"Snootiest People"

A nice plump young man with a booming voice, a repetitive tongue and a Southern accent is George E. Allen, one of the three Commissioners of the District of Columbia. He was born in Booneville, Miss. His good friend, Senator Pat Harrison, got him his job. Long a hotelman, he became vice president and general manager of the Wardman Real Estate Properties, Inc. in Washington in 1928.

When George Allen was appointed Commissioner of the District of Columbia by President Roosevelt he had the reputation of being closer to more Senators than any previous commissioner and Washington stuck up its nose at him as a pretty common variety of politician. Since then the Capital has revised its opinion. Commissioner Allen is credited with having done a good job of reorganizing local relief agencies. To solve the question of whether liquor stores shall be permitted in the wet-dry Tacoma Park section of the city, he has called an election, the first time since 1848 that Washingtonians have had a chance to cast votes.

Fortnight ago Commissioner Allen set out on a week's junket, financed out of his own pocket. He took a train to Milwaukee, then traveled by street car and bus to Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Chicago. Much of the time he went unshaven. He never spent more than $1.25 for a hotel room. Everywhere he presented him self as a candidate for work, in bread lines, at government relief stations, at employment agencies. When he got back to Washington last week he had something to say :

"Our employment system is wrong from beginning to end. The snootiest people on God's green earth are to be found around the employment agencies run by the Federal Government. When a man asks them for a job they act as though they were doing you a favor just to let you make application.

"Many of the offices closed at noon. You'd think they'd stay open all day trying to get people off relief rolls and back into jobs. . . .

"If the relief organizations function properly we won't have to watch the Communists. The reason why they gather a following is because they are the only ones who will listen to a man's story and try to do something about it. They're sympathetic. A crowd will gather around while one of them talks but just let a rumor get around that jobs can be had at some other place and pretty soon the crowd will be gone.

"Ninety-eight percent of the people out of work and on relief want jobs. They don't want relief. The relief people should take the same attitude the Communists do."

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