Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-12-06

be reasonable rate to take its place,
,the ruling Of the congress to take ef-
|, feet Immediately, and Go obtain unless
and until il is reversed by the court
of review. The government must in in
creasing degree supervise and regulate
the workings Of the railways engaged
in interstate commerce, and such in
creased supervision is the only alter
native to an increase of the present
evils on the one hand or still more
radical policy on the other. In my
Judgment the most important legisla-
tive act now needed as regards the
regulation of corporations is this act
to confer on the interstate commerce
commission the power to revise rates
and regulations, the revised rate to at
once 20 into effect and to stay in ef-
feet unless and until the court of re-
view reverses it.
Steamship companies engaged in in
terstate commerce and protected in our
coastwise trade should be held to
strict observance of the interstate com
merce act.
City of Washington.
In pursuing the set plan to make the
city of Washington an example to 9th
er American municipalities several
points should be kept in mind by the
| Legislators In the first place the peo-
pie of this country should clearly un
derstand that no amount of industrial
prosperity, and above all no leadership
in international industrial competition,
can in any way atone for the sapping
of the vitality of those who are usually
spoken Of as the working classes. The
farmers, the mechanics, the skilled and
unskilled laborers, the small shop
keepers, make up the bulk of the popu-
lation of any country, and upon their
well-being, generation after generation,
the well-being of the country and the
race depends Rapid development in
wealth and industrial leadership is
good thing, but only if it goes hand in
hand with improvement, and not de-
terioration, physical and moral. The
overcrowding of cities and the darining
of country districts are unhealthy and
even dangerous symptoms in our mod
ern life. We should not permit over
crowding in cities, In certain European
al e hxv IL, AbaA H.
population of towns shall not be al
lowed to exceed a very limited density |
for given area, so that the increase |
in density must be continually pushed |
back into broad zone around the cen |
ter of town, this zone having great ave
nues or parks within it. The death |
in mortality, and especially in infant |
mortality, in overcrowded tenements. |
The poorest families in tenement houses |
live in one room, and it appears that |
in these one-room tenements the aver
age death rate for number Of given |
cities at home and abroad is about |
ment, four times what it is in three
room tenement and eight times what |
it is in a tenement consisting of four
rooms or over. These figures vary
somewhat for different cities, but they
approximate in each city those given
above, and in all cases the increase of
m norto1ifv opI aenoo;oll,y of ;,Fon4 49,,
tality, with the decrease in the number
of rooms used by the family and with
the consequent overcrowding is start
ling. The slum exacts a heavy total
of death from those who dwell therein,
and this is the case not merely in the
great crowded slums of high buildings
in New York and Chicago, but in the
alley slums of Washington. In Wash
ington people cannot afford to ignore
the harm that this causes. No Chris.
tian and civilized community can afford1
to show a happy-g -go-ucky lack of con-
Germ for the youth of today, for, if so,
the community viii have to pay a ter
rible penalty of financial burden and So
cial degradation in the tomorrow. There
should be severe child labor and fac
tory inspection laws, 1t is very desira-
BILE that married women should not
work in factories, The prime duty of
the man is to work, to be the bread /
winnerj the prime duty of the woman h
is to be the mother, the housewife. All {
questions of tariff and finance sink into /
utter insignifcance when compared
with the tremendous, the vital impor- c
tanee of trying to shape conditions so i
that these two duties of the man and I
Of the woman can be fulfilled under {
favorable circumstances. If h
race does not have plenty of children, q
Dr. If the children do not grow up, or d
4 when they grow up they are I'M II