The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-22
y n AND
should he Former ne More Than one
Quarter or the Latter?

his wages, salary OF income for the rent OF
his home? l have heard OF one man In New
York paying 5000 a month for an apartment;
OF a woman paying t24, 900 a year for one
which she occupied only about Ave months in
the year, OF another woman who Is to pay
sac, 900 for one In a hotel not yet completed;
of a Cuban paying si25 a day for one on an
indefinite lease; While those who pay from
$4,000 to 5000 a year for their shelter are
numerous enough to be almost vulgar. These
figures. on a quarter basis for rent. would In
dictate incomes Of from $4,000 to $4,000 a
year, not At all uncommon In New York city.
but they do not prevail to an alarming extent
elsewhere. l say alarming" because Just
now II Is not popular to mention great wealth
unless the alarm be turned on. Outside OF
New York there are some persons with large
Incomes, but they are not renters. They are
people Of the simpler life. who have had
their money long enough for it 10 settle around
them and fix them In one place. home.
The man with an income Of S2tO. 900 a year
might be able to give up 90. 900 q year Of IL
for rent. because with iudiciOus economy and
careful management he could struggle along
on the remaining $4,000. He might even
give half OF il for rent and still find that
$4,000 a month was enough for a person to
live on modestly. SO too, with those OF In
comes from. say. $1,000 upward. But be-
low that. on down to the laborer at also q
day-e4S0 a year-should they exceed one
fourth OF their incomes for rent2 In the
small towns all over the country-not subur-
har, where rents. though reasonable, are
higher than In the remoter towns-a very
comfortable house. often with a garden. can
be rented for one-nfth or less of the average
wages or salary-a laboring man at $40 a
month being able to rent a home at from 81
to $40 a month. and the salarled man at from
$50 TO S5 a month finding a home at from
go to sl5 a month.
But my question applies to persons living
on Manhattan Island, where more than 2,OOO,-
900 of people live in less than $1,000 houses.
In not At for pigs to live in. the
laborer may secure shelter at cne.fourth of
his wages, but II he aspire 10 anything human
he must give up more for it, Among the
great middle class. those who receive from
$50 a month to $50 a week. the ratio Of rent
tn income Is more nearly a half than II Is a
quarter Especially Is this true of women
tiers as many men do-women to whom a
good neighborhOod is absolutely essential.
and for which landlords charge, whatever
the shelter they provide may be like. l know
few men on $50 a month who will give up half
of it for a decent room. but the number OF
women who will ~ very large. This makes
it necessary for the women to do their own
homework and most OF their cooking, but they
prefer that TO living n undesirable Localities;
ordinarily do not divide them into rent and
other. necessities. A twenty-five dollar
month room usually. satisfies the thousand
dollar income. and the ratio Is cut TO one
third. But from above a thousand. say,
81. 200 to 81 800. they seem to want something
Is $500. one-third OF 81, 2OO-very close quar-
tiers for, a family Of more than two and not In
a neighborhood where the usual 81 200 a year
man. would want 10 live and bring up his
children. For $40 a month he may md
something a little better-not quite so high
up or so low down. but in the same neighbor-
hood-and for $50 a month. 5000 a year. he
can get very nearly what he ought 70 have.
third at 81, 500. In the s. 900 to ~. 600 class
the ratio is about One-third. but II the tenant
that may exceed the third.
For the one roomer me RATIO u someMhat
better; ana ma very S0p ,,oG 70 s,s s6nE n T I0s Il
possible for the individual with from tl.2oo
to 5000 a year, TO devote three-auarters OF
poorly OOiumbed, lighted and heated, as .
is possible to get shelter at $3.50 a year-ss0
a m~onth-but the rooms are dark and small
In some few others single rooms. furnished,
MAY, be had at $3.50 9 year-sO a month
but II they are light they are very small, ana
II they have any size they have no light
couragers to suicide. And sim the individual
would live in one of them and save three
quarters Of his INCOME, IL is such rooms as
these for which landlords charge for location,
because they are by no means as ccmmodions
as are rooms in tenement nelghOorh0ods
at half the price.
In a recent search for an apartment for
four persons no ,children-no not too. Tar up
towh-in a good neighborhood-l found
rents ran from 81, 600 TO 1900 a year, did
not go 10 fashionable places. That IL to say,
only persons with from $4,000 10 So? 900 a
year could live in them and have three-fourths
of their incomes for other uses. =,
The ideal shelter, for, every bachelor and
every bachelor maid is the two room and bath
combination. and this j. more out of ratio
than any other kind, There may be such an
SPsrtmeat n ~ g ao good Tsas n 'nsn 9 sSo . mo on Mani Sn,
| have not yet been able TO find IL. From
$50 to SIS and up are the figures. and the
something more than si,2OC a year Il either
expects their dream, to CONF true at a less
expense than half their income. There may be
quite a number of bachelors who are equal
10 il. but the bachelor maids are forced to
do. double up snd cut the rent in half, but
the dream usually turns out TO be q night
mare and m 0I the MERGE IS s disSso sn r awo
are proportionately the most expensive in
the city, and judging from the brief limit Of
fortably on the half the landlords permit
An hours glance over the real estate pages
Of the Sunday papers of New York will give
one a pretty good general idea OF rents iR the
SIS to 500 a month. some at SIS. others at $50,
and from $40 70 $500 2 month and up he will
I the small Garner with from $500 TO $500 a year
must give up more than one-third OF his
SSfstEEs s to tor a r SsIf. i II tS Sm 'N %is R'9 te be sr prop sMGv
Ahh'' f -
housed.
In the nature Of things rents will never be
low in Manhattan, and the time will come
when only the very rich and the very poor
can live In the city-the rich because they
don't have to. and the poor because they do.
There will always be transients, but they do
not count. except as. stOpRaps while their
l. money holds out. The great middle class
must take to the woods and become COM
muters. They must live. because they are
necessary, but they cannot live in New York
That shall be to them only the place where
they can earn by day the wherewlthal TO pay
for their existence overnight elsewhere, and
the trains and the trolleys shall be the links
that connect their dual existence.
But wherever the renter lives. whenever his
rent exceeds One-fourth of his income, II is
line for him TO pack up and move. A wiser
and more permanent proposition for him Ia
20 borrow o., 900 at 5 per cent. and build him
self a twenty-hve hundred dollar cottage on
a 1--WE hundred dollar lot. IL may not be
palatial, but IL will seem so TO him after liv-
Ing In the narrow confines OF a Manhattan nat
costing W or three times the interest on $4,000
at s per cent. TENAN
NEW YoRK. October 20.
Antiquity Of Shorthand.
To THE EDITOR or TIM SUN-Str: Regarding
the earliest period when stenography came into