PhONa: soariealeittf TIMI STUNT pet iy eee IN THE NATIONAL CAPITAL cme ‘CHARLES Cornell Mniversity Library BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henry W. Sage 189 ea ee aes 22(V1/24....... 3513-1 H Ne oli ition [1911l9A AQ OJOUd] ‘vsupyiyO snoy pue usyoW ‘uaYyzZeEJd|azg ay su0jog 3NO P2AIT B9M SOIPAIOW OPEWUIZUL FSO! JOH—AIEAI ON PEH 9911¥—AuI Id STEM Pue ‘pag ‘100]j—9240H ydalg UaAes Neglected Neighbors STORIES OF LIFE IN THE ALLEYS, TENEMENTS AND SHANTIES OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL By CHARLES FREDERICK WELLER Executive Officer, Washington ‘Associated Charities’’ (1901-08), ‘‘ Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions ’’ (1902-07), ‘‘ Neighborhood House”’ (1901-07), ‘* President’s Homes Commission” (1908), Pittsburgh ‘‘Associated Charities’’ (1908-). Formerly Superintendent Englewood and West Side Districts, ‘‘ Chicago Bureau of Charities” (1896-1901) WITH ONE CHAPTER BY EUGENIA WINSTON WELLER Associate Founder and Head Resident of “Neighborhood House”’ (1901-07) PHILADELPHIA THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 1909 4 ELM, CoprricHT, 1909, BY CHARLES EF. WELLER. Set up, Electrotyped, Printed and Published in January, 1909, by The John C. Winston Co. ‘To my Father and Mother FAYETTE MONTROSE WELLER, M.D. and PHILENA HUNTOON WELLER TABLE OF CONTENTS PRELIMINARY PRESIDENT RooseEvett’s Letrer or INTRODUCTION Purpose, PLAN AND SCOPE OF THIS SruDY PART I—THE ALLEYS CuHaprer I.—Tue Pecutiar ALLEY SystEM A Hidden World. Its General Characteristics. The Gordian Knot. CHAPTER II.—‘‘AVERAGE ALLEY”. ... 00... ccc ccc cence nes A Personal Experience. Stories of Idleness and of “Lung Blocks” The Humor, Shame and Tragedy of Alley Life. Cuapter II].—ImMMoratity AND CHILD LIFE...............4. Women and Immorality. “Lovers” Illiteracy. High Death Rates. Servant Girls. The Children and the City’s Future. CHAPTER TV.—“WHiITE ALLEY” 1.0.00. cee ccc cee cee ce eeee Alley Standards Exemplified in the Lives of White People. The Story of One Family’s Fight. “CHAPTER V.—FIFTEEN Monrus oF LiFe IN “Wuite ALLEY”... (Portrayed by Eugenia Winston Weller, from the Social Settlement Point of View.) CHAPTER VI.—PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS «20.0.0. eee eee ee The Ground Plan of “Average Alley”. Overcrowded Building Areas. Defective and Unsanitary Conditions. (v) 17 27 37 45 57 vi Contents © Cuarvrer VII.—Capirat Ciry ConrTrasts Other Alleys. Their Physical Defects. Special Features of the Problem or its Solution Exemplified by Each. Citspter VITI.—MeEtruops oF ELIMINATING ALLEYS .......... Three Methods by which Alley Evils Have Been Removed. Condem- nation of Insanitary Dwellings; Reformation of an Alley for Commercial Reasons; The Legal Opening of a Minor Street. CHAPTER ITX.—ProGRESS BLOCKED ........... aeeaadlakenaiat areas The City’s Worst Alley is being Converted into a Minor Street. The Process and Cost Explained. By a Supreme Court Decision the General Law for this Purpose Has Been Made Inoperative. Plans for Future Reform. PART II—THE TENEMENTS CHaprer I—‘‘NATIONAL FLATS” 2.0.0.0... cece eee ees The Story of an Heroic Struggle against Tenement-House Influ- ences. Sojourning in a Strange Community. Sixty-one Tenants but no Bath Tub. CHarrer I.—HUMAN ANT HILLS .4 occ ce eiece ccaesnva yews White Tenants of a Degenerated Palace. Human Wreckage. An Air-Shaft Cuspidor. Washington’s Largest Tenement. The Country Origin of City Negroes. CHAPTER II]—ANCIENtT AND MODERN EVILS ................. Problems Inherited from George Washington’s Day. The Most Insanitary Tenement Discovered. “Tomcat Flats” and Others. “Pig Alley”. CHAPTER IV.—TENEMENT TENDENCIES ....... 00000 ce eeeeeee Small Tenements are Multiplying. “The Castle” in “Goat Alley”. The Native Haunt of the “Family Wash’. Overcrowding and its Prevention. “Rear Tenements”, 93 105 125 139 157 175 Contents CHAPTER V.—PREVENTIVE MEASURES Tenement Evils Should be Forestalled. Two General Methods. Lessons from Ten Other Cities. Detailed Suggestions as to Building Lots, Air-shafts, Overcrowding and Safety. PART III—THE SHACKS AND SHANTIES CuaAptTer I—A Sicx CuHILp In VAN STREET A Story of Typical Conditions of Life in Washington’s Hovels. Five Hundred Shacks Have Been Demolished, but Their Number is Still Large. Frame Dwellings which Degenerate into Shanties. Cuapter II].—SupmMercep LIVES ............. Bett dy Sera eenr ee “Chinch Row” near Dupont Circle. The Nethermost Limits of Badness. “Factory Hill”, “Boston”, “Jonah Row”, and “Brick- yard Hill” with their Human Pigsties. CHAPTER III.—PLAGUE SPOTS 1.0... cc cece eee e cee enas Near the Capitol’s Front Door. A Personal Experience in “Pipe Town” Areas of Civic Lifelessness. A Deadly Open Sewer. Remedial Measures. PART IV.—GENERAL LESSONS, REMEDIES AND IDEALS CHAPTER I.—PROGRESS AND PROMISE.......... cece ee eeeeeeeee Lessons from Seven Years’ Work. The Government of Washington by Other Communities. Complacency or Civic Conscience? Cuapter I].—Tue Neep For STATESMANSHIP .............. Three Statesmen Who Had Plans. Rising Rents. The Problems are more Social than Individual. A New Philanthropy Proposed. Cuapter IJII.—For A Larcer Civic LIFE...... 0.0... ee eee Volunteer Inspectors. Building Laws. Light and Ventilation. Immigration. Industries and the Blighting of Youth. Govern- ment Loans. 201 215 233 253 265 277 vill Contents PAGD Cuarprer [V.—FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES “Town Planning” as Practiced in Germany and Elsewhere. “Zones” or Districts with Different Regulations. A City’s Arteries and To Offset the Evils of Speculation in Land. Taxation. Veins. CHAPTER V.—RISING SOCIAL STANDARDS. ..... 00.00 eee eee ee 2. 305 Municipal Ownership. Building Sites. Street Railway Evils. Burial and Accident Insurance. Reforms Needed in Local Government. Popular Suffrage. Model Cities. APPENDICES Waits ot 323 AppreNDIxX A—‘‘THE PreEsIDENT’s HoMES CoMMISSION” Committees and Their Functions. Special Investigations. Members. AppeNDIxX B.—THosE WuHo Have HELPED ..............00055 325 List of Paid and Volunteer Workers Who Have Made This Study Possible. Useful Books Named. The Author’s Thanks. 329 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Girl Who Slept in Filthy Room with Six Other People ........... Frontispiece. “Willow Tree Alley” Near the Capitol ......... 0.0. c cece ce cececseceeceeues xil “Purdy’s Court” at the Foot of the Capitol Grounds ...................0.. 8 Ground Plan of “Willow Tree Alley” ......0. 0.0 ccc cece cece cee eeeaeeees 10 “Louse Alley” in Contrast to the Capitol Dome ............-...00ceeee 12 “Ruppert Court” with its Narrow Cul-de-sac ..........0...cc ces c eee eee 14 Midday Group of Merry Idlers in “Hughes’ Alley” ...............00.000e 16 “Average Alley” or “Blagden’s Alley” and the Square in which it Stands... 18 White Baby Visiting its Nurse’s Home in a Squalid Alley ................ 24 “Rushing the Kettle” for Beer in “Phillip’s Alley” ...................000 26 Two Untrained Nurses of a Servant Girl’s Baby......... 00.00. cc ec ee cues 31 Die: Tniefacien ts Like ayites ind 48 nwedilnd nade dxeoudeu wey eee ore Ae ee 30 Two Old People, Blind and Neglected ........ 0.0.0.0. c ccc eee ee eee 38 The Family Who Fought to Escape from the Clutches of “White Alley’... 41 Neglected: -Ghild- Lite. vnsies ls ceean sp aictesea on deed eee 28s 84 aad AQiR aoe edo 43 “White Alley,” a Bird’s Eye View ........... 0 ccc cece ee cence tenes tenes 46 “Slop-Bucket Row” and an Illiterate American .............0.c cee ee eee 40 Sick White Woman Lying in Filth in Cold Room ................ 0000 ee ee 53 A Dying Baby in an Improper House .......... 0. cece cece eee eee ee 56 Map of “Blagden’s Alley” or “Average Alley” ....... 0.0... cece eee ee eee 58 Receptive Children Molded by Alley Life 20.0... 2.0.0... cece cece cee cee ee ee 61 In “Average Alley’; a Neglected Corner ....... 0... cece ee cee ence eens 64 Diminutive Back Yard and Hydrant of an Alley House .................. 68 “Chinch Row” and the “Connecticut Apartments” ................2..005- 72 Narrow Entrance to “Bassett’s Alley” Near the Capitol ................... 74 Map of “Ruppert’s Row” in Square Adjoining the Congressional Library... 77 Part of “Ball Alley”, with the Usual Loafers .......... 00.000. ccc e cece uee 82 High and Dry in “Phillip’s. Alley”; Shacks without Water or Sewerage.... 85 Five Shacks on one Narrow Alley Lot ......... ccc cece cee cece cee eee nee 88 Stunted and Misshapen by Alley Life ....... 0.0... ccc cece eee cee e nee 92 x ‘Illustrations PAGH Few White Folks Visit the Washington Alleys Except for Profit ......... 95 Toilet Box Without Cover, in an Open Shed .......... 0.00 eee cee eee eee 98 “Trilby” and the Typical Outdoor Hydrant of an Alley House ............ 104 Narrow Passage-way from Pierce Street into Logan Alley .............0-5 106 A Syphilitic Life-Ruined Daughter of the Alleys .........00.0 000 ce eeeees 108 Typical Alley Shacks; Entrance to “Ambush Court” ..............000005 III Map of “O Street Alley”; How it is being Converted into a Minor Street.. 115 “Washings”, an Unappreciated Bond between Alleys and Avenues ........ 119 For Many Homes the Water Must all be Carried from a Distance ......... 122 The Only Vacant Space on the Lot Occupied by the City’s Largest White “Penement...ccses siqeaevysedes ss Geeddeneyiases Meas Soe tetas akeeee ened 124 Two Senators Visited a Family of Seven Living in this 10 by 12 Room .... 127 Midnight Flash-light of a Human Kennel ............ 0.0.0.0 c cece eee eens 131 “Father Neptune with his Trident,” before his Tenement ................. 137 The Only Toilets and Yard Space of the “Human Ant Hill” .............. 140 An Overworked Spigot; One Only for a Mammoth Tenement ........... 143 Looking Down an Air-Shaft; the “Spittoon” of Three Consumptives ...... 146 Washington's Largest Tenement, “Douglas Flats” ............. 0.00.0 ee ee 149 Toilets and a Girl Tenant of “Douglas Flats” .................. cece eee 153 AL tile Mother” accuyssi ne ecca tec soee 2 eka Mee ohe hea ee ee sasgeshes 154 One Tenement which Made the Investigator “Deathly Sick” ............. 158 Suffering Old White Woman, in Cheerless Tenement Room ............... 161 Five-story Tenement Occupied by White People in “Warehouse Alley” .... 163 One of the Typical Smaller Tenements; Six Families; no Water Closet ... 168 In “Pig Alley’; Side View of the “K Street Tenement” ................. 171 Peg PIA SRO tia 5. a estliese 8 arse ci vladecrinnhist Gosh Sub veraVien falaidesh vatuereue 9 see oninnehORCh A a x ately 174 Tenéments: in: “duogam 'Gotrt? ssicndetieias cc peadces aheere oe ewe 177 Typical Small Tenements in “Shepherd Alley” ................0..000 eee 180 Tenement, Toilet, Yard, Tenants and Visitors in “Ball Alley” ............. 182 Partial View of a String of “Rear Tenements” ....... 2.0.00... cee eeeeeee 186 “Rear-Tenement™ Possibilities at 494 K, Southwest; a Map ............... 187 Rear of Tenement at 1057 Potomac Street, Northwest .................. 190 Diagram of Typical New York and Washington Building Lots ............ 192 Looking for the Sunshine from the Depths of his Cellar Home ........... 198 Typical Shacks Such as are Scattered Throughout Washington ........... 200 “Doodlebugs” (and Others) in the Van Street Shack Where Little Clarence Foétight with: Deatlt spokes seiag cb ahaiiils ceeuch es ce eeene eed Gea 202 The One-Room Home of a Mother and Four Children .................. 204 Frames Typical of Hundreds, Many of Which Deteriorate into Shacks .... 208 Dilapidated Interior of a Shack, Recently Vacated ................0.0000. 211 Scene of the Story of “The Slum Against the School” .................0. 213 Illustrations xi PAGD An Italian Mother Who, in the Shacks of Washington, Misses the Beauties Of Dtaly. esate da seid eees a dee nitie AAs 2G aes ona ed aetandaneclel ae 2 214 Typical Box Toilets Without Water, Sewer Connections or EvenLids ..... 216 Cigarette Fiends and a Shack in “Church Alley” 2.0.0.0... ... ccc cceecuuee 217 Gathering Cinders from Ash Heaps around “Jones’ Sunken Row” ......... 222 Tenement, Alley Houses, Shacks and Cobblestones of “Boston” ........... 225 Fuel Shed where a Mother with Two Grown Children Slept ............... 227 “Cissel Alley”, Crowded with White Children who Have no Other Play- STOUNT a3. cis cies. gal Padidevanee widens sail ais les Aye MOS ase acetic 220 Rookeries Typical of Neglected Housing Conditions ...................00 232 Where Some of the Worst Toilets Were Discovered .............0.00eeee 235 “Turner Street”, Northeast; Damp Houses in a Hollow ................. 240 A Malodorous, Deadly Open Sewer; the “James Creek Canal” ........... 243 Shanties Typical of Neglected Areas on the City’s Outskirts ............... 247 One Spigot Which Serves About Thirty Households ..................... 240 Model, Two-flat Houses in Contrast to “The Van Street Shacks” ......... 252 Broken Walls and Dark Stairs Typical of Neglected Conditions ........... 258 Overburdened, Friendless Motherhood, Unfairly Handicapped ............ 263 Looking from “Cherry Hill” upon Tenement and Yard Conditions ........ 206 Sick, Cold, Hungry, Helpless and Neglected Within Three Blocks of “Du potits Circle 6s xin tawny suai sMkus amiese dled wine me ones £4 See 271 A Typical Alley Loater? a Problem sca ceevssctsaes gokaak bee dew tela cons 276 Dying Consumiptive in Dark Tenement Basement ...................0 0000s 279 Degenerate American Types; a Plea for Immigration .................... 285 “Causes of Distress’; Five Gin Bottles ....... 0.0... cece cece eee eens 289 “The Infants’ and Children’s Dispensary” at “Neighborhood House” ...... 204 Narrow Building Lots in the Midst of Wild Open Country; a Map ........ 300 Child Labor; a Little Newsboy .......... 0600 c cece cee nee eens lees eared 303 The Capitol Dome and One of its Near Alley Neighbors .................. 316 The Ideal and Neglected; Washington Monument Above a Dump Heap .... 322 ‘ [eur 4q 004d] "spunoy jo}!deD Wods SHO0/gG OMY ,,‘Aa||¥ 2241 MOII!M,, SNO!40JON — aaa ne : ~ AN A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION FROM PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT. THE WHITE House, WasHINGTON, D. C. Oyster Bay, N. Y., September 8, 1908. My pear Mr. WELLER: The National Capital should be a model city. It is so already in certain respects ; and even in its less favored neighborhoods and among the “Neglected Neighbors” whom you describe, the problems, as you suggest, can be much more readily solved than in other great cities. The situation in Washington is such that it may readily be mastered if the people and the authorities will only set themselves at the task. I believe that your study will be helpful both in pointing out the evils which block the way and in suggesting remedial measures. We of this country are just beginning to appreciate the social problems which have developed while our cities have been growing so marvelously and while our people have been over-absorbed in their industrial and commercial tasks. We are now becoming conscious of some of the unevenness which has naturally resulted from the rapidity of material growth, the over-absorption in material things; we are beginning to think of the neighbors and neighborhoods which have been neglected. In a democracy like ours, it is an ill thing for all of us, if any of us suffer from unwholesome surroundings or from lack of opportunity for good home life, good citizenship and useful industry. It seems to me that your suggestions for the improvementof housing conditions in American cities are wise. Washington is not worse than other cities, but simply like them, in the fact that the living conditions (1) 2 Neglected Neighbors of its less resourceful citizens need to be studied and improved. In appointing the Homes Commission I sought to begin for the National Capital such work as was accomplished for New York City by the several tenement house committees organized there at various times. Doubtless the work which has been inaugurated in Washington by the Homes Commission will need to be continued and extended, as you suggest, by a special philanthropic organization or by subsequent commissions officially appointed. I think that your stories of specific families and typical incidents will be more effective with general readers than the statistics and formal statements which usually characterize reports as to housing conditions. As Mr. James Bronson Reynolds has said, your book may well be considered “a study of a people”. It will afford to any one who reads it a larger and more sympathetic understanding of the problems and difficulties which beset those who live in “the alleys, tenements, and shanties” of the National Capital. I know that you desire for your work no other return than the consciousness that it has been of service in improving the home life and enlarging the opportunities of these “Neglected Neighbors”. To that end, I hope the book will receive the careful consideration of those persons, both in Washington and elsewhere, who may be able to help in the improvement of living conditions among the less favored dwellers in our cities. Very truly yours, Mr. CHarLes F. WELLER, Executive Secretary, The President’s Homes Commission, 923 H Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C. THE PURPOSE, PLAN AND SCOPE OF THIS STUDY Washington excels in many lines of civic beauty, in its freedom from “gang politics” and in the excellence of its government by three unpartizan Commissioners responsive to public opinion. Its residents and the citizens of the entire nation are ambitious to make the National Capital a model city. These are reasons for making known the evils and difficulties which stand in the way. If understood, the evils will doubtless be removed. Stories RatHer Tuan Statistics In setting forth these problems, illustrative incidents and typical stories have been preferred to statistical tables and formal diagrams. This method has grown out of the situation itself, for the investi- gators’ reports have indicated that it is not with bricks, wood and mathematical measurements that we have to deal so much as with human beings and their standards of life. The people themselves, the living inhabitants of the alleys, tenements and shanties, have pressed into the foreground of every picture. The upbuilding of these men, women and little children, is the problem; “housing conditions’ in the technical sense are important only as means to this great end. The frank effort has been therefore to make this book so far as possible a “human document”. It is offered as a study of a people. The aim has been to report such experiences with degrading, and also with constructive, social forces as may be of value to those who are interested in the “Neglected Neighbors” of any community. Two Stupies UNIFIED Progress and promise are recorded here. In 1908 the writer reviewed a study completed in 1905. Revisiting the neighborhoods (3) 4 Neglected Neighbors and dwellings described three years before, he has combined in these pages the results of two investigations. Comparisons between them indicate what progress has been made. After the earlier investigation was completed its results were summarized in a special, National Capital number of “Charities and the Commons”. Copies were sent to all the members of Congress. That body subsequently enacted a long-delayed law for the compulsory repair or removal of dwellings unfit for habitation. The plague spots which had been advertised in the struggle to secure this legislation were naturally the first to be attacked. Between May 1, 1906 and July 1, 1908, 545 houses were demolished. One step has thus been taken. The worst shanties have disappeared. Tue Two Cuier Evits STAND The Alleys remain and, indeed, the situation is worse in this regard than it was in 1905. A law which was then considered adequate for their elimination has since been rendered ineffective by a decision of the supreme court, as explained in Chapter IX of Part I. For the correction of existing evils in the tenements little or noth- ing has been done since 1905. For the prevention of future evils a special commission, appointed by the District Commissioners, with the local Inspector of Buildings as chairman, is planning a revision of the building regulations. Appointed in May, 1906, this commission has not yet published its report. “Tur PRESIDENT’S Homes CoMMISSION” Meanwhile, President Roosevelt has appointed a special commis- sion on housing and health conditions in the National Capital. This was advocated in 1905, in the first report of this study and afterward recommended by Mr. James Bronson Reynolds, who examined Wash- ington’s needs upon the President’s request. “The President’s Homes Commission”, as named and organized according to Mr. Reynolds’ plan, is aiming to accomplish for this city what was done for New The Purpose, Plan and Scope of this Study 5 York city by ‘““The Tenement House Commission” appointed by Theo- dore Roosevelt while governor of the Empire State. THE Score or Tus Inquiry Under the auspices of the “Associated Charities’ Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions”, in the summer of 1905, two hundred and forty-eight dwellings were “scheduled”, or studied in exhaustive detail, while a large additional number were inspected in a general way. In fifteen alleys, one hundred and seventy-seven dwellings were exhaustively studied, while five other alleys were carefully inspected. For the study of shacks and shanties, fifty-eight dwellings, reported as unsanitary by agents of the Associated Charities, were investigated. The case records accumulated during the past twenty-three years by the Associated Charities were drawn upon for pertinent material. Miss Janet E. Kemp, employed as an investigator, filled out a large proportion of all the schedules. The Police Depart-. ment, the Health Department, the Building Inspector’s Department and the new Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings have given indispensable assistance. These and other sources of informa- tion and suggestion are mentioned in Appendix B, in an appreciative review of the many generous people who have helped. Friendly personal relations with many of the families studied have been developed through repeated informal visits for the regular collec- tion of small savings and for other purposes. The writer also took up residence for various periods in one of the typical alleys, in two of the tenements and in several of the neighborhoods described. Naturally the study divides itself into four parts: The Alleys ; The Tenements; The Shanties; and Remedial Measures. Through them all the purpose is, to portray, by means of stories and interesting incidents, the moral and social standards which are promoted by bad housing conditions and neglected homes. PART 1 THE ALLEYS A Unique System. Promoting Evils by Segregation. Needing Conversion Into Minor Streets. [eur Aq 004g] spunouy jozideg By} JO JOO4 943 We ,,4QUaUNUOW s90K%eq OY4L,, Buruiofpy ,{34n09 s,Apund,, NEGLECTED NEIGHBORS CHAPTER I THE PECULIAR ALLEY SYSTEM A HippeEN Wortp. Its GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE GORDIAN KwNot. Unique, with few if any parallels in other American cities, are the interior alleys of the National Capital. Many of the deep building lots of Washington have houses at both their front and rear ends. One set of dwellings face outward upon the streets and avenues, the others front inward upon hidden alley streets. The “rear tenements” familiar in other municipalities are essentially different from Washington’s alley houses. Rear tenements face toward the front houses whose building lots they share. Inhabitants of the rear tenements are of about the same character as those who live in front of them, for they necessarily see a great deal of each other and they often share a common yard and hydrant. The rear house is usually entered by a passageway running through or beside the front building. Wash- ington’s alley houses, on the contrary, do not front toward the out- side streets but in the opposite direction. Their inhabitants have no connection whatever with those of the streets and avenues. The hidden dwellings are reached by distinct, winding roadways. Resource- ful people live for years in attractive residences on the avenues with- out knowing or affecting in the slightest degree the life of the alley hovels just behind them. Such is the ground plan for some striking social contrasts in the National Capital. A City WITHIN A City “Average Alley” is an assumed name which the writer has sub- stituted for the real name of “Blagden’s Alley”, between Ninth and Tenth, M and N streets, northwest. The purpose is to emphasize the (9) Io Neglected Neighbors idea that this one alley typifies them all. If permissible, a civic conun- drum might be devised: ‘Six parallel rows of houses between two rows; six tortuous streets surrounded by the four streets of a city square ; hollow like an egg; rotten like a bad egg; what is it?” An- swer, “Average Alley”. Walk around the outside of this block and you will see nothing peculiar about it. There are two imposing South B.St. ot ayant we FO St Fo 4d St. WO South C. St. “Willow Tree Alley,’”—the Darker Portion,—with Blind Pockets; Here live 273 Whites and 228 Colored People, in Houses Facing Toward the Hid- den, Inside Alley ways. apartment buildings, the former residence of a senator, a handsome club house, several stylish boarding establishments and a number of three and four story, wholesome private houses. Your attention would have to be directed specifically to the four narrow wagon ways which run inward irregularly from the four sides of the square. A visitor from another city would take these to be passageways merely for the The Peculiar Alley System II removal of refuse from back yards. But walk a hundred and fifty feet down one of these obscure byways and you find yourself on the borders of a new and strange community. At right angles to the entering roadways are others, with a third set branching from them. All are lined with little wooden or brick houses whose rear doors point toward the rear entrances and separate yards of palatial residences upon the outside streets. There is not the slightest relationship between the inside and the outside set of homes. Longer acquaintance only strengthens the first impression that the alley is a new and unfamiliar world. It is a case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde in brick and wood, a dual nature incorporated in a prosaic city square. As one becomes better acquainted with alley life the old Biblical condemnation suggests itself insistently ; “Whited sepulchers ye are, which outwardly appear beautiful but inwardly are full of all uncleanness.” A SUBMERGED POPULATION OF SIXTEEN THOUSAND SOULS In the police census of 1897, three hundred and three of these unique alleys are named. Their population is given as 16,828 colored and 2,150 whites; a total of 18,978 people, or one in each twelve of the entire population (236,587) with which this census credited the city. The police census of 1905 named 286 alleys housing 19,076 people. In 1908 the police department enumerated 261 alleys housing 14,237 colored and 1,614 white persons, a total of 15,851 as compared with 263,777 in the city as a whole, or 339,403 in the entire District of Columbia. Among the three hundred and three alleys named in the police census of 1897, “Navy Place’ had 344 inhabitants and “Willow Tree Alley” 328. There were 13 alleys with populations varying from two hundred to three hundred each, and 239 alleys of which each had less than one hundred inhabitants. In 1908 the police reported 501 inhabitants in “Willow Tree Alley” including 273 white people, a notable increase due to the comparatively recent and rapid influx of foreigners. In “Navy Place” also the population is reported to have grown to 385, including 23 whites. Such an increase means over- crowding because since 1892 the law has prevented the building of additional alley houses. As to the police census, from which all the above figures have been gleaned, it must be confessed that such verifications or tests of it as 12 Neglected Neighbors the writer has been able to make have not inspired him with con- fidence as to its accuracy. There are, however, no other statistics available for the individual alleys and one must be sincerely grateful to the police department for cheerfully undertaking annually this large and somewhat inappropriate task. Wuere Have Forry ALLEYS GONE? It will help to an understanding of Washington's peculiar system if we ask how it is that the number of alleys enumerated by the police in 1908 is only 261 in all, or less,—by 42,—than the number listed in “Louse Alley,” with the Capitol Dome, in Contrast, Three Blocks Away. Crowded Lodgings of Italian Laborers Adjoining Colored Bawdy Houses. [Photo by Hine] 1897. Has there been an effective movement for the elimination of aliey slums? In some instances a small nest of alley hovels have been demol- ished to make way for stables, warehouses or, less frequently, for residences facing upon the outside streets. A rare example of the last- named process is “North Court”, described in Chapter VIII, Part I, which had 139 inhabitants in 1897 and now has disappeared. Three other alleys named separately in 1897 have been combined in 1908 The Peculiar Alley System 13 under the name of “Cherry Hill’. ‘Factory Hill” and “Lowe’s Bot- tom”, each of which housed 55 persons, are examples of a few alleys whose houses have all been demolished by the new "Board for Condem- nation of Insanitary Buildings”. Twenty-six of the alleys which have dropped out since 1897 had less than ten residents each and many of these may easily have been abandoned because of personal whims or on account of the natural decay of one or two old shacks. It is harder to account for the disappearance from the lists of forty-one alleys which had more than ten but less than fifty inhabitants, ten alleys which accommodated more than fifty and less than eighty people, and seven which the police had credited, in 1897, with populations varying from eighty-four to two hundred and one persons each. WuHence Have Forty-rour ALLEYS CoME? Still more difficult to explain is the surprising fact that forty-four alleys, which did not appear at all in the police census of 1897, have since been listed, despite the fact that no new dwellings have been erected in alleys since 1892. Some of these added alleys are too large to have been easily overlooked; five have more than eighty residents each; one has 317, another 337. This makes one surmise two things: First, that mistakes have been made, as in the case of “Ruppert’s Court”, an alley tucked away queerly and rather hard to find but well known to the writer. It had 20 residents in 1897; is credited with none in 1908 ; but really has about as many now as ever. Second, it is evident that some of the difference between the number of alleys enumerated in the two decades is due only to differing interpretations of facts that remain unchanged. “St. Mary’s Court”, for example, was credited— or charged,—with 422 inhabitants in 1897. In 1908 it was not men- tioned in the list of alleys. The writer visited the square and found a minor street running straight through it. The question arose: “Has this ever been an alley, with blind ends shut in by dwellings across what are now the open ends of a minor street?” An old-time resident answered, “No; not for thirty years”. Evidently the police enumer- ators merely called it “an alley’, in 1897, and in 1908 “a street”. Opposite the names of three alleys listed in 1897, the census of 1908 bears the definite entry, “Regarded as a Minor Street”. This differ- ence in classification probably accounts for a good deal of the variation in the number of alleys recorded at various times. In the same way, presumably, a large proportion of the forty-four newly listed alleys 14 Neglected Neighbors existed in 1897 but were then called something else. These are all surmises, mainly. The only way to find out exactly by what means the 303 alleys of 1897 have become 261 in 1908 would be by visiting all the squares in question. It is to be hoped this will be done in connection with the next police census. Meanwhile these elements of confusion strengthen the suspicion that the accuracy of the police census does not equal the unquestioned sincerity of its enumer- ators. One wonders a little whether 261 is really the total count of LP FE BEL oe oe “Ruppert Court” and its Narrow Cul-de-sac. [Photo by Hine] all the alleys at present and whether 15,851 people are all the alley denizens. Yet these numbers are large enough,—too large for the common weal. Stuprep INTIMATELY AS FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS Such possible differences of interpretation lead straight to the question ; “What is an alley?” In order to answer this thoroughly one typical alley, disguised partially under the name of “Average Alley”, has been selected for exhaustive study. It is located in one of the most wholesome, prosperous sections of northwest Washington. This “Average Alley” is not so immoral or disorderly as many of the others. It is well paved. It has a fair water supply and fewer housing problems of a physical character than are found in many alleys. This typical alley has been studied as completely and accu- rately as possible in order that it may be used as a basis of comparison. The Peculiar Alley System 15 In addition to filling out an exhaustive schedule for every family or household in “Average Alley”, the investigator, Miss Janet E. Kemp, called upon the majority of the resident families once or twice a week for ten weeks as a collector of savings. She gossiped in leisurely, informal fashion with nearly all the alley folks, catechised especially some of the trusted older residents and looked up all pertinent records in the files of the Associated Charities and the public schools. The results have been tabulated and rearranged from different points of view. They are not presented here in the form of statistical tables. Instead, the effort has been to digest the essential facts into terms of human life, to select stories which would make pictures in the reader’s mind. The names assigned to each family or individual are fictitious but the stories are genuine. Many of the incidents related could be duplicated here and there outside the alleys but the point is that alley life means segregation. The alley residents are ‘‘a people set apart”. The following sketches are “‘cross sections” designed to show the characteristic types and grades of life which this alley segregation assembles and fosters. SUGGESTIVE NAMES How these alleys are regarded by the community generally and even by their own residents, is indicated somewhat by the names they bear. “Louse Alley”, “Chinch Row”, “Slop Bucket Row”, “Pig Alley”, “Pork Steak Alley”, “Moonshine”, “Cow Alley”, “Sheriff’s Alley”, “Goat Alley’, “Cabbage Alley”, “Hog Alley”, and “Lowe’s Bottom” are frankly suggestive. A touch of humorous sarcasm is evident, however, in such titles as “Pleasant Alley”, “Broad Alley”, “Temper- ance Avenue”, “Church Alley”, “Liberty Street”, “Hope Avenue”, “Constitution Alley”, “Capitol Alley”, “Golden Street” and “Christian Alley”. THE GorDIAN KNOT These names suggest that alleys are communities distinct from the life around them. Their denizens are isolated to some extent. Thus the social and moral characteristics of alley life become as distinctive as the arrangement of their hidden roadways. For it is the alley itself, rather than detailed physical defects, which constitutes the fundamental problem. The basic evil is the alley’s ground plan, the 16 Neglected Neighbors peculiar arrangement whereby a little community is walled about a1 shut off from the common influences of the city’s general life. T results of this housing system must be judged mainly by social a1 personal phenomena. Therefore the next four chapters undertak not to describe the brick and wooden houses, nor to enumerate defe tive toilets and leaking roofs, but to show what alley standards a and just what it means “humanly speaking” to live in an Avera: Alley. In the specific alley disguised under this name, the writer toc up residence for a time in order, as the children say, “to feel wh it is like”. Midday Group of Merry Idlers in “Hughes’ Alley.” [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER II “AVERAGE ALLEY” A PerRsoNAL EXPERIENCE. STORIES OF IDLENESS AND oF “LUNG Biocxs”. THE Humor, SHAME AND TRAGEDY oF ALLEY LIFE. It is with some misgiving that one leaves the well lighted outer streets with their impressive residences and turns into a narrow pas- sageway where he must walk by faith, not sight. Noises which faintly recall those of the Midway Plaisance at the world’s fair, grow louder as the explorer approaches the wider inside alleys. Night with its dark shadows accentuates the strangeness of the scene. Near a gas light on one of the inner corners a group of people are seen playing together roughly. A cheap phonograph near by rasps out a merry ditty. The shrill cries of children pierce the air as the ragged, dirty youngsters dart about among their elders. Two lads with notably large feet and broken shoes dance skillfully while a slovenly, fat woman picks at her guitar. From the little mission in an alley parlor comes occasionally a wail of primitive, weird chanting. An uncouth black man lounges up to a buxom young woman and hugs her. On a doorstep nearby a young man is heard arguing with his mistress and begging her to “le’ me ha’ fi’ cen’s”. Older folks, crowded around their doorways, are complaining of the sultry, oppressive August air and some are arranging ironing boards and rocking chairs on which they will sleep all night outside the houses. They call back and forth to each other across the alley street and speak with notable civility to the policemen who pass, in pairs, at intervals, with their clubs kept close in hand. There is a burst of profane quarrelling occasionally and some fighting, but most of the prevailing noises are merry and careless. Pandemonium reigns. One sees no immediate cause for fear, but feels intuitively a sugges- tion of evil possibilities and latent danger. Tue First Nicut’s RESIDENCE Laura Keefe, my landlady, is found ironing beside a smoking lamp without a chimney in the front room at number twenty-seven. 2 (17) [1911I9M Aq oJ0Gg] ‘T weg ‘tA iaideyqO WIM WoT}IeMUOD Ul pajulId ‘elvndg oy} Jo SulmeIqd pelleyed 9} WIM poredmop 3q plnoys einjdIg sIUL ‘peysinsunsiq eq Avu sosnoyH Ad[[y Jo sdnoip Jo smoy Ua, Jo sdol o4L ‘jSeMWON ‘s}901719 IW pUue TWIN Jo 19UI0D 1894 GION 9Y} 38 100119 SPISINO ey} UO sdUEPISeY YstIH e& JO Jooy oy} WoOTJ POMOTA *}SOMYPON ‘sj203§ N PUe W ‘YUaL “YUIN Aq papunog ‘spueys 3 YOIUM UI aveNbg ey3 pue ,Aaiiy Suepbelg,, 40 ,‘Aaliy ebessay,, be “Average Alley’’ 19 She reports to the new lodger that his cot and chair have arrived safely and have been placed in the room engaged for him by the colored messenger. The surprising fact that the newcomer is a prosperous looking white man leads her to order her son Louis to shut the front door, for fear that the neighbors will be unduly interested. The inter- loper’s experiences are therefore limited for a time to his conversation with the Keefe family. The first surprise is to find an apparently wholesome, ordinary home life in “Average Alley”. Mrs. Keefe is finishing an ironing and laying the white, clean-smelling garments into covered baskets for delivery. The two boys, Louis and Sammy, aged about ten and six respectively, are playing quietly in the kitchen. The nineteen-year-old daughter, neat and polite but narrow chested and scrawny as if she had consumption, comes from her own room upstairs to meet her husband, a bright, active fellow, who has just returned on his bicycle from a visit to his mother. Henry Keefe, the man of the family, seems a blunt, gruff, warm-hearted, outspoken laboring man. He sits about in his trousers and red undershirt, telling stories with unusual ability and fine touches of humor. He is especially pleased with his tales of Dick, a hard-headed darky whom a friend hits on the side of the head with a brickbat. The brick is broken but Dick merely says, “Hey dar, ’f you don’ stop your playin’ I'll ge’ mad presen’ly and do sumpin’ seeryus” Religious pictures ornament the front room walls, for whose patchy, soiled appearance the landlord rather than the Keefe family is presumably to blame. Mrs. Keefe, pointing to a forbidding chromo of a bleeding Christ with His crown of thorns, declares that this is her “favo-right” picture and she “‘jes’ likes to set an’ look at it,—coz it’s so natchral”! Before the lodger goes upstairs to bed, Henry takes him out to get some cool drinking water from a favorite pump on the outside street corner. Henry points out the places of interest, includ- ing the former residence of Senator Johnson and that of Mr. Morrisey, whom he describes as one of the city officials controlling saloon licenses. “He’s a member,” says Henry, “of the exercise board.” A SuRpPRISINGLY WHOLESOME HOME During the first few days of his residence in “Average Alley” the lodger asked himself frankly whether he had not been wrong during previous years in believing that Washington’s alleys are plague spots which ought to be cleared out entirely. After all, the Keefe family 20 Neglected Neighbors seemed like pretty wholesome working people. There must be many worthy families in the alleys. The rents! are comparatively low, aver- aging from eight to eight-fifty per month for the typical four room brick houses. ‘Average Alley” is brick paved, drained and sewered, with a hydrant and water toilet in the diminutive backyard of nearly every house. With some exceptions, the four rooms of the typical alley house are fairly well lighted. Obviously, they are much more wholesome than the mammoth, crowded tenements of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and other cities. It would be easy to replace the little alley houses by something worse. Tue REAL PropLeEm APPEARS Thus, although there are insanitary conditions and detailed evils which one discovers gradually, the first impression of “Average Alley” is of greater physical excellence than was expected. But the real problem soon suggests itself; the genius of the alley becomes apparent. In the wholesome Keefe family even, unwelcome signs appeared. Idle- ness was the first. Henry, the likable young giant, was found to be loafing every day and it developed that he had been unemployed throughout July, a busy month. One night, after the lodger had gone to his cot in the rear room upstairs, he heard Laura say to her husband: “Well, you'd better go away entirely! You don’t work. You won't support the children. You’re always drinkin’ and you ‘spect me to find the rent and eatin’s for the crowd of us!’ One evening when the lodger come home Henry was foolishly drunk; the next night he was worse; on the third he was arrested. In her indignation Laura explained that Henry could make two-fifty and three dollars daily in cement work but his frequent spells of drunkenness and idling had dis- gusted his successive employers and finally reduced him to odd jobs, which he is not alert in seeking. “Most of last winter,” she said, “he spent in the workhouse.” Laura told of her daughter’s husband also that he could not help her meet the impending rent because he had been late at work four or five days in the previous week, had found ° his team assigned each morning to another driver and had been dis- charged on Saturday. Laura herself appeared to work only when im- mediate needs were pressing. She said on Sunday night, “I guess I'll go do Mrs. Amos’ washing myself this time. Last week I sent another woman in my place but now I need a little money”. Mrs. 1Three years ago (in 1905) these rents were $6.50 to $7.50. “Average Alley” 2I Keefe had eight years schooling; she reads well and writes good letters. She and Henry have been “regularly married” for eighteen years. The man has come up from the rough days in Washington, about fifteen or twenty years ago, when he took part in the fights, brick throwing, shooting and stabbing affrays which gave such names as ““Hell’s Bottom”, and “Bloodfield” to various city regions. At pres- ent the Keefe family are an average type, not of the lowest but of the better products of alley life. A household more suggestive of the worst influences in “Average Alley” is the Sammons family, with whom the lodger next became acquainted. TypicaL ALLEY STANDARDS On a soiled and broken lounge, in a little room which was crowded with children and adults, Annie Sammons lay one afternoon, rolling her head about weakly and gasping for breath. Her little baby was feeding fretfully at the consumptive’s wasted breast, while Hattie, a child of seven, was playing about the room with seven other young- sters. Altogether there were fifteen people, including six adults, living permanently in the little four room house, while improper lodgers also were accommodated from time to time. Although Maria Sam- mons, the mother of the household, is a large, fine-looking woman who does not show bad character in her appearance, every one of her five grown daughters has had illegitimate offspring. Mrs. Sammons her- self has borne sixteen children, of whom five are happily dead. One son is in the insane asylum. The daughter Annie is dying of tuber- culosis. Another daughter called “Dago” is staying with a man in “License Alley” where one of her two babies, Esther, a pitiful little skeleton, is slowly dying with marasmus. Gertrude, an older daughte: of Mrs. Sammons is “away” at present,—which means in jail. She has frequently been arrested; her latest commitment is said to have been “for cutting a man and woman”. Eight years ago, when this Gertrude was a little girl, she begged from door to door saying that her dead mother lay awaiting burial in their desolate home, or that the family lived in the country where all their possessions had just been destroyed by fire. The family have thus had sufficient experience with investigators and enough consciousness of guilt to make them extremely reticent, when they are not lying. They usually answer in monosyllables only and avoid general conversation. Even in this 22 Neglected Netghbors degraded home however there is a touch of better things. One of the girls, who is usually supposed to be Mrs. Sammons’ grandchild, is said to have been a castaway, deserted by her parents and left to gather her food from garbage barrels until the Sammons children began sharing their scanty rations with her and the waif was gradually received into full membership in the overcrowded household. This girl is now fifteen, although she looks two years younger. She can- not read, write or tell her mother’s name. After employment all day in service, she returns nightly to the lurid home life of “Average Alley”. SUFFICIENT Power BuT No INDUCEMENTS TO IMPROVE The usual fact is typified in this family that it is less inability than undeveloped standards of life that keep people living on the low planes of alley life. There-are possible workers and earning power suffi- cient in the Sammons household to maintain them decently upon an outside street. The cheap alley rents and low standards of living, simply mean a larger margin for drink, for idleness and for vicious waste of power. Their present home even is much better in equip- ment than in management. The visitor noticed several bright-colored rugs lying on the floor in a confused heap, with a pair of new shoes and a dirty nursing bottle on which Annie’s baby is being weaned. The low ceiling was almost black with flies, which the sick woman drove away from her face occasionally with a weak motion of her skinny arm. Cockroaches scurried over the bed and the whole place bore out the comment of the investigator’s schedule, “filthy dirty; smells bad”. Yet the ideal found suggestion again in the rather taste- ful colored pictures hanging upon the grimy walls. “That’s Christ before Pilate”, said the sick woman as her eyes followed those of the visitor. Another favorite picture was Da Vinci’s “Last Supper”. But the Christ who “supped with publicans and sinners” and explored the poorer parts of Jerusalem and Palestine has few representatives who bring good influences into “Average Alley”. The church mission there is a saddening travesty upon Christ’s religion. It impresses one chiefly by the absence of sincerity, the self conscious posing in formal prayers and exhortations, and the lack of any counsel as to daily living. The only influences which the Sammons family receive from the world outside their alley come from the degraded but prosperous women of “the division” who pay fancy prices for their laundry work. Yes, “Average Alley’ 23 there is one other connection also. Marion Sammons brings in the two beautiful little white children whom she is paid to care for. Their mother would not remain indifferent to alley life if she could see her darlings playing with the Sammons children in a room infected by tuberculosis and taking bites of pickled cabbage, fresh from the lips of the consumptive woman’s baby. Tue AtLteys Have Many “Lune Biocxs” In the Sammons household, as in countless others, tuberculosis is the family skeleton, the ever haunting dread. Just when the house in which this family live became infected we do not know. Amy Raymond died here of consumption before they moved into the house; but they themselves must have left the germs behind them in other houses, for they had two sons who died of the white plague within recent years. In the house next door to their present abode, where they lived for a time, another victim is now dying of the same disease. Annie is merely following down an easy pathway beaten smooth by many feet before her. The babe at her breast and the little daughter who sleeps crowded with her upon the old sofa can hardly escape the contagion. Indeed, all the fifteen members of the household are con- stantly subjected to it. Even the indifferent outside world is more concerned than it imagines, for the clothing of many patrons is ironed and stored for a while in Annie’s room. It is almost impossible to secure from any source an adequate record of tuberculosis in “Average Alley”. The families don’t know or forget, or falsify, and their ignorance as to diseases or causes of death makes them think of their many deceased relatives as people who have suddenly dropped through mysterious trapdoors and disappeared. The health department maps sometimes indicate the distribution of deaths by the city squares in which they occurred but always without dis- tinction between outside streets and interior alleys. It would require a great amount of labor to search through the six or seven thousand certificates of deaths each year and tabulate those assigned to Average Alley. Even these certificates leave an element of uncertainty due to the fact that deaths from tuberculosis are deemed prejudicial to the industrial insurance policies on which all these people depend for funeral expenses; other causes of death are therefore alleged in cases where tuberculosis was present and presumably a primary cause. We cannot say therefore how many denizens of Average Alley have 24 Neglected Netghbors been slain by tuberculosis or even by consumption, but the following partial pictures are suggestive. CONSUMPTION IN Four Out oF Five Apjoininc Houses Annie Sammons, dying of consumption, seems to be running a kind of horrid race with her next door neighbor, Stephen Driscoll, stricken with the same disease. In the next house beyond the Dris- colls, another man died of “galloping consumption” this summer White Babies from Resourceful Families are Carried by their Nurses into the Alleys with which the Babies’ Parents Imagine Themselves to Have No Concern. [Photo by Weller] (1905). The dead man’s effects were just being removed when our investigator saw the furniture of a new family carried into the house. The health department was immediately asked by telephone if the rooms could not be fumigated and their representative answered that they had stopped disinfecting after tuberculosis. Another agent talked to the department later, receiving the same reply. When the head of the health office was told of this, incidentally, a month after- ward, he explained that the appropriation for disinfection had been exhausted and the work necessarily discontinued until the new appro- “Average Alley” 25 priation became available July first. Then the disinfection service was resumed but the fact-that the civic work of disinfection is inade- quate at best is indicated by the Health Officer’s report that only 132 rooms were disinfected after tuberculosis in 1905 when there were 944 deaths from that disease. As for the innocent new tenant of the deadly house in Average Alley, within three months after he moved into it he was examined at “The Free Dispensary for Consumptives”. He had tuberculosis. Of course no one can be sure that its seeds were not implanted before he moved to Average Alley. We do know, however, that the house was infected; that its deadly germs were not killed; that the new tenant was not instructed as to the danger and that this incident is typical, except in the fact that the appropriation for disinfection is seldom exhausted as it was at this time. But in the absence of any law requiring the registration of consumptives and the fumigation of their living rooms, comparatively few houses are ever cleansed in this way. Therefore, many dwellings are death traps, filled with tubercle bacilli of whose existence and deadliness the innocent new tenants are not informed. Such facts as these inspired the Associated Charities’ “Committee on Prevention of Consumption” to secure the enactment by Congress, in May 1908, of a law requiring that all persons known to be affected with tuberculosis shall be con- fidentially registered with the health department. The free examina- tion of sputa and the compulsory disinfection of the rooms which consumptives have occupied are also provided for. At the second door north of the house last described there lived a young man of twenty-two who was coming down with consumption but still walking about, uninstructed, scattering contagion broadcast. Turning in the other direction, to the second house south of the Sam- mons’ home, one found the Carroll household of twelve people who lost a son by consumption before moving to their present address. One Deatu INSPIRING THE CRUSADE AGAINST CONSUMPTION Fifty-five feet farther south there lived a widow struggling desperately to support seven children under twelve years of age. Their father died a month before and since the woman had taken up the family burden she had developed pulmonary tuberculosis. It might possibly have been cured by fresh air, rest and generous nour- ishment, but none of these could she command. The Associated Char- ities administered milk and eggs daily in this, as in many other cases, 26 Neglected Neighbors but no private charity is strong enough to stem the tide of death which sweeps through Average Alley. Three other cases of consumption came to our investigator’s knowledge in three different alley blocks, but they only emphasized again the inadequacy of our information on this score. In addition to these three scattered cases there was another center of contagion worthy of especial note. Around the corner from the Sammons family, only one hundred and seventy feet distant from them, there were three wooden shacks standing in a dilapidated row of five houses." A case of consumption is known to have occurred in each of the three dwellings, side by side. The movement for the prevention of tuber- culosis in Washington sprang, Phoenix-like, from the death of Chris Lewis a negro youth who died here of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1902. A volunteer friendly visitor, a resourceful colored man, had been “Rushing the Kettle” for Beer in “Phillip’s Alley.” [Photo by Weller] enlisted to help the Associated Charities in the case of young Lewis and the visitor reported frequently to the Conference Class of colored volunteers. The consideration of these reports led to a study of the prevalence and the possible cure or prevention of the disease. A committee of three colored men was organized to inaugurate an educa- tional campaign in the colored churches and schools of Washington. Their work soon appealed to the general community anda large, repre- sentative committee was officially organized by the Board of Managers of the Associated Charities. The educational, curative and preventive efforts which have already resulted suggest among other things that many lessons essential to the public good might be discovered or vitalized by studying the neglected lives of our hidden alley slums. 'The law for the condemnation of insanitary dwellings (passed in May, 1906) has effected the removal of this infected row. CHAPTER III IMMORALITY AND CHILD LIFE WomEN AND ImMora.tity. “Lovers”. ILiiteracy. HicH DegatH Rates. SERVANT GIRLS. THE CHILDREN AND THE City’s Future. From the pictures already outlined, it is evident that alley influ- ences are not especially conducive to wholesome home life. The more one learns about Average Alley the more essentially characteris- tic does immorality appear to be. While there must be many alley families whose conduct is commendable, one is constantly impressed with the large number of households in which at least one or two members are immoral. Certainly the fundamental basis of home life, proper marital relations, is not characteristic of Washington’s alleys. Perhaps “immoral” is too strong a word however for many of the delinquents appear to know no better and to merely reproduce, with innocent frankness and slight loss of self respect, the only moral standards which are impressed upon them. Even to be “regularly married”, which is a condition worthy of mention, is not conclusive, for desertions are numerous. The incident of a wedding certificate often has little effect upon the alley home. On the other hand, where there is “a good fit”, unmarried couples sometimes continue living together about as well as if they were legally united. Low STANDARDS OF FAMILY LIFE Mrs. Horace, a woman who impresses visitors as “self respecting and hard working”, had two children by some forgotten spouse before she “took up” with the present companion, who is the father of her four youngest offspring, although he is generally known to have a wife and family down south. The Associated Charities’ record shows that he deserted his present family at one time of stress, yet he is not a bad husband as husbands go in Average Alley. Jacob and Helen Davis had been considered a young married couple until Helen’s niece, 7 (27) 28 Neglected Neighbors quarrelling with Jacob, proclaimed the fact that they were not legally united. “They had went and got a license’, explained Mrs. Keefe, “but he hadn't married her. ’Deed that’s the way a good many does now. They gets the license and then they doesn't use it”. Margaret Koron applied to the Associated Charities last winter, giving her husband’s name as Harry Koron. Since then, when her baby was five months old, she was “regularly married” to him, apparently as a kind of afterthought. She has now assumed the man’s real name, Harry Lawson. Mrs. Mason, a young woman of thirty, has borne three series of children; Clarence Allerton, Rachel and Mattie Hall, and Reginald Stevens. She has apparently had a fourth “man” also, who is not represented by any existing offspring. Nellie Russell and Will Seaton, living together, talk about themselves quite naturally as if they constituted a family, although their is no legal bond. All these instances, which are typical, suggest immorality which is essentially different from that expressed in “houses of ill repute”. In contrast with such places alley life is un-moral rather than immoral. The alley standard represents an undeveloped, and a developing, moral code. Woman’s PLACE AND BURDENS The historic fact that among people whose marital standards are not developed, woman sometimes becomes the more important member of the family is frequently suggested in Average Alley. An inquirer at number 27 asks “Does Laura Keefe live here?” Her husband Henry is less important. Alley folks speak usually of the “lady who has the room upstairs”, ignoring her male companion. They refer to Alice Weaver’s house instead of Harry Weaver’s. In many poor families of all descriptions, the woman is the treasurer and financial manager, but this is carried a long step farther in typical alley houses where the woman becomes the more certain, if not the more largely productive, wage earner. In the Ashton family the woman keeps steadily at work in service; the man, a plumber’s helper, earns more per day than she but he is idle a great deal on account of drunken sprees or spells of sickness and the woman’s three dollars weekly, together with the basket of food given her, constitute the backbone of the family’s income. In the Sammons family the girls, though immoral, are all industrious. Mrs. Archibald and Mrs. Harrison are relied upon as the breadwinners of their respective households, although Mrs. Archibald’s husband is set down as “an ashman”, while Immorality and Child Life 29 Benjamin Harrison is a “whitewasher and a cook”. Some men sup- port their families ordinarily but with a sense of freedom from any anxiety because they realize that in any time of emergency or special stress the wife can readily take up the burden. Such incidents suggest the interesting question whether the enforcement of higher moral standards, accompanied by the education of public opinion to hold the men steadily responsible, would not shift the family’s burden from the mothers and their children. “Lovers”, A CHARACTERISTIC ALLEY CLASS “Washings” and “service” account for the fact that colored women can often get work more easily than the men can. Wallace Gordon, whose clean house is distinguished in the investigator’s report as “the place where I found a cover on the garbage can”, leaves Washington each summer because he can find more work and better pay elsewhere, although out of his nine dollars weekly earnings he must pay his board away from home. The limitations and difficulties by which colored men are handicapped in finding employment is perhaps a partial, though entirely inadequate, excuse for a common class of men whom the alley folks call “lovers”. Next door to the Keefe house the young woman in the lower front room is often asked for money by the young man whom she really “keeps”. Some men are supported almost entirely by women who give them money earned in housework or even drawn from other men. The temptation to accept the status of “a lover” is one which comes to young colored men with added force if they have long been rebuffed in seeking work and are not held up to higher standards of sobriety and morality than Average Alley emphasizes. CHILDREN AND THE FUTURE The irresponsibility of the alley man and the immorality of both men and women suggest the importance of considering the children. What of the future? Into what molds of citizenship are alley children being pressed? The answer was epitomized in the plea of an unedu- cated washwoman who asked for charitable aid to supplement her earnings and enable her to live upon an outside street. She is a widow whose only income is earned by washing and, as she has a bad case of varicose veins, she must do all the work sitting upon a chair, 30 Neglected Neighbors with the wash tub on the floor before her. ‘My children’, she said, “are my whole future. If they grow up right they will take care of me when I can't work any longer. But if I take them to live in an alley they will see all sorts of bad things all the time; they can’t get away from the badness. I might about as well see them dead today as to take them to live in any alley”. It is a significant fact that one hears from all the alley people themselves that, “This ain’t no fit place to bring up children in”. Even those whose lives are evil declare this freely. It is expressed more intelligently by people like the German woman who keeps a little store in Average Alley. She tells a visitor first of all about her son who goes to high school and she always boasts a little about the school grades to which ther other children have attained. When she was invited to save money on the stamp savings book she pointed proudly to her children and said, “They are my bank, the little ones; I save in them’. So she cares about them intelli- gently and her judgment has weight accordingly. She bemoans her inability to support her family outside the alley. She explained in broken English; “If you take a very good plant, you know, and put it in bad ground, it will not grow good”. Although her business inter- ests require this storekeeper to treat her neighbors somewhat cordially she has a stern contempt for most of them and tries to hold her chil- dren away from the alley influences, as an anxious hen would hide her chickens beneath ineffective feathers. The German woman’s hus- band, who is generally spoken of as “no account”, expresses his genuine anxiety about the upbringing of his thirteen-year-old daughter by whipping her severely and often. Like other alley scenes, it suggests a glimpse of Dante’s Inferno when, calling at the doors of some dis- solute women, one hears them joke and laugh over the cries of the girl across the way because she is beaten brutally in the futile hope that by such punishment she may be kept untainted by the vicious influence of the scoffers. REASONS FoR Hicu DEATH RaTES The high death rates among infants and little children in Wash- ington are made concrete and human by typical instances in Average Alley. Mollie Jarvis has borne eight children and lost seven. Mrs. Harris has lost eight out of ten; the Green family five out of eight; Mrs. Hilton six out of eight; Mrs. Lawrence four out of six; Mrs. Bright didn’t know how many she had lost, “’Bout five or six” she Immorality and Child Lije 31 thought. More unfortunate than the alley children whom their mothers rear are those who are boarded or farmed out with strangers. Their name is legion. They are easily killed and the mental picture of their corpses, if one imagines them collected in the burying grounds, suggest lurid war scenes and the aftermath. of battle. The three months old, fatherless baby whose mother leaves it in the care of Elsie Ranson is treated on the principle that sunlight and fresh air are injurious. It is kept in a dark, unventilated room where it lies always in an uninterrupted, heavy slumber produced by opiates. The babe’s weak voice is rarely heard and its bottle of diluted condensed Two Nurses in Whose Care a Mother Left Her Three-Months’-Old Baby from Six A. M. to Eight P. M. While She Went Out to Service. [Photo by Weller] milk, offered at irregular intervals, arouses only a languid interest. On each successive call the visitor finds that the infant’s waxen color is enhanced and its stick-like arms more wasted. In many of the better homes even, nursing bottles are found lying on the floor or any- where else, partly filled with souring milk and black with appreciative flies. An occasional dash of cold water from the hydrant is always deemed sufficient to cleanse bottles and nipples. Condensed milk diluted with unboiled water is the principal food used; but bread and butter, cornbread, tea, coffee, cabbage and even liquor are given to the little ones. Like some cotton-mill operatives of southern com- 32 Neglected Neighbors munities, who fill their babies’ gums with snuff “to make them peace- able’, many alley mothers win relief from annoyance by administer- ing sedatives to their infants. “To have swarms of children and let them die’, wrote Miss Kemp on one of her reports, “is characteristic of the alleys I have studied”. On the back of one of the schedules she wrote also: “An ignorant woman’s weakness, a bad man’s passion, flint and steel, and the flicker- ing flame flashes into existence. A few short months and the flame is extinguished, the little spark of unloved, unwelcomed life goes out. Here two great alley problems are presented: First, the irresponsibility and lack of self control which characterize the relations between the sexes; Second, the ignorance of the most elementary principles of hygiene which results in a tremendous infant death rate, and also warps or stunts the ‘fittest’ who survive this struggle for existence”’. WHAT OF THE “FITTEST WHO SURVIVE’? “In Average Alley”, we read on the back of one of the investiga- tor’s schedules, “it might almost be said that ‘those whom the gods love die young.’ ‘Be quiet and get out of my way, you little devil, before I knock the guts out of you’, says the unmarried mother to the youngest of her four children. A fight between two little girls is interrupted by the mother of one of them who drives off the assailant and remarks ‘My God, but that child’s a devil. The Board of Chil- dren’s Guardians ought to look after her for sure’. ‘If she comes round here again’, says another mother, ‘I’m going to knock her brains out’. ‘If she ever says any thing to you again’, resumes the first speaker addressing her youngest offspring, ‘You just take your fist and mash her mouth’’’. The record adds; “The aggressive little waif who thus carried war into the enemy’s country is a motherless girl from the other side of the alley who, having fought the first hard fight for life itself in her neglected babyhood, is growing up unloved, unloving, and unlovely. She is so schooled to fighting in self defense and in resisting the encroachments of others that fighting has become her second nature and she is paying back to her little world in its own hard coin the measure it has meted out to her. Her hand is against every man, and every man’s hand against her”. Unwelcome offspring who survive are easily disposed of for, with some of the women, children are a valueless commodity to be dealt with carelessly. Marion Volley, for example, who appears to Immorality and Child Life 33 be about twenty-eight years old, has borne six children and disposed of them all, as follows; The son of Charlie Gettler, with whom Marion first lived, is cared for by the boy’s paternal grandmother. The next child died. A little girl named Rosie, about three years old, is in Brooklyn with her mother’s mother. Marion left the father of these first three children to live with Martin Downer whose first offspring she has “given to a girl who lives southeast”. The latest baby, about five months old, remains at present with its mother and is said to be the child of Martin Downer, although Marion has lived with Harvey Staples for about a year and has recently been married to him. “Harvey stays with her’, say the neighbors, “and Martin goes and stays there too when he gets ready”. When asked what Harvey thinks of this arrangement, the neighbor said; “Well, he used to run with women and she used to run with men, so they didn’t have much to throw up to each other”. The point is that all the children of Average Alley hear these standards expressed and see, almost exclu- sively, such lives as these. That the little ones imitate their elders and rehearse these lessons in their play is illustrated by the story of two little girls who were amusing themselves in an alley corner. One proposed ; “You play that you’s a man and I’ll be a woman; an’ we’re livin’ together. Then another woman comes up and she says, ‘Here, you got my husband’ an’ then a man comes up an’ he says, ‘Here, you got my wife’; an’ then I says, “Foah de Lawd, I swear this man’s my sho’ nuf husband”. Several children in Average Alley have been boarded out by mothers who afterwards died or disappeared and left their infants to grow up among the human driftwood of the place. There is a kind of fine philanthropy in the matter of fact reply from an overburdened woman ; “No, Sadie isn’t mine; her mother just left her here an’ there was no one else to bring her up”. This was done also by the Roberts family, who are regarded as “a tough crowd”, and by the Colvin family, who are wholesome people. Mrs. Colvin kept and reared a motherless girl who afterward went wrong and became, as Mrs. Colvin said, “nothin’ but a runabout”. Yet when this runabout brought back her sickly, syphilitic infant to Mrs. Colvin, she accepted the burden and is raising the unattractive child tenderly, regardless of the fact that she has no responsibility whatever for it and that its mother proved unsatisfactory and ungrateful. 34 Neglected Neighbors Tue Neep ror Computsory EpDucATION The manifold evils which resulted from Washington’s surprising lack, until 1906, of any law compelling school attendance were clearly illustrated in Average Alley. Julia Scammon, aged thirteen, could not read or write her own name, although her grandmother and mother ranked high among the moral aristocracy of the place. George Haywood, aged eleven, could not write his name, neither could Alice Roster, aged eleven. Lilly and Sadie Turner, aged nine and seven respectively, had never attended school, neither had Charley Cavern, aged nine. In another family there were five children of whom the eldest, a boy of fifteen, had been out of school three years, loafing. The next boy, aged twelve, had also been an absentee for three years. He too had been merely loafing, as the large majority of all the city’s truants do. The other three children, aged nine, seven and six years, had never been sent to school at all. These are typical instances among even the better class of alley families. Two or three months after the completion of the first study of Average Alley, in 1905, a second visitor went hastily through the place merely asking at each house concerning the children who were or were not attending school. Out of 36 families with children there were 22 children between 8 and 14 years of age in school and 19 out of school. Seven children between 12 and 16 years of age had attended school so little that they were still in the first three grades. Of the children whose ages were from 5 (the kindergarten age) to 8 years, two were in school and 14 absent. There can be no doubt that the actual number of absentees over 8 years old is larger than nineteen but even at this rate, since the police census of 1905 credited Average Alley with one-seventieth of the entire alley population, there would be among the 19,076 inhabitants of all the alleys at that time, about seventy times nineteen truants between the ages of eight and fourteen years, or approximately 1,530. Dr. Emily Young O’Brien in I902 compared’ the population of Washington with the school records of attendance and estimated, after very careful, thorough work, that there must be in the entire city 6,434 absentees of whom 3,733 were white and 2,701 were colored children. Tue ONE SurRE STANDARDIZER A compulsory school attendance law adequately enforced is a fundamental necessity in every city. It is needed especially for the Immorality and Child Life 35 children who lack proper home influences. The public school is the only general instrumentality which the city possesses for the system- atic upbuilding of all its future citizens. It is the only sure and uni- versal means of impressing upon the growing youth of the city those standards of conduct which the community approves and deems essen- tial to the public weal. Happily, since the preceding paragraphs were written, a law for compulsory school attendance was enacted in Wash- ington as the result of vigorous agitation. Only two attendance agents, one for white and one for colored children were provided but these commenced their labors in the fali of 1906. In the autumn of 1907 the force was increased to three. The work of these tactful, earnest women has had its evident good effect throughout the city. SERVANT GIRLS AND THE CHILDREN Back of the servant problem, about which we make so many just complaints, are countless tragedies in the lives of alley children. The mothers who must support them, leave their little ones alone all day to feed upon scraps, or they give each child a penny with which to buy candy or a pickle for breakfast or for luncheon. School teachers know many unresponsive little folks who come to their classes without a morning meal because the mothers went away to work before the children wakened. Some servant mothers are frightened by the stories, all too true, of helpless little ones left alone indoors, who have accidentally set fire to their clothing and burned to death. This leads some working women to lock their children outdoors all day. Others, fearing the graver, though less tangible, moral dangers of alley life, lock the little ones indoors so that they may perchance escape contam- inating influences. Younger babies are often farmed out in the crowded, dirty, malodorous hovels of old women who keep them- selves out of the poorhouse by nursing boarded babies in a half-hearted, ignorant, deadly way. In Mrs. Archer’s case, self support and self respect are purchased at a price which few would pay. She dearly loves her children but she must leave them alone all day while she goes out to service from six A. M. to seven-thirty or eight o’clock at night. She locks them in the little alley house, and even makes them keep the shutters closed to shut out the bad sights and sounds of Average Alley. Once during the morning hours she is allowed to run home and nurse her nine months old baby. But she leaves him all the rest of the day to 36 Neglected Neighbors the care of the older children. During school hours the three eldest, aged eleven, nine and six, must go to school leaving the baby to be fed and cared for by three infants who are themselves only five, four and two years old. “I’m that nervous”, said the mother, “that when any one rings the door bell at the house where I am working, I always jump; I get so scared a thinkin’ that some one has come to tell me about something awful that has happened to my baby”. THE Basis oF CoMPARISON ESTABLISHED From the preceding studies of Average Alley one may under- stand the conditions and characteristic standards of life in the two hundred and sixty-one alleys of the National Capital. From the pic- tures and suggestions which have been submitted it will not be difficult’ for an intelligent citizen to understand what constitutes “the alley type”. Naturally there are exceptions, but it is in the midst of such evil conditions as have been sketched here, under the constant influence of such low standards of life, and systematically segregated from the better influences which the community might afford, that there are living nearly sixteen thousand of Washington’s Neglected Neighbors. Le iil The Inefficient Life. Loafing, Drunk, at Midday. [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER IV “WHITE ALLEY” ALLEY STANDARDS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE Lives OF WHITE PEOPLE. THE Story oF ONE FAMILy’s FIGHT. For some people the preceding sketches will lose interest when it is understood that only twelve out of 318 people in “Average Alley” are Caucasians. ‘Why, they’re all negroes’, some will say and con- clude either that it does not matter in what condition members of that race may live, or that the evils and problems of alley life are merely the result of intrinsic characteristics of the colored race. The National Capital has a larger colored population than any other city in the world. Nearly one third of all the inhabitants of the District of Columbia, or 97,483 out of the 339,403 enumerated by the police census of 1908, are of the race which, so far as freedom and educational develop- ment are concerned, is less than fifty years old. There are people in Washington and elsewhere by whom many civic problems are solved or dismissed with the assertion; “Those high death rates, the large record of arrests, the low standards of life in the hovels and alleys, are simply due to the negro”. In some mysterious way this appears to absolve the speaker from any sense of responsibility. He says, in effect; “There is no use discussing these sanitary and social evils for they are not municipal problems in any ordinary sense, but are due to inalienable racial traits.’ To such pessimists the idea that the colored people should themselves be upbuilt, for the sake of the whole city’s health and safety, if not for the uplifting of the immediate sufferers themselves, does not appeal. Happily, these are extreme and diminishing types of thought but it is always worth while, even for some of Washington’s most useful citizens, to make clear the fact that the housing and social problems of this southern city concern white as well as colored families. It is no purpose of this study to defend the negroes by reviewing their great and rapid improvement in Washington or by discussing the conviction of all the experienced agents of the Associated Charities that their (37) 38 Neglected Neighbors colored proteges are especially teachable and hopeful. This report can only undertake to place beside the sketch of “Average Alley”, the study of a “White Alley” in which no colored people live. This name, like that of “Average Alley”, is devised partly to conceal the real Both Blind, but the Man Earned Their Partial Living by Shucking Oysters. Typical of Many Neglected Neighbors who Need Friends. [Photo by Weller] place described and partially to emphasize the fact that it is meant to represent a somewhat numerous type. Many WHITE PEOPLE IN THE ALLEYS According to the police census of 1897, there were 2,150 whites as compared with 16,828 colored persons residing in the 303 alleys of Washington. For 1905, the police census showed 1,873 white and 17,203 colored people in the alleys. In 1908 the police enumerated 1,641 whites and 14,237 negroes in 261 alleys. One or more white families are usually to be found in every alley, serving as storekeepers “White Alley” 39 or in some other commercial capacity. There are several alleys in which the white residents either predominate by large majorities or possess all the dwellings to the total exclusion of colored people. In other alleys, inhabited principally by negroes, the number of white residents has of late years grown in number. In “Navy Place’, the most notorious alley in Southeast Washington, overcrowding has increased; the 8 white people and 336 colored tenants of 1897 have become 23 whites and 362 negroes, 385 in all. “Brewer Court”, where the police census of 1897 enumerated 24 white residents, has 110, in 1908, with 33 negroes; a total of 143. “Mechanic Place”, with no colored residents at all, had 25 white inhabitants in 1897; 67 in 1908. “Wonder Court” possessed, in 1897, 34 white and 25 colored denizens, a total of 59; in 1908, there were 91 whites and 3 negroes, 94 in all. “Jackson Hall Alley” housed, in 1897, 31 whites and 146 colored people or 177 persons as compared, in 1908, with 79 white and 60 colored residents or only 139 inhabitants. “Schott Alley”, increased from 48 whites in 1897 to 172 in 1908, while its colored population diminished from 197, in 1897, to 50, in 1908; total 222. “Willow Tree Alley” had 14 white and 314 colored people, a total of 328, in 1897; in 1908 it has 273 whites and 228 negroes, a total of 501. Altogether, there are 54 alleys in which the number of white residents has actually increased during the past eleven years when every one has taken it for granted that all the alley evils were steadily diminishing. The num- ber of white inhabitants of the 54 alleys is over four times as great as it was eleven years ago, namely 1,247, in 1908, as compared with 289, in 1897. Meanwhile the number of colored tenants has decreased slightly, from 4,446 to 4,414. The totals for the 54 alleys are as follows; in 1897, 289 white and 4,44€ colored inhabitants, or 4,735 in all; in 1908, 1,247 white and 4,414 colored residents, or a total of 5,061. Of course these 54 alleys illustrate mainly the interesting fact that alley populations are continually changing. We have already learned from the police census that they are not, in the general aggre- gate, increasing. To counterbalance the 54 alleys in which the num- ber of whites has increased, there are 75 other alleys in which their number has grown smaller during the past eleven years. For these the totals are; in 1897, 1,570 white, 4,849 colored people, 6,419 in all: in 1908, 278 white and 3,571 colored inhabitants, or a total of 3,849. As for the poorer white people of the city generally, they may be said to have reached, on the average, higher planes of physical comfort and more developed standards of life than those yet attainable by the 40 Neglected Neighbors majority of our needier colored citizens. Whether the present rate of advance among the poorer whites is more rapid than among the negroes is a question which would repay investigation. But for the purpose of this study it is sufficient to report the fact that alley life exercises the same deteriorating influences upon both races. The evil effects of segregation are observable in white as well as colored people. The following story of a white man’s moral struggle with the evil genius of the Alley suggests the characteristic standards and influ- ences of “White Alley” as they have appeared to the writer during a seven year intimate study of the place. Out oF SopoM For five years the Martins were known to the Associated Chari- ties as a typical alley family. Margaret the mother looked haggard and half fed. Chauncey, a lad of only ten years, bore an old man’s responsibilities. He came into the social settlement one night, sank wearily back in the big rocker and said; “Mama can’t come to the club tonight. Papa is drunk again an’ he asked Mama for a nickel for more beer but she wouldn’t give it to him. Then he got mad and knocked around so much that she sent me for a policeman. Then pa was mad at her an’ me for callin’ the police and he began fussin’ with her and the children. Benny, he sassed him back and got licked and he’s gone out to stay all night. Then he drove me out too, coz I had went for the police. The children is all afraid and mama’s cryin’. Besides, the baby aint got no shoes an’ Stevie aint neither, and mata got a notice from the agent an’ ”’—he did not cry but only sighed wearily with the care burdened expression of an ancient mariner and said,—‘“‘I can’t see what we’re goin’ to do about it all”. Subsequently, the woman, helped by money from a good son in the army, crawled out upon the outside street and gave her family a little foothold in the realms of decency. “We’re out of the alley at last”, she said, and her pride was fine to see. Her new house was cleaner and there were some attempts at decoration, while the man’s doorplate sign, “Joseph R. Martin, Engraver” looked out brightly upon the street. A month later, however, as the neighbor walked through the old alley, she saw the same sign, tarnished, upon an alley house. When she went indoors, Mrs. Martin explained, with just a brave little gulp in her throat, “Yes, we’ve slipped back again, you see. But, really we aint in so bad as we used to be. You see we’re on the “White Alley” 4I entrance alley now and, you might say, only just inside the alley edge. Its pretty near like bein’ on the outside street.” A Five Years’ Ficgut AND A DEFEAT. The crisis came that summer when a new baby was expected and Margaret went to the hospital on condition that her five children should be cared for at “Camp Good Will”. So Martin remained alone in the alley and everyone said it was no use trying to do anything with him. For the Associated Charities’ agent had worked five years to upbuild this alley home; a drink cure had been administered to the man; weekly visits had been made and material relief had been sternly withheld, except when the mother and her little ones reached the limits The Family Who Fought So Long and Valiantly to Escape From the Clutches of “White Alley.” [Photo by Weller] of distress. As a last resort efforts had even been made to separate the family from the useless father until he should reform. In earlier days the man had owned his own store and a prosperous business, but the ambitious energies and self-respect of that golden era had been effaced by many years of hopeless demoralization. The alley had received him when he fell. It did not obtrude upon him any higher standards than his own. Its cheap rentals allowed him a larger drink 42 Neglected Neighbors margin from the money which he earned occasionally by a chance job of engraving. Everyone agreed that Martin was a hopeless case. But when the mother and children were provided for, another trial was made to help the man. The neighbor found him all alone one evening. He was surprised when Martin adopted the suggestion that his beer pail be emptied into the sink. The man began to take another cure, three or four pills daily, and the visitor called every morning and evening because he could not trust the poor fellow’s resolution. Twice after the treatment began Martin was found intoxicated but even then he said; “Don’t give me up; Don't let me go; You stick by me, dear sir, and [ll stick by you, and we'll pull out together.” But the alley threw the weight of all its established, constant influence on the devil’s side. The man in the next house came to Martin’s shed door and taunted him for being a “goody goody, an’ likewise a fool’. He brought beer to Martin’s work bench and persuaded him to drink. A woman neighbor tempted him into the customary gatherings in her room where liquor was the chief means of entertainment. “It’s all foolishness”, said the Alley Standards, “of course a man needn’t abuse hisself but he ought to have his freedom and take a little drink when he wants to.” ‘‘You’re better now’, said the Alley Genius, “than the Joneses are or the Hawkinses or the Hendricksons in White Alley, for you don’t go with women and you’ve never been arrested; guess you're ‘bout as good already as anyone expects”. Victory at Last Under the fierce July heat, Martin’s alley house was hot and sticky. It was small, dirty, uninspiring. When he grew lonesome or despond- ent, drink ‘lifted up his heart”. Finally it became apparent that the alley tentacles were too many and too strong to permit of Martin’s escape while he remained within their reach. So the neighbor bore him away bodily to his own home on the street outside the alley. Here Martin got a start at last. Later he was removed to “Camp Good Will’, where nature ministered to him and his children’s needs aroused the father’s love. The drink cure was administered regularly and the wholesome fellowship of the Camp people sustained Martin’s resolutions until they grew strong enough to stand alone. When the wife came out of the hospital with her new baby she was taken di- rectly to “Camp Good Will”. It was too much of a risk to let the “White Alley” 43 family go back into the alley again, even for one day. Soa new house was rented on an outside street in a distant section of the city. Mrs. Martin slipped into the hated alley furtively one morning and hurriedly prepared their scanty furniture for removal. In the new home the family’s regeneration was completed. The eldest daughter, who had gone from alley life to the insane asylum, was brought back home again, her mind restored. Soon the man had a shop of his own. The children were well clothed and kept in school; carpets and new furniture improved the comfortable rooms. The “alley look” disappeared from the faces of the family. The mother especially seemed like another person. The man himself, neatly dressed, resourceful in appearance and even walking without the cane which he required in his drinking days, has finally washed off the alley stains. There have been difficulties, changes of fortune and serious illness since that time, but the family have maintained themselves outside of and above the alley grades. That this story may not be regarded as an isolated instance having no intrinsic relation to a study of alley types, the following sketches of ‘White Alley” as a whole have been prepared by Mrs. Weller, after seven years of close, familiar contact with its life. In writing this study a term of fifteen months has been covered and all the incidents reported occurred in that short period. CHAPTER V FIFTEEN MONTHS OF LIFE IN “ WHITE ALLEY” [Portrayed by Eugenia Winston Weller, from the Social Settlement Point of View] Mrs. Austin leaned out of the window and laughed a hard, bitter laugh. She was looking at the old man’s daughter on the other side of the alley who was to be married that evening and who was now, with the help of her sister, moving her few effects into the house next door ready to begin married life. ‘That cert’nly is the worst’, she said, “It’s bad enough to ‘a’ seen better days and come down to livin’ in such a place, but to get married and begin your honeymoon in an alley”. . . She finished the sentence with another strident laugh, which it must have taken years of worry and trouble to develop. “Seems like if you once get into an alley”, she went on, turning away from the window, “You can’t never get out again. Every spring I think, ‘Now this fall we’ll move out o’ this’; and then in the summer some of the children gets sick and we get back in the rent and we have to stay on here because it’s cheap. Then in winter he’ll be out of work again,—he’ most always is in winter somehow—, and so we stay on and on. I reckon I never will get away.” Tue NAME AND SUBSTANCE OF ALLEY LIFE The visitor looked at the row of little brick houses, shabby and neglected but not disreputable or dilapidated in appearance. Why that invisible but unmistakable line that divides the alley from the street? Was the difference more than that which lies ina narne? She remem- bered Mrs. Martin’s pathetic struggles to get into a house on the street and the patient desperation with which she settled back when hard times drove her again into the alley, consoling herself with the thought that she was “just at the mouth of the alley, you might say.” The visitor remembered how Mr. Hanson, sitting in the midst of his desolate house on Jones street, bare of furniture and empty of food, (45) 46 Neglected Neighbors shook his head when cheaper rent was suggested. “I wouldn’t live in an alley”, he said. “I fell into one of them places once and I’ve had enough of it.” The hearer also remembered how Mrs. Grant had told her, ‘None of my friends won't come and see me ’cause I live here”, and how Mrs. Tyler said, “My Harry wouldn't live at home any more if I moved into an alley.” Is it all in a name? Partly. Names have magic powers to clothe a thought with horror or with charm and no one is more subject to their spells than those whom poverty or vice has driven to the lower levels of society. Behind that power of the name lies the power of the thought and we all know by what delicate alchemy, among high and low alike, human conduct — creer cra is OP nae} ee Senn eo ee “White Alley” as Seen, Partially, from the Roof of a Dwelling on the Out- side Street. [Photo by Cullen] takes quality from what popular opinion expects of the individual. The man or woman who has crossed the invisible as well as the visible ‘boundary between street and alley, needs exceptional force of character to hold his head above the danger line. But so closely are fact and prejudice and cause and effect intertwined that one need not go far beneath the surface to find the treacherous undertow of alley life. Looking back over fifteen months of an acquaintance as close as could well be gained by an outsider from whom intuitively, through respect or fear, the darker phases of the life are often deliberately concealed, the visitor recalled many pictures that have helped to confirm the prej- udice against such a dwelling place. Fifteen Months of Lije in “White Alley” 47 OccASIONAL TOUCHES OF THE IDEAL It is not that the darkness has settled over all the alley or that all of its denizens are vicious and degraded. One finds here the sparks of helpfulness burning brightly as elsewhere. One learns of neigh- bors who sympathize when distress comes, of children who share their crusts with others a little hungrier than themselves, of women who move quietly from place to place caring for the sick as tenderly as they can and with gentle fingers preparing the dead for burial. There were the man and woman also who one time made their way alone through a shouting, pushing mob to quiet a frenzied Italian mother, misunderstood, persecuted and wounded, and to bind up her bleeding wounds. In some of the twenty-eight houses you may find neatness, quiet and peace; and if you peep within one of them you will see a little library of well selected books and a man who devotes his leisure hours to study that may help him to do his work better. Here lives a woman who, cramped and untutored as her life has been, could preach to all.of us sermons of honor, fidelity and true helpfulness. There are only about one hundred residents in “White Alley” but they represent the whole range of human character. There are quiet, orderly people among them who have been driven temporarily into such surroundings by force of unavoidable misfortunes, and others who with open eyes have chosen the cheaper rent, balancing against what seems to them the empty dread of a name the practical advantages to be purchased by such economy. But there is an aggressive, evil influence in alley life, which makes it hard even for these better people to maintain the higher standards they have known and which must drag down and corrupt the weaker spirits that come beneath its influence. CHILDREN AND THE “Funny Tuincs” or ALLEY LIFE But, in life as after death, the evil often lives longer than the good and always its voice is louder. It is easy to forget, or perhaps not to think at all of the woman who restrained her tongue when a neigh- bor whom she had helped in difficulty overwhelmed her with unjust abuse. It is more easy to remember the savage old couple near by who fight and quarrel till the neighborhood is aroused by the old woman’s shrill cry; “He’s killin’ me”. It is difficult to forget that other husband and wife whose drunken carousals have almost driven 48 Neglected Neighbors away all the customers from their little alley store. All this keeps alive the story of the woman’s past, the different names that her children bear and how once in a drunken spree she added bigamy to her other sins. In this same alley, a year ago, the woman's brother died of delirium tremens. “He was a good man”, so a neighbor told the story, “So good hearted; there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for a body,—if he was sober. He wasn’t living with his wife. She used to be a nice girl and Jake loved her,—he cert’nly did love Annie. But he caught her in a trick once that he said he wouldn’t never for- give, and he sent her away. And then Katy came to live with him. She said she was his housekeeper; but of course you know what folks thought; and ’deed I suppose they was right. He didn’t drink any for,—Oh it must ’a’ been several weeks,—not since that night he had the fight here in the alley, you know, and he had to go to the hospital. The doctor told him then that if he didn’t quit, he’d kill hisself, and he cert’nly was feared o’ that. The next time when he got to takin’ somethin’ it seemed just like it went right to his head and he got,—I dunno what the doctors called it,—some big, long name, —and he was dead ‘fore any of us knowed it. And then his sister Ida (she was living acrost the alley then) she came over and if she and Katy didn’t just raise Ned! ’Deed it cert’nly was scan’lous the way them women carried on,—drunk as fools all hands of ’em, hollerin’ and fightin’ ’bout which should have his body. Then they made up and they carried him off down the river. And when they started out, I ’clar to goodness, ‘twas awful, you'd ’a’ thought they was goin’ on a picnic, shoutin’ and tossin’ their baskets and hollerin’ goodbye to everyone in the alley”. So with this Bacchanalian escort the body of Jake Selton went to its last resting place. But the children laugh to this day when they recall the excitement of his last days of life and the “fun” it was to watch the house after death had claimed him. Tue “Corn Doctor” ANp His PocK-MarKkEep PENSIONER The little ones could tell you many “funny stories” too, about the old corn doctor, who lived in the alley last year. ‘“Manicurist and Schiropodist” he called himself, and the words stumbled strangely from his maudlin tongue. He was an alien in the alley. The people looked at him askance, even when they drank with him. There was that about him that spoke of a broader experience and an enlightened craftiness quite foreign to the place. He lived with an old army Fijteen Months of Life in “White Alley”- 49 nurse, his “auntie” he called her,—but the women whispered, “He aint really her nephew; she says he always called her that because she and his mother were friends.” But those who saw deeper suspected that there was no tie at all save the pitiful twenty dollars a month that was the poor old woman’s pension. She was a pathetic old thing, wrinkled and withered, her face scarred and one eye destroyed by small-pox. So uncanny was the old dame altogether that the children called her a witch and hurried in terror away from her doorstep with the babies they were tending. One could hardly believe the loathsome stories CRE ty Os fest Ee. es “Slop Bucket Row” and an American White Mother Who Can Neither Write, Read nor Tell the Time of Day. [Photo by Weller] that floated through the alley about these two people. When the ambulance came to take the haggard, wasted old woman to the hospital, the man whispered in the driver’s ear ; “Hope you'll take good care of her; she’s worth saving; good for twenty dollars a month”. But it was the will of a merciful Providence that this trip to the hospital was her last in this world. Then the dutiful nephew sold off the few sticks of furniture that the house afforded and gathered in all the men and boys and, ’tis said, even the women that he could ~ entice there, for a protracted revel. Boys who had drunk before and boys who had not; men who were confirmed drunkards, and men who 4 50 Neglected Neighbors had been trying to reform, were drawn into the net, till the police put an end to the sport. After a term in prison, the old rascal moved away, where nobody knows. PoLicEMEN As AGENTS OF THE MoraL Law There were five other houses which the police were watching that winter, because they had been reported as disorderly. From two, the occupants glided mysteriously away; another group of people boldly evaded the officers by moving from one house to another. Of still another, the Piper household, we shall speak later. The fifth was raided one night and a hard-faced old woman was sent to the work house for bartering away the purity of a girl of sixteen. The girl was sent to an institution and a third inmate of the house, the old woman’s daughter, a dissipated, immoral wretch, for want apparently of definite evidence, was allowed her freedom. On this occasion the alley showed its independence by sending several neighbors to testify in the court room of the evils practised in the place. Perhaps it was due to influences from outside or possibly to an awakening sense of pride and self protection; but the men and women witnesses from “White Alley” stood manfully for their right to decency and respec- tability. The police had said “You can’t prove anything; the neigh- bors won’t swear against them.” But the alley scored a triumph and nothing could have done more for the cause of law and order than this proof of their interest and courage. Once aroused, the better influences asserted themselves again when Mrs. Dunston was arrested. Mrs. Dunston came to the alley in the summer of this year. Mrs. Dunston did not simply drink like most of her neighbors, she got drunk. She was drunk, not some of the time, but always. At last, after a succession of quarrels, mostly of her own making, she ended her career in “White Alley” by brandishing a pistol, (it matters little that it was not loaded) and being arrested for disorderly conduct, that convenient and all inclusive charge. Her house was a gathering place for disreputable looking men, one of whom she claimed was her hus- band. But one evening, being especially communicative, she leaned out of the window and shouted to the eager group, mostly children, that her drunken cries had brought about her door; “Fo’ the lord, I swear that aint my husband; It’s just the man I’m livin’ with”. “Lady”, said nine year old Harold Piper, with a certain high-bred dignity that suggests a vein of noble blood somewhere in the Piper Fijteen Months of Life in “White Alley” 51 family, “If it is so you ought to be ashamed to say it before all these children”. An Evit HERITAGE “Before the children!’ There is the greatest pity of it all. That the new generation should receive on virgin, fertile soil all the vices of the old, should listen with eager ears and wide open eyes to the evil sights and sounds that in a place so cramped and shut-in must all be common property. Now it is a fight, an arrest, that calls their eager attention, and in the intervals they feed their passion for excitement by crowding in eager groups about the little slaughter house to watch the killing of the chickens, or by playing among the horses’ feet in the stable, where the men at work shout obscene messages to the women across the alley. Tue TypicaAL Story oF ONE FALLEN FAMILY Poor little Harold Piper himself must have long been familiar with things that children should not know. You would be sure of it if you had passed at night by the house where he lives and had heard the shouts of boisterous men and women, not quite drowning the pitiful cries of the three little children in bed upstairs. You would be sure of it if you had passed in the daytime and observed the dark shades always drawn down over the windows, and perhaps noticed a carriage, strangely out of place in such surroundings, waiting at the door. Still more clearly you could have guessed the character of Harold’s home if you had stepped within and come upon flashily dressed people talking in whispers in the bare front room or heard the group of noisy men and women in the room behind you gradually hushed to silence as the word was passed about that an intruder was near. There was a time when the Piper family lived on the street in a neat little house whose parlor was the envy of the whole neighborhood. “My mother was a good woman then”, said Harold’s older brother Richard with pathetic loyalty. “But when papa had the grip the doctor gave him some whiskey and he liked it so much that he got to drinkin’ and they got poorer and poorer, and then they moved into that alley, and she had to do washin’ day and night and I guess she thought that if that stuff was around all the time she might as well have some too”. He did not tell how his grandmother and aunt, 52 Neglected Neighbors excluded from the home in the old days of respectability, but encour- aged now by the license and seclusion of alley life, began to make the place a rendezvous for their low associates. Then came the days of darkened windows and the rush of feet through the back door at every alarm of “police”. Growing up in such an atmosphere, each one of the Piper children has reached, sooner or later, the point where the forces of evil about him have grown too strong to be withstood. Even Sarah, the older sister who married and went out from her old home to lead a life that was the pride of them all, has come back to visit her mother all too often of late and has gone away demoralized by the influence of the place. Four BrotHers RUINED There was Richard, the eldest son of the Piper family, tall, handsome and manly, who last winter, after a drunken spree, found himself in jail and learned through the torturing hints of anonymous letters that came to him that his poor, weak child wife, grown desperate with loneliness and humiliation, had accepted the new standard which alley life had set for her and had gone to make her abode in an infamous resort. Fortunately there were friends who found them out, took them both from their evil surroundings and sent them away to begin life over among new friends in a new city. The wife could only say in justification of herself; “All the bad I ever knew I learnt in that alley. I ain’t goin’ to say now that ’m worse than those Pipers. What I do that’s bad I’m open about. They go behind the door to do their dirty work.” There is Joe, next younger than Rich- ard, bloated, drunken and immoral before he reached his nineteenth year. Every one knows that, when Mr. Lampson came back to his home in the alley after two months in the hospital to find his wife unfaith- ful and his home dishonored, the fault was Joe Piper’s. But who can say where the blame really lay? How much better that David, still younger,—only sixteen, but already a cigarette fiend, a drunkard and a thief—was sent by outside influences to the reform school where in six months his improvement was almost past belief. A reform school may not be an ideal place for a boy, but such a home with such an alley setting is so much worse that no one should have felt any misapprehension who sat in the court room but a few weeks ago, and heard the judge pronounce a reform school sentence upon Fifteen Months of Lije in “White Alley” 53 twelve year old Ralph, the next in line of the Piper brothers. Already, in her better moods,—for she has moments of desperate struggle to do right,—the poor mother, whose affection for her children has remained pitifully strong through all these years, has said, “I am glad that David and Ralph are where they are, I can sleep better nights for knowin’ that they are safe.” But those who have watched helplessly through these years the slaughter of the innocents in that family, have decided at last that the time for decisive action has come, and the For Two Weeks this Sick White Woman, Daughter of a Former Citizen of Wealth and Prominence, Lay in Filth, in a Cold Room with Four Dead Chickens Around Her. [Photo by Cullen] father and mother have been duly warned that the three remaining children will be taken away and put in proper homes unless Mr. and Mrs. Piper will gather together their shattered manhood and woman- hood and provide a home that is fit to be the shelter of these little children. Already the struggle has begun, the old associations have been cast off and the good resolutions, so often broken, have been renewed with unwonted emphasis. But first of all Mrs. Piper says, “We must get out of the alley. Nobody knows what we have to fight here.” 54 Neglected Neighbors , TWENTY-EIGHT Boys AND GIRLS There are other boys in ‘White Alley” besides the six sons of the Piper family, and on all of them the alley influences press hard. There is Jones Anderson, not vicious but ignorant and irresponsible, who was sent last year with his own consent to an institution but ran away and would not return. There are the four Hastings brothers, the eldest branded for life because once in a fit of anger at their play he struck an older brother a blow that caused his death. Another was arrested but a short time ago and put under charge of the Board of Children’s Guardians; and the two smaller lads are following with precocious steps in the path of their elder brothers. There is Tom Hlayes, sent to the reform school with David Piper on a charge of drunkenness, but unfortunately released before he had received the full benefit of the change and allowed to drift back into his old life of idleness, illiteracy and vice. Is it strange that Mrs. Harner calls after her three boys as they run out to their play; “Now boys, you mind who you go with, and what you do”, then turning to her visitor explains, “If I say that once to them boys I say it a hundred times a day. You never can tell when a boy goes out what he’s goin’ to get into.” But this same Mrs. Harner was sincerely disappointed when her new baby proved to be a girl, “because”, she said, “it seems like no one ever forgets it if a girl child goes wrong.” Then with a sigh she added, “It aint possible for a girl to grow up good in ‘White Alley’”. Does the alley deserve this?, the visitor wondered. She recalled the girls who within those fifteen months had been under its influence. She thought of Harriet, who was rescued from a life of evil, reunited with her husband and sent by friends to a distant city; of Helen, the half-innocent victim of two wicked women; of Kate whose relations as housekeeper to a solitary man were the scandal of the neighborhood. In Kate’s train came her sister Julia from the country, tasted of alley life and had to be sent back almost by force to her home to save her from ruin. Margaret left the alley, after learning there her first lessons of evil. She was found in a den of vice up town and being but fifteen was sent to a “home”. Grace, no older than she, had learned to make midnight appointments with strange men in lonely places and was altogether so wayward that her brother, drunken and dissolute himself, “got his feelings hurt”, as he expressed it, by the stories he had heard of her and made a desper- ate attempt to have her put under some restraint. Esther came to stay Fijteen Months of Life in “White Alley” 55 for a few weeks in the alley, linked her name unpleasantly with one of the men employed there in a stable and finally was, she claimed, married to him. It is said that fourteen year old Edith is beginning to “run out at nights”; and one can only wonder that Sadie is still sweet, modest and unspoiled. Last winter Sadie lived next door to a house where drunkenness and disorder prevailed and sometimes in the night, when the sounds from next door kept them awake, her mother talked in loud tones to the child to keep from her ears the vile words uttered on the other side of the thin partition. But a mother’s voice is not always strong enough to drown the sounds of evil. Even sweet little Alice runs to her mother sometimes repeating some vile speech she has heard and asking, “Mama what does that mean?” How fortunate for Isabella that a place was found foi her in a “home” in another city where she will grow up with better things about her. If such an opportunity had come a few years ago to Eunice perhaps she would not be pointed at now as a girl whose reputation is ruined forever. A CONGREGATING PLAcE For Evin CHARACTERS So the life of the alley beats back upon itself and the conditions which the nature of the place creates recoil upon the inhabitants. No one suffers more keenly from the alley evils than the respectable people who make their homes there. Those whose influence is most harmful often drift away again after a brief residence has made them the objects of suspicion to their neighbors and to the police, but the taint of their example remains behind them. “Seems like”, said one of the better women, “They think they can do just what they want to when they get in here’. When the boys of the neighborhood wish to fight, to play “craps”, or to “rush the can”, their first thought is for the alley, where, not only on the main thoroughfare shaped like a letter “H”, but in the pockets and narrow passageways back of the houses, they may hide away, post their sentries and evade the police. One of the better class of women says that her husband has for- bidden her to go out in front even to sweep off her front steps in the afternoon because of the crowd of loafers from outside who gather near the door. Even respectable women if they go out alone at night are liable to insult from intruders and strange men have been known to wander about the place under cover of the darkness (for the light- ing is sadly inadequate) and even make their way uninvited into the 56 Neglected Neighbors houses. Last summer a man whom no one knew was arrested for a crime committed there against a four-year-old child. It is plain from these brief glimpses of life in “White Alley”,— and the fact has been confirmed by several years of close observation, —that we have not here a criminal population. The story is one simply of low standards, intensified by isolation, and a monotonous round of petty offenses. One finds, not brutal fighting, but drunken brawls; not shrewd robbery, but petty thievery; not premeditated crime, but a general moral laxness. It is a question whether it is not more wholesome for a child to grow up in a vigorous atmosphere that is rent sometimes by revolting deeds than to breathe in constantly the sickening odors of perverted morality. It is true that there are no irregularities of alley life that might not be duplicated upon the street; but not only do alley conditions, because of the moral and physical isolation, foster a life of license, not only does the alley furnish an easy hiding place, whether perma- nent or temporary, for those who would violate the law, but the narrow- ness of the alley streets and the “shut-inness” of the place make all that happens common property, so that no one, try as he may, can close his eyes and ears to those vices which it is so easy to “endure”, “pity”, and “embrace”. A Dying Baby in an Improper Home. [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER VI PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS THE GROUND PLAN oF “AVERAGE ALLEY’. OVERCROWDED BUILDING AREAS. DEFECTIVE AND UNSANITARY CONDITIONS. Now that the human stories of “Average Alley” and of “White Alley” have suggested what are in general the alley standards of life, it is natural to inquire as to the physical forms in which these human activities are environed. It is chiefly with the material conditions of the alleys that public laws and officials are concerned. The social or personal phases of alley life are the fundamental questions at issue but they can be affected by enforcing higher standards as to housing conditions, toilet conveniences, water supply, overcrowding and the maintenance of wholesome premises. So far as the community acts through laws and inspectors, the beginnings of reform must be with practical regulations as to building materials, measurements, vacant spaces and the safeguarding of public health. Roti Catt oF ONE Hunprep Buitpine Lots An Alley, as explained in Chapter I, is not an “alley” in the ordinary sense, but a labyrinthian collection of short streets. Thus “Average Alley” comprises eight interior alley streets which are clearly pictured in the diagram included among the illustrations of this volume. One roadway runs straight through the block from north to south and measures within building lines, 495 feet long by 15 feet wide. Parallel to it are two shorter streets respectively 265 and 245 feet long by 30 feet wide. Crossing it at right angles and con- necting the middle of the two shorter streets, is another interior alley 150 feet long by 30 feet wide, running east to west in the hidden heart of the square. To the south of this central roadway and parallel to it, an alley 220 feet long and 10 feet wide runs westward from the first alley mentioned above to the outer border of the square. A similar alley runs from the opposite side or eastern edge of the block, westward to (57) AN “AVERAGE ALLEY” c > Pi 7) Wh Wi SCALE FEET Exact Drawing of “Blagden’s Alley” and Surrounding Square Between Ninth and Tenth, M and N Streets, N. W. [Drawing by Kemp, Stone and Craig] 2 Explanation. =~ Brick structures X Stable == Wooden structures W_ Warehouse or Work Shop HF High fence WS Wooden Shed Z Dwellings removed by condemnation since 1905. Measurements Alley A to B-—8s0 feet wide by 150 feet long. Alley C to D-—15 feet wide by 495 feet long. Alley E to F—80 feet wide by 265 feet long. Alley U to T-—830 feet wide by 245 feet long. Alley G to H-10 feet wide by 220 feet long. Alley W to X-—10 feet wide by 67 feet long. Alley AA to BB—15 feet wide by 66 feet long. Alley CC to DD—10 feet wide by 137 feet long. Houses 11.5 to 13.6 feet wide and 20 to 25 feet deep, with yards 7 to 19 feet deep, including toilet sheds at rear. (58) Physical Characteristics 59 the south end of one of the two parallel roadways described in the second sentence of this paragraph; this east and west alley measures 137 feet in length with a width of 10 feet. Running parallel to this, but in the north half of the square, there are two short alleys which connect the central, through alley with the northern ends of the two shorter north and south alleys. Of these short connecting alleys, one is 67 feet long by 10 feet wide; the other 66 feet long by 15 feet wide. These eight alley streets, added together, make a total street length of 1,645 feet. Deducting from this the 516 feet of alley length used only for access through three of the outer borders of the square to the interior set of houses, there remains a total length of only 929 feet. On this there fronted, in 1905, 54 occupied and 2 unoccupied dwellings, 14 stables, 5 sheds, 2 warehouses or workshops, and 23 vacant building lots, making a total of 100 frontages or possible building sites. All of these would have been available for alley houses if the law of 1892 had not fortunately prevented all further building in alleys. In 1908 the count had been altered by the removal of 7 occupied and 2 vacant dwellings and 1 shed, so that the roster of 100 building lots stands as follows; 47 dwellings, all occupied, 13 stables, 4 sheds, 3 warehouses or work- shops and 33 vacant building lots. NumMeber oF HousEHoLps, FAMILIES, AND INDIVIDUALS Of the 56 alley dwellings available in 1905, 2 were vacant. The other 54 accommodated 66 household groups, using separate cooking arrangements, or 109 distinct families, or parts of families, having different surnames. In all, the number of inhabitants of Average Alley in 1905 was 318 although the police census of that year enumer- ated only 270, while that of 1897 gave 255. In 1908 the number of houses to be occupied had been reduced, by the condemnation of 7 occupied and 2 unoccupied dwellings, to 47 houses, in which the police census reported 220 inhabitants. According to Miss Kemp’s count of 318 residents in 1905, there was an average of 5.9 people in -each of the 54 occupied dwellings. At this rate the 47 dwellings available in 1908 would accommodate 277 persons. The police report of 270 residents in 1905 is an average of 5 per house and at this rate there would be 235 inhabitants in 1908, when there are only 220 enumerated by the police. It is extremely difficult in any alley to secure an exhaustive count of the inhabitants. There are a great many subtenants whom the 60 Neglected Neighbors householders forget or wilfully omit in their reports. Alley people are notably vague about the exact number of adults and children even in the families which share the same little four-room house occupied by the person who answers the inquiries. The writer’s impression, from his rapid canvass in 1908 of all the alleys studied in 1905, is that overcrowding has increased so that the same number of alley houses in the present year would show a larger number of tenants than in 1905. The destruction of many unsanitary dwellings, without any houses being built to take their places, and the general large increase in alley rentals would make it natural for a larger number of people than formerly to be crowded into the available dwellings. The diffi- culties of an adequate count are so great that the necessarily hasty, superficial and inexpert work of the police enumeration is probably incomplete. The 56 dwellings of Average Alley in 1905 were arranged in 9 brick rows, of which one contained 8 houses, one 7, two rows 6 houses each, two 5 each, one 4, one 2 and one a single house. There were also five wooden rows; one of 5 houses, three of 2 houses each, with an isolated wooden house in addition. The 43 brick houses contained 178 rooms, an average of a little more than 4 rooms each. The 12 wooden dwellings had 46 rooms or a trifle less than 4 rooms each. In 1908 three of the wooden rows, containing respectively five, two and two houses each, had been removed. Four HunpreD PEOPLE To THE ACRE In Average Alley the actual area occupied, in 1905, by the 56 dwelling houses and their small back yards, amounted to 34,781 square feet, or less than eight tenths of one acre. This is equivalent to a single lot measuring 231 feet front by 150 feet deep or equal to a lot 186 feet square. Compared with the alley houses, the 74 residences on the outside of the square take up, in buildings and yards, four and a half times as much space, namely 157,214 square feet, or the equivalent of one lot measuring 1,048 feet front by 150 feet deep or equal to a lot measuring 396 feet square. The police census of 1905 enumerated 442 residents in these outer houses as compared with 270 in the alley dwellings. There are on these outer borders of the square 10 vacant lots and 75 houses of which 5 have one story each; 19 have 2 stories; 23 have 3 stories; 25 have 4 stories; and 4 have 5 stories each. In Average Alley itself, with no dwellings more than Physical Characteristics 61 two stories high, the population, 318 people in 1905, was crowded together at the rate of 402 inhabitants to the acre. This is notably large for little houses containing only four rooms each. Solitary families are to be found in goodly numbers in the better parts of Washington whose private building lot covers a larger area than the 34,781 square feet occupied by 56 alley houses and their yards. Of New York city’s typical building lots in tenement districts, each measuring 25 by 100 feet, not quite fourteen could be cut out of the total building area in Average Alley. The reason why the same area Receptive Little Children Whose Future Citizenship is Molded by the Evii Sights and Sounds of “Average Alley.” [Photo by Weller] in New York city would house more people is that the New York tenements average five stories and 4o rooms each as compared with the two-story, four-room dwellings of Washington’s alleys. If the houses in Average Alley had five instead of two stories and if the three added stories were crowded in the same proportion as the two stories were in 1905, the eight tenths of an acre covered by the 56 houses and yards would accommodate 795 persons. This would be at the rate of 1,006 per acre. In New York city. the most densely populated piece of ground in the whole world is said to be only 20 per cent more crowded, namely at the rate of 1,200 to the acre, instead of 1,006. 62 Neglected Neighbors Omitting the little yards and adding up the areas occupied by the alley dwellings themselves, we find that 16,958 square feet suffices for the 56 houses. This is a space equivalent to one lot measuring only 113 feet front by 150 deep or equal to a building lot only 130 feet square. As there are 43,560 square feet in one acre, the 56 houses of Average Alley in 1905, covering only 16,958 square feet of ground, occupied less than four tenths (exactly .366) of an acre. The 318 inhabitants living upon this .36 of an acre are crowded together at the rate of 883 persons to an acre. This is in houses oniy two stories high. In the same proportion, if the houses were five stories high they would be occupied at the rate of 2,205 to the acre. The only difference between conditions in 1905 and in 1908 appears to be the removal during that period of 9 houses which covered 3,371 of the 16,958 square feet or, including yards, 6,267 square feet out of the total of 34,781 described above. OVERCROWDING AND Its PREVENTION New York city pioneers in the improvement of housing conditions have suggested that it is extremely difficult and sometimes impossible for city officials to control the number of people accommodated in houses which have been erected. Instead, they say, we must guard against overcrowding by limiting the proportion of a given building area which may be occupied by a dwelling. That is, overcrowding can best be prevented by requiring a generous minimum of unoccupied space to be left around each residence. In Average Alley, the 56 houses are provided with 56 little yards of which the aggregate area is only 17,823 feet, or only four tenths of an acre. In comparison with the 34,781 square feet of land occupied by the yards and houses of Average Alley, a typical residence on Dupont Circle covers 13,901 square feet. The former home of James G. Blaine, which is not especially pretentious, occupies 11,776 square feet. At Connecticut Avenue and Nineteenth Street there is a private house and grounds which takes up 13,769 square feet of space. The British Legation, a private mansion in the heart of Washington, has a building lot containing 25,189 square feet. The building lots of a great many houses inhabited by families of very moderate means,— such as mail carriers, mechanics and laborers,—contain from 954 square feet or an area 30 feet square, to 1,530 square feet, or a place 39 feet square. Of the latter only about eleven and a half could be crowded Physical Characteristics 63 within the area occupied by 56 alley houses. All these alley dwellings could be located very comfortably upon the land covered in a great many instances by a single residence in the suburbs. THe Minimum or IMPROVEMENT The one and only improvement in the general alley situation which has been effected since 1905, in consequence of the vigorous agitation which reached its climax at that time, has been the destruction of some five hundred unsanitary shacks scattered over various streets and alleys throughout the city. In Average Alley this desirable, though merely negative, activity has been exemplified in the removal of 7 occupied and 2 vacant houses. How bad conditions had become in order to compel attention is suggested by the following two paragraphs which are given exactly as written three years ago. “Dilapidation is a housing evil which seriously affects the tenant’s standards of life. Out of the 56 dwellings in Average Alley, 14 are dilapidated. In 10 of these the plaster is falling from the walls and ceilings, 4 being so bad that one can see through into the outer aiz, while in one house there was scarcely a place which had whole plaster on the wall. There is one dwelling where the bricks in the front wall appear to be very loose and one of the inmates is said to have narrowly escaped serious injury from one of them. The floors in 6 houses are reported as defective,—being ‘weak’, or ‘very shaky’, or ‘sunken’ or ‘positively dangerous’. The total number of wooden dwellings in Average Alley is 12, (bricks 44) and all but two of the 12 are dilapi- dated,—incurably so in most instances. Two of the 12 are so very bad, even according to alley standards, that they are not occupied at all. “There still stands, although somewhat shakily, in one corner of. Average Alley a pair of shacks known as ‘The Fort’. They are a stronghold of dilapidation and decay. Three families inhabit them, for their six rooms are divided into three ‘apartments’. The whole ‘Fort’ measures 1714 feet front,—with the second story slightly over- hanging the first, and 20 feet deep. The two downstairs rooms meas- ure each 12 feet wide by 10 feet deep. The four rooms above measure 10 feet in width, each of them, by 6, 8, 8%, and 11 feet in length, respec- tively. The upstairs rooms have ceilings only about 6 feet high slop- ing down from 6 feet 2 inches to 5 feet 9 inches. The floors slope also, out of sympathy perhaps, and, like the ceilings, they have many 64 Neglected Neighbors irregular, protruding places. The floor in the two rear, upstairs rooms has a fall of about four or five inches in ten feet, a rather steep ‘up grade’ toward the bed in one corner. This bedstead has to be moved around diplomatically in rainy weather for the roof leaks copiously. There is no through ventilation in the second floor rooms, each pair of which is separated from the other by a dead partition wall across the center of the house. Each room has a window measuring 314 by 2% feet or slightly more than one twelfth the area of the largest room. The law requires window space equal to one tenth of the room area. The place seemed fearfully hot and close even In “Average Alley;” a Neglected Corner. [Photo by Weller] on a cool September evening. The only entrance to the rear apartment on the second floor is by a narrow passageway leading through the first floor of the building into a back yard twenty feet square, littered with rubbish and malodorous from a toilet often clogged up and overflow- ing with filth. This dirty toilet stands only 9 feet from the rear of the house and contributes to the constant foul odors which pervade the building. The walls of all the rooms are dirty, smoky and dilapi- dated. The aggregate rental for “The Fort’ is $10 monthly. The three tenant families seem fairly content but it is impossible to repro- duce by measurements and descriptions the depressing influence which the hovels exercise upon even a temporary visitor. Physical Characteristics 65 A “Rotren Row” “The row of five two-story wooden houses, in one of which the lad died whose death brought about Washington's crusade against tuberculosis, is in about the same unsavory condition as ‘The Fort’. ‘That row has been condemned over and over again but I notice the people live there just the same’, say the neighbors. The row measures 70 feet front by 29 feet deep and is divided into five houses of which the front rooms on both floors measure 12 by 12, the rear rooms 12 by 13% feet. The floors throughout are in bad condition; one is badly sunken ; some are obviously dangerous and nearly all are shaky; there are numerous loose boards and in some places an extra board has been simply laid over a hole where the proper flooring has disappeared. . The roofs leak. The walls are dilapidated. The plaster has fallen off in sheets and the fact that one can look through into the open air in various places explains why the tenants complain all winter about the fuel consumed in futile efforts to warm the rooms. Doors and windows, defective and ill fitting, have had all their misfits emphasized by the settling and bulging of the walls. The outside of the row shows no signs of having ever been painted or even whitewashed but consists only of weatherbeaten, gray boards. If curved lines are lines of beauty, then the roofs, sides and corners of this row are admirable. In one of the back yards the thrifty Solton family prepare food for their lunchroom located in the house where Christ Lewis died of tuberculosis. Here the sight and odors of an open bucket of skinned rabbits, a pan of pigs’ feet and piles of filth, all black with flies, which were found in the yard one hot day this summer, seemed quite appro- priate to the whole effect outside and in of a ‘rotten row’. Its constant effect must be to depress and vitiate the manners, morals and general standards of life of all its numerous denizens and neighbors.” DeFEcts REMEDIABLE BY EXISTING Laws In spite of the three preceding paragraphs one could say, even in 1905, that a superficial view of Average Alley yields an impression of rather satisfactory physical conditions. When this particular alley was selected for exhaustive study it was felt that it would show much fewer housing defects than most of the other alleys known to the writer. It has been surprising therefore to find the dilapidation de- scribed, together with a number of unsanitary conditions which could be remedied by more vigorous enforcement of existing regulations. 5 66 Neglected Neighbors While the Alley ground plan is itself the chief housing problem, transcending detailed questions as to dryness, plumbing arrangements and sanitary inspection, there are evils and defects in these physical characteristics also. Average Alley is comparatively wholesome in this regard, much better than most of the other alleys, but a good many remediable defects are to be discovered by even a casual inspec- tion. In the following record of unsanitary conditions the year “1905” is put after the defects noted at that time while “1908” is printed after objectionable conditions as they were found during a hasty inspection, requiring less than two hours time, in June 1908. There were 53 water toilets in Average Alley in 1905, located in the little back yards of most of the 56 houses. In 1908 the total number of houses had been reduced to 47 and the number of toilets to 46. The bowl or flush pipe of these toilets leaked in 9 instances in 1905, in 5 in 1908. The flushing of the toilet bowl was notably weak and ineffective in one case, in 1905, and 7, in 1908. The water could not be turned on at all in 2 toilets, in 1905; in 4, in 1908. Of the 9 leaking toilets observed in 1905, 5 were so bad that the ground about them was sodden with water, while the leakage from four of the bowls ran far down the surface of the alley outside the yards in which the water closets stood. From one of these four profusely leaking toilets, the stream ran so far down the roadway that it at last became an annoyance to the residents on the outside street. When these important people made complaint the leak was stopped, but by the heroic measure of shutting off the entire water supply of the alley house where the leakage occurred. In consequence, for more than three weeks, the alley house- hold had no water in either hydrant or toilet. The presumably innocent tenants were compelled to pay five cents cartage for each tub full of water for their washings. UNSUITABLE HYDRANTS AND TOILETS It would be only just to add that the flush is really inadequate in all of the alley toilets. They are supplied with the old style, “long hopper” closets, which have no tank for the collection of water to be dashed into the bowl at times of cleansing. Instead they have only a “rim flush’, in other words an ordinary, small and feeble stream of water directed around the upper edges of the bowl. This arrange- ment is declared to be “unsatisfactory at best” by modern students of plumbing and sanitation. In addition, it is sometimes alleged of alleys Physical Characteristics 67 generally that their water mains are too small to make possible an adequate flush for all of the toilets and that this helps to permit or promote the obstructions which are constantly occurring. In Average Alley, for example, there is said to be only a 3 inch water main and it is required to supply water for all of the toilets, all the hydrants, and probably for all the stables. Average Alley has an outdoor hydrant or, in a few instances an indoor faucet, for every house. In one instance, in 1905, and 5, in 1908, the stream from the hydrant was very small and slow in supply- ing the family’s need. One hydrant could not be made to yield any water at all, in 1908; two others leaked badly and scattered the water around the unpaved yards, in 1908. Roors, Gutters, “Downspouts”, Czess Poors anpD Yarps Of the roofs, there were 6 reported as leaking, in 1905, and Io, in 1908. It is usual for such defects to be repaired rather promptly by the landlords because tight roofs are recognized as essential to the preservation of the buildings. The gutters, which drain the roofs, and the “leaders” or “downspouts”, which are the vertical pipes that bring roof water to the ground, are fruitful causes of dampness in the houses. There were g instances, in 1905, in which the “downspout” did not connect with the sewer as the law required; in 6 cases, in 1905, it flooded the back yards very badly; 5 “leaders”, in 1905, came only part way to the ground, leaving the water to spread out over the house walls through which it naturally soaked, gradually making the rooms damp in consequence. In Mrs. Hargrove’s house the rear wall was constantly green outside because of the water drained upon it, while the plaster inside looked as if the rain flowed over it in copious streams. In 1908, this water-soaked wall was so weak and its bricks so loose that the tenants did not dare to lean against it or to tip their chairs against the wall for fear it would fall out entirely. In three instances, in 1908, the gutters or “downspouts” were reported as leak- ing or defective. The “cesspool” is understood to mean the sink or drain beneath the outdoor hydrant or elsewhere in the yard. In two instances, in 1905, it was found to be badly clogged, while in two other cases, in 1905, it was caked over and completely concealed beneath some inches of accumulated dirt. It is a common thing to find the bricks around the “cesspool” so broken or badly laid that waste water soaks into the 68 Neglected Neighbors surrounding soil. None of the little yards are surfaced with brick or cement, as would obviously be desirable. The drainage from two yards, in 1905, ran directly into or beneath their houses; 5 yards, in 1905, and 3, in 1908, were soaked or sodden with water. Three yards, in 1905, and 12, in 1908, contained a noteworthy quantity of rubbish or filth that was presumably unhealthful. Almost every alley house has a very small back yard in which the hydrant and the toilet are located, together with a tiny shed or a roof at the rear end of the yard. The average depth of yards is 19 feet, while their average width is 12 feet,—the same as that of the houses. One dwelling in Average Alley stands so close against the structure behind it, a stable which faces toward the outside street, that only three feet intervenes and the rear windows of the alley home are badly darkened. Is tHe ALLEY House a HoME? Such are the physical characteristics and the common defects as to toilets, water supply, dilapidation and other features, which environ Alley House. [Photo by Weller] the swarming human life of an Average Alley and contribute to the moral degradation which the preceding chapters pictured. A Home has been defined as: “A place to be safe in; a place to be warm and dry in; a place to eat in peace and sleep in quiet; a place whose close, familiar limits rest the nerves from the continuous hail of impressions in the changing world outside.” Physical Characteristics 69 From what the preceding chapters have suggested concerning the “quiet seclusion” of home life in Average Alley, and from the over- crowding which is characteristic, it is evident that alley houses lack privacy, lack provisions for making the family life distinct and sacred. Instead there is discord, disorder, and a constant, seething “mixup” of the population. The people in Average Alley might be compared to three hundred and eighteen apples tossing about in a common barrel, in which the rottenness of the bad fruit is given every opportunity to infect all the rest. CHAPTER VII CAPITAL CITY CONTRASTS OTHER ALLEYS. Terr PuysicaL Derects. SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PROBLEM oR Its SOLUTION EXEMPLIFIED BY EACH. With “Average Alley” and “White Alley” as a basis of compari- son and an epitome of essential alley standards, fifteen other alleys have also been investigated. ‘These have been selected in various parts of Washington. They will indicate whether the fundamental char- acteristics of the first two alleys studied are observable in all the rest. There are also special features of the alley problem and some consid- erations bearing upon its solution which may best be understood by examining several different manifestations of the general alley type. While the law for the condemnation of insanitary dwellings, enacted since the original investigation in 1905, has effected the removal of a number of the very worst dwellings described in the following pages, the alley itself remains, impregnable as yet to all assaults upon it. BENEATH THE SHADOW OF THE SENATE CHAMBER Congressional indifference to the improvement of housing condi- tions has been particularly striking in view of the conditions found in several alleys nestling close beneath the shadow of the Capito! dome itself. There is “Schott Alley” with a large population,—222 inhabitants including 172 white people,—in the square immediately adjoining the new marble office building of the Senate and just at the northeast corner of the Capitol grounds. ‘“‘Bassett’s Alley’, to be described later, is in the square next to “Schott Alley” and only one block from the corner of the handsome garden grounds which surround the halls of Congress. One square farther away is ‘“Lowe’s Bottom”, whose col- lection of extremely bad shacks were not destroyed or even vacated until 1907. On the opposite side of the Capitol, at the foot of the long, terraced stairway which leads down to Pennsylvania avenue, (72) [aeT1eM Aq oVoYg] "a4NzDId Ul UVaG ,,SjUusWeEdy YNDIFOQUUOD GUL, PUB JUBUBADD 94} JO YOUNYD ay} ‘Assequiq Ysi}iug a4} JEAN ,,34N0D S,usanH,, Ul poozg 31 SE ,,MOY YOUIYD,, 7 Capital City Contrasts 73° there is “Purdy’s Court” within 35 yards of the “Peace Monument”. The shabby frames of this hidden alley have long been occupied by 70 black-haired, swarthy :folk from Italy. ‘Willow Tree Alley”, the most notorious of all, with 501 inhabitants of whom 273 are white people, is only two blocks from the southwest corner of the Capitol grounds. “Jackson Hall Alley” is hidden in the square bounded by Pennsylvania avenue, John Marshall Place, Third and C streets, north- west. It has 79 white and 60 colored inhabitants. There are only two squares between it and the stone fence around Capitol square. “Louse Alley”, or “Armory Place”, with its crowded lodging houses for Italian laboring men standing close beside the bawdy houses of colored women, is in striking contrast to the white dome of the Capitol which is always seen towering above the alley hovels and only three blocks away. THE Bonps oF BROTHERHOOD Thomas Carlyle made it clear that resourceful people are bound up organically with the interests and injuries of their neglected neigh- bors, although both parties may be unaware of the fact. The character of these sub-conscious bonds is suggested by the fact that in one of the hidden alleys about which the Senators had been uninformed and unconcerned, the towels of the Senate barbershop were found to be regularly washed and dried. Statesmen are jostled upon the streets and street cars by denizens of the alleys. They employ servants who return nightly to these unwholesome hovels. Their nurse girls take the babies for occasional visits to the alley homes. The democratic little house-fly carries disease germs from the disregarded plague spots and deposits them, with Christian catholicity of spirit, upon the food alike of rich and poor, statesman and voteless citizen. A Near NEIGHBOR OF THE CAPITOL “Bassett’s Alley” is hidden away between Second and Third, Mary- land avenue and C street, northeast. The expression “hidden away’ is particularly appropriate for the alley entrance on Third street is only three feet wide. It is rather difficult to find even when one has been told of its general location in the block; a casual passerby would’ hardly notice it at all. A wholesome outside residence stands close up on either side of the narrow entrance way, which would hardly a4 Neglected Neighbors permit the passage of a very stout person or even of a slender man who had a bundle under each arm. ‘‘Bassett’s Alley” has one other exit also, namely a roundabout driveway eleven feet wide which opens upon Second street. Its worst row of shacks has recently been de- stroyed but the description of it, as written in 1905, is worthy of pres- ervation. It shows how flagrant evils may persist for years without arousing the conscience of even such alert neighbors as our national lawmakers: “Penetrating the narrow passageway from Third street for a distance of 111 feet one comes upon a row of three two-story, wooden paid TN ' { a | pee i Gi i | 4 Grounds. [Photo by Glascoff] houses or ‘flats’. There are ten rooms in this dilapidated row and eight families live there. Only two of them have more than one room each. One of the two-room aristocrats is a carpenter whose wife does wash-. ing to assist in the support of their two children. The other ‘suite’ of two rooms is occupied by a woman and her brother who have crowded them with ‘china gods’, as the investigator says, referring to an unusual accumulation of bric-a-brac. The rentals charged are $2.50 monthly for single rooms or $4.50 for two. The ceilings of all the rooms appear to slope from a height of seven and a quarter feet to only six and a half feet. The total window area in each room, with the exception of two rooms in the end house, amounts to only one four- Capital City Contrasts 78 teenth or one eighteenth of the floor area. The walls are misshapen, grimy, black and scaly. The row stands close against another building behind it which is used as a stable. There are no windows therefore in the rear walls and no through ventilation of the living rooms. A visitor is strongly impressed at once by the physical discomforts of the place. It is a rough, unsubstantial shanty whose lines are all out of plumb. The first floor rooms are some 12 inches below the surface of the yard and, if water flows down hill in ‘Bassett’s Alley’ as elsewhere, these rooms must frequently be damp. But in spite of the handicaps placed upon them by unwholesome physical conditions, the residents of ‘Bassett’s Alley’ seem to be rather industrious, respectable people. There are some evidences also that the owner tries to ‘make the best of a bad thing’ by maintaining the shanties in pretty good repair. No WatTER SuppLy But Many Opors “Close upon the narrow entrance-way the wooden box toilets of these shacks are located and one does not need his eyes to find them out. There is fortunately a ‘cesspool’ or sink in the yard before the row; for many of the inhabitants ‘do washings’ and it is a great con- venience to them to get rid of their waste water so easily. Perhaps this compensates partially for the fact that all the water used must be carried from a hydrant on the outside street corner, on Second street between Maryland avenue and C street. There are two other wooden dwellings in “Bassett’s Alley’ that are noteworthy because they have ‘hopper’ toilets which are apparently connected with the sewer. They have no flush however and can be cleansed by the tenants only by pouring into the bowls some of the precious water lugged in from outside streets. As is usual in toilets flushed in this spontaneous manner, the floors are wet and sodden with spilled water.” In 1908 the worst shacks have disappeared and water has been installed in the others. An Ercut Foot Court Two blocks from the southeast corner of the Capitol grounds, in a square adjoining the magnificent “Library of Congress” is “Ruppert’s Row” between B and C, Second and Third streets southeast. Tucked away so completely that it is difficult to find it even if specifically directed to the place, there is a row of five two-story brick houses 76 Neglected Neighbors which face on a blind court only eight feet wide. Their little back yards abut on another “cul-de-sac” only ten feet wide. These two blind passageways extend only down the length of the row itself. Upon three sides the dwellings are walled about by the houses and stables of property fronting toward the outside streets. The families occupying Ruppert’s Court appear to be wholesome people, as indicated by the neat condition of their homes. The back yards, ten feet deep, including a five-foot shed across the rear end, are the only cemented yards discovered anywhere in the course of this investigation. The kitchen sinks are “trapped” and “vented” and the housing conditions would be excellent, if the houses stood upon an outside street, had adequate yards and were not shut in upon an eight foot, blind court- way. At present the one entrance to this hidden row is quite circuitous and complicated. One enters from Third street a narrow, cobble- stone alley, walks about 120 feet past the front house and lot, turns to the right past the rear end of the two front lots and the two stables attached to two outside houses, and then turns to the right again into the eight foot “cul-de-sac” on which faces “Ruppert’s Row”. Along the opposite side of the diminutive alleyway stand the two-story brick stable and the high brick fence which runs from this stable to the Third street house in front. ‘“Ruppert’s Row” appears to illustrate the origin of alley houses generally. The space occupied by the row is evidently the rear end of a front building lot whose owners found they did not need it all. The two stables toward which “Ruppert’s Row” now faces occupy the corresponding rear ends of the original building lots next door. The total area occupied by the five houses and yards, with the narrow pas- sageways at their front and rear, is only 52 feet from front to rear and 60 feet from end to end of the little row. Walled in closely as these five houses are they have only one advantage. As a tenant recently remarked, “They sure are warm in winter”. ALLEY ORIGINS AND CHANGES It is a peculiar but not unfamiliar sight in Washington to see alleys and alley houses which have preceded the outside residences and occupied the center of squares that are otherwise vacant. Such is “Cushing Place” between L and M, Half and First streets, southeast, seven blocks due south of the marble palace recently erected as an office building for Congressmen, who cheerfully expended for the site and Capital City Contrasts 17 ° so 100 . i cCcocrcrrs 3 SCALE FEET “Ruppert’s Row” in the Square Adjoining the Congressional Library. Letters A-B Mark the Alley Entrance From Third Street, Southwest, and show the Depth of the Original Building Lots, from the Rear Ends of which “Ruppert’s Row” (C-D and E-F) Has Been Formed. Oblique Lines Indi- cate Brick and Horizontal Lines Wooden Structures. X Marks a Stable and Z a Building Demolished Since 1905. [Drawing by Craig] 78 Neglected Netghbors the costly homes that filled it, enough money to wipe out a score or two of alleys. “Cushing Place’ is not situated in a new or suburban region; nor is there lack of open squares nearby, which are held, of course, for rise in land values. Surrounded by weed-grown, vacant lots, this open alley, developed before its time, is like a giant, ugly caterpillar not yet encased in chrysalis form. The seven two-story wooden dwellings of “Cushing Place” look out toward Half street across a vacant area about which the neighbors raise complaint. They say the earth was taken out for use by the brickyard nearby and that water stands in the depression, stagnant, ill-smelling and a breed- ing place for malarial mosquitoes. Next to this, the chief cause of dissatisfaction is the garbage collector whose infrequent calls are said to excuse the tenants for throwing refuse out upon the vacant lots. There are only wooden box toilets in this alley. The row of dwellings is ancient and weatherbeaten in appearance. Their inner walls are spoken of as “smoked and dirty”. Four leaking roofs are reported out of the five houses entered. One family was found who confessed to moving downstairs, where all six of them crowded into the one room, to escape, they said, the bedbugs which infested the two upstairs chambers. One could see no reason why the vermin should discrim- inate against the lower rooms or against any other portion of the whole row for it all appears equally degenerate and depressing to any life save that habituated to the lowly standards of the “Chinch”. Revisiting the place in July 1908, the writer found few changes made since 1905. A thin coat of paint covered the front of the ugly row, like a “charm” spoken to ward off the destructive attention of the “Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings.” The roofs were not so much complained of,—there has been a long drouth this season. In one house the wholesome looking tenant led the visitor past an original and very interesting picture of “The Last Supper”, to the kitchen which had actually been provided with a solid new floor and new wainscoting. The latter had not been painted; “but I guess it will be’, said the sanguine old tenant. Her yard, like her neighbors’ yards, was cluttered up with rubbish. The little rear sheds looked as if they could not stand it if the long-desired rainstorm should appear. The fence looked strangely ragged. The old dame explained that, after many complaints by the tenants, a man had been sent to repair it. “An I ’clare to goodness”, she said, “the onliest way he done fux it wuz ’at he turned the old fence bo’ds downside up. But, nevah 299 min’,” she added, “he’s gone to jedgement sence”, g jedg' Capital City Contrasts 19 For Waite PEopLE ONLY Tucked in behind a public school building are the three one-story frame houses which make up “Dick’s Court”, between M and N, Third and Fourth streets, southeast, four blocks from “Cushing Place”. In the same square is another alley court, “Mechanic Place”, with 67 residents, all white. From ‘“Dick’s Court” the orily exit is by walking through a vacant lot and going either around the school or around a row of frames on the opposite edge of the square. Among the white inhabitants in 1905 was an “inventor and Knight Templar”, as he described himself, who possessed several photographs and keepsakes suggestive of his former connection with better things than alleys offer. Another resident was known especially, upon the records of the Associated Charities, for the remarkable imagination with which she devised a very serviceable double to whom she attributed all her own faults and failures. In the third house lived a woman who, having apparently worn away the glamour of the marriage ceremony by using it frequently, had subsequently attached herself to another man without the bother of a legal process. In short, the usual alley standards were as apparent here, among the white folks, as elsewhere in colored alleys. Wooden box privies were the only toilet conveniences in “Dick’s Alley”. They were located in back yards 12 feet deep by 10 feet wide, under shed roofs which had no screening woodwork at all in front of the toilet boxes. In place of the missing walls and doors there hung strips of cloth or matting which partially covered the openings. The floors of these outhouses were only wood and dirt, (although the laws require sloping, raised floors of non-absorbent material). All the water used in the houses must be carried from the distant outside street—a long walk, for there are no hydrants in the alley. The three two-room houses rented for three dollars each per month. In July 1908 the houses still endure. Their condition is unimproved but they have recently been vacated. Filthy inscriptions and lewd drawings on the walls suggest that the hovels serve still to screen evil practices. Their intimate proximity to the McCor- mick public school suggests a dual standard of public education. That is, through the housing conditions which it tolerates the commu- nity often permits the teachings of its educational institutions to be undermined. 