The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-06-07
NEWYORK>>
Metropolis OF
HUNGER
ARTICLE INTRODUCTION

D
descending philanthropy by a flood
Of applications for help. The appli-
cations, thousands of them weekly,
came from working class families
who had always been self-sufficient
prior to 1929. The Catholic Charities,
the Jewish Social Service, and the
others, unprepared to deal with these
effects of Coolidge prosperity" soon
found it necessary themselves to cry
for help.
SPECIAL charity organizations were
formed under the protection of the
city government: the Emergency IN
employment Relief Committee, the
Mayors Official Committee, special
unemployment relief committees for
musicians. architects, newspapermen,
bricklayers, printers, bartenders. All
Of these groups found themselves
swamped. They were trying to dry
up an ocean of capitalist-made mis-
cry with the ragged old charity mop.
Tammany Admits Facts
After Is months during which
hunger and misery had escaped from
the traditional confines of flophouse
and breadline to hold griSly carnival
in every workingclass neighborhood,
the Tammany controlled city and
state governments we're compelled to
admit the facts. In September, 1881,
a special session Of the state legisla-
ture was called to pass laws for pub
lie relief. AS a result of these laws
the Emergency Home Relief Bureau
was opened.
Section One of these new laws de-
clared:
The public health and safety of
the state and each county city and
town therein being imperilled by the
existing and threatened deprivation
Of considerable number Of their in
habitants of the necessaries Of life
ewing to the present economic de-
preston, such condition is hereby
declared to be q matter of public
concern.
Unemployed Councils
From March 6, 1880, when empty
handed but aroused workers did val
orous and effective battle with an
army of well-heeled cops in Union
Square, until today, when they are
fighting the new attack Of the Home
Relief Bureaus against the relief
standards Of the jobiess, the Unem-
ployed Councils have been the only
| effective leaders in the struggle for
relief and unemployment insurance.
/ In the Bronx, Williamsburg
Brownsville, Harlem, all over the city,
! the representatives of the Councils
have compelled the inefficient bu-
reaus and their half hearted officials
to speed up relief, stop evictions re-
store gas and light service, give me-
dlcal help, eliminate discrimination
/ The knowledge that these struggles
would occur, that they would grow
| and that they would be successful
is what frightened the state legisla-
ture in to admitting, in 1881. that
hunger, misery, the deprivation of
a considerable number of inhabitants
Of the necessities Of life. p was a
matter of public concern.
Has the existence of the Home Re-
lief Bureau in New York City, how
ever solved the problems of unem-
ploymentp Has it given security and
enough to eat to those who are hun
CRY because they are jobless, and are
jobless through no fault of their
( own?
Are Food Tickets Enough?
Are the Home Relief Bureaus
| operated in an effort to alleviate
mass misery or are they used to bull
doze the jobless into silence? What
about evictions? Has the number of
families thrown into the streets
grown bigger or smaller? Is the
health of the jobless the same as it
was two years ago? What is being
done for the relief of single men and
women?
Who are the officials of the Home
Relief Bureau, what are their sal
aries, their political connections?
And most important of ALL what
can the workers of New York do
to compel this Morgan-owned and
operated government to give ad-
equate relief? Are food tickets
enough? How can we gain unemploy-
ment insurance?
The answers to these questions and
other questions are the purpose of the
other articles of these series