"No" to Pennsylvania

Like God, Reconstruction Finance Corp. will help only those who help themselves. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania discovered this fact last week when, cap in hand, it appeared in Washington seeking a $10,000.000 relief loan from R. F. C.

Flanked by his Lieutenant Governor, his Attorney General, his Secretary of Revenue, his Secretary of Welfare, the Speaker of the House and four legislative committee chairmen. Governor Gifford Pinchot pleaded his State's desperate condition before the R. F. C. board. Pennsylvania, it was claimed, harbors 1.250,000 jobless on whom some $130,000,000 has been spent locally for relief. The State Government put up $10,000.000 for the county poor districts.

Unimpressed, R. F. C. decided that Pennsylvania had not done enough for itself to earn a Federal loan. It had no State-wide relief agency. Its Legislature, now sitting in special session, was haggling over another $12,000.000 relief bill. It had not materially curtailed expenses. In denying Pennsylvania's request Atlee Pomerene, new R. F. C. chairman, announced what amounted to a major policy in distributing the Government's $300,000,000 in relief funds:

"It must be borne in mind that we have funds which are to be expended not in lieu of State or local relief but to be supplemental thereto, if, when, and as necessary. "We feel persuaded that the Legislature of Pennsylvania and its several political subdivisions have not done their full duty with respect to furnishing funds for relief purposes. . . . We shall defer action until we know what the Legislature will do for the relief of its own people."

Governor Pinchot led the sad march back to Harrisburg where there was hostile muttering to the effect that R. F. C. was "hoarding" its relief funds, that Pennsylvania's request had been denied because it would go Republican in November, loan or no loan.

Other Governors had better luck last week in convincing R. F. C. they needed a helping hand. Ohio's White got $852,662 for four destitute counties. Michigan's Brucker borrowed $1,800,000 for Detroit after showing that the city had raised and spent $36,000,000 on jobless relief in three years.

Meanwhile applications for advances on self-liquidating public projects began to pile up at the R. F. C. door. The Port of New York Authority wanted financial help to start a second vehicular tunnel under the Hudson River at a cost of $75,000,000. For joint fee of $5,000 Los Angeles hired Joseph Scott. Hoover nominator at Chicago, and William Gibbs McAdoo, Roosevelt stampeder at Chicago, to wangle a $32.000,000 loan with which to build a power transmission line from Hoover Dam. A Miami citizen sought $12,000,000 to build a highway bridge from the mainland to Key West. New York's crafty Mayor Walker prepared for a grandstand demand for R. F. C. funds to finish his $30,000,000 Tri-Borough Bridge (Manhattan-Queens-Bronx).

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