THE DOLE

 

GOING ON THE DOLE

During the Great Depression (1929-1939) direct relief cash payments (often called “the Dole”) went to those in immediate and desperate need. However, work relief, that is, work on government projects in exchange for relief payments, was initiated in order to allow unemployed workers the dignity of working for a wage, however small. (Wikipedia).

************************************************************************

When I was seventeen my father owned a TV repair business for a short time. It became my first clerical job. For the record, it is then he taught me about being in business, honestly. His selling the business and returning to working in interstate commerce meant I was eligible for Unemployment Compensation. My paternal grandmother was, shall we say, ‘dismayed’. “You’ll be the first member of our family going on the Dole”.

This was the attitude of people who reared families during the Depression. It was, at very best, a disgrace to have to take money from the government. I suppose in her mind only ‘poor white trash’ took the dole. Prevalent in America was a strong work ethic and sense of sacrifice for the common good. This attitude was both a strength and problem President Franklin Roosevelt faced when he came to office in 1932 at the depth of the Depression. There was little work to be had, plenty of sacrifice to be called for.

FDR’s solution was to attack on several fronts. One attack was to create jobs with something called Works Projects Administration (WPA). What a family friend called the “working poor army”. Among WPA projects thousands of men worked for room and board plus about $50 a month – part of which must be sent home. Out of WPA came an amazing amount of infrastructure progress. In this town it meant paved roads and a water system of which we still use part.

All, or at least a significant number of FDR’s projects ended with the beginning of World War II. But, Roosevelt had enabled the nation to survive. It took about eight years, but Roosevelt put people without hope to work, encouraged and financed arts, retained in America a sense of worth. And, it kept my grandparents off the dreaded “dole”. The outcome of all this was what Tom Brokaw coined “the greatest generation” – my father’s.

On the TV machine today we are informed $2800 ‘economic stimulus’ will soon be deposited automatically into our bank account. Those who desperately need this money will quickly see it disappear. Those of us who could easily live without it will get money which we neither needed nor earned. Guess the economy will be helped, this week. But, do find myself wondering if my grandmother might think of all this as America “going on the Dole”?