The Permanent Problem of Relief

Report Outline
Senate Inquiry on Unemployment and Relif
Evolution of Federal Relief Policies
Demands for Return of Relief to States
Social Security and Emergency Relief

Senate Inquiry on Unemployment and Relif

Hearings begun last month before the special Senate Committee on Unemployment and Relief Problems are to be resumed on February 28. This committee, headed by Senator Byrnes (D., S. C.), was appointed in pursuance of a resolution of June 10, 1937, providing in broad terms for an investigation of the problems of unemployment, including technological unemployment, and relief. The Senate inquiry was sponsored by Senators Hatch (D., N. M.) and Murray (D., Mont.). The House failed to act on a joint resolution, likewise sponsored by them and adopted by the Senate in 1936 and again in 1937, which would have provided for appointment by the President of a non-partisan commission of “well-qualified and distinguished citizens” to conduct “a national study of the whole problem of unemployment and relief and make recommendations looking to a comprehensive, intelligent, and just policy for the future.”

The joint resolution carried a preamble stating that it was “evident that the problems of unemployment and relief have passed the emergency phase and these burdens now appear to be long-term charges against the national government.” While the separate Senate resolution contained no such declaration, it was presumed the Byrnes committee would seek to draw up the outlines of a permanent relief policy. Its hearings in January were confined largely to discussion of the current business recession. Various prominent industrialists, merchants, and bankers were questioned as to their views on the causes of the slump and on possible remedies. It is anticipated that at the forthcoming hearings chief attention will be directed to the relief problem itself.

When Congress in 1937 voted an appropriation of $1,500,000,000 for relief in the fiscal year 1938, it sought to erect a safeguard against any necessity for a future deficiency appropriation by attaching to the bill an amendment by Rep. Woodrum (D., Va.) requiring that expenditures be so spread over the twelve months as to make the fund last through the full fiscal year. Its efforts in this regard, however, were nullified by the increase in relief needs resulting from the business recession. When the situation became acute in December, a rise in W. P. A. rolls was authorized. Without additional funds, the Woodrum amendment would have necessitated substantial curtailment of such employment this spring.