Able-bodied workers without jobs would get relief from the state-first home (direct) relief and then the more desirable work relief. On October 1, 1931, under authority granted to him by the New York State Legislature in Extraordinary Session, the governor created the Temporary Emergency Relief Administration (TERA) with an initial appropriation of $20 million targeted for the emergency relief of the unemployed. Each industry itself likewise should bear a part of the premium for this insurance, and the State, in the interest of its own citizens, and to prevent a recurrence of the widespread hardship of these days, should at least supervise its operation.” The relief to which the workers of the State should be able to anticipate, when engulfed in a period of industrial depression, should be one of insurance, to which they themselves have in a large part contributed. American labor seeks no charity, but only a chance to work for its living. The dole method of relief for unemployment is not only repugnant to all sound principles of social economics, but is contrary to every principle of American citizenship and of sound government. This form of relief should not, of course, take the shape of a dole in any respect. In early 1931, shortly after his reelection, Roosevelt called for legislation that would enable the state to give immediate aid to unemployed New Yorkers, declaring that “ the duty of the State towards the citizens is the duty of the servant to its master.” The tone and the substance of the governor’s message was unmistakably a precursor of his social policy as president: “ The serious unemployment situation which has stunned the Nation for the past year and a half has brought to our attention in a most vivid fashion the need for some sort of relief to protect those men and women who are willing to work but who through no fault of their own cannot find unemployment. Many experienced social workers, with access to at least some statistics culled from case studies, agreed with Roosevelt and feared that crisis would only worsen without government intervention. The only question would be one of method. He recognized that private charities and local public agencies simply did not have the resources to help: “ In the long run, State and national planning is an essential to the future prosperity, happiness and the very existence of the American people.” At the time, Roosevelt did not have any comprehensive or long-term plan to offer but he did propose governmental action. “More and more, those who are the victims of dislocations and defects of our social and economic life,” he declared, “are beginning to ask respectfully but insistently of us who are in positions of public responsibility why Government cannot and should not act to protect its citizens from disaster.” The proper response according to Governor Roosevelt was that the government on all levels had to accept responsibility and act to protect the welfare of the people. Deploring the “Pollyanna attitude” of the Hoover administration, Roosevelt called for experimental programs, an innovative tactic that became a hallmark of his social policy during the New Deal years. Roosevelt spoke at two of the sessions and declared that in order to meet this unprecedented emergency the state had to look for new solutions to meet new problems. ![]() In January 1931 newly-reelected Governor Roosevelt suggested that the governors of the eastern industrial states meet for a three-day conference to discuss how to deal with the economic emergency. With the support of both labor and business, Frances Perkins, the state industrial commissioner, told Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt that public works projects were “the greatest source of hope for the future,” and she recommended the immediate implementation of local public works programs along with public employment clearinghouses. New York, as the leading industrial state, had an especial need to maintain and develop the wage-earner market. Despite the lack of accurate statistics, all cities had reported that unemployment had reached unprecedented proportions. The problem of unemployment in New York State and in its major cities grew increasingly critical, and it was obvious that neither local funding nor privately-supported agencies could handle the crisis. In 1930, with unemployment rising and jobs becoming increasingly scarce, American citizens began to feel the effects of the economic downturn that began with the Stock Market Crash the previous October. In: Eras in Social Welfare History, Great Depression, Organizations The New York State Temporary Emergency Relief Administration: October 1, 1931Īssociate Professor, Armstrong Atlantic State University
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