We all contribute our quota to the common good; and, distinct as may be our individual views and preferences as to the ways and means, we all unite in one common desire to assist poor suffering humanity. We may honestly differ in the means pursued to accomplish this common end; but the end kept in view is always the same, -good citizenship and prosperity in the present life and eternal happiness in the next. To the noble efforts of humanity and science we add religion, which is paramount, and which aims at the life to come, but in such a way that the preparation for future happiness always includes the discharge of our civic and moral duties, and respect for law and the rights of others here below. Is not every full and perfect life the harmonious blending of the love of God and of our neighbor? In this great commandment is the future union of church and state. The name of God may not be in our Constitution, but his hand is discernible in every word of it. With farseeing wisdom was the first amendment inserted, which should ever be borne in mind by all true Americans. It is the pledge of our religious liberty. "Congress shall make no law respecting the free exercise of religion or prohibiting the full exercise thereof."

XIV.

Neighborhood and Civic Improvement.

HOUSING REFORM IN CHICAGO.

BY ROBERT HUNTER, UNIVERSITY SETTLEMENT, NEW YORK.

The movement for the betterment of housing conditions in Chicago is over ten years old. The first inquiries concerning the sanitary and housing conditions of the working people began about the time of the World's Columbian Exposition, and were pursued intermittently thereafter by little groups of interested individuals. It was not, however, until 1897 that these scattered efforts at housing reform became crystallized into an association. year the "Improved Housing Association" was formed, and some conferences were held for the purpose of arousing the public to the necessity of a revision of the laws and of a general improvement of sanitary conditions.

In the fall of 1899, when New York was preparing to make an exhibition of tenement conditions in America at the Paris Exhibition, the Improved Housing Association collected in a very hurried and incomplete way a few facts concerning the conditions which existed in various parts of Chicago. The information was mostly obtained at second hand; and, although some facts acquired by an actual investigation showed extremely bad conditions in certain parts of the city, the knowledge was insufficient as a basis for promoting any reforms.

When the New York exhibition came to Chicago it, together with a three days' conference, interested a large number of people; and at the end of this conference the " City Homes Association" was formed. Since that time the entire question of housing has remained in the hands of that association. This society immediately

laid plans for carrying out a broad reform work. The association. did not at that time anticipate any necessity for radical action, nor did it hope, or think it necessary in the beginning, to obtain a thorough and fundamental control of the situation. As a result, its activities began with the more obvious and outward methods of reform; namely, model tenements, open spaces, certain laws. These reforms had been the ones which had most conspicuously occupied the time and effort of philanthropic organizations in other cities, and they naturally appealed to the Chicago association as things to be done. In other words, the particular efforts of the Chicago body at first were specific reforms imitative of those which older cities had formulated.

Although copying in a way the efforts of other cities, the City Homes Association in its organization is the broadest society of its kind that has yet come into existence. It plans to carry on the various reforms which in other cities are undertaken by separate and unrelated organizations. Elsewhere, for instance, there have been law enforcement societies, model housing associations, sanitary aid organizations, municipal lodging-house committees, and small park and garden associations. In Chicago these committees, or their equivalents, exist; but all are under the direction of the City Homes Association, are, in fact, the parts into which that powerful organization has divided itself for dealing effectively in a broad way with the housing question.

It was planned that nothing was to be done by these various working bodies there are five of them until the Investigating Committee had made careful inquiries into the typical problems existing in the city. A most careful and conscientious investigation was made, therefore, as a basis upon which the other co-related committees should plan their work. The Small Parks and Playgrounds Committee became immediately interested in extending the very inadequate breathing-spaces which at that time the city provided for the people of the tenement-house districts. It began immediately to co-operate with the Special Park Commission of Chicago; and I think it is not too much to say that the work of this body has been very largely moulded by the efforts of the various boards of the City Homes Association that have given time to the work of the mayor's commission. The Model Tenement Committee was organized for the purpose of building tenements,

having the same ends in view as the City and Suburban Homes Association of New York. The Committee on Laws and Law Enforcement was organized to examine and compare the laws of the various cities, and to draw up a code peculiarly adapted to meet Chicago conditions. The Committee on Vagrancy undertook immediately to deal with that large class of the floating population for which Chicago has been called the Mecca.

As has been indicated, the first work attempted by this association was a general examination of housing and sanitary conditions in the more congested portions of the city. The result of that investigation has been published in a volume called "Tenement Conditions in Chicago."

The evolution of the tenement in most cities in England and America shows, to say the least, remarkable lines of similarity. In Chicago the small house that had formerly been inhabited by a single family was standing in sheer contrast to the immense "double-decker" which covered almost every inch of the lot, and which in consequence had no adequate provision for light and ventilation. Between these two extremes were all the stages of the evolution, each stage having its evils; and side by side in certain streets were all the representative types.

There is no need to rehearse in detail the conditions which were found in Chicago, and were written of in the report of the association. They were certainly very bad; and, if the public had been sufficiently interested, if they had had eyes to see and ears to hear, there would undoubtedly have been a vigorous demand for reform. The main point to be brought out is that the City Homes Association was strangely opportune in its organization, and that the first work showed conditions at that stage which permitted the most splendid formative and preventive work that any city has ever undertaken. New York must eradicate. New York must reform. Nearly everything in that city must be done over. Whatever is being done must be stopped, whatever is must be remedied. Chicago has but started, and its evolution may be largely determined by the enlightened public citizens of that city.

In looking back upon that investigation made two years ago, many of us have realized that we but partially saw and but inadequately stated the problem. For some reason, not until after the inquiry did we realize the full importance of apartment houses in the tenement

house problem. Since then we have at times been almost inclined to regard the apartment house as the crux of the whole question. The evils latent in this house are not obvious now while it is inhabited by wage-earners, artisans, and small-shop keepers. The means of the inhabitants enable them to keep the dark rooms unused. Overcrowding is rarely serious, and the janitor's service often saves the property from degenerating into that class which we now call "tenement-house property." The poorest of the apartment-house property, despite steam heat, baths, and other conveniences, is already deserving of no better name than tenement. Most of the apartment houses are built in violation of even the present erratic and inadequate law. They are constructed with no air-shaft; they are badly built; they are often of the double-decker plan; they are totally lacking in fire construction.

I recall a typical example of a house of this sort an apartment building not more than ten years old which has so degenerated that it is far worse than much tenement-house property. Once a highclass apartment house, the character of its occupants has gradually changed until now it is inhabited by clerks and tradespeople, many of whom keep up an appearance of respectability on less than the income of the average artisan. When the higher paying tenants moved from the house, the flats of six and seven rooms were cut into two and three apartments. By this division a large number of rooms were made absolutely windowless and dark. The janitor service has diminished, until now accumulations of refuse and dirt are to be found in many parts of the building. The plumbing is invariably out of order, and the crowding approaches the danger line. This building is an example of what much of the apartmenthouse property is sure to become.

The many of us who have been watching tenement-house conditions develop in Chicago have a firm belief that from this almost unnoticed class of buildings Chicago's most serious housing problem is sure to come. The investigation undertaken by the City Homes Association failed to emphasize the possibilities for evil in these buildings, and to that extent was faulty in its scope and unsafe as a basis for reform. It is well to state fully the whole problem in a city so typical of a certain class of large cities in the United States. New York's conditions serve in a way as a warning, as the "awful example "; but they are far too aggravated and