Wts^s Reprinted from Social Forces Vol. 13, No. 4, May, 1935 FO a: & X. u°CUM6NTj, «oo* THE GENERAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT STA¬ TUS OF THE FERA RESEARCH PROGRAM* HOWARD B. MYERS Federal Emergency Relief Administration WHEN the FERA was created in May, 1933, it was given a large grant of federal funds, a general public blessing and a free hand and instructed to deal as best it could with one of the most insistent and formidable prob¬ lems of recent years. Despite numerous makeshift attempts to cope with the "tem¬ porary emergency" that had been steadily growing through four depression years, practically nothing was known of the problems to be faced by the new organiza¬ tion. Everyone realized that distress and destitution were widespread and that quick action and large expenditures were essential, but no one knew exactly how many persons were in need of relief, where they were concentrated, what types of persons they were, what (except in the most general way) had caused their dis¬ tress, what their needs were, in what ways and through what organizations their needs could best be met, or what could be done toward restoring them to economic independence. These and other questions had to be an¬ swered quickly. A nation-wide relief or¬ *This paper was read before a joint session of the Section on Social Statistics of the American Socio¬ logical Society and the American Statistical Associ¬ ation at the annual meeting in Chicago, December, J934- ganization had to be built up; fundamental questions of policy requiring prompt de¬ cision were constantly arising, and the welfare of millions of people depended on the decisions made. FERA could afford neither delay nor gross mistakes. One of its first acts was the creation of a Division of Research and Statistics, instructed to collect and make available with all speed the information necessary to give the new organization an understanding of its prob¬ lem and to assist in developing methods and procedures for dealing with the prob¬ lem. The first thing needed was to find out how many people were receiving public emergency relief, where the burden was concentrated, and how much was being expended. Strange as it may now seem, not even these basic figures were avail¬ able; we had never known in this country how many people were dependent upon public relief. During the summer of 1933, the Division developed a comprehensive system of monthly reports which answered these and allied questions for each county throughout the United States. More than fifteen million people, an eighth of the en¬ tire population, were then dependent on public relief for support, and in the neigh¬ borhood of $60,000,000 a month was being expended to meet their minimum needs. 477 478 SOCIAL FORCES The administration needed to know much more than the mere number of per¬ sons receiving relief, and, as soon as the reporting system was in operation, a cen¬ sus was taken of the resident unemploy¬ ment relief population of the United States. This census, taken as of October, 1933, supplemented the monthly reports by providing data on the race, age, and sex of relief persons, residence by urban and rural areas, and the size and compo¬ sition of relief cases. While the census was being taken, plans were laid for securing further information, and a section was established within the Division to develop and direct a research program. This section was assigned the tasks of providing further description and analysis of the relief population, sur¬ veying the circumstances of stranded populations, studying procedures and or¬ ganizations used in the distribution of relief, and analyzing the methods and re¬ sources available for temporary assistance or permanent rehabilitation, the extent to which relief families and persons could be assisted to regain their independent status, and the types of aid required for this rehabilitation. Its primary duty was to supply information and guidance in the administration of relief; the im¬ portance of prompt and flexible response to the needs of an organization still in the experimental stage was emphasized, and the establishment of general scientific principles and relationships received only secondary attention. The section's activities are divided into two broad phases: the research program of the section itself and the coordination of research projects of state and local groups. The research program is, in turn, split among three units, one engaged on urban problems, another on rural prob¬ lems, and a third available for special investigations. The largest and most important task thus far undertaken by the urban research unit is the Survey of the Occupational Characteristics of Families Receiving Re¬ lief in May, 1934. Information concern¬ ing the employability of relief recipients had been of fundamental importance to the administration from the beginning; comprehensive data on this question were needed to determine the relative emphasis to be laid on rehabilitation as against re¬ lief, to measure the extent to which work could replace direct relief, and to show what types of employment should be pro¬ vided. The Occupational Characteristics Survey was designed to show the number of relief families which contained employ¬ able members, the number of persons in these families who could be classified as employable on the basis of age, willing¬ ness to work, previous work experience, and freedom from disabling occupational handicaps, and the work these employable persons are fitted to do. The study is pro¬ viding equally important material on cases which do not contain