SUGGESTIONS FOR HELPING UNEMPLOYED WORKINGMEN.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3084, 6 January 1879, Page 1

SUGGESTIONS FOR HELPING UNEMPLOYED WORKINGMEN.

As things are, probably nothing can be done. There is something in the life of the time which represses and paralyses such individual effort as would be re* quired for any improvement. There seems to be no place to begin. A few efficient, capable men, could make a great change. If in any township or village the leading men should say: "We cannot have any*

body t>uirTe here who will work, but we cannot pay wages, for their is no work that will yield.us any profit; if you will for the present work for the means of subsistence, we will supply your families with enough plain tood for health and comfort; we are all in the same boat P the times are bard for us too. We Bhall have no profit on. your labor, and you must not expect anything but food." If they would say something like like this, and then set men to work on drains, roads, repairs of dwellings, with especial regard to increased cleanliness and improved sanitary conditions, employing them also as far as possible in the personal service of the citizens, or even in assisting . any unfortunate members of the commu xrity who are not able to pay for labor which they need, this would help a great deal. It might be done in many places, if people thought so, for it would cost almost any community, and certainly the nation in general, far less than the present condition of things. It would produce a better state of feeling, and dry up some of the sources of existing evils. Of course each township or village would necessarily provide only for its own poor, excluding all tramps and non-resident unemployed men. If the plan were generally adopted there would, of course, be no tramps or non-residents seeking work, as everyone would belong somewhere. But these things would have to be offered. They cannot well be asked for by those who most need some system of relief or assistance which shall not degrade them. Any system or plan which does not require labour from all who are able to perform it is necessarily degrading.—Alta Californian.