Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-16

progress that.had been made in New York
city in dealing with the same class of con-
dtiOns.
Senator Gallinger, chairman of the SEN
ate District committee. presided at the
| meeting, which was held IN his committee
room. There were also present Senators.
Scott, Foster of Washington, Mallory and
Hansbrough. The members of the House
District committee present were Represen-
tatives Alien, Morrell, Smns. Cowherd,
| Davis, Morgan, slemp, McAndrews and
Gooch.
MIR. S. w. Woodward. chairman, and Mr..
John Joy Edison. member of the commit
tee on the Improvement of housing condi-
tions in the District of Columbia of the As
sociated Charities, together with Mr.. Chas.
F. Weller, secretary of. that org inization,
were present.
Mr.. Riis reached the committee room
shortly after II O'Clock and was at once
invited to address the committee ON the
subject for which the, meeting was called.
The New York reformer opened up to the
subject with the vigorous and direct lam
guage for which he is SO well known He
said he preferred being asked questions,
but no one Offering to do that he started
in and told what he had found here and his
ideas as to the plans. that should be pur-
sued to improve conditions
Too Dreadful to Conceive.
Il confess ne, declared, Il had no idea
there were such things as / saw in this city
Yesterday when / went in several of the
alleys and witnessed the way the colored
people are living. The inside of these
houses is 100 dreadful; tos even conceive.
You need the same sort of cleaning up pro-
cess as we have been having In New York
city for several years.
f'Your blind alleys remind me of White
chapel in London, when it was at its worst.
The alleys lead nowhere, and the air in
hap SirnnlV StaPnateS. 1t is thoroughly
bad.
THE obvious way to deal with these alleys
is to cut them clear through instead OF
leaving them as blind alleys. went through
less than half a dozen of your alleys yester-
day. but l am told by Dr. Woodward that
there are 29s of them here. with 25,OOO col
cred people LIVING IN th. IN.
The senators and representatives listened
iptently to what Mr.. Riis had to say, as he
talked on in his style of a galvanic battery:
You want to remember" he continued
rapidly. when you undertake this KIND OF
work it costs money. That was the obstacle
we met in New York Such work cannot
cost too much money. The conditions you
now have permit wholesale murder
Nowhere Such en- Exhibition.
."rbink of the awful mortality that exists
among the colored children here. Nearly
one-half of them die. There is not such an
exhibit in the civilized world. 1t is scanda-
lous to say the least.
He showed the death rate among coionea req
children living here to be 451 per lVO
while in New York he said ii was for all
classes 10 The mortality in rear tenement
houses in that city was in lS94-9o aeom
900 in every 1000. and in some extremely
bad cases ii was as high as Zo0 per i'oO.
Mr. Woodward, in reply to question,
stated that there are in the alleys OF this
city $4,000 colored persons and 2la0 white
persons: that the population of the District
was about SD0,Ooo OF winch apout one
third was colored.
Mortality Among the Colored People.
Mr.. Riis went on to say that the mortal
ity of colored people was greater than that
among whites living under practically the
same conditions, SO that the conditions
were not to blame for the full extent of the
death rate among the colored people.
There is" he said, "a greater mortality
among colored people in other cities than
among the whites of the same cities. Tne
colored people are going through the same
experiences that meet other races when
they come in contact with different race
In New York, he said, the colored people
are cleaner and better cared for than are
the whites who live in the same neighbor-
hoods.
Senator Foster asked if there was lack
of sewerage as cause OF the insanitary
conditions.
Mr. Riis thought the lack of water was
an important cause of the trouble.
Many Causes Contribute.
TT is never possible" he went on to say.
"to put your finger upon any particular
thing that causes high death rate. The
low standard of living In various ways
combines to produce this result. The living
In rickety houses. where the wind blows In
II places: the lack of sewerage and water
and almost everything on earth- In tbs
desths of children. II means that when they
catch measles. scarlet fever or any Of Tho
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