1937 January-April

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

January-April 1937

 

“In four and one-half hours this morning, the district WPA office here was closed down and all office equipment was on trucks on its way to Perth Amboy.  The removal followed consolidation of Districts 4 and 6 into the new District 4 with headquarters at Perth Amboy.  District 6, including Morris, Hunterdon, Warren, and Somerset Counties, has been abolished and merged into the old district 4 including Middlesex and Union Counties.  Previous to today, 58 persons worked in the now dismantled district office here.  According to District 6 director J. Francis Moroney, some of the 58 will go to Perth Amboy while others will lose their jobs….It is expected the administrative staff of the consolidated district will be small [sic] than that of the two old districts added together.  Moroney will become deputy director of the new District 4…. Consolidation affects only administration, and does not mean that actual projects will be curtailed….the recreation headquarters will be removed to the Court House here, and…the Federal Writers’ Project will continue at the County Hall of Records building….The office here was opened on July 3, 1935, and at that time Moroney, a Phillipsburger, was named district director.  WPA headquarters was the busiest Federal office ever established here, and it far surpassed the old CWA headquarters in pressure of activity.”  (Jan. 2, 1937, p.1)

“If the new year is a time to look forward towards a bright future, it is also a time to look analytically backward at both the fruitful and fruitless activity of the past….Only a year ago today, it appeared doubtful whether some Morris municipalities would brook the depression without default.  Two years ago Chester was struggling with indebtedness attendant on arguing about a water system that never came to be.  Denville was fighting valiantly to refund its staggering water debt.  Gloom and jeremiads prevailed in Morristown as the purse-strings were drawn tighter and tighter.  The Board of Freeholders attempted to bulwark itself against explosive broadsides from the Morris County Taxpayers’ Association….Today it appears the towns and the County will easily survive to enjoy an immediately prosperous future.  Debts are being whittled off, a little at a time, so that they no longer look impossible of being paid.  Cash balances remain in the municipal tills at the end of 1936.  The Freeholders have restored all depression cuts, the towns and their school boards have done so either wholly or partially.  These are good signs.  But booms and depressions will come and go, and this is a warning:  some improvements should be foregone within the next five years, so that bonds may be retired more rapidly.  It was heavy indebtedness that hit municipalities below the belt in 1929.”  (editorial, January 2, 1937)

“WASHINGTON, (AP) – A ruling on constitutionality of a major part of the Federal Social Security Act—that of levying a tax on employers for the benefit of the jobless—was refused today by the Supreme Court.  It declined to pass on an appeal by George P. Davis of Boston from a ruling by the Massachusetts Federal District Court upholding the legislation and dismissing his complaint.  Both Davis and the government urged the Supreme Court to pass on the controversy without waiting for a ruling by the Circuit Court of Appeals.  Such procedure is unusual but is sometimes permitted in cases of great public importance….”  (Jan. 4, 1937, p.1)

“Municipal employees will present a united front through a committee of department superintendents in requesting at least a fifty percent restoration of pay …. it was decided to organize a committee, composed of the superintendents of each department, to make a complete study of the situation and submit the request to the Aldermen as a unit in the budget conference meetings …. It was felt that with prevailing conditions, living costs going up steadily, the return of pay cuts in other places and the general good financial condition of the town that the local employees     were entitled to some consideration.  Last year, the Aldermen considered the matter and while expressing sympathy for the workers declared it impossible to make any adjustment at that time.  During the year, through the careful handling in the various departments, the town ended with a balance of around $50,000.  It is felt that the return of 50 percent of the cuts made will mean at the very most $16,000.  Each department pledged itself to seek even further economies in operating to try to offset this….The paycuts taken by town employees range from 10 to 37 ½ per cent.  The workers are not getting a percent deduction such as was done in other places but their flat salaries were cut down.  Employees such as the police and firemen took a double licking for in addition to having pay cut, the automatic increases until a certain maximum was reached also ceased.  In the early days, even before cuts were made, the Police voluntarily gave a certain percentage of their pay to aid in unemployment….It was pointed out that some employees, who handle many thousands of dollars a year, receive only a $720 salary….”  (January 5, 1937, p. 1 & 7)

“WHARTON – It was disclosed at the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Education last night that it is in favor of full restoration of pay cuts that have been in force for several years.  Mayor Frank J. Porter…also expressed himself as being in favor of restoring the municipal employees’ pay cuts….” (Jan. 6, 1937, p.9)

“MADISON – Madison enjoyed a tremendous increase in building activities during the past year, building Inspector Benyew D. Philhower indicated today in his annual report.  A total of 63 permits were issued with a value of $377,008.  In 1935 only $157,479 was spent in building and repairs, the report showed.  Thirty-one of the permits were for single dwelling with a value of $342.145.  In 1933 only eight permits were granted for the same kind of work, showing the remarkable increase.  The largest single project in the community last year was the building of the post office at a cost of $71,950.  The post office is nearing completion, and will be ready for dedication in May.  Three homes valued at between $20,000 and $30,000 were started last year, and twelve homes valued between $10,000 and $20,000 were started.  There were, in addition, 16 homes started in the under $10,000 price range.  Thirty-two permits were issued for miscellaneous construction valued at $34,863.”  (Jan. 6, 1937, p.9)

From the Daily Washington Letter, by Rodney Dutcher, January 7, 1937, p.4:  “In the impending struggle over the amount of appropriations for federal work-relief, it is worth noting that extremists on both sides are committed to certain theories and principles which they do not care —or dare—to express in public.  No one need espouse either extreme view.  There’s plenty of room between.  Each fringe is represented in Congress, which must decide whether WPA is to continue on present schedules from February to June, inclusive, at a cost of $750,000,000 or be radically curtailed to a cost of perhaps only $300,000,000, as suggested by such conservatives as Senator King of Utah.  The first extreme theory, also held by certain important administration officials, includes a belief that the “masses” will insist on getting a larger share of the national income and that they’ll get it….The New Deal has given millions of destitute urban unemployed and poverty-stricken farmers or farm tenants a higher standard of living than they ever had before, according to this point of view, and it would be just too bad to retreat from that standard.  Furthermore, such a retreat is politically impossible, anyway.  Benefits are likely to increase rather than decrease—widows’ pensions will become common, and union labor will support WPA workers and other federal beneficiaries in their fight to avoid a return to starvation levels of local home relief.  The extreme right wingers see the picture in much the same outlines.  But whereas the most liberal New Dealers think it’s all a very nice thing, this right wing group feels it is perfectly terrible and also a great menace.  New vested interests have been established, according to their point of view, and millions of treasury-raiders thinking as one man will be abetted by most politicians, so their growing strength must be combated.  Various members of Congress holding to this school of thought will go on to tell you privately that most WPA workers and farm tenants are shiftless, lazy, and overpaid; that states and towns are able to take care of them as well as they deserve; and that they deserve no better standards of living than their own neighbors, who know them best, are willing to provide.  Furthermore, that there are plenty of jobs to be had if those on relief will only accept the wages that are offered, but that WPA has in effect set a floor to wages which interferes with the operations of the labor market.  Allied to this school of thought as it applies to farm tenants is Chairman James P. Buchanan of the House Appropriations Committee.  He demands discontinuation of the Resettlement Administration’s rural rehabilitation loan program, on the ground that it places a federal premium on “shiftlessness.”  The Resettlement Administration people want to expand the rehabilitation loan policy to help take care of 250,000 farm families, mostly drouth victims, it has just taken over from WPA rolls…..”

“BUTLER – Outstanding as the Civilian Conservation Corps of highest merit in the Second Corps Area which comprises the States of New York, New Jersey and Delaware, Camp 239 located at Smith Mills near Butler adds a new feature of unusual interest to its list of achievements.  The Covert Museum of Nature, a project developed and directed by Frederick A. Slicker, a leading naturalist in this state, is now practically completed and ready for public inspection…. The museum contains numerous collections of reptile, bird, insect and plant life.  All the specimens have been gathered from the native woods by the camp students of Mr. Slicker’s biology and nature classes, one of the many educational courses offered members of No. 239…. (January 7, 1937, p.13)

“MENDHAM – Turning down a plea for even partial restoration of teachers’ salary cuts, the Board of Education adopted a budget which is about $4,000 more than the 1936-37 budget.  The amount to be raised by taxes will be $30,313.75 against $26,191.75 last year.  Mrs. Ferdinand Jelke, chairman of the teachers’ committee, recommended that the teachers pay cuts of ten percent be restored and newer teachers, highered [sic] under the cut rate of wages, receive equal consideration.  This was voted down, four to two.  Then a motion for restoration of half of the pay cut lost by the same vote.  A third motion to put $700 in the budget to care for the salary cuts also lost by the same vote….The principal reason for the increase in this year’s budget is that there is no surplus revenue to appropriate.  Last year there was a balance of $3100 applied to reduce the amount raised by taxes.  Increases made in five items…$200 for lunch room deficits, due to the number of free lunches found necessary to provide children in need of additional nourishment….During December 776 lunches were served, of which 285 were free….”  (Jan. 8, 1937, p.1)

“Efforts to get a WPA appropriation for construction of an  airport on the Columbia Meadows, with the hope that eventually it will become the Eastern air terminal of the zeppelin were favored by a majority of the Board of Aldermen last night, with Mayor Clyde Potts and Alderman Edward Broderick, chairman of projects, pushing the plan.  Broderick said the Department of Commerce representative had told the WPA officers that the chances for aid were excellent…. Potts sounded out the feeling of the board on completing the field so they could bid for the zeppelin landing.  The cost would be the same as last year, the town to put up $13,000 and the government $145,000.  Alderman Vincent Roache said….There wasn’t much difference whether they spent the money for work or relief….Potts said that the work angle was one of the motivating points.  Even if planes never landed, we won’t have to be giving the men bread baskets but work, he said, and that was all he wanted….”  (Jan 9, 1937, p.1)

“Highlights In Message Of Governor Hoffman, Trenton, Jan. 12 (AP) ”

“The State is in a sound financial position.  We have met, so far, the demands for unemployment relief funds; we have maintained a balanced budget; we have effected a substantial reduction in the state debt.”

“The problem of financing unemployment relief in 1937 remains to be solved with no prospect of any such windfall as we had in 1936.”

“More than 50,000 families in New Jersey must be aided for some time to come, through public funds, as they struggle back to the places where they will again be able to shift for themselves.” ….

