The Opelousas courier., 1894-12-08
ON THE CARE OF pEpEnnen7
AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN.

-
Discussion by Mr.. Bolton Hail, Viz. p-..,
dent Of the New York Tar ne,nr,,
League,
nave no criticism to make upon DIR.
Colt's University Settlement work
there are Sc many to talk and so few
10 work, that I have the greatest
patlence with anyone who is actually
uo1ng something. DIR. Colt says tina,
the family of the workingman, SO long
as he is self dependent, provides com
paratively well for the children: but
the need comes when the family is
brought to distress by the lack Of en-
ployment. That is true. .
1t is also true that the children OF
those who their homes are not the
delinquent and dependent class.
The question then resolves itself into
how to provide for the children of
those who are out of work, and for the
children who live in the tenements.
Our remedy is to supply everyone with
work, and to abolish the tenements;
not the tenements, for every apart
ment house is a tenement, but the
slums.
The first difficulties we meet in try,
ing to do anything for the children are
that we can not find work for their
parents, and that those who have work
get wages so low that they can not
support their families in comfort and
decency, sc that the children have to
go to work almost in infancy.
We must begin at the foundation.
What is needed for work?
When the Pilgrim Fathers came to
this country they brought little, and
found nothing but land, and on that
they set to work. No one was without
employment OF without a fair return for
it. All that land is here still, and inven-
ton has made work a thousand times
more effective. yet millions of acres lie
idle and thousands of men look in vain
for work. It is not that they will not
work: if it were, they could not appeal to
u sympathies. Is it not that the
chances for work and the materials
with which to work, every n Of
which comes from the soil, are shut
up? That where one would work, he
must pay q large part of what he pro-
duces for mere permission to use that
soil. or for those materials which are
in the soil; even for space to live on
while he works. One man alone might
not be able to support himself work.
ing on the earth; a thousand men fur
nish all the varieties of skill and abil-
ity that will bring forth from the land
all that they need and work it up into
the thousand forms in which they
need it.
But the land is kept from them by
those who r most prudent and able
and far-seeing, by ''forestallers," who
know that some time or another its
possession will enable them to tax
their fellows for permission to labor
where their labor will be effective.
Even if a man has the energy and
the means to get to comparatively
cheap land. he must choose either the
dread loneliness and impossibility OF
getting more than a living in the coun-
try. or the high rents and restricted
opportunity of the cities, while all the
time, within walking distance OF the
towns, are untitled fields and unused
home sites held at $500 a lot.
Hence we have more workmen than
can find work; when we have SO shut
up minerals, materials, coal, agricul-
tural lands and other things which
men need, we have q continuous glnt
Of the labor market; SO that men. in
spite of the labor combinations, must
bid against each other for who will
work for the least pay.
DIR. Colt says that everything that
improves the neighborhood improves
most quickly the condition of the chill
dren; and he suggests small parks and
baths. There is one whose condition
is more quickly affected by any inn
provements than that of the children,
that is. the landlord. The first effect
of public parks inside the block or out
side the block is to raise the value OF
the land. The first effect Of any inn
provement in the earning capacity or
the saving capacity of the workingmen
is to raise the rents in the neighbor-
hood in which they reside. Here lies
the explanation of the fact that Lon
don. where SO much has been done, is
not better off than New York, where
so little has been done, but really
worse.
VIE MUST ABOLISH THE TENEMENTs.
If this is to be done it must be done
by the operation of natural forces, not
by subscriptions. How should we do
this?
THE PART THAT TAXES PLAY.
We must make it profitable to build
oood houses. and. without checking
needed Improvement, check the specu-
Ia4ion ia vacant land. Were taxes
based. not on the value OF land n
buildings. but on the rental value OF
the land alone, raised as this rises, and
lowered as this falls, there would oe
little lnducement to hold land vacane
Il il could be used, as the owner would
nave to pay just as much as It it were
uaed. therefore the tendency would De
- sell or rent out every lot for some
thing. If only for . playground
- nasture. This would also
check the speculator, who, while
he has m economic use IN me,'
chandising, is an admitted evil ~ iano-
owning, Ii would also take on the nnes
for Improvement, called taxes. Il
would greatly increase the number OF
small. cheap buildings in the outskirts
If the city. and make it p~roftabla 70
mt model tenements where they are
greatly needed.
The increase of building would Keep
manufacturers busy, and reduce tene-
&&#F & &%EA%#NE&
ment rents.
All this would be done without max