200 State Papers and Addresses

migrants. Some idea of the extent of this problem is gained when we are told
that in one State (California) during the four and a half year period from
July 1, 1935 through 1939 more than 350, 000 migrants in need of manual
employment entered the State by automobiles at border checking stations.
Obviously, a great many more actually entered the State by other modes of
conveyance and were not checked by Department of Agriculture representa-
tives. We of the Middle Atlantic Seaboard States had a somewhat similar
problem although not to the same degree as California.

This migration of large groups brought with it increasingly difficult prob-
lems including housing, health, education and relief. The ingress of such a
great number of persons into California presented a perplexing problem,
particularly because the groups were accustomed to work in a non-mechanized
and non-irrigated agriculture and could not satisfactorily be absorbed in com-
munities where there already existed serious problems. It would seem
to be unreasonable to penalize States such as California by allowing them
to be saddled with the burdens of other states without any help from
those states to care for needy persons who may have been born and lived all
their lives in another section but migrate to California or elsewhere when they
are in want.

It need hardly be mentioned that we must be concerned with the cost to
the taxpayer of these extended services, and none of us is unmindful of that
fact. However, we must recognize to the full that the future of our democracy
depends in no small measure upon our ability to solve our social problems.
We cannot long endure as a nation with hungry persons in our midst. Simply
stated, our single, over-all objective is to stimulate private industry to provide
work as rapidly as possible for all those able to work. Until that desirable
goal is achieved, we must continue to carry on public work and to insure against
unemployment. With that in mind, we cannot allow a decrease in the number
of WPA jobs until the number of unemployed decreases proportionately. With
full recognition of the existing differences in estimates of the number of un-
employed, it is still true that only a portion of the unemployed are assigned to
public work. If we go into a large defense program the unemployment situation
may change completely, and when expenditures for employables decrease many
inadequacies in the present program for the unemployables can be corrected.

Undoubtedly, more and more benefits can be realized if we develop our
public employment services to the greatest possible extent. The periodic
"cut-offs" from the rolls of WPA have also resulted in much detriment to social
work administration. Unexpected lay-offs find the worker with very little, if
any, savings and entail definite distress during the period of lay-off when ex-
perience has shown that additional need for medical care is apparent. Further-
more, this constant turnover has definite psychological disadvantages. It would
seem to be a much-hoped-for day, when steady and evenly balanced work pro-
grams can be the expected thing, making for continuity of occupation with its
encouragement to the individual and his family.

Moreover, we cannot lose sight of the fact that, even when industry op-
erates to the fullest, we shall still have a continuing need for assistance. In
the first place, the proportion of the aged in the population is constantly in-
creasing. In America the proportion of older persons has increased markedly.
Whereas in 1900 we had slightly over 3, 000, 000 persons over the age of 65, we
now have 8, 000, 000, and authorities estimate that by 1980 one-seventh of our