Evening star., 1939-08-07
Alley Dwelling Head
Comments on SIums
Letter to Star From Owner
Held misrepresentation
Of Clearance Program

To the Editor Of The Star:
May respond to Owners" suggestion,
printed in The Star of July 81, that do
certain obviously impracticable things,
by inviting him or her to accompany me
on visit to some of the Alley Dwelling
Authoritys houses and then, by way of
emphasis, visit one or two of the in
habited alleys.
Owners" letter is of familiar type.
1t presents, with what may be complete
sincerity, one-sided picture of two
sided problem Some of its sentences
are quite true when removed from their
context-the reverse of what often hap
pens when a sentence Is removed from
Its context. Then the succeeding sent
sentences in the letter are illustrative:
"A building code cannot eradicate a
'slum.' Tenants make slums"
The first sentence is quite true. What
building code can do is to authorize
the demolition of building when it has
become so decrepit that 1t is a physical
menance to Its occupants or to passersby.
1 have heard a building official tell a
national convention of building officials
that the only safe thing for a building
official to do is to condemn building
the minute before it falls down. Then
he is safe from being hailed into court
by the lrate owner I have seen the
sidewalk before a tottering house fenced
OIL by official order so no passerby might
be injured and bring suit against the
city if the building fell. That was not
in Washington.
But Owner" is quite right in implying
that there is much more to a slum than
buildings on the point of collapse. On
the other hand he or she is only par
TALLY right in saying that tenants make
slums.' 1t would be quite right, and
quite as wrong, to say that owners make
slums would like to show Owner
what another owner is doing in WASH
ngton today. The truth, of course is
that slums are results of a complex of
causes, as are other major evils. and no
one person or group of persons can be
held wholly responsible for them That
is why "eradicating" them is so difficult,
One thing that makes me bit skepti-
cal OF Owners" complete sincerity is
the description given of alley houses
"tWo-story brick row houses. equipped
with running water, sewerage. paved
streets and back yards. If properly
painted, cleaned and curtained would
be honey houses and the contrasting
description of rented" houses-"broken
screens and flower boxes, dizzy shades,
open doors, blaring radios, dirty chill
dren digging and defacing front yards
ETC. Apparently We should all become
alley home owners and none should ever
sink so low as to become the renter of
a street house.
OF course, Owner knows that the
potentially honey" alley houses are
rented just as are the degenerate street
houses. and he or she knows that in
both cases plaster often Is broken. floors
rotten and broken, and roofs leaking.
that the running water often runs into
broken, rusty sinks and that the citys
sewers are connected to old, outdoor toi-
lets that frequently fail to function. It
would take more than paint and scrub
blng and curtains to make them
honey"
Owner gives more than an indica-
ton of this suppressed knowledge when
ne or she says: LAS for the health and
safety of the slum dwellers Those in
the sun-bathed little novels ct is "own-
er who uses that word hovelsD are
probably healthier and safer than those
in the older large houses and dark dingv
apartments" This would make a sub
Ject for an interesting debate; are the
novels less bad than the large, old con-
Verted houses Frequently a family in
each room rearing its children accord
ing to light housekeeping standards, or
less bad than the dark, dingy apart
ments'? Years ago the medical au-
thorities of European nation made a
study of poor families who lived in at
tics and of poor families who lived in
cellars. The conclusion was that both
cellar and attic living produced bad ef-
fects, but that, by and large, the cellars
were more comfortable in summer and
the attics in winter. JOHN IHLDER.
Executive Officer, the Alley
Dwelling Authority.