The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1901-05-15
THETENEMENT CHILD
A STRUGGLE BETWEEN FAT POCKET
BOOK AND THIN BABY.

peal 10 Governor OdeIs.
The vile tenement houses and cheap
apartment houses OF this city are
monuments shameful monuments-to
thousands Of murdered children.
DR.. Robins Of the RlYington street
settlement declares that the children
Of the poor die in thousands Of the
tenement house disease"
This disease Is due to lack of light Of
| sunshine and Of air.
The poor little creatures are born
! and wlther In the dark rooms and
darker halls.
The legislature OF the state has pass
ed law reforming at least IA few of
the tenement house abuses. This law,
framed by disinterestcd citizens, Is
fought by those who speculate In cheap
tenements and flats and speculate in
the lives OF children.
Governor Odell has delayed signing
the bill In order to hear the protests OF
the tenement spectators.
While he has delayed signing the
builders Of deadly tenements have has
tened to file plans for hundreds Of afro
cious structures. One single firm filed
plans at one time for So of the death
traps. Plans now filed cannot be touch
ed by future legislation. Let us hope
that an administration may be found
to condemn them later and ruin the
vultures that build them.
Yesterday Governor Odell listened to
the specializing builders, who demand
that no law be passed to control them.
Their argument was to the point and
simple. This Is what they said, each
arguing for fat pOcketboOk:
1.-THE children die for lack of sun
shine and light and nlrl
POSSIBLY.
but sunshine and light cost money.
Are we to pay for those thingsI
Cant we build what we like on our
own land? The poor don't have to rent
our tenements if they don't want to-
This Is free country. Let US build
the tenements and let the poor stay out
of them If they please.
"Remember our vested interests, gov
ernor. Don't destroy our profits. You
are business man. Think of us Don't
be sentimentallst Remember, we
employ skilled labor and If you hurt us
you hurt the laborlng man. You lose
votes" etc.
The governor has heard the appeal OF
the rich spectators In child life. He
has listened to the reasons" of the
Buddensieks and other criminal build
ers and has delayed signing the bill to
please them.
We hope that his mind Will not be
closed to the appeal of the tenement
house child.
She cannot argue, she has no vested
rights, no fat pocketbook. She has only
vested wrongs, and by way of argu
ment she can only point her thin hand
to her little baby sister or brother
crawling, white and feeble about the
damp, sunless halls OF the tenement.
But the argument of the helpless
child was written 10 centuries ago
Governor Odell, and the letters of fire
in which it was written are bright and
clear today. Read It:
'Inasmuch as We have done 1t unto
the least Of these, ye have done 1t unto
me.
"And whose shall receive one such
little child In my name recelyeth me.
but whose shall offend one of these
little ones which believe In me, 1T were
better for him that n milestone were
hanged about his neck and that he
We're drowned in the depth of the sea"
Governor Odell, let this argument Of
him who died for the poor outweigh
the argument of the men with fat
! pocketbooks.
The little children cannot 20 to Al
bany, and their voices are feeble, but
| and hear their side.
You know that sunshine and air are
as necessary to childhood as food and
water
You know that children deprived of
sunlight starye as though deprived of
food They wither and die, like plants
In cellar
VIII you permit these spectators or
"vested interests" to starve thousands
and tens of thousands of children?
We know that you Will not.
You have children of your own, gov
crnor.
Gould any man get hearing to "ar-
que" with you against their interests
Could any man with a plan to deprive
them of sunlight visit you with safety
DO for the children of the poor what
you would do for your own.-New
York Journal