A Stone Yard Instead of a Soup Kitchen: Seattle's 1895 Plan to Put the Jobless to Work
With winter unemployment biting, four Seattle citizens ask the city council to open its own quarry and stone yard — paying men to repair the streets rather than handing them charity.
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.
Any proposition looking to the relief of the needy is entitled to consideration. This is particularly true when a proposition contemplates giving to men who want to work an opportunity to do so. The plan proposed to the city council by B. C. Kinnear, C. P. Stone, George Adair and others has this object in view.
The idea is to have the city establish a stone yard and bring in stone such as can be had from any of the numerous quarries in the vicinity at a reasonable cost. The stone can be prepared and used in repairing the streets, and a large number of men can be employed in making the necessary repairs.
By following out the suggestions contained in the communication referred to, the work can be so divided among all the unemployed in the city that at least a sufficient amount can be earned by each man to pay for his food and shelter. The plan certainly has many good features and should be favorably acted upon by the council, so far as its main features are concerned. There are men who want work and there is plenty of work to be done. So far as the cost is concerned, it is better to have the taxpayers' money disbursed in this way than to have it distributed in the form of charity.
“There are men who want work and there is plenty of work to be done. So far as the cost is concerned it is better to have the taxpayers' money disbursed in this way than to have it distributed in the form of charity.”
In 1895 Seattle had no welfare state, only a choice between charity and a payroll — and these petitioners argued for the payroll. The argument is startlingly current: today's debates over encampment sweeps, day-labor halls and publicly funded jobs programs are the same fight over whether relief should arrive as a bed and a meal or as a wage. The stone yard was also a hint of the regrades and street crews that would literally rebuild Seattle's ground in the decade to come.
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