MILWAUKEE--WILL THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIALISM END POVERTY?
"_Politics rests on necessary foundations, and cannot be treated with
levity._"--EMERSON.
Following Christmas day, December 26, 1911, just at the beginning of
the most bitterly cold winter weather our country had known for a great
many years, I went to Milwaukee. The city was in the last few months
of a Socialist Administration. I wanted to see what it meant to the
working classes and especially to that class I was deeply interested
in,-- the homeless workingman, and at times the destitute, homeless
workingman. There were three of our important cities, which, because of
their national prominence in social progress, I felt would add a climax
to my investigations: "Socialist" Milwaukee; "The Golden Rule" City of
Toledo; and "Spotless" Detroit.
It was twenty degrees below zero when I arrived at Milwaukee and this
extremely cold weather heralded the speedy gathering of the ice crop.
In this city there were four thousand unemployed homeless men, fully
one-fourth of them destitute, begging, thieving, sleeping on the floors
of the cheaper saloons, seeking all of those available places that
would possibly keep aflame the spark of life, in addition to those
finding shelter in the Milwaukee Rescue Mission.
In three days the ice crop was made and in four days' time thirty-five
hundred of these men were on the ice. The five hundred who did not go
were too old, physically weak, or had not sufficient clothing. Many of
those who did go, in the condition they were in, froze their faces,
ears, hands and feet and from exposure were forced into the hospitals
and some into their graves. The wages paid by the ice company was a
dollar and seventy-five cents per day, from which the worker paid five
dollars per week for board. It is not necessary to refer again to the
days of work. For many reasons, the laborer is forced to lose time
during the week,--yet the board must be paid.
The weather continued extremely cold for many weeks. I found the
Milwaukee Rescue Mission incomplete and inadequate. In this bitter
cold I was denied admission to the institution by reason of its being
overcrowded, and, also, because its doors were locked at ten-thirty
P. M.
Late one afternoon I entered its waiting-room, a long narrow room,
near the entrance. It was filled to suffocation with homeless men. I,
with many others, was denied the privilege of working for shelter and
food. Too many had already applied. I was not to be denied a bountiful
five- or ten-cent meal providing I had the price. I heard an old man of
sixty-five abused and denied a second cup of coffee. Divine worship,
however, was free and while I waited in the packed room for that hour I
read these inscriptions on the wall:
"Any man caught in the Act, will have cause to wish he hadn't done it."
"Even a moderate drinker will be denied lodging."
"Whenever you smoke a cigarette, you may say, 'Nearer my God to Thee.'"
"Keep your I's on the spotter for he is watching you."
Smoking was absolutely forbidden, yet no smoking-room provided.
Spitting on the floor was breaking a castiron rule, yet not a cuspidor
was provided for that use.
The hour for worship came and on the instant the lights were suddenly
turned out. As we stumbled over the benches and chairs, as well as over
one another trying to get out, a man told us emphatically "to go in to
worship [in a very large audience room, which had stood empty while we
were packed in the small one] or get out." The religion or the mode of
worship of many of these men was not after their way, but that made
no difference. As the thermometer registered twenty-two degrees below
zero that night, it was not a very comfortable experience for the
half-clothed men who were forced to walk the streets in search of other
shelter.
I followed them out to see where they went, and just as I was leaving I
recalled the last motto I had read before the darkness was forced upon
us:
"No law but love, no creed but Christ."
Most of the men who sought other shelter went to the saloons and by
the big red-hot stoves kept from perishing. Others went to the tramway
station or the depots, or the offices of the cheap lodging houses.
In one of the Milwaukee daily papers January 2, 1912, I read: "The
first man to be sent to the house of correction this year was John
L----, sentenced in the District Court yesterday to a term of ninety
days. He was begging on Grand Avenue, Sunday night."
The spirit shown in the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, as revealed to me,
was not Christian. The heart of the superintendent of this institution
may be in the right place--I did not meet the gentleman--but the hearts
of his subordinates (at least those I came in contact with), and the
spirit of the institution were not. I heard men in the Police Court of
Milwaukee beg of the Judge to be sent to the House of Correction as a
relief from suffering during the bitter cold winter.
This, my exposition of the condition of the unemployed homeless of
Milwaukee, should not be regarded as a criticism on Socialism,
although the latter failed in its care and treatment of their
unemployed. There are many excuses to offer. An old, rotten political
and social system, four thousand years old, could not be reconstructed
in a moment's time. Bound by City and State Charters and a netted
tangle of City and State laws, it was impossible for the administration
to carry out the fundamental principles of Socialism. That brief
Socialist administration was more one of theory than of practical
interest, although the Fire and Police Departments were not out of
control of the administration except in matters of salary. The good
intent of the policies of the administration are reflected in many
permissive bills which went to the Legislature, in most cases to
remain. Among them are bills providing for:
Men dealing in ice;
Unequivocal right to construct Municipal Lodging Houses and Tenements;
Public Comfort Stations;
An act through to build parks.
A municipal lighting plant was planned at this time and municipal
markets. The unified press was against this administration, which
taking all in all, it would not be fair to regard as a comprehensive
example of Socialism, though I may well add that during it taxes were
not raised. At that time Milwaukee had the lowest tax rate of any large
American city.