Letter to Walter Newton, Secretary to the President, from J. C. Lawrence

THE PRESIDENT'S ARTHUR WOODS, CHAIRMAN DEPARTMENT EMERGENCY WASHINGTON, OF COMMERCE COMMITTEE D. C. BUILDING FOR EMPLOYMENT December 11 , 1930. Hon. Walter Newton, Secretary to the President, Washington, D.C. My dear Mr. Newton: is This will confirm the report made verbally to you concerning the urgent need for immediate employment of men on the first stages of cer- tain types of road construction which can be inaugurated by some states with their allocations from the President's Special Emergency Road Fund of $80,000,000, and the equivalent sums which will be released under the terms of the Emergency Appropriation Act. In the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Missouri our most recent reports show a concentration of manual laborers who could be most effectively utilized at once regardless of weather condi- tions in rough grading work on the widening of existing highways and the building of by-pass roads around towns and cities. This construction is necessary but expensive and the S tates' Highway Commissioners insist that they cannot undertake it immediately unless the limit holding Federál aid to $15,000 a mile can be removed for this specific fund, and the work undertaken under and through the provisions of the Act providing that fund. We are thoroughly familiar with the insistent campaign which has been