News Items from The Kansas City Journal ~ Old News That's New to You from Vintage Kansas City.com

January 19, 1910

MAYOR CALLS NEGRO HERO.

Modifies Prejudice Against Race and

Will Try to Get Him a Job.

"You are a hero, Washington Johnson, and I take great pleasure in recommending you to Superintendent of Streets Pendergast for a job on the street cleaning gang," said Mayor Crittenden yesterday. Johnson, a negro janitor, was in charge of the Rialto building the night it burned. Risking his life, Johnson awakened sleepers on the several floors.

"For the once I am going to modify my prejudice against the negro in positions that bring him in contact with the public. I'm giving you temporary work until you can find something that will pay you better."

"Thank you, mayor," was Johnson's response.

Labels: employment, Mayor Crittenden, race, Thomas J. Pendergast

January 17, 1910

KANSAS CITY GIRLS

FOR PICKLE FACTORY.

Plant Will Be Only Stage Affair,

But Beauties Will Handle

Real Pickles.

"Working in a pickle factory" will no longer be a joke with a score of pretty young women from various walks of life in Kansas City who will hold forth at the Orpheum theater this week as employes of a pickle factory in Helen Grantley's sketch, "The Agitator," the top liner on the bill. They will handle real pickles and after a week's training and rehearsals and their participation in the show this week it is predicted they will have no difficulty in getting work as experts in the business, should they so desire.

The sketch is based in part on the female suffrage movement. The scene in which the young women work is one in which Miss Grantley makes her plea for a strike. Of course the girls follow their leader, the strike is called and after the usual trials and tribulations of strikers, is won. The sketch created somewhat of a sensation in New York, the play there being made more realistic by the fact that the girls who counterfeited the pickle trimmers were really striking shirt waist makers.

Miss Grantley came here with her company a week ago ahead of her billing so that she might rehearse the score of young women supers, some of whom will be carried with the company at the close of the week.

An advertisement brought half a hundred replies and out of this number Miss Grantley selected a score of girls. Among those selected were stenographers, two high school girls who were "just dying" to go on the stage even if they had to work in a "pickle factory," a telephone girl who had often wished that she might appear behind the footlights, three art students who wanted the work for the "atmosphere," later to be transferred to canvas, and a couple of girls who had not worked anywhere, but who sought this as a stepping stone to the stage.

It was an ungainly and awkward squad, as they lined up for the first rehearsal. Only one of the girls had ever been back of the scenes, and she was fairly lionized by the others. The turn was not a difficult one, and after the story of the play was told, the girls quickly appreciated the points which it was desired to emphasize.

"A trained chorus direct from New York City could not have done any better," declared Miss Grantley last evening. "They still have another rehearsal, but they are letter perfect now and I am sure that some of them will come with me when I leave the city."

Labels: employment, New York, suffrage, theater, visitors, women

December 11, 1910

JUDGE TAKES PART

OF RUNAWAY GIRLS.

Homes Have Been Found for

Ava Jewell and Hattie

Hayes.

"I told them 'If you never do anything worse than sit on a rock pile and crack rock for papa you will be queens on a thrown with jewels in your crowns.' "

T. W. Jewell, 920 Cambridge avenue, Sheffield, made this statement in the juvenile court yesterday afternoon after admitting that he had required his daughter, Ava Jewell, 16 years old, and his stepdaughter, Hattie Hayes, 15 years old, to crack rock in his quarry "because they were useless to their mother in the house."

About three weeks ago both girls ran away from their rock cracking work, Ava going to Kansas City, Kas., and Hattie Hayes getting employment at a cracker factory. For the past week she had been working as a domestic in a Sheffield hotel. She was taken into the juvenile court on the request of her mother and stepfather.

"Why did you put these girls, young women, I might say, to work on a rock pile?" asked Judge E. E. Porterfield earnestly.

"It was honest labor," said Jewell, "nothin' of which they should be ashamed. They might o' done far worse. You tell him how it came about, mamma," concluded Jewell, addressing his wife.

"Well, they just wouldn't do the housework right," said Mrs. Jewell. "It kept me continually following them about doing the work over again. I knowed somethin' had to be done to keep 'em busy, so I asked papa if he could use 'em in the quarry on the rear of our lot. 'Yes,' says he, 'I can use 'em breakin' up the small stones. Then he put 'em to work down there. That's all.'

"They was there about two or three weeks," said Jewell, "not over three at the outside, and all the work they done could be did in ten to twenty hours. I built 'em a nice platform on which to work. All they had to do was gather the small rock, carry it to the platform and break it. It sells for $1 a yard, judge. It's valuable."

"You know what they done, judge?" asked Jewell in apparent surprise, "they hammered holes in their skirts and kept me busy putting handles in the stone hammers. They would strike over too far and break the handles, just for meanness. Why, there mamma used to come down there just to encourage them, you know, an' she would crack more rock in an hour than they'd crack in a whole day. Mamma liked to crack rock, didn't you mamma? All the time them girls was a complainin' and talkin' o' runnin' away, an' one day both of 'em up and run away."

"I am surprised that they waited so long," said Judge Porterfield when Jewell had finished his explanation. "They should have gone the first day you put them there. A stone quarry, using a hammer and a drill, as this girl says she had to do, is no place for young women."

It was at this point that Jewell delivered himself of the tender sentiment about "jewels in your crowns."

"That sounds nice," suggested the court, "but it doesn't go with me. Any place on earth for a girl or woman but the rock pile, whether it be for papa or in jail. I do not approve of it. this girl will be made a ward of the court and a place secured for her. Working promiscuously in hotels and factories is not the best place for her, either, so long as she is not remaining in the home."

Hattie, who was 15 in October, was turned over to Mrs. Agnes O'Dell, a juvenile court officer, who will secure a place for her in a private family. Her stepsister, Ava Jewell, has a place as a domestic in Kansas City, Kas.

Labels: children, employment, Judge Porterfield, juvenile court, Kansas City Kas, sheffield, women

January 9, 1910

WORK AND WAGES FOR

DESERVING UNEMPLOYED.

Mayor Formulates Plan to Provide

Living During Present Cold

Weather for All Worthy Needy.

"Kansas City intends to be kind to the needy and unfortunate temporarily out of work," observed Gus Pearson, city comptroller, yesterday, "but we first are going to find out who is worthy of our time and kindness.

"This wail about the starving and homeless unemployed has been magnified. Investigation shows that on many of the coldest nights of the winter there were a whole lot of vacant beds in the Helping Hand institute, and I have it from the management that they had twenty-four more calls for work for men than could be filled.

"The trouble is that a great many well meaning people are imposed upon and their sympathies wrought up by classes of individuals who are continually preying on the purse strings of the charitable, but will not work unless the work meets with their particular tastes."

Mr. Pearson had a conference yesterday with William Volker, chairman of the pardons and parole board. They discussed the plan proposed by Mayor Crittenden of making an additional appropriation of funds to temporarily tide over the unemployed by giving them work at the municipal stone quarries in Penn Valley park and the municipal farm at Leeds. This will be done as quickly as possible after Messrs. Pearson and Volker have conferred with the heads of charitable institutions and the police in reference to the character of men considered really deserving.

"Bums and loafers who stray into Kansas City just to spend the winter and live off the charitable must move on or go to the workhouse," said Mr. Pearson. "We feel that we have a citizenship of our own who should receive our little acts of kindness in times of distress, and so far as the present city administration is concerned, there will be no deserving man or boy without a place of shelter or a meal."

