We come before you to urge Federal aid both as a relief measure for the present and for the Federal construction and work bill in the future.

There are 20,000 men in Chicago in the flop houses and in the bread lines, and for that reason if they are left to the mercy of their own ability they face starvation.

Mr. SANFORD. I will call Mr. Mathewson.

The CHAIRMAN. Give your full name and address to the reporter for the record.

STATEMENT OF CHARLES MATHEWSON, OF CHICAGO

Mr. MATHEWSON. My name is Charles Mathewson, 2507 Greenville Avenue, Chicago. I am here with the plea of 350,000 children in Chicago who are hungry.

I have been myself ordered out of my home twice in 10 months and expect another within a few days. I am in hopes of a future permanent home. The school doctors have sent home reports to my wife that three of my children attending school are undernourished. How could they be otherwise? Last November my entire family lived three weeks on $7.

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been out of work?

Mr. MATHEWSON. Twelve months.

Mr. SANFORD. I will introduce Mr. Torgenson.

The CHAIRMAN. Give your full name and address to the reporter for the record.

STATEMENT OF T. M. TORGENSON, OF CHICAGO

Mr. TORGENSON. My name is T. M. Torgenson and I live in Chicago. Three years of unemployment and association with the unemployed is not leisure by any means. It is a tremendous strain both physically and mentally. Tracking the streets in the daytime looking for a job, laying awake nights worrying about where you are going to get the most necessary things for your family and then thinking, is the code of ethics that was drilled into you during your childhood and practiced during the early part of your life as a man, is it going to prove a failure or is the confidence that we have held in our Government going to assist us, or are we going to feel that probably the whole civilization and Government that we have had confidence in is goingto fail?

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been out of work?

Mr. TORGENSON. Three years.

The CHAIRMAN. And what is your trade?

Mr. TORGENSON. Structural iron worker.

STATEMENT OF S. B. PATTERSON, OF CHICAGO, ILL.

Mr. PATTERSON. My name is S. B. Patterson, 1821 Nelson Street, Chicago.

The CHAIRMAN. How long have you been out of work?

Mr. PATTERSON. About eight months.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you a family?

Mr. PATTERSON. I have..

The CHAIRMAN. What was your trade?

Mr. PATTERSON. Automobile mechanic.
The CHAIRMAN. Proceed.

Mr. PATTERSON. I am here representing the unemployed of Chicago, about 650,000 men, women, and children. We find this, we need Federal relief immediately.

I have seen many families who have been thrown out on the streets with what little belongings they have and the weather has ruined their belongings.

Not only that but this present system has created thieves which I know, because they have stolen gas and electricity. Crimes have been committed, and this Government is known to try to fight crimes. Therefore, if they bring back Federal relief for public improvements it will eliminate these things.

În time of war they did not think of how much they would expend to carry on the war and I think in time of depression it is just as much or possibly more up to the country, the Government, to appropriate any amount of funds to keep the American families honest, decent, and self-respecting families, and I believe that if they do not do something within a few months, from the sentiment that we have in Chicago, they are not only trying to drive Reds out, but they are inviting them in this country.

Mr. SANFORD. I want to say every relief organization in Chicago to-day is bidding for Federal aid.

I have a letter from the Illinois Relief Commission which reads: DEAR MR. SANFORD: This is to inform you that the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission has agreed to the plan of loan or advance to States by the Federal Government for relief purposes. Mr. Ryerson believes, and also Mayor Cermak, that the loan or advance should be on the basis of need rather than on the basis of population.

Mr. Irving MacDowell informed me 600 evictions cases were held in one day in the eviction court lats week. We have no funds beyond August 1. Our tax anticipation warrants can not be told. Therefore, there is no use of pleading to the State of Illinois for relief because they are simply unavailable. Therefore, we face an abyss.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Oneal, give your statement for the record. STATEMENT OF JAMES ONEAL, EMERGENCY CONFERENCE ON UNEMPLOYMENT OF NEW YORK

Mr. ONEAL. My name is James Oneal.

The CHAIRMAN. Your address?

