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Relief Rolls Cut Is Claim of Croli Optimistic Address by W elfare Minister Gives Credit to Hepburn for Work Increase These and other equally striking and significant achievements of Depart-- ments of Welfare and Labor were an-- nounced to the Ontario Legislature last night by Hon. David Croll, in his annual review of conditions As Minister of those departments. Seasonal jobs have been found for 8,000 men on farms, as part of & one--year campaign, the Minister also NTARIO relief rolls reduced by 123,079 persons in O fourteen months; 28,432 more people at work in Ontario last month than in February of 1935; Northern bush--working population increased by 13,000; 60,000 workers placed under forty fair--wage agreements. Many Jobs Found. Prrmran oment is Adt &n Aet Continuity of employment this year has been asssured more than 3,000 lumber workers in the Thunder Bay district; the apprenticeship systent nas been revitalized, with one new wade alone providing openings 10r 5,000 young men within the next few years; renewed activity in many branches of Ontario industry has been achieved through sound fnanc-- ing and administration. In an address permeated with op-- timism, but tempered with modesty, Hon. Mr. Croll outlined to the House the ftar--reaching and untiring efforts made to improve labor and industrial conditions in the Province, and the results that had followed those ef-- forts. To the Government and its Leader, Prime Minister Mitchell Hepburn, Mr. Croll gave much of the credit, when he said: "In Ontario re--employment is pro-- gressing more actively than elsewhere in Canada. Why? I am inclined to think that it is due in large measure to the firm confidence which the pub-- lic in general has placed in this Gov-- ernment and particularly in my hon-- orable Leader."' Healthy Situation. Mr. Croll spoke of "a new and healthy situation reflected throughout the North.'" and said the industrial areas of the Province were "rejoicing in a gradual increase of employment throughout the major portion of On-- From the outset of his address Mr. Croll spoke with a directness and bluntness that kept the House in an absorbed silence, broken only by the frequent outbursts of sustained ap-- plause . "'Every move made by the Govern-- ment," he said, "has been in the di-- rection of a restoration of internal confidencte in governmental sincerity of purpose and courage Of AC--~ complishment. e s "We have defied big business, but only to advance the lot of the aver-- age citizen: we have introduced taxa-- tion, but we have imposed it where it belongs; we have effecteq econo-- miés, but we have applied them where "My honorable friend and leader is the common man's Premier. He has won the common man's trust. And I think this is reflectsd today in the increasing employment, ang in the declining relief which I have just mentioned. _ As the Province fully expected, we are restoring the unem-- ployed to gainful occupation. "Unempluyment is not an act Of God. It is a problem of industry. That has been the basis of our policy, It coincides with our LeAder's ©X*-- presseq determination to r{stOore vhe unemployed to gainful occupations. I have just aemonstrated that we Are succeeding. It is a long task, and one which the Provincial Govern-- ment cannot hope fully to accomplish by itself. But what we can do is keep whittling away at the relief lists and so reduce the burden on the tax-- in our approach where we can say that our problem is gradually shift-- ing from relief to re--employment. The peak of relief is p?_st. f We have y e SE en -- e Conecen es ty t learned to handle effectively and economically the distribution of the necessities of life to the unemployed. And we have reduced the cost to a point where the Province can cope with it from current revenue. "Further, I think that our task now." continued Mr. Croll, "--and it is a heavy task--is to restore the un-- empnloyed to their proper places in industry. But we must not lose sight of the fact that fewer than 300,000---- 'the lowest number on our rolls in any single month since January, 1932--are still tossing in the whirlpool of dis-- torted economics." _ i 3 pavers. 1 gant program of road--building." Then the Minister detailed the re-- forms and changes introduced into the reliet and welfare field under the Henburn Admlnlstrati_on. In 197 municipalities, increases in | rsliaf allowances were granted. In : many centres local relief labor schemes were sponsored by the Government. The cash relief system was introduced. And on these points the Government | now stood firm. Next, he said, the Government had brought relief 'into the open, bidding farewell to a policy of secrecy and shame." Every step in the Govern-- ment's relief policy was made public knowledge, and in this connection the Minister paid tribute to the press of Ontario. Prosecutions were launched against "cbheaters," but Mr. Croll ut-- tered the following caution: "The public must see that the only hope, for a Provincial Government at any rate, is to nibble at the relief | rolls, taking off a few here and a few ° there, gradually reducing the bulk, but not aspiring to eliminate all at one gulip. The public.' he said, ' "must not expect too much too quick-- ivy But they have a right to expect ly. But they intelligence." have now reached the point .fi,"\axe,\\ 16 British Way. The Government, he SAid, NAd UWO altern2tive methods of approach to the problem--the British way, and the United States way. The British sought to adapt their laws and economic methods to a new situation, The Americans tried "prosperi_ty by pur-- chase."" spending untold millions in an effort to "buy their--way out of the depression." And the Hepburn Gove-- ernment whole--heartedly and empha-- tically chose the British way. First. relief allowances were stan-- dardized. The purging of relief lists of "cheaters" was begun. and the mu-- nicipal channels of relief administra-- tion re:ained. Maximum grants to any municipality were fixed And here, Mr. Croll said, the main difficulty was with the "pampered. inefficient and ery-- baby supervised municipalities." He spoke of "people who have made relief a career, who have refused jobs, concealed their earnings." These, he said, were being slashed from the. re-- lief rolls. And with them went full-- time workers unable to earn enough to keep their families. This, said Mr. Croll was tha Government's way of combating the exploiting employer who paid small wages and told his staff to draw partial relief. A word for the majority of relief recipients was spoken by the Minister when he said: "The fact remains that the average man in receipt of relief detests his dependence upon public assistance. He wants to be out at work, to maintain his family by his own endeavors. You do not live on relief. You merely exist." He warned the public against maligning the aver-- agoe relief recipient. They Want Work. _Mr. Croll pointed out that this year the Government has increased its contribution to municipalities for re-- lief purposes from 66 2--3 per cent. to 75 per cent.--an increase which in the case of Toronto alone would this year cost the Province $220,000. Last year, he showed, the Govern-- mental cost of relief was $28.000,000, with the Province paying about $21,-- 000,000. This year, with a reduction of 25 per cent. in relief rolls, the total cost would probably be $21,000,000, of which the increased Dominion grant would pay $12,600.000. Toward its share of this $21,000,000 total, the Provincial Government was budgetiiq® $12.600,000--leaving a safety margin of more than $4,000.000 for emer-- gencies. At this point Mr. Croll referred scathingly to the "Pied Piper meth-- ods" of the Henry Administration, saying that "Piper George's whole ap-- proach to our economic problems was mythical." The age--old system of apprentice-- ship. Mr. Croll said, offered one ave-- nue of solution to at least a part of the unemployment problem. Yet ap-- prentices wore growing fewer and fewer in many trades where, in the course of time, thousands of replace-- ments would be necessary due to old age. The Government was assis'ing in the setting up of apprenticeship structures in a number of trades. and before long would have included many new vocations under the Ap-- prenticeship Act of 1928. > The Minister recommended in-- creased use of the Employment Serv-- ice. "If they would hire exclusiv:ly through that service." he said. "we would be given a far more effective check upon our recipients of relief. yVe are at the point of definite campaign to that end. "Industry must also be encouraged to level out its production and avoid the peak periods." he said. "We look to industry for this co--operation, de-- cent wages, a fair continuity of em-- ployment, and a candor about the men they are taking on and the wages they are paying. We have hesitated to legislate toward this end to any great extent. We preferred to think that industry will continue to give cO-- operation with the utmost willingness, Should it not, then we are quite pre-- he said, had two |