STATEMENT OF MILLARD W. RICE, OF WASHINGTON, D. C., LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES

Mr. RICE. Gentlemen of the committee, I certainly appreciate being given an opportunity to be heard at this late hour.

During the last session of Congress our organization, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, strongly advocated that there should be a preference to employment under the W. P. A. to American citizens.

Senator ADAMS. That is in the joint resolution; is it not?

Mr. RICE. That is in section 3 of the original public resolution No. 47; but in the House yesterday an amendment was added, proposed by Representative Lanham, which would tend to disrupt and destroy

Senator ADAMS. That was not adopted.

Mr. RICE. Yes; it was adopted.

Senator ADAMS. In reference to taking preference away from American citizens?

Mr. RICE. Oh, no; but, I mean, it changes it in such a way that it is going to make eligible some two or three million illegally entered aliens.

Senator ADAMS. No; I think not.

Mr. RICE. Providing they have been here for 10 years or more. Then they would be eligible on a par with American citizens. Senator ADAMS. I think not. Here is the proviso:

Provided, however, That no part of this appropriation shall be paid to any alien unless such alien has heretofore in good faith declared in the manner prescribed by law an intention to become a citizen or unless such alien has resided continuously and lived honorably in the United States since January 1, 1928, and is ineligible under the laws of the United States to become a citizen.

The only ones who are ineligible would be the Japanese and the Chinese and the criminals and the anarchists; so there is a comparatively small group.

Mr. RICE. That is the very plea we wish to make, Senator. The proviso is all right down to where it says "declared in the manner prescribed by law an intention to become a citizen"; but the last provision, particularly, we want to have go out.

Senator ADAMS. I think the committee understands the matter quite thoroughly.

Mr. RICE. I just want to call to your attention the fact that it would give a preference to illegally entered aliens. It restores a preference to those racially ineligible, and those illegally here who have been here 10 years or more. We want the joint resolution to contain the language that it contained before. If you wish to retain the first part of that language, we suggest that it be changed to read as follows:

Provided, however, That no part of this appropriation shall be paid to any alien unless such alien, at the time of the enactment hereof, was in possession of a valid declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States.

And then cut off the rest of the provision, in the second "unless" clause. That is the thing we want. Then you would still retain the preference for American citizens. If you put in the second proviso, the second "unless" clause, you would be disrupting what is in section 3 of the bill enacted last June; and that we do not want done.

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Senator ADAMS. This committee put in the amendment which is now in the act; and, whatever may result in the conference committee, I have an idea that this committee in all probability will stand by what it has done before.

Mr. RICE. We devoutly hope that that is what you will do; and I thank you for this opportunity to be heard.

STATEMENT OF DAVID LASSER, PRESIDENT OF THE WORKERS' ALLIANCE OF AMERICA

Senator ADAMS. Mr. Lasser, you were given a hearing in the House, were you not?

Mr. LASSER. We applied to the House committee for a hearing, but we were refused a hearing.

Senator ADAMS. There is a letter here from you.

Mr. LASSER. That is a statement which we left with the President when we met with him.

Senator ADAMS. I do not know where it came from, but there is a statement of your views on the relief situation.

(The following letter was ordered incorporated in the record:)

KENNEDY F. REA,

NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS,
WORKERS ALLIANCE OF AMERICA,
Washington, D. C., February 16, 1938.

Secretary, Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate,

Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. REA: Will you kindly bring this letter to the attention of the chairman of the Subcommittee on Deficiencies, and present our request for a hearing before the committee on the deficiency appropriation for Works Progress Administration, which will come to the committee from the House of Representatives? We are bringing this to your attention now because of our unfortunate experience with the House Appropriations Committee, which refused to grant us a hearing and closed its hearings after two sessions during which it heard only representatives of the Government. We believe this procedure is entirely undemocratic and does not permit other points of view to be heard.

We hope that the Senate Committee on Appropriations will permit us to voice the views of the unemployed on what appropriation is necessary.

May we hear from you on what time it would be possible for us to appear?

Very truly yours,

David Lasser, National President.

Mr. LASSER. There are a few additional remarks I should like to make, if I may, in view of the action which was taken by the House. Senator ADAMS. On what part of the joint resolution? Mr. LASSER. On the question of the amount.

Senator ADAMS. Go ahead.

Senator HALE. If you have a statement, please put it in the record. Senator ADAMS. If it is in writing, we should be glad to have you put it in the record.