Labels: charity, employment, Helping Hand, Leeds, Mayor Crittenden, parole board, Penn Valley park, workhouse

January 6, 1910

'WORK, NOT CHARITY,' SLOGAN.

Men Out of jobs Will Hold Noon

Meeting Today.

There will be a meeting of the unemployed today noon at 1112 Locust street, and the men out of jobs will endeavor to agree upon some plan that will better their condition. "Work, not charity," is to be the slogan of the assemblage, and several prominent citizens have been petitioned to assist in the cause.

Labels: employment, Locust street, organizations

December 20, 1909

WORKHOUSE INMATES

TAUGHT CLEANLINESS.

METHODS FOLLOWED AT INSTI-

TUTION SETS EXAMPLE.

Improvements Make All Cells Sani-

tary -- Shower Baths Provided

and Fumigator to De-

stroy Germs.

The interior of the workhouse has taken on quite a different aspect in the last few days, important improvements having been completed. The ceilings and walls are painted white, the latter having a heavy coat of red about six feet up from the floor. All of the cells have a new coat of shiny black enamel.

Until the recent improvements, each cell was unsanitary, being equipped with nothing but an old bucket. Now every cell is provided with a sanitary plumbing outfit. It took one month to dig a sewer inside the cell block and make the necessary connections. Outside the work could have been done in a week or ten days, but there the dirt had to be carried out in small boxes. The sewer is from five to seven feet deep and before dirt was reached it was necessary to dig through four inches of solid concrete, chisel through a steel plate one-eighth of an inch thick and then pick the way through eighteen inches more of solid concrete. This is laid beneath the floor to prevent any escapes by tunneling. As it took fully three weeks to reach terra firma it is not likely that anyone would succeed in completing a tunnel before being captured.

There also is a new system regarding mattresses and bedding. When a new prisoner arrives he gets a fresh, clean mattress, stuffed with clean straw. When the prisoner leaves the straw is burned and the bed tick washed. The cleaning method continues with regard to blankets. When a prisoner leaves his blanket goes direct to the laundry. If he is a long term man his blanket is washed and he gets a clean one two or three times a month. He also gets a fresh bed tick with new straw frequently.

SHOWER BATHS FOR ALL.

At the east end of the cell block is a new washroom with a dozen bowls. Across the corridor are shower baths. Both have hot and cold water and plenty of soap. A prisoner is required to bathe on entering the workhouse, all of his discarded clothing going to the fumigator. He also is examined by the workhouse physician, Dr. F. H. Berry. His physical condition also is looked after. For the first time since it was built the workhouse now is absolutely free of any kind of vermin, and Superintendent Cornelius Murphy says he intends to keep it that way.

When a prisoner's clothes go to the fumigator they are not afterwards packed away in a bag and given to him all full of wrinkles when he leaves the place. In the workhouse now is a tailor who understands cleaning, pressing and mending. After leaving the fumigator the underclothing and linen go to the laundry where they are washed and ironed. The outer clothing goes to the tailor who repairs, cleans and presses it. When a prisoner leaves the institution now he often finds his "makeup" in far better condition than when he entered.

"The scheme of putting a prisoner's clothing in good condition," said C. A. Beatty, assistant superintendent, "has proven a good one and the men greatly appreciate it. It does not send a poor man away looking like a trap, but he has a good 'front' and is fit to apply to any man for work. The prison clothes worn by the men are washed frequently and the men are required to take baths often. It is new to many but they are getting used to it."

SOME LEARN TRADES.

In the sewing room, established at the personal expense of William Volker, president of the board of pardons and paroles, all of the bed ticks as well as the clothing worn by both men and women prisoners, are made by women prisoners. One young woman who had been a frequent inmate of the institution now is earning $2.25 a day at a local mattress factory. Others are earning an honest living at overall factories. They learned to sew under the instruction of Mrs. Burnett, who has charge of the sewing room. Some never had done any stitching.

Another adjunct to the workhouse, which has proved a success, is the shoemaking department. A practical shoemaker, hired at the expense of Mr. Volker, is instructing the long term men how to be shoe cobblers and some are learning how to make shoes throughout. The shoes of all prisoners are overhauled and mended in this department. The shoeshop and sewing rooms are located over the barn and are heated by steam.

There are thirty-five men now out at the industrial farm at Leeds. They are now engaged at present in making a new roadway, but in the summer they are going to learn practical farming and gardening. This, too, has proven a success.

Labels: clothing, employment, health, Leeds, parole board, workhouse

December 7, 1909

HOMELESS MEN CITY'S WARDS.

Cold Weather Causes Influx -- Will

Be Worked in Quarry.

The approach of winter is bringing to the city the usual influx of penniless and homeless, and the charitable institutions are beginning to realize it. Yesterday George W. Fuller, a former member of the park board and representing the municipal labor committee in an official capacity, told the park board that Saturday and Sunday night 150 men out of work and money applied to the institute for food and lodgings. Mr. Fuller suggested that the plan of last year, whereby the city and park board co-operated, be followed this year, of working the unemployed in mining rock and crushing it for road building in Penn Valley park. Single men could be fed and lodged at the institute, and men with families could be given supplies on the basis of a dollar's worth a day.

Last year the experiment cost the city $4,918, and about 90 per cent of the rock is piled up and has not been used.

W. H. Dunn, superintendent of parks, said that the idea was a good and commendable one, but the question that confronted the city was what is to be done with the unused rock quarried last year. He said that some of it could be used, but advised that if the city was going into the quarrying business again some disposition should be made of the rock on hand.

Gus Pearson, city comptroller, urged the board to take up the proposition another year.

"It segregates the man who will work from the fellow who will not," said Mr. Pearson.

"And it means that whatever the city gives the Helping Hand to care for the poor and lowly, it will get back in labor and rock," argued Mr. Fuller.

On motion of D. J. Haff the board set apart $2,000 from the West park district fund with which to pay for the rock that is to be quarried and broken at the rate of 80 cents a cubic yard.

Labels: charity, employment, Helping Hand, Park board, Penn Valley park

December 5, 1909

CAMPAIGN TO RESCUE

CHILDREN FROM WORK.

COMPLAINT MADE THAT STORE

EMPLOYS TWO, 4 YEARS OLD.

Picture Shows Where Girls, Under

16, Play and Sing and Will Be In-

vestigated by Dr. Mathias,

Chief Probation Officer.

Parents who permit their children to sing in picture shows in violation of the law, or to participate in any entertainment for which they receive pay, according to Dr. E. L. Mathias, chief probation officer, will be prosecuted in the juvenile court.

Heretofore prosecution of child labor cases has been almost entirely on the initiative of the local and state factory inspectors. But complaints have been made recently to the juvenile officers that the practice has not been entirely stopped. An investigation is to be made to find out whether the parents and theaters are obeying the law.

The law forbids children under 14 years of age to engage in any "gainful occupation." Children under 16 can not work for wages without first receiving a permit from the local factory inspector.

This does not forbid parents to allow their children to participate in church entertainments and the like, where they receive no pay.

COMPLAINT AGAINST STORE.

Complaint was made yesterday of a large department store, which is giving a Santa Claus entertainment. Two children, 4 years of age, take minor parts and their parents are paid for their time. With W. J. Morgan, factory inspector, a juvenile officer yesterday went to the store to investigate the complaint, and will report Monday in juvenile court to Judge E. E. Porterfield.

