Unemployment and Immigration

We knew in the winter of 1914 before the war that one out of every eight wage-earners in some of our cities had become unem- ployed ; we know in 1915 that one out of every five wage-earners can become unemployed when a great international crisis disturbs our foreign markets.These are not paupers, vagrants and unem- ployables.They are men and women willing and able to work, idle through no fault of their own.How much more do we need to know to do something more fundamental than start bread lines, temporary work shops, or ask- ing f ull time men to work half time or to receive less pay?How much longer will we rely upon charitable societies and relief funds collected by personal appeals, fetes, dinners, balls and other enter- tainments to feed and clothe the unemployed?Is it not ironical that we depend so largely upon entertainments to keep people from freezing and starving to death?The proceeds of a circus are today paying the wages of helpless women in New York City, and this is typical of the country.A national administration reluctant to face a situation which may turn out to have political significance answers the appeals of American citizens by throttling the bills providing relief, by order- ing a census to interpret the suffering in terms of statistical tables, and by indirectly establishing federal employment bureaus, after

Demographic economics · Economic growth · Economics · Immigration · Political science · Sociology · Unemployment · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics