River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-03-05
WASHINGTON LETTER
FROM JAMES A. FREAR, MEMBER OF
CONGRESS, 10th DISTRICT

washington, IL. u, Marcn D, 18Th
Last week | talked with man of
the hour whom | met at a musicale
given to about three hundred people
in the most historical room in the
Capitol City. l appreciated him
because when a youth, | worked in
the car shops and elsewhere at
manual labor, and this man worked
at hard labor as a coal miner before
he reached a position in President
Wilson S cabinet. Manual labor is
educational because it broadens the
understanding of the relation of the
man TO the job
Secretary of Labor, William B..
Wilson, is self-made man, a
Scotchman who came to this coun-
try with his parents when a boy.
He worked in the coal mines of
Pennsylvania, and finally. through
his own energy and remarkable
ability, landed in the Cabinet, Due
to an accidental arrangement in the
seating, found myself next TO Mr..
Wilson, and knowing that he is con
sidered one of the best informed
pumped the question at him,
What are you trying to do in your
fN~ he hn raf G
work and don't find it?" He an
swered, Il wish to make every post
Office in the country labor employ
ment agency, where we can have
posted up censpicuously, notices of
places where men are wanted, list
ing the Jobs to be filed, wages to
be had and other data for those
looking for work" | asked a fur
Their question as to what IS to be
done when no jobs are to be had, in
other words, during business de-
preston, how is a man to secure
work when factories are closed
down. TO my mind this is the most
important problem now forcing it
self upon us, and Secretary Wilson
admitted it is the one great problem
which is hard to solve His own
plan is to push all public work in
times of depression, good roads,
public buildings, and municipal,
state and federal improvements.
He admitted many difficulties sug-
gested themselves in the way of
getting the right kind of a man for
the job and finding any kind of a
ID for all men, but this is his plan
at the beginning.
We are learning every day that
while we can legislate and provide
better, safer conditions for labor,
which will be acceded to by the en-
ployer, we cannot provide work by
law and it cannot be found unless
there is work to do. For that reason
the proposal of Secretary Wilson is
one of great importance if it can be
inaugurated. No two men are
agreed why million men are now
reported idle because of dullness in
the steel trade alone, nor is il ma
terial to this problem whether it is
due to the tariff, failure to secure
the per cent. raise in freight rates
or some other reason The question
is how to furnish work at all times
There always will be idle men, and
always will be hungry men and Oft
en- women and children, if work can
not be found.
When talking to Secretary Wilson
| had recollections of the Freshman
bread line in New York City which
first saw twenty years ago and
again saw last year. 1t can always
be found at midnight on Broadway
where hundreds of hungry men
form near Grace Church, and eat
the crusts and old bread handed out
to them from baskets at the bakery
door. Sometimes these men will
hurry around the block and reach a
second time for the bread after hav
ing eaten the first installment,
munching wa while crowding
down the line. It is tragedy that
takes place every night and one that
affects any person of sensibilities,
because the men aren't all tramps
nor idlers; many of them are simply
down and out, can't find work. It's
a tragedy we see because it is al
ways staged at the same place. The
tragedies we don't see are those
which are concealed by men too