Evening star., 1932-11-13
RELIEF CRISIS DEMANDS
MORE THAN CASH ALONE
Jobless Must Be Aided to Rebuild Lives,
John Erskine Says in Appeal for
Rehabilitation Work.
BY JOHN ERSKINE.

BY JOHN ERSKINE.
n VOW that We begin to realize how
N serious the problem of unem-
VI ployment is, we grow more in
4 telligent in meeting 1t. The
easiest and most temporary
thing to co Is to give money. Those
who have to raise funds for relief this
Winter will smile at that word easy:
yet poor though we all are. it still Is
easier to share the little cash We have
left than to give the more constructive
and far-sighted aid which is needed.
If a man stops me on the street for
dime, have a feeling Of satisfaction
as I hand him the coin. am con-
scious of at least 10 cents worth of
virtue, and 1 get a subtle feeling that
having bestowed this meager aid I am
through with him. I don't have to en-
dure longer the hunger and the worry
in his face.
In the large cities where the appeal
for money on the streets Is frequent. I
can dismiss from my memory the dis
tress Of hungry faces by telling myself
that many of these forlorn- looking peo-
pie are professional beggars skillfully
working upon my sympathies. II I
give them dime, am doing it for the
principle Of the thing, not because am
sure they need it more than do; and
having given the money I feel no obi
CATION whatever to find out whether
they are indeed imposters or whether
their trouble is desperately sincere.
When the appeal comes to us from
organized charity on large scale we
give more than dime. but our senti-
ments remain as simple as when we
contribute to the individual on the
street. Having drawn our check, we
taste the satisfaction of duty per-
formed, and we feel relieved of further
responsibility. The organization which
is raising the money will spend 1t for
us; we need worry no more. Critics
later may hint that the charity organi-
zation might have spent our money
for US more wisely, but few Of us on the
average will feel called upon to look
into the criticism or to remedy those
defects In method which, since we are
but human beings, will probably occur.
In the common practice of charity the
forgotten man Is most often the man
we have helped.
Because the problem Of the unem-
ployed persists so stubbornly we begin
to see the incompleteness of what We
have done. Certainly the material COM
fort and aid are needed, and needed
quickly; but after that We must either
provide some new courage for our fell
lows who are in trouble-we must either
maintain their hope and invent oppor-
tInities for them or we must watch
them sink to a condition where more
and more material aid will be required
and where the giving Of 1t will have
less and less effect.
Personal Needs Remain.
We hear lively debates nowadays as
to whether this aid should come from
private sources or from the Government
the Government still being in the
minis of many people a mySteriously
impersonal reservoir from which We
NAV draw anything we find it hard to
proviSe for ourselves. can see how
the Government might raise funds for
the unemployed by a tax equally dis
tributed, whereas the gifts to private
charities vary with the generosity of
the individual. and many people con-
tribute nothing at all. But however the
money is raised, the intelligent use of it
must be highly personal matter.
Sooner or later we must study the needs
of individuals, and more and more we
must supply kind of aid which has to
do with the future as we'll as the pres
ent. and which remembers how much
of the pain of poverty is in the spirit
rather than in the body.
That we have looked at the employ
ment problem somewhat superficlally
until now is shown by our tendency to
speak of 1t as though it were only a
matter of holding or of losing job.
We have tried to find jobs for those who
need them, or to create jobs. Would
you feel entirely happy yourself If you
had to accept charity which comes un-
der the very flimsy disguise of a job
galvanized just for your benefit? How
ever thankful you might be for anv help
which kept starvation from your family
and yourself, would you not be at least
a little resentful against society for
having no real work for you to do?
With how much self-conhdence or self
respect could you face your woman at
home or your children? With how
much hope could your children, watch
ing you face their own future?
If there Is spiritual danger OF this
kind, even when the unemployed has
found an improyised and artificial job,
what can we say about the growing
number of cases for which no jobs at
all are found? For the millions of
workers who, against their will, are
slowly becoming pauperized?
What happens in such a plight we
recognize easily enough when it's a
question of another country. Quite
smugly, from the standpoint Of the pros
perity we then enjoyed, we shook our
headS over the agony of Germany or
of Russia when national privation in
those countries for while tended to
break up the home and turn the chill
dren adrift-juvenile vagabonds, not
,,1ftnh haffar Wa said then than
packs of wild animals.
We are just beginning to realize that
the same tendency now threatens us,
for essentially the same reason. The
number Of human lives disintegrating
in our system Is perhaps not so large
in proportion to the total population as
1t was in Russia just after the revolu-
ton, but however that may be, the alb
Solute number with us is large indeed,
and unless we do something about it it
will grow, and the effect of this disin-
tegration will be most perilous in the
children and the young people.
Heartened by Activity.
Every citizen who feels that relief
work should be mobilized for spiritual
and psychological results as well as for
providing food and clothing is heartened
| National Citizens Committee for We'll
fare Relief Mobilization, Of which New
ton D. Baker Is the chairman Begin
ming last August, Mr.. Baker has been
mobiliZing the country, through sub
committees, to meet the hardships of
the coming Winter and in more than
one eloquent statement of the purpose
| of this work he has stressed those needs
which until now have been somewhat
overlooked The ablest men and women,
without regard to political parties, are
serving actively on Mr.. Bakers COM
mittees and for the first time there
seems to be prospect of wise direction
and helpful coordination for the efforts
many of us have been making in Soli-
tary detachment, trusting to our good
will to see us through.