The morning call., 1894-02-02
AN URGENT NEED.
Relief Committee Must
Have More Money.
ANOTHER CANVASS BEGUN.
Additional Applications for Work
in the Park.
ANOTHER CANVASS BEGUN.
APPEAL TO A GENEROUS PUBLIC.
Men Standing in Line Half the Night
to Get a Chance TO
Work.

There is urgent need for more money to
keep the unemployed at work in the park.
OF the $4,000 collected by the citizens
committee $4,000 has been expended.
leaving balance yesterday of $4,000.
From $500 to S14OO is paid out daily
therefore. the fund on hand will not last
over two weeks.
at the committee meeting yesterday it
was decided to canvass the city once more.
to try to have people who have not yet
donated anything to the fund contribute
to 1t and urge those who have already
given to increase their subscriptions.
In the afternoon the second canvass was
begun with fair returns.
The need is great All the men at work
are married or have dependent relatives.
If any one doubts the genuineness of
their distress let him visit the committee
room 19, Merchants Exchange building.
and examine the great stack of letters
which these men have presented. or, bet
Ter still. let him look at the crowd stand
ing in line every day on Leidesdorff street
and observe the looks of hunger and de
spair on the faces of-not tramps nor bum
mers-but honest mechanics and laborers
whom hard times have deprived of the
means of earning livelihood.
These men do not ask charity. They
agree to give for 81 paid by the committee
81 worth of labor. IL is a good invest.
ment tor the city. improvements in the
park are to be made, and why not have
them done.at half price? Experience since
work was given shows that about three
quarters of the crowd perform an average
days labor, and the remainder all the way
from half to two-thrds of what would be
considered a satisfactory days work.
The only injustice in the matter is that
the public which gets all the benefit of
park improvements does not share the
present expense. but there has never been
a time when in emergencies like this the
chief burden did not fall upon the public
spirited and the charitable.
In Eastern cities it has been found
cheaper in the end and better for all con-
eerned thus to give work to the orthy
unemployed than to fill almshouses and
then force the overflow into the highways
The situation in San Francisco is the same,
PEELED to endure the rigors of winter.
1t should be noted by those who are
moved to contribute. yet fear the money
will be squandered by those who receive
il, that the committee gives employment
only to married men or unmarried men
with dependent relatives, such as mother
or sister. Not only that. but the men and
their families must be residents OF the city.
More than 300 men applied for work
yesterday. Some of them stood in line
from o'clock in the morning until in the
afternoon without a bite of food, to re-
ceiYe a tag which will admit them to the
committee the next time il announces that
more men will be employed. One hundred
or more were in line from A. NJ. to 3
p. n One Of these men had been working
steadily for eighteen years in one factory
here, and has been out of employment six
months. Another bears the marks of three
wounds received in the Rebellion, and was
we'll nigh exhausted by the time he re-
ceved his ticket Indeed, an interesting
yet sad chapter could be written concern
Ing half the men who are begging for
work at half the pay awarded the cheapest
white labor.
To prevent enforced idleness and suffer-
ing, the liberal and generous men and
women of San Francisco must come to the
financial aid of the relief committee. 1t is
the only way out of the present emer-
QencV.