employable persons and the types of assistance which should be provided for these cases. As a partial check on the findings of the employability study of relief persons, a similar study of the non-relief population has been made in Dayton, Ohio. The urban unit is making a monthly analysis of relief turnover to identify the factors responsible for changes in the relief load with particular reference to the effects of fluctuations in industrial activity, and to characterize the mobile part of the re¬ lief population. Registrants at leading transient centers are also being studied each month to provide current informa¬ tion on the characteristics of the transient population, their reasons for migration, direction of travel, and occupational ex¬ perience. The question of what constitutes ade- FERA RESEARCH PROGRAM 479 quatc relief is of vital importance to FERA, both for the determination of policy and the granting of funds. A study of this question in urban areas, to go into the field in March, will center attention on two points: one, to discover whether cases receiving relief are being maintained at a proper living standard, and, two, to estimate the cost of bringing these families to a level of adequate living. The study involves the collection of prices in each area, an inventory of the possessions of the family, determination of the amount of cash and the value of commodities re¬ ceived from all sources, and an analysis of family expenditures for different types of consumption goods. The rural research unit first undertook a survey of relief and non-relief households in commercial agriculture areas to afford a comparison between those two groups on the basis of such factors as size and composition of household, occupational history of head, farm tenure and mobility, economic status as reflected by ownership of land and livestock, indebtedness, and receipt of various types of governmental assistance. This was followed by a sur¬ vey of six large rural areas in which the economic situation is especially bad and the proportion of families receiving relief unusually high. This "problem area" survey is determining the reasons for dis¬ tress in relation to the economic back¬ ground of the area, providing an inventory of the resources potentially available for rehabilitation, analyzing the relief popula¬ tion with particular reference to rehabili¬ tation possibilities and the types of work which they are capable of doing, and studying local relief administrations and personnel. To keep abreast of the rapid changes oc¬ curring in the rural relief field, a third sur¬ vey is now being made to describe existing rehabilitation programs in major agricul¬ tural areas, to classify the present rural relief population by residence and occu¬ pation of head, to determine local reac¬ tions to certain relief policies, and to pro¬ vide a base for forecasting future relief needs. The special investigation unit has made a considerable number of inquiries into problems of immediate administrative in¬ terest, and is developing forms and pro¬ cedures for the use of state and local relief organizations. A statistical record card is being developed, designed to enable local relief offices to collect and maintain a body of accessible statistical information for ad¬ ministrative use. This card will provide much of the data now collected through the expensive and time-consuming method of schedule taking, and will permit quick and easy analysis of the relief population. An occupational classification card has recently been constructed for the use of local relief offices in placing clients on work projects, and a manual of procedure for social service exchanges is now being prepared. The coordination of state and local sta¬ tistical projects involves a review of all statistical and survey projects conducted on a work relief basis, materially increas¬ ing the effectiveness of the research work done and eliminating much duplication and waste effort. The coordinator is also developing standard procedures for studies in which there is widespread interest, to make for comparability among similar projects and to furnish local supervisors with tested methods and forms. These procedures have been or are now being con¬ structed for housing surveys and cam¬ paigns, occupational surveys of relief fami¬ lies, census projects, population mobility studies, and a number of other types of projects. The series of urban and rural studies con¬ ducted by the Research Section is present- 480 SOCIAL FORCES ing an increasingly detailed and accurate analysis of the relief problem for the guid¬ ance of the administration. It is impos¬ sible to present this analysis in the brief space available, but a few of the outstand¬ ing findings may be of interest. More than 18,000,000 persons were included in the 4,700,000 cases receiving public relief in the United States during October— roughly one-seventh of the entire popula¬ tion. The research studies demonstrate abundantly that in the great bulk of these cases the major problem is that of unem¬ ployment. Eighty per cent of the cases on relief contain at least one person be¬ tween the ages of 16 and 65 who is eager and able to work. Practically all of these cases are clearly rehabilitatable; the main thing they need is a job. The unemploy¬ able cases consist mainly of women with dependent children, aged persons in fami¬ lies containing no person of working age, and cases which are unemployable because of physical or mental disabilities of vari¬ ous types. The large number of these cases receiving emergency relief indicates the need for a comprehensive