Year: 1869

lt is necessary LnaL every hohesI anu
industrious man should carry shirL
on his back? We frequently hear that
the times are unprosperous-that thou
sands of the industrious poor are suf.
fering from lack of employment and
hence from want of bread. In supposed
proof Cf this we are pointed to the
fact that an advertisement in city pa
per calling for man to fill the position
of porter, coachman, clerk, book-keep-
er or letter carrier, will be answered by
several hundred applicants, all "out Of
employment. Those who do not look
behind this statement, which is true in
itself, will naturally get gloomy views
of our industrial condition, and con-
clude that there is something radically
wrong in the conduct of. government
or tire condition of society, when able
bodied men and their families can go
hungry in this land of plenty for lack
of honest work to do. Let us see:


The young Mems Christian
Association of Chicago, among its
manifold benefcent activities, main
tains sort of Labor Exchange, the
object being to bring the workers and
the work together without expense to
employer or employed. We are in
formed by the gentlemen having charge
of this department, that they receive
an average of two or three hundred
applications for work daily from men,
and that of this great number, almost
none will consent to go into the coun-
try where the work is, leaving the city
where the work is not. The Associa-
ton has standing call for laborers by
the thousand in building new railroads
in the West, and this call they cannot
fill, although hundreds of able-bodied,
unemployed men are hanging about the
intelligence offices and watching the
"want" columns of the daily papers.
In the meantime these unmanly shirks
naturally become destitute, and their
next step is to appeal to the charities
of honest people as unemployed work
ingmen." Their pitiful tale goes into
the newspapers and straightway we are
told the times are out of joint, 'the
rich are growing richer and the poor
poorer" What is true of Chicago is
undoubtedly true of New York and the
other large cities of the land. There
are some genuine cases of hardship,
but nine-tenths of those who complain
of lack of work are soft-handed loafers
who are resolved not to leave the city
and not to do anything that smacks Of
downright toll. There are not ten
able bodied men west of Pittsburg
who could not get regular work at fail
wages were they willing to shoulder
pick or an axe and march to the line o.
new railroad or do common farm
work in the country. 1t is the preva'
lent itch for living in cities, and the
prevalent disposition to sbirk honest la
Dor, that fills our streets and drink.
ing saloons with muscular idlers, oul
intelligence offices with applicants fol
positions as clerks and car-drivers, and
depletes the purses of the industrious
and the charitable to support the desti-
tute families of the unemployed. y
If it were not for their suffering wives
and children it would be easy to sug.
gest the proper treatment for men who
would rather beg than sweat, but in
nooont uop,anbood ond childhood ucr.
ally come in to complete the problem.


1t is something to know that there is
no lack of work and wages for all able
bodied men who are willing to do the
work for the wages, but what shall bt
done with the shirks?