The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1909-05-11

case, for 1t decided that the state can
compel private owner, for the good
of the public, TO alter a house at his
own expense But the church had to
be driven to the new moral standard
Thy the courts
"Trinity's loIg-fought legal battle
had succeeded in delaying the en-
forcement of the law from 1887 until
1S95-eight years. In spite of itself
however, Trinity helped along the
cause of better homes for the poor In
a way it little intended. The very
bitterness of It's legal struggle against
making improvements served to turn
public attention even more closely to
housing conditions in lower Manhat-
tan. In 1894, the famous tenement
house commission, of which Richard
Watson Kilder was chairman, was
appointed. Investigation showed that
hundreds OF tenements had no toilet
Iconveniences in them; but that So
Icalled school sinks or open water
closets in the back yards, were used
by all the tenants, and that thou
sands of men, women and children
were sleeping in dark holes of rooms
in which thee were no windows
opening to the outer air-breedlng
places, indeed, for tuberculosis.
In 1901 a law was passed through
the efforts of the Tenement House
Commission, OF which Robert W. De-
Forest was PRESIDENT, abolishing
school-sinks and dark inside rooms
in tenemonts. Trinity waited; this
time the law was tested in the courts
by another landlord, and 1t was not
sustained until 1904 What did Trim
ity then do? Where it could not
avoid compliance with the law, nee
essary changes were made; but In
many cases 1t slid out of making i'm
provements through provision
which defines n tenement house as
any building occupied by more than
two families. In some of the old
houses where there had been more
than two families. Trinity reduced
the number to two, and thus by get
ting out from under the tenement
law, was able 10 refrain from making
the repairs demanded.
Trinity has always been against
Improvement; IT, has always had to be
lashed to its moral duty by public
opinion or by the courts or by fear
Of legislative action. Even when the
city was seeking for land for the
childrens playground at Clarkson
ana .4ouston streets on the West Side
1t had to, enter into long and costly
fight in order to get the land from
Trinity corporation"
900
TAFT ANSWERS NEWSPAPER AT
TACKS ON CANAL.
president Taft in McClure's Maga-
zine for MayJ
First, as to the sinking of the Ga
tun Dam. The report of the news
paper correspondent like so many
other statements made with respect
to a matter two thousand miles away
under the innuence OF desire to be
sensational and startling, was found
ed purely on Imagination. The only
foundation for the statement was
that in comparatively small stretch
on the site OF the dam, perhaps two
hundred feet across, some rough ma
terial had been piled up on the up
ward side OF the dam, and there had
been excavated Immediately back OF
this pile or dump lot of material
from an old French diversion chan
mel; that the water accumulated
above this dump in the very heavy
rains; that the water behind the
dump and the material there had been
taken out; and that there was slide
down into the cavity that had been
made just back of the dump. The
slide could not have been more than
one hundred feet. The whole mass
was not more than two hundred feet
across, and on a personal examina-
tion, for j was there, 1t was evidently
nothing more than an ordinary slide,
such as frequently occurs in the con-
struction of railroad banks and other
fills when they are not properly bal
anced and are without the proper
slope - It is not danger that
cannot be provided against, and, in
deed the shape and form and exact
method OF building the dam are for
the very purpose of producing the
Stability needed, and OF avoiding any
danger of slide due to a lack OF
proper force IN the material, put into
the dam.
h a. u1e