“_Be it resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives, in Congress assembled_: That the chief aim of human government should be to secure to each individual member of such government contentment and happiness; that this can be done only by securing to all the unrestricted opportunity to employ the means intended by the Creator for earning a livelihood—_i. e._, labor. “_Therefore be it enacted_, That a fund of $500,000,000 be provided (by the issue of said sum in full legal-tender greenback notes, in denominations of one, two and five dollars) and set apart for the purpose of giving employment to such American citizens as may have no other employment, and who may go before any board of county commissioners in the United States and certify under oath that they are American citizens, are out of employment and desire to perform manual labor in the service of this government. “Thereupon it shall be the duty of said county commissioners to assign to such citizens work in improving any of the public highways in said county, or in constructing and equipping any public utility in and for said county. The wages due each citizen for said services shall be paid to him, weekly, by the treasurer of the county in which the services are performed, on the warrant of the county auditor and order of the said commissioners. A monthly statement of the amounts so paid out shall be sent by the treasurer of the county to the Treasury Department at Washington, and thereupon the sum thereof shall be repaid from the fund aforesaid into the treasury of such county. “On and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person to beg or ask alms in the United States except in cases of physical disability.” Arter he had read this law says he: “Gentlemen, we are aware that most of you are here because you are victims of the system that has heretofore prevailed—many for asking for bread when hungry, others for other offenses, which you may have been forced to commit in consequence of having no employment and being in want. “Our county commissioners have assigned and set apart work, on the Shaker Hill road and Kinsman Street, sufficient to give employment to three thousand men for several months, and Governor Bushnell has, by proclamation, given their liberty to all inmates of the penal institutions of the State (except the penitentiary) who desire to avail themselves of the opportunity to work as provided by the law I have just read. You, gentlemen, are excused from making the oath mentioned. [Illustration: “One nice little place that I thought I would rent as soon as I got my first week’s pay.”]