TOLEDO--THE "GOLDEN RULE" CITY
"_One of the common people (as Lincoln once humorously said) God must
have loved because he made so many._"--BRAND WHITLOCK.
Among the things that I found in the "Golden Rule City" of Toledo were
these:
Four National banks, fourteen State banks, savings banks and trust
companies, whose combined resources were over sixty millions.
A splendid McKinley Monument built by popular subscription which was
completed in one day.
A three hundred and fifty thousand dollar Y. M. C. A.
A two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollar Y. W. C. A.
A one hundred thousand dollar Newsboys' Building. (How essential is the
conservation of the Newsboy! When he is no longer small enough to be a
newsboy and must do the work of an able-bodied man, what then?)
A four hundred thousand dollar Marble Art Museum. (The cost given does
not include the value of the collection.)
Finest Municipal golf course in the world.
A Municipal Zoölogical Garden which is a wonder, the animals being
housed, fed and sheltered at great cost.
Toledo has also an old ramshackle of a building, which ought to be
condemned, called again by that pretty name which has become so popular
with federated charities, "The Wayfarer's Lodge." I made one attempt to
stop there but it was closed. Its closing hour was eight-thirty P. M.
But I caught its spirit, which was a little worse than the Milwaukee
Rescue Mission to the homeless man, when I was politely, or rather
impolitely, given to understand that in that most bitter cold weather
even, I was not welcome to warm myself by the old stove. I was told by
a starving boy that the food given for one and a half or two hours'
work was the usual three different concoctions of water, and to look
at the old inadequate den from the exterior was enough. This wretched
place accommodates only fifty men, when every night during that bitter
winter there were from three to five hundred on the streets of Toledo
who had no place to lay their heads.
Just across the Maumee river, in East Toledo, is an old frame police
station where I found a hundred and twenty-five men trying to sleep
nightly on the floor. A little way from there, fifty were sleeping on
the floor of a Mission, with newspapers for beds. Each lodger was taxed
five cents for that privilege.
In this "Golden Rule City," I found many men who had served time in
the jails for the crime of poverty. I was told by a citizen at the
time of my visit that three hundred men from one of their prisons were
compelled to put up ice for the city of Toledo, receiving no recompense
for their work but a cell and prison fare,--slavery more damnable than
ever cursed the South. These were then pushed out on to the world again
to become mendicants and criminals. Facts calling for prison reform as
told in romances carry a great weight for good, but enforced reform is
what is demanded of us to-day. Let us not be slow to act.
I have told of the many things I found in "The Golden Rule City of
Opportunities." Let me tell of a few things I did _not_ find,--things
which might give an opportunity to those who come and are willing and
must work:
Municipal Emergency Home.
Emergency Hospital.
Convalescent Hospital.
Public Bath.
Municipal Laundry.
Municipal work for the unemployed at standard wages.
Public Lavatories.
Public Comfort Stations.
It may not be the fault of the progressive people of Toledo that they
have not these beatitudes. Like Milwaukee, they too may be bound by a
knotty web of State and City laws, which must be overcome before the
people can really testify in action to what they really profess.