“I regret that the public mind is still confused, that the legislature seems yet unwilling to face the real and stubborn facts, and that lack of public understanding and support apparently remains.  The cry of economy is appealing, but it does not meet the situation which we face.”  (1937, p.1)

“TRENTON (AP) – The first salary increases for state employees in seven years were included today in Governor Hoffman’s budget message to the Legislature….Although the budget on its face was $3,960,452 less than the total budget for 1936-37, the Governor pointed out last year’s appropriations included $4,530,000 for transfer to the highway department as reimbursement for relief diversions….Pointing to salary recommendations, the Governor commented:  “There have been no general salary increases in the state service since 1930.  There were some inequalities then.  There are a great many more now, because the state policy has not permitted salary adjustments and promotions during this period.  It is generally recognized that we are paying hundreds of employees less than we would regard as tolerable in industry and far below a living wage.  The increases recommended are mostly in the lower brackets….In the main…the increases apply to the rank and file of the state employes who carry the burden and do the day to day work.”  (Jan. 12, 1937, p.1)

“MORRIS PLAINS – Collection of rents and incomes from property owners in arrears in their taxes was authorized by the Borough Council last night….Relief for December was for nine families of 31 persons, costing $42.55; one single person, $15.91; four work relief cases, $177; making a total for the month of $235.46.  If there was no work through the PWA the Borough would have many more persons to take care of.  The letter from the two Morristown hospitals asking that the Borough include $300 in the 1937 budget to help take care of the free patients from the Borough was referred to Councilman Lloyd Williams.  The names of the patients charged to the Borough were listed but upon investigation it was found that most of those on the list live in the Fairchild section of Morris Township and are not residents of the Borough….” (Jan. 13, 1937, p.5)

“A new monthly magazine published by the WPA-Federal Writers’ Project of New Jersey is now in regular issue.  The first number has as its co-editor Albert Boyd, formerly with the project in Morristown.  Other County writers are represented….Joseph C. Hannifin of Morristown writes in “Lighted Targets” his first impressions of the new pistol range recently completed by the WPA for Morristown State Police Headquarters….”  (Jan. 14, 1937, p.16)

“The temporary relief load in Morris County for the month of December was 412 cases, representing an increase of 8 percent over the previous month….Several residents of the county that have been on relief lists have been given employment on Dutch Elm projects, and two were taken off the permanent relief lists.  Arrangements have been made for three handicapped people to receive special tutoring from Junior College faculty at rehabilitation expense.  The two boys receive business training and the girl special preparation for proof reading.  The Board is now concentrating on rehabilitation and vocational training for the unemployed outdoor support clients and are trying to have many become partly if not wholly self-supporting….”  (Jan. 15, 1937, p.1)

“MADISON – Forty-five employees of Madison Borough are rejoicing today when they collect their first “full pay envelopes” in four years.  Every employee’s envelope contains 10 percent more than it has had since 1932 when the borough council passed a resolution deducting 10 percent of the salary list for emergency relief….There is a possibility, however, that the cuts will be deducted from the pay envelopes later in the year.  If unemployment problems return in anything like the proportions they reached in 1931 and 1932, the council may be forced to reduce the salaries of their hired help 10 percent for the duration of the depression, Mayor Wilson said. …The majority of the workers claim they will use the money to buy necessities they have lacked for the past many months.  Policemen, water and light employees, street and sidewalk repairmen, and a host of office functionaries shared the normal salary distribution.  Teachers received their full salaries beginning with the start of the current school year….”  (Jan. 15, 1937, p.15)

“MADISON – The $25,000 WPA project of renovating the Madison High School athletic field has been temporarily stopped for lack of funds….A secondary factor in stopping the work is the fact that the available lists of WPA workers eligible for the project is practically depleted.  Most of the fifty-odd men who found employment at various times on the project have been employed in private enterprise since the project was begun a year ago….In the time the WPA squads toiled on the field they succeeded in moving the janitor’s cottage from the middle of the field to an inconspicuous spot behind the high school.  The field has been graded to a uniform level and a grove of trees has been removed to enlarge the area.  The most difficult part of the project, that of removing a “hill” in the middle of the field to a corner that needed filling, has been completed.  In a few places the level of the ground had to be graded as many as seven feet before a uniform plane was attained….There is little chance that the field will be available for use before the Spring of 1938….”  (Jan. 15, 1937, p.13)

“BUTLER – An endeavor to employ local county men on PWA work now in progress around Butler finally met with success….Thus the aim of the Borough to engage its own citizenry for its own projects, reducing town unemployment slack to non-existance [sic], is achieved.  Men eligible for PWA in this section have been transferred from district No. 6, comprising Morris and Union Counties, to District No. 1, comprising Passaic County, to make possible their employment on the new reservoir now under way in Kinnelon.  This project, to be called the Butler Kikeout Reservoir, will take nine months to complete and will require more and more labor as the construction progresses.  At present one hundred men are employed on the site only four of whom are from Butler….The reservoir which is one of three major improvements to be completed in Butler during 1937 under PWA, when finished, will hold 900,000,000 gallons of water; more than adequate to supply the needs of the town…The reservoir will end a water problem in Butler which in the last two years became an acute concern….” (Jan. 16, 1937, p.1   & 9)

“Emergency and outdoor relief cost $54,245.55 in Morristown during 1936, the annual report of Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera…shows.  The cost to the town was $23,686.54.  From January 1 to April 15, relief was administered by the State ERA with the town operating under a Modified “A” Grant, by which the town paid $1,693 a month, and the balance was cared for by the state.  On April 15 the burden was returned to the municipalities by legislation and with Morris County having a welfare board, it had direct supervision but “cooperated very splendidly,” said Mr. Butera.  There were 2,035 cases representing 7,835 persons receiving emergency relief at an average cost of $20.02 per month or $5.27 a person.  There were 1844 pieces of garments and bedding distributed, some coming from the town’s own sewing room which employed 23.  The Day Nursery project cared for 29 children while their mothers worked.  There has been a tremendous decline in relief in the past two years.  During 1935 the high was 1886 in February, it dropped to the 1400 mark in the summer and was down to 1099 in December.  Then in January, 1936, it was cut to 733 persons and went up to 799, the high, in February.  It dropped to 445 during the last part of April, when the municipality took over, climbed back to 703 in September and then went down to 577 in December.  There were 476 cases, involving 1610 persons, discontinued during the year, mostly under town supervision, and 138 applications were rejected.  (Jan. 18, 1937, p. 1 & 9)

“Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera, taking up the duties of Relief Director when municipal control of this difficult task became effective last spring, plunged into this extra duty not alone with the efficiency which characterizes his efforts but with a deep interest in his heart of trying to make the relief not a cold blooded scientifically handled affair.  He personally visited many of the homes and his reactions are contained in the following paragraphs taken from his annual report and which speak for themselves:  “ ‘Relief,’ in its true sense, is defined as the lifting up, art of relieving, comforting, easing, the raising or removing, as anything which depressed; to alleviate, to free, wholly or partly, from any burden, trial, evil, distress of the like; give easy [sic], comfort, consolation; as to relieve the poor.  To comply with this definition of the work, a department must consequently do much more than merely distributed [sic] material objects.  The manner of approach, the personal contacts, the home and office visits and finally the diagnosis, all tend to have a great psychological effect upon the clients. “The writer, accompanied by the case worker, has had the privilege of making many home visits throughout the year in a determined effort to find out ‘first-hand’ the different ‘standards of living,’ the house conditions and the general aspect of family life with which the department must reckon.  The many visits, conferences and personal contacts which it was my privilege to have with the many people requesting aid, gave me a splendid opportunity to look into their hearts, get their feelings and know their troubles.  Yes, they had to have material things, which while primary to them, to me did not solve the problem of the future.  The conditions—in what kind of physical and mental condition will they later be found, what kind of citizens will they make?  All these things, and more, must be taken into consideration by a properly organized Relief Department.  Above all it must never be forgotten that the greatest percentage of peoples are not all pleased at the thought of being forced to request public assistance.  It is honest work which they want and need, work which brings out the sweat of happiness and content, work which cures more ailments than all medical science, work which is the salvation of humanity.”  (editorial, Jan. 18, 1937)

“Governor Hoffman’s message to the Legislatude [sic] professes to see no immediate prospect of a tangible solution to the state’s relief problem.   While he…says that “we have met, so far, the demands for unemployment relief funds,” the problem of financing unemployment relief in 1937 remains to be solved with no prospect of any such windfall as we had in 1936.”  By “windfall” the Governor is obviously referring to the liberal grants made by the state by the administration at Washington and the huge Dorrance tax revenue.  The Federal government is following a policy of retrenchment in relief and it is not expected that Washington will be as liberal in 1937 as it was during the past year….Economies in labor instituted by huge corporations are not likely to be abandoned soon and there is every indication that unemployment will be more or less permanent social evil [sic]….We presume that the winter relief bill for New Jersey will be met by diversion of funds—by robbing Peter to pay Paul.  Gasoline tax revenue…will probably be the scapegoat, just as it was last year.  Governor Hoffman’s message is a clear, dispassionate review of the past 12 months and a calm consideration of the future.  It is frank and open in its confession that there are many people who refuse to look facts in the face.  To these individuals Governor Hoffman’s message will be a disappointment, because it deals with facts.”  (editorial from the Long Branch Record, appearing in the Morristown Daily Record Jan. 19, 1937, p.4)

“54^th Annual Luncheon Meeting Children’s Home”

“….Present efforts…will be judged in the years to come when the youth now being trained will form part of society.  Declaring that the old quotation “As the twig is bent” may be criticized for triteness but never for untruthfulness, he [Joseph Alloway, director of the State Board of Children’s Guardians] said that as the new twigs are controlled, the work is preventative; and as attempts are made to re-mold older twigs, the work is curative….Previous generations, he said, controlled delinquency by early inculcation of good moral habits, by the steady influence of the family.  But the machine age has brought factors which carry both benefits and detriments and in the boom days family life was weakened….The neglected and abandoned child must be restored to a family relationship.  This is possible through the foster home where the child may be directed toward religious and educational development….Work without interest, he said, is nothing more than slavery, and so each individual child must be prepared for and directed into his proper place in the work-a-day world.  Miss Mildred Seeley, superintendent of the Children’s Home, threw out a challenge to the communities of the county to provide jobs for the wards of the home who have reached the age of 16 years, and who have been finding it extremely difficult to secure work.  Because no vocational training is provided for them, these boys can only be placed on farms, work which they detest unless they have a liking for agriculture….The Board of Freeholders appropriated $70,310.94 for the Children’s Home in 1936.  This is a per capita rate of $5 per child per week.  The rest of the home’s income came from its endowment fund and individual subscriptions.  The clothing cost was $16.43 per child per year and the health cost was one cent per day.  Thirty-nine new children were admitted and 38 discharged during the year.  On December 31, 1936, there were 292 children of 142 families under the home’s care.  The Morris County Children’s Home was established in 1882.  It revamped its program of child care from institutional care to foster-home care exclusively in 1929.  It became a member of the Child Welfare League of America in 1930 by attaining a high level of professional standards, practices and personnel.  The staff of four social service workers, headed by Miss Seeley, has headquarters at 375 Mt. Kemble avenue.”  (Jan. 22, 1937, p.9)

“At a time when thousands of Americans, in real need of aid, are viewing with concern administration intentions to cut down on relief appropriations, it is aggravating to read such stories as those out of New York City and Sarasota, Fla.  In a safe deposit box rented by a New York relief recipient, $250,000 in diamonds were found. In Sarasota, at the home of Mrs. Margaret Bruce McLain Hughes, a 72-year old relief client who reputedly was the first woman to reach the Yukon during the Klondike gold rush, a small fortune in diamonds, rubies, pearls, and cameos was discovered.  Such stories as these dramatize the “chiseling” which is taking place in greater or less degree throughout the country….”  (editorial, Jan. 23, 1937)

