Crowds and Crimes

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 13, 1908

Crowds and Crimes

THE crowded condition of the large cities of this country, and the results consequent upon such an unnatural way of living, are commanding more and more attention from those who are capable of appreciating the inevitable outcome of this state of things. Some of the facts connected with this problem are told in an editorial in the Independent, from which the following extracts are taken:—

Our cities contain a congested mass of human beings that are a shame to themselves and to the age in which they are bred. While we can boast of magnificent architecture, art, music, etc., we have to allow that the word “city” covers a sort of humanity that was not dreamed of when the Erie Canal was dug, or even when the Pacific Railroad was built. . . .

Mr. Rowntree tells us, in “Poverty,” that in London those who live below a living wage, and are deprived of every reasonable comfort of life, are just about one half of the population. Thirty thousand are without homes of any sort whatever—sleeping at night either in the street or in public lodging-houses. We have twenty American cities that must tell a similar story; while probably New York, with its annual inflow of impoverished foreigners, is even worse off than London.

In its discussions of the best methods for remedying this deplorable condition, the Independent says:—

We believe that Mr. Booth is right, and that he is the best qualified man now living to pronounce on this subject. He has settled down to the conviction that colonization is the only remedy for our new barbarism; that we can only get rid of city congestion by moving the masses outward, and creating a new sort of home life.

In its endeavor to account for the fact that there is an astonishing demand for workers in the country while so many men are idle in the cities, the editorial speaks of the poorest class thus:—

They have been herded until they simply can not stand the country. It is dolefully, lonesome beyond endurance. They know nothing of trees or shrubs, and have not an acquaintance among the birds or beasts. To move these people into the country as individuals would not be worth the while. They would get back again as soon as possible. It is only possible to move them in families and groups of families.

In the opinion of the Independent, there is great need that proper attention should be given to the solution of this problem. It says, further:—

We can not stand this congestion much longer. It is affecting the most sacred of all social convictions, the family; it is destroying morals; it leaves no place for economy, and none for betterment; it is making country labor impossible in harvest-time; it is fouling politics, by creating a vast number of salable votes.

In conclusion, the Independent emphasizes its demands for prompt action in these words:—

We have got to have a social readjustment. The city has become a menace. . . . Slum life is hell; it is intolerable as an adjunct of civilization. We must do more than believe; we must abolish. . . . Out with the shops, with the publishers, with the factories, and out with the people.

Those who have given study to the striking parallel between the days of the decline of the old Roman republic and the recent history of this republic, will not fail to note the similarity of the conditions of city life. Rome became crowded with a class of unemployed dependents, who were ready to embark in any unlawful adventure, or to shout for any political agitator, if only by this means bread and drink could be provided. The Roman senate attempted to relieve the situation by placing the people upon the land, which was furnished to them free, but the distaste for hard work and the craving for the excitement of the capital soon brought the

people back to the city, to be manipulated again by unprincipled politicians. The indications are that the experience may be repeated in this country. Those, however, who appreciate the meaning of the present situation, and who have light as to the developments to be expected in the near future, ought to shun these centers of population and breeding-places of crime, except so far as it may be necessary that some must proclaim the gospel in them, lest they be overtaken in the judgments which are soon to be visited upon these modern Sodoms.