The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1914-02-24

those willing to work" 1t is "unin-
telligent and inhuman" to drive such
men from town to town. Some cities,
notes the st. Louis paper, have solved
the problem in whole or in part by
providing work on streets, roads, or
parks. Kansas City, for instance,
gives work to men who need it at the
municipal farm" while San Francisco
is putting many men at work building
roads. San Francisco, it would seem,
common with other Pacific coast cit
les, is finding the problem particular
ly troublesome. This, comments the
Colorado Springs Gazette, is largely
because "of certain temperamental
peculiarities displayed by the uninvit-
ed guests:
"These peculiarities are chiefly an
extraordinary spirit of pride and in
dependence which lead the unemploy-
ed to refuse work when it is offered
them, to complain of the quality of
food given them at the soup-houses-
in short, to demand all the comforts of
home at public expense even though
they are being fed and cared for as
objects of charity.
AT Portland 500 men who had been
receiving shelter at the expense of the
city were offered work. Only fifty ap-
piled, and of these but twelve appear
ed at the place where work was furn-
ished. Seven of the twelve quit dur
ing the first hour. In other words,
five of the unemployed or / per cent
Of the total number receiving shelter,
remained at work long enough to earn
$780,
"At San Francisco the number of
unemployed is estimated at $4,000,
but only 800 of them, or less than
6 per cent appeared for work when
they were given chance to WELD pick
and shovel"
The San Francisco problem has en-
gagged the attention of city, county,
and state authorities and even brought
in the help of the federal government.
Citizens of the city by the Golden Gate
saw a parade of several thousand I'M
employed. According to one dispatch
it was composed of the usual horde
of hoboes, drifts, idle farm and mine
hands, who always spend the winter
in California" augmented by hum
dreds attracted by the work on the
Panama Fair. Factions developed
among the jobless, who bickered and
battled among themselves, and with
citizens and the police. One faction,
says a San Francisco dispatch to the
Portland Oregonian, has boycotted
the municipal dining room and refus-
ed to work for 20 cents an hour, the
rates offered by the citizens relief
committee" This faction, it appears,
demands So for eight hours work"
The relief committee of 100 registered
the names of over 1000 men desiring
work, and, according to the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger's San Francisco
correspondent, ''has canvassed the
employers not only of San Francisco
but of the interior. 1t announces that
it will shortly be prepared to provide
work for large part of the army
in the farming districts. But even
this prospect is not pleasing to the
idle hundreds. Most of them want to
stay in San Francisco through the
winter, content to pick up odd jobs
here and there to keep them in to-
bacco and steam beer A few who
are honestly willing to work eagerly
and thankfully went into the interior
to help out the ranchers."
The scenes in San Francisco were
repeated on smaller scale in other
cities, we learn from the dispatches,
and armies of unemployed are re-
ported as marching from place to
place. Governor West, of Oregon,
spent $25 to buy breakfast for one
army in Salem, Oregon, and secured
jobs for many of the men in state in
situations.
One serious complication in San
Francisco, says the Colorado Springs
Gazette, is due to the fact that
"That pestiferous organization, the
|. W. W., has appeared on the scene
and attempted to organize the unem-
ployed, and its leaders are actually
urging thousands of men who presum-
ably must either eat at the soup
house or go hungry to refuse the food
unless the authorities first permit
the !. w. w. to place its stamp of ap-
prevail on the cooks and walters.
There is only one explanation of
this condition, and that is, that of the
thousands in the coast cities who are
classed as unemployed very few are
really deserving of help. The able