CHAOS IN U.S.A.

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 89, 26 September 1938, Page 1

CHAOS IN U.S.A.

LAND OF CONTRASTS EASY-SPENDING CROWDS ON STARVATION’S FRINGE " HUGE DRINKING PROBLEM /> /. ’ - •‘■vfc “People * in New Zealand might think that there were hard times here during the depression. B>ut to know what hard times really mean, one must see what is happening in the Cuited States to-day. New Zealand is favoured in an extraordinary degree by its location, by its climate, and by the attitude .of the average person to the welfare -of his neighbour,” said Mr S. E. Grant, a wplllcnown Gisborne businessman, interviewed regarding his recent visit to America.

“The I'nited: States is a laud of contrasts, in which a portion of the population is spending money in great sums for amusement, while another portion is on the 'fringe of starvation,” added .Ur Grant.

“On (lie outskirts of every city there are hovels constructed of odd sheets of iron and stray timber, housing hundreds and thousands of people who are without resources of any kind. The streets are full ol' people who hope to ‘make a touch’ from some sympathetic passer-by, and their trouble is not drink, hut sheer hunger in a majority of oases.”

Attitude Tcxards The Unfortunates.

Discussing the case of these people with the businessmen of different cities he. visited. Mr Grant found a curious attitude towards the unfortunates. Most of them were said to come from other parts of the country, and to lu* tin* responsibility of the Federal authorities rather than the State or civic- organisations.

Many apparently prosperous and free-spending people with whom Mr Grant spoke about the unemployed and destitute were actually living in fear of joining their ranks. They looked on I he. unfortunates as the victims of had luck, and vega'.’-di :1 their ease's as hopeless.

“FVcry now and then, those camps of shanties and huts are torn down and the itinerants driven on to other %cities. according tu, what I heard.” Mr- Grant continued.. ““Tlmre are 14.000,(Xa) unemployed in +!ie United States, according to official admissions, and these aro only the registered unemployed whom the nuflnTities have ac-countcd for. So one knows the cor.nit of those who are out of work and hopelessly poor in the remoter parts of the States,

Adsorption of Unemployed. “The people of the United States have solved .n huge number of I (.mis by their mechanical and scientific genius, hut they have not you found tlie means of absorbing the people thrown out of employnient. That seems to me to he the greatest threat to the American Constitution. “We have had our troubles her",, hut "they have- been insignificant .compared with those which social worlc-‘, ci's in the United States arc trying to cope. At least we in thijj ( chui/try are unable to cast'oil’ our.. and drive them on fmm' pillin'ftp post. If « man is down in this co«Hms hi>has a chance got. up, with tfivpdiid of friends and a hcncficent Inihil oi government. l;.y. “Millions of Americans arc d(sy.i new, with hardly the faintest chance of getting on their feet again. Wjun- < n and children share the t( v ;riljid conditions of these ‘tin can alleys’ on the outskirts of the cities there, and no

one seems to have an idea .of ho\v to lc.luee 'their terrible sufferings in winter.” J he. drink traffic, in, die United States also made a deep impression on .Mr Grant, who retains vivid impressions of seeing children of almost tender years spending hours at a time in drinking places, entirely without' eojutrej].. • file Gisborne tourist was told that the parents of these ypung people probably spent their time in some other saloons. Social workers realised the dreadful conditions involved, Imt were afra'id to tackle the l situation with their modest resmiroes. . '*■’*

... 4 Mr Grant was informed bv one authority that there was “too much money-power” behind the drinking places . for nirrtSocia! organisation to have' a hope of succeeding against them. They hoped, however, for drastic action, to stop this form of jacket, when ether evils had been cleared up.