The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-27
THE AFFLUENT UNEMPL DYED

The gods be thanked for taking so much trouble to provide employment for the unempIoyed; for lifting the sodden weight of misery from the crtnging shoulders Of the down and outers'' For they have provided work
 A few pitifu1 days of hard labor in the binding snow and bowling winds, a, few dollars to temporarily appease their hunger sharpened needs and these submerged thousands go back to walk the streets and haunt the bread-line until the next blizzard
 We'll, it's much better than nothing. However, if these patronizing deities- watching and warding their human pawns-had any imagination or un- derstanding of the permanent needs of these lowest of their vassels, why not provide several weeks, or several months work. while they are about it?
 A ravaging fire in the New York downtown district-laying waste, say one hundred city fb1ocks-would be veritable god send. An earthquake leveling a few square miles-or 8 few hundred-wouid be honey and mama and dried grass-hoppers to tens of thousands. In fact, it would, for time, solve the problem of the unen p1oyed." We couldn't begin tos get sufficient "help" to clear away debris, cart off dead bodies, and rebuild the dem oIished hives of steel and stone.
 For some inscrutab1e reason, we fail to rejoice and shout glad hosan- nahs at either of these last two pro- jects. But we smack our snug chops in fat com placency and srnirlxing sat isfactfon> when a great snowfall, par elyzing industry, eripp1ing traffic, and cause of millions in, damages. has provided a few meagre days work fr1y. f01T 0f slavery.
 And the sardonic derisive feature of the whole cruelty inadequate mat ter is that these poor, ignorant, empty handed. empty-headed slaves fight one another-snarling and biting and tear ing, like pack of famished dogs for a, c1aance to work for an oppor- tunity to learn a few paltry dollars, that serve only to delay for a brief week or two the pinch of starvation.
 Down on their knees, grovelling for what they should demand-a right to work-the inalienable right to which they are entitled as a con sequence of having been born. Tear ing at one another's throats, crippling and mairning those with whom they should stand shoulder to shoulder, in concerted effort to gain what is justly theirs-the fun returns of their la bor.
 
 description of the pitcher of vipers- each viper killing and suffocating his fellows in blind struggle to gain air accurately describes the gyrati ions and the unman1y squirmings of this mass of men men who haven't the intelligence U realize that the chain cannot be any stronger than it's weak est link, that the concern of one should be the concern of all, and that in co-operatfng for their mutual ad- vantage they have nothing to lose but their chains.
 They lack even the phi1osophic de- cency to abide by the conditions for which they themselves are partly re- sponsibIe, and starve quietly and de- .corous1y.
 But this circumstance offers a mag nif1cent opportunity for "uplift work. Hypocrites and snug philanthropists have in these pitiful-not to say con temptible exhibitions-a golden op- portunity for platitudeinous displays of ego-mania.,
 So we would advise those unem- p1oyed, made suddenly aff1uent by a brief activity in ssnow-sho cycling, to keep it up.' Starve. struggle. snarl and squirrn. That's what an .ironie- but eminentlye just-nature gave you muscles for, but don't. under any cir curnstances, ever think. For you might change political conditions if you did.
 EDw. F. BOWERS. MD. |