The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1929-05-08
Continued from Page One)

disease like smallpox and infectious
diseases like tuberculosis.
The first step in the series Of fake
housing laws was made whenthe state
legislature, in the face of unneces-
sary opposition from the landlords
and real-estate spectators, passed
its law of 1867. 1t is an illuminating
education in the bluffing ability of
the legislatures of exploiters to
study this law.
1t is also a good insight into the
conditions prevailing at that time,
and how little conditions have
changed despite that law and others.
Violated Today.
According to this law no building
may be occupied as a tenement house
unless every sleeping room had a
ventilator or transom window of an
area of three square feet; unless
there were proper fire-escapes; un-
less there was ventilation in the
main hall; there must be no leak in
the roof; no less than l water-closet
to every 20 occupants; yard space
must be adequate; no basement or
cellar rooms are to be occupied
without a permit from the board of
health and if occupied they must be
seven feet high and have an external
window. The building laws called
for rooms having at least one win
dow connected with the external air,
cemented cellars and fire proof con-
strUction.
Not a single one of these regu-
lations, with the exception of the
toilet clause. has been followed
generally. Today, in most tene-
ments, you will find at least one
violation of the law of 1867.
Amendment Jokes.
In 1879, on the request of reform
ers, this law was amended to pro-
vide that no more than 65 per cent
of lot may be occupied by build
| ing in order to furnish adequate
| lighting and air. 1t also provided
that sleeping rooms must have II
square feet opening directly on the
public street or yard.
That amendment was joke. 1t
las been violated legally" For the
amendment also provided that a
building could take up more than 65
per cent of lot, if the board of
health would give its permission. 1t
was a very easy thing to get this
permission" with the result that the
board of health saw no danger to
public welfare" by allowing build
ings to go up covering 50 to 80 per
cent of the lot. AS for the ventila-
ton provision, anyone who lives in
an old law tenement knows that it
is extremely difficult to find an
apartment which has all of its rooms
looking out into the open.
Lives Mean Nothing.
This provision was often deemed
filled when rooms were constructed
around narrow shaftway, yard
wide, running the length of five or
six story building.
During all this time, and up to the
Multiple Dwellings Bill of 1929,
I buildings were constantly being
erected in violation of all the claws"
in existence.
More Jobs.
As the result of the investigation
carried on by a commission APP
pointed by the state in 1884, a law
was passed in 1887. About all this
law accomplished, was to hand out
15 more soft jobs to dangerous, by
increasing the number of sanitary
police for the state from 80 to As.
1t also assured constant flood of
reports on housing by creating the
Tenement House Commission" to
meet once year. We must not for
get, however, that it reduced the al
lotment of families per toilet from
twenty to fifteen.
In the committee to Investigate"
housing, appointed by the mayor of
New York City in 1887 the leading
member was William Waldorf Aston.
the landlord of miles of tenements.
The Big Fake.
From then to 1900 there were
sporadic attempts at reformist
schemes, the Association for I'M
proving the Condition of the Poor"
putting up few model" houses on
west 68th and Goth Streets, which
were model houses for the few who
could pay to live in them.
By 1900 conditions in the tene-
ments in New York City had become
so hrd that thov -ctic.-rI 1919 ---:J <