Several picture shows are reported to have employed girls under 16 years of age, without official permits, to play the piano and sing. These cases are to be investigated immediately.

"The child labor law, if anything, is not severe enough," said Dr. Mathias. "It should not only require children to remain in school until they have reached a certain age, but it should keep them in school until they have passed through the graded school into the high school.

"The trouble with the present law is that it is founded on the law of averages. The average boy or girl completes the grammar school at 14 years of age. But think of those who do not go beyond the third or fourth grade. Many children have not reached the high school at 14.

SHOULD HELP ABNORMAL.

"If there is any change in this law it should be re-framed for the benefit of the abnormal, or the child below the average. Every child should be compelled to stay in school until he or she had reached the high school. The child might be 16 or 18 years of age before he is graduated and permitted to go to work, but he would be a much better citizen than if allowed to quit at 14.

"Take for instance the foreigners who are rapidly migrating to Kansas City and other American towns. Many of them have been brought up to believe that a wife or a child is an asset, the same as the old slave holders used to think. Hardly before the child is able to walk and talk the father puts it to work. The boy gets a place in a shoe-shining parlor or holding the horse of some delivery man. The pay is $1 or $2 a week, which is given the parent.

"These foreigners average about one child a year. The more children, they know, the greater their income. If it were not for the child labor laws, these children would be permitted to grow up in ignorance, and their little bodies stunted from doing heavy work before they had gained physical strength."

Labels: children, Dr Mathias, employment, immigrants, Judge Porterfield, juvenile court, theater

December 4, 1909

PLUMBERS MUST STAND EXAM.

New Ordinance Will Be Passed Mon-

day by Council.

Evidently the public is not interested in the proposed ordinance for the regulation of the installation of plumbing and steam heating in homes and buildings, for there was no response yesterday to the call from the upper house of the council committee for the expressions. The ordinance will be reported out favorably, and passed at next Monday night's meeting of the council.

The ordinance provides that the installation of plumbing and steam heating must be performed by men adept in their respective trades, that they must hear the endorsement of a board of examiners to be appointed by the city as to their capabilities and that these examinations shall be held as often as once a year.

Labels: employment, Kansas City council

December 2, 1909

BOY GETS FATHER'S PLACE.

Judge Pollock Appoints Henry Dil-

lard, 19, Court Messenger.

Judge John C. Pollock of the federal court in Kansas City, Kas., yesterday announced the appointment of Henry Dillard, a negro 19 years old of Topeka, to be the messenger of the federal court. Dillard takes the place of his father, Henry Dillard, who shot himself accidentally while hunting last Saturday. Judge Pollock went to Topeka Monday to attend the funeral of the boy's father. At the funeral Judge Pollock noticed the boy and was so impressed by his manly actions that he decided to appoint him as his father's successor.

"The boy is young, but I believe he will be able to hold the position," Judge Pollock said yesterday. "I am going to give him a trial at least."

Henry Dillard, who was part Cherokee Indian and part negro, was messenger of the federal court in Kansas thirty-three years and won the friendship of many attorneys and federal officers.

Labels: employment, federal court, Funeral, Judge Pollock, Native Americans, Topeka

November 5, 1909

CITY'S UNEMPLOYED

TO HAVE NEW HOME.

HELPING HAND INSTITUTE AC-

QUIRES ADKINS HOTEL.

With Aid of Four Story Building

1,000 Men Can Be Cared For --

Plenty of Light, Baths --

Has Disinfecting Room.

NEW QUARTERS AT FOURTH AND WYANDOTTE STREETS.

With the acquisition of the old Adkins hotel at the southeast corner of Fourth and Wyandotte streets, the Helping Hand Institute has solved the problem of taking care of the city's unemployed. Carpenters are now at work overhauling the four-story structure and by the beginning of cold weather it is believed that the building will be ready for occupancy.

With the old building at 408 Main street, where the main offices are located, the Helping Hand institute will be prepared to take care of more than 600 men without the least crowding. In extremely cold weather little difficulty will be experienced in caring for 1,000 men.

PRESENT HOME OF THE INSTITUTE.

But the new building will have many features not possessed by the old quarters on Main street. Plenty of light, the best of ventilation, high ceilings, a laundry, shower baths and disinfecting room will make it very little inferior to the municipal lodging house in New York city. On the north side of the building are forty-one windows which makes the light and ventilation problem easy.

INSTALLING SHOWER BATHS.

But the main feature is the shower baths and disinfecting room. On the lower floor the plumbers are at work installing baths that will accommodate twenty-five men at one time. No one will be allowed to go to bed without first taking a bath and allowing his clothes to be placed in the disinfecting room, where they will remain over night. The laundry in the basement will keep the linen clean and eventually save the institution hundreds of dollars. Particular care will be exercised in guarding against tuberculosis. Before the year is over it is hoped that a physician will examine every man who applies for a bed.

Without doubt Kansas City will have as good a system for taking care of her unemployed as any municipality in the country. It is true that many of the large cities in the East, particularly New York and Philadelphia, have larger municipal lodging houses but they suffer disadvantages. In most cities bread lines are formed and the man without employment does not feel obliged to work for a night's lodging. In Kansas City, however, the city and county have made the Helping Hand an official charity institution.

WORK IS PROVIDED.

Men are not allowed to sleep in saloons or in other public places where the conditions are not sanitary. There is no other avenue for the unemployed man but to go to the Helping Hand institute, where he is given a chance to work for his meals and lodging. The mere fact that he must work keeps the professional "moocher" from making his headquarters in Kansas City.

The credit for the acquisition of the Adkins building belongs mainly to William Volker, one of the directors of the institute. Mr. Volker clearly recognized the need of more room for the institute, and believing that the employment system is the best, he used his influence in getting the building. E. T. Brigham, superintendent of the Helping Hand, is directing the work.

Labels: charity, employment, Fourth street, Helping Hand, hotels, Main street, real estate, Wyandotte street

October 29, 1909

NO MORE "RATS" FOR

THE POSTAL GIRLS.

DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT'S

ORDER EFFECTIVE NOV. 1.

One Will Declare Hair Real, Will

Take Such Commands Only

From Husband and Dares

Investigation.

"On and after November 1, all lady clerks and employes must discontinue the wearing of 'rats' in their hairdress. Please govern yourself accordingly. -- A. B. R., Supt. Dist."

Will the Postal Telegraph Company whose district manager issued the above order, insist that it be obeyed, or will it hearken to the murmurings and declarations of their female employes and forget it?

This is the question which is bothering the girls ever since they received copies of what is declared to be the most famous order ever issued by the local office. That the officials of the company will have no easy time enforcing his order goes without saying. In fact, one of the pretty wire girls declared last evening that she, for one, would resign, and that in a hurry, before she would permit the manager or superintendent to dictate to her the sort of headdress she would wear.

"Why, the first thing we know they will have us in blue uniforms with brass buttons, a la messenger boy style," she said.

TAKEN AS JOKE AT FIRST.

The order was issued Wednesday. The girls, when they received it, took it for a joke, but yesterday when they discovered that it really was in earnest, and that the order meant what it said, there was excitement in plenty. If the ears of Superintendent Richards did not burn and buzz all day yesterday and until well into the night, it was not because the girls were not talking.

More than a score of operators are affected by the order. Half a dozen of these operate keys in various public places about the city, the principal branches being in the Hotel Baltimore, Coates house, Savoy hotel, New York Life building and the Chamber of Commerce. Then there are almost a score of girls employed in the main office of the company.

