Federal Relief of Economic Distress

Report Outline
Proposals for Relief of Current Distress
Development of Federal Relief Policies
Federal Outlays for Provision of Seed
Relief of Unemployment by Federal Government
Special Focus

Proposals for Relief of Current Distress

Further consideration of the respective functions of the federal and state governments with regard to the relief and prevention of economic distress will necessarily be involved when Congress proceeds to consider the unemployment and drought relief measures suggested by President Hoover in his annual message, and the additional proposals advanced by members of Congress and by private agencies. The more immediate relief measures recommended by the President call for an expansion of federal employment, and for the extension of new seed and feed loans to fanners in drought-stricken areas.

Additional proposals which have been suggested in recent weeks would go far beyond the presidential recommendations. Citing a Canadian appropriation of $4,000,000 for direct unemployment relief, Labor, weekly newspaper of the railroad workers' brotherhoods, has urged that the federal government allocate at least $50,000,000 for direct relief in the United States. An appropriation to this end was endorsed on November 11, 1930, by Senators Wagner (D., N. Y.) and McNary (R., Ore.), Senator Wagner proposed that federal funds be used to supplement state relief, “since it is a state problem, though the federal government must do its share,” while Senator McNary said that he looked with approval “on the plan to appropriate adequate funds to be administered by the Red Cross or some similar organization for relief of the hungry and those in distress in America.”

Proposals for Emergency Relief of Agriculture

Senator Capper (R., Kans.) stated on November 21 that he would “like to see 50,000,000 bushels of the wheat the Farm Board has purchased fed to the jobless and unemployed.” The wheat, he said, “could be ground into flour without much expense,” and this would also “be the most practical way of getting this wheat off the market and away from the visible supply.” “We have shipped a lot of corn to Russia and food to other parts of the world in the past when there was suffering,” Senator Capper said, and “I don't see any objection to taking care of our own people.” He added that while he doubted the necessity of a further direct appropriation, “If it is found necessary, I will favor it.”