  A wave of price-cutting seems to be inevitable.  Will it be accompanied by deliberate price wars, designed to drive the “small business man” out?.... If wages are cut, what happens to that purchasing power which everyone agrees is so necessary and which, according to the first version, will be increased by lower prices….”

“New Jersey is face to face with a serious financial dilemma.  Uncle Sam demands that before the Garden State can qualify for federal ERA funds to augment its own relief money, a total of $2,000,000 must be raised by the state each and every month.  With real estate heavily burdened by a tax system which places the load on property owners’ backs, the state’s revenue has declined in proportion to decreasing realty values.  Our system of taxation imposes an inequitable levy on real estate in discriminatory manner.  Tax collections have, therefore, come to a standstill and until such a time when a just basis for assessment is levied, municipal and state coffers will be exceedingly bare.  Hence, Governor Hoffman’s pledge to the people that he will relieve the real estate of the task of footing all the bills and distribute the obligation on a basis of ability to pay….The only solution is additional revenue, which can only come from new taxes….Governor Hoffman  proposes to levy a sales tax by which all of the people, and not just a few, will contribute towards putting the fiscal government on a sound financial basis and remove the shackles of bondage from the real estate owner.  But…the governor is opposed by a group of legislators who would postpone the inevitable day of reckoning by diverting to relief uses funds from the highway department and other governmental agencies.  This group of Tory- Minded solons find no sympathy in their hearts for small home owners who face the prospect of dispossession, because of inability to pay their taxes….Governor Hoffman realizes that the bare mention of additional taxes invite suicide, but above his personal career stands his ideal of public welfare, which can best be served by an equitable tax basis, such as the proposed sales tax….”  (editorial from the Jersey Journal, appearing in The Daily Record June 7, 1935, p.4)

“….it is worth remembering that the NRA was not merely a scheme for integrating the business world through government action.  Its basic philosophy was the notion that recovery could not take place unless prices were kept up, and this, in the condition of the last few years, was possible only thru restriction of supply….it is worth asking ourselves whether a change of course…might not be advisable.  When you try to bring about recovery by maintaining good prices you run the risk of mistaking the symptom for the disease.  Falling prices, or a low price level generally, are not the cause of bad times; they are the result of bad times.  If you undertake to boost these prices by cutting down on the available supply of goods, you are not getting at the underlying trouble.  The real trouble is the fact that production at a profit is not possible for the bulk of the producers….We have been trying, so far, to bring about prosperity through the control of an artificial scarcity.  In some ways this has borne an unfortunate resemblance to the labors of a man who tries to lift himself by his own bootstraps.  We may be better off if we get away from the notion that we can help ourselves by the use of scarcity, and turn to the idea of trying to work the trick by stimulating abundance.”  (editorial, June 7, 1935)

“The Town has applications in for a number of projects on which it is hoped that federal funds under the work relief plan will be available, it was disclosed at the Board of Aldermen meeting last night….as early as last February applications for PWA funds for several other road and park projects had been filed….An Early street man, recently moved into Morristown from Morris Township, appeared before the Board to find if he was on relief.  He claimed he had a wife and nine children and had been getting $5.50 a week.  When they asked him work, he refused to do so, he claimed, for such a little dole.  He also alleged he signed a ticket for milk and it stopped coming after five days.  Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera said that charges, if any, should properly made to the committee of the ERA but he offered to meet the man and take his statement next week.  If anything was wrong it will be brought out, he said.  Relief costs for May was put at $11,677.60 for 475 families and 2091 persons, the cost being $29.82 per family and $6.70 per person for the month….The Woman’s Club…urged a slum clearance project.  Alderman Abe Gurevitz said all were in favor of slum clearance and he pointed out that PWA was ready to give all the money it could for such plans….”  (June 8, 1935, p.1)

“Clyde Potts, former Mayor of Morristown, in a communication to The Record today, expressed hope that the Normandie Water Works airport would be completed under the new relief project….As a former town official he speaks on the cost, pointing out that less than $20,000 was spent on the work done, which gave employment for months to several hundred men.  His communication is as follows:  Dear Sir:-- …When CWA was first inaugurated we secured an allocation of more than $100,000 for the construction of the airport, and it was to be an emergency airport under the Department of Commerce from whom we obtained the grant.  Unfortunately, the money allocated for this project was, by later rulings, thrown into a common CWA fund for all of Morris County.  Less than $20,000 of it was actually spent on the airport on Columbia road, the rest being used for other projects about the county….It was never expected to make the Morristown airport an airport to compete with the Newark airport or any of the others, but as a supplemental field or emergency landing field, and at the same time it could be used by the devotees of aviation in Morris County….Such fields are very essential.  I speak with an experience of flying of upwards of 250,000 miles….” (June 8, 1935, p.1 and 11)

“An experiment in Morris County by which the County Welfare Board will be utilized as an agent of the Emergency Relief Administration to administer relief in all cases which are of a permanent nature was announced today by Charles I. Barnard, State ERA director….

It has long been recognized that a…proportion of cases now on the relief rolls will be permanently dependent, even after discontinuance of the ERA and the State ERA is planning the experiment to ascertain the best method to care for that part of the relief work which is not the direct result of unemployment and which is likely to continue as a permanent factor in relief….”  (June 8, 1935, p.1)

“MADISON – Bombing of the Madison Settlement House in Cook avenue early today was probably the work of a dissatisfied local relief client, Roland G. Cheesman, director of the establishment, told the Record this morning.  An explosion believed to have been caused by a bomb resulted in $200 damage in the vestibule at 3 A.M.  Cheesman, who narrowly escaped personal injury, said the violence might have been perpetrated by some person refused relief, or by some relief client disgruntled at the size of his weekly check.  ERA funds are dispensed at the Settlement House.  Police here are non-committal on Cheesman’s theory, although they say the idea…is “reasonable.”….”  (June 12, 1935, p.1)

“The possibility of employing local C.C.C. youths as policemen at school crossings was laid over until next Fall at a meeting of the Board of Education last night….”  (June 12, 1935, p.1)

“WASHINGTON, (AP) – War Department requests today for allocation of $9,398,222 under the new works program included projects to cost $1,088,906 at Dover, N.J.  They are:  For railroad sidings, extension of water mains, new well, lightning protection of magazine, concrete floors and repairs to roads, buildings, utilities and magazine at Picatinny Arsenal, $168,660.  For quarters, additions to administration building, telephone construction, storehouses, portable solvent recovery system, reconditioning power plant storage warehouse and shop at Picatinny Arsenal, $920,246.  The Navy Department requested $6,612,860 for 147 projects including the following for Lake Denmark Naval Station adjoining Picatinny Arsenal:  Repair and improvement of railroad tracks at naval ammunition depot, $11,300; repair and improve paving, road walks and grounds at naval ammunition depot, $32,600.”  (June 13, 1935, p.1)

“Passage of the sales tax by the Legislature is a progressive step towards ultimate relief of real estate owners and most certainly it solves the state’s pressing problem of how to raise $2,000,000 monthly to qualify for federal ERA funds.  That a small retail sales tax is the most equitable method of distributing the tax load equally among the commonwealth’s population cannot be denied by even the bitterest enemy of the levy, because it is basically and economically sound.  The injustice of forcing a small percentage of the people to pay the state’s bills, while others go completely free of obligations, has been demonstrated in New Jersey as the surest way to throw the people, especially those who own real estate, into an economic bondage.  Unfortunately, New Jersey has thousands of unemployed— men and women who used to be self-sustaining citizens, but who have been incapacitated through an economic upheaval that robbed them of their jobs—who must be fed or allowed to perish of starvation….The problem…has been dumped right in Governor Hoffman’s lap….In his inaugural speech the Governor said that extra revenue would be needed; that it would be unpopular, but that he placed the state’s economic welfare above his own political career….The tax may not bring succor to real estate immediately, but it will ultimately ease the burden….A penny here and a penny there is hardly missed, but when they are added together they amount to enough to keep the wolf from millions of… doors….Some enemies of the levy suggested borrowing from other state departments to meet relief costs, but that merely postponed the inevitable day of reckoning and still left us holding the bag.  The sales tax is the way out.”  (Long Branch Daily Record editorial, published in The Daily Record June 13, 1935)

“The Morris County Welfare Board is now caring for 544 persons who are on the old age pension lists, the report for the month of May by Miss Edith F. McCully, director of welfare, to the Board of Freeholders shows….”Thirty-two new applications and four reapplications for old age relief were received as well as seven out-of-town inquiries relative to old age relief recipients in other counties….We carried forward 204 active general cases from the preceding month and opened (new) or reopened 59 more….One hundred and forty-one persons were on county support at the end of the month, 19 commitments to state and county institutions were received and 11 children were committed to the Morris County Children’s Home.  There are six crippled children under care in Orange Orthapaedic Hospital and five at the Children’s Country Home.  At the Welfare House, there were six admissions, two discharges and four deaths during the months, leaving a population of 85 on June 1….” ”  (June 13, 1935, p.16)

From Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, June 15, 1935, p.4:  “It is more than about time somebody drummed up a little enthusiasm over the work-relief program on which the New Deal is empowered to spend four billion dollars plus….The press agents are raring to go, but the program itself must get going before they can begin to ballyhoo.  Their present job is to cover up the general confusion.  One of the top officials says that only by rare good luck can half the scheduled number of persons be moved from relief rolls to work-relief jobs by October, but that he’d lose his job if you quoted him.  Breezing merrily along, the allotments committee chairmaned by Secretary Ickes had assigned a billion dollars before it discovered that it wasn’t going to have enough money to employ those 3,500,000 persons unless the type of approved projects was drastically changed.  It found project cost per worker must be cut to $1150, whereas the cost on projects approved averaged more than $2000….The billion dollars allocated includes $223,000,000 for CCC—which finds it can’t recruit 300,000 authorized new men without liberalizing restrictions; $500,000,000 for roads and grade crossings—which can’t be distributed until each state submits a complete program for spending its share; $250,000,000 for Ickes’ slum-clearance and housing projects—which Ickes lieutenants say are seriously delayed since real estate speculators were tipped off by DAI as to probable sites….$10,000,000 for Maine’s Passamaquoddy power project—to which objections are heard as to employment prospects, feasibility, and partisan politics; and $100,000,000 for Dr. Tugwell’s Rural Resettlement Administration—inside which confusion seems to reign supreme….”  

“The suggestion of Mrs. Irene Whitehead of the Board of Education to use CCC men as traffic officers is a very good one, in some respects.  The men might like this lighter task better than handling a pick and shovel and undoubtedly the officials are not unmindful of the fact that the Board of Education has cooperated very generously with the CCC.  Still …it might take an act of Congress and…government red tape to divert the men from the tasks for which the CCC was recruited.  What would be a far more satisfactory plan would be the engaging of men now on relief.  These men have to work for their weekly orders and there are many with the proper ability, who given a little training by the police, would ably handle the situation during school hours….These men, many of them with children in school and thinking of their own loved ones, would work hard to protect the lives of local kiddies.  While the present economic depression continues it would cost the town nothing for the men are available and they have to work for their food orders.”  (editorial, June 15, 1935)

“…State Tax Commissioner J. H. Thayer Martin….will carry his appeal for support of the Sales Tax to the public in a fifteen-minute talk through WOR at 4:00 P. M.:  “Do not go out of the State to buy things in order to escape payment of the tax, every dollar which by such a course you deflect from this fund for the unemployed will mean a dollar deficit in the fund, and in the long run any such deficit will come back to plague you in some other form of tax.” …”  (June 21, 1935, p.1)

“TRENTON, (AP)—George K. Batt, president of the State Bakers’ Association, said today 305,000 New Jersey housewives had petitioned Governor Hoffman and the Legislature to exempt foodstuffs from the sales tax which becomes effective July 1.  Batt said the petitions, circulated among housewives by independent grocers and bakers, would be presented to the Governor and Legislature tonight.  He estimated elimination of all foodstuffs would cut by 38 per cent the $20,000,000 a year Governor Hoffman expected to raise for unemployment relief by the 2 per cent sales tax.  The petitions pointed out most stuffs already carried a heavy tax burden:  that flour carried a 23 per cent tax load, lard 15, sugarcane 10, cornmeal 6, cornstarch and corn syrup 4 and 31/2 each, cane syrup 3, vanilla extract 28 per cent and paper bags 12 per cent.  Batt observed a loaf of bread already bears 54 indirect taxes “and milk which the Governor purposes to exempt doesn’t even carry a processing tax.”  ”  (June 24, 1935, p.1)

“It is an interesting plan which the Nunn-Bush shoe factory of Milwaukee has established for its 700 workers.  From now on, these workers will draw 52 pay checks a year, regardless of whether business is good or bad.  The size of the checks, of course, will depend on the company’s income.  Workers and management have reached an agreement as to the percentage of each dollar’s income which is to go to pay checks, and a fixed proportion of profits will be set aside and distributed as a bonus when business is good.  Here seems to be a healthy step in the direction of the assured annual income.  The worker’s pay may drop pretty low, at times, under such a plan—but at least it will keep on coming through.  It ought to be an excellent scheme for cushioning the wage-earner against depressions.”  (editorial, June 24, 1935)

