﻿PASSING THE BUCK 

If the papers quote Washington correctly “Not one cent for relief shall come from the treasury”—well, what in hades, then, is the administration doing in the picture? If she withholds the “needful?” 
She has the bucket over the heads of state, county and cities “to local institutions”; therefore it seems to me, if the local institutions can be trusted “to care for the starving,” they can also be trusted to reap whatever credit or blame they stir up—without orders or advice from Washington. Suggestions, following a diplomatic refusal to act, shows an utter contempt for the value of words—yes or no is sufficient. Passing the buck in such a case generally operates as follows: 
Washington to states; states on counties; counties to cities; cities to “charitable organizations”; charitable organizations to individuals—rugged individuals—not a scintilla of organization in the whole layout—a “run around.” 
Nobody is responsible; nothing is done, and the poor beg, steal and raid garbage cans—or drop dead. 
I am reminded here that even I (while on a four-year diet with Hoover) found some minor difficulty in satisfying the wants of my modest belly. Infact, after much effort, I was compelled to go strictly Kosher as far as the venison is concerned, in Portland, Ore. 
The great dietician in Washington evidently ignores the unseemliness of a good gentile, like myself, going on such orthodox diet. 
Hoover must know “little more cabbage in the soup” isn’t going to solve the program—a little more soup in the sewer might bring better results . . . 
Undoubtedly this program of “passing the buck” will react to the detriment of the migratory worker. Not seriously, tho, but I enough to cause him to re-triple his efforts to organize. 
The mig. is an inventive genius, footloose and lives on cherries and grapes during fly-season — thereafter on beans and other growths of hard nature—he is the one man that comes nearest to needing nobody’s help and will, in an emergency, help himself.