TACOMA
"_The greatest bravery is theirs who humbly dare, and know no
praise._"
I stood one day on the curbing of the principal street in Tacoma
watching the construction of a sky-scraper. Near me stood a man of
thirty-five, also watching. In reply to a question of mine concerning
the wages of these builders who were taking such fearful risks, he said:
"They receive four dollars and a half a day, but one does not have to
float in the open air on a steel beam fifteen stories high, only, in
order to hold his life in the balance. I am working for the lumber
trust for two dollars a day down in the Sound. I work on slippery logs
under which is a current so swift and treacherous that a misstep would
be absolutely fatal. But I was glad even to get that job for I was
broke when I reached here and slept three nights sitting up in a chair
in a saloon. The police thought I was a worthless old bum, I guess,
for every little while they would come along and rap me awake. Out of
my two dollars, I am saving a little, though, and I have a promise of
a better job. If I get that I will soon be able to send for the wife
and little ones," and as he left me the thought touched his face with
gladness.
It was a rainy day, the Puget Sound country being filled with rain
and cloud during the winter months. I walked up to the City Hall,
the Associated Charities, the Free Labor Bureau and City Jail, which
are all near together. I counted twenty-five men standing out in the
rain waiting for work. They were a pitiable lot. Stepping inside, I
discovered why they were forced to remain in the storm. The office
space for applying for work was about large enough to accommodate six
men comfortably, and there, also, was a very noticeable sign which
read, "No Loafing in Here."
Tacoma offered no privileges for the destitute out-of-work man. Here
he will find no free bath but the Sound, no free bed but a chair in an
all-night saloon or the jail, no free meal without begging or snatching
from the free lunch counter. I counted just one hundred men sitting up
all night in chairs in the various saloons of the city, and once more I
appeal to Tacoma, and to every other city, not to take the saloon from
the needy until it can give something in its place.
What a conflict of opinions troop in at the suggestion of the word
saloon! The saloon is a livid, malignant tumor, a virulent festering
ulcer discharging corruption, abhorrent, odious. It breathes disease
from neglected cheap lodgings, bull-pens and prisons. It is a destroyer
of the City, State and Country; a murderer of reputation, character and
society, a slayer of faith, love, hope and belief in God. Yet I have
found it (who can deny it?) a Christian institution, saving the lives
of men. It is doing what the church does not, or will not do. It stands
a haven to the man who is desperate. It offers shelter and food to the
homeless and destitute without demanding that he become a mendicant. It
is true it may be only a chair, but it is under a roof and provides him
shelter from the night. The food may be snatched from a fly-infested
free lunch, but whether he drinks or not there are no questions asked.
To all cities I want to say, "keep your saloons until you have
something else to take their place."
While I was making my investigations in Tacoma, I stepped into the
Penal Mission. There was quite a large company praising God and
testifying what God had done for them. After seeing what I had seen,
and knowing what I knew, I could not refrain from telling them that I
thought since God had done so much for them they surely ought to begin
to do something for God. So I began by telling them a little of the
suffering as it had been revealed to me in Seattle and Tacoma. I was
abruptly interrupted by the leader who asked me if I were a Christian,
and gave me to understand that this was a testimony meeting. That was
just what I thought I was doing--testifying for Christ--and though I
was remonstrated with by several men, semi-believers, for leaving, I
silently stole away.
While in Tacoma I met Archdeacon Grimes, an old, tried and true friend.
He introduced me to the Tacoma Woman's Club, which I found to be one
of the most active Women's Clubs in this country. The labor councils
also were deeply interested. Tacoma may have been thoughtless, perhaps
in the past, but Tacoma is so no longer. The city has awakened to her
needs and is going to see that these needs are filled.