SECURITY VERSUS INSECURITY 119 



streets of New York without a single, real chance to 

 secure any kind of a position which would enable me 

 to support my wife and daughter. I have tried almost 

 everything. I have answered every help-wanted ad- 

 vertisement in the newspapers, registered with all sorts 

 of employment agencies, called on all my friends and 

 relatives and almost everybody with whom I was even 

 remotely acquainted, in an effort to find some sort 

 of work which I might do. Fortunately, my wife was 

 able to secure occasional employment in a department 

 store, clerking at the counter. She would leave our 

 little girl with her grandmother during the period 

 she worked. But in spite of the money she managed 

 to earn, and a little which I managed to pick up, we 

 have been steadily wiping out our savings. Even after 

 practicing every sort of economy, the rent makes big 

 holes in our savings each month, though we have 

 managed to even reduce this by doubling up with my 

 wife's parents. Today I have only $500 left of my 

 original savings. And I can see the end of that this 

 coming year. 



"Like lots of other men, when tired of walking 

 around, I have dropped into the public libraries to 

 read and get my mind off my troubles. About a week 

 ago I happened to pick up your book, This Ugly 

 Civilization, and I raced through it it seemed to be 

 written just for me. I don't need to tell you how it 

 affected me. It seemed to furnish the complete answer 

 to just such problems as the one with which I had 

 been struggling. But what a ghastly joke that I should 



