The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-22
$6,OO0,0OO,0OO FOR
 VICIOUS GLASSES
Lecturer Declares the Country
 is Bankrupt
WE ARE LIVING TOO FAST
pr. Bushnell Endeavors to Show the Need of Work to Offset the Grow. ing Evils of Social Conditions
 in Large Cities.

Washington, July 1-(special)-"This country spends S6,000. .0o0,0OO annually on the criminal, pauper and vicious classes, anu the annual increase of wealth is only 5,O0 oo0, coo Does not that look as if the public were bankrupt?"
 This statement was made in lecture by Dr. Charles J. Bushnell, who is con ducting model public playground here. He is a graduate of Heidelberg unver- sty and an authority on civic matters. Dr. Bushnell has the support of the leading citizens of Washington in his work.
 Dr. Bushnell's figures are taken, he says, from authoritiye sources and represent years of careful study. He challenges any one to disprove their ac- curacy. He and his wife have made q special study of what they call the "so- cial illness" of the United States. Con- tinuing pr. Bushnell said:
 "'Vhy. the $6000, 00,00O that this nation spends every year on it's criminal cases equals the amount spent on all churches, public libraries, the Young Mems Christian Association the Salva- ton Army, public hospitals, asyums for the insane and all benevolent insti- tutlons. The average factory hand earns SAL a year, while it is estimated that the average criminal costs the public at least s12Ooo a year.
 "Disease as result of vicious habits is on the increase; suicides are increasing six times as fast as the population, and foe insanity iS also increasing faster than the population. We are maiming and killing in accidents resulting from our industrial enterprises as many persons as were killed in an aV- craze year of the civil war, the Philpine war and the Japanese Russian war com bined. In other words, we are practical ly carrying on these three wars all the tlme And these deaths by acidents, due to our fast commercial spirit. are from two to nine times as numerous as sim liar deaths in Europe. where experts have shown that three-quarters of such ae- cidents are preventable. We are living entirely too fast
 "We have 100000 paupers in this country, and 10,Oo0,OOo persons are on the ragged edge of pauperism."
 Dr. Bushnell endeavored to show par
 
 growing evils of social conditions in the large cities In 1790 he said, only per cent of our population lived in cities of s0uO or more inhabitants. while today over ofe-third live in cities of this class, anu in the east and northeast the per centage is much higher even than that.
 T believe" he said, that more and more people will move to our large cities. This will be due to the availability of factory products and the smaller need of men on the farms, where work is be- ing done more and more by machinery
 The public playground, where children are gwen outings and useful occupa- ton. is obviating to some extent these conditions, 1t was pointed out by Dr. Bushnell While the facts he presented. he said, might lead one to take very pessimistic view of the worlds future, he nevertheless favored the utmost effort to turn the tide In the other direction, and he said he believed 1t could be done by herculean efforts.