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1-20-44
FROM W. F. WALKER
To The Traveler: Your paper carried a front page article Friday that Miss Brady, county case worker, wanted to resign, but the commissioners would not accept it. And that if she did, it would stop all civil works, and that Commissioner Walker and members of the federal relief were making accusations against her.
Why don’t you go ahead and tell the whole story?
Mr. Jarrell, you are very unfair. Mr. Stauffer is not in town, and you are taking advantage and trying to withhold the facts from the public. Miss Brady caused her own trouble by not treating the people on relief as she should, and also usurping authority not delegated to her, also playing favorites in her selections of relief and jobs. She was warned that trouble was just ahead if she didn’t change her tactics, and Mr. Marvin said possibly it would do her good if it came. It came and she wasn’t able to lay in the nest she had made.
Mrs. King, ease worker at Arkansas City is, and has been having the same trouble in some respects. We have federal relief rules, and state statutes to guide the movements of relief in each and every department, and particular, but the case workers so far have not seen fit to accept them.
In a good many cases I have been charged by the case workers
of interfering. Now I will admit I have interfered, but only as the laws, and rules gave me the right. For your information only yesterday I discovered upon complaints from the people receiving relief that those employed by Mrs. King, in distributing eggs and beef to them, were none other than transients, and our own people standing by and looking on. I immediately removed them and put some citizens of Arkansas City in charge. Now is it in cases such as these that I have taken any part, and I believe if you readers have the interest of the people and the program at heart, you would not have stood by, and seen just common floaters put in charge of relief and handle the records in our office. It isn’t good business and shall not be practiced.
Now Mr. Jarrell, if you would get all the facts in the cases, before printing your misleading article you would serve the people of this community much better as editor of our local Traveler.— W. F. WALKER, county commissioner.
Four Commodities Are Being Given to Needy
— r24-34
Arkansas City’s needy families were receiving many of the basic ingredients of a good dinner Wednesday, with four different commodities being distributed through the local relief office and cooperating grocery stores.
Eggs and salt pork from the federal government’s surplus stocks were being passed out to 570 local families. At the same time, the county continued its distribution of turnips and carrots. The assignment of butter ordered for the Arkansas City district has been delayed due to a misunderstanding over shipping arrangements.
An order of flour is expected here soon, with a sack scheduled to go to each of the families on the list of the district’s 180 most destitute cases.
Five pounds of salt pork are being given to small families and ten pounds to the larger ones. Each family is receiving a dozen eggs.
All families receiving the com-modities must bring their own containers, E. E. Smith, assistant poor commissioner, said.
Butter Distributed Distribution of butter was started in Winfield Monday afternoon to those on the county relief list. Beef and egg distribution is being continued. Approximately 230 persons are on the relief list for Winfield and vicinity, Miss Martha Brady, county case supervisor, estimated.
WITH SALT pork, eggs, turnips and carrots being distributed through the relief agencies ana CWA working cards for the next week being passed out from the civil works office, the local relief office, 411 South Summit street, was crowded almost all day Wednesday and Thursday, with long lines forming in front of the various windows. Employes of both organizations were given few idle moments both days. / - 25-34
Butter Will Be Added To Free Commodities
Butter will be added Monday to the list of commodities being distributed in Arkansas City by the federal government. A shipment is expected from Wichita Saturday and will be distributed through local grocery stores, with eligible families abtaining their tickets through the relief office. Eggs and salt pork are now being passed out by the government and turnips and carrots by the county. Flour will be given to a selected list of the most needy families Friday or Saturday.
needy families 1-25-34
REGISTRATIONS of unemployed persons in the Arkansas City district numbered 1,917 Wednesday. About 730 of this group are employed in CWA work. The registrations are now being received at the rate of about four a day. 1-31-34
Soap Is Being Distributed to Needy of City
Soap—1,600 bars of it—is be-ing distributed to Arkansas City’s poor with the compliments of the county. Every family on direct relief or dependent upon the CWA for employment is scheduled to receive two bars of soap.
The soap was part of the stock remaining when the county commissary was closed here last September. Being an off-brand va-riety, no market could be found for it, so the distribution was started Friday.
Food distribution Friday was confined to the county’s turnips and carrots, with eggs being given to those families which had not shared in this week’s allottment. The supply of salt pork here has become exhausted, and families not yet receiving their share will be cared for Tuesday.
Sacks of flour will be given to about 180 families selected from the county’s direct relief cases Monday, while a distribution of butter is planned for early next week.
The free commodities are designed only to supplement the regular sources of relief, and families should not depend upon them for a continuous food supply, E. E. Smith, assistant poor commissioner, said.
Work Order on Cameron Work
A work order on i the bridge construction projects on highway 166 near Cameron will be issued Tuesday or Wednesday, according to word received by State Senator Kirke Dale from the state highway department Saturday. Contracts for the work, which includes three bridges and earth work, were let Dec. 22. The total cost is $135,458.13. Work orders on the earthwork may be delayed.
The improvements are designed to eliminate the sharp curve in the highway at Cameron and to provide the new bridges, including one large span over Grouse creek and the Missouri Pacific railroad tracks. A deep cut will be made in the Cameron hill to carry the highway over it.
A detour around the construction sites will be started early next week as a CWA project, it was reported in the local civil works office Saturday.
The Cameron projects will prove a substantial aid in handling the unemployment situation in the county, as the men used will not be included in the county CWA quota.
