The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-07-23


the very lowest class Of working people
in this country can he made to: sink
still lower in the nire,: what is: there
in store for the remainder who must
be affected by their reverses =
The East Side of New York City is
the honae of the sweater, the peddler,
the illiterate and the criminal, it holds
the lowest forms of human life and
there are thousands dwelling In that
| unsavory quarter who are more animal
than human and of whom it seems
impossible to think without pity, yet,
the owners of vast estates use these
poor devils to add to their wealth by
| wringing from them the added rents
that SO many Of them cannot pay.
Naturally there have been many
stories of suffering and brutality ac-
cofnpanying the evictions. A sample
can be quoted in the advice given one
poor woman who attempted to stand
between eviction and her sick child
| rem, to whom was said: Take your
children and drown them; I don't care
! what becomes Of them" This is SIM
| ply one of hundreds of similar in
| stances that have incensed the people
| of the East Side to get together in
mass meetings to protest against the
landlords. But, what use are protests
! when the demand for rooms permits
the owners to make >their own prices
and in keeping with their legal right
collect the money even though it rep
resents every form of crime, vice and
degradation? The problem of exist
ence is becoming more difficult, and
/ "a IA is f1111
quota Of added trouble in every pos
sible manner.
The Island of Manhattan is owned
by nineteen thousand persons to whom
is paid yearly the sum of $1,000,0O0 and
the great majority bound fast by oc-
cupation and lack of transportation
facilities are doomed to remain in the
hands Of the landlords.
Within thirty minutes ride of the
city there is unused land to be had al
comparatively low rents; with proper
transportation facilities the crowded
tenements could be emptied and the
disease laden quarter made to give
way to healthy methods of living.
The landlords Of New York with
their money securely invested in the
1slandof Manhattan can spend theil
time comfortably in Europe throwing
away their illgotten gains in all man.
ner of lavish display, while the poor
devil who has fallen a victim to steam.
ship and railway agents, the allurine
stories told Of large wages and the
downright heartlessness of the land.
lords suffers all the distress of home.
less poverty.
yC al Gil y f~v hi
class; unless they are punched togeth.
er nothing can be done with them
They are Of one kind and KINDRED o.
groups Of such, and herd together
they are not fitted for any occupa'
ton other than peddling or shol
working. Centuries of environment
hold them fast and keep them from
! being assimilated. They belong to tn,
submerged class, satisfied in their owl
way, yet hoping for something bette
somewhere. This hope is their re
deeming feature, for they will in tim
attain it, but when they do it will onl,
be to make some one suffer, for pro
gress for them means trouble for som
one else. Il . Il 81 &. s;s.ss IS z
The po5pula Il hot re ths kind n
need in the republic It has beensen
couraged to immigrate to America tina
the landlord and other systems ma
profit at its expense. The nation pay
the price in inferior population, close
wage competition. The landlord an
employer profit by the addition to tn
national burden of poverty and ignor
ance.
But these people are human an
must be protected. The land is out O
their reach. The landlord can deman
and must be satisfied. If the right o
the landlard is supreme and the tenn
ptations of the transportation com
panies continue to allure this wors
class on earth, the result means NOR
suffering. It will not always be con
fined to the low class people -on tn
Fast Side of New York City.-Railroa,
| Trainmen's Journal