Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-04-22
| HOUSING CONDITIONS
Distinguished Englishman
Investigating Them.
VISITS WASHINGTON
MAKES TOUR OF DISTRICT ON A
BICYCLE.
Discusses His Object in Collecting In
formation-Has Travelled Exten-
/, sively Over the World.

There arrived in Washington yesterday
distinguished Englshman. traveller and
scholar. in the person of Mr. Budget Mea-
kin of London, or. as one may almost say.
''of the world at large" for Mr.. Meakin
has Travelled over almost every country on
the globe. and is almost all the time on the
go. Mr.. Meakin comes to this country at
this time. for this is his fourth visit 10 the
United States, to make study of the in
dustrial situation as regards the moral side
of the relations between capital and labor
and to gather material and Illustrations for
lectures he proposes to give in England in
an extension of the already extensive
Shaftesbury Industrial Betterment Course,
by means of which he has endeavored dur
ing the past year to portray accurately the
housing conditions of that country. The
distinguished visitor will leave tonight for
the south. He visited New York, Ph,ladel
phia and Baltimore on the way to this city.
He lectures tonight at the Universalist
Church, corner of 18th and l. streets north
west, under the auspices of the Associated
Charities.
Not a Reformer.
Mr. Meakin is not a long-haired reformer
or a preacher of any particular religious
creed. Rather he is scientist, who has
deduced the science of living to material
principles. and Is endeayoring to place these
principles before the world in the largest
sort of way. He Is rather tall man, and
has the appearance of a student His
heavy brown hair and beard serve as
contrast to rather pale, high brow, from
beneath which peers the brightest of blue
eyes. Mr. Meakin talks earnestly when he
talks, and listens attentively when he
thinks he will learn by listening. He is
man who believes that nothing is too small
to be noticed and nothing so commonplace
but that something can be learned from 1t.
In the course Of a short talk about his
work with a Star reporter yesterday after
noon Mr. Meakin referred to his travels
He has passed through every country of Eu-
rope, Asia and Africa except Afghanistan
and Thibet; he has lived for years among
the Moors in Morocco and has written sew
eral books about that country and its peo-
pie which are regarded as standard au-
thorities. and are to be found translated in
several languages In libraries of the world
over; during his travels he has correspond
ed with or written special articles for al
most every prominent newspaper weekly
or magazine in this country and England,
and has in addition to this turned out sew
eral books on travel, lectured in almost
every town and hamlet of England and yet
has found time to devote to the study OF
sociology and economics as applied to the
social problems. In all this he has not
posed in any sense as reformer or q IA
matte. He has pursued his investigations in
a cool. calm and deliberate manner, and
has attained results which point to
tional solution of the problem that con-
fronts the authorities of almost every great
city of the civilized world.
Conditions Contrasted.
II would rather be the Chinaman of
Canton living in his dirty howell than the
inhabitant of some of the places 1 have
seen in London and ON the East Side in New
York." said Mr.. Meakin. 1.-The conditions
under which the Chinaman lives and under
which he was brought up make 1t ever so
much more comfortable for him, both
morally and physically, than are the condi-
lions that exist in some Of our large cities
That is the root of the evil, and that is the
doctrine that l am trying to preach. 1t is
not that the poor and lowly of the world
are housed in limited quarters. Their DO
sition on the social scale and in the world
OF economics would make that necessary
but they are not housed and surrounded as
the actual conditions under which they live
would justify. Mind you, 1 am not saying
that the novels in Canton are places where
people raised to habits of our civilization
should reside. 1 say they are better for the
Chlnaman than are the tenements of our
more enlightened communities for the peo-
pie that live in them
There Is one thing about them-the God
given sun and air are not shut out Of them
as they are out of some of the buildings
nave seen in my own country and here I
am connected with the Shaftesbury indus
trial betterment lectures. 1 have given
n1ty-hve lectures during the past year to
over 10000 people. Not the people who
know OF the conditions. either, but the peo-
pie who do not know, the people we are
trying to interest. 1t must be understood
that ours Is not labor or religious or
sanizat1on. We are going into the thing
purely for the betterment of social morals.
the social morals Of that other half of the
world about which this half knows moth
ing.
Greed the Source of Evil.
THE whole trouble lies in greed-greed
spelled with capitals. The people of the
poorer classes. who cannot afford to pay
much for their housing. are forced into
habitations from which light and air, the
best sanitary agents and happy home max
ers. flee in disgust. The open spaces in our
city blocks are not left as the city builders
intended they should be. No; the people
owning these open spaces have builded tall
tenements within them, that are rented
out at high rates to the poor, who must
have them or live nowhere. We have hal
this thing to deal with for long time in
the cities of our country. and 1 am coming
here to try and preach doctrine that will
save these spaces and cause the cities to
spread out rather than to congest. The
greed OF the land holder for greater profits
Is at the bottom of the whole thing. ana
there should be prompt steps taken to pre-
vent Its securing hold in this country
The conditions described already exist in
New York and are beginning in Philadel-
phia and other cities. 1t should be stopped
now. We in England have started at the
wrong end after the wrong was done. You
In America have opportunity to start at
the right end and use preventives. I want
to see 1t done
Il hope to get material and photographs
while l am over here, which I can use in
my lectures in England for the purpose of
showing what steps you have taken over
here to prevent the growth of this evil I
Will visit the factory towns. or some of
them. and will endeavor to learn of the
conditions of the employees. You see that is
what my lectures concern the
moral condition Of the Industrial classes,
and use the word moral in its literal
sense. To express 1t better may say we
study the morale of the industrial classes.
and do not pay particular attention to any
other phase OF this portion of the social or
labor question"