March 3, 1934
THE STATE
Page Eleven
FAGTS ABOUT OUR STATE GOVERNMENT
No. 16— P. \V. A. and Reemployment Service
This is Ihe seventeenth of a series of
articles appearing in Tick State out¬
lining the activities of the various de¬
partments of North Carolina state
government.)
By CAPUS M. WAYNICK
★
North Carolina has U-eu allotted
«-nough from the Public Works Fund
to provide one man a job at 30 hours a
week for 8,525 years.
On a population basis, the state
might have expected enough to give that
man steady employment for 27,243
years.
Turned about, the figures --how one
year's work for 8,525
шоп
actually pro¬
vided, and one year’s work for 27,243
men ns what may bo regarded as our
logical participation.
Senator Hailey sought early to stir
the people's imagination about the pos¬
sibilities inherent in the spending of
«mo fortieth of $3,300,000,000 in North
Carolina. He begun talking of an
880,000,000 expectancy shortly after
the appropriation bill was enacted. The
state did not react promptly. I doubt
whether North Carolinians believed the
President would spend the huge credit
placed at his command.
Then, North Carolina was in debt
and reluctant to increase its obliga¬
tions. Undoubtedly, this indebtedness
hampered the whole movement in be¬
half of better public facilities for sub¬
divisions of the stato and municipalities
with money procured from the Public
Works Fund.
Another hampering consideration was
the wage sonic. Counties and cities
were reluctant to pay 45 cents to $1.10
for men who could be hired on private
enterprise at fractions of those figures.
Now, our delegation in Washington
protests our small ahnro of the $3,300.-
000,000. all of which has been spent or
allocate!. The horse is out of the stable.
The regional advisers ami state advisory
boards of PWA have been discharged,
their tasks done, and there is little
rhance to increase our share in the fund,
except through the redistribution of re¬
scinded allocation* and the money left
because of cases wherein the applicants
could not meet the necessary legal re-
CAPUS M. WAYNICK
- ★ -
quiroments after their applications were
approved tentatively.
Washington authorities in PWA are
not solely blnmable for the short-chang¬
ing of the state. The people themselves
are partly to blame. The State Ad¬
visory Board, composed of Mr. Frank
Page, of Raleigh; Mr. .T. I.. DeVane.
of Fayetteville; and Mr. George W.
Coan, Jr., of Winston-Salem, and the
State Engineer. Dr. Herman G. Baity,
of Chapel Hill, strove diligently to
arouse the people to the opportunity.
Dr. Baitv's graphic presentation of the
advantages in the use of the credit for
construction purposes was particularly
impressive.
The state was slow bestirring itself.
Dr. Baity says, “The great majority of
sound North Carolina applications have
been submitted to our office since De¬
cember 1. 1933- -too Into to get through
the mill before the original appropria¬
tion was exhausted."
Through the State Board and under
the hand of Dr. Baity passed 183 appli¬
cations in 149 localities, involving 353
construction projects, and calling for
$21,941,212. Of these 36 projects have
been approved with an allotment of
$3,510,698. In addition, a Raleigh
housing project and a railroad allotment
which did not pass through the hands of
the State Advisory Board, together call¬
ing for $269,000, were approved.
The state has fared somewhat better
in the distribution <»f outright grant
money. The county and oily project-
referred to get a 30 per cent grant, but
certain projects in the stale, numlieriiig
338, and calling for some $18,734,029.
will be paid for without obligation of
the state for direct repayment <>f any
Krtion of it. These include $9,522,293
roads, now being spent through the
State Highway Commission; about
$2,500,000 for Fort Bragg and about
$1,500,000 for ('ape Fear lfiv«r im¬
provement.-; and half of the $2,300,000
devoted to work on roads in the Great
Smokies Park.
When PWA moved too slowly iu get¬
ting unemployed people to work $400.-
000.000 of the fund was devoted to CWA
and North Carolina got a goodly share
of that allocation. Of the remainder,
$2,900,000,000, North Carolina's share
on a population basis would bo about
$72,500,000. Getting not more than
$22,500,000, we are $50,000,000 short
in round figures.
The National Reemployment Service
came into existence as nti agency of the
federal Department of Labor to regu¬
late the manning of the PWA projects
according to law. The appropriation
statute provided that the work oppor¬
tunities should be localized, the unem¬
ployed given the work, and veterans
with dependents given preference.
It is apparent from the figures that
the Reemployment Service in North
Carolina has less material to work upon
than the state’s 3.170.000 population
would indicate it should have. But the
manning of PWA and CWA is not the
extent of the field of the service. Every
reemployment office in the state is ex¬
pected to render general free employ¬
ment service, bringing private employer
and worker together wherever possible.
Our statistics show that the service i>
«Icing fairly well in that part of it-
province.
The first reemployment office was
opened in this state the first week in
August. Others were opened at a fairly
rapid clip, to keep the sen-ice ahead
of the public works needs in each county,
and when CWA began we had 65 offices
functioning. The CWA emergency re¬
quired the immediate completion of the
organization of the state, and office-
were opened in every county in North
Carolina. Onr offices now number 100
and we have five branch offices.
While we operated only 65 office», the
managers and staff employees numbered
(Continued on page twenty)