Indianapolis Times, Volume 34, Number 19, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 June 1921 — Page 8
8
Story of Jennie Is Not Unusual in the Flotsam and Jetsam of City Life
By LAUREL C. T HATER, City Court Probation Officer. “Judge, the girl la maklig trouble at the fort. She has been ordered to stay away, but she keeps coming back. She gets off the train at Lawrence and meets the soldiers there. We think she is selling liquor to them.” It was Captain H who spoke. He looked so big and tall as he brushed past a tiny girl on his journey to the witness chair in city court—a girl in short skirts, and that was before skirts were so VERY short. He had com# from Ft. Harrison to help rid that place of a “nuisance.” The next witnet was a social worker. “Jennie was reported to us by the superintendent of a private hospital, where she was employed." the woman said. ‘"She stayed out late at night and would not tell the head nurse where she had been. One night they found her sliding down the roof of a shed. She had jumped from a rear hall window after the nurse had told her she could not go. Then they had to dismiss her. I have had only bad reports of the girt'* The social worker took her seat among the motley crowd in the courtroom, the flotsam and jetsam of society. 4 LOOKS INTO FRIGHTENED FACE OF A CHILD. Jennie was being addressed by the judge. He was looking down with sympathetic'lnterest into the frightened face of a child. “Have you ever been in trouble before?” he asked. “Once I was sent to the Girls’ School at Clermont because I wouldn't go to school,” was the half-whispered reply. “Have you anything more to say ?” was the next question. The hands on the brass rail surrounding the Judge's bench trembled. The colorless lips turned a shade more colorless. They too trembled. Was that a tear that splashed on the errant hand - ? “Tour honor,” the words came in a whisper, “My folks are poor and my 'mother is sick. She has fits. I have taken care of myself since I was fourteen and gave money to my family. My father works In a mill. I got tired of taking care of mother. I needed money. That's why I came to Indianapolis.” “How old are you?” inquired the judge. “Eighteen.” Whispered consultation betwen the Judge and Captain H. followed. “Dollar and costs and ten days in Jail” Jennie was led to the matron’s office, and when court was over, two big policemen took her to the Marion County Jail. JENNIE BECOME> FEDERAL PRISONER. A week later, there vras a preliminary trial before the commissioners on a charge of selling liquor to soldiers, and Jennie was bound over to the grand Jury on WOO bond and returned to Jail. There is no one to go on the bond of a girl like Jennie. This made her a Federal priaoner. Federal prlsonera are not allowed to talk with visitors. Before even court officials could see her, it was necessary to obtain a written permit from the Federal building. The child was in far deeper trouble than she realised. She was headed for the Prison Yia the Federal Court pn a/ very serious charge. Then one day a letter came from her father. “Tours received and thank you very much,” it read. “I am a poor working man, getting $2.20 a day at the saw mill. I know nothing about law. but I need the girl at home for her mother is an invalid as far as work is concerned. She . Jws epileptic fits. We have a son 20 years old and a daughter 6. Now Jennie says she will come home and help me and there, is no mouev in it to them for I haven't got it. and if they will let her out I'll come after her and see she doesn't bother them again. Now if you can talk to those interested and let ’me' know I’ll thank you very much. “Signed .” “P. S. I failed to say that Jennie Is my daughter. I guess she told you Straight.” - The day after this letter arrived, two women asked the Jail matron to be allowed to talk with Jennie. They presented a permit from a Federal officer. INTEREST TAKEN IN GIRL WORKERS.
One of the visitors Is the same little woman who has listened patiently to the •tory of many a troubled working girl as they sat in a swing together-on her •parlous north side porch. When she goes Into our factories and walks down the narrow aisles flanked on both sides by machinery, young girls and middleaged women look up from their work with a smiley and sing out “How do you do, Mrs. C.?” A friendly nod and •mile Is always their reward. "Jennie,” called the matron, and a childish figure emerged slowly, auspiciously from the long corridor opening upon the row of ceils where women prisoners sleep. < Introductions over, a sweet, kindly voice said: “How are yon, Jennie?” and a woman smiled into the sorrowful, distrustful eyes of an erring child. The three women sat on the narrow, Well-scrubbed bench facing the long table where women prisoners have their meals. "I have talked with Judge Anderson about yon, Jennie. We want to give yon a chance to be a good girl. Tour poor mother and father need you. Will you go home and will yon promise not to come back If we send you? And will you be good to your dear mother?” The speaker held a little, trembling hand la hers. Had there ever been laughter in the dull eyes? "Judge Anderson tella me he wishes to have a talk with you,” she concluded. There was, a weary smile on the youthful face. “Tea’m. Thank you. I will gc home,” that was aiL There was flnelity in her tone. No one dared intrude farther. Ton felt the weight of a secret sorrow that built around Itself its own protective stone wall. And back of this wall Jennie took refuge. A few day* later a youthful prisoner was quietly ushered into Jndge Anderson's private office. When Jenn'-y out she knew she was free. She also
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knew the enormous consequence* of her crime. The following day she left the Jail and was placed on the train for home. A year later a city court official sat at her desk in the room adjoining the judge's office. A shadow darkened the doorway. She looked up, and Jennie, with a baby in her arms, smiled back at her. Faded and worn was the face of tne girl-mother. The cheeks were a trifle more pale; the eyes no more the eyes of a girl; poverty and suffering and selfdenial were written on every inch of her, from the tangled brown hair, down, over the dr< oping young shoulders to the shabby shoes. “Do you want to see my baby?” she said dropping into the nearest chair. The wrinkled black salt also seemed -tired and worn. The old reticence reasserted Itself. “How are you getting along. Jennie V" the older woman Inquired. Tabs as a flimsy decoy to the rest of the story. “Oh, I don’t know. I am working in a factory here. After baby was born down home. „ I tried to get it Job, but there ain’t any factories there. Mother couldn't take care of the baby, and father couldn’t afford to keep baby aud me, so I came up here to my grandmother's.” “Where is the baby's father?” the questioner experimented. The dull eyes looked down on a sleeping child as the mother replied:'” 1 don’t know. He went to France, and 1 haven't heard from him since. I didn't know where to write, so I couldn't tell him about baby.” It seemed cruel to press the Inquiry further, but the girl might be la need of a friend, and the older woman ventured: “Who takes care of the baby while you are at work?” “Grandmother. We live in two rooms down on D street. It’s awful lonesome sometimes.” That was a yeat ago. Jennie was living straight then. How is-It now? Has the long work-day become too long? Have starved nervee cried out for food that factory wage can never buy? Are baby’s needs increasing beyond the contents of the weekly pay envelopeT We do not know. What we do know is that the big books in the city clerk's office (and you can see for yourself) do not record the name of Jennie . Ton, dear lady, living swsetly. Innocently in your own home, protected from the storm, do yon think Jennie's base unnsual ? How we wish it were. The war gave us our camp followers. It gave us also In every city an army of silent sufferers who look back upon the war page of the Book of Life with a sickening shudder of horror.
