November 22, 1937

The Twentieth Century Fund published Studies in Current Tax Problems, in which Professor of Economics Mabel Newcomer predicted that the cost of “public relief” in the struggling economy would remain high even if employment returned to pre-depression levels. Suggesting that the depression had, by its length, created a large class of unemployables while, by its breadth, it removed the “stigma of pauperism,” she said her studies showed that “If the number of unemployed should drop again to the 1929 level, the standard of support remain at the 1935 level and the ratio of relief cases to the unemployed remain unchanged, the cost would exceed $500,000,000.” She added that if the number of unemployed remained at the 1935 level, the cost of relief would be $3,500,000,000.

The New York Times