“TRENTON – Efforts to make drastic changes in the sales-tax law were frustrated in the Assembly last night but some minor changes, allowing exemption of milk, were passed.  Efforts to eliminate food, clothing and other items were beaten….Hours of debate ended with Governor Hoffman certain to receive only the amendments he wanted.  They include one...to require New Jersey residents purchasing automobiles outside the state to produce a record of having paid the tax before they can obtain a license here….” (June 25, 1935, p.1)

“Four relief clients, two living in Morristown and two living in other places in this county, will be stricken from the relief rolls shortly because they refused work offered Monday morning by the Dutch Elm eradication division of the Department of Agriculture…. Several of the sixty county relief clients who were offered jobs and who were assembled in Western avenue near the court house to begin work Monday morning allegedly complained that the proposed wages of $55 for a 120-hour month were unsatisfactory.  Although unrest among the sixty applicants is said to have reached sizeable proportions, only four finally decided to turn down jobs.  Wages as high as $75 a month were asked.  The National Re-Employment Service at the court house is sending a list of the four clients who allegedly refused work to the Emergency Relief headquarters this afternoon, where authorities will take hasty measures to remove them from the rolls.”  (June 26, 1935, p.1)

“LINCOLN PARK – Work projects to be completed by the new ERA set-up were discussed here by Mayor Thomas A. Kennedy and members of the council William C. Christopherson, president of the Board of Education, Milton Kochka, president of the Lincoln Park Hose Company and Robert Allen, ERA representative.  The council had considered several projects, including a new roof on the borough hall and repairing a wash-out in Beaver Brook in Broadacres especially along the Samuel MacDowell property about which the complaint that the wash out was caused by work done last year under the mosquito commission endangering the foundation of the garage was registered last meeting.  The ERA proposes to supply labor from the relief rolls, the men are expected to work out the debt in this way and the borough supply the materials and proper supervision.  The borough is spending approximately $800 a month for relief for about 40 families and working on a modified grant the borough’s share is $100 a month the state making up the remainder.  Mayor Kennedy said there were no funds available at this time and was reluctant to spend any money.  Mr. Christopherson on the other hand said that the school board would be glad to avail itself of the opportunity for labor for much needed repairs on school building and grounds and he was authorized to submit proposals as soon as prepared.”  (June 26, 1935, p.2)

“The recent destruction of the sprinkler in the Lidgerwood Field wading pool is the most outstanding in a long list of vandalisms against the new recreational facilities of the town. …The list of vandalisms includes the use last winter of the wooden bleachers at Lidgerwood for firewood and the breaking this spring of the water-slide at the Burnham Park municipal pool.  Ironically, the public itself is abusing public property in these acts of misconduct….If the depression as a whole has been no happy time in Morristown, it has at least endowed the people here with new playgrounds and parks abounding with equipment for healthy recreation.  The Park Committee of the Board of Aldermen emphasizes that it would much rather see this equipment used intelligently than to witness its destruction as well as the arrests of wantonly careless citizens.”  (editorial, June 26, 1935)

“TRENTON, AP – The new 2 per cent sales tax to finance unemployment relief went into effect today….Daily for three years the retail purchaser will pay it—unless the courts declare it unconstitutional or its opponents become strong enough to force its repeal.  Its constitutionality has already been challenged, but the test case will not be heard by the State Supreme Court until mid-October.  The New Jersey Sales Tax Repeal Association, which charged the tax was unnecessary and merely a “tribute” to the major party machines, predicted its repeal within six months….”Taxation is not a pleasant matter,” Commissioner J. H. Thayer Martin said, “but let us face the facts”—a $2,000,000 monthly relief quota fixed by the federal government….As the sales tax law went into effect, approximately half of the estimated 80,000 retailers were still unlicensed.  The tax department sent its inspectors into the field today to check on unlicensed stores, and directed motor vehicle agencies to continue issuing the $1 licenses until July 15….” (July 1, 1935, p.1)