Mr. ONEAL. New York City, 7 East Fifteenth Street.

The CHAIRMAN. What organization are you connected with? Mr. ONEAL. I am representing the emergency conference on unemployment in New York which includes 70 trade-union bodies and 20 unemployment leagues. I can assure you that we are approaching a tragedy due to unemployment. All relief agencies in recent months have warned that they are at the end of their resources. There are 50,000 families in New York City that are absolutely destitute.

Here on the starving front families are breaking up and homes are being destroyed. More than 20,000 children have passed into institutions and boarding houses because parents can not provide for them. Aid for soldiers has increased 600 per cent in the past two

years. Jobless men and women advertise in local papers of their willingness to work for a room and meals. The depression which has swallowed up working girls and is now reaching teachers, college graduates, and trained office women who have been accustomed to good incomes and comfortable homes.

Even the measure of relief that has been extended to the jobless and the hungry is short of that standard that is required to maintain human beings in moderate comfort and decency.

It is impossible to adequately describe the economic tragedy that has overhwelmed hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children in New York City. When many thousands of breadwinners are locked out of industry through no fault of their own then industry has failed in its primary duty of providing employment. There is no tribunal in industry to which discharged men and women can appeal. The decree of discharge is final.

It is because of this situation that millions of the distressed are compelled to turn to another agency, the Government itself, to at least assure the satisfaction of their elemental wants. I am well aware of the answer that is often made to any proposals for Government intervention. It is assumed that such intervention is in conflict with American traditions of individualism and self-help.

As this is so often argued in defense of what may be called a "hands off" policy the committee will pardon me if I give a few minutes attention to it. It may be said in answer that running side by side with the traditional theory there has been a practical negation of it in legislative policy and this negation goes back even to our colonial assemblies and town councils. These colonial bodies frequently voted funds in support of private enterprises. They voted large grants of land and often exempted such enterprises from taxation.

Even our Southern States were generous in voting public funds to plank road, canal, and railroad companies and in the Northern States these private enterprises had equal access to the State treasuries. Surely we have not forgotten the era of railroad building and the Federal grants of land and money voted by Congress and the similar gifts bestowed by States, counties, and towns upon those corporate enterprises.

Even in our modern period this generosity to the upper layer of private enterprise has been displayed in Federal legislation directly aiding shipping and commercial aviation by lucrative mail contracts and generous loans. The $2,000,000,000 distributed through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to railroads and banks may also be cited as the continuation of a policy that can not be reconciled with the traditions of individualism and self-help.

Let it not be said that the collective powers of the Nation are to always be available to upper groups in society while they are to be denied to the destitute and the hungry in the name of a questionable tradition. Hunger can not be appeased by a myth. It will not provide bread for a starving child. The resources of private relief agencies and of local governments are rapidly being exhausted. It is a tragic emergency we are facing. Federal aid is necessary if we are not to drift to a perilous abyss.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Milton, you will give your full name and address, please.

STATEMENT OF A. H. MILTON, OF CHICAGO, ILL.

Mr. MILTON. Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, my name is A. H. Milton, of Chicago, Ill., and I am chairman of the national executive board of the Bonus Expeditionary Forces now in Washington.

as

At the outset, be it understood that we are not committing ourselves to any of the special relief bills now pending before Congress. The veterans, comprising the Bonus Expeditionary Forces now in Washington, are here primarily for the payment of the bonus. The temporary setback which we have received does not discourage us. However, we feel that we will be traitors to the nonveteran unemployed of this country if we did not take some stand in their behalf as well our own. Had the veterans now comprising the Bonus Expeditionary Forces been employed, there would have been no bonus march on Washington to-day. You may readily see that unemployment, in itself, is the direct cause of this army in Washington to-day. The veterans are not selfish in their motive; they are interested in the payment of the bonus, the ultimate return of prosperity, and unemployment relieved. That is their aim and desire.

