The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-17
MRS. ORR TELLS 0F
 EMERGENCY RELIEF
 COMMITTEE WORK
Problem Becoming Less Burdensome, She Says, and Makes Urgent Appeal for
 the Associated Charities

Mrs c. P. Orr vice chairman of the emergency relief committee. organized sometime ago to alleviate the distress among the unemployed of the city. sound- ed note of optimism in her report of activities in the work made public yes- terday.
 T feel optimistic about the possibilities of efficient aid which will really sustain our poor people if we truly set ourselves to the task" says Mrs. Orr "The spring is coming and we have too rich coun- try to stay prostrate on the ground. 1 believe if the Associated Charities can get good contribution and turn all their forces on this problem which is already bect ming less burdensome that we can reasonably expect with the help we hope to get for the free employment bureau to tide over the unnatural situation without losing any of our people,"
 Mrs. Orr says that she and Mrs. J. B. Reid have offered their services to the Associated Charities, and makes an ur- gent appeal for aid for that organization.
 Her report Is as follows
 T have been asked to give the result of my experience in the emergency relief work My belief is that this work, so nobly done by the people of this city, has saved numbers of people from death from starvation. l have no figures on the length of time 1t takes for child to starve. We know that man can stand a good deal of such privation. I do not believe that little children would last for more than week of starvation when combined with cold weather and exposure. Some of the houses the very poor people are living in are almost no houses at all: many had no fire to cook the food we sent them, let alone warming their rooms.
 .'l believe that business is already im- proving, but it does not improve our chances of good business to overlook the condition of the men who are out of work, and can get none to do. Until things change very materially this dis tiict will not be able to absorb all of the unemployed. The average of five in a family dependent on each worker Is about correct. I believe.
 The small grocery stores have stood by their customers and given credit as long as their slender resources would stand it.
 Some men have been four and five months out of work. This disposes of the good citizens who can always blame a man for his misfortunes. Very few men who work by the day can lay by suf- ficient money to stand such a drain as i've months of unemployment.
 Tt Is hard to realize when you are in your own comfortable home that the wolves of famine and cold are bowling around the doors of respectable working men and working women in your own town.
 'The lot of the widow, with a family of children to support with her own la bors, is hard in the best of times. Com non sense will tell us what her condition is now.
 T feel optimistic about the possibilities of efficient aid. which will really sustain our poor people, if we truly let ourselves to the task, for spring Is coming and we have too rich a country to stay pros- trate on the ground. I believe that if the Associated Charities can get good con. tribution, and turn all their forces on the ptoblem. which is already becoming less prfdensome, that we can reasonably ex- pect with the help and hope to get for the free employment bureaus, and with the best of our negro citizens interesting themselves and their churches in the re- lief of the poor of their race to tide over this unnatural situation, without losing any of our people.
 . Never was the necessity for organized charity greater than in these troubled times, when every condition is out of joint. Our two chairmen of the emergency relief committee have offered their serv- ices to the board of the Associated Chari- ties to help them in the canvass they are to make of the city on the 17th. We believe we know more than any other two women in Birmingham how great the need is in this community for an efficient and well organized Associated Charities, with a substantial backing oe money to relieve distress wherever found"