“By the end of this month, if all goes as expected, there will be approximately 600,000 young men in the famous Civilian Conservation Corps.  The work of doubling the strength of the corps has been going forward rapidly, and an enrollment of 400,000 was recorded early in July.  New camps are being established in every state in the union.  The War Department is building 1400 new sets of camp buildings, and tent colonies are being erected in many localities.  All in all, the work of enlarging the organization is going forward with the same quick efficiency that has characterized nearly all of the CCC operations.  Here, it seems, is one fight-the-depression venture which has been a huge success.  It has taken thousands of young men off the streets, enabled them to earn a living and build themselves up physically and mentally; and at the same time it has been doing a great deal of highly valuable work in the conservation of our natural resources of woodland, stream and field.”  (editorial, July 5, 1935)

“The First National Bank will resume payment of four percent dividends on August 1, it was announced today, following a meeting of the Board of Directors on Friday.  No dividends had been paid on the stock since January 1933.  President Frank D. Abell, in a letter to the stockholders, showed the condition of the bank to be in very fine shape with a large surplus and while earnings are currently much in excess of the proposed annual dividend payment uncertain factors made the directors feel it the part of wisdom not to resume dividends at a higher rate….”  (July 8, 1935, p.1)

“It is distressing to hear stories of unemployed men refusing to accept work.  In at least two recent instances in Freehold the stories seem well substantiated….We have never believed that there are many men who prefer relief to work, but there seem to be enough of them to poison the public mind into believing that all are alike.  The percentage is probably very small and, if employers will report such instances to the authorities, the slackers can be treated as they deserve when they next apply for help….On the other hand it is not safe to accept every story of this kind at face value.  Investigation of one which was going the rounds recently disclosed that only part of those offered work refused and that the wages offered were only half what the story reported….”  (editorial from the Freehold Transcript, published in The Daily Record on July 10, 1935, p. 4)

“Wide divergences in the percentages of population on relief in 33 different Morris County municipalities are shown in June figures released to the Record today by Judson P. Nesbitt, county ERA director.  The statistics also show a drop of over 25 per cent since March in the total number of county relief clients.  Five municipalities not operating under the ERA are excluded from the release.  In general, the Morristown area, non-industrial in character, has a small percentage of its population on relief, while towns in the Boonton and particularly the Dover areas, both highly industrialized, are the hardest hit.  The great shrinkage in the relief rolls since March is held by Nesbitt to be due to seasonal employment only, and to be no indication of genuine recovery….Mt. Lakes, with only seven tenths per cent of its citizens on relief, the lowest figure in the county, is made up largely of commuters who have not lost white-collar jobs.  Jefferson Township, with 22.9 per cent of its residents on relief, the highest figure in the county, is composed largely of workers who are idle because of jobs lost at Picatinny Arsenal, where decreased federal appropriations have been felt.  Inactivity at Picatinny has also been responsible for high unemployment in neighboring Roxbury, Rockaway, and Mt. Olive Townships.  Washington Township, bordering on Mt. Olive Township, has one-tenth of the latter’s percentage on relief.  Washington is a completely rural area where dairies are prospering.  Chester and Mendham boroughs and townships enjoy the same rural stability.  Morristown has 9.9 per cent of its population on ERA rolls, while the figure in Madison is but 4.7 per cent.  The new Dodge Municipal building has given employment to many, and a greater portion of Madison’s citizens have steady commuting jobs….Butler, an industrial center, where the jobless might be expected to be concentrated, has only 3.4 per cent of its population on relief because the American Hard Rubber Company has been operating at full blast.  Every one of the 33 municipalities tabulated has shown a drop from March to June both in the number of families and number of persons on ERA rolls….”  (July 11, 1935, p. 1 & 6)

“Out of all the squabbling about the “soak the rich” tax projected for congressional consideration, there should at least come forth an excellent educational program on the general subject of government finances.  On the one hand we have Michigan’s Senator Vandenberg declaring that the program as the president has outlined it is “inadequate, incomplete, and pathetically superficial.”  It is his idea that Congress should take a few months off to think things over and then come back with a plan that would not only boost the taxes on the very wealthy, but would increase the takings from citizens of more modest means.  On the other hand, we have the well-to-do Mr. Charles H. Sabin, Jr., appearing as the mouthpiece for a group of wealthy men who feel that the administration should simultaneously reduce income taxes and balance the budget; and before anyone can remark that this would be a good trick if you could do it, they hasten to suggest an allinclusive federal sales tax.  Just what will eventually be done with the program, subjected as it will be to strong pressures from diametrically opposite directions, is something for the seventh son of a seventh son to worry about.  But it should at least set people thinking about some of the fundamentals of government finance problems.  To begin, we might reach the point of understanding that in any scheme of tax reform we can’t have it both ways.  A reduction of income taxes would be a blessing, and so would a completely balanced federal budget; but some of our publicists and statesmen have been agitating for both things at the same time, and this educational program might convince them that this just naturally can’t be done….A budget which is permitted to stay unbalanced for year after year, while high officials evade the subject of tax revision by relying hopefully on a business revival, is about as ominous a portent as a government can face….”  (editorial, July 11, 1935)

