Pressure v. Blossoms

"I am not sending this message to the Congress merely for the purpose of going through motions. . . .

"I cannot bring myself to believe that these discharged men and women will contribute to the prosperity of the United States, nor do I believe that the merchants and landlords they are now dealing with will become more prosperous when their trade ceases."

Thus, adding sharp irony to earnestness, did Franklin Roosevelt last week again formally request the now symbolic $150,000,000 which Congress cut from its February-through-June deficiency appropriation for WPA. Congress had left the door open for the President to ask for more money if he could define a new "emergency." He now said: "The reduction in the appropriation in itself created an emergency."* He said half the $725,000,000 voted by Congress in February would be gone by April 1, with about 3,000,000 clients still on WPA's rolls. To make the money last through June, 400,000 workers must be dropped in April, he said; 600,000 more in May; 200,000 more in June. The hardship on these 1,200,000 would be felt by their 3,800,000 dependents, not to mention other millions on WPA's "waiting list."

Quick to add heat to the President's pressure were C. I. O., which called loudly for haste by the Congress, and the Workers Alliance (union of unemployed and reliefers), which announced a march to Washington of 100 delegates representing 800,000 Southern WPA workers for a protest meeting this week. WPAdministrator "Pink" Harrington went up to the Capitol to testify in detail about his needs, armed with State-by-State figures on the impending layoffs. These maneuvers worried many a Congressman. On others they had an opposite effect. Apostles of Economy were goaded into balkiness. The first skirmish of the Second Battle of Relief was promptly fought.

In the House, Virginia's Clifton Woodrum was chairman of the Appropriations subcommittee which handled the last several WPA bills. He was one of those who cut $150,000,000 from the deficiency bill.

Last week the chairman of the full Committee, old (80) Edward Taylor of Colorado, announced after a White House conference (at which he promised a a $994,000 irrigation project in Colorado's Delta County), that this time he would handle the $150,000,000 item himself, and that he was for it. "Purge!" cried the anti-Spenders and set their heels down harder than ever.

Last time the President asked for more WPA money, a potent factor on his side was snow on the ground in Washington. Last week, though a late March blizzard might yet come, nature sided with the Economizers. The White House lawns were verdant. Cherry and forsythia bloomed in capital gardens.

*Last week Representative Bruce Barton of Manhattan quoted the record to show that in six years the President had discovered "emergencies" or "crises" no less than 39 times, an average of every six weeks. "Is it any wonder," Mr. Barton demanded, "that the people are emotionally exhausted?"

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