The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-11-23
By LABOR RESEARCH ASSN.


AS the economic crisis deepens and unemploy-
- msnt spreads. evidence Of the increasing
rnIssrv of the workers CT .'-c1 to multiply. The
charity panhandlers. il '-- est for fund rails
inc. are making public n. ons of the gravity
Of the situation Here arg few Of them:
The Visiting Nurse Service of Henry Street
settlement Of New York City states that their
nurses found unemployment in SIS per cent of
the homes visited And seven New York charity
agencies reported that of the total cases han
died by them in July, 1881 some So per cent
showed unemployment to be q factor" in the
Starvation
The appeals made by starving workers to the
- York Association for Improving the Condi-
items Of the Poor during the first six months
Of 1890 were "a per cent above those for the
same period of 1880 and have since risen at an
even more rapid rate.
Twice As Many starve.
Applications for help to seven of the larger
private welfare" agencies in New York City be-
tween March and August, 1881 we're nearly
double the number of applications made during
the corresponding period in 1880. And the total
relief given by nine family service" agencies in
September 1881, was 80 per cent above the
figure for September, 1880
Practically every one Of some 45 cities studied
in New York State were forced to spend nearly
as nlQCl or more 1O1 TSu6I III JIl6 ltSJ udll u
1881 as in the whole year 1880.
Reports from 314 cities in IS states show that
relief expenditures in August, 1881, were almost
two and one-half times as much as those in
August. 1880 and nearly four times as high as
those in August 1929.
Poor relief has been given recently to between
5000 and 1000 families month in Newark, N.
J.. as compared with between 1000 and 1000 a
month during the early months of 1890. Relief
OUTLAWS from public funds have forced up vel
fare costs in the cities of New Jersey till they
are in 1881 about 125 per cent above 1880.
The United Charities Of Chicago reports that
the number of leases" it carried even in August
this year-August is normally one of the lghtest
months for charities-was eight times the num-
Der handled in August. 1880, with about 400 new
cases being added each day.
While Chicago is attempting to raise nearly
100000 this winter for emergency unemploy-
rant Is compared with So 100000 last winter,
this Lager sum- says Gertrude Springer, in the
Survey, many experienced persons believe, is
wholly inadequate but is probably all that the
traffic VIII stand" "a special article by Labor
Research Assn. on the Chicago situation will ap-
pear in a later issue)
Feed Only Few.
Other signs of increasing starvation conditions
are to be found in the estimates of private char
lily organizations ana government officials as TO
the amounts they will need to give even the very
minimum hand-out to some of Me most needy
and worthy" unenlploge ed workers this winter
as compared with previous years. That they
need these funds does not mean they will raise
them or give them to the unemployed.
Harvey D. Gibson, banker chairman of the
Emergency Unemployment Relief Committee in
New York City states that the total expendi-
lures for unemployment relief in the city be-
tween October 1929, and Oct, $780, were $13,-
100000; that the amount expended the follow
about S45,o00OOO; and that at least sos 100000
will be needed to feed the hungriest to October
1882
But even if this $650oOOo0 we're raised it
would be but drop in the bucket compared with
the very minimum needs figured on the lowest
charity estimates of what a workers family re-
quires just to stay alive We can take the figures
OF the capitalist charity agencies to show this
For example the Charity Organization Society
OF New York says that 500 a month is needed
for the very lowest minimum standard of
istence for family. And this figure, according
to Louis L. Dublin, statistician of the Metropoli-
tan Life Insurance Co., writing in the New York
Times July II, 1881, implies the most careful
Of resources by the housewife
$25 week allows but Sc for rent-a which
provides only a tiny home in a cold-Water tene-
ments without bathroom or private toilet. 1t
takes $3.50 week to feed family of five, even
if meals are carefully planned. And when in
come drops below $25 week. there is
cape from serious maladjustment and family dis