The Washington times., 1905-07-14
Worse Than New York.

Other columns of today's paper re-
port the effort of representative bust
ness men, architects, and builders to
cooperate with the District authori-
ties to the end that the tenants of
all dwellings in the Capital of the
United States may have abundant
light and air. Surely the whole COM
munity will follow this movement
watchfully.
No one who knows present condi-
tons in Washington will doubt the
need for it. In one tenement nine per-
sons sleep in one small room In an
other there are rooms which get only
what daylight is left after it has
been used up in two other rooms and
only that air which hangs heavy and
still with its burden of dirt and nois-
ture and bad breath. Even the model
houses for the poor, built in a spirit
OF love for ones neighbor, conf1ne
their tenants for their meals in a
room where the sunlight corkscrews
L.
four inches long. and three feet wide.
What Of this for Washington, the
City of Magnificent Distances? What
relation do such rooms bear to our
broad streets and our beautiful parks
The tired mother with a baby sleep
ing on her arm in room like one of
these cares nothing for parks. They
are not for the likes Of her. What
she needs is fresh air, and the laws
of the District Of Columbia do not
give it to her. There is tired father
to think about. too, and stunted chill
dren, and maybe after a little while
consumption, and then your room
with its Shaft of gray light and thick
air, or with no shaft at all, has be-
come q pesthole
This is shameful, but it is not sur
prising. 1t is surprising, however, to
read in this article that the well-to-
do who pay $500 year for their
apartments are in as great danger
as the poor who pay only $50 a year.
Four pretentious buildings are cited
which will give their fashionable ten
ants ventilation through the windows
CT one room only, if ever the owners
OF the adjoining property put to
use their shares of the party walls
And it is curious fact, of which
none OF us should lose sight. that
fresh air and good light are as i'm
portant to the well-to-do as ever they
are to the poor
How is this to be remedied? It does
no good TO look Mortified and wonde,
that such conditions arose in as broad
and open a city as Washington. The
thing TO consider just now is: How
can we stop the erection of more
: tenements like these?
Well, we can provide by law, as thi!
committee of business men recon-.
mends, that no dwelling of any sort
no building of any sort, can occup,
more than 65 per cent of its lot. /
you want to build up a lot solidly
today, and had the forethought Il
buy from the street to the allev. p,
ahead. You can. New York woul,
not permit it, but Washington will
Half the rooms in your "apartmen
mousse will be dark and unventilated
as IL the four pretentious and expen
siVe buildings already erected. Blu
you can build that way If you choose
Ii you have to save 80 per cent TO
light and air, however, as our cit
blocks are plated, you viii find
very easy to give all your rooms ont
side windows, and skylights and al
shafts will become things of the pass
You won't make so n1rch money O
course. But the city will make NOR
money, and you will not paw sue
heavy fees to the hospitals for tn
care OF your own family or she
heavy taxes to sustain the potter
field, and care for dying constructive;
and keep little children in the re
form schools For poverty waits O
weak bodies, and weak bodies wal
on Gods sunlight and fresh air. an
moral disease waits on poverty an