The representative., 1899-12-07
THE LABORING PEOPLE,
WHO GOES TO LIVE AND WORK

WHO GOES TO LIVE AND WORK
AMONG THEM.
More interesting than the theoretical dis
! courses they have been accustomed to hear
| was the practical talk Of Walter A. wyck-
| on to the young workers of the Y M c. A.
| branch in West Fifty y-seventh street. saws
| the New York Journal. Mr.. Wyskoff speaks
as one qualified, for although a young man
Of wealth and high social connections he
spent two years laborer wandering be-
tween this city and the Pacific SLOPE and
during his career as a worker with his
hands he was none the less worker with
his brains.
Among sociologists the value of Mr.. Wyck-
offs researches is not considered enthusias-
tlcally. He says himself that the value Of
his eXperlment-aS he chooses to call his
experience--was merely subjective, but he
has gathered mass of facts that are of
more than usual interest to every man who
works for a living.
ITO me" he told the young men, ''the
opportunities onered of coming into actual
contact with wOrkingmen and finding out
their ways of life and manner of thought
were priceless. My experience has been
that OF student. I found that knew only
one side of life. 1 found out how multi
tudes OF men earned their daily bread and
dlscovered things In their daily life that
knew nothing Of"
Mr. Wyskof sketched his trip briefly. He
said that he had been a victim of insomnia.
and had been advised by a physician of
Europe to spend year or more upon a
ranch II he wished to live. Upon his return
to this country. he said, q friend suggested
that he work his way across the country.
and combine the building up of his health
with the study of the conditions of labor
ing men.
The identity of the friend who made this
suggestion Mr.. Wyckoff id not reveal. but
/ I
Morgan.
Mr.. Wyckoff left the surburbs of this
with little money in his pockets NO ward
robe to speak Of and no experience as u
iaoorer: His nrst job kas secured at
West Point. where he helped to pull down
a building. Had he not been q young
man OF nerve he would have turned back at
this, but he found that after day Of grind
Ing work he could sleep and he kept on.
He worked his way across the state
along the southern line of the great lakes
and finally reached Chicago, where he had
a heart breaking experience. He worked
as farmland in the Mississippi valley. as
a section hand on the Union Pacific rail-
roao as burro puncher In California. He
came home full of strength and health and
ideas, the latter of which he has nut in
magazine articles and books
"A thing that has impressed me very
much in my experience" he told the young
men, "as farmland, hotel porter and nav
- Ia .one paTts OF the country, was
the ease with which 1 found employment.
Labor is only commodity in a restricted
sense. Whenever l wanted work I coulf
find it: But this applies only to country
districts.
I'm the large cities 1 found things d,f.
ferent. In Chicago 1 found how hard II
was to obtain work at mere manual labor !
with q floating population of from 80. .OM,
to 10000 unemployed laborers to contend
with"
Mr.. Wyckof spoke Of the contest he han
IN the Windy City, with cold and poverty.
He formed friendships with men in the
same position as himself and found many
OF them mines Of information. He silent in
police stations. in area ways and dozed in
saloons in the warm odor of the free lunch.
He reached Chicago Just after the world's
fair boom had subsided, and from the mur-
- nufs tnaI Crested his descriptions Of ex-
lsting conditions there dur1nx tAet hifim~