1914-10-30oo

“On the books of the Hamilton United Relief association today are the names of a large number of families who find themselves in desparate straits through no fault of their own.”

Hamilton Spectator.   October 30, 1914.

The Hamilton United Relief association volunteers were doing their best, but the requirement for the assistance that the association could provide far outstripped the resources available.

The Hamilton Spectator, on October 30, 1914 published an article which hopefully would provoke more donations to the association.

A reporter was send to the headquarters of the Hamilton Association and what he learned about the people applying for relief prompted him to write the following in the early part of his article:

“If you were to see these people face to face you wouldn’t be able to keep your hand out of your pocket. You’d feel obligated to help them – just because they so plainly need help.”¹

¹ “Records Tell Sad Story of Grim Poverty : United Relief Staff Comes Across Many Pathetic cases”

Hamilton Spectator. October 30, 1914.

While at the headquarters of the association, the young man from the Spectator was permitted some of the reports made by the investigators who had been assigned to visit home to assess whether or not relief would be provided to the applicants :

“Here, for instance, is a report on a Russian family.  There are four in the family and the father, a laborer who has been in this country three years, has been out of work three months. The Rev. Father Tarasiuk, the Russian minister, says, that the family have no heat in the house. They are trying to keep the baby warm by keeping it in a pillow bound with rugs.”¹

Unemployment was a major cause of poverty in 1914, but there were other causes, such as domestic abandonment:

“Mrs. M. was deserted by her husband three months ago. Since that time she has gone out washing, and thus has supported her two children, respectively 5 and 8 years of age. About a week ago, she broke her ankle and is now at the city hospital. She is getting further behind in her rent all the time, and the children are disconsolate while she is away.”¹

Physical disability was also a factor in many cases of distress:

“Blindness has overtaken a big, powerful Scotchman, 34 years of age, who, until a short time ago, was able to support his family at his trade, that of blacksmith. Dr. Morton, of the city hospital, made every effort to save the man’s sight, but a piece of steel had penetrated the eyeball. This man’s wife is sick in bed, and he is doing all he can to take care of the children, one of who is a baby only thirteen months old, and the other a child of three.”¹

Finally, a letter, written to the association was reprinted as follows:

“I sent up my man and they did not give him the groceries. I have two children and they are crying for something to eat and I have nothing to give them.

“Be so kind and please give to me, for my children are starving. I could wait, but my children can’t”¹

The Spectator ended his article by urging Spectator readers to help as best they could, noting that there were 833 families of the Hamilton United Relief association’s book as October, 1914 was coming to end. The coming winter could only mean a rise in that number.