QA

       



         From the basic newspapers archive, I found this article from page 13 of the Pittsburgh Press,  December 23,1907. It was given the header "Says New York Has no Slums: Poorest people there prosperous compared with those of :" The article is an interview with a superintend of the Maternity House whose services are in behalf of the women in the Liverpool slums.  I believe Miss Annie Goslings's insight is accurate and very valuable since her whole life was devoted to caring for the woman and children, and connecting with them- similar to an aid worker or a doctor with "Doctors Without Borders" would do today. . Gosling a definite progressive, is a large activist in the act of Prohibition, as she believes alcohol to be a key component in the slums, "While much of the poverty is due to drinking. There also is much of the drinking due to poverty. The men cannot find work and the lot of the woman is so hopeless that drink seems the only relief." (Gosling, Pittsburgh Press).  She believes the Grocer's spirits License act has the most "wicked effects" than any piece of legislation passed as it is, "Increasing force of the drink habit among the lower classes of women in the slums" (Gosling, Pittsburgh Press). The boredom and idleness that the women face  as well as the "deepening poverty plunges" causes these women to fall further and further into drink slavery. However, it is sadly not only adults that are being affected by this, but children as well. One of her patients, a seven year old girl, died of "gin drinker's liver" before she was old enough to even go to school.
        From the beginning of a child's life in the slums, they are immediately in a beyond tragic environment. Part of Gosling's job was helping with child birth and she describes her working conditions and resources as , "One small and indescribable filthy room, a sack in the corner for a bed, an orange box for a table [...] in such a room another child is brought into the world.[...] "The children go barefooted to school in the worst weather we have-that is if they live to school age. Among this class the infant mortality rate is high and growing higher." ( Gosling, Pittsburgh Press).  The infant death rate became so bad that the mayor of Huddersfield, another Progressive, became so disturbed by the high death rate among infants, he offered his own money out. He gave 5$ in American money to each family that had an infant born in the slums that survived 12 months. The death rate did decrease for infants, and the mayor was ruined financially. This further exemplifies the terrible condition because it shows that the 5$ was considered a great amount of money to the women in the slums, and that that small amount helped their babies live for another year. “Many of these women live a lifetime without having 5$ at one time. Without this incentive the baby was given no care; was not worth enough to the poverty stricken father and the gin sodden mother to prompt them to try to keep it alive. In short, it was demonstrated that a child’s life could be saved for a sovereign. Again I say such poverty as this is not known in the United States and I pray never will be known (Gosling, Pittsburgh Press).
This most significant message I got from this article was that people in that time period were unaware of what true poverty is, and what the slums really are. She says the staple people use to determine a slum is the poverty struck area of New York, but she thinks that the poverty struck area in New York is rich and a dream compared to the real slums. Although she believes that alcohol is the main cause of this, and was actively awaiting the Prohibition act, she finishes the interview by saying, "“I sometimes feel as I wind my way out of these terrible slums and see the public house on the corner- the only bright spot in the neighborhood.-that had I only a few pence I, too  probably would spend it for gin to gain a few minutes or hours’  forgetful of my condition.” (Gosling, Pittsburgh Press) because the slums were just that bad.