We feel that, if this Congress adjourns without enacting some form of immediate unemployment legislation, that an army of unemployed many times the size of the bonus army now in Washington, will march upon us. Our belief that such an army will materialize is based upon the numerous telegraph and other communications reaching our headquarters. It will be noted that most of these telegrams, communications, and so forth, are in our interest and for the payment of the bonus. However, the inference may be drawn that an unemployed army is marching under that trek upon the capital.

At this time, with your permission, I will read to you some of the communications, just a few, that have reached our headquarters WATERS, Commander Bonus Army, Washington:

We the unemployed of the United States have declared unarmed war on the present economic system; plan recruiting an unemployed army leaving for Washington soon from the City of Roses as the initial point. We will carry dear old red, white, and blue and the American creed "no other way will we join you. BEABER K. HADDINGHALL,

PASCO, WASH.

Mr. WALTER W. WATERS,

Commander Bonus Expeditionary Forces, Anacostia, D. C.:

We strongly urge Father Cox to lead a jobless march to Washington, our chaplain as spokesman for veterans now assembled in the United States. If agreeable, we may have him fly Tuesday or Wednesday to present our demands to the President and to Congress.

Pittsburgh, PA.

WALTERS W. WATERS,

Commander in chief Bonus Expeditionary Forces:

WALTER MCMAHON.

Conference for progressive labor action urges you to continue to stay in Washington until you win a fight for bonus. It is yours by every right. The eyes of American common people are on you as they were during the war. If you are not diverted from purpose but by your determination win your just payment, you will do more than any other force to give confidence to your unemployed fellow workers in the effort for unemployment relief for all. This rich Nation owes you a bonus. Do not leave your campaign until bonus is yours. LOUIS F. BUDeng,

Executive Secretary, Congress for Progressive Labor Action.

Senator CoSTIGAN. Mr. Milton, do you know how many veterans are out of work?

Mr. MILTON. Approximately 600,000 at this time.

Now, gentlemen, this is the message from the bonus expeditionary forces, or the B. E. F., as we are known. We urge upon Congress not to adjourn until some form of unemployment relief legislation is enacted in this the greatest, the richest, the noblest country on the face of the earth. [Applause.]

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Wilkins.

STATEMENT OF ROY WILKINS, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, NEW YORK

Mr. WILKINS. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, my name is Roy Wilkins, and I am assistant secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and my address is 69 Fifth Avenue, New York City.

The negro citizens of the country eagerly join with the others in asking the Congress of the United States not to adjourn until some direct relief is furnished by the Government of the United States for the jobless and hungry of the country. We have a peculiar right to be here to-day. We agree that a great number of white people and white workmen and home owners and veterans and all of the classes of society are suffering from unemployment; but as bad as these conditions are for them, the condition of the negro citizen is infinitely

worse.

This results largely from the fact that the negroes, for many years, have had marginal employment; they have been the last hired and the first fired. As soon as any retrenchment program is set in motion, he is likely to be the first to go. He has always been paid the smallest wage; so that, in times of a depression he is unable to call upon a reserve to maintain himself; but, his support falls very largely upon local relief agencies.

In rural areas, where he very largely resides, he has been dependent upon the planting and making of cotton, and he has been the victim of a bookkeeping system which never allows him to get out of debt. In the rural areas of the South, the planters have given advance credit to negroes and whites who are tenants on their farms; so they are left to live the best they can. In the factory areas, he has suffered two or three or four times the unemployment ratio of his white neighbor.

If you will allow me, I will cite you one or two pictures from the late industrial conference:

In Chicago, where the negro is 60 per cent of the population, he is now receiving 3 per cent of relief.

In Kansas City, Kans,. where he is 16 per cent of the population, he is receiving 30 per cent of relief.

In Louisville, where he is only 15 per cent of the population, he is receiving 40 per cent of the unemployment relief.

In Detroit, where he is only 7 per cent of the population, he is receiving 30 per cent of the unemployment relief.

In St. Louis, where he is only 11 per cent of the population, he is receiving 33 per cent of the unemployment relief.

In Youngstown, Ohio, where he is only 8 per cent of the population, he is receiving 66 per cent of the unemployment relief.