Persistent Public Problems; Unemployment, Social and Industrial Righteousness

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI UNEMPLOYMENT, INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE JUSTICE! Is it justice for a man to stand all day outside the gates of a factory, waiting for the position that is never offered? When a captain of industry advertises in the columns of the press, Wanted--A man, and a hungry man arises before day breaks over the chill streets of the sleeping city to apply for the position only to find five hundred other hungry men have already applied in vain--is this Justice? When the crops are garnered in the fall, and the worker tired of the isolation of rural life wends his way toward the factory gate, hoping that his frame and muscle will advance him in favor beyond the others, only to apply each morning and receive each time a cold denial of his right to work--is this Justice? When industry has gorged its fill with the unearned increment accruing from excessive production; when prosperity turning the heads of business men has goaded demand to the breaking point and reaction sets in; when the thousands of toilers who, after contributing to the success of their employer, have served his selfish ends and are discharged, only to be thrown upon the streets to seek a new employer who will repeat the procedure--is this Justice? An unemployed man!--Hopeless, wandering from door to door, with hungry eyes looking for the sign that may point the way to employment; goaded on by the mind's picture of his little ones eating the last crust of bread and cold and shivering in the deadly air of a tenement home; too proud to ask for charity, for it is not charity but work that he feels will keep alive within him the spark of manhood; looked at with curious glance; called a hobo, a tramp, a bum, an outcast of society, yet one who has contributed to the blessings society enjoys--i...