Query: |
Have you got anything on this protest of the National Association of Manufacturers with reference to the Government operating factories?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I never heard of it. Who are they? Are the same group who were involved in that hot campaign about the child labor amendment? Is that the same crowd? I think that probably it is.
|
Query: |
As I understand it, they kicked on the ground that you were going into competition with private business.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I have not received word about it.
|
Query: |
Did you talk with Governor Brown, of Maine, today?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, we discussed the relief situation in Maine, and the needs there, and so on.
|
Query: |
How is the rural rehabilitation program going?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I think it is going pretty well.
|
Query: |
Are they still getting the $100,000.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I cannot tell you about the exact amount now off-hand, but you can get it.
|
Query: |
Did Governor Brown want to talk about anything else?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, he wanted to talk about potatoes.
|
Query: |
Will you buy any?.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
That is up to the Department of Agriculture.
|
Query: |
Have you looked into that question up there about the disfranchisement of voters on relief?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
No. That is up to the States under the State Constitution, and it is purely a State law there,
|
Query: |
On this Manufacturers protest, again, can you say anything about how comprehensive your working room program is?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I suppose we have a couple of thousand of work rooms.
|
Query: |
And how many people are working in them?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
About 75,000 or 80,000 people.
|
Query: |
Are they factories?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
They are not factories. They are work rooms. Those people call them factories. I have not seen any that could be called factories. There may be some in Ohio, but most of them are just regular working rooms, where a woman can go in and make a dress for her youngster, and it would cost us about one fifth or one tenth of what it would if we purchased it. It is, in fact, not only not more expensive, but far cheaper.
|
Query: |
You said it costs about $10 more a month, however, to support a person on work relief.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
That is because of materials, but it is really far cheaper. You see, we have to take care of these families anyhow. In terms of dollars, therefore, there is no question but that we are saving the tax-payers a great deal of money, and it you followed that other argument out, I would hate to say how much more we would have to have appropriated to us, than under this system.
You might argue it on other fronts, and say that it is not important how much the relief bill is, and that I should have all the money I need, and then go out and purchase all of these things, but I do not know of enough dollars that we could get to do that. You might argue that it is for the interests of business to do just that and to buy these things through the regular channels of trade. You might say that we should not encourage relief families to can anything, and that we should go to the grocery stores. I could wee how someone could make an argument on that score.
|
Query: |
But if you did that, in large quantities, you would not pay so much. You could buy cheaply.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, if you follow the argument out, why should we skip the retailers? No, we would have to buy right down the line, and if they make out that sort of a case, they have a pretty good argument, but then you must assume, also, that this office is a recovery agency, to stimulate business, whereas our job here is to take care of the unemployed, and take care of them properly.
|
Query: |
I still cannot see why work relief is cheaper in this way.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Well, say we have here a woman in South Carolina who is getting $5 a week in grocery orders, and the relief office there has a sewing room. We say to her, we will give you the $5 a week, but we will expect you to do some work. She ways that she will, gladly, and she goes into the sewing room and they give her a yard of goods which she uses to make a dress for her youngster. We could let her stay home and give her the money for the dress, say $1.50, and yet the total cost of it in the work room would be about thirteen cents, so that we lay out $5.13.
|
Query: |
What is your opinion as to how much business is lost by private enterprise because of the Government being in business?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
None, because we would not buy that dress anyhow, because we do not have the money. On the other hand, the manufacturer of the goods gets some business.
|
Query: |
Would you buy canned goods?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
We might buy some, but with all of the canning by the unemployed we would not buy as much. I think the total amount of stuff in the canned goods thing, with about 1,500,000 gardens; and with those products, and our sewing rooms and what they made—last year—would be worth about $60,000,000, and this year about $200,000,000, if it was purchased at retail. The increase this year is almost exclusively because of the increase in canning.
|
Query: |
Do you think that canning is the only industry that has suffered?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I doubt if they have, because we are about the biggest customers of the canning industry in the country. We had about one billion cans of meat canned by commercial plants. Our commercial contracts in connection with the cattle thing alone will be about $100,000,000. But all of these things occur as an incident to the relief work.
|
Query: |
How much of the relief funds go back to private channels?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
All of it. I have no quarrel with anyone, if they want me to go the other way and give me all the money we need, but we would have to have far more than we have now. There is another argument, also, and that is that these people should not be allowed to stay home and lose all their skill, because some day they are going to go back to work. You see, those people you have talked about, have no interest in relief, really. Well, they are not worth bothering about anyhow.
|
Query: |
Is that the National Manufacturers Association?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I think that is the name of it. They are those people who conducted a violent campaign on the child labor thing and seemed to be opposed to everything good in America. Anyhow, this group are said to have written me a letter, and gave it to the papers, but I have not received it.
|
Query: |
Has there been any progress in putting people to work on that Colorado dam. They came to see you about it the other day and you talked with Shawver.
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, I did. I do not know what has been done, but I think he has already done it.
|
Query: |
Does that involve extending of considerable relief until the bonds are sold?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
Yes, about $2,000,000 in October, until they sell the bonds in November.
|
Query: |
How about the fourteen States? Did you hear from them? How about Georgia, Florida and Alabama?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
I would rather not discuss any of them specifically. None, however, have actually put the money up, but about six or seven have said they would.
|
Query: |
How much money have you got?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
We have enough to get through October, but that is merely because we are getting it that way. There is an uncertain amount available—a certain minimum and a potential maximum, but I think we have money to see us through February. You can take that Bill and go through it and decide the potentialities as well as I can.
|
Query: |
Any plans for adult education?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
None that I know of right now.
|
Query: |
Have you talked with Mr. Ickes about it?
|
Mr. Hopkins: |
No.
At this point, the conference adjourned.
Frank J. Hartnett
|