Richard and WPA

Richard Malone of Smithfield, Pa. received a letter last month identifying him as WPA Worker No. 4426-38632 and assigning him to work on a local road project. His parents, on relief, did nothing about it; obviously it was a clerical error. When Richard received another letter, firing him from the job for failure to report, his brother Albert, 20, went to WPA headquarters, explained that Richard, aged 7, was in the second grade. WPA headquarters then cut the Malone family off relief. At length Brother Albert got himself certified as the "priority worker" of the family and was awarded the job originally assigned to Richard.

Last week, Richard Malone received a WPA check for $6.54 for 13 hours of manual labor. Father Malone returned the check, but this time the story got into the newspapers. Suspended under suspicion of collusion were two WPA timekeepers, Gilbert Colley and Max Whoolery, and Richard Malone actually got a job posing for photographers, sitting down, with pick & shovel beside him.

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