Fordham University - Maroon Yearbook (New York, NY)

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Unemployment: A Peril of the Masses 505 for his children, and show him where the dangers lie. Secondly, by compulsory industrial education, and by the total prohibition of child labor, we must provide these embryonic citizens with a fair mental and physical start in life. Again, by efficient legislation, minimum wage laws and so on, the condition of the unskilled laborer must be so improved as to be made, at least, far preferable to vagrancy. Lastly, both capitalist and laborer should be taught to respect each other's rights as men, and to hearken to the ringing words of Pope Leo XIII: “Class hatred is not necessitated by class distinction.” Not for one moment do we pretend, of course, that when we have done all this, the tramp and the gangster will cease entirely to be—it is our destiny in this life ever to strive for, never to reach, perfection; but we do maintain that their numbers will be decreased and the ranks of the criminal army depleted. Now we come to the third and last class, those who though able and willing to work, are unable to find a market for their labor. It is this class that constitutes the greatest menace to the community. Lully thirty per cent, of the trained male wage earners in the Eastern seaboard states are out o f work, and this proportion is increasing geometrically. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company reports 357,000 unemployed in New York City alone, and Mr. Sears, director of the Public Employment Bureau, has stated that in his opinion the number of people out of work reaches 500,000. Besides this, there are at all times hundreds of thousands of men, » who though actually employed, are at any moment likel)r to lose their means of sustenance. Think what that means! Perhaps you have seen the haunted look in the eyes of some poor fellow who has struggled along for years in constant fear of dismissal? Then consider the conditions of a society composed of millions such as he! Caligula is said to have wished that all the people had but a single neck, so that he could slay them all with one stroke of his sword. The great capitalists of to-day have that terrible power; with a nod of the head they take away the livelihood of thousands, and cast them out to starve. What should be the government’s attitude towards these unfortunates ? Undoubtedly, in extreme cases aid should be forthcoming, but it is a dangerous thing to lead the mass of the people to rely on the state to provide for its necessities. It must not be forgotten that “the number of dependents tends to increase in direct ratio to the aid they count upon receiving and that once the government be-

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504 The Fordham Monthly expected to support them, for that would be taxing industry to put a premium on idleness. It is equally obvious that something must be done, for it is the voluntary vagrant who swells the ranks of the criminal class and populates our jails and prisons. What then are we to do? The only practical remedy is to go behind the actual condition and remove the causes that produce it What are the causes? First in our catalogue, we have heredity. While it must ever remain a fundamental principle in our study that neither heredity nor any other circumstance can ever become a determining cause in the formation of a man's character, yet it must be admitted that mentally and morally, as well as physically, the child is affected by the disposition of the parents. Probably, in ninety-nine cases out of every hundred, not heredity strictly so-called but early association and training, or rather lack of training, is what produces the effect. The child of shiftless, work-avoiding parents is seldom found to possess an overpowering desire for hard manual labor. In this connection, there are two other causes that we might mention: one, the fact that the parents of the poorer class, sometimes through necessity, often through negligence, allow too great a degree of liberty to their young; the other, that owing in some cases to the inability of the older members of the family to earn a living wage, and in others to the greed of father or older brothers, small children are forced to work inhuman hours at tasks Nfar beyond their strength. Too much freedom means opportunity to make bad companions and worse habits, to learn the ways of the yegg-man and the drug fiend, and all too often results in the luckless youth's becoming one of those pests of our cities, the man with no visible means of support. On the other hand, too much work at an early age means the blunting of all the higher instincts in a man, the paralysis of ambition, and usually ends in a sort of dull, unreasoning opposition to all work, so strong as to be almost physically incapacitating. Another element that enters into the formation of this class is the fact -that a not inconsiderable number of unskilled laborers find it infinitely more easy to drift along with the current, eating when they can beg a meal, sleeping when they can find a place to sleep, than to work twelve or fourteen or sixteen hours a day and receive in return but the merest of pittances. These are the most important of the causes with which we have to deal. How are we going to do it? First of all, we must inspire in the parent—as far as that is possible—a sense of responsibility

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Rev. Ov en l Clur«r on •» ,! • no I Cthico. v-c« President Edmund J Burke. S J. R«v Michaol J M«hO«y SJ IKlwrrr onHiU ry rt.il«.»ophy SCOrt M. Welly. S. J. lisnr ol Ptiy«ie». Gooloyy. • no AI Iron o n v Mr. George £ $lro iaver. S.J. PrOlmorol C h • mi itr y. The Professors of Sf.nior Year