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Show . How Fifty Families Starved How 50 American families faced starvation is told in a report of the Family Welfare association, It is based on a survey by five workers of the Family society, one of 238 member agencies of the association. as-sociation. Last spring, unemployment, with resulting poverty and illness, brought these families to the society, so-ciety, which helped them until the special emergency relief fund was exhausted. Food Chief Intcrost The center of interest in these 50 households during the months they were struggling along themselves them-selves was food whether there i would be more or less of it; and work vhether there would be any at all. Four months after the society had been forced to discontinue relief, re-lief, the five social workers discovered dis-covered that many of the families were living on bread, potatoes, coffee and weak soup; and that it was a common diet for children. "I used to just sit and wonder if the people next door would send in something after they had finished," fin-ished," remarked one of the 50 mothers interviewed. "Sometimes they would and other times they would have nothing left and we just couldn't eat. I'd tell the kids to drink lots of water and ' we'd wait for the next meal." Finding work, too, was of vital concern, since in only 26 of the 50 families was any one employed. Most of the families were scraping scrap-ing along on from $5 to $15 a week. The 24 families in which there were no jobholders were living on charity from day to day. Indebted To Grocer "The' most common debt," states Miss Rosemary Reynolds, chairman chair-man of the group which .made the study, "Is to the neighborhood grocer, gro-cer, who gossips to his other patrons pa-trons about the condition of the family. Some families prefer to starve rather than risk the insults and indignities encountered at such stores." When unemployment came the rent and the insurance were the first obligations allowed to lapse. Half of the families had been threatened with eviction by the constable for non-payment of rent, altho only nine had actually been put out on the streets. Families Lose Homes Three of the families were buying buy-ing homes on the installment plan, but all had either lost these homes or had received warning notices. "To these families," writes Miss Reynolds, "life is the darkest because be-cause the men were all prosperous prosper-ous and hard working and were slowly raising their plane of living. The loss of the homes they were purchasing symbolizes the last of all their dreams. Small wonder that they starve and fight to the end to retain them." There were more native-born than foreign-born families in this . group suffering (from unemployment. unemploy-ment. In 35 out of the 50 households, house-holds, both the father and mother were born in this country. Not even skill and training protected workers,, against unemployment; men who for years earned $60 to $75 weekly as weavers were collecting collect-ing junk at 2 cents a pound. |
