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OCT 1 6 1931-i .-vt-- Rtt:tr n r " ersify No. 4 - 1333 Llhra r y TH E WORKS P l~ 0 G RA M --Wor k s Progress Administration-- For Morning Nevrnpapers 'I'hursday, October 8, 193 6 . Hankins Cite s Fa l se Chp, r ge s in Republicon :;:rational Corr.mi ttee Radio Brop,dca st. HP. rry L. Ropkins, Works Progre s s Admi~istrator, Wednesday declP. red the charge s mc:de in a broadcast of the Rep ublicc>n Nationpl Committee Tuesday night 11 11 t h r ough its paid mouthp iece are as misleading as they are false." It is a mazinr; to me that the Republican :ifational Committee will permit Joe Grunc.y' s hencLmen in p ,3 nnsylva ~1 ie to peddle thei r phony affidavits and sec ond-hand. gossip, which is then pawned off on the. American people as news, 11 Mr. Hopkins said. 11 The answers of our State Administrator in F ennsylvania to these politically inspired charg es are a c omp lete refutation of the Republican Committee's m~idsl ing ing . 11 Taking up each allegation in the broad.ca st, Mr. Hopkins issued the Statemen t by the Republican National Committee: "It i s also true that members of th,~ New DeAl Par ty who want WPA jobs find it very ec=isy to avoi d and ev;:1ds the rul::~ thet seys y ou sn.ould be on r e lie f before you are allowe d to be on WPA. 11 Answ e r by Mr. Hopkins: "Eviden tly the Committee's speeke r is not familiar with the re gulations of the wPA which perrr.i t the app ointment of up to 10 per cent non-reli e f administrative a nd supervisory ernployes, or p e rsons having special skill s necessary to c ,c; rry on a project; also that Congress placed WPA employment en a basis of need rather than previous enrollment on relief lists." Statement by Republican National Committee: A lengthy affida.vit signed by one Harry Ball, Delawe.re County WPA project engineer, in which Mr. Ball allege s politics interfered with the operation of the WPA progr~rn in Delawar.a .t.County. LJ1g1 1zed by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY No. 4 - 1333 - 2 - .Answer by Mr. Hou kins: 11 T:1e best answer to Mr. Ball's affidavit is to be found in Mr. Ball 1 s own employment on the WPA program in Delaware Ccunty. Mr. Ball WAS a r egistered F:epublicru1; his father was a member of the Ches ter City Council an cl a henchman of the McClure political machine. If politics had bean predominant in Delaware County, as alleged by Mr. Ball, he, Mr. Ball, could neve r heve been appointed to any administrative or supervisory position on the WPA prl'lgram. "Mr. Ball was transf':lrred from DelAware Coim ty to Philadelphia County because of complaints that he was using his position to build up the McClureRepublican political m8chin e in Del.<rnare Coun.ty. Subsequent to his making this affidavit he informed persons connected with the administrP.tive staff in Philadelphia that the res son he made the affidavit was thet he h8d been promised a job but tha.t the job would not be delivered to him until h8'had m8de the affidavit. As to Mr, Ball's assartions about politics, to the effect tha t only Democrats could get jobs, it is worthy of note that out . of a total of 552 administrative and supervisory employees engaged on the WPA in Delaware County, only 54 per cent are registered Democratic. As to Mr. Ball 1 s assertion that the full advantage was taken of the 10 per . cent non-re lief exemption, his own statement to the effect th9_t so long as he was in control of the WP.A program in Delaware County, supervisory forces were held to 5 par cent, effectively answers his charge. 11 The assertion thAt this percentage was increased recently is false .. · There ha s been some increase but it is due to our inability to secure re~ lief workers of pRrticular skills to round out the personnel of projects~ 11 .As to Mr. Ball's stetement that predesignations were l!lAde by pol:i._~ ticians, Mr. Ball knows t his to be faise. Of course, Democratic leaders gave letters of recommendation for jobs; but so did Republican leaders pnd office holders, as well as private citizens. In his position e s supe rvisor for Delaware County, Mr. BAll knew full well that he did not have to accept any recommendations unless the person recommended was capabl e of filling the job. 11 Statement by the Republican National Committee: A list of seven persons appointed to VlPA administrative and supervisory positions, who had been def ea t ~ giji~ lM°f ice, was read over the radi (§),iginal from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY -· No. 4 - 1333 - :3 - Answer oy Mr. Hopkins: worth answering. 11 I'hi s charge is so trivial as to be hardly The Commi ttee's speake r does not say when these men were defeated for office or whether they were Rep ublicans, Democratic, Socialist or Commun ist. For instance, he na mes 11 J os eph Schuler,· defeJJted. for Ma~ror, now WPA Administrator f or Luzerne County. 11 Admini s tra t or of Luzerne County. Mr. Schuler is He was defeated for Mayor of Wilkes- Barre in 1932 - but he happ ene d to be the candidate of the Republican Pa rty . 11 Stateir.ent -oy the Republican National Committee: An affid.avi t was broAdcast a ll eging thr-i t thre e persons, William Feinsinger, Harry Schmuc kler, said by the spe2ker to be Demc, cratic Committeemen , and Miss May Brett, said to be a Democratic Regis trar, are employed on the WPA progrnm in Philadelphia. It is further alleged by the Re:)u"b lican spokesman that Miss Brett "performed her duties as Registrar of t he p olling place during the entire regi s tration pe riod on days when she would norma lly be working on the WP.A project." An swe r by Mr. Hopkins: 11 As to the last a ll ega tion, it is noted that no charge i s made that Miss Brett wa s pa id by WPA for he r time during which she served as Registrar. Two of the t hr ee days she served as Registrar her p roj ect was not operating. The third da y she dr ew on her ac cumula ted overtime to con:.pensRte for her l eave . W8 S employed by WPA. Feinsinger is no t now and never Schmuckl er is work ing on a WPA p roj ec t. Democ r a tic Committeeman. He is a The Repub l ic a n speaker might be surprise d t o lea rn t he.t there are Republican Committeemen employed on WPA in Philade b ::ihia . 11 --- oOo --- Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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