In March of 1916 Mayor Jones had the inspired, if unoriginal, idea of using law breakers as street workers and city improvers. The City Workhouse Ordinance of 1913 gave him the power to put men who were arrested for drunkenness or vagrancy to work on city property. (18 March 1916 & 24 March 1916) Chief of Police Jones was ready to take advantage of this decision and by the 23rd of March, Jones had a list of known vagrants (unemployed men) who he sent his men out to find. Within a couple days they had eight men available to start cleaning up the city.
The men were set to taking care of the park grounds, sweeping the streets, clearing the alleys and vacant lots and leveling the trash dump. The Pantagraph would gleefully report the number of men on reserve for the chain gang and the absence of such loiterers from the street corners and pool halls. Public drunkenness could also land one on the chain gang. Some men in town had a reputation of being terrible drunks, but of course these were only the men who did not enjoy their alcohol in the security of their own home. Only those who could not pay their fines were required to work on the chain gang. If a man could get a friend to loan him the money to pay his fine, he could escape the work.
The chain gang was not literally chained. The men would be overseen by an armed guard during the work. And that armed guard was NOT reluctant to use his gun. One incident was reported involving John Johnson, who tried to run from the chain gang. The gang was working on East Grove Street near Kreitzer when Johnson ran. The custodian ran after him, firing off shots as they went down Grove. We can only hope that this did not occur during the children's lunch hour from Washington School, as many of them would have been walking home. After Johnson ran, chains were applied to his legs, as a deterrent to his running and as an example to the other members of the chain gang. (13 June 1916)
In July of 1916 there was a punishing heat wave. One report indicated that horses and other farm animals had died in the heat or were very sick. The heat did not stop the chain gang from operating, however. Just above the article about the poor animals dying in the heat, an article reporting the collapse of a man on the chain gang was also appeared. (29 July 1916)
The chain gang was seen as a good way of getting rid of undesirables who were unwilling to work. It was said that work was available and that there was no reason for men to be unemployed. But what did being employed do for a man in 1917? When the chain gang was still in full swing in 1917 a statement by Mayor Jones noted that: ". . .with foodstuffs practically out of each of the man with an ordinary wage, and at present but little prospect of a drop in prices . . ." all vacant lots should be made into gardens, rather than be cleared by the chain gang so that the poor employed could raise some foodstuffs. Of course those who would grow vegetables would also be required to find the owners of the vacant lots and pay them a rent. So jobs were available, but the men couldn't really make enough money to buy foodstuffs. It's unfortunate that Mayor Jones couldn't recognize the irony of forcing men to take jobs that could not provide workers with their daily bread. (26 Feb 1917)
The chain gang continued for just two years. It was abandoned in 1918 when work was readily available because of the war effort, and hopefully at a livable wage. Probably no one of any influence in the city thought that a chain gang was a bad idea. Drinking was very much frowned on by influential people in the city. A strong temperance fever had been burning in Bloomington since its founding and openly opposing that fever could be politically unwise. Abstaining from working was simply un-American. How could industry move forward without workers who were willing to work for the pittance that would not even buy their daily bread?