and systematizing those charitable forces which are now so often ill-ordered, emotional, and unthinking, and that, ultimately, these forces will be set to the task of smoothing the path of the poor, strengthening the weak, protecting the children, forcing out the ne'erdo-well to honest labor, and guarding and elevating the home. The charity organization movement in these communities will not only mean better care of the poor and neglected, but a strengthening of the whole moral and social life of the community. This seems to the writer to be the true meaning of charity organization in the small community.

IN THE SMALLER CITIES; FORESTALLING A

HOUSING PROBLEM.

BY A. W. GUTRIDGE,

GENERAL SECRETARY ASSOCIATED CHARITIES, ST. PAUL.

The housing question is, of course, essentially the same in all cities; but quantitative changes often produce qualitative changes. The size and age of the city are generally the factors which enter most largely into the problem, although occasionally topography and a few other accidental items are met with.

According to the last census there are in the United States thirty-five cities ranging in population from 75,000 to about 200,000, and twenty-five cities from 50,000 to 75,000. Housing conditions vary greatly, of course, in these communities. Some of the smallest are suffering from evils resulting from former carelessness, while a few of the largest are yet fairly safe. The younger cities, as a rule, have at present no serious housing problem, although the experience of the older places shows that it is very easy for them to acquire All of them have the fairly good dwellings turned into tenements, some of them have the shanties on alleys, most of them have the imperfect living rooms over stores in the business centres.

one.

According to the report of the New York Tenement-house Commission, the most serious of the evils existing in the city of New York are: (1) insufficiency of light and air; (2) danger from fire; (3) lack of separate water-closets and washing facilities; (4) over

291

crowding; (5) foul cellars and courts. While individual examples
of some or all of these evils can be found in perhaps most of the
smaller cities, yet, all told, they can scarcely be considered serious.
These cities have few tenement houses as such.

of apartments over stores, as Mr. Devine has said of the block
Yet it may be said
system in Rochester, that with added stories, with longer halls, with
less light and air in the living and sleeping rooms, the blight of the
tenement house will fasten itself upon many of these sixty smaller
cities if public opinion is not vigilant; for in all of them may be
found a certain number of people ready to live the slum life.
Credit should be given the New York workers for awakening people
generally to this danger. Doubtless the greatest benefit flowing
from their agitation of this question with reference to their own city
has been to bring the inhabitants of other large cities to see that
they have a similar problem to meet, and the people of smaller
cities to realize that they will have one if they do not now exercise
precaution. We hope the New York enthusiasts are being accepted
as prophets at home; they are already so recognized in the other
cities of the country. As an example it may be mentioned that the
city of St. Paul, although having a good building code, adopted a
new one last year copied in great part, word for word, from the new
building code of New York.

This introduces one method of forestalling the problem, the adoption of good building codes, giving ample powers to the officer charged with their enforcement. The mechanical safety of the building, proper plumbing and electric wiring, sufficiency of light and air, freedom from danger from fire, etc., can thus be insured. Laws of this kind are necessary, but it must be apparent that they do not constitute the chief element in a comprehensive plan of maintaining good housing conditions. They are material, external, and largely negative. Of equal importance are large legal powers intrusted to the chief health officer of the city. He can do much to prevent housing evils. We have on a few occasions in our city quite a large family living in one room. the health department we were able to see that such a condition continued but for a few hours after its discovery. istered to both landlord and tenant was wholesome, although the The lesson thus adminmethod did not appeal to the higher motives. So far as legal enactments are valuable in warding off housing problems in the smaller

found in a block
With the aid of

cities, doubtless the greatest need is for regular sanitary inspection of tenements, as is now generally made of back yards, by qualified health officers.

It is a fact, of course, that the tenement conditions in the larger cities make the maintenance of health, ambition, and moral strength difficult for the people living in the slums. The welfare of the tenants is a reason given for the leveling process which has been resorted to in some cities, but there is an element in such work liable to mislead. It is necessarily somewhat spectacular, the changing of the site of an unsanitary building, used for immoral purposes, into a park,- and permits some people of generous impulses to fancy that more has been accomplished for the tenants than the facts warrant. Such proceedings are chiefly helpful to the people who continue to live near where the objectionable structure was and where the park now is. Those who were in the building have moved, but it is unsafe to conclude that they have necessarily been improved. Most of us have doubtless heard of the experience of London in this thing. Buildings unfit for habitation in Shoreditch were destroyed, and model tenements and open spaces took their place. Later many of the unfortunates who had been living in the houses torn down were found in Battersea, on the south side of the Thames, living in conditions of wretchedness similar to those in which they had existed in North-east London. This is not to hint that such forced changes should not be made,they are often necessary, but it does indicate that there are other important factors in the problem. I am anxious also that no one should think that this is a criticism of New York methods. The workers there know that this line of argument is sound; they have so taught. Of course, a discordant note from there will carry as well as if produced in any other quarter; and discords always appear loud.

