% M A. Polic|r on Poor Relief 



By John C. Watson^ Director j Department of Taxation and Statistics 



\^^S^ ^^ policies of the Illinois Agri- 

 ^*~Y^ cultural Association on relief 



^J of the poor have developed 

 from observation and study of its prob- 

 lems in all parts of the State. From the 

 first the Association has held that deserv- 

 ing persons, especially unemployables 

 shoula be given some assistance. It has 

 favored similar assistance for employ- 

 ables only so long as they are unemployed 

 through no fault of their own. 



Many city people assume that the 

 problems of relief are so nearly alike in 

 urban and rural communities that the 

 centralized form of organization will 

 function best in both. The Association 

 regards this as a fundamental error. It 

 recognizes that administration of relief 

 in a great urban and industrial city like 

 Chicago has difficult problems and re- 

 quires more elaborate administration. In 

 the city, people know few even of their 

 own neighbors. They know even less 

 about their financial condition and their 

 willingness to work. 



In the country, including the villages 

 and smaller cities, people know their 

 neighbors and much about their financial 

 condition and willingness to work. They 

 can supervise and administer relief in 

 their own communities much more wisely 

 than can be done by any centralized state 

 or county board of public welfare, or by 

 any outside administrator or social work- 

 er not acquainted with rural people or 

 rural conditions. 



The Association refuses to believe that 

 relief of unemployment is a permanent 

 problem. Nearly every community has 

 always had many persons who are more 

 or less unemployable, and has always had 

 some employables who prefer relief to 

 employment, persons who are willing to 

 exist on a low standard without labor 

 rather than work enough to earn a higher 

 standard of living. 



The Association fears that unwise 

 methods of relief used in the depression 

 have encouraged and greatly increased 

 the number of such persons who regard 

 public relief as a vested right relieving 

 them of any obligation to seek or to ac- 

 cept employment at any reasonable wage. 

 It is no kindness to such people to main- 

 tain them in idleness, with increasing 

 loss of self-respect. The taxes used in 

 maintaining them, much of which are 

 paid by self-respecting people of no more 



earning ability, should be used in as- 

 sisting the deserving or reduced for the 

 benefit of taxpayers. 



We were early convinced that the Fed- 

 eral Government would not and could 

 not long continue its huge allocations to 

 the States for direct relief. They were 

 discontinued nearly two years ago. It is 

 also convinced that the Federal Govern- 

 ment must and should end work relief 

 as early as possible. The State cannot 

 replace the huge Federal funds thus made 

 available for relief but must require the 

 communities to assume more and more of 

 the burden. The State itself should re- 

 duce its taxes for relief as rapidly as the 

 counties and communities are able to as- 

 sume the necessary burden. 



Relief should be returned to the coun- 

 ties and communities, otherwise there is 

 no hope of preventing relief of employ- 

 ables from becoming a permanent prob- 

 lem. We believe, therefore, that the 

 counties and communities should reduce 

 their own future relief burden by using 

 every possible eflFort to eliminate all 

 wasteful and improper practices in giv- 

 ing relief and by establishing and re- 

 quiring efficient and economical admin- 

 istration. 



Beginning in 1933, we have observed 

 with growing concern the tendency of 

 many counties and communities to throw 

 as much of their burden of relief as pos- 

 sible on Federal and State governments. 

 We noted the immediate reaction of 

 counties and communities to the ease 

 with which, at first. Federal loans against 

 future allotments of Federal highway 

 funds, and, later, outright grants of Fed- 

 eral funds for relief could be obtained 

 by the State, for a time without any re- 

 quirement of matching. Due to the 

 availability of huge Federal funds for 

 relief, many counties and communities 

 rapidly reduced their own relief tax 

 levies and increased their demands for 

 what they conceived to be "their share" 

 of Federal relief funds. They displayed 

 the same attitude toward State relief 

 funds. 



In the regular session of 1933, the Il- 

 linois Agricultural Association sponsored 

 and secured the passage of a series of 

 bills, which were vetoed, to require tax 

 levies of local relief units before they 

 could be eligible for State relief funds. 

 It was not until a special session in 1936 



that bills sponsored by the Association 

 embodying this sound principle were en- 

 acted and approved. Since they went 

 into effect July 1, 1936, most relief units, 

 both county and township, have made en- 

 couraging progress in taking care of their 

 own relief. About one-half of all the 

 townships are now assuming the entire 

 cost of their own relief. Monroe county 

 has used no outside funds since October, 

 1936. Lee and Menard counties have 

 used none since July, 1937. Wabash 

 county has used none since August, 1937. 

 Many other townships and several other 

 counties are now approaching this envi- 

 able record. 



With more favorable economic condi- 

 tions we may reasonably expect further 

 increase in the ability of local relief units 

 to carry their own relief load. As im- 

 proved conditions pyermit, it may be nec- 

 essary to emfwwer them to levy higher 

 local taxes. The Association believes that 

 present legislation for local administra- 

 tion of relief, with good administration, 

 and with only sufficient State or county 

 supervision to prevent wasteful or par- 

 simonious expenditure of relief funds, is 

 the surest way, and probably the only 

 way, of preventing relief of employables 

 from becoming a fjermanent burden of 

 the State itself. 



Rattlesnakes 



Land laid waste by strip coal mining 

 operations in Randolph, Perry, and 

 Jackson counties has been taken over 

 by rattlesnakes and mosquitos accord- 

 ing to farmers from that section. The 

 land is an ideal hiding place for snakes 

 because it is too rough even for hunters 

 to tramp over. 



More than 100 LaSalle county farm- 



ers defied the season's rush to attend a 

 cattle grading demonstration and tour 

 at the Union Stock Yards, April 20, 

 sponsored by the Chicago Producers 

 Commission Association. 



When oak leaves are as large as 



squirrel's ears and you oil up your com 

 planter, remember that if you over- 

 plant your corn acreage allotment you 

 will l>e ineligible for a federal corn 

 loan this fall. 



MAY. 1938 



