Minneapolis spokesman. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1937-07-23
HERE and
THERE
~ ". n. SMITH

o. A. Pearson, head of the Min
neapois Relief Department, made
a presentation to the Council of
Social Agencies at its regular quar-
terly meeting last Thursday.
Mr.. PearsOn's talk was primarily
an introduction of Mr.. J. Segner,
who has been engaged in prepar-
ing an expert analysis of the relief
situation in this city.
The explanation this speaker
gave, though cOuched in language
Obscured somewhat by ease loads
and other terms ambiguous to the
layman, contained, none the less,
information of vital importance to
the assembled group, and infOrma-
ton of even greater import to the
man in the street, to whom the
question of relief or the lack of it,
grows ever more and more grave.
Reducing his graphic" and
cease loads" into understandable
English Mr.. Segner revealed that
the growing lists of unemployed"
and ''unemployable" men and wom-
en- indicate the developing serious
ness of the problem, not only in
Minneapolis and the state of Min
nesota, but an equally serious stu
alton confronting the people of the
nation throughout its entire area.
To many persons, no doubt, the
terms unemployed" and "unem-
playable" may seem to be synOny-
nous. In reality they are alike only
in the difficulty each of them
faces in a satisfactory solution.
An unemployed person is one
who may hope to be again en-
plOyed when industry revives to
the place where his services will
once more be needed. An unem-
playable is one who has OutIived
his usefulness in industry and may
never expect to be again given a
job.
Referring to the attitude of
business toward workers-which,
as everyone knows-is to refuse
employment to persons beyond As
years old. The speaker pointed
out that the unemployed group has
reached an average age of above
so. Therefore the great majority
of this group has little better
chance of being put to work than
the unemployables, who at the
average age of 70 are beyond hope
of anything but the charity of re-
lief.
A few years ago, at a cOnven-
ton, 1 heard a University of Min
nesOta professor say that as an
OutgrOwth of the depression, then |
just beginning, there would be four |
or five millions people who would |
never again find employment. The
statement was not challenged by
any delegate, nor was it discussed
even for a minute.
l thought its implication was too
horrible for contemplation, for as
the delegates we'll knew, the Negro
people would be the vast majority
of any four or five millions rele-
gated to the ranks of the perma-
nently unemployed.
But it may be those delegates
were gifted with keener vision than
I. Perhaps they could see the
events of the future and knew that
not only a few millions of Colored
people, whose future was of little
concern to the country, but many
millions of whites, would be
stranded in the same hopeless con-
dition.
And that has now come to pass
as shown in the analysis of the re-
lief departments expert.
Something must be done about it
something will be done about it
if I interpret correctly the solemn
cOuntenances of the members of
the agency as they listened to the
fateful yet very clear presentation
of recorded facts.
Just what the solution will be is
not now clear. All of us may well
begin to think about it. State old
age assistance will help sOme-The
National Security Act when COM
pleted will offer a little more.
But if industry holds to its as