Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-01-31
Tho Jobless Mans Enemy.
From the Chicago Tribune


From the Chicago Tribune.
\ scedy. bedrasglcd Individual is haleh
before the judge. A policeman %testities
he found the man prowling in a hallway
inquiries whether the man has a job. He
has not. Money: He has not. Friends?
No-h.s home is a thousand miles away.
So the court pronounccs the man a vag-
rant and sends him to prison.
The solution for vagrancy i'm the United.
States lies not I'm prison sentences. 1t lies
individual. 1t lies i'm the intelligent. eff
cient handling of the problems of unem-
ploymont. in the abolition OF the agencies
which create vagrancy.
In most European cities the ;abless man
concerns the government. The German
worker who loses his job goes to the mu-
short time work is found for him. He
docs not pay a cent for it. Judgment is
used IN the work and in the place of work
many city will be found a job in a neigh
boring town. Hc will not be shot across
the country a thousand miles from his
family to take work for the short period
of slaclness in his own trade.
In the United States the man who loses
his job becomes a subject for speculation
actually. tI,ieving. labor agent. He be-
einploymen 'es Shark. and is vi "itil nlaSsiy
forced to become n vaErant.
There are 300 private employment agen-
cies I'm New York city alone. Chicago has
hundreds OF them. So has every other in
eSala'a' ike iSe' . spider ene Web eog The a ans snties
license and supervise these agencies. This
is done to guard the applicant for employ
ment from imposition. fraud. and misrep-
resentation. 1t is successful sometimes:
most often not. For these agencies can
only thrive upon fraud and misrepresenta-
,lon. The trick Is to make this fraud and
fines OF legality. In this they succeed ad-
mirably.
Every. private employment agency spec
ializes In a certain kind of labor. One
supplies II railroad with section hands.
Another supplies men to lumber mills. A
third spccializes in construction help. They
for every job. Their business, therefore.
is to place" men. The man specializing
in jobs OH railroads will send every appli-
cant who has 81 to pay for the job to work
on the railroad. regardless of his fitness
or unftness. If the man la fired two laws
later. that is his lookout-not the agents.
He ave hin a job. 1t was up to the
mrn to hold. 1t.
Daily thousands of iobleas men are
"plnded'' by these agents. The men are
worth while. In reality. however. they
have been ruined. They have been taken
hundreds an sometimes thousands of
miles from their homes. They are put to
work ut occupations to which they are not
used and in surroundings which are detri-
mental to their health. Instead of being
placed. they are displaced. They are dis
lodged from their sphere of Industry and
removed from friends for months. and
sometimes years.
A large share of the vagrant population
In this country is drawn from among the
r,cn who ave at one time or another been
dislodged from their niche In Industry by
an employment agent who for the sake
of the 81 fee has sent them across many
states to take a permanent Job which
was not permanent. The jobless man is
not nearly so helpless In his home town
or near his home town as he is hundreds
of miles ava from the place where he Is
known. Pcnn.less III a strange town, he
Is arrested and tailed as a vagrant.
Gambling. "a 2 mans wages ts q crimc
and liz punished by the community. But
the gambling In the fortunes and even
lives of thousands of helpless men by self
seeking labor sharks ist licensed by the
| authorities.
Emp,oynlcnt-the jobs the most vital
| hin IN q man'S or w0man's life today.
tenement worker Is mostly detached from
all property. from all resources. He has
no folks back horne" to come to in time
Of 4 crisis. When he loses his job he must
and another one quickly-or starve.
Finding work for the jOhless man or
q gamble. Of by private agencies. To let
l the detached. helOless City worker become
the prey Of u .schefning. lying labor shark.
who ultimately forces him into vagrancy.
" more than an injustice to the worker.
~ ~ = menace TO the community. Il Is
rrepOsterous that. q maj seeking work 70
nj hiA 70 mil should nave no place "a
I turn to for honest n dlsinterested In
formation about the labor market In tbs
c c.Sn Inc pr:y mhs, einp!oymsn aSen,
taken by municipal labor exchanges which
will all the handicapped jobless rather
than traffic and fatten on their handt-
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