80 Neglected Neighbors From AMERICANS TO JEWS AND THEN NEGROES Back of “Odd Fellows’ Hall” on Eighth near G street, southeast, there runs a small alley which is worthy of note for the two dilapidated wooden houses which it contains. One was dirty; the other was clean. The floors of the first were damp and dilapidated. Its roof is said to have leaked for three years. Thirteen people, composing three separate but related families, were housed in the six rooms of this two story frame. As the number included eight adults, they evidently represented sufficient earning power to permit of their living decently upon an outside street. The low rental, eight dollars, for these six- room alley houses simply allows wider margins for the indulgence of injurious appetites and habitual sloth. The alley as a whole is credited with 17 white people by the police census of 1897 while that of 1905 reported 32 inhabitants, all colored. In 1908 the police enumerated 42 negroes living here. Our schedules in 1908, recorded 16 colored people living in two houses, while two bricks and a frame were not investigated. One of the present tenants, who says she was the first colored woman to rent quarters in “Odd Fellows’ Alley”, explained that it was formerly inhabited by white people only, but Russian Jews secured a temporary foothold in the place. After their removal no other white people would accept their vacant quarters and colored people were therefore admitted to one or two houses. This led the white tenants of other buildings to withdraw and the social transforma- tion was completed. INADEQUATE WATER SUPPLIES Two improvements have been effected since 1905 in the housing conditions of “Guethler Alley”, between D and E, Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, southeast. This is a part of Washington which may be described as both old and new; for many of its buildings were erected years ago, while it is only within quite recent times that modern buildings and the improvement of conditions have been especially evident. Wooden box toilets without water connection were the chief characteristics of this alley in 1905. Like a good many of their neighbors, the inhabitants of “Guethler Alley” were obliged to carry all their water from pumps or hydrants on the outside streets. Per- haps this was one reason why some of the alley people preferred the products of the brewery, which stands in the same square, to the drink- Capital City Contrasts 81 ing water which it was so much trouble to secure. Of all the many Washington houses whose residents must bring all their water from a distance, it is safe to say that “the water supply is inadequate”. Peo- ple will not carry for a block or two enough water to do all the wash- ing, scrubbing and bathing which are requisite for their large families in addition to the laundry patrons whose washings supply a large share of the support of many houses. Most of us, much better trained, would be dirty under such conditions. There were nine wooden frame dwellings in “Guethler Alley” in 1905, with nine wooden box toilets to perfume the neighborhood. The law says that privies must never be filled within less than four inches of the top, but no one seems to pay much attention to this requirement; these particular toilets, for example, were several times found overflowing with filth. In these and in other houses in this general vicinity it seemed, at the time of the two inspections at least, that the proper authorities were very slow in cleaning out such overflowing toilets even when the tenants had duly reported them. Two instances of high death rates were also discovered in “Guethler Alley”. In one family, of seventeen children born, thirteen had died. In another, thirteen out of fourteen were dead. The two improvements made since 1905 are, first, the intro- duction of water hydrants and toilets; second, the demolition of two of the worst frame dwellings. In the improvement of housing conditions it always appears that the “Consumer pays the tariff”, the tenant pays liberally by increased rentals for all improvements. Thus, for one group of four houses with four rooms each in “Guethler Alley”, the rents have been raised from $4.00 to $6.00 per month. Another landlord charges $7.50 each for three houses having only three rooms each. OVERTAXED TENANTS The fact that the tenant pays for every betterment of his housing accommodations was illustrated again in ‘Ball Alley”, between Second and Third, G and Massachusetts avenue, northwest. Four wooden shacks, which have since been destroyed, were improved by providing one hydrant and two outdoor water toilets for use by the four houses jointly. The cost was assessed in an increase of seventy-five cents upon the monthly rental of each shanty. This made a total increase of three dollars per month to pay for the use of three sanitary con- veniences and the city’s water. Three of the four dwellings had their 6 82 Neglected Neighbors yards entirely in common, while the tenant of the fourth house, which had a separate yard fenced off, was compelled to join the other three in the use of their common hydrant and toilets. Three one-story, two-room houses rented in 1905 for $4.75 each per month. One two- story, three-room house commanded $5.50 monthly. The walls of the latter place leaked profusely, even to the lower floor. In one of the two-room shacks one could see through the broken walls in several places into the outside air. The walls of all the houses were reported to be “in bad repair’. The floors were damp in all four dwellings; in one they were uneven and broken; in another they slanted danger- P] i} 4 Fo Typical Alley Vista; Part of “Ball Alley” Northwest, with the Usual Mid- day Loafers. [Photo by Weller] ously. The whole row was reported as deserving to be classed among the shacks which merit either summary removal or extensive repairs. When the “Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Dwellings” was finally established it evidently concluded that these few shanties were hopeless ; for they have disappeared. But, next to the site they occupied there are still standing two frame buildings whose condition seems to be little, if any, better than that of the condemned houses, which belonged to another owner. In one of the two shacks an industrious colored woman was found, in August 1908, who pays $5.00 a month for two rooms only. It was a very hot day. The perspiring woman Capital City Contrasts 83 was too busy at her wash-tub to waste any time in conversation. She was indignant, “Yes”, she said, “you folks makes us pay so much rent that we have to scrub our fingers off doing your washing and your scrubbing to earn the money; and we're glad if we can get enough extra to have ash cake and smoked herring for our little ones to eat.” Tenants, Not Owners, Pay For ImMPRovEMENTS It is suggested by another typical instance, in “Phillip’s Court”,— between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth, M and N streets, northwest, —that owners and agents have no cause to oppose the raising of standards in housing conditions. For the tenant pays the cost. All added expenses for construction or repairs appear to be speedily expressed in higher rentals. In so far as this is true it narrows the alley problem to this question; “Is it, possible and advisable to force a group of people who are now living undeveloped lives to ‘come up higher’?” The answer is that people are injured by lowering their standards, not by raising them. In a great many of the families studied it has been clearly evident that they could pay higher rents and meet the expenses of more wholesome living if required to do so. The case of Mrs. Sanderson in “Phillip’s Court” illustrates all these points. For many years she had lived here in one of the nine- teen four-room brick houses, which extend eastward from Twenty- fifth street, between M and N, northwest. Her monthly rent was five dollars. The attention of the Health Department was called to the fact that the entire row was supplied with only wooden box toilets, while one house at least had merely a leaky, wooden barrel sunken in the ground for the reception of excreta. As a water main and sewer were available, the Health Officer ordered that toilets and hydrants be installed. They were. Immediately the rent was raised. Mrs. San- derson paid two dollars and thirty cents extra every month for the use of an outdoor hydrant, which serves two premises, and for a “long hopper” water closet in her small back yard. She could well afford these necessities, however, for her household comprised only three people ; herself, her husband and a son, all wage earners. The husband earned $2.00 a day as a “cement mechanic”, the son $1.00 daily, while Mrs. S. herself added two or three dollars weekly by her laundry work. But the increase of two dollars and thirty cents (or forty-six per cent) upon an original rental of five dollars must leave the owner with a generous profit upon the small sum invested in the primitive 84 Neglected Neighbors sanitary conveniences. In ten of the nineteen houses the increase was three dollars (or sixty per cent), on the ground that each of these dwellings has a separate hydrant, instead of one shared between each pair of dwellings. In 1908 the rents in “Phillip’s Alley” were found to have taken another jump upward. Most of the houses now command eight dollars monthly. In some cases, an old tenant gets one for seven-fifty. The corner house, fronting toward Twenty-fifth street, rents for ten dollars. Meanwhile, there seem to have been no vital changes in the condition of the nineteen four-room dwellings. An Unconscious Connection BETWEEN THE AVENUES AND ALLEYS “Phillip’s Alley” as a whole includes two short alleyways addi- tional to the one already described as containing nineteen two-story bricks. On one of these roadways is “Branson’s Row”, which stands back of Twenty-fifth street between M and N, northwest. Here there was discovered another example of the unappreciated relationship which often exists between alley shacks and wholesome outside resi- dences. A servant girl lived in the upper room of one of these three room shanties, with her husband and two babies. When the youngest child was only a few weeks old the mother returned to her service place, leaving the infant to be cared for by the woman downstairs. When a prominent ex-secretary of state, together with the leading merchant of Washington, were taken to inspect this house, in 1903, they found the servant’s room containing a single width bedstead with rusty springs and no mattress or bed clothing except a pile of ragged, old garments in which the sleepers burrowed like rats. The room had a broken little stove, which was not connected with the chimney, and an old battered trunk. The low ceiling and all the walls were grimy and irregular. The stairway leading to the chamber was unlighted and insecure. The two rooms below seemed also to be in the last stages of decrepitude and decay, while the only toilet convenience was an open box, without any cover whatever, which stood in the shaky, open woodshed, with overflowing excreta dripping from it upon the earthen floors. Such were the home influences to which a servant girl returned nightly from one of Washington’s comfortable residences and exclusive family circles. The gentlemen visitors beat a hasty retreat, surprised that the row of four shacks, of which the one described is merely typical, should Capital City Contrasts 85 not be immediately condemned. But in 1905, two years later, they still were standing, although at that time the tenants said the houses had truly “been condemned.” They were not unoccupied, however, although some of the rooms had become entirely uninhabitable. The roof of one cook shed or “summer kitchen” had fallen in because the side walls had been gradually removed for kindling wood. The stairs by which the visitors once climbed up to the servant’s chamber had LTA » See High and Dry in “Phillip’s Alley’; Shacks Without Water or Sewerage. In One of the Sheds Below a Leaking Barrel Toilet was Discovered; When a Water Closet was Installed the Rent was Raised 46 Per cent. [Photo by Glascoff] decayed and disappeared. The coverless box toilet was still in evi- dence. A wholesome-looking, middle-aged woman, who lived in one of the shacks and was raising a half-dozen fox terriers for sale, stated that she was at work in family service. This woman rented the room upstairs to a friend and there were at least two other families, making four in all, who were discovered in these “condemned dwellings”. Words are quite inadequate to picture these shanties. Let the reader mention each detail of what a wholesome house should be and then 86 Neglected Neighbors picture these four rattletraps as being radically wrong, defective, or entirely wanting in every item. It was natural that they should go down before the onslaught of the new “Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings”’. UNNECESSARY AND ILLEGAL NEGLECT Next door to these four dilapidated dwellings there stood, and still stands, another wooden house which appeared to be of about the same “vintage” as its neighbors. On another, parallel branch of the alley there were eight more shanties between which it was difficult to dis- criminate as to badness. On the east side of this alley arm there were four houses which stood upon a sloping bank a few feet above the roadway. Their back yards drained forward, underneath the houses, into the muddy, unpaved alleyway below. There were only wooden box toilets for all these four shanties, although there seemed to be a water main and sewer available, since there was a “hopper” closet just across the alleyway. Next door to this water toilet, however, a wooden box privy was tolerated and its walls, by the way, were old, broken and partly open so that an occupant was not screened from view. One of the eight frames which faced upon this arm of “Phillip’s Alley” was reported to be “ in very good condition on the outside, though very dirty inside; while the yard is filthy”. The schedule con- tinued; “When the woman of this house was asked if there were any animals on the premises, she said that they owned ‘a horse’; but in picking my way through the filthy back yard, I saw coach dogs and puppies, cats, geese, chickens, and eight or more goats, besides three horses in the stable.” This crowded yard was like all the others of the row, in the fact that it was filled with all sorts of rubbish all the way from the ramshackle, broken, tilted dwellings at the front of the yards, back twenty-eight feet to the overflowing box toilets at the rear. The alleyway itself was, and is still, unpaved, uneven and, in rainy weather, very muddy. The whole center of this square is rotten. The entire alley is like a city rubbish heap. Teeming with inhabitants as it does, the alley heart of this city square is like the fallen ruins of city buildings among whose fragments living men and women are confined, with no one intent upon their rescue. Capital City Contrasts 87 An Insane City Hermit The characteristic isolation of alley folk was illustrated here by the fact that in one of these eight shanties an old woman was confined for some years in a queer little basement room which was boarded and earthed in, like a prison cell of medizval days. The woman’s husband and children occupied the upstairs rooms, where a piano, a guitar and other musical instruments suggested higher tastes than are usually expressed in alley homes. The old man was said to own the ancient, patchwork property, which was left high up on a clay bank above the alleyway, when the street grades were changed. The mysterious old woman, who was never to be seen, is said to have suffered for eighteen years as the result of a paralytic stroke which robbed her of all her mental faculties, so that she could not recognize her children or plan for her own care. It is likely that her family provided for her to the best of their ability and judgment. It always impressed one, however, as particularly striking that this reversion to ancient methods of imprisoning insane people should be discovered within two blocks of Pennsylvania avenue and within four squares, diagonally, of Massachusetts avenue, where there are standing some of the most palatial residences in the National Capital. This old shanty has disappeared since this study was prepared, as have several of the hovels on the opposite side of the alley. The set of shacks described in the following paragraph still remain. They also have the congenial fellowship of a cluster of old frames which are located on the high top of a clay embankment nearby, where there are no water connections and only some ramshackle box toilets. “Rear TENEMENTS” WITH A VENGEANCE Next door to this queer, patchwork house and prison cell, there was, and is, a row of five wooden structures standing one behind the other on an inner lot twenty-five feet wide, which faces upon the thirty- foot alley. In front is a two-story frame whose upstairs rooms are occupied by a family of five people including an especially intelligent and wholesome-looking woman. Below her lives the proprietor of the whole establishment, an old man who washes his own clothes and otherwise “does for hisself” in his two low-ceilinged, gloomy chambers. Just back of this stands a one-story, one-room shed which houses another old man. Behind the second house, a third arises two 88 Neglected Neighbors stories high, so that it can be seen from all portions of the alley. It contains two rooms on each floor and accommodates two separate households. Back of this is the toilet shed with running water. Behind the latter is the fifth wooden structure of the series, a shed which is not now occupied as living quarters. Next south of this remarkable aggregation of rear tenements, stands a brick stable upon which the two last-named rear dwellings closely face. A large addi- tion to the stable has recently been constructed and the whole barn suggests in a striking manner the patent fact that the community has Five Shacks,—Four Dwellings,—the Homes of Five Families On One Interior, Alley Building Lot 25 Feet Wide. [Photo by Weller] found it profitable to provide for horses better housing conditions than are considered requisite for the apparently industrious and worthy human beings who reside in the neglected house adjoining the more wholesome stable. A Narrow “CuL-pDE-SAc”’ In “Poona’s Court”, or “Pony Court”, between K and L, Twenty- fifth and Twenty-sixth streets, northwest, there are two rows of two- story-and-basement brick houses which have between them an inner courtway only ten feet wide. All the windows, except two in each Capital City Contrasts 89 of the end houses, open upon this little court, for the rear of the build- ing is a blind wall. The houses at the inner end of the courtway, have on one side a blind wall which closes the north end of the little court and rises to the top of the second-story windows. The two windows on the second floor and one in the lower story of these inner houses all open on the blind courtway. There are neither rear win- dows nor back yards for these four houses. The two which face east- ward back up close against a stable. The opposite pair have the out- side street lot as their rear boundary. There is a water toilet for each of the four houses, but the general plumbing arrangements are notably insanitary in two houses at least. In one of them the water closet, located in the open basement or cellar, is in bad repair; the boards of the seat are all broken. In both houses the waste water, poured into the sink on the main floor, comes down into the cellar through a pipe which ends a foot or more above the open cesspool or sink. The latter quickly overflows when much water is emptied, as from a washtub for example, into the sink above. As a result, the cellar’s dirt floor is frequently soaked with water. Incidentally the cellar is pretty dark and it is entered by a very rickety, broken flight of wooden steps. In 1908, conditions remained practically the same. Even the rents are unchanged, being $5.50 per month for each of the two-room houses and $7.50 for each of the two which contain four rooms. In the general alley in which “Poona Court” is found there are three other rows of houses and three brick stables. One of the rows, comprising three houses, has back yards only eight and one fourth feet deep. Aside from this the only notable conditions are in the four dwellings described above and the narrow “cul-de-sac” on which they face. INDIFFERENT OWNERS “Smoke out the owners”, advised a prominent Washingtonian indignant at the persistent difficulties encountered in the effort to bring about the compulsory repair or removal of insanitary dwellings and the conversion of hidden alleys into minor streets. The speaker sug- gested that the owners of unwholesome but profitable houses should be listed and their names published. This was not done because the writer felt that the better housing campaign should be one of principle, not personality. He believed that if evil conditions were made known they would be remedied. Perhaps this showed unjustifi- go Neglected Neighbors able confidence in the natural sense of justice of owners and other influential citizens. The time may come when a philanthropic organ- ization working for the betterment of housing conditions will make known the names of those real estate owners who profit from the degradation of their fellows. Interesting questions, not easily decided, are suggested by the chance discovery, in 1905, that a row of five unwholesome houses in “Durr Alley”, between Tenth and Eleventh, M and N streets, north- east, belonged to one of the most public spirited and useful men of Washington. No one could for an instant question his sincerity in the large work he has done for organized charity and, specifically, for the elimination of alleys and insanitary houses such as were exemplified in his own property in “Durr Alley”. He was surprised to be told that he owned these dwellings. He had acquired them in some unimportant business transaction and he did not know their character. When his agent was interviewed on the subject and the houses were brought to the attention of the owner, he voluntarily ordered one of them to be immediately removed, while repairs were made on some of those remaining. This incident may indicate that what is chiefly needed for the improvement of housing conditions is the effective education of resourceful citizens, whose present indifference is due largely to their lack of information. But there is need for constant instruction and for the persistent emphasis of wholesome standards. “Durr Alley’, for example, shows in 1908 a disappointing lack of any improvement since 1905. The four houses remaining in the old row are sadly shabby. The public-spirited, kindly man who owned them in 1905, and who may possibly have sold them since, could hardly wish to have them on his conscience if he should see them as they are now. Of course, they are not-unendurable. There are many other places, unfortunately, which are worse. But the owner mentioned would not tolerate on his country place a barn or outhouse so shabby and dilapidated as these crowded dwellings are. Yet the rents demanded for them have been rising. An old tenant says he still pays $8.50 monthly as in 1905 for his four rooms, but a new tenant moving in, on August third, 1908, pays $9.50. The police census for 1897 reported 29 inhabitants in the five houses which were then standing. Our investigator scheduled 19 people in two of the five dwellings. In 1908, the police enumerated 25 residents in the four shanties that still stand. Capital City Contrasts gi ANIMAL STANDARDS FOR HuMAN BEINGS Back of 329 Missouri avenue, northwest, midway between the Capitol and the White House, there is a brick stable fronting upon such an ordinary “service alley’ as is found in other cities. The second story of the stable contains two rooms with a hall and a toilet chamber. The latter is notable because the only water supply of the dwelling must be drawn from a faucet which stands directly above the toilet bowl and is ordinarily used to flush the latter. There is also a clear violation of existing laws in the fact that the toilet room has no ventilation or light except from a small transom opening into a closed hallway. A match had to be lighted to illuminate the place at all, even at midday. The conditions which this flickering light displayed were not attractive. The floors were soaking wet, so was the toilet seat itself. There seemed to be a leakage of water from beneath the toilet bowl on to the floor and out through the wooden partition into the neighboring bedroom. The water also trickled down through the floor into the stable beneath. The toilet room was filthy, as might be expected in such a dark cubbyhole. The roof of the dwelling leaked. Its two rooms rented, separately, one for a dollar, the other for a dollar twenty-five per week, or four-thirty and five-forty monthly. One of the rooms was occupied by two people while the other had just been vacated by a family of either three or four persons in whom the “Board of Children’s Guardians” were interested on behalf of the little children, who surely deserved a better home. The representative of that society reported the place as the worst he had ever seen. Our investigator called it to the attention of the Health Department. But the illegal, insanitary arrangements still remain. The presence of the horse and manure downstairs reminds one of the sober fact that housing standards for poor people, as has frequently been ex- emplified in the course of this investigation, are still on, or even below, the plane of the legally specified requirements for domestic animals. In August 1908 the writer went again to this alley stable with the conviction that the descriptions written three years before would have been made inapplicable by the improvement or enforced vacation of the property. But there had been no change for the better, save that a fresh coat of paint brightened the outside of the barn and the top of the toilet seat. One could see, through the rear windows and 92 Neglected Neighbors through cracks in the doors, that both rooms are still inhabited. Meanwhile, the toilet cubbyhole is as dark as ever. The only water supply is still the single faucet close above the toilet bowl. When turned on the water splashed upon the seat and ran down copiously upon the dirty wooden floor, Stunted and Misshapen by Alley Life. [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER VIII METHODS OF ELIMINATING ALLEYS Turee Metuops sy Wuicu Atiey Evirs Have Breen Removep: CoNDEMNATION OF INsANITARY DWELLINGs; REFORMATION OF AN ALLEY FoR COMMERCIAL Reasons; THE LEGAL OPENING OF A Minor STREET. The alley evil is not growing. Since 1902 the law has forbidden the erection of dwellings on any alley which has not three character- istics as follows: (1) It must be at least 30 feet wide and the buildings must set back an additional 5 feet, or 20 feet altogether from the middle line of the alley. (2) There must be sewers, water main and gas-pipes in the alley. (3) The alley must run straight to one of the public streets which border the square and must open upon it, at right angles, with an opening at least 15 feet wide. The radical effect of this law may be learned from the statement made by the Inspector of Buildings, in February 1904, at a meeting of “The Asso- ciated Charities’ Committee on the Improvement of Housing Condi- tions”. Mr. Ashford said; ‘There are, in the 1,170 squares comprised within the city, only 19 alleys which fulfil the specifications of this restrictive law. In the last eleven years there have been only four residences erected in alleys; namely two brick dwellings in ‘Schott Alley’; one brick house in ‘Cabbage Alley’, replacing a frame destroyed by fire; and a brick carpenter shop in ‘Goat Alley,’ built in 1890 and afterwards converted into a residence. In the rear of 621 H street, southeast, a brick stable was made over into a dwelling and there have been other cases of this kind. The builders have been prosecuted, but no convictions secured. This appears to afford a loophole for the evasion of the law. But in eleven years only four dwelling houses, erected as such, have, with proper authority, been added to the total number of alley homes. This was probably due partly to the fact that when the restrictive law of 1902 was pending before Congress a great many building permits were taken out with a rush.” (93) 94 Neglected Neighbors The First Method Retait, INSTEAD OF WHOLESALE IMPROVEMENT Since the further growth of the Alley problem has thus been checked, there remains only the question as to how the community shall rid itself of the evils which remain. The first method that has been used, which touches only the subordinate details rather than the alley problem itself, is the enforced repair or condemnation of insanitary dwellings under the law enacted for that purpose in 1906. How little this affects the fundamental evil is best shown by repeating the story of “Snow Alley” as written in 1905, following it with an account of improvements effected since that time. Under the para- graph heading, ‘Unrealized Relationships Between Alleys and Avenues”, the careful investigation of this hidden community in 1905, was reported as follows: “There are three striking things about ‘Snow Alley’, or ‘Snow Court’, between Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth, I and K Streets, northwest. One is its location in a prosperous part of northwest Washington. Another is its size, for it housed 249 people according to the police census of 1897; 231 according to that of 1905; 226 in 1908. The third feature is a collection of shacks comprising three rows of poor houses and one brick house which is especially dilapidated. This brick dwelling has only a very bad box privy, although the availability of a sewer and water main is indicated by the fact that other houses in the alley have water toilets and there is a hydrant with sewer connections in the yard of this house itself. The toilet box was found, on several occasions, badly soiled outside with excreta and altogether in about as insanitary a condition as can be imagined. The fact that flies carry typhoid fever germs from such privies to the food supplies of neighboring houses should have made the residents of better streets around ‘Snow Court’ take interest in the death from typhoid fever of a young girl whose infected excrement was deposited in this open box. Flies have especially free access to this privy, for it not only has no lids, (few privy boxes do, although the law requires them), but it is not even enclosed in a toilet house. Instead, it stands out in the general shed, which is itself but partially enclosed. The shed has no door at all. This case of typhoid might readily supply germs to infect the resourceful residents on Pennsylvania avenue, less than two blocks distant, the worshipers in the prosperous looking church which occupies a nearby corner, and the scientists in the United States Weather Bureau two squares away. Methods of Eliminating Alleys 95 “In the two downstairs rooms of this brick dwelling there live a family of eight people, whose quarters are filthy. Their small back room, where they all appear to sleep, is particularly dirty. Of the two rooms upstairs, one housed a family of three, including the girl who afterwards died of typhoid fever; the other had one lodger only. Both upstairs rooms are especially dilapidated; their plaster is gone in many places and the roof leaks profusely. In the front room a log of wood has been used to wedge up and sustain the sagging, broken ceiling. Each of the second floor rooms is reached by a Rs ae & hs pe ” aa Few White Folks Visit the Washington Alleys Except for Profit, Rather Than Philanthropy. [Photo by Weller] separate, narrow stairway. Some of the stair boards are broken badly; the whole thing is black, steep, rickety and uncertain. On washdays the emptyings of tubs are to be found standing on the muddy ground of the back yard. Altogether, it is impossible to repro- duce in words the impression made upon one by the smoke-stained, grimy walls; the poorly lighted rooms, the falling plaster; broken stairs and sagging, leaky ceiling of this old brick shack.” After vigorous and repeated assaults, including pictures, column articles with large headlines, and editorial discussion in a local news- paper, this brick dwelling was made over into the uses for which, 96 Neglected Neighbors apparently, it had been originally designed. In July 1908 three or four horses were found, in filthy stalls, on the lower floor. Upstairs there is still a bed occupied, presumably, by an hostler. There is no toilet convenience at all. The yard and all the premises are littered with trash. The place is more insanitary than before for decaying manure fills the lower floor and an open box in the yard. The improve- ment which has been effected consists only in the fact that the build- ing is now classed as a stable and that only one man lives in it, instead of several families. Ir is Nor Enoucu to Vacate Houses The only other improvements made in “Snow Alley” since 1905 are the destruction of two rows of dilapidated wooden shanties. One of these comprised three two-story frames, all of which, in 1905, were vacant and in advanced stages of dilapidation. These unoccupied dwellings were reported as illustrating the fact, which has frequently been observed in Washington, that it is not enough to vacate unin- habitable houses without destroying them. While they remain stand- ing they become attractive centers for gangs of boys or men and for all sorts of nuisances and evil conduct. Oftentimes whole families become “squatters” and nothing less than special vigilance by the police will keep the vacant places empty. The three unoccupied shacks in “Snow Alley” served as a rendezvous for a crowd of tough- looking men who carried their beer buckets in through hidden entrances. Later the sides of the houses were broken through in places. Clap- boards and partitions were torn off for firewood. Manure and filth covered the floor. There was constant likelihood of fire. But the rotten shacks remained until quite recently. Around the alley corner there stood the other wooden row comprising four one-story frames, which were evidently very aged and infirm. Two improvements, the reduction of the number of people sleep- ing in a pestiferous barn and the demolition of seven extremely dilapi- dated shacks, are all the “changes which, for a considerable term of years, have been effected in “Snow Alley” by the retail method of improvement. Details differ; in many alleys fewer houses have been condemned or altered; in others, more. In this regard, “Snow Alley” is fairly typical. It illustrates the fact that no treatment of the allev problem will be at all adequate which does not provide for the com- plete elimination, root and branch, of all the hidden alley slums. Methods of Eliminating Alleys 97 To show the significance of the fact that no adequate improvements have been made in “Snow Alley” since 1905 it is desirable to fill out, in the few following paragraphs, the sketch of the housing conditions which this alley represented then and three years later. OnLy ONE ENTRANCE To THE LABYRINTH Near the two sets of houses last described there stood, and there still stands,—in 1908 exactly as in 1905,—a row of five shabby frames which are like the rough shanties of a lumber camp in the forest. There are indeed some dilapidated, dirty water toilets in the back yards, but the yards themselves are usually littered with rubbish and everything about the entire row is strikingly below the grade appro- priate for human homes. The description written in 1905 is still applicable: “ “The Barracks’ is a row of five houses built of wide, rough boarding, unpainted, weatherstained and about the type of dwelling to be expected in a lumber camp or frontier town, except that this city row is two stories high.” On one of the houses there is dis- played a homemade sign, “Where Will You Spend Eternity?”. It calls attention to a characteristic alley mission, concerning which the report of 1905 said; “In “The Barracks’, one of the three old wooden rows which are to be found in ‘Snow Alley’, a home was discovered which was impressively well kept. It was occupied by a colored minister and his wife who said they had moved there with the purpose of making their house a kind of social center and a helpful example to their neighbors”. Altogether there were thirteen wooden dwellings and forty-two bricks in “Snow Alley” in 1905. These have since been reduced to six frames and forty-one brick dwellings, excluding the brick stable in which one man sleeps. These forty-seven dwellings, in ten sepa- rate rows, face upon six distinct alley streets which twist about con- fusingly, with many blind pockets where one expects to find exits and with new houses to be discovered in unexpected, hidden places. The only clear, lawful entrance to all this labyrinth is by a driveway fourteen and a half feet wide, from Twenty-fifth street. There is also a vacant lot on the same street which is now used as a temporary means of egress but does not belong to the alley system and is certain to be closed by the erection of a dwelling. There is, in addition, an odd, obscure footpath, six feet wide, leading out to I street, but it twists about behind a row of houses and is so completely hidden that the 7 98 Neglected Netghbors writer actually could not find it, without help, in 1908 although he had used it frequently in previous years. PECULIAR “FLATS” AND TOILETS Alleys are characterized by many idiosyncrasies which indicate that general housing standards have not been thoroughly enforced, if they have even been clearly defined. One finds all sorts of original arrangements and peculiarities of construction. An illustration in we AY x = ~ ~e “ Ss _ F SF tei A Toilet Box Without Any Cover, Standing in an Open Shed. Typhoid Fever Germs Deposited Here in the Excreta of a Patient Are Carried by House-Flies to the Meat and Milk of Indifferent Neighbors. [Photo by Glascoff] “Snow Alley” is found in three two-story brick structures arranged as three-room flats, with separate entrances for the upper rooms. The queer thing about them is that they have no back yards, no rear windows at all on the upper floor and, in the lower story, only one small slit measuring sixteen inches high by thirty inches wide, in one of the two rear rooms. However, each of the rear rooms on the second floor has a front window and, of the lower rooms, one has a window and one a doorway, all opening into a small front areaway or “L” between adjoining houses. There are peculiar toilet arrange- ments also, for the toilet seat is located in one corner of a room measur- Methods of Eliminating Alleys 99 ing five and a fourth by eight and a half feet, which is used for the storage of food and household utensils. Each flat contains only two rooms additional to the toilet chamber and the latter is counted a third room by both the landlord and the tenants. The window area of the toilet room is only a little more than one twelfth of its floor area. Deatus, RENts AND CoNnTRASTS The typical alley instances of abnormal death rates are to be observed in ‘Snow Alley” in such households as that of Annie Darius who has lost eight children and of Mrs. George who reported “six or eight” dead infants. In neither case were there any living survivors. The local agent of the Associated Charities commented upon “Snow Court” as follows; “The name suggests whiteness and purity but the court is very immoral; although among the many shiftless, drinking people there are some quiet, respectable families. I estimate that there are about three hundred and fifty to four hundred people in this court. They have a good deal of intercourse with shiftless, drinking white people, as well as with colored families, who occupy the neighboring regions of “Foggy Bottom”. In 1905 the monthly rentals for brick dwellings with four or five rooms each were $6.50, $7.30, $8.00 and $9.30. In 1908 the little two-story houses served generally as “flats”, the two downstairs rooms renting for $5.00, the pair upstairs for $4.50, making $9.50 for the house. In the peculiar buildings described in the preceding paragraphs two rooms and a toilet chamber command $6.00 monthly rental or $12 for the two floors. Five-room houses rent at various rates from $7.30 to $12.30, the latter being the rent charged for an ordinary dwelling of which the little front room is used as a diminutive grocery store. The Associated Charities’ agent described, in 1905, the striking contrast between the many idle, drinking and immoral denizens of “Snow Alley” and one of the two white households, a family of persecuted Russian Jews, who kept an alley store. They lived in deplorable conditions of overcrowding, with inadequate clothing, scanty food supplies and general distress, but one member of the household, an ambitious young man, was studying law. He spent a great deal of his time at the Congressional Library, was always notably neat and even “dapper” in his appearance, and afforded another instance of the hopeful fact that even amidst the most neglected surroundings some touch of the ideal is often to be discerned. 100 Neglected Neighbors The Second Method An ALLEY WIPED OvT FoR PROFIT A second method by which alley evils have sometimes been eradicated is illustrated in the story of ‘“North Court”, an exceedingly bad “‘slum” alley, which disgraced one of the nearby suburban regions of Washington. Between Sherman avenue and Eleventh street, Columbia road and Kenesaw avenue there was located, in 1905, one of the worst alleys in Washington so far as physical conditions go. This “North Court” contained twenty-four two-story frame houses in two parallel rows which faced each other across a twenty-foot, unpaved court that led northward from Columbia road. To reach the dwell- ings one had to climb about fourteen feet up a steep, rough hill of dirt which, in wet weather especially, was conducive to a rapid though undignified descent. The immediate surroundings of the Court, upon the outside streets around the square in which it stood, were open spaces, except on Columbia road where there was, and is, a row of frames. The latter have always been occupied by a wholesome class of white people who complained bitterly, in 1905, of the insanitary shacks, whose malodorous box toilets stood only eighteen inches distant from the side walls of the first house in the white row. Into the rear yard of the latter, washwater and liquid excreta drained down, across the eighteen-inch passageway from the alley hovels. In the surround- ing squares about “North Court” there were handsome residences of brick and stone while additional houses were in process of construction. Just across the corner stood, and stand, some good, new apartment buildings called, “The Allenhurst”, “The Avon” and “The Elberson” and advertised to contain, “Fine housekeeping apartments, five large rooms and bath, steam heat and janitor service for $35.50 and $37.50 per month.” Twenty-four box privies, perfuming all this suburban vicinity, served the twenty-four shacks in “North Court”. It is said that even people who merely passed by on the street cars complained sometimes of their bad odors. One of the occupants of ‘““North Court” said she had to keep her doors and windows shut tightly, even in summer, to keep out the foul air. These wooden box toilets were located in back yards eight feet in depth, of which about three and a half feet were usually taken up by low sheds. Between each pair of houses the yards had a narrow “L” additional which was seven feet deep. The lidless boxes of excreta stood only three feet ten inches to five feet six inches Methods of Eliminating Alleys Iol distant from the rear doors of the dwellings, although the law forbade the location of privies within less than ten feet of any dwelling. The toilet boxes were enclosed in the meanest sheds which were discovered during the summer’s study. Some of these toilet houses were only four and a half feet high and were entered by doors which were only 48 to 50 inches tall. Many of the sheds were badly dilapidated. In one of them the whole rear and half of one side had disappeared leaving the occupants exposed to the plain view of passers by. In another instance the whole structure slanted backward at a dangerous angle. Possibly it was because the toilet conveniences were so repul- sive that the tenants emptied pails full of excreta upon the vacant lots around the court. The shallow yards in which the toilets stood were used principally as dumping places for all kinds of household refuse. Some of them had water-sodden surfaces and nearly all were filthy. In one yard two soiled mattresses and a pile of moldy rags were lying. Here the tenant was found washing his hands in a bowl of black water which he afterward poured squarely upon one of the soggy mattresses. “North Court”, with its twenty-four houses, had no water supply whatever except from a common pump standing on an old well in the center of the alleyway between two rows of dwellings Waste water drained away from the pump by means of a broken, wooden trough which lay upon the surface of the ground and directed the water, somewhat ineffectively, into the passageway between the premises and, presumably, beneath the foundations of both rows of houses. DILAPIDATION AND DISEASE As for the interior of these hovels, the plaster had come off the walls in sheets in nearly all the dwellings canvassed. In some cases one could see through into the outer air; in others one looked into the next door neighbor’s rooms. The house floors were broken and minus occasional boards, so that the damp, rubbish-littered, half-base- ments could be seen beneath the dwellings. In one of the vacant houses the floor of one room was badly littered with excreta and the careless, low habits which this suggested, seemed characteristic of the entire court. The woman of one household asked Miss Kemp and the writer to come in. She insisted upon identifying the investigator as the owner of the house and complained to her especially of the leaking 102 Neglected Neighbors roof. Her grown son was suffering with consumption. He was clothed and sitting on the edge of his bed, smoking a cigarette and hopeful of early recovery. However, upon a second visit eight days later, it was found that he was already dead and buried. The mother paid $3.00 monthly for one room, the best one, on the second floor. Her son was a lodger also, in the middle room downstairs. For the entire house, containing five rooms, the chief tenant paid five-fifty monthly. Another householder told the story of his baby. There had been a snow storm and as the snow melted upon the roof one night the water leaked copiously into the rooms below. In the morning they found that this leakage had soaked the bed on which the year-old baby lay and had wet the garments on its little breast. Shortly after- ward the infant died of pneumonia and the father still insisted that “the house killed it”, as Jacob Riis would say. According to the police census of 1897 the twenty-four houses, 120 rooms, of ‘North Court’ accommodated 139 residents. The police census of 1905 enumerated 132 inhabitants. Our investigator reported that “North Court” presented more dilapidation than any other single region studied. ‘Factory Hill” and “Boston” were worse in some particulars but there was no other place recorded where twenty-four dwellings close together were found to be worthy of nothing less than immediate condemnation and removal. COMMERCIALISM TO THE RESCUE It should be vividly and painfully significant to citizens of Wash- ington and of similar cities that such conditions as these could endure for years without power on the part of the community to wipe them out. . Public conscience developed sufficiently so that, in 1905, “North~ Court” was pictured and described in the newspapers and bitterly complained of in letters to the District Commissioners. Nothing was done however and it seemed that nothing could be done at that time. The law providing for the legal condemnation of insanitary buildings was not enacted until 1906. But meanwhile this hideous collection of shacks was purchased and wiped out by business men who saw thev could make money by using the land for better purposes. They tore down the twenty-four hovels and filled the square with attractive modern houses facing upon the outside streets. There are other alleys now, where, in the writer’s judgment, Methods of Eliminating Alleys 103 increased land values would more than make up all the cost of replac- ing the unwholesome houses and converting the alley itself into a minor street, forty feet wide, running straight through the square. This promise of commercial profit is particularly evident in well-to-do sections of the city like that surrounding “North Court”. Another example, which the writer has found to be convincing with some business men, is to be noted in “Queen’s Court”, an alley between Eighteenth and Nineteenth, L and M streets, northwest. The alley- way which runs east and west has now only five little two-room bricks upon it. There are many vacant building lots, but the erection of any new dwellings is prevented by the law described at the beginning of this chapter. A company might purchase all the land in the alley and the three or four houses at either end which face upon the outside streets and prevent the alley from extending through the square. By thus developing a minor street forty feet wide the company would secure 800 feet of frontage upon an attractive street only two and a quarter blocks from “Dupont Circle”. How valuable such real estate might become, is indicated by “Sunderland Place” and ‘Jefferson Place”, two similar minor streets located respectively two blocks and one block from “Queen’s Court”, and by “Grant Place’, a minor street in a less resourceful section of Washington, between Ninth and Tenth, G and H streets, northwest. The “Octavia Hill Association”, sug- gested in Chapter III of Part 1V, might wisely form stock companies to buy up the land necessary for the conversion of well located alleys into small streets with a view to gaining a fair profit upon the transac- tion. ‘Such an example would help the city in its future work of con- demning and transforming the 261 hidden alleys. The ability to do this without net expense depends in many cases upon the power to purchase at uninflated prices an area of sufficient size surrounding the parts to be immediately altered. By this means, in European cities, streets have been widened in densely settled por- tions of a city and the improvement has yielded a cash profit to the municipality because it purchased outright all the property on either side of the thoroughfare and found that its value was so increased by the widening of the street that the new and shallower lots upon it sold for higher prices than the city paid for the original holdings. In striking and unworthy contrast to such statesmanship is the charac- teristic method of Washington as exemplified in the condemnation of property to make way for the new union railway station with its broad plaza. Surrounding property was of course enhanced in value 104 Neglected Neighbors but the government made no profit. It is even stated that to some owners, whose houses had been left below grade by the new street levels established around the station plaza, the government paid in damages an amount equal to the real value of the property without acquiring possession of it. The land policy advocated in Chapter IV could doubtless be developed in a way to provide for the opening of many alleys without any ultimate expense to the community. “Trilby” and the Typical Outdoor Hydrant of an Alley Home, [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER IX PROGRESS BLOCKED THE City’s Worst ALLEy 1s BEING CONVERTED InTo A Minor STREET. THe Process AND Cost ExpLaINepD. By a SuprEME Court DEcISION THE GENERAL Law For THIS Purpose Has BEEN MapE INOPERATIVE. PLANS ror FuTurE REFORM. The Third Method In THE Most IMMoRAL ALLEY A third method by which alleys may be eliminated is illustrated in the story of “O Street Alley”. To make the situation entirely con- crete it seems desirable to reproduce the description of this alley which was prepared in 1905, following it with an explanation of the reforms that are now assured and in process of realization as this story goes to press. This third is the most important of those by which the alleys have been attacked because it is the one which was provided by Con- gressional enactment and was considered, until recently, quite adequate to do away with all the alleys. Unhappily, “O Street Alley” as pictured in the following paragraphs is the only one in which the law,—from which great things were hoped for,—has been successfully applied. NoTABLE OVERCROWDING AND THE Lowest Morat STANDARDS A notoriously disreputable, disorderly alley occupies the square between Fourth and Fifth, N and O streets, northwest. It is the worst alley known to the writer; worse even than “Willow Tree Alley”, which is more largely famed for badness. Instead of four entrances, as in “Average Alley”, this “O Street Alley”,—including a branch alley known as “King’s Court”,—has only two. There is nearly as large a population however; the police census of 1897 enumerated 284 inhabitants, that of 1908 reported 312. Our investigator in 1905 discovered 238 people in the 38 houses scheduled, out of a total of 49 (105) 106 Neglected Neighbors dwellings in the place. The houses scheduled were not deliberately selected because of special characteristics; the original plan was to schedule the entire alley and the 38 dwellings studied indicate simply how far the work progressed. Instead of six alley streets inside the square, as in “Average Alley”, there are only four in “O Street Alley”. One runs straight through from N to O street. A second, which crosses the first at right angles in the center of the square, has at either end another alley street running perpendicular to it. The general design is like a capital ““H” whose crossbar intersects the original passageway through the block from N to O street. This through street is also connected with one leg of the ‘““H” by the extra Passageway, 40 Feet Long, 714 Feet High and 2 Feet Wide Running South From Pierce Street Into “Logan Alley.” [Photo by Hine] alley called “King’s Court”, but included in “O Street Alley”. The detailed study of the entire alley is given in the following paragraphs as it was prepared in 1905. While nine of the 49 dwellings have been destroyed since that time the social standards and essential charac- teristics of the alley life remain unchanged. Indeed when the writer recanvassed the alley in 1908 it seemed as if the overcrowding and flagrant immorality had increased. Progress Blocked 107 s The moral standards of “O Street Alley” are lower than those of “Average Alley”. Policemen, even, are afraid of the place and they will seldom enter it unless two can go together. It is said that a single officer is apt to be beaten severely and such an occurrence was reported in 1905. In this alley there are several “houses of ill repute”. One was discovered in which there was a piano and some finery in a parlor where a number of young colored fellows, flashily dressed, were found one afternoon lounging or in a drunken slumber. There were three houses in 1905 to which this characterization might safely be applied, and there appeared to be more in 1908. It is to be noted that conscious, professional immorality is somewhat different from, and far worse than, the inconstant marital relations disclosed in “Average Alley”. OVERCROWDING AND INDECENCY The character of the alley generally, aside from these “Bad Houses”, is suggested by an extreme type, a four-room brick dwell- ing in which, in 1905, our investigator found a separate family living in each room.’ One room measuring fifteen by -fourteen feet by eight feét high with only one small window, contained a father with his grown daughter, the latter’s three illegitimate children and another woman who said she was the man’s cousin. When asked if she had been married to the man she said, “Oh no, I just stays with him”. There was only one bed in the room. In another four-room house, a volunteer investigator found fourteen people living of whom seven at least occupied one small chamber measuring nine by thirteen feet by nine feet high with one window only 4% by 234 feet in size; the window’s area equaled one ninth the total floor area of the room, but not often was all of its ventilating capacity used. A more typical instance is that of a blind young man and his grown brother who shared with their mother a dingy room which had no sign of a bed in it except some soiled quilts folded on three small boxes. In another house, comprising three instead of four rooms, there were three separate families, one of whom, including father, mother and two chil- dren, lived in the lean-to kitchen, where they dragged out greasy mattresses at. night on which to sleep upon the floor. The walls of this room were not even plastered; it was a dilapidated, wooden shell which inust have been extremely cold in winter weather. The tenants did not know the name of their neighbors in the front room, from 108 Neglected Neighbors whom they rented the kitchen. Another house of six rooms was also a tenement, for it accommodated five small families, only 12 individuals in this case, living separately. The aristocrat who had two rooms out of the six was an intelligent plasterer who had only his wife living with him. The wife of the man who had the front room upstairs was said to be “out all night, working in a laundry”. At ten a. m. she was A Syphilitic, Life-Ruined Daughter of the Alleys. Photographed at “Camp Pleasant’, the Summer Outing Place for Needy Colored Children. [Photo by Hine] asleep; at three p. m. she was drunk and she had no thought at any time, apparently, of cleaning her room to make it less malodorous. Tue Dirtiest House AND THE CLEANEST The dirtiest home which the investigator discovered in the sum- mer of 1905 was found in “O Street Alley”. It contained four rooms, of which two only were used by the Halsey family, comprising seven adults and two children. They rented out the third room and said they made no use at all of the fourth room, which was entirely unfur- Progress Blocked 109 nished. In their own two rooms, there were only six pieces of furni- ture; three chairs, a table, a stove and a wooden bedstead. Although built of bricks this dwelling was badly dilapidated. One front window was falling out, sash and all; part of the wall was gone from around its woodwork. The outdoor toilet had a broken flush so that the bowl could be emptied only by pouring water into it; the seat was soiled with excreta and the toilet floor was sodden and filthy. The gutter of the house was broken. Plaster and even laths were gone from several places in the inside walls. Notably there were two or three places where holes had been broken clear through the room partitions and all sorts of dirt, from floor-sweepings apparently, had been piled up a foot high in the open places between the laths. This was in striking contrast to the “cleanest house which I found this summer”, as the investigator reported, adding; “They even had the brass valve polished in the toilet”. This immaculate abode, discovered in the two upstairs rooms of a five-room house, was notably different from the two rooms below it, which belonged to another tenant and were unusually filthy. The floors upstairs were clean enough to serve literally as tables for an attractive meal. The glassware on the “safe” shone brilliantly. The home stood next door to the “house of ill repute” in which the piano and the evil men were found. The father of the children in the wholesome house was evidently a white man and the mother saw little cause for shame in the fact that she was never married to him. The woman was an active church member and she spoke with worthy pride of her good son and of the daughter, a singularly refined, delicate looking girl, who went to school regularly from out of “O Street Alley”. The picture of this attractive young woman emerging from the surroundings of this awful alley impresses the imagination vividly. A Dante might say that she dragged herself up daily, out of a low and lurid den, whence evil spirits reached up their scrawny talons after her to drag her down. Rooms, RENTs AND PuysicaL Derects Of the 38 dwellings scheduled in 1905; one had two rooms; five had three rooms each; one five; one six and of the remaining 29 houses each had four rooms. Rents varied from $5.30 for the three-room houses to $13 for the houses of six rooms, while the four-room houses commanded $5.50, $6.00, $6.50, $7.00, $7.30 and $8.00 each. The one two-room house in the alley rented for $6.00 per month, It is a 110 Neglected Neighbors general custom which prevailed in all the alleys in 1905, as it does at present, to add one dollar to the monthly rental of these cheap houses when a new tenant moves in. The chief reason for this large increase seems to be the fact that tenants can be made to pay it. The average rental among the 29 four-room houses scheduled in 1905, was $6.50 per month. As compared with these rates the four-room houses commanded in 1908 from $6.00 to $8.50, $9.00 and even $10 per month. For the three-room houses, which are really only two rooms and a lean-to wooden shed, the rents are $5.30 and $5.40 each. A five-room house, of which the front room is used as a small store, commands $15. For 31 five-room houses listed the average monthly rental is now $7.00. Out of 38 dwellings studied in 1905 there were 22 in which the toilet accommodations were defective, one had no toilet at all; in thirteen the flush was inadequate; in five the flush-pipe leaked; three could not be flushed at all; one had no water connections and seven had sodden floors. In 17 of the 38 houses scheduled the gutter or downspout was not in the condition required by law; there were leaks in ten instances; seven downspouts or leaders failed to make the required connections with the sewer; it was specifically noted in four instances that these defects caused dampness in the rooms. The roofs of nine houses leaked. There were three dwellings of whose yards the investigator reported that they were “filthy”, or ‘‘a mud hole”, or “drained toward the dwellings”. In one instance the yard was only 4% feet deep by 12 feet wide. There was an obstructed cesspool in one place. The water supply was said to be inadequate. Floors were said to be damp in three houses and in one of these the water was said to splash up between the boards in rainy weather. The floors were “weak” and “sunken” and in one place at least the floor was arched, curved, and tilted at an especially bad angle, worse than in any of the other places studied in 1905. There was one house,—of which the first floor was usable only for storage while the upper two rooms were inhabited,—which was in much the same dilapidated condition as was “the fort” described in Average Alley. A second house was entirely unoccupied and only worthy of being used as a rag shop. The report prepared in 1905 concluded with the statement that; “Only these two dwellings probably deserve condemnation and removal as unsanitary shacks, but the other physical defects and the inadequacies of sanitary inspection are more frequently and 2 3% strongly apparent here than they are in ‘Average Alley’. Progress Blocked tI STILL WorsE IN 1908 There is no other alley to which the attention of public officials has been so frequently and strongly drawn since 1905, or in which such radical changes have been enforced, as in “O Street Alley”. But in spite of it all, the characteristic alley standards still prevail. Fol- lowing the wording of the preceding paragraph the physical defects discovered by a hasty canvass in 1908, may be summarized as follows. Forty-four houses were examined; of these three were vacant and one locked up, so that reliable information could not be obtained. Of the remaining forty houses, thirty-one had badly defective toilets, in- Typical Alley Shacks; Entrance to “Ambush Court.” [Photo by Hine] cluding eight in which the flush was inadequate; twelve which leaked; four in which the cleansing water could not be turned on at all; nine with sodden floors and eighteen which were in such filthy condition as the law forbids. In eighteen houses the gutter or downspout, or both, were reported as leaking; there were no cases noted in which the re- quired connection with the sewer was lacking; in six houses the damp- ness was specifically complained of. The roofs of eighteen houses were reported as leaking. There were thirty-six dwellings whose yards were described as “filthy”, or “a mud hole”, or “sodden”, or “littered 112 Neglected Neighbors with rubbish”. The little yard only 414 feet deep was still in evidence. Of “obstructed”, or “broken”, or “clogged up”, or “‘useless” cesspools, nineteen were scheduled. The outdoor hydrants from which all water supplies must be secured were found to be “broken”, or “running all the time”, or “not to be turned on at all”, or “yielding only a very small stream’, in thirteen instances. The house floors were “sunken”, “shaky”, or “broken”, or “wet”, or “filled with rat holes as big as me”,—as a fat colored woman phrased it,—in eighteen houses. Two dwellings were used also as rag shops for the sorting and accumula- tion of all sorts of presumably-infected remnants. One building was deemed fit only for use as a storage house. Altogether the whole alley impressed one as indicating, even more strongly than in 1905, a sad laxity, or indifference, or inadequacy on the part of the Health Depart- ment and other officials charged with the enforcement of even such laws as already exist. ExisTING LAWS FoR THE ELIMINATION OF BaD ALLEYS Such conditions as “O Street Alley” presents must naturally challenge all the reformatory forces of the community when once the evils are made known, as they were in the report published in 1905. Following this agitation and the personal influence of the “Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions”, the District Commissioners, in February 1906, designated “the Superintendent of Police, the Secre- tary of the Board of Charities and the Surveyor of the District of Columbia, to bring officially to the attention of the Commissioners the cases of alleys that should be converted into minor streets in the general public interest.” This action was in tardy accord with laws which had stood for some years upon the statute books and had been repeatedly declared to be sufficient for the eradication of all evil alleys. The character of this statute was described as follows, by the writer’s report in 1905. “Fortunately it appears that sufficient legis- lation has already been enacted to provide for the conversion of alleys into minor streets. This seems too good to be true and one cannot escape the apprehension that when the present statutes are put to vigorous tests, flaws and inadequacies may be discovered. That there ‘is some ambiguity in the laws themselves would seem to be suggested by the different ways in which local officials define the present powers of the District Commissioners in this matter. But the consensus of opinion as expressed by competent authorities who Progress Blocked 113 have counselled with the ‘Committee on the Improvements of Housing Conditions’ is as follows. The District Commissioners ‘are author- ized to condemn, open, extend, widen or straighten alleys, upon peti- tion of the owners of more than one half the real estate in the square, or when the Commissioners themselves are prepared to certify that ‘the preservation of peace, good order and public morals require it’, or ‘when they deem it necessary in order to provide proper drainage facilities for the square’ or ‘in order to properly accommodate vehicle traffic’, or whenever the District Health Officer ‘shall certify that such opening, extension, widening or straightening of an alley is necessary for the public health.’ “In conference with the ‘Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions’, through its sub-committee upon the ‘Conversion of Alleys Into Minor Streets’, the District Commissioners have indicated that the only thing needful for an effective campaign against the alleys is a Congressional appropriation large enough to begin the work. It has also been explained that this public money would only be ‘advanced’ to be repaid by the local property benefited. In order to convert an ordinary alley into a minor street two principal expenditures will be necessary. In the first place the buildings which stand blocking up either end of the alleyway and facing either upon the outside street or toward the alley itself, would have to be removed in order that the roadway might be extended, through the places where they have stood, to the streets outside the block. This will involve the con- demnation of land and buildings and the compensation of their owners. In the second place, nearly all existing alleys would have to be broad- ened to make them into minor streets forty feet wide. They now vary in width, usually from fifteen to thirty feet. Therefore the brick houses now situated upon the alleys would have to be set back from five feet to thirteen feet on either side. As for the wooden dwellings, it is thought that existing laws would not permit of their being moved back to the new building line but would compel their demolition. It is usually held that the money expended in these two ways can readily be provided by the property in the square itself because increased values will evidently be created by converting building lots which now front upon narrow, interior alleys into outside property facing upon whole- some minor streets. It is therefore planned that the cost of opening up an alley shall be assessed upon the property benefited in the same square and in the four squares which adjoin it, and that if the owner of any building lot does not immediately pay his share of the expense 8 114 Neglected Neighbors the District Commissioners will advance the amount and enter it as a public charge against the property, to be collected as other taxes are. District officials who have seen this plan put into practice, in new sections of Washington where the land has not been heavily built upon, have reported that ‘a little public money goes a long way’ in this work because much of the cost is paid immediately by the owners of the property benefited while the amounts advanced out of government funds are quite promptly recollected. In so far, therefore, as this gen- eral understanding of the situation is correct it should be possible to begin an aggressive campaign immediately. The auditor of the Dis- trict of Columbia reported, in January 1906, to a representative of the ‘Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions’, that an unused balance of forty or fifty thousand dollars, from funds appro- priated for this purpose, is even now available. But the practical operation of these provisions for condemning, opening, extending, or straightening alleys has been confined principally to the alleys pro- vided for in outlying squares which have not been built up extensively as yet or occupied by expensive structures. Little effort, if any, has been made to apply the statute to well developed alleys in the older central sections of Washington where it would be fecessary to con- demn some valuable brick buildings and to move or destroy a consider- able number of alley dwellings. Much of the alley-opening which has been accomplished has been undertaken upon the petition of the prop- erty owners affected, who have desired the increase of values to be created by developing minor streets in large squares while this could be done merely by the condemnation of a little vacant land. But when an attempt is made to compel the conversion of ‘Average Alley’, for example, into one or more streets running straight through the crowded square, a great deal of strenuous opposition is to be expected from local property owners.” How Ir WorkKeED Stimulated by an awakening public sentiment and guided speci- fically to “O Street Alley”, the District Commissioners in 1906 brought vigorously to bear upon it the legal processes described in the preceding paragraphs. Just how they worked out in this instance it is well worth while to know for the sake of light which this experi- ence should throw upon the whole problem of the alleys. An especi- ally easy task was presented. The thirty foot alley running east and Progress Blocked II5 west in the center of the square was closed in at either end by compara- tively inexpensive property. At the west end there were only three frames facing on Fifth street, a brick dwelling on the alley and parts of two wooden stables which had to be removed. All this, including the value of the land and compensation for damages to the walls of two Fifth street houses adjoining those which were torn down, cost the District Government only $9,375.56. At the opposite end of the alley there were three brick dwellings facing Fourth street and two wooden shacks and a wooden stable on the inside alley, which had to be removed. These with the land and the damages to the walls of two Fourth street residences cost $12,476.06. It was also necessary to EY, Li We SY A =Z7Z . SCALE FEET Square Bounded by Fourth, Fifth, N and O Streets, Northwest. How “‘O Street Alley” is Being Converted Into a Minor Street,—Indicated by Two Lines of Heavy Dashes. ///- Brick Structures, = Wooden Struc- tures. X Stable. Z Buildings Removed Since 1905. Alley T to H is Called “‘ King’s Court.” The Brick Tenement H to D is the “ National Flats.” [Drawing by Craig] widen the thirty-foot alley to make a minor street forty feet in width. This required the condemnation of a row of wooden sheds and of five frame and three brick dwellings which faced upon the southern edge of the alleyway. All this cost $6,999.58. The sum of these three amounts, the total cost awarded as damages by the jury of five unbiased men, was $28,851.20. 