What objection to the wearing of "rats" can be is known only to Superintendent Richards and as one of the girls expressed it yesterday, "He won't tell because he doesn't know."

"It's nobody's business what is meant by the issuance of that order," said Richards last evening.

"I guess 'A. B. R.' will buy us all new hats. He will have to if he insists on us taking the rats out of our hair," said one of the operators as she adjusted a handsomely plumed beaver.

NOT TO BE COMMANDED.

"Why, we never would be able to wear a stylish-looking hat and I know that I, for one, am not going to let any man dictate to me for a while, yet, as to the sort of hat I wear. Of course, if I get married I may change my mind, but I am still single."

"I threw my order in the waste basket," said another operator,"but on second thought I fished it out and took it home. I may have it framed, or I may send it to a friend in Chicago. I only wish I could say things like a man can. I would certainly talk to 'A. B. R.' "

"Lots of foolish orders are issued at times, but this is the worst I have ever heard of," said another operator. "I wear a rat and have to in order to wear a hat which is in style. If 'A. B. R.' or anyone else thinks that he is going to tell me how to wear my hair he will be disillusioned. If he asks me I will tell him my hair is natural and if he tries to get familiar and ascertain for himself there will be something doing, in which I will not get the worst of it."

Labels: Coates house, employment, Hotel Baltimore, New York Life bldg, telegraph, women

October 21, 1909

NO PLACE FOR POLITICIANS.

Zoo Management Must Be Composed

of Competent Men.

An official of the park board said yesterday that the board does not propose to be in a hurry to formally open the zoo buildings at Swope park.

"The management and operation of the zoo is no boys' play," said the official. "The employes and superintendent must be composed of trustworthy men who are familiar with such things. It cannot be manned by political hangers-on, and this might as well be understood from the very start. Already the board is flooded with applications from men for positions who know more about running a ward political primary than they do about operating a zoo. They might as well look for other jobs, for it is the intention of the board to find men who are fully familiar with the habits of animals and know how to manage them. Such men are now being sought.

Labels: employment, Kansas City Zoo, Park board, Swope park

October 19, 1909

MAIL HANDLERS ON STRIKE.

Places Quickly Filled by Recruits

From Helping Hand.

Twenty porters employed at handling the mail bags at the Union depot quit work yesterday morning because of a change in the system of paying the men from a monthly salary, ranging from $52 to $57, to 16 cents per hour. This gives the old men, who have worked twelve hours a day, a little more than they had previously gotten, but it also acts in a measure to shorten the pay of the newer men, who work but ten hours a day. The depot company employs 175 men as porters in the baggage and mail departments.

The places of the score of men who walked out at 9 a. m. yesterday were filled a few hours later by recruits from several places in the city, principally from the Helping Hand headquarters.

Labels: employment, Helping Hand, Union depot

September 20, 1909

MARKS ASKS MATRON'S

RESIGNATION; GETS IT.

Commissioner Says Mrs. Burns Dis-

obeyed Orders in Various Ways.

She's Off the Force.

Mrs. Elizabeth Burns, for nearly two years a police matron, resigned yesterday upon the request of Thomas R. Marks, police commissioner. Mrs. Burns left police headquarters soon after and went to her home, 1509 Harrison street.

Mrs. Burns said she was accused by Mr. Marks of having allowed a reporter for The Journal to talk with Ethelyn Collins, held by the police as a material witness. The Journal printed no interview with the Collins girl. It was said that strict orders had been given that no one except police officers should talk with the Collins girl.

"I left the matron's room but a minute Saturday night," Mrs. Burns said. Mrs. Maud Fontella, where the Collins girl lived, brought the girl $31. As prisoners are not allowed to have money at police headquarters, I asked Henry C. Smith, a special investigator for the police board, who brought Mrs. Fontella to the matron's room, to wait in the room until I got back.

"When I returned three minutes later a reporter for The Journal was talking to Smith. So far as I know he did not talk to the girl nor make any effort to. I told him he could not talk to her and he laughed and said he 'had the whole story.'

"When Mr. Marks asked for my resignation, I was so stunned that I complied without thinking that he was not the entire board. I would not work at headquarters again, but I would like to be tried by the police board in order that my record may be cleared, as I am guiltless of any charge made."

Mrs. Burns is the widow of William Burns, for many years a member of the police force and a captain at the time of his death. She has four children.

Commissioner Marks denied last night that he had taken into consideration the fact that a Journal reporter had talked to the girl, in the presence of Henry Smith, a patrolman, when he asked Mrs. Burns for her resignation. He said that as far as he was concerned the fact that she had allowed a visitor to see Tony Cruie against expressed orders was not used against her.

She had allowed two men, one an old man and the other a young one, to speak with the girl against orders, he said, and had disobeyed orders in other ways, he intimated.

Soon after taking oath as a commissioner Mr. Marks informed reports that there would soon be two good-hearted matrons at police headquarters. It was rumored last night in police circles that Mrs. Joanna Moran was to be asked for her resignation also. Mrs. Burns and Capt. Walter Whitsett have had little difficulties several times.

Soon after Mrs. Burns left the station yesterday, Mrs. J. K. Ellwood, formerly matron of the detention home, was sent for by Mr. Marks. Her husband is the secretary to Inspector E. P. Boyle. She was placed in charge of the matron's room and spent the night at the station.

She said that Mr. Marks had asked her for forty-eight hours of her time, and then she was to be through. Asked if she expected to receive the appointment as a permanent position she refused to answer.

Labels: Commissioner Marks, detention home, employment, Harrison street, Inspector Boyle, police headquarters, police matron

August 13, 1909

HOTEL MAIDS OBJECT TO

HANDLING 9-FOOT SHEETS.

In Preparing to Comply With New

Law, Hotelkeeper Runs Into

Bunch of Trouble.

If John Moore, proprietor of the Moore hotel, insists on using the regulation nine-foot sheets as will be provided by law after August 16, he will have trouble with the maids in his employ. If he does not he will get into trouble with the state authorities. At present he does not know just where he stands.

The trouble started yesterday morning and the first round ended in favor of the maids of whom there are a score. Headed by Miss Dora McClure who was the spokeswoman, they declared that they could not use nine-foot sheets to advantage, that it was too much trouble to turn them under the mattresses and over the covers and that if the "boss" insisted on using sheets of this length, they would find situations elsewhere.

As a result of the first round, Mr. Moore told the girls to use the old sheets until he had more time to think about it.

Some time ago Mr. Moore received a notice that after August 16 sheets nine feet in length would be required by law. This law was to be strictly enforced and it was intimated that inspectors would be around at most any time to see that the law was complied with. An inspection fee was also to be charged.

About that time Mr. Moore needed new linen and he ordered sheets of the nine foot length. The shipment arrived Wednesday and yesterday morning he directed the housekeeper to tell the housemaids to use the new length linen when they made up the beds. The trouble followed.

"I don't believe the girls understand the thing thoroughly," said Mr. Moore. "I will read the law to them and then they will understand what they must do in any other hotel."

Labels: employment, hotels

August 4, 1909

EMPLOYES OF NICKEL

SHOWS FORM A UNION.

WILL DEMAND MORE PAY AND

DAY OFF A WEEK.

Those in Charge of Movement Claim

Present Salaries Are Too Low,

Considering Work and

Long Hours.

