New-York tribune., 1921-02-03
Copeland Asks
Daylight Law
To Save Lives
Tells Legislators THAT Lack
of Housing Facilities Here
Endangers Thousands and
Sunshine Is Only Hope
Depicts Tenement Life
Asserts Public Health Prob.
len, Is Raised; Repeal
Urged i'm Name of TilIers
Fron, a ster correspondenf

aLbAN 4, Fe0. "A vlvsd picture OF
the misery endured By workers and
their families because Of the lack of
housing facilities in New York City
was drawn to-day by DR.. Royal s..
Copeland, Health Commissioner Of New
York City, in his plea for the con-
tinustion of the daylight savings act.
DR.. Copeland spoke before Joint
hearing of the agricultural committees
Of the Legislature. which has before
1t the Belts bill repeating the daylight
savings law and the Booth measure re-
duclng from seven to FIVE months the
time in which the act would be ouera-
tive.
DR.. Copeland told OF one sonal;d
tenement where four married couples
and child a year old lived in three
chgy rooms. In these rooms. with
little more than sufficient air space for
one adult, these nine people cooked
washed, ate and slept
Health Bases of Plea
To repeal the daylight saving
measure" said DR.. Copeland, "will be
equal to depriving the children anS
working mothers Of the tenements If
an extra hour of sunshine. No matter
What may have been your pledges to
your constituents, the health of these
people depends upon their having all
fne sunshine and fresh air they can
get. In the name of humanity and
public health appeal to you to keen
TINS statute on the books,
The daylight saving question ia a
public health problem. Into it enters
the welfare of hundreds of thousands
o. people who must be given ADEQUATE
opportunities to breathe fresh air after
their days work is done. I wonder If
you gentlemen who come from sec
tions outside the City of New York
can realize the conditions that prevail
there, how tuberculosis danger
threatens if the present housing condi-
tions are to continue, and how the
death rsae among children will I'M
crease and increase unless we do all
IN our power to help stop it.
In another tenement in New York
we found twelve adults huddled to-
gether in three rooms, living there,
sieeping there, cooking there. doing
their washing there and even threat
ened, because of the conditions under
Wnlch they exist, with dying there. In
stiil another place we found eight peo-
PIE living in three rooms. The roof
~, n 's1yLa 3.
seeped down three stories, into their
rotms. We had the authority to close
me house, but where would these peo-
pie go?
Death is taking its toll out of the
housing sitnation. 1t is taking its toll
IN ~duit lives and in child lives. Last
ye'~ lz5.uU0 children were born in New
York, anu out of this number 100 900
wefe BON in tenements.
1yphus in New York City
''Ihe4a is typhus in New York Citv
tr-dS. Only the other day we found
two cases in Brooklyn. Three cases of
cholera have been discovered in Texas.
The bubonic plague also threatens.
These are the diseases of filth, and filth
IL the natural sequence of present-day
conditions in the congested districts in
New York City"
The arguments advanced for OF
against the bill we're the same as those
employed during the daylight savings
controversy last year. The interests
OF the industrial, class were represented
by Frank A. Boland, of the Merchants
Association. lie said that vote taken
among the 241 900 employees of 14,0OC
employers in New York City shows that
100000 favor the continuation of the
daylight saving act. Mr.. Boland also
expressed the opinion that similar
views were shared by other workers ir
other cities of the state.
Our governm ent,T he declared, "is
based on majority rule, and it cannot
be doubted that a great majority Of
the pee pie of the state favor daylight
saving
lie went on so say that of the popu.
lation of the state, s,589,000 reside il
urban and only 1,794,O00 in rural dis.
tricts. He advised the Legislature
against repeating the bill and sug,
gested that true analysis of the popu-
1arlty OF the law can be had by sub.
uniting it TO the voters at the next
elections.
George E. Hogue, State Commis-
sloner of Agriculture, led the op
ponents of the daylight saving plan
He replied to DR.. Copeland's descrip-
lions of New York City conditions by
saying that there are in the country
conditions which resemble those OF
New York. He added that some of
them are even more aggravated on
some farms where squalid poverty, be-
cause of small profits, deprives the
farmer of the simplest sanitary ad-
y,antages. He warned against legis-
lation which would do the slightest to
discourage tn farmers and aaid that
the daylight saving act is a serious
handicap.
In the past" he said, "we have
devoted a great deal of attention to in
a.nsstry and it is time we turned our
euofts to the farm. The daylight saw
ine; act was merely a war measure and
= should be repealed, as it works i'm
3ury 20 farmers, who just now are pass
Ihg through the most acute period
agsscuiture has ever been called upon
to face"