“The jobless men who hung around the outside of his foundry always interested Joe Hume Gardner, president of a Buffalo, N.Y. iron and steel plant.  He frequently wondered what they would do if they had jobs.  The other day he decided to experiment, and hired 25 of the men.  Only seven of the group stuck it out.  “They’re good workers, too,” says Mr. Gardner.  “But there were several cases that were just plain ‘unworkables.’  They had one desire; to sit behind a desk and look at figures.”  If Mr. Gardner’s little test proves anything, it is that, in every group of men, there are a few who are congenitally opposed to work; and it is for that reason that joblessness can never be entirely erased from the economic picture.”  (editorial, Jan. 23, 1937)

“Trying to get the ordinary person to shed a tear over the sad fix of the man who has an income of $75,000 a year is as fruitless a task as trying to weave a rope of seafoam and sand.  The effort is made, just the same, in a recent issue of Harper’s Magazine.  An anonymous lady whose husband occupies that exalted salary bracked [sic] writes copiously to prove that life for the rich is far from a bed of roses….There are, she says, four people in the family—herself, her husband, their daughter, and her mother.  They occupy a simple 16-room-and-four-bath house….Uncle Sam takes away rather better than $10,000 in income tax.  Real estate taxes and interest on the mortgage take another $4,800.  Insurance of all kinds runs to $1,875 a year.  To divers relatives the family gives about $3,000 a year; to charities, $5,000; to sundry business clubs, $1,275.  Eighteen hundred is charged off to depreciation.  The lady of the house spends $2,790 for clothes; the husband, $410.  Hubby’s cigars, lunches, railroad fares, and incidentals eat up $2,700.  The servants’ wages run to $3,600 and the year’s food bill is $2,811. Altogether, counting these expenses and various incidentals, it costs this family $56,000 to get through the year, leaving only a scant $19,000 to invest or put in the bank….When hard times come, and the $75,000 shrinks to $40,000, it is almost impossible to economize…they are expected to keep up their clubs and their social activities….Nevertheless, this is a cold and unfeeling world; and in view of the fact that the averave [sic] American has to feed, clothe and house his family, provide for his old age, pay his taxes, and find whatever recreation he can on substantially less than this lady spends on her clothing in one year, it is doubtful that anybody is going to extend much sympathy to her.  For these upper-bracket folk, although they may have their troubles, are at least free from that haunting, spectral fear that goes with a low income—that feeling of insecurity, that realization that a bad break in the luck may mean utter helplessness in the face of disaster.  Free from that fear, they start life with a tremendous advantage over the rest of us…..”  (editorial, Jan. 23, 1937)

“The need for immediate municipal support of the sick poor was re-emphasized by Dr. Frederick VanBeuren Jr. before the annual meeting of the visiting Nurse and Morris County Tuberculosis Associations at the Community Club last night.  As president of Morristown Memorial Hospital, Dr. Van Beuren outlined the necessity for “spreading out the financial burden created by the sick who cannot pay for their own hospitalization.”  Reminding the association that the 9,000 Community Chest contributors do not give enough to care for the sick poor, he said the burden could be better borne by the many more taxpayers in the County.  Dr. VanBeuren sketched the decrease from the $73,000 the Community Chest donors gave to the hospitals 13 years ago to the $36,000 now contributed through that channel.  “These Community Chest donors,” he said, “are faced with the necessity of paying increasingly higher federal taxes, with the result they have less money to give away.  The difference must be made up in municipal budgets.”….(Jan. 26, 1937, p.6)

“The year 1936 was the healthiest in the history of Morristown, with a decrease of over fifty per cent in cases of contagion….the birth rate was greatly lowered and a large increase in infant mortality was recorded.  The Health report shows there were 155 cases of chicken pox, 36 of mumps, one of diphtheria, one of erysipelas, 24 of German measles, 10 of pneumonia, 10 of measles, none of polinyelitas, 24 of scarlet fever, 8 of tuberculosis, one of typhoid fever, one of undulant fever and 10 of whooping cough.  There was a total of 281 cases, while 579 were listed in 1935….For some unknown reason there were fewer marriages performed this year than in many years….An interesting feature of the deaths was the fact that four of those passing away were over 90….”  (Jan. 27, 1937, p.7)

“Proposed art murals to be prepared by the arts division of the WPA for use in the Court House were shown by the Board of Freeholders yesterday to the press.  The Morris County Bar Association, Supreme Court Justice Charles W. Parker and County Judge Albert H. Holland will be asked to give their opinion.  The paintings, according to a typewritten description sent with them, tells [sic] the story of the people, law courts, and justice and are highly allegorical.  They are to be about seven by ten feet murals, to be placed along walls in the main corridor when further remodeling of the court house is done.  The WPA description of the paintings signify that the first is supposed to be the origin of conflict, with mob violence and a struggle for bread; two is the letter of the law, a near sighted figure symbolizing the category of the law still dominated by the wigged symbol of decadency; third a momentious [sic]  decision when the life of the nation’s law is called on for decision to effect the present and future and the fourth, people’s justice, administered by wise judgement of representative [sic] of the law with “twelve good men and true.”  Only nine of the 12 “good men” could be counted but this was only a minor part of the comment on the allegories.  Anatole Shulkin, county resident, is in charge of the work.”  (Jan. 28, 1937, p.2)

“DENVILLE – Many enrolees at the CCC camp here are registering for special correspondence courses being conducted under the new CCC Home Study Department of Syracuse University.  Under this department, many campers eager to fit themselves for vocations, but unable to afford correspondence course charges, will get supervised instruction in the following subjects:  auto mechanics, Diesel engines, blue print reading, business English, English grammar, business law, photography, psychology, chemistry, forestry, and journalism….Meanwhile, the camp is offering its own extensive education program through use of a new silent movie projector.  Films are obtained from Trenton District Headquarters.  Some of the movie subjects are:  soil conservation, mosquito control, sugar culture, hunting in Canada, fire safety, construction, travel, asbestos, nickel, pottery, leather, explosives and rubber.”  (Jan. 28, 1937, p.4)

“DENVILLE – Having hired the Mountain Lakes High School gymnasium for its basketball squad, the Denville CCC Camp is arranging a schedule against CCC teams throughout northern New Jersey….” (Jan. 28, 1937, p.8)

“If the republic should decide to take seriously Mr. Roosevelt’s inaugural plea for abolition of poverty, it is going to have an interesting time of it during the next generation or so….For abolishing poverty is not a matter of getting money into pockets so much as of putting shoes on feet, coats on backs, houses on vacant lots, and good food in pinched stomachs….All of which simply means that if we are going to go ahead and abolish poverty—which is just another way of saying that we would equip everyone in America with all the necessities and a fair smattering of the luxuries—we are going to have a boom such as we never dreamed of before….How a program of this kind can be made to pay is a wide-open question.  No producer, be he a truck gardener or the head of a big automobile corporation, is going to expand production unless he thinks he will get some money for it….A nation out to abolish poverty would have to begin by replacing all those homes with new ones.  There is enough work there to keep the vast building industry busy for many decades….Furniture factories, makers of boots and shoes and clothing, manufacturers of all kinds of household appliances and gadgets, producers of electricity, farmers, stock raisers, cotton growers, shepherds—all these people would find an unprecedented demand for their output.  Makers of capital goods would be busy night and day equipping them; mines and forests and railroads and shipyards would be busy as never before.  It makes a pretty picture and it isn’t spoiled by the cynical question about who is going to pay for it all.  For the important fact is that this tremendous market does exist, potentially—and so does the productive capacity to meet it….Not in overseas markets, not below the equator, or on the far side of the Pacific---but right here at home, where the richest nation in the world has a dazzling chance to treble its riches by distributing them.”  (editorial, Jan. 29, 1937)

“TRENTON, (AP) – New Jersey Mayors, urged by one of their number to stage a “sit-down strike” in the State Capitol until the Legislature suspends mandatory salary schedules for another year, will converge on Trenton Monday night, but there was little likelihood of any strike.  On the contrary, said Samuel S. Kenworthy, Secretary of the State League of Municipalities, the municipal officials will fight “standing-up” to force legislative action on bills which permit local governments to trim salaries of public employees in order to meet budget requirements….Both he [A.R. Everson of the State Taxpayers’ Association] and Kenworthy predicted increasing tax rates would result if local governments were forced to meet statute-fixed salaries and increments.  They also forecast such possibilities as a return to the use of scrip by certain municipalities, the dismissal of many municipal workers and the abandonment of “pay-as-you-go” policies through enforced borrowing.”  (Jan. 30, 1937, p.1)

“DOVER – During the past week Picatinny Arsenal has been laying off WPA workers in large numbers.  One of the officers stated that the present drive is to dispose of the men who refuse to work or for other infractions of the rules….More men will be laid off until the number of nonrelief workers have been replaced by men from relief rolls.  The WPA workers at the present time have under construction a storage shed, which will be about 1,000 feet long, for shells.  They are also laying about three miles of 10-inch water mains for fire protection.”  (Jan. 30, 1937, p.2)

“TRENTON, (AP) – The Assembly passed tonight a bill diverting 27,500,000 [sic] in highway funds as the major step in a $12,000,000 relief financing program for 1937.  The Assembly passed unanimously a committee substitute for a senate bill allotting the ERA’s unexpended $1,750,000, to the State Financial Assistance Committee, the revision being drafted to make certain the money would not be used for 1936 relief costs….The assembly’s “complete solution” fell millions of dollars short of estimates of relief costs from other sources.  Governor Hoffman in his annual message predicted the 1937 total would be $17,415,963 and the estimates of the municipalities, as tabulated by the SFAC, reached $18,700,000.  Last year’s costs were approximately $18,415,563….”   (Feb. 2, 1937, p.1)

“Uncertainty on how the Morris County municipalities will handle their 1937 relief burden is…expressed by Director Edith F. McCully in her current annual report of the County Welfare Board….Mrs. Streeter quotes the board as feeling that “the present law giving entire administrative responsibility to the board is not satisfactory when the municipalities are paying 100 percent of relief costs.”  On the other hand, she says the board does not feel “that unregulated administration by 38 municipalities would be satisfactory, since our experience shows an impartial central body has been very valuable in working out solutions to difficult cases, and in securing a reasonable uniformity of relief standards.”  The president concludes that “temporary relief should be administered in the first instance by the municipalities, but the Welfare Board should be a court of appeals and adjustments in special cases with power to enforce its decisions after hearing both sides.”  Elsewhere, Mrs. Streeter notes that she has again asked Senator Elmer King to secure passage of a bill “allowing municipalities to pay relief bills themselves.”  At present they have the county pay them and then collect from the municipalities--a complex bookkeeping system of which Mrs. Streeter has always disapproved.  The 1936 temporary  relief case load for the county Miss McCully reports, varied between 523 in May and 363 in October, and the year ended with 429 cases.  Monthly costs for the county varied between $8,300 and $6,200, and the cost per case between $19.39 and $14.13….”  (Feb. 4, 1937, p. 3)

“The remarkable recovery in local building activity during 1936 with a 261 percent increase in construction is expected to be shown in the annual report of Building Inspector John A. McIntyre….Building was perhaps hardest hit during depression years, but in 1936 there was more than $500,000 valuation placed on new construction with the big jump in renewed building of residential properties.  In predepression years the building costs were well over a million dollars a year and then they fell to a low of $89,083 in 1934.  There was a fair gain in 1935, and then the big jump this year….most important was the start of 20 one-family dwellings at a cost of $173,031.  The residential construction was the biggest hit in the last few years.  In 1928 there were 25 new homes; in 1929, 23 single and one two-family houses went up, and in 1930, despite the crash, there were 28.  Even 1931 continued good with 22 single and two two-family houses but then the slump hit in 1932, when there were only nine new houses.  This dropped even further in 1933 to three, then to two in 1934 and in 1935 there were again three.  So 1936 showed more new houses than the four preceeding years put together…” (Feb. 5, 1937, p.1)

