The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-01-02
THE PEOPLE OF PlTTSBURG
The First Publication of Two Years Study of Industrial Civic and Social Conditions in Pittsburg Begun Today Some Startling Facts About Americas Greatest Industrial Center

beset with trade diseases. Nobody knows how much the community is paying for these wastes. The esti- mates of the Survey go to show that the numbers and costs are stupendous A myriad of one family dwellings turned into congested tenements, men and women working overtime in un- sanitary shops. an entire lack of ade- quate factory inspection by the State these are some of the findings of the Survey. They are in contrast to the standards set by certain of the more progressive employers of the district. The town is not unprepared to make use of these facts as part of a new and aggressive movement for civic re- form which is taking head throughout the district. The city last year open ed five, and half million dollar filtration plant, which has cleared the water; a typhoid fever commission is studying other sources of disease; a tenement house census has been made carried out by the Bureau of Health; and a Civic Improvement Commission has just been appointed, broader in scope than any yet known in an Amer ican city.
 The director of the Survey, Paul U. Kellogg says that "It must be borne in mind that much that is said of Pittsburg is true of practically all our industrial centeTs; our seveEest cr1t1-
 cism of any one comes not from a
 comparison with it's fellows, but from
 comparison of haphazard develop ment of its social institutions with the splendid organic development of it's in
 dustrial enterprises. And more. in
 the methods and scope of progressive
 business organizations we have some
 of the most suggestive clues as to
 waVS of municipal prOgrGSS."
 His argument is that if the CIVIC
 responsibilities of democracy in an in
 dustrial district are to be met, the
 community should do what first-rate industrial concern would do, figure out the ground it can cover effectively ana gear it's social machinery to so cover it. By social machinery l mean hos
 pitals and schools and courts and city
 departm ents, and all that wide range of activities that have a direct bearing on the living conditions of a people. Second, to hold these agencies as close ly accountable as are enterprises m tLe business world; and to bring them to the ultimate touchstone of their CT feet on the welfare of the average cltl- zen. Unless a wage earning popula- ton is so insured against disease, it's vigor and effectiveness so conserved,
 the community is not meeting it's re- responsibilities toward the industries which must depend upon these work CTS for output and profit. In turn,
 the public should see to it that the industries do not cripple or exploit the working force which constitutes the
 great asset of the community. And further, if such program is to be
 carried out in an American and demo-
 cratic way, the workers themselves must have greater lee-way and leis- ure in which to bear their share of the
 burdens and responsibilities of Ameri- | can democracy"
 | Among those who have taken part l in the work of the Survey, have been Professor John R. Commons, of the University of Wisconsin,; Robert A. 1 Woods, Headworker. South End House, Boston; Florence Kelley, Secretary National Consumers League; Law renee Veiller. former First Deputy Tenement House Commissioner, New York; and Frank E. Wing, Secretary Of the Chica go Tuberculosis Institute