The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-03-23
WASHINGTON UNCLEAN.
ORGANIZED CHARITIES SEND
 PETITION TO SENATORS.

Claims the Capital Ought to be Whole
 some and Beautiful Both Inside and
 Out-Slum Conditions Said to Equal
 tiOnal Flemish That Ought to be Re- moved.
 A copy of the following letter has l been sent to each of Connectlcut's rep resentatiyes in Washington:
 To the Honorable Senators and Repre- ! sentatives of Connecticut in the Con- gress of the United States:
 Conference.-The Organized Charities 1 Association of New Haven, acting in co-operation with similar philanthropic organizations in some three hundred cities of the country, respectfully repre- sents and petitions as follows:
 Washington and the District of Co., lumbia are, of course, the property and the concernment of the whole people, your constituents included; and, since congress alone governs the District, it is directly responsible for conditions ex- isting in Washington as city, the peo- pie being only indirectly responsible as electors. Washington ought to be wholesome and beautiful, within and without, and an exemplar for all the cities of this great republic and the world. It should be typical of the spirit and trend of our civilization. Instead of which we find, from investigations now being given to the world through newspapers, journals and magazines (see especially the March 3, 1906, num- Der of Charities and the Commonsl, that slum conditions exist in Washing ton equal to anything that can be found in New York, Chicago or London, man. ufacturing cities from ten to twenty times the size of Washington. These slum conditions are to be found within a block or two of the halls of congress and just off the broad main thorough fares, and consist of overcrowded, un- sanitary, waterless and sewerless al- leys, shacks, ''lungers" and tenement houses, reeking with vermin and filth and verltable breeders of misery, dis lease, immortality and crime. We call your attention also to the neglected condition of many children in Wash ington, to the child-labor evils In this non-manufacturing city and to the high death rate from overcrowding, lack of ventilation, lack of sewerage and water facilities. We believe that this nation al blemish is the result of unintention- al oversight on the part of most of our .congressmen, and that they, especially Connecticut congressman, have but to have their attention called to these evils to immediately set about remedy ing them. We therefore earnestly beg you to use every effort to remove and forever render impossible a renewal of the disgraceful and dangerous slum conditions. of Washington, and we es- pecially beseech you to favor and to strenuously advance those legislative measures now pending before congress, and affecting the District of Columbia, for improving housing and health con- ditions, for conserving the home by pre- venting wife desertion, for protecting children by requiring compulsory edu- cation, for opening playgrounds, for providing a juvenile court, for prohibit ing child labor, and for turning the al- leys into comparatively broad streets. n Respectfully submitted,
 The Organized Charities Association of
 New Haven.
 Dated at New Haven, this 20th day of March, 1906.
 GEORGE M. WALLACE,
 WATSON L. PHILLIPS,
 MAX ADLER,
 EDWARD E, BRADLEY, l SHERWOOD o. PRESTON,
 Special Committee.