“DENVILLE – Enrollees at the CCC camp enjoyed another of the regular Thursday evening motion picture shows at the Recreation Hall last night.  Featured was Conrad Nagel in “The Michigan Kid.”  Other pictures showed the Stanford-Columbia Rose Bowl game of 1934 and Felix the Cat….”  (Feb. 5, 1937, p.7)

“The WPA school nursing project, a state wide plan, has been brought to a conclusion in Morris County after running for slightly more than three years and serving eight municipalities.  The project closed in Morris because all of the nurses available and qualified had secured better paying positions.  Of the many good results obtained from their work is the fact that six of the eight municipalities served…will shortly institute their own school nursing service.  “This was one WPA project that was a real success,” declared County Superintendent of Schools Walter B. Davis today, and he attributed this to the fine work of supervision done by Miss Anna L. Ketch of the County Tuberculosis Association, and Mrs. William Arnott of the Visiting Nurse Associa- tion.  The project was under control of the county superintendent and his office attended to the clerical work.  The places served were Boonton Township, Florham Park, Jefferson, Montville, Mount Arlington, Randolph, Rockaway Township and Washington.  Boonton and Rockaway Townships are the only ones where the nursing service will be dropped.  There were 25 schools, with an average enrollment of 2,750 served since the project started on January 15, 1934.  There were four nurses working at one time and 11 different nurses and two secretaries were given employment.”  (Feb. 6, 1937, p.6)

“TRENTON, (AP) – Immediate Senate approval of the Democratic Assembly’s $12,000,000 relief program was urged today by Senator Lester R. Clee, Essex Republican, but leaders of his own party said the measure would not be moved at tonight’s session….Both Senate President Frank Durand and Majority Leader Charles E. Loizeaux oppose diversions and the bill probably will go to the Judiciary Committee, there to await a hearing….although the votes of Clee and Senator Winant Van Winkle, Bergen Republican, assured enactment when added to the Senate’s ten Democratic ballots.  However, Clee upbraided the state Democratic leadership as “insincere and political.”  The Democrats, he said, blocked diversions in 1935 and 1936, and “their action last Monday night was an admission that for two years they gave scant consideration to those dependent on the State for their sustenance and opposed diversion, not on principle, but as a matter of party politics.”  “In the meantime,” he continued, “the important thing is that relief will now be provided, and we should be thankful that the Democrats have changed their policy and are ready to provide relief needs to the municipalities by means of high diversions and thus avoid new State taxes.”….”  (Feb. 8, 1937, p.1)

“TRENTON – The Senate passed last night a measure Republican sponsors said was designed to permit payment of 75 percent of the $9,000,000 road aid to county and municipalities by January 1 instead of in June.  Democrats protested the bill might interfere with the highway diversion program.  Senator Elmer S. King of Morris denied the measure would affect the proposed diversion and said it was intended to permit early spring road repairs….Republicans, controlling the Senate, set Feb. 24 for a hearing on the Democratic bill to divert highway funds to relief.  Democrats, who sought to move the measure tonight under suspension of rules, failed to obtain recognition.  Senator Loizeaux’s proposal for sales, income and business franchise taxes to relieve the real estate tax and provide relief funds were introduced in the Assembly by Thomas M. Muir…..”  (Feb. 9, 1937, p.7)

“WASHINGTON – Morristown’s efforts to prevent annulling of the WPA project involving improvement of the airport at the New Jersey city met temporary defeat today when a delegation from the town called at WPA headquarters here.  The Morristown delegation, headed by Alderman Edward F. Broderick, chairman of the Morristown relief and works projects committee, called on Major A. S. McMillan, official of WPA, to seek to override alleged recommendations from the Newark WPA office that the project be called off.  According to Major McMillan, nothing was settled at the meeting because the Washington headquarters of the agency as yet has not received any notice from New Jersey as to the alleged annulment.  However, McMillan said, his office will take the matter up with the New Jersey chief of WPA…  Major McMillan added that his office was as desirous of retaining the project on the active list as were the sponsors and would do all possible to convince the state heads of the necessity of retention.  Morristown, however, in order to gain full approval from WPA, McMillan said, probably will have to increase its portion of the funds to be used on the project from the original $16,000 agreed upon about a year and a half ago, to at least $25,000.  This because since that time WPA rules have been amended to prevent any allocations being made by the Government for WPA projects on which the sum to be spent for materials exceeds 8 per cent of the entire cost of the project.  In such cases, the local sponsors must make up the difference between cost of the materials and the 8 per cent limitation.  This limitation is made, WPA explained, because the primary function of the agency is to provide employment.  The Federal contribution to the Morristown airport improvement project, as originally scheduled… was $159,000, none of which as yet has been made available.  If the New Jersey state office of WPA actually recommends the abandonment of the Morristown project, McMillan thinks the Washington office may have to agree.  It is the general policy to adhere to recommendations of the state offices.  However,,,he thought he might be able to convince Administrator Ely that the Morristown project is a worthy one and one which would receive the full co-operation of the sponsors….”  (Feb. 10, 1937, p.1)

from the Daily Washington Letter by Rodney Dutcher, Feb. 17, 1937, p.4:  “The immediate future of the federal relief program is...blurred….Mother Nature…has…again added further to the complexities and fogginess of the program with a great, disastrous flood….Theoretically…the plan is to cut the present WPA army of 2,200,000 persons down to 1,600,000 by June….Actually there will be no such reduction, and it is most unlikely that it would have been achieved even if there had been no flood.  With 1,000,000 persons made homeless by the catastrophe, don’t be surprised if there are more men and women on the WPA rolls in June than there are right now.  In addressing a House subcommittee, Hopkins said it would be difficult to hold the WPA figures down to those he outlined.  He began with the assumption that the WPA roll would not increase in January and February—“an assumption that cannot readily be made, because in every other year the relief rolls have jumped in the winter time.”….”

“Governor Fred P. Cone of Florida would seem to have been well-advised in ordering discontinuance of the road patrol which guarded the state’s borders during the last two winters.  This patrol was supposed to keep penniless transients out of the state.  Such people, it was argued, flocked into Florida to escape the cold northern winters; some of them had to be supported by the state, and others turned to crime.  But a patrol along any state boundary is a bad thing.  It smacks altogether of the passport-and-frontier nuisance of Europe.  It is, furthermore, poor protection for the state involved, for the really undesirable visitors have enough money to come in anyway….”  (editorial, Feb. 17, 1937)

“The WPA Recreation Sponsoring Committee of Netcong has announced that it will conduct an Ice Carnival at Lake Musconetcong, Netcong, on Sunday afternoon, February 21.  The carnival will be open to any skater in good amateur standing and will find many outstanding speedsters in the state competing….There will be events for three classes.  Junior boys and girls between the ages of 8 to 12 years inclusive; Intermediate boys and girls between the ages of 13 to 17; and Senior men and women 18 years and over….It is desired that all exhibition or figure skaters wishing to participate will file applications and skate on a non-competitive basis.  Invited skating clubs will exhibit their skill in speed contests as against time….Various ice boat and skate sail clubs invited from New Jersey points will compete in their spectacular events….”  (Feb. 17, 1937, p.9)

“TRENTON – An army of the “unemployed” is mobilizing here to march on the capitol Monday night when the legislature reconvenes.  This announcement was made today by “Pal” Johnson, executive secretary of the Workers’ Alliance, an organization that put on a sitdown strike in the legislature last year….Last year, he said, it was necessary for the Workers’ Alliance to stage a demonstration in the Assembly rooms before getting relief money.  So in order to make sure of relief this year the “boys” are going to besiege the capitol Monday night….Last Monday night about 50 picketed the entrance to the State House, but made no demonstration inside the building.”  (Feb. 26, 1937, p.7)

“Many proposed State PWA projects, totaling more than a million and a half dollars, are being held up by the White House and the grants include two for work in Morris County, on the proposed local armory and renovations at the State Hospital at Greystone Park.  The PWA had approved the grants and usually the money had become instantly available, New Jersey being one of those states with a Democratic Senator through whom projects were pushed.  But since the President proposed reorganization of the Supreme Court and Senator A. Harry Moore has vigorously opposed the “packing,” the PWA projects for New Jersey have been held up for the first time since the PWA was organized….The explanation given at Washington for the delay is that policies are undecided as the fund expires on June 30 and there is no certainty of the PWA continuance but state officials are making a check to see what other states are getting….The proposed unified police radio system, with three transmitting stations to be operated by the state police, has been approved by the PWA although no State legislation has been enacted.  The PWA grant of $255,946 has not been forthcoming.  The Legislation will not vote its $465,357 share unless the federal grant is sure.  One of the three stations would be located in the vicinity of Morristown.”   (Feb. 27, 1937, p.1)

“POMPTON PLAINS – The Pequannock Relief Committee will meet Monday evening in the township office on the turnpike to distribute relief orders for the coming month.  However, much wailing and woebegone excuses are anticipated at this meeting for the chairman, John Reynolds, has publicly announced that those persons who were ordered to report for work on the roads to work off their past relief have almost entirely neglected to do and those who did not appear absolutely will not receive any relief orders.  Of the 18 able-bodied men who were told to report to Road Commissioner Philip Umstader, only three have reported and in fairness to these three who have a willingness to work off their debt, the slackers will be dropped from the rolls unless they have an excuse which must be acceptable to the entire committee, and “it will have to be a darned good one,” according to Mr. Reynolds.”  (Feb. 27, 1937, p.1)

“Aldermen Edward F. Broderick and Abe Gurevitz and Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera will go to New Brunswick Monday to consult with the District Supervisor of WPA work on the placing of the airport project back on the active list.  It has been ascertained that the project, which was applied for last year but then defeated by the Aldermen, is not definitely rescinded but had only been taken from the list of active projects.  It is up to the district supervisor to determine if there are enough men eligible for the work and so put it back on the list to be approved and an appropriation made.  It is being urged that the airport plan be adopted as there is still a large number of idle here and the relief lists have climbed considerably in the past two months.  In a conference with Captain Hooker, regional supervisor of aviation fields of the Department of Commerce, in New York on Monday, Messrs. Broderick and Butera secured his promise that his department will lay out a proper airport and correct directions for runways if the WPA project is approved.”  (Feb. 27, 1937, p.1)

A series of photos illustrates library services in isolated parts of the United States provided  by the WPA, one a “traveling library service” serving a one room school house.  The final picture is captioned, “Not only to school rooms does the library service penetrate. CCC camps, churches, filling stations and stores are among the 77 centers served.  Foresta Miranda, above, is selecting a book from the WPA shelf in Harry Lacey’s general store in Wamsley, population 52.  Often a rude shack in a hollow is used as a cultural center.”  (March 1, 1937, p.9)

