The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, September 13, 1937, Page 6

& THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, . MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1987 * 4 . € An Independent Newspaper A THE STATE’S OLDEST NEWSPAPER (Established 1873) State, City and County Official Newspaper Published daily except Sunday by The Bismarck Tribune Company, Bis- marck, N, D., and entered at the postoffice at Bismarck as second class mail matter. j Mrs. Stella I. Mann President and Treasurer Archie O. Johnson Kenneth W. Simons Vice Pres. and Gen'l. Manager Secretary and Editor Subscription Rates Payable in Advance Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republica- tion of the news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this newspaper and also the loca! news of spontaneous origin published herein. All rights of republication of ali other matter herein are also reserved. In the Right Direction Allocation by the president of $1,605,000 to the irrigation project at Glendive, Mont., marks a governmental departure from the rather fat-headed thinking which has marked its com- bat against the effects of drouth in the West. The people of the entire dust bowl, ranging from North Dakota to Texas, may well hope that the new attitude will continue and that similar projects will receive the same kind of support. Specifically, this is‘exactly what North Dakota has been asking from the federal government and if it can lend definite aid to constructive enterprise in Montana there is no reason why it should not do the same thing here. Under the plan approved by the president, $1,605,000 will be spent to provide irrigation works for 17,000 acres of land near Glendive. That is an expenditure of nearly $94 an acre, a figure obviously greater than settlers on the land could hope to repay. But the government makes an outright grant of $829,000 and only $776,000 will have to be repaid by settlers on the land. This cuts the reimbursable cost per acre to less than $46, a figure which properly installed irrigation projects can easily pay. Grant that the policy of government subsidization is open to challenge in most cases, this is one time when it is above reproach from both the business and humanitarian standpoints. The relief load in the five counties around Glendive has been heavy. Conditions there are the same as they have been here. Work projects on anything except those which will increase Washington Government Is Already Biggest ‘Big Business’ Much talk of the “government in bilsiness” is heard on every hand. But few people realize to what extent the government is already “in business.” Biggest employer, biggest banker, big- gest real estate operator, biggest pub- Msher—all these things describe the government today. Regardless of whether you think these activities are desirable, they are here. Below is the first of five special articles, analyzing, the government's big business activities. This pertinent series will be a revelation both to many who believe the government must creep farther and farther into what we have considered “business fields,” and to those who resent “en- croachment” in private enterprise. Editor's Note: This is the first of five articles on the rapidly in- creasing “big industry” that is the federal government. These spe- cial columns are to substitute for Rodney Dutcher’s “Behind the Scenes in Washington” while Dutcher is on vacation. By WILLIS THORNTON (NEA Service Staff Correspondent) Washington, Sept. 13—The tederal government today is by far the biggest single employer of labor in the coun- try. The total number of civil em- ployes in the executive branch is 850,- 000. The monthly payroll is $128,000,- That figure excludes the military, and naval services (another 250,000) and the temporary employes on CCC, WPA, and similar projects (another 2,000,000). It includes only the em- ployes of the “business organization” of the government, the regular and emergency bureaus, in and out of Washington. How far the government ought to go into “business,” that is, into the production of goods and services that might be produced under private en- terprise, is one of the basic problems that divides thought in the capital today. Every country in the world is fumbling with that problem. Even a completely socialist state like Russia has made some remarkable changes of front in attacking this problem. The purpose of this and succeeding stories is not to try to draw that fine line between government and private activities. It is simply to show some of the ways in which the government is already “in business,” to such an extent as to make the federal govern- ment actually the biggest “big busi- The Bismarck Tribune] agi gcenes||__teRewriner iit | i t : The Secon POLITICS Copyright 1937, by The Baltimere Sun THEY CAN'T AFFORD TO FIGHT) controlled and directed by Mr. Lewis.) Lewis, but % ‘would be even more Dr. Brady will ease or diagnosis. i @ of The Tribune, tions pertaining to health but as reese masey ous ink, ater Oy Seely ddressed envelope. 5 is good for health. or more and never take any they can ride, never play any active physically. and by-products in the about work, but still physical activity in living, t i i z F ¥ 1 aris 3 . F Eg tl g & s ‘a i E i i i ef! A & F week ago,in this place it was|Nelther would have gotten as far ashe| stupid for Bir. Lewis to break with stctes thet a: reat rift” bed arisen {ies without the other, and both know | Mr, Roosevelt; and now he has cracked Hi between the President end his friend |" ne site between them 4s personal Mr. John L. Lewis, who with votes and rather than political. Personally they money contributed so heavily to his|do not like each other. Mr. Lewis irri- re-election, At the time various let~ | tates productivity of the region are silly. Yet the government was| ness” in the country today. faced with the necessity of sepnding millions of dollars on the NEE pti aed ay residents of the region MERELY TO KEEP THEM ALIVE. The rise of the federal government With the state of Montana taking the initiative, however, | Tolls to 850,000 is significant. ‘The fig- the five counties agreed to pool their relief labor, put it all to Ben eet gt