Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1908 — RELIEF FOR THE UNFORTUNATE. [ARTICLE]

RELIEF FOR THE UNFORTUNATE.

Where the United Btates le Behind European Countries. The plan for establishing a state labor colony Incidentally calls attention t 6 the backwardness of the new world in two Important matters, the relief of honest men out of employment and the suppression of vagrants. Save for the work done chiefly by private organisations, in a few large cities, there igrould he absolutely nothing in the United States which a Swiss, German or Dutch charity worker might compare to the labor colonies of his native land. Even a Frenchmen, whose country is overrun by vagabonds, can point with pride to relief measures which have already done much to reduce the suffering due to the enforced continuous Idleness of from 6.5 per cent, to seven per cent of all workingmen. The Idea of allotting small gardens to men out of work was conceived and put Into practice by Gen. van den Bosch in Holland as far back as 1818; to-day more than 2,000 poor families are thus supported In the little kingdom. The environs of Paris are dotted with some 7,000 plots assigned by the Workmen’s Garden Society lc( the unemployed, either gratis or at a nominal cost.