Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-07
To Avert Misery and Suffering,

10 the Editor or The Evening Star:
| 1t is generally conceded that the suffering
likely to- eIsue this winter because of the
depression in business and consequent lack
OF employment for those willing to work,
VIII challenge the best endeavOr of the lib
orally disposed and charitably inclined.
Already those who are ordinarily moved
by the usual suffering il, cident to the WIN
ter months have commenced to provide
ways and means to alleviate such suffering,
but who will undertake TO meet and pro-
vide for the new and large class of suffer-
ers who. unwillingly, are already quietly
seeking their best friends, and with anx-
ious glance and ill-conceaied agitation are
unfolding a new condition which threatens
them, that of empty larder empty purse,
no work, with wife and children at the mer-
cy or landlords, who threaten to eject them
because of unpaid rent? This is no imagi-
rative portrayal of conditions in our city
1t is a representation of many homes and
unless a remedy is furnished Immediately
1t will represent the conditions of thou
sands of our citizens before the opening
OF the new year.
The writer has already been waited upon
by strong hearty laboriEg men, who plead
that they be given work, of any Kind at
any price. ana upon being pressed, have
were in great danger of suffering for the
common necessdriGs of life. They were
not tramps nor were they of that large
class who are improvident when labor is
plenty anQ~ages good, but were noble, manly,
honest appearing laborers, of that class
from whose willing toll millions are added
TO the nations wealth.
The writer has no means of ascertaininy
now many such there are in this District
out granting there are enc thousand in the
city and District. that means five thou
sand sufferers. including the families.
Who will feed, clothe and keep this num-
per warm for the next one hundred days?
Inc men are willing to work but can get
none. Inc same conditions prevailing else.
Where forbid seeking it in other places
Must they and their families starve? They
ought not TO suffer and reed rot while work
ana wages can readily be furnished and at
the same time the public good subserved.
Let every public building be manned by
double the number now working and then
as suggested last summer, let five or ten
Rillions of bords, bearing a low rate of
interest. be issued by the proper authori-
ties, sold and with the proceeds improve
the District, by laying sewers. exter ding the
streets and by making other improvements
thus giving employment to thousands of
and suffering.
BY so doing not only the manhood of
THOSE thuS employed VIII be strengthened
ana preserved, women and children saved
which surely follow in the footsteps of des-
titutton and costs of criminal proceedings
ana convict expenditures will be averted
Besides this humanitarian view of the
question, there are other aspects of the case
that appeal for immediate action. The pro-
posed work, which is to result to the great
benefit OF the city and Dis trict can be per-
formed at cost twenty per cent less than
heretofore, and In the extension of streets
particularly, II made now a great saving
VIII result to the taxpayer, the city and
District Indeed, In an economic aspect
this Is the time to lay the sewers extend
the streets and otherwise improve and BEN
ent the city and District, and the taxpayer
who may have thought otherwise months
since need but investigate to be assured
OF The correctness of the above PROPOSE
ton.
But, says one. II the project is carried
out we VIII be overrun with laborers from
other parts of the country. This does not
follow OF necessity,and if it should, II would
not prove n great disaster, for muititudes
or laborerS are also consumers
Another objects perhaps that the paw
melt Of the small interest on the bond /
would Increase the taxes. But this would
be but a bagatelle compared to the bene-
hts derived and the economy resulting from
Immediate action. Let no man irterpose
the objection of increased taxes as against
the humanitarian view of the project
A TAXPAYER