DISTRESS IN AMERICA.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 453, 20 March 1909, Page 3

DISTRESS IN AMERICA.

According to the New York correspondent of the London Telegraph, “ voluntary slaves ” will be sold at a big auction iu Frooklyn very shortly, and the auctioneer will be Edward Loughlin, a municipal official and philanthropist, whose efforts to ameliorate the lot of the unemployed deserve recognition. Mr Loughlin offered a man for sale lately, and his success on that occasion brought such a flood of appeals from workless people that he has announced his willingness to hire a hall, frame a catalogue, and “ knock down” human lots to the highest bidders. Applicants will be spoken of as “Lot 1, mechanic; lot 2, farm labourer; lot 3, waitress.” No names will appear on the catalogue, and the lots will wear masks over their features. Mr Loughlin has been advised that the sale will not conflict with the American laws prohibiting slavery for the reason that those who wish to be sold are not going into involuntary. servitude, but simply entering into a contract of extended hire. He tells me that he has over 300 applicants willing to be sold by auction, and that to the vast majority of them any reasonable bid will be most acceptable.

One widow has written to Mr Loughlin describing herself as 35, good-looking. She wants to buy a good healthy white slave, not afraid of work. “I have a big house here,” she says, “in Fort Worth Texas, which I own, and plenty of land surrounding itThere is only one thing lacking—a man. I trust you to pick out the right sort, and I will pay you the freight. By exchanging letters with those asking to sell themselves and those wanting to buy, Mr Loughlin has found appointments tor many. One young man, a machinist, writes that is on his beam ends; he wants to be sold to a Christian lady. “ If,” he writes, pathetically, “the right sort of \vould buy me, I would not hesitate to give up tobacco, drink and swearing.” If he is not sold, he will have to go into the army, which he regards as the hardest luck of all.

The correspondent adds :—“I have convinced myself on enquiry that Mr Loughlin is acting in all seriousness, and that the majority of his ■ lots ’ are, indeed, willing to be ‘ knocked down ’ at such sums below the ordinary market rates. It is a question, however, whether the auction is necessary, because domestic service in the United States always offers a retreat for women and girls at good wages, and for young men, there is an advertisement in this morning’s papers promising good wages, board and lodging to all who will enlist ‘as recruits in a South American revolution.’ Moreover, trade is improving here, and by the spring time there will be a demand for emigrants from Europe to meet the requirements of the American labour market.”