The morning call., 1894-02-04
HOW HELP CAME.
4 Statement From One of the
Unemployed.


The following statement Of the Inception
Of the mev7Uient IN aid of the unemployed,
OF the difficulties overcome and the means
by which success was obtained Will be
read with peculiar interest as coming from
Inc chairman Of the men out OF work:
Tired, fo0ts0re and almost diseoura ged
after having put IN two months tramping
tie streets Of San Francisco IN fruiiless
search for W0TK. ! chaDced 10 be passi z
the old saHd-Iot' whea the police drove
the 500 or 600 unfortunate men from the
poor shelter the saud-lpj afforded.
''S0me wUrkiDrmHu-I do not know his
name-came and suggested TO the men that
they should Or2auIZ-, and if they would d.
SO IN q good orderly manner he would hire
hall Tor them that afternoon. which he
did, and a meeting was held by the unem-
ployed workingmen.
AS soon as the meeting was called to
order il became evident tina; there was a
strong element in favor OF isregarding al
law and some men openly advO ated form
ing IN line and marching down to baker, es
and stores and helping themselves to
something to eat, Of course, expecting to
be arrested. But they argued that the
public press was against Us, the city
officials against US, and they did
would help US and thought II was
The only course left open 10 US, unless we
wanted 10 sIarYe. Then there was an
q hsT element com posed Of the more en-
.llg Tened ana conservative workingWen
- u lie were in favor Of using all lawful
means 10 bring the true state Of af1al
before the business men Of The city. a.
|. Ough the task seemed almost hopeless
one. For time II seemed as II the law
less element had cap ured the meeting.
They even succeeded IN eecting a chair
man, VINO Informed a reporter who was
present that he would be kicked out Of
the hall # he did not tell the truth in re-
porting the meeting, and when a mOIisn
was made To appoint committee TO VISIT
the clergymen the chairman informed the
meeting that If there was going to be any
- religion IN thls thing some one else
~ would have 10 take the chair. 1t had be-
come evident by this time that If anything
wa going 20 be done ii must be done
quickly, and the better element at once de-
claTe0 the chair vacant aud elected one Of
their number chairman, and the rest Of
the meeting passed oil quietly. But moth
ing Of a2y consequence was accomplished
that day.
At our next meeting on the following
dav q committee Of seven was appointed
TO Vlsit the clergymen Of the city. A
CALL reporter, who was present. was
asked II he would not kindly serve on the
committee as II was explained 10 him that
unless we cJu Id get some one other than
WOTkiugmRn to 60 with US and explain our
mission to The cleTgymen some of them
might not grant Us a hearing. The re-
pOrler SAID be was In sympathy with rs
and would do all he could fol- us, and if
we would 90 and see the city editor and
get that geDiiemau's consent he would
gladly serve on the committee. Ina
evening the committee, composed of SIX of
the unemp we'd, called on the city editor
2 ha ffcf he lpx
Ia tive to serve on the committee. The editor
received Us kindly and listened TO what we
had to-saY. and while he seemed to have
some doubt about there being any large
plumber # deserving workiDgmen Out Of
emplOymeDt vet be was perfectly willing
to 90 ell BE could 10 assist deserving men,
sald be, and would have the reporter 30
win US. We want tO saw right here that
the untmpi Dyed wOTkiDgmen are very
grateful TO HE CALL. and while other
10 papers nave been guided in their estimates
oi the unem!lOyed workingmen by the
- dlsgraceful conduct OF a lot of petty
LhlrVFs, professional tramps and beggars
He oALL tooR up the side Of the worthy
~Anehip pioyed and gave us an opportunity
20 prove we were what we claimed TO be-
11elolIo"lhg DAY we star ed out TO visit
Lue CleIES men, ana ! shall never forget
tnat oaYs as we tramped from one piace In
'anutDer. When The men dropped ont one
by one as they were too wenk from hnnCer
10 WaIK any lurther and were Obliged To
stop and see II they could not get some
III ing to eat / am sure mat tbs oioro,1-
. men as We told them how much the woTf-
lngmen were in need Of assistance did not
- for moment think that while we vers
taking 10 them aud trying 10 appear as
cheerful as possible some of us had
not eaten a moulhful for almost two davs
] do not believe there ever was before
movement of this kind carried on in such
a good. orderly manner. under ike circum
stances.
The first man we called on that day
was Rev. DR.. Mackenzie, who received Us
kindly and listened very patiently TO oil
we had 10 say, gave US some go d advice
and assured US tnat we had bis sympathy