Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-27
NO PLACE FOR iDLERs
Methods of Solving the of
h Unemployed i'm Switz-
erIand.

In Switzerland there is a strong feeling
that any man who is out of work must be
helped to find work, and this not so much
for his own sake-to guard against his
being a cause of expense to II instead Of
being a source Of income.
There IL, however, ar equally strong
feeling that when the work is found the
man must, II necessary. for his own sake
as we'll as the sake of the community, be
made to do 1t; TO do 1t we'll, too.
Practically everything in Switzerland,
while It is held to be the duty Of the
authorities to stand by the genuine work
seeker and help him, 1t is held to be their
duty also to mete out punishment to the
work shirker and force him to earn his
daily bread before he eats It.
No federation is shown to the loafer, for
his is regarded as one who wishes to prey
on his fellows and take money out Of the
common purse while putting none into It,
On the other hand, what can be done is
done, and gladly, to guard decent men from
all danger of becoming loafers through
mischance or misfortune.
In this country a man may deliberately
throw up one Job and without ever max
ing any effort to find another remain for
months In the ranks of the unemployed,
steadily deteriorating all the time into an
unemployable. Meanwhile no one has the
right to say him yea or nay unless he ap-
plies for poor relief.
In Switzerland, however, 1t Is otherwise.
There is no resorting to work houses as
to hotels there; no wandering around the
countryside extorting aims while pretend
ing to look for work. For begging is a
crime and so is vagrancy; and in some
cantons the police receive special fee for
every beggar or vagrant they arrest.
If a man is out of work there he must
try to find work, for IL he does not the
authorities OF the district where he has a
settlement will find it for him, and of a
perhaps not at all to his ~taste-tiring
and badly paid. He cannot refuse to do It,
for IL he does he may be packed off straight
to a penal workhouse, an institution where
military discipline prevails and where every
inmate is made to work to the full extent
Of his strength. receiving in return board
and lodging with wages of from a penny
to threepence a day.
When once he is there, there he must
stay until the authorities decree that he
shall depart; for as a penal workhouse is
practically a prison he cannot take his own
discharge, and the police are always on the
alert to prevent his running away. No
matter how long his sojourn lasts, however,
1t does not cost the community a single
penny; for in Switzerland these penal in
stitutions are se~lf-supporting. Some of
them, indeed, are said to be a regular
source of income to the cantons to which
they belong.
There is no chasing of the unemployed
by casualty or misfortune with the unem-
ployed by laziness or misconduct there; no
melting out to them of the same measure.
On the contrary, considerable trouble is
taken to distinguish between the two
classes, so that each may be dealt with
according to its merits. The man who is
out OF work through his own fault and be-
cause he does not wish to be in work is
treated as a criminal and sent as a pris-
oner to a penal institution; while the man
who is out Of work in spite of his earnest
endeavor to be in work is helped without
being subjected to humiliation.
1t is much more easy there, however,
than 1t is here, it must be admitted, TO
distinguish between unemployed and UNI
employed; as there every working man has
his papers, 1. e., documents which are given
to him by the authorities OF the district
where he has his settlement and which
contain full information as to where and
by whom he has been employed in the
course OF his life.
Then relief In kind stations, T. G., casual
wards organized on philanthropic lines, are
now maintained In every part Of industrial
Switzerland for the exclusive use OF the
respectable unemployed. and ~drunkards,
criminals and loafers are never allowed to