A new labor union, new at least in this city, will spring into life full grown at a meeting of its fifty members at Labor headquarters, Locust and Twelfth streets, tomorrow night. The charter recognizing the Kansas City Nickel Show Operators' Union, which was sent for yesterday, will be read and officers elected. Things will then begin to happen to the managements of the seventy-five or more 5-cent arcades, nickelodeons and electric theaters scattered about the city.

If they do not at once accede to a demand for an immediate raise in salaries, a day off each week for recuperative purposes and shorter hours all around, lantern operators, piano players, doorkeepers and even the blonde haired women cashiers may make a general exit.

SAY THEY ARE POORLY PAID.

"We are the poorest paid employes in the city considering the skill required of us and the long hours we are forced to keep," said H. C. Bernard, Seventy-fifth street and West Prospect avenue, the president of the union, last night. "Door-keepers and operators get $12 a week while girl cashiers and piano players get only from $2 to $4. I can't remember of even having heard of a singer receiving more than $8 in this city for the repeated strain on his or her vocal cords.

"I know of one skillful operator of a lantern who got $25 a week in Chicago a month ago and is now drawing a weekly check for $4 and he often works 15 hours a day with no day off."

A business manager in the Yale 5 cent shows general offices said yesterday that he did not fear a strike and that one if it came would not seriously retard the business of his company.

CLAIMS WORK IS LIGHT.

"I will tough a wire the minute they strike and get 100 operators from Chicago in short order," said he. "The work done by the operators, doorkeepers and singers is very light, although somewhat tedious. As a rule they have the forenoons off and can use them to make money at other things. My company will fight a strike to the last, and if a union is organized will discharge every man or woman caught attending a union meeting."

The new union will be affiliated with the International Theatrical Stage Employes' union, and will have auxiliaries taking in all employes, male and female, of the 5-cent shows. Several secret meetings have been held by the union organizers in a room at labor headquarters and about fifty operators have joined. There are about 500 employes of the nickel theaters in the city.

Labels: Chicago, employment, Locust street, moving pictures, organizations, Prospect avenue, theater, Twelfth street

July 28, 1909

FIND MORE CHILD LABORERS.

Two Without Certificates Are Dis-

covered by Factory Inspector.

Two more children under the age of 14 years have been discovered working by Assistant State Factory Inspector W. J. Morgan. Their employers sent them home by order of the inspector. This makes four such cases handled by Mr. Morgan since he opened his office here last Thursday.

"Many under 16 are working without the certificate required by the law," said Mr. Morgan yesterday, "but on the whole I am agreeably surprised to find conditions better than I had been led to expect."

Assistant State Factory Inspector Elasco Green of St. Louis is working here at present, giving instruction to Assistant Inspector B. H. Darnell of St. Joseph, who is a new appointee.

Labels: children, employment, St Louis, St.Joseph

July 27, 1909

O'HEARN MUST QUIT

AT ONCE, SAYS MAYOR.

WORKHOUSE SUPERINTENDENT

TOLD TO RESIGN.

Pardon Board in Charge of Institu-

tion Today -- Crittenden Not

Ready to Announce Suc-

cessor -- Board's Report.

The resignation of Patrick O'Hearn as superintendent of the workhouse, effective this morning, was demanded by Mayor Crittenden in a letter to O'Hearn mailed last night. The letter should be in the hands of O'Hearn when he reports at the institution today. The action of the mayor was based on the official report of the board of pardons and paroles, and the demand that the superintendent be removed without further ceremony.

"I have mailed a letter to Mr. O'Hearn asking for his immediate resignation. He should receive it by the early mails tomorrow," said the mayor.

"But suppose he does not resign?"

"I have no fears in that direction. It will be safe to say that Mr. O'Hearn will not be superintendent of the workhouse after tomorrow morning. The whole thing is a closed incident. Officially I asked the board to investigate workhouse conditions. It has done so, and its verdict is in my hands.

HASN'T NAMED SUCCESSOR.

"The workhouse has been a source of much annoyance and tribulation to every administration. Naturally my administration came in for the share of odium and criticism that springs up regularly year in and year out. I am glad I had the investigation made. It was the means of disclosing conditions at the city's penal institution that should and will be corrected."

"Who is to be O'Hearn's successor?"

"I have several men of integrity and sound judgment who are good disciplinarians under consideration, but I do not know if any of them would accept the position for the salary, which is $150 a month. A man possessed of the requirements to make a satisfactory superintendent of the workhouse is not looking for $150 a month job. He is better employes and better paid."

The mayor said that possibly by tonight or tomorrow he will be able to announce the name of the new superintendent, and that in the meantime the board of pardons and paroles will exercise jurisdiction over the workhouse.

GUARDS TO BE DISCHARGED.

It is thought that most of the guards under the O'Hearn regime will be discharged.

There was talk in political circles last night that Edward Winstanly, city purchasing agent was being considered as O'Hearn's successor, but the report was not taken seriously. It was argued that the man who will be appointed must have had some experience in handling prisoners.

"Everything that belongs to the city will be returned," declared the mayor.

This means an effort will be made to recover the two calves and a black mare, claimed by the city, which testimony at the hearing showed had been sent from the workhouse during O'Hearn's administration.

O'Hearn was appointed superintendent in April, 1908. His wife is matron of the institution, but whether she will be asked to resign has not been determined.

The report of the board of pardons and paroles deals with conditions past and present at the workhouse, and contains many recommendations for improvements.

Labels: employment, Mayor Crittenden, parole board, workhouse

July 6, 1909

SERVED SANDWICHES AND TEA.

Street Car Men Were Too Busy to

Lay Off for Supper.

Twelve hundred ham sandwiches were distributed among the employes of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company at supper time last evening, and each man had copious draughts of iced tea to wash down the food.

The lunching places were Fairmount park, where 500 sandwiches were distributed; Electric park, where an additional 500 sandwiches were given the men, and Forest park, where 200 were eaten. The lunches were in lieu of supper.

The company found employment for all of their men yesterday, and as none were left for relief work, it was found necessary to furnish them with lunch. This was done through the office of General Manager W. W. Wheatley.

Labels: Electric park, employment, fairmount park, food, forest park, Metropolitan Street Railway Company, streetcar

July 2, 1909

WANTS 1,000 HARVEST HANDS.

Mayor of Larned, Kas., Sends Out

An Urgent Call.

Farmhands are so scarce around Larned, Kas., that Mayor E. E. Frizell has mailed out postal cards to Eastern cities advertising for 2,000 harvest hands. One thousand men reported by June 28, but the farmers are still in need of capable help in the harvest fields and the mayor yesterday appealed to The Journal for assistance. A telegram to The Journal said:

Wanted -- 1,000 harvest hands; wages $2.50 to $3 per day; harvest commences July 3.

Following the telegram a letter was received from the mayor, in which he said that it had been reported that Larned was overcrowded with unemployed men. Such a report, the mayor stated, was an injustice to Larned and the surrounding country, as there has not been a time within the last fifteen years when men were needed so badly.

Labels: employment, farmers, Mayor Crittenden, telegram, The Journal

June 20, 1909

LEAVES THE POLICE FORCE.

Wm. Long, Jailer at Headquarters,

Becomes Hotel Detective.

After more than a dozen years on the police department, William Long, the jailer at police headquarters, resigned yesterday to take a position at the Hotel Baltimore as night house officer. He will serve under H. W. Hammil, former lieutenant in the police department, who resigned to go with the hotel about three months ago.

Long was sent to the "woods" with others who thought that Hayes should have been retained as chief. He was moved back to headquarters five months ago.