“PEQUANNOCK – Relief Director John Reynolds last night laid down the law to 11 relief recipients who failed to report for work to work off their indebtedness to the town for past relief received by them.  He issued only temporary food orders of $3 pending their reporting for work, the balance to be given them Saturday if they show their willingness to co-operate.  The normal food order amounts to $12 for a family of four every two weeks, exclusive of rent, light, fuel, oil, coal, and insurance.  Several of the affected ones grumbled and others took their medicine manfully but all promised to come out to work tomorrow….”  (March 2, 1937, p.1)

“CHATHAM – The Chatham Borough Council last night approved a plan to reimburse both the Morristown Memorial and the All Souls Hospital for the care of indigent hospital cases emanating from the borough.  Essentially the plan guarantees the support of the borough in caring for its sick needy whenever the total cost of providing proper hospitalization exceeds the borough’s contributions to the Morris County Community Chest for hospital purposes.  Introduced by Dr. Fletcher I. Krauss, a councilman and a member of the welfare board, the resolution stipulates that:  1. To be insured of the borough’s support the patient must have the authorization of the welfare board or his agent to obtain hospitalization.  2.  The hospitals must not charge more than the regular ward fees including laboratory, X-ray and operative charges as customarily billed to ward patients.  3. Indigents may be hospitalized for periods of not more than two weeks, except when the welfare representative approves of longer confinement.  In “the exercise of such a decision, the welfare representative should consider primarily the financial responsibility of the Borough of Chatham for indigent persons residing therein.”  Written requests for admission must be signed by a licensed physician and presented to the welfare representative.  The resolution provides, further that “Any questions of refusal be submitted to the Welfare Committee, whose decision in the matter shall be final.”  This measure is a precaution against complaints arising from the functioning of the welfare representative….Although the resolution specifies that the support be given to the two Morristown institutions, the council agreed that it would not permit quibbling in emergency cases where patients might be taken to another hospital.  The interests of the patients must be considered first, the councilmen agreed.  A verbal amendment to the measure authorized the Welfare Committee to assume responsibility for patients who are not completely indigent.  This will make it possible for families which can afford to pay part of the hospitalization costs to share the benefits of the enactment….”  (March 2, 1937, p. 1 & 9)

“WASHINGTON – Grants to New Jersey or other states are not being held up by the WPA or the White House, the WPA asserted today, denying that if a Senator was against President Roosevelt’s Supreme Court expansion he would be unable to get grants for his state.  These suspicions have no foundation and are detrimental to state officials, it was said at headquarters of the WPA.  It was stated at Secretary Ickes’s office that the only funds released since February 1 by the PWA and the White House have been for public works projects approved last year.  It was announced that they had been held up for some legal reason or another, but the PWA desired to get through with them….The doubtful status of PWA is given by that organization as the only reason why authorized funds have been delayed….”  (March 2, 1937, p.7)

“WASHINGTON – While residents of the cities in which 25,000 projects of the Public Works Administration are located regard this nationwide improvement program as a new type of government enterprise, people of Salt Lake City know that the sage Mormon leader, Brigham Young, was an early advocate of the public works remedy for unemployment.  Three-quarters of a century before the New Deal, unemployed Mormons found honest work at fair wages in a construction program initiated by their church just as today thousands of construction workers share in the benefits of the PWA program.  In Salt Lake city the visitor may see evidences of the first works initiated by Young, of the program instituted to meet the panic of 1893, and of new undertakings under or completed with the aid of PWA….Brigham Young ordered the construction of the Eagle gate in 1859 to provide for the jobless Mormons of that period….The great pioneer expressed his belief in the works ideal as an unemployment remedy in no uncertain terms.  He said:  “My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never any benefit to give out and out, to man or woman, money, food, clothing, or anything else, if they are able-bodied and can work and earn what they need, when there is anything on earth for them to do.  This is my principle and I try to act upon it.  To pursue any other course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers.”  Many of the men who were destined to become leaders of the Deseret state got their start as employees on public works….Just as public works in 1937 create more employment in mines and factories producing building materials than they do at building sites, so Utah’s first works program gave rise to many industries which had not existed before a demand for materials for use in job-making undertakings had made their establishment necessary.  Lessons learned in the early days of Salt Lake City were recalled in the building depressions preceding the panic of 1893.  Largely to give employment, the local government started construction on a $1,000,000 city hall and county building….Hundreds of building mechanics who faced unemployment were thus retained as wage-earners while the indirect effects of their labor were experienced in mines and quarries and mills supplying the materials for the project.  Under the Public Works Administration’s program for Utah, scores of water and sewer systems, schools, roads, and public buildings have been built or are under construction.  The sum allocated by PWA—nearly $20,000,000 in loans and grants for useful improvements—would astound old President Young.  Most imposing of these improvements is the new library for the University of Utah….Of modern classic construction, it cost some $500,000.  PWA aided its construction and the improvement of other university facilities by making the State of Utah an allotment of $1,206,000.  Since PWA projects must be permanent, necessary improvements of definite social value, few objections have been raised against the program.  Brigham Young, answering opponents of his theory of public works, said:  “Some have wished me to explain why we built an adobe wall around the city. . . O slow of heart to understand and to believe, I build walls, dig ditches, make bridges and do a great amount and variety of labor that is but of little consequence only to provide ways and means for sustaining and preserving the destitute.”  ”   (March 4, 1937, p. 3)

“The first municipality to respond to the appeal of the hospitals for aid has been Chatham…. Nothing has been heard from those where very little has been given to charity, yet the bills for free service are very high.  Eventually the hospitals will be on the regular tax list.  They are a necessity, such as police, fire, light and sewer protection, and people depend on them.  The fairest way to meet their needs is for all to contribute a bit….If the municipalities do not contribute voluntarily then it will be up to the county through the Freeholders.  The cost will be practically the same but the former would be the better way.  Most municipalities are handling relief well and in the hospital cases like relief, the officials know the individual people and can better tell whether they are bonafide residents and indigent than the county board.  The matter of checking could be done probably by the relief director and so cost the municipality nothing.”  (editorial, March 4, 1937)

“WASHINGTON – Girls of less-privileged families no longer need envy brothers going to C.C.C. camps, as 5,000 girls have already been enrolled to start vocational training in fifty camps of their own….Camp Director Richard R. Brown stated that camps would be located at abandoned C.C.C. barracks, vacant resorts, school buildings and other quarters they can use free of charge.  Plans called for work centers in Rhode Island, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Dakota and Tennessee.  Girls will receive $5 cash a month in addition to board, lodging and clothes.  Each girl will perform a certain amount of camp work.  She will receive instruction in cooking and housework and put these to practical test.  She will be taught handicraft, such as the making of hospital supplies, repairing toys, sewing and the making of historical highway markers.  Preference will be given to girls who promise to profit by the experience of camp life, and will  be able to take back into their homes and communities the benefits of instruction given.  Girls having a flair for gardening and agriculture will be given special instruction in tree and plant nursery work.  All will have instruction in English, health, and hygiene, and disciplinary problems will be submitted to a “Student Council” selected by the girls themselves.  Women will direct all activities in the camps.  Girls will not be put in uniforms.  Clothes will be made by the young women themselves as part of the instruction in dress-making.  Materials will be supplied through W.P.A. projects.  (March 4, 1937, p.15)

“The cost of relief has gone up nearly $500 in Morristown during the month of February….As there were 58 reopened cases last month and many more new ones to investigate; the Relief Committee asked the Aldermen to write the Welfare Board and attempt to secure another investigator to keep up with the increased applications.  The reason given for the rise in cost is the great number of men who have been laid off by the Dutch Elm and WPA workers of every other branch, also the fact that it is now the season when coal is necessary as are winter clothes.”  (March 6, 1937, p.1)

“Harry Hopkins’ warning that we shall probably have at least 4,000,000 people “normally unemployed” in even the best of good times is a sharp reminder that we can’t expect rising business indices to solve all of our problems for us.  We might as well make up our minds, says Mr. Hopkins, that a good many people are “going to have to get their share of the national income by means of various types of government benefits.”  Why?  Because, he explains, we don’t need all our man-power to produce the goods that we can consume; beause [sic] there is always a certain number of people who just can’t earn their own living, anyway; because people keep on living after they get too old to work.  If Mr. Hopkins is correct—and he ought to know what he is talking about, having had his nose up against the relief grindstone for a long time—we are going to have to accept the fact that the relief problem is a permanent responsibility….A continuing responsibility like this one will inevitably be left in the lap of the government.  By accepting it, the government must automatically make itself responsible for the under-privileged as a group—not merely for the people who are actually on relief, but for all the low-wage pople [sic] who will go on relief the moment the economic machine slips its gears a bit.  That is to say that the government will be expcted [sic] to see to it that a square deal is provided for the people from whom the relief rolls are recruited—the sharecroppers, the tenant farmers, the casual and migratory workers, the unskilled laborers, and so on.  All of that adds up to quite a load of responsibility.  No one can expect that the government will carry it indefinitely without demanding the power that goes with responsibility.  Now it is extremely unlikely that the average American wants to see his government given that power—for it would involve, among other things, the power to fix hours and wages in industry, and the power to regulate agriculture, both powers that returned to the dust when the NRA and the AAA died.  Yet that is the sort of thing we are facing if we sit back and resign ourselves to the continuing existence of a governmentsupported army of 4,000,000 unemployed.  Here, then is the supreme challenge to private initiative.  If it can absorb these unemployed, prove that consumption in a free land can keep pace with production, and, in short, solve the problem by abolishing it, we can forget about this talk of giving the government wider powers.  If it can’t, we are going to hear such talk in everincreasing volume.”  (editorial, March 8, 1937)

“The robust health of the recovery movement is illustrated by a business review, published in the March issue of Banking, the official journal of the American Bankers’ Association.  Business, this review points out, seems to be indifferent to trouble these days.  A paralyzing shipping strike on the west coast is scarcely noticed in the general business picture; a great automobile strike merely slows up the tempo of improvement; disastrous flood losses seem to have had little effect; the prospect of strikes in the steel and coal trades do not seem to be causing any pessimism among business laders [sic]….A recovery movement that moves along in that style must be healthy indeed !”  (editorial, March 9, 1937)

“Eight enrollees of CCC Camp 1212 on Whippany road were conducted through the Daily Record plant last night by Fred A. Crane of the newspaper staff….The camp is producing at regular intervals a magazine titled “Marshland Mirror.”….”  (March 10, 1937, p.1)

from the Daily Washington Letter by Rodney Dutcher, March 10, 1937, p.4:  “….The steel tycoons had applied intense heat on Roosevelt and Secretary of Labor Perkins in effort to obtain suspension of the Walsh-Healy law.  That act said bidders on government contracts must observe a 40-hour work week, and certain other labor provisions.  The issue was fought over more than 100,000 tons of steel the navy needed for battleships.  In secret conferences, Assistant Secretary of Labor Edward F. McGrady insisted the steel industry produce that steel in accordance with the law as a patriotic duty to the government.  Steel officials insisted they had a duty to their stockholders and couldn’t effect a 40-hour week.  The Labor Department’s reply was preparation of an order dated Feb. 27 for a public hearing, beginning March 5, to which navy officials, steel industry heads, labor leaders and members of Congress were to be summoned.  Steel men were given to understand “patriotism” would be the issue.  The order was held up because of a report on Feb. 27 that an independent steel company was ready to bid under terms of the Walsh-Healy act.  (Willingness of certain independents to “play ball” with the government, plus an implied threat that the government would make its own steel, might also have had a large part in softening the industry’s attitude.)  Matters stood thus when, on March 1, big units of the steel industry began to announce 40-hour weeks, the $5 daily minimum wage and willingness to bargain collectively.”  

