AN examination of the methods and policies of the public relief agencies in most of the larger cities reveals that one of the few cities where relief has not been grossly inadequate is Milwaukee. During the entire depression Milwaukee County has given assistance to every family in need. At no time has it been faced with the prospect of having to discontinue relief on a certain date, as was actually the case in Philadelphia in 1932. At no time has it been obliged arbitrarily to remove thousands of families from the lists because of lack of funds, as was the case in Detroit in 1931. And Milwaukee approached its task without creating any new or emergency organization for the purpose, as so many cities have done, especially since the establishment of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in June, 1933.
Milwaukee was fortunate in having at hand a department which could function in this emergency, namely, the Department of Outdoor Relief, which is one unit of a closely knit group of county institutions designed to meet the needs of the community with respect to physical and mental health and dependency. Until 1929 it was an obscure county department aiding several hundred families a month with provisions. In 1930, as the need for relief increased month by month, the department expanded its personnel and facilities. The County Board assumed as a matter of course, on the basis of the "poor relief" section of statutes over half a century old, that it was its duty to take care of all those in need and that no private welfare agency or Community Chest could be expected to assume this constantly increasing burden. By 1933 the department had a staff of nearly 600, many of them college graduates and some with experience in private social work. It was giving relief to 32.000 families and 6,000 single men. To this group of more than 150,000 citizens of Milwaukee it was supplying not only groceries and milk, but all the other necessities of life, including coal, shoes, and some clothing, and was regularly paying rent and gas and electric-light bills, wherever necessary. Recently it has supplied stoves, stove repairs, mattresses, and other household necessities as well.
In spite of the adequacy of its general relief policy, Milwaukee has been subjected to some criticism for its reliance on the commissary system. Milwaukee does not use the grocery-order plan in supplying food. Nor has it been able to furnish its families with cash, with the exception of some 5,500 families who since the beginning of 1933 have been employed on the work-relief program and paid entirely in cash. Supplies for relief families in Milwaukee are purchased through a central commissary in carload lots on specifications and bids. Only foods of the highest grade are bought. After being packaged at the central commissary, the food is sent by truck once or twice a day to the twelve branch stations located in various parts of the county. These branch stations are generally housed in large buildings formerly used as garages and resemble a grocery store in their arrangement.
Families on relief are visited in their homes by an investigator who is able to determine what food the family has on hand and what sorts of food, if any, it does not use. An order is then listed on a printed card and sent to the branch station, generally a week in advance of the family's visit to the station. When the client, so-called, calls for his groceries, his card is found and the order filled. The time of the client's visit is fixed in advance and no more than twenty or so are scheduled to come at the same time. There are no crowds in the station. The whole transaction is as orderly and expeditious as being waited on in a chain grocery store.
The amount and variety of food has been carefully worked out over a period of years by the county dietitian, in cooperation with the medical association and the leading pediatricians. The variety of food items supplied has been constantly increased, so as to prevent too great monotony. A cookbook has been published and widely distributed to enable families to plan their meals wisely. Through the cooperation of the public schools and the Milwaukee Vocational School, all the students in the home-economics courses have been taught to make efficient use of the foods issued by the relief department. As a result of this policy, the health of the children of Milwaukee has been maintained on a rather high plane, as is indicated by a report submitted by Dr. Stanley G. Seeger, president of the Wisconsin State Medical Society, to Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins on October 5 last. [Medical leaders from all parts of the country were called to Washington by Miss Perkins to discuss the dangers of malnutrition among the people. After a careful study of the records of the County Dispensary, the County General Hospital, and the Milwaukee Children's Hospital, Dr. Seeger reported as follows:
Malnutrition among children of poor families in Milwaukee County is practically negligible. From a nutritional standpoint, the health of children in families getting county-relief supplies is on a higher level now than it was before the depression. There is no evidence of pellagra, a disease which develops chiefly among undernourished children.
Most of the State, basing diets for poor-relief families on balanced food standards set by the Milwaukee relief department, shows little evidence of malnutrition.