system of mothers' pensions, old age pensions, and invalidity and accident insurance in this country, and the data available concern¬ ing them are helping to guide the develop¬ ment of such a system. In the main, the work-seekers on relief are experienced and, prior to their recent unemployment, had held fairly steady jobs. Two-thirds of them had had at least five years' experience at their usual occupations, while nearly half of them have worked for five years or more with one employer. Not all of them can rea¬ sonably be expected to secure non-relief jobs even with a return to satisfactory em¬ ployment conditions, however. Many are above the hiring limits set by private industries; one-fourth are 45 vears of age or over. Others suffer from loss of skill through disuse, and some will find it diffi¬ cult or impossible to readjust themselves to regular work habits. Nearly three- fifths of those who were not working but were looking for work had not had a non- relief job of a month's duration in a year and a half, and one-fifth had not worked for three and a half years or longer. The existence of large groups of employ¬ able workers on relief who are suffering from industrial old age or loss of skill in¬ dicates the importance of an intelligently planned program of retraining and re¬ habilitation, supplemented by a continu¬ ing program of public works. Data available from the research studies con¬ cerning the usual occupations and indus¬ tries of the employable persons on relief provide a factual basis for the development of a sound work relief or public works program. Unskilled and semi-skilled oc¬ cupations are heavily over-represented on relief; more than two-thirds of the em¬ ployable persons on relief in urban areas fall into these groups. Less than a fifth are skilled workers, and only about a sixth follow "white collar" occupations. The building and domestic and personal service trades are especially heavily repre¬ sented. The findings of the rural surveys show the need for a rehabilitation program which is both comprehensive and carefully devised, and provide some of the basic facts around which such a program can be built. Generally speaking, high rural relief loads have arisen from more or less permanent factors, and large numbers of rural households will remain permanently on relief unless they can be removed from submarginal land or unless new industries can be developed to replace those which have been declining. These households will require careful supervision and re¬ training to fit them for independent main¬ tenance. The data show that surprisingly FERA RESEARCH PROGRAM 481 large numbers of rural relief households have had no previous farm experience; a fact which also indicates the need for di¬ versity in the program. This paper has attempted briefly to outline the development of the research work in FERA, to set forth the needs which called it into existence, and to indi¬ cate the major steps taken by the Research Section to meet these needs. This re¬ search development has not been without its difficulties. The research staff was faced at the outset by a practically un¬ touched field, and was confronted by needs for information so numerous and pressing that it was difficult to know where to begin. The work was influenced in its infancy by the hectic regime of CWA with its insistent demands for the employ¬ ment of white collar workers. The ever- changing needs and experimental nature of the relief administration made the de¬ velopment of even the general outlines of a research plan a difficult matter. During its first year, however, the FERA research program has contributed to the solution of a series of current administrative prob¬ lems and has built up a considerable body of data upon which sound administrative policies can be based. With some background of experience, with a better knowledge of its task, and with an increasing grasp of the problems which require study, the Research Sec¬ tion is enlarging its concept of its duties. The Section is working to anticipate fu¬ ture administrative needs, to provide a background of information which will make it possible to supplant trial and error methods of administration with a con¬ structive, planned attack upon the serious permanent problems of relief and insecur¬ ity which now obviously face both federal and state governments, and to provide analyses which will direct this attack. The needs for research are almost un¬ limited. FERA has done a great deal during the last 18 months to bring order and organization to the chaotic relief field, but there does not yet exist anything ap¬ proaching a unified, effective, economical system for the prevention or relief of des¬ titution in this country, while economic security is as yet only a hope. The great¬ est diversity of opinion and practice ex¬ ists regarding such fundamental problems as who should receive relief, what consti¬ tutes adequacy in relief-giving, what kinds of aid should be provided for various types of needy persons and families, what forms this aid should take, or what procedures, methods, and machinery should be used in providing assistance. The possibilities of retraining and rehabilitation are still virtually unexplored. These and other problems can be dealt with properly only on the basis of facts. The accumulation and interpretation of the necessary facts calls for a vast amount of exploratory research in virgin territory. FERA, through its research program, is attempt¬ ing to make a beginning in the collection of these facts and their application to the permanent relief problems which now con¬ front us.