The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1931-01-17
POVERTY GRIPS
Clinton, ONCE
THRIVING CITY
Prosperity Founded on Its
Coal Fled When Mines
Were Shut Down.
CHILDREN ARE HUNGRY
Blocks of Vacant Houses:
Rents Long Overdue; 5000
Residents Left Town.
By Times staa COrrsspondent

tragedy Of bankruptcies, unemploy-
ment, hunger, inadequate facilities
for relief, and a once prosperous city.
fast decaying into poverty stricken
village, is revealed here even on the
most casual of Investigations.
1t was to this tragic transforma-
tior that the states attention was
focused this week by senate
resolution for an investigation here.
One finds scores of children, many
of them meagerly clad, being fed in
the dingy basement of church
whose minister has been called" to
other fields that he himself might
eat.
One sees block after block of
vacant houses in mute testimony of
loss of nearly 5000 residents who
likewise have ranged far and wide
in search of the elusive lob they
could not find here.
Rents Long Overdue
One listens to landlords or to the
lew remaining bankers and real es-
tate men, tell of rents six months
year overdue, in numbers appall-
ing.
One wanders down Main street to
see the windows of two out of every
three store buildings staring gaunt
~ vacantly forth, or Haunting the
faded, garish banners of CLOSING
out sales"
one enters the homes of these
people wanting work, to find them
living, families of five and six, in
single-roomed shacks. ceiled AND
walled with sheets of corrugated
cardboard and strips of linoleum
culled from the nearest dump-bul
warks against the cold.
Relief Problem Acute
Again one visits other homes OF
PROSPEROUS exterior, to hear the tale
Of former business prosperity, of
commercial hopes blasted by, the
frost of insolvency, and of today's
necessity to pinch every penny that
even the barest necessities of food
and heat might be mad.
Or one sits in the conferences.
those many, inevitable, interminable
conferences of those in the extrem-
ity of disaster, to listen to them
wonder how they can provide school
books for the children in the next
semester, or where the many bottles
of milk needed to round out the hol-
lows in the cheeks of those same
children will come from, or this
thing or. that thing.
The calamity of Clinton is coal
Mines Stop; Tragedy
Two years ago the mines were
running. Nearly $4,000 people we're
residents of the city. They we're all
working; there was no unemploy
ment problem. The town was pros
porous.
It supported banks, trust com
panies, picture shows, lodges, a
creamery, a hundred different types
of stores.
It was a typical American city,
riding high on the tidal wave of
prosperity which swept America.
And then the disaster The tidal
wave passed over; they were left
in its wake as so many Of our
smaller communities.
Then coal--their almost sole
source of revenue, failed to sell. One
mine went into bankruptcy sudden
ly; others followed it or closed
down.
Days passed by and the mines did
not reopen. There were no jobs
The savings deposits slowly dwin-
died. Rents crept behind,
One of the principal banks, and
its affiliated trust company, could
not stand the deadly drain of funds
and closed its doors for liquidation
Can't Sell Their Product
Clinton coal still could not be sold.
They will tell you two reasons
why:
The first is that Indiana didn't
have sufficient state pride to pur-
chase only Indiana coal They say
that if our state institutions, our
state citizens, would purchase Indi-
ana coal, the whole problem would
be solved.
The other is-and it comes from
both miners and merchants-that
under unionized conditions in Gin
tor, with mines paying the living
wage of the union scale, Clinton
coal can not compete in price in
out-of-state cities with that mined
under nonunion conditions in Ken
lucky and West Virginia
5000 Residents Move Away
Today? Listen to the Rev. Ben
Jan1in Rist, pastor of the First
Methodist church Of Clinton:
1.-TWO years ago we had 1900
residents. Today we have 1000. OF
those 1900, more than LOO men.
most of them heads Of families, are
out of work.
More than 500 of our $500 houses
are vacant. OF those occupied more
than 40 per cent are behind in
rents, some Of them more than
year.
Under our present system OF tax
alton the major portion of our rev
enue comes from real property. The
owners of these vacant houses and
of those from which no income is
Forthcoming can not afford to pay
taxes; the result is that our tax
rolls are heavily delinquent.