This is not an argument for bigger and better depressions. It is merely proof that through the operation of a well-managed commissary and a carefully planned diet, malnutrition may be averted.
Largely owing to the great saving resulting from this somewhat communistic method of feeding people, Milwaukee has been able to do what practically no other city can boast of, namely, continue the regular payment of rent for all unemployed persons unable to pay it themselves. During the greater part of 1932 and 1933 this service averaged approximately $250,000 a month. To those social workers who condemn the commissary because it robs the individual family of the right to choose its own food and to buy where and what it pleases, our answer is that if it saves enough money to prevent families and children from going through the harrowing experience of eviction every two or three months it is highly desirable-even though it means that persons must forgo choosing their own food at their favorite grocer's.
The department has not been unmindful of the importance of preserving the morale of its clients and of saving them from all possible embarrassment. For this reason, although at considerable added expense, every family is visited in its own home once every two weeks, instead of being obliged to come to the relief offices. Each worker has a case load of approximately 140 families a month, calling for an average of 14 visits a day. This number will now be materially reduced. Incidentally, the home-visiting system makes possible a closer check on the earnings and conditions of each family. In fact, about 3,000 families voluntarily withdrew from the relief lists at the time of the inauguration of the home visits. It is now possible, as a result of this plan, to provide for the special diet needs of diabetic, tubercular, and other ill persons requiring special treatment. In many cases expensive and elaborate diets are supplied.
One of the most interesting activities of the department until the Civil Works Administration program was established on November 15 was the work-relief program, developed in the fall of 1932. We were impressed with the fact that a great many persons took relief unwillingly and infinitely preferred to work for it if given the opportunity. Also many were losing the habit of work and some form of regular employment would help to reestablish this habit. At the same time there were many necessary public-works projects which could not be completed for lack of funds. It was therefore agreed that the Department of Outdoor Relief would undertake to help the various cities and towns in the county to develop such public-works projects as were socially necessary and desirable. The municipalities were to provide skilled supervision, necessary materials, tools, and workmen's compensation, and the department would supply as many men as were needed and pay them at the rate of fifty cents an hour for unskilled labor and the union rate for skilled, the number of hours being dependent upon the amount of relief which the family was getting. The Relief Department was to make no attempt to supervise workers after they were referred for work.
No client was required to work. The plan was voluntary in every respect. Since there were at no time jobs enough to go around, it would have been absurd to make work compulsory. After a man went to work, if at any time he desired to quit he was free to do so and he could automatically return to the ranks of those receiving direct relief. There was, of course, an inducement to work, for these families were paid in cash-an amount sufficient to meet the cost of their provisions, milk, rent, fuel, shoes, and gas and electric bills. In addition, a small sum ranging from $2 to $3 a month was added to the budget to cover various incidentals. As the price of food went up, beginning with June, the families' budgets were increased accordingly and more hours of work added to the schedule. During the first month or six weeks the department continued to grant provisions and other forms of aid, and for a few weeks there was some duplication in relief. Still further to help the men who chose work, arrangements were made with shoe dealers and coal companies to provide families with these necessities at the same prices paid by the department, and a working agreement was made with the local grocers that they should give some discount on the presentation of a card identifying the customer as a worker on the relief program. Arrangements were also made with the gas and electric companies to grant the men certain discount privileges not permitted to their regular customers. If the worker lived two miles or more from the job, the department supplied carfare.
During the summer months the pay roll for the 5,500 odd men at work amounted to approximately $200,000 a month. The system seemed to be regarded with satisfaction by practically all the workers. There was a definite feeling on the part of the men, who received their checks twice a month, just as all other county employees did, that they were supporting themselves through their own efforts. They worked efficiently and well, according to the testimony of their foremen and supervisors. Some men with large families found that it paid them much better to continue at work for the county than to accept a position in one of the large factories which began to open during the summer. In addition to the material improvement made possible by the pay check, many a difficult family situation was ironed out when the man went to work instead of brooding idly at home.
