Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-05-17

against want.
"If these laws had brought about
this end, or nearly so, impressive re-
suits would certainly have shown by
the year 1910. BY that time these as
had been in force long enough. That
was the crest of the time, too. when
all over the world the legend had
been adroitly disseminated that Ger
many was a veritable paradise where
contentment dwelt and bliss crowned
all.
Turning from legend to fact what
do we find?
"That instead of decreasing. pau
perism In Germany increased. not
only absolutely but relatively.
cat a hygiene congress In 1913 DR..
Zahp, a recognized German authority
on poor relief in that country, report
ed that in Berlin the number of per-
sons receiving poor relief from the
public funds had increased yearly
from 1888 in 1891 to 55,6O1 in
1909. This was an increase in pau
perism from 1.99 per 100 Inhabitants
in 1891 to 2.64 per 100 inhabitants
in 1909. Pauper burials were fire.
quent.
I'm Hamburg pauperism was so
CONSTANT that from 1895 to 1909 be-
tween 5000 and 10000 persons an
nually we're given poor relief from
the public funds. Many paupers were
buried at public expense every year.
The same conditions prevailed in
Munich, Liepsic, Breslau, Frankfort
On-the-Main, Nuremburg, Dusseldorf,
Eiberfeld and other German cities.
These figures do not include private
and trade union aids.
"Dr. Zahn showed that pauperism
was not confined to large cities. In
Bavaria, the richest agricultural state
in the German empire, 250,218 pau
pers were assisted in 1911.
"In order to conciliate the organ
ICED city working people and at the
same time give a genteel outward ap-
pearance to city conditions, the usual
form of poor relief in the cities has
been that Of grants of money. The
individual sums thus given have been
well, what have they been? Com
monty about $3.50 month or there
abouts; sometimes a little more. A
/ SO or 81 a month allowance of aims
has been considered generosity. In
official parlance these poor relief
grants are generously styled 'bene-
fits Miserable as are these sums,
they have somehow been the means
of diverting mass of paupers from
being shifted to almshouses. Hidden
in the congested byways and Tester
ing in the squalid back neighbor-
hoods Of the cities, these impoverished
semblances of human beings have
mysteriously existed. Meanwhile the
officials. we'll knowing that these sub
merged elements have been lost to
view, have proudly pointed out to Wis
itors the delusive fact that their
almshouse population Is almost nil.
Compared with Germany's refusal
to publish pauper statistics and her
boast of the absence of pauperism.
statistics of the United States show
that in this country for every 100000
population the proportion Of aims
hause paupers has decreased from
1866 in 1900 to 91.5 in 1910.
"Moreover-and highly impor-
tant fact it is-much Of this pauper-
ism was pauperism trahsplanted here
direct from Europe United States
bureau of the census bulletin 100 fur
Their shows that of the S4,190 paupers
admitted to almshouses In the United
States in 1910. total of 1888 were
foreign-born white paupers. 1851 of
whom, by the way. came from Ger
many. Taking the country as a
WHOLE says the 1910 census report
on the United States, the foreign
born whites in proportion to their
numbers contribute to almshouses
about four times as many paupers as
the native white 1t Is this immigra-
ton that has swelled the ranks Of
pauperism in our large Eastern port
cities and states.
Germany has had no such prob
lem thrust upon it. Almost wholly
Germany's paupers have been native
Germans or other subjects of the
kaiser-home-grown products of Ger
man kultur."