Labels: employment, Hotel Baltimore, jail, Lieutenant H. W. Hammil, police, police headquarters

June 15, 1909

TRACING IMMIGRANTS' WORK.

Commissioner Redd Here to Get

Statistics for Government.

To gather data regarding the effect of immigration on American industries, S. M. Redd, an agent of the United States immigration commission at Washington, arrived in Kansas City yesterday and will remain her several days preparing reports for the various contractors.

"It is the in tention of the commission to ascertain as near as possible the number of men and women employed in this country by the different industries," said Mr. Redd at the Kupper hotel yesterday. "A question card which we ask all employers to have filed out for every individual working for him, shows the nativity of the person in question and the parents, place and date of birth, earning capacity, and in fact, all of the important facts."

Mr. Redd said that often he had trouble getting employers to understand what he wanted.

"One man thought I was an agent for an employment bureau," he declared, "and insisted that he did not want any men and didn't have any to recommend to me. Others get shy immediately when the proposition is laid before them, believing perhaps that it is for the purpose of getting information to be used against the employes or that it is a scheme to take the employes away."

Labels: employment, immigrants, Kupper hotel, visitors

June 6, 1909

HARVEST HELP CALL COMES.

No Low Railroad Rate This Year.

16,000 Hands Wanted.

Demands are now pouring in on the local office of the Missouri Free Employment Bureau for harvest hands. June 20 is the date set for sending out the first contingent.

"We do not like to say what towns are calling for hands," said one of the clerks of the bureau yesterday, "because men read it in the newspapers and go at once to the place. This office loses the credit."

What is really something tangible is that the particular places get more "hands" than they can use.

About 16,000 harvesters will be required. Kansas City will be able to furnish about one-half that number. There are not so many available men this year as last, but there are as many as there were two years ago.

As last year, there will be no special rate made for harvest hands by the railroads. Thanks to the abolition of the 3-cent fares, the 1-cent-a-mile rate, which was always made for outward-bound harvesters, has been wiped off the boards. It will be 2 cents a mile, straight, strictly in advance, this year.

Labels: employment, railroad

April 12, 1909

MERIT GETS THESE JOBS.

Uncle Sam Wants Photo Engraver

and Other Skilled Men.

An examination for a photo-engraver to fill a vacancy in Manila, at a salary of from $1,800 to $2,000, will be held in this city by the United States civil service commission, April 30. The applicant must be male, of sound bodily health, and able to stand test on spelling, arithmetic, letter writing, penmanship and experience. On May 5 there are to be examinations for the following civil service positions: Mechanical assistant, with knowledge of refrigerating machinery; food and drug inspector and assistant chemist, at salaries from $900 to $2,400 a year.

One of the requirements for the applicant for the mechanical assistant to consider is that of size. Large men need not apply, for one item mentioned on the announcement reads:

"It will be necessary that the appointee be of slender physique on account of the limited space available in which some of the work must be done."

Labels: civil service, employment

April 8, 1909

EX-JAILER DECLINES TO TALK.

Refuses to Say Whether Prisoners

Taken Out Nights by Brannon.

J. L. Chestnut, night jailer at the county jail, was removed from his position yesterday morning, according to Joel Mayes, county marshal, because of his frequent complaints about his hours of work -- from 4 p. m. to midnight.

"I was constantly hearing complaints in regard to Chestnut," said Mr. Mayes over the telephone late last night. He did not like his hours, and thought himself too big for the place. When the matter was brought to my notice again this morning I let him go."

At his home, 2822 Charlotte street, last night, Mr. Chestnut had little to say.

"I notified Mayes two months ago that I did not like my hours," he said, "and when I found there was to be no change, I quit."

"Do you know of any talk about Bert Brannon, the deputy marshal who was discharged today, having taken prisoners out of the jail at night?" he was asked.

"I don't care to talk about that," was his abrupt reply. "I have nothing to do with Brannon or any of his gang."

"Were any prisoners ever taken out at night while you were there?"

"I told you I would not say anything about that now."

"Did you have trouble with Brannon and then turn in your resignation to Mayes some days ago?"

"I have said all I am going to."

When Marshal Mayes was asked if he know of any prisoners being taken out of the county jail at night, given their freedom for a time, and then returned, he said: "I did hear a rumor to that effect, but could not confirm it. Chestnut's dismissal and the discharge of Brannon are two entirely different matters, and not related to one another in the least. As soon as I heard that Brannon was locked up in the holdover with a charge pending against him I went and got his commission."

Labels: Charlotte street, corruption, County Marshal Mayes, employment, jail

April 7, 1909

TO LOOK AFTER TENT COLONY.

Man and Wife Will Be Employed

At McCune Farm.

The employment of a man and his wife at the McCune farm for boys was authorized yesterday by the county court. The salaries are to be $50 and $30 a month respectively. A cook also is to be employed at $30.

The couple mentioned are to have charge of the tent colony at the farm, to which boys are sent by the juvenile court.

Labels: employment, juvenile court, McCune Home

March 4, 1909

WANTS MEN TO TRIM TREES.

City Forester Advocates Appointment

of Five or Six for This Purpose.

S. C. Woodson, city forester, is advocating the appointment of five or six men who are capable of properly trimming trees, in order to preserve the beauty and life of the trees planted on the street parkings. The $6,000 appropriation for his office is not sufficient to employ the required number of men, and numerous trees are suffering from improper trimming.

The city forester believes in the people purchasing their trees by private contract, but wants the forestry department to have the right of inspection of the trees and the supervision of the planting.

Permits will be issued by the city forester to those persons applying to him upon their showing that they have a contract for the trimming of trees in a specified place. General or blanket permits will not be issued by the department.

Labels: employment, public works

February 13, 1909

ROCK QUARRY SOLVES

"UNEMPLOYED" PROBLEM.

More Than 100 Men, Out of Work,

Have Benefited by Scheme of

Park Board.

The Helping Hand institute, assisted by the park board, has solved the "unemployed" problem of Kansas City. Since Monday more than 100 men have been busy at the rock quarry at Penn Valley park, and it is now the belief of E. T. Brigham, superintendent of the institute, that the situation is well in hand. Though the quarry is operated at a slight loss each day, he believes that in time there will be no public begging in Kansas City.

Several weeks ago, the park board agreed to take all the broken rock that the Helping Hand institute could furnish at $1 per cubic foot. A deserted quarry at the northeast corner of the park was turned over to Mr. Brigham and work began Monday.

Under ordinary circumstances the average man breaks two cubic feet of rock each day. For this he is allowed $1.60, but not in currency, which he might be tempted to spend in the North End saloons. For each box of rock he is allowed a 5-cent ticket. If he fills twenty-four boxes he is given twenty-four tickets, and these he exchanges for meal tickets which are good at three different restaurants or at the Helping Hand institute.

If he is unmarried and has no family to support he is not allowed to work until three days have elapsed, and in the meantime is allowed to look out for permanent employment. The tickets which he accumulates will afford him board and lodging for three days under ordinary circumstances.

At the quarry yesterday eighty-eight men were employed. A dozen of the more experienced were blasting rock; others were carrying the larger stones in wheel barrows to smaller piles. In the long shed which the park board constructed for use in cold weather the time keeper was busy keeping the individual accounts. Every man is furnished a pair of mittens free of charge and is entitled to go in the shed and warm his hands at the coal stove.

