The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-03-24
The Placing Of the Housing Problem
In the Social Problems.


these fail, and when accident, incom-
petence or injustice overtake people,
we have to develop charities, settle
ments, child helping societies, courts,
probation. police, medical charities
and so on through the whole line OF
remedial and palliative institutions.
Now as to the home, the house is
not all of it, but as Mr., Joseph Lee
says: tin our work for the preserya-
tion OF the home the question Of its
physical conditions must necessarily
arise. The home is itself invisible. a
spiritual not material body. But it's
expression has to be concrete, and
part OF that expression. and condi-
ton to the best development of all
the rest is the house or physical set
ting In which 1t finds itself. The
question of housing, of the sort of
niche that shall exist in the commun-
ity in which a family can build-the
conditions under which the physical
expression Of the home may be ac-
complished- is vital to the develop
ment, even to the continued exist
ence, of this most fundamental Of our
institutions"
The physical conditions OF the home
are moreover so vitality related to
morals, health and, either directly or
through these, to poverty, that we can
not hope to maintain the right proper
lions as between constructive and
~ ~1r
ing question.
The housing problem is one OF the
most important aspects of home de-
velopment and good homes are the
keystone of the whole social arch.
The Housing Problem Defined.
We are in this country slow in ar
irving at a proper understanding OF
the housing problem. AS rule our
town has no housing problem Quite
commonly even our city Is similarly
blessed-through our own mistaken
ideas. Did you ever hear Of mother
who waited till her boy was ready for
the juvenile court, the hospital or the
insane asylum before she admitted
that she had on her hands boy prob
lem? Did you ever see man who
was going to manufacture goods rec
ognize a factory problem only when
his factory was burning down or
ready for the junk heap? No, the
mother and the manufacturer both
recognize their problems at the very
start. They recognize, moreover,
that their problems have two aspects,
the constructive and the remedial.
They know, too, thaA the first means
perhaps hard work, but nevertheless
| pleasant and profitable and joyful
work. They also know that the rem
edial aspects of the problem, which
are sad and wasteful of time and mon
ey, are greatly increased when they
have been careless about the first
! part of the work.
These examples are the opposite of
! the way in which our towns and cities
look upon the housing problem They
refuse to recognize the real, the con-
structive problem, and even after the
damage is done they too commonly
introduce palliatives instead Of re-
moving the cause.
Let us recognize, therefore, the
constructive problem as the one
which we should keep foremost in our
minds. 1t Is present when every
house is built, when every street is
4 laid out, when every bit Of plumbing
i is set up, when every sewer is laid,
and when every water connection is
made. It is the problem of making
communities. Let us have to do with
4 it, therefore, and not aim our efforts
solely at caring for the human dere-
licts which will inevitably be develop
ed If we neglect it. OF them we will
have enough through human failure
and accident.
4 Three Aspects Of the Housing Prob
want particularly to mention
three aspects OF the housing problem;
the aesthetic. the social and the econ
Massachusetts succession of short
lived organizations developed to i'm
prove the appearance of towns. They
have in the main died because their
aim was superficial. Beauty can not
easily be engrafted upon rottenness.
People are beginning 10 see that in a
!, town in which every house Ia of good
design and In which maintenance
work is carefully looked after. there
are these elements of art which when
combined make for beautiful com
munity. The town OF Bournville, in
England has no slum district. no
ugly section. It is alike beautiful in
all Its parts. Civic art has never been
heard of there. as q problem within
itself, simply because it has always
been looked upon as an inherent part
in the development OF the community
The people OF Bournville have not had
to try to graft impossible stone acan-
thus leaves" upon store-box architec-
ture. upon unpaved streets, and upon