Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-01-04
TENEMENT-HOME LIFE.
Felix Adler Tells the Wealthy How the Poor
Suffer-Reform Necessary.

i
FELIX Adler Tells the Wealthy How the Poor
Sufer-Reform Necessary.
Ladies in sealskins and diamonds and
gentlemen in broadcloth and fine linen
crowded Chickering hall, yesterday
morning, to listen to Felix Adler talk
about New Phase of ofTenement-Home
Life" Mr.. Adler spoke earnestly about
the menacing change that an impending
cholera scolrge in this country had
wrought in the tenement-house prob
lem. There were foul spots in the ten
ement districts of New York, he said,
where the cholera would have aperfect
feast of death unless the public awoke
and did something promptly to sweep
away the danger to those who would
be too poor to rush away to the country
if the cholera swooped down on the city.
The first OF the abuses to be removed
by the iron broom Of reform, he urged,
should be the defective sewers that made
these tenement districts pestilential.
There could be no use cleaning the
streets if the soil under the street pave
ments remained saturated with the foul
poisons which arose from the breaks in
two hundred miles Of sewer-pipes that
had been built haphazard years ago.
without sanitary system, and were new
er designed for the purpose for which
necessity now forced their use. In .
city so favored by nature for perfect
drainage there was no excuse for any
thing short of perfection in sewerage.
The present imperfect sewerage should
be promptly reconstructed, and large
sums devoted to the work, II need be.
To retrench in this direction would be
q petty penny wise and great many
pounds foolish policy.
The law against allowing human be-
ings to inhabit cellars ought to be rig
idly enforced. and tenement-owners
oug ght to be compelled by law to pave
cellars with concrete or asphalt, to shut
down and seal up the poisonous gases
that rose from damp and unwholesome
earth. The deficiency Of the water sup
ply was being remedied gradually, but
nothing was being done in tenements
to insure facilities that would mako it
something else than desperate strug-
gle to keep clean. Landlords ought to
be forced by law to put force-pumps
and tanks in every tenement, 30 that
the poor people could get water readily
when they wanted it.
.'Something ought to be done, toe"
exclaimed the speaker, "to secure the
establishment OF free baths for the poor
in tho winter season aswell IS the sum-
mer. Mayor Grace has expressed his
approval Of such a scheme, and it has
been cordially indorsed by the County
Medical Society and physicians gener'
ally. 1t is one Of the very great bless
ings that could be given to the poor,
and one Of the surest preventives of q
spread Of an epidemic. Without such
baths, even with a full water supply.
personal cleanliness is very difficuk to
attain in crowded tenement dwellings.
"But the very greatest evil in this
town is the overcrowding in tenement
districts. It is not alone the evil ol
crowding too many beings into one
building, but the crowding of the build
ings themselves too close together. Ot
tho herding Of the poor like cattle in
unhealthy houses few have any concep
ton who have not investigated the mat
ter for themselves. As one Of the tene
ment commissioners, I myself, day ol
two ago, visited . tenement house
whore saw . man and his wife anG
children and nine boarders crowded to
gether in two small rooms. And ye
there is in our statute books . Law
which says that every being living In
this city shall have at least six hundred
- h. I'D
For lack Of courage, or some other reas
on, the law is not enforced. 1t SHOULD
be. The most pathetic part Of its abuse
is the fate Of the poor little children wht
are caught in this crush Of penned-uI
human cattle. The spectacle is enough
to make the heart bleed. Surely some
thing ought to be done to abate this ovi
and rescue the little ones from tho sur
roundings that must breed vice as vel
a. sickness.
The crowding Of houses too clos'
together is surely bringing US on to tn
evil that London at this moment il
struggling in desperation to solve. Reat
the reports of the Mansion house refer
ence there. and see what New York will
have to face soon. A clergyman there
was Mortified to discover that tho very
worst tenement in all London was tho
one that was within the shadow Of .
great church. Here. in New York. we
could teach them a greater shame. For
not only are the unhealthy tenements
in the shadow of great churches, but
We can point to some that are actually
owned by the richest church corpora
ton in the metropolis, lApplause.
Why it is only forty-SiN years ago that
the first tenement was built in New
York. The profit of the speculation Of
trading on the necessities Of the poor so
amazed the capitalists that other tene-
ments sprang up like mushrooms, until
now there are twenty thousand Of them.
Their condition demands that radical
measures should be taken to improve
them. Those that are beyond repair
ought to be torn down at once, and re-
built on asanitary plan. Air wells ought
to be put in others to let light and air
into the improperly lighted and unven-
tilated apartments.
example, and raise fund to build the
proper sort of dwellings to take the
place of the disgracefu1 rookeries that
ought long ago to have ceased to exist.
Let the city loan money TO help on the
scheme, if necessary, as London has; but,
at any hazard. let the poor be released
from the ur healthful conditions that
now leave them helpless and unprotec-
ted in the face of the great danger that
attends cholera visitation. ."-Nev
O.,