The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1875-06-04
The situation East.


EDITORS NEws:-To show the peopI,
of this state notwithstanding the partia
failure OF their crops in localities last
year-that they have reason to be thank
ful that their lot was not cast In the state
of Pennsylvania, and particularly in tn,
city of Philadelphia, l herewith sent
you speech delivered on May 18th
by Hon. VIM. ID. Kelley, member of Con
gress from the Spring Garden district, in
the city of Philadelphia. Judge Kelley
has continually represented that district
for the last sixteen years in Congress, and
knows of what he is talking. Here is
what Mr.. Kelley says:
''HoneSt and thrifty working people by
tens of thousands, i'll this district alone
are out of employment. 1t IS now more
than year since many of them were re.
duceG to that condition, and 1 have come
home to find them in ragged penury
Many of those who, in the autumn of 1879
held title to their little homes. and were
paying of any ipcumbrance that might
exist against them by applying what
they could well afford TO set apart from
their monthly earnings TO building asso-
Citations, are in despairing poverty, and
having read the Sherif>s bill describing
their homes have seen them pass at nom-
NAL prices into the possession of others.
Men who have each winter contributed
to the ward fund for the relief OF the pooi
IN almost every ward OF Philadelphia
were, during the past winter, glad To ac-
eept relief, and / rejoice at the fact that
IN many instances the Committee refused
10 register the names of such, that thew
might not hereafter be reproaehed because
their necessities had compelled them to ac-
cept as charity the money they had preVI.
ously given OF their abundance for the re-
lief iund of others.
The capital of the district. so far as it is
embarked in productive industries, symI
pathizes with the depressed condition of
labor. Yonner piles Of brick, covering
whole blocks, which were recently reso.
nant with the hum of industry, are now
silent almost as death. The owners of
the land, bull dings, and machinery lose
money, confidence and hope daily. They
do not now employ as many hundred
men as they did thousands but two years
ago. Their works ran then daV and
night; now but few of them run full sixty
hours TO the week. Rent, interest on in
vested capital, the destruction resulting
from the rest and rust of machinery, are
eating them up. And while all this goes
on we notice an increase Of pauperIsm OF
crime, Of insanity, and terrible increase
of suicide.
The journals complain that not only the
streets Of cities, but the roads from one
great city to another, are filed with
tramps, and ask that the authorities shall
deal summarily and severely with these
able-bodIed idlers. Why should they be
punished or restrained? Why are they
idle: Why do they, through cold or heat,
foot-sore, weary, hungry, and ill-clad,
trudge sullenly from town 20 town and
city to city? Is it because they can find
no employment at their homes, and,
rather than beg where they are known
and it may be remembered, they thus
work their way YEARLY, often crossing
upon the highways hordes OF other un-
1ortunates in pursuit of employment at
any wages. Among them there are
doubtless many who are unworthy. But
give the laboring people work, and most
OF these tramps will gather back to
FORCES, furnaces and workshops. and be-
come renf-payers and purchases Of the
productions OF the joint capital and labor
of the country"
The most deplorable part Of this pie
ture is that it falls short Of the actual
truth. 1t does not include the terrible
condition Of things in the mining dis
tricts, where perhaps hundred thousand
workmen and their families are engaged
in struggle between their employers on
the one hand and poverty and death on
the other