Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-26
PHILANTHROPY AT HOME

lection versus tyranny and exploitation,
philanthropy versus man-killing, as
exemplified in Pittsburg, the city of
steel millionaires. The Herald called
attention to the remarkable nature of
a report published in Charities and
the Commons, now the Survey. After
many months delay it begins to look
as if this report might attract the Of
fetal attention it deserves, and as If
something might be done to ameliorate
the condition of the human beings who
live and work in the city that made
Carnegie rich.
How does the protected" Carnegie
workman live? What is the condition
of the industrial ward of the library
building philanthropist?
Evil conditions were found to exist
in every portion or section of the city
of Pittsburg," said the report. "Eyrie
rookeries perched on the hillsides were
swarming with men, women and chill
dren-entire families living in one
room and accommodating boarders i'll
a corner thereof. Cellar rooms were
the abiding places of other families. In
many houses water was luxury to be
obtained only through much effort of
toiling steps and straining muscles.
Courts and alleys fouled by bad drain
age and piles of rubbish were playing
grounds for rickety, pale-faced, grimy
children. An enveloping cloud of smoke
and dust through which light and air
must filter made housekeeping trav-
esty in many neighborhoods; and
every phase of the situation was inten-
sified by the evil of overcrowding-of
houses upon lots, of families into
houses, of people into rooms"
Among the worst illustrations of
these typical conditions are certain
properties owned by the very corpora
lions the members of which are reap
ing wealth from the tariff protected
products. When these beneficiaries OF
the generosity of the American peo-
pie, these septs of the Clan Carnegie,
were approached by REAL philan-
thropists with a request that they
should spend little of their prodlgi-
ously vast wealth on houses for the
poor workmen and their families, the
following reply was made:
1--WE do not want to go into the nous
ing business. We are manufacturers,
not real estate dealers. We may be
forced to build houses in certain new
districts in order to attract and hold
labor. but in an old, settled commu-
oil
himself. We don't believe in pater-
nalism."
For years the death rate from ty-
phoid fever in Pittsburg has been the
highest of any city in the civilized
world. But no steel millionaire fur
nished or offered to furnish filtration
plant that would have purified the
typhoid producing water and saved
many human lives. No. A filtration
plant could not have had the name of
Pittsburg millionaire carved over
the doorway. 1t could not have been
housed in a building of architectural
beauty that would have been called by
the name of the stocking donor.
Even the school buildings are horri-
BILE. This is amazing, because the
Pittsburg millionaires surely should
think a well-equipped public school
system is at least as important as a
library. An authority says with regard
to the steel trust schools:
1.-The school buildings are in many
cases crowded, dark, dirty, often of
three stories and BAD FIRE RISKS.
The condition of the children in these
schools, good and bad, rich and poor,
may be known by the large number
having defective teeth, reduced hear
ing, imperfect vision. An excessively
large number of them are mouth
breathers, partially so because they are
unable to breathe through their noses
in the smoky air of Pittsburg; and
very considerable number of them are
below the stature and the weight de-
termined for the average child.
I'm a large percentage the defects of
teeth, nose and throat bring them be-
low the physical normal. THESE ARE
THE CHILDREN THAT WEAR OUT
IN CHILDHOOD"
The authority from whom we have
quoted made this droll but sensible
suggestion: fought not the Pittsburg
schools to be closed and the children
repaired?"
And the writer in the American
Magazine, which has rendered a public
service by reviving and publishing the
almost forgotten report of the Pitts
burg investigators, says, in summing
up:
This Pittsburg survey is the most
awful arraignment of an American in
stitution and it's resulting class pro-
nounced since the days of slavery.
''It puts upon the Pittsburg million
aire the awful stamp of greed, of stu
pidity and of heartless pride. But what
should we expect of him? He is the
creature of a special privilege which
for years he has not needed. He has
fought for it because he fattened on it..
He must have it for labor, he says, for
the protection of the American work.
ingman.'
"But look at him and look at his
laborer and believe him if you can"
HOW LONG. o LORD, HOW LONG?
LONG?
Don't laugh, but they are talking
seriously of giving an "early trial. to
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