“Housewives who have learned by experience that you can’t have your cake money and eat it, are being won over to the vogue for serving a thrift dinner one day of each week.  Dieticians have devised some very delicious dinners which can be served at a cost of twenty-five cents per person….And don’t think for a moment that this budget dinner need be an unattractive meal…Carrot boats made of fresh boiled carrots, scooped out and filled with canned spinach, and boasting a potato chip for a sail, add a jaunty nautical appearance to your dinner—and a wealth of vitamins….”  (July 12, 1935, p.2)

“BOONTON – Two projects are being outlined tentatively by the Works Progress Administration here.  One is the building of two tennis courts at the Cookerow playground, corner of Lathrope avenue and Washington street.  Another is the grading of the approach in Monroe street to the bridge below the Jersey City reservoir dam.  This measures about 2,400 feet.  The WPA will furnish the labor for these projects while the materials must come from other sources….the tennis courts will need fine gravel to mix with the clay as well as nets, posts and backstops.  The Board of Aldermen hopes local tennis enthusiasts will organize and collect funds for this purpose….”  (July 13, 1935, p.10)

“Arguments of many real-estate men to the contrary, slum clearance tends to lower rather than to raise tax rates, says Mr. Marinaro [Morris County Manager for the State Housing Authority].  Since a modern housing project financed by the PWA becomes governmentowned and non-taxable, realtors hold that revenues from the remodeled slum area are lost to the local community.  But it has been shown that the tremendously high social cost of maintaining a poor housing area is much greater than the amount of taxes lost when it is wiped out forever.  The social cost of supporting a slum is arrived at by subtracting taxes gained from the area from the amount of public money spent there.  Policing, welfare work, health control, recreation, education, free hospitalization, lighting, street maintenance and construction, crime prevention and prosecution, juvenile delinquency, and truancy—these are phases of slum life that suck lifeblood from the rest of the community.  A recent statistical survey of poor areas in the City of Elizabeth showed these abnormally high social costs to amount to $191,000 annually, while the areas yielded the astoundingly small sum of $30,000 in yearly taxes.  Elizabeth will lose $161,000 every year until her slums are eliminated, and this tidy sum will come from the pockets of taxpayers in other sections of the city.  Although Morristown has not been completely surveyed, it is to be expected that the disparity between taxes gleaned from slums and public money spent in those localities is as great, proportionately, as it is in Elizabeth.  The “better” sections of Morristown are paying through the nose for outmoded living conditions in other sections….”  (July 13, 1935, p.10)

Sign of the times:  A series of six articles by Louise de Kiriline, head nurse in charge of the Dionne quintuplets.  Installment one appeared July 15, 1935, p.7.

“While 600,000 normally self-sustaining citizens of New Jersey cry for bread as the wolf of starvation howls at their door, the sales tax, by which these unfortunates are to be fed and clothed against the adversities of fate, is being attacked by certain interests and individuals.  Over half a million of our people look to the great commonwealth of New Jersey, which they help support by taxation during years of plenty, for the bare necessities of life until such a time when jobs are available, and it is for the purpose of feeding this legion of decent citizens for the most part, that the sales tax was inaugurated.  Without the revenue which the tax will provide New Jersey would be unable to keep the spectacle of starvation from its confines and human life would be valueless….New Jersey is not alone in its sales tax.  A total of 21 states of the Union…have found this type of taxation to be the most direct and equitable method of easing distressed economic conditions within their own fiscal governments.  Legality of such levies has been sustained in high courts of law in each of the states….Illinois only this week increased its sales tax from two to three cents, the extra cent being necessary to defray the mounting cost of relief.  New Jersey, therefore, is not the black sheep that critics of the levy would have the public believe….” (editorial from the Long Branch Record, published in The Daily Record, July 16, 1935, p.4)

