THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN AMERICA. 



247 



W. C. EDWARDS, OF LAKNED, KAN. 



SECRETARY OF STATE. 



THE HOMES OF THE WOKKING PEOPLE. 



BY DR. CHAS. STIRLING. 



THE Eighth Special Report, by Carroll D. Wright, 

 Commissioner of Labor, on the " Housing of the 

 Working People," is quite worthy of consider- 

 able attention. 



The rapid and radical changes which the past ten 

 or fifteen years have made in the economic and 

 political situation in this country may be likened to 

 that period in the life of a growing boy when a few 

 months sometimes will change the irresponsible, care- 

 less, easy-going boy into a sober-faced, thoughtful, 

 anxious man. 



Uncle Sam wears a very sober face in these days, 

 and well he may. The social problems which now 

 confront us in the United States are such as a few 

 years ago we had supposed would perhaps have to be 

 met by our descendants of the second or third genera- 

 tion, but which did not otherwise concern us. How- 

 ever, the unexpected course of human events has 

 landed us squarely in front of these so-called " old 

 world problems," and we now have a social question, 

 or rather a number of social questions of the first 

 magnitude, which are forced upon our attention quite 

 as urgently as these same questions are forced upon 

 the attention of the economists and statesmen of 

 Europe. 



The rapid and tremendous growth of the big cities 

 of Europe and America, mostly at the expense of the 

 small towns and rural districts, is as yet a partly un- 

 explained phenomenon. There have been very power- 

 ful economic forces at work in the upbuilding of the 

 big cities, and whether these forces still continue to 

 be as potent and in as full operation as hitherto, and 

 the big cities are to become bigger and bigger, or 

 whether something like the old relation between town 

 and country is to be restored, . is a question upon 

 which economists are not quite agreed. 



Meanwhile we have the problem of the unemployed, 



and the problem of the slums, and the commissioner's 

 report deals with this latter problem only. 



The slums must go. This is the verdict of the 

 economist, the philanthropist, and also of the social- 

 ist. The slums are a social, a political, and a sanitary 

 nuisance. 



It would seem from this report that much better 

 progress has been made in England and Germany in 

 the direction of housing the working people of big 

 cities in cheap, sanitary, comfortable, and often artis- 

 tic dwellings, than we can yet show in this country. 

 However, the question is new in America. 



Governmental supervision and governmental inter- 

 ference has gone much further in Europe than we 

 should be disposed to tolerate in this country, but the 

 necessity was forced upon them. Necessity knows no 

 law, or rather necessity follows the first law of nature 

 the preservation of the individual and the community. 



The English authorities in this connection divide 

 the working people into three classes: Firstly, those 

 who can and will help themselves; secondly, those 

 who are worthy of help and who will help themselves 

 if opportunity be given; and thirdly, those who 

 neither can nor will help themselves, but even this 

 class must be well looked after for obvious reasons. 

 We imagine that it would be quite impossible to draw 

 anything like a straight line between these different 

 classes. When we remember how often in the history 

 of America and Australia the sons and daughters of 

 some of those who emigrated from old-world poor- 

 houses and jails have, under better and brighter con- 

 ditions, through sheer force of ability and merit; 

 climbed up until they rank with the noblest and 

 best in the land, we think it safest to be charitable in 

 our judgment and speech concerning many of these 

 inhabitants of the slums. 



No man can estimate the oppressive force of hope- 

 less, grinding poverty in any individual case; give the 

 man room to breathe and you may find a man after all. 



In America these problems should be comparatively 

 simple. With much more than one-half the national 

 territory so scantily peopled as is the great West, we 

 are not yet crowded for room. 



But here again water is the prime necessity, and our 

 governments, State and National, will soon be forced to 

 take action. The National government must assume a 

 number of new functions in order to successfully 

 meet these new conditions. Any institution of less 

 size than the National government is too small to be 

 intrusted with the guardianship of an interest of such 

 transcendent importance as the water supply of this 

 soon-to-be-irrigated empire. 



FORESTRY. 



BY J. S. EMERY. 



IN my annual address at Albuquerque before the 

 National Irrigation Congress T said: "lean- 

 not leave this platform and say no word for 

 that twin sister of Irrigation whose name is re- 

 forestation. Arid America will never be reclaimed 

 without being reforested." 



I wish to emphasize this idea in this paper; and 

 I deem the wide circulation of THE IRRIGATION 

 AGE a most valuable avenue through which to 

 get this thought before the friends of irriga- 

 tion enterprise, not only throughout the Great 

 Plains country as well as the mountain States, but 

 also before the country at large. We are all wak- 

 ing up to some consideration of those imminent 

 perils now threatening us from forest destruction. 



The convention of the American Forestry Asso- 

 ciation at its recent session, and the action of the 



