The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-01-22
RIOTS FEARED.
Chicago Unable to Furnish Food
to Worthy Poor
Who Are Out of Work and Must
BE Cared For.
SAID TO BE PLENTY
OF Food In Charge of County
Commissioners
But No Means of Getting Tt Is
sued Fast Enough.
Rich People Have Ceased Con-
tributing to Charity.
"THEY VOTED RIGHT"
The People In Chicago Tried to
Restore Prosperity
"THEY VOTED RIGHT"
The People In Chicago Tried to
Restore Prosperity
According to the Fairy Stories
of Chicago Newspapers,
But Now There Are More Men
Out of Work Than EverBefOre.

Chlcago, Jan. 22.-Men, women and
children are starving in Chicago in
sight of relief because the county com
nissioners. blind and deaf, do not allow
the county agent enough help to dis
tribute supplies.
There are 26 assistants where there
should be so in the agents office.
There is a county treasury rich in its
surplus, and there is an accumulation
of the appeals from a thousand cold
and hungry families.
Hundreds of these applications are
more than two weeks old Heads of
families were discouraged then, and as
last resort appealed to the county for
aid. These men are desperate now
The county agent is helpless to save
these famine-stricken men, women and
babes.
Warning is given that the deserving
poor are becoming dangerous and that
their hunger is likely to drive them to
riots, in which their terrible cry will be
''Bread.'
Men who give this warning know
Whereof they speak They are men,
agent Olson They see gaunt hunger
at its worst
Hunger has invaded even Michigan
and Prairie avenues. Poverty has come
fore and has filed them with misery
The wolf has driven scores from aris-
tocratic streets to beg for bread
Ihey are the proud poor They have
suffered in silence until starvation
StareS them in the face. They are
among the honest poor. They are too
honest as we'll as too proud to ask for
charity as long as they can find work.
Luck has been against them. Work
has given out or is insufficient They
have been forced to join the throng of
miserables focking daily to County
Agent Olson's quarters to clamor pit
eously for food and fuel.
Mr.. Olson is overwhelmed by the flood
of appeals. With his &c assistants work
ing under tremendous pressure he is
unable to keep pace with the demands
He is now so far behind that it takes
ten days or more to act on applications
He demands more clerks in order that
he may give prompt relief and still the
cries of the suffering
Applications for aid received January
6, I, and even later were uncared for
January 10 because Mr.. Olson, already
overburdened with relief work, had not
the force with which to speedily dis
charge all of his duties.
The winter is terrible over the entire
country owing to the number of unem-
ployed. In Chicago it finds more good
men and women out of work and hun
cry for bread and labor than ever be-
FORE The force at the county agents
office is limited to &c men. and that
force is divided so as to furnish a few
TO the Englewood branch of the office
No wonder that Olson said, when
speaking of the situation:
L tremble when 1 see it snow and
turn cold. If We have four weeks. or
even two weeks of steady. severe win
ployed will be stOrming the doors and
windows of this Office"
Yes" added Assistant Agent Charles
PasdeIoup, ten days of bad weather will
send fn ha of
clamOring for bread"
Never before in the history of Chi
cagO," said Secretary NcNichols. "have
there been so many deserving poor. and
the rich are little aware of it. The poor
that the county is supplying today with
food are not professional beggars but
the respectable middle classes, whose
names would astound the charitable if
they knew them. Bad weather will
mean a serious uprising unless relief is
soon forthcoming"
Mr.. Olson talks freely of his work and
the terrible condition of the worthy poor
Bread riots are more than proba BILE If we
have any KIND OF nad weather. and need
more help here think and hope that the
commissioners will give it to me after
they get through with the appropriation
bill That is not passed yet, but will be
soon. l guess. I could use six or seven
more men at once, and if We had the
quarters suitable still more tEan that.
Many good people are out of work and
have been for some time They are COM
ing to us now There is a small store
keeper who has his all in his stock. but
cannot sell the stock, cannot sell the
store and has no patronage. He has been
a good citizen and has helped the city
and county. but he is without fuel now,
without food and without income. He is
one of the new class which is now COM
ing to US and which deserves the little aid
We can give 1t is not much. it will not
last long, but it tides helpless ones over a
short period. Men and women with good
clothes are coming here, and their stories
prove to be true-that they have no fuel
or food They want work The cry is
not so much for charity it is for work
n fa11 hat
cations for aid are coming from Michigan
and Prairie avenues. They are coming
from districts where supposedly well-tO-
do people have lived. 1 wish all fear of
winter cold was over for if we get it
there will be great trouble here, and nv
place certainly will be stormed in the cry
for warmth and Sustenance.
Il do not think the wealthy classes are
alive to the situation this year. The or