The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-09-09


and stenographers are out of employ
ment, watching their small savings
dwindle away, facing, some of them,
the prospect of going hungry ere
long
The brokers declare that they are
no better off than the employees they
have discharged. How could we
help ourselves?" demanded one
broker I'VE did not wish to turn
off the men and women we had trust
ed, in some cases, for years. But
what recourse have we. My firm is
small one, yet with the help re-
duced to a minimum and my part
ners and 1 doing most of the book
keeping, the Office expenses are 800
day With no new business of any
sort, that means our net loss is 500
day or $4,000 a month Besides
that have the interest to pay on my
seat on the stock exchange. /
bought mine when business was
good and paid $74,00O for it. All
savings. None of the brokers in the
Street are. any better off than | am
and many of them are in much worse
plight -
Different firms have pursued diff
ferent policies in dealing with the
unique situation by shutting off of
speculative trade. Some firms, which
have felt sufficiently prosperous.
have retained all their help But in
the majority of cases there has been
at least a partial reduction of the
stats. The newer employees we're
given a weeks or ten weeks salary
and dismissed with the promise that
they would he given first chance at
their old positions when business re-
sumed
Again some firms expect their en-
ployes to report at the offices every
morning as if business were going
on, while few of the firms are pay
ing their employees full salary but
telling them to stay away from the
offices and get the benefit of a real
vacation.
The same state of affairs prevails
now more or less in the shipping
trade. With little or no steamship
traffic and importation at a stand
still, there is nothing shipping en-
ployes can do, any more than stock
brokers clerks.
Almost everybody down town
claims to be losing money. One
must stop in New street to observe
isolated cases of prosperity, all the
more striking for rarity. These are
the 'put and CALI men and they are
the only ones of the financial district
who know prosperity The dealers
on the stock exchange, the consoli-
dated exchange and the curb market
are forbidden to trade, which leaves
free market for the irregulars on
New street.
And the sudden prosperity that
has come to them is proof that even
in times Of direst financial distress,
there is a considerable minority of
dyed in the wool spectators who
will take any risks purely for the
love of the game
But as has been said before the
pinch of hard times bears most heav-
lily on the small fry rather than on
the firms employing them or on the
independent broker. 1t is the indi-
vidual stenographer or clerk who
has lost the job, that means good
shelter perhaps, for more than one.
who is bearing the brunt of the ac-
tual suffering.
IA few stray job hunters are seen
In the region of the street, but not
many. Any man or woman with
strength of mind realizes that it is
futile to try to find work in Wall
street in such times Only those
hopeless ones who have tried and
failed, drift back again, tramping the
streets. waiting wearily at doors.
hunting Hobbies of big Office build
ings, searching for some old ac-
quaintance who may have for them
the long sought word of cheer.
Their plight is becoming we'll nigh
hopeless one. A month has passed
and the end is further off than the
beginning. The suffering of the Wall
street employees IS none the less real
because they are not the kind to Join
the bread lines or organize demon
STATIONS before the city hall.