Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-07-29
By E
J. HASkN

Civil war barracks are still standing
and inhabitated. Other negroes found
shacks in alleyways. The people who
employed them were glad to have them
|, living conveniently at hand.
Domestic servants were in demand
in Washington and houses were built
for them on the back lots. In time
these lots often became entirely sep
arated from the property facing the
street. Rows of alley houses were
bought up by land sharks because they
brought in good profits.
VIM. Deane Ham, member of the
citizens housing committee, says that
these sharks are operating today.
They own long rows of alley homes.
and derive large incomes from the
rents. A four room house in one of
; these rows is valued at about $500
s 1t rents on an average for So a
month. or $144 a year. In other
words every three years the tenants
more than pay for the houses they
, rent, and some of them have lived In
, their shacks for so years.
Most of the houses are tumble
down wooden or brick structures. Mr..
Ham has made a survey which con-
gress will get in the fall. He says:
1T is doubtful whether there are
more than 10 bathrooms in the entire
T alley system. Leaks in the roofs av-
erage four or five to a house in some
alleys. The alleyways are paved and
5 are kept comparatively clean by city
? ordinance. But the city cannot clean
t up the interiors. The houses are
crowded because the rents are high
! and even in a four room house rooms
are rented out to several families
Y When you consider that six or seven
people sometimes occupy a single room
10x12 feet existence in these homes
/ can be imagined"
] Not all the alley jewellers of Wash
j ington are negroes. A stones throw
> from the beautiful grounds of the cap
! itol are some of the most congested
s districts. Poor foreigners who come
into Washington through the nearby
union station settle down in these
Y lodgings, the cheapest the city affords
in the built up sections.
! Vice and crime are bred in these
! internal streets, welfare workers say.
. Often the entrance to an alley is by
a narrow courtway. Beyond this cul
s de sac the alley broadens and winds
t and branches. There are alleys with
in alleys. Police cannot patrol these
streets" closely because the force is
not large enough to permit mems be-
% lHE btldlitI 10 HlltSS OLtS.
Disease Always a Menace
As for disease. investigators have
. reported whole rows of alley houses
s known as lung blocks, where tuberculo-
sis is found in four houses out of every
five. Other districts have periodical
sieges of typhoid. Mr.. Ham states
e smallpox or some other epidemic in
the alleys would be felt all over Wash
lngton.
n There is the back kick to the situa-
r ton. Washington is getting its clean
;. ing and cooking and washing dom by
the alley dwellers, and getting them
o perhaps a little cheaper than il the
t workers lived in the suburbs and had
Y 10 pay ~carfare out of their earnings.
But the city is exposing itself to the
diseases that prey on the people of
S the hidden slums.
Washing for the best homes is
> done in the alley shacks. People go
out of houses where there are cases
r Of %fcvers, tuberculosis, and syphilis to
! work all over the city. This condition.
or its equivalent, is true perhaps in
Y any city. Disease germs are almost
p unacceptable. But in the alleys, as in
the tenement districts of great cities,
, disease is less controlled and more
: powerful.
Some of the shacks rub elbows with
the back yards Of fine residences. The
: ALLEYS are just far enough away and
10 be ~disregarded by the people who
live facing the streets. But the alley
e. dwellings are at the same tim just
j. close enough for disease to spread.
so far. however, the dangers and
the wrongs of the alley system have
, been tolerated. The city does the best
it can with the laws and ordinances
on the books. But any radical steps
rest with congress. commissioners of
district are now taking an active in
terest in the situation. .
] Several years ago congress passed
|. a law to close the alley houses on a
fixed date. When the time drew near
an extension was obtained. 1t was
l argued that the city could not absorb
: so many people moving at the same
time.
. Now the alleys are to close in Nov
cmber, and again it is being urged that
, the date be put off two years. Mr..
! Ham opposes this on psychological
z grounds. He says that he tenants
j. would stay on until the two years were
IN. as they have done this time, and
then there would be panic at the last
= minute.
. He urges instead that the alleys be
! closed in three i~nstallments a year
(: apart. The tenants would know all
. about the moving days and which al
leys we're to close first. 1t would be
possible for the district to absorb 5000
t people at one time in small houses
:, chiefly in outlying sections. The other
: alley tenants. seeing the first set
: move. and realizing that their turn
| would surely come on the fixed dates,
would begin to look about and the
whole emigration would be accomplish
cd without serious confusion.
Mr.. Ham has laid this plan before
congress. He says that the alleys
t should he turned into Fairgrounds.
; minor streets, city parks, garages, and
parking spaces.
, Women Sell Soft