The sun., 1908-12-23
B. STARR
Diamond Merchant,
Jeweler and
SiIversmith
Tubular Chime Clocks
with cases of exclusive
designs.
r1ADISON SQUARE
New York
HARD TINES AND THE POOR
LAST WINTER SHOWED a GREAT
INCREASE IN CALLS FOR AID.
Annual Report Show Jump Of lkO Per
Cent. In Requests for Help From
Juno. 1905, to June, l9OS-Btg FAM
iiies o Chief Cause or the Poverty.

Ahnuut hecpoFt SHOWS u Jump VI hhO Eef
Cent. In Requests for Help From
juno. 1905, to June, l9OS-Big FAM
ilies Chief Cause or the Poverty.
The sixty-hfth annual report of the
New York Association for Improving
the Condition Of the Poor. covering the
year ended September 80. gives some
history in figures Of panic year as the
poor feel it.
The panic reached its height in the
last days Of October" says the report,
"and was followed in the course Of few
weeks by an unprecedented number Of
appeals for aid. In November $40 fami-
lies applied to us for aid. rs compared
with 400 the year before, an increase Of
2i.5 per cent; in December there was an
increase Of 3o.4 per cent. and in January
an increase Of 30.4 per cent. In June
the increase as compared with the previous
year had reached 1874 per cent; that Is,
we received applications from 934 as COM
pared with se7 the year before.
@In February. 1909. when the last pre-
vious investigation into the number Of
idle men among our applicants had been
made. It was found that among the 1884
families then actively In charge there were
only 10 men who could properly bc do
scribed as able bodied
On January 1, 1908, there were 400
able bodied men out of ?.l75 families who
couldn't get jobs. and on February Is
there were s2o out Of S,2o5 families. The
difficulty in finding jobs for those out Of
work is shown by the expense the associa-
ton was put TO in giving applicants
made work" in the woodward, which
cost the association almost l.o00 per
cent. more in the last fiscal year than it
did the year before. Our visitor" says
tho report, ~has found children at home.
sometimes boys and girls IL and l3 years
old, who had never been hungry or III
clad before. because their father had
always had steady work; sonnet mos O
baby q few weeks old puny and under
sized, because the mother had been hun
cry before it was born
Statistics complied from 300 unpicked
l~oants for reiief had come to want through
no fault Of their own
Under these conditions applications for
relief jumped from 5, 428 in the previous
year to e,o24. an noroase Of GO per cent,
while the number Of families given
material aid rose from 2.os5 to e.724,
a considerable proportion of this re-
lief. the report goes on TO say, was spent
in behalf of school children. In addition
TO 1907 school children referred to us by
teachers the superintendent of relief
estimates that there were among our
families more than i2.Oo0 children Of
school age .-.
Chief among the causes of poverty,
according to the report. is big families
In the day laborer class. Another is
underpaymcnt. I'VE would say" asserts
Robert W. Bru6re. the general agent in
q reprinted letter. "that 20 per cent. OF
our applicants would probably require
no outside aid IL work could be regular
and continuous and wages proportionate
TO service rendered and price Of living"
AThe total received from current con-
tributions for general purposes this year
was tS4. 4.Bo4I7. says the report. "as COM
pared with SCI. 1874 received the previous
year, an increase Of 50 per cent. whereas
the total spent for food. shoes, coal. DO,
was to8, ,<ose5. as compared with 81, ,e10s4,
an increase of more than los per cent