116 Neglected Neighbors BeNneEFITts DiscovERED EQuaL To THE Cost To equal these damages it was necessary to “find” benefits or levy assessments to an equal amount upon the surrounding lands and houses. In the square which contains “O Street Alley” the jury levied charges of from $6 to $915 each upon 154 pieces of property ; this amounted to $24,905.50, thus covering about six sevenths of the entire cost. In the next square to the north, 23 assessments were made ranging from $15 to $90 each and making in all $1,225. The adjoin- ing square on the south was required to bear $1,710 of the burden, in 34 assignments of from $20 to $110 each. East of the block contain- ing “O Street Alley” is a small, triangular square to which $225.10 of the expense was allotted in 8 assessments of from $20 to $35 each. In the abutting square on Fifth street, the 28 pieces of property were taxed from $13 to $65 each, in all $1,560. In this way the jury found that land and buildings in the five squares immediately concerned had been benefited to the total amount of $29,625.60 which was assessed against the individual holdings represented. This total allowed, above the total damages awarded, the sum of $725.40 which represented the cost of the work,—mainly jurors’ fees for the five “judicious, disinter- ested men” whom the District Marshal had summoned to determine the damages and benefits accruing to each piece of property affected. Obviously, a good deal of time was consumed in this work and in securing the necessary orders from the Supreme Court of the District. In August 1908 the actual opening of the new street had not yet been accomplished, though it is absolutely assured. FurtTHer ACTION BLOCKED Efforts were also made to apply the same process to several other alleys. But after the opening of “O Street Alley” had been favorably decided upon by the courts, an adverse decision in the case of another alley put an end to the whole movement. The checkmate came in March 1907 through a decision by the United States Supreme Court to the effect that a jury could not legally be required to assess in all cases benefits equal to the damages involved but could only be instructed to assess such benefits as are actually to be found, regardless of their relation to the total cost of the improvements. This inter- pretation of the law for converting alleys into minor streets opened to all juries the possibility of saying that some proportion of the cost Progress Blocked 117 must be met out of the general treasury. Against such an operation stands the fact that Congress evidently has a settled conviction, which is too well founded, that in such real estate transactions the general funds of the community are drawn upon more heavily than is neces- sary. For this reason it is always difficult to secure legislation for the purchase of land in Washington. It will therefore be difficult to bring about the opening of alleys when a share of the expense must be met by general taxation. There will be a constant temptation to make the owners of adjoining property pay less and Uncle Sam more than is con- sistent with the facts. Operations are now at a standstill. The alley problem is thus more serious, with less prospect of early remedy, than when the study of 1905 was prepared. At that time it was understood on all sides that an automatic method was available by which alleys could be elim- inated. No expenditures by Congress were to be made and hence objections to the process would not be so keen or so apt to block it all. Now the whole campaign must be fought over again. Congress must once more be convinced that alleys are evil and that their conversion into wholesome streets is quite essential to the common weal. It is now planned by the ‘President’s Homes Commission”, through its “Committee on the Elimination of Unsanitary and Alley Houses”, to prepare a law providing that in case of alleys where at least 75 per cent of the cost of alteration is assessed as benefits against sur- rounding property, the balance may be paid out of the general funds. To make this process work, it would only be necessary for the District Commissioners to perfect all the details for opening a number of alleys and then to secure from Congress a lump sum sufficient to cover the total difference between costs and benefits. For alleys where the District is asked to pay more than 25 per cent of the cost of opening, it is planned to require Congressional action in each specific case. Obviously, the clearing up of the alley slums will be greatly facilitated if the local authorities are not compelled to reconvert the Congress of the United States for each individual alley, but may secure its approval at each session for the reformation of an entire group. There is said to be, in the legislation regarding all minor street cases, a direct pre- cedent for the passage occasionally of an omnibus bill appropriating funds sufficient to meet the deficits in a number of alley cases. In opposition to this desirable general process it is argued by. one of the three District Commissioners that Congress will not consent to pass any general appropriations but will insist upon deciding in detail 118 Neglected Neighbors concerning each particular alley. It is to be hoped, for the public good, that the views of the two Commissioners who favor the general process will prevail. BENEFITS SHOULD NEarty Equat DAMAGES In any case it is very desirable to instruct juries of condemnation and to educate the general public,—which comprises jurors, property owners and taxpayers,—to expect that a large proportion of the whole cost of converting an alley into a minor street can properly be met by the surrounding land and buildings that are increased in value. Such possibilities are clearly suggested in a preceding paragraph explain- ing that land, which is now idle or yielding a very small profit in alleys like “Queen’s Court”, becomes very valuable when converted into an attractive minor street in a good neighborhood. As for poorer neigh- borhoods even, it is apparent that the same influences which will limit the value of property on the new minor street will also decrease the cost of the holdings which must be purchased and condemned to open a way through the block. Just as the cost of opening up an alley is larger if the value of the surrounding property is great or if the region is extensively built up or occupied by costly buildings, so would the value of the minor street be augmented by the same influences. Thus the profit accruing from the reformation of an alley is apt to increase somewhat in proportion to the cost of the transaction. It should be possible to convert these facts into a sliding scale or method of taxation. The philanthropic organization proposed in Part IV of this study could perform a valuable service by enlisting experts to work out for various types of alleys detailed plans showing, in the opinion of unbiased judges, how much the damages and the resultant benefits amount to for each piece of property concerned. Before it was decided by the District Commissioners that “O Street Alley” should be selected for conversion into a minor street, the Committee-Secretary of “The Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions” made a careful study of the total values of real estate in the square which contains that alley, as compared with the total values of the similar square which adjoins it on the south. Both squares are occupied by the poorer classes of colored people. The buildings seem to be of about the same grade in both blocks. General conditions are the same. The only difference appears to lie in the fact that in the square to the south there is, instead of an alley, a minor Progress Blocked 119 street such as “O Street Alley” will become. Whether the conversion of the latter will create increased values sufficient to pay the cost of the transaction may be judged by ascertaining whether the total value of property in the minor street equals the whole value of the property in “O Street Alley”, plus the $28,851 which the reformation of the latter will require. The total assessments on ground in “O Street Alley” including its branch called “King’s Court”, are $11,275. Land values in the corresponding minor street of the adjoining square are assessed at $33,968. Buildings in the alley are rated by the assessor at $15,600; in the minor street at $21,500. Thus the building sites in the minor street are worth $22,693 more than those upon the alley which corresponds to it, although to the latter has been added the “Washings” Form an Unappreciated Bond between Alleys and Avenues. Indifferent Senators were Closely Related to Alley Problems through their Barber-shop Towels which were Washed in an Alley. {Photo by Hine] value of property on three large alley arms. Buildings on this entire set of alley streets are assessed at $9,800 less than the structures stand- ing on the minor street. The comparison of buildings is not so direct and convincing as the comparison of land values but, according to the prevailing local system of taxing improvements, the increased value due to the buildings being placed on an outside street instead of in an alley is quite certain to be reflected in the assessments. Altogether, values in the minor street are $32,493 larger than those in “O Street 120 Neglected Neighbors Alley”, although the latter includes three alley arms which practically double the frontage of the building sites available on the central alley corresponding to the minor street in question. This indication that the conversion of an alley into a minor street will repay the cost of the transaction, by the increased values of the property concerned, is all the stronger because the assessments of the two adjoining squares were undoubtedly prepared without any thought of such a comparison. In this case no consideration has been given to the additional augmen- tation of values in the four streets around the square and in the few adjoining blocks whose property is all degraded to some extent by the proximity of an objectionable alley and all improved by the substitution of a wholesome normal street. Tue WHOLE CoMMUNITY Is ALSO BENEFITED Throughout this study the arraignment of the alleys has been chiefly because of their injuries to citizenship and, therefore, to the general commonwealth. As the entire community will therefore profit by the conversion of alleys into streets, it is appropriate that a share of the expenses shall be defrayed, if necessary, out of general funds. If it should be found in the case of any alley that the increase in local values would not compensate at a reasonably early date for the cost of the reformation, it would be proper for the community to bear some proportion of the expense. Such an expenditure of public funds would be a direct investment in good citizenship. It would enhance the value of all the property in the city by elevating its citizenship to higher standards of life. This community point of view leads naturally to the suggestion that the alley centers of some city squares might well be converted into small parks and playgrounds. The older and more closely settled areas of Washington are built up solidly with almost no provision for “city lungs”, as local playgrounds and neighborhood parks are wisely called. The time will probably come in Washington, as it has come in other cities, when this lack of civic foresight must be made up by the purchase of valuable buildings and their removal to give space for public recreation. It would cost very little for the city to purchase some of the larger alleys outright and convert them into places of resort and amusement. It would also be profitable for private property owners to treat an entire square as a unit by developing, in its center, grass-plots, flowers, shade trees, benches, walks, places for drying Progress Blocked 121 clothes, facilities for children’s play and a band stand for local con- certs, all to be used,—and to be paid for in increased rentals, by the residents of dwelling houses and apartment buildings around the square. The rapidly growing movement for public playgrounds in Washington may add strength to the suggestion that a few of the worst and largest alleys might well be transformed into public playgrounds which would make over these squares into centers for the upbuilding, instead of the degradation, of citizenship. This suggestion is in order because it proposes to deal with the Alley Problem in an ideal way, and nothing less than ideal conditions and ideal methods should be deemed appropriate for the National Capital of the United States. DaNGeERS OF HastTE AND HatF-way MEASURES In Washington's Alleys the fundamental evil is not to be met by the application of a few scattered statutes dealing merely with details of general sanitation. The Alley itself, with its characteristic segre- gation and distinct standards of life, is the real problem. No remedy can be adequate which does not propose the entire elimination of residential alleys, root and branch. There are many good people who will be quick to propose ‘the immediate accomplishment of something practical” by the adoption of half-way measures. But such counsellors should be regarded as enemies of the ideal ; they are more to be dreaded than some of those who do not pretend to have any friendship for housing reforms. It will also be natural and easy to say,—as some members of even the Housing Committee once suggested; “We can’t secure this year an opening forty feet wide into this alley; let us therefore compromise upon a fifteen foot entrance, in the hope of having it widened in later years.” A third suggestion of compro- mise will be this; one of the principal alleys within a given square may be extended through the block and widened to form a minor street forty feet wide. The other smaller alleys crossing at right angles to the first will appear so small and unimportant that it may not seem worth while to open them through into the outside streets or to forbid the maintenance of residences upon them. To some it will appear to be “only reasonable” to say; “Let these little alley-ends remain opening upon the new minor street which has been created.” Exactly this has been done in the case of “O Street Alley”, since the subordinate alley called “King’s Court” and the two north and south branches at the ends of the central alley street are allowed to remain. 122 Neglected Neighbors Such a policy means the development of residential courts,—little pockets or “cul-de-sacs” opening off the regular streets. Courts and pockets would be better than the present alleys, but not much better. Other cities which have such blind courts find them characterized by the worst housing and social conditions of the community. It is again a question of segregation. When it was suggested in New York city that some of their large blocks be utilized by developing small court- ways within them, with houses inside, facing toward the center of the square, it is stated that the police officials wisely said, in effect; “No, we should oppose that, for it would give us little, fenced-off com- munities where the moral order of the outside streets could not well be enforced.” So the first suggestion about Washington’s “Gordian Knot” is even to postpone action, if necessary, until the community is resolved to cut the knot absolutely instead of unravelling merely a few of its superficial strands. For Many Homes the Water Must All be Carried from a Distance. [Photo by Weller] PART II THE TENEMENTS A Present Evil and the Gravest Future Danger (123) soeee LL ied Double Building Lot Occup by the City’s Largest White Tenement The Only Yard or Vacant Space on the Deep, [Photo by Hine] (124) CHAPTER I “NATIONAL FLATS” THE Story oF AN Heroic Struccte AGAINST TENEMENT HovusE INFLUENCES. SOJOURNING IN A STRANGE CoMMUNITY. Sixty- ONE TENANTS, But No Batu Tus. Barefooted, shiftless, clad in a soiled “Mother Hubbard”, a noisy young colored woman met me at the doorway, as I turned into the “National Flats”, at 441 N street, northwest. The group of idle men around the entrance fell back a little, glanced at my satchel and my gray fedora and whispered, “The Doctor; who’s sick?” At the top of the first stairway a fat, deformed woman rolled out of my path- way, concealing a beer bottle beneath her apron. Her black daughter, wearing incongruous white, openwork stockings and white shoes, directed me to Mrs. Malcolm’s home, “number 26 on the third floor’. Although there was broad daylight and bright sunshine outside “the Flats”, the hall and stairs of the second floor were so dark that, feeling along the bannister, I was suddenly startled by getting hold of some- thing soft and clammy. It might have been almost anything but it turned out to be a little child. She made no sound when I stumbled hard against her, but shrank by me dumbly in the darkness. The striking contrast between Mrs. Malcolm’s home and _ the shiftless, dissolute people and bad conditions through which I had groped my way, suggested immediately some features of the story which I discovered later in its fulness. The awful curse of living in a degraded tenement or noisome “alley”; the destructive influences which beset a colored boy in Washington; the fine courage and con- secration displayed by a homely, ignorant colored mother; these were deeply impressed upon me during my brief sojourn in this tenement which stands at the principal entrance of “O Street Alley”. My cot and bed clothing, folding-table and two chairs had been carried into one of Mrs. Malcolm’s two eight-by-fourteen-foot rooms, where six people were already living before my advent. Charlie, the oldest son, had a cot which stood with mine in the room that served com- (125) 126 Neglected Neighbors positely as kitchen, dining room and sitting room. Mrs. Malcolm slept in the next room with her younger children, Nellie aged six and Harry eight, and the four months old baby of a niece who worked out at service daily but slept with the four other people at night in this one small chamber. Aside from many cockroaches and occasional bedbugs which crawled through from neighboring apartments, the rooms were clean and neat. From THE Batcony Apove “O Street ALLEY” A notoriously disreputable, large, intricate set of alley streets fills the center of the block on which this tenement stands. Along its side runs the fifteen-foot driveway through which the alley denizens find access to the outside streets. Passing back and forth constantly to the saloon and other places, they fill the night with harsh noises of ribald jokes, shameless laughter, oaths, quarreling and occasional blows. Every night I sat in the cool darkness on the balcony outside our rooms and looked upon slatternly women who staggered drunkenly about and encouraged improper advances from men. Most of the latter are the tough, habitual loafers whom one finds at any time,— except in early morning hours,—congregated, idle and drinking, in the hidden corners of every inside alley. Sometimes, before going up to my cot in the “National Flats’ I strolled about “O Street Alley”. Its population spend many of the night hours out of doors, for the summer air makes their little houses hot and unendurable. There are a good many little children in the noisy crowds, but their number is significantly small as compared with the swarms of adults. Some definite “houses of ill repute” are in evidence and degraded moral standards prevail in a large number of the alley homes. As for the tenement standing at the alley entrance, it is a condensed epitome of all the alley’s badness. Tue Grave PricE Paip For DECENCY But Mrs. Malcolm and her little family are clean and decent. Little Harry and Nellie are grave, serious-minded, obedient and as well behaved in every way as any children could be. I asked Mrs. Malcolm why her home and her little ones were so different from those about them and her answer showed me the great cost of decency. She said “I watches ’em in an’ I watches ’em out”. For six years, “National Flats’ 127 compelled by poverty and the mother’s chronic rheumatism, this family have lived in the ‘National Flats". They have been “in but not of” the tenement; they have had no fellowship with the neighbors. Since their birth the children have been kept every minute under the mother’s alert care. When school age was reached the little ones were entered in a public school a block away but Mrs. Malcolm starts them out after the first bell has rung each morning and watches them, from the alley balcony, every step of all the dangerous way through “O Street Two Senators Were Taken to Call Upon a Family of Seven Who Lived in this one 10 by 12 Room. [Photo by Glascoff] Alley”. Before it is time for them to be dismissed the mother is at her post again and her eye and influence guard them home. They may not play in the tenement halls even but are always confined in the two little rooms, where Mrs. Malcolm does washing and ironing for her living in order that she may never be separated from Harry and Nellie. Thinking of the outdoor, active child life with which I was familiar, I asked if the little ones were healthy under such repressive care. Mrs. Malcolm replied that she sometimes took them out walk- ing and occasionally, when too ill to go herself, she sent the children to walk around the block, alone, timing them carefully so that they should not linger or play with the other youngsters. “They’re never 128 Neglected Neighbors sick”, said the mother, “’pears to me that children that plays in the street has doctors frequent for some sickness or other, but mine are always well”. Yet their legs and arms and sober little faces are thin, like their mother’s care-worn countenance. While they are good and sweet they are as sedate and sober as aged adults. I was heartsick to think of the great sacrifice of spontaneity, of physical vigor, free- dom and the larger life which these little ones and their heroic mother make in order to be virtuous and respectable. I doubt if many people would pay so great a price for decency. Morat AND SociAL STANDARDS OF THE TENEMENT The alley standards of life which have been suggested in preceding pages characterize the “National Flats’ also. For a tenement is exactly like an interior alley in its most important characteristic, segregation. From both tenement and alley the influences of whole- some, outside life are shut away and the crowded denizens of either community are encouraged to set up for themselves such local moral standards as are determined by those people among them who are lowest but most vigorous. Mrs. Malcolm’s household affords a notable exception to the general rule. The janitor of a tenement house is especially influential in deter- mining the character of the place. What this authoritative influence is in “National Flats” may be judged from the fact that the two oldest daughters of the janitress have each a fatherless infant. It was from the janitor’s room that a young man jumped out one night and fled along the balcony to escape arrest. He leaped past Mrs. Malcolm’s window, tried her porch door and frightened her so badly that she fainted. The children of the janitor were not in school and when Mrs. Malcolm talked with their mother about their education she replied, “I has so much to study about that I can’t take the time to send ’em.” These little ones, and all the children of the tenement, talk naively about all kinds of immorality saying, “I seen my sister do so and so”, or “I seen my mother doin’ that”. There is Genevieve, for example, aged fifteen. Her mother works out at service until late at night so that Mrs. Malcolm says of her, “I never hears her voice ‘cept on Sundays”. “So Genevieve”, continues Mrs. M., “is jess bring- in’ herself up. She goes ‘round in all the rooms and she’s that bad already that one day I heard her teasing my Harry to go into an empty room with her and she was telling him some of the bad things she had “National Flats”’ 129 seen people doing.” I tell you, the mother added, “I watches my children out and I watches ’em in, but I’m ’fraid they won't ’mount to much after all, coz they hears so much. When walls is thin and people shout so loud, I can’t keep ’em from hearin’ ”. TENEMENT STORIES While taking Sunday breakfast with my hostess or talking with her of an evening I often questioned her about the occupants of the various rooms, which the investigator had already scheduled carefully. Two single men on the floor below our quarters were mentioned as “the workingest men in the flats’ One was a “piano lifter’, who apparently lifted steadily all day. The more usual standards of man- hood in “National Flats” were suggested by the story of Sam who “didn’t work much coz Sadie worked and kept him”. When Sadie’s mother tried to drive the hulking loafer away he “Jess turned ’round and beat her; an’ he beat her so bad the neighbors say that was what made her die’. One night, looking from the balcony to the alley beneath, I heard one young woman sending word to a “gentleman friend” that she had fifty cents to give him. I learned that it is a common practice for women to work and support men with their earnings. Mrs. Malcolm’s philosophy was this; “All the men beats the women that they gives money to; and all the women, they beats the men that they gives money to. Seems like when one wants to make up to any one else they offers them some money, making out they'll support ’em.” One of the single men downstairs had called upon Mrs. Malcolm during my sojourn in “the Flats” and tried in this spirit to present her with some funds, but she refused. She said he was good enough as men go but she didn’t think she’d risk another husband. The women who support parasitic men in the tenement, quarrel and fight with them continually and my landlady said she had often heard one woman shout to another; “Ef you don’ le’ that man alone, I’ll take this razor out of my stockin’ and cut you up” In some instances the woman receives money from an industrious man to share it with the idle fellow of her choice. The story of Mose Stratton was told as an example of the tenement house life. “He was a nice man”, said Mrs. Malcolm, “he worked all night. But one night he came home ’bout two in the mornin’. I heard his wife through the door here, trying to wake up another man and get him out of her room, but he was drunk, so she rolled him out in a blanket. Then 9 130 Neglected Neighbors the husband got in and grabbed a revolver that was on the table. But the woman was quick and she got the pistol, and slipped the loads out, and threw it down the stairway. Her husband, he went down to get it and she kept him back ’till the other fellow got out along the bale’ny.”’ SCENES OF WaR AND CARNAGE Such are some of the stories which I picked up as illustrating the life and influence of the tenement house. Mrs. Malcolm rejoiced in my being there and urged me to lengthen my stay, “because things are so quiet when you’re ‘round”. She said that from the time when I came in one afternoon to arrange for my effects to be moved in that evening,—and the janitress rushed out as soon as I was gone to scrub the halls and stairways for the first time in months,—a great change had been wrought by the influence and mystery of my pres- ence. Even in this period of unnatural calm, however, I could judge somewhat of the usual disorder. One night a knock came at my bed- room door and a strange man wanted to find “Mamie, the little black woman.’ Sometimes several men who are interested in one woman come together. Perhaps they drink and gamble amicably for a time but a quarrel and a fight may break forth suddenly. Then there are oaths, blows, shots and silent fighting with knives, while heavy feet tramp up and down the stairway and women shriek. The police are summoned and the crowd scatters wildly. Some bleeding black man climbs along the dizzy balcony which skirts the alley side of the build- ing. He crashes over the tubs and pans in Mrs. Malcolm’s porch and bursts unceremoniously through her rooms, to the horror of the frightened children. The little ones sit up in bed with wide-open, wondering eyes, shrinking at each new sound and forming memory pictures of the lowest human depravity. Next morning they step over the trail of blood stains which leads down two flights of stairs to where the ambulance waited at the curbstone. A Rare Toucu or THE IDEAL Out of such a hole as this Charley, Mrs. Malcolm’s oldest son, has come,—clean, honest and ambitious. For this is the hopefulness beneath all social horrors, that even,— “In the mud and scum of things, There alway, alway something sings.” “National Flats” 131 Dissolute women in the dark hallways have plucked at Charley’s sleeve when he has come home late at night, tired from his long labors in the market. They have often tempted him to give up his work, or the weary search for work, and let them support him. They have offered him liquor and their idle men companions have jeered at “mamma’s boy”. Sometimes these people have resorted to force and Charley has always refused to explain to his mother some of the f ; | i Fl A Midnight Flash-light. No Sheets or Pillow Cases; Broken Mattress Gray, Stiff and Greasy with Dirt; Bed Covering,—the Rags Worn in Day Time. Bed Wet,—Baby Wearing Only a Calico Slip; Four in One Bed Like Puppies in a Kennel. : [Photo by Weller] bruises which she has noticed occasionally upon his face and hands. In spite of all the ideallessness of such surroundings, Charley has built up such ideals for himself as have carried our best Americans from tow-paths and log hovels to national leadership. My first meeting with Charley was in the morning when we got up and dressed together, for he had come into our bedroom quietly after I had fallen asleep. We soon became acquainted and I learned, —both from the young man and his mother, how he had recently purchased a small stand in the “O street market” giving some small savings and his notes for $75.00. Of this sum $33.60 remained to be 132 Neglected Neighbors paid and Charley was working anxiously because trade was dull in the summer time. When customers ceased coming to the market, about 2 p. m. daily, the boy put his vegetables, eggs and chickens in a basket and sold them from door to door. He also cleaned carpets and did other chores whenever he could find them. Sometimes he lost a possible odd job or his mother missed an available washing because Charley would not tell his patrons where he lived. For he is ashamed of the ‘National Flats” and, from the first day I met him. he harped constantly upon his ambition to “Get mother away from here into a decent little home of our own’. He found a place in the country where he believed he could buy a little house with two or three acres of ground, if he could pay fifty or seventy-five dollars down and eight or ten dollars monthly. His mother held back, however, fearing that her painful rheumatism would be worse if she changed the dry upper floor of the tenement for a low building and the exposure of country life. She also hesitated to leave the city where she is able to augment the family income by taking in washing. But Charley told her daily, with patience and unfailing love for his mother, that she need not wash any longer and that he would not ask her to go to the country if a good public school for the children and a church for all of them were not near the place which he had found. He also explained how little chickens may be bought for a few cents apiece and raised to sell for twenty cents a pound, how empty boxes may be stored and remade for sale, how he could soon get an old plug horse and a kind of wagon with which to deliver garden produce. Sources oF SociAL HEALTH “Why are the Malcolms so different from their neighbors?” is a social problem which I have tried to get their help in solving. A good mother is the immediate answer, for Mrs. Malcolm is such and she in her turn looks back to a wholesome mother’s care. Charley was getting his Bible lesson ready one Sunday morning,—unostenta- tiously, out of a well-worn Bible——when I asked him how he had managed to be clean and ambitious in the midst of “National Flats” and “O Street Alley”. I am quickly suspicious of cant and I dislike it, but there was none of it in his simple answer, “I think I’ve been helped a good deal by the prayers of people whom I’ve asked at church to pray that I might be kept strong. I used to ask for prayer in meetings. In fact I do so now. And I always feel”, he added, “National Flats” 133 “that I needn’t worry very much except to be straight and just and decent, for I believe God will open ways for me then; and indeed He always ‘has”. THe PuysicaL ENVIRONMENTS OF THE PRECEDING STORY The tenement in which this heroic touch of higher life was found stands in northwest Washington in the general section which has the highest death rates and the densest population of any region in the city. The flats occupy their entire building lot, running one hundred and twenty feet from the front building line back to a noisome alley, “King’s Court”, twenty feet wide. Down the east side of the tene- ment runs an entrance alleyway, fifteen feet in width. It is from these two alleys, about the noisiest and most depraved in Washington, that all the tenement rooms are lighted, except the few front chambers which look out upon N street. The store also, which occupies the forward part of the ground floor, is lighted from the street. The tenement measures twenty feet wide, by one hundred and twenty feet deep. It is three stories high. There is a basement or cellar underneath the first floor and below the level of the street. The cement floor of the front basement was found covered about an inch deep with mud, the black dust accumulated for years. In this ooze the visitor walked about on loose boards laid between the piles of old lunchroom stools and other junk or rubbish. The rear basement is regularly used as a depository for ashes and all kinds of waste matter. brought into it by a chute from the floors above. Water leaks in also and soaks the contents irito a dirty mess. The janitress said that the cellar is cleaned out twice in six months, the tenants said once a year. When the investigator looked into it, braving the swarm of rats which sprang out on every side, it beggared description. She reported it to the Health Department,—who need not have waited for the suggestion, —and the place was emptied of many wagonloads of filth. But it soon refills again. An EXCESSIVE POPULATION IN EIGHTEEN “APARTMENTS” The first or ground floor of the tenement was taken up, in 1905, by a lunchroom twenty-four feet deep, a kitchen behind it, measuring eight feet, and eight living rooms extending backward in a single ine to the rear alley. These eight living rooms accommodated six 134 Neglected Netghbors household groups regularly, and an unestimated number of “Visitors” irregularly. The rooms themselves measure fourteen and a half feet front, that is parallel to the front of the tenement, and from nine and three fourths to ten and a half feet wide. They are entered from a hall, three and three fourths feet wide, which runs along the dark inner side of the building. The second and third floors are arranged in the same manner as the eight living rooms of the first story, with four rooms in front of these, corresponding to the space occupied by the lunchroom and kitchen of the first floor. Each of the upper floors thus comprises twelve rooms. They are reached by a narrow wooden stairway at the front and another in the center of the building. Six household groups occupied the twelve rooms on the second floor, one having four rooms, three two rooms each and two a single room apiece. The third story also accommodated six households, of whom one occupied four rooms, three two rooms each, while two had single rooms. The investigator's success in enumerating all the actual population may well be doubted, but thirty-six people were discovered as regular members of the six households on the third floor alone. All the inhabitants of “National Flats’ are colored people. Altogether, the eighteen household groups which occupied the twenty-two living rooms,—additional to the large restaurant and kitchen, later a store, on the first floor,—comprised thirty-one separate, unrelated families or parts of families. What is meant by this dis- tinction between “households” and “families” is illustrated in the case of two girls, named respectively Simonson and Quigley, who shared a single room with two men, named Arthurs and Davidson. These represent four unrelated “families”, although they live together as one “household”, having their living quarters and cooking arrangements in common. Taken all together, our schedules showed sixty-six individuals in the eighteen households or thirty-one families who occupied the twenty-two living rooms of “National Flats’. That even these large totals were inadequate to represent the overcrowding in this tenement was suggested by the deliberate and repeated story of an especially reliable, long-time resident. She declared that in a pair of two small rooms where our investigator recorded seven inhabitants there were eighteen people living during the previous winter. “There was Mrs. Stacey”, said our informant, “she had ten children and three of her oldest daughters have babies, one each. Besides that, one girl was expecting another baby. There are four men that staid there too. Anyway, I know I counted up eighteen people. And the Balder- “National Flats” 135 son family, that was fighting all the time with the Staceys, they said there was twenty people living in the Stacey’s two rooms.” Batuine Facitities; Tortet Rooms; DIsorDER No bath tubs or bathing facilities were discoverable among the eighteen households, or thirty-one families, or sixty-six individuals who have swarmed together in the “National Flats”. Crowded into small rooms and unable to secure privacy, these people must bathe infre- quently, if at all. Appearances and odors, in many instances, suggest the latter alternative. Only one toilet is provided for the thirty-six people who inhabited the third floor. Nineteen individuals used the single water closet on the second floor, while the one on the ground floor accommodated eleven residents, as well as the workers and customers of the lunchroom. One of the two living rooms in the rear apartment on each floor is reduced to about half its normal size to give space for the toilet chamber, which opens upon the hallway. Seclusion, sacred privacy and restful quiet, which are usually deemed essential characteristics of a home, are totally unknown here. Even at midnight and still later, there are frequent disturbances and the low moral practices of many tenants keep the hallways constantly in noisy use. Rough men grope their way up the stairs and through the dark halls, feeling along the walls, trying the knobs and stumbling against the doorways. Sometimes they fall over a drunken sleeper who is lying in the unlighted passageway. UNREGARDED, BrokEN Laws Washington’s laws on the subject of fire escapes, fire alarms and the lighting of hallways are pretty good. But, as judged by the actual condition of this tenement, they are not adequately enforced. For instance, the law says; “The halls and stairways in every tenement house shall be properly lighted, when occupied, at night; and at the head and foot.of each flight of stairs and at the intersection of all hallways with the main corridor, there shall be kept during the night a red light; one or more proper alarms or gongs, capable of being heard throughout the building, shall remain easy of access and ready for use in each of said buildings, to give notice to the inmates in case of fire.” In contrast, the practice in this tenement is as follows: At about ten-thirty or eleven p. m. the janitor’s boy goes through the 136 Neglected Neighbors “National Flats’ and turns off entirely the two gas jets which ordi- narily struggle with the gloom in each hallway. Thereafter, through- out the night, people wander back and forth and do all sorts of questionable things in total darkness. As for fire escapes; there are none. Nor are the stairways stone or iron, as would be required in other cities. The suggestion of fire gongs and red lights would sur- prise the denizens of the tenement. In short, so far as control by public opinion is concerned, the tenement apparently does not exist. Three years after the preceding study was prepared the writer revisited the ‘National Flats”, in August 1908. It is sadly significant that, despite the unfavorable advertisement of the place for several years, no improvements have been made. Some of the old tenants have been replaced; the personnel has changed somewhat; but the characteristic facts, both social and physical, remain substantially as pictured in the preceding paragraphs. The only material alteration appears to be the raising of monthly rent charges from $3.60 for one room and $4.50 or, sometimes $5.60, for two rooms, to $3.75 for a single chamber and $6.50 for two. Tue Lasr STRONGHOLD OF COMPLACENCY When the local public and the nation are complacently assured that Washington is an ideal city, free from the unpleasant municipal problems and defects which are common to other municipalities, it is stated with special emphasis,—as in some way substantiating the claim to complete perfection,—that the Capital has no tenements “‘lile those of New York and other notoriously bad places.”’ But, the “National Flats” of Washington would not be tolerated in their present condition, “even in New York city.” That “Washington has no tenements”, is the most confident declaration of numerous people, even of many who acknowledge the hidden alleys and dilapidated shacks. Chicago, New York, Boston, Baltimore and other cities may find their greatest difficulties in the large buildings which house “three or more families each”, but the National Capital is supposed to be immune from tenement house evils. A surprising result of this study, however, is to show that several large tenements of most undesirable types are already with us. The assured prospect of many more to follow, constitutes a grave danger for the future. The alley problem is checked, so that it will not grow any worse as time progresses. Dilapidated shanties must pass away, “Nattonal Flats” 137 if only by the natural processes of decay. But the tenement house, the mammoth human “ant hill”, looms up, large and threatening, upon the horizon. Its coming is “in the nature of things.” The fashion- able apartment houses which are building in large numbers to econ- omize land spaces on the avenues, will have their natural counterpart in the crowded, dismal tenements of the poorer streets. One of the city’s gravest problems, which Washington should immediately con- sider, is the question, “What restrictions may properly be placed upon this class of buildings as a preventive measure, before the tene- ments become numerous and unconquerable?” “Father Neptune with His Trident” at the Entrance to His Tenement Home at 1010 Thirty-second Street. [Photo by Hine] CHAPTER II HUMAN ANT HILLS WaHitE TENANTS OF A DEGENERATED PALACE. HUMAN WRECKAGE. An AIR-SHAFT CUSPIDOR. WasHINGTON’s LARGEST TENEMENT. THE Country ORIGIN oF City NEGROES. Three consumptives, the beggar mother and her two sons, lived, with the woman’s little daughter, in a gloomy room, lighted only by a five-foot air-shaft, in the big white tenement near the District Build- ing. The three consumptives spat into the air-shaft. The tubercle bacilli from their sputa found ideal conditions for distribution in the shaft and in the dark rooms which depend upon it for their ventilation. The sputum dried readily and occasional air currents bore the freed bacilli to all the twelve windows which open upon this narrow air- well. Six families drew their light and ventilation from this large cuspidor. Baskets of food, bowls of milk, dish cloths, towels and clothing hung or rested in the shaft beside the windows of the various families and gathered up the deadly germs. It is not known how many cases of tuberculosis resulted from this contagion. Perhaps none did. But the conditions were certainly ideal for the communica- tion of the “White Plague’. If it failed to find new victims here, neither the tenement nor the air-shaft was to blame. The consumptive’s little daughter had not enjoyed such training and good influences as would naturally make her conscientious and perhaps it is no wonder that, instead of washing the fine night dresses and underwear given to her mother by charitable ladies, she simply stuffed the dirty clothes away into a little, unoccupied room at the farther end of the hallway. Soon the odors from these soiled, in- fected garments led the occupant of the nearest room to search them out. They had been crowded into the corners of a little, unused, dark chamber measuring five feet eight inches by eight and a half feet. Originally it had been used as a bath room. The old bath tub still remains, but it has no water or sewer connections. It serves in winter time as a coal box. (139) Neglected Neighbors The Only Toilets and the Only Yard Space in the “Human Ant Hill,” a Large Tenement Inhabited by White People. [Photo by Hine] Human Ant Hills 141 OncE a STYLISH HOTEL This air-shaft story gives the keynote for the whole sketch of this degenerated palace. It stands, within two blocks of the “District Building” ,—headquarters of the local government, at 214 and 216 John Marshall Place, northwest. It is one of the largest brick tenements in Washington, and is occupied, not by colored, but by white families and these to the number of about thirty-one separate households. It repre- sents a class of buildings constructed to serve as private residences, busi- ness establishments, hotels or stylish apartment houses, and subsequently depopulated by the removal of resourceful people to newer neighbor- hoods. By this process poorer families come to be crowded into places which are not fitted, either by original design or later alterations, to serve as tenements. In this particular building, for example, a stylish hotel was located during the civil war. After that the officials of the city government had headquarters here. Subsequently the building was used for storage purposes. It served later as a “furnished-room: house’. Finally, with few if any alterations in its arrangement or' conditions, it was converted into a tenement house or “flats”. From being a storage warehouse for furniture, it became a storage ware- house for human beings. In its near vicinity stand the former homes of some of Wash- ington’s wealthiest and best people. ‘Society’ once centered around Indiana avenue and C street, three blocks from this old tenement. Great changes have come since those aristocratic days and the whole neighborhood is still changing. While the large old private mansions of the vicinity have not yet deteriorated physically so much as have many of the older abodes of former fashion in Georgetown, they have already gone far toward their ultimate use as a bad set of crowded tenements or “human ant hills’. As to this conversion of individual residences into tenement houses, local laws are silent. They afford no protection against the manifest evils involved. For Washington has thought itself exempt from any need to learn from the experience of other cities in these familiar lines of civic deterioration . ANOTHER PERSONAL EXPERIENCE Accompanied by his wife, the writer took up a short term of residence in this double tenement, in the home of a Jewish peddler who sells optical goods and cheap jewelry from a street stand. The 142 Neglected Neighbors quarters desired, upon one of the two air-shafts which serve the inner rooms of this deep building, could not be secured. Instead the new lodgers enjoyed the luxury of abundant fresh air,—from windows which overlook the rear alley and the toilet sheds. Their first night in the barn-like place was quite memorable to the amateur tenementers. When a bed is suspicious one hardly knows whether the consequent restlessness and itching are due to imaginary or corporeal ills. But there was always the comfort that escape was possible at any time and that a good bath, with change of clothing, was assured in the morning. After a long evening visit with the Jewish peddler and his family the new tenants went to bed imagining the former grandeur of the shabby rooms and reaching out occasionally to rattle a chair upon the bare floor in order to drive away the rat that nibbled noisily at the wooden partition near the bedstead. A Locau “Water FAMINE” The bathing facilities of this mammoth, double tenement may be described in one phrase,—‘‘there are none.’ The only bath tub in the building is a relic of bygone days. It is not connected with either water main or sewer. The little room where it stands is now used for storage, for cooking on a gasoline stove in summer time and as a resort, at all seasons, for a drove of rats “as large as kittens”. Once there were two or three toilet conveniences within the building, but they were all torn out some twenty months before this sketch was written. At present the only toilets available at all are ten rusty bowls located in three small wooden sheds in the narrow back yard or areaway. One of the sheds, containing three toilets, is “reserved for the Greeks”, that is, for the workers and patrons of the Greek restaurant which occupies the large ground floor room in the south half of the double building. In the second toilet compartment, used by the women of the tenement, one bowl is reserved for the emptying of the slops, two of the other bowls have no flush at all, or, rather, broken flushes, so that only one remains available for toilet uses. The men’s shed contains three hoppers. All three compartments are unclean, repulsive places. Each of the bowls has an automatic, rim flush which is notably ineffec- tive, affording, as the report says, “the merest trickle of water”. The whole equipment is rusty; the seats are dirty, like the damp, soiled, wooden floor. Yet even the present arrangement is an improvement Human Ant Hills 143 upon the condition about two years ago, before the investigation in 1905, when one lone toilet on the third floor of the tenement served all the thirty-one households. An Overworked Spigot, the Only General Water Supply in the Mammoth Double Tenement Inhabited by White People at 214 and 216 John Mar- shall Place, Northwest. [Photo by Hine] 144 Neglected Neighbors One of the most intelligent tenants said that she and the janitor’s wife had counted one hundred and twenty-nine adults and twenty-four children inhabitants of these “flats”. Our investigator could discover only about half that number; but even at the smaller figure, there are a great many people dependent upon the present back-yard toilets. A tottery old lady living on the fourth floor complained that it was a long, hard climb to get down to the toilet house and back again, “especially when one is ailing and feeble”. As for the general water supply, that is still more seriously incon- venient. Aside from an exclusive sink and faucet in the private apart- ments of one family and another in a room which is used only as a church mission, the only provisions for drawing water and emptying waste water consist of one lone faucet and a kitchen sink standing at the rear end of the long south hallway on the third floor. The tenants may empty slop water in the back yard toilets but all the water which they use must be brought from the far corner of the third floor. The serious labor and inconvenience which this involves, makes it. quite improbable that an extensive amount of washing and scrubbing will be done. A REFINED PENSIONER AND ANOTHER AIR-SHAFT The old lady who complained of the inconvenient back-yard toilet is a woman whose face and manner suggest culture and “better days”. She is merely existing now, in a single room which draws all its light and air from a very narrow air-shaft. Her white features remind one of a weakly plant, struggling for life in some dark cellar. The old widow is maintained by an army pension of twelve dollars monthly and by some aid, possibly, from her son whom she mentions as sometimes staying with her. She is always “intending to get out doors’, but the three long flights of stairs seem too great an ordeal. So she contents herself with reading good books and staying all the time in her inside room, which has no direct ventilation or sunlight at all but draws all its air, either through a window opening into an unventilated hallway, or from an air-shaft which measures only two and a half by eight feet in diameter. Those complacent persons who imagine that Washington neither has nor can have a tenement house problem, would be surprised and shocked by the two air-shafts in this old, double building. One of the shafts is square, measuring four feet ten inches on each side. On Human Ant Hulls 145 each of the three floors which it pierces, this shaft is located between two inside rooms which have no other connections with outdoor air and sunshine. One corner. of the square shaft projects into either room so that two shaft windows, each measuring five by eight feet, are afforded for each chamber. On two floors the air-shaft room toward the front of the house is usually rented in conjunction with the room next beyond it, which opens upon the outside street. The rear air-shaft room is ordinarily rented alone and thus depends exclusively upon ventilation from the little shaft. It was into this air-well that the dying consumptive and her tuberculous sons projected their infected sputa. Altogether, six rooms, housing six families, open directly upon the infected shaft. In winter at least the top of the shaft is always closed by a skylight. The second ventilating slit or air-well is only two and a half feet wide by eight feet long, and it runs from the floor of the third story to the roof of the tenement where it is covered over and closed up by a glass skylight. Opening upon this shaft are the four rooms and two hallways of two tenement stories. None of these has any ventilation except through this deep little air-pocket. The hall windows of the shaft have never once, in the many visits made by the writer, been found open. Each of the two living rooms on each floor has two air- shaft windows aggregating five and a half feet by five feet ten inches. One room of the fourth floor pair has also a window opening upon an unventilated hallway. Thé other rooms have no windows except upon the air-well. On the third floor the interior room at the rear com- municates, by an ordinary doorway, with a room behind it which has windows opening on the back yard. On the fourth floor the rear air-shaft room does not connect at all with any other. New Yorx’s Lessons NEEDED HERE What New York reformers have said about their awful air-shafts should have been regarded in the National Capital where, until after the preparation of this study, there were no laws preventing the con- struction of deep, narrow, foul air-pockets such as curse the older tenements of New York city. The broad and beautiful streets, of which Washington is justly proud, have little effect upon tenement rooms which open upon neither streets nor alleys. Interior chambers deny “God’s fresh air and sunshine” to their denizens, although air and sunshine are considered to be free and are known to be the Io 146 Neglected Neighbors most effective means for the cure or prevention of diseases. The air-shaft at its worst,—and those cited in Washington approach this limit,—prevents privacy, exchanges bad odors and communicates deadly infection among all the tenants massed about it. Rooms AND MEASUREMENTS Fifty-four feet front by one hundred and twenty deep are the dimensions of the double building lot which this old tenement occupies. Two rear wings carry the front structure back to the rear line of the Bet Bend Your Neck and Imagine You are Looking Straight Down the Air-Shaft from the Top of a Tenement. This One was the Spittoon of Three Con- sumptives. The Bacilli Fell Upon the Clothes and Food of Six Families. {Photo by Glascoff] property where it abuts on a paved alley occupied mainly by stables and wagon barns. On the first floor there are three large rooms of which two are mammoth storerooms. One of these accommodates the Greek restaurant and is also used on Sundays for Greek religious service. The other had just been engaged at the time of this investi- gation by the “Gospel Army”. This main, central part of the tene- Human Ant Hills 147 ment extends back seventy feet from the street to where it is joined by the two rear wings, which run fifty feet further, from the front building to the rear alleyway. Between these rear wings is the area- way or yard, nine feet eight inches wide, enlarging to a total width of seventeen feet where the rear stairs come down, immediately behind the solid, front portion of the building. Beneath the whole first floor is a commodious unoccupied cellar. The north wing is eighteen feet four inches wide; the southern, sixteen feet four inches. On the first floor of the two wings there are five rooms. Their second floors con- tain seven rooms each, the third floors seven and the fourth floor, ex- tended in one wing only, has three rooms. The front part of the tene- ment comprises, on the second floor, nine rooms including one which is wholly dark, being not even ventilated by an air-shaft, and one which is used temporarily as a mission branch of the Presbyterian church nearby. The third floor front contains ten rooms and the fourth floor twelve. This makes for the entire tenement a total of fifty-four living rooms additional to the two large restaurants and the mission rooms on the first floor front. Some of the living rooms are very large. “CouNTING NosEs” The janitor’s wife and the very intelligent tenant who reported the enumeration, said they counted one hundred and fifty-three tenants. There is ample room for that number, at the rate of less than three residents to each of the fifty-four rooms and this would not exceed the rate at which the tenements are often peopled. Our investigator, however, counted only seventy-four persons in the forty-nine living rooms which were then occupied, learning by inquiry the number in nineteen rooms whose tenants seemed never to be at home. In addi- tion there were, in 1905, three vacant chambers. NEGLECTED Byways OF LIFE Such a tenement as this is like a secluded eddy in which drift- wood, odd fragments and defective branches hide away from life’s main current. Old pensioners, aged people who have lost their hold upon affairs, men and women who desire seclusion in order to indulge in bad habits, many who are weak and some who are sinful, are likely to be found in a tenement like this which the outside world ignores. 148 Neglected Neighbors Human wrecks and oddities abound. This particular tenement brings together two Frenchmen, a German woman, a native of Syria, and a woman from Bohemia, a Jewish family and a small colony of Greeks. One room is occupied by an Assyrian woman and her stock of bril- liantly colored rugs, the sale of which affords her a living. In a chamber on the fourth floor there live a man and woman who have expressed a desire to secure from the Board of Children’s Guar- dians one or more babies for whose care there would be a payment of ten dollars monthly from public funds. Of course there is no probability that the Guardians would place one of their wards in such a tenement. Meanwhile the woman lavishes her affections upon three cats which she guards so zealously that they have never been out of doors. Before the advent of the present excellent janitor, about a year before this study was made, the hallways and stairs of this great tene- ment structure were left entirely dark at night. What naturally occurred in the inky darkness is suggested by the stories of the drunken woman who crawled into an inner doorway on the second floor to sleep off her spree, and the man who was barely rescued from a hold-up in the entrance hall. The little lamp with which one working woman tried to light her own door, so that she might find her way in safety when she returned from work at night, was repeatedly stolen by some marauder. These were the days of suspicion, disorder, drunken sprees and bodily encounters. But, within the year preceding this study great improvements had been effected. The halls are now lighted, the fire escape repaired, a fire gong provided and several tenants eliminated who drank and caroused excessively. There is a good deal of drinking still, and some of the stories heard indicate such low moral standards as are naturally to be expected in a place where one feels himself hidden away from criticism and from the sustaining influ- ences of wholesome outside standards. It is hardly safe to review here explicitly the story of the woman, once prosperous, the daughter of a resourceful family, who is said to make her living partly by visiting some of the male tenants, or to tell of some men, even old men, whose purpose in living here is thought to be merely the undisturbed indul- gence of low desires. The people in this particular “ant hill” are all of them white but they are as much injured as colored people are by tenement house life. The reason is that tenements mean segregation, separation from outside influences, and constant subjection to the companionship of careless, degraded people. Human Ant Hills 149 In 1908 the conditions found in 1905 are unimproved. There have been, naturally, some changes among the tenants. Notably, the Greek restaurant owner has recently leased the entire.structure. This may lead to the gradual displacement of the polyglot inhabitants by imported citizens from the Athenian land. But in August 1908 many of the old tenants,—and all the old odors and insanitary conditions,— remained exactly as they had been three years before. In July 1908 the offices of the local government were removed from 468 Louisiana avenue to the magnificent new “District Building” at Fourteenth and Pennsylvania avenue. But this removal of the city’s executive officials need not make the tenement feel neglected for there still stands nearby, Washington’s Largest Tenement, “Douglas Flats”, Built Like a Livery Stable with Box Stalls, Housing Forty Families in Fifty-four Rooms. [Photo by Glascoff] at the head of “John Marshall Place”, the city court house and the granite statue of Abraham Lincoln “the emancipator”. WASHINGTON’S LARGEST TENEMENT The largest tenement discovered in the National Capital is the “Douglas Flats” on Twenty-fifth street between M and N, northwest. Tradition states that it was built as a ‘model tenement”. If so the model followed must have been some large barn or livery stable. Upon each side of the cemented hallway, which pierces the center of the tenement, there are fifteen rooms, corresponding nicely to the I50 Neglected Neighbors box stalls of a good barn. There are thirty of these rooms on each of the tenement’s two floors, or sixty of these “box stalls” in all. The livery stable idea is borne out also by the odors which arise from the two toilet rooms located in the center of each floor. The one on the north side is reserved for “ladies”, that on the south for “gents” Each of these two rooms contains three toilet compartments. A faucet from which are drawn the water supplies of the thirty rooms, is also located in each of these toilet chambers, together with a separate hopper for the emptying of slops. The cement floors of the toilet rooms are frequently found covered with water, which sometimes floods out into the hallways. The odor of these repulsive places is described by three investigators as “quite apparent”, “not unusual”, and “pretty bad”. The writer’s dozen visits during the last seven years incline him to emphasize the last word, “bad”. The whole place is in some ways less attractive than one of the city’s model stables, where the cement floors with tiers of stalls on either side bear a rather close resemblance to the “Douglas Flats”. The upper and lower floors are alike in their toilet arrangements with the exception that there is an extra closet “for children’ on the first floor, which is not used at all. There is also on each of the two floors an extra water faucet, with a sink and a hopper for emptying slops, but the spigot at both sinks has been turned off, “Because”, as the janitress said, ‘‘the people wasted the water.” WorsE THAN New York TENEMENTS IN SOME RESPECTS A notable thing about this great tenement is the fact that, while only forty feet four inches wide, it is two hundred and eight feet deep. It covers every inch of ground from the front building line to the thirty foot alley at the rear. This exemplifies the provision of the local building code which, until after this investigation was made, required only ten feet to be left vacant at the rear of the building, no matter if the lot were from 125 to 160 feet deep, as often is the case. No unoccupied area at all was exacted if the lot abutted upon an alley ten feet wide. Incidentally it may be noted also that the building code permitted not only rooms which were ventilated by air-shafts alone, but secondary rooms, also, drawing all their air supplies from the distant air-shaft of the adjoining chamber. This toleration of dark, unventilated rooms would make it possible to construct any number of tenements two hundred and eight feet deep, with no open space what- Human Ant Hills 151 ever upon the building lot. Indeed, under the law as it stood in 190s, a tenement in the National Capital could be as much worse than a New York city tenement as a building lot 25, 23, 20, 16 or 13 feet front by 110, 124, or 134 feet deep is worse than New York’s typical building lot of 25 by too feet. It is a notable fact that the Washington figures quoted here are arranged in correct order; for the lot which is cited as being 13 feet wide is also the one which measures 134 feet in depth, and it is not by any means the only one of its class. One recalls the repeated statement of New York experts that the fundamental cause of all their tenement problems is the effort to occupy a profitable pro- portion of a lot one hundred feet deep with only twenty-five feet of frontage for light and ventilation. The much deeper, yet still narrower building lots of Washington assure a deadly crop of interior, gloomy, airless chambers unless radical preventive action is taken in good season. How THE WHOLE BuiLpING Lot Micut BE CoverepD When the writer first began visiting the “Douglas Flats” it appeared that they absolutely filled their entire building lot in alf directions, as the law would indeed have allowed them to do. The lots on either side were not yet built upon close up to the tenement, but there seemed to be no spaces actually reserved on either hand against the subsequent encroachment of adjoining buildings. On the south side, particularly, there was a high clay bank very close to the wall of the living rooms at the rear end of the tenement so that every rain washed clay and sand into the rooms and made them unhabitable. Of course the bank shut out nearly all the light and ventilation from the rooms which it adjoined. After a year or two, the writer was sur- prised, upon one of his visits, to find a space seven feet two inches wide opened through on the south side of the building between the tenement wall and the high clay bank, which had thus been narrowed somewhat, but not removed. A similar space had also been fenced off on the opposite side of the building. If the owner reserves perman- ently these unoccupied side spaces, measuring 208 feet deep by six and a half and seven feet wide respectively, “Douglas Flats” will occupy only about seventy-five per cent of its total building area of fifty-four by two hundred and eight feet. But even with this unrequired, gratuitous sacrifice of twenty-five per cent of its possible building area, this tenement is not a worthy monument to the intelligent concern and 152 Neglected Neighbors social consciousness of the National Capital. It illustrates the fact that merely to specify that twenty-five per cent of an interior build- ing lot shall be kept unoccupied is not sufficient to assure wholesome living conditions. Not only the amount but the arrangement of the vacant space should be controlled and its amount should be propor- tioned progressively to the depth of the lot as compared with its frontage. The percentage of a building site required to be left vacant in New York city (30 per cent for interior lots) will not suffice in Washington where building lots are twenty-five, or more, per cent deeper in proportion to their frontage. Forty FAMILIES IN Firry-rour Rooms A family to each room appears to be the ideal of “Douglas Flats”. The janitor has more than once said; “They average one room to each family”. The actual state of things, however, is not quite so bad as that. Of the sixty rooms, one was vacant at the time of this enumeration. One was used for storage and four were occu- pied by the janitor’s family. The remaining fifty-four accommodated forty households or forty-one distinct families and parts of families. Of the forty households, two occupied three rooms each; ten had two rooms and twenty-eight were content with a single chamber apiece. The size of the families appeared to be notably small, for, including the janitor’s family of six, there were only ninety-five people scheduled in the place. One important, praiseworthy feature is the fact that the janitor and his wife are wholesome people who maintain an orderly, decent character for the house. Compared with the “National Flats”, this tenement is less desirable physically but morally it is of a much higher grade. The difference suggests the fact that one of the most important features of a tenement is its janitor, so that if the law should require that janitors of good character be put in charge of every tenement, an essential requisite for their good order and wholesome- ness would be assured. Such a regulation could be enforced by the adequate force of inspectors proposed in Chapter II of Part IV. In August 1908, the conditions noted in 1905 are changed only in one single unimportant particular. One spigot at the rear end of each hall has again been put in use. Rents have not been raised, as in most of the other places revisited recently. Here they still remain $2.50 per month for a single room, $4.00 for two rooms and $6.00 for three. The tenement is filled, save for five rooms, “which”, the janitor Human Ant Hills 153 said, “are waiting for repairs”. The property is managed by one of the wealthiest banking and trust companies in Washington, and is said to be owned by a very wealthy woman who is truly cultured and public-spirited. THe Country ORIGIN oF City NEGROES The principal source of the city’s colored population is suggested by the schedule of thirty-nine, out of forty-one families in “Douglas Flats” for whom the investigator was able to record the place of birth. % Toilets and a Tenant of “Douglas Flats,” the Largest Tenement in Wash- ington; Supposed to Have Been Erected as a Model. [Photo by Hine] Counting both the father and mother and including cases where either the father or mother is dead or has deserted, fifty-five heads of families were enumerated. Twenty-five of these came from Virginia; thirteen from Maryland; and only seven were born in the District of Columbia. Ten came from other southern states; namely South Carolina 2, North Carolina 2, Georgia 2, West Virginia 2, Louisiana 1, and Kentucky 1. This suggests that the largest colored city in the world, included in the National Capital, is recruited in large numbers constantly from the country districts of southern states. In so far as this is true it indi- 154 Neglected Neighbors cates that the moral standards of Washington’s colored people are to be compared, not with those of white citizens in Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire, who embody the results of many years of civilizing influences, but with the poorer white people of southern country communities who have lacked many of the quickening influ- ences which have molded their northern brethren. The agricultural people who have crowded into “Douglas Flats” may also be compared in some respects to the immigrants who have come from country dis- tricts of Europe into the crowded tenements of New York city. Some of the considerations suggested by the New York situation, as frequently described in books and magazine articles, might profitably be applied to the study of Washington’s housing conditions and their A “Little Mother.” [Photo by Mrs. Weller] effect upon people accustomed to the open air, generous spaces, and social irresponsibility of country life. The accomplished progress and future possibilities of Washington’s colored population can not be judged correctly without taking into account the conditions of their nativity, the standards of life prevailing in the communities from which they have come and the influences and: opportunities now afforded them in the alleys, tenements and shanties of the National Capital. Judged in this way their brief history is creditable; their future possi- bilities are large. Human Ant Hulls 155 TENEMENTS INJuRE WHITE As WELL As COLORED PEOPLE This partial digression illustrates in itself the constant tendency observable in southern cities like Washington to shift the consideration of sanitary and social problems into a discussion of the colored race. As already explained, in the introduction to the study of “White Alley”, it is desirable-to learn whether the evil effects of Washington’s bad tenements are to be seen in the lives of white as well as colored people. This inquiry is facilitated by the fact that many of the smaller tenements are occupied by the white people while it also hap- pens that one of the oldest, largest and worst tenement houses of the city—The human “ant hill” described in the opening paragraphs of this chapter, is inhabited exclusively by whites, CHAPTER III ANCIENT AND MODERN EVILS PROBLEMS INHERITED From GreorGE WaSHINGTON’s Day. THE Most InsANITARY TENEMENT DiscovereD. “Tomcat Fats” AND OTHERS. “Pic ALLEY”. The one place which made the investigator “deathly sick”, in the actual, physical sense of the word, is the old tenement house at 1045 Potomac street, northwest. After an encounter with its sights and odors on a hot day in July, the visitor was obliged to give up all further inquiry for several hours. Among the elements which con- spired to produce her nausea, one might mention the stale fish in the southern half of the first floor, the wet feathers of plucked chicken in the rear room and the manure of three or four dozen live hens confined in the cellar. Two unoccupied basement rooms had their floors covered with human excreta, in addition to a pail of old filth standing near their doorway. Close by stood the one, and only, box toilet, which served the entire tenement. It had no lid, was full to overflowing, and when the investigator looked in upon it, under the sweltering July sun, the culmination of evil sights and odors was too much. She was hardly able to summon strength enough to get back to the office. There she was compelled actually to lie down on the office floor, in the absence of any couch, and to spend two or three hours in this recumbent position before she was strong enough to walk again. It is not nice to talk about box toilets and some of the other matters mentioned in these pages, but if a passing visitor is made ill by merely glancing at them, then those who live continually amidst such sur- roundings deserve that the rest of us should dare to discuss these foul things sufficiently to help bring about their elimination. No Water, BuT Many OTHER THINGS There was absolutely no water supply at all in this four-story tenement in 1905. All the residents had to carry their water from a hydrant on the other side of the nearby canal, climbing two flights of (157) 158 Neglected Neighbors stairs from the water faucet to reach the higher, artificial grade of Potomac street. The lunchroom already mentioned was conducted in a slovenly manner suggested by the total lack of cleansing water. The investigator said of the kitchen that, “It is hardly too strong to say it is the dirtiest place I have yet found. The dirt was of longer standing, more sticky, indicating more aggressive filthiness than that even of the room I railed against in ‘O Street Alley’. It was not negatively but sete ‘ Ne ~ \ NI The One Tenement, at 1045 Potomac Street, Whose Conditions Made the Experienced Investigator “Deathly Sick.’”’ Note Balcony Without Rail- ing Where Aged White Woman Lived. [Photo by Weller] positively dirty”. The colored women who managed the place claimed they did not sleep in the well-used, greasy beds which were found in their two rooms behind the restaurant. Probably they did, although the rest of the tenement was occupied by people who were white, so far as the natural color of their skins was concerned. The place afforded another example of the fact that people segregated in neglected tenements are not likely to be progressive citizens and angels of light. There was one picturesque old white woman on the third Ancient and Modern Evils 159 floor, counting from the back yard surface, in a rear room reached by passing through another bedroom and across a little porch. When Jacob Riis and Commissioner Macfarland were taken to see the place, this little veranda, about six feet square, had no railing and Mr. Riis spoke in his public lecture that evening about the evident danger of the infirm old lady’s pitching off into the yard below. She continued living there, however, earning some money by posing for artists and perhaps deriving a little assistance from another tenant who professed to be her nephew but was reputed to be her son. She received some aid also from a broken-down, harmless-looking old pensioner, about whom some very unsavory stories were related by neighbors and by the Charities’ agent. Such rumors suggested the peculiar, segregated, low character of life in this neglected old hiding-place with its twenty- three rooms. It is one of the few places which the investigator and the local agent of the Associated Charities seemed to be afraid of. One imagines that she may encounter any sort of irresponsible tenants or wanderers in the uncanny vacant rooms, the chambers occupied by doubtful characters, or the hallways, which are pitch dark at noonday unless some room door opening upon them chances to be unlatched. Revisited in 1908 the old tenement showed the following changes from the conditions pictured above: (1) There is at last a water closet, one only, not very robust, broken and unflushed at the time of inspection and located inconveniently in one of the basement rooms of the tall tenement. (2) Near it there is a solitary spigot from which all the tenants of the four stories are supposed to draw their water supplies. Into the sink beneath it, or into a sink hole in the side yard, they may decorously empty their slops, if they do not prefer to save climbing by simply pouring them over the railings of the upper porches. One tenant did this as the writer approached, in August 1908. (3) The former white tenants have now been replaced by colored people, who pay $5.00 for two rooms, $6.00 for three. The insanitary lunchroom is no longer operating here. (4) Fish and fowl are still kept and sold next door but instead of live chickens in the basement at 1045, there is a half-dead consumptive. This poor man was found, panting for breath and sitting forlornly upon the edge of a thin, broken, dirty mattress, in a dark barn of a room which lies entirely beneath the level of the street. He descends to it through a trap-door in the side wall, or,—because this trap-door is heavy,—he goes through the tenement, down the steep stairs into the rear areaway and crawls through the one window, from a corner of which he has / 160 Neglected Neighbors loosened the rusty grating which had been nailed there to shut in the chickens. When the writer climbed through this window and stood in the dismal room to tell the consumptive how he might secure hospital care, it seemed dangerous to breathe at all for the sick man was spitting frequently on the dirty floor and no fresh air, sunlight or scrub brush ever comes to disinfect the pest hole. Tuis Ciry Was FAMILIAR TO GEORGE WASHINGTON This white tenement at 1045 Potomac street is located’ in the ancient city of Georgetown which contains some of the worst housing conditions to be found in the National Capital. Long before George- town was incorporated into the city of Washington, it sowed the seeds for a rank crop of social problems. This was due, not to peculiar local faults, but to the natural tendencies of all old towns and cities everywhere, whose older buildings were not constructed with a view to their present uses or with any conception of modern sanitary stand- ards. In Georgetown, ancient residences which were palatial have been remodelled into tenements that are unwholesome. The chang- ing of street grades has resulted in buried basements, damp floors and dark rooms. Dilapidation and decay have come with the flight of time, while new structures have been annexed to older buildings after a patchwork, hit-or-miss fashion which entails many evils. Altogether, one finds some of the severest problems, both as to housing conditions and as to the degeneracy and lack of development among local groups of white people, in the ancient city whose buildings were some of them familiar to George Washington. The houses which embody George- town’s hardest problems were nearly all constructed since George Washington passed away; but we may say that the civic standards and building plans of his generation afforded the bases upon which later troubles have developed. A large number of Washington’s oldest families and most cultured citizens reside in Georgetown and the poorer white people, whom the Associated Charities has found to be especially degenerate, are in striking contrast to the better elements of this admirable ancient city. Two TENEMENTS ON ONE BuiLpinG Lot On Potomac street, opposite the public market house there is a row of tenements whose appearance suggests New York, Baltimore, or Philadelphia. The front building, which faces on Potomac street at Ancient and Modern Evils 161 number 1057, has four stories above the level of the street in front, with a basement and a cellar buried beneath it. This dark basement fronts upon a covered areaway only three and a half feet wide and nine feet below the sidewalk. Of the tenement back yard or court, the surface is about fourteen feet below the street level and three feet above the cellar floor. Viewed from this sunken court yard the Suffering Old White Woman, Destitute in Cheerless Room in’ Tenement at 1045 Potomac Street. [Photo by Weller] front tenement has five stories, with cellar underneath. The building slants down at the rear end to four stories and a cellar. Twelve and a half feet behind the front building is another brick tenement, towering up out of the common court yard and facing westward upon “Warehouse Alley”, which lies half a block east of Potomac street. This rear tenement is an example of “speculative building”; a brick house containing ten rooms and a cellar, it is said to have been “run up” for twenty-two hundred dollars. Its evident cheapness of con- struction has already resulted in its being much more dilapidated than the ancient front tenement which was erected conscientiously for living It 162 Neglected Neighbors purposes,—but originally, doubtless, as the home of one family only. Only twelve and two fifths per cent of the entire building lot remains uncovered. Of the twelve and a half foot space between the front and rear tenements, nine feet are taken up by a porch, extending from the rear of the Potomac street dwelling. Seen from the yard below there are four stories and a seven-foot cellar in the rear or alley tenement which faces “Warehouse Alley”. The cellar floor stands level with the court yard. Above it is an inhabited basement. The floor of the next story above this is only about two feet higher than the pavement of the alley. The little front windows of the inhabited basement are half buried beneath the alley pavement, in which narrow slits or trenches have been made to admit light and ventilation. Bap “Even ror New York CITy” Taken altogether, these two large brick tenements, with only three and a half feet of entirely clear space between their rear ends, crowd this hundred and twenty-five foot building lot in a way which a builder would not be allowed to copy “even in New York city’. Minor defects of the two tenements include gloomy basements,—as suggested above,—damp, rubbish-filled cellars with only dirt floors, and two base- ment rooms which are very damp, so that the plaster was falling from their walls. At the time of her visit the investigator found “water running in a perfect stream from an obstructed and overflowing toilet” which stands in the dark, unventilated basement floor of the rear or alley tenement. “This water’, continues the record, “was pouring through the basement floor into the cellar beneath; part of it was draining over the dirt floor to the cesspool in the yard and part was standing in pools in the cellar”. The court yard suffers also from the fact that the white woman who occupies the two upper floors of the highest, front tenement, pours her waste water upon the roof of the lower stories just behind her, whence it is carried down through a “leader” or “downspout” which is so ancient and rusty that permanent deposits of foul matter leak out upon the dwelling walls. In addition to the leaking toilet mentioned above, the tenement on “Warehouse Alley” has one other water closet, which is described as follows: “It is located on the fourth floor, in a gloomy, unventilated room measuring four by seven feet and opening only upon a hallway. It has an inadequate flush, is dirty and in bad repair. It emits sicken- Ancient and Modern Evils Five-story Tenement Inhabited by White People in “Warehouse Alley.” Two Lower Stories Are Below the Alley and Street Levels. [Photo by Hine] 164 Neglected Neighbors ing odors constantly. Thirteen people, however, included in the three families who occupy the second and third floor rooms, are obliged to draw all their water supplies and empty all their waste water at the faucet and sink which are located in this vile, repulsive place. The Potomac street house has two toilets, one in the basement and one on the first floor. The basement toilet has no ventilation except from the door which opens upon a hallway.” . In 1908 the only changes noted are as follows: The basement toilet of the front building has been removed and the one upon the floor above, which now must serve the entire tenement, has been provided with a modern toilet bowl and flush, though an objectionable tin trench remains beside it. The broken “downspout” has been repaired so that it carries the roof drainage from the front buildings to the top of the open cesspool in the areaway. Meanwhile the number of occupants has apparently been greatly increased, for the woman who owns the entire property and occupies part of it, is now accommodating a large number of men boarders. The rear tenement on “Warehouse Alley” shows no changes since 1905, except the signs of progressive, natural deterioration. The unventilated toilet room on the fourth floor con- tains also the sink and faucet representing the entire water supply of all floors except the basement, which has a spigot of its own. The floor beneath the upstairs sink is broken and it looks rotten. The pipe is wrapped with rags and it is said to let the water leak downstairs. The tenants gathered eagerly around the writer, as they have in many of the places visited, to complain of insanitary conditions and the rents which they rightly believe to be too high in proportion to the accommodations afforded. ‘‘Why, she asks seven dollars for the five little rooms on the fifth floor”, said one woman, “and I pay six dollars now for three rooms on the fourth”. The second floor, containing a tin shop, with one living room behind it, rents for six dollars. In the first or basement story, the tenant pays $4.50 for two rooms. “And a police- man that was just passing by one day,” said the tenant, “looked down at me through the little half windows below ‘Warehouse Alley’ and he says, says he, “You don’t mean to tell me that any human being sleeps down there,’ says he, ‘in that low hole.’” WHITE RESIDENTS AND OVERCROWDING All the occupants of both these tenements are white people. How Washington laws have permitted them to be overcrowded, so far ancient and Modern Evtls 165 as vacant spaces upon building lots are concerned, is suggested not only by the two tenements last described but also by the building which stands next south of these, at 1055. Here the entire lot, measuring one hundred and twenty-five feet deep by twenty feet front, is covered by a brick building which runs through from Potomac street to “Warehouse Alley”. As yet this very deep building rises only two stories high, or one story above the alley at the rear, but it is capped on the Potomac street side by two additional stories of which the first contains four living rooms. Two of these four are interior, dark rooms of which the first is lighted only by a doorway into the windowed cham- ber in front of it, while the second only has a doorway into the first room and a skylight in the roof. There were no laws in 1905 to prevent this pair of inside, gloomy chambers from being copied or extended throughout the entire hundred and twenty-five foot lot, into a series of dark rooms of which only every other room need have even an air- shaft and none need have windows opening directly upon the out- side air. Among the alterations effected in Georgetown since 1905 has been the demolition of another tenement called “Tomcat Flats”. The inspector of insanitary dwellings was asked to have it condemned if possible. He could not do this by force of law, but the result of his conferences with the proprietor of the tenement was that the latter volunteered to remove it. The owner has doubtless been rewarded by receiving larger profits from the solid row of four small two-story brick houses which now fill the front of the broad building lot. The story of the ancient building, as recorded in 1905, is so typical of others which exist to-day and so true of former private mansions which, in Washington as in other cities, are continually converted into tenements, that the report of three years ago is repeated here within quotation marks: “Tomcat FLats” “An old mansion which has lost its aristocratic tenants, has been deserted by their former associates and left to the destructive treat- ment of a swarm of shifting poor people, is like an aged race horse which is turned over to a cruel peddler or like an old man whose faculties and funds have both left him, helpless, in unfriendly hands. Such a tragedy in the life of a dwelling house is suggested by a view of the former mansion and present tenement, at 1035 Thirty-first street. If remodelled it would make an admirable social settlement building, 166 Neglected Neighbors with its six large and six smaller rooms and its mammoth yard. Five families have replaced the one departed and forgotten household who formerly made their home here. The present residents are all white people, but they are poor and rather shifting tenants. If the old walls could sigh and groan or express a longing for the luxurious days of yore, they would surely find many occasions for complaining and regret. But the only complaints that now are audible come from the five tenant families. They are hardly satisfied with the one “long- hopper” closet, in rather poor repair, which serves the entire premises. The water supply is particularly unsatisfactory; for there is only one faucet in the whole tenement and it is located, not in any public, con- venient place, but in a private chamber occupied by one of the five families. “There are three stories in the front part of the old mansion, each containing two rooms which, together, cover an area measuring eight- een feet front by thirty-six feet deep. The rear room has only one window, providing a ventilating space equal only to one eighteenth of the floor area. There are six people living in the two second floor rooms, two sisters with their respective husbands and the two chil- dren of one of the women. The mother supplements her husband’s earnings by repairing dusty gunny sacks at one cent each. Between general shiftlessness and the accumulation of old bags, the rooms are notably untidy. On the first floor below them lives a widow, her drinking son, an attractive daughter, the latter’s illegitimate child aged three, and the widow’s youngest offspring, a little baby. The family are said to be needy, especially the young mother and her infant, of whom a neighboring woman said; ‘The baby didn’t come right, but that’s no reason it should suffer for clothes and food. Its mother sent over to me for fifty cents; she said she was hungry. I thought it over and I thought that I could get filled up for thirty cents, so I jus’ sent her three dimes.’ This thirty-cent discounting Samaritan also loaned “her own sheets’, as the investigator reports it, for the baby’s mother, whom she found lying ill without such bedclothing. Her bed stood in the rather dark rear room made gloomier by a shade fastened over the solitary small window. “Two beautiful boys, who had just returned from the free kinder- garten, were discovered in one of the rear tenement apartments. Their mother was clean, attractive and intelligent and she remarked, in commenting upon the toilet conveniences and other arrangements shared in common, that ‘Those tenants who appreciate decent things Ancient and Modern Evils 167 have to suffer from the carelessness of the others’. It is the low rental that holds her in the tenement, for she pays only three dollars monthly for her three rooms. Just below this apartment there are three rooms which command four dollars, although one of them is quite dark and another contains the common sink and faucet to which all the other tenants must have access. Probably the close presence of a limitless water-supply accounts for the extra dollar.” ANOTHER RELIC OF FORMER GRANDEUR An ancient brick mansion which has deteriorated into a tenement house, is found at 1o10 Thirty-second street. Twenty-seven white people, in 1905, inhabited its ten rooms. On the first floor Mrs. Carson occupied the front room with her grown son and daughter and a younger boy. The single rear room,—an adjoining small chamber being used for storage purposes only,—accommodates Mrs. Frazer, a widow, with her five children aged from thirteen to twenty- nine years. It was here that the visiting nurse discovered, in the winter of 1904, six adults sleeping in one chamber. On the second floor Mrs. Eusted lived in two rooms with her husband and three children. Mrs. Masters, with her husband and three little ones, also had two rooms on the second floor. The third floor accommodated, in three rooms, an American gir], about sixteen years old, with an Italian man, her husband, and five other Italians,—boarders. In addi- tion to these nine chambers, with their twenty-seven occupants, there were some vacant quarters where additional residents could ordinarily be found. There is only one faucet and sink for the whole tenement. The corner of the old sink is broken out so that, despite the ineffective plug of rags and gunny-sacking, water leaks through in such large quantities that the sink room is said to be piled high with ice in winter time. Partitioned off from one corner of this common sink-room is the tene- ment’s single toilet, separated from the two living rooms adjoining by only a thin and rickety wooden partition. The tank which supplies the water to flush this “hopper” closet is located in the living room back of it and bad odors leak through the hole made for the chain which operates the tank-valve. The general standards of the place are suggested by the fact that a large quantity of excreta was found upon the floors of the two vacant upstairs rooms, although some of the tenants complained bitterly of the repulsive sights and odors. They were a colony of obviously Neglected Neighbors. 168 Neglected Neighbors In August 1908, the writer found no essential changes from the conditions described above. The toilet had recently been painted an unusual and very violent red color, inside and out. The chain by which the flush-tank is emptied into the unclean bowl had been replaced by a weak and rather ineffective piece of string. Several rooms in the tenement were temporarily vacant at the time of inspec- tion and the personnel of the occupants had naturally changed. The rent was said to average four dollars monthly for two rooms. “I know him’, said one of the gray-haired, white tenant women, point- ing toward the writer and referring to the new law governing wife desertion and compulsory support; “that’s the gentleman that makes —-—— - x r= One of the Typical Smaller Tenements; This Houses Six Families Plus Many Boarders; Stands at 1053-55 Thirty-first Street; Has Only Water- less Box Yroilets. [Photo by Hine] men get to work.” “Well then”, said her grown daughter, “I guess that we’d better sick him after pa.” PRESENT TENDENCIES IN TENEMENT CONSTRUCTION In contrast to the degenerated old mansions last studied is the double building at 1053 and 1055 Thirty-first street, which, though ancient, appears to have been either constructed for its present use as Ancient and Modern Evils 169 a tenement house or thoroughly altered for the purpose. Its frontage of thirty feet is divided into two parallel sets of apartments on four floors. In each half of the building there are four rooms on the first floor, three on the second and two rooms each on the third and fourth floors. «At least six families are thus provided for. There are four separate entrances but all the tenants share a common yard and a single hydrant. The latter is also used by colored people from adjoining lots. When one of the white tenants complained of this, a colored woman answered; “Oh, you white folks, there'll be enough water to wash you when you're dead.” Each half of the tenement has a separate toilet house. It contains only a wooden box toilet, which is the more notable because it has replaced a former water-closet. The reason for this retrogression, as explained by one of the older tenants, was that the “people used too much water” in flushing the hopper. This informant also stated, however, that the water-closet was not connected with the sewer at all but simply emptied into the public canal nearby. She had proven this very clearly by having her son throw torn paper into the hopper while she waited for it to appear in the water of the canal. She had also discovered, she said, that the lower end of the downspout is simply buried in the ground without the sewer connections which it is legally required to have. She thinks that the water from it soaks the ground, injures the house foundations and increases the dampness of the cellar or space beneath the tene- ment. Evidently this tenant has a good deal of originality and energy. She also appeared to be a kind of capitalist; for, in order to secure good neighbors in the tenement, she had rented a vacant apartment herself, expecting to sublet it to some worthy acquaintance. She herself occupied the seven rooms of the second, third and fourth floors in one half of the double building. Her occupancy of so much space was exceptional; for the usual tendency of the tenants has been to subrent, in one or more two-room lots, the regular apartments of three or four rooms each. The rentals in each original apartment of either three or four rooms, is five dollars monthly. The owner makes no charge for the rich, bad odors which come from the fertilizer, diago- nally across the street. It is on the debit rather than the credit side that all the changes effected since 1908 are to be entered. A pool of stagnant water, covered with green slime, stands in the back yard between the hydrant and the stopped-up sink hole ten feet away. In another part of the yard, the soapy wash water has discolored the surface of the ground and made 170 Neglected Neighbors it soggy. One of the box toilets is filled much fuller than the law permits. All the tenants of the north half of the double tenement crowded around the visitor and complained of the overcrowding in the upper stories of the south half. ‘Why, those folks on that top floor”, exclaimed one woman, “they must squeeze thirty-five people into their six rooms”. “Yes indeedy,” said another, “there’s a big family of them, and besides, they have at least twenty-six boarders”. “And they’re such a dirty, such a piggish dirty lot, they’re not fit for respectable white folks to live with, that tries to keep their places clean.” But such are the discomforts of tenement house life, where no man liveth to himself alone, even as regards the maintenance of his own standards of sanitation and morality. Tue TENEMENT ON “Pic ALLEY” Beside “Pig Alley” and partaking somewhat of the pig-sty cnar- acter which that name suggests, stands a tenement which fronts at number 633 K street in southeast Washington. While it is much better morally than the “National Flats”, the first impression which it makes on a visitor is one of great uncleanness and physical disorder. It has also, an inhabited, dark basement, sunken below the sidewalk level of the street in front. Among its other distinctive character- istics are the following: one proper toilet only for the entire tenement ; three sink-rooms with a single faucet each, as the only water supply; a family of resident managers who lease the entire structure and sub- rent its rooms; and, finally, a little mission church whose presence in the basement is believed to elevate and justify the entire tenement,— much as a serial publication of no exalted character is sometimes supposed. to be redeemed by printing “the weekly Sunday School lesson”. This “K street tenement” measures forty-four feet frontage on K street by sixty-three feet in depth, with a back yard thirty feet deep behind it and a seven-foot, wooden shed at the rear end of the yard. If the lot next west were to be built up as solidly as the law allows, there would be an air-shaft four feet wide and thirty-six feet long running along the rear half of the existing tenement upon its western edge. Along the east side runs “Pig Alley” which is fifteen feet wide. The part of the tenement which extends beside the air- shaft or courtway and contains five rooms on each floor, is said to have been built during the last nine or ten years as a rear addition to an Ancient and Modern Evils 171 original dwelling house on K street. There are now in the entire structure thirty rooms usable as living quarters and three small sink- rooms, one on each of the tenement’s three floors, providing for the drawing and emptying of water. The basement contains seven living rooms, a front room used as a church, a storage room or “cellar” and a sink-room five feet wide. The first floor has nine living rooms, a small store and a sink-room. The second floor is divided into eleven living rooms in addition to the five-foot room in which the sink and water faucet stand. The three sink rooms are used as laundries, too, and the one on the second floor serves also as a kitchen for the land- lady. Dark Livinc Rooms AND Broken Laws Perhaps it was by a change of the street grades in front that the basement came to be below the sidewalk level. At any rate its two decd a Be 2 In “Pig Alley”; Side View of the “K Street Tenement” with Cavern-like Basement Rooms, Overcrowding and Filth. [Photo by Weller] front rooms are now lighted only from a narrow areaway in front of the building. It is one of these front rooms that serves as a church. The other was formerly occupied as a living room but now is used only as “a cellar”; its windows are boarded up; it is dark, filthy and crowded with rubbish. Next back of this “cellar” is a living room, measuring sixteen by fourteen feet, which is lighted by a window three and a 172 Neglected Neighbors third feet square, or equal to only one sixty-seventh of the rooms’ floor area. This little window is cut near the ceiling in order to secure illumination from Pig Alley on which it faces. A family of five people call this dark hole their “home”. The oldest daughter was found there actually sewing on some black dress goods in the funereal gloom. The stitches must have been put in by sense of touch, for it was difficult even to see one’s way around the chamber. Pig Alley, running down hill from the front of the building, reaches at its rear end the level of the basement floor. The rear room on the east side of the tene- ment is therefore pretty well lighted, although the combined area of its two windows, equals only one twelfth of the floor area, instead of one tenth as is required by law. Opposite this eastern tier of four rooms, and back of the western front room used as a church, there are four rooms and the narrow closet in which the sink and faucet stand. Two of these four cham- bers cover together an area of sixteen and a half by seventeen feet and are occupied by the Garrison family, comprising a man, wife and two little ones, all sleeping in one room of which the most notable feature is the filth. In the schedule column headed “furnishings”, the investigator has recorded as the most important article, “the roaches” which infest the whole place numerously and gather in brown masses or colonies upon the walls. Beside the rear basement door are two small toilet-sheds, but one of them had been obstructed for six weeks, leaving the other to serve alone for the entire tenement. Even when both closets are in normal working order, the provision for flushing them is so inadequate that when the valve is turned on in one, it is impossible to flush the other. “On one occasion”, writes the visitor, “it was found that the cesspool, which stands immediately in front of the rear entrance, had become obstructed and access to the rear door of the house was to be gained only by picking one’s way carefully over a large puddle of ill smelling water. One of the tenants waited to point out this stagnant pool and implored the investi- gator, ‘For God’s sake get the health office to have this cleaned or we'll a3) all get some ’zease’”’. 7 ETHICAL AND SOCIAL DATA A striking peculiarity of this K street tenement is the fact that it is ‘farmed out” to a colored family, who rent the entire establishment and sublet it to the individual tenants. These unconscious imitators Ancient and Modern Evils 1473 of Octavia Hill appear to be desirous of making the moral standards of the place as good as possible. ‘The church” in the basement is one of their chief methods of doing this; it probably represents the only means they can imagine of social uplift. They set a copy of higher standards for all their tenants in such notable regards as the possession, though not the regular use, of a dining-room table. They fall behind some of their sub-renters, however, in the matter of clean floors and general cleanliness. But one never finds around this tenement such a crowd of rough loungers as always frequents the ‘‘National Flats”. There was only one illegitimate child discovered among all the nineteen apartments. The investigator visited, in one of the first floor rooms, a woman who was very drunk. A blind baby lay on the bed beside her, depending upon the intoxicated woman for suste- nance, care and the influences which are to shape her future life. In another chamber on the same floor a little two-year-old baby was found shut in with no guardian save a four-year-old child who is both dumb and feeble-minded. And so, although this tenement has higher moral standards than some others, it still exemplifies the characteristic fact that in the tenements, where the residents know every one, they care little for any one and are surprisingly indifferent to the needs and prospects of the little children who swarm the place so numerously as to seem of little value. In this tenement, as in nearly all the others, no improvements have been brought about during the three years since 1905. Seen in August 1908 the rooms appeared to be more crowded than three years ago. Both of the toilets were in use, but one had no flush at all. The monthly rents range from $2.50 each for the least desirable rooms to $3.00, $3.50 and $4.00 each for better chambers. Fallen plaster, general dilapidation and uncleanliness are still characteristic and the church mission in the basement still struggles to save souls. WisE TENEMENT PHILOSOPHY. Alley, shack and tenement house problems were all united in a pair of small tenements which stood at 715 and 717, “Burk’s Alley”, between G and H, Sixth and Seventh streets, southwest, but have been demolished since 1905. At the second door north of them there was a frame stable whose second story was occupied by a colored woman paying $2.50 for the use of her one room. She did not welcome the investigator but said: “Wot you all gwine do wif dese houses? Hav 174 Neglected Neighbors em tore deown ’en frown in de rivah? ‘en leave us poah folks all wif out no homes?” When it was suggested that she might perhaps secure better quarters for her present rent money, she replied; “Yes en live in a house wif a hundred people, fightin’ and quarlin’ all th’ time. I'd druther stay by my own se’f” One feels that she had quite the best of the argument as things go at present and that crowded tene- ments such as she abhorred would be worse than her alley stable. Her clean windows, with their pretty flowers growing in tin cans, suggested the probable neatness of her single, unseen room. Next door to this stable-home there stood, and is still standing, another alley building,—wooden, shabby, badly dilapidated, and filled with rubbish. The second floor is usually occupied but the lower story serves only as a storage place and a passageway to the small yard with its toilet shed. Beyond this yard are the stairs ascending to a single room, at the rear of the dwelling which fronts on Sixth street. The little tacked-on room is occupied by a solitary old man. When the investigator said to him, “This building runs through solid to the front street, does it not?” He said, “Solid”? “I should say not; you come an’ see’: and he showed the leaky places in the roof above his bed as evidence that the old house did not conform to his ideas of “solid”. Her Playground. CHAPTER IV TENEMENT TENDENCIES SMALL TENEMENTS ARE MuttTipityinc.. “THe Castie” in ‘Goat ALLEY’. Tue Native Haunt or “THE FAMILY WasH”. Over- CROWDING AND ITs PREVENTION. “REAR TENEMENTS’”’. The present tendency in tenement house development in Wash- ington is toward providing small houses to contain three, four, five or six families each. The Health Department inspector for southwest Washington declared, in 1905, that one of the notable features in the present housing situation is the constant, rapid increase of these small tenements. He said that old buildings are being altered or crowded and new structures built to accommodate from four to six families each. Nothing but a house-to-house canvass would determine the total number of these small tenements, but it is suggestive that in the course of this study they have been discovered in pretty large numbers in unsuspected places scattered here and there over a wide territory. Their number is undoubtedly both large and growing. “THe CastTLe” IN “Goat ALLEY” There is a queer four-story-and-basement structure in the alley between Sixth and Seventh, L and M streets, northwest. Its first floor could not be entered, in 1905, by our investigator. The second floor contains two rooms, each extending across the building, a width of eleven feet eight inches, to the enclosed stairway which is two and a fourth feet wide. The front room measures ten feet one inch and the rear room ten feet seven inches, from front to back. The rear door, which for two years had been entirely off its hinges, opens upon a little porch that is dangerous for the children because its rail- ings are gone. On the third and fourth floors the front room is divided into two chambers, one of which is only five feet wide, by nine feet two inches deep. The larger room measures nine feet wide by (175) 176 Neglected Neighbors fifteen deep, and back of it is a small, open room or hall-alcove, five feet seven inches deep by eleven feet eight inches wide. It serves as a kind of public washroom and contains the “onliest toilet”, as a tenant expressed it, for the four flats. There is an old “hopper” closet crowded close against one side of the dark little cubby-hole in which it stands. Its seat is badly broken; a large portion of it has been removed; the flush is inefficient and the narrow, loose cover is repulsively soiled. Water leaked down profusely from this ram- shackle toilet to the living rooms below, where the open dishes of food cooking upon the stove seemed to stand in exact position to receive the foul drippings. The four floors of “the Castle’ accommodated, in 1905, a family to each floor or four families to the tenement. The basement is entirely below the alley grade but is entered from the house which occupies the front end of the same building lot and looks out upon L street. There is a distance of only six feet two inches between the rear ends of the outside and alley houses, and this space is filled by the small porches without railings which project from each floor of the alley tenement. In this way the entire building lot is occupied, from the front building line on L street to the alley frontage behind it, with the exception that a passageway two feet six inches wide runs beside the front house and the latter stands twenty feet back from the front building line of the two adjoining strucures upon L street. In the first floor rooms of the street house a crowd of idle, well-dressed colored men were assembled drinking beer. They did not look like proper company for the attractive woman who answered the investi- gator’s knock. The thought was naturally suggested that this old rookery afforded an excellent runway for escape from possible police raids. For there is a passageway from the rear of the front structure around the alley houses to a separate means of egress. Besides that, the ill kept toilet used by the street house is in the buried basement of the alley tenement through which a fugitive could doubtless effect a quick escape into “Goat Alley”. “The Castle” stands untenanted in August 1908 but two “for rent” signs indicate that it has not been condemned. According to an alley resident who seemed to know, the agent turned out all the occu- pants, “coz there sure wuz a hard crowd in them flats.” He said he would fix up the place for any one who might care to rent it. “But, *deed”’, said the alley lady, “it sho aint fit fur no one to live in.” Nearby stand, in the same alley, 29 brick houses and 22 frames. Of Tenement Tendencies 177 the latter 9 are badly dilapidated, while many of the others are likely to develop into a second crop, a few years hence, for the board which condemns insanitary dwellings. SMALL TENEMENTS IN “LOGAN CourRT” Through a passageway, forty feet long, seven and a half feet high and two feet wide, which runs south from Pierce street, northwest, into the alley back of “Logan Court”, one enters one of the character- istic alley haunts of the “family wash”. The photograph printed in Tenements, at Left, in “Logan Court,” an Interior Alley. [Photo by Hine] Chapter IX of Part I, affords a partial view of the innumerable wash- ings which are nearly always hanging up across the alley-way. Their swinging lines make the place look as picturesque and as crowded as the rear yards of a New York tenement block. “Logan Court” is an interior alley hidden between North Capitol and First, L and Pierce streets, northwest. Upon its northern, outside borders, on Pierce street, stands a row of brick houses in which one of the prominent officials of the Health Department says he tabulated, some five or six years before this investigation in 1905, a population equal to five people sleeping in every room including the kitchens. Unless there was some error in his statement conditions 12 178 Neglected Neighbors : have improved so far as overcrowding is concerned, for our inquirer found no such dense population. In the interior alley, “Logan Court” proper, the nine double buildings which occupy the north side of the roadway were scheduled. These nine tenements include thirty-one apartments, accommodating thirty-one household groups. The south side of “Logan Court”, including thirteen dwellings, was not studied. “Logan Court” is not so bad, as alleys go in Washington. There is even a separate toilet for each of the four three-room apartments into which these. nine two-story buildings are divided. Each dwelling house, being double, contains four small flats, two on each of its floors. The worst evil, so far as plans of construction and arrange- ment are concerned, is found in the middle room of each flat which is not well lighted and aired, for it has only one window, measuring five feet one inch by only one foot eleven inches and equaling less than one fourteenth of the room’s floor area. A Goop Janitor Means Goop MoraL STANDARDS The important fact that a good janitor maintains good moral standards in a tenement is again exemplified in “Logan Court’. The resident janitor here has also some knack for small repairs and he keeps the premises in fairly good condition. Our study in 1905 was made just before the annual whitewashing and, out of thirty-one apartments scheduled, nine rooms were reported as having dirty walls In seven instances the floors of the first floor rooms were reported to be damp. Plaster was falling off the walls in seven apartments. Th2 toilet flush was recorded as “doubtful’ in one case, while three other toilets were reported as “in poor repair’. It would certainly appear that all the second-floor toilets must be frequently frozen up in winter time, for the traps in each of their soil pipes are exposed to the open air below the porches on which the closets stand. Some leaking roofs are mentioned but with the explanation that such damages are always repaired promptly. Waste water from kitchen sinks is carried out of doors by pipes which terminate about a foot above the cesspools that stand at the rear between each pair of houses. The praiseworthy condition of these tenements suggests the fact that it is wise and profitable, as well as kindly, to keep one’s rented property in livable condition. It is significant, however, that in spite of the comparative comfort of these “flats” their tenants are agreed that interior alleys should be abolished. “All unite’, writes the volunteer inquirer, “in Tenement Tendencies 179 wanting alleys to be made into minor streets; because the alleys harbor fugitives from the police and rough characters who can lead the officers a chase through several alleys, all connected, in the neighbor- hood.” ALLEY Houses TRANSFORMED INTO SMALL TENEMENTS Six small three-story brick tenement houses, of only six rooms each, accommodating from three to five families to every house, stand in a row in “Shepherd Alley”, between Ninth and Tenth, L and M streets, northwest. They are peculiar structures and it is quite certain they would not be tolerated in New York city. Certainly they disobey in several particulars the tenement-house law now opera- tive there. Between the two rooms on each floor there is a narrow wooden stairway which is pitch dark even at midday, being lighted only by a little skylight, measuring about twenty by thirty-six inches, in the roof. The foot of the stairs is reached only from the rear door and back yard of the tenement, through a narrow hallway cut off from what was formerly the kitchen. It looks as if a row of six houses designed each for an individual family, had subsequently been converted into six small tenements. Each of these has a front room cn the first floor which opens directly upon the alley as well as on the dark interior hallway. This first floor chamber measures thirteen feet front by eleven and a fourth feet deep. The front rooms of the two floors above have the same dimensions. The rear room of the first story measures nine and a half feet front by eleven and one fourth feet deep, while to the similar rooms above it are added the three and a half feet frontage cut off from the first floor room by the entrance hallway. These little kitchens on the ground floor are about as crowded and uncomfortable as can be imagined. One of them was photographed in August 1908, after a long, wordy war with a swarm of impudent young colored women who threatened physical damage to the camera and, after the offer of a twenty-five cent piece had quelled their opposition to the picture, renewed their quarrel to determine who should get the money. The outside door of this tenement was badly broken at the time of the writer’s first visit several years ago. To his personal knowledge it remained without repairs for at least three years. As one ascends the dark stairs of these tenements he finds the plaster wanting in many places, so that he looks through from one house into the next. 180 Neglected Neighbors Each of these three-story, six-room tenements, housing three, four or even five families apiece, depends upon a single toilet in the rear end of each back yard. Of the six toilets one was so inadequately flushed that the excreta clung persistently to its upper rim regardless of the feebly-flowing water. The flush pipe leaked and the bowl was tipped forward so that excrement was deposited upon its upper, unwashed edges. Another toilet was also recorded as having an inadequate flush. From another the seat was broken away. Some of the back yards were fairly clean, others contained a great deal of Typical of the Smaller Tenements which Abound in Washington. These, in “Shepherd Alley,” Have Recently Been Condemned. {Photo by Hine] rubbish; but tenants reported that they are cleaned three times a year “whether they need it or not’’,—as the boy said about his yearly hair cut. In one yard a stagnant pool of water extended for some distance around the cesspool, which had been “obstructed for some time.” But the essential fact in which the city is mainly interested lies in the buildings themselves and their almost inevitable overcrowding. Here are six little alley tenements which rent at the rate of $2.60 per month for one room or five dollars for two. At the time of inspection, eight of the thirty-six rooms were vacant but the twenty-eight occupied chambers housed twenty-one families. One of these, for example, Tenement Tendencies 181 comprised a father, mother, the woman’s older son and_ twin babies named “Golinda and Lucinda”. This household of five people were superior to the one-room families of the place, for they had two apartments. In one of them there was a stove, a small table and three chairs. The other’s furnishings comprised only two broken chairs and a soiled mattress, with one old quilt, upon the floor. The utter lack of any home idea or any thought of accumulating possessions and developing a wholesome family life, was evident. As Jacob Riis has repeatedly suggested, “tenements kill homes”. At least, tenement house influences are not conducive to the upbuilding of good family life. In August 1908 this row of tenement shacks still exists but now its days are numbered. Already the families are moving out and it is announced by the “Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Dwell- ings” that the houses are to be demolished. Their counterparts, how- ever, will continue to develop in other parts of Washington. Two More SMALL ALLEY TENEMENTS A pair of typical small tenement houses were discovered tucked away in “Ball Alley’, between Massachusetts avenue and G, Second and Third streets northwest. The buildings stand upon a single build- ing lot which measures 25 feet front, upon the twenty-foot alley, and 60 feet deep. The front house is a three-story, ancient-looking frame which contains three two-room apartments renting for four dollars each. The rear house, a brick structure, contains four rooms, rented to four families at $2.50 each. Both buildings, accommodating seven families, use the one outdoor toilet, which has an inadequate flush and a sodden wooden floor and was found, as might be expected with so many users, “in a filthy condition”. The brick house has no cross ventilation, as all its windows are located in the east wall overlooking its thirteen-foot courtway. At least one of its tenants confessed that he would not be inconvenienced if forced to live in better housing ‘conditions; for he said he earned nine dollars weekly, with a good deal of extra pay for overtime, while his wife had “two washings” and there were only two people to be fed. They need nothing quite so much as a divine discontent aroused by laws emphasizing higher hous- ing ideals than are now required in the National Capital. Here, as usual, in the tenements at least, there has been no improvement between 1905 and 1908. 182 Neglected Neighbors : Tue LocaLt MEANS OF PREVENTING OVERCROWDING More typical than the mammoth brick tenements, less impressive, but in some ways no less dangerous to the city’s welfare, are these small brick tenements just described or such small dilapidated wooden tenements as the one at 251 Third street southwest. From appear- ances one would judge that this old structure was designed as a single private residence. There are three floors and a basement. The four rooms of the first floor accommodated, in 1905, two families, one of which included eight members and a roomer. One household on the Tenement, Toilet, Yard, Tenants and Visitors in “Ball Alley,” Near Massa- chusetts Avenue. [Photo by Weller] second and one on the third floor occupied three rooms each. The basement was unoccupied at the time of inspection, but is ordinarily inhabited. Altogether the population of the place could be, and has been, much denser than the inquirer discovered. This tenement is one on which the local health inspector has expended a great deal of time and labor. In 1905 he had succeeded, after a hard struggle, in compelling a number of repairs and in reducing the habitual over- crowding of the building. One of the means used was the placarding of the rooms, as the law empowers the health authorities to do in the case of tenements and lodging houses, stating the maximum number of adults who may lawfully occcupy each chamber. By some mis- Tenement Tendencies 183 chance the statute takes no account at all of little children, merely specifying that at least 4oo cubic feet of air space shall be provided for “each person not less than ten years of age.’”’ One feature which the health inspector had not been able to master was the hopper toilet which was very frequently, if not constantly, obstructed and over- flowing with filth. On all occasions when the writer or his associates visited the place this water closet was found in an unspeakably repul- sive condition, nearly full, or overflowing, with filth standing in the bowl and making it worse than useless. The tenement resembles those of Philadelphia in having one yard hydrant only to furnish the water supply for all its occupants. It is characteristic of Washington’s housing conditions that the hydrant, the cesspool or sink, and the toilet, for small tenements as well as for nearly all the cheaper single houses, are located in the rear yards. In August 1908 the frame tenement at 251 Third street appeared to be inhabited by a better class of tenants than ever before. They have cleaned the premises and the landlord has done some needed painting and whitewashing. The single toilet is in working order and only the rear half of the yard is soiled with rubbish. Rents have risen, of course, as conditions have improved. In the basement, four rooms, two of which are in a separate shed in the back yard, rent for $8.50 monthly. Two rooms on the first floor command $7.00. On the next floor there are three rooms for which the charge is said to be $8.50. In the attic story $6.00 is the rental for three rooms. “A CoNsTANT NUISANCE” Just around the corner, at 317 and 319 C street southwest, there are two small wooden tenement houses to which the local repre- sentatives of the health office and of the Associated Charities referred frequently, in 1905, as being particularly troublesome. There were five families, nineteen individuals, living then in the eleven rooms at “317” and eight families, twenty-one individuals, in the eleven rooms at “319”. In the dark basement at “317”, which accommodates four residents in its two rooms, the rear chamber has only one small window opening on the outer air. This window measures only 13 inches high by 30 inches wide and is located near the ceiling in order to be above the ground of the rear yard. There is also an opening measuring 26 by 34 inches between the rear and front houses. The latter, several steps below the front sidewalk, has two windows, The rear room 184 Neglected Neighbors was so dark even at midday that the investigator could hardly see to measure it. In the tenement next door, at “319”, there is the same arrangement of basement rooms, except that there are two small windows in the rear chamber, but this advantage is minimized by the fact that a tight, board fence ten feet high stands only three and a half feet away from the second window at the side of the room. In these two rooms there were seven grown people living—a man, his wife, four grown daughters and a lodger. On the top floor at this address there were three distinct families in the three rooms. As there are eight families in all a resident janitor might wisely be required according to the law for tenements containing “more than five families” ; but this, like other local laws concerning housing condi- tions is not aggressively enforced. Each of the two tenements has one hydrant in the yard, and one toilet. At “317” the walls, floor and seat of the water closet were thoroughly wet and there was excrement on the seat and floor so that at least one of the tenants said she could not use the place at all. Although this toilet was bad, the one at “319”, supposed to serve eight families, was much worse. When the investigator went to the front basement door she noticed water trickling through the bricks and standing in a pool in front of the tenement. She followed the stream back through the passageway beside the dwelling to a much larger pool standing before the toilet house. She inquired about the condition of the latter and was told she might look at it ‘if she wanted to’; but the informant said, “I reckon you won’t want to”. When the visitor made her way through the water and opened the door she found the worst condition she had seen in any water closet. Excreta covered the whole seat thickly, piled up as if it had burst out of the hopper bowl as out of a volcano. It was falling over the seat edge upon the floor, which was also badly soiled. Naturally it was worse than useless to the twenty-one people, eight households, who depended entirely upon it. Some of them begged the investigator to report the matter to the Health Department. One woman said she had been to see the health officer but “didn’t find him in’. When the investigator sent the report to the Health Department the local inspector was notified and he signified his determination to do, or rather to continue doing, all he could to improve the situation. He said that this place was reported continually and that he was constantly laboring to have it put and kept in good condition; he looked upon this toilet particularly as “a constant nuisance”. Obviously there should be some legal means of Tenement Tendencies 185 abating such nuisances and there surely would be if the community were aroused to the situation. In August 1908, the tenants themselves are little changed but the toilets are in better condition. They are still only two in number but they are usable. At 317” the sewer pipe in the yard is stopped up and full of putrid filth, which bubbles up and forms a pool in the yard whenever there is rairi. The rear shed is badly littered up with rubbish and the yard is also in bad condition. Behind the twin tene- ment at “319” there is a broken cesspool, a stagnant pool of filth, an open garbage box and a shed floor covered with wet piles of chicken feathers. Meanwhile the rents have been “improving” faster than the living conditions. In the basement two rooms rent for $4.50. In the back yard the ‘““L” addition to the front house commands $8.50 for its four rooms on two floors. The two rooms on the first floor of each front house rent for $6.50 per month. On the floor above $9.50 is charged for three rooms. TureE or Four “REAR TENEMENTS” At 707 “Burk’s Alley” between Sixth and Seventh, G and H streets southwest, there is an ordinary building lot on which there stand four houses, one behind the other. Facing upon the alley is a two- story brick which has one room on the first and two on the second floor. Close back of it, is a narrower, two-story, two-room structure which is used sometimes in conjunction with the first house and some- times separately. There is a small yard, next, containing a water toilet and a leaking hydrant, used by all the people living on the lot. A single room or brick shed one story high comes next. It may or may not be considered a component part of the front building which it immediately adjoins but without communication between the two. The building farthest forward upon the lot is a two-story-and- ‘basement brick structure which was built in three distinct sections, one after the other, but now all communicating and constituting one tenement house. The former owner occupied the basement, two first- floor rooms and one chamber in the second story, in 1905. The back room on the first floor was rented to a separate family for three dollars amonth. The two rear rooms on the second, or top, story were leased by two newly married couples. Altogether, there were four families in the tenement and two in the rear building, with the possibility of at least one additional household being accommodated in the front half 186 Neglected Neighbors of the double building on the alley. The property measures one hundred feet deep, from the front building line to the alley, with twenty-four feet frontage. In 1908 the general situation remains the same as it was in 1905 save for a little fresh paint strategically placed. ANOTHER OVERCROWDED Burtpinc Lor The way in which the building lots of Washington may be covered over is again exemplified at 494 K street, southwest. Although none of the single buildings standing here is itself a “tenement house”, Partial View of a String of “Rear Tenements”; Four Houses on One Lot; at 707 “Burk’s Alley.” [Photo by Hine] the lot as a whole suggests the evil development of what are often called “rear tenements”. Five separate dwellings upon a single lot measuring thirty-five by one hundred and seven feet suggest the possibilities, unchecked by local laws, for such a crop of “rear tene- ments” as would shame the most indifferent city. Other lots nearby contain two and three dwellings each. How this comes about is suggested by a study of the “five-barreled” buildings lot at number 494. Here, in 1905, there were five houses, six sheds and two roofed porches. At the front stand two fifteen-foot, two-story houses, side by Tenement Tendencies 187 side. They are thirty-four and a half feet deep with seven and a half feet of yard space immediately behind them and wood sheds seven feet eight inches deep. Next came two houses, facing toward the eastern side of the lot, down which a narrow entranceway extends. These two were condemned in 1907. Be- hind them was, and is, the fifth house, two Re ens stories high with a covered porch or pas- sageway adjoining it. Scattered among these five houses there were six sheds of vary- ing sizes. There were wooden box toilets only and no water hydrants at all. The tenants carried all their water from Four- and-a-Half and K streets or from a neigh- boring house in “Casey’s Alley”. In May Yj 1907 a water hydrant and toilet were in- stalled in the shed which serves the rear house. In August 1908 it was found in useless condition, but only because the water NS had been cut off for non-payment of the “water rent.” Each of the two front houses on_K street now enjoys the long-postponed luxury of a water closet and hydrant. Three houses and three sheds remain standing on \\\: N 0 eo! OFEO AcH SNe Rs this building lot. N \ Grave Dancers As To Fire \ @ Q 1u Wood is the building material used NN 1 YY exclusively in this collection of shanties and SX L.J YY} sheds. If set afire they could make an al- most irresistible blaze which might clear out the neighboring block full of old, unsat- isfactory wooden dwellings, occupied princi- pally by white people. There is an evident effort to keep these little packing-box houses SCALE FEET At 494 K St., Southwest. “Rear-Tenement” Pos- in as good condition as possible. Fresh sibilities. On One paint, which should be definitely required by Lot 5 Houses, 6 Sheds law as essential to wholesomeness in a and 2 Porches. wooden dwelling, has been recently used on enh merge ae the fronts of nearly all the row of nineteen sie OL arEIBS Gee CON: 188 Neglected Neighbors frames which stretch along on either side of 494 K street. At number 500 there is an old, two-story dwelling house which is only seven feet wide. It is a queer freak of a place, so narrow that the ordinary iron bedstead in the front room leaves scanty space through which to pass to other chambers. There are two stories with four rooms and a cubby- hole for the stairs. The rent is $5.50. Having nc water or toilet on the premises, the tenants use those of the house next door and a board has been conveniently left off the rear fence for this purpose. “ ’Deed, this aint no house utall”, said the tenant, in August 1908, “but we’s only here temprarely”. There are two long blocks of frame dwellings on the south side of K street, southwest, which approach dangerously near to conditions justifying their condemnation as “dwellings unfit for human habitation”. Gradually, like lame stragglers, they will pass over the “dead line” and become meat for the “Board for Condemna- tion of Insanitary Dwellings”. Between Four-and-a-Half and Sixth street these K street houses are really better than those which stand in the next square east but the entire row will require constant vigi- lance and frequent repairs to prevent the deterioration of a score of houses into shacks unfit for human use. As it is now, even the five-house building lot described above is not so bad in its present reality as in the unrestricted, rear tenement possibilities which it suggests. Of the five houses and six sheds which occupied it in 1905, and the six which still remain, all but four were one-story structures so that the narrow passageways between them afforded good light and ventilation. If one conceives, however, of having four or five-story dwellings built all over this crowded ground, —and no law prevents such use of it,—the effect would be deplorable. Even as it is at present no citizen who is ambitious for the National Capital, would be willing to see the building lot with its eleven structures copied, as the law would readily permit, all over Wash- ington. That there would not be sufficient restriction even in a law requiring that twenty-five per cent of every building site shall be left vacant, is indicated by the surprising fact that forty-three per cent of this particular lot was unoccupied even when the five houses and six sheds were all standing. Obviously, unless such conditions as this lot exemplifies are to be encouraged, the law will need to deal spe- cifically with “rear tenements” and with the arrangement, as distin- guished from the mere area, of the buildings to be allowed on any lot. CHAPTER V PREVENTIVE MEASURES TENEMENT Evits SHOULD BE FoRESTALLED. Two GENERAL MErtHobps. Lessons From TEN OtHer Cities. DertaiLeD SuGcestTions As To Burtpine Lots, ArirR-SHAFTS, OVERCROWDING AND SAFETY. There is some danger that Washington will let slip its opportunity of being a model city free from the tenement house evils which have become deep-rooted elsewhere. There is small excuse, if any, for the development of bad tenements in the National Capital. Here are no great factories or industrial centers which might appear to justify the concentration of large groups of laborers. Local opportunities for employment are both diversified in character and scattered in location. No confining natural boundaries exist such as the two great rivers which compress New York city and pile up its inhabitants, layer upon layer, in many-storied, crowded tenements. There is no large city known to the writer which appears to have so much vacant land readily available at such short distances from its business centers. Indeed, after some familiarity with other cities, all distances seem short in Washington. There is no reason why the growing population should not be scattered out around the city with elbow room and breathing space enough for every one. There has been for years in Washington a “house famine” so far as concerns the cheaper quarters to be had at rentals such as common laborers can pay. The demolition of several hundred houses to make way for the Union Railway Terminal and the removal of over 500 dwellings by the “Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Build- ings” has intensified the need. To meet it, philanthropic model dwellings may help a little by suggesting model plans and profitable opportuni- ties. But the thing of main importance is so to shape the natural building activities, which commercial self interest will inspire, that all the houses to be constructed shall conform to a wholesome, general civic policy. As William H. Baldwin puts it; “The Public should determine the conditions necessary for all dwellings—light, air (includ- (189) Neglected Neighbors Rear of Tenement at 1057 Potomac Street, Northwest; Inhabited by a White Family Who Keep Numerous Boarders. Where the Man Stands Are Beneath the Street Level. One Toilet, One Floor and Basement Below There is Only [Photo by Hine] Preventive Measures IQI ing room) and sanitary conveniences. When these are assured the prices to be charged for sale or for rent, and the wages necessary to meet these should, by the law of supply and demand, adjust them- selves.” THE PHILOSOPHY OF SANITARY AND Housinc REGULATIONS The housing problem, from the viewpoint of municipal states- manship, is a question of framing building regulations in such a way that an increasing population will be distributed wholesomely through the areas available. Selfish interests,—narrow, near-sighted and un- balanced,—will tend to concentrate the people by using as large a proportion as possible of the landowner’s building lot. Against the builder’s greed or narrowness, individual tenants have little power, and the gradual, unconscious changes of demand on the part of various classes of house-renters do not bring about the reconstruction of exist- ing dwellings but only their desertion by one class of tenants and the sub- stitution of less influential residents with lower standards of life. An increasing residue of outgrown, unsatisfactory houses is the result, while newer dwellings also are developed without conscious apprecia- tion of the people’s ultimate needs or consideration for the housing situation as a whole. Therefore, unless the paramount interests of the community are broadly considered and authoritatively expressed in law, there is no limit to the tenement house evils which will develop, as if by force of gravity, even in cities whose natural situation is so fortunate as that of Washington. Two Main LINES OF PREVENTIVE LEGISLATION In dealing with tenement or apartment house problems the pre- ventive measures which are fundamental take two forms principally. In the first place, the community may define the proportionate amount of space which must be left unoccupied on every building lot. The second method is to require such provision for ventilation and light in every room that it will be unprofitable, if not impossible, to occupy an unwholesome proportion of any building area. The former measure, requiring less consideration, has been more generally used, although the latter is possibly more effective and appropriate. When tenement reforms are urged it is an easy, natural thing to say; “Well, we will increase the amount of space to be left vacant on every build- 192 Neglected Neighbors ing lot from ten per cent to twenty or thirty per cent; that ought to satisfy you”. It is not enough, however, to say thirty per cent of building space shall be left vacant on interior lots in Washington because that proportion has been worked out in New York city. The comparative size and shape of typical building lots in the two cities may make the methods of one community inadequate in another. The whole tenement house problem of New York city is sometimes attributed to the use of a typical building lot which is deep and narrow, that is 100 feet deep by 25 feet frontage on the street. In Washington, the average building lot is much worse than = = = this; it commonly varies from 120 to 160 feet in depth with a frontage of only 25 or 20 feet, or even less. It might as well be understood at once that it is impossible to build a high tenement on such a lot using sixty or seventy per. cent of all the land t E - without constructing dark, ill-ventilated ° if u ‘ ° le g Tooms. Anyone who will draw such an ob- = ~- long on paper, allowing one-sixteenth of an inch for each foot, will see at once how im- conn ons eset possible it would be to conduct adequate SCALE FEET light and air into the center of such a deep How the Difficulties of lot from the very narrow, remote frontage. Assuring Light and Air for Interior Rooms are Increased. I. Typical New York City 2 Building ‘Lat 4 times as It is natural to ask what steps have Deep as it is Wide. been taken by other cities of the United States II and III. Washington City toward preventing the overcrowding of their Lots, 5 or 6 Times as puyilding areas. It is to be borne in mind, how- WEEE Se Eee aac vauee ever, that housing problems have not yet been adequately appreciated by any of our cities, unless possibly New York. Comparatively little consideration has yet been de- voted anywhere to the development of preventive measures. One feels, after studying the building regulations of American cities, that, as regards light and ventilation at least, the laws are determined in hit-or-miss fashion. There is little evidence that scientific governing principles have been worked out or that legislators have done more than adopt the standards set, quite blindly, by other municipalities. This is all in striking contrast to many European cities where there SuccEsTions From TEN OTHER CITIES Preventive Measures 193 is now being developed a self consistent, inclusive housing policy of which the details are determined according to peculiarities of the local situation, by the scientific conclusions of experts, and by deductions from a general plan established for the city as a whole. This municipal statesmanship, especially in Germany, will be fully described in Part IV. Meanwhile it may be of interest to summarize here the requirements of various American cities as to the amount of space to be left vacant upon each building lot. Where obtainable the dimensions of the typical building lot in each city are given. The population is also stated according to the United States census of 1900. {n parentheses is indicated the year when the building code was issued. Baltimore; population 508,957. It is required that 20 per cent of corner lots and 30 per cent of all others shall be left vacant (1908). “Building lots in that part of Baltimore which contains most of the tenements, vary anywhere from 12 to 24 feet front and anywhere from 30 to 120 feet in depth.” Boston ; population 560,892. Vacant spaces are regulated only by specifications as to the size of yards, courts and air-shafts and as to the proper lighting and ventilation of rooms (1904). “There is no standard or typical building lot within the limits of old Boston. In the Back Bay or residential district the lots generally have a frontage of 30 feet and a depth of 125 feet.” Buffalo; population 352,387. In the building regulations (1906) one can only find; “No space of less than 40 square feet for a three- story building; 50 square feet for a four-story building and increasing 10 square feet for each additional story, shall be considered as afford- ing means of communication (for the windows of living rooms, obviously) with the outer air’. According to the health ordinances (of 1897) every tenement or lodging house must have one or more yard courts, and may have supplementary or inner courts, of which the total area must equal 25 per cent of the building lots or, on a corner lot, 10 per cent. ‘The depth of the average building lot is between 100 and 125 feet.” Chicago; population 1,698,575. The proportion of vacant space required is 15 per cent of a corner lot and 25 per cent of other lots (1906). Building sites average deeper than in New York city, one might say 25 by 125 feet. Cincinnati; population 325,902. On interior lots there must be 10 per cent of vacant space above the first story of a tenement four stories, or less, in height, “and for each additional story the portion 13 194 Neglected Neighbors of the lot to be reserved for air and light shall be increased two and a half per cent (1898).” As to the dimensions of typical building sites, the mayor’s secretary writes; ‘‘In numbering the houses one number is given to each 25 feet and it is likely that there are more lots of this width than any other. The depth of building lots generally ranges from 100 to I50 feet.” Cleveland; population 381,368. Ten per cent of a corner lot and 35 per cent of an interior lot must be unoccupied (1907). “A typical building lot is 40 by 125 feet although there is great variation on account of the general lay-out of the city.” The State of New Jersey published, in 1907, a tenement house law, amended in 1905, which requires Io per cent of vacant space on a corner lot and 30 per cent on any other. From the secretary of the state ‘Board of Tenement House Supervision” comes the state- ment that, “By common consent the lot 25 feet by 100 feet appears to be regarded as the typical unit in the larger cities.” New York city; population 3,437,202. Of each corner lot -1o per cent and of the other lots 30 per cent, is to be left vacant (1904). The typical building site measures 25 by 100 feet. Philadelphia; population 1,293,697. Twenty per cent of open space in the rear or at the side of each interior lot is required. On corner lots this space must equal at least 10 per cent of the entire area (1907). “Lots in the city range from 14 by 40 feet, upwards.” Pittsburgh; population, without Allegheny, 321,616. Its regula- tions concerning the vacant space required are the same as Philadel- phia’s (1906). The Director of Public Safety writes that, “25 by 100 feet is generally considered the average building lot.” A S.LiIpING SCALE PROPOSED The variation in the size and shape of Washington’s building lots, as well as the fact that they are all of such unfortunate proportions, makes it especially important that a kind of sliding scale should be devised. The proportionate amount of space to be left vacant upon each building lot should increase as the depth of the lot becomes greater in comparison with its frontage. It should increase, too, with the height of the building to be erected and should bear some proportion also to the width and character of the street in front of the building and of the alley behind it. It is probable that some abso- lute limits should also be fixed; for the erection of a tenement or Preventive Measures 195 apartment house 125, or 150 or 200 feet deep may mean that it will be forever impossible to open a minor street or passageway through the center of a large block or even to assure the good, unobstructed circulation of fresh air through the inner portions of the square. What is meant by a sliding scale based on the relation which the depth of the lot bears to its frontage may best be explained by an example. In New York city land is more crowded and more costly than anywhere else. Let the New York requirements therefore,— 10 per cent of vacant space on a corner lot and 30 per cent on interior lots for a building site 25 by 100 feet,—be taken as a conservative basis. The lot’s depth in this case is four times its width. If, now, a lot 25 by 125 be considered, its depth is five times its width; the diffi- culty of supplying light and air to its central areas has been increased at least 20 per cent. Why not, then, add 5 per cent at least to the vacant space required, making it 35 instead of 30 per cent? If another 25 feet of depth be added, making the lot 25 by 150 feet, the problem of lighting and ventilation is at least 50 per cent greater than in the original lot. Surely it would not be too much, therefore, to require that 40 instead of 30 per cent of the area be kept unoccupied. This suggested increase in vacant space is evidently not in adequate pro- portion to the increased disadvantages of the deeper lots. The follow- ing suggested regulation is therefore submitted as only a short step in the right direction and an example of minimum requirements for such building lots as those of Washington city. The measure is quoted from a recommendation submitted to the President of the Board of District Commissioners, in July 1908, when some of the local building regulations were in process of revision. “In the case of a lot whose depth is not more than five times its frontage, Io per cent of the whole area shall be left vacant on a corner lot and 30 per cent on an interior lot. If the depth of the lot is more than four, but not more than five times its frontage, 15 per cent of space shall be left vacant on a corner lot and 35 per cent on an inte- rior lot. If the depth is more than five times the frontage, 20 per cent of a corner lot and 40 per cent of an interior lot shall remain unoc- cupied.” Just where the maximum limits of tenement house depths should be fixed or in exactly what terms the sliding scale of reserved space should be expressed, the writer cannot undertake to state. The point is that these social standards should be worked out very carefully by a special commission comprising practical architects, builders, real 196 Neglected Neighbors . estate dealers and attorneys but dominated always by courageous statesmen who will not sacrifice essential interests or permit the future to be compromised. ANOTHER, More AuToMATIC MerHop The second method of assuring. wholesome living rooms is by establishing such regulations as to the dimensions and arrangement of the vacant places left for purposes of ventilation that builders will find it unprofitable to use a very deep and narrow building lot for the erection of any large tenement. The laws forbidding gloomy rooms and narrow enclosed air-shafts may be so defined that it will be profit- able for builders to combine two or three of the ordinary, narrow, deep lots into a broader building unit of which a larger proportion of the whole area may be used without creating unwholesome conditions. A scale may be worked out beginning with small measurements for the courts and air-shafts in small dwellings and rapidly enlarging the required dimensions of these air-wells as the height of the proposed building is increased. While the general purpose to encourage the building of small houses and discourage the erection of tenements should be always regarded, the main purpose must be of course, to demand for any building only such provisions for light and air as really are essential. At present, everywhere, too little is probably required and posterity will find it necessary to let more of “God's free light and air” into dwellings which have been supplied with these essentials in too niggardly a fashion. In both Cleveland and Baltimore recently the building regulations have been revised. They now include tables indicating for each given height of proposed buildings the corresponding dimensions required for courts or shafts open at one side and for those which are com- pletely enclosed. While it would be necessary, before passing judg- ment upon these tables, to see how they work out in practice, they at once appeal to any student because they make different requirements for different types of buildings and endeavor to specify for each the vacant spaces which are appropriate. For ADEQUATE AIR-SHAFTS AND CouRTS To exemplify the method—not to suggest the exact details,—of the building regulations which Washington and other cities should adopt concerning inner-courts and air-shafts, a portion of the Cleve- Preventive Measures 197 land table may well be reproduced. I quote here the measurements only for courts which are entirely enclosed, that is, with walls on all four sides. No. of Stories Court's Court's in Building. Minimum Width. Minimum Area. Divahn beady eae eae cieectee Of: enews de Wee 60 sq. ft. Dit ee ce Rome Lien ceca eae Oi espe doraidtianeagstae aunt air go “ # Bee hadi w hag eye Qi bath ac iecoal SAleal pen a Bis iso eho edge acoe ed ee TO) ahaa es decade cane 216 se ied pnatsnk wakcaninate seus ad age dace TG sadcce eee areca 398.0%. F OES ei alse belek ena TG Se ee va ae ek up eedh 486 “ * oe ee ee eee Co Gas recanar ety eee ererer ta eee 662 “ ‘* Bh tied eerste DAN ilar wala yates as ond 864 “ * Ques ine eet fale a pees Dee sic tiselalcacto ae adigarg & 1og4 ‘f “* UO cha nauk esa aaa ao BOA aseaiettanuan Ace evans ete 1350 ‘ * To this table of measurements for courts which are walled about on all sides, may be added, after the example of Baltimore, the re- quirements for courts which are open at one end to the outer air; “The length of such a court shall not be greater than six times its average width. Its minimum width shall be not less than 75 per cent of the minimum width prescribed (in the above table) for an entirely enclosed court in a building of the given numbers of stories.” Washington and other cities may with great profit consider the admirable, new building codes worked out, in 1907, for Cleveland and, in 1908, for Baltimore. The fact that these recent efforts are so notably thorough and self consistent is a hopeful indication that, when American cities begin to take an adequate interest in their housing problems, they will master them completely. As To FrrE, WATER AND INSPECTORS Further regulations for the control of tenement houses and the prevention of their worst evils should include the requirement that a certain amount of cubic air-space (from 400 to I000 feet) shall be provided for every occupant of any room. The injection of appro- priate supplies of fresh air should also be required. These and other regulations will be effective only if there be an adequate number of competent inspectors. These suggestions will be discussed in Part IV of this study. A good water closet and a bath for each apartment is desirable. A resident janitor of good character is essential to every large tenement. He must be responsible for the halls and general surroundings and for the disposal of garbage and refuse, which in- dividual tenants can not well bring to the attention of the public 198 Neglected Neighbors scavengers. Stair cases of fireproof material and a system of fire escapes are requisite. For the promotion of morality all tenement halls must be well lighted, day and night. To promote ventilation and lessen fire risks the boarding-in of porches should be closely limited or forbidden. Basement rooms, if occupied as residences, should be absolutely dry and should have a generous proportion of their height above the surrounding ground and street levels. For all living rooms the minimum height of ceilings, the size of living and sleeping rooms, the proportionate areas of their windows and the character of the spaces upon which the windows may open, must all be carefully deter- mined. It is not the purpose of this study to propose a complete building code. Indeed one of the fundamentals which the writer aims to emphasize is the fact that a commission of experts is needed to work out, by thorough investigation, study and experiment, all the details of a building and health code which shall prevent the threat- ened development in Washington of the tenement house evils which infest other cities. Looking for the Sunshine from the Depths of His Cellar Home. [Photo by Glascoff] PART III. THE SHACKS AND SHANTIES Picturesque but Degrading; Decreased by Condemnation but Increasing Constantly through the Deterioration of Frame Dwellings (199) [eur a TE ar. = — tara ees “Doodlebugs” (and others) in the Van Street Shack Where Little Clarence Fought With Death. [Photo by Glascoff] street. His grandmother sometimes talked about the ancient his- tory of the shacks. Over forty years ago, in the days of the “big wah”, this one-story shed had been put up as temporary barracks for the soldiers. Afterwards it was divided into fifteen two-room houses, each of which had housed one family or more ever since the war. The rooms measured twelve feet square. As the thin and shaky walls between the houses afforded slight barriers, the sick boy was annoyed day and night by ribald sounds from the place next door. There the-two rooms housed a mother, A Sick Child in Van Street * 203 grandmother, one grown girl with her fatherless child, and another whose three illegitimate children bear three different surnames. Carous- ing men, both white and colored, came in at all hours to increase the confusion in Clarence’s home and in the adjoining hovel. Even “Doodlebugs” and the footless chicken seemed ill housed in such a place; their feathers were ruffled and dirty and they moped about as if they, too, were ailing. MortrHer Love AMIDST THE GRIME Yet love was here, even in the Van street shacks. The poor mother, in spite of all her drinking, laziness and immorality had the natural mother’s heart. With great effort she made the boy’s bed clean and “tidied-up” the room around it. She sent for two doctors when the lad was taken sick and spent her last money in having both prescriptions filled. She administered both the medicines together to make sure of doing all she could for her beloved boy. To his mother and grandmother Clarence embodied all that was pure, beautiful and hopeful in their bedraggled lives and they hung over his sick bed as if their lives also were at stake. Sometimes, excused partly by their great anxiety, the women drank excessively but they were surpris- ingly faithful in following out the directions of the visiting nurse. They even boiled the boy’s drinking water and once when a cock- roach fell into the glass, they even threw out all the water and pre- pared some more. THE PENITENTIARY INTERVENES When the Division Agent of the Associated Charities suggested that Clarence be sent to a hospital, the women wept. They said they loved Clarence; “No one else”, they sobbed, “would care about a Van street nigger”. If he were taken from their arms, they said, the lad would die of loneliness and neglect. Clarence cried too and begged that he should ‘not be put into a big black hole in the ground.’ The women even promised to cease giving the sick boy bread, coffee, candy, fruit, meat, pickles and all the other things he called for. So the sick boy stayed in the Van street shanty from September twenty- sixth until November seventh. Then his mother was arrested for stealing money from the pocket of a peddler whose mistress had made him drunk and brought him to sleep off his liquor in the house 204 Neglected Neighbors where Clarence lay. Perhaps the mother stole to get more comforts for her sick boy, but at any rate she was arrested. Now she is serving a three-year sentence in the penitentiary. The mother’s arrest afforded a new reason for removing Clarence from the Van street shack, despite the grandmother’s protestations. She was clearly unable to care for the lad though still unwilling to let her darling go to strangers who she knew could never love him as she loved him. When the doctor and nurse came, assuming a The One-Room Home of a Mother and Four Children. She Was Not Regarded as a Very Good Woman. Why Should she Be,—in Such Conditions and Surroundings? [Photo by Weller] legal right to take the sick boy-to the hospital, the old woman locked the door and “lost the key’’ It was only when they threatened to pass the lad out through the window that the old dame weakened, “coz that would bring bad luck to Clarence”. Confessing then that there never had been any door key, she unfastened the lock with an old steel fork. Human nature showed itself in the grandmother when the boy’s stretcher was being pushed into the ambulance. She lifted her head proudly and boasted to her neighbors; “The white folks cares about my Clarence and they’re taking him to a nicer place where A Sick Child in Van Street 205 he’ll get well.” But when the ambulance disappeared around the corner, the woman fastened tight the shanty door, threw herself upon the empty bed, and wept. She gathered ‘“Doodlebugs” and the foot- ess chicken into her hungry arms and talked to them. Then she ‘ushed out doors in desperation, spent her last money at the grog shop and forgot her sorrows in intoxication. This led to her arrest. Next morning she appeared, hollow-eyed, uncommunicative and despairing, in her familiar place at the police court. She was sen- tenced to the workhouse. A HEARTBROKEN WoMAN When Clarence got well at the hospital he was taken before the Juvenile Court, through which the community at last discovered and announced officially that the boy did not have a “proper home” Committed to the Board of Children’s Guardians, the little fellow is 10w boarded in an excellent private family, whose wholesome house- mother writes cheering letters to Clarence’s own mother in the peni- tentiary. It is a strong testimonial to the loving solicitude of the lad’s poor mother and grandmother that the boy surprised the people, at both the hospital and the foster home, by his notable politeness and evident good training. Yielding to the Van street influences in their own lives, the two bedraggled women had striven to shield Clarence | from contamination. He still cries for Wan street sometimes, or rather for his mother and old grandmother. The grandmother did not long survive the lad’s departure. Soon after leaving the workhouse she was herself obliged to go, unwill- ingly, to the hospital. She was found to have a deadly cancer. In spite of it, however, she dragged herself out again and found her way to Van street. She broke into the nailed-up, deserted shanty where her little boy had lived. There she lay alone, suffering and forlorn. Neighbors brought her a little food occasionally, and she clung des- perately to the old, mean “home” and to the pallet of soiled rags where she had nursed her “baby’’. At last it seemed that she must not be permitted to suffer alone, uncared for, in the awful place. Some big-hearted policemen broke the foolish law and forcibly took her to the hospital. There, amidst comfortable surroundings at least, she passed away, talking of Clar- ence, and smiling through her mortal anguish at her dying vision of his face. 206 Neglected Neighbors The touch of hope is not absent even from a Van street picture. The boy is growing beautifully. All the scars left by his evil sur- roundings are healed over. The pitiable, loving mother writes from prison, saying; ‘The time is so long and I have been so worried; but when I come home, God helping me, I intend to do as you all hope I will’ For Annie has been told that a child’s place is with its mother; that she will be helped, when she comes out again, to make a wholesome home for Clarence and when she shows that she can do this, he will be restored to her care. THE ScoPE AND CHARACTER OF THIS INQUIRY Such concrete stories of human suffering and deterioration might be told about many of the shacks and shanties of the National Capital. In many instances, however, the outcome would be worse because even the future, as embodied in the little child or children, is neg- lected and no member of the degraded household is rescued from the ill effect of these unwholesome hovels. In the preparation of Part III of this study, sixteen groups of dilapidated houses were studied. in various regions of northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast Washington and Georgetown. Scattered throughout the city they serve to suggest the extent of the evil represented. How many shacks and shanties there are in the National Capital would depend largely upon one’s definition of what constitutes a “dwelling unfit for human habitation”. The essential features of the definition, which the law recently secured for their compulsory repair or condemnation must apply, may best be gathered from the following descriptions of typical groups. None of our “Neglected Neighbors” seem to be more utterly neglected than those who live like beasts in the scores of unfit hovels which would not long be tolerated if their existence were well known and their deadliness appreciated. Tue New Law CoNnDEMNING UNSANITARY DWELLINGS The preceding paragraphs were completed in the fall of 1905. On March third, 1906 a special number of “Charities and the Commons” gave a very full review of this report with many photographs of shacks which ought to be condemned. A copy was sent to every Congress- man, to newspapers throughout the country and to influential citi- zens. A good deal of interest was aroused. Congressmen received A Sick Child in Van Street 207 from their home papers and constituents suggestions that the National Capital ought surely to be cleansed of its ‘evil slums”. As a result of this and of the combined efforts made for many years by many workers the long-delayed bill for the condemnation or compulsory repair of dwellings unfit for human habitation was enacted by Congress on May first, 1906. After almost a decade of fruitless efforts to secure this simple, natural, fundamental law, its passage was brought about by the pressure of enlightened public sentiment. Immediately the Associated Charities’ Committee on the Improve- ment of Housing Conditions began systematically reporting unsani- tary houses to the new board empowered to condemn them. The dwellings mentioned in this study were reported first and most of them received prompt, vigorous attention. The Van street shacks were among the first to be demolished. Altogether more than 1,000 reports covering 760 houses and blocks were made to the Board of Condemna- tion by the Housing Committee. The Board reported on June thirtieth, 1907 that it had acted upon 479 houses of which 203 had been demol- ished, the remainder being considered as either repaired or under notice for demolition or repair. In July 1908 the efficient inspector for this new municipal bureau, stated that, “Beginning active work in August 1906, the Board has acted upon 959 dwellings. Of these 545 have been demolished; 151 have been repaired. There are still pending 263 cases, representing notices which have not yet expired, extensions of time allowed in some instances and the fact that repairs commenced on some houses have not yet been completed.” A New Crop IN ProsPEctT Happily, this earnest bit of municipal house-cleaning has thrown into the past tense some of the following sketches, which had the double purpose of securing the enactment and enforcement of this law and of arousing public opinion to appreciate the evils of bad housing conditions in the alleys and tenements as well as in dilapidated hovels. The following descriptions of unfit houses—including those which have been removed—may well serve as reminders that dilapida- tion and decay come rapidly and naturally, that while general standards are advancing many dwellings are usually left unimproved. Thus new sets of shacks and shanties are developed unless vigilance and courageous action are maintained. In the National Capital espe- cially this lesson is pertinent, for an earlier wave of reform in 1872 208 Neglected Neighbors to 1878 resulted in the legal condemnation of 1,147 unsanitary dwell- ings. Of these 492 were demolished; the balance were improved. This was about as many as the new law of 1906 has yet affected. But that older civic impulse subsided. Evils grew again, as weeds grow in neglected gardens. And in 1905 the public consciousness must needs be roused once more with such reports as follow. An unexpected experience in the summer of 1908 when the areas investigated in 1905 were hurriedly revisited, was to find that many shacks and shanties still remain in Washington despite the fact that 545 have been demolished. Many of the photographs taken this summer will suggest the condition of existing hovels which it is not Frames Typical of Hundreds of Which Many Deteriorate Into Shacks. These Face Kramer Street, Northeast. [Photo by Hine] possible to describe in these pages. It is probable that a large pro- portion of the descriptions written in 1905, referring to dilapidated houses which have subsequently been removed, could be duplicated in the case of dwellings now standing. Frequently, in going through alleys or outside streets this year, attention has been drawn by chance to some old frames which proved upon inspection to represent all the evils which are portrayed in the following pages. But to prepare new studies based, as these have been, upon exhaustive schedules filled out for each household and upon repeated visits by several inquirers is not possible at this time. The reports of 1905 must stand therefore as fairly typical both of evils now existing and of future ills whose development is quite “in the nature of things”. A Sick Child in Van Street 209 For a new crop of shacks will ripen and need to be harvested every year. Examples are afforded by many dilapidated houses now in “Pipe Town” on K, L, M and N streets in southeast Washington, on Fifth street and adjoining north-and-south streets, southeast; in the general neighborhood of Levis and Turner, Rosedale and Kramer streets, northeast; on K, L, M and N streets and on South Capital, Half and First streets, southwest; in many parts of Georgetown and in scattered portions of even northwest Washington. Of these ancient frame dwellings, some are now unfit for human habitation; many more are rapidly degenerating. Add to the civic “sore spots” on these out- side streets, the many striking hovels in the 261 alleys of the city and there will be no lack of specific cases to which the following sketches, as prepared three years ago, may be applied with little, or no change. Descriptions of some of the worst shacks demolished are also valuable as history, very recent history. It should be a lesson to other communities and a stimulus to broader social consciousness in Wash- ington itself to know that such conditions, despite many years of active reformatory efforts by a group of influential citizens, were tolerated until 1906. One naturally wonders how many similar evils would be discovered in other complacent cities and in Washington, if an investigation like that of 1905 were repeated every few years,—as it should be,—and extended to all the poorer houses of the entire com- munity. In THE JUDGMENT OF EXPERTS “These houses are worse than any I have ever seen in New York city or in Europe”, was the verdict of Mr. James B. Reynolds who had just returned from visiting, as he phrased it, “all the chief Euro- pean rookeries.”” Previously, as Head Resident of the University Settle- ment in New York city and an active member of the “Tenement House Commission” appointed by Theodore Roosevelt when governor of New York State, Mr. Reynolds had been familiar with American housing problems. His astonishment at the hovels shown him in the National Capital was paralleled by that of Miss Lillian D. Wald, founder and chief resident of the Nurses’ Settlement in New York city. Jacob Riis also spoke of Washington’s neglected shacks in superlative terms of condemnation, saying that they compared unfavorably with the worst things he had seen elsewhere. Other housing experts from outside the District of Columbia agreed, not that “Washington is wofse than other cities”, but that a number of its shacks and shanties, 14 210 Neglected Neighbors scattered here and there throughout the city, reached the uttermost limits of badness and would not be tolerated in cities which have awakened to their housing problems. Prominent Washingtonians who had long resided in the better quarters of the National Capital expressed equal surprise and consternation when conducted to some of the neglected shacks, which were sometimes discovered close to their own palatial homes. ‘“Chinch Row”, for instance, with all its indescribable badness, was tucked away in “Queen’s Court” seven blocks from the White House and only two and a half squares from “Dupont Circle” the center of the city’s greatest wealth. Not Up to LEGAL REQUIREMENTS FOR Cow Barns The proper stabling of cows according to Washington’s dairy laws was discussed one afternoon by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia just before its members turned their attention to an ap- pointed hearing on the proposed bill for the condemnation of insanitary dwellings. Afterwards two of the leading senators were taken to visit a few of the houses under discussion. When their tour of inspection was finished the senators agreed that no dairyman would be allowed to keep a cow in any of the dozen homes in which men, women, and many children had been found swarming that afternoon. With the exception of the fact that these shacks had a good deal of air space about them and some involuntary ventilation through their insecure sides, they embodied every housing evil known to man. Their roofs leaked; their rooms were damp; their walls bulged out dangerously ; the floors were insecure; the plaster was notable for its absence; the whole house was as utterly cheerless, dilapidated and forbidding as any one could imagine. There was no water supply whatever in the worst of these shacks. Instead there were wooden box toilets, whose seats seldom if ever had closed lids, although the law required them. One often found, and still finds, these open boxes entirely unusable, with excreta overflowing upon the sodden, broken boards or wet earth which constituted, contrary to the law, their only flooring. In many cases all the water used for drinking and scrubbing and for the numerous washings by which the majority of these neglected houses were partially supported must be carried from a street hydrant a block or two away. It is difficult to conceive how any house could be worse in any particular than some of these shacks and shanties. It is per- fectly obvious that no decent person would use them for dog kennels A Sick Child in Van Street 211 or cow barns. Children, however, were reared from babyhood to maturity in these places and a considerable number of citizens of the National Capital must bear forever the indelible stains and scars which such hovels impressed upon them. As Jacob Riis warned us, after his special tour of Washington; “You can’t raise people in pigsties and then expect them to act like men”. “Factory Hiiu”, Near “Boston” Of the two senators who made the tour of inspection mentioned in the preceding paragraph, only one could be persuaded to enter the Interior of a Shack from Which the Tenants Removed Only a Short Time Before the Picture Was Taken. [Photo by Glascoff] row of two-story, wooden houses on “Factory Hill,” between Thirty- second and Thirty-third streets south of the old canal in Georgetown. Going down a small clay bank he entered a room filled with rubbish and groped his way slowly up the narrow, pitch-dark, uneven, plaster- less stairway which led to the second floor. Three little rooms were 212 Neglected Neighbors found here, housing three separate family groups. In the one room which was not locked up there were then living two adults and five children, the youngest two weeks old. This “home” measured ten by twelve feet. It contained a bed, a pile of rags and a broken stove whose three lengths of stove pipe, being all of different sizes, were jointed together by the aid of cloths and paper. Near the glassless window, the house-mother was washing, with water carried from a hydrant a block away. The odor from the overflowing, vile wooden toilets standing twenty-five feet behind the row, with their broken seats covered with excrement, could be distinguished occasionally. The senator evinced an instinctive desire to stand as far as possible away from the walls and furniture and to gather his coat skirts close about him in order that he should not carry away unwittingly any living souvenirs of the place. He seemed in somewhat of a hurry also to rejoin the other senator on terra firma. THE SLuM AGAINST THE SCHOOL Twenty feet from this row of wooden. dwellings, of which the senator had seen one typical room, he observed two brick houses containing altogether six rooms, all similar in condition to the neigh- boring wooden shacks. The outside stairway leading to the unsteady porch of the second floor was devoid of any steps at all for several feet so that ascending it would have involved considerable gymnastic skill. The entire structure seemed crumbling into complete decay. In its lower rooms on one side an old hag, a long time resident of “the Hill’, was seen. She it was who once explained to the writer that her two nephews, who were lodged on a damp, old straw tick in a dark, unventilated closet adjoining her one room, were roaming wild all day and not in school because she had discovered that edu- cation is injurious. ‘No indeedy”, she said, “them boys ain’t goin’ to get no schoolin’. There was Melindy, my girl, she had schoolin’ and now,—well, you kin see for youse’f”’. Whereupon the: old woman delved into a hidden box and produced a recent letter which the daughter had written from the apparently familiar precincts of the workhouse, asking for money with which to buy tobacco. “Ef them boys doan go to school”, continued the old dame, “they won’t larn no blackmailin’” (whatever that might mean). ‘My own boy, he got an eddicashun awlrite; an’ first he went to jail, an’ then to the *form school, an’ then to the pentenshury, an’ I wus jus a tellin’ him A Sick Child in Van Street 213 shawtly, that he sure would en’ on the gallus”. It was a striking instance of slum conditions rising up, with unusual self consciousness, to attack the sacred institutions and standards of society, the public school and universal education. A CRIMINAL ROOKERY The shacks have been removed from “Factory Hill”. The old crone who railed against popular education was found, in August Scene of the Story of “the Slum Against the School.” Family Never Sat Down to Table but Snatched their Food from the Stove and Threw the Fragments on the Floor. [Photo by Weller] 1908, on “Brickyard Hill” in a house a little better than her former shanty. The moral standards of the present abode are not so obvi- ously low as were those of “Factory Hill”. The latter was evidently a den of criminals such as one might naturally expect to find in a neglected rookery. The population of the wooden shacks, as reported by one of the tenants in October 1905, was made up principally of able-bodied, young men and women who could have readily supported themselves in decent comfort if required to do so. Rachel Mont- gomery, who gave the information, was so drunk at the time that she said she “coulden’ work her tongue strai,’” but she declared; “I 214 Neglected Neighbors woulden tell a lie, Miss, fo’ it’s jes ez bad fo’ a black lady to tell a lie ez fo’ a whi’ lady”. Harry Balderson lived with her at the time this record was written in the room where the senator found seven people living two years before. Jake Harris, a crippled “ol’ man” not much past middle life, had another upstairs room, for which he paid twenty-five cents a week. An unnamed woman, who ran away as the investigator approached, slept somewhere in the first house. Next door Will Jeffers, Abe Silox, Tom Jackson, Sonny Davis and Dill Stevens lived with two women, Nellie Wesley and Birdie Jones. When asked if they had separate rooms Rachel answered, “Oh no; they doubles up’. It was in the lower room of this second building that the writer took a flash-light photograph, at two A. M. a few years ago, showing a one-legged man on an old cot, with a woman nearby upon another. The policeman guide explained that they had two separate beds in order to avoid the “Edmonds Law” by which a couple may be punished for living together unmarried. It was suggestive to see in what manner all the doors on “Factory Hill” opened that night when, in answer to the sleepy question, “Who's there?” the guide answered softly, “The police’. The whole settlement was clearly a low congregating place, a kind of human rabbit-warren, for degenerate, idle, parasitic people who ought long ago to have been cleared away as one would disinfect a pest hole. An Italian Mother Who, in the Shacks of Washington, Misses the Beauties of Italy. / [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER II SUBMERGED LIVES “CHincH Row” Near “Dupont Circle”. THe NETHERMOST Limits oF Bapness. “Factory Huitv’, “Boston”, “JonaH Row,” anp “BrickyarD HLL”, Wirnh Tueir Human PicstIEs. “Dupont Circle”, recognized as the center of wealth and fashion in the National Capital, is located only two and a half blocks from where “Chinch Row” stood for many years. Around the former are stone and marble palaces occupied by the wealthiest residents of Wash- ington. Nearby geographically, but socially at the other end of the scale, was the group of shacks known as “Naze’s Row” or “Chinch Row” in an alley called “Queen’s Court”, between Eighteenth and Nineteenth, L and M streets, northwest. These dwellings were so extremely dilapidated and repulsive that the young lawyer who vol- unteered to investigate them for this study was made so ill that he had to live on a diet of milk only, for a few days. The British embassy stands within a square and a half of this old plague spot. The wealthiest Presbyterian church of the city is nearer still, One of the latest, fine apartment houses towers up in all its magnificence just outside the interior alley in which “Chinch Row” was hidden. “Far- ragut Square” is less than three blocks away; K street and Connecticut avenue, which are very stylish thoroughfares, pass near by; Lafay- ette Square and the White House are, respectively, only five and a half and six and a half blocks distant. Flies, carrying typhoid fever germs from the open box toilets of “Chinch Row”, could readily enter neigh- boring kitchens and infect the food or milk of the wealthiest citizens of Washington or of the nation’s ablest statesmen. In tHe NETHER WorRLD In front of “Chinch Row” there was a tight board fence from eight to nine feet high, standing only six feet from the doors of the two-story houses. This helped to exclude the sunlight and fresh air. (215) 216 Neglected Neighbors At the rear of the shacks there was always an accumulation of ashes, weeds, broken furniture, fragments of crockery and an abundance of filthy rubbish. The ground area had been raised by these accumula- tions so that water drained downward into the first-floor rooms. The box toilets also stood in deep depressions; one regretted that they were not under ground entirely for they were as ramshackle and filthy as can be imagined. Some of the toilet houses had no doors; Typical Box Toilets Without Water, Sewer Connections or Even Lids. Photo- graphed in August, 1908. [Photo by Weller] some lacked roofs; the sides of some were caving in and the boxes were broken. Most of the toilet boxes never had any lids to shut out flies or screen their repulsive contents from easy view, although the law requires such covers for all box closets. It is a surprising fact, however, that one of the very few box toilets on which lid covers for the holes were to be found, was located here behind “Chinch Row”; and it was found in exceptionally neat condition. The shed next door to it made up for this unexpected wholesomeness, for its wooden box Submerged Lives 217 was not only open, but covered even on the outside with excreta. Of course the fact that more than half of the houses were unoccupied at the time this description was prepared accentuated the neglect and dilapidation of the toilet sheds and of the dwellings themselves but both had seemed to reach the lowest limits of badness while they still were filled with people. The writer visited, and advertised, “Chinch Row” for many years before its gradual dissolution, capped finally by efforts of the Health Department and the Inspector of Buildings, 7 a 1 ALAR LY Cigarette Fiends and Shack in “Church Alley”; the Capitol Dome in the Distance,—Seen Faintly Over the Small House at the Right. [Photo by Weller] brought about the vacation of nearly all the dwellings and, at last their demolition. These shacks beggared description. All the superlatives of dilapi- dation applied here literally. Imagine them leaning over as much as they could without collapsing entirely, with weather-stained, rough, irregular boarding outside; fragmentary, blackened plaster within, and the walls broken through in so many places that one might almost say they were translucent. The ceilings were bent, broken, low, and black with smoke. The floors were badly broken or gone entirely 218 Neglected Neighbors from large areas. Several of these two-story shanties had no window sash at all, while others had shattered panes stuffed up with odd col- lections of dirty rags and remnants. Roofs leaked, of course, and every evil possibility in the line of what is insanitary and unhygienic was vividly exemplified by these neglected hovels. Several Washingtonians of national reputation were taken to inspect this row while all the houses were still occupied. Their con- dition then was not much better than at the time the study was com- pleted. There was one tenant family in the earlier days whose children had all been born here and raised to young manhood and womanhood in the shanties. They slept huddled close together in two of the four rooms. The front rooms on both floors were used as sleeping quarters and the tenants who -had no beds made out with piles of filthy rags upon the floor. The rear room upstairs was so leaky as to be left vacant and useless, while the little kitchen on the first floor sufficed only for the cracked and tilted stove, a wash tub and a pet chicken. In the effort to keep out the cold air, newspapers had been pasted around the walls. and these, with some rusty sheets of old tin collected from the dump heap, made up the soot-encrusted decorations of the rooms. The principal piece of furniture -was an old dresser from which the mirror had disappeared. ANOTHER “LuncG BLock” The famous “lung block” of New York city could probably be duplicated in a small way by the detailed history of “Chinch Row”, if it were possible to trace it out completely. Whenever one visited these houses he was impressed by the incidental stories of residents who had died with “bad colds”, pneumonia, (or, as it was often called, “ammonia’’), “misery of the lungs” or definite “consumption” One of the families gave the following account of the diseases by which they had been worse than decimated. Out of eleven children four died of pneumonia, one of diphtheria, one with “rheumatism of the heart” and two of consumption. The social value of three remain- ing children was lessened by the fact that one, a boy of eighteen, was in jail. A girl aged twenty-three was out at service as a cook; she came home every night to sleep in this undoubtedly infected, human pigsty. The third survivor was a little girl five years of age. Alto- gether, both their history and condition showed the family to be about what one would naturally expect in such a “home”. Here again, Submerged Lives 219 however, there was evidence of ability to rise to higher standards if required to do so. There were four possible earners out of the five - members of this household. The father was a laboring man; the mother did washing; the son was a teamster and the daughter a cook. That they were allowed to burrow in ‘“‘Chinch Row” meant simply their encouragement in drink, shiftlessness and the constant waste of earn- ing. power. Morar as WELL aS PuysicaL CONTAGION Next door to the shanty occupied by the family last described, the only tenant reported by the volunteer investigator was Mattie Haynes, of whom he recorded, in the schedule column for “gainful occupation”, the one resource her “beaus”. At the time of investiga- tion she had just finished serving a jail sentence for stealing a dollar from the woman in whose home she had been employed. The offense itself was characteristic,—not a crime of deliberate calculation but a quick yielding to impulse, unchecked by established standards of right conduct. Subsequent visits to this household showed that Mattie was not the only member of the family. There was an older sister, too, who was likewise in jail at the time of the later visit. There also lived in the household an aunt who had a man “friend” with a peg leg. A third girl was said to stay there also and two or three men made the place their rendezvous. Our principal informant next door said; “Mattie is as much a child some ways, as that five-year-old girl of mine. She has the dearest little foot and the sweetest little hand; and lively! well, if she couldn’t keep your comp’ny you never would be kept”. This neighbor also volunteered the information that Mattie and her sister “both have the nicest fellahs’. “When the girls gets sent down’, she said, “their men goes and pays the fines an’ takes ‘em out again”. The speaker also said the police were around the place a great deal. “This row is sure recommended in the police court”, she said; “Tt sure is recommended” One of its typical “recommendations” was cited in the story of Jennie, the older Haynes girl, who came in from her service place one evening and quarrelled with one of her beaus about another girl. The man finally whipped out a knife; a policeman coming near, hit the man’s arm with his club. Then the beau attacked the policeman and had his front teeth knocked out in the encounter. Both the man and the woman were sent to the workhouse in conse- quence. Such is the home life from which these two girls, like 220 Neglected Neighbors scores of others, go out into service places where they steal, lie, loaf and follow out the natural standards of neglected lives. In many in- stances they also corrupt their employer’s children in ways which damage them forever. Not only in its latest stages of dilapidation but also in its palmiest days, “Chinch Row” was vigorously complained of by the prominent clergyman whose house was located on the outside of this square, with its windows looking down upon the shacks. According to his report and that of others, the place had long been a center of disorder, drunken carousals, fighting, obscene language and all the vileness to be imagined in a lawless crowd of low, criminal people, who were about as much neglected by the upbuilding forces of the community as if they lived in an unexplored province of Senegambia. ANOTHER Rookery NEARBY # Just across the alleyway from “Chinch Row” in “Queen’s Court” there stood, and still stands, a row of four brick houses. Each con- tains only two small rooms, one upstairs, the other down. The condi~ tion of the rooms, of their fragmentary furniture and of the tenants themselves at the time of this study was such as to supplement the deleterious influences of ‘“Chinch Row’ upon the volunteer inquirer. Indeed he said it was these brick houses more than “Chinch Row” itself which really made him sick. Although it is difficult to discrim- inate among the various unwholesome conditions of these brick houses one may say that the worst features were the toilet and the water sup- ply. These were located together, about a hundred and sixty feet away from the end house. One hydrant, with a single water closet, sufficed for the entire row. To draw water the people had to push their buckets through a little opening in a fence and then tap the hy- drant, which stood in the back yard of a house facing upon the outside street. Whatever water was used for flushing the “long-hopper” closet nearby must also be drawn in this inconvenient manner, for the broken flush of the toilet supplied no cleansing stream whatever. The seat was very low, sunken within about a foot of the ground in order to bury the “hopper” trap in the earth below freezing line. The surface of the bowl and the woodwork of the seat were covered with excre- ment. Although the whole condition was reported to one of the Dis- trict Commissioners by the volunteer visitor and to the Health Officer by the investigator, no change was discovered by an inspection three months later. Submerged Lives 221 A stable stands close behind the four little brick shanties pre- venting them from having any yards at all or any windows except those in front. The two rooms of each house measure twelve by nine feet each. The volunteer inquirer scheduled seventeen people in three of the four houses and that number is proven inadequate by the fact that the investigator chanced, incidentally upon a later visit, to discover two additional children in one of the families scheduled. All these people depended upon the inconvenient and insanitary toilet and water supply already pictured. That a water main and sewer were available for this brick row was indicated by the fact that two old wooden houses across the alleyway had water connections, as had also the houses of a wholesome brick row around the alley corner. The law said plainly that where a sewer and water pipe are avail- able the dwellings near by shall be provided with water closets. That this law could have been enforced for these houses is suggested by the fact that water was finally piped to one end of this brick row. After the publication of this study “Chinch Row” was torn down and the four neighboring bricks were painted. A water toilet and a hydrant were set up beside the latter. The consumer “paid the tariff” in this case as usual, for the rent of the little two-room brick hovels was raised from four to five dollars each per month. SUNKEN TEN FEET BENEATH THE SURFACE That a city’s civilization may go forward leaving various neigh- borhoods and people untouched and unimproved, was exemplified in the sunken row of six wooden houses which stood just off from Twenty-fifth near M street, northwest, and was not destroyed until 1908. Around “Jones’ Row” the banks of earth had grown higher gradually until the entire first floor of the houses, with buried base- ments underneath them, was hidden below the surface of the vacant lots and street near by. Water drained down toward these houses and into their cellars as it would into any deep hole or ditch. The buildings themselves were dilapidated, idealless shacks which would not be tol- erated in any city that had awakened to the importance of good homes. Of course there was no water in this forgotten row. One box toilet was said to suffice for all the occupants of the six houses, though two others were discovered at the time of this investigation. They were old boxes unfit for use. One family had extemporized a privy by means of buckets standing in a small, doorless shed. Most of the 222 Neglected Neighbors people in “Jones’ Row’ reported that they emptied all excrement on the vacant lot in front of the houses. They added that the garbage collector came so seldom they were compelled to throw their garbage out also, unless they took the trouble to burn it up. The appearance of one or two holes leading into the unused, buried basements gave evidence that a good deal of garbage and refuse was simply poured down beneath the living rooms. The isolation of this “Sunken Row” and the community’s indif- ference to it and to the social problems which it manfested are best suggested in the words of the lady who filled out the housing schedule for the place: “All the families appear to be affected by and not unlike their surroundings,—in a rut and unable to get out. From what I cere eer Gathering Cinders from the Ash Heaps Around “Jones’ Sunken Row,” off Twenty-fifth near M Street, Northwest. [Photo by Weller] could gather, the garbage collector seldom visits the place. Water and other conveniences being distant, cleanliness is made difficult, though there is little evidence, either outside or within the houses, of any desire to make the places neat or homelike. Their furniture seems adequate for the people’s needs but it appears untidy and abused. These houses must be made very damp by water running in from front and rear. Cut off in a way from the rest of the city generally and from city inspectors particularly, these people seem to be uncon- sciously pursuing undisturbed the even tenor of their rather insanitary way.” . Yet “Sheridan Circle’ with its private palaces is only five blocks from this Sunken Row. “Dupont Circle” is only seven blocks away. Submerged Lives 223 Lined with the magnificent abodes of millionaires and dignitaries, Mas- sachusetts avenue runs through Sheridan and Dupont Circles half a mile from “Jones’ Row”. The United States Weather Bureau, an important scientific department of the national government, is only one square removed. Thus opulence and intelligence are close to the areas of poverty and neglect; but there is no recognition of the vital relationship, the bond of common interest between the two. “GRACE STREET” IN GEORGETOWN Beginning at “Factory Hill” near “Boston” and running east past the upper end of “Cissell Alley” to Thirty-second street, within half a block of “Brickyard Hill”, is “Grace street”. It is short, as its name might. possibly imply. It is all included between Thirty-second and Thirty-third streets. Its character otherwise is hardly appro- priate to its title which always strikes one as being unconsciously sar- castic. The “Grace street” dwellings could hardly be called shacks; for, with some exceptions, they are not very dilapidated. They are unprepossessing, however, and the ideallessness of their appearance is carried out in the degraded lives of many of their tenants. At the time of this inquiry, box toilets and water closets alternated irregularly down the length of the street in a manner suggesting that the law requiring water toilets wherever a street sewer and water main are available was unevenly enforced. An Irish woman with her husband and grandchild were living on Grace street near Thirty-second and there were other white families also in the block, but the majority of the residents were colored. This white family’s home had no water supply on the premises and four of the five houses definitely scheduled were without water. For many of the other houses also all the water consumed had to be carried from Thirty-second street. The steady tendencies toward dilapidation and shack conditions are still suggested in August 1908 by the house from which the front porch and outside stairs have long been missing, although the front door, ten feet or more above the brick sidewalk, usually stands open, with children play- ing in the hall inside, where inner stairways lead from the basement to the upper stories. While on a midnight tour of inspection, in 1903, the writer heard the criminal history of the house from the policeman who acted as guide. Among the two or three people who had gone to the penitentiary from this dwelling, one had been sentenced for push- ing someone out of this elevated and disconnected front doorway, 224 Neglected Neighbors another for throwing an antagonist off from the rear end of the. back yard into the canal some twenty feet below. Many of the “Grace street’ houses are above the street level and some are reached by dilapidated, dangerous stairways. Morally, the houses are apt to be below grade, as suggested by the story of Mrs. Salter. Of her four daughters one was reported as exceptional because she had no illegiti- mate offspring. Two of the others gave birth to babies while they were still attending grammar school. Mrs. Salter explained their moral lapses by saying that she was working out, in a place where she had to stay all night, at the time when her daughter went astray. The present character of the home, however, where one daughter was found pounding mercilessly upon a discordant piano while a loafing man in a chair near by slept in such a drunken stupor that Mrs. Salter could not rouse him, suggests something worse than occasional moral acci- dents. The physical standards which the public impresses upon all “Grace street” homes, as a possible means of suggesting that the com- munity really cares something about how its people live, were typified by the disregarded box toilets, where water and sewer connections were available, and by the fact that excrement from one of the many scores of victims who perished of typhoid fever during its great prevalence here in the summer of 1905, was deposited in the wooden box toilet at Mrs. Salter’s house, whence flies. might readily carry the deadly germs into nearby dwellings. In August 1908, a number of the _ houses on Grace street are in process of demolition to make room, apparently, for an extension of a nearby factory. The Health Depart- ment states that it has ‘no record of any box privies at present existing in Grace street. The last three were removed last winter.” Brutisn Lives 1n “Boston” Across the canal from “Grace street”, within a block of the ani- mated dump-heap known as “Factory Hill’, there was, and is, a region known as “Boston”. Its buildings and residents have long typified neglect. In a midnight tour of this whole region a few years ago, the writer made flash light pictures of the living conditions. It was about one or two A. M. on a Sunday morning when the “Boston” houses were entered. In one room, bare and dusty as a garret, a woman was sleeping with four children on a malodorous old bed. Two boys and a girl burrowed in the rags at the head of the bedstead, while the mother and baby lay cornerwise across the foot. The only Submerged Lives 225 bed clothing was a pile of old garments worn during the day, or picked up, apparently, from some dump heap. There were no sheets or pillow cases at all and the bare ticking covering the old pillows and the ancient mattress was grey, stiff and slippery with greasy dirt. Straw was protruding from holes in the bed tick, which was full of humps and hollows and was also wet in several places for the baby wore only a tattered calico slip. Puppies wallowing in a filthy old box of rags were the nearest comparison one could think of to describe the lot of these children and their mother. The latter said she went out for Big Wooden Tenement in the Background; Corner of a Brick Alley Row in the Center; Shacks and Cobblestones of “Boston” in the Foreground. [Photo by Hine] daywork and household service in some of Georgetown’s wholesome homes. While she was away all day, she said, the children picked up cinders from the nearest dumps and “brought themselves up” accord- ng to such standards as “Boston” might afford. Downstairs, beneath this human pig-wallow, the one room was occupied by a single man who had no bed at all but slept upon the floor. The two householders in these two rooms were supposed to have no connection with each other but they were separated only by a short, open stairway, with no doors at top or bottom. In the adjoining house the woman was still awake and entertaining several men callers 15 226 Neglected Neighbors by “rushing the kettle”, as she said, “for beer”. When invited to sit for a flash-light photograph she settled herself upon a man’s lap, pulled up her skirt to show her rubber boots and laughed brazenly. A care- fess young man, barely emerging from boyhood, stood beside her with a beer mug and showed in his smiles an evident admiration of the scene. Other men and one woman stood around indifferently while the first woman’s little children, four or five in number, wakened and drank in the lurid scene with all its unspeakable suggestions. The writer rushed out of the door with a feeling of sick despair as to the possibilities of good citizenship emerging from such idealless, neg- lected, horribly-indifferent homes. Livine In A Woop SHED Back of this row stood another in one house of which lived a burly black man, regarded as the lawless “terror of Boston’. It was said that even the police feared him; that he did no labor; lived dis- honestly and spent frequent periods in jail. One of the first snap shots which the writer took suggested the whole story of ruined child life for it showed this hulking fellow of the ruined life standing beside a little baby who was just beginning to toddle about amidst the scenes and influences which characterize the shacks of “Boston”. Beyond the second row mentioned one finds a short line of little wooden sheds which are supposed to accommodate the’fuel of some brick houses, called ‘“Keady’s Row”, fronting on ‘“Keady’s Alley”, which runs at right angles to the two wooden rows already mentioned. At least two of these small fuel sheds have been used as living quarters. In one the writer visited several times a woman who slept with her daughter and a son, the latter old enough to be employed as a teamster, in one narrow bed which was only half, or possibly two thirds, the width of an ordinary bedstead. Within a foot and a half of this couch was the stove. The wooden shed wall opposite the bed stood so close against the stove that one expected momentarily to see the boards take fire. At the foot of the narrow bedstead there was barely room for a person to pass between it and the doorway. In this little shanty, with its low roof, thin board sides and utter lack of any provision for proper human living, these three people, all adults, not only slept together but took in washing from decent Georgetown families. When the writer called, the bed was usually found piled up with chairs, soiled and clean clothes, and all the loose stuff in the room, in order to allow space for the wash Submerged Lives 2247 tub to be crowded into the narrow angle between the wall and bed- stead. Although such prominent visitors as Labor Commissioner Neill, _Jacob Riis, and Commissioner Macfarland, were occasionally taken to inspect “Boston” and this shed-house during the two years pre- ceding this investigation, conditions were found but little altered in 1905. One of the two rows of wooden houses had been removed. The other remained. A second shed, standing next to the one just described, was still inhabited by two or three adults. It was badly as, s OB In This Little Fuel Shed a Mother with her Grown Son and Daughter Slept in One Narrow Bed and Took in Washings. [Photo by Weller] scorched as the result of such a fire as one constantly expected would consume the sheds and all their occupants. Its roof leaked and one of the tenants had nailed up some scrap tin to keep the rain from the bed. Around the stovepipe, which projected through the wooden roof of the shed, there was a wide open space and there were many cracks between the wall boards everywhere. Incidentally there are some good Georgetown homes that had an unrealized interest in “Boston” for the two women who occupied this second fuel bin were employed at daywork in private families. In August, 1908, “Boston” still represents about the same physical and moral standards as are 228 Neglected Neighbors suggested here. The little sheds, which appear to be vacated and occupied at irregular intervals, did not seem to be serving as living rooms at the time of inspection. Water toilets are now available. Otherwise, the general region known as “Boston” is a large settle- ment of neglected citizens. “CIssELL ALLEY AND “BRICKYARD HILL” Below the Chesapeake and Potomac Canal and running south from “Grace street” between Thirty-second and Thirty-third, is “Cecil Alley” or “Cissell Alley” whose ancient cobblestone pavement leads down a steep hill past a row of two-story-and-basement bricks inhabited by rather needy white families. Back of this row is “Cherry Hill” with its cluster of brick and wooden dwellings occupied by colored people. Further east, on Thirty-second street, Grace Church stands near the end of the uncouth little street which bears its name. Behind the church is “Brickyard Hill” where both white and colored people have lived for many years in a remarkable collection of insanitary houses. The first one noticed as the writer climbed up the clay bank above the alleyway, was a large, old, wooden tenement which was formerly a pretentious private mansion. Nearby there were, and are, some rough two-story, wooden dwellings of which one chiefly remembered the overflowing box toilets with extra pails of open, repulsive filth beside them. The old tenement seemed to be somewhat more dilapidated than the other houses and its conditions were so bad that it was finally demolished in November 1907. Within ten feet of this old building stood some of the wooden box toilets which served the outside houses fronting upon Thirty-first street. These brick houses, standing seven or eight feet below “Brickyard Hill”, must receive into their diminu- tive back yards a good deal of its unwholesome drainage. It was not until July 1908 that the owners were forced to install water closets in this Thirty-first street row, whose white tenants had long com- plained of their lack of water. “JoNAH Row” Back of the old wooden tenement stands “Jonah Row” or “South Street’ inhabited by white people. In the four little sheds behind this row of four, two-story bricks there were not even toilet boxes, in 1905, but merely barrels sunken into the ground. The foul contents Submerged Lives ' 229 of these barrels must have constantly leaked and seeped into the earth around them. Two wooden dwellings next to “Jonah Row” had also these insanitary barrel toilets. From them and from the little house yards, all the drainage was toward the dwellings so that foul water ran through constantly beneath the latter. The tenants also emptied all their waste water down beside the kitchen door into a kind of brick trough which directed the “slops” immediately beneath the dwellings. This practice had recently been forbidden at the time this investiga- tion was made and waste water was required to be carried across the Their Only Playground; “Cissell Alley” with its Ancient Cobblestone Pave- ment and its Little Houses Crowded with White People. [Photo by Hine] alley street in front of the row and emptied into a “drain” running down the steep grade to Thirty-first street. But the natural drainage from the back yards and from the leaking barrel toilets still ran be- neath the houses. Their low kitchen floors were damp in consequence, though the front rooms seemed to be less affected, being apparently a little higher above the sloping earth. In the front wall, beneath the front floor, there were some gratings which allowed the back yard drainage to flow out from beneath the dwellings. Consequently a pool of water was often found in front of the row. The rent of these four-room, two-story bricks was six dollars each per month. It was more than a year after this report was prepared before the municipal 230 Neglected Neighbors government brought about the installation of water toilets and back- yard hydrants for ‘Jonah Row”. A Typuoip Fever Story The tenants of “Jonah Row” complained chiefly of the barrel toilets. These are admitted by students of housing conditions to be absolutely the worst, most insanitary arrangements conceivable for the disposal of excreta. In July preceding this investigation a child died in one of these houses of typhoid fever, which was then scourging Washington, as it still does every summer, despite the completion of a magnificent filtration plant for all the water supply. The sick child’s excreta were deposited in the leaking barrel toilet. There it remained, a constant source of danger, until the third week in October, when a new tenant paid the dollar necessary to have the closet cleaned. It appears that charges may be made for emptying such exceptional toilets although the regular boxes are cleaned without expense to tenants. There have been no activities noted anywhere, during the two investigations made for this study, to indicate that any efforts are made to empty with special promptness the toilet boxes known to contain the infected excrement of typhoid patients. A great deal of grumbling was also heard among the tenants of “Jonah Row”, in 1905, because all the many households which occupy “Brickyard Hill” were obliged to bring their water supplies from Thirty-second and Grace street, about five hundred feet away. For- merly there had been a solitary faucet or “spigot” which stood be- tween the ancient wooden tenement and the rear of “Jonah Row”. When it froze up in winter the whole neighborhood was reduced to such makeshifts, and such unwashed conditions, as may be imagined. A couple of years prior to this investigation, the writer had counted about eighteen families, white and colored, who drew all their water from this one overworked, lonesome faucet. Subsequently even this convenience was removed, perhaps, as we were told in other places, “because the people used too much water’. At any rate the old spigot, worn out by overwork, was retired from “Brickyard Hill” and all the many residents of the place were compelled to make pil- grimages with their water pails and pitchers to the distant outside street. A sewer and water main were available, however, for “Brick- yard Hill” and for “Jonah Row” especially. There was water in the Grace Church rectory close beside “the Hill” and water had also been piped up the other side of the settlement to a private frame residence Submerged Lives 231 just across the alleyway from “Jonah Row.” The delay in enforcing the installation of water toilets and hydrants was said to be due chiefly to the fact that there is beneath the entire place a solid bed of rock through which it is expensive, as in portions of Manhattan, to lay sewers and water mains. The difference is that in New York city the water pipes must be laid regardless of the cost, while in Washing- ton the house owner is sometimes permitted to economize at the ex- pense of his tenants’ health and comfort. One of the very important respects in which New York’s worst tenements are better than many of the houses found in the National Capital, is in the invariable presence of both faucets and water toilets in the houses of Manhattan. Non-RESIDENT OWNERS Biock REFORM In “Jonah Row” there was exemplified also one of the greatest obstacles which have been encountered by local authorities in their efforts to reform abuses and enforce the sanitary laws. The owner of this property, desiring to avoid the expense of installing water closets in place of the leaking barrels, deeded the property to a rela- tive who lived outside of the District of Columbia. The original owner protected himself by taking a heavy mortgage on the estate. Actually he owned and controlled “Jonah Row” but legally it belonged to one of the “non-resident owners” whose interests were for many years allowed to block the efforts to enforce in their houses the sani- tary standards required by law for all dwellings. In April 1906 Con- gress finally enacted a law by which local officials were enabled to reach and move these “non-resident owners”. Prior, even, to the passage of this act, the District Commissioners were empowered, after due notice and advertisement of their intentions, themselves to put in the water connections or the other improvements legally required and to assess their cost as taxes against the property. The expense of such improvements must be advanced from public funds, to be repaid later by the property owners. Therefore this is called “advance work”. When asked why this process was not invoked for the installation of water toilets in “Jonah Row”, and other places, where the presence of a water main and sewer made the improvement possible, the Health Department replied that the appropriation for this “advance work” for the year was, as usual, only $2,500, and that smal! sum is quickly exhausted so that many of the modest, conservative improvements contemplated even by existing law can not be promptly made. [eur sq oj0Gg] ‘youdeD q}I0N IBON 1991}9 Bd19Ig UO puvig 9seqL "JeydeD [eEUOIeN 94} UI SUOIZIPUOD BulsnoY pe}e|/HonN so jeoIdAy sotuayooy 2 8 8 = bo ‘S 8 z s aS %S & 0 oS z CHAPTER III PLAGUE SPOTS NeEAR THE CapiTow’s Front Door. A PErsonaL EXPERIENCE IN “Pipe Town”. Areas oF Civic Liretessness. A Derapiy OpEN Sewer. REMEDIAL MEASURES. Only eighteen blocks, or exactly 8,400 feet, or about one and two thirds miles, directly east from the Congressional chambers of the United States Capitol, there were found the worst outhouses dis- covered during the two investigations made for this study. They served as the only sanitary conveniences for the tenants of a brick row on Eighteenth street between East Capitol and A streets north- east. Throughout this vicinity there stood, and still are standing, a large collection of brick and frame houses without any water supply or sewer connections. This eastern section has been comparatively undeveloped until recently so far as streets, water mains and general sanitation are concerned. It is an old quarter of Washington, how- ever, for it is generally understood that when Major L’Enfant and George Washington planned the city, the capitol building was faced in this direction because it was expected that this eastern region would become the principal residence section. But real estate specu- lation turned the tide of settlement toward the northwestern portions of Washington, which speedily outstripped “Capitol Hull”. Many wholesome and substantial houses have been erected on “Capitol Hill’, but in the immediate neighborhood of the jail and workhouse, close to the swampy “Eastern Branch” of the Potomac river, there has been little manifestation of an active civic life. An enumeration of the box toilets and other unsatisfactory housing ar- rangements found in these eastern borders of the city, within less than one and two thirds miles of the Capitol, would require more time and space than are available. Instead only some striking types need be described. (233) 234 Neglected Neighbors Tue Worst OutTHouses Founp Turning up from East Capitol street on Eighteenth one comes first to a row of ten five-and-six-room brick houses standing at an ele- vation of about twelve feet above the grade of Eighteenth street which at the time of this investigation was being cut through by the striped “chain gang” of workhouse prisoners. These houses had, and have, no water supply and no toilet conveniences except the most primitive wooden boxes. North of this brick row stood a wooden shanty and next beyond that another row of five two-room, one-story bricks. Behind these stood a line of five dilapidated sheds in which there were five wooden toilet boxes. There was no semblance of a door for any of these five sheds. Four of them had lost more or less of their wooden sides. From one the roof was gone. The next had neither roof nor front. The third lacked half of its front boards. In these ramshackle sheds stood three open boxes with no covers whatever, but all con- taining excreta. The box in the fourth shed had a broken cover and was half full of dried excrement. The fifth box had an ordinary cover cr seat and was reported to be the “‘onliest one used” by all the tenants of the row. In August 1908 none of the outhouses examined were so badly dilapidated as were those sketched three years before. In the main essentials, however, the general conditions of the neighborhood were the same as in 1905. For scores of houses, all the water supply must still be carried in buckets from a solitary hydrant at East Capitol and Eighteenth street. PuysicaL AND Mora Swamp LANDS On Rosedale street, near the shallow, marshy river, which must be crossed to reach the northeastern suburbs, stands a row of twenty wooden houses whose conditions are fairly typical of the general neigh- borhood. They have two stories with three rooms on each floor. Their occupants in 1905 were all white people; in 1908 they are both white and colored. A single hydrant, standing out on Rosedale street in front of the dwellings, “is used”, according to the inquirer’s report in 1905, “by all the families in this row, also by the families in one other block and by half of the families living in a third block.” This lonesome hydrant is still in service, in August 1908, but its health is so enfeebled that it took exactly ten minutes, by the watch, Plague Spots 235 for a neighbor to “milk” some water out of it, by “fooling with the pipes below ground.” Some of the water-bucket pilgrims come in vain for not every one can make the hydrant work. In twelve of the twenty houses water has been installed. Wooden box toilets are very numerous throughout this region. The schedule for one of the twenty reported, in 1905, says; “On the day I called the toilet was so full that excrement was also standing in three extra vessels in the shed. The tenant said she had notified the agent twice by postal, the second time being ten days before my visit. I reported to the Health Officer Ree NCTE OTTO peste ea Where Some of the Worst Toilets Were Found, on Eighteenth, Between East Capitol and A Streets. Photographed in August, 1908. [Photo by Weller] 7 and the ‘scavenger man’ called the next day.” Similar conditions were found in 1908, as follows: The toilet at 2009 is characterized as “a fright; full right to the top’. At 2013 also the box closet is described as “frightful”; at 2017 “something awful”; at 2019, “full to the brim” ; at 2023, ‘full’; at 2025, “half full, frightful odor”. DIMINISHING Back YARDS Projecting from the fronts of the houses, just below the roofs, are the oddest “jim cracks” ever seen; they are useless, roofed projec- 236 Neglected Neighbors tions about three or four feet wide, sticking out about four or five feet in the air and supposed, presumably, to be ornamental. The builder’s eccentricity is also suggested by the diminishing back yards behind these twenty houses. The dwelling at the west end has the largesi yard, about thirty-one feet deep. The rear fence, beginning here, slants diagonally toward the houses until the one at the east end would have a yard only three feet deep had it not, in this one instance, been extended back to the regular rear line. The inquirer writes: “No one seems to know exactly why this arrangement was made, but one tenant suggested that it was done to leave room for an oblique avenue which will sometime be extended through the lot just behind this Rosedale row.” “This tenant”, continues the record, “expressed his great disgust at the smallness of his yard, which was only six and a half feet in length, and asked if there were not some existing law which would force the owner to enlarge it.” Neither the tenant nor any city inspector who had visited these houses appears to have been familiar with the existing regulation which provides that no box toilet shall stand within less than ten feet of any dwelling or less than two feet of an alley. This would evidently necessitate a yard at least twelve feet deep, but there are many smaller. Lower STANDARDS OF CLEANLINESS THAN IN 1905 The state of these diminishing back vards is fairly typical of conditions found, in 1908, behind the homes of scores of Washington’s “Neglected Neighbors.” Indeed, according to the writer’s impression, the standards of municipal housekeeping in general, as regards clean yards and alleyways, are lower now throughout the alleys and poorer sections than they were three years ago. Refuse and filth are tolerated on all sides. Of the twenty back yards in this row on Rosedale street there were, in August 1908, eleven which were notably neglected. They were reported as “dirty”; “very dirty”; “filthy”; “so filthy it smells badly”; and “this yard is a regular swamp of filthy waste water, through which I had to pick my way upon old bricks and stones.” Quite as bad as the back yards are the leaking roofs. The tenants interviewed in 1905 expressed the conviction that all of the twenty houses leaked. At number 2003, where there was a family of ten persons,—of whom it may be mentioned incidentally that all but two had had smallpox, the schedule reads; “The roof of this house leaks so badly that the water comes down and injures the ceilings and walls Plague Spots 237 on the first floor. Several unsuccessful attempts were made last winter to get the landlord to repair the roof, but nothing has been done for six months. The inquirer reported this condition to the Health Officer.” Upon the next schedule, for 2005, one reads; “The roof of this house leaks so badly that the plastering on the frst floor has fallen in several places.” The inquirer, who scheduled only four of the houses in 1905, skipped next to number 2025 of which he says: “The roof of this house leaks in five places so that the family have to shift their beds at night when it rains. The woman complains that when a storm comes from the south the water comes in under the rear door and floods the floor, and when it comes from the north her parlor is wet”. In 1908 all of the twenty houses were canvassed, except that one was vacant and of one the tenant was absent and the door locked. Of the twenty roofs, fourteen were leaky. Three roofs leak so badly that the floor of the first story was still wet on Tuesday afternoon from the effects of a rain storm Monday night. In one of these houses the visitor “could stand in the kitchen and see through the roof.” He also reported that, “the spouting (gutters and downspouts) on all but three of the houses is poor.” In thirteen of the dwellings, the plaster was in bad condition. In one place it was so water-soaked and weak that it fell in chunks when touched by the inspector’s finger. The monthly rent charges were ascertained in eighteen cases. Of these three were $8.50; five were $9; one was $9.50; four were $10.50; one was $11; one was $12; one $15; one $16; one $18. The latter charge was for a furnished house. The two tenants who paid $15 and $16 explained that they are buying their homes. The opulent householder who said he paid $18 a month was especially voluble in his complaints. He said; “The water closet in my house is no good because it smells so badly.” “Indeed,” he added, “the odors from this whole block of houses are so bad in hot weather, especially in the evening, that I have to walk away.” A large puddle of water stood in front of number 2025 while all the waste water draining from the public hydrant in front of the row runs under the residence at number 2021. “All these houses”, said the visitor, “stand about two and a half feet above the ground and the soil beneath them is littered with all manner of trash.” A Grow1INnc INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITY The good character of at least some of the people who live in these twenty insubstantial houses is indicated by the fact that some are buying the homes which they occupy, upon the installment plan. 238 Neglected Neighbors The writer was shown through the dwelling for which a voluble old Irish woman, in 1905, had just completed her payments. She was par- ticularly proud of the new roof which had cost her thirty-three dollars and fifty cents. In the diminutive back yard her coal supplies for the winter were already stored away. Here, although the thirtieth of October had arrived with several frosts preceding, the writer en- countered several scores of mosquitoes hovering under the shed roof and presumably bearing malarial germs from the swampy “Eastern Branch” of the Potomac river not far away. When the city grows stronger in lines of civic wholesomeness and social service, steps will be taken to drain out this swampy area which now causes a good deal of malaria among the people scattered all the way from “Pipe Town” at Fourteenth and L streets southeast to Twenty-sixth and H, northeast. The numerous rows of little wooden houses occupied by white citizens, on Gales, Seaton, Kramer and Rosedale streets east of Fif- teenth street, northeast, have always impressed the writer as similar to the industrial communities of other cities. The extensive develop- ment of this northeast section —and of the very modest suburbs far- ther out in the same direction, is a comparatively recent matter and its dwellings indicate the present possibilities and tendencies of local housing conditions. Throughout the entire region a great many un- occupied lots and country-like prairies are scattered, on which hun- dreds of houses will be erected hereafter as the modest homes of laboring people. It seems unfortunate, in view of the manifest destiny of this section, that its existing structures and the conditions around them do not afford evidences of well-considered, adequate public control. Damp Houses In A HoLtow On Levis and Turner streets just off from’ Bladensburg Road, a few blocks north of Fifteenth and H streets, northeast, there is a col- lection of four-room frame dwellings all situated in a hollow, the street serving as a basin into which all the rains drain from the sur- rounding, higher land. “On the date of my visit’, writes the inquirer, “there was a large pool of water in the roadway, covered with green slime. The sidewalks are on a level with the streets; the roofs leak more or less and when plastering falls it is not replaced; the water closets behind the houses have antiquated plumbing; the back yards are very damp; all sewerage connections run under the houses. Water Plague Spots 239 was running out into the streets from under ‘1526’ and ‘1528.’ The health department inspector had been out several times but no prompt action on the part of the owner of the premises has yet been secured”. In 1908 conditions are, in the main, what they were three years ago. One house in the row still has a wooden box toilet but the others have more modern conveniences. Rents range from $5.30 to $7.50 per month. In Turner street, one block farther north, conditions are worse than in Levis street. The unpaved sidewalk is even lower here than on Levis street and one tenant had made a hole beneath her doorsill to let the standing water drain from the sidewalk out of the way beneath her house itself. Naturally the first floor was damp. The Associated Charities’ agent writes; “I was told by a neighbor that during a funeral in an adjacent house, about a year or two ago, the floor of the front room gave way precipitating the casket and the mourners all together into about four feet of water underneath the house. Dur- ing a very heavy downpour of rain on the day before my visit the water stood on the street and sidewalk like a pond and came in under the front door because the opening under the house was not sufficiently large to let it flow down rapidly enough beneath the dwelling. The lower floors of this residence are very uneven, the boards rising in humps. The kitchen roof leaks so badly that a can has to be set upon the stove to catch the water. This chimney is not in good repair and is lower than the main building so that the draft must be poor. All the rubbish which can not be burned is thrown out upon the vacant lots near these houses making the surroundings insanitary and un- sightly: In wet weather the rain leaks through the old, rusted-out tin roofs of the box privies and fills up the toilet boxes.” The preceding sketches of Turner street conditions, prepared in 1905, are applicable still. In 1908 the dilapidation of the row is farther advanced; so are the rents. The shanties now command $5 and $6 monthly. Their tenants still carry all the necessary water from a distant street hydrant. Wooden box toilets, with all the bad odors and influences attendant upon them, still prevail. The unpaved, low road- way between the long row of houses and the similar frames opposite them becomes in case of rain a pool or mud hole. A PersonaL ExpERIENCE IN “Pipe Town” The undeveloped and dilapidated conditions of the frames on Rosedale, Levis and Turner streets illustrate the character of scores of houses scattered over the entire eastern end of Washington east 240 Neglected Neighbors of Fifteenth or even reaching to streets still farther west. On L street southeast, for example, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth, the writer lived for weeks, some years ago, with a needy white family. The well-spoken man of the house had chronic malaria which probably came, via the mosquito route, from extensive swamps along the edges of the “Eastern Branch” or “Anacostia River” a short block away. The name of “Pipe Town" had descended upon the neighborhood from days when sewer pipes are said to have been stored here. Un- fortunately these pipes were all used elsewhere, for the whole neigh- borhood, even including the new brick houses across the street, had such box toilets only as one expects to see in rural districts. All the water used by the family with whom the writer lived was brought Damp Houses in a Hollow; Turner Street, Northeast; With Wooden Box Toilets and No Water Supplies. [Photo by Hine] from a wearisome distance, after much argument and persuasion had passed on each occasion between the small boys and their mother. It is always difficult to say just what conditions should classify a dwell- ing as a hopeless shack or place it among property which only needs repairs, but one who lives in such unpainted, weather-beaten, sewer- less, waterless, God-forsaken, or at least, man-forsaken, wooden shanties as those in “Pipe Town” is inclined to be resentful. Shacks, to him, are no longer indifferently picturesque. He knows by expe- rience that they make life hard and mean. The Old “Pipe Town” block in which the writer sojourned has now been removed but an- other row identically like it still stands, like a shiftless human loafer, just around the corner on L street near Fourteenth, southeast, and it does not lack for the congenial fellowship of similar living sheds in the Plague Spots 241 neighborhood. On L and K streets, the houses have been supplied with water closets and hydrants, including the brick row mentioned above. The five Fourteenth street frames and the four houses opposite them have box toilets only and no water. But the old row has been painted ; fences and sheds have been repaired in the back yards. These improvements have, as usual, been over-capitalized in augmented rents. Seven dollars a month, with seven-fifty for the corner house is now exacted. SHANTIES ON RENTED GROUND “Since Abraham’s day” is the length of time that some of the tenants of a score of little shacks on L street, southwest, said they had paid ground rent for their little wooden houses. Whether this phrase “since Abraham’s day” referred to the Biblical patriarch or to Abraham Lincoln, the hearer was left to judge for himself. In either case it would appear that sufficient ground rent had been paid, at several dollars monthly for strips twelve to fifteen feet wide, to have purchased the property completely before 1905 when the inquiry was made. As it is, however, the condemnation and removal of these shanties, which could easily be recognized as their inevitable fate, has thrown some pitiful old colored people out of the houses in which they had invested the meager savings of many toilsome years. It is usually agreed that when an unfit house is occupied by its owner, tather than used as a means of extorting “blood money” from helpless tenants, condemna- tion proceedings may well be long delayed. Yet the time comes on apace when considerations of mere safety, if not of public sanitation, compel the removal of such evil shacks as the score of one-and-two- story frame shanties which stood between Second and Four-and-a- Half streets on both sides of L street southwest. An extreme ex- ample of the dilapidation found here was seen in the pair of two- story frames at 226 and 228 L street. They leaned against each other like a pair of drunken cronies staggering along arm in arm. There was supposed to be a passageway nearly three feet wide between them but one of the hovels was so badly out of plumb that its second story reached across the passage and leaned hard against the other dwell- ing, endangering both. About four years prior to this investigation the writer noted a woman with a feeble-minded boy living in the house at “268.” The house was leaning very badly then but subsequently it gave up the struggle altogether, like a child who at last succumbs to 16 242 Neglected Neighbors drowsiness, and leaned its weary head clear over against the insub- stantial shack next door. These falling shanties were demolished in the winter of 1905 and the Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Dwellings was egged on by the Housing Committee to institute, a year later, a general cleaning- out of L street between Second and Four-and-a-Half streets, south- west. Enough poor frames remain, however, to serve as suggestive examples of the houses which have disappeared, while within a radius of two or three blocks in every direction there are scores of decaying wooden dwellings which will soon be “white unto the harvest.” A Zone oF Civic ATROPHY The last few studies, in the outer edges of southwest, southeast and northeast Washington, suggest the fact that there is a kind of “Dead Belt” around the city. This region of atrophied civic life extends around the eastern and southern borders of the National Capital and is also to be traced upon its western edges. The city might be com- pared to some great animal lying spread out upon the plain, with the life blood not penetrating vigorously to all its parts. The aggressive civic life which makes northwest Washington pre-eminently attractive throughout the greater part of its area, beats sluggishly in some of the border regions of northeast, southeast and southwest Washington and in the lower western sections of old Georgetown. In short, the community's “circulation is poor’ and some of her extremities, al- though not far extended, are partly atrophied. In the course of this study typical areas have already been described which suggest how this “dead zone” stretches along the city’s borders from the northeast, through the eastern end of the city, to “Pipe Town” in the southeast corner and thence westward along L and M streets past “the K street tenement”,—near Seventh street southeast—through “Navy Place”, “Cushing Place’, “Mechanic Alley”, M, N and Oj streets,—on into southwest Washington where the shacks on K and L streets have already been described. An Open SEWER EXEMPLIFYING Civic INANITION In passing from the southeast to the southwest section of Wash- ington one crosses the notorious, malodorous, deadly “James Creek Canal” which afforded for many years as strong an example as could Plague Spots 243 be imagined of the city’s lack of civic animation and social conscious- ness. This dishonored relic of an ancient river or stream has served for many years as a greasy, foully-effervescent, open sewer. It has long been covered over as far south as G street southwest but beyond that point it has had no roof and has lain openly festering, like a civic sore. Its side walls are on a level with, or even below, the level of the streets and of the open ways which cross the canal or run parallel beside it. It is very poorly lighted, of course, being in an unim- portant section of the city. On K, M, and N streets, where it is — Z = sa “James Creek Canal,” the Malodorous, Open Sewer, as it Lay Without Fence or Walls, Drowning Ten People Annually and Poisoning the Air. Not the Capitol Dome in Contrast. [Photo by Lewis] bridged, the bridge approaches are naturally somewhat narrower than the streets, so that the regular sidewalks, if extended in straight lines instead of curving-in to reach the bridge way, would lead directly into the canal. Strangers from other sections of the Capital, and some local residents as well, have staggered drunkenly along these side- walks in the darkness and ambled right into the canal, from whose accumulation of sewage and muddy ooze “no traveller returns” One characteristic case was that of an old white man who was driving his wagon homeward one night along the road which skirts this Lethean stream. The driver was drunk or wearily dozing and the horse was 244 Neglected Neighbors either blind or dozing also, for the whole equipage edged gradually toward the bank and finally went over, unchecked by the unobtrusive, low wall. The wagon, horse and driver went down together and were fished out next morning. In such ways “James Creek Canal” has killed a great many people. Nothing at all was done about it until about three years before the completion of this study when a special coroner’s jury was impaneled, including the writer, to discuss the recent death of one poor victim. As a result of this jury’s visit to the canal and their expressions of indignation, the Commissioners soon secured an appropriation with which a very low fence,—only two hori- zontal rails,—was erected on either side of the death trap, but a long distance from its edges in order not to interfere with the private com- panies who use the canal and the marginal spaces on either side of it for the passage of freight scows and the storage of sand, stone or rail- road ties. At the time of the coroner’s inquest, at least, these private companies were said to pay no rentals for this city dockage, while the whole region near the canal complained of the odors and dangers which they were forced to endure. It was stated at the coroner’s inquest that this ancient ‘James Creek Canal” had killed about ten persons yearly,—nearly one a month,—for a long time. In an influential, live section of any city this unwholesome, death-dealing open sewer would have been roofed over. Its roof might have been covered with grass and flower beds,—like the central parkway in Drexel Boulevard, Chicago,—with fine drive- ways along the broad margins, which the city owns, on either side of the old canal. But at the time of this investigation, in spite of all complaints the sand companies unloaded and stored their materials upon the marginal street-ways. Their scows plowed up the scum above and the ooze beneath the sewage. Foul odors permeated the poor neighborhood adjoining the canal, while at the head of this foul stream, standing in sarcastic contrast above it, one always noted the nearby dome of the Capitol and the gilded. roof of the Congressional Library. Since the summary of this report was published, a system of inter- cepting sewers has been completed so that the “James Creek Canal’ is no longer essential. In November 1907 the engineering department of the District government began to fill it in from G street south to N street. In August 1908 this work is not yet completed. Meanwhile the lower end of the old canal, running from N street eight blocks south, remains open, inadequately fenced, with its ancient mud stirred Plague Spots 245 up by sand scows and its waters little changed at any time by the tides which flow up the “Eastern Branch” of the Potomac at the mouth of this characteristically neglected ditch. TRACING THE “Deap ZoNE” FARTHER Near the “James Creek Canal” on N street southwest there is a row of five wooden shacks standing on the south side of the street. They were occupied in 1905 by low people, white and colored. The water supplies were all carried from Third and N streets a block away. The other, equally familiar characteristics of Washington’s typical shanties were also observable, including box toilets,—with only sodden earthen floors,—leaking roofs, defective plastering and a ramshackle appearance throughout. The dwellings stood, and stand, in a kind _ of shallow depression below the level of the sidewalks but some of them are raised a few inches above the damp earth. In one house a fourth of all the kitchen floor was worn away so that the tenants used the bare ground underneath, like the dirt flooring of an Irish peasant’s cottage. Of the broken plastering the volunteer inquirer wrote; “It is very bad in all these five houses.” Of one of them the investigator reported that “About three weeks ago a large piece of heavy plaster fell from the ceiling of the front room on to the spot where a mother had been sitting with her baby, just a moment before. Fortunately she had heard the cracking and withdrawn in time to save the infant.” In 1908 this row looks better than it did. There is some paint on its front; and water hy- drants in its back yard. Rents, of course, are higher. Three of the houses rent for $7.50 each, two for $8.50. There is said to be a good deal of plaster missing from the walls. The former white tenants have all given way to colored people. The row still stands below the street level. It has little besides a thin coat of gracious paint to protect it from the onslaughts of the Board for Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings. WHERE THE City’s Lire 18 STAGNANT Across the way, extending the Zone of Civic Inanition, are ten one-story wooden houses which, with two similar blocks around the two adjoining corners, make thirty-six of these. old, dry-goods-box shanties. From these houses, although there are frequent breaks in this broad circle of dilapidation around the city, it may be traced 246 Neglected Neighbors on, along the line of shacks previously described on L and K streets, southwest, to the Potomac river. Following the water line through Eleventh and Twelfth streets,—with other appropriate areas on either side of these,—to F, D, and C streets, southwest, one passes to the southwestern fringe of northwest Washington which has been known as “Foggy Bottom”. Such new structures as the Convention Hall erected by the Daughters of the American Revolution are now redeeming “Foggy Bottom” from its characteristic dump heaps and indescribable old shacks. Some of the latter were built up merely with rusty scrap iron and old boards gathered from the waste heaps. from which their human denizens also pick up decaying fruit and vegetables for food. Paralleling the Potomac’s borders farther one notes a large area of stagnation stretching, with some exceptions, from Twenty-fourth, or even Twenty-third street, westward, between E and K street, northwest. Odors from the gas works and influences from large breweries are especially evident here. Next come “Snow Al- ley” and “Hughes Alley” at Twenty-fifth and I streets; then “Doug- las Flats”, “Phillip’s Alley” and neighboring areas near Twenty-fifth and M, northwest. Opposite this settlement and just across “Rock Creek” there is a large, sunken community with scores of houses which are “below grade” in every sense. This brings one to the southern borders of old Georgetown, where, in “Jefferson street”, “Thirty-first’, “Potomac”, “Grace street”, “Cissell Alley” and all the regions south of the canal, the community’s standards are so low, its life so sluggish, that the atrophy spreads and attacks also some areas north of M street. A SIMPLE, SOLVABLE PROBLEM While the shacks and shanties of the National Capital afford ex- amples of neglect by officials and basic indifference on the part of the general public, it is to be noted that Washington’s situation in this respect is eminently hopeful and that energetic efforts are now being made, successfully, to eliminate some of the most flagrant evils. Mr. Robert W. de Forest, the first Commissioner of the Tenement House Department of New York city, familiar with the infinitely graver diffi- culties presented by that city’s tenements, inspected some of Wash- ington’s neglected areas in 1904. He said, in effect; “This is a very clear and simple proposition; it will be a comparatively easy, inexpen- sive matter to set your city right”. So it would be if the citizens of the Plague Spots 247 National Capital knew and were concerned about its civic ills. Instead, the majority of Washington’s resourceful people have been like the ostrich which imagines that nothing can be amiss if only its eyes are shrouded beneath the sand. Public-spirited citizens who have ex- plained local needs and advocated remedial action have met a good deal of indifference and some condemnation. Our lawmakers in Con- gress have been so unconcerned that it took almost ten years to secure the passage, in 1906, of the elementary law for the compulsory repair or condemnation of insanitary dwellings. Among certain classes the passage of this necessary law may even retard the more fundamental development of civic consciousness which is needed. Enforcement of.the law will remove many of the Shanties Typical of the Neglected Areas on the Outskirts of Washington. [Photo by Hine] most obvious evils which it requires little thought to appreciate. Any one can understand that the worst shacks pictured here are unfit for human habitation. But many citizens will not stop to understand the injuries wrought by tenements and alleys and other housing conditions which are not less injurious because less dramatic. It is sometimes said, even by educated people, that the “slum” problem is solved now that many of the most impressive hovels are being torn away. In truth it is a good beginning to have compassed the destruction of such human pigsties as “Chinch Row” but this is only a beginning of the fundamental civic development which is essential. Shacks and shanties are not like those diseases which a man never has but once. They will recur. One crop is no sooner harvested than another ripens and “goes to seed.” Furthermore, there is evident need for a general 248 Neglected Netghbors quickening of the community's life forces throughout the “Dead Zone” described above. Tue House FAMINE INCREASED In a very important and practical sense the destruction of 545 insanitary houses, between August, 1906 and July 1908, has intensified the housing problem. People ousted from these pigsties have been obliged to find other shelter. There has been as yet no apparent in- crease in the building of small homes available at moderate rentals to meet the needs of such tenants. Investors have unfortunately been diverted from erecting the most needed type of houses although such dwellings seem to give assurance of fair returns upon the invest- ment. General George M. Sternberg, Doctor George M. Kober and their associates, who made such notable success of the five-per-cent business philanthropy known as the “Sanitary Improvement Com- pany” have nobly endeavored to set the pace for the building of small homes rentable for from seven-fifty to twelve dollars monthly. For this purpose there was organized in April 1904 a new corporation called “The Sanitary Housing Company” which limits itself to a four per cent return to investors. But the forty houses, with eighty model apartments, which this company has erected are evidently “not a drop in the bucket” in comparison with the people’s need. Rents have been increasing since this study was prepared. In many instances families have “doubled up”. A family occupying rooms no larger than are necessary for the family itself have taken subtenants until dangerous overcrowding, with its evil effects on health, morals and general standards of life, has resulted. A crusade is needed to interest investors in the fact that small houses or apart- ments rentable for seven to fifteen dollars monthly are urgently de- manded. By proper planning and subsequent good management they can be made quite profitable. They offer golden opportunities which it is to be expected that builders and investors will sometime appre- ciate. Like other classes of men, the builders of houses are somewhat like sheep; they are likely to follow a strong example or continue an established habit with little thought of possible variations. Thus “the style” in building has swung away from the modest type of small homes that are most needed. The reaction will probably come. The growing success of “The Sanitary Improvement Company” should open the minds of investors. “The President’s Homes Commission” has elected as one of its principal tasks to promote the building of Plague Spots 249 wholesome, cheap houses,—both by philanthropy and also by investors whose sole motive is an attractive, and proper, financial gain. Two SHOULD Be Buitt ror Every House DEMOLISHED The problem of the shacks and shanties is fundamentally a ques- tion of substitution. A better home should be developed in the place of every one condemned. Otherwise the whole effort defeats itself. There is no gain in driving the families out of two insanitary hovels if they both crowd together into a third shanty which is little better than the others were. Demolition is only negative. There is need, urgent need, for constructive work. People must be led, or driven, out of the pigsties, by providing better quarters. When the community demands of certain people that they raise their standards of life, it should also make sure that there are facilities for doing this. In some European cities, it is reported, the rule or practice has happily been formed of assuring the erection of new houses, either by stimulated private enterprise, or by municipal undertaking, in place of buildings swept away. That is civic wisdom. For each dwelling destroyed another should be built. Indeed, considering the constant increase of population and in view of the fact that a characteristic evil of the shanties is the overcrowding of their inhabitants, two new houses are really needed in place of every one demolished. The prob- lems represented by the shacks and shanties of the National Capital will not be solved until there is in evidence an active and effective cam- paign for the building of wholesome small houses in numbers adequate to meet the need. No Division of Labor. This One Spigot Serves About Thirty Households. PART IV GENERAL LESSONS, REMEDIES AND IDEALS [s9118@M AQ OJVOGq] “Adowyzueyiyd yUIO-4ed-4noy wKuedwog Bursnoy Arezlueg,, 94} JO SasMOoH] Ze}/4-OML ‘|2POI! 94} 0} ¥SELZUOD U! poo}s APY] SE ,,SHIEYUS J9949S UPA SUL, ‘sBulyL 49}30q so} yUdWAaACI 943 BulysoBing CHAPTER I PROGRESS AND PROMISE LESSONS FROM SEVEN YEARS’ WorK. THE GOVERNMENT OF WaASH- INGTON BY OTHER COMMUNITIES. COMPLACENCY oR Civic Con- SCIENCE? * In the three sections of this study which deal with the alleys, tene- ments and shanties, remedial activities appropriate to the specific prob- lems have been discussed. Now it is needful to view the field as a whole and to offer some suggestions of a general character. Special timeliness is afforded by the fact that the writer, who is about to re- move from the city, has been asked to summarize the essential lessons of his seven years’ work in Washington. It is also natural upon leav- ing the National Capital to look forward and attempt to picture the possibilities of the future. In doing this it seems desirable that the writer should give full sweep to his ideals, freely submitting, where they seem essential, some suggestions which are so radical and far reaching that they may not be accepted by the community for fifteen or twenty years. Beginning with conclusions from which no one will dissent, these last four chapters are planned to move forward step by step and to include some of the largest, though entirely practicable, ideas which have been worked out in Germany, England and other sections of Europe. First of all it is necessary to explain some un- familiar peculiarities in the government of the District of Columbia. It is also desirable to show how the present efforts for better housing conditions are related to similar movements in the past. CoMPLACENCY IMPEDES PROGRESS In Washington, as in New York and other cities, there have been successive waves or tides of reform which have gradually gathered strength through a period of years, have reached their climax, and then receded. The Washington Board of Health expressed, in 1872, some vigorous, intelligent protests against neglected housing condi- (253) 254 Neglected Neighbors tions. In the six years preceding 1878, 1,147 dwellings were actually condemned ; 492 of these were torn down and the remainder were im- proved. But the Board of Health was replaced by a Health Officer ; he was shorn of some essential powers; and this tide of sanitary re- form was stopped. Again, in 1892, a rising wave of popular protests culminated in radical legislation which checked the further growth ot the evil alleys, though it could not abolish those already developed. It is unfortunate, though natural, that after each spurt of civic conscious- ness the general public has subsided for a time into a period of com- placency and indifference. While the making of improvements has never ceased entirely, while a few progressive citizens have continued to urge reforms, while the community has responded with increasing generosity to appeals for broadening charitable work of various kinds, it is fair to state that a good many people have echoed the pleasant saying that “Washington has no poor” Not ordinary citizens alone, but some of the leaders of thought have denied the existence of evil housing condi- tions and neglected neighbors. The loyalty and affection with which all beholders are inspired by the manifold beauties of our Capital City have developed in some quarters a self-confident complacency which has resented the suggestion that any defects are possible. This kind of civic patriotism is common to many communities; an appreciation of its narrowness and falsity is one lesson which other cities might profitably learn from Washington. LESSONS FOR OTHER CITIES AND THE SOUTH ESPECIALLY To describe the alleys, tenements and shanties of the National Capital is not equivalent to saying that ‘Washington is worse than other cities”. The suggestion is simply that this city is like all others. For no community can claim providential immunity from such typical difficulties, for example, as the boy problem, the evils of pauperism, and some of the many forms in which housing problems present them- selves. Any citizen of any city who proclaims the perfection and ideal purity of his community without being able to explain how its good qualities have been developed, is advertising his lack of social con- sciousness. For it may be accepted as a kind of general social law that the only way to assure wholesome conditions of housing and citizenship is to work out practical ideals in these lines and to strive for their realization. Progress and Promise 256 New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, in studying their own civic problems, have given helpful suggestions and inspiration to the entire country. Washington’s experiences are in some ways more typical than those of larger cities. The population of the District of Columbia is 339,403, (Washington city, 263,777), according to the police census of 1908. Suggestions from a community of that size apply perti- nently to the smaller large cities of America. For southern cities especially a study of housing and social problems in the National Capital should be of value. The largest colored population congre- gated in any place in the world is included in Washington, where there are nearly one hundred thousand colored inhabitants. The federal census of 1900 enumerated 86,702; the local police census reported 95,695 in 1905 and 97,483 in 1908. The white population also re- sembles that of many southern communities in the great predominance of native-born Americans, as compared with northern cities whose people are more largely of foreign birth or parentage. The closest counterparts of the unique residential alleys of the National Capital are to be found, so far as the writer has discovered, in Atlanta, Georgia, and, presumably, in other southern cities. Both the alleys and “shacks” of Washington suggest the slave quarters of the old south, standing near the master’s residence but notably separate and distinct in the standards of life suggested. Altogether, as a study of typical city problems and of a developing social consciousness, it is thought that this study may be of some interest outside the District of Columbia. Tue WHo.Le NATION’s PROBLEM Furthermore, in soliciting the consideration of thoughtful people throughout the United States the National Capital is only appealing to its constituents. For the ballot has been taken away and residents of Washington have no voice legally in either local or national govern- ment. The executive control of the District of Columbia is vested in three “District Commissioners” appointed by the President of the United States. Congress, corresponding to the board of alder- men or city council, enacts all local legislation. The city’s revenues from taxation or other sources are all deposited in the treasury of the United States, whence nothing can be withdrawn except by Congres- sional appropriation. For local expenditures thus approved, one half the money necessary is taken from the revenues deposited by the Dis- trict of Columbia, the other half is supplied from national funds. This 256 Neglected Netghbors suggests,—what is true,—that the entire nation has a practical interest in the National Capital. It also gives rise to the erroneous impres- sion that local residents do not maintain the expenses of their own government. Taxes are higher here than in some other larger cities such as San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, while so far as the tax rate “on assessed valuation” is concerned, the Washington rate exceeds that of even Boston and New York. The national govern- ment holds untaxed a large proportion of all real estate values,— “more than half” it is said,—and is constantly purchasing additional property which is thus withdrawn from local taxation. Public ex- penses are also increased by the fact that Washington serves as the nation’s Capital City. Altogether, its residents do their share and when they solicit outside assistance it is not as paupers asking alms but as good citizens and burden bearers who need the intelligent co-operation of those who share their responsibilities and powers. How INHABITANTS OF OTHER CoMMUNITIES May AssIST Indeed, the local residents have no powers, except through public opinion. At the headquarters of the world’s great republic there are 339,403 people living under a system of “taxation without representa- tion”. For, while public opinion is active and influential so far as the resourceful members of the community are concerned, local citizens have no legal voice in the management of their municipality. It is a practical, plain fact therefore that there is no organization or indi- vidual in the United States who may not help to effect the solution of Washington’s problems by influencing his own senator or representa- tive. For example, a much needed law for the compulsory repair or condemnation of dwellings unfit for human habitation was advocated for almost a decade by the District Commissioners and influential citi- zens. Its enactment was prevented in 1904, even after the measure had passed the House of Representatives, by the opposition of one senator representing a distant state whose entire population is less than one sixth as large as that of the District of Columbia. So Washing- ton is appealing, not only to her natural friends, but to her actual rulers when she urges public-spirited people everywhere to take an intelligent interest in the effort to make the Capital City of the United States a worthy model in the matter of wholesome social conditions and municipal legislation. Progress and Promise 257 A UNIVERSAL PRINCIPLE IN REForM Work In the improvement, in any city, of such conditions as this study reports, swift action is not all that is necessary. A great deal of study and deliberation is essential, Even among the most earnest advocates of reform there is too large a proportion of men who say that it is all a simple matter. “Pass this one bill for the destruction of miser- able shacks”; or, “Get an appropriation large enough to begin con- verting alleys into minor streets’; or, “Pass a regulation that thirty per cent of the space on each building lot shall be left vacant’, they say; “and the local problem will be solved.” Such hit-or-miss, super- ficial reformatory movements will not meet either the need or the opportunity. It is even possible that a halfway measure of reform may postpone the realization of adequate improvements, just as a little opening in a river dam may relieve the accumulating pressure of the water piling up behind it. It would be much better to delay action several years until public opinion shall have gathered adequate force, rather than to have the National Capital accept halfway measures or attempt partial improvements with the vague idea of taking further steps later. Always there is danger that some one, over eager “to get something done at once’, will so compromise the attainable ideal that our interior alleys will merely be turned into courts or pockets and the shacks exchanged for mammoth tenements. Even one or two members of the Associated Charities’ “Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions” were inclined to say; ‘Let us ask for fifteen foot openings into the alleys now and progress later to forty foot open- ings’; or, “Let us open up a typical alley block by getting a minor street cut through in one direction allowing the present alley branches to remain as blind pockets or courts opening off the minor street.” They are few in number who really appreciate the extent and char- acter of existing needs. They are still fewer who see the ideal, the practicable ideal, with sufficient clearness to make them oppose a com- promise which will postpone complete reformation under the pretext of making a “practical step” toward it. A real danger lies in the fact that some good citizens will probably urge us to be content with “the simple next step” rather than to work hard and wait obstinately for adequate measures of reform. There should be no contentment with anything short of a Comprehensive Plan for the steady, progressive, uncompromising elimination of all the evils represented by the alleys, tenements and shanties of the National Capital. 17 258 Neglected Neighbors A SpeciaL CoMMISSION RECOMMENDED The surest way to guard against these dangers, which are al! the greater because few will realize them, is by adopting a method which has proven eminently successful in other cities. The appoint- ment of a “Special Commission on Housing and Health Conditions in a ; fe vy 4 Broken Walls and Stairs Typical of Neglected Conditions in Many Homes. These, in a Tenement, Were Pitch Dark at Mid-Day. [Flashlight Photo by Hine] the National Capital” was advocated in 1904 in the annual message of President Roosevelt. Ina review of this study, as published in 1906, the writer said; “Such a Commission composed of expert, public- spirited, unpaid citizens would give to the problems which this study has merely outlined, the thorough consideration that they deserve. The Commission would concentrate skilled attention upon the situation Progress and Promise 259 for a time and view it as a comprehensive whole. It would study the remedial measures devised in other communities and work out their appropriate application to the local situation. The Commission could reorganize, harmonize and extend the sanitary code and building regu- lations. It could make clear to Congress what additions and reallot- ments of function are needed in the executive departments of the city government. This volunteer study has indicated clearly that the prob- lems represented by the alleys, tenements and shanties of the National Capital are such that their solution requires thorough-going, expert study, careful, patient consideration and vigorous, sustained action. Such a special Commission, composed of unsalaried men of large repute and special abilities, and furnished with perhaps ten or fifteen thousand dollars for the employment of such paid services as they may require, could not only work out the adequate solution of exist- ing problems but plan for future developments in a way to assure model conditions for an ideal-Capital City. Within a year or two the Commission could be disbanded, having completed its task, and having helped to develop the permanent governmental powers and executive organization which are necessary. This appears to be the simplest, cheapest, surest and most direct way in which Congress, aided by the President and the District Commissioners, may take up the problems suggested by the present study.” A Specia ‘“Housinc aND HEALTH COMMISSION” President Roosevelt looked over the foregoing suggestions in the review of this study, which was submitted to him in advance of its publication. He stated then that he would favor the organization of a Commission similar to the Tenement House Commission which he had appointed as governor of New York state. Subsequently, Mr. James B. Reynolds, an experienced social worker who had been an active member of the New York Tenement House Commission, was asked by President Roosevelt to review the situation in Washington. He read this study, visited the areas which it describes, conferred with members of the “Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions,” and con- sidered Washington’s needs from many points of view. After the com- pletion of his task, which was undertaken without compensation and at great personal cost, Mr. Reynolds submitted to the President a brief review of Washington’s housing problem. His report concluded with the following recommendation: 260 Neglected Neighbors “There are many questions affecting the welfare of the dwellers in small houses which should receive the attention of a housing com- mission. Such are, among others, the need of recreation grounds and public baths, remedial agencies for the immoral life in the alleys and agencies for social betterment such as industrial education, the free public library and the encouragement of the excellent system of model workingmen’s dwellings, similar to those built by the Washington Sanitary Housing Company. This wide field merits attention from the broad point of view of social betterment with the home, and not merely the house, as the subject of fundamental interest. I therefore recommend the appointment of a Commission to be known as ‘The President's Homes Commission’. If this recommendation meets your approval, I would make the following suggestions regarding it: PLANS FOR THE COMMISSION’S WorRK “First; The President's Homes Commission should be composed of fifteen members, to include among others a real estate dealer, a practical builder and two representatives of trade unions. “Second; The Commission should be instructed to ascertain and consider the results of the best efforts of public enterprise and private philanthropy to improve the homes and better the lives of the indus- trial classes in other cities in the country. “Third; It should be instructed to invite the co-operation of all having interest in the housing problem and the home problem in the District and before presenting its final report it should give public hearings on the main points of its program so that all just criticisms may be heard. “Fourth; It should be advised to recommend, so far as possible, reforms which may be accomplished by your executive order or by the action of the District government. “Fifth; The Commission should serve without compensation and all expenses incurred should be borne by voluntary contributions. “The task of preparing a satisfactory housing code, of the re- arrangement of the building space within the larger squares of the District of Columbia, and of bettering the physical, moral and socia] condition of the industrial classes, needs the serious consideration of such a body, and its work would be productive of wide reaching and permanent benefit to the District. Thus the homes of the-poor might have a consistent place in the fair aspect of the nation’s Capital.” Progress and Promise 261 “THE PrESIDENT’s Homes ComMISSION” Fifteen citizens were selected by President Roosevelt, in May 1907, to carry out the plans proposed by Mr. Reynolds. The names of the persons appointed are printed in “Appendix A” of this volume together with a list of the officers whom they elected, and their sub- committees, with the purposes of each. The appointment of this Commission fulfilled one of the prin- cipal recommendations of this study, as published in 1905. It was the writer’s thought that one Commission of this character could complete the task. That now seems improbable. It was necessary that Presi- dent Roosevelt should inaugurate the movement without waiting for Congress to concur in the establishment of the Commission. Behind it, therefore, is only the power of the Executive, together with such natural influence as the intrinsic merits of the Commissioners’ recom- mendations may possess. Naturally the work must be completed be- fore the end of President Roosevelt’s term, in order that he may help to enlist the concurrence of Congress, of the District Commissioners, and of the public in carrying out the progressive plans to be proposed. If the Commission should not be able in this short time to cover the entire ground, or should not succeed in bringing about the adoption of all the activities which this study has shown to be necessary, the work should be continued, either by a volunteer philanthropic organi- zation or by a group of citizens selected officially for such tasks as the present Commission may be unable to complete before the expiration of President Roosevelt’s term. One Tenement House Commission did not suffice for the entire task in New York city. Tue Aim AND Spirit oF It ALL Whether the needed reforms are accomplished through the or- ganization of another special Commission or by the philanthropic organization proposed in the following chapter, or whether piece- meal, one detail after another, there is an important fact which ought not to be forgotten: The problem is not physical but spiritual, not material but human. The point at issue is the upbuilding of “Neg- lected Neighbors”. Every effort put forth should be with the definite purpose of determining and enforcing wholesome standards of life. If this is understood there will be no compromise with the evils of the alleys, tenements and shanties because of the familiar, false charity 262 Neglected Neighbors which says: ‘What will these poor, undeveloped creatures do if we destroy their rookeries?”’ The pigsties are to be banished for the exact purpose of compelling men to rise from swinish to human modes of life. And the principle should always be remembered, in every community, that people are injured, not by raising, but by lowering their standards of life. This study has indicated that the problem is not a matter of bricks and wood merely nor of mathematical measurements and physical phenomena. Human beings,—the men, women and children who inhabit the alleys, tenements and shanties and are degraded by their surroundings,—these people are the main concern. To upbuild them and to make them steadfast in wholesome habits of life should be the purpose of all civic and all Christian forces. Building regula- tions and sanitary laws are important as means to this end. For through such elementary legal processes it is possible to impress upon our “Neglected Neighbors” some of the wholesome standards of living which, both for the community’s good and for their own, they must be ceaselessly urged to adopt. Through law, through the agents of health, building, plumbing and police departments, through religious organi- zations and charitable agencies, through individual workers and by means of the public press, it should be brought home to these “Neg- lected Neighbors” constantly that they are expected to rise at least to certain minimum standards of right living. One reason why the thorough enforcement of all existing sanitary laws is important is that if they are not urged upon the undeveloped people who require them, these people will be strengthened in their conviction that “it does not matter much”. Instead it is possible by steadily pressing the regulations concerning sanitary conveniences, overcrowding and clean- liness, to convince our neglected neighbors that their conditions and actions are a matter of genuine concern to the community. Thus housing and health laws may be instruments through which public opinion shall exert a constant, progressive influence toward higher standards of life. By law and by public opinion tenants and landlords should both be made to understand that the National Capital will not allow its citizenship to sink below certain fundamental, prescribed standards. What these shall be in exact detail must be determined from time to time and epitomized in the building and health regulations of the city. When the housing situation and its problems have adequately “come into consciousness”, it will appear that the enforcement of wholesome Progress and Promise 263 standards in such material matters as the prevention of segregation, of dilapidation, of bad sanitary arrangements and overcrowding, will have an appreciable influence upon “the larger matters of the spirit”, upon the general standards of civic morality and social righteousness which should prevail. MEE Overburdened, Friendless Motherhood, Unfairly Handicapped in the Alleys, Tenements and Shanties of the National Capital. [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER II THE NEED FOR STATESMANSHIP THREE STATESMEN Wuo Hap Pians. Rising Rents. THE Prop- LEMS ARE More SocraL Tuan Inpivipuat. A New PHILAN- THROPY PROPOSED. What chiefly impresses one who studies contemporary Washington is the absence of any comprehensive plan for the development of proper housing and living conditions. Major L’Enfant made the city notable by working out in advance a systematic scheme of rectangular streets, oblique avenues, open spaces and generous proportions. By the natural growth of the community this design has been fulfilled and no similar guidance has been developed for present and future growth. By popular subscription the city has recently provided for a monument to the memory of one of its former executives, “Boss Shepherd”, who was condemned by many of his contemporaries. He is now appre- ciated and honored because he had a plan for the improvement of the city and brought about its realization in spite of opposition. He forced the alteration of street grades according to a system and is credited with having lifted Washington out of the mud. In the death of Sen- ator James McMillan the city lost another leader who was able and willing to take a statesmanlike view. The “Park Commission’, with its broad designs for the future development of public buildings, parks and vacant spaces, was due to him and illustrative of his ability to promote the making of comprehensive plans for the city’s growth. Tue FUNDAMENTAL Lack In contrast to these conceptions of a unified development, the new areas around Washington are springing up in “hit-or-miss” fashion. In suburbs which should be filled with beautiful, detached residences surrounded by lawns and gardens, we permit the construction of block after block of little, “hand-me-down” houses shoddily built for pur- poses of profitable sale on easy payments, without open spaces between (265) 266 Neglected Neighbors them and with no consideration of what is needful and appropriate for the community as a whole. What indications are there that there is anywhere a comprehensive plan for the city? Concerning housing conditions, for example, has any one said; “Within the next twenty years there will probably be so many thousand people here to be housed. This will require approximately so many additional houses for which land of such and such an extent will be needful. Such and such types of houses will be desirable. Transportation will have to be developed to reach the larger territory used. In the provision of houses for the Looking Down from “Cherry Hill” upon a “Rear Tenement,” Typical Toilets and Littered Back Yards. [Photo by Hine] poorer classes the supply is already inadequate to the demand. Such and such methods must be employed to enable the city to catch up with itself in this important particular.” Instead of such statesmanship we are satisfied to wait until little details of reform are forced upon us. Even these are accepted grudgingly, especially so if they involve ex- pense. So we put off many improvements until the cost of making them has reached its maximum. In waiting for needs to become suffi- ciently urgent to compel reluctant attention, the city has postponed activity until in some respects it is twenty, thirty or fifty years behind the times. Meanwhile, the natural forces of society, without vision The Need for Statesmanship 267 and with no consciousness of the community as a whole, perpetuate old evils and develop new ones. Individuals obtain in large private profits the major share of advantages which should accrue to all the people. Such lack of social consciousness is deadly. It actually entails prema- ture deaths and stunted lives among the people in the lower strata, where the shocks and strains of society have their most obvious effects. A Growinc ProsBLEM For the improvement of housing conditions the community has adopted during the past seven years only one measure, namely the simple law for the compulsory repair or removal of dwellings unfit for habitation. By its operations 545 houses have been torn down since 1906. While this reform has been desirable, it has increased the difficulty by lessening the supply of cheap houses. The destruction still continues, with many shacks demanding attention and a still larger number of old wooden frames which will naturally deteriorate into unusable condition. There has also been the growth of population normal in modern cities. In addition there has been a notable increase recently of foreign immigration, from which, until a few years ago, this city was comparatively free. These foreign born citizens,—who, in the writer’s opinion, are valuable acquisitions——demand primarily the cheapest class of houses. What this means is suggested by the actual increase in the population of “Willow Tree Alley”, which had ae are col a a ee ee able in the fact that rents are reported to have gone up from $6.50 to as high as $9 and $10 monthly. This local immigration is likely to grow still more rapidly in the future with the increasing diversifica- tion (which is natural and very desirable) of local industries. To make way for the Union Railway Station so many hundreds of houses were destroyed that the agents of the Associated Charities felt unmis- takably the increased difficulties which their protégés experienced in securing places in which to live. INCREASED RENTS AND OVERCROWDING Throughout Washington it appears that charges for the use of such houses as those pictured in the alleys have rapidly and greatly increased, The addition of one dollar or even more to a monthly 268 Neglected Neighbors rental of $6.50 is characteristic. Meanwhile, during the past seven years there has been little or no building of houses available for small rentals. In consequence of these influences the overcrowding of existing cheap houses has probably increased. No comparative statis- tics are available to demonstrate this but one of the impressive results of the writer’s revisiting in 1908 the areas studied in 1905, was the unexpected, strong impression that the number of sub-tenants and lodgers, although unduly large three years ago, had grown greater. This is not a proven fact but only an impression. Even if it is incor- rect and the overcrowding has not actually increased, the basic evil still remains, for previous chapters have shown that the number of inhabitants per acre was too large in 1905. If the problem is not growing, it is certainly large and grave. There is a “house famine” and no adequate efforts are being made to assure the erection of a sufficient number of small dwellings. The earnest and beneficent work of the “Sanitary Housing Company”, a four-per-cent philanthropy, is crippled for lack of funds. Worse ConpDITIONS THREATENED ‘The present lack of housing accommodations will probably in- crease until the community is persuaded to adopt remedial measures. That there is danger of a greater scarcity of houses in comparison with the number of people needing shelter is suggested by the follow- ing considerations: First; the natural increase in the city’s population will make necessary an increased supply of dwellings, and few houses of the less expensive grades are being built. Second; the desired conversion of alleys into minor streets will drive a number of families from the cheap houses which they now occupy. In some places, for example, an alley inhabited by colored people will be changed into a minor street where only white families will be accommodated. In other cases, land values will be increased by the opening of the alley; more costly houses will be erected and the supply of places available at low rentals will be diminished. Third; the proposed effort for the limitation or suppression of large tenements will emphasize the need for smaller dwelling places and, indeed, the only way to surely pre- vent the erection of tenement houses is by supplying an adequate number of one and two-family buildings. If the supply of proper dwellings thus proves inadequate, there must always follow, necessarily, the evils due to overcrowding. Among The Need for Statesmanship 269 them are lack of privacy; absence of proper sleeping accommodations for persons of different sexes; and increased difficulty in assuring cleanliness, decency and adequate supplies of fresh air. These fea- tures of the housing problem affect the poorer classes especially, but more fortunate people are feeling, with increasing keenness, the heavy pressure of the cost of living and the difficulty of securing good housing accommodations at rates appropriate to their incomes. It has been said that the cause of popular liberty was assured when lack of freedom cramped the lives of the higher middle classes and spurred them to revolt. In some ways the housing problem is becoming more and more a question, not merely of charitable control on behalf of the “poor’’, but of self defense for the entire community. Are there adequate forces yet at work in America to prevent the repetition here of the experiences of English and German cities which are now aroused to the fact that the house famine, with its attendant lack of proper living conditions, is resulting in such definite deterioration of citizenship as was exemplified in the dreadful experience of Man- chester, England, during the Boer-English war. Of 11,000 residents of Manchester who then sought enlistment in the British Army, 8,000 were at once rejected as below the standard; 2,000 were not deemed satisfactory for anything but the militia and only 1,000 were fit for service in the field. English writers generally interpret this experience as being due to bad housing and living conditions; and they cite other similar phenomena to emphasize the lesson. INDIVIDUALS ARE COMPARATIVELY HELPLESS It must be evident to every one who investigates housing prob- lems or considers them thoughtfully that the individual tenant has no adequate control over the situation. Persons who are exceptionally resourceful and intelligent may escape to the suburbs or may build beautiful homes on costly land, but the average man, especially among the poorer classes, must take what the landlords give him. If the sup- ply of houses were great enough so that tenants could exercise con- siderable choice, they might stimulate the owners of bad houses by leaving them unprofitably vacant. But usually there are few, if any, vacant houses and, apparently, the poorer and cheaper the accommoda- tions, the more certain they are to be eagerly occupied. Improvements cannot be effected through the automatic operations of the law of supply and demand when the supply is so inadequate that it is impos- 270 Neglected Neighbors sible to reject bad conditions. Among the more resourceful classes of society tenants may exert a greater influence upon landowners and builders because there is larger opportunity for the exercise of choice between various types of dwellings, and there is a clearer con- sciousness on the part of the tenants themselves as to the standards of life which should be maintained. Even the middle classes, how- ever, have comparatively little power of real initiative. They can only choose from a supply of houses all of which are fairly certain of occupation. In the poorer classes the helplessness of the tenant is obvious. In short, it is a fundamental general principle that, both as individuals and as groups or classes of individuals, average tenants can exercise little control over housing conditions. Wholesome and progressive standards can be effectively enforced only through proper control by the community as a whole. Tue ProsteMs ARE SOCIAL The very existence of housing problems is due to the fact that people are gathered together. It is the rapid growth of cities through- out the civilized world that has made people conscious of the housing problem and of its acuteness. The four dominant facts of the housing situation are: (1) rapid growth of population; (2) the requirement that groups of people shall live within easy reach of their work; (3) the necessity of providing centers for the education, recreation and social intercourse of various groups; and (4) the creation of land values and transportation charges by the mere presence of a number of people who must use building sites and street cars. All these are social facts. The point is that social control adequate to the social facts should be developed. It is only required that the community as a legal unit shall become conscious of its own inevitable influence in the situation and shall exert over the housing situation a conscious supervision commensurate with the social elements of the problem. It is not even necessary that any new principle be adopted, for it is a precedent already established that the law shall fix various limitations and define certain lines of activity for the builders and managers of dwellings. It is only necessary now to extend such methods of controi until they shall be adequate to the necessities of the people and to the character of the social situation which has developed. The Need for Statesmanship 271 A PHILANTHROPIC ORGANIZATION NEEDED Obviously, the whole question is fundamentally a problem of edu- cation. There is need for leadership, need for a group of people who will be the center of systematic, increasing efforts to develop the social consciousness that is essential. The “Associated Charities’ Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions”, which was temporarily dis- banded upon the creation of the “President’s Homes Commission”, Stricken with Paralysis After Years of Toil; Bending Over a Cold Stove in a Filthy Room; Hungry, Helpless, Neglected Within Three Blocks ‘of Dupont Circle. [Photo by Weller] should be reorganized after the Commission has completed its service, unless a new society would be preferable. The first essential for the proposed philanthropy is that its representatives should themselves have vision. They must know local needs and the remedial measures that are desirable and must be filled with the earnest enthusiasm con- ducive to leadership. A paid executive officer, with large powers of initiative, and an executive nucleus of citizens who are willing and 272 Neglected Neighbors able to take a statesmanlike, broad view of the situation are necessary. There are three tasks which such an organization should assume: (1) An educational campaign should be carried on continually, including publications, lectures, exhibitions, meetings and personal interviews with influential people. Needs must be studied, changes noted and appropriate suggestions from other cities obtained, and adapted to the local situation. It might be worth while to maintain three systems of card catalogues; one recording the conditions and changes in individual dwellings; another the specific plans or sugges- tions upon which the committee is working; and a third, the important facts of a general character with which the organization must concern itself. The society must be a center of information and suggestions. (2) Either a subcommittee or an affiliated organization should un- dertake to interest investors and real estate men in the building of small houses at low rentals. To this end, architects and builders should be enlisted to prepare detailed plans for specific neighborhoods or for selected plots of ground, showing how small dwellings may be erected at fair profit to their owners. Reference will be made in subsequent pages to the great need for the stimulation and guidance of private initiative. Although we appreciate its limitations, every possible effort should be made to bring about the erection by private builders of a sufficient number of satisfactory dwellings. (3) Another subcommittee or affiliated organization should un- dertake some such work as that of the “Octavia Hill Association’. originated in London and active in Philadelphia and other cities. The work of Miss Hill and her followers has been to purchase and under- take the management of low-priced houses, to improve their conditions and educate their tenants. Through local agents and through capable voluntary visitors, tenants who ‘have been content to live in unwhole- some conditions are gradually influenced to better habits of life. Meanwhile, repairs are made; the houses themselves are improved; rents are collected regularly; and the personal adjustments essential to co-operation between tenants and landlords are made by the tactful representatives of the Association. The work is made to yield a good percentage on the capital invested and it might properly be under- taken as a regular business philanthropy which could appeal to inves- tors and owners on the same basis as that of an ordinary real estate agent who manages rentable property for a specified, small percentage of the rents collected. Lhe Need for Statesmanship 273 WHERE THE TENANTS ARE AT FAULT This suggestion of work following the methods of the Octavia Hill Association leads naturally to the proposition that the solution of the housing problem requires progressive education of the tenants. Sanitary houses are often made insanitary by the ignorance and care- lessness of their occupants. In preceding pages the writer has fre- quently called attention to the fact that many families living unwhole- somely in the alleys, tenements, and shanties have sufficient earning power to command better quarters if they were spurred out of their lazy, ignorant contentment with what is insanitary and debasing. People who have been educated to appreciate and observe proper standards of life are able to make attractive homes even in unfavorable surroundings. Therefore, while promoting the erection of houses, the community must also train people to make good use of them. So important is this matter of the education of home makers that it must surely command in time the adequate consideration of those who shape our educational institutions. Precedents abound; it will only require the co-ordination and extension of accepted methods to develop in the public schools a system of specific training in the vital art of home making. Already there is instruction in cooking and sewing. The schools have taught the effect and danger of intoxicants. They have afforded physical exercise under trained directors. It is only a step from this to instruction in practical hygiene, including some in- formation as to what conditions of plumbing, what bathing facilities and practices, what ventilation, what absence of overcrowding and what outdoor activities are necessary to physical well being in the home. Instruction concerning alcoholic liquors is not more necessary than the frank, specific training of young people concerning the laws of their sexual natures,—a subject which must be mentioned here because it probably has more to do than any other with the degrada- tion or upbuilding of home life, especially among the classes of people with whom this study is principally concerned. Future home makers should also be taught that good workmanship and reliability are essen- tial in those who must earn the money to maintain good homes. Edu- cation in these lines has an immediate, close relationship to the main- tenance of wholesome housing and living conditions. Text books or leaflets might be prepared to aid teachers in presenting, perhaps in story form, the typical situations or moral problems involved. For example, the pupils might be led, under a teacher’s guidance, to dis- 18 244 Neglected Neighbors cuss the proper relation of tenant to landlord, to the neighbors, to the health department and to the various organic forces of the com- munity. The philanthropic organization proposed in preceding para- graphs might well experiment with various means of popular instruc- tion until the value of the best methods has been sufficiently demonstrated to justify their adoption by the public schools. INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE AND INFORMATION Closely related to the education of tenants is the inspection of dwellings with a view to assuring their maintenance in good condi- tion. Through the Health Department, the Building Inspector’s Office, the Plumbing Inspector and the Board for Condemnation of Insani- tary Buildings, precedents have been abundantly established in Wash- ington for the systematic examination and supervision of all houses by public authorities. By a law passed in 1906, the practice of com- pelling the repair or removal of dwellings deemed unfit for human habitation was also established. It only remains to define in a pro- gressive spirit what makes a house unfit for human habitation and to provide such methods of inspection as will assure conformity to the adopted standards. At present the force of inspectors is so insufficient that little is done beyond the mere investigation of definite complaints. Any one who will select an alley at random or a collection of cheap houses and will make, at any time, an inquiry as to whether their roofs leak, their toilets are in usable condition, their hydrants workable. their backyards free from filth or rubbish, and the rooms themselves in a fair state of repair and cleanliness, will be surprised at the large number of cases in which conditions are insanitary and yet remediable by existing laws. It would surely have a strong influence for better standards of living if the community, through frequent house-to-house inspection, gave evidence to all tenants that their living conditions are a matter of public concern and that there is a fixed determination to insist upon the observance of fundamental laws of hygiene. Such inspection, if carried on with tact and kindliness, would enlist the cordial co-operation of the householders themselves. It would become a constant educational force of great value. In some European cities a card catalogue is maintained showing how many houses and how many rooms are available; of what types; at what rents; how many houses are vacant; how many overcrowded and what are the characteristics of each of the dwellings. Such in- The Need for Statesmanship 275 formation is like the invoice taken yearly by business firms to enable them to understand the conditions of their business and the directions in which increased activities are needful. In some German cities such a census has, very sensibly, been made the primary basis for the whole housing campaign. In some, the government maintains an up-to-date record of all vacant houses, their specific accommodations, their rentals and other information, so that families in search of quarters can get their information from the public record. Similarly, in at least one English city, the authorities, when condemning an insanitary house, undertake, if desired, to find new living rooms for the residents ejected. Whether the people of Washington will ever care to go quite so far as this or not, all persons will doubtless agree that progress in the control and improvement of housing and living conditions will always be necessarily in close proportion to the character and extent of the information collected regarding existing conditions, needs and possibilities. More Inspectors NEEDED For the frequent inspections that are necessary, the principal requisite is an adequate force of inspectors. For many years the Health Officer and the Inspector of Buildings who,—together with the Street Cleaning Department and the Department of Plumbing, the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings, and the Police Department,—control the different features of the housing situa- tion, have pleaded earnestly for a larger corps of paid workers. Some of these officials have also frankly complained that there is “too much politics” in the appointment of inspectors. They ‘have taken the wholly justifiable position that the head of a department, who is held responsible for its efficiency, should not be compelled to select or retain assistants on any ground but merit. Both these defects—namely in quantity and quality,—may prevail in some other American cities more than here. But surely the citizens of Washington should demand and Congress should supply an adequate number of paid inspectors to be employed under conditions which will assure the best services obtain- able. It is possible that the police force can also be developed into greater usefulness in these lines. This might involve a departure from the old, military conception of the police as a kind of local militia. Instead they may be regarded in the same light as the teachers, elec- tricians, health office inspectors, or other public servants engaged for 276 Neglected Neighbors positive and constructive, rather than negative and repressive service. This view is prevailing more and more in European cities where, instead of the police being maintained merely as an armed force for the suppression of violence, crime, and disorder, its representatives serve largely as the inspectors and supervisors of various social activi- ties. In no American city probably is the police force better manned and managed than in Washington, but it might be well, throughout the country, to modernize this great agency and use it, not so much to arrest offenders as to prevent offenses——by constructive social service Special details of police are already proving useful to the health de- partments, the children’s aid societies, the playgrounds and other public agencies in various cities. Kain a EE ae A Typical Alley Loafer Needing Instruction, Stimulus and Opportunity. [Photo by Weller] CHAPTER III FOR A LARGER CIVIC LIFE VOLUNTEER INspEcTorS. BurLpiInc Laws. LicuHt AND VENTILATION. ImMicRATION. INDUSTRIES AND THE BLIGHTING oF YOUTH. GOVERNMENT LOANS. Supplemental to an adequate paid force, the system of unpaid inspectors, which has been extensively and successfully developed in German cities, might well be tried here. There seems to be no valid argument against it. In Elberfeld, Hamburg and other German cities what is generally known as “the Elberfeld system’ has been success- fully used in charitable work for many years. Citizens are appointed to act as almoners and friendly counsellors, each to a small group of needy families. This service is so clearly recognized to be an essen- tial part of citizenship that the man who refuses appointment would be punished by law. No one does refuse, however, for the work is regarded as a privilege and an honor. The same system of compul- sory, unpaid service is applied, in a number of German communities, to the systematic inspection of housing conditions. For example, in Hamburg, “the town is divided into nine large districts and the work of inspection is done by nine superintendents of districts and 162 in- spectors. All the superintendents and inspectors are unpaid. Like the helpers of the poor who work in connection with the Elberfeld system they would be fined if they did not accept the office to which they are elected.” Stuttgart, which in 1900 only had 181,463 inhab- itants, “introduced, in 1902, the system of continuous inspection of all small houses and of the rooms in larger houses which are occupied by apprentices and servants. The town is divided into 120 districts with an unpaid visitor in each. These visitors are aided by a staff of com- petent paid officials”. Twelve years’ experience in the enlistment of volunteers for ardu- ous, delicate charitable work with needy families, convinces the writer that it is not some exceptional submissiveness or lack of democratic spirit among the Germans that has made these volunteer visitors ac- (277) 278 Neglected Neighbors ceptable. There is no intrinsic reason why the volunteer should not be as tactful and appreciative as the paid official. In some cases the unpaid worker is less case-hardened, more hopeful and better able to bring new plans and resources to bear upon a situation which the weary paid worker has decided to be hopeless. We have already learned in America, in the various state Boards of Charities and in similar positions of public responsibility, that men of large reputation can often be persuaded to give, without compensation, an amount and quality of service which could not be commanded by any wages which the states would pay. But we are only beginning to learn the value and availability of volunteer service. Not the least of its benefits is the effect which it has upon paid officials, whom it prevents from be- coming formal and unresponsive. In Washington especially, leading citizens have shown a cheerful readiness to accept appointments to various lines of public work to which they are officially called by the District Commissioners or the President. Some of the best public service rendered in the National Capital has been given by citizens of large ability and high standing who would not have been willing to accept paid employment under the government. There need be no doubt that the District Commissioners could readily select a corps of tactful, wise, willing workers who would undertake to give two or three hours’ time each week to in- specting, in friendly spirit, a specific territory or an assigned list of houses. Naturally, these volunteers would need to be trained and instructed in advance and carefully guided in the various details of their work. They should be enlisted for terms of service of sufficient length to assure their becoming competent and to justify their careful training by the professional workers in charge of this service. If there is doubt as to whether volunteers should be enlisted directly by public officials, they might be made available through the philan- thropic organization suggested in preceding paragraphs. In similar fashion volunteers for the playgrounds or for organized charity work have been enlisted and trained through, respectively, the Playgrounds Association and the Associated Charities. The Washington Play- grounds Association, for example, has no legal authority whatever but the unpaid workers of which it is composed, together with the paid agents whom they employ, are used as a medium through which the District Commissioners inaugurate and control various features of the public playgrounds work. For a Larger Civic Life 279 A MunicipaL Housine DEPARTMENT The housing problem is so extensive, of such profound and in- creasing importance, and so involved with other social questions, that it would be well to establish a special city department under some such title as “The Bureau of Housing and Living Conditions,” or, as Mr. James B. Reynolds suggested, “The Department of Housing and Dying Consumptive in a Tenement Room Entirely Below the Street Level and Entered Through a Trap-Door in the Sidewalk. The Tenement Needs Inspection; the Consumptive, Instruction and Assistance. [Photo by Hine] Labor.” The activities of various other departments which have im- mediate relations to it should be co-ordinated through the new bureau. This would do away with a good deal of “lost motion’”’ due to the fact that several departments, whose exact limitations are never clear to the public, must be called to decide about the leaking roof, the back yard littered with ashes, the crumbling walls and the insanitary toilet of a little alley house. Excluding the police force, there are five depart- 280 Neglected Neighbors ments which may be required to lend a hand in dealing with one unsat- isfactory dwelling. The proposed “Housing Department” should command the serv- ices of a well-paid expert who should be a man of vision and of such powers of leadership as to assure the increasing enlistment of interest among the people and the adoption from time to time of new activities and new methods which will surely be found desirable as the commu- nity comes to consciousness in these lines. One reason why German cities are making rapid progress in their housing policies is found in the fact that competent experts, engaged for long terms of service, at generous compensation, are vested with definite, adequate responsi- bility for housing reform. BuILDING REGULATIONS It is a well-established principle in practically all civilized com- munities that certain laws and regulations shall be laid down to govern the construction and maintenance of all buildings. The building code of Washington, like that of other cities, fills a small, thick, hand book with detailed specifications as to thickness of walls, amount of vacant space required on each building lot, size of windows in proportion to the floor area of the rooms which they are supposed to ventilate, the height of buildings and the character of various materials from which they may be constructed. It is in these building regulations that the people recognize and record from time to time the rising standards of the community and the general consensus of opinion as to what is essential for the safety and wholesomeness of dwelling houses. Thus it is natural and necessary that the building regulations of any city shall be enlarged and strengthened as public opinion develops. Among the very important principles which should be considered in the needed improvement of existing building regulations in Washington, the fol- lowing may be mentioned here: First; As there are no confining rivers or other natural bound- aries and no large, centralized industries to compel the concentration of a large population upon a small area, there are no reasons why Washington need develop tenements instead of one-family or two- family houses, which are obviously much more desirable. Therefore, building regulations should in every way favor the erection of small houses. For them, thinner walls, fewer provisions against fire, and even a smaller proportion of vacant space upon the building lot need For a