Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-03-22

The discussion OF the rent problem in the
annual report Of the Charity Organization
society Is not cheering. The society finds
that the rents paid by tenement dwellers
have increased 20 to 10 per cent and are
still going up Neither the unprecedented
number Of new tenements erected nor the
new transit facilities have served to check
the upward tendency. The cost of bare
shelter is becoming more and more a bur-
den to the poor. The report reveals a tone
| OF hopelessness and lack of conviction
when outlining possible remedies. More
rapid transit? This is far off, and even
when 1t comes the fare is no small item
to a family with three or four workers
New construction? The cost Of labor and
materials and real estate Is so high. and
the demand comes in such drifting volume
that the new landlords are rent-raisers
| rather than rent-cutters. The prohibition
| OF factory location in the crowded tenement
districts? This remedy, although strongly
urged, does not hold out much hope.
! District Attorney Jerome has started out
| to punish lawyers runners" by whose
| practices 1t is alleged, hundreds and thou
sands OF poor persons are swindled every
! year, Justice brought into disrepute and
| respectable lawyers virtually exiled from
| the lower courts They swarm in the new
Criminal Courts building
William Werner Q years old was the
! first Of the alleged runners TO be ar
raigned, charged with obtaining $40 under
| false pretenses from Mrs. Margaret Ryley.
| She told Magistrate Whitman that Werner
| came to her home, after her son had been
arrested on the charge OF petit larceny,
and represented himself to be a lawyer,
| with an office at 76 Lafayette street He
! told her, she said, he could get her boy
out OF the Tombs for a consideration; that
! he had close acquaintance with the DIFF
ferent magistrates, and that for S15 he
would obtain an acqulttal from the mag
istrate before whom her son was to be ar
raigned He got so. but nevertheless, the
boy was held on the larceny charge.
| TT is a crime for a lawyer to give or
agree to give a fee to runner for bring
! ing him a client" said Assistant District
Attorney Whtesdes. ut is a crime for
a runner to represent himself as a law
yer. A lawyer can be disbarred for en-
ploying or taking business for a consldera-
ton from one of these runners The
runners are, many OF them. clerks in law
yers' offices.
Under this system Of runners a few
members Of the bar control the law bust
ness of the magistrates courts and in the
court of special sessions"
New York City is TO have its first work.
horse parade on Memorial day, following
the example OF Boston, where this annual
parade has become a veritable institution.
This project is the result of the reforma-
ton in the Society for the Prevention OF
Cruelty to Animals and the "women's aux
Hilary" is arranging for IT. Leading truck
men and stablemen are much interested in
the matter, and a number OF prizes will be
onered for animals that show evidence of
the most cOnsiderate Observation-Disclosures
as in Boston. In fact, a member of the
Boston wOrkhorse parade association Is
already in New York helping on the plans
A New York physician. a specialist in
children's diseases, is posing the ubiquitous
stenographer in a new role Whether an
'offce call or a house visit, the stenog-
rapher is always present and takes YER
batim notes of all that is said as to the
care Of the child, The diet, giving OF medi-
cines, exercise, etc. These notes are tran
scribed the same day in duplicate, one copy
being sent at once to the home OF the pa
tient and the other kept on file in the
Doctors Office for reference
| "
MaEnateE Suing for Protection.