“Despite the fact that February was a short month, the County Welfare Board had more cases referred to it than in January; 103 new cases and 23 reopened.  The increase in municipal relief cases from 41 receiving relief in January to 63 in February can be attributed largely to the layoffs on WPA projects.  Miss Edith F. McCully, director of welfare, stated in her report to the Board of Freeholders yesterday that the Federal Government had donated approximately 1,500 dozen eggs to the department for distribution among outdoor support and municipal relief cases ….Thirteen new cases and two re-applications were reviewed by the case committee.  Ten grants were made and five cases were rejected:  three because of doctor’s reoprts showing clients to be only temporarily incapacitated.  In three cases legally responsible relatives were found to be now able to assume financial responsibility for the client.  One case was transferred to Old Age Assistance….Twenty municipalities have reported a temporary relief case load of 661 for February at a cost of $12,260.84, this representing an increase in the case load of 22 percent over January.  There will undoubtedly be an additional increase as both the Dutch Elm and the PIcatinny projects have been laying off men all month.  Many of the municipalities are conducting work for relief programs, requiring all able-bodied recipients to work off relief received at a credit of so much per hour.  A definite policy has been recommended to the effect that where a client refuses to work out his relief all further assitance [sic] will be denied until such time as the client is willing to co-operate with municipal directors and to try and reduce his debt to the municipality….”  (March 11, 1937, p.1)

“Income tax men worked feverishly until midnight last night to handle returns that came in to the local office at the last minute….it is believed the total of taxes paid exceeded that in any year since early depression times.  Auditors for Morristown business houses reported in general the amount to be declared ranged from two to five times higher than last year….many person who never reported  before have now fallen into the taxable class….another item that caused delays was a supposed deduction for cigarette taxes.  Many persons thought they could claim deductions for their smokes, but the staff explained this was not true.”  (March 16, 1937, p.1) “TRENTON, (AP) – Diversion of $7,917,660 in highway funds to meet 1937 relief costs was assured early today when the State Senate approved the Democratic Assembly’s $12,000,000 relief financing program.  Because of parliamentary tangling, however, the assembly must pass the bill again next week before it can be submitted to Governor Harold G. Hoffman.  Receiving the bill from the Senate last night, the assembly discovered the document had lost its title, a constitutional necessity, and sent the measure back to the senate so the error could be repaired.  En route the bill became “lost,” however, while Assemblymen awaited its return.  The Senate found it in a back room, where it was being fixed, and voting the correction, rushed it back to the assembly a few minutes after the lower house had adjourned.  Assembly action…was thus postponed for a week.”

“TRENTON (AP) – The State Senate….vote was 12 to 8, with three Republicans joining the Democratic minority to approve the program and one Democrat siding with the Republicans…. Senator Toolan, Middlesex Democrat, sought at 12:30 this morning to get reconsideration of the measure’s adoption, so that it could be amended again, this time to restore the title.  Senate President Durand ruled…that the House could not act on a bill which was not physically before it and said it was “somewhere,” between Senate and Assembly where the error had been discovered.  “I hope it doesn’t come back by way of Perth Amboy,” commented Toolan…. Newark’s relief costs were attacked by Senator Arthur Roran, Hunterdon Democrat and a former member of the State Highway Commission.  “One out of every 12 in Newark are on relief and the cost is 90 cents per capita,” he said.  “The sooner we get to the place where we let the municipalities carry their fair share of relief the sooner we will solve the problem….”  “The people in the slums of Newark need food and need money just as much as those who enjoy the fresh air of Hunterdon county,” Clee [Senator, Essex] retorted….” (March 16, 1937, p. 1 & 11)

“TRENTON, (AP) – Governor Hoffman, announcing he was “undecided” what he would do on the highway diversion bill for relief, looked today down three avenue [sic] of possible action.  He could veto the measure and return it with his objections to the Assembly.  The Legislature could then enact it into law by re-passing with a majority in each house.  He could approve the measure by signing it.  He could receive it without either signing or vetoeing [sic] it—in which case it would become law after five days….”  (March 17, 1937, p. 1)

“KINNELON – Notification has been given the Kinnelon Borough Council that the Works Progress Administration has approved the first project for the Borough with Federal funds.  The WPA has approved the application for the widening, straightening and grading of Cutlass road and Jacksonville road.  Work on the projects is expected to get started around the first of April ….”  (March 22, 1937, p.7)

“Adult education and recreation activities were described yesterday at the meeting of the Morris County Inter-racial Health Committee in the office of the Morris County Tuberculosis Association.  Mrs. A. E. Robinson of Madison, assistant supervisor of the State-wide WPA Adult Education Program for Negroes, said that 8,000 persons were enrolled in the classes under 142 teachers.  Emphasis is placed on stimulating those in the classes to further study and interests which will help them to live richer, happier lives.  One project of the classes was the compilation of an anthology of Negro Poetry.  This book has received wide recognition and a copy of it is in the Morristown Library.  Miss Clara Watson of Morristown and Richard Williams of Madison described their work under the WPA recreation project which is headed in Morris County by Mrs. William Bebout.  Miss Watson has helped direct 285 activities under this project.  These activities include a sewing class for young people and others for adults in art, knitting, cooking, reading and writing, and basketball.  Materials are furnished by those in the classes or their supervisors or sponsors.  The Neighborhood House in Morristown, and the AME Church in Boonton are the sponsors of her work.  Mr. Williams works through the Settlement House in Madison to conduct groups of various ages in such activities as dramatics, athletics, study of Negro literature and games….”  (March 26, 1937, p.6)

“NEW BRUNSWICK – Preservation of the trees of the Borough of Morris Plains has been the purpost [sic] of a WPA project which has been carried on there for several months….The tree operation has been carried out by C. H. Euler, an experienced forester who has directed the job as a dentistry professor directs treatment of his patients’ teeth.  Cavities have been filled, decayed roots and limbs removed, dead trees cut down and the wood cut in cords distributed to the borough’s needy.  Approximately 200 trees received a needed trimming, nearly 100 were removed and 42 cords of wood distributed up to the end of the winter.  The work of the eightman force was carried on except when severe weather prevented….Similar projects have been carried out in Butler, Morristown, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy, Highland Park and other communities….Two other Morris Plains WPA projects which have aided the community’s health conditions through improved drainage were the School street and Canfield place storm sewer jobs.”  (March 29, 1937, p.1)

“Eighty persons were placed in private employment during February through the local Court House office of the New Jersey State Employment Service, it was learned today.  The figure represented a substantial advance over the 33 persons placed in private jobs during January.  In February of 1936, only 58 positions were filled through the Morris County office.  Throughout the State as a whole, the service placed 3,570 individuals in private employment in February of this year.  This is 68 percent higher than the number hired in February of 1936 and 11 percent higher than the number placed in January of the current year.”  (March 29, 1937, p.13)

“WHARTON – It was decided by the Mayor and Council at the adjourned meeting last night that the Board of Health assist Relief Director Frank Fishbourne, also tax collector and treasurer, in the administration of relief, which will be carried on as before directly through Fishbourne but, [sic] with the board checking up on the relief cases.  Up to the present time Frank Fishbourne has been administering relief with a lone hand and the relief bills would be presented to the governing body for payment with just his assurance that they were correct as was the case last night….During the course of the discussion Mayor Porter stated, “I know no instance where Mr. Fishbourne has given something for nothing.  But it is necessary to have more than one person’s word.”  In addition to providing a check and balance on the relief end of the borough’s finances there is another advantage of having the relief director responsible to the board which was…that in case Director Fishbourne refused to give aid in some case an appeal could be made to the Board of Health.  Another was that when there are cases that are difficult to decide on the director could seek the advice of the board….”  (March 30, 1937, p.1)

from the Daily Washington Letter by Rodney Dutcher, March 30, 1937, p.4:  “The new Wagner-Steagall housing bill…should, in some instances, result in adequate new housing for families whose income is no more than $600 a year….If the estimate isn’t too optimistic, the bill – if passed – would mean a substantial amount of subsidized housing for families whose income runs between $15 and $25 a week.  In four years, it is contemplated, local public housing authorities would be able to build 375,000 houses and apartments for families which cannot afford dwellings now being produced by private enterprise….The hope of reaching some $600 a year families is based on a theoretical tax exemption, a maximum subsidy and a four-room, $4000 house which under those conditions could rent at about $2.50 per month per room.”

“WASHINGTON, D. C. --  Morris County projects with a total cost of $1,023,670 have been made possible by PWA grants during the past three years, according to figures compiled by the Public Works Administration….Here are the total cost estimates given for Morris County projects, with figures on the amount of PWA aid given:  Passaic school, $96,000: (loan $71,000; grant, $24,000); Rockaway sanitary sewer, $196,000: (loan, $151,600; grant, $44,400); Greystone Park hospital addition, $359,000: (grant, $104,700); Morris Plains storm sewer, $44,000: (loan, $422,100; grant, $9,900); Mountain Lakes School, $272,200: (loan, $189,000; grant, $77,000); Greystone Park conduit, $46,000: (grant, $13,300); Florham Park waterworks, $10,470: (loan, $8,000; grant, $3,000).”  (April 2, 1937, p.1)

“TRENTON, (AP) – Unemployment relief commitments of New Jersey municipalities were reported today by Arthur Mudd, director of the State Financial Assistance Commission, to have totaled approximately $3,000,000 in January and February.  This was a drop of 30 percent from the corresponding two-month figure of $4,322,000 for 1936, before the State turned the administration of relief back to the local governments.  Expenditures for March, not yet compiled, presumably brought to more than $4,000,000 the amount in which municipalities have obligated themselves without receiving any State aid in return.  When they will get help hinges primarily on two factors.  First, the municipal share must be fixed and the SFAC approve a plan for distributing the State’s share, and, second, the Legislature must provide the money….Enactment  of the highway construction fund diversion bill, now awaiting the governor’s action, would fix the local share of relief at $3,000,000 for the year.  That would be $250,000 a month, leaving $2,500,000 for the State to pay for January and February….Mudd declined to estimate the 1937 relief cost on the basis of the January-February total.  He recalled the “scientific guess” of $15,200,000 which he presented to the Senate and said it was just like all the other estimates—“it satisfied nobody.”…. “  (April 2, 1937, p.6)

“WASHINGTON, D. C. – Morris county’s five “approved” Public Works projects, which received a serious set-back in March when PWA established its new policy of limiting grants to sums actually spent for relief labor at the site of each project, have been dealt a death blow by another new PWA policy made known today….The new policy of PWA which virtually forecloses all chance for any of these projects, is a requirement that before approval will be granted, an amended application must be filed demonstrating ability of the sponsor in each insance [sic] to finance the project 100 per cent, either by sale of bonds to the government, or by borrowing in the open market.  Previously PWA has required a showing of ability to finance only to the extent not covered by the government grant applied for.  Under the new policy, the whole cost of each project must be financed by the sponsor, and the payments to relief workers at the site will be paid from month to month, if the project is privately financed, or by cancelation of indebtedness, if bonds are sold to the government.  Aside from the difficulty of providing 100 per cent financing, the delay involved in filing the amended application is considered enough to kill the projects since PWA still holds to the requirement that only projects which can be “substantially complete” by July 1 are eligible for allotments….”  (April 3, 1937, p.1)

“Five Morris County CCC camps held open house yesterday in observance of the fourth anniversary of the founding of the Civilian Conservation Corps.  An estimated 1,000 persons visited camps in Morristown, Whippany, Denville, Butler, and at the Oak Ridge Reservoir.

