The New York herald., 1922-01-06
hurch Association for the Advancement

Church Association for the Advancement
Of the Interests OF Labor. DIR. Daniel
told the committee she had made many
first hand tours OF investigation and
found a general condition Of overcrowd-
ing worse now than before the war.
On recent tour OF the territory be-
tween Fourteenth and Houston streets.
east OF Third avenue, she found fifteen
families. totalling I09 persons. housed in
fifty-one rooms, only twenty OF which
had light. or the 10s persons seventy
two were under 16 years OF age.
Dr. Daniel described what she saw as
deplorable from sanitary and moral
viewpoint.
"OvercrowdinG Crows"
Dr. Royal S. Copeland. Health Com
missioner, introduced figures of three sur
veys he had made; one in February Of
1920; a second in September. 1920, made
at .he request of the United State Senate
Committee on Reconstruction. and a
third in December 1921. at the request
of the Lockwood Committee.
Didn't you find" Mr.. Untermyer
asked. that the overcrowding was even
greater at the end of 1921 than It had
been In February 1902"
"Yes, we found the average number Of
persons per house in our last survey was
ninety-six as against eighty-nine in
February, 1920"
DIR. Copeland added this observation:
Il want to say about the overcrowd-
ing, very seriously, that it is a dreadful
menace to US 1t is exactly as IL we
piled excelsior and paper and finder
against a fine building. We have con-
ditions OF overcrowding in this city that
If these postwar disasters like cholera
and bubonic plague came upon US We
might lose a million of our citizens. We
nave been exceedingly fortunate.
There Is no manner of doubt that
our people in the tenement districts are
living under nsanitary and under social
conditions which in themselves tend to
disaster. I know this, that many per-
sons In our city are living In inside
rooms without any light and ventila-
ton. They are living under health con-
ditions which we would not tolerate,
which I would not tolerate. IL It were
not for the fact that there are no other
places to which these people cam go.
If we had a normal situation as regards
houses and vacancies I would not toll
crate the situation which exists at pres
ent. 1t is certainly a menace to the
health. to the morals and to the future
of the community
SIS 1t was when the laws were passed ?"
asked Mr.. Untemyer.
"Yes"
"Then, in your judgment, should these
emergency laws to continued?"
81 think they should be, yes, SIR"
Building Decline shown.
Rudolph p. Miller. Superintendent of
Buildings for Manhattan, furnished ad-
ditional statistics indicating, the COM
mittee thought. that the housing crisis
was far from passed. In the seven years
from 1910 to 1916. inclusive. 226 dwell
ings had been erected In Manhattan. In
the five years beginning 1917 to 1921.
inclusive. only 1856 dwellings had been
constructed or projected, and IN this
same period 716 had been demolished.
For the seven years prior to 1917. Mr..
Miller said, 1851 tenements had been
constructed or projected. and in the five
years following only 207, of wlicl, only
81 had actually been completed during
1921. For other years the figures on
completed tenerents were: 208, In 1910;
1873. in 1914; 9, in 1918, and A, in 1919.
The tenements demolished in the five
year period ended December 81 last
totalled 401, as against 207 in the seven
years prior to 1917, while the value of
new housing construction erected in that
period was approximately 100000. 900.
as compared with $s5,0oo.oo0 erected in
the five years just past Mr.. Miller said
his figures indicated that the housing
emergency was on the increase.
Patrick J. Reville. Superintendent of
Buildings for The Bronx and brick
layer by trade. said he had studied the
question "as a practical man and not
as college professor He thought the
trouble was in the price OF material
that made apartment building I'm The
Bronx cost about 1000 a room. There
was four times as much building In that
borough, he said, In the seven years
prior to 1917 than in the five years
since. and there were no apartments
being built In The Bronx now that were
expected to rent for less than SIS q
month a room. He thought that meant
that the situation was very acute"
Superintendent Moore Of the Bureau
Of Buildings Of Queens gave similar tes-
timony. He told the committee that II