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When CWA began operations last year, an able-bodied Negro in Georgia could be hired to tend a flower garden for about 50-c- per day. When CWA began hiring unskilled workers at 40-c- per hour, the supply of cheap labor available for private employers dwindled alarmingly. Georgia's Governor Talmadge complained first about Government competition, then wailed that no Government officials would listen to him. FERAdministrator Harry Hopkins impatiently snapped: "All that guy is after is headlines. . . . Some people just can't stand to see others making a living wage." When Governor Talmadge kept on squawking, Administrator Hopkins humiliated him and his State by appointing a Federal representative to take administration of relief funds out of his hands.

Last week, to Governor Talmadge's great glee, Administrator Hopkins abruptly canceled FERA's 30-c--per-hour minimum wage rate for work relief, established last spring after the wind-up of CWA. Frankly admitted was the fact that in some communities the Government has been paying wages higher than private employers for the same work. Hereafter work relief pay will be scaled to community wage rates.

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