The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1894-05-23

| traces anu business mcu, SSNSuj uu1Oi
lobof, seventy; non.union skilled labor
III; unskilled labor, seventy-four.
Each of these groups occupies
different rung on the social ladder, tn
test of which is given by the average
wages earned by the members of eacl
group: Union labor, 81 so a day; non
union skilled labor, 81 IS: unskillet
labor 81 SO.
GAS eighty per cent of the men arr
single, "a. 900 day more makes all thu
difference in the world. If we remem
Der that a union man was hardly to bt
found en- the floor of the city hall last
December, one has to count with the
fact that the union man has taken act
i've interest in the movement.
"The average intelligence of the com
monwealers is also a fact that must moi
be overlooked, ii we want to know
among what classes is recruited the
army of discomfort. We went to the
barracks expecting to meet none bu,
the representatives of the lowest grades
of destitution. The question of educa
tion naturally did not enter into the
program of cur inquiry. But the stu
dents who went with me were aston
ished on finding in the ranks quite a
number of men who had received good
education. At the suggestion Of Mr..
Letter I went next day to make spe.
cial canvass on the question of educa-
ton, with the result that of 115 ques.
toned only two admitted never having
attended school and could but poorly
read and write; eighty-seven had re.
ceived a common school education, of
these one-half in grammar schools
twenty-six had attended high schools,
business ard professional colleges,
academies and universities. The aver
age term of school attendance was seven
years to each of the men questioned.
Zone would naturally expect to find
the professional tramp represented in
large numbers in an army of crusaders
like that. We would look for them
among the strangers who came to Chi
cago from all quarters of the county
and focked under the banners of the
commonweal. Indeed we met eighty
one men out of 262 who gave their last
places of employment in San Francisco,
New York, Texas, North Dakota, Phila-
celphia, Nevada, New Jersey and Louis.
lana.
"Still, a closer examination of the
cases reveals the fact that the strangers
were in no respect inferior to Chica-
goans. Precisely one-half of them were
married men. In fact. with the excep-
ton of eight men, nearly all the COM
monwealers have been compelled to
leave their families behind in search OF
work. They have crossed the country
and, disappointed in their effort, have
joined the CON monweal army. Chica-
goans who live here would not readily
take the chances of risky journey.
81 found among these strangers the
same proportions Of skilled and un-
skilled, union and non-union labor, the
same average time out of employment,
nearly the same average time in last
even nearly the same
average age-,hirty-two years for resi-
dents of Chicago, thirty for newcomers.
The average wages Of the latter amou. t
to So O3 day, which Is as high as the
average wages of a Chicago skilled
workman of The Randall division.
"Afler the most CAREFUL should
even venture to say after the most cav
we could not discover
more than five or six que stionable char
acters who were unable to furnish sat.
i.factory information as to their means
of subsistence while they confessed to
have mad no savings at the time they
lost their jobs and to have eventually
lived 'on hustler's fare since.
in all we did not find as great a pro-
portion of recipients of charity among
the newcomers as in the Chicago wing
of the army. Moreover, there were
among the recipients of charity men
quite respectable who had been driven
to extremity by adverse circumstances
"It is the unemployed workingmen
who have turned into the ranks of the
Nearly two thirds of
them had been in position to lay by a
penny for a rainy day, their average
savings amounting to s7s per man. The
one-third had saved nothing
and the distinction is satisfactorily &C.
counted for by difference of 81 a week
in the wages for an average term of
fifteen months employment. They had
managed to get along by pawning or
selling their.belongings, by the assist
ance of friends and relatives, by odd
jobs and portion on charity. Those
who had provided for ordinary emer.
gencics by means of saving had, after
an average term of five months of idle
ness, run short of funds. The average,
Of course, implies that there are indi-
below as well as above the
average. Those at the bottom, who
had saved less and been out of work for
4 longer time were brought to lean
upon charity when the more fortunate
we're still able to stand.
s'Altogether, one-fourth of the twen-