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Sunday, September 19, 2021

Boston Men Desperate for Work Sell Services to Highest Bidder, Sept. 13, 1921

12 Jobless Men Sold to Highest Bidder

Boston, Sept. 9—The collapse of Edward Dixon of Philadelphia, apparently from malnutrition just after his services had been sold to the highest bidder, brought the second day of the auction block for unemployed men on the common to a close after 12 men had been promised work.

Dixon, a world war veteran, had prepared an appeal which Urban Ledoux, leader of the unemployed group read to the thousands of persons gathered around the bandstand. As Ledoux was reading an account of the death of Dixon’s father in the war, which left the young man alone, Dixon swayed and collapsed. One meal a day and sometimes not that had bene his portion, he said. Physicians said tonight that his experience and exposure from sleeping on the common had made his condition serious.

Bidders were more plentiful today than yesterday, and many pledges of food and clothing for the men were forthcoming. Women acted as auctioneers.

From The Smithfield Herald, Sept. 13, 1921

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