Evening star., 1916-01-07

the fiscal relations of the District OF
Columbia and the United States, sub
mtted to Congress yesterday. Sena-
tor Works has made an investigation
of slum conditions here, and his re-
port deals exhaustively with the situ
alton. AS beginning of his proposed
remedy for conditions he has intro
duced in the Senate a bill directing the
District Commissioners to purchase or
condemn SHOWS court. one of the worst
slum spots in the city, according to
Senator Works. and to erect on this
square sanitary dwellings for poor
tenants.
Senator Discusses Conditions.
Discussing conditions here in his re-
port. Senator Works said:
The American people want their
capital to be clean, decent, respectable
and healthful as well as beautiful on
the outside. 1t has fallen far below
this standard under system of gov
ernment where Congress can shift its
responsibility onto the District of Co
lumbia, a spneless and irresponsible
municipal body. Under this system
the slums, the redlight district, the sa-
looms and unwholesome and insanitary
conditions have been allowed to flour
ish. Crime, vice, corruption and death
have devastated portions of the city
tndI COulQ ana SnOulQ nave Deen pro-
tected from such conditions.
From time to time feeble and inef-
fectual efforts have been made through
inadequate laws to remedy these evils.
The better class of people in the Dis
trict have bone the best they could
with the insufficient weapons provided
them by Congress to ameliorate the
conditions and protect the poor people,
who suffer from them the most. but to
discouraging degree it has been a
hopeless task. 1t is not wholly the
fault of the people of the District that
these conditions continue down to the
present day. Neither is it the fault of
the Districts officers. The chief reason
for. it is that Congress has failed to en-
act the laws and appropriate the money
necessary to abate these crying evils,
though often urged to do SO.
Quotes President Roosevelt.
Senator Works quoted from a message
Of President Roosevelt to the Fifty
ninth Congress, in which he urged that
Washington be made model city. This
was followed by the appointment of
James Bronson Reynolds of New York
to investigate conditions here. Presi-
dent Taft, he said, called attention
later to the report made by MIR. Reyn-
olds on the evil slum conditions exist
ing in Washington.
Senator Works quoted from the re-
ports on conditions here made by other
investigators ana continued:
The picture presented by the quota
tions ! have made is not overdrawn.
They do not disclose the whole truth.
j have not depended on such informa-
tion in reaching conclusions. i have
examined enough of these slums and
inspected enough of the dwellings To-
Gated in them to speak of my own
knowledge. The conditions are un-
them for the first time is filled with a
profound sense of pity and commisser-
alton for the inmates, not unmixed
with a feeling of shame and resent
ment that a great nation like this, one
of the richest and most powerful in
the world, and possessed of almost un-
limited resources, should allow such
conditions to exist in. it's Capital city.
Washington is city of striking and
abruHt contrasts. One may ride along
a wide, well paved and attractive street
lined with beautiful, almost palatial,
homes. and turn from it upon an old,
worn-out. cobblestone or brick paved
street. lined with old. broken down
houses. many of them dilapidated and
From that one can turn into what are
politely called inhabited alleys
courts places and find an appalling
condition of poverty, destitution and
degradation. All this within a distance
OF two or three squarSs. Some of these
alleys are blind alleys; that is to say.
there is but one means of ingress and
egress, and within is a labyrinth of
alleys covering the entire inside of a
square with a fringe of houses around
the outside, some of them little better
than those within, except that thew are
easier of access.
Reduced to Degrading State.
within such a square you will find
the most degrading conditions 1t Is
almost beyond belief that human be-
fngs can live under such conditions.
They have very Justly been called nest
holes of Crfnna
the owners of the shacks and tumble
down and fnsanitary houses are max
ing more money out of the rent Of
them than is being made by the own
ers of first-class houses and business
blocks. The rents are exorbtantly
high AS an example, / visited one lit
rooms up and two down stairs, with
out running water in the house out of
repair, plaster of the walls, ill lighted
and poorly ventilated. This house was
two rooms, for which they paid 81
month each. or s14 for this little. di-
1apidated. insanitary house, that should
have been condemned and destroyed
under existing laws long since
There is but one effective remedy
for this dreadful condition. The gov
eminent should condemn the whole
square as a sanitary measure and police
regulation. tear everything out of il.
root and branch: replat the ground
construct upon II model sanitary hous-
es, rent tnem TO the poorer classes of
people who now inhabit the slums. and
then supervise and inspect them, thus
compelling the tenants to keep them in
sanitary condition inside as well as
out.
Money Well Spent.
1T will be said that all this will cost
a lot Of money. Yes, II will, but 1t will
be money much better spent than are
millions and millions of dollars that
we are now throwing away for useless
and Illegal purposes,
The Agricultural Department is
spending and wasting millions and mil
lions of dollars on useless experiments
and in work that should be done by the
states and cannot legitimately be done
by the national government The pub
lie health service is spending millions
more in the states in violation of the
spirit of the Constitution We are
spending hundreds of thousands OF dol
lars for the cure of hogs and cattle in
the states, often where the federal
authorities have no lawful right or
business to enter.
We spend millions for agricultural
colleges and vocational schools in the
states. work that belongs to and
should be left to the states We are