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INDIANA DAILY TIMES, FRIDAY, JUNE 3,1921.
PROBLEMS OF The By-Product Coking Business 7-How the Market for Domestic By-Product Coke Has Grown
X v ~ I Starting with nothing in December, 1909, the Company was able to develop a business which grew steadily until after the middle of 1917, when the war activities of the United States Government, the regulations of Government agencies and the shortage of coal placed a check on the business from which it has not yet fully recovered. The establishment of the business in Indianapolis was not easy. The fuel requirements of a community are, at any given time, relatively fixed. People buy fuel only to burn and nothing can cause them to increase their consumption. THE DEMAND FOR COAL IS INELASTIC. We found Indianapolis a soft coal town—the vast majority of the people using local coal. Avery small proportion were using anthracite coal, gas-house coke and Pocahontas coal. Our first step had to be to substitute By-Product Coke for these better grades of fuel. Only gradually could users of the cheap local coals be induced to buy the higher grades of fuel which, although much more economical than their prices indicated, were considerably higher per ton than the local soft coals. The monthly sales for Indianapolis domestic use grew from nothing at the end of 1909 to nearly 4,000 tons in the month of August, 1917. This was not sensational, but, under all of the circumstances, it was encouraging. Then came the regulations of the Government diverting coke to most, national emergencies, and these lasted to the end of 1918. The local business could not grow, but on the other hand it shrank.
The chart below refutes the charge that this Company has not cultivated the local domestic market: - \ Chart Showing By Quarters Domestic Coke Sales in Indianapolis Tons 16,000 16,000 Hooo 4i2 f ooo 14 4 ro,ooo —| +- X—--6,000 r/ " r 4,000 j i-y 2,000 -f > , ; • n| o —————————l—J—— L_J— ——— ——————— ————— Quarter Ut fid Ad 4*i ts &and Ad 41h ts fiid 3d 4th tit fid 3d 47h ttf 2nd Ad 41h W2d Ad 4th W 2nd Ad 4fh IsT 2nd 3d 4th W 2nd Ad 4th let fear 1912 " 1313 1914 1915 I9l£ 1317 1916 _J3I3 1921 P*ilod"of 1919 Coal Strlte Fuel /UmMsTrafor .Depwaon amfKflilroad _ .Strike.
The above curve shows that buying of domestic coke always falls off toward the end of the fuel year, which runs from April Ist to March 31st. The months of February and March are always dull months. In April some people begin to lay in fuel for the next winter. Such demand is largely satisfied by late summer, and then in the fall a heavier buying for immediate consumption sets in. These fluctuations are always to be expected, but the general upward tendency of the curve would have continued without interruption, had it not been for the unusual interferences with the business by the war and reconstruction conditions. v# Citizens Gas Company
After the signing of the armistice nobody wanted to buy either coal or coke because stocks of fuel had become so large and industry had suffered such a check. From the early fall of 1919 to November, 1920, there was a fuel panic. Everybody then wanted to buy fuel, but there was not enough to go around. The miners’ strike in November and December of 1919 and the railroad strikes of April and May of 1920 increased the scarcity and the buyers’ panic. This Company, in common with all other large users of coal, was unable to obtain sufficient supplies. Both gas and coke production were curtailed. Coke due on contracts had to be prorated in accordance with the reduced output, BUT THE COMPANY SUPPLIED THE INDIANAPOLIS TRADE WITH THE FULL AMOUNTS FOR WHICH DEALERS HAD CONTRACTED, although local prices were much lower than those obtainable elsewhere. During the miners’ strike much larger quantities were made available for the people of Indianapolis, local shipments in December, 1919, mounting up to over 9,000 tons. The past mild winte~ and general depression have again reduced local demand, but the Indianapolis shipments in the first quarter of 1921 have amounted to 5,030 tons, as compared with 1,643 tons in the first quarter of 1919, and the shipments in April of this year have been 3,921 tons, as compared with 1,311 tons in April of 1919. Although the present depression is more serious than that of 1919, the. local coke sales indicate that we are getting back to the normal line of development which was broken in the fall of 1917.