IDLE AND HUNGARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 3, 5 January 1931, Page 5

IDLE AND HUNGARY.

DISTRESS IN AMERICA.

HOVELS BUILT IN CHICAGO,

"BREAD LINES" IN NEW YORE.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, December 2. Winter and approaching Yuletide emphasised the existence of widespread poverty throughout the United States consequent upon the present economic depression and the lengthening "bread lines" in > most of the big cities of the United States. In New York a problem of tremendous proportions was presented, but the municipality began in earnest to provide for its families in need. All day long hundreds of hungry men and women stood in the rain and went from their homes to the police stations to take their places, patiently and quietly, in the long lines. Food distributed one Saturday by the Mayor's committee provided for 12,740 persons until the following Saturday, 01-' a total of 89,180 rations. This was ofily a beginning. The Emergency Employment Commit? tee in Manhattan, headed by Seward Prosser, which has a corps of more than 2000 volunteers, has begun to raise six million dollars for relief purposes. Commissioner Dwyer suggested to the Mayor's committee that the Markets Department buy, with funds sent from public and welfare groups, 2,000,0001b of potatoes, 50,0001b of onions, 50,000 packages of macaroni, 25,000 dozen eggs and 50,000 tins of food. The.packages received by those in need at the police stations weighed nearly 30 pounds apiece. JJach contained 201b of potatoes, 21b of onions, half a pound of coffee, half a dozen eggs, two heads of cabbage, a loaf of bread and a box of spaghetti. Some of the bags also were provided with carrots "and beets, but these soon gave out. The retail price of the food in these containers would amount to . eight to ten shillings. The Department of Markets determined the nature of the rations. This ration compares in-many instances to that issued by the British Government in its dole ration, with the exception that the British portion contains tea instead of coffee, a little sugar, and the British issue money orders on markets for the purchase of meats.. The attitude of the officials in New York, however, is that the 'fpod is" not a dole and that the needy are not to consider it as charity.