Statement on the Appointment of Walter S. Gifford as Director of the President's Organization on Unemployment Relief.

THE PRESIDENT said:

"I have appointed Walter S. Gifford to set up and direct such organization as may be desirable, with headquarters in Washington, to cooperate with the public authorities and to mobilize the national, State, and local agencies of every kind which will have charge of the activities arising out of unemployment in various parts of the Nation this winter. A survey of need and probable extent of the load during the next winter by various Federal agencies is now in progress.

"The work directed so splendidly by Col. Arthur Woods during the past year will be continued under the direction of Mr. Fred C. Croxton as part of the new organization, including its work on employment problems. Colonel Woods volunteered a year ago on the understanding that he must return to his other responsibilities this autumn. He will continue to give assistance to the new organization.

"Mr. Gifford is president of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, president of the Charity Organization Society of New York, and during the war was Director of the United States Council of National Defense. I am appointing a nationwide advisory committee to assist Mr. Gifford.

"The task of proper assistance to the deserving is one which will again appeal to the generosity and humanity of our whole people. It is a task which our Nation will perform, for in no people is there developed a higher sense of local responsibility and of responsibility of every man to his neighbor."