Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-12-01
1.-THE Bread Line"

| The recent death of Louis Fleisch-
mann again calls attention to the New
| York bread line" a unique institution
that has been in existence dozen
years o" more. Many thousands have
| become recipients of the nightly dole
of cup of coffee and a half-lOaf and
the length of the row which forms long
before the midnight hour, when the
! distribution takes place at Tenth street
and broadway, has many times been
| looked upon as a rough measure of the
| industl ial conditions existing in the
city and nation.
1t was Mr.. FIeischmanns sincere be-
lief that a man who would stand for
two hours before midnight on a frosty
night awaiting gift of half-loaf Of
bread had satisfied all the requirements
Of a work test. The personal interest
which Mr. Fleischmann took in in
diVidual men, and the efforts that We're
made to place them in permanent en-
ployment are commendable and by no
means to be dsparaged because of
their direct relation to the dole. 1t is
however, neither hard-headed nor
kind-hearted to place before able
bodied young and middle aged men, of
which ''the line" is mainly made up,
the means Of continuing a hand-to-
mouth existence when industrial con-
ditions are good and employers are
clamOring for laborers. The same
days issue of the newspaper that an
nounced Mr.. Fleischmann's death also
published an appeal for ordinary labor
ers which read as follows:
Here. in the State CT Connecticut,
within an hour of these homeless men.
have barrels Of apples rotting on the
ground, corn to cut, potatoes to dig and
wood to cut. and / am willing-aye.
more than willing-to pay good wages
for ten hours labor doing this work,
and cannot find man or boy to be hired
l drove all over this section to find an
unemployed man or boy. and could not
find one. All my neighbors are in the
same condition-want good help.
Last evening lady came to me to
know if 1 could tell her where she
could get a man to cut her corn that
was being ruined by the frost. She
did not care about wages; all she want
ed was to get a man to work.
1T is true we are in the country
| back from the railroads. no saloons
| so il we do get a man he works a few
| days and then becomes disconnected
ana back to the free clearinghouse he
goes. And this sort of thing will con-
TIME Just so long as charity maintains
men able to work. There is plenty OF
work in the country, good beds, good
food and good wages for honest, decent
men who are willing to give fair
days work for "a fair days pay.
Some will say, there is no work in
the country in the winter. There is
! plenty of wood to be cut. l wanted
one hundred cords of wood cut and was
willing to pay 81 per cord, but could
not get it done, and so with thousands
OF cords of wood. I must buy coal and
haul it eight miles,
Clearly the institution of the "brea d
| line is justified only on the SUPPOSE
| ton that there are able bodied men
for whom no employment is available
| Granting for the sake of argument
that there is no work in New York city.
superstition contrary to the fact, the
situation in Connecticut that has been
described is sufficiently typical of city
| and country conditions to Justify the
| conclusion that an institution which
| enables a homeless. unemployed man
to rail- back upon a "bread line" and
the htteen-cent lodging house, or. per-
chance, the free mission shelter, is do
ing him and the community at large
no kindness. but rather positiye in
| jury.-Boston Transcript