Mexico weekly ledger., 1916-03-09
Proper Social Service.

There are two things which interest
me vastly, just now. These are that
Mexico very much needs a social SER
vice worker here and a municipal
wood-pile.
The social service worker is needed
to visit the poor Of the town to give in
struction to the mothers in regard to
the care and feeding of the children,
the value Of fresh air and cleanliness,
simple health rules and remedies. She
would be a truant officer and see that
all children were kept in schol. She
would conduct an employment bureau,
connecting the men, of whom there
are many, with the jobs, of which
there may also be many, but the two
do not always meet at the psyschol-
ogical time.
There is an over-ripe field for this
work in this town and only a person
armed with authority whose special
business it is, could do these things.
There as those who have not had adj
vantages of education and enlighten-
ment as to wholesome ways Of living,
and it seems to me that those more for
tunately endowed owe it to them to
furnish the help needed. OF course,
there is a great deal of charity work
done each year, but were it done in a
systematic way with a central organ
ization, results would be greater and
the cost might not be any more.
As to the municipal wood pile.
There is not a housekeeper in Mex
leo, who has not been asked for work
many times each week by a hungry
man. They all ask for work. Some
of these persons are buns, hobos,
tramps, those appellations meaning,
/ take it, that they r confined wan
deders who really do not want work
but food. However, the majority do
not look like this kind and anyone who
knows anything about industrial con-
ditions in the country today surely
knows there are more men than jobs.
Now it seems to me that when a
man is willing to work, he should be
allowed to do so, and since there are
not enough jobs at private houses
whereby a hungry man may earn a
meal, such means should be furnished
by the city. These men are not look
ing for a steady job. They are trying
to get from somewhere to somewhere
else. / do not see that that discredits
them if they are willing to work their
way, and Of that | am absolutely con-
WINGED from what the women of the
town tells me. One man stayed twen-
ty-four hours in town to get q job and
then raked leaves all day the next day
in the rain. They always do the work
when the work is there for them to do.
| do not see that we can expect them to
go from one end of the town to the
other on the mere chance Of getting
a job at one of the industrial plants.
/ use the work chance advisedly, for
/ have investigated and some days
there is work and some days there is
not.
Last winter the pendulum swung too
far, perhaps, in one direction. This
winter it has swung equally far the
other way. The people were told not
to fed the hungry and the consequence
has been that many have gone hun
CRY.
Surely there could be a municipal
enterprise of some kind whereby n
hungry man might earn a meal, or two
meals or a nights lodging on the
downy and hospitable granitoid of
the Jail floor. This would serve two
purposes. 1t would help the hungry
man and show the hobo hat he who
would eat must work. This problem
could be solved if only enough people
wanted it solved. Anything IA be
done is enough people want it done
bad enough.
Esther Norris Leener.