The Washington times., 1906-03-06
The Shame of Washington.

NlIuOuJ SeuSduOUdtlSu1 OF peToOu-
Rlities the representative magazine
of organized charities in the United
States-Charities and The Commons
sets forth in it's current issue the
shame of Washington in alleys,
shacks, neglect of consumption, and
utter failure to care for our chill
dren with appropriate legislation
The showing is in the form of a
series of brief articles by men
and women who have learned of
our needs at first hand-Jacob Riis,
Samuel Lindsay, DR.. Charles P.
Neill, S. W. Woodward, DR.. George
NJ. Kober, Justice Brewer, Commits
sioner Macfarland. DR.. Emily Young
O'Brien, Bernard H. Green, DR..
Henry S. Curtis, William H. Bald
win, and Secretary Weller. of the
Associated Charities. Abridged, it is
reproduced elsewhere in this issue
of The Times. But even in that
form it is difficult to see how any
citizen of the Capital can read it
and not be impressed profoundly
Much of what is said there has
been said before and said often.
Our death rate among infants. our
leadership in the death rate from
consumption, our alleys with their
10000 inhabitants submerged in
squalor, our lack of law to safe
guard the citizens of the future, our
inactivity are all familiar. They
are here outlined, it is true, more
cogentIy and more comprehensive
" than in any other single publi-
cation which has come to our
hand. But the substance is still
familiar
Wherein this study is entitled
to our SPECIAL consideration is that
it holds out a fair prospect, it does
more than that, it promises to
give motion to an agitation which
shall produce practical results. It
is aimed at Congress, the common
council of the District of Columbia.
II
Capital is the nations city and the
nation is responsible for it. 1t de-
pends upon this sensible and broad
declaration:
Not the one who lives on the avenue
within arm 5 reach OF family IN a
Washington alley and does nothing TO
change the conditions which we describe
IS their neighbor, but he is their neigh
Dor. who. from any corner OF the most
distant State, attempts to persuade his
representative in Congress to vote IN
favor of the measures for their relief.
What part shall we of Wash
ington play in this movement for
the betterment of our own city?
Shall we stand where we stood that
day when Riis made his tour?
There was straw that fioated
with the current that day." he says.
'They had opened two Fairgrounds
the summer before, one for white
and one for colored children. And
this was the record, I am told: The
colored people paid for their own,
the white did not. They had to be
helped"
The movement, which is thus be-
gun, is broad. 1t needed TO be. Our
want is broad We should have
much besides law-mOre schools,
Fairgrounds, baths, alleys convert
ed into streets, model tenements, a
municipal hospital-bUt much of our
discredit can be removed by law
alone. For. today, We lack child
labor law, a compulsory education
law, a children's court and prOba-
tion law, adequate provision for the
condemnation of dwellings unfit for
human use, and further authority
for the unifcation of our Govern
ment-aided charities. The enact
ment of legislation along these lines
is the cause espoused by Charities
and The Commons. 1t is a cause
10 which every citizen of Washing
ton can and ought to give practi-
cal service. Have We sand enough
TO do it?