Jacob Riis on New York’s Corrupt Rule
It is a terrible indictment which the well-known writer, Jacob A. Riis, brings against the powers that rule in New York City, as given in a stirring article in The Outlook of October 26. Mr. Riis has made a close study of the slums of that great city, and is thoroughly familiar with its tenement-house problem. He shows, as only one who is familiar with his subject can show, how the administration of that municipality has become a game of profit in the hands of the most unscrupulous men. The article is an unanswerable testimony in rebuttal against the glowing generalities indulged in by many in the attempt to prove that the world is growing better. And New York is not alone in this work of ruling a city in the interests of a ring of conscienceless men. The slogan of a “good time coming,” and a “glorious future,” can only be shouted while men turn their backs and cover their eyes from such facts as Mr. Riis there places before the public.