New-York tribune., 1908-01-25
THE TNEUPLOYED.

"ArmieS of the unemployed have been
gathering with troublesome designs, in Boston
and Chicago and in a peacable, merely Verpose
fashion in the metropolis. The exciting ad-
ventures which policemen and hrenleh nave
had in dispensing obnoxious open air meetings
and street parades may well have created the
impression that the glOOmieSt proSnostlcatlohS
about hard times are being fulfilled with Dltter
suddpnness Before accepting this view. now
ever. it will be well TO scrutinize the SITUATION
as closely as the expert investigators of "Chari-
ties and the Commons" have done. In the cur
rent number of this publication there appears u
summary of facts obtained from corporations,
bankers city officials, ministers ana charity
workers in Il score of the largest mumclpaillles.
The first effect of this convincing report should
be 10 put the ignorant calamity hoWler out OF
q iob. perhaps the second effect ought to be
the awakening of the public TO the seriousness
of the tramp problem and the need OF country
wide system OF employment bureaus.
1t has been found that the estimates putting
New York's unemployed at from 100000 to
150000 are pure fiction. without the slightest
foundation even for a guess" Much signifi-
cameo attaches to the marked decline in the
daily overflow at the Municipal Lodging House
since the announcement that applicants might
be put TO work in BlackWeiS lsllhd STONE
quarry During December. before this report
was started by the action of the charity orgfhl-
cations nearly one hundred men had TO De
turned away every night In January the mum
her has steadily decreased, and Oh seyera!
NIGHTS there has been no overflow at all. Facts
like this strongly confirm the view that va
Grants are swarming into the great centres,
tbara 10 raaD the benefit of their hard times
complaints The only point on which a consld-
.'erable number [of missions. settlements the
Young Mems Christian Associations and SINH
..lar institutional agree is that the men who call
..unon them were homeless before the panic
are homeless and will be homeless to-mor-
" raw In other cities. except Chicago the
marked increase in demands for shelter. aid
and employment is likewise traced, first. to
tramps and. second. TO shiftless. unskilled
workingmen. In Chicago however, the sltua-
1ion is seriously aggravated by the influx of
..practjcalIy all of the Michigan and Nisc0n-
"sin Iumbermen, who have been turned adrl1t
because the lumber companies could not oD-
tain the cash for their work. They are
rough lot given TO living in barrel houses
land not inclined to work at anything Dut thelf
..own trade" The investigators conclude from
the mass of fairly exact first hand information
that 'up to date there has not been such wide
spread distress due to unemployment as to
call for the organization of extraordinary re
.Ief measures The figures so far avail
able in January indicate a gradually improy-
ing condition Work is somewhat more plenti
'ful, and applications for relief and lodgings
are slowly but persistently decreasing" New
Workers who have tried to secure domestic help
in the last six weeks will find this optimistic
statement easy of belief
Some progress toward solution Of the tramp
problem might soon be made if every respect
able American could have visited the Bowery
last month and seen the sodden, vicious rabbe
that has brazenly called itself "the army of
the unemployed" The urgent need of an inter
state or interurban intelligence bureau would
be recognized if everybody could have seen the
number of honest and willing men who,
through inability to obtain prompt and accll-
rate information in their places of residence,
were tempted to seek work in the metropolis
because it's such big place"