Sunday Employment and Urban Poverty
AFTER all of the so-called reforms which have been conducted for some time in New York City, an investigation of one district having a population of 40,000 shows that there is one saloon for every 444 people, and one church building for every 4,547 of the inhabitants, and a church organization for every 3,327 people. Another thing which seems to bring sadness to the Sunday reform forces is that of 10,657 wage-earners in the district of 40,000, 18 per cent. are employed on Sunday. But there is no question of the fact, we believe, that those who are thus employed are more thrifty, honest, and sober than those who spend their Sundays in the saloons and rookeries of the cities. It is also stated that there was barely one bath to every eight families. Such showings of life in our great cities is an indication why there is popular unrest and discontent among the masses.