The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-01-06

From the Nineteenth Century.
 TN Switzerland there ds 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 as for the
 sake of the whole communfty-to guard
 against his being a cause of expense to
 it instead of being a source of income
 There is. however, an equally strong
 feeling that when the work is found the
 man must if necessary for his own sake
 as well as the sake of the community be
 made to do it; to do 1t well, too.
 No federation is shown to the loafer,
 for he 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 bs
 done is done, and gladly. to guard decent
 men from all danger of becoming loaf
 CTS through mischance or misfortune. In this country man may deliberate
 ly throw up one job and without ever
 making any effort to find another remain for months in the ranks of the unem-
 ployed. steadily deteriorating all the time
 into an unemployable. Meanwhile no one
 has the right to say him yea or nay unless he applies for poor relief. In Switzerland, however, 1t is other wise. There is no resorting to warehouses; as to hotels there; no wandering around the countryside extorting aims while pretending to look for work. For begging is crime and so is vagrancy; and in some cantons the police receive a special fee for every beggar or vagrant they ar rest.
 If a man is out of work there he must try to find work. for if he does not the authorities of the district where he has a settlement will find it for him, and of a kind perhaps not at all to his tastes-tir- ing and badly paid. He cannot refuse to do 1t. for if he does he may be packed off straight to penal workhouse, an in- stitution where military discipline prevails and where every inmate Is made to work to the full extent of his strength, receiv- ing in return board and lodging with wages of from penny to threepence a day.
 When once he is there there he must stay until the authorities decree that he shall depart; for as penal workhouse Is practically a prison he cannot take his own discharge, and the police are always l on the alert to prevent his running away. No matter how long his sojourn lasts, however, 1t does not cost the community
 single penny; for in Switzerland these penal institutions are self-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 meting out to them of the same meas ure. 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 because he does not wish to be in work is treated as criminal and sent as a pris- oner to 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.
 It is much more easy there. however. than 1t is here. 1t must be admitted. to