The New York herald., 1921-11-08
New York's Unemployed.

If the report of Commissioner Co
LER's Committee on Employment is
accurate either New York city has a
far greater proportion Of persons out
of work than the rest of the country
has or the general estimate Of the
number of unemployed in the United
States is entirely too low.
With the "floaters" from out of
town not counted, the city's reported
342,S60 of unemployed are 1876 per
cent of the two and half million
engaged in gainful occupations as
enumerated by the 1920 Census. This
unemployment figure is about 6 per
cent. of the city's total population.
The same percentage applied to the
national population would indicate
for the whole country an unemployed
total Of approximately six and third
million.
But our diminished employment is
not entirely recorded by the commit,
tees report. 1t does not take in
those who are working on part time
or at haphazard jobs. Yet, without
considering the partly employed, the
committees statistics can startle the
imagination.
The average head Of a family has
four persons to support. The conse-
quences of unemployment, therefore,
affect a vastly greater number than
merely those who are no longer get
ting their pay envelopes.
While there Is no doubt that con.
siderable share of our unemployed
include young men and women with
out families, principally in the cleri-
cal occupations, and servants. also
for the most part single or support
ing only themselves, the greater share
would naturally represent the heads
of families. This would be particu-
larly true Of the mechanical and
manufacturing industries and OF
transportation. OF the 342,S00 re-
corded as unemployed in New York
49, 900 are classed as of the former
and $4,000 Of the latter occupations.
These classifications by themselves,
with 205,00O unemployed, account for
so per cent. Of the whole. 1t would
seem safe to assume, then, that a
full two-thirds of the estimated un-
employed in New York would have
families dependent upon them. This
two-thirds, or about 100000 Of the
whole 343,000 unemployed, II the
committees report is accurate, might
have three-quarters of million Of
wives and children dependent upon
them for support.
But it is not likely that as many
human beings as three-quarters of a
million are thus directly suffering
from unemployment in New York
city. Certainly there are no signs
of anything like this in the subway
or elevated and other rapid transit
lines during the rush hours of going
to and coming from work. There are
no signs of it In the shops, the
streets and the parks.
Unemployment to a deplorable ex-
tent there undoubtedly is in New
York as elsewhere. But there is
good reason to surmise that the num-
bers are exaggerated here and every
where. One reason for this may be
the shifting about of those who seek
work not merely from one town to
another near by but from one State
to another.
It is possible for a man hunting
work all the way from Connecticut
to Pennsylvania to be counted in
Bridgeport, in New York, Jersey
City, Newark and Philadelphia as
among the unemployed of each COM
munity. Obviously it is even possi-
BILE for a man hunting all over a
single city for work to be listed at
several different places within it as
unemployed, making the one man
appear to be several.
Commissioner CoLER's committee
aimed to exclude such mobile work
hunters; but this is a thing more
easily said than done. Those really
anxious to get employment do not
like to be classed with the "foaters." !"
They do not reveal, their friends do
not reveal. and the labor organiza-
tions through which they apply for
situations do not reveal any more of
the facts than necessary.
The unemployment situation is bad
enough in any event. Nobody is jus.
titled in overstating it, and every
body should take the greatest care
in calculating it.