The extra expense is due to the number of experienced men who must be employed, Superintendent Brigham explained. One carpenter must be employed to do nothing but repair the boxes and fix hammer handles. An experienced man who understands blasting is also employed and adds to the expense bill.

"We are well pleased," Mr. Brigham said yesterday. "Thanks to the co-operation of the city, we can soon see that no one suffers in Kansas City for the lack of shelter and something to eat."

Labels: employment, Helping Hand, North end, Penn Valley park

January 14, 1909

500 MEN WOULD CUT ICE.

Big Rush of Unemployed to the Free

State Bureau.

"Reports about there being plenty of work for all the unemployed in Kansas City at Bean Lake did lots of business for us," said Superintendent K. F. Schweizer of the free employment bureau last evening. "Our office at Twelfth and McGee streets has been crowded all day with men seeking work and we have been busy taking their names and addresses.

"Swift & Co. and Armour were afraid they were not going to be able to get men enough to put up the big crop of ice now ready for the harvest, but they changed their mind and sent word last night to stop the rush of men to Bean lake for a few hours. We sent 155 there yesterday and had more than 500 applications today. We told them all to come around at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning, and if the packers sent word for more men, which they are sure to do if the weather continues cold, part, at least, will get a chance to work."

The men are receiving 17 1/2 cents an hour, and some of them are working twelve to fifteen hours -- all they can stand. The most are putting in ten hours and it makes better wages for them than they can get in this city. Their board costs them $3.50 a week. The work is not very hard, but it is cold work, and the men in charge of the ice packing refuse to hire a man if he is insufficiently clothed to stand the long hours working on the ice and in the chilling wind.

"Of the 500 or more men in the office today there were not more than ten who live in Kansas city. They give their address at some cheap lodging house and their last employer as some railroad contractor. In answer to the question as to why they quit their job they invariably answer that they were 'laid off.'

"We are doing much good in assisting the unemployed to find work, but we could do much more if we had an appropriation from the state board to be used in judicious advertising. At the present time we are allowed only money enough for rent and salaries. Fifty dollars each month to be expended at the discretion of the superintendent, would enable us to secure many good positions for stenographers, bookkeepers and clerks when such vacancies are telephoned to us."

If the weather continues cold there will be work at Bean lake for thirty days and this will do wonders in carrying these men over the hardest part of the winter.

Labels: Armour plant, employment, ice, weather

January 4, 1908

TEACHERS FOR INDIANS.

Must Be Men, and Preference Will

Be Given Married Ones.

Civil service examinations to fill positions as teachers in Indian schools in New Mexico, Washington and the Dakotas will be held in the federal building, January 20. The positions pay about $720 a year. Men only will be allowed to take the examination, and maried ones will be preferred. On the same day examinations will be had to fill positions as goverment freight clerks at Chicago. These positions pay from $80 to $100 a month.

Labels: civil service, employment, federal building, Native Americans

December 1, 1908

MAKE OLD HOSPITAL

CITY LODGING HOUSE.

PLAN OF JAMES EADS HOWE,

THE KING OF TRAMPS.

A Committee Will Call Upon the

Mayor Today and Lay the Mat-

ter Before Him -- Jobs

for Everybody.

James Eads Howe, ex-millionaire and tramp, is determined to make Kansas City a better place to live in, particularly for the unemployed. A meeting of a committee of five appointed at a congress of the unemployed held at labor headquarters Sunday, met in the same building yesterday afternoon and outlined a plan either to get the idle man a job or send him where he can get one.

Resolutions embodying the idea that the out-of-work is entitled to a job were adopted. The committee, composed of four men and a woman, then considered means of bringing this to pass.

"We do not want to bring a hobo convention to Kansas city," said Mr. Howe. "What we want is to get jobs for the citizens of Kansas city who are in need of them and to send aliens who cannot be accommodated here either to their homes or to some place where they can get a job."

It was a beautiful plan that was outlined, scientific, visionary and almost practicable -- worthy of any college professor. By some means the city is to be persuaded to undertake public improvements enough to give work to all who need it. Kansas Cityans are to get the jobs first and then an effort is to be made to ship all the others to their homes or to places where they can get jobs. Who is to pay the railroad fee has not yet been decided. Then the vagrancy law is to be amended so that an out-of-work cannot be arrested merely because he happens to be unfortunate.

Still there are those wanderers who drift into the city and cannot find work, although perfectly willing to toil. What is to be done with them, or with the surplus of men whom the city may not be able to supply with work on its public improvements? The Hobo King solves this problem in a jiffy.

"While strolling through the city," he said, "I saw an old building which they said was the old city hospital. The thought occurred to me that this was an admirable place to be used for a municipal lodging house such as are found in every other large city in the country. Let us appoint a committee to wait upon the mayor tomorrow to see what can be done."

It was so ordered, and Mrs. Charles Ferguson, wife of the pastor of the All Souls' Unitarian church, Thirty-fifth street and Baltimore avenue, the feminine member of the committee, was one of those appointed to wait on the mayor. Charles Nelson, business manager of the Bartenders' union, was another, and Charles Sumner, a stereotyper, was the third.

Howe comes here as the representative of the Brotherhood Association of the Unemployed, a society with headquarters at St. Louis. The other members of the committee are Mrs. Ferguson, Charles Sumner, H. L. Curry, a laborer from Chicago, and Mr. and Mrs. Creighton, who conduct the Creighton mission at 309 Main street, where 125 unemployed are being lodged nightly, free of charge. The king tramp will stay in town until he thinks that his mission here is accomplished. A meeting of the unemployed will be held this afternoon at 5 o'clock at the Creighton mission, where action will be taken on the recommendations of the committee.

Labels: Chicago, employment, hoboes, Main street, St Louis

November 16, 1908

GOVERNMENT POSITIONS OPEN.

Many Civil Service Examinations

Scheduled for December.

On December 29 to 30, civil service examinations will be held for the purpose of securing eligibles as teachers in the Philippine service. This position is open to both men and women and the salary ranges from $900 to $3,000 a year. Among other positions open in the government service are those of computer in the nautical almanac office, at a salary of $1,000 to $1,600 a year. The examination for the position will be held on December 9 and 10.

Telephone operator, at a salary of $480 a year, is a position open to men only. On December 9 will be held an examination at which time applicants may qualify for the position of inspector of shoes and leather, at salary of $1,200 a year. A position is also open as office engineer in irrigation and drainage investigations. This office pays a salary of $2,000 a year and the examination will be held December 2.

Application blanks for the various positions may be obtained from the United States civil service commission at Washington, D. C.

Labels: civil service, employment

October 31, 1908

FOUR HOURS FOR EACH VOTER.

Employers Are Obliged by Statute to

Grant That Time.

Samuel A. Boyer, county clerk, yesterday called attention to section 7175 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, which provide that every employer must allow his employes four hours on election day so they may vote. The employer, however, may specify the hours. The law says that no wages shall be deducted on this account, nor shall the employe be made otherwise to suffer for taking time to vote from his employment. Violation of the law on the part of the employer subjects him to prosecution for a misdemeanor, the penalty for which is a fine.

Labels: employment, politics

October 21, 1908

'TWAS A PLESANT FIRE ALARM.

"Your Pay Has Been Raised," Said One

Telephone Operator.

Ordinary firemen lose their temper when routed out of bed at night on a false alarm, but not so with the members of the Kansas City, Kas., department, when Miss Jennie Quick, telephone operator at the city hall, sent in a general alarm last night at 11 o'clock. After the firemen had all hopped out of bed and made hitches at the various stations, Miss Quick informed them that there was no fire, but that the council had just passed an ordinance raising their salaries. Of course, the telephone girl was excused and her joke accepted in the very best of humor.

