They have their ways, and we have
ours, and each has something to learn from the other. We copied our
law that enabled us to tear down slum tenements from the English
statute under which they cleared large areas over yonder long
before we got to work. And yet in their poor streets--in "Christian
Street" of all places--I found families living in apartments entirely
below the sidewalk grade. I found children poisoned by factory
fumes in a charitable fold, and people huddled in sleeping-rooms
as I had never seen it in New York. And when I asked why the police
did not interfere, they looked at me, uncomprehending, and retorted
that they were on their own premises--the factory, too--and where
did the police come in? I told them that in New York they came in
when and where they saw fit, and systematically in the middle of
the night so that they might get at the exact facts. As for our
cave-dwellers, we had got rid of them a long time since by the
simple process of dragging out those who wouldn't go and shutting
the cellar doors against them. It had to be done and it was done,
and it settled the matter.
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