New-York tribune., 1900-04-01
THE PPORJEN OF THE HOME

"The Spectator" of London, commenting upon
the application of electric power to transporta-
ton service, optimstically declares: Let one
electric traction company succeed in making
"long tram pay, and the problem of housing our
"city people will be half solved We suppose
1.-The Spectator means that with cheap and
rapid transit from the city to the suburbs the
myriads who are now packed In the former
like rabbits in warren will remove TO the lat
ter and live each family in a semi-detached
cottage with garden attached No doubt that
would be a salutary change, In the interest Of
health, thrift and morals. But as to the prac
ticabilty of it we have grave doubts. 1t would
be pleasant TO believe in 1t, for then there
would be prospect of having the overcrowded
tenement regions of this city-the most crowded
spots in the world-emptied upon the vacant
fields that now stretch for miles within the city
limits. Unfortunately, there is perceptible
neither an inclination on the part Of the tene-
ment dweller to get into the suburbs, any
on the part of the suburban capitalist to invite
him thither, or at any rate TO offer him i'm
proved conditions when he gets there. No mat
ter what facilities Of transit and other induce
ments offered to him, the urban working
man seems TO prefer his crowded city home to
a cottage in the suburbs. And no matter how
plentiful may be the land, the suburban real
people as possible upon each lot In the remote
borderland of this city, amid woodlands and
cornfields, thrifty spectators have put up
blocks of tenement houses in which the dwell
ers must be every whit as ''cabin'd. cribb'd,
confn'd" as any In Houston-st or Avenue A.
With the real estate owner it is not easy to
deal. He is working for his own pocket He is
going to cover his land with buildings from
which he can get the highest possible percent
age Of profits. So long as he observes the SAM
tary and other laws he is not to be interfered
with. He may buy land for $500 an acre and
cut each acre into twenty lots and sell each lot
for $500. In that the houses built will be
joined In an unbroken row, just as they are in
the city. Or he may put upon each of those lots
a tenement house, containing half a dozen
more families, and get from each Of the twenty
lots each year twice much in rent as the cost
of the whole acre 1t is however, question
to be considered whether the density of popula-
ton may not properly be regulated by law. We
cannot that such legislation would be any
more paternal or tyrannical than much which
now exists and which is accepted as altogether
proper If a couple of generation ago it had
been enacted that not more than q certain num-
ber of persons should be permitted to dwell
within q square mile and that the same ratio
must be observed on every city block and indi-
vidual lot, should not now have miles Of
streets more densely inhabited than London or
Paris or the coops and cages Of Canton. 1t may
be too late to apply such law to the great
East Side. But is 1t too late to enforce such a
principle in the portions of the city not yet
built up? What will it profit family to move
from SecOnd-ave. up into The Bronx or TO the
rural part of Kings County If there 1t is TO
dwell in as narrow quarters as before?
As for the urban working folk themselves
their reluctance to go into the suburbs, whether
into cottages tenements, is perfectly under
standable. They, like all men, are social beings.
And they are mere essentially social-that Is to
say. they are more dependent upon gregarious
relationships than their more well TO do breth-
ren. The reason OF that Is, should be- obvious
TO every thoughtful mind. The family Of means
has its music. pictures. books and other self
contained sources of entertainment quite salts
fying to II even In comparative isolation from
neighbors or public assemblages The average
tenement family has practically none of these
things Shut up within their rooms its mem
bers are within little better than prison cells
There Is no source of entertainment no means
of mental qualification. To sit there idly staring
at the grimy walls and dingy floor, would mean