Los Angeles herald., 1906-02-14
LEAGUE WANTS
SLUMS CLEARED
FOREIGNERS HAVE FORMED
CANKER SPOT
Municipal lmprovers Ask Mayor to
Name Non.Salarled Housing Conn
mission to Mitigate EVIL
Which Is Growing

In a communication to the mayor,
filed yesterday. the Municipal league
calls attention to the fact that during
the last few years genuine slums have
been formed in the city and urges the
closest Investigation Of conditions with
view to eradicating the evil and sug-
gests that the mayor appoint a COM
mission Of FIVE persons to act for that
purpose.
The leagues communication follows:
1.-THE Municipal league begs to call
during the past few years of a Veri-
table slum district in Los Angeles, and
asks your co-operation in an effort to
eradicate the present evils and ward
off others perhaps more serious that
are likely to appear in the future.
Developed Since 1900
"Up to 1900 1t could be said of Los
Angeles with truth that 1t had no
slums. There were then few lodging
houses, and here and there individual
dwellings, that gave evidence of the
extreme poverty of their inhabitants
with the arrival of great numbers
of low-waged laborers from Mexico
and from the south of Europe, the
evils that go with a confirmed slum
district have come upon us.
within the radius Of half a mile Of
the Plaza there are dozen courts,
aggregatlng an area of perhaps three
city blocks, that present quite as sad
an example of the physical and moral
evils arising from overcrowding as
may be found in any tenement alley of
a great city.
"There are compensations in the fact
that the shacks in which these people
dwell are nearly all one-story in height,
and hence are better aired and better
lighted than the eastern slum tene-
ment, but they are crowded together
in great numbers In small areas, they
are constructed of bits Of rotten board.
rusty tins. and scraps of dirty cloth
in way easily to harbor disease, and
in spite of the utmost exertions of the
board of health they cannot be made
wholesome, and their existence under
such conditions in great numbers is q
standing menace to the health of the
entire community.
Eradicate 1t Now
The experience of other cities shows
that the slum evil, If taken early
trenched behind the so-called rights of
property can be largely mitigated or
perhaps entirely eradicated.
1.-THE means employed are police and
health and building regulations. en-
bodied in ordinances which have for
their avowed purpose the Improvement
of housing conditions.
"a great variety Of methods obtain
in other cities. some of them adapted
to our situation and others quite i'm
practical.
ut is therefore necessary that
thorough study be made of existing
conditions and of what reforms are
needed to get actual results.
''For this purpose we would suggest
the appointment of a commission of
five persons, to serve without a salary,
who will undertake this investigation
and will frame the necessary legisla-
tion. The persons selected should be
those having some actual knowledge of
the problem and competent to work
out a solution. Ths should be known
work should include a consideration of
the lodging house as we'll as the ten
ement.
1--WE ask that you appoint such
commission, in order that 1t may repre-
sent the executive department of the
city. The Municipal league will CO.
operate with this commission in fur
thering the object for which it is ap-
pointed.
1--WE are confident the assistance of
other civic and commercial bodies can
be obtained as needed. and that the
legislative department Of the city will
be glad to adopt and put into ordi-
nances any reasonable form of remedy
proposed by this commission"