Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-16
Special Dispatch to The star.

! Special Dispatch to The star.
NEW YORK, June 15.-Behind yes
terdays announcement that New York
is going ahead with its 100000, 600
housing project, on the lower East Side,
there is a story of social rehabilitation,
which indicates that slums in their
worst aspects are rapidly eliminating
themselves regardless Of municipal aid.
Noting that this latest project has
not yet incurred the old dependable
comeback, they'll put coal in the bath
tubs" the reason for such an oversight
was sought among social workers and
others.
THE coal-in-the- bathtub age has
passed" was the answer. Ten years OF
steady employment and high wages.
with a checking of immigration, giving
big cities a chance to get caught up on
their housekeeping, have had an edu-
cational effect, which has been more
imuortant in the renovation of crowded
districts than either city planning or
social service work. Economic forces
have been working with US, rather than
against us.
People Re-educate Themselves.
"The millennium is a long way on and
there is still plenty of dirt and con1u-
sion in the crowded districts, but on the
whole the under-privileged peoples as
we used to call them, are re-eoucatlns
themselves, and keeping pace with their
new opportunities. 1t is true tnat many
model housing projects nave Ialleo III
the past because of the low STANDARDS
of behavior in their neighborhoods, out
more recent developments nave SHOWN
that the submerged man ON the make
is quite a different person from his
predecessor of a few years back. I'M
migrants have learned to read. and un-
ouestionably the newspaper advertising
emphasis on sanitation, cleanliness ana
the arts and crafts of civilized living
has been a tremendous stimulus 10
higher personal standards"
As a bit of subStantiating evidence
this observer recalls the case OF FAMILY
saved by piano lamp. Twelve years
ago this family was a wreck In oe-
cayinR tenement In Hester street There
were seven children. The father could
find no work. The mother was help
less.
The father finally got work as
sand-hog. It was a Furnishing job, but
the nav was $l2 day-af1uence. with
his first pay check, he bought huge
piano lamp. It was almost as big as
a pup tent and trimmed with beads,
ribbons bangles and everything else
which could be crowded in.
The neghbors came in to marvel and
the tired and hopeless mother acquired
new social distinction. She appointed
the oldest of the children as head
sweeper and they started in cleaning
up the place.
The pay check piled up and pretty
soon there was highly chromat1c
rug to 60 with the piano lamp. The
children were learning to read and
they began to tip the parents to all
sorts of little tricks for keeping things
ship-shape. A shiny dining room set
came along soon afterward and the
renovation spread all over the house.
caissons and now has work above
ground. The children are all at school,
except two who have finished and found
work The piano lamp did the bust
ness where the social workers had
failed. Incidentally, years afterward,
a piano came along to go with the
lamp and the youngest Of the little
ones is learning to play.
Model Tenements Planned.
Mayor Walker has strongly indicated
that John d. Rockefeller, jr, and sew
eral other philanthropistS will form a
limited dividend corporation for the
erection of the model tenements in
a large area in the most congested
district of the East Side. The land
would be leased by the city to the cor
poration for 90 years. a method which
is being increasingly followed In many
lines Of semi-public development here,
such as the churches, which transform
their buildings into apartment hotels
through an engineering corporation. In