Showers from Heaven

Just after he signed the $3,722,905,000 Lend-Spend bill last week, Franklin Roosevelt observed:

"There have been a few raindrops coming from the heavens that probably will be followed by much-needed showers."

The pen-squiggles which he made precipitated, not an immediate downpour of cash upon the parched populace, but a flood of mimeographed announcements by his spending agencies in Washington, vying with each other to do their heavenly duty.

WPA. Readiest to go was WPA, where Adminstrator Harry Hopkins had only to say the word and thousands of added workers would be taken on the rolls at WPA's field offices. While that was happening, the more visible moves of WPA were: 1) To approve Sidney Hillman's plan for buying $10,000,000 of men's and boys' clothes for distribution to relief clients (TIME, June 27). 2) To call for bids on $12,000,000 worth of cement, sand, gravel, crushed stone, paving asphalt. 3) To meet with President David Lasser of the Workers' Alliance of America (national union of WPA & relief workers) and hear his demand that WPA's minimum wage be raised from $21 per month.

Mr. Lasser's call was opportune. When the South opposed the Wages-&-Hours bill without pay differentials, the Administration argued that the South would never get anywhere unless it paid its labor better. Now was the Administration's moment to make good on that view. With President Roosevelt's approval, and to Mr. Lasser's delight, Mr. Hopkins announced wage boosts for WPA workers in 13 Southern States. Minimum pay went up from $21 a month for unskilled labor in rural districts to $26. In four states-- North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma--all classes of workers were boosted. In two States--Kentucky and Oklahoma-- where Roosevelt Senators happen to be threatened in primary elections, the boosts were sharpest of all. No explanation was given except that "the President and Mr. Hopkins wanted it that way."

In addition, Mr. Hopkins removed WPA's $1,000-a-year ceiling for Northern and Western white-collar workers.

Following these announcements, Mr. Hopkins' deputy, Aubrey Williams, exhorted 800 Workers' Alliance delegates: "You know who your friends are. Keep your friends in power!"

FSCC. Federal Surplus Commodities Corp., headed by Jesse W. Tapp, also went into action. The Lend-Spend bill gave Mr. Tapp $50,000,000. On hand from previous appropriations he still had about $30,000,000. He revealed that in June, FSCC's beneficiaries had increased by 4,000,000 to a total of 11,000,000 persons receiving surplus farm products free. With his new money Mr. Tapp set out to buy & give even more generously.

PWA. Greatest fanfare about new Lending & Spending came from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works (PWA), with a fresh $965,000,000 to allocate. Into his offices with his bride marched the newlywed PWAdministrator and Secretary of the Interior, beaming Harold LeClair Ickes.* Out of his offices soon issued five fat volumes listing 1,432 projects which PWA would start at once. For these, PWA was supplying $17,862,500 in loans, $157,332,741 in grants. Another $175,195,241 was to come from the projects' promoters--so that much more would rain down, in addition to the flow from Federal heaven.

On its fifth anniversary last week, PWA proudly pointed out that it had brought forth 25,000 permanent improvements on the U. S. scene. For the first 2,000 projects of its 1938 program, which include everything from a subway for Chicago to fleet moorings for the Navy, the following amounts of materials would be ordered in the next few months from U. S. industry:

Iron & steel products. . . $90,800,000

Foundry & machine shop products, including machinery . . . . 27,500,000

Electrical machinery, apparatus and supplies. . . . 23,000,000

Lumber & millwork. . . . 23,400,000

Cement. . . . 22,800.000

Brick, tile, etc . . . . . 13,400,000

Heating materials. . . . 9,600,000

Plumbing materials . . . . 8,700,000

Other materials. . . . 102,800,000

Total. . . . $322,000,000

Uncle Dan. To the general excitement and enthusiasm in Washington was added the voice of Secretary of Commerce "Uncle Dan" Roper. Recession psychology, said he, had now become "a shadow of its former self." Forgetting the President's metaphor and mixing his own still further, he added: "Economic skies are definitely clearing."

*Newshawks asked if he would carry Mrs. Ickes across the threshold when they got home. "Nothing doing!" said Mr. Ickes. Said athletic Mrs. Ickes: ''After all the French pastry I've been eating, I don't think he could do it!"

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