New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-02-24
RADTENEMENT HOUSE EVIL
COMMISSIONER KELLER SHOWS THAT
THEY COST THE CITY oyERMUCH.
HE SAYS IT WOULD BE MONEY SAVED FOR
CHARITIES AND CORRECTION TO con-
DENIM UNsANITARY ONES.

1.-THE city should to IL that tenement houses
are made so healthful that persons who get sick
IN them need not be taken out in order to save
their lives and the city should 10 II that over
crowding in tho tenement houses should cease. In
order that those who must live in them may be able
10 preserve their self-rspect. IF the city would
spend a little TO prevent disease ii would
save much that is spent in curing sickness"
So said John w Keller. Commissioner of Char
ities at the Tenement House Conference of the
Charity Organization Society last night. Mr. Keller
had been introduced "a partial man and the best
Charities Commissioner New-York has ever had
and the subject allotted to him was THE Citys
Duty Toward the Tenement House Question He
carried the audience with him from first TO last.
AMI his sentiments were warmly applauded MT
Keller said among other things
am not an expert in tenement house reform. l
wish hi did Ny interest in tenements did not de-
pelop until about two years ago wn men, / was ap
persons from tenement houses applied TO me Tor
Tbe cfx Of pays for public Charities
about 5000 year. BY far the greater part OF
pended Is 5ang sick people Well And those who
have TO be cured through charity come mostly
prevent sickness than to cure it-that if the city
should devote more money to stamping out the
causes Of sickness il would not have TO spend so
On RandalI's Island to-day have something like
one thousand children from the tenement houses
an6 many of their mothers All the hospitals OF
my department are overcrowded. 1t is impossible
should De done Now. why many New
Workers III and down? People who live in
houses where they breathe good air and see
the shine their bedroom walls daily do not
come me. but only those who live in the per-
petual gloom of tenement houses. More than so
per OF my Juvenile wards are Jews from the
East Side. and most Of them suffering when l
get them either from sore eyes or sore heads.
What is the city to do about it? II seems to
Il should first investigate the cause, and, having
found that eradicate 1t. not building
pert II is not for me to fix the rules for tene-
Inent building. but II is for the city by its
building CODE to fix the law that in future
improper tenement house be built. and
wherever they have already been erected TO con-
denim them.
- The tenement house produces disease the
.5ne hand, it produces immortality the other.
If there room and less crowding in the
tenement houses there would be less of crime in
New-York. / state a general proposition. which
is that if the found in tenement houses, both
of disease and crime. removed, the city would
have to spend much less for healing and for pun
paternalism. By means; but / think the city
should look upon this question business propo-
sition, economic proposition. And looking at ii
thus il win be recognized as a paying investment
for the city 10 that every tenement house is
healthful that when a gets sick in It will
be necessary to move him away in order to
save his life. and TO it that the tenement
croWdfng to allow those who must live in them to
preserve their seif-respect.
After the applause which followed Mr.. Keller's
remarks had subsided Mrs. Roland c. Lincoln, Of
Boston, read a paper upon the advantages of hav-
ing women collect the rentals Of tenement houses
by personal visitation