The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1931-01-23
ADDING INSULT TO INJURY
BY SCOTT NEARING. Federated Press

Chicago is laundering in a slough of economic
depression that is engulfing workers, small shop
keepers, manufacturing industries, property own
ers and professionals Only the richer and better
placed owners of preferred socks, bonds and mort.
cages have escaped thus far, and their outlook is
none too bright.
Suffering among the professional and business
classes is largely mental-or, as Hoover put it.
psychological. They have seen the paper value of
their land and their securities shrink from the hph
levels of 1928 and 1929 through the liquidation of
l93O-the most far-reaching and disastrous in the
economic history of the United States They find
themselves with idle office space; empty flats
unrented houses. In many cases tenants who occu-
Ply office and dwelling space are months behind in
rent payments There has bee big crop of bust
ness failures, confined largely to the smaller shop
Keepers. Incomes of doctors, dentists and lawyers
are far below the 1928-1929 levels Still most
professional and business men and their families
are not hungry Some of them have been forced to
look for jobs and few are on the breadlines but
the great majority feeling their poverty in the
form OF reduced income accounts, plus an il-defin-
ed dread of something wrong with the economic
system"
The masses in Chicago are suffering physical
hardship. They are hungry; they are being evict-
ed from their homes; the clothes that they bought
during better times fast wearing out and there
is no money with which to buy new
These poor are not the floaters who swarm
along the w. Madison street slave market, spill
ing over into the side streets and standing in
crowds at the intersections They are the STEADY
workers" in packing houses, steel mills and mis-
ceilaneous factories. Many of them held regular
jobs for several years until the slump car1e Since
then they have been vainly searching for chance
10 make living.
No one knows exactly how many destitute people
tnere are IN chicago In this opening month of
1881 The emergency committee for unemploy-
ment relief estimates that the UNEMPLOYED with
their dependents, number about 100000 This is
one-tenth OF the citys population, and is little
less, pro rata, than the estimated dependence in
Detroit
Most of these 100000 belong to the class of req
ularly employed workers. Through their labor. in
past years, they have constructed Chicago's build
mgs; helped to increase Chicago's real estate val
ues; contributed to the development of Sam In
sulls public utility monopolies; produced the huge
funds OF unearned income, which, as rent interest
dividends and profits, have provided Chicago's
rich with their comforts and Injuries These arms
ana legs and packs reared Chicago above the lake
front mud and made possible its prosperity Now
that hard times have come they are offered
charity.
Along one side of the elevated station at Mad
lSon and Wabash there is big sign which reads:
oCrgeht! Inc worst winter for Chicagos poor
Tive generously to the United Charities UrgentI"
What greater insult could the masters of Chi
cago ofter to the city's workers? To those whose
LABOR has made Chicago possible? During the
period OF prosperity the workers were paid sub
slstence wages and the masters pocketed the sur
VI uSpISSSlOu the workers are
sent to the charity society.
What OF the SURPRISES that were piled up in
prosperous years? They are being used to paw in
terest on bonds and dividends on watered stock
Lney are furnishing the wherewithal to maintain
the luxury standards of the masters For tbe nm
employed workers, the charity society,"
Where are the charity agencies getting their
money? First, and most important. the workers
OF Chicago are volunteering" one days paw in each
mo month; non-wOrkers are throwing something into
ic Aos~
Chicago as it is being passed around the other ap
cities OF the United States, making up a fund To
buy bread and soup for workers who are ready
ana anxious to work, and for whom the present
economic system can find no job. Handouts for
workersl AOr tne