The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-28

Una b1Ell III Lf1t
IN agreement on n point, hat the
country could we'll get along with few
er. On the other hand, elasticity in
diminishing the effects Of unemploy-
ment among these classes exists in
the possibilities OF doubling up at
nome with the III folks or depending
on the wife's income or labor. Hard
t1meS In business cuts down the mi
grafton from farm to town,
marriages, lessons the demand for
large and expensive flats or houses,
curtails personal outlay in many di-
rections- 1t is a hea~rt-breaking so
c1al process. The notifications, anx-
letles, even agonies, experienced by
n people above public aid, as they
resort to the shifts best Known to
their class in saving off stark poverty
hen their breadWinners are idle, in
many cases quite equal the acute suf-
ferings Of the unemployed poor. In
deed. many Of them who meet with
reverses become acquainted with hun
ger itself. This phase Of ~unemploy-
nlent deserves recognition here mas
much as it is to be doubted that the
same class in foreign countries is so
much in jeopardy from lack Of ecu
patton as in this changes in
industry not being SO great or SO sud
den and widespread as here. More
over, the unbe Of our men and Wo-
men who during unemployment drop
off from the ranks of the apparently
prosperous, and are obliged to take
their chances with the hard working,
is by no means intonSiderable. The
bread lines and the lodging houses Of
the Bowery TIVE IA usually, by re-
port, a large proportion of educated
Americans, indicative Of the number
barely holding on at a grade a little
higher up. living in deprivation. This
class of sufferers from unemployment,
while it strongly appeals to the obser-
Yer s~entimentally, is beyond the each
Of direct State interference practical
ly. The people in it can never be
enumerated, classified as worthy or
"unWorthy,' placed under inspector
ship, or given places through labor
bureaus. But for all that they form
a noteworthy factor in the problem
Of unemployment, it's causes, it's loss
to production, and it's detriment to So
ciety.
When we turn our attention to our
africans and laborers, we find them
subject to certain causes for unem-
ployInent not usual in Europe. 1t is a
settled policy with employers in some
Of our great industries not to give a
full years work to their employees,
even where it might be done The an
thracite miners average less than two
hundred days work annually, whereas
steady employment might be given a
GSuLlI lOICc III Tic OQS ~ III
least three hundred days. Suspension
Of work at mills and factories, in con
sequence Of consolidation or with
intention OF union breaking, has char
~acterized the steel. the textile and 9TH
er industries. Our building trades IN
the North lose two months more in
the winter season than do hose OF
England. Such factors serve to rem
der the subject more p~erplexing here
than in the Old World. Other coints
Of difference exist. We hav no such
loss to industry as that from the
class of young men on h Cont
nent of Europe going each year into
as in the re-entry Of the class re-
turned to civil life, with the difficult
ties Of putting the right men into the
vacancies: we have no such question
as is before England in connection
with its numerous sea-faring men, nor
several other countries with their IL
literate masses in cases reaching near
ly SO per cent OF all h adult males.
On the other hand. European coun-
tries have not our negro question, Or
an Immigrant population, speaking
diverse tongues.
tt we seek light on a remedy for our
own unemployment problem by study
ing what has been done in the
countries further advanced III dealing
with the question for themselves, we
cannot by any means be sure thar
their methods would meet a degree OF
success here corresponding with tiht
attained by them.
The very first step in taking cogni-
zanee of unemployment as the object
of a national reform through such
means as labor exchanges, out-of-
work relief, or similar administering
agencies, necessitating supervision or
the unemployed, is to ascertain p
proximately the number OF people
who might thus be reached, On
the average, annually, in the
course of the years. In the Unit
ed States this is a far more diff
cult task than in any country in Eu-
rope, Area, the sparse settlement OF
vast districts, our sudden ctuation
in employment, besides the various
nationalities Of the immigrants and
the wandering habits Of SO many Of
our rative Wage-earnerS-aH THESE