RELIEF WORK

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1931, Page 6

RELIEF WORK

POVERTY IN NEW YORK

- FEEDING THE HUNGRY

SAN FRANCTSCO, Dec. 2. Winter and approaching Yuletide ein- ■ pbasised ' the existence., of/, widespread poverty throughout the United State's' consequent upon the prese-nt econ<|Snic depression and the lengthening bread lines in most of the l>ig cities of' the United Statejs. In New York a problem of tremendous proportions was presented, but the municipal authorities began in earnest to provide for families in need. AH day long hundreds of hungry men and women stood in the rain and went from ■*’•-••• +o -piice stations to take their places, patiently and quietly, in the long lines. In one day 3185 families received sufficient provisions to sustain them, on the basis of four to each family, for another week. Churches and charitable organisations continued their w»rk of provisioning the needy. During 24 hours the Salvation Army fed ] 1,053 persons in its fourteen depots. The Brooklyn Bureau of Charities announced the formation of the Brooklyn Unemployment Emergency Committee and bc' r au. to rafee 500,nnn dollars for reliefMvofk.' The Emergency Employment, Committee .in.Ma.nliat.tan, .headed ’by Seward Prosser ,which has a corps of more than 2000 volunteers, has Imgun to raise six millions .dollars for* relief purposes, ;r . Co imn'iss inner .Owyel; suggested, to the Mayor’s'"Committee "that the' MarketsDepartment buv. with f”nds s°nt fro”' 1 ipuhie and welfare groups, 2.000.000 pound's of notatexts. • >O,OOO -pounds of onions, 50,000 packages of macaroni. 25.000 dozen eggs, and 50.00 tins of ; food.

The packages received bv those i” need at the police stations- weighed I nearly thirty pounds of potatoes, two pounds of onions, half a pound of coffee, half-a-dozen eggs and a box of cabbage, >i loaf of bread, and a box of spaghetti. Some of the bags also were provided with carrots and beets, -hut; these soon gave put. The retail price of the food in these containers would amount to eight to ten shillings. Tn' New York’s maze of subways there has sprung up a new city of the unemployed. Five or six hundred men and fifty or more women are living m the underground tubes, financially broke and out of work, special patrolmen reported to tbe Interhoromdi BepiclTiauw sit Company—and the company ord-mb thn,t thov were to be permitted to stay, unless tliey were ill or evil, until tbe\ came upon better dayis. Some of them have been there for as long as six months, and the special patrolmen have come to recognise them by sight. They got in for five cents., They may sit, on tlm station benchesunder the- din] electric lights, jmd if they weary of tiiat tliey may fidiUTcff Brooklyn and hack to the Bronx. Occasionally a, generous subway rider gives them food, or a coin in which they buy a snack at a subway ,s woo t shoo. It is warm underground and t.lm benches arc not too uncomfortable beds.

CHICAGO’S DERELICTS. ."■"Sharp': •winds* foretelling - ••vrinter^ : rapid approach- found '''inany <f/ Chicago’s -homeless and-hungry seCU®, in shelters they have built amid a mass .if brick, stone, and junk. A blocjt square in Canal street is the cit\ of the homeless,” The huts represent almost the primitive in architectural; design. The materials —principally brick and tin—are more modern, hut they have been combed from the huge, debris ground that is bounded by Canal and Harrison and Clinton and Polk streets. Some have been . erected with particular care. The crevices art- filled’ with mud and rags and dirt. Insidemay lie a strip of discarded carpet spread on brick or .bare, earth. Every hut-has its stove, each original enough .to patent:-.The “streets’! of the vagabond. village are in ,the. valleys ; the -piles. ..of-broken rock and brick in most instances .i'of-m three sides of a hut. Tire-cave design is predominant, as tn.s requires the building of but one wall.

“PEACE” ARMY OF .. UNEMPLOYED. v Recruitment o>f a national army of workers to he fed, paid,"and•niaintain"ed •at productive occupations on the public demesne as soldiers of peace was advocated by a group of Vancouyer’s 'leading business men 111 a message made public in Vancouvei. The first name on this ' memorial to members of Parliament and business leaders of Canada was that of Sir George Bury, former executive of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. no plan as embodied in the the memorial, read: Expressing belief that the current conomic depression imposing suflering and hardship upon thousands of families is a cond.itjon comparable to war, they call' upon Canada’s national leaders to employ drastic measures such as war would justify. Recruiting of a eaepelul army. Vo lun ta ry enlistment. Acceptance upon proof ol unemployment and no other means of existence Enlistment for six months, Army pay, army regulations, army allowance to dependents . Boarded in camps, fed, trained physically, and entertained as at war. Furnished with the tools of peace. Used for works on the public demesne and not f° r private exploitation.

There are all kinds of work that should he undertaken, but, until it could he organised, this army should he given physical drill and treated as if training for war, but without war instruments. <•