Something for Something: The Salvation Army's Beds, Baths and Basket Looms
At South Second and Weller the Salvation Army feeds and houses 150 jobless men — and makes them earn it, in half-hour shifts at a spruce basket factory and a bathhouse run on posted rules.
It is worth the while of any person interested in the amelioration of the condition of the laboring man to visit the Salvation Army food and shelter depot at the corner of South Second and Weller streets. A good work is being done under adverse circumstances, and anyone who helps the depot along can rest assured his charitable impulse is not to end in placing a premium on idleness.
The depot is a place where everything is as clean as wax. The food placed on the long counters could be eaten with relish by people who think 'cleanliness next to godliness,' but in plain English the depot is no place for drones. The motto is 'something for something,' and a reporter sent there to observe what was going on found that this is being literally carried out.
Financially speaking, the establishment is travelling a rather rough road, and were it not for the assistance rendered by the city — namely, a $250 appropriation, which covered the fitting-up expenses — Special Fowler would have to do closer figuring. Mr. Fowler says that all that is necessary at present to pay expenses is a sale of five cords of wood a day. As a matter of fact the actual demand by purchasers falls short three or four cords. This, of course, makes it hard to get money enough to pay for the provisions used for the 150 men who depend on the shelter. In the beginning the men were given two meals a day, but curtailment in work has made it necessary to reduce the number one-half.
The depot has as one of its branches a full-fledged basket factory under charge of W. Q. Healy. This factory has been in operation one month, during which time 200 dozen baskets have been made and placed on the market. When the reporter was at the shop an order for ninety dozen for a well-known firm was just being finished. Mr. Healy said that he had facilities for making thirty-five dozen baskets a day. Up to the present time, by dividing the work into half-hour shifts, about thirty men had been given work a day.
Ordinary market baskets, lunch baskets and bushel baskets were made, the timber being procured in and about Seattle. Spruce, which is useful for the main body of the basket, is purchased, but the maple used for handles is obtained from the forests by men sent out from the factory. It does not require skilled labor to prepare the strips which are woven together, so this gives the ordinary laborer a chance to work. A piece of spruce, sawed the proper width, is placed in a vice and then two men drag a plane along the surface, thus tearing off strips that become part of the basket. The hinges are purchased in New York city.
Special Fowler has a gang of men at work getting out driftwood that is thrown up under the planking at the corner of Weller and South Second streets.
The old standing joke about the man who went to bed while his only suit of underwear was being washed might be truly applied to some of the boarders at the depot. The exception would have to be made, however, that at the depot the clothes are drying and actually ready to be put on by the time their owner comes out of the bath tub. The bath room is one of the most important features of the establishment and it is run on rules so far never broken. There are two bath tubs supplied with hot and cold water and also a large brick water heater. The temperature of the room is 85 degrees all the time. It will be readily understood that the persons who will avail themselves of this free bath room have not two suits of underclothes. The reason for the heater then becomes apparent. A man puts his clothes in a big tin can filled with water and in no time they are boiled and ready for drying, while the drying is going on the man is bathing.
In order that there may be no trouble among the bathers the following rules have been adopted:
'No loud talking allowed. No profane language. Each person will bathe and wash as soon as possible in order to make room for others. No swearing or any profane language allowed. Each person will be responsible for his own clothes. These rules will be strictly enforced.'
“'The depot is no place for drones. The motto is "something for something," and a reporter sent there to observe what was going on found that this is being literally carried out.'”
The depot's motto — 'something for something' — is the same bargain Seattle still argues over every time a shelter or a day-labor program comes up for funding: help, but conditional on work. What is striking is how practical the 1895 version was, pairing beds and boiled underwear with a basket factory that put thirty men a day on half-hour shifts and sold to real firms. It is a reminder that the city's answer to homelessness has long been a mix of municipal money, charity and hand-made goods — and that the whole thing ran on five cords of firewood a day.
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