“MOUNTAIN LAKES – Tax collections by the Borough of Mountain Lakes during the first six months of 1935 increased by 56 per cent over this same period in 1934, and bank notes have been reduced from $65,000 to $15,000 during this half year period, according to a report of the Borough’s financial condition by Mayor Halsey A. Frederick and Councilman R. H. Wilson, chairman of the finance committee….”  (July 18, 1935, p.9)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – With the AAA facing a possible Supreme Court decision which will bring it to an abrupt end by outlawing processing taxes, John B. Payne, AAA Comptroller, today revealed that rental and benefit payments to farmers in Morris County totaled $8,624.09 for the 11 months, from July 1, 1934, thru May 31, 1935.  Of this sum, $320.07 represented payments on wheat contracts; and $8,304.02, payments under the corn-hog reduction program.  The total of rental and benefit payments for the 11 months period in New Jersey was $390,585.97.”  (July 20, 1935, p.9)

Sign of the times:  “Wife Drowns in Storm Drain” headlines a photograph of a man and woman.  The caption reads, “Mrs. George Umbach, 34, shown here with her husband, was drowned in a storm drain in Palisades Interstate Park, N. J., when caught by a rush of water during a heavy rain.  She and her husband, extremely poor, had been living in a tent in the park and had run into the drain for shelter.” (July 23, 1935, p.2)

“If the depression through which the world has been staggering during the last five years is an outgrowth of the World War, what about the next war that everybody is preparing for? What sort of economic breakdown will it hand us—and what will it do to our slowly mending business structure?....you would suppose that the world today would be willing to put up with almost anything imaginable rather than get into another war.  On the contrary, however, it is drifting steadily toward a new one—letting the lesson of the last one go unread and unheeded.  Figures compiled by the National Industrial Conference Board show a slow but appreciable rise in most of the indices by which world prosperity is measured.  Business is better….Unemployment has been declining….World prices for… important raw materials…are maintaining a steady rise….The world is at the mercy of its own folly these days.  After years of suffering from war-born depression, it at last discovers signs of revival—and immediately prepares to rush into a new war.”  (editorial, July 23, 1935)

From the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, July 23, 1935, p.4:  “That unusually noble experiment in which the New Deal undertook to recognize the consumer —and even give him a tiny voice here—is languishing close to the point of death. 

Consumers never did get organized—as farmers, workers, and industries have organized.  Thus their official representatives in NRA, AAA, and NEC found themselves only a group of brave generals with no army to support them when the fighting grew hot.…every time the boys and girls devoted to the consumer cause have stuck their necks out, the tendency of the rest of the government, reinforced by sneers form the lobbyists, has been to regard them as a general nuisance….Now the NRA Consumers’ Advisory Board, which used to oppose price-fixing and production control in NRA codes—occasionally with some success—has withered on the vine with the rest of NRA….Mail from the several-score councils, some of which operated brilliantly in preventing gouges in milk, coal, and other products in big cities, goes unanswered….”

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – The one million dollars Senator A. Harry Moore is seeking for Picatinny arsenal will absorb all employees who were laid off last year, and considerably more, the Senator said today….Last year there were one hundred men laid off at the arsenal.  At that time aid was sought thru Representative Mary T. Norton, who, as dean of the New Jersey Democratic delegation in the House “went to bat,” for them.  New Jersey had no Democratic Senator in 1934.  Because of Mrs. Norton’s efforts in their behalf, aid was again sought this year.  In a letter to Mrs. Norton, Robert Champion of Dover asked her aid.  This letter was turned over to Senator Moore.  According to Champion, no word of re-employment at the arsenal has been announced.  He also told Mrs. Norton that many of those laid off had accepted aid last winter from private charity, and as a result were not eligible to receive employment under the Emergency Relief Appropriation….”  (July 24, 1935, p.1)

“Two jobs each in Morristown and Dover and one each in Morris Township and Madison are listed in the new FWP.  The projects to be undertaken in the Morristown area as part of the new Federal Works Program for New Jersey were announced today by the Bureaus of Application and Information and total $29,276.  The amount to be raised by the four municipalities comes to $5,020.  Here are the projects approved by the President for the Morristown area with the funds allotted for each:--Morristown – Repairing reservoir and roadwork.  Federal funds, $1,437; sponsor’s contribution, $125.  Morristown—Clearing and grading top soil.  Federal funds, $2,480; sponsor’s contribution, $155.  Morris Township—Installing drain—Burnham Parkway.  Federal funds, $2,760; sponsor’s contribution, $370.  Madison—Constructing tennis courts at High School.  Federal funds, $5,923; sponsor’s contribution, $3,900.  Dover—Constructing public parking space.  Federal funds, $8,991; sponsor’s contribution, $295.  Dover—Constructing paths and walls, Hurd Park.  Federal funds, $7,685; sponsor’s contribution, 175.”  (July 26, 1935, p.1)

from Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, July 26, 1935, p.6:  “In Alexandria, Va., a few miles down on the other side of the Potomac, a shirt factory employing about 100 women has cut wages three times since NRA codes went out the window.  The cuts amount to 32 per cent and have been accompanied by an increase of weekly working hours from 36 to 44.  Resultant wages of $6, $7, and $8 a week, paid in the back yard of the national capital, are a reminder here that the old-fashioned sweatshop is coming back.  It is worth noting that the Alexandria factory girls, never before organized and quickly persuaded to return when they walked out after a first 10 per cent cut, are now being organized by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers….The attitude of Mayor E. C. Davison of Alexandria possibly reflects a change of viewpoint in many cities and towns toward sweatshops as a result of NRA education.  Davison tells the strikers:  “You don’t have a job.  You have a disease.  Alexandria business men don’t sympathize with employers who exploit workers to the breaking point and don’t pay a living wage.  This government gives you a right to strike and policemen are at the factory to protect that right.  If anyone interferes with it, he, not you, is going to get locked up.  We’ve just cleaned up the relief rolls here, so don’t worry about starving to death.  We’ve got room for you….”  ”

“LONG BRANCH, (AP)—Governor Harold G. Hoffman is willing to have food exempted from the State Sales Tax if the revenues from other sources exceed expectations.  “I dislike the tax upon food,” he told a joint meeting of the Rotary and Exchange Clubs yesterday.  “But it was a matter of necessity.  Thirty-eight per cent of the taxable items are represented by food and for that reason it was necessary that foods be included.  “But I repeat—if the yield is in excess of the amount we anticipated, I will stand for the exemption of food.”…” (July 27, 1935, p.1)

“…while we admit that the problems of relief are very great and pressing, it ought to be pointed out that the relief question is only a symptom and not a disease.  The real trouble is not relief but the unemployment which makes relief necessary….The evils of relief may be ten times as bad as the most pessimistic people say they are; but the remedy for them is not to discontinue the relief program, but to stimulate employment so that a relief program is no longer necessary….It does no good at all to sit back and moan about the evils of the dole.  As long as wide-spread unemployment exists, the dole must be continued, no matter how expensive it is, or how ruinous to its recipients’ morale.”  (editorial, July 27, 1935, p.4)

“Questionnaires sent out last week by the local office asking ERA white-collar workers to state their political faith, were intended merely to “show a lot of people that all this talk about Republicans getting all the fat jobs in the ERA and CWA was just a lot of hot air,” Justus P. Nesbitt, deputy emergency relief director said today.  The secondary purpose of the questionnaire was to provide work for some persons now on relief rolls who will be discharged when the ERA is partially dismantled to make way for the Work Progress Administration which will be set up here the first of next month.  “If politics is going to make a difference when it comes to getting work with the WPA, I would like to see as many of my men as possible get jobs,” Nesbitt declared….Nesbitt pooh-poohed the circulating rumour that the WPA would be drastically partisan.  He said however that he had heard “politics may make a difference.”  ”  (July 30, 1935, p.1)

from the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, July 30, 1935, p. 4:  “One rather important fact about the big work-relief program has been overlooked by both Roosevelt and the conservatives who regard it as a pampering, squandering scheme for people who ought to be kept on a cash dole.  The work-reliefers and their families, expected to number upward of 3,000,000, won’t be getting enough to eat.  The official wage scale runs from $19 a month to $94 a month.  The average wage is expected to be $50 a month, which means $600 a year.  Some of the relief workers will draw as little as $228 a year and some will receive the top of $1128.  But none of them will come very near the annual income of $1500 a year which the government’s own studies show is necessary to provide a family of four with a diet adequate for physical maintenance and protection against disease.  Average size of relief families runs between four and five.  If anyone asks “Why bring that up?” the answer is that Roosevelt seems absolutely determined to abolish the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation, which for a year and a half has been buying up surplus quantities of food from farmers to process and feed to the unemployed on relief.  “No free food for relief workers” is the present policy.  It won’t be abandoned unless farm groups, which insist agriculture has been partially saved from depressed prices by FSRC purchases of tens of thousands of tons of beef, pork, cotton, cabbages, rice, beans, mutton, butter, potatoes, cheese, and wheat flour, can bring enough pressure for contributing to inadequate diets of relief workers….”