Evening star., 1932-12-20
q corresnondent of The Star.

BY STAFF Correspondent of The Star.
BOSTON, December 20.-r.che lone
woman, unemployed In a great city,
has only emerged as a relief problem
in Boston after three Winters of un-
employment.
1t is easy for lone woman to escape
attention. Surveys revealing the plight
of unemployed men have passed her
by. Social agencies. organized to aid
families, have not been prepared for
the case of Jane Doe. lone woman.
Boston is unique among the great
cities in the provision it makes for the
single woman" says Marjorie Warren,
secretary of the Travellers Aid Society
here, out of her knowledge Of the 220
cities served by that agency.
But even in Boston, with its great
number of established relief bureaus,
no one knows how many OF these lone
unemployed women there are. NO one
pretendS that even small fraction OF
them are being aided by all the agencies
in the field. There are no figures on
their numbers or their need.
Declared Difficult Problem.
THE case of the white collar unem-
ployed girl is one of the hardest to
meet" says Roy Cushman, secretary of
the Boston Council OF Social Agencies.
"She hasn't the same chance to appeal
to the passerby as the homeless man"
mot in 10 of the unemployed
women come to the relief agencies" ="
SAYS veteran social worker. mo
organization could help all who are
now in need"
olive Webb of the Young Women's
Christian Association. "One great fail
ing of social work is that you don't
reach the people with pride"
Bv any method of computation. the
women who have become unemployed
in Boston exceeds 10000. Less than
$500 have come upon the books Of all
the helping agencies. What OF the rest?
Nobody really knows.
Families have absorbed the greater
number and kindly landladies have
stood by a legion more. This unrecord-
ed aid is the great unknown factor in
all relief 1t is tremendous in the case
of the single woman.
Young Girls Return Home.
The younger women went home to
mother, if not the first Winter the sec
ond or the third Few unemployed
girls in their twenties remain long in
the city. Families take in their lone
women, even to second cousins. The
extent of the home e-to-mother-or-
aurties movement can be gauged by
the two floors that have been closed
at the Franklin Square House. the
greatest haven for respectable working
girls in Boston.
Young girls are no longer coming to
the city. New England families are
keeping the 18-year and 2l-year daugh-
ters at home. 1t is the one class for
which the number of stranded tram
sients is less now than in normal times.
The harder cases are the older wom-
en- They were always girls until they
lost their jobs. But now the agencies
call them "older women" They have
out1ived their relatives. or else they
never could stand relatives. Sometimes
the feeling was mutual.
The resources Of kind landladies have
limits and one grows ashamed to ex-
hibit ones plight to former friends. 1t
is awkward to explain where one Is
living now, and ones shoes are run
over and ones coat grows frayed. Peo-
pie look strangely sometimes. After a
while it grows very lonelv and circum-
stances seem to Shut in like wall.
Given 81 a Week.
Boston City Welfare Department is
giving S4 a week to $500 single women
who have applied for aid. They are
mostly older women whose earnings