Query: |
Can you tell us something about the request of the President to have another $600,000 sent to Utah?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
There is a drought out there, lack of rain-fall which has hurt the water supply, affecting 10,000 families.
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Query: |
How did the President come to make a special request for Utah?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
I was over there and we were talking about it. I talked to the President about it.
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Query: |
Is the money all to be used to provide a water supply?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, through work projects, engineering projects, and the engineers tell us it will do the trick.
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Query: |
Have you taken up drought matters generally with the Agricultural Department? Has there been any request for increased purchases of surplus? Instead of purchasing stock feed, will there be increased cattle purchasing as a result of the drought?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
I am in touch with the Department of Agriculture every day. There has been a proposal that cattle be purchased instead of feed, if the drought continues. 0t course, a good rain-fall will alleviate the situation a great deal. We are watching the thing pretty closely.
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Query: |
Have you gone into any detail as to where such cattle purchases would be made?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
No. I have no intention of doing it now. We are not watching any particular actions in the drought matter now. We are watching it all over the country.
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Query: |
Has there been any suggestion that in some of the drought areas, where they have had a drought for two or three years, no successful farming could be done for a long while?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, that is the opinion in some areas.
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Query: |
Will your relief plans be amplified to cover strictly drought relief?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, I think it will require formulation of a special program and we are working on that now.
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Query: |
Is your relief roll going up or down?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
It is going down, but I cannot give you any figures. I think, though, that it i going down.
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Query: |
Can you tell us something about share-croppers and tenant farmers in the south?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
I cannot tell you anything now about that. It is a general thing, a general subject. It is not spot news.
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Query: |
It is a vital part of the whole situation in the south, is it not?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, it is a problem alright.
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Query: |
Have you had any survey or are you getting any figures together on it?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, but I will probably not have anything to release on it at any time because we cannot get at it statistically, so that it will stand up. There is no use in using figures on this sort thing unless you have statistics to back them up. You can get all kinds of estimates, of course.
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Query: |
Disregarding figures, when will you do something about it?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
We are doing something now. We are spending a hundred thousand a month now on that. We are right in the middle of it now, in practically every county of the south.
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Query: |
Westbrook heads that, does he?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
We have rural rehabilitation committees in every state and county and Westbrook has a special staff to serve in every location. It is a thing that is moving on a very wide front right now.
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Query: |
Are those staffs paid?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Oh, some of the people are paid. The committees are volunteers.
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Query: |
Do you expect it to proceed north and west also?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, it is now.
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Query: |
Secretary Wallace said that a good many share-croppers had been ousted because of the cotton reduction program.
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Mr. Hopkins: |
We hear more about farm labor than share-croppers.
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Query: |
Is any effort being made to replace the whole share-cropping system with something else?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
No, I cannot say that there is. You ought to get that from Secretary Wallace, anyhow.
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Query: |
In this repairing of houses, will you use the same financial set-up that the National Emergency Council will use?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
I do not know anything about their financial set-up. I did not know that they had any.
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Query: |
Has the Spring pick-up met your expectations?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
I do not know. I cannot answer that. You do not seem to get this thing. If you ask me for my opinion, that is one thing, but there are no statistics. No one knows how many unemployed there are. No one knows and no one will know how many people went to work in the month of April, for instance. What you get are opinions and convictions and judgments based on reports received from a great many people, but statistically, it will not stand up. There are no accurate employment statistics in America, and I think it is very risky to use the relief rolls as an index of the economic condition of the country. However, I think we will undoubtedly get a drop in our relief roll. We are getting it right now.
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Query: |
Where are those people going to?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
They are going to work. It is summer, for one thing, and they do not need coal and so much clothing. They get part-time employment sometimes and in such cases our relief has been merely supplementary during the winter. When they need a ton of coal then and cannot buy it, they go on the relief roll. Now it is summer and they can get along. That accounts for a lot of the drop. Employment of agricultural labor accounts for a lot also and we always have seasonal employment of different sorts.