After recognizing the evil effects of a bad house upon its inmates, it must be admitted that the reason why many people herd together in ill-ventilated, dirty rooms is because it suits them to do so. The place they occupy in the march of humanity's advancement is shown by their habitations. Of course there are many exceptions to this rule, but there can be no doubt as to its being 'the rule. Many of the people who live in this wretched manner are simply following the course they have always pursued, either here

or in the country from which they came. The fact that the standard of life for most of us has been raised brings their deplorable condition more distinctly to our view. One benefit coming from the use of the electric light is that it enables us to see more filth and ugliness. There is something in neatness and order and cleanliness, even in fresh air and vines and flowers, which is not congenial to some spirits; and they will leave it all for an inside room in a tenement. This points to the fact that psychologically there are influences at work with such people deeper than those exercised by their place of abode.

If this reasoning is correct, it will follow that the most effective method of forestalling a housing problem where it does not exist — and, for that matter, of lessening the evil where it has established itself is to create in the misguided or unguided people, willing to live in unwholesome atmospheres, a desire for better things by cultivating those deep, subtle, subjective forces which control their lives. Of course, we cannot be content to leave them in wholly unfit habitations while we are engaged in raising their standard of life. External methods, among which may be mentioned assistance in securing better wage conditions, are necessary, as means to the end to be attained; but, to deal successfully with the housing probblem, our purpose must be to improve the people directly affected, not merely their conditions. And, in the case of the people going downward to the slums, they can certainly be helped more easily if taken before they reach the bottom. An account which is not without educative value has been given somewhere of the plan adopted by a person who fell into possession of one of those unwholesome tenements. For the most hopeful-looking of the tenants he offered to make some slight repairs, relating chiefly to neatness and cleanliness, on condition that the tenant would maintain the standard set. The offer was accepted, and the contract faithfully lived up to. Before long another tenant asked to be. given the same opportunity. The request was complied with. One by one nearly all of the tenants came to the owner with like proposals. He accepted them all, no increase being made in rents. After the tenants became accustomed to the new order of things, when the daily compliance with their part of the terms of the contract had become a delight instead of a burden, the owner began to talk of improvements which would involve some increase in rents. By

somewhat slow mental processes the tenants came to think the suggestion wise, and the improvements were made. Later other improvements came in the same way; and gradually a wholesome, normal condition in the lives of these people was brought about. An effort to have done this all at once would have resulted in failure on the part of both.

As to more detailed methods in rebuilding character, they are chiefly to be found in the friendly visiting plan. The settlement idea is, of course, substantially the same. Devices for teaching thrift are helpful, so are public baths. Compulsory education and free kindergartens are included of course. Associated with slum life there is a vicious feature which is alarmingly prevalent elsewhere, this is the street as a place for play. All the smaller cities have this problem now. Playgrounds, properly managed all the year round, but especially during the summer vacation, are a crying need. In time this work must be assumed by the public. If we cannot conduct playgrounds which will be more inviting to children than the street is, we should be ashamed of ourselves. When we have introduced them, we shall have forestalled to some extent the housing and some other problems. With the playground idea is coupled that of the vacation school. It is a coming institution. In mentioning forces which may be turned to good account in reaching the lives of the people content with slum life, I have no desire to omit the church, the most powerful of all. All forces must be directed toward developing life from within, enlarging the view of possibilities, arousing courage and hope. To strengthen the capacity for self-help, for social enjoyment, for artistic appreciation, and for love, are ends toward which we must unceasingly direct our energies.

There is in the agitation for better houses for the poor an element of hope. There is something significant in the desire to go to the root of the matter, even in externals. The evidence that we are making much use of our statistics concerning the causes of distress is wanting, and this is true to some degree with reference to our seeking the real causes themselves. So, in working upon the tenement-house problem, we may acquire the capacity to observe other deep causes of wretchedness, and the courage then to undertake their removal.