Tacoma’s Work Relief Experiment
Facing economic hardship, the city of Tacoma launches a public works program that prioritizes heads of households over others.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Work was begun on the West End sewer this morning as the initiative of a new policy on the part of the city authorities by which work is to be furnished to the unemployed. The sewer is to cost about $50,000, and a force of 120 men will be employed upon it. This morning only thirty men could be utilized and that number was employed. The rate of wages as fixed by ordinance is $2 for a day of nine hours. Only bona fide residents of six months standing, with families dependent upon them, are employed; the gangs will be changed every week, in order to distribute the benefits of the work as largely as possible.
“Only bona fide residents of six months standing, with families dependent upon them, are employed.”
Tacoma’s 1891 approach to unemployment—restricting public works jobs to established residents with dependents—shows how local governments have long struggled to balance social relief with residency and citizenship status. Today’s debates over public funding for labor initiatives still echo these early 1890s attempts to manage the impacts of the boom-and-bust cycle.
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