The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-02-20
BOOKS ON SLUMS..

must admit the right of the union to
secure the closed shop if it can"
BOOKS ON sLUMs..
Americans abroad frequently visit
the poorer quarters Of the great Europ-
can capitals, see the squalor and mis-
cry of portions Of London, Paris, Ber-
lin and Vienna, and reutrn to. their
own country praising God that. Amer
lea, at least, is not as these other ma
tons are. They never dream of similar
or worse conditions in the great centers
Of population in, the United States, and
not being aware of the fact, they take
no such measures as the public safety
requires In order that these menaces to
public health and safety may be
stamped out. Yet, as long as these
plague spots Of life and morals exist,
they threaten every child in the ma
ton, to whom the possibility Of sink
ing down to their level is a possibility
1t is to the interests Of every citizen
of this country that the conditions
which make such centers of contamin-
alton possible shall be removed. In
many instances such as that of New
York, a wise law strictly enforced
may result in better housing for the
poor and helpless, and that without
extra cost to depleted purses-indeed,
often American people have to awaken
to the fact that there are American
slums to be removed. This is being
done to a remarkable degree by recent
books and magazine articles, which
deserve every encouragement and
should be secured the widest reading.
In "The World To-Day" Of February
Rev. George c.. Lorimer has an article
on "Christian Service in City Sums"
dealing with conditions in London and
illustrated by reproduced photographs
from Jack London's recently published
"People of the Abyss This follows
one on similar conditions in New York,
in the December number, and here is
opened up a. field for the activity of
kindly minded people almost without
limit. DR.. Dorimer finds that there
are in the borough of Manhattan 200,-
900 and in that Of Brooklyn 125,000
rooms used by the poor which are abb
solutely without light or ventilation,
where want, vice and misery herd to-
gether in sunless rooms, in unsanitary
tenements, and In Railways and door
ways reeking with filth and where
tuberculosis finds congenial soil.". The
article is illustrated, and 1t is to be
hoped, the series will come to include
the worst Of Chicago's sins against the
poor in this respect-the sin usually of
the rich property owner against his
poorer brother. Yet nothing can persu-
ade like actual seeing, and a drive into
the districts where men and women
and children. are starving and freez-
ing to death in the bitter winter wealth
err will do more to awaken sympathies
than all the articles in the world.
A BOOK ON CHILD LtFE.I
A book just published by the Fleming
H. Revell Company under the editor
ship of the late Rev. DR.. H. Clay
Trumbull is called Child Life in Many
Lands" and has two most instructive
chapters for this purpose, one by Miss
Margaret Monaghan Gibbons on Child
Life Among Our Immigrants" and the
other, by Mrs. Maud Ballington Booth,
ond Child Life in the Sums" The
former of the two calls attention to
the fact that there is great restitution
outside Of the cities, taking up the ex-
istence of some coal miners in the coal
regions. But the unconscious irony in
sending missionaries to reform all re-
juvenate the heather in foreign parts
is brought out by Mrs. Booth without
Intention as follows:
Some time ago I wrote an article
on Child Life in the Slums.' 1t was
circulated verey generally throughout
this country and was afterward copied
and sent out to other parts of the
world: In my MAIL, one morning not
long ago, found a letter from India,
telling me how the article had been
read away off in that Eastern land.
The missionary who sent me the It'd
ing had herself read it aloud to the
class of Hindoos among whom she la
bored: and their hearts were so touch
ed by the story of suffering and sor-
row that they subscribed and sent me
$12 for our work among the outcast
babies in this Christian land.''
Mrs. Booth gathers instances from
New York, Philadelphia and other AM
erican cities, enough to wiring the heart
and fill the eye with tears. When it
is necessary to go to poor, old, half
starved Hindoostan to get money to
relieve starving American babies
there should be less talk about univer-
sal prosperity-and something done to
make the dream really true!
"oPEN SHOP" ARGUMENTS.
So little is known Of the policy of the
trades union In regard to the "closed
shop that some of the arguments used
used in the final report Of the United
States Industrial Commission, an Of
ficial body appointed by and acting
under an act of Congress, deserve TO
be quoted. It is a plea for fair play