New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-12-06

are visiting the sums; rising Members OF Par
lament with regulations to make are proposing
drastic remedies school officers, startled W
find an audience eager TO listen to them, are re-
citing the darkest passages of their experience
in garnet, cellar and alley; the city missionary
is invited TO fashionable pulpits; and LONDON
for brief season fixes its attention upon the
magnitude of its own woe, the helplessness ana
degradation of its lot. SO serious ana lnteil-
gent discussion of grave social problem re-
moves the reproach of what has come 10 DO
known in England as the annual silly season.
Undoubtedly the public prints and the pohtlcai
leaders will soon grow weary of disagreeable
subject, and the Queens Speech will be scanned
in vain for any practical outcome OF the melan-
choly disclosures that have been made. be
that as it may, the cry of the outcast poor has
been heard by the English people. That cry
has risen above the chatter of diplomacy ana
the din of politics, and, once heard, 1T cannot be
wholly forgotten.
1t is admitted on every side that the pressure
of overcrowding is steadily increasing in the
hives of English population. Even Lord
Shaftesbury, in labored attempt to take
cheerful view of the situation as not altogether
there is a greater gain In population than in
housing accommodation in the East End OF
London. The plague spots. when cleared under
the provisions of the Artisans Dwellings Act,
afford no relief, for the population in the outly-
ing district becomes more dense and rents are
invariably raised. The Peabody model tene-
ments do not meet the requirements OF the poor
est tenants the improved lodging houses do
not diminish the strain of overcrOwding; the
cheap workingmen's trains are not available
either for dock hands, who must live near the
wharves where they have to seek employment
before daylight, or for the great mass of the
London poor striving to earn an honest living
The pressure from Overcrowding increases more
rapidly by natural means than it can be dmin-
shed by the artificial devices of legislation and
philanthropy. Every year 1t becomes more
difficult for the virtuous and industrious work
ers to avoid the concentrating pressure of the
vicious and dishonest The children are edu-
Gated at public expense, but they live in the
haunts of vice and cannot rise above their evil
associations. There is no room for honest pow
erty save in the purlieus of crime.
Mr. FOrsters suggestion that the remedy for
the evils of overcr0wding and unhealthy hab-
itatiOns must be applied by the municipality OF
London, is made in the interest of that section
of the Liberal party which believes that the re-
form of metropolitan modes of government is
question of greater urgency than the enlarge
ment of the suffrage. 1t is evident that rock
cries and unnhabtable houses are allowed to
stand year after year in the East End which
would be condemned within a week in New
York or in any other American city having a
sanitary code and building law worthy of the
name. The descriptions given in the London
journals of the lOathsOme dens where the lower
classes are housed prove that the sanitary laws
are not enforced there as they are on Manhattan
Island. Many of the buildings for which heavy
compensation has been accorded under the Ar
tisans' Dwellings Act ought to have been con-
demned as public nusances. The 7estries
sanction year after year the letting of unhealthy
houses which ought to be torn down and rebuilt
at the expense of the owners A rigid enforce
ment of the sanitary and building regulations
with which the vestries are armed would do
more to ameliorate the condition of the London
poor than any artificial system of treasury
Srants