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Query: |
Have you made any progress in the moving of stranded populations?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
If you mean getting some of the plans crystallized, yes.
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Query: |
When do you expect to actually start operations moving people?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
In about ten days.
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Query: |
Have you any locality picked out?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, but I am not ready to announce it. We are acquiring land and I do not want any real estate boards to put up the price of land on us.
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Query: |
Have you completed the survey of the local District situation?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
No.
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Query: |
Can you tell us anything about it?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes. They spent $892,000 last month for relief which is about $108,000 less than they thought they spent. I think that will go down this month by another $100,000 or more. They have improved their machinery for determining who does and who does not need relief, very substantially, and I think they have a much better organization than they had. I think it will be improved some more. I think the net result of this will be, probably, that from three to five thousand families will be dropped from the relief rolls here.
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Query: |
To what do you attribute the improvement in the District situation?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
To having people or the staff who can determine who does and who does not need relief.
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Query: |
Can you tell us how much you will give the District this month?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
They carried over more than $100,000 from last month. We have already given them $200,000 this month and I think we will probably give them about $500,000 more, which would make a total of about $800,000.
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Query: |
Have you any recommendations to make as regards further improvement of the local administration?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, here you have Street coming it, a new man, and my inclination is, when you have a new man, to tell him privately about these things, unless, of course, something of really serious public importance is involved. Obviously, when you make an inquiry, you find things that ought to be done, but there is no use in kicking these things out in the open unless, as I said, they are of serious public importance.
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Query: |
Have you any comment to make about the young lady Communist on the relief roll here?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Is there one on the relief rolls?
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Query: |
She got a job.
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, it certainly shows that there is no political discrimination in the relief administration.
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Query: |
I understand that there have been a good many conferences between the AAA and your people in charge of the stranded populations thing. Can you tell us what those were all about?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
It was not the AAA. The agricultural department would be more correct. We are conferring all the time with people who know something about the business. We are meeting almost every day with that crowd.
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Query: |
Have you talked to any industrialists about establishing industries in the places where you move stranded populations?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes.
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Query: |
Have you had a favorable response and can you say what industries?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, but I cannot tell you the industries. You know, the interest in this thing amazes me. We get the same reaction from our people in the field that we get from you. I am amazed at the enormous amount of interest in it. The fact that you people are interested also expresses the interest of your newspapers and makes me thing we have something here that is important.
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Query: |
It is an ambitious program.
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Sure, and it is just beginning.
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Query: |
What about the possibility, the danger of failure?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, you might talk about the danger of passing a tariff on aluminum, but you never think of that. This is something that involves very large numbers of people and is intended to improve their way of living and we are not thinking about failure.
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Query: |
Would those industries have to agreed to pay certain wages?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
They would pay code wages. The law requires that.
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Query: |
Have you taken any precautions against a thing like in Harrison, Tennessee—a one industry town where the industry have seceded from the NRA because of a row about signing a wage agreement?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
That does not disturb me. I do not sense that sort of thing as a danger.
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Query: |
Have you anything you would like to tell us?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Sure a lot of things, but I cannot. The longer I stay here, the more timid and conservative I am getting.
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Query: |
How about Pennsylvania and Washington? Did you give Washington any more?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
We did give Washington, the state, half a million more and Aubrey Williams has gone out there to have a look at it.
We have given the State of Washington $1,000,000 altogether for May.
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Query: |
How about the Georgia program?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
That is moving very well. They have a specific program up here now and it is one of the best in the country. It is a question, if you ask about dollar cost, of whether they want to bridge over a period of a year or what. It will be, however, a substantial program. It any of you want to go into this thing on an individual basis, localized state basis, it would be interesting. Take one of these state programs and look at it. If you want any local state stories about this thing, get them. There is no reason why you fellows should not go down and read these things. I do not believe I have been a very good teacher on this thing and I think you might pick up more by reading the programs.
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Query: |
Have you completely closed up the CWA?
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Mr. Hopkins: |
Except for book-keeping and accounts and perhaps research tabulations.
At this point, the conference adjourned.
F. J. Hartnett
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