Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-31

figures which had settled by
the score under the elms CT Judiciary
Square for another night in the open.
Dissatisfaction was evident In their
conversation, which was the desultory
talk of strangers brought together by
some trick of circumstance.
yeah, they laid me Oh last month
They put too many machines on
that road job :"
They won't run that mill down there
They" it seemed, had conspired with
the politicians: They" were reducing
wages, They" were installing labor
saving machinery, to beat honest men
out Of living.
The men, almost without exception,
were in vague revolt against the still
wagner group represented by They"
Theirs was a rather imperSonal re-
sentiment against machine or a sys-
tenn.
The discomfort of the scattered hun
dredS in the square-mostly f1oaters OF
the transient labor type, with sprink-
ling of hoboes. buns. and the ordinary
variety Of tramp-Was apparent even In
sleep.
Then men sprawled on newspapers
spread on the grass, with shelterlng
shifting uneasily as they slept.
How long" I wondered, would It
take the average man, any man with
home, a job and a reasonable amount
CT security, to think as these men do
once forced to join them in the parks,
on the street corners"
Some crowd, eh?" broke in COM
panion on the park bench. Hope 1t
don't rain tonight"
= rf
these men would have homes to go
TOP"
The other shook his clipped head
clipped much as they clip heads in
prison. About IS per cent, I'd say.
Some people from the boarding houses
come out here because of the heat, but
they're in the minority.
Its not especially hot tonight, but
you see how many are here, don't you?
II they had homes. they'd go to them
when it rains. 1t rained the other
whole bunch scrambled for shelter in
the doorways and under the Lodges Of
those buildings over there"
The man grinned. If we had any
place to go, do you think we'd sleep
three deep on concrete ledger"
NO" I agreed. and the conversation
turned to labor matters. The man was
a Veritable sage who had worked on
timber jobs in the Northwest, in rolling
mills, coal mines, wheat fields, automo-
bile plants the country over, and he
showed a surprising knowledge OF things
in Europe and Soviet Russia.
He talked of the controversy in De-
troit between Ford and the municipal
authorities. of the Soviet's capitulation
to capitalistic principles, of the five
year plan, of England'S doleS, of the
practices Of contractors on jobs for our
Government. of the plight Of the Amer
lean farmer, but mostly he talked OF
the decentralization of industry in the
United States.
Bitterly he related how the introduce
ton of new machinery had cost him
Jobs on roadwork, In mills, on the docks.
in the flelds-everywhere in fact, where
machines have been put to work in the
name of progress.
There's many man sleeping here
tonight" he said. with a nod toward
the still forms under the trees, with
no roof over his head and no food IN
his stomach because machinery Is DO
ing his work: &C.. -
ginning to wonder what it's all coming
to. He's beginning to talk things over,
he's learning. and. what's more, mes
beginning to think" 81
our talk, low as it has been. was as
turbing the sleepers nearby. Some With