The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1908-05-14
Socialist Column.
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AS result of Investigations
made in Seattle recently, the health
department will undertake cru
SADIE against the scores of small
huts and cabins on the south water
front, which are declared to be I'M
sanitary. Many of them will be
closed at once and probably burn
ed with out delay, while others
Will be allowed to remain until the
tenants can find new quarters
The trip Of inspection along the
south water front was made by
Health Commissioners erich ton and
the special health officer, DR.. F. S.
Bourns. They found conditions Of
dangerous squalor and filth. They
visited nearly hundred shacks
along the tide flats and water ways
in the lower part of the city.
In nearly every case unsanitary
conditions in greater or less de-
gree were apparent. In one hut,
which looked like piano box, and
was no larger, were living man
and wife, the woman bedridden.
Both man and wife occupied a
bunk scarcely three feet wide.
Six Living in One Room.
In another small one-room hut
were man, his wife and four
children. In another were six
Indians, including one woman.
These are but typical examples.
In many cases the rooms are
without windows. and the shackS
have no sewer connections, and the
air spaces are very limited.
Many of the men, w.,..l n and
children in this district are APP
parently tubercular cases, some of
them seriously ILL., OF course all
of them are poor, most of them
struggling for mere existence.
The men are fishermen, rousta
bouts, many of them idle all this
time. Women and children en-
gage in rag-picking and collection
Of junk to sell to secondhand
stores.
The health department will make
immediate condemnation of the
most unsanitary shacks and de-
stroy them at once: They are beds
Of disease, and the people who live
there spread germs wherever they
go, says the health commissioner.
Will Have to Find New Homes.
Some of the buildings that can
be cleaned up temporarily will be
allowed to remain, but sooner or
later all must go. Sanitary meas
ureS will be taken by the depart
ment all through the district, and
the poverty stricken tenants Of
fered Il chance to live there until
they can and homes elsewhere.
"Find homes?' Why not kill
them off at once? Capital drove
them into these dens and now
drives them out. just as Capital
establishes and licenses saloons,
drives poor home less men into them
and then puts them Oh the chain
gang for being 'drunk and dis
orderly.'
1t strikes US conditions like
these are far more likely to make
bomb throwers than all Emma
Goldman's talk
The Socialists are the only
people who offer a practical set
tlement Of these awful conditions
The Seattle Socialist.
Labor is sandbagging itself at
every election.
A jobless mans empty stomach
is not filled by bowling about pros
perity.
When the unemployed in the
large cities ask for employment
they get policemen's clubs. They
are probably getting what they
voted for
Give the laboring men square
deal and he will get full loaf and
there will be less loafers in the
county.
Industrial conditions are ap-
pealing tn candidates for presidents
on old party tickets who wants a
four year job at a good salary.
Why don't the working class vote
to own this important job?
Labor has decided that it perfers
to send men to lobby and ask
Congress to make laws. The work
ing class is certainly magnanimousI
I !, StS,y