New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1920-04-03
will Fight
Plan to Change
Tenement Law
Proposal Called "Scheme
by Somebody to Take
Advantage of the Public
Need for Private Creed"
Workers Against Move
Trade Organizations Say Va
cant Flats ON East Side
Cannot Be Made Habitable

The proposal to let down the bars in
the tenement house law on the ground
that it will make possible the remodel
ing and use of many thousand vacant
lieve the housing crisis, will have Wig
orous opposition from at least three
sources, it developed yesterday. First
will be the people who live in that dis
trict, as represented by the United He
brew Trades and other similar organ
izations; second, the Charity Organiza-
ton Society, through John j. Murphy,
chairman of the Tenement House Com
mittce. and last, but not least, the
Tenement House Department.
ANY attempt to lower the bars in the
tenement house act will do no good"
said Mr.. Murphy yesterday. No law
can make those vacant flats habitable.
A change in the law can do great dam
age-to all except some private inter-
ests. The scheme is an attempt by
somebody to take advantage Of public
need for private greed. You can make
that stronger if you know how"
Commissioner Frank Mann, Of the
Tenement House Department, was
equally emphatic.
Those flats are not illegal now" he
said. They are just u%nlivable. A
good many could be made fit to live in,
but it would not pay. The only thing
that is needed to make the experiment
is. cash to spend. Any change in the Law
would do nothing but damage"
Will Fight Proposition
Morris Feinstone, secretary of the
United Hebrew Trades, speaks for
nearly half a million workers. "Tene-
ments are bad enough now" he de-
clared. IF there is any change the
law ought to be strengthened. The
present crisis is no excuse for that sort
of thing. If the proposition once
into the open you will find the
entire United Hebrew Trades. and just
as surely every other labor organiza-
ton. fighting it, and fighting hard
The figures that have been given as
20 the possibilities of these vacant fats
have been alluring. The number has
been nut at $4,000. and the cost of re-
construction has been declared small
il the law could be amended. No bill
making any specific changes in the
law has yet been introduced in Al
bany. but the Dodge bill, which per-
mits the Board Of Appeals to modify
OF annul at will any part of the tene-
ment house law. IS believed by the OPP
ponents Of the changes to be a Cover
+or the scheme.
Figures complied last year by the
Tenement House Department show that
tie number of fats vacant is far below
the figure given, though the exact facts
will not be known till the new ccnsus
is completed. about May /. A year ago
there were .1e.lo7 empty cats in Man
haitian. OF those 10.078 we're below
Fourteenth Street, and their average
rental was under $40 a month. The
books of agents who handle big East
Side and other tenement properties
show that there has been a consider
able renting of vacant apartments dur
ing the last year, from SO to 90 per
cent of last years lists having been
absorbed. That would mean that in
the district given there are not to-day
more than 5000 to 1000 such apart
ments.
Apartments Called "Unlivable"
The reason they are vacant is plain
enough. They are, as Mr.. Mann said
"unlivable." In the first place, Of the
10.018 vacant places 9,428 were in cold
law tenemcnta, whish means that they
were at least nineteen years old. When
the new law was passed they were per
mitted to continue without alteration
Trey are perfectly legal. If they are
to be rented they must be changed
and the law permits any kind OF
changes that will be an improvement
So. Mr.. Murphy declares, all the land
lords have to do is to 90 ahead.
Look at a few Of these tcnemcnts.
Here is a six-story "old law build
ing. Down the center runs a siX-foo'
airshaft. From the upper window:
falls a steady ain OF garbagc=olt
papers, sweepings, decayed vegetable:
and tin cans. The stuff festoons The
window lodges, hangs on the ropes tina
stretch across, but finally, in variou:
stages Of decay. il lands at the bottom
At the bottom are two windows. The
refuse pile reaches the sills. No al
can get there, and no sun. Those win
dows are the only air and lightlns
equipment Of a four-room tenement
There are other things wrong with it
There tx no running water-that has t
be carried from a faucet in the bacl
yard. There is no latrine that is IL
the yard, also. Fallen plaster, peel
ing paint-of course. This is one o
the "vacant fats from which saliva
ton is hoped. No one will live in i
now, when the choice is doubling up
till there arc four or five inhabitant
TO the room.
Changes Would Be Costly
To make that place habitable, in an,
sense. the whole airshaft must be en-
larged greatly. That will cost money
The space taken from the fats tina
touch the shaft on every floor Will cos
money, too. Water and toilet faciii
ties, even the most primitive, will cos
more money.
The Ian is the minimum now" SAT-
Mr.. Murphy. "What law could brin:
the sun down that shaft? What ela,
could put tenants into the fiat? Ant
il the Law were relaxed 40 one but
fool would spend the money to max
the changes that would be required be
fore people would move in, even il
this crisls, because a. soon as tn
crisis is over the place would fal
vacant again"
This case is typical Of thousands o
those vacant places all needing
practical rebuilding Of the Who'll
structure before they can be fit 10
any breathing animal. With mino
variations it. could be duplicated il
every building in some blocks.
There are other reasons for vacan
ciez. One IL n stable. Built well bacI
into the middle Of Il block. it ha
"evieted" scores Of tenants. Fully fv
hundred Windows looh out over It. +,
cach comes varying according TO tn
wind the rcck Of $50 horses. And eacl
window marks a fat that cannot b.
used to-day. Then there arc house
that are in litigation. 10 that no on
Knows who has q rivht 10 give leases