Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-22
OUT OF A JOB
BY Frederic j. Haskin

we were living back In the year 1919. Inc
streets are filled with almost as many un-
employed as there were then; the park
benches which enjoyed such a quiet, indo-
lent existence during the war, are once
more doing duty as beds; the hospital wards
are again treating starvation cases, and the
bread line--a long, hungry bread Hne-has
returned on the Bowery.
Tn 1915 before the United States entered
the war, according to Arson c. Baker, secre-
tary of the Bowery mission, 1000 men stood
in the bread line every right. During the
war, the number dropped to about 30, all
of whom could be accommodated inside the
mission, so that there was not longer any
necessity for bread line. Meantime the
MISSIONS facilities for feeding large mum
bers dwindled. Hence, when just before
Christmas hundreds of hungry men started
crowding it's doors every night, it was aoso-
lutely unprepared to take care OF tnell'
Rolls and coffee were gradually served 10
every one, but so gradually that 1t was US
ually midnight before the last man receNeo
his portion.
Since Christmas, many more hundreds OF
EMPLOYEES have been released throughout the
CITY. and the situation has become much
worse st. Marks-in- the-Bouwer1e, at Sec
ond avenue and Tenth street, has come
nobly to the rescue, however, opening its
chapel as a public lodging house and turning
the church kitchen into soup station Tor
the unemployed. In addition, a substantial
dinner is served by the church every night
at 8 o'clock. Between them, the Bowery
mission and st. Marks chapel are feedlng ap-
proximately 1900 men daily.
owe used to be criticised severely for
helping to pauperize the men, Mr.. Baker
| of the mission, in discussing it's activities
cit was said that they would not work if
they could get free meals. This was dis
proved during the war when the attendance
| at our evening lunches fell off. Those who re-
| 11-A IS GrnN fOn6
were aged decrepit, or actutely unfortunate
in someVrespect. We do not offer charity but
hospitality. Men not stand in the bread
line except as last resource"
The truth of this statement is also prov
| ed by the fact that, while only $500 men
| according to recent estimates, 100000 un-
employed in New York.
Not Many Charity Cases
The majority of these are not yet in need
of charity, or hospitality, as the mission pre-
fers to call it. There are still the family
savings to fall back upon, and the children's
earnings. Children can often get jobs to-
day when their fathers and mothers can't,
especially among the foreig- born POPULATION,
where only the children have received an
American common school training. Thus,
school authorities report that thousands of
children are now abruptly leaving school to
seek work until their fathers are once more
Meantime, the fathers plod YEARLY
around the streets pursuing forlorn hopes
raised in the help-wanted columns or haunt
Ing the numerous prosperous commercial
employment agencies that occupy so much
space along the Bowery and Sixth avenue
Both discouragingy futile tasks The pay
agencies have recently raised their commits
sions, but even so business is slow Much
as they would like to, under present condi-
tions, they cannot themselves create the jobs.
The most that the mission and st. Marks
chapel have been able to place in day is
10, and they are rather proud of this record.
The New York State employment bureau
has branch on West Forty-sixth street.
where jobs are supplied free Of charge when
there are any to supply, but the number Of
men placed by this organization on the day
the reporter visited it, was just three. Yet
all day long, lines of men stood in patient
evaporation before the various sections of
the office, marked 'Hotel and Restaurant"
''Skiled Labor" and CLERKS, hoping for
word of encouragement. The demand for
experienced clerks still exists in a feeble
way, one of the secretaries explained but the
other two departments for the past few
weeks have had practically nothing
"What is your liner" inquired a social
service worker of a tall gaunt and haggard
faced man, as he left the waiting group and
started for the door.
drill press operator" he replied duly.
He continued to answer the social work
er's questions in the same dull tired voice.
Yes he was married, he said. Five chill
dren. One of them had diphtheria His
wife was out of job, too. Yes, he had tried
to get something else, but the agency had
nothing. They said they would let him
know if a request came for a drill press OPP
orator. In the meantime he was scrubbing
floors in high school at night, but 1t did
not pay enough to keep the family.
Unreliable Agencies
The social worker wrote something on a
card and gave it to the man, whose face then
assumed more hopeful expression, but as
a loud dispute arose in the hotel and restau-
rant section of the office, at this critical
moment, the reporter was compelled to pass
up the finale of this incident.
Nearby, a few minutes later, one job
hunter was explaining to another that he
had tried every pay agency on Sixth avenue
and that at last he had discovered one that
offered job as truck-driver. But the man
in charge wanted So for the address of the
j6b
$50 there was nothin' doin' on that" the
first job-hunter explained emphatically
''You can't trust them guys. They fix it so
that you go to work one day, and get fired
the next-and then where's your eight
.bucks?"
In these normal times, the various disin- |
terested employment agencies, which play
ed such an important part during the war, |
are conspicuously missing Most keenly
missed of all are the offices Of the United |
States department of labor that did so
much to straighten out labor turnovers and
complications two years ago. Gone too, are
the agencies of the knights of Columbus, the |
Y. M. G. A, and the other valiant rooters