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6678 :coNGRESSIONAL .RECORD-HOUSE MAY 5 10824. Also~ petition of Dr. J. A. Gregoire, Hillsboro, Tex., From this depression we have learned another costly les favoring tax exemption to physicians on Federal income for son on the value of preparedness. We entered the combat to charity practice; to the Committee on Ways and Means. succeed an administration which had been retreating before 10825. Also, petition of Dr. William A.. Hammon~ Bryan, savage adverse economic forces which had laid waste the Tex., favoring tax exemption to physicians on Federal in land. We-adopted new and offensive tactics and rallied the come for charity practice; to the Committee an Ways and full resources of the Federal Government to rout the enemy, Means. and for our attack we evolved the first substantial. effective 10826. Also, petition of Dr. W. K. Logsdon, Corsicana, Tex., attempt at a planned economy. favoring tax exemption to physicians on Federal income for From the financial reports of the large corporations whose charity practice; to the Committee on Ways and Means. pay rolls in normal times provide a living for a great number 10827. Also~ petition of Dr. H. A.. Mahaffey, Hillsboro, Tex., of our people, we now have cheering indications that the favoring tax exemption to physicians on Federal income for tide of battle has turned and that a victory, due in no small charity practice; to the Committee on Ways and Means. measure to the successful working of this planned economy. 10828. By Mr. KEE: Petition of .citizens of West Virginia, is at hand. favoring the passage of House bill 7122, providing for pen We may now analyze the strategy employed to achieve this sions for adult blind persons; to the Committee on Pensions. victory and, with the thought of utilizing it in the event ot 10829. By Mr. REED of Dlinois: Resolution of American another depression, evaluate it calmly and contemplate im Homestead Protective Association of Chicago, ID., urging provements in it to prevent in the future the repetition of Congress to amend the Frazier-Lem.ke bill 2066 so that all those errors which could not have been avoided because of the city and town property owners may have the same recourse necessary haste employed in putting our plan into execution. and the same protection as farmers under said bill; to the Obviously our most grievous sin was our lack of prepara Committee on Agriculture. tion for the emergency of 1929. The warnings of economic 10830. By Mr. RICH: Petition of citizens of McKean prophets had fallen upon deaf ears during the days of easy County, favoring the Wheeler-Crosser bill (H. R. 11609); to money, and disaster, following in the wake of a market col the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. lapse, found America an improvident nation, taken completely 10831. By the SPEAKER: Petition of the National Retail off guard, stunned by the enormity of the catastrophe, and Lumber Dealers Association; to the Committee on the too bewildered to muster the necessary defenses. Judiciary. True, there- was a period of panicky conferences of the Nation's leading financiers, who assured us that confidence · HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES alone would win the battle, that the worst of the depression was over, and, ignoring the lengthening breadlines, that pros TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1936 perity was just around the comer. And there were eloquent The House met at 12 o'clock noon. but futile pleas that industry pull itself out of the depression The Chaplain, Rev. James Shera. Montgomery, D. D., offered by reemploying the unemployed. But while these haphazard the following prayer: efforts were successful in bolstering up a few failing corpora tions and in salvaging a few scattered investments, no effec Eternal and Immortal One, may we draw nigh to '!bee and tual attempt to relieve the Nation's widespread distress was breathe Thy holy name in prayer? · Blessed be the name of made until after President Roosevelt's inauguration. the Lord our God, which hath not turned away our prayer Emergency agencies were hastily organized, and plans were nor his mercy toward us. We pr:ay Thee to make our tem laid for priming the business pump with Federal money to pers patient, our lips gentle, and may we bear the fruits of hasten the restoration of economic normality. The Congress goodness. Arm us, Heavenly Father, with the strong, manly made vast appropriations, but the lack of preparatory studies virtues, that we may be chivalrous champions of the right and adequate plans for the execution of these relief programs against wrong. We pray for any who may dumbly suffer for made most difficult the task of stemming the depression and others' sake and for any who keenly feel-the faults of those turning the tide of battle. The Public Works Administration, they love.- Consecrate each family tie; light heaven on all the principal agency charged with creating useful employ hearthstones and fill them with divine blessings. Keep this ment, opened its campaign without the aid of surveys, which everlasting truth in all our minds: "The path of the just is would have expedited greatly its huge undertaking. as a shining light that shineth more and more unto the To encourage the employment of jobless workers in con perfect day." Let Thy will be done in every heart as it was struction and in the industries supplying materials, P. w. A. in the heart of the Master. Amen. invited departments of the Federal Government and States, The Journa1 of the proceedings of yesterday was read and counties, municipalities, and other local governmental bodies approved. to submit applications for ftm.ds to carry on useful projects. MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE Only the Federal departments were prepared to expend this money judiciously, only they had surveyed the work to be A message from the Senate, by Mr. Home, its enrolling done, and had available the blueprints to carry out the job. clerk, announced that the Senate had passed bills of the Local governmental units were taken completely by sur following titles, in which the concurrence of the Bouse is requested: prise. The invita;tion to enroll in a public-works program s. 3744. An act to amend the act creating the Federal found them for the most part unprepared to submit appli Trade Commission, to define its powers and duties, and for cations for works. And yet every community in the coun other purposes; and try, from the largest city to the smallest hamlet, felt the s. 4524. An act to provide a civil government for the Virgin urgent need of additional municipal improvements to safe Islands of the United States. guard the health of its people, to provide decent modern care for its sick and indigent wards, to give modern educa P. W. A. GETS DOLLAR'S WORTH OF WORK FOR EACH DOLLAR SPENT tional accommodations to its children. Every community Mr. BEITER asked and was given permission to revise and was aware that its municipal plant was in need of some im- extend his remarks in the REcoRD. provement, and every community was faced with a; grave un Mr. BEITER. Mr. Speaker, with the great depression of employment problem, yet few of them had prepared the 1929 now in full retreat and our long-fought battle back to plans and estimates on which to base a request for Federal industrial normality near success, we may now survey the aid, which would serve the dual purpose of employing their destruction of that great economic battlefield and ponder on jobless and modernizing their plants. how differently our strategy might have been planned, on There was no na.tional survey showing the location of how more wisely we might have employed the weapons that needed works, no outline for a campaign which sought to were so hastily forged when this administration assumed attack the largest unemployment centers and provide there the high command in the battle. employment for workers who wanted jobs in the building 1936 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE 6679 of . undertakings whose value to society should not be ques- seems to me that one of the most urgent needs of our Gov tioned by the taxpayers who would bear their .cost. ernment at the present is that of a well-equipped agency There were two possible methods of operation for P. W. A. whose function shall be in times of econoniic peace to make It might have sprung into action hastily, scattering with all preparations for mustering the Nation's strength in the lavish hand the money entrusted to it in the construction event it is needed in an economic crisis when business fails of poorly planned undertakings of questionable social worth, in its role as the employer of the Nation's workers. The or it could proceed cautiously and necessarily more slowly, first steps in long-range planning have already been taken. evaluating each application, checking the plans with the Under Administrator Ickes, the National Resources Board idea of securing a dollar's worth of work for each dollar was organized and has been operating with a grant of · spent, making certain that the Federal Government would P. W. A. funds. This agency is primarily concerned with find its loans repaid. providing · an inventory of our great national resources and Public Works Administrator Harold L. Ickes chose the with preparing a program for their intelligent development. latter course, and I believe he showed great wisdom in his· While its work will doubtless be of great aid, not only in choice. Applications for Federal funds to be us~ in con- directing future expansion but in mapping areas for im struction of state or municipal projects poured into his provement to be developed if America is faced with the office by the thousands.