New-York tribune., 1901-02-26
TENEMENT HOUSE REFORM
NEW BUILDING CODE PRESENTED BY
THE COMMISSION.
WOULD HAVE A CITY DEPARTMENT OF
TENEMENT HOUSES - CAPTAIN
GODDARD DISSENTS.

GODDARD DISSENTS.
The Tenement House Commission which was ap-
pointed last year under authority OF act OF the
legislature. examine into the tenement house
question and report code OF tenement house laws
has 10 the legislature long statement OF the
results Of its work. a proposed code of tenement
house laws, which contains few radical departures
from the provisions OF the present tenement house
laws, accompanies the report of the commission
and with the main report tWenIy-sN spe-
cal reports which made the commission
during the investigation. Early in the commits
sion's statement appears the declaration that the
chief evil TO be remedied is the tenement house
itself and the hOpelessness of the situation in this
city is stated in the following language:
Adequate light and air perfect sanitation. even
Passa1b.e nome environment cannot be provided 10y
ne fs' Ie1eIiltht mouse @hlch Is commercially
possible on Maillatian Island-that is by the best
Iene;ne9t n mouse when can be 6ullt with sufficient
The most serious evils recognized as existing in
tenement houses in the city grouped together
and are declared 10 be:
First-Insuficiency of light and air. due to mar
row courts or airshafts undue height, and TO the
OF soonge TOO great a. p. proportion port Of lot area
Thrd-Lack of separate water closet ana washing
Fourth-Overcrowding
F1fth-Foul cellars and courts and other like evils
which may be classed as bad housekeeping
To attempt the correction of all such evils by
enacting code that would prohibit them entirely
the commission thinks, would prevent the erection
OF new tenement houses by making them COM
mercially too costly, and respects the old tene-
ments 10 vacate many OF them for living pur-
poses, because the cost Of such alterations would
be more than would be justified by any probable
revenue that could be expected from them after
the changes had been made"
WOULD NOT PREVENT BUILDING NEW
HOUSES
The commission declares that tenement house
reform would not be practical which so far
as TO put a stop to building tenement houses
Nor would II be practical IL 1t compelled such ex-
tensive changes in old tenement houses that own
ers would turn them other uses"
The commission has come TO the conclusion that
the solution Of the tenement house problem in New
York lies along the following lines OF action:
bdu5st FsG fo provide pro proper types of new
siTcJiEe legislation and to forbid the erection OF
ISin IseeGnd.I9 remedy the errors of past years by
10 make them III for human habitation. - "s
bond =, MAINTAIN present and future tenement
vision. ''''ui''oN DS adequate super
The commission therefore has prepared a COM
piete code OF tenement house laws, and has sought
10 SO arrange and express their various provisions
as TO make the law plain 0 all persons In so do
ing II has endeavored far as possible to retain
The language and substance Of past legislation"
IN ihe course OF its Investigations the commission
oec"ine convinced that danger from fires and the
spread Of disease in tenement houses was due in
-4ie'-0'--t ~ At4e AdITOW alrEndftS which have
been allowed in the construction OF such houses.
The commission therefore recommends and makes
provisions IN the code against permitting narrow,
airshaits In any future tenement houses
The commission recommends the creation or q
separate and permanent tenement house depart-
ment In the municipal government II expresses
Delief that the continuous attention year in ana
year out OF some one body charged with the en-
io'ceiheht OF the tenement house laws IS essential
10 their administration. The commission has there
in e.,@F LfT1z
pany the report that this department shall Re or
eanlzed along certain definite lines that at ITS head
shall be a single commissioner who shall have com
plete control OF his department and who shall he
the sole individual whom the people Of New-York
can hold responsible for any violation OF the Avs
In relation 10 tenement houses
VICE IN TENEMENT HOUSES.
or the growth OF vice in tenement bouses tho -.
port says in part:
The steady growth OF vice in the tenement nouses
has come under the personal observation OF mem
bers OF the commission Its special Investigations
reinforced by the unanimous testimony OF many
witnesses, including the tenement house dwelers
Iao0F Representatives, ana phlanthropic workers.
lead II to most earnestly protest against such con-
The temptations Of the game OF policy it appears
are especially open TO the tenement house dweller
every means be taken TO stamp out and eradicate
this serious menace 10 the welfare Of the com
munty.
The report OF the commission contains several
plans OF model tenement houses designed by lead
ing architects Of the city in harmony with the
proposed code OF tenement house laws. These
plans offered merely as suggestions
Fourteen OF the fifteen members OF the com
mission have signed the report. They Robert
". De Forest chairman Raymond F. AlmiraIl.
William \: Douglas, Otto NJ. EidIitz George b.
Fowler Williams Lansing. William J. O'Brien.
Tierney and Alfred T. white 80
CAPTAIN GODDARD DIsSENTS.
Captain #. Norton Goddard did not sign the re-
port. In letter the chairman OF the com
mission he has said:
believe that code can be devised in accord
ance with the provisions Of which tenements
(which are commercially possible, would also aford
adequate nght ana air and sanitation and pas
sable home environment I also regret that I can.
not join In all the conclusions of the Teneroen,
House Commission.
/ convinced from an examination of the rlars
prepared the instance of the comrtssio,ll -,
leading architects, including one of the rnenbers
OF the commission that IL Will be both possible and
profitable erect tenement houses which Will
conforming in all particulars the requirements ~
the building code recommended by the commits
sion, VIII nevertheless contain a large proportio,
OF apartments which human beings should no
live in. -
have implicit confidence. believe that all sue
apartments would be entirely sanitary Yet / car
not believe that whole duty, any very i'm
portant part of Il, is performed when we produc
a building code which might result IN many case
IN merely providing places where human being
could sleep and eat under such conditions a
would indeed not interfere with their physica
ability 10 perform a more or less laborfous day
work; but which so far from ninistering an
the contrary inevitably think. result In brutaliz
ing the people who were the tenants.
The building code prepared by the cOmmissio
admits. all know. OF the erection tene
in which a