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RHODE ISLAND My dear Mr. Hopkins: I visited Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket. There is a good deal more to see. The relief load will go up this winter; even when mills are adding new hands, the local loads increase. Mr. Cody, state administrator, says this is because every winter more people, who have been holding their own somehow, give up and come on relief. The winter clients are new ones; finally hopeless. The mill owners I saw didn't seem as cheerless as their Massachusetts colleagues, though it has now become a ritual for mill owners to weep about their impossible lives and how no man can make a decent living any more. One of them, however, in a burst of candor, admitted that the whole group had cleaned up in 1933 in a way which resembled war profiteering and that any textile manufacturer who hadn't was such a mutt that he deserved bankruptcy. Now, these mills (those that run at all) seem to be running fairly regularly. This is during the last month or so. They seem to do the usual thing about wages; that is to say wages are scaled down towards the minimum, rather than up from it. Likewise the NRA shorter hours have apparently been well counteracted by increased work loads and speeded machinery. I saw two gentlemen who are the big boys in the state UTW. They claim that 40% of the state textile workers are employed part-time earning between $5 and $7 a week. They also claim that "the present system of stretched-out work loads and speeded machinery is taking ten years off the life of the worker." Which is a pompous way of saying what does seem to be the truth: that the men really can not keep up with their work and stay sane and healthy; and that very definitely this rhythm of work, coupled with malnutrition (as who can eat well on $5) is breaking them down nervously. To finish up with the mill owners: they refuse to predict about future employment. They "don't know what the government is going to do next." They are not sure they have orders, etc., etc. Business is not as good as in 1933. They are all at heart deeply opposed to the union; and to NRA (Which has probably benefited them a good deal more than it has the workers.) They are far from enthusiastic about ERA; and I must say that their criticisms are fairly reasonable. They state that ERA is "all mixed up with local politics" and fairly reeks. They also state that the quality of work is a joke; and tell you fine stories about how shovels were taken away from the relief clients so that at least they'd stand up on the job and not just lean, etc..... It is apparently true that politics have crept into relief here; that is to say, in the local administration. Being catholic and democrat seems to be essential before one can administer local affairs. And if the unemployed don't get what they want, they telephone a local politician, and service results. It is not too savoury. There are odd little things which unfortunately I couldn't go into for lack of time, relative to buying at certain stores (buying underwear, specifically) at what seemed pretty stiff prices; someone was a pal of someone high-up in ERA. Also buying cardboard shoes. Very queer. I don't think this applies to the state administration. The unemployed themselves are getting pretty good service, as these things go. (After five states, I am sure of this: relief is below subsistence level everywhere and no matter how well bolstered up with extras, nor how great the care and extra social service work--it is ruinous to the morale of the people receiving it.) Housing is not so bad as in the south; but the actual conditions of the home range according to individuals. I find that the smaller the family the better the home; and the quality, cleanliness, etc., of the house also have a good deal to do with the age of the tenant; young couples still keeping more pride or ambition or whatever it is. Rents are not paid regularly; but only as a last resort to avoid eviction, in most cases. The unemployed run up the most fantastic debts: but this is no new idea. I saw one family that had $3,000 worth of grocery debts; but had been busy at this for about ten years. They also buy on the installment plan whenever they have a chance and buy the most amazing things, such as sets of flat silver for ornamental table use; and oil paintings and other such items. The people I saw myself (our clients) were in pretty bum shape. Either they were ill, or else the morale had so decayed that they were really not much use as human beings any more. The social service workers tell me that people keep coming to the office, and standing around, saying, "What you giving out today?" They have to stop and think what they could ask for. It isn't good, and it is impossible to take a high censorious tone about it. On the other hand, (my authorities are social workers and the union men, and my own visits to work projects) the usual attitude towards the ERA work projects is that this is a kind of big official bluff to save their faces. They don't like the work because it is rarely their own kind of job, and frankly they work as badly as any group of men I have ever seen. The exception was a mattress and quilt factory; manned pretty much by textile workers, men and women, who were all the same doing a job--which resembled their own former work. Here they seemed to be getting something done and there was an entirely different spirit to the completely comic attitude of the men leaning on shovels. (By the way, it is said in this state that much graft goes on about hiring people for these outside jobs: the supervisors put on their pals and no one cares too much about the road or whatever they are doing. One objects to the graft; but if you see the old men, the patently infirm textile workers, wheezing about