Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-19
Social Welfare Workers Note
Spread of Movement to
! 1873 Cities.
REPORT BY JOHN H. IHLDER
ON HOUSING CONDITIONS
Points Out the Results of Revela-
lions Made Years Ago by
Jacob Riis.

How the fight for better homes
throughout the United States has pro-
crossed until now the movement has
spread to 1SS cities is described in an
article prepared exclusively for the
Survey Press Service by John Ihlder,
field secretary of the National Housing
Associa ton.
The Survey Associates Is an organi-
zation Of social welfare workers whose
purpose is to investigate the facts of
working and living conditions and to
suggest means for social advance.
Mr. Ihlders article tells how some
great conf1a grations like the Chelsea,
Mass. fire have been blessings in dis
guise. having led to more sanitary
homes. better guarded against fire.
His article follows:
Years ago Jacob Riis startled the
country by his revelations of how the
other half lived in New York. Due to
these revelations and to the work of
public spirited citizens year after
year. the other half lives better in New
York today. New York did not like
the revelations. 1t was inclined at first
to call Jacob Riis bad citizen. Later
it changed the adjective to best
Difference Only Superficial.
itself with exclaiming over New York's
badness and thanking Providence that
it was different. But it wasn't differ
ent, except specifically. 1t had reason
to be grateful that it did not have
New York's tall tenements, solid rows
of them, mile after mile. But under
different forms it had most of the
things that made New York's tenements
so bad. Philadelphia with its rows of
little houses. Boston with its crowded
and West Side districts only needed a
Riis to point the finger Of scorn at
them. They did not have Rises. but
they did have philosophical citizens
who began to understand and grapple
Then came the turn of the small
cities and villages. They had thanked
Providence that they were not as the
big cities. But at last even small cities
and villages are producing citizens who
dare to look at their home conditions
and say what they think.
Five years ago there were scarcely
half dozen American cities which
Today there are 1SS cities and towns
which have awakened to the fact.
Slums have been discovered wherever
there has been an investigation. They
are like weeds. which grow wherever.
the farmers are shiftless. And no
farmers ever were more shiftless than
were our city builders. who seemed to
think that city building was case Of
everybody's business and consequently
nobody's business. But that time is
past in every section of the country
except the Rocky mountain states.
Bad Housing Recognized.
bad housing has been recognized IN
der all it's DISCUSSES. In New England
the wooden three-decker-the weed Pc
culiar to that locality-is being fought
When the fight began. soon after the
great Chelsea fire, the writer met an
aggrieved builder of three-deckers. This
talk about fire hazard is all rot, ne
declared. My family lives on the third
afraid of fire. Why did you choose the
third hoor?' l asked. Because the light
and air are good up there he replied.
And not until he had said it did he
realize what he admitted. New Eng
land is beginning to realize that though
the fire hazard is real. and that though
fires like those of Chelsea and Salem
are spectacular, the constant, unre-
corded losses to health, efficiency and
morals which come through crowding
families together in dark, airIess rooms
are much greater in total. So twenty
three towns and one city have already
forbidden the erection of more three
deckers.
housing takes the form of the English
sIum, closely packed little houses which
fill nearly every foot of space within
the blocks Back yards are filled with
double rows of tiny dwellings which
can he reached only by means of arch
ways under the street houses. There
is no room in these little dwellings for
proper sanitary appliances, SO an out
door toilet at the end of the passage
way serves all families and one out
door hydrant supplies all their water
In some of the older and most crowded
sections of these cities there are large
areas without sewers
Middle West and South.
I'm the middle west and the south,
where land overcrowding has not yet
developed to any such degree as 1t has
in the northern and eastern cities, there
Is bad housing under another disguise
The American wilderness was con-
quered by the rife, the ak. the frying
pan and the oneroom cabin. The first
two have gone out of general use. but
the last two remain with US. The fry
ing pan still works it's will on diges-
tions not fortified by hardy life in
the open. The one-room cabin still per-
sists in the degenerate form of the
board shanty in nearly all the states
west of the Alleghanies. though even
the Atlantic sea board. which has OF
known the pioneer since the United
States became nation, has some of
these reminders of him.
In these sbanties, fmsy boxes which
lack everything that makes for de-
cency and self-Tespect. live hundreds
of thousands of Americans. Their chill
dren cannot escape the low standards
Of their environment. We have been
told Of the forlorn lives of the southern
mountainous who live in log cabins
In the southern cities and towns and
in those of Indiana. Ohio and Illinois is
an even greater population living in
one. two and three room board shanties
POORLY protected against the weather
Tor heat and cold have small respect
Tor thin bOards-they are crowded to-
gether on narrow, filthy streets and
alleys and courts, instead of being scat
tered through the clean forests In
stead of pure spring water, their sup
ply comes from wells constantly Liable
to contamination.
The southwest and the Pacific coast
are not free from bad housing, The
corrals of Texas, the house courts of
southern California have already he
come well intrenched. And even the
tenement or barrack dwelling has an
peared. But it is in northern Cali
fornia and farther north that the tepe
ment menace is the worst
Better Standards in Prospect.