The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-05
Rev. A. E. Komara, Pastor of St. Johns Church, Discusses Needs of the Tenement Districts of Bridgeport In Light of His Personal Exper- fence
Lack of Building Code, Unrestricted Saloons, Inadequate Wages and Insecurity of Employment Are Vital Elements in Consideration of Local Problem

way amounts to many thousands of l dollars yearly.
 Now, disregard the unscientific
 method they may use and just think l for a moment what burden would
 willing as they are to make these sac
 rif1ces for themselves. Besides there
 is an element of helping one another
 which we must not lose sight of.
 It has been said that over crowded
 tenements, where the mothers stay 1 home alISday and the father goes to a 1 dust laden factory, breathes a low
 standard of living, and is serious from l it's relation to disease and imm orahty.
 But to my mind these conditions in i whatever degree they may exist are l only the consequences of a low wage
 or lack of work or of both.
 In addition to this, it is frequently
 a necessary corollaryt of high rents, of
 high cost of living, as well as of bad
 surroundings It is nothing but the outcome of a number of. causes, or ] forces, if you may call them, produc- ing this result, which forces likewise
 tend to weaken the sacredness of home life.
 Building Code.
 l There is no doubt but that a def1n- 1 ite building. code, is very necessary to
 gNard the interest of the city and the 1 pres
 ent there is nothing definite to be
 guided byzand frequently d person in
 tending to build is misled and is caus- l ed inconveniences
 myself had to combat an arbitrary
 decision that tended to impose a few
 thousand dollars extra expense on us,
 expenses caused by regulations con tained in 9 Building Code which does not exist. I was obliged to seek the
 attorney generals opinion on the mat ter which was in favor of my eonten- i ton.
 1 i state this only as tending to show
 that a definite Building Code not only will help the housing conditions, but
 will also prevent inconveniences, that
 frequently arise. Rcsfriction.
 l A more harmfuI force is the lack of unrestricted liquor licenses in a thick I ly populated section. They have great deal to do with crowded condi-
 tions One Of the great dangers which
 faces some working men is the temp tation of countless saloons on every side, which crop up like mushrooms l wherever working people are found in large numbers. This is not only too
 freely tolerated but not unfrequently is even encouraged by those we'll l high-up.
 The unscrupulous agent frequently
 uses one of the workmen, especially
 if he is of foreign birth, for double purpose. First, to get the foreign population to patronize his product by employing one of them who has a.
 following, as in most cases country 1 men patronize their fellow country men. The. agent will paint a rosy, future for him and posing as a friend of workingmen by the fact that he is willing to take one of them from the
 factory life, he promises to help him to become 8 prosperous business man. Secondly, his aim sometimes is to use l the plain mans Ignorance of the basis l ness ways to enrich himself The workingman unaware of the strate-, gems of the interruptions agent trusts him and in his simplicity starts with good intentfons-without securing Ie- gal protection for himself When he sees the web he is placed in; he con suits a lawyer and then, to his great astonishment, he sees that the agent has every point of the law on his side. He was so honest himself and would not for a moment suspect others of dishonesty and secure legal protection
 for himself in advance He believed
 the ambiguous words of the agent and saw only that one meaning which he
 naturally would look for.s I have had
 four eases lately when persons came
 to me crying for advice, but so shreWdly had these agents naanipuIat- ed matters that those unfortunate men were outside the pale of the law in as far as recovery of their investments was concerned. Each had lost in the
 short time of three or four months
 eight or nine hundred dollars, a say- ing from the hard labor of their life long earnings.
 The state, in justice to the wonlk-
 man, his wife and his children, owes d protection of supervisional and of restrictive measures.
 rF1 aft fea
 prosperity or a time of industrial stag nation. In the latter he feels the hard times that bring btt destitution to him; the more keenly he feels the more he realizes that he faces starva-
 ton with his wife and children to share in his lot In times of pros pertty, on the contrary, it is easy for him who is tied down without respite for the same number of hours to the same mechanical work every working
 day of his life, to be tempted by the dangers that surround him in every corner, when released at last from the
 deadening toiI he seeks compensa
 ton in strong stimulants which fre- quently are used to excess.
 Unusual moral energy is required to the strong will under such circurn- stances, especially when his physical condition craves for a, stImu1ant. When
 his former circumstances improve, the workingman easily yields to the temp tation of making up for his previous
 privations by over-induIgence, with the result that when hard times come
 again he. feels his destitution all the more keen1y. In fact, many are not apt to provide even in industrial pros perity because they receive wages
 scarcely more than what is necessary
 for their bare need.
 If. in times of prosperity with
 children forced to work, they earn just enough to get along; in times of ad-