The Advocate and news., 1898-09-07

h, Nl..fNh''l WIN you instead
Of taking your
v Y.4 last penny for
- nothing. What
are you to do?
Why, trudge the streets, stopping at in
terVals to ask for work, and not only
day after day told you are not wanted
but be treated as II you were begging
charity instead Of pleading for a chance
to work. You become, Oh, so tired! but
you must trudge on. Your shoes give
out, your clothes become unsightly and
make employers want you still less; you
have no where to live and you are starv-
ing. One day you go to back doors, only
to be driven away and reported to the
police as tramp but finally some real
Christian gives you hand out" and
you devour 1t like Greeley party just
rescued in the Arctic regions. Having
no where else to go you go to sleep in
a park or in box car; but the police
have heard of that awful tramp, they
are looking for you, they know by ex-
perienCe just where to look, your slum-
bers are rudely disturbed, the patrol
wagon is called-yOu are criminal!
Henceforth nobody will hire you; for
who wants to hire tramp who has been
convicted and sent to jail for it?
Is this picture Overdrawn? 1t Is thrown
upon the canvas every day in cities Of
Kansas. Ask policemen, ask police
judges, If have exaggerated. They are
not so inhuman as they are compelled
to seem to be- and in confidence will tell
you stories of the miseries Of men out
of work which will make my poor story
seem tame. Above all, ask wOrkingmen
almost any of them; for few have not
passed through the torments of seeking
work. What boon 1t would be to poor
fellow thus situated IL he could go as
an Independent American citizen and, as
matter Of legal right, register with
public employment agency without pay
ing cent, and then, instead of trudg-
ing, to be everywhere rebuffed, wait in
peace for an assignment to work! Mean
time, if there was no work to be had, and
he had thus shown his willingness, could
not the public feed him and give him
place to sleep till work could be had
Would not this very plan rid cOmmuni-
ties of real tramps? If only willingness
to work, indicated by registering, were
necessary to give man food and lodg-
ing, charity would freeze at tramp's
approach and neither policemen nor any
body else would have any mercy on him.
This Is not ALL A carpenter or plumber
registers for a job at his trade but no
plumber or carpenter is wanted just then.
A Job OF some other kind is to be had,
however, and he can take 1t and work
at it and live on it while he waits for
employment at his trade; knowing that
he will get such employment when 1t is
to be had, without worrying about it; the
public employment agency will look after
that. Instead of trudging the streets
hunting work, he can be supporting him>
self by such labor as may be offered him
for the time being. Nor is this all the
scheme Every day the county agency
will report to the State Labor Bureau the
applications for help and the applica-
tions for employment which have not
been locally disposed of, and every day
will correct these reports OF previous
days, so that the State Labor Bureau
will have an accurate record at all times
of the surplus demands for help or for
employment in every county in the
State It may be reasonably supposed
that many Of these demands would cross
each other in this State clearing house
of labor, and a carpenter in Marshall
would find Job in Crawford, printer
in Kansas City would be told to go to
Salina, a cook at Manhattan would be |