New-York tribune., 1909-05-21
THE TENEMENT GERM.
People 7cith 1t Shun the Country,
Sdus DR.. Gould.

How to improve tenement house conditions was
the topic at yesterdays meeting of the Woman's
Municipal League. at No 10 East 26th street
The Rev. Hugh Birckhead. rector Of st Georges
Protestant Episcopal Church, thought teneinents
should be improved by aboIishing them and get
ting people out into the country 10 live He ad-
mitted that it would take some time to accom-
plsh this.
But il is the thing we should work toward
Life in the country is the thing We should edu-
cate people to want" he declared.
Dr. Birckhead drew a vivid picture Of the bad
effects. moral and physical of the herding sys
TEN of to-day. DIT. Elgin r. L. Gould, president
Of the City and Suburban Homes Company. who
! followed him, agreed 70 the evils of conges-
ton but thought the great mass of tenement
dwellers were too deeply inoculated with what he
called the tenement germ" TO take kindly to de-
tached suburban life. More model tenements was
DR. Gould's slogan.
The ills that afiict society" he said, have
their genesis in disordered homes Go to the
places where people are most herded together and
You viii md there the regal domains Of liquor
dom. In some Of the most Congested districts
che rentals of the saloons exceed those of the
business places.
The home is the unit Nothing is So important
as that the poor shall have homes which viii en-
able them 70 bring up their children in a decent
environment II pays. too to house people decenty.
It pays from the health side-the side of human
efficiency. And then there is that sad question OF
the moral downfall of women. 5Yhen people live
where there bad sanitary conditions where
there is no decent personal privacy. it is pretty
hard 10 be pure Keep it firmly in your mind that
nothing is productive Of immortality. nothing IS
so productive Of drunkenness, nothing Is so de
structive Of human efficiency the herding to-
gether Of the people in uusanitary tenements-
Why has New York Jagged far behind other
cities notably London in this matter of decent
homes for the poor? 1t Is because Of a confused
attitude in the minds of well -wishers of the city
So few understand that money spent purely in re
lief correction might have been spent to better
ends There is an even more confused attitude in
the minds Of investors who want moderate, safe
return for their money"
To prove that model tenements brought good re
turns Dr. Gould quoted figures from the balance
sheets Of the City and Suburban Homes Company.
For years he said, the per cent dividend has
remained unbroken, and it VIII continue TO be un-
broken. And there is an untold moral dividend
besides When people have money to invest they
might as well invest It where it will do good The
experience Of this company has shown that tene-
ment houses can be built with phllanthropic ends,
| but upon a business bass-always upon a business
basis-and succeed. II has been asked If the peo-
pie appreciate these houses The extremely small
percentage Of bad debts that We have shows that
they DO. People who pay for thing like It"
Somebody asked how this company's dividends
| compared with "gilt-edged securities
The question is said D-. Gould, how gilt
edged gilt-edged securities are. Take them year
in and year out. they probably don't bring more
than per cent"
Touching on DR.. Brickhead's protest against
housing people in the city, DR.. Gould said he
doubted if men and women born and bred in tene-
uents Graded IN the noise and hustle could be in
duced 10 exchange for the comparative loneliness
Of suburban life
There is certainly tenement germ which makes
il difficult 10 get the people away from the city.
And do you know, it is generally the woman who
though the man quite willing Try TO get little
home in the country-win say:
John, guess won't go out there; 1t would
be so lonely for me. %
Miss Gertrude Barnum. Of the Woman's Municipal
League tenements committee said it was quite
true that home was womans sphere" only she
would put an IS" the word home The homes
Of the city and Of the nation woman's con-
cernr' she said. Consider how this question af-
fects the lives Of working women OF the five mill
ions Of working women in this country the great
ma jority live in tenements furnished rooms or
old-fashioned institutional homes
Then Miss Barnum told her hearers Of the two
room fat she had taken model tenement,
where she was demonstrating that woman could
live comfortably, with perfect privacy and every
convenience, at a rental OF s. Is week