The New York herald., 1921-09-25

cause their present severity Is inJur-
ing trade and checking any chance OF
home development
The housing problem is frightful in
its effect on domestic life in the poor
quarters. One hundred and eighty
thousand houses in Great Britain have
been condemned as unfit for human
habtation. Four hundred thousand
new houses are urgently needed. In
cities like London, the heart OF the
empire, there are hundreds OF mean
streets in which every house Is crowd
ed with six or more families depend
ent on one water tap for sanitary pur-
poses. They are breeding grounds Tor
tuberculosis, eye disease, ricketts,, ade-
nolds and infant maladies. SO that
childhood does not get decent chance
and life is so uncomfortable. tretlui
and nerve racking that 1t causes dis
contentment and bitterness among
men and women who endure this
squalor.
Housing Scheme Abandoned.
An ambitious housing scheme TO
make homes for heroes" was ADOPTED
by the Government and then aban-
doned owing to lack Of money. and
there Is not ghost Of a chance at the
present time of any extensive reform
in this direction.
Similar conditions prevail in most
cities of Europe, where building ceased
during war time and cannot be resumed
owing to immense burdens or taxation
or the depletion of national wealth ana
private capital.
Now how can people In such domes-
tic distress show enthusiasm because
at Geneva a number Of elderly gentle
men of various nations have estab-
lished a world court Of justice? A
working woman. waiting at the same
old water tap. or waiting her turn at
the kitchen stove upon which six rami-
lies cook their food. when they have
1t. does not exclaim with JOY because
Lord Robert Cecil is excited by the ap-
pointment of number of unknown
judges to a mysterious court in Gem
eva. They don't even hear about It.
Even people not SO deep in discom-
fort-middle-class folk, as we call them
who take an intelligent interest in
world affairs and see vaguely how they
affect their own lives, profess themselves
fed up" with the League of Nations.
because so far it seems to have utterly
failed in solving any of the worlds In
ternational troubles and to utter only
pious hopes to which nobody pays the
slightest attention. Men of highest intel
ligence whom l meet now and then
are not more enthusiastic. They say the
league Is just playing an unreal game
for the benefit of old buffers who please
their vanity by posing as makers of the
new world.
On the other hand there are groups Of
people-intellectuals and plain folk
who have a bigger faith than this and
believe, truly or not, as time alone will
show, that the League of Nations and its
International Court of Justice, as well
as the Washington conference In Novena-
ber, are steps forward which will ulti-
mately lift the world out of Its present
morass Of misery. trouble and danger.
] am one of these, and with Jane Ad-
dams I think an essential condition TO
success is to bring the league into touch
with humanity and humanity into touch
with the league.
In the same way I think the Wash
ington conference will fail In its biggest
chance II 1t is a secret affair. conducted
out of sight and hearing of the worlds
democracies and aloof from human SEN
timent and emotion.
Now. the problem Is how to achieve
that humanizing process. In the first
place, it must be shown far more clearly
to the great masses of working folk how
such things as the league or the confer
ence will affect private lives and domes-
tic conditions for good or i'll. They must
be told wildly In a way they cannot fall
to understand. that unemployment In