Under the new ordinance the chief is to receive $150 per month, the assistant men are to receive $70 a month for the first six months' service and $80 thereafter. Heretofore the regular firemen received $70, the chief $116 and the assistant $83. The new schedule of salaries goes into effect January 1, next.

Upon motion of Alderman T. J. Lyons of the Sixth ward, the city clerk was instructed to notify the official city paper that it must have a man present at every meeting of the council and print a full report of the proceedings.

Labels: employment, Fire, Kansas City Kas, telephone

September 12, 1908

RUTHEY GOT SCRUBBIN' JOB.

Mayor Crittenden's Old Nurse Will

Keep General Hospital Clean.

"I nursed you an' bathed you when you was a baby, an' a mighty stubborn chile you was," said Ruthey Miller, a grey-haired negro mammie, to Mayor Thomas T. Crittenden, Jr.

"Well, if there ain't my old black mammie, Ruthey," exclaimed the mayor as he proffered a seat to the woman in his private office yesterday. "What can I do for you, Ruthey?"

"There's a $30 a month job out at the hospital for a scrubbin' woman. I wants that job, I do," replied the old woman.

"You can have it, for you are of that class of negroes of whom I said in my campaign speeches, if they wanted a friend I would walk across the state for them," declared the mayor.

"Ize obliged to you. Ize gwine to be out to that der hospital bright an' early in the mornin'" shouted Ruthey with glee, as she left the city hall.

"That old black mammie has been cook in the governor's mansion for my father, and Governors David R. Francis, John A. Marmaduke and Governor Joseph Folk," remarked the mayor, "and I do wish she wouldn't throw up to me the shortcomings of my boyhood days."

Labels: employment, Governor Folk, hospital, Mayor Crittenden, race

July 3, 1908

THEIR LABOR AGENT FLED.

Seven Foreigners Had Trusted Harry

Burton With $50.

The police are searching for a Harry Burton, about 60 years old, 5 feet 6 inches tall, complexion ruddy and mustache gray. At 1018 Union avenue there are seven Italians who mourn his disappearance. They say that he brought them here from Chicago on the promise of putting them to work. They allege that he gave them the slip at the Savoy hotel. When he left he took with him $50 belinging to the foreigners, they tearfully allege.

Labels: Chicago, employment, immigrants, Savoy, Union avenue

June 19, 1908

WARNING TO HARVEST HANDS.

State Employment Agent Says

"Avoid Advertised Localities."

"We are directing about 150 applicants where to go to get the harvest every day," said K. F. Schweiser, superintendent of the state free employment bureau, yesterday. "Since we can not transport the men out ourselves our usefulness is limited to some extent this year. We cannot tell how many are actually going to the fields. Up to date we have directed 1,017 men. We expect to handle 2,000 men between the 20th and the 25th of June. I have received more than 150 letters from groups of men in the East, particularly college students, asking about the harvest, and I directed them all to come to Kansas City about June 20.

"Right here I would like to say a word of warning against a certain class of private employment agencies. A man who runs a Union avenue agency came into my office yesterday and asked me to tell him where to send men to reach the harvest. He explained that he could make a very neat sum in fees by retailing the information to the workingmen who frequented the district where his office is located. In other words he was going to make the workingmen pay for information we dispense for nothing.

"I would like also to warn men intending to go to the fields from communities which advertise. Last year the mayor of one Kansas town came here, and by advertising induced many to go to his part of the country. He sent many more than were needed and the farmers were then able to squeeze down wages very low. If you want to go to the fields come to the state employment bureau and I will direct you to the best place, for I have the latest and best information, and it's free."

Labels: employment, farmers, Union avenue

May 9, 1908

FLOOR WALKER KISSED HER.

C. Kennedy Is Fined $50 on Com-

plaint of Miss May Irwin.

C. Kennedy, a floor walker in a 10-cent store near Eleventh and Main streets, was fined $50 in police court yesterday on a charge of disturbing the peace of Miss May Irwin, a clerk in the store. The fine was paid by the manager of the store. Miss Irwin lives in Kansas City, Kas.

A week ago, the young woman testified, she was sent to the hosiery department in the basement. It was dark down there and she turned on the lights. Miss Irwin alleged that Kennedy then appeared on the scene and grabbed her, hugging and kissing her against her protest. Last Wednesday Miss Irwin was discharged and she ascribed a reason for it. Previous to that she said she feared to make a complaint against Kennedy as she wished to hold her job. After she was discharged she filed complaint with the city attorney and Kennedy was arrested.

Kennedy admitted most of the charges the girl made, but said that she had given him cause to make advances by flirting with him. This Miss Irwin denied.

"I have worked in many stores in Kansas City," said Miss Irwin, "and in every one I have been insulted in some manner by a head man. I also could name lots of other girls who have received the same treatment. Why don't they complain? That's easily explained. They are all poor girls and have to work, and such a complaint would not only lose them one job, but might black ball them at other places."

Labels: Eleventh street, employment, Kansas City Kas, Main street, police court, retailers, women

May 8, 1908

"LOSE ME," SAYS TEMPAFSKY.

Concluded Sanitary Inspection

Wasn't the Job He Wanted.

A half day at the city pie counter sufficed for Louis Tempafsky, who was appointed Wednesday by the board of health as a sanitary inspector. Louis reported for duty bright and early yesterday morning and adorned in all the regalia of his position of authority started out on his day's work of eight hours at $2.50 per day. Some hours later the telephone in the board of health office rang.

"This is Tempafsky," the clerk who answered the 'phone heard. "Lose me off the pay roll. I never was cut out for this job. You hear me, lose me; get another man."

That was the last seen, or heard, to be more accurate, of Tempafsky, and there is a vacancy in the ranks of the sanitary inspectors.

Labels: board of health, employment, telephone

April 29, 1908

CAN YOU PREPARE FOSSILS?

If So, the Government Needs Your

Services at $75 a Month.

There is an excellent chance for somebody to get a $75 a month government job by tking a civil service examination. Notices reached here yesteday calling for a "Preparator of fossils (male)."

Nobody around the government building knows whether the fossils to be preparated are to be exclusively those of male or what the notice means. Anyhow, the examination is to be held in the federal building on May 20.

Labels: civil service, employment, federal building

April 27, 1908

ARE FEW UNEMPLOYED NOW.

Helping Hand Institute Reports Hard

Times Nearly Over.

"Our daily statistics show that the army of the unemployed is constantly growing fewer in numbers," said E. T. Brigham of the Helping Hand institute last night. "While since last November we have helped more able bodied men than we have in any other six months of our history, the number is fast getting back to normal. Spring work is opening up and men who are able to labor are having no trouble in finding something to do.

"Until the last winter, we have been handling fewer able bodied men each year, during a period covering six years. All our other classes increased, but this class constantly decreased.

"In the last six months, out of 3,000 cases, approximately a third have been men who were able and anxious to work if they could have found jobs. They were the first to be thrown out of work at the mention of the word 'panic,' and now the fact that they area ll going back to their old places, or others just as good, is almost a sure indication of the brightness of the business outlook.

"From what we can tell from here, and the Helping Hand is one of the busiest employment agencies in town, there is going to be no lack of spring work. We are getting almost as many calls for men as we can fill."

Labels: employment, Helping Hand