The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-09-19
The Fight For Better Homes
By JOHN HILDER

pliances, so an outdoor toilet at the end of the passageway serves all fam flies and one outdoor hydrant supplies all their water. In some of the older and most crowded sections of these sewers
 In the middle west and the south where land ,overcrowding has not yet deveioped.to any such degree as it has in the northern and eastern cities there is bad housing under another disguise. The American wilderness was conquered by the rifle, the axe. the frying pan and the one room cabin. The first two have gone out of general use. but the last two remain with us. The frying pan still works its will on digestions not fortified by hardy life in the open The one room cabin still persists in the degen- crate form of the board shanty in nearly all the states west of the Ale ghanies, though even the Atlantic sea- board, which has not known the pio- neer since the United States became a nation. has some of these reminders of him.
 From Log Cabins to t'liinsy Sl,antics
 In these shanties. flimsy boxes which lack everything that makes for de- cency and self-respect live hundreds of tHOuSduuS or AmerlcanS. lnelT cn1l- dren cannot escape the low standards of their environment. We have been told of the forlorn lives of the south ern mountaneers who live in log cab ins In the southern cities and towns, and in those of Indiana, Ohio and Illi- nois, is an even greater population living in one. two and three-room board shanties. Poorly protected against the weather-for heat and cold have small respect for thin boards, they are crowded together on narrow, filthy streets and alleys and courts, instead of being scattered through the clean forests. Instead of pure spring water their supply comes from wells constantly liable to. contamination.
 The southwest and the Pacific coasts are not free from bad housing. The corrals of Texas. the house courts of southern California have already be- come well entrenched And even the tenement or barrack dwelling has ap- peared But it is in northern Califor- mia and further north that the tene- ment menace is the worst.
 San Francisco rose from It's ashes a city of wooden tenement houses. Its enthusiasts boast of it as the new Ath- ems under the blue skies of modern Greece. Its builders house people in dwellings from which no glimpse of blue sky may be seen. But in Cali fornia there is a state commission on immigration and housing which is pre- pairing for the expected immigrant tide by setting better standards for their dwellings.
 In Los Angeles and In some of the Texas cities. boards of-health are de- manding in the interest of the com munity that housing standards be raised. In some of the southern cities there is progress. In the north laws have been enacted, companies organ ized to build good. inexpensive dwell- ings. But all along the, way there are practical problem6. Tho. experience of one city is needed to help another. A special opportunity for this Interchange has been provided, for the National Housing association has called con ference to be held in Minneapolis. Oc- tobsr 6-S for those who are working to raise the standard for American homes