The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-24
. HE September issue of the Amer
wv lean Magazine, in its regular de-
partment of In the Interpre-

IT HE September issue Of the Amer
wy lean Magazine, in its regular de-
partment of I'm the Interpre-
ters' House." comments on the condl-
lions of the laboring classes in the
tariff made city of Pittsburg. After
pointing out the deplorable poverty and
wretched surroundings of the laboring
classes, the writer of the article says
"Pittsburg has had hard problem,
but it is the same problem in essence
with which every American city and
town must deal If 1t has not already
the fulfillment of it's duty to give to its
poorest citizens sanitary housing, open
air spaces, clean and pleasant streets,
protection from exploitation by vicious
politicians and by vicious money grub
bers, good schools. hospitals and libra
ries. If Pittsburg's problem Is for
many reasons more complicated than
that of any other city, she brings to 1t
more wealth, and 1 am inclined to
think, more sets of brains used to deal
ing with hard problems than any other
city, What she needs now is, as 1 have
said, a Vision. She must see so clear
ly what she is that she will hate what
she is. She must tear from her streets
and outskirts the horrible shanties in
which she houses her laboring men and
REPLACE them with comfortable and
sanitary tenements. She must pave and
clean the streets of every working
quarter. She must provide parks in ev-
cry one. She must by force of public
nj N
sary, to give proper wages and hours,
to build hospitals and give tndemn1tles
for accidents to abolish child labor.
She must see to it that her schools
and school buildings are brought up TO
the mark. And all this she must do
first-before she builds more boule-
wards for the rich, more parks for
those who have them already.
I'm Chicago, on the edge of Pack
ingtown, the council opened two years
ago a park of 20 acres, beautifully
plotted and provided with the most per-
feet system of baths and swimming
pools for men and women, boys and
girls. and even babies that money and
taste could buy. What is the result?
At the noon hour through all the warm
months the men from the stock yards
crowd to these baths-at night ana In
the mornings they are there again.
Many of them are the same kind of
foreigners Of whom certain Pittsburg-
ers speak with such contempt. They
may never have seen tub or shower
until these bath houses were opened,
but they fill them now to tn cir full
capacity. Moreover, the taste for bath
ing has been so awakened by the pres
ence of these public baths that
plumber in the neighborhood anirms
that in three months after they were
opened, working men in the vicinity
who owned their homes began to put
in bath rooms for themselves. though
they never before had done so.
"The fact that some men will abuse
and neglect opportunities to live clean
ly and decent lives has nothing to do
with the case. The Pittsburg employer
is under moral and social obliga-
ton to furnish the opportunity-and all
experience shows that the great per-
centage will improve 1t to the full.
"Pittsburg should do as Boston Is
doing-create vision of what she
might be-set herself a period In which
to realize it and then turn all her
forces to making her dream come true.
| Pittsburgs enemies are not those who
| point out what Is intolerabie and un-
necessary in her borders-they are
those who fly into rage because at
| tention is called to her deflement,
LET once the sense of social Justice
be aroused in her-the determination
that there shall exist in Pittsburg
healthy and comfortable conditions for
all her citizens. and the first step will
| be taken toward curing the tariff In
! Justices which have helped cause the