DEPTHS OF DISTRESS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 74, 20 December 1933, Page 10

DEPTHS OF DISTRESS

Unemployment, in New York LETTER TO NEW ZEALAND Dominion Special Service;. Dunedin, December 19. The extent to which the depression is .being felt in the United States may be gleaned from some observation? macle in a letter received by a Dunedin resident from a New York business man. “The unemployment position is terrible,” stated the writer, “and the homeless people in New York alone are almost beyond number. Taxpayers and the State, as well as the municipal government, ace giving many millions of dollars for their care, but the money seems only a drop in a bucket and the misery is heartrending.” He went on to say that one night he saw from 40 to 50 men trying to sleep on the stone floor of a concourse which led to a subway station near Fifth Avenue. Unkempt and dirty, they had only a few thicknesses of paper between themselves and the cold stones —and it was a bitterly cold night. There were beggars on the street by the score and the park benches at night were all filled. “However,” he concluded in a more optimistic manner, “they say the tide has turned.”