Mr. LASSER. All right; I will put this statement in the record. I should like, in addition, to put in the record a number of telegrams which I was going to read to the committee, which we have received from our groups, indicating the need that exists for jobs.

[The matter referred to appears at the end of Mr. Lasser's oral statement.]

Senator ADAMS. We have had before us today testimony which I am sure will go way beyond anything in your telegrams. This bill provides for the addition of over 500,000 jobs.

Mr. LASSER. That is horribly insufficient, and that is the reason why I am here.

Senator ADAMS. All right; put in your statement and your tele

grams.

Mr. LASSER. What I want is to indicate to the committee our reasons for feeling that that amount is insufficient. Labor's NonPartisan League, the C. I. O., and the Conference of Mayors, have all joined in asking for at least 3,000,000 jobs as the absolute minimum; and what we wish to do is to protest at this time against the committee taking any action which would not solve any problems, but would simply make a small dent in a large problem. We feel that a minimum of $400,000,000, as requested by the mayors, is necessary to provide a minimum of 3,000,000 jobs; and we are asking also that the Woodrum amendment be removed from the joint resolution. You are up against the present emergency of rushing this thing through in one day's hearings, and rushing it on to the Senate floor, because the Woodrum amendment is in effect. If there had been no Woodrum amendment, when this situation arose, you could have taken your time deliberately, and intelligently to determine actually how much was necessary, what the need was.

Senator ADAMS. Mr. Lasser, do not think we are doing this without careful hearings, because we have had a very full statement here, and a very full statement in the House committee.

Mr. LASSER. The only thing that we object to in this procedure is that you are hearing only one side of the picture. You are hearing what the Government, the administration, is asking for.

Senator ADAMS. We are listening to you, and we are taking your statement and your telegrams. We have heard everybody who has asked to be heard.

Mr. LASSER. I mean, the only protest I want respectfully to make is that we are given only a few minutes to hurry the thing through when we represent the very people whom this whole thing is about. Senator ADAMS. No; you are not the only folks. The Government represents them all.

Mr. LASSER. It represents all the citizens, yes; that is true; but we are here as special pleaders for the group that this thing is concerned about. We feel that we do not have a full chance to present the case on this important issue; but I am very glad, in view of the circumstances, to present this material for the record.

Senator ADAMS. All right, sir.

Mr. LASSER. I do hope you will give careful consideration to this material. I know it is very difficult to consider it at this late date. You are in a sense adopting a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy by continuing to vote small driblets of money to a tremendous problem. Senator ADAMs. It has not occurred to us that we are voting such small amounts, because we know the problem of raising the money to pay them.

Senator HALE. Do you not think the relief appropriations have been fairly sizable up to date?

Senator ADAMS. Do you know how much money we have appropriated in this committee for relief since we have been here? Nearly $15,000,000.

Mr. LASSER. That is right.

Senator ADAMS. Where I come from, that is a lot of money.

Mr. LASSER. It is a lot of money. We are the first people to say we hope a day will come when it will not be necessary to come and ask for 1 penny; but just compare that $15,000,000 with the billions which the American wage earners have lost in wages. Take, for example, what they have lost since Labor Day. We had a calculation made, and from then until February 1 they lost $900,000,000— these 3,000,000 people who were discharged. By July they will have lost two and a quarter billion dollars, gone in purchasing power, and you are not going to make that up by an appropriation of $250,000,000. Unless that money is made up, this thing is going to deepen and get worse. We met with the President last week and we discussed the question with him, and apparently this $250,000,00 is just a figure which has been arbitrarily arrived at, with no relation to the need.

Senator ADAMS. On the basis of the need figures given us today, the amount of $200,000,000 would do the job rather than $250,000,000. That is on the basis of the figures given us today. We are going beyond the figures of need given us by the Works Progress Administration. Their figures show that $198,000,000 would do the job. Mr. LASSER. To employ how many people?

Senator ADAMS. Five hundred thousand people in addition to those who are now being employed.

Mr. LASSER. Their own figures were that 750,000 people now are desperately in need.

Senator HALE. They have already put 200,000 of them to work.
Senator ADAMS. They have put 200,000 of them to work.
Mr. LASSER. 200,000 of the 750,000?

Senator ADAMS. Yes.

Mr. LASSER. Since when was that? That was the testimony of Mr. Williams before the House committee the other day.

