Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-11-20
A LABOR PROBLEM

6FOOU
CONTINUED from first pagel
mines, termination of a large contract
failure of a crop which supplies raw
material, overstocking of the market
and caprice of fashion" 1t is this
class OF men who need to be carefully
guarded by the state and society to
keep them from drifting into the al
most worthless class, the unemploy-
ables. Industry is a habit, and when
some of these men have lost the habit
through enforced idleness or sickness
they are almost irreclaimable.
One special effort to help men of
this kind is certainly worthy of men
ton. This is Chicago's Memorial
Hotel for the unemployed. This hotel
vas given by Rufus Davies in memory
of his son. The son who had discus.
sed this problem with his father was
drowned at the age of twenty-one
years. His father then gave 100000
for the establishment of a hotel. This
hotel is not entirely free. The price
is SC a bed; there are 200 such beds
in ward rooms. There are 100 private
rooms at 1Oc each. Meal tickets are
SC. There are two rules for dodgers,
that they take a bath every night and
that they hunt a job and become self
supporting. Lodging is not continu-
Gus.
In this army of the unemployed
there is a great class of unemployables
men who don't care to work. Many
reports from all parts of the country
are proof of this. The problem con-
corning this class is much more diff
cult of solution than that of the unfit
or of the employables. They don't
want a job and they are unworthy of
charity. It is the presence of this
class that raises the number of the
unemployed to such almost unbeliev-
able numbers; it is the presence of
this class that makes the army so
menacing; it is the presence of this
class that binders work for the other
two. This class is stocked from the
unfit who through sickness have lost
their zest for work, also from the i'm
mature who have Slapped their energy
and cut off their strength in youth.
Drifting into this class come, also
those who have at one time belonged
to the class of employables but who
have through enforced idleness lost
the habit of work.
At this point the problem of eff
cheney closely connects itself with the
un~employables. The common labor
er should be prepared to do more than
one kind of work. Vocational train
ing is all right but that kind of train
ing that prepares a man to do only
a certain kind of work is not just to
the individual. The following state
ments do not place the members of
this class at all in our favor. On the
first Of June, Mayor Mitchell Of New
York City found that there were 1000
free beds for 1000 applicants, men
women and children. He had a pier
at the foot of East Twenty-fourth
street equipped for lodging. The
street cleaning department agreed to
furnish work. 1t was widely adver-
tised that for each meal, and for each
nights lodging furnished one hours
work would be exacted from the able
bodied. The total number of lodgings
for the fifteen days following the
opening of the Pier was 1919 less
than the total number of nights lodg-
ings during the fifteen days proceed
ing. At Portland, Oregon, 500 men
who had been receiving shelter at the
expense of the city were offered work;
out of the 500, fifty applied, twelve
appeared for work, seven quit during
the first hour and five one per cent OF
the 500 remained long enough to carr
one dollar and a half. In San Fran.
cisco, where the number of the job
less was $4,000, 800 appeared fol
work when given a chance to wielo
pick and shovel. There also this job
less army boyeotted the municipal
dining room and refused to work fol
zoe an hour the rate offered by ths
citizens relief committee. A relief
committee of one hundred registered
the names of 1000 men desiring work
The committee then canvassed the
employers of s. F. and surrounding
country. In a short time the commit
tee was prepared to provide work fol
a large number in the farming dis.
tricts. This prospect was not pleas
ing to many of the jobless men; they
preferred to stay In s. F. throughout
the winter depending on odd jobs here
and there to keep them in tobacco ano
beer.
To quote from the Literary Digest
of Jan. 81, 1914, "The able bodied
man who will not work when givef
a chance and who refuses to eat the
food offered him because it was moi
prepared by I. W. w. ought to be
permitted to enjoy his inalienable
right to go hungry without the inter.
ference of charitably disposed citi.
Zens.
Kansas City reduces its number
of jobless by giving work on a munich.
pal farm. AS a municipality Balti
more is thoroughly organized t.
furnish work or Institutional care te
all needy within its limits. Last win
ter when other cities were being ovel
run by the unemployed this city was
comparatively free from such a bur.
den.
No country can permanently affect
the problem of the unemployed with
out considering the problem of effici.
ency. This the u. S. can do by look.
ing more thoroughly to the working
of it's schools, by seeing that a habit
of industry is fostered there, by see
ing that every child which does moi
manifest an interest or ability along
certain lines that will make him self.