The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-12-07

5AN-A-' SA w HI " dcAAlAAE loLA people can not afford to ignore the harm that this causes. No Christian and civilized community can afford to show a happy -go-lucky lack of concern for the youth of to-day; for, if 50, the community will have to pay a terrible penalty of financial burden and social degradation in the tomorrow There should be se- were child-labor and factory-in inspection laws. It is very desirable that married women should not work in factories. The prime duty of the man is to work, to be the breadWinner; the prime duty of the woman is to be the mother, the housewife. All questions of tarif and finance sink into utter insignificance when compared with the tremendous, the vital importance of trying to shape conditions so that these two duties of the man and of the woman can be fulfilled under reasonably favorable circumstances. If a race does not have plenty of children, or if the children do not grow up, or if when they grow up they are unhealthy in body and stunted or vicious in mind, then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of momentary material prosperity, can avail in any degree as offsets.
 The Congress has the same power of legislation for the District of Columbia which the State legislatures have for the various States. The problems in- cident to our highly complex modern industrial civilization, with it's Inani- fold and perplexing tendencies both for good and for evil, are far less sharply accentuated in the city of Washington than in most other cities. For this req son it is easier to deal with the various phases of these problems in Washing ton, and the District of Columbia gov ernment should be a model for the other municipal governments of the Nation, in all such matters of supervi- sion of the housing of the poor, the cre- ation of small parks in the districts in- habited by the poor, in laws affecting labor, in laws providing for the taking care of children, in truant laws, and in providing schools.
 Tn the vital matter of taking care of children, much advantage could be gained by a careful study of what has been accomplished in such States as Illinois and Colorado by the juvenile courts. The work of the juvenile court is really a work of character building. It is now generally recognized that young boys and young girls who go wrong should not be treated as crimi- nals, not even necessarily as needing reformation, but rather as needing to have their characters formed, and for this end to have them tested and devel- oped by a system of probation. Much admirable work has been done in many of our Commonwealths by earnest men and women who have made a special study of the needs of those classes of children which furnish the greatest number of juvenile offenders, and tfere- fore the greatest number of adult of lenders; and by their aid, and by profit ing by the experiences of the different States and cities in these matters, it would be easy to provide a good code for the District of Columbia.
 Several considerations suggest the need for a systematic investigation i'm to and improvement of housing condi- tions in Washington. The hidden resi- dential alleys are breeding grounds of vice and disease, and should be opened into minor streets. For number of years influential citizens have Joined with the District Commissioners in the vain endeayor to secure laws permit ting the contamination of insanitary S StxroI Ifiarr
 pecially from preventable diseases, are aso unduly high as to suggest. that the exceptional wholesomeness. of Wash ington's better sections is offset by bad conditions in her poorer neighborhoods. A special Commission on Housing and Health Conditions in the National Cap ital' would not only bring about the reformation of existing evils, but would also formulate an appropriate building code to protect the city from mann moth brick tenements and other evils which threaten to develop here as they have in other cities. That the Nation $ Capital should be made q model for other municipalities is an ideal which appeals to all patriotic citizens every where, and such a special Commission might map out and organize the citys future development in lines of civic ser- vice, just as Mayor L'Enfant and the recent Park Commission planned the arrangement for her streets and parks.
 It is nortifying to remember that Washington has no compulsory school attendance law and that careful induir
 ies indicate the habitual absence from school of some twenty per cent of all children between the ages of eight and fourteen. It must be evident to all who consider the problems of 1iegIected child life or the benefits of compulsory education in other cites that one of the most urgent needs of the National Cap- ital is a law requiring the school at tendance of all children, this law to be enforced by attendance agents directed by the board of education.
 Public play grounds are necessary
 means for the development of whole some citizens in modern cities. It is important that the work inaugurated here through voluntary efforts should be taken up and extended through Congregational appropriation of funds sufficient to equip and maintain num- erous convenient small play grounds upon land which can be secured with out purchase and reserved as small park play grounds in densely settled sections of the city which now have no public open spaces and are destined soon to be built up solidly. All these needs should be met immediately. To