The Irish standard., 1915-10-09
Weekly Press Service
OF THE IRISH STANDARD

H STANDARD 8
lie Social Service Commission of the 8
of Catholic Societies &
g labor and social service occurring in *
ustrial, legislative and administrative e
will tend to secure the Christian order s
eace and prosperity, 5
building was a 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 has been recognized
under all its DISCUSSES. In New Eng.
land the wooden three-decker - the
weed peculiar to that locality-is be.
ing 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" he declared. "My
family live on the third floor of a
three-decker and we are not 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, NOR
ais which come through crowding fam
lilies together in dark, airless rooms
are much greater in total. So twenty
three towns and one city have already
forbidden the erection of more three.
deckers. -,
TranspIanted English Stun.
In the middle Atlantic States bad
housing takes the form of the English
slum, closely packed little houses
which fill nearly every foot of space
within the block. Back yards are
filled with double rows of tiny dwell.
ings which can be reached only by
means of archways under the street
houses. There is no room in these
little dwellings for proper sanitary ap.
planes, SO all outdoor toilet at the
end of the passageway serves all fami.
lies and one outdoor hydrant supplies
all their water. In some of the older
and most crowded sections of these
cities there are large areas without
sewers.
In the middle west and the south
where land overcrowding has not yet
developed to any such degree as it has
in the northern and eastern cities
there is bad housing under another
i disguise. The American wilderness
was conquered by the rife, 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 it's will on
digestions not fortified by hardy life
in the open. The one-room cabin still
persists in the degenerate form of the
board shanty in nearly all the states
west of the Alleghanies-though even
the Atlantic seaboard, which has not
known the pioneer since the United
States became nation, has some OF
these reminders of him.
From Log Cabins to Flimsy shanties
In these shanties, fiimsy boxes
which lack everything that makes fol
decency and self-respect, live hun
dreds of thousands of Americans
Their children cannot escape the low
standards OF their environment. 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 shan
ties. Poorly protected against the
weather-for heat and cold have small
respect for thin boards. they are
crowded together in 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 con.
stantly 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
become we'll entrencRed. And even
the tenement or barrack dwelling has
appeared. But it is in northern Cali.
fornia and further north that the tene-
ment menace is the worst.
San Francisco rose from its ashes
city Of wooden tenement houses. Its
enthusiasts boast Of It 10 the new
Athens under the blue skies OF modern