Los Angeles herald., 1908-02-26
VAST ARMY IS WITHOUT EN-
PL0YMENT
10000 WAGE FARMERS SEEK
WORK
Many Who Are Without Money Will
Be Turned from, Their Homes Rent
Day and Babes Will Be
Without Shelter
BY NJ. n. F. BRIDGHAM


1900 years ago should be the vital
problem of the twentieth century-that
after all these years it yet remains
unSolved?
Three months ago there were $4,000
wage earners, men and women, in this
city who were unemployed, according
to the figures of the labor council ana
those reading the statement at the
breakfast table the morning after said
figures had been presented to the city
fathers, held up their hands in holy
horror or scoffed in unbelief.
Yesterday the secretary of the labor
council stated the situation is prac-
tically unchanged except that the per-
sonnet of the army is little different
there are on this day of grace, FEB
26. in the year of our Lord 1908, in the
CITY of Los Angeles $4,000 able bodied
persons who would gladly follow tne
ancient admonition to earn their bread
by the sweat of their brow, but cannot
because there is nothing for them to DO
Some of these are men who are
fathers of families and are facing eVlc-
ton March / because they are two, or
even three months in arrears Win
their remit
Understands Situation
In all the city there probably is no
man who has his finger more surely on
the pulse of the situation than has Rev
Dana Bartlett OF the DelulSHcli ms
tutional church. and while admitting
that the financial tide has turned,
states that so far as the labor question
is concerned the situation in Los An
geles grows more serious every day
Mr. Bartletts position afrords MIN d
broad outlook. He not only comes IN
touch with the down-at-t he-heel spe-
cimen of the flotsam and jetsam That
creeps into the city every winter, not
only gets to know the heavy footed
and heavy hearted alien whose lack OF
the English language furnishes an ad-
ditional handicap to his unfamlilarity
with American customs, but to MS
door comes also the desperate mechan-
ic or trained craftsman of American
lineage who never before needed TO
ask any mans aid, who would not now
bespeak the sympathy of his fellow
church member or neighbor, but VINO
can saw to the big hearted man in the
little parlor of North Vignes street,
Bartlett, 1 can't get credit any longer.
have Is cents in my pocket and there
is nothing in the house for the vile
and children to eat" For the trouble
is not confined to the Eighth ward,
more's the pity.
Many Sell Furniture
1t is sad to see unmarried men going
hungry, but when a man, who has al
ways been forehanded, has been unable
for months to meet the family pllls,
who has no money coming in, and
who has disposed of one piece of furni-
ture after another in order TO provide
bread and butter for his wife and lit
tie ones then is that mans case nara
indeed.
Beside the Bethlehem work there are
the two branches of the salvation
army, the Volunteers of America, the
Associated Charities, and one or two
other avenues through which aid can
be dispensed to the needy. From one
of these sources one learns of a fam
iIy the head of which, skilled struc-
tural iron worker, has been out of work
for weeks. When the rosary is said
in this family it is told on seven pairs
of bright eyes plus seven curly heads,
and when April is gone, If everything
goes well, the nest will hold eight.
There is a woman in the city, grad
uate of one of the eastern colleges,
whose husband could not get work in
Los Angeles and has secured it at
distance. 1t will be several weeks yet
before he can send her money, and in
the meantime she needs medicine Tor
a sick child, and would be so grateful
for old clothes to make over that
the children can be kept in school.
There is one man who has just Sc
cured work after two or three months
of enforced idleness and the advent of
the second little one in the family
circle is expected in few weeks.
There is a Spanish family where
there are nine children and the father
does not speak English. Recently he
and the oldest boy walked the streets
for days soliciting work without avail.
Among the cases OF unskilled labor
ers may be cited that of a man who
is a blacksmith. His five children are
motherless AT present the family is
II, CHI
grandmother gives the little ones all
the care they receive and the children
and the chickens eat from the same
table together
A carpenter who has been a con-
tractor made unfortunate estimates last
fall and took several jobs at too low
a figure. He failed and one evening
this week there was nothing in the
little home to eat. He is behind in
his rent. too, and the landlord has
told him he must move on or before
Sunday next.
Among the foreign born there is a
greater degree of restitution, if pos
sible, than among the native born citi-
zens.
The Japanese and Russians, as a
class, will never become a burden to
the community as they have their own
associations for mutual aid The Rus
slams too, have a brotherhood that in
There are other Russians, however
There are Slavs and there are Cholos-
people who a few months back were
earning 50 a, day, who are now prac-
ticaily destitute.
| was told of families who have only
two blankets, of others who get their
groceries and do their marketing from
the garbage tins of their more for
tunate neighbors, and of many more
who have no stoves in their bowels
and gather their supply of firewood
from the adjacent river bed for the
small camp fire out in the yard.
The above cited cases are not iso.
lated, but can be duplicated in every
ward, and according to some in
formants, on almost every street in
the city.
1t is stated that out of the $4,000
unemployed men and women about
5000 are unmarried, but as each head
of family probably represents three
for whom he provides. the little sum
OF subtraction does not seem to make
for a happier ending of the story.
This first number, $4,000, can, of course
be resolved into two elements. the
skilled and the unskilled classes but
they are each without work, and the
little children of the father who Yields
the pick and the shovel are just as
hungry, and their cry Is just as bitter