in this cold, you realize that these people are physically incapable of doing the work; and it is just foolishness to expect it of them.) While I was there, the papers carried stories about your wanting to stop relief and do a great work plan, paying decent wages. They all asked me about this, very excitedly. What did it mean; what would they be doing. I think probably the majority of them want to work seriously, as they understand work (the eight hour day; the whistle and supervisor) and want to manage their own lives as muddle-headedly as they are used to. The only thing is; who will administer this. A priori, if the kind of administration continues which now blights a good deal of the ERA organization, I think there will be such whopping graft and incompetence as was rarely seen before. Also, there is one other problem. Right now, and this is generally conceded, a man on relief is a good deal better off than a part-time worker in private industry. In the first place, the relief client gets more. And in the second place, he is sure of his future; whereas the industrial worker doesn't know from day to day when his part-time is going to evaporate to nothing. The result is that people leave jobs voluntarily to get on relief; and do not make the effort they might to get back into industry. I still believe that they want to work, and don't want to stay on relief. But if you have the choice between two evils, you take the lesser one; and this is their attitude. It is not their attitude if they are skilled laborers, having made pretty good wages; then they try constantly to get back into the old job. But often when they get back, they find wages have been scaled down; the job only runs a few days a week; and they are not in the class they thought they were. Then obviously, relief is as good a bet as any and they come back willingly. Considering what lousy wages the two industries I have seen pay, it would seem to me that a decently paid ERA massive work project would find itself overburdened with people who justifiably wanted to earn a proper living; and found that the best way. The health set-up is private in this state, with free clinics attached to hospitals; and some county health work. At the Memorial Hospital, which runs the biggest state v. d. clinic, they told me v. d. was on the increase; and that "syphilis was a disease of young people." A very unscientific way to put it, I suppose; but what they obviously meant was that the majority of new cases coming in fitted into the 18-25 age group. I think this is interesting as more than a health question; and dove-tails with the scant observation I've been able to make of the young. These young men and girls who sit about the home waiting for nothing at all, are the greatest single tragedy in this whole mess. I find them really hopeless; much more hopeless than the older people, who can remember an easier life, a less stringent world; and refuse to believe that the end has inevitably come. But these young people have grown up against a shut door. A boy of nineteen said to me "Why the hell should I get up in the morning, lady; what am I going to do with all these days... I've been looking for a job for four years. I've had two; five months I've worked in all. After a while you just know it ain't getting you anywhere. There's nothing for us. I get up sometime and go down to the corner and talk to the boys..." I would find it hard (not being a good enough writer) to describe the understandable and terrifying cynicism of these children. One said to me, "I'd steal if I had the guts." A very pretty Italian girl of twenty-one, saying, "I'm young; it seems to me I got a right to something, if it's only one new dress a year..." I don't know whether this hopelessness will turn into suicidal depression, or into recklessness; depends on the individual probably. But at the moment, I think the best ones would do anything (what moral standards can be expected of people who have been cheated of the right to live and go on); the girls definitely would take to the streets if they could make anything out of it; and the boys would go in for the petty gangsterism which might at least provide food. Another boy said to me, "It's funny; a lot of times I get offered a drink--seems like people don't want to drink alone; but no one ever offers me a meal. Most of the time I take a drink it makes me sick; ain't got enough in my stomach." The District Nurses and hospital nurses speak of increased nervous disorders amongst children particularly; the Neurological Clinic in Providence is swelling its attendance; the Mental Hygiene Clinic doctor spoke to me at great length about this question as related to children. He says that they are seeing a better class of people in their clinic; and that most of the people are not on relief, but are starving. These are white collar people who avoid relief, whose pride remains stronger, in many cases, than hunger. The result on the children is this: malnutrition (everyone speaks about that as usual; all nurses, doctors, etc.) and then a neurotic condition produced by hearing and being constantly part of the parental fear. The child grows obsessed with the material problems of the home, and mentally shoulders them; and the nervous system cracks. He speaks of little boys earning pocket money by perversion; little girls stealing in the five and ten cent store, etc. You probably know all this anyhow; I don't want to howl doom, but it is really a horrible mess. And what can these young men and women do; what will these children grow up to? I should think it would be a cinch to run a war these days, with a good many of the world's young men having nothing better to do anyhow than get shot; and at least fed a bit beforehand, and busy.... MARTHA GELLHORN
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