Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-03-14
JOB HUNTERS FACE FAMINE.
Many Applicants Go Broke and Appeal
to Members Of Congress.

Washington, March 14.-Legions OF
| Micawbers are sticking around Wash
lnston, waiting for something to turn
up in the way of Jobs. The "off the
| grass" signs put up by President Will
son the day after inauguration has
kept them away from the White House,
but they are haunting department Of
| fcails in herds, droves. battalions and
brigades.
| It's half-famished army, for many
, have gone broke" to the profound
sorrow of members of congress. The
old places of refuge for the stranded,
| the pawnshops. have gone out of com
mission. and the free lunch counter is
not highly developed institution at
the capital. Pretzels and soda crack
ers? Yes, in restricted amount, but
they are thirst promoters instead OF
hunger asSuagers.
Many a man Is wearing his belt
buckled in the last hole and is passing
more time in the pursuit of nourish-
ment than in the chase for job.
congressman Are Touched.
The first idea of a stranded job
hunter is to look up his representative
in congress and to make a neat and
expeditions touch; hence the depres'
sion Of the statesmen who are on the
scene. But what's hunger to a MicaW.
ber?
| The army is sustained by an abiding
hope that the label original Wilson
man" will prove negotiable into fed
! eral lob, and apparently it will stick in
| Washington, even If it has to walk
to Baltimore to put tbs watches and
lodge charms "in soak for railroad
fare home.
Most of the plumseekers who are
waiting in the hope that trees WI!
soon be shaken are from the south
There is only slight sprinkling from
the west. but Dixie II represented by
multitude. Isn't the south in the sad
die? A Virginian isof in the White
House; half the cabinet members were
born in Dixie; in both houses of con-
gress southerners are powerful
combination that has brought the JOB
seekers swarming from the south.
Ever since the new cabinet mem
bers first tucked their feet under their
desks their snte-rooms have been
filed. The ra,tes- c-n%ls nave gath
cred in the Offices OF William J. Fry
| an, seuretar:y OF state, and OF Albert
| Burleson, postmaster general. 10 De
sure, the throngs are no. made Up ea-
tirely Of place hunters, eor Bryan s
friends are multitudinous and they
have been surging in for a aandshake
before leaving town. But the JOB aunt
crs and the men who want JOB for
| friend predomiuate in the visiting
| squadrons.
For hours at a time this week the
ar1e-cramber to the secretary o.
stu1e's offices rescn,bieG football
field curing a mass rIa.;.
Even in the attorney genrafs Office
where the patronage Is smaller tNan
| in some of the other branches OF gov
eminent. the visitors who wanted JOBS
have been SO numerous that MI. NC
REYNOLDS has been forced to close the
office at 80 o'clock to get time 10
consider affairs outside of patronage.
The open door, policy at the White
House is being follwed with interest by
the old times. Access to secretary
/, Tumulty is as easy as walking across
the street and sometimes 1t leads to
| .rnusine episodes It is rather stag
| eerine for some Of the visitors TO dis-
cover that little or no opportunity Is
afforded for whispering their mission
without a chance that 1t may be over
heard by others. In desperation some
of the callers bend close to Secretary
Tumulty's ear and talk beneath the
breath, which is invariably JOY for
the secretary, who responds in whis-
pers that can be heard in the corridor
outside.
Precedents continue to be shattered
at the White House. The latest In
novation proposed is that cabinet
meetings shall not be held when there
lis no business to be transacted.