The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-04-18
THE AMERICAN EAST END.

The threatening demonstrations now
being made by East Side tenants Of
New York city against the landlords
who have raised the rents of the tene-
ments serve to remind the American
public that this section of the metropO-
lis represents a problem almost as diff
cult of solution as that presented by
the East End of London. Because of
the value of the land on which the
tenements stand, rents in East New
York as in East London are out of all
proportion to the wages received by
those who occupy these tenements.
The consequence is that several fam
lilies crowd into one apartment; and
even under this arrangement, arise in
rents is a serious matter for the ten
ants
The New York Tribune, commenting
editorially on the present rent diff
Guilty, says: 1.-THE rise in rents may be,
as charged, due in large measure to the
rapacity of landlords and sublandlords.
These are not absentee capitalists who
live in luxury, careless Of the misery
of their tenants. They are for the most
part fellows of their tenants, of the
same class and race, who have had "a
little start in the race upward from dire
poverty and saved enough to get pos
session of a tenement house, from
which the last dollar of possible in
come is squeezed" The fact of a resi-
dent instead of an absentee landlord
does not, Of course, make the problem
in East New York any less of a prob
lem, but it does remove some of the
burden of responsibility from the
shoulders of the native American. The
condition Of the East End of London is
directly traceable to the indifference
and the cupidity of rich English land
holders. 1t is comforting to know that
the rich American landholder is not
equally culpabIe.
must look for the solution of it's slum
problem. The best intentioned reformer
can do very little to mitigate conditions
as they exist in the slums. Social set
tlement work in its various forms &C
cOmplishes much good, but it will never
wipe out the slum evil. The various
philanthropies that have been organ
lied to better the condition of those
who dwell in the slums are undoubt-
edly able to counterfeit some of the
effects of slum life; but because they
work to improve the individual and not
to wipe out the slum, their efforts are
not far-reaching.
The slum question is primarily a
land question. So many unskiIled la
borers must be housed, and they must
be housed near enough to the place OF
their employment to permit ready ac-
cess to it. Those unskilled laborers as
a rule find employment in the most
| crowded districts of a city, and it is
| near these districts that they must re-
side. The rich Iandholder therefore
has one of two problems to solve
| Either he must use his influence to de-
| centralize city industries so that the
| very poor may find a home in the sub
urbs, or he must devise some plan by
which the tnsIkilIed laborer NAV be
comfortably and cheaply housed in the
| heart Of the city.
Some students of sociological condi-
| tons have declared that this latter
| plan is not only feasible, but can be
| carried out with profit to the capitalist
| Certainly 1t might be made profitable;
| but those capitalists who take it ur
must be imbued with something of an
altruistic spirit, for there must be a
| large expenditure without any imme-
| date hope of return. The slum is a
| city's siftings. If New York permits
these siftings to accumulate, she will
! find in her East End the same apa-
thetic attitude toward life that makes
so cruelty hopeless the condition of the
| people in the East End of London.
| The Massachusetts Republicans are