Evening star., 1934-06-24

the Washington Sanitary Improve
| ment Co., limited-dividend corpora
ton, formed for the purpose OF build
| ing suitable living accommodations
for persons unable to pay the prevail
ing average rentals.
Gratitude Due.
Washington owes a debt of graft
tude to the public minded citizens
who, 81 years ago, subscribed to shares
in the housing company. They must
have felt that their dollars were 60
ing to charity, rather than to a sound,
conservative business investment.
The first housing company was
Joined in 1902 by the Washington
Sanitary Housing Co. These COM
panies today are renting 878 apart
ments in two-family buildings, and
the elder company today is building
in Northeast Washington a group
of homes for So families. These COM
panies have paid 5 and per cent
dividends throughout the late depres-
sion. seldom have vacancy and have
consistently maintained a record for
i low operating costs, at which other
rental management Offices may well
marvel. A complete report of the
companies activities is contained in
the housing report of the Public Utili-
ties Commission, which unstintedly
praises the work of these organiza-
tions for its practical and financially
stable methods in applying the laws
of common sense to low-cost housing
construction and management.
The year 1897 may be said to have
marked a high point in the campaign
against the alleys. Since that time
the war against these sluns has been
carried on relentlessly, in the face
of disappoinments and defeats in the
courts. Whenever public interest has
seemed to flag it has been goaded on
to new efforts by Mrs. Archibald Hop
kins and by John Ihlder, veteran city
planner, sociologist and author on
housing
Deficiency Recognized. =.
In 1899 a law providing a method
for the condemnation Of unsafe build
ings was enacted, giving the Commis-
sioners an effective means of Kidding
the city of structurally deficient dwell
ingS. By that time, too, it became
evident that the alley laws of the early
'90s were falling short of their pur-
pose. and once more Congress was
besought by the Civic Center to take
action that would allow the Commis-
Sioners to condemn insanitary houses.
A powerful friend was found by
the housing reformers in President
Theodore Roosevelt, who focused ma
tional attention on the Washington
alleys in his message to Congress in
December, 1904, when he said:
The slum eXactS a heavy toll of
death from those who dwell therein.
And this is the case not merely in
the great crowded slumS of high
buildings in New York and Chicago,
but in the alley slums of Washington.
| In Washington people cannot afford
to ignore the harm that this causes.
No Christian and civilized community
can afford to show happy-go-lucky
| lack of concern for the youth of to-
day. for, if so. the community will
have to pay terrible penalty of
| financial burden and social degrada-
| ton in the tomorrow"
The prophetic quality of these words
is borne out by the study of condi-
| tions in the alley areas of the second
precinct. to which allusion has already
been made. In the same message
! the President suggested the establish
ment of a commission to study Dis
trict housing. The Presidents Homes
Commission was appointed and began
| four-year study. The report of the
| commission, submitted in 1908. con-
tanned many meritorious recommended
tions for the improvement of Wash
| ington housing.
The campaign of the Civic Center
for a new condemnation law, directed
against insanitary structures. ended in
| 1906, with the enactment of the law
setting up in the District Government
a Board for the Condemnation of
Insanitary Buildings. Between 1907
| and 1926 this board performed a val
liable service in condemning and
razing unfit housing on the streets
and in the alleys of Washington. In
that period the board condemned
3.054 structures on the streets and
2.27O alley buildings; 2,247 of the
street buildings were demolished and
1,125 of the alley houses. A total
of 9.916 buildings we're repaired under
board orders.
Enlists Aid. E.
The conversion to playground use
of the notorious Willow Tree alley,
in Southwest Washington. in 1912,
gave new impetus to the alley move
ment Mrs. Hopkins solicited the in
terest of Mrs. Ellen Wilson, wife of
| the President, and new legislative
assault on the alleys was begun. Mrs.
| Wilson, in her last illness. was grati-
fed by the knowledge that Congress
had enacted new and comprehen-
sive law to effectuate the clearance Of
the alleys.
In the same year of 1914 the Com
missioners again acted in the interest
of better housing, by means of two
1 n