Senator ADAMS. He told us here, within an hour, that this amount of money would take care of all those in need in the country who are qualified. He is the expert. I am not. They have studied the matter, and we have to take their word for it.

Mr. LASSER. I am sure you are going to make a great mistake. Let me say this: Why not vote this money without the Woodrum amendment, and allow the President and the W. P. A. to use this money as it is needed? That would be an exhibition of confidence in the President and the Works Progress Administration. If you are taking their judgment on how much money is necessary, you should also take their judgment on how the money ought to be expended. If you had done that with the original law, this need could have been met by the President as the need arose.

Senator ADAMS. We are doing what the President asked us to do. We agree with you on that. He asked us for so much money and sent up certain bills that we are probably going to pass.

We are glad you came by.

Mr. LASSER. Thank you for the privilege.

Senator ADAMS. We are sorry to have had so short a time.

(The written statement and telegrams submitted by Mr. Lasser are as follows:)

STATEMENT OF DAVID LASSER, PRESIDENT OF THE WORKERS' ALLIANCE OF

AMERICA

The Workers Alliance of American requests the Senate to increase the deficiency appropriation for relief to a total of $400,000,000 to make possible the employment of at least 3,000,000 Works Progress Administration workers for the remainder of this fiscal year.

We ask also that the unbearable and unjust restrictions against permitting aliens in this country legally to procure work on Works Progress Administration be removed, until such time as the requirements for citizenship can be liberalized and it is made economically possible for all unemployed aliens to become citizens. We ask further that the Woodrum amendment be removed from the relief act and that the funds voted be used as required.

The testimony of Government officials before the House committee, as well as the speeches on this question in the House yesterday, corroborate our findings as to the extent of real need and the inadequacy of the $250,000,000 which has been voted by the House.

The present policy can only be characterized as "pennywise and pound foolish." It is only temporizing with a problem that means agony to millions of our citizens. From all evidence we can gather, the sum of $250,000,000 represents an arbitrarily selected figure, arrived at with no special regard to the actual need.

To vote an arbitrary figure without relation to need is to say to unemployed Americans, "We will relieve your suffering and distress, help you to maintain your morale and courage, $250,000,000 worth. Even though this helps only onesixth of the newly unemployed, even though it helps less than one-half of those already certified for Works Progress Administration and awaiting placement, we will not go beyond this arbitrary figure."

To refuse a higher appropriation in the face of demonstrated need is to say to needy Americans, “We want to save dollars at the expense of your health and wellbeing. We want you who are destitute to remain idle, to starve a little more, to suffer a little more humiliation, to wear less clothes, to suffer eviction from your homes."

To vote only $250,000,000 is to make it necessary for 300,000 of the 500,000 who will be taken on by Works Progress Administration to be discharged by the end of June. It is ridiculous and cruel to employ people in March and fire them in April, May, and June regardless of whether they are able to find private employment.

All evidence indicates that due to the severe depression in the rural areas, due the coming exhaustion of unemployment-insurance benefits, the need this spring will be fully as great as at present.

The Workers Alliance of America believes that $600,000,000 and 3,500,000 Works Progress Administration jobs are urgently needed. This has been the request also of such responsible organizations as Labor's Non-Partisan League and the Committee for Industrial Organization.

We urge that at the very minimum $400,000,000 be voted by the Senate, to provide a minimum of 3,000,000 Works Progress Administration jobs for the rest of this fiscal year.

We cite the following in support:

1. It is the minimum figure admitted necessary on the basis of the testimony of Aubrey Williams that 750,000 are now qualified for relief, in need and able to work. Further, hundreds of thousands of others are exhausting their resources and reaching the relief level.

2. It is further supported by the fact that on January 1 there were 1,388,000 certified for Works Progress Administration who had not been placed. Although some of these have been placed in the meantime, their ranks have been augmented even more by the 1,000,000 persons who lost their jobs during January.

3. President Roosevelt has stated that at least 3,000,000 lost their jobs in the last few months. The $250,000,000 provides for only one out of every six. The $400,000,000 would take care of one out of three.

4. The United States Conference of Mayors, after a careful survey of need in some 60 urban and rural areas, estimated that $400,000,000 for 3,000,000 Works Progress Administration jobs is immediately needed.

5. Most of the important social work organizations in close touch with the problem have estimated 3,000,000 Works Progress Administration jobs as the minimum contribution of the Federal Government.