Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-10-15
GRAVE CHARGE MADE
Washington Said to Abound in
DecreDit Horses.
COOPERATION is SOUGHT
Assertions in international Humane
Conference.
LOCAL INDIFFERENCE HINTED
DR.. F. 81. Rowley Explains Value to
Public Health of the Work of
the Animal Societies.
COOPERATION is SOUGHT
LOCAL INDIFFERENCE HINTED

On the assumption that the work OF
the Washington Humane Society is be-
ing hindered by the Indifference of the
District authorities. several speakers
at the session of the International HUI
| name Conference this morning urged
| that a delegation confer with Maj. Syl-
vester to settle any differences that
may exist between the police depart
ment and the anti-cruelists.
| Various delegates reiterated state
ments made last evening to the effect
that Washington has more decrepit
horses than any other city, and that
conditions here appall them. j. T.
Morgan of Columbus, Ohio. said that
| If the Police Court judges the Dis
trict officials are not in sympathy with
| the local humane society the reason for
| this estrangement should be ascer-
tanned at once.
If We hope to succeed in our move
ment we must have the cooperation of
the judges and police force in every city,"
said he
1t is expected that definite line of az
ton will be taken by the conference late
this afternoon regarding the situation in
the District.
The audience at the New National Mu-
scum this morning was augmented by the
presence of number of visitors. John
Partridge of San Francisco chairman of
the day. called the meeting to order at
$50 O'Clock and gave brief resume of
conditions in his state.
Conserving Public Health.
An address on THE Animal Societies
and the Public HEALTH" by DR.. Francis
II. ROwley, president of the Massachu
setts Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to AnmalS, was feature of the
session. He said. in part:
Even today the cause that to so many
of us is worthy our lives endeavor makes
but small appeal to multitudes from
beasts of the field and the fowl of the air
are excluded. To these it is a perpetual
wonder that intelligent men and women
can devote time and thought and money
to the interests of beasts and birds, while
children, they tell us. perish morally and
physically in the slums of a hundred cit
les. and human lives are ground to pow
der between the upper and neither mill
wrong.
Little do those who criticise us for
what they call our waste Of wealth and
care in behalf of our kindred lowlier
ever lIHdSluc lIidI III ways IuOSl
vital the work of our animal societies
touches not only the welfare of the multi
tudinous poor, but their own as truly.
Debt to Animal Societies.
THE debt that all ranks of our social
life owe to the societies for the preven-
tion of cruelty to animals for the long,
persistent and continuing struggle to pro-
tect the unnumbered millions of crea-
lures whose flesh is used for food from
mans inhumanity, to secure such legis-
lation as shall make it possible to bring
them to the place of slaughter in as fit
condition as may be, and as little liable
to become utterly unwholesOme and
poisonous as food from sufferings entail
ed by reason of hunger and thirst and
abuse and fright-this debt to our ami
man and woman and child of the land
who eats animal flesh is beyond compu-
tatiOn.
Valuable Service to the Public.
You have only to look the facts in the
face to see how, in ministering to the
good of these helpless but sentient be-
ings, so large a proportion of which we
have come to think of as existing for
no other reason under heaven than that
We should eat them, there has been a
public health many times more valuable
than the money spent by all the societies
organized for animal protection. Year
by year there moves onward toward the
slaughter houses of our land. in dead
march that halts not night or day. pro-
cessiOn of more than d hundred millions
Of these four-footed creatures. there to
meet death at the hands of man, their
executioner, and often death in its most
terrifying and brutal shapes
Add TO these the millions cf foul thot
annually are hurried by train and boat
and cart from the farm to the market,
and then understand that with more or
less of vigilance. and with such means as
are at their command, in every state and
territory of the Union, our animal socie-
ties are watching the transportation and
the slaughter of these poor servants OF
their human and inhuman masters.
shielding them from cruelty in ten thou
sand cases, seeking increasingly to miti-
gate the abuses connected with the traffic
in their lives, constantly pleading for bet
ter legislation on their behalf, and at
once this work of our animal societies
becomes, in the eyes of thoughtful men
and women, related most intimately and
vitality to the health of the nation and
If indirectly, yet really to conditions that
soon or late touch questions that have to
do with the moral and spiritual lives of
its people
Proper Shelters for Animals.
Mrs. Huntington Smith of Boston SUBJ
mitted a paper showing the need of prop
erly conducted shelters for animals. She
was followed by Dr. Albert Leffingwell of
Aurora, \. Y, who briefly explained the
necessity for slaughter-house reform in
this country. He pointed out the ad-
vantages of the system in Europe where
| by slaughter houses are kept in a sani-
| tary condition at all times and are un-
! der government supervision in many
| countries.
| Discussing affairs in San Francisco, Mr.
| Partridge said:
/ From the beginning We in San Fran
| cisco have been persistent and aggressive
| though never losing sight of the fact that
| our policy has always been to prevent
cruelty rather than TO prosecute offenders
| "Our aim has been to lead the thought
| less to be kinder and gentler to the dumb
| creatures placed under their care. That
| this is becoming a more humane world let
us all hope. all the signs of the times
| point in that direction. the lessening of
{ cruelty has become popular. and people
who devote portion of their lives to
promote anti-cruelty organization are mo
| longer called cranks.