cartead! ise, ear work on this project. WPA workers will put in their time there | hit 917,760. That was, of course, due under the direction of engineers from the reclamation bureau, | ee vvilins crdof the Word wae then return to their homes. THIS COSTS THE GOVERNMENT Today’s figure is a peacetime high, , NO MORE AND. IT GETS SOMETHING OF PERMANENT Hl za £8 See & EB i E k and there is no sign of any decrease. g i i BENEFIT FOR ITS EXPENDITURE. Allowing 80 acres per family—a fair-sized irrigated farm— completion of this project will mean some 215 farm families taken off the relief rolls FOREVER. It will mean production of a kind which will greatly benefit the range. Granted that this one project will not take care of every- one in distress, is there any reason that the government should fail to do SOMETHING where and when it can just because it cannot do EVERYTHING FOR EVERYONE at once? Clarification Before all of the politicians get to clamoring on the subject ft might be well to clarify, as dispassionately as possible, the question of work relief for farmers and the relation of Mr. (Thomas H. Moodie and the WPA to this issue. taken over by the federal government. We think of vast privately owned networks like American Telephone and Telegraph as “big business.” So they are. Yet A. T. and T. had 262,- 000 employes at last report. The gov- ernment’s roll is almost four times as great. Such an industrial giant as General Electric employes 230,000; U. 8. Steel, 222,000. The government em- ployment list is almost six times as large as Sot ace 150,000. Becomes Giant Industry equal to the million employed by all the railroad systems in the country or the 1,140,000 in the whole iron an steel industry. It is almost equal to all the employes of the pa! some weeks ago of the Shakespearian “a plague on both your houses,” this seems as direct and public a ‘branding of the President as a false friend amd ingrate as could be de- vised. At any rate, so,it was generally tempestuous way, meant to convey that idea. More than once he has ex- g g bel Hl a s¥ E § : E i 3 BY NARD JONES tukerite's mene, fe tion. lor vacat MELITA. HOW AR D—Kay's te co-ads Mr. Moodie’s oft-repeated refusal to recommend a work peintoe Regaetrs Hecate eT RSCILLA DUNN—the third program for farmers has brought a storm of protest from the | government is not only far bigger FORREST BROTHERS and acter professional friends of the farmer and those who have not given sufficient study to the problem to understand it. Mr. Moodie has contended that many farmers are not being wdequately cared for. He is using all of his official influence to effect a change in this condition. But he cannot now be charged with curing it any more than he can reasonably be blamed for creating it. 7 The fact is that in his refusal to recommend a general work program for farmers Mr. Moodie is RIGHT. The time has passed when MAKE-BELIEVE work projects will meet our condition. It should be remembered that Mr. Moodie has had EXPE- RIENCE with a work program for farmers. He knows the woe- ful INEFFICIENCY which attends efforts to work outdoors tm winter in this climate. He knows, too, the unnecessary human suffering it would entail. A farmer can suffer frostbite on a work project just as readily as he can hauling hay. Mr. Moodie knows, too, the INJUSTICE which would be worked ON THE FARMER by a work program such as its ill- advised advocates suggest. The whole thing can be clearly outlined in dollars and cents. Suppose the government accepts Mr. Moodie’s suggestion for liberalized farm grants and raises the average from $17.25, es at present, to $40 a month, at the same time allotting $2,000,- 1000 to the purpose. That would mean 50,000 grant months and the farmers would get all of the money. But suppose the government fixed a wage base of $40 a month and granted $2,000,000 for a work program. Under such @ condition the money allotted would finance only 36,363 work (or grant) months. , The difference comes in the average of approximately $15 @ month which it costs to keep a man at work on a WPA project. ‘The additional money goes into such materials as shovels, wheel- _ barrows, truck and team hire, gravel, cement and other ma- ‘terials. Also into an increased supervisory and bookkeeping It is elemental that it costs more to BUILD something merely to do a bit 07 bookkeeping. any individual company, but is ly becoming itself one of the among the giant industries. It is wonder that there are three now attempting to body of employes, for the conditions of this near-million men and women, scattered the country, have a measurable effect on the working conditions of everyone. And the government payroll climbs for the same reasons that private pay- rolls expanding activities, shorter hours, higher pay rates. The crocs: in such agencies as the post- off ek * Will Be Million Soon Of course, as business in general ex- pands, there is need for more mail carriers, more income tax collectors, more government printed matter, more of everything. Which means more employes working for Uncle Gain, and: plore added sp Miae angen) payrol Everyone- conversant with govern- ment matters expects that the day of the permanent government establish- ment of a million employes, drawing down ® monthly payroll of $150,000,- 000, is not far away. So when you think of the relation- ship between government and busi- ness, it is well to remember that the government is already in business, and in it so deeply that it is itself the biggest business ent in the country, with the most employes and the biggest payroll. GRANT tists whose expedition turned ont te be a rare < te Ye 1 Whe search ts ine en Grant Harper fails to return after he went ashore te and Kay. (THE two girls quickly followed Tom Forrest into the speed- boat's cockpit. “Hadn’t you better stay aboard the yacht?” he asked. Melita shook her head stub- bornly. “We're going with you.” “That's probably the best plan,” “No telling | [ 4 [i 3 gE I ef ef ie iss . ae iy ul 7 Lis uk é g ; 7 8 8 i 2 i ti ; i Fj ive { g i i Uy 8 af tr i F Fi He we Ee 39 FLAPPER FANNY 1997 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. 1. M. REG. U. ©. 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