Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-03-15
TENEMENT BoUsE REFORM

With the advance of sanitary science
and'its steady gain in municipalities, it is
not at all surprising that renewed public
attention should be called to the tenement
houses of great cities, Except one reflects
seriously upon the matter, he will not per-
ceive how large a factor the tenement
house is in the problem of modern civiliza-
ton, and what a material element it is in
metropolitan life.
Given, that there must be tenement
houses, and the one question is how best to
make them conducive of the best social
results? First and foremost are healthful-
ness and cleanliness, of course. The model
tenement house must not only be fit to 1--we
in, but it should contribute to the prCduc-
tion to the best family the State can de-
sire. 1t may be accepted as true that with
the exception Of the Peabody tenements in
London, and few flats for the better class
in our cities, tenement houses as a
rule do not contribute to the best ciyIliza-
ton. On the contrary, they are more fire.
quently the hot beds for stimulating low
state of morals into actual vice and crime,
or else where sluggish poverty and imam
bilious life exist but to reproduce them
selves amid filth and disease.
1t must be taken as admitted that there
cannot be high state of moral culture, or
even a medium grade, in the midst OF
soualor and atmospheres that daily feed
poison to the blood. We cannot conceive
of a community receiving much benefit from
the citizenship that exists in the midst OF
low physical conditions.
Professor Felix Adler, as the head Of the
New York society for ethical culture, we
had occasion to commend some time since
for his establishment of the free Manual
Training and Mechanical School for poor
children model school, by the way, and
one of the best examples of the capabili'
ties OF manual training among children oil
this day. Professor Adler and his society
are now before the public in the interests OF
tenement house reform. Some exceeding.
ly interesting discourses have been deliy.
cred on the subject at Chickering Hall.
That there is immediate need for reform
among the tenement population OF New
York, was the burden of all the speeches.
There are thousands OF houses in New
York totally unfit to live in, into which
tens OF thousands of human beings art
packed, existing in state that is shame
to the great city and the American people,
In nearly all these houses the drainage is
bad, the cellar pest hole, the ventilation :
farce, and the accommodations SO poor, and
the misery, sickness and restitution such
that the whole community is shocked every
now and then, when some newspaper re-
porter ventures to penetrate the mysteries
of these warrens and lay bare their horrors
But the public speedily subside into con-
tent, and the matter passes out OF mind un'
til the next publication.
Professor Adler proposes to the Lsgisla.
ture of New York to name Comm ission
to investigate and ascertain the exact facts,
for before specific can be applied the dis
ease must be diagnosed. 1t is to be hoped
that the bill will pass the houses, and that
the public will be given full report at an
early day, for that report will awaken all