A novel activity for a relief department is the work of the securities division, organized a year ago. We found that there were many families with some assets stocks or bonds, a mortgage on some property, savings tied up in a closed bank, or building-and-loan stock. These were potential assets, but their owners were unable to turn them into cash to enable them to purchase their immediate necessities, except at a great sacrifice. Under the law a family must be entirely devoid of means to be eligible for relief. However, since it seemed unjust to insist that the family sell its assets at a time when there was no market, a plan was developed whereby if a family assigned such assets to the department, they would be held in rust until such time as the owner might choose to sell. In the meantime the necessary aid was extended. If the owner could sell his assets profitably, they would be released and 1. would then repay the department the amount of aid granted. To date approximately $385,000 in frozen assets has been assigned to the department.
Another service has been in the field of insurance. This was begun on April 1, 1933. By arrangement with some of the larger insurance companies, mainly those which sell industrial-insurance policies, it is now possible to readjust insurance policies of families receiving relief when they cannot continue to pay the premiums or are carrying too much insurance. Under the guidance of an expert in this field, the insurance policies of hundreds of our families have been subjected to careful scrutiny, and with the advice and cooperation of the Life Insurance Adjustment Bureau of New York City have been readjusted to fit their needs. At the same time cash reimbursements have been made available to the families concerned to pay premiums for a year in advance and to net them $150,Q00 in addition.
Milwaukee has recognized from the beginning that single men, whether they are homeless residents or transients, are as much entitled to consideration as men with families. Early in the depression, through the Central Council of Social Agencies, the Travelers' Aid Society was supplied with a larger staff to enable it to function more effectively, and all single persons applying for aid were referred to this agency, rechristened the Transient Service Bureau. If applicants were residents of the county, they were then referred to the Outdoor Relief Department, from which they received approximately the same aid that families received, namely, provisions, rent, heat, and so forth. Men not able to prepare their meals are cared for on the so-called meal-ticket plan, that is, they are supplied with a weekly meal ticket good at one of the restaurants on the approved list. Shelter at one of the downtown lodging-houses is also furnished, and such clothing as is needed. All transients are cared for by the Transient Service Bureau through its own funds. Wherever possible, transients are returned to their homes after proper social investigation. There is no passing on of cases, no limiting of care to two or three days, no use of the jails or police stations for lodging purposes. Through the foresight and imaginative planning of the Central Council of Social Agencies, the Municipal Center for the Unemployed was established two years ago in a vacant loft building. The Board of Education accepted this center as a unit of the public-school centers, and supplied trained recreation workers. The building was furnished with the usual games, billiard and pool tables, a space for basket ball, volley ball, and the like. Musical instruments and work benches with tools for shoe mending and repair of clothing were supplied by interested citizens. Visitors to the center do not have to go through any form of registration or answer any questions. There is no burdensome discipline. Night after night it is filled to capacity with happy-looking, homeless men, busily engaged in whatever pursuits they fancy at the moment.
The relief program developed by Milwaukee was, to be sure, expensive. It would have been cheaper to adopt the "eviction-evasion" rent policy, which has been used on so large a scale during the depression; it would have saved many million dollars a year. It is costly to maintain a corps of capable workers and administrators of a high type. The county and the State have made every effort possible to raise by taxation the necessary sums for unemployment-relief purposes; the already high State income tax has been doubled. The county has also issued several million dollars' worth of relief bonds. Not until September 1, 1932, was it necessary to apply to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation for assistance. From that time until September 1, 1933, 80 per cent of Milwaukee's expenditures was reimbursed by the federal government. Since September I reimbursement has been at the rate of 70 per cent.
Relief, however, even if it is adequate, can never be a substitute for a properly planned public-works program to provide the unemployed with jobs. Men and women must be supplied with work. That is what they demand. No system of government or social order will long survive which does not fill this need, and at wages which will provide for necessities and comforts.
