The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-05-18
POVERTY FOUND
ON DECLINE
IN j. s.
Life Heightened, Work Hours
Shortened, Production In
creased, Says Hard.
By WILLIAM HARD.

By WILLIAM HARD.
This country IL not going down.
It Is going up. Instead Of getting
fuller and fuller Of woes, it in fact
is rising to higher and higher levels
OF happiness.
Secretary of Commerce Hoover
and the National Conference of So
cial Work conveyed that conviction
| today as the chief accumulated mes
sage Of the conference to the coun.
try.
The veteran Frederic Alny, class
mate OF Theodore Roosevelt at Har.
card and manager of the Buffalo
Charity Organization Society since
1894, presented some amazing fig.
ures regarding the decline of pow.
erty. He said:
I'm 1875 more than ten per cent
Of the population Of Buffalo was re-
ceiving city outdoor relief This
relief was wretchedly low. 1t was
only dollar a week per family.
Today the relief given il liberal. But
by the year 1915 the percentage Of
the population receiving relief had
fallen from ten per cent to less than
one and one-haH per cent"
Wealth Being EQuaIized.
ut is not true" continued Amy.
that the poor are getting poorer.
The fact is that wealth is becoming
more equal and that nearly three.
quarters OF the total income Of the
United States now goes to persons
with incomes not exceeding $4,000
year."
Sickness" said Amy, further.
lis a chief cause of poverty and
the reports made to this conference
show what is happening-gradually
but surely-to sickness"
I'm birmingham, Mass" said
DIR. Donald B. Armstrong, head Of
the birmingham Health Demonstra-
ton Service, the death rate from
tuberculosis has fallen more than
30 per cent and in the course of
this year up to the middle of the
month Of May there were just two
deaths in birmingham from
tuberculosis"
In Mansfield, Ohio; in Fargo, N.
D.; in, the agricultural stretches of
Cattaraugus county in New York
State. and In the crowded urban
blocks Of East Harlem in New
York city, the Health Demonstra-
ton Services" idea which was start
ed at birmingham, is now in opera
ton.
1t brings together all health
agencies, public and private, and
concentrates them on the task OF
putting sickness to flight. Resources
Tor promoting such work have been
brought together in the Milbank
Memorial Fund under John A.
klngsbury In New York, and in the
commonwealth Fund under Courte-
nay Dlnwiddie In Washington.
Million Reap Benefit.
In this country today" said
Homer Folks, general chairman of
| the conference, there are 900 900
people who now are walking about
working and playing. but who, If
we now still had our national sick
ness rate of fifty years ago. would
be sick in bed
Yet we still have some distance
to go before In some respects we
| catch up with some other countries
in bringing down the sickness rate
and the death rate.
Conference speakers pointed out
| that our death rate among infants
still contrasts unfavorably with five
| other countries. They pointed out
that our death rate among women
at childbirth still contrasts us un-
| favorably with fifteen other coun-
tries.
Or. Hermann M. Biggs. health
commissioner of New York state,
remarked that the highest average
expectation Of life ever recorded in
the world was in West Sussex,
England There for female persons
the average expectation of life has
gone up to sixty-three and a half
years.
In the United States. for the
white race, it has gone up to fifty
five years. Twenty years ago it
was less than fifty years.
A great dispute is said to exist as
to whether these and numerous
other similar facts of improved
physical well.being are to he at
tributed to social work by public and
private social welfare agencies or
whether they are due simply to bet.
ter economic and financial condi.
tons among the masses of the
people.
Testimony among the experts in
the conference is strongly to the
effect that restitution of the aort
properly described as squalor Ia i'm.
mensely less frequent now than in
fact 1t was in the earlier DAYS Of the
Republic.
Immense light on the situation Is
thrown by Secretary Of Commerce
Hoover In a calculation he has
made regarding the increase Of