The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-04-14
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director.
Washington, ID. G.
THE RIGHT TO QUIET.

| Oh Ai0AoS anu Aeo
effect upon the public health is now
4 receiving much energetic discussion in
I this city, as the result of an interest
ling case recently brought into New
| York police court.
This was the complaint OF Francis
Newton and Childe Hassarn, well
known artists. against the midnight
musicales of Mrs. Richard T. Wilson.
Jr., prominent society woman and sis
ter-in-law of Mrs. Cornelius Wander
bilt. The artists claimed that their
sleep was repeatedly interrupted by
loud and late music in Mrs. Wilson S
apartment, which is situated beneath
over that of Mr.. Newton, in a CO.
operatively owned apartment house.
| Mrs. Wilson, appearing with several
modishly g9wned friends as witnesses
in court, presented the novel defense
| that the artists could not have been
greatly disturbed because her music
was not common jazz but expensive
orchestral melody. And the judge
agreed with her
In other words. according to the de-
cision of this magistrate, the New
| York apartment house dweller has
practically no redress against super
1 fluous noise, if it be fashionable and
elegant noise, tho it lasts until 8 or 4
O'Clock in the morning. Fortunately,
however, the word of this magistrate
noise controversy. The public health
department of the city is the final
authority on the question of noise,
and Doctor Copeland, the commission
| er, is a just and Vigilant protector of
despairing noise victims
| When the commissioner declares
! that a noise is unnecessary and objec-
! tionable, the noise is stopped There
| is no argument about it, no trial. no
fracas of any sort. The commissioner
merely sends his inspector around,
and if the warnings of the inspector
do not Immediately produce a silenc-
| ing effect, militant steps are taken to
| enforce the order. The authority of
/ the commissioner is unlimited in this
matter He can close a house. or if
necessary, a whole street. He can can
eel the license of noisy cafe or noisy
truck. He can come into your house
and silence your Victrola.
Begged for Mercy.
The long suffering artists in the
| aforementioned case apparently did
not know this. Instead of appealing
to the powerful health commissioner,
they attempted to establish their
| rights as American citizens to peaceful
nocturnal slumber according to meth
DDS suggested in the constitution
They went to court. But first they
sent notes of entreaty, politely worded
fsupplications for mercy to Mrs. Will
aid of the landlord. There was no
| landlord The house was co-opera-
| lively owned.
Before the musical days of Mrs.
| Wilson, her apartment had been
owned and lived in by William Dean
Howells, who never did anything more
| noisy than to use typewriter. Childe
Hassam wore padded heels in his
apartment overhead and moved his
easels about on rubber tired rollers.
When any of the artists or writers
| living in the house planned to have a
! late party, he notified the superin-
tendent, and the superintendent in
formed the neighbors. The neighbors
then planned their evenings accord
lngfy; either they stayed at home and
| prepared to endure the noise, or they
went to the club or to the theater It
was most satisfactory system. But
| William Dean HowelIs died. His
apartment was secured by the musical
mrs. wilson, and the old, considerable
regime was ended.
When questioned concerning the
wilson case, Commissioner Copeland
| mas been noncommittal. He refuses
to state how he would have settled it,
| had it been referred to him, inasmuch
/ as all of his information had been
| OBTAINED from the published accounts
| in the newspapers and not from the
reports of one of his own investiga-
/ tors. He points out that many of the
complaints against noise received by
the health department are unreason-
able-that about one out of every ten
refers to a single noisy instance, and
not to whole series of them. Yet
his attitude is distinctly sympathetic
| toward the anti-noise crusade
New York" he declares, sis fast
\ becoming a city of neurotics because
OF the unnecessary noises of automo-
| plies, elevated trains, large trucks and
continual traffic. to say nothing of
| household noises. We have the nois-
| lest city in the world.
| The effect of the noise on the nerv-
Gus system is as dangerous as any
| bodily disease. The vitality is low
| cred by the constant wear and tear
| of noise. The health of the average
| person depends upon his or her vital
ity and power to throw off any dis
ease. Nervous disorders are as hard,
and sometimes harder, to combat than
some physical defects.
Anti Noise Society.
"a society has recently been formed
to do away with unnecessary noises
grinding brakes, nerve-racking auto
mobile horns, loud motors, and other
means of disturbing the much-needed
quiet, and it is a work I heartily en-
dorse. In fact, I believe it essential
| to the health of the city.
| While continuous noise is a very
great strain, sudden and intermittent
noises are much more dangerous to
| our nervous systems, according to
data accumulated by the AntiNoise
society of which DR.. Copeland speaks.
| Each loud and sudden noise" it says,
produces a distinct nerve shock and
these shocks often repeated cause a
loss Of nerve vitality. Immunity to
such noises can never be attained, for
| the sound wavesN of the air, thrown
into violent action by loud and sud
| den vibration, strike actual physical
blows upon the auditory nerve. and a
| constant succession of such blows in
evitably Injuries and finally destroys
the delicate mechanism of the ear.
Bells. whistles, gongs and the startling
| shrieks of street vendors are therefore
more injurious to the health than the
| continuous roar of elevated trains or
the monotonous whir of machinery
Neise- is regarded as particularly
| fatal to the person who does creative
work or any mental work which re-