John's was that of what we call the ordinary poor. Nature and lack of education never gave John much chance to improve his condition.

Let's go into a different kind of home. This one lacks the squalor of the first. Things are nice and clean here. Surely cleanliness is not an index of poverty. There are only three people here: an aged couple (the man blind) and an invalid daughter, helpless for fourteen years with arthritis. A son died five years ago. He had a thousand dollars life insurance. It kept the three of them for oh so long, until six weeks ago in fact. There are two beds here, but not very soft to rest old and bedridden bones on: and the bedclothes, patched and repatched, are so thin. All in this house are praying for one thing-Death. Yes, perhaps death would be kind to them; but what of you and I now we are here? Food-there is none. Fuel? A chair leg is sticking out of the stove. A table has gone that way, and a trunk. Good day, folks, we will get you fixed up somehow.⁶

It is clear that the Mayor was trying to appeal to people's emotions. Perhaps he felt that if he showed such pictures, people would not be able to say no. He then went on to explain how the Civic Relief Committee's plan would work. People with permanent jobs were asked to give one day's pay per month. A worker would tell his employer he wanted to do this, and the employer would take the money out of his pay and send it to the Committee. Mayor Howlett said that, in some companies, everyone had already "signed up" to do this.

Mayor Howlett also wanted people to know that anyone who asked for relief would be checked out. Only those who could show they were in need would get relief. Able-bodied men would work for their relief. They would fix up parks and roads, and build new streets.

The Mayor urged people to give to the Relief Committee, instead of giving to people who begged at doors and in the street. He said: "Too many of these cases that give us a hard luck story at the door are frauds as can be proven by dozens of people."

As always in the 1930s, the fear that people might get help they did not deserve was never far from the minds of the people with power.