The Tenement House Problem

ONE of the latest evidences of growing American civilization is the interest manifested in housing reform. Stimulated largely by the work of the New York Tenement House Commission of 1901, many cities are now investigating their slums and framing laws for their improvement. The importance of this awakening is emphasized by the growth of immigration and by the change in its character. The congested sections of our large cities are populated mainly from the immigrant ships. In New York the connection has always been so close that popular movements for tenement reform have almost invariably followed periods of the largest immigration. These uprisings against the physical shortcomings of the city have been about as frequent, and, as far as lasting results are concerned, almost as ineffectual, as the periodical outbursts against its governmental failings. The one commission that resulted in widespread and permanent betterment was that appointed by Governor Roosevelt in 1900. Its most active members were its chairman, Mr. Robert W. de Forest, and its secretary, Mr. Lawrence Veiller. They directed the investigations that formed the basis of the law ; and the law itself, incorporating the new Tenement Department, was framed by them. They were promptly selected by Mayor Low as the organizers and administrators of the new department, which, under their supervision, was one of the strongest features of the reform government. Their most recent service to the cause of housing reform is two exhaustive volumes on the Tenement House Problem,¹ which present a graphic description of existing conditions in New York, a concise and reasonably thorough record of the seventy-five years’ agitation which finally resulted in the law of 1901, and a large amount of cognate material on tenement conditions both in this country and in Europe.

It is evident at once that Chicago, Boston, and other leading American cities, herding a large impoverished population, have everything to learn from the experience of New York. The preponderant space allotted to the metropolis does not detract from the general interest of the book. It is true that Manhattan Island’s tenement situation is unique ; but the same tendencies are at work elsewhere. The city is useful especially as a warning. It is a horrible example of what a metropolis can become, once vested interests, with abundant opportunity for employment, are given free scope. In spite of the excellent results accomplished under the De Forest law, the tenement problem in New York is, to a considerable degree, insolvable. The mischief, in great sections of the city, has already been done. The East Side, the abiding place of not far from 600,000 Jews, 200,000 Italians, and scattering representations of other races, is almost entirely built up with the worst type of tenement. The same is true of other congested areas. These buildings are far more profitable than any that could replace them, because they hold at least one third more people. They will not be demolished except by municipal action, — a contingency not immediately possible, — and they must therefore continue to house the bulk of the city’s poor. Such parcels of unimproved land as remain will, under the new law, be built up with sanitary tenements ; and the future of the now vacant outlying sections is also assured. But for the most part the city must remain as it is. It is an extreme evidence of the fathers’ sins visited upon the children. In Manhattan Island to-day we see the results of a century’s neglect. Had the repeated warnings of publicspirited citizens, philanthropic organizations, and state and municipal commissions been heeded, the poor people of New York, instead of being among the worst housed in the world, would have been among the best. The present volumes review the repeated attempts made to secure better ventilated and more sanitary tenements. As far back as 1842 Dr. John H. Griscom, the City Inspector of the Board of Health, attempted to rouse public interest in the subject, the evils he described being substantially those that exist to-day. The report of the first Tenement Commission, that of 1853, devoted much space to one of the city’s most notorious tenements, — a certain Gotham Court on Cherry Street. This structure was not destroyed until 1896. Some gain resulted, of course, from the numerous agitations extending from 1842 to 1900 ; but real tenement reform begins at the latter date. That is, it was not until then that the builders were forced to abandon the old tenement type, and to begin the construction of large, well-ventilated, fire-protected, many-family dwellings.

A distinction should be made between tenement evils and bad housing. London, for example, which has comparatively few tenements, is famous for its slums. The working people live for the most part in small two and three story dwellings. The chief problems are overcrowding in single rooms and lack of adequate sanitation. In New York, on the other hand, the poorer classes live almost exclusively in four, five, and six story tenements, usually built upon a 25-foot lot, each floor divided into four two and three room apartments. The only rooms in these structures receiving direct light and air are those facing the street and the yard. Those in the interior are almost entirely without ventilation. Their occupants are thus deprived of the two gifts of nature which, perhaps above all, make for health and happiness,—fresh air and sunshine. Life in these buildings is practically one long Arctic twilight. The development of an entire city along these lines, and the consequent dwarfing of the physical and moral nature of at least one half its population, would seem a fearful reflection upon American twentieth-century civilization. This, however, is the tenement problem of New York. It is evident at once that it is difficult of solution. Insanitary two and three story dwellings can be destroyed, and replaced with model cottages. This is the favorite method of correcting bad housing in England. But the razing of whole tenement blocks, each populated by 2000 or 3000 people, is too drastic and expensive a process for this generation. The proper treatment evidently is not correction, but prevention.

Thus the experience of New York is of the utmost importance to other cities. It is true that tenement evils, as described above, have not developed elsewhere to the same alarming degree. Compared with Europe, housing in American cities is almost ideal. Mr. Veiller has investigated twenty-seven municipalities, and finds even the beginnings of a tenement house problem in only six. These, besides New York, are Boston, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Jersey City, and Hartford. Bad housing conditions are found occasionally elsewhere; but the wholesale erection of tenements, except in the cities mentioned, is unknown. This general immunity, however, is not likely to last. The poor of Chicago are housed mostly in one and two story dwellings. A few of the orthodox New York double-decker tenements, however, began recently to appear. Had Chicago followed the example of New York, the portent would have been officially ignored ; and, in a few years, a tenement system would have been deep-seated. The City Homes Association, however, made a thorough investigation, and secured the passage of a tenement act closely following that of New York. As a result, Chicago can never become a city of insanitary tenements. Other places, even those where the “ tenementization ” process has not begun, have thus forever forestalled it. Mr. Veiller finds fairly satisfactory housing conditions in Cleveland. About five per cent of the houses are occupied by more than one family. Yet the citizens of Cleveland are now framing a law based upon that of New York. Thus Cleveland again can never become a city of insanitary tenements. Here and elsewhere the same tendencies, unless checked in time, threaten to duplicate the New York conditions. All our large cities have poor and ignorant populations which must be housed. They all have rich and not over - scrupulous property owners and builders, eager to invest their money at profitable rates. The danger increases every day, with the growth of an especially benighted class of immigrants. These immigrants not only furnish the tenants, but the real estate speculators, the builders, and the landlords. Thus thousands of the tenements of New York are owned by Jews, Germans, and Italians, who fight hard whenever the system is attacked. Such antagonisms will not be aroused in cities in which the tenement has not developed. Land prices are not predicated upon the possible construction of many-storied dwellings ; and, in other ways, property interests are not greatly involved. The present is thus a favorable time for those cities that have no tenement laws to pass them. Reform in this particular case should properly begin before there is anything to reform.

Burton J. Hendrick.