Letter to Senator Daniel Hasting's from Porter R. Lee

December 17, 1930. Hon. Daniel O. Hastings, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. My dear Senator Hastings: Since I did not hear from you further on Saturday, you may not need the figures for which you asked me over the telephone. I am sending you, however, such figures as I have been able to obtain on the ebance that you may have use for them later. The only available figures for poor relief expenditures from tex funds in the country as a whole are those collected by the Census Bureau. These are published annually in the volumes *Financial Statis- tica of Cities" and *Financial Statistics of States". The most recently published volumes are for 1927; I have securod from the Censue Bureau the following figures for 1928: for 1928: Total expenditures for public outdoor rolief by states from state funds a 2,382,566 Total expenditures for public outdoor relief by cities of more than 30,000 population from municipal funds 16,417,113 These figures give some indication of the scope of public out- door poor relief in normal timos. They do not indicate the increase of public rolief expenditures during the present emergeney. I have been able to find no figures which indicate the total of present expenditures. The Children's Bureau, however, has for sometime been securing monthly figures from certain cities on the basis of which a comparison can be made of the expenditure of municipal funds in these cities for public ro- lief during the first ten months of 1929 with the first ton months of 1930: 1929 1930 (Jan.-Oct.) (Jan.-cet.) Public exponditures in 23 cities of over 100,000 population $ 2,945,421 $8,711,170 Public expenditures in 31 cities of 50,000 to 100,000 population 1,112,725 1,843,234 TOTALS - 54 cities $ 4,058,146 $10,554,404