WORK OR FIGHT

Evening Star, Issue 16822, 26 August 1918, Page 1

WORK OR FIGHT

AMERICA'S NEW PLAN WITH THE LOAFER, RICH AND POOR INCLUDED. It was New Jersey that started unprecedented trouble for loafers, the " idle rich" as well as the "bums." Maryland quickly followed, suit; then New York. Pennslyvania is preparing to do the same. It would seem (writes the American corespondent of London ' Sunday Chronicle') that every State in the Union will soon have a law giving all able-bodied men under 51 the alternative of doing useful work or going to g a °l- v, Of course, it was at first generally thought that the people aimed at were the hoboes, the riff-raff, tho wastrels, and tho criminals, not the fortunate folk who live on their private incomes, inherited or acquired. That rich Baltimore bachelor of good family, for instance, pursued the even tenor of "his way just as he had clone for many years. A notice from the police that he must find work was promptly cast into the waste paper basket, and forgotten. Then one morning lie found himself behind tho bars of_ a prison cell, a warning to the entire country. Perhaps trie rude shock ho has suffered has brought him to a proper understanding of the necessity for all doing something toward putting an end to the pretensions of the Huns. NO LOOPHOLES ALLOWED. It is an indication of the uncompromising spirit in which America is nowpressing forward her war work that laziness and wilful uselessness are, as far as possible, being knocked out of existence by the rough hands of the police. General Crowder, United States Provost Marshal, has issued a "work or fight" ordinance applied to all men in the country between 21 and 31 who have not been drafted into the army. General Crowder explains with great care just what kind of employment young men, should not and must not engage in while tho country is at war. Before July 1 the following among others must find new jobs : Professional baseball players, lift operators, shop assistants, bartenders, hotel, club, and domestic servants, waiters, theatre ushers, race-track employees, bookmakers. These am classed as "non-useful occupations, and most of the men now engaged in them will be diverted to plants making war material, electrical equipment, ships, prepared foods, iron and steel, automobiles, clothing, etc. Change their occupations they must, and that without delay. Women can operate) lifts and poll material in store,?; older men can attend to all the wants of diners, club members, and patrons of saloons. Tho action of the State and Federal authorities is extremely disagreeable to certain sections. Social parasites whose honesty and morals arc of leprous civ: '- actor, confronted with an unprecedented state of affairs, are- reported to be exercising their wits on schemes for evading the letter if not the spirit of the law. Crooks of all kind?, cadets (bullies), tango lizards, cabaret jackals, gunmen, gamblers, confidence men, and others of nameless'infamy that infest the pleasure sections of the great cities, reprobates and rascals who never did an honest da-v's work in their lives, have in some cases rented "desk room" in offices under cany-going management and dubbed themselves "agents." ' Qmte a, few are posing as "publicity managers" or " salesmen." WAR AGAINST VICIOUS AND IDLE. But their camouflage will bo torn aside in double-quick time. Soon they will have to make one of those complete explanations which in expressive American phraseology is described as " a showdown." The authorities are equally active in protecting soldiers and sailors, many of whom are from rural districts and small towns, from debauchery and immorality in great centres of population. When tho notoriously corrupt Philadelphia police neglected, even after a warning, to close dives and brothels that soldiers were being lured into, the United States War Department itself assumed control of the Quaker city's graft-ridden protectovs that had failed to do their duty. In New York the police and tho District Attorney's office have been relentless in their warfare on profligates, work-haters, and questionable characters of all kinds. On many nights or early mornings the drag-net has been thrown over wide sections of tlie city. Spectacular raids, accompanied by much street uproar, have resulted in the police stations being filled with men and women gathered in from "•coffee parlors," "tea rooms," Chinese "joints," and. other resorts. Every raid on these places has netted many evaders of the military draft, criminals, idlers, pro-Germans, and the worthless and dangerous of both sexes.