Festivities will continue today in some of the company headquarters….”

“WHIPPANY – Photographers for the March of Time newsreel snapped typical scenes at the CCC camp on the Morristown road, during the anniversary open house yesterday afternoon…..”

BUTLER – A panoramic model of the 50,000-acre Pequannock River watershed attracted the attention of 250 visitors at the anniversary open house of No. 239 yesterday….”  (April 5, 1937, p.1)

“The Woman’s Work and Art Exchange is co-operating with the Women’s Employment Society in an endeavor to sell more garments made by needy women in Morristown and vicinity.  To accomplish that they will open a special department at the Woman’s Exchange Building, 83 South street, on Wednesday.  The expense of this undertaking will be met entirely by voluntary contributions of time and money.  The Exchange has long carried articles made by expert needlewomen in its gift rooms but has not had sufficient demand for ordinary sewing.  With the opening of this new department it hopes to be able to assist the Employment Society in giving steady work to needy women.  Among the articles to be placed on sale will be infants dresses… suits, blouses, dress and underclothing for boys and girls…aprons…dish towels…and such staple articles for which there is everyday use….”  (April 5, 1937, p.3)

“PEQUANNOCK – Relief Director John Reynolds has reported that there were 18 families on relief representing 70 persons for March, and two of these were dropped from the roles [sic] for refusal to work out their time.  The total cost to the township was $570.10.  Mr. Reynolds has furnished Road Commissioner Philip Umstadter with a list of all relief recipients showing the number of hours they are indebted to the municipality.”  (April 8, 1937, p. 15)

“PARSIPPANY-TROY HILLS – Joseph Delaney, commander of Parsippanong Post, American Legion, charged that “politics” was being played in the local WPA project when he spoke before the Parsippany-Troy Hills Township Committee meeting last night.  He said that Mrs. Catherine Lubrano, of Lake Hiawatha, was engaged on the compilation of records project when she had no need for the job.  He said her husband was working.  He pointed out another young lady, Miss Florence Hanson, had applied and deserved the job more than Mrs. Lubrano…. (April 13, 1937, p.1)

“The Morris Township Committee took moves last night to free itself of supervision of the Morris County Welfare Board in relief matters.  Elden Mills, the Township attorney, was asked to find how the committee could sever relief connections with the board.  The action was predicated on Committeeman Dr. H. Leo Romine’s criticism of the board after he learned March relief cost nearly $300 more in March than in February.  Dr. Romine took exception to an increase of nearly $200 in the food cost while the case load increased only one person over February.  Asked for an explanation, Relief Director David R. O’Keeffe explained that five weekly food orders were issued to each client during March, whereas the usual amount is four.  Committeeman John J. Kennedy asked if relief clients got anything they were not entitled to.  “In my opinion they are,” O’Keefe answered….” April 13, 1937, p.1)

“NETCONG – The Board of Education unanimously voted in favor of restoration of salary reductions for the entire teaching staff for the coming school year at its monthly meeting last night….The board will restore to all of its teachers who were in service at the time of the salary cuts the 15 percent which was deducted.  This is required by law, the State having passed no legislation this year authorizing salary cuts.  A graduated scale which is based on the length of the service rendered has been prepared for those teachers who were hired since the salary cuts became effective.  Ten percent will be restored to the teachers who will complete their second year of work and five percent to those completing one year in the local system.  Restoration of pay cuts will incur approximately $3,700 as an additional expense item for school operation.  This will be partly met by the $1,500 the Board of Education has received from the one percent State Relief Fund.  The Relief Fund money is allotted annually to various school boards throughout the State at the discretion of the commissioner of education….”  (April 15, 1937, p.1)

 “MADISON – The Madison Board of Education last night approved a $7,900 WPA project to complete the renovation of the grounds surrounding the high school.  The WPA share will be $6,642, and the board will pay $1,258.  The larger part of the money will be spent completing the work on the athletic field behind the high school.  For 18 months the field has been unavailable for sports while various WPA squads were working on it.  The project was stopped completely last November when the original appropriation of $25,000 was exhausted.  With the remainder of the new appropriation the driveway of Britten street will be repaired; toilets will be installed in the garage for the use of tennis players; and top soil and seed will be leveled over the several sections of the entire project.  About 20 men will be employed on the work, which will begin Monday….”  (April 15, 1937, p.11)

“The Morris County Welfare Board has decided to give County municipalities the option of continuing temporary relief under the board’s supervision or of continuing completely on their own.  Each community may make its own choice.  Heretofore the municipalities have been required to allow the board to administer temporary relief, and to decide all cases where clients thought they were not being treated justly.  The board will forfeit both these powers in communities so desiring.  The choice now offered affects only persons on temporary relief where available.  Other permanent relief cases—aged persons, crippled children, and others—will remain under the jurisdiction of the welfare board….Towns wishing to assume complete control must bear their own administrative expenses.  Relief grants to the temporaily [sic] poor will be paid directly out of municipal funds.  Under the board’s supervision, the practice has been for the grants to be paid first by the county, which is then reimbursed by the municipality.  In announcing the change today, Board President Mrs. Thomas W. Streeter said she believed the “court of public opinion” will be pressure enough to keep relief standards sufficiently “decent and adequate” in those places which go on their own….For some time, the board, operating under the County Welfare Law, has believed that those who have been paying for relief, namely, the municipalities, should also be privileged to administer it.  The board has sought amendment to the County Welfare Law to divest itself of administrative power and to retain only power of appeal on disputed relief cases, but the securing of an amendment seems unlikely at the present time.  Therefore, to create the new local control set-up, the board has decided to operate instead under the State Financial Assistance Law of 1936, which provides that temporary relief may be controlled either by a County Welfare Board or locally.”  (April 16, 1937, p.1)

“Some brighter rays for the welfare work and costs of the Town were seen in discussion at the Board of Aldermen last night although the indications were that the local costs would run about $40,000 this year.  So far, for three months, it has cost $14,000 but the starting up of several WPA projects like the Dutch Elm, has resulted in considerable decrease of the relief rolls since April 1.  Twenty men have been placed at Lake Denmark, the largst [sic] number ever from here, while 18 will go to work shortly on the Cedar Knolls water extension….Chairman Edward G. Broderick said last year the Town appropriated $21,000 and received about $33,000 from the State, a total of about $54,000.  This year $13,000 was put in the budget.  Already $14,000 had been spent but included in this was some balance from last year and some appropriations from the State.  Town Clerk Nelson S. Butera said that State reimbursements were expected and the cost to the Town would be between $800 and $900 a month, so there should be a balance at the end of the year if the Legislature acts before June.  However, should favorable legislation be passed, continuing the aid, the Town will have exhausted its funds by the middle of the year….A resolution was executed at the request of the WPA on the Speedwell Lake bottom stripping project stating it was understood the WPA may not be able to continue to operate after June 30 and the Town will agree to complete any work not done at that time….”  (April 17, 1937, p.1)

“TRENTON (AP) – An increasing number of old people have called on New Jersey for financial help and the state division of old age assistance predicted today the burden “will continue to increase for years to come.”  A report for the year 1935-6, including a four-year summary of the division’s work, showed that from 3,691 persons in 1932 the list grew to 15,904 persons in the fiscal year ended last June.  In the four-year period, 36,532 persons applied for aid and grants were given to 22,293.  From expenditures of $1,204,162 in 1932, the cost rose to $2,770,624 in 1935-6.  The average monthly check was $15.88 as compared to $14.98 four years ago.  “New Jersey has not reached a peak load either in terms of the number of aged persons assisted or in terms of annual expenditures,” the report said….”  (April 19, 1937, p.1)

“BOONTON – Boonton reverted to the former method of handling relief, shifting control directly to a local board and a relief director….”  (April 20, 1937, p.1)

“TRENTON – Like the proverbial lightning flashing from a clear sky, Senator Theodore B. Dawes, Democrat, of Blairstown, Warren County, turned against his party’s highways diversion bill in a vote last night to sustain the veto of Governor Hoffman.  No one suspected Dawes would cast his lot with those Republicans who have fought diversions and uphold the hand of the governor, for Dawes had consistently voted to divert relief money from the highway department.  Up to the hour when consideration of the veto was moved, diversionists of the Senate felt sure of over-riding the governor’s objections and passing the bill.  Had there been the slightest indication a Democrat would repudiate his party position, Senator William H. Smathers, of Atlantic, undoubtedly never would have gone to Washington and taken the oath as United States Senator for early in the week he asked Senator Clee, of Essex, leader of the opposition Republicans, if there was any break in the ranks of those pledged to go along with diversions.  If there was an [sic] break Smathers is reported to have tolk [sic] Clee, he (Smathers) would remain in the State Senate until a vote on the veto was taken….What prompted Dawes to desert his party is explained by the Warren Senator as a threat from Washington that if highway funds were diverted by New Jersey, the State would lose $500,000 of federal money for roads.  But Democratic leaders believe there was something more potent than the proposed federal grant that swayed Dawes….Now diversion rests on the senatorial table with Governor Hoffman potentially victorious.  The measure was beaten by a 10 to 9 vote and it will take 11 votes to move it for reconsideration, otherwise diversion is defeated, the governor upheld, and relief entirely up to municipalities with no hope of State aid….”  (April 20, 1937, p.1; article by Wood Vance)

“TRENTON, (AP) – Republican and Democratic Senate leaders sought today to win support of their colleagues for two unemployment relief programs.  Three Republican Senators who voted for the Democratic bill to divert $7,917,000 in highway funds and two Democratic Senators whose defection prevented re-passage of the measure over Governor Harold G. Hoffman’s veto apparently held the key to the outcome….There appeared little likehood [sic] the Democraticcontrolled House would consent to any substitute relief program.  [Majority Leader Charles E.] Loizeaux refused to disclose details of the Republican relief plan.  He said, however, it would fix definite contributions by municipalities in the hope of bringing reductions in cost.  During the last half of last year, he said, local governments paid less toward relief than they did in 1929 before State aid began.  What other sources the measure would tap was not revealed.  Loizeaux declined to comment on a report Senators were considering drawing on a fund of $4,000,000 repaid from loans to schools….”  (April 22, 1937, p.1)

“DENVILLE – Company 1256, CCC, has been chosen as one of the 250 CCC Companies throughout the nation at which the new enrollees, who have been entered [sic] the camps within the last two weeks, will have been tested for general utility and interests as part of a program now being carried on by the American Youth Commission.  Harold Danenhower, of the graduate department of psychology, Rutgers University, spent two days at the Denville camp.  On each day two hours in the evening were used to have the new men complete written and visual tests which are actual standard ability and interest tests or revisions of well known tests of this type…. The American Youth Commission which is sponsoring this work, was formed by the General Education Board and is privately financed.  It has completed one and a half years of an allotted five years of studying the problems and needs of youth with the purpose of translating these into action.  The work with the CCC is only one part of their program….”  (April 23, 1937, p.12)

