The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1900-07-27
rENEs,1;Nrs FOR THEvERY POOR

TEN EMENIS fO1s III Il ' Ih L ooiG
Housing the poor is a problem that has
for many years interested the phllan-
tbropic and is now receiving daily more
attention at the hands of municipalities.
III a recent number of the Review OF Re
views there was q striking article by Mr..
Jacob A Ris. who is probably better IN
formed on tenement houses than any other
man in America Mr.. Riis points out the
great scope that is allowed the tenement
house builder Of New York, who, seeking
nothing SO much as large returns, has,
with wonderful ingenuity and cunning,
evolved a pen in which humanity is mud
died together with such disregard to health
and decency as is hardly to be found in a
cattle car.
Now, it is a cardinal principle. not only
high class voters you must have men VINO
are at least comparatively clean and COM
Portable. But the choice of living in some
uninhabitable tenement in a city, or going
to the country, is forced upon numbers of
poor who lack either the money, the intel
ligence or the initiative to make the
necessary effort to leave the cities, and
therefore, the question OF how to house
them in the city has become one Of daily
increasing Importance.
There are two methods that have been
Used to overcome these d.----!ieS- One IS
for the cities to build .-ent houses
themselves. This method has been tried
largely in Great Britain, and We feel con-
strained to say that SO far as it has come
to our information, it has not been sue
cessful In Saoreditch Lord R0seberry re-
Gently made a speech on the occasion OF
the opening Of some worlingmens' dwell
ings. You have" said Lord Roseberry,
accommodated 800 families, dispossessins,
perhaps many more than that" The act
ual number OF persons who were displaced
was $780, those who We're provided for were
+12, and the Az were not of the same degree
of poverty as the 533 who We're displaced
Now, where did the poorer ones 80? That
is to say, under this curious plan OF hous-
ing the poor, they turned out 533 poor peo-
pie and housed 4I2, many of whom were
richer and better off than those turned out.
Now. even while Shoreditch was doing this
act Of charity, at the expense of the tax
payers, in providing houses for the benefit
OF those who could afford to pay more than
they We're paying, there Were elsewhere, in
London, great companies which had housed
thousands Of the working class. and these
companies. in response to letters from
Lord Ayebury, says the Contemporary Re
view. announced that if they had to COM
pete with the cities they would stop. AS
London has five millions of people, OF
whom a large proportion are very poor,
and as it has SO far cost $4,000 to house
800 of them, it is readily seen what
stupendous sum will be needed if the city
itself has to care for all the poor who need
comfortable homes.
In New York the problem is being met
on the same basis that is now In operation
in London. The Gerry family is using its
large real estate holdings to put up salts
factory and proper houses for the working
classes. They are building tenements that
yield a fair. though small. rate of interest,
and furnish to the poor light and air and
playground, SO that the owner of the
tenement may feel that he is. while earn
Ing a proper return on his money, doing a
Christian work so far as his tenants are
concerned In nothing Is the hardness Of
mans heart shown more than In those
landlords who reap incomes from the needs
and poverty of their tenants. and in no
field is philanthropy more needed. nor can
it win better results, than in preparing
suitable homes for the cities poor.
The experience OF Shoreditch, and New
York and London all point towards the
fact that the crying need of furnishing
proper houses is one that must be met by
laws which refuse to allow more than
certain number os human persons to be
housed on certain space Of land except
under proper restrictions. and thereafter
leaves the investment Of the capital In
these enterprises to those private indiv!d-
uais who. from pa!laEthropic or purely
mercenary motives, desire to enter this
field. Even London. with all Of her wealth.
cannot hope to compete with the situation
as 1t is to-day. II the private individual
wathdraws entirely and leaves the whole