Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1897-03-12
1T IS NOT A NEW IDEA
GOVERNMENT HAS FURNISHED
EMPLOYMENT
England at One Time Employed Bier
Idle Population on the Public Roads
America Gould Do the Same
Today.

Peoples Messenger: The idea that
the government shall furnish the peo-
pie with employment in time Of great
depression, to enable them to earn a
livelihood is not new one by any
means. Governments are instituted
for the benefit of the governed. AS
money is boarded, confidence is de-
stroyed and all business enterprises
drag or are suspended, the wage-earn-
ers must Of necessity suffer unless the
government will lend helping hand.
In time such as we have described
early in the century, England found 1t
necessary to employ her idle and in
digent citizens, and system Of road
improvement was devised at which
these men were permitted to labor and
for which they were paid by the gov
eminent. The result was that England
has the best dirt roads in Europe.
Gen. Coxey does not claim his good
roads idea is original. Being stu
dious and observant man he knows
what has been done may be done
again. And as England utilized the la
Dor of her unemployed in a time OF
great depression by constructing good
roads all over the island, and thus
enabled the unfortunate to earn a live
lihood for themselves and families he
argues the United States can do the
same thing, and thus dispense the ar
my Of four million tramps now roam
ing this country.
The idea that such q course Is be-
yond the scope of government is alb
surd, and an investigation will disclose
the fact that the employment of idle
labor by the government would In the
end be profitable rather than expensive.
To illustrate, let us suppose there
were in Chickasaw county five hundred
unemployed men. These would repre-
sent with their families a population
Of at least $500. IN this county are
&c, 900 people, who are humane, neigh
borly and christian in character. The
1850 we'll to do people would not,
could not allow their unfortunate
neighbors to starve or freeze on the
public highways and would therefore
support them by charity. The contrl-
buttons would of course be much larg-
er from some than others, for some
people are more charitable than 9TH
ers, but the direct expense to the
county as a whole to keep these unfor-
tunates alive would be the same as II
each taxpayer had contributed accord
ing to his ability. 1t is certain the
2 500 unemployed would become dis
pirited, lose confidence in themselves,
begin to wander around over the coun-
ty, in short become Migrants wanting
in independence and manhood.
Now suppose our board Of supervis-
ors should announce that they would
employ these 500 men to work on the
public roads, levees and bridges of the
county, and would pay them 81 per day
out of the county treasury, the cost to
the county would be equalized by tax
alton, and the expenses would be no
more than to support the unemployed
and their families by private contri-
button, but the county would be the
gamer to the extent Of the value of the
labor of the 500 men and instead of
they would become self-re-
speeding citizens, who would have the
right to feel that they had earned an
honest living for themselves and fam
lilies.
Another advantage Of the system is
that it would be possible then to dis
anguish between the rowing vagrant,
who prefers to be tramp rather than
earn a living by honest labor and the
truly unfortunate, who though seek
ing work, had been unable to find it.
The former could be made to earn his
sustenance in the chain-gang and the
latter would never be harrassed with
the terrible fear he may lose his job
and his family come to want. Why
not try the experiment in the interest
of the 100000 or 100000 of our
distressed fellow-citizens rather than
listen to the ridicule of the plutocratic
press, that denounces the suggestion
as Coxeyism? Why not?