The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-11-19
KITCHEN FLAPPER
 4 SERIOUS MENACE, UNDERWRITERS SAY
Give Up TWo-Room, Non- Housekeeping Apartment, Is Plea of New York
 Association
By LILLIAN EDWARDS
H1f UNIfN4N IzKy " n kftHgs5 Special Dispatch to The Age Herald (Copy right. 1922. by The Age-Heraldl

tCopyright. 1922. by The Age -Heraldl
 New York, November 18.-Either give up- the two-room non-house keeping apartment, or stretch Man haitian Island so that more people can live on 1t comfortably. This was the earnest advice today of the As sociation to Promote Proper Housing for Girls. which is working on two proposed laws: One to compel the licensing of landladies and another to compel more and betted fire escapes.
 It Is against the two-room non housekeeping apartment that the as- sociation directs at present dis approving gaze. Or rather against the non-housekeeping apartment and the kitchen flapper who insists on housekeeing in it. Millions of dol lars have gone up in smoke within the past two years because the Kitchen flapper, without kitchen, has boiled an egg, or curled her hair over gas light in the bathroom. The New York city fire underwrit- CTS declare the curling iron is re- sponsible for many property loss running up into the thousands.
 Precnrious Coffee
 Frank Mann, New York tenament house commissioner, says the break fast cup of coffee, precariously accom- plished by means of a gas plate or an electric plate hidden away from the landlady on a shelf, helps the thousand dollar losses to multiply. And Miss Cornelia Marshall, presi- dent of the Association to Promote Proper Housing for Girls, adds that girls will be girls and they will cook where cooking isn't allowed and the only remedy Is apartments in which girls are permitted decent sized kitchen apartment-and mind you at moderate prices.
 Only when these suitable rooms are provided, continues Miss Marshall, will the kitchen flapper stop adding to the citys bill for loss by fire. In the meantime, why not license the landlades so they will be more fussy about keeping the surreptitious elec- tric and gas plate out of their houses? And why not amend the fire laws so that three story dwelling houses will be compelled to furnish fire escapes?
 Congestion Responsible
 "Because 1t Is these old three-story dwellings which are being turned into tiny. on-housekeeping apart ments" Miss Marshall said today, "and consequently 1t Is In the old three-story dwellings that the kitchen flapper constitutes the great est fire risk to herself and to every one else in the house.
 "Congestion is responsible for both the kitchen flapper and the risk. New York is the most congested city of the civilized world at this moment. The property owners naturally have seen their chance. Instead of rent ing out an old dwelling house at $1,s00 a year for each three floors. they cut the house up into small apartments and get $S,00o. You want biarfs the property owners. t"Neither can you blame the kitchen flappers They must live near their work because car fare Is an extra expense. They must cook one or two meals at home. because restaurants are expensive also. Why. some girls who can't find rooms downtown travel twenty miles day just on Manhattan island alone, and after 20 miles a day hanging on strap and damned in a crowded sub way car, you are glad to take what ever accommodations you can find down town.,
 Cannot Afford Better
 Easy enough to suggest the girls moving into larger apartment where they will have cooking facili- ties. The girls simply cannot af- ford to do this. Do you realize that the least on which a girl can sup port herself decently today is SIS week. Even SIS week does not al- low much over for frivolity. The old s5 week room is no moro. About the least money for which girl can get room in the city is $7 a week. Allow her $7 week for food and this leaves only $4 for clothes.
 When I see some department stores advertising for girls at SIP a week I wonder how the store manager thinks those girls arc going to live. No wonder they crowd into two room apartments, four girls in space intended at the most for two"
 Miss Marshall, and the association of which she Is head, believes the real answer to New York city's housing problem, a problem growing more acute daily, Is decentralization. If the business firms move outside the city, workers will move outside