The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1905-01-21
THE POOR OF BERLIN
HOW THEY ARE SUPERVISED BY THE
CITY AUTHORITIES.

HOW THEY ARE SUPERVISED BY THE
CITY AUTHORITIES.
BexEinE Ii Not to he Seen ON the
Streets of the City, and Rags and
Misery Dare Not Lie About In the
Parks and Public Places.
what" I exclaimed in Berlin, ''are
there no poor in this city? Are you al
together without rags and wretched-
ness?"
"My dear FRIEND" said the German,
winking a heavy eyelid, eve are a very
clever people. We do not show our
dust bins"
Berlin is ruled by municipal experts.
1t has it's wretchedness and it's despair,
but these things are not permitted to
increase. To be out Of work in Berlin
is q crime, vel as it is in London, but
with this difference-in Berlin the mu-
nicipality legislates for labor in a fash
ion which makes idleness all but indie
feasible.
The laws to this end may not ON
mend themselves to English minds, for
the Germans are not soft hearted in
such matters, but they have this en-
gaging Recommendation, they succeed.
Let a ragged man make his appear
ance III Friedrichstrassc or the Lindens
or in any Of the numerous open spaces,
and a policeman is at him in a min
ute. "Your papers" demands the man
Of law. The beggar produces his docu-
ments. If it is proved that he has
slept III the asylum for the homeless
more than a certain number Of nights
he is forthwith conducted, willynilly, to
the workhouse and made to labor for
his board and lodging.
Now. the workhouse in Germany is
not a prison, but the vagrant would as
leave go to the one as to the Other.
The administration of the workhouse
is conducted with iron severity. Ev-
cry ounce Of bread and every drop of
thin soup consumed by the workhouse
man is paid for a thousandfold by the
sweat of his brow. So it comes about
that the man least disposed to work,
the born vagabond, finds 1t more
agreeable to toll for his bread in the
market than to fall into the hands of
a p%aternal government.
Berlin takes advantage Of the sys-
TEN in Germany which numbers and
tickets every child born in the father
land. No la can roam from district
to district. changing his name and his
life's story with every fitting. He is
known to the police from the hour of
his birth to the hour of his death. Fol
a few pfennigs l cal read the history
of every person in Berlin. Therefore
the municipality has an easy task. Ev-
cry citizen's> life story is known to
them, and every vagrant is punished
for his crime against the community.
Moreover, every person of humble
means is insured by the state. Even
clerks, shop assistants and servants
are compelled to insure against sick
ness and against old age. This insur-
ance is effected by the pasting into a
book Of certain stamps every week.
and it is the duty of each employer
to see that this contract, is faithfully
obeyed. And the state has at Beelitz
an enormous s%anitarium costing TO-
100000 marks (E5O0,O 600, where the in
valided citizen is sent with his pen
sion in order to expedite his valuable
return to the ranks of the wage earn
ers. 1t pays the city Of Berlin to nurse
its sick and cherish its invalids. The
whole object of the municipality is to
secure the physical and intellectual
well being of it's citizens, and on this
task it concentrates it's labors with
amazing energy.
Berlin has Il huge building resem-
bling a factory where the unemployed,
whole families, are received and pro-
yided for, but no one must. take advan-
tage of this hospitality more than five
times in three months. Consider this
point Of view. If you are homeless five
times in three months you are dubbed
q reckless creature and packed off to
the workhouse. Private enterprise has
provided another asylum where the
homeless may come five times in one
month and where the police are not al
lowed to enter at night. have visited
this place and seen the people who at
tend it, some decent enough. Others
criminal in every line of their faces.
There are many Of these desperate
men in Berlin, many of these dirty.
ragged and unhappy wretches, doomed
from the day Of their birth, but they
dare not show themselves in the decent
world as they do i'll London. They
stink into these asylums at 5 O'Clock;
they have their clothes d~isinfected;
they cleanse themselves under shower
baths; they eat bread and drink soup.
and then they so to bed at S o'clock
like prisoners to their cells.
Now, this system is a hard one, for
when once a man gets down in Berlin
it is almost impossible for him to rise.
But it has this clear advante.ge-every-
body feels that it is better to work
than to fall into the hands Of the law.