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Plans Are Being Made for Carrying on Work In County
2-27-34
Preliminary arrangements for
establishing county gardens in the Arkansas City district this summer are being made by the county this week following the endorsement of the garden plan by the board of county commissioners at their meeting Monday in Winfield, The Cowley County Taxpayers' League placed its approval on the program Saturday.
The garden project will be carried on this year on about the same scale as last season, County Commissioner W. F. Walker said. Most of the vegetables raised will be of a kind that can be stored satisfactorily for use during the winter.
Although some garden plots may be laid out in the other two commission districts of the county, they probably will not approach the size of those here, Mr. Walker said. The county will prepare seed beds soon in which to raise its own plants. Mr. Walker expects to effect a considerable saving in operating costs through the use of this method.
The county probably will take over the CWA sewing room here as soon as the project is discontinued in the civil works demobilization program, Mr. Walker said.
Major Relief Project
The gardens will form one of the major divisions of the county’s work relief project here during the summer months.
All able-bodied men whose families are receiving direct relief from the county will be transferred to the work-relief rolls Thursday and will be expected to pay for their groceries and other goods through service. The men will receive credit at the rate of 30 cents an hour and will be given enough work to keep their accounts with the county in balance.
The men will be employed principally in the county wood yard and gravel pit at this time. Some have been working under this arrangement during the last week and they will receive credit for the time expended. The wage rate on the project was recently lowered from 40 to 30 cents an hour. No cash will be exchanged, the wages being simply book entries against the goods received from the county.
About 125 Arkansas City men are eligible for the project.
Grocers holding claims for county orders were urged Tuesday by E. E. Smith, assistant poor commissioner, to turn them in by the end of each month so that they may be checked and paid promptly.
Will Absorb Part of the Men Laid Off by The CWA 2-23-34
SOME PROTESTS
Several of Those Given Notice Contend It Was Unfair
The county will open its new work relief project for able-bodied men whose families are receiving direct relief Saturday, with an initial force of about 60 men participating in the plan.
L. L. Petticord, county poor commissioner, called upon the county case workers Friday for the names of 30 men in Arkansas City and 30 in Winfield who are eligible for the new work, which will consist principally of shoveling gravel and cutting wood.
Use Commodity Orders
The men to be used for the work will be those now receiving county grocery orders who are capable and willing to work in return for this aid. Most of the men in this classification here are glad for an opportunity to replace straight charity with some form of work, it was reported at the local relief office Friday. No cash will be involved in the plan, only commodity orders being paid for wages.
The men will work eight hours a day at a rate of 40 cents an hour.
The new county project will be conducted on the same basis as the old federal work relief system which was discontinued when the CWA was opened in November.
The work relief rolls are expected to expand steadily as men discharged from the CWA in its demobilization program and un-able to find other jobs apply for help. Many of the 198 CWA employes removed from the payroll Friday are expected to be on the county relief rolls by the end of next week.
First Aid School second first aid school for CWA foremen will be held Thursday evening at 7:30 at the Winfield high school building. The course is to last three weeks, at five hours each week. Forty-five attended the first meeting Tuesday night. Ingle Stephens, Red Cross worker, gave first aid instructions on shock and shock treatment, and the method of tying triangular bandages.
Some Will Protest Some of the men discharged are planning to take advantage of the recent machinery set up for hearings on CWA dismissals in the stand that they were more | | in need than other men who were left on the payroll, it was indicated here Friday.
The men to be dismissed in the force reductions are selected by Mr. Petticord, county civil works administrator, upon the recommendation of the county case workers. This is the procedure followed in all counties in the state. Men having the most outside resources and the fewest dependents are taken from the rolls first.
Under the present CWA set-up any new men hired are certified for employment from the list of registered applicants by the county reemployment committee. After the men have gone to work, however, they are entirely under the jurisdiction of the civil works organization.
On Basis of Need Employes for new CWA projects or for replacements will be chosen entirely on the basis of need, according to the latest instructions from the office of John G. Stutz, state administrator.
The 24-hour working week on city projects and the 15-hour week for rural projects will be maintained, Mr. Stutz directed. Rotation is prohibited.
In his directions for making the force reductions, Mr. Stutz said:
“In order to accomplish the necessary reductions in the number of CWA and CWS employes on local and state projects, you should lay off those needing work least, dropping first all workers in whose immediate family another member is working, leaving no more than one person gainfully employed in the family, whether he be employed on public or private work; next lay off those workers who have other resources.”
Additional cuts are expected weekly until the entire CWA organization has been demobilized by May 1.
Employment Figures
Veterans with dependents who have been put to work from the national reemployment office with headquarters at Winfield number 154. Many of these men have secured jobs themselves,
others are Working on CWA and CWS projects, and some have se-cured work on contract jobs, according to Miss Anita Hepler, who
compiled the figures for a
regular report. The number of non-veterans and veterans with-out dependents who are working is 957. The number of women working is 70. These figures include those persons who have withdrawn their names from her lists for any cause, Miss Hepler said.
The total number of persons listed who are not working is 2,933. Of this number there are 157 veterans with dependents; 2,478 non-veterans and veterans without dependents, and 298 wo-
men. 2-28-34