The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-09-03

up the laborer and HIS good as a reason
for continuing it, what do they 81
when these conditions are pointed out
to them: "We don't want to 90 into the
housing business. We are manufacture
ers, 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 community
let the laboring man take care of him
self. We don't believe in paternalism."
They have had no more interest in
preserving the lives of the men who do
the terrible toll necessary to their
wealth than in giving them decent hous-
ing. For years the death rate from
typhoid fever in Pittsburg has been the
highest of any city in the civilized
world. Everybody knew it. Everybody
knew why. There was no supply OF
pure drinking water. A filtration plant
was needed Did any Pittsburg million
are offer to build it--insist that the
industries which called the vast army
of labor to Pittsburg should build it
No, they left a corrupted city govern
ment to fight over the appropriations
for the work and scattered in endow-
ments and in institutions in other cities
and other states, many times the five
millions needed in Pittsburg to save the
lives of the workmen. They hold up
to the world for admiration their love
of great material problems-they argue
with the American people that their
skill in solving these problems is a good
and sufficient reason for continuing gen
eral taxation in their favor. But
problem which worked out would bene.
fit nobody but the humble two -dollar-a
day man who sweats out his life in the
not interest them. 1t might SAVIOR of
paternalism.
Not even the child has touched them.
The conditions under which the chill
dren of the poor are brought up in
Pittsburg are such that babies die like
flies. Of those along the river, a set
Element worker told Samuel Hopkins
Adams, when he was working on health
conditions for the Survey: "Not one
child in ten comes to us from the river
bottom section without blood or skin
disease, usually of long standing. Not
one out of ten comes to us physically
up to the normal for his or her age.
Worse than that, few of them are up to
the mental standard, and an increasing
percentage are imbecile."
AS to the schools, here Is what an
authority says: "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 pro
portion having defective teeth, reduced
hearing, imperfect vision. An excessive
ly large number of them are mouth
breathers, partially so because they arc
unable to breathe through their noses
in the smoky air of Pittsburg, and q
very considerable number are below the
stature and the weight determined for
the average child. In a large percentage,
the defects of teeth, nose and throat
bring them below the physical normal.
These are the children that wear out in
childhood"
"Ought not the Pittsburg schools to
be closed and the children repaired?"
This Pittsburg Survey is the most
awful arraignment of an American insti-
tuition and its resulting class pronounced
since the days of slavery. 1t puts upon
the Pittsburg millionaire the awful
stamp of greed, of stupidity and of
heartless pride But what should we eX-
pect of him? He is the creature of a
special privilege which for years he has
not needed. He has fought for it be-
cause he fattened on it, He must have
it for labor. But look at him and look
at his laborer and believe him if yo
can.
Justice takes terrible revenge on
those who thrive by privilege. She
blinds their eyes until they no longer
see human misery. She dulls their
hearts until they no longer beat with
humanity. She benumbs their senses
until they respond only to the narrow
horizon of what they can individually
possess, touch, feel She makes, as she
has in Pittsburg, generation of men
and women who day by day can pass
hundreds of tumbled down and filthy
homes. in which the men and women
who make their wealth live, and feel
no shock; who can know that deadly
fevers and diseases which are prevent
able are wiping out hundreds of thos
who do their tasks, and raise no har
Little children may die or grow up
stunted and evil within their sight and
no penny of their wealth, no hour OF
their leisure is given them. Women may
pass hours of incessant toll and die,
broken and unhonored within their
sight, and they raise no hand. Wealth