“A recently completed WPA survey of Jockey Hollow, has established conclusively the exact location of more than 300 huts used during the occupation of the site by Washington’s army during the Revolution, as well as 10 miles of army roads and old property lines, and has provided data on which the National Park Service and the CCC are basing a reconstruction of the camp….When the survey opened almost all trace of the campsite, including the “hutts” mentioned in contemporary letters and other documents, had disappeared.  The thousand-odd acres of Jockey Hollow had reverted to woodland or were included in orderly, well-tended farms.  To establish the definite limits of the camp old army maps were studied….Faded letters from members of the army and from residents of Morristown during the Revolution were read and reread….the WPA surveyor found the old maps surprisingly accurate, and through them had little difficulty in locating the sites of the huts in which ten brigades of 12,000 soldiers wintered in 1779….Careful digging brought to light the fallen stone chimneys of several huts….All timber used in the huts had long since rotted away, but hand-wrought iron nails found in the dirt established the position of door and window openings….The location and size (19 feet by 31 feet 6 inches) of the camp hospital, has been established by the WPA investigation, while letters examined during the preliminary survey speak eloquently of the smallpox which ravaged the camp, which necessitated the addition of two hospital wings, each 31 feet 6 inches by 16 feet.  Aided by descriptions and illustrations from the  “Economical Observations on Military Hospitals,” written in 1813 by Dr. James Tilton, who had been in charge, the National Park Service and the CCC have reconstructed in faithful detail the hospital hut of which the army was so proud.  Seen in the light of modern medical knowledge, the hut makes one marvel any patient ever left it alive….These men and their comrades who had wintered at Jockey Hollow…must have thrown away thousands of articles which were “junk” to them.  These same things today would be invaluable aids to historical research and the CCC is searching for the camp dump....so far without uncovering any sign of the refuse pile so eagerly sought.”  (April 24, 1937, p.3)

“”The setting up of a County Planning Commission April 14 has taken on added meaning with the compilation, by a WPA project, of significant data with which the commission may work.  This project, in operation at the Court House here, has supplied free technical and clerical help in the preparation of maps and research data.  The material created will be invaluable to the commission’s making of recommendations for the residential, industrial, and social advancement of the county.  The WPA project staff is now in the midst of its survey, gathering data on population trends, taxes, tax delinquencies, school facilities, realty development, and social tendencies.  All data will be illustrated by means of graphs to be prepared….A major accomplishment of the WPA research workers has been the creation of a map after consultation with tax assessors.  This map divides the municipalities of the county, with the county roads indicated in color.  The contour and topographic al nature of the area is easily observable.  One can see the rolling rivers and mountain ridges and get a comprehensive grasp of the terrain.  One can also see a green spot, with the tiny figure of a red plane, where the proposed airport would be—a project dear to Morristown and which it is aiming to have brought to fruition.”  (April 26, 1937, p.7)

“NEW BRUNSWICK – New Jersey refermative [sic] institutions in District 4 of the WPA have been benefiting from this Federal agency’s program almost from its inception, as have other public welfare agencies.  Work projects have been carried out, or are in progress, at the State Home for Boys near Jamesburg in Middlesex county, at the New Jersey Reformatory in Woodbridge Township, near Rahway, the State Reformatory for Women and the Glen Gardner Sanatorium, both in Hunterdon County….At the State Hospital at Greystone Park…the employes’ building received an exterior and interior painting through a WPA allotment….”  (April 26, 1937, p.14)

“TRENTON -- ….The Senate passed the diversion bill, notwithstanding the Governor’s veto, shortly after 9 o’clock last night, then adjourned a week while the House, compelled under the law to wait a day, passed it at 1:17 o’clock, daylight saving time, this morning.  The turning point came when Senator Theodore B. Dawes of Warren County returned to the Democratic fold after having flopped over to the Republican, anti-diversionists last Monday, and blasted all hope of diverting a dime of road money.  Yesterday afternoon pressure was applied to the Warren Senator by that spearhead of Hague Democracy, Senator Edward P. Stout of Hudson.  Then last night when the bill was moved from the table upon motion of Senator Clee of Essex, the Warren Senator rose and confessed he had erred.  “After a more careful study of this bill, said the Senator, “I find I was mistaken last week when I said it affected my County.  I find the bill doesn’t affect Warren County, and that it doesn’t affect Federal aid to the State.  So I am going to vote with my party to help the needy.”….No sooner had the Senate adjourned than a telegram was received by Governor Hoffman from Thomas H. MacDonald, Federal Commissioner of Public Roads in reply to a message sent last night by the governor asking whether the federal bureau had authorized any statement that New Jersey would not be penalized if the diversion bill was passed.  The commissioner wired:  “….Should present diversion bill go through it would constitute a new act of diversion and would make certain deduction on account one-third for the apportionment of the fiscal years of 1938 and 1939 or a further penalty of $1,320,000.”  For an hour the House waited for the diversion bill until the Democrats were fearful it had again been lost, or strayed, or stolen.  But it finally put in an appearance, followed early this morning by one of the most bitter personal battles between Republicans and Democrats that has occurred in the Assembly in many sessions….the House adjourned until 12:01 A. M. ….  In the meantime the Democrats went into conference, also the Republicans.  The latter sought shelter in chambers opposite the Assembly hall and later in the governor’s private office.  “Coffee and sandwiches will be served to members of the House,” the Speaker said.  But before the Republicans returned the Democrats ate up all the sandwiches and drank all the coffee leaving the GOP hungry and thirsty.  Which prompted one starving Republican to observe that such are the relief ways of the Bourbons from the federal government on down.  In the executive office the governor spoke kindly to the little band of Republican Assemblymen.  He told them not to consider him or his veto on the diversion bill as he realized there was merit on both sides.  So he urged them to vote as they believed their constituents in the several counties would have them vote.  The governor was still talking when the hour of 12:01 A.M. arrived.  Democrats took their seats in the House, the speaker ordered a roll call which showed 34 Democrats present, then sent the sergeant-ofarms to round up the Republicans.  Five minutes ticked away, then five and five more, but no Republicans.  “We’ll pass the bill without them,” shouted the majority leader who was then in the speaker’s chair, Speaker Walker having taken the floor to sponsor the bill.  A roll call was ordered, then suddenly in filed the Republicans. “Wait a minute,” put in Minority Leader Herbert Pascoe of Union.  “Wait a minute?  Why we have waited 17 minutes,” came back Walker.  “Now just a minute, said Pascoe.  “I asked you to delay voting until we arrived.  Now you are trying to steamroller this thing through.  I’m not in sympathy with such high-handed tactics.”  “You are out of order.  Sit down.” demanded the speaker.  “I’m not sitting down nor any other Republicans,” replied Pascoe.  The roll call went on and the speaker announced 33 had voted for it.  “No they haven’t,” hurled back Pascoe.  “Henry Young and Tom Taggart are recorded as voting for it and they were not in their seats when the roll was called and have no right to vote.  (Both Taggart and Young are Republicans).  And I warn you if you count them this bill is illegally passed.”  “Don’t you count me,” said Young.  “This thing is a frame-up.”  “And I won’t stand for such rotten politics,” yelled Taggart.  “I’m voting for the bill, but not the way you are running things here.”  “Well, we have 31 votes which passes the bill anyway,” said the speaker.  And the bill was declared passed and now a law.  But the row didn’t end here.  When the House adjourned to meet next Monday the Republicans and Democrats went at it again.  They kept at it until the State House janitor put out the lights….”  (April 27, 1937, p.1 & 11; article by Wood Vance)

“The present administration has had four long years in which to take an accurate, complete, and full documented census of the unemployed in this country.  It has not yet done anything about it—and the fruits of this do-nothing policy are now being reaped.  President Roosevelt says the government will need to spend some $1,500,000,000 on relief during the coming year.  Two groups in Congress are rising to oppose this.  One group declares that the $1,000,000,000 will be ample; the other insists that at least $2,500,000,000 is absolutely necessary.  The trouble is that exact, indisputable facts about the extent of the unemployment problem today are not at hand.  There are plenty of estimates, but they are estimates and no more, and they all vary….”  (editorial, April 28, 1937)

“PARSIPPANY – The National Youth Administration’s girls’ camp at the old County Children’s Home here was officially welcomed to Morris County yesterday by a group of ladies who  formed themselves into a hospitality committee.  These visiting women, having inspected the new camp, promised to secure the co-operation of their clubs in the formulation of an active program of talks, entertainments, and outings for the campers….Run with National Youth Administration funds, the camp is the counterpart of the boys’ CCC establishments.  The eighty girls, ranging in age from [19] to 25 years, are required to work 50 hours a month, or approximately two hours a day on a regular NYA project.  For this they earn their room and board plus $5 monthly cash allowance for personal expenses.  They spend most of the day, between 9 A. M. and 3:15 P. M., six days a week, in study, discussion, and practise groups.  Subjects offered are English, sociology, economics, hygiene, cooking, sewing, and budgeting.  Each girl is responsible for the upkeep of her own room and she assists, in a rotation, for the general cars [sic] of the camp.  She may be assigned one week to dish-washing, the next to care of the recreation hall, etc.”  (April 28, 1937, p.13)

“Continued steady climb in relief cases was indicated in the monthly report of the Welfare Board, made to the Board of Freeholders yesterday.  In old age assistance there were 27 new grants and 11 were discontinued, bringing the total to 918 at a cost of $16,080.78.  There were 28 cases where increases were granted and seven were decreased.  Under general welfare, 86 new cases and 21 re-opened cases were considered, 22 being referred for outdoor support, 21 for municipal relief, 15 for institutional investigations while the others represented crippled children, out of town inquiries and “general” cases….The temporary relief case load has shown a steady increase throughout the last five months, reaching a peak of 804 in March at a cost of $16,655.12.  There were 25 youths, out of 45 applicants, sent to CCC camps.  Due to the failure of the legislature to pass relief appropriations seven municipalities have already approached or exceeded their entire budget appropriation for the year and it will be necessary for them to pass emergency appropriations to carry on relief until State aid is received…..”  (April 29, 1937, p.1)

“Reports that WPA workers are to take 40 percent pay cuts could not be verified in this vicinity this morning.  A large scale employer had informed the Daily Record that WPA laborers have been coming to him asking for work and saying they anticipated 40 percent salary slashes at almost any time.  At three WPA projects visited this morning, nothing could be learned of the supposedly impending cuts.  However, there were off hand statements to the effect the Federal government may end the WPA completely by June 30, forcing all employees to find their living in private industry or on municipal relief rolls.  Another project worker usually well informed said Washington will force 50 percent of all workers to retire from the WPA by the end of June.  This would mean a reduction of from about 3,000,000 workers to about 1,500,000.  If there have been no official orders on reductions, everywhere in the WPA there is a feeling something is about to happen, and project workers are living in what they call another “era of doubt.”  Such eras are simultaneous with the Federal government’s spasms of retrenchment and economy.  In New York State, WPA employees have taken sizeable cuts in recent weeks, but it is felt exactly the same procedure may not follow here, for scales in the Morris County area are already low.  Laborers on the Speedwell Lake dam project get only $58 a month, and professional men on the Federal Writers’ Project in the Hall of Records draw salaries averaging only $69 a month for 81 hours of work.”  (April 29, 1937, p.1)