The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-07-27
Frederick Haskin's letter
sa..A.a on.unsAno Z - AsUAl IS
WAsHlNcT0Ns SLUM ALLEYS

~ - 0O0Os&OA WactncI laef0 are
more than 10 bathrooms in TIA en-
tire alley system. Leaks in tha
roofs average four or five 70
house in some alleys. The alley.
ways are paved and kept compare.
lively clean BY city ordinance. But
the city cannot clean up the inter-
iors. The houses are crowded be-
cause the rents are high and even
in . four-room house, rooms ara
rented out to several families. When
you consider that six or seven peo.
pie sometimes occupy a single room
10x1z feet, existence In these homes
can be imagined"
Not all the alley jewellers OF
Washington are negroes. A stones
throw from the beautiful capitol
grounds are some Of the most con.
gested districts. Poor foreigners
who come into Washington through
the nearby Union station settle
down in these lodgings, the cheap
est 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 de sac the alley broadens
and winds and branches. There are
alleys within alleys. Police cannot
patrol these streets" closely be-
cause the force is not large enough
to permit men being detaile to
alleys only.
Disease Always a Menace.
As for disease, investigators have
reported whole rows of alley
houses known as lung blocks
where tuberculosis is found in four
houses out Of every five. Other
districts have periodical sieges Of
typhoid. Mr.. Ham states as his
opinion that an outbreak of small
pox or some other epidemic in the
alleys would be felt all over Wash
ington. ...
There is the back kick to the sit
uation. Washington is getting its
cleaning and cooking and washing
done by the alley jewellers. and get
ting them perhaps a little cheaper
than il the workers lived in the su-
burbs and had to pay carfare out OF
their earnings. But the city is ex-
posing itself to the diseases that
prey on the people of the hidden
slums.
| Washing for "the best homes" Is
done in the alley shacks. People 60
out of houses where there are cases
of fevers, tuber culosis and syphilis
to work all over the city. This
condition, or its equivalent, is true
perhaps in any city. Disease germs
are almost inescapable. But in the
lalleys, as in the tenement districts
Iof great cities, disease is less con-
trolled and more powerful.
Some of the shacks rub elbows
.jwith the back yards Of fine resi-
licences. The alleys are just far
enough away and sufficiently shut
off by board fences to be disregard
ed by the people who live facing the
streets. But the alley dwellings arr
at the same time just~close enough
for disease to spread.
So far, however, the dangers ant
wrongs of the alley system hay'
been tolerated. The city does thu
best it can with the laws and ordi
nances on the books. But any rad
]. ical steps rest with congress. Tn
! commissioners of the District ar
5 now taking an active interest in tn
situation.
Several years ago congress passe'
!. a law to close the alley houses oil
; a fixed date When the time drew
!. near an extension was obtained. l
was argued that the city could no
: absorb so many people moving a
the same time.
Now the alleys are to close in No
vember, and again it is being urge
s that the date be put off two years
K Mr.. Ham opposes this on psycno
= logical grounds. He says that tn
e tenants would stay on until tn
s two years were up, as they hav
= done this time, and then ther
t would be panic at the last minute
He urges instead that the alley
4 be closed in three installments
}, year apart. The tenants woul
: know all about the moving day
4 and which alleys were to close frs
i 1t would be possible for the Distrie
a to absorb 5000 people at one tim
+ in small houses, chiefly in outlyln
n sections. The other alley tenant!
a seeing the first set move, and reaii2
e ing that their turn would surel
y come on the liked dates, would be
e gin to look about and the whole emf
8 grafton would be accomplish
without serious confusion.
Q Mr.. Ham has laid this plan Dc
8. fore congress. He says that Tn
h alleys should be turned into play
e grounds, minor streets, city PARK!
lgarages, and parking spaces.