The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-12-05

Rev. A. B. Komara, pastor of St.
 John's church. Jane and Brooks
 streets, has contributed to the discus sion of local housing conditions an
 authoritative statement. Father Ko-
 mara,s personal experience in dealing
 with tenement house congestion among the members of his own par ish has equipped him in an especial manner to discuss the question of housing and the accompanying social
 problems.
 Father Komara points out as chiefly l important the lack of a building code, the unrestricted licensing of saloons,
 the low wages and the insecurity of
 employment. These. factors must be considered in planning improvement for the population He emphasizes the necessity of approaching the con sideration of these features of the problem in a. spirit of Christian sym pathy rather than from the cold, sct- .entif1c spirit of analysis and crit1-
 cism. vice and poverty are not synonyms Rather does lie contend that immor- ality thrives best in the high places.
 Father Komara has made striking progress in the work of social service | in his own parish He has erected a.
 most modern parochia1 school and Isparish hall, and in the latter he has Ilfounded a social center, throwing upon the building as a center for literary. social athletic and other pursuits or Fan elevating nature and in this way
 giving encouragement to the people of his parish to improve their hours
 of leisure. lows:
 will be heard about the bad housing lconditions in Bridgeport The ma tteria1 and moral improvement in thelr mode of living not only of foreigners Lbut of working classes in generasl--to this, in fact, we can reduce the prop Hem under agitation.
 & The workingman,s question con- Ecerns me just as much as the welfare of my flock, for am a citizen and a. priest and in this double capacity T have g. double right not to remain irz- different to the welfare and woe of. the working classes and of my people in particular.
 If hereby may help to introduce a new element into the discussion on housing conditions or present a d1f- ferent view of looking at the problem, feel I have lent my hand as each lin his own sphere should do, to help for the aIne1ioration of our labor con ditions from which the problem of
 housing principally arises
 First of all wish to make plain this: I have no doubt that housing conditions in some sections of our city
 are not what they should be. On my census I have found as many as TOT persons living in one house. Nor
 have I a doubt that these conditions l tend to grow. But I would not hesi- tate to say one thing. and that is, that the morality, decency and honesty of
 my people even of those living in the most crowded. houses, are not half as bad as they may be of some living in luxurious surroundin gs.. In fact their morality and honesty are so favorably compared with any other sections of our city that it would surprise us if we
 but investiga for ourselves and com
 pare the results.
 The SIovaks mostly all have big families. To ninety-nine- per cent. of them the religion of their fathers is reality, the source that keeps them
 strong and cheerful in the trials of ad- versity and it is a potent factor in reducing immortality in. their midst.
 In fact the immortality as, a gen neral rule, does not exist so much among the crowded where almost constantly they are under the eyes of someone in the neighborhood, as it tends to exist among the segregated, where they are
 left more or less free. The contrary is very hard to show by statistics, un- less by exceptions of which I do not speak.
 A great deal has been written and said about the problems arising from the foreign population of this country;
 but the foreigner has received little
 credit for what he is doing for him. self and for this country by supplying it with brawn and muscle.
 Let me touch upon that point and it will help us to be more sympathetic to him rather than to critieise his mode of living. for which, in many cases, he is not responsible. And besides, we must not judge people for their stan dards of life which are arbitrary. It is questionable whether all American standards would be as good for these people as those brought from their na- tive country. Just in our city the foreigners have built and support their church es, schools etc, saving tax payers of the city a notable amount every year.
 What they have built only in this line amounts to upwards of half a, million dollars, not counting society buildings halls or tenements. To get. an idea, of their cheerful sacrifices we
 must remember that all this has been done by the small contributions of these poor people, and whether per sonally we approve or not, we surely must admire the sacrifices they are making when we consider that eIi this they have done without the as- sistance of endowments or contribu= tions from phiIanthropists
 Besides this they have societies of men, women and children belonging to different organizations with mem
 bership of almost 100000 These or ganiza,uons pay the death benefit from
 $500 to $1,0OO. The societies pay the sick benefit from five to ten dollars weekly. All this is possible only by
 the individual contributions of the members. The money paid out this