Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-01-20
Out OF A Job
ny Frederic J. Hnskin


.to,.oa "a there were then, the PARK
hsnches which enjoyed such quiet
;1ctant existence during the waf, are
once more doing duty as beds the hos-
pitaI wards are again treating s's'F"
tion cases. and the hread-iine--e 'ons'
hungry breadline--has returned on 'he
Bowery , S,a.
In 1915. before the United S'ates
entered the war; according TO Anson -
Yat,., sc,retary of the Bowefy Mis-
i,,, ooo men stood in the bread hne
a,-s,,e night During the war the num-
,a,. ,ronpe,1 to about So. all OF whoh
could be accommodated inside the h"s-
sion so that there was no longer any
necessity for n bread line. Meantime
tho missions facilities for feeding iafse
numbers dwindled. Hence. wheh Jus'
before Christmas hundreds oil huhsr>
n,an started crowding its doors every
night. IL was absolutely unprepared 10
taI.a care of them. Rolls and Conee
,,-sra gradually served to every one, nut
so gradually that IL was usually MD
night before the last man received MS
portion. -,
since Christmas, many more nun
arads of employees have been released
throughout the city, and the SITUATION
has become much worse. st MARX g
in-the- Rouwrie. at Second avenue and
street.
re,,.iie. however opening its chapei as
r,,bli, Iodsing house and turning the
rhurch into soup station for the un-
supIoyed In addition. a substantiaI
dinner is served by the church every
night at s o'clock. Between them, inc
Bowery Mission and ST. Marks Chap-
rel are feeding approximately l.7Vo
men daily.
we used 10 be oritiged severely for
saaiff Il
helping TO peurerize the men, sh'o
Atr Baksr of the mission. In discussing
its activities 1T was said that they
,vouid not work if they could get free
meals. This was disproved during the
war when the attendance at our even
tns lunches fell off Those who re-
r,aiued 10 take advantage of the free
food were aged. decrepit OF acuteiy uh-
fortunate in some respect we 90 not
offer charity but hospitality. Men 90
not stand in the bread line except as q
last resource.
The truth Of this statement is also
rro,.ed nv tho fact that while only
500 men are applying for free tood
daily. there are, according to recent
estimates. Iso, 600 unemployed in New
York.
Not Many Charity Cases.
The majority Of these are not yet IN
need of charity. or hospitality, as the
mission prefers TO call n.N There are
stiil, the family savings 10 fall back
unou. and the childrens earnings
children can often get icba today when
their fathers and mothers csnt~~es-
peciaIly among the foreign born popu-
lstion. where only the children have re
,aixed an American common scheoi
training Thus school authorities re-
rolt that thousands Of children are
now abruptly leaving school 70 seek
work until their fathers are once more
employed az steady jobs.
Meantime the fathers rlod weafily
around the streets, pursuing tofloIn =
homes raised in the helpwanted col
umns OF haunting the numerous PROS
parous commercial employment aSen'
riee that occupy so much space alons
the Bowery and Sixth avenue Eoti
discouragingly futile tasks. The pal
agencies have recently raised theu
commissions. but even so business j.
slow. Much as they would Ike to
under present conditions. they canno
thernseIves create the jobs The mos
that the mission and St. Marks Chape
have been able 10 place in a day is 10
and they ere rather proud OF this rec
ord
The New York stat. Employmen
Bureau hae branch on West Forty
sixth street where jobs are supplie'
free of charge when there are any =
supply, but the number Of men place.
bv This organization on the dan the re
porter visited it WAS tuet three. Yet al
dsv long, lines Of men stood In patien
exaeperatton before the various sec
tione of the Office, marked Hotel an
Restaurant" Skilled Labor ant
Clerks" hoping for word OF encour
agement The demand for experience
Jerks still exists in 2 feeble way on
of the secretaries explained. but IN
other two departments for the 4ast feV
weeks have had practically nothing.
What is your liner INQUIRED
social service worker OF a tall, gaun
and haggard-faced man, as he LETT IN
waiting group and started for the dool
Drill press operator. he replied dulll
Ea continued to answer the socia
workers questions in the same dui
tired voice Yes, he was married, h
said Five children. One of them ha
diphtheria His wife was out of 1ol
,oo Yes he had tried to get some
thing else, but the agency had nothins
They said they would let him know
q request came for a drill press operat
or In the meantime he was scruhhn
floors in high school at night but
did not pay enough to %eep the famil!
Unreliable Agencies.
The social worker wrote somethin
on a caro- and gave Il to the mai
whose face then assumed more hope
full expression. but as q loud disput
arose I'm the hotel and. restaurant se'
ton of the Office. at this critical m'
uent, the reporter was compelled
pass up the finale of this incident
Nearby, a few minutes later, OF
1ob-hunter was explaining to anoth'
that he had tried every pay agency {
sixth avenue and that at last he hs
discovered one that offered a job
truck lx-driver But the man In chars
wanted IS for the address Of the job.
so there was nothin' doin' on that
the first iob-hunter explained en-
phaticaIly. You cant trust them guy
They fix Il SO that you go to work ol
day and get fired the next-and th'
where's your eight buclzs?"
In these normal times, the var1o'
dfsinterested employment agencit
which played such an important pa
during the war are conspicuously mis-
ing. Most keenly missed of all are 4
Offices Of the United States DEPARTING
Of Labor that did SO much TO straigh
en- out labor turnovers and compile
tions two years ago. Gone too. are {
agencies of the knights of Columbl