PEACETIME soldiers will no longer be included among those to whom preference is given in selecting CWA employes, according to a bulletin received here Saturday. Only ex-service men who have participated in the World War or the Spanish American War will be included in the first classification. Former members of the national guard and the standing army have been included previously. The order will not affect men already work-
ing.__________________________________
CWA Work Halted
Until Next Friday
----- 1-30-34
Work was halted Tuesday afternoon on all CWA projects in the county with the completion of the restricted working week. Employes have been divided into two shifts, each working 15 hours, this week. The system will be continued when operations are resumed Friday.
Two new major projects will be opened with the start of the next working week. One is the orchard sanitation program, which will call for 120 men from the Arkansas City district, and the other is the city’s road building and landscaping project in River-view cemetery, which will require about 30 workers.
L. L. Petticord, county CWA administrator, has predicted that the civil works program will be maintained on its 15-hour week schedule until at least Feb. 15, regardless of whether congress makes a new appropriation before that time.
Butter, Flour, Eggs
Distributed to Poor
-- 1-30-34
Butter, flour and eggs constitute the federal government’s contribution this week to the pantries of Arkansas City’s needy.
Each of the families on the distribution list is receiving two pounds of butter. The butter is of a standard creamery variety and was purchased through the Cudahy plant in Wichita, E. E. Smith, assistant poor commissioner, said.
Eggs are being given out for the third straight week here, and 180 sacks of flour are being allotted to families selected as the most distressed in the city. The salt pork distribution is being completed.
The county is continuing to distribute the stock of soap remaining from the stores of the old commissary.
TWENTY unemployed Arkansas Cityans have been placed with private employers by the national reemployment office here since Feb. 1. Most of the calls have been for housekeepers and prac- tical nurses, F. M. Edwards, of- fice manager, said Monday. One man, who has had considerable hospital experience, was among the nurses placed. 2-19-34
ON U.S.166 J0B
- 2-1-34
Forty to Fifty Men Will Be Put to Work At Once
THREE BRIDGES
Will Provide 8 Months of Labor for Part of Unemployed
All workmen used on the big highway improvement project at Cameron, scheduled to start within the next few days, will be employed from the Arkansas City district.
This policy was announced by Ed L. Hepler, chairman of the county re-employment committee, in a conference Wednesday in Winfield with Floyd M. Edwards, manager of the national re-employment office here.
40-50 Men At Once
From 40 to 50 men will be put to work on the jobs at once, with estimates calling for as many as 150 workers when the operations are in full swing. These jobs have no connection with the county’s CWA quota. The men employed probably will be taken from the civil works ranks, Mr. Edwards said, leaving their vacancies to be filled from the list of registered unemployed.
Work orders on the three bridges at Cameron were received Wednesday by W. D. Guy, resident engineer, at Winfield. The bridges are scheduled to be completed in 160 working days, or about eight months. A 30-hour week has been prescribed as the maximum working period. The men will be paid on the state highway commission’s wage scale.
Contracts for the three bridges total $95,165.23. The earth work on the location, which includes the construction of cuts and fills, will not start until later. It will call for an added expenditure of $40,292.90. This contract was not let with the other three because the total amount of the bids on the four jobs exceeded the $110,-000 available for the work.
The location for the improvements is bounded by Silver creek on the west and Grouse creek on the east. Between are two high hills, divided by a canyon. Highway 166 now curves sharply around the hills, leaving almost square corners at the entrances to the two bridges.
over Creeks and canyon
The new bridges will be constructed over the two creeks and the canyon. A new roadway will cut through the hills and the embankment on the east side of Grouse creek built up so that the highway will cross the entire barrier on a straight east-west course.
The big Grouse creek bridge, to slope toward the east at a grade of four per cent, will be built by Carrothers and Crouch, Kansas City, Mo., at a cost of $63,-646.60. It will be slightly over 410 feet long and will carry a 24-foot roadway. There will be one 95-foot concrete arch, two 75-foot concrete arches and three 50-foot reinforced concrete deck girders.
The Silver creek bridge, to be constructed by J. S. Vance and sons of Parsons, will be 192 feet long, with concrete piers and abutments. The bid was $20,222.-93.
Ezra W. King of Hesston was awarded the contract for bridge No. 1, over the canyon. His bid was $11,295.70. The bridge will he 157 feet long and will include seven 20-foot slab spans and a 24-foot roadway.
CWA Resumes Work After 2-Day Shutdown
The county CWA organization resumed operations Friday morning after a two-day shutdown, with about 375 men starting their 15-hour working week and another 375 due to begin work Monday.
The county’s orchard sanitation program claimed the services of 60 Arkansas City workers on its opening day. Work is being conducted in ten orchards. The improvements consist of cleaning the grounds, trimming the trees and putting them in first-class shape. Eighty men are being employed altogether in each of the two shifts handling the work.
The new city-sponsored projects also were opened Friday. One was the road construction work in Riverview cemetery, which is being conducted with a gang of 15 men, and the other is the city hall refinishing work. Nine painters and one plasterer are being used
- 2-2-34 __________________
ALL CARDS for CWA employees in the county are now being handled through the Winfield reemployment office. The local office will continue taking registrations and investigating complaints received on workers. There were 1,884 registered unemployed in Arkansas City and vicinity Thursday morning, including approximately 740 CWA employes. New registrations are still being received at the rate of about 10 a
day. 1-18-34