Plans & Suggestions

On two fronts President Hoover's Committee on Unemployment Relief was busy last week. Generalissimo Walter Sherman Gifford was in the second week of his five-week campaign to raise funds locally for Unemployment relief. Meantime the committee's sub-committee on Employment Plans & Suggestions drafted a 6,000-word document telling the U. S. what it must do to lift itself out of the Depression.

The Plans-&-Suggestions men offered a ten-point program containing such sick old phrases as: "Resumption of Work," "WhiteCollar Relief," "Public Works," "Community Surveys," "Further Credit Relief." They urged citizens to take a "sporting chance" and begin again "our normal purchase of the necessities and comforts of life." Chairman of the committee is Board Chairman Harry A. Wheeler of Chicago's First National Bank. Members who signed the report included President Daniel Willard of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, President William Green of the American Federation of Labor, President Matthew Scott Sloan of New York Edison Co., President Alexander Legge of International Harvester, President Lloyd Raymond Smith of A. 0. Smith Corp. (automobile frames), Milwaukee.

Mr. Smith had his own remedy for the unemployment situation, which he claimed would provide work for 2,500,000 men, cause payment of $1,474,894,000 in extra wages if 100% effective. He wanted industries to agree to purchase immediately, in addition to their regular quarterly purchases, 15% of their annual requirement of materials, deliveries to be spread over six months. In addition he wanted every family in the U. S. to buy $79 worth of merchandise over normal needs for three months. His point: Buying in advance & in excess would insure workmen of continued employment for a definite period, enable them to help conditions by increasing their expenditures. The committee found the plan worth submitting to the public to determine its reaction.

At the end of the second week the relief campaign had shown the following results:

P: New York had raised over $3,000,000 in its $12,000,000 drive.

P: Chicago had raised $4,040,344 of $8,800,000.

P: San Francisco had raised $700,000 of $2,500,000.

P: Atlanta had raised $102,000 of $340,000 for the committee; $271,711 of $465,000 for its community chest.

P: Kansas City had raised $1,500,000 of $1,550,000.

P:Alexander Brown & Sons (bankers) pledged $30,000 to Baltimore's $2,130,711 campaign, which opens Nov. 6.

P: Wichita Falls, Tex., Green Bay. Wis., Elgin, 111., Duluth, Minn., Richmond, Ind., Mason City, Iowa, Lincoln, Neb., Bellingham & Seattle, Wash., all oversubscribed their drives.

P: Postmaster General Brown authorized the hiring of 176,205 extra employes to handle Christmas mail. C. Governor Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania planned to establish relief camps for the jobless, to put them to work building roads.

P: President Green of the A. F. of L. predicted 7,000,000 idle by January.

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