The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1902-1905, 1905-02-03
THE POOR OF BERLIN
HOW THEY ARE SUPERVISED BY THE
CITY AUTHORITIES.

Streets of the City, and Rags and
Misery Dare Not Lie About In the
Parks and Public Places.
What" exclaimed in Berlin, "are
there no poor in this city? Are you al
together without rags and wretched-
nessY'
my dear friend" said the German,
winking a heavy eyelid, we are a very
clever people. We do not show our
dust bins"
Berlin is ruled by municipal experts.
1t has its wretchedness and its despair,
but these things are not permitted to
increase. To be out of work in Berlin
is crime, even as it is in London, but
with this difference-in Berlin the mu-
niclpality legislates for labor in fash
ion which makes idleness all but indie
feasible.
The laws to this end may not COM
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 in Friedrichstrasse or the Lindens
or in any of the numerous open spaces,
and policeman is at him in a min
ute. your papersp demands the man
of law. The beggar produces his docu
ments. If it is proved that he has
slept in 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 90 to the one as to the other.
The administration of the work house
is conducted with iron severity. Ev-
cry ounce of bread and every drop of
thin soup consumed by the workhouse
man is paid for thOusandfold by the
sweat of his brow. So it comes about
that the man least disposed to work,
the born vagabond, finds it more
agreeable To toll for his bread in the
market than to fall into the hands Of
a paternal government.
Berlin takes advantage Of the sys-
TEN in Germany which numbers and
tickets every child born in the father
land. No man can roam from district
to district, changing his name and his
lifes story with every fitting. He is
known to the police from the hour Of
his birth to the hour of his death. For
a few pfennigs ! can read the history
of every person in Berlin. Therefore
the municipality has an easy task. Ey-
cry citizens 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 1t is the duty of each employer
to see that this contract is faithfully
obeyed. And the state has at BeelitZ
an enormous sanitarium costing TO-
100000 marks (f500,0O0, 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 its citizens, and on this
task it concentrates its labOrs with
amazing energy.
Berlin has huge building resem-
bling factory where the unemployed,
whole families, are received and pro-
vided for, but no one must take advan-
tage of this hospitality more than five
times in three months. Consider this
point of view II you are homeless five
times In three months you are dubbed
a 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,
jagged and unhappy wretches, doomed
from the day of their birth, but they
lare not show themselves in the decent
world as they do in London. They
link into these asylums at 3 o'clock;
hey have their clothes disinfected;
hey cleanse themselves under shower
'aths; they eat bread and drink soup,
md then they go to bed at s o'clock
Ike prisoners to their cells.
Now, this system is a hard one, for
when once a man gets down in Berlin
t is almost impossible for him to rise.
But it has this clear advant0ge-every-
'ody feels that 1t is better to work
han to fall into the hands of the law.
Rags and misery dare not lie about
n the parks or scatter disease through
he crowded streets. If there is any
irtue in the unemployed the state will
ertainty develop it as well as it is pos
ible to do so. There is a central bu-
eau for providing men with work, and
vhen a man knows that not to work
leans the workhouse he solicits en-
loyment here and elsewhere with such
will as almost compels wages. In
ne year the state has secured employ
lent for $4,000 men.
The citizen is provided with sanitary
wellings, with unadulterated food.
nth schools and technical colleges and
Nth insurance for sickness and old
ge. For penny he can travel almost
rom one end of Berlin to the other by .
lectric tramMnY or electric rnilWnv. |