For 1940

Actress Tallulah Bankhead's uncle-&-father-hugging act of last fortnight (TIME, July 3) had the effect of winning Uncle John and enough other Senators to restore the Federal Theatre Project to the 1940 Relief Bill. Miss Bankhead should have hugged more Representatives. When the bill went to conference, the House men simply would not warm up. They killed FTP dead, but they did agree to some other Senate generosities. As sent to the President and signed by him sorrowfully ("definite hardship and inequality on ... 8,000,000 if we count in their families"), the act:

>Provided $1,755,600,000 in all; $1,477,000,000 of it for WPA, to support an average of 2,000,000 workers.

>Provided that $11,000,000 be set aside for white-collar projects other than theatre.

>Fixed at $52,000 the size of any WPA building project.

>Retained one-man control of WPA. (Federal Works Administrator Carmody promptly announced he would retain Colonel Francis ["Pink"] Harrington whose Army pay of $7,200 the Senate supplemented with $2,800.

>Restored to WPA $125,000,000 which the House wished to divert to PWA.*

>Provided that workers shall be furloughed without pay every 18 months, but only for 30 days (instead of 60 as desired by the House).

>Raised Farm Security Administration's allotment to $143,000,000, left National Youth Administration's at $100,000,000 (still $20,000,000 above last year).

The President received and signed the bill two hours before the end of fiscal 1939.

*As the new fiscal year began last week, Reorganization took effect and PWA merged with WPA, which now means Works Projects Administration. A last act of Harold Ickes before turning his PWA over to its new big boss, John Carmody, was to rescind a $21,600 grant to the University of Georgia because he had learned the "dormitory" it would build was a new lodge for Sigma Nu, fraternity of Lawrence Wood ("Chip") Robert, secretary of the National Democratic Committee and adroit wangler of Federal grants & contracts. Mr. Ickes had previously raised Cain over commissions claimed by Mr. Robert's construction firm for PWA work in Georgia.

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