The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-02-07
CRIMINALS BRED IN
SLUMS NOT TO BLAME
Only Wrong They Know Is in Getting
Caught. He Says-Urges Pur-
chase of Grounds Where They
Can Be Bought Cheaply


high school auditorium last night before
q large audience.
Mr. R,is. before beginning his stereop-
ticon lecture, preached a little sermon
and also told his hearers how he mad
become interested in the movement TO re-
move and alleviate the evils of the city
sums.
T,e told the story of the slum as he
found it and photographed it 20 years ago.
His stereopticon views of some OF the
changes in those slums at the present
time showed a contrast that should, ne
said. be an inspiration to every cltizeh
IN birmingham to take off his binders
and look around and where he found a
alum to agitate its removal. He showed
views of bad housing conditions, and Mr..
Riis had the mortality statisucs tnat
made the tale still more appalling. He
showed that the siums were the breeding
places of criminals and showed why He
said In part
All Boys Have Safety Valve
"All boys have a safety valve and il
you sit on that safety valve you are a
fool as something is going to happen to
YOU. The slums create everything that
Is bad criminals, murderers and a gem
orally rotten fabric of human beings 1t
is a breeding place of disease and tuber-
culosis and children born in the slums
are as that eminent English bishop enl-
phatically stated damned into the
world.
Boys that grow up in that kind of
surroundings are not bad boys. They
can't be bad boys for they don't know
what badness is About all they know is
that If they do certain things they Will
70 TO Jail il they get caught. To them
there is no such thing as morals and
the harm in stealing or numbering is if
thew get caught. They are not to blame
for what they do. We are to blame for
IL. our Indifference to the conditions that
are responsible for the way such boys
are brought up makes us directly respon-
sible and we will have to answer for it.
we have been sitting on the safety valve
letting the steam in the melting pot get
up such strength as to burst out with
damaging force.
The boy in the sums, with
no back yards. no air, no school
ing, nothing but fifth and dark
ness; poverty and disease surround
ing him takes TO the streets, the saloon
why shouldn't he take to the sa-
loon? It is a much more attractive place
than his home. And so the saloons and
the streets get him and finally the peni-
tentiary gets him. Who pays the bill?
we do. We lose valuable citizen who
might have done great work. We lose
.s1x, o,.1 aattt my
lives as the victims of his criminal bring
ing up of which we are directly response
BILE because of indifference.
II worked eight years in New York
city TO try and create a civic sense. To
try and teach them--the people of New
York that they are their brothers keeper
secured the cooperation of all associa-
tions interested in benefiting mankind
after awhile without much trouble. The
hardest trouble was in securing the CO.
operation of the good people of the city
the so-called respectable. decent people;
the people who 90 to church every sun
day and listen to sermons about the love
81 God and smirlS approvingly.
Hardest Class to Arouse
'"There was the class of people in which
] found the greatest opposition to. reliev-
ing the conditions of the slums; to Stir
up a spirit for social centers better and
larger schools and Fairgrounds for all
the children. They croak their love the
Lord sentiment to me, but / said that /.
too. loved the Lord, and also loved my
neighbor. and it was only in doing some-
thing for my neiehbor that | showed my
love fer the Lord People who do moth
ing except for themselves may say they
love the Lord, but they do not know
whether they do or not It's not love of
the Lord with them, it is selfishness in
their hearts
1--WE found upon investigation that the
good church going people owned the
slums, even the respectable churches were
not exempt, they owned sum property.
Ne exposed in later years all of this and
only then did the so-called good people
aud churches relinquish such property and
oDme over to our side
~ 'ln New York city today the death rate
from tuberculosis amounts to 10000 a year
and we have the greatest organization
fighting the dreaded white plague of any
city In the United States. No matter how
hard the association fights two cases OF
tuberculosis are caused by the still exist
ing slums TO every case that the associa-
tion can handle properly. The slum still
exists because 1t pays Slums are for
revenue.
'The fact that we are paying million
dollars for one small playground in New
York city today is due to the indifference
OF the past. We are paying a just interest
10 that Indifference. In Birmingham to-
day YOU can secure the land for play
grounds cheaply in comparison to what
you will have to pay some years hence
You could have bought Fairgrounds il
years ago very cheaply. The fact that
you didn't Is the cause of the high in
terest you will have TO pay in the future
for that lack of foresight.
(which Is the cheapest way? Keeping
the penitentiary full. the death rate high
the educa tional standard low so that a
few may make Is and 20 per cent on theil
Investments in tenement property or that
we build rooiny and sanitary houses
Fairgrounds and schools. lower the death
rate and raise the educational standard
and keep the jails comparatively idle
and improve the jails also, and the tene-
ment investors will only make about
per cent on their investment
"Slums everywhere are Just case OF
revenue. II an investor is satisfied with
q moderate return we have no slums
but an up to date sanitary apartment
house with a yard for the children. II
greed comes in we have the conditions
have just portrayed to you. Watch your
city grow, watch IL grow in opulence
and wealth, bvt in the meanwhile work
with might and main that the city be
filled with happy homes.
"Work for the Fairgrounds and work
for the schools. They are the bulwarks
= which all our hopes should be based