Larger Civic Life 281 be required. On the other hand, for houses which are to accommodate three families or more, restrictions should be more exacting and should rapidly increase in severity in proportion to the number of occupants. Second; As there should be different building regulations for the various classes of houses, there should also be different regulations for the various sections of the city. Obviously, it may be unavoid- able to permit in the center of a city or in the vicinity of certain large industrial establishments, greater density of population than is necessary in the suburbs. In older portions of the city or on streets where business centers, it will hardly be possible to leave vacant such a large proportion of the individual building lot as should be required in outlying sections. Similarly, the height of buildings, number of stories, the number of families to be accommodated, provisions against fire, and the style of architecture permitted, should all differ in different portions of the community. Such measures would prevent the repetition here of the unfortunate experience in many English and American cities where “objectionable slums” which formed naturally in the more ancient, central sections of the city have been allowed to develop unnecessarily in the new, outlying sections. The German “Town Planning” method, which these considerations suggest, will be more fully explained in the following chapter. Deep, Narrow Buitpinc Lots a Basic Evit Third; So much depends upon the depth of the building lot as compared with its width that building regulations should vary some- what in proportion to the increasing narrowness of the building area as compared with its depth. Since all the light and ventilation for the building erected upon a given lot must be brought in from either the front or rear of the lot or the top of the dwelling, it is obvious that if the lot be very deep and very narrow, rooms constructed in the center of the lot will be correspondingly far removed from the sources of light and air. The general impression formed by a casual visitor to French, German and other European cities is that the typical build- ing lot is almost square, at least it is broad in proportion to its depth. In Washington, as originally planned, the building areas were of gen- erous width in proportion to their depth, but as the property increased in value, these broad sites were cut up into building lots whose front- age is only 25 feet or even less, while the depth remains from 125 to 150, 160 or 170 feet. In New York city the typical building lot meas- 282 Neglected Neighbors ures 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep and the building regulations require that 30 per cent of this lot shall be left vacant, except in the case of corner lots where a third side is exposed to light and air. If 30 per cent of vacant space is deemed essential for a lot whose depth is four times as great as its width, then more than 30 per cent should be required for a building site whose depth is five times as great as its width. It should be possible to work out a sliding scale which would assure on vacant lots of various dimensions a proportion of vacant space sufficient for light and ventilation. It is also desirable and permissible for the community to make such requirements as to air-shafts, courts, and yards that the builders of tenements or apartment houses will be led to combine two or more of Washington's narrow lots into a build- ing unit broad enough to permit arrangements for the proper ventila- tion of all the rooms. Fourth; In proportion as the housing problems and possibilities of the community are understood, it becomes evident that the building regulations must be planned according to principle and worked out to fit local conditions, instead of being copied blindly from other locali- ties or determined upon merely as a compromise between the radicals and the conservatives. In the building regulations of the National Capital it is evident that the two latter methods have often been employed. This may have been inevitable in earlier days but there has now been sufficient experience in various cities and sufficient elucida- tion of the principles of hygiene to make it possible for the building regulations of a city to be worked out by experts according to natural laws and local needs. Not Onty Quantity But CHANGE oF Arr Is NEEDED Fifth; It has been well said by Professor Muirhead that, “The problem of the last generation was to provide gas and water; the problem of the next is to provide light and air.” Through the crusade for the prevention of tuberculosis, the public is becoming acquainted with the fact that outdoor fresh air is the prime essential for good health. If every one could sleep out of doors in a good atmosphere it is probable that a large share of all our health problems would dis- appear. Evidently the chief requisite for a good house, therefore, is the assurance of atmospheric conditions approaching as nearly as pos- sible the benefits of outdoor life. To this end it is already the practice in many cities to require that in every living room there shall be an For a Larger Civic Lije 283 allowance of from 500 to 1,000 cubic feet of air space for each adult and half that amount for every child under ten years old. Although less than 600 cubic feet of air space is specified in some cities it would seem that 600 cubic feet of room, or a space measuring a little more than eight feet in each of the three dimensions, should be a small enough minimum for the living quarters of a free citizen. In addi- tion, it is most important to work out in the future, what has not yet been taken up in other cities, a provision for the regular circulation of air and for systematic supplies of fresh air. It is stated that “An adult will render 1,000 cubic feet of air impure in twenty minutes by adding two feet of carbonic acid to each 1,000”. It is evident, then, that at least 1,000 cubic feet of fresh air for each occupant should flow into each room every twenty minutes. Sir Douglas Galton has put the minimum at 1,000 cubic feet per person per hour. Other authorities require as much as 1,800 cubic feet per person per hour. It is a matter of familiar experience, in theaters and other places of assembly, that there needs to be required the regular injection into such places of an adequate number of cubic feet of fresh air for each person whom the place accommodates. In the homes of poor people, ignorance often complicates conditions; large families crowd together in small quarters with every window closed tightly and a lamp burning all night for protection against imaginary dangers. It would be well, and it should not be impossible, to specify in the building laws that every room shall be provided with means of automatic ventilation pro- portionate to the capacity of the room. It would be desirable to pro- vide, if possible, that these openings for ventilation shall be distributed about the room and, so far as possible, concealed, in order to make it difficult for the occupants to close them. The open fireplaces preva- lent in England provide in this way for the constant circulation of the air in rooms where they are located. DIVERSIFIED INDUSTRIES AND THE PRESENT WASTE OF Boys The principle that building laws should be different for various sections of the city leads to the suggestion, already carried out in Europe, that certain localities might well be set aside for factories. The steel plant recently established at Giesboro Point, D. C., illustrates the idea that industrial establishments might profitably be encouraged in selected areas where they could secure transportation facilities and appropriate employees and where they would cause no annoyance. A 284 Neglected Neighbors considerable group of Washingtonians have held that the National Capital should be preserved as only a residential city, a large ““govern- ment reservation”, to be kept free from the smoke and from the social problems which numerous factories might entail. In German cities such industries are confined to certain areas selected with regard to prevailing air currents so that the other quarters of the city are not troubled by smoke and bad odors. The factory sites are also planned in relationship to the housing problem, so that workmen may be assured wholesome houses within easy reach of the manufactories. In Washington the argument for the encouragement of diversified, extensive industries is strengthened greatly by the fact that more employment is urgently needed for the youth of the community. There is in the National Capital such constant waste of boys and young men as is simply stupendous in proportion to the population of the city. Although the writer came from a long residence in the river ward district of Chicago, he has always been especially impressed with the number of idle young fellows who loaf on the street corners in Wash- ington. The drink problem among young men and boys seems greater here than in Chicago in proportion to the population. It is awful to recall such lads as Archie Halsted, convicted as an “habitual drunkard” at the age of thirteen, and to know him as typical of a large number of young fellows whom the writer has seen speeding down the easy road from idleness to drinking, gambling, disorderly conduct, arrest for petty offenses and subsequent punishment for graver crimes. Other observers have borne out these impressions, that, in pro- portion to the size of Washington, there are few places where boys and young men drift in large numbers into lives of idleness, depravity and general uselessness. One evident reason for this grave social waste is lack of employment. It is not to be doubted that a greater diversity of industry would help to prevent this waste of boys, by increasing the number of attractive opportunities for useful labor. In submitting the foregoing observations and suggestions, the writer ‘has had only white people in mind. If these things are true e of them, they apply still more forcibly to the colored youth of Washington. ImMmicRATION Is DESIRABLE Immigration is also needed as a leaven in this community of native white people. The native-born population clearly tends to de- generate when left without stimulus from outside. This has been For a Larger Civic Life 285 observed even in New England, especially in rural towns whose small farms have been deserted and the most promising young people drawn away to western states or to the cities. One of the unanticipated but repeated observations of workers who come to Washington, or to some other southern communities, from a city like Chicago where a great deal of fresh material from Europe is constantly injected into the body public, is the fact that local communities of native whites, whose ancestors have had considerable opportunity in America and have Degenerate American Types in Washington. Many Ambitionless Native- Born Whites Afford Arguments for Immigration. [Photo by Weller] failed to make the most of it, are notably lacking in ambition and energy, in the consciousness of any need for improvement, and in high moral standards. Specifically, there appears to be a good deal of epilepsy developed as one concrete sign of degeneration in such a population. As a rule these people are good looking; they dress well; they are proud and self-satisfied. One often notes the fact, however, that a chance family of Italians, or of Germans, or of some other foreign nationality, stands out in notable contrast to the native com- 286 Neglected Neighbors munity. These suggestions need not be misunderstood. They contain no strictures upon the south or upon any other section but refer only to scattered, small communities or groups of people such, possibly, as southerners have themselves denominated “poor whites”. Whatever may be said about certain small classes of “undesirable immigrants”, it is a matter of growing conviction in the writer’s mind that an increase of immigration, rather than a diminution of it, is desirable especially in many southern communities where a new leaven is needed. The real problem regarding immigration is to direct it where it would be most useful and to afford sufficient appropriate attractions in those places to retain the immigrants; they have with- drawn from some southern communities which had taken pains to secure their importation. Despite the artificial stimulation of immi- gration by steamship companies and other interested agencies, it is still true that immigrants, even from what are called the less desirable sections of Europe, are people who come here because they know thev are down and want to get up. They are young and virile. In the very fact that there are differences between them and the older resi- dents, lie the forces which make for the differentiation, renewal and enlargement of life. In the characteristic ambition of these new citi- zens there is the stimulus which is needed by various communities of a somewhat sodden, native population whose ambitions have waned. Is Private INITIATIVE SUFFICIENT? It appears to have been a matter of universal experience in all the parts of Europe where social consciousness has sufficiently ad- vanced to comprehend the facts, that private initiative alone has been proven insufficient to assure the erection of a sufficient number of small houses. In a great many cities and towns, and in the German national government as a whole, the conclusion has been reached that the community must undertake, through its laws and officials, to stim- ulate the building of certain types of dwellings. Naturally, care must be taken to preserve and foster all the available forces of private initiative and competitive building. So far as the automatic law of supply and demand will do the work, it must not be impeded. Sug- gestions for the stimulation and guidance of private enterprise in these lines have been submitted here in the paragraphs dealing with the philanthropic organization proposed. It is not intended that city For a Larger Civic Life 287 governments shall rush blunderingly into the building of houses. All that is requisite is that the municipal authority shall undertake to keep in touch with the situation and, in so far as the needed houses are not obtainable in other ways, shall endeavor to bring about their con- struction by whatever means are found to be necessary. To begin with, there is a need for constant effort to show private builders the possibilities of profit in the construction of small dwellings and to promote the commercial building of such houses as the community knows to be needed. In many European cities special inducements are offered to individual builders, companies and co-operative organiza- tions which will construct houses of the kinds desired. These induce- ments consist of a remission or reduction of certain taxes or of public charges such as those for laying streets and sidewalks. GOVERNMENT LOANS FOR THE BUILDING OF SMALL HOUSES The principal assistance given to the builders of model dwellings in Germany and England is the granting of loans to building com- panies at low interest, from government funds or on government credit. By the specific direction and with the help of the national government, German cities and towns make generous loans for long terms at an interest rate of about three or three and one half per cent. In some cases a half per cent extra is charged for a sinking fund. Where the government does not advance the money itself, in Germany, it enables the building companies to secure capital at low rates by guaranteeing the credit of the company, or taking stock itself in the enterprise. It also gives without charge the valuable assistance of its expert officials. In order to qualify for such government help the individual or organization which plans to -build model houses must agree not to pay more than four per cent dividend to its stockholders and never to allow an investor to withdraw from the company more money than he put into it. All surplus earnings must go either to the reduction of rents or to the improvement of the property. Under these conditions business philanthropies are formed known as “public utility companies” and co-operative groups of working men are also organized to erect buildings for their own use. The loans granted are in generous proportion to the total value of the lands and build- ings. In England such loans are available at two and one half to three and one half per cent interest, for terms of thirty to sixty years. 288 Neglected Neighbors Strong arguments are advanced by English writers that the half per cent of interest usually turned over to a sinking fund should be omitted. The claim is that through such a sinking fund the tenants of the houses are really required to purchase their dwellings and give them free to the taxpayers, who should instead be willing to carry the property as a permanent investment inasmuch as it yields a fair return upon the capital involved. In the National Capital of the United States it would seem espe- cially appropriate that this well tried and beneficent method of stimu- lating the building of houses should be adopted. Safe-guarded in the ways suggested in the preceding paragraph, such an investment of government funds would be appropriate. When the entire commu- nity is so fundamentally affected by housing conditions, it is right that the government should do whatever it is necessary to do by public action for their improvement. For example, why should not Con- gress say to “The Sanitary Housing Company’’—which has demon- strated the wisdom and success of its methods, but has been crippled by persistent lack of funds,—‘‘Your charter already limits dividends to investors to four per cent. If you will add the further limitation that all surplus earnings beyond four per cent shall be converted into the improvement of the property instead of ever being allotted to stockholders, and if you will agree to accept such close supervision by competent public officials as will guarantee your appropriate man- agement of the work, then the government treasury will loan to you for 25 or 50 year periods at three per cent interest, money equal to 80 or go per cent of the selling value of your land plus the actual cost of your buildings.” Similar assistance should of course be offered to other responsible organizations which will agree to the same condi- tions. Laboring men themselves should be encouraged to form co- operative societies and build the houses which they need. In all cases, government supervision could assure the maintenance of the rational policy of making the rent charges sufficient to cover all costs for necessary management and repair, to offset any diminution in the value of the houses, and to meet the interest charges. If there were any objection to the granting of loans directly from the government funds, the government should use its credit. in a way to enable these semi-public companies to borrow money from private capitalists on the terms suggested here. It is not without an appreciation of the legal difficulties involved, the traditional prejudice in America against such government loans, and the fact that competent supervision For a Larger Civic Life 289 would have to be assured, that these suggestions are submitted. The thought is that they will demand attention in this country within, the next ten years. When statesmanlike leaders have once been interested in the proposition, they will find ways to overcome the difficulties and to realize the advantages that have accrued in European cities. “Causes of Distress.” Five Gin Bot- tles from a Dependent’s Home. [Photo by Weller] 19 CHAPTER IV FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES “Town PLANNING” AS PRACTICED IN GERMANY AND ELSEWHERE. “ZONES” oR Districts WitH DIFFERENT ReGuLatTions. A City’s ARTERIES AND VEINS. To Orrset THE EviILs oF SPECULATION In Lanp. TaAxaTION. What has been called “Town Planning” in Germany and Eng- land is not a new thing but simply an extension of the precedent estab- lished in all cities and towns where building regulations have been adopted. It is no longer a question as to whether a community shall plan and control the development of its housing and living conditions. The only question is “to what extent shall this established principle be applied?” Switzerland, Sweden and Germany are well advanced in the powers of control exercised by municipalities. Holland, Belgium, Italy and France have worked out in some directions progressive methods which would repay study. Germany, however, affords the best known example; she has developed the accepted principle of public supervision with greater detail and broader scope than else- where. So satisfactory has been the result, so simple and natural is the governing principle upon which German cities are acting, that it appeals immediately to every one who studies the housing problem with an open mind. Apparently every one who examines the example of Germany becomes an enthusiastic advocate of similar practices for his own community. Thus German methods are preached throughout Eng- land as the most promising suggestions for the solution of English problems. In America there has been recently an exhibition of facts pertinent to the congestion of population in New York and other cities. This exhibition was prepared by Benjamin C. Marsh under the auspices of a New York city committee. In connection with it, Mr. Marsh, assisted by Mr. J. P. Fox, has begun,—through pictures, printed matter and lectures,—to make known in America the essential features of “town planning” as successfully practiced in Europe. (291) 292 Neglected Neighbors Their work has been of assistance in preparing the following pages. Glowing inspiration, and detailed suggestions of great practical value have also been afforded by Mr. T. C. Horsfall’s book entitled; “The Improvement of the Dwellings and Surroundings of the People; the Example of Germany”. GERMAN “Town PLANNING” Already the cities of Europe are from ten to fifty years ahead of American cities in these matters. ‘Town Planning” is the new term for the effort which is being made by German and English cities, and to some extent in nearly all the countries of Europe, to guide and control the progressive development of housing and living conditions throughout the city itself and in such suburban regions as are needed, or will in the future be needed, to afford home or factory sites for the city’s population. The example of Cologne, Dusseldorf, Berlin, Stutt- gart, Hamburg, Mannheim, Ulm, Frankfort and other German cities and of such English “garden cities” as “Bournville”, “Garden City” and “Port Sunlight”, is being vigorously preached throughout Eng- land. The point is simply that in these municipalities the people, through their government, have accepted a large responsibility for the housing and living conditions of the community and are earnestly endeavoring to work out appropriate means of social control. THE System Has E1GHT FEATURES The eight essential features of “town planning” as exemplified in German cities will be considered in this and the following chapter. The First Essential of ‘‘Town Planning” First; The city authorities determine what types of buildings shall be allowed in the various districts of the city. Local peculiarities, both physical and social, and existing conditions, as well as probable future developments are considered. For instance, in determining upon the regions where factories will be permitted, the character of prevailing winds as well as the facilities for transportation are studied. The scheme for the city is worked out by the municipal authorities with the assistance of architects, engineers, builders and business men experienced in such civic undertakings. The general plan may be bes: Fundamental Principles 293 understood by detailing its characteristic features in one city. Cologne, for example, established in 1go1 the so-called “zone”, or district, build- ing system by which all the building sites in the city are divided into five classes. The first includes the crowded central section within the ancient fortifications. Here buildings may be four stories or 66 and % feet high and may occupy 75 per cent (in corner lots, 80 per cent) of their building sites. The second zone is farther removed from the center of the city and comprises the nearby suburbs of urban char- acter, as distinguished from the suburban areas lying at a greater distance. Here buildings are limited to a height of 3 stories or 52 and % feet; they must not occupy more than 65 per cent of their building lots if their height exceeds 26 feet; if less than that, they may cover 75 per cent of their sites. The third zone includes the outlying suburbs; its buildings may not be more than two stories or 38 feet high and may not occupy more than 50 per cent of their building areas, unless their height is less than 20 feet; in that case 65 per cent of the site may be built over. The fourth zone or district is for the “open” or “villa” mode of building. Geographically it lies principally be- tween the first and second zones. Its houses must not be more than two stories high, must not take up more than 4o per cent of their building lots, (in corner lots, 50 per cent) and each building must be at least 16 and 1% feet distant from the boundary of the adjoining sites and at least 33 feet from the next house. The Second Essential of “‘Town Planning” DETAILED BUILDING PLANS FoR NEw AREAS For the second feature of ‘““Town Planning”, Berlin may be taken as an example. Since 1862 all the building activities of the German Capital have been guided by the principle that, “in any new buildings or alterations to-old buildings nothing should be undertaken that would injure or endanger the common good.” The general scheme for city zones or districts is therefore brought down to detailed speci- fications for individual squares and building lots. The method by which many German cities undertake this differs somewhat in various communities but it may be sufficiently explained by reference to the practice in Berlin. When proposals for building upon undeveloped land are received, or when the Town Council believes the time has come for the development of a vacant area, a plan for the laying out of the land is formulated. The landowner may draw up a plan for 294 Neglected Netghbors consideration by the authorities, but as a matter of fact the munici- pality generally makes it. The landowner need not be consulted at all but if he offers suggestions they are received. If the Council makes no plan for the area in question, no dwelling houses can be Newly Added to the City’s Helpfu! Agencies; “The Infant’s and Children’s Dispensary” at ‘Neighborhood House”; a Social Life-Saving Station. [Photo by Hine] erected upon it. When the plan has been approved by the Council, City Parliament and Police, it is published for four weeks and any individual may offer objections, to be passed upon by a Magistrate, Next, the plan must be reviewed by the Minister of Public Works who considers further any objections rejected by the Magistrate. Finally Fundamental Principles 295 the plan must have the approval of the Kaiser, who takes an active interest in the development of housing conditions in Berlin, Char- lottenburg and Potsdam. After the plan is passed, all developments of the area must be in strict accordance with it unless the Council itself, with the approval of the various officials already named, shall choose to alter it. Only one ground for objection to such an extension plan is recognized namely, “that the plan has not been made to the best advantages of the community. No compensation is paid to an owner except when new streets interfere with actual buildings, in which case compensation is paid for the buildings destroyed. In many cases the amount of compensation is arrived at by agreement; failing that, it is settled by process of expropriation.” The attitude of landowners and builders is stated as follows, in the report of “The Housing Committee” sent by the Council of Bir- mingham to learn all the German lessons applicable in the English city: “It was pointed out that as a general rule the builders recognize the benefits they derive from the enforcement of an Extension Plan, which opens up the land to the best advantage for development”. In the various German cities there may be differences in detail but the essentials are the same and the favor with which this method is re- garded throughout the Fatherland is suggested by the fact that as early as 1875 there was enacted a general law governing the proce- dure in all parts of Prussia. In some cities the control over new building areas, and over the alterations and new buildings in old dis- tricts, extends to the details of style of architecture and of appropri- ateness to surrounding buildings and to the local characteristics of the region. Thus in Stuttgart buildings on the steep hillsides must be such as not to interfere with the view of the town from the hills. In Ulm, similarly, the stvle of buildings must not interfere with the pic- turesque old parts of the town and, ‘Wherever new buildings are erected, or alterations to present buildings are carried out, the work must be in harmony with adjacent buildings. The authorities also direct the arrangement and outside construction of the houses so far as the artistic effect is concerned.” If individual holdings of land in the area to be covered by the building plan are of such shape and location as to interfere with the best arrangement of street and build- ing sites, the private holdings may be surrendered to the municipality for reorganization and reallotment. This rearrangement of inappro- priate building lots may be by voluntary agreement on the part of their owners or obstinate obstructionists may be compelled to accede to the plan. 296 Neglected Netghbors The Third Essential of “Town Planning” Streets PLANNED ACCORDING To THEIR USES The third essential feature of German “Town Planning”, and one of its most important features, is the careful working out in advance of a system of streets, local parks, promenades, playgrounds and open spaces. Streets intended only for modest residences are narrowed in order to reduce the cost and rentals of the residences facing upon them. The German and English practice is to consider the streets a part of the local building sites which adjoin them and to make these landowners pay for the construction of their roadways. For through traffic and for street car lines, wider streets are planned and “‘the municipality pays the cost of anything beyond 85 feet wide.” These broad, radial arteries for traffic from other sections of town are connected by park-like, wide avenues which encircle the city. It is rightly considered that these broad streets with their promenades and car lines, running around the town at appropriate distances from each other, are a valuable convenience for traffic, business and social inter- course. Throughout German cities shaded footpaths, grassy prome- nades in the center of wide streets, and front gardens before the houses in the minor streets are characteristic. Where a roadway is made narrow in order to reduce the cost of its abutting property, there is a garden of generous depth (at least 16 feet in Dusseldorf) in front of every residence. These make easily possible the subsequent widening of the roadway if necessary. That even the narrow streets are not too narrow is suggested by the injunction given in the directions for “The Preparation and Execution of Official Building Plans”, that, “Streets must not be made narrower than the height of the buildings on either side.” According to these instructions; “Streets in the small-house districts must be made as cheaply as possible, carriageways five and one half to eight yards wide, footpaths about three yards wide.” In England where established “bye laws” require that all new roadways shall be wide, regardless of their prospective uses, this inelastic provision is found to be one of the chief obstacles to the building of houses rentable at low rates. For example, Mr. Nettlefold shows that according to the “town planning” method of narrow drive- ways for streets that are little used, it is possible to provide front gardens, double rows of trees and grass plots, with a 16 foot roadway, making a total distance of 72 feet between opposite houses, at smaller cost than a similar open space of only 50 feet can be established with Fundamental Principles 297 the 36 foot roadway required by the English “bye laws”. He says, in summarizing the essentials of a “town planning” system for Eng- land; ‘In those streets where traffic is light, and a sufficient distance is maintained between the opposite lines of houses, narrow and inex- pensive roadways or drives are allowed in order to keep down the cost of estate development which in modern English suburbs is responsible for at least one shilling per week on a house rental of six shillings six- pence.” This striking statement that the cost of constructing and main- taining an unnecessarily wide roadbed is responsible for almost one sixth of the rent of an abutting residence, compels attention. How tHe City’s ARTERIES AND VEINS ARE PLANNED As an example of the systematic planning of roadways and open spaces the method of Dusseldorf, Germany, may be reviewed. Her “streets are classified as (1) housing streets; (2) streets with moderate traffic; (3) streets with a great deal of traffic, due to their being main arteries.” “(1) For streets which only serve the purpose of dwelling houses a width of about sixteen feet is allowed for the horse road, sufficing for the easy passage abreast of two vehicles. If the width of the two footpaths together be made equal to the width of the horse road, there is a total width of about 32 feet for street and footpaths. So that, counting the 16 feet of garden on each side, there is a distance of about 64 feet between the house fronts. In those quarters of the town where no high building plans apply, only houses of two stories high will be allowed, so as to prevent the erection of high buildings.” “(2) The streets with only a moderate amount of traffic have a width of 49 feet, of which half is given to the two footpaths and half to the horse road.” “(3) Streets with a large amount of traffic have a width of at least 64 feet, 32 feet for the horse road, and 16 feet for each of the footpaths.” BRINGING Rich AND Poor ToGETHER In suggesting “town planning” for England, Mr. Nettlefold out- lines the system thus: “The future town is divided into districts and these districts are graded. High buildings close to each other are allowed in the center and on the main arteries. In residential districts buildings must be lower and more dispersed the farther they are from 298 Neglected Neighbors the center of the city or from its main arteries”, This systematic differentiation of the streets of a given neighborhood facilitates the bringing of rich and poor into residence within a few squares of each other. Indeed the modern practice by which resourceful people move into distinct sections far away from the neighborhood where they are needed as a leaven, is being consciously combatted in Germany, and with some success. This essential of democracy, a differentiated com-~ munity, may be promoted by conscious “town planning”. “In the great majority of German towns, owing to the intermixture of the homes of the rich and poor, and the resulting pleasantness of the streets, there are no parts where a workman of steady habits, who earns enough to enable him to obtain a dwelling large enough for himself and his family and to supply them and himself with enough food and cloth- ing, cannot live a full and healthy life.” The English comment upon this statement is that, “no improvement in the housing conditions of our town population can have a very large effect in raising the level of civilization and welfare, unless it is accompanied by successful efforts to intermix the dwellings of rich and poor.” The Fourth Essential of “Town Planning” Parks, PLAYGROUNDS AND PROMENADES In Germany the provision of playgrounds, parks, garden spaces and other open land sites reserved for the benefit of all the people is con- sidered quite as essential as the mapping out of roadways and side- walks. This is the fourth essential of the system. In the set of sug- gestions for “The Preparation of Official Building Plans”, it is stated that, “The following are the principal things to provide for ;—(r1) “Public streets, squares and footpaths; (2) Railways; (3) Public buildings; (4) Private buildings; (5) Public parks; (6) Forests; (7) Open spaces; (8) Public sheets of water.” Artistic considera- tions are not ignored; minor streets are frequently planned in graceful curved lines instead of ugly straight rows and angles. The modern playgrounds movement received its chief initial impetus from Ger- many, where proficiency in certain games and exercises is deemed quite as essential for graduation from school as the mastery of older features of the curricula. Any one who has seen the shady walks and forest-like patches of trees and shrubbery to be found in German cities or has seen the children enjoying the pretty playgrounds or starting with their teachers for a day of nature study in the woods, will appre- Fundamental Principles 299 ciate the fact that Germany is in advance of America in the art of living. Just as the maintenance and growth of cities is assured, it is also inevitable that other countries must adopt somewhat of the Ger- man point of view in these matters and must learn to provide the essentials of wholesome living conditions for their people. The Fifth Essential of ‘‘Town Planning’’ A Civic Lanp Poticy No one can go far in the study of housing and living conditions without being continually reminded of the fact that land is at the base of all these problems. This is especially clear.in cities with their natural congestion of population. Modern municipalities have devel- oped with almost equal rapidity in all parts of the civilized world. They have “come to stay”. No one hopes any longer that their hordes can be redistributed. Efforts now must be concentrated on making the city a fit place in which to develop the citizenship of the future. Consciousness of these facts and consequent effort to develop an adequate policy for the control of the city land is the fifth and possibly the most fundamental feature of German “town planning”. It is the one upon which discussion now centers in Germany, England ‘and other European countries. There are prospects of greater and faster growth in this than in any other feature of the movement toward adequate community control. If a real estate dealer is asked why the suburbs of Washington are being crowded in many places by ugly rows of stereotyped houses with no vacant spaces between them, he explains that people are not able to invest enough money for the purchase of larger parcels of land. Obviously this means that somebody,—possibly the man who con- trolled the subdivision of original farm areas into city lots,—has been allowed a large profit. For land values are not made by human labor, as boots and coats are. Instead, “They are created by the con- gregation of people in a given territory. They are essentially the product of the presence of society. If population wanes in a town. land values inevitably decline.” They are based upon the special privilege of excluding other people from the land until they are will- ing to pay a profit to its holder. It is because these private profits are large that many home makers cannot afford land enough to assure the proper ventilation of their houses. Inspection of the suburban plat books in a real estate office will show many areas around Washington 300 Neglected Neighbors where large sections of wild woods or open country are interspersed between suburban areas that have been subdivided into little lots. In some cases we find, close beside a beautiful Eden from which the people are excluded, suburban lots squeezed down to a width of only thirty feet. This repeats in God’s open country, the unwholesome, narrow, deep building lots which are responsible for a large share of the housing problems in the center of the city. This juxtaposition of / { J WW Unwholesome Building Lots Only 30 Feet Wide Are Tolerated in the Midst of Wild Forest Land and Open Country Which is Held, Under Low Tax Rates, for the Community to Make it Valuable. [Copied from Plat Book] native forest land and crowded, artificial subdivisions, makes the methods of the creation of excessive land values absolutely clear. The speculator has simply to hold his vacant land until the widening and increasing pressure of the population spreading out from the center of the city makes the use of his land so necessary that he can exact his own high prices; thus he can often force tenants to accept building lots of unfavorable character and dimensions. The settled and Fundamental Principles 301 proper respect which all Americans have for private property and for the protection of every citizen in the enjoyment of the products of his labor, does not entail any veneration for the protection of private land values which the holder has done nothing to create. Without sub- scribing to the “Single Tax” theory or any other general philosophy, it must be obvious to every one that land values in a city are mainly created by society itself. It is inevitable that society will grow more and more to demand for all the people an increasing share of these values which the people have produced. A Bap Lanp Poticy 1s THE GRavest Civic Evin If we had eyes to see and imaginations to visualize the ultimate effects of speculative land values we should understand that the indi- vidual who is allowed to enjoy an excessive private profit is virtually permitted to monopolize somewhat the light and air which are sup- posed to be free. Excessive land values mean that little children and comparatively resourceless families shall be unable to have about their dwellings the land spaces essential to proper light and ventilation. The Rooseveltian policy of controlling railroads and other public utility corporations will undoubtedly be extended in time to the control of speculative land values which cause more injury to the people than any other form of the unlimited private ownership of public necessities. Already we find that some European cities have established in regard to their land a system of supervision which is based upon such prin- ciples, for example, as sustain “The Interstate Commerce Commis- sion” of the United States through which the people exercise a similar control or supervision over the railroads. Nort INDIVIDUALS, BUT THE SYSTEM IS AT FAULT These paragraphs are not intended as a criticism of individual landowners or dealers but only of the present system under which their actions are quite natural and permissible. Private land controi is not a monopoly in the sense that competition is eliminated, for there are many real estate dealers and many plots of ground which compete with each other. In some features of the real estate business it is probable that private profits are not larger than in other branches of commerce. Large profits in land operations often involve great ex- penses and much risk. While the crowded condition of many suburban 302 Neglected Neighbors areas has been justly criticised in these pages, the fact should also be recognized that, with all their disavantages, these houses are a benefit, for without them the existing “house famine” would be even greater than it is. Altogether, the whole question is perplexing. There are many conflicting considerations which should not be ignored. But what has been suggested here concerning the prevailing land policy is surely pertinent. And what has been done toward the development of a better land policy in Germany has clearly been conservative, sound, and just to all concerned. To Orrset SPECULATION IN City LAND European cities are beginning to recognize the principle that, “evils which prevail so much at present (in housing conditions) have for their chief source an unhealthy speculation in land”. Another authority says; “Unless communities have a sound policy respecting land they cannot have an effective policy respecting dwellings’ It is also said that, “a dwelling house policy is essentially a land policy.” In carrying out these ideas there are three methods which are principally used in German cities. In the first place; the “town planning” policy limits the use to which each individual building lot can be put. That is to say, in cer- tain sections of the city no builder can cover more than one half of his building site and he cannot erect a building of more than three or, in some cases, more than two stories. The provisions against overcrowding limit strictly the number’of families or individuals who can be accommodated in this building. So it is argued by some Euro- pean economists that in limiting the number of people who can be crowded upon a building lot, they have limited the selling value of the land. In the second place; the rational principle that land should be taxed upon its selling value rather than upon a smaller proportion of its real worth is recognized in law. In some communities, the increase in land values is also taxed according to a rising scale proportionate to the rapidity and the amount of the increase. More and more ade- quately there is being put into effect the rational doctrine that speculators in land should not be allowed to enjoy such advantages as they have in Washington where idle land, which is held only to gain private profits from the social values created by a growing commu- nity, is taxed on a valuation far below its selling price. For example, Fundamental Principles 303 in searching recently for suburban land to be purchased for playground sites, the Washington Playgrounds Association found that the price asked was four or five times the assessor’s valuation upon which taxes are based. Meanwhile, according to the general impression, the modest dwelling house is taxed upon a much larger proportion of its real value. The injustice and the social unwisdom of thus giving advantage and encouragement to the holders of vacant land, rather than to him who makes it beneficial to the community by erecting a residence upon it, is appreciated in Germany. Land is the principal base of the whole housing problem. Land is not made by labor. There is nothing in the nature of an unimproved piece of ground to indicate that it should belong to one man rather than to another or to the state. Private possession of it has simply been considered the method by which the ultimate good of the whole community is best assured. Dwellings, unlike their building sites, are the products of human toil. The community should interfere as little as may be with their full enjoyment by the man who made them. It is land, then, rather than the houses built upon it, which should bear the heaviest burden of taxation. If vacant land is treated on this principle, if it is taxed upon its full selling value, there will be less vacant land and more houses. For it will be more profitable to erect rentable build- ings on the land than to merely hold it for a speculative rise in value. In other words, in its treatment of unoccupied ground, the com- munity should collect, through taxation, a larger share of the rising values which it is itself creating. Child Labor, CHAPTER V RISING SOCIAL STANDARDS MunicipAL OWNERSHIP. BumILDING Sites. Street RAILWAY Evits. BurrtaL anp AccIDENT INSURANCE. ReEFormMs NEEDED In LocaL GOVERNMENT. PopuLaR SUFFRAGE. MOobDEL CITIES. The third method by which unwholesome land speculation is pre- vented, in German cities especially, is by the definite encouragement throughout all Germany of the principle that municipalities themselves should purchase as much land as possible and should use it in ways to promote the building of wholesome houses. The extent to which this policy has been carried is suggested by the fact that in one German town, Ulm, the city owns 80 per cent of all the lands within the city boundaries. Yet so rational is the system by which Ulm has developed her model houses and the growing factory districts characteristic of a prosperous commercial center, that her tax rates “are no higher than they were 20 years ago.” Ulm has a population of 51,680 people and “the town owns 63 and 4 square yards of land per head of the popu- lation. The land bought by the town during the last fifteen years lies chiefly within the inner fortification wall, partly outside it but at a very short distance, therefore within that region in which the exten- sion during the next ten years must take place.” To show the rapidity with which this land policy is developing in Europe and to indicate how it appeals to the English people, whose point of view is naturally similar to our own, the following quotation is given from the useful “Housing Handbook” by W. Thompson; “For some years many German towns have adopted the policy of steadily buying as much land as possible on their outskirts whenever opportunity has occurred to get it at a reasonable price. The success of this policy has been so marked that in 1902 the Prussian Government issued a rescript to the provincial governors to use all their influence to induce all Prussian towns to buy as much land as they could obtain and to retain posses- sion of all they then held and should afterwards acquire. It is inter- esting to note (Soziale Praxis 25, Dec. 1902) that apart from the 20 (305) 306 Neglected Neighbors influence of this rescript, the area of land held by 31 large towns in Germany varied from 10 to 365 square yards per head of population. Only 7 of the 31 have less than 24 square yards per head, six from 24 to 60, nine from 60 to 120 (including Berlin, 85) ; five have from 120 to 240, and four have more than 240 square yards per head. Nearly all are actively increasing their holdings. Since 1890, Berlin has added 21.52 yards per head to its communal holding, while the other towns have increased their holdings by from 254 to 1,269 per cent.” It is also stated that, “Most Hungarian towns are in the fortunate position (much advocated as desirable in England) of holding, as municipal property, the surrounding area, formerly common land used for vil- lage pasturage and fuel supply. This has practically destroyed land speculation, which is the curse of so many other large cities, and has kept the cost of sites down to a low figure. It will, of course, enable the local authority to control, in the most effective way, any suburban building developments that may be carried out.” How Ciry Ownersuie Controts LAND VALUE In this case, as for the other features of European housing poli- cies, there is some precedent in the United States. For municipal ownership of land it is not necessary to adopt a new principle but only to extend the prevailing practice of buying land for parks, play- grounds, open squares and for buildings of various types which are recognized as essential to the public welfare. This method of pre- venting excessive, speculative land values by having the city purchase vacant land at moderate prices, rests upon the following considera- tions: We have a city which is growing. We know that various areas around the present city will soon be needed for additional hous- ing accommodations. We know that the values of these suburban areas will be created by the growing demands of the people. Why should not the community which creates these land values profit from them? Is there any fundamental reason why some of the areas around Washington, which are now being held for increased private profits while areas beside them or even beyond them are being overcrowded, should not be owned and used by the community as a whole? As one successful merchant said; “No man who knew he had to have a lot of property near a growing city like Washington would defer securing it. If he did he would have to pay for his delay, as the community will if it defers action.” Rising Social Standards 307 One method by which municipal land owning curbs the specula- tive land values is seen in the fact that the prices asked for land in the vicinity of “Columbia Heights”, in northwest Washington have re- cently been reduced because a new area farther removed from the city has become available through the extension of a street car line. While land values in the new district have greatly increased, the price of land in the older section has been diminished. By this method a city could limit to reasonable standards the land values of any section by purchasing a large area just beyond it and throwing it open for building uses at equitable rates. German practices in regard to the sale or leasing of municipal land are planned to prevent its ever being put to uses inconsistent with the public weal and to make impossible the development of excessive private profits ‘from its control. Concerning the land-owning policy of Ulm, the report of the housing committee of the Birmingham City Council says; “The prevention of speculation in land sold by the city authorities is secured by a number of rules included in the transfer contract. These have, up to the present experience, fulfilled their purpose. One important rule is that the land must be built on within a specified number of years and no other kind of building may be erected on it than that mentioned in the contract. Another rule is that, under precisely stated conditions, the town has the right to buy the land back again.”” In some cities land is sold subject to an agree- ment that it may be repurchased by the community at the end of a certain period at the original selling price. In other places the uses of the land are limited and its sale at increased values is specifically forbidden. A PRoFITABLE TRANSACTION The point is that the ordinary foresight used at present by private speculators for their own profit should be put somewhat at the com- mand of the community as a whole by the adoption of a progressive land policy based upon the essential characteristics of the local situa- tion. German cities make their land policy pay its cost plus a consid- erable profit. In Ulm, according to the Birmingham report; “They have, in buying and leasing, etcetera, made a profit of about £250,000 ($1,212,500) during the last five years and have an increased value on their holdings of £1,500,000 ($7,275.000). As an example of the way their profit is made, they bought a certain piece of land for 5 shil- lings ($1.20) per yard and afterwards the post office bought it from 308 Neglected Neighbors them at 15 shillings ($3.60) per yard. On another piece of about 50 acres they have made a large profit by selling it to a railway com- pany.” Of Dusseldorf’s experience the same report says: “During the year ending March 1905, they made a profit out of their municipal land on revenue account of over £18,000 ($87,000) and are now applying to the state for power to borrow another £500,000 ($2,425,000) for the purpose of buying more land.” The Sixth Essential of “Town Planning” SUBURBAN TRANSPORTATION Street car lines and suburban railways are virtually a part of the land situation in any community. Effective transportation facilities at low rates mean that additional areas of land are available for houses. One writer puts it tersely; “What elevators are to high buildings, transportation is to suburban housing”. Arguments for community control of the land situation apply also to the transportation problem. The mastery of their “tram lines’ or street railways by European cities may be considered the sixth essential feature of “town plan- ning.” Watered stock and excessive private profits in the transpor- tation facilities of a city mean, ultimately, that individuals are licensed to limit the amount of fresh air which the poorer citizens can enjoy. They do this by making it impossible for many people to live in subur- ban districts where the overcrowding which is characteristic of the central areas would not be necessary. Street railroad values are of course fundamentally the creation of the community itself. The present movement in America toward the control of interstate railways will doubtless be applied with rapidly increasing adequacy to the still more important problems of municipal transportation. A definite step in this direction was taken in the National Capital in July 1908 by the organization of a local committee representing the national ‘“Inter- state Commerce Commission” and applying some of its general powers to the local street car system. It is a matter of general knowledge in Washington that at one meeting of the directors of a local street railway, $6,750,000 worth of fictitious or watered stock values were injected into the company’s holdings. The result was that adequate improvements in the service, increased salaries for employees, or reduced street car fares for the public were prevented for some time to come. Another Washington Rising Social Standards 309 company is said to have injected into its capitalization, at a conserva- tive estimate, more than $16,000,000 of fictitious value. It should be possible, and it certainly is needful, for the community as a whole to take cognizance of such facts, which are understood to be char- acteristic of street railways throughout the country. The respected principle of private property in commodities which have been privately created does not apply in any way to watered stock or imaginary values. These entail excessive transportation charges and inadequate service in order that dividends may be paid upon the private capitaliza- tion of values created solely by the community itself. In England, any county, borough, town, or district council may construct: and work a street railway or purchase an existing line. “More than half the total mileage of tramways in this country (Eng- land) has been constructed and is owned by the local authorities, and this proportion is steadily increasing, owing to the general tendency on the part of local authorities to start new tramways or, at the expi- ration of the statutory period of twenty-one years, to purchase the tramway undertakings from various companies in towns where there has been a system not under municipal ownership.” The local govern- ment in England may take over a private street car line at the end of twenty-one years after its construction by simply paying the company the price of the material and nothing more. It is not obliged to pay for it as a “going concern.” WorKMEN’'S TRAINS AND REDUCED RATES On the continent, the attitude toward municipal transportation is indicated by the edict issued by the Saxon Ministry of the Interiot in tgo1. It suggests, that, “If the town, as is for many reasons right and desirable, has the tramways in its own possession, all that is nec- essary can be done by it directly. Tuill that is the case, as much in- fluence as possible must be brought to bear on owners of tramways, and when new concessions are made to them, explicit conditions must be included.” Workingmen’s trains and reduced rates of transporta- tion at certain hours or for various classes have long prevailed through- out Europe. In England, workingmen’s fares average half the usual rates. “The Belgian government, for the last thirteen years, has run workmen’s trains on almost all lines at extraordinary low fares and at hours arranged to suit the convenience of work people going to and returning from their work.” As a consequence, in Belgium, “There 310 Neglected Neighbors must be 100,000 industrial workers, out of a total number of 900,000, who, although they are employed in towns, continue to live in the country, own a patch of ground, and, with the higher wages of the town, enjoy the economic advantages of country life.” That work- men’s trains and reduced rates have an essential, intimate relation to the housing problem is obvious. GROWING SUPERVISION OF ALL DETAILS. If there are objections to the municipal ownership of city trans- portation lines, there can be no valid arguments against their proper supervision by public authorities. This prevails in Europe to an extent unheard of here, but it is rational, necessary and efficacious. In the United States, where the national government is now undertaking to supervise some of the large and intricate activities of interstate com- merce, there is no doubt that local city governments can command expert service sufficient to establish an equitable control over locai transportation so that the city may progressively determine the subur- ban areas which shall be provided with street car or railroad facilities and the character and cost of the service. A transportation policy for any municipality is not a separate thing, but an intrinsic part of the land policy. The let-alone method of American communities does not mean that they have no land policy or transportation policy but simply that they have a poor policy. The question is; “How rapidly shall the needed improvements come?” and, “How adequately shall the recog- nized facts of the situation be met?” The Seventh Essential of “‘Town Planning” Loans, CREDIT AND INSURANCE In German cities, the land policy and the work of stimulating the building of small houses relate themselves to the fact that savings are accumulated under government control by the postal savings system and by accident and old age insurance operations supervised by the government. As it is from these sources largely that German govern- ments grant their loans at low interest for the building of model dwellings, the accumulation of money under government control may be considered a seventh characteristic of the German “town planning” movement. While the other features of “town planning” may doubt- Rising Social Standards gir less be realized without this one, it is to be hoped that Postmaster General Von L. Meyer and other American advocates of the postal savings system for this country may soon be successful. It is appro- priate that funds accumulated in this way should be used for the benefit of the people through the promotion of house building. In Frankfort, a German city about the size of Washington, “The town has provided nearly £400,000 ($1,940,000) in the last two years and societies supported by it have built more than 3,000 small dwellings”. Germany is already recognizing the fact that the securing, not of the first mortgage, but of a second mortgage, is the principal difficulty. Toward meeting this problem, says Mr. Horsfall; ““We find a promis- ing beginning made in the use of £200,000 ($970,000) granted by the Empire for the support of building societies formed of workmen and officials in its employ. For it was expressly stipulated that, only when first credit for 60 per cent had been obtained from other sources, 25 per cent on second credit should be given; so that, apart from the question of land, the £200,000 made it possible to expend £800,000 ($3,880,000) on the building of small dwellings.” “The very extensive Insurance Institutions of Germany are becom- ing more and more interested in the investment of their accumulations for the promotion of house building. Charitable corporations are also being led to make their funds available for similar purposes. Trade societies, other public bodies and some savings banks have begun to invest a share of their funds in small dwellings. The conclusion of the German authorities is that the co-operation of local and even of national governments is essential for the regulation of the system of credit for home building.” ‘The example of Belgium shows what centralized action can do in this matter. There the £25,000,000 ($121,- 250,000) invested in the state savings banks have been utilized and in seven years, by giving support to 113 building societies, more than 9,000 houses have been built.” “The Prussian State has granted £1,600,000 ($7,760,000) since 1895,—in the year of 1902, £600,000 ($2,910,000) ,—to help in the erection of dwellings for workmen and officials employed in the business operations controlled by the state.” “INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE” COMPANIES IN AMERICA These large funds accumulated under governmental control and, especially, the great development of national insurance operations in Europe lead naturally to a brief consideration of the so-called “In- 312 Neglected Netghbors dustrial Insurance Companies” in the United States, which are closely related to the problem of maintaining wholesome standards of living. These companies issue policies averaging from $25 to $150 upon the lives of laboring people and their families, at weekly premium rates for each policy of from 5 to 25 cents. Poor families ordinarily carry policies on several of their members and have often been known to go hungry in order to “keep up the insurance’. The burial of the dead, with possibly a small amount of cash remaining for his survivors, is all these policies assure. But they meet such fundamental needs that almost every family among the poorer classes contributes to these companies every week so large a proportion of the family income as often to necessitate corresponding economies in other necessities of life. Thus they limit somewhat the rents which poor families can pay and so become a subsidiary feature of the housing problem. The premium rates in these insurance companies are very high and many abuses attend upon the operation of the system, especially so in Washington where no adequate control has yet been provided, though advocated earnestly by the superintendent of insurance. Notwith- standing all objections, “industrial insurance” has become so well- nigh universal among the less resourceful classes as to demand con- sideration and close regulation by government authorities. It appears to be almost as necessary to the lives of the less resourceful people as good shelter and transportation are. Private experiment has gone far enough and the essential facts have been sufficiently developed to justify the assumption of increas- ing control, at least, by the community as a whole. Already we have in the recent experiment in Massachusetts a promising effort on the part of governmental authorities to meet the urgent problems involved. Savings banks in Massachusetts have been authorized to issue this in- dustrial insurance, combined with a system of annuities or old age pensions which should be attractive. It is to be hoped that this system will be sufficiently extended to include the employment of local agents or collectors to make the regular weekly rounds which are an essential feature of the success of private companies. When depositors have been trained they may be offered reduced rates for bringing their weekly payments to the office and monthly payments may be sub- stituted in time, but no system of insurance will meet existing needs without aggressive canvassers to introduce it. It is probable that volunteer collectors under paid leadership could be developed for a system of small insurance policies issued by government authorities Rising Social Standards 313 or by savings banks. In Washington about eighty volunteers help the Associated Charities every week in the similar provident work of col- lecting small savings on the stamp savings system. This system of five to fifty cent stamps which serve as certificates of deposit might profitably be included in governmental or philanthropic efforts to solve the “industrial insurance” problem. It is reasonable to suppose, and the writer believes it is well to hope, that the national or state governments of this country will follow European examples by establishing official systems of insurance against death and against industrial accidents. Any one who has worked among the poor will understand that these subjects have a close bear- ing upon the general problems of housing and living conditions. The Eighth Essential of “Town Planning” MetrHops oF GOVERNMENT All that has been said in previous paragraphs as to the character and scope of the problems of housing and living conditions emphasizes the idea that the details of government must be vested in competent officials. One reason why Germany has made such notable progress is undoubtedly found in the fact that the officials of German towns and cities are elected for very long periods, virtually for life in many cases; they are paid adequate salaries; are assured pensions upon retirement and are stimulated in every way to make their work a permanent pro- fession. This may be considered the eighth feature of German “town planning’. The experienced chairman of the Official Housing Com- mittee of Birmingham says: “The savings enumerated (as promised by the ‘town planning’ system) will not be effected unless we are able to enlist the help of first rate men in the work of administration. With the assistance of such experts “Town Planning’ would effect large economies for landowners, house builders, rent payers and taxpay- ers.” These considerations strengthen the appeal for a distinct depart- ment to be charged with all the problems relating to housing and living conditions in a city so large as Washington. They also suggest the need for some method of enlisting considerable numbers of competent volunteers to work in close association with the permanently employed government experts in a way to enable the housing and health depart- ments to exert a more constant influence on a larger number of homes and also to assure the constant stimulation of government officials by 314 Neglected Neighbors the pressure upon them of intelligent public opinion. In various Euro- pean communities local Councils comprise both the permanent govern- ment officials and a group of leading citizens who serve without pay. According to Albert Shaw’s “Municipal Government in Conti- nental Europe”; “Nearly all the cities in Germany, great and small, maintain the plan of a magisterial council composed of paid and un- paid members. In Dresden 14 are paid and 18 are unpaid. The 14 have been very largely drawn from the service of other and smaller cities, while the 18 have been promoted to the magistracy after valu- able service in the elected council. Leipsic has 12 paid and 15 unpaid magistrates, Munich 16 and 20 respectively, Breslau 11 and 13, Frank- fort 8 and 9, Hanover 8 and 9, Nuremberg 9 and 17, Chemnitz 9 and 16.” PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS AND A LocaL CouNCIL In German cities and towns, according to Mr. Shaw; “The burgo- master is actually or virtually a life incumbent and his magisterial associates who conduct the various departments either hold their places by life tenure or else upon terms practically as permanent. The city council, representing the people’s will, is renewed by instalments. The terms are long, and reelections are so usual that the personnel of the body is transformed very slowly, and nothing like an abrupt or capri- cious change of policy is ever probable. Consequently it is possible to make long plans, to proceed without haste, to distribute burdens through periods of years, to consult minute economies, and to make an even, symmetrical progress that has far more tangible achievement to show for every half decade than could be possible under our spas- modic American methods.” This conception that the heads of city departments must be professional experts: leads naturally to the policy of selecting the best worker wherever he is to be found. Thus a man who has demonstrated his ability in the control of one German city is likely to be called to another, larger municipality. The idea that the management of municipal affairs is to be assigned with regard chiefly to giving a favored partisan the benefits of an official salary, has been entirely superseded in Germany by the principle that, just as an expe- rienced civil engineer is to be employed for any important engineering task, with utter disregard of everything but his qualifications as an engineer, so the expert in municipal control is to be sought without regard to his place of residence or his political affiliations, Rising Social Standards 315 Divipep REsponsIBILITY IN THE District oF COLUMBIA The German conception of the kind of public officials essential to a government housing policy in any city,—to say nothing of the other important branches of local government,—leads naturally to some comment upon the anomalous methods of government pursued in the District of Columbia. Here the departmental system has in one re- spect been carried to excess for the ultimate executive function in Washington is virtually divided into three parts. Of the three “Dis- trict Commissioners” no one has a commanding central responsibility. The three Commissioners divide between them the various municipal departments. The universal experience in business would point clearly to the desirability of having the central control vested finally in a single individual whose responsibility would be definite and complete. Under him there should doubtless be a corps of department chiefs receiving salaries commensurate with the compensation offered for similar work by business concerns. The Commissioner or head of the Washington city government would naturally continue to be selected by the Presi- dent of the United States. The chiefs of bureaus would be the staff of professional experts. They might profitably be organized as a kind of City Council, to include a certain proportion of elected, local repre- sentatives. Some such body, in close touch with the city’s needs, should be empowered to work out into detailed regulations the general principles of municipal government which Congress should continue to enact. Where the Congress of the United States, with its multitudinous tasks of national scope, is required to legislate for the city of Wash- ington it would evidently assure more thorough adjustment to local conditions if some such system as that which prevails in France could be adopted. In that country, proposed legislation on any subject is dealt with only in general terms or fundamental principles by the legislative arm of the government; its application in specific details is committed to executive officers who work out the appropriate, definite regulations under the supervision and check of ready appeals to the courts by any one who believes the administrative officer has not made proper application of the general scheme enacted. Conditions of modern life have so changed in recent years and have become so intri- cate that, as an English official says; “Administration is every year becoming more and more important as compared with legislation,” e 316 Neglected Neighbors Popular SUFFRAGE ” Although it may seem a “far cry” to bring a consideration of popular suffrage into a study of this character, this summary of the writer's fundamental ideals for the National Capital cannot be com- plete without it. For the establishment of an adequate policy regard- ing housing and living conditions it is essential that public opinion should be developed. The community must be enabled to act more and more as a self-conscious whole. At present, large sections of Washington are absolutely without any effect upon the government which controls them. Their lack of power is accompanied by a cor- responding lack of interest. It is doubtless true that a comparatively small number of resourceful citizens,—who know what they want and a : es The Capitol Dome and One of Its Near Alley Neighbors. The Ideai Which Must Conquer and the Neglected Which it Must Penetrate. [Photo by Hine] are trained in the effective expression of their desires,—can exert greater influence upon local government here than would be possible in other American cities. There is nothing, however, to enlist the interest and influence of the less resourceful masses. If these people had a vote they would be given a certain amount of public education; candidates for election and advocates of certain measures would be obliged to canvass the city and to give a certain amount of instruction concerning public affairs. The fact of having a voice in the govern- ment would inevitably lead to a certain amount of active interest in Rising Social Standards 317 its activities. If only as a means of stimulating the young men of the community, popular suffrage is an important, and even an indispen- sable, adjunct to the methods of public education. Is it not feasible to apply in Washington some of the lessons to be learned from the national capital of France? In Paris the national authorities exercise as much power over the city’s affairs as is neces- sary in view of the pre-eminent importance of the national government and its contribution of a large share of the municipal expenses. At the same time the average citizen of Paris exercises the suffrage and has a share in the management of his city. In America especially, in view of the democratic principles upon which the country’s entire government is based, the life of a city like Washington must be funda- mentally defective until provision is made whereby every responsible citizen shall have a share in the formulation of public opinion. At the bottom of the entire set of problems which have been considered in this study lies the necessity for developing a more adequate social con- sciousness, with proper methods for its expression. Obviously this effort will be incomplete in so far as any citizen, however resourceless, is left without a conscious interest and without influence in the affairs of the community by which vital conditions of his home life are more and more to be controlled. The local bugbear, the presence of a large colored population, should not be deemed a conclusive argument against popular suffrage in Washington, for in any democratic gov- ernment it is not safe in the long run to exclude any group of citizens from this educational relationship to the community’s life. Tue Housinc Proptem 1s Very Broap Since the report of the New York Tenement House Committee of 1894 was devoted especially to the advocacy of playgrounds and since the work of that committee had as its principal effect the estab- lishment of public playgrounds in New York city, it has been clear to every one that an essential feature of the housing problem is the creation of public parks, vacant spaces and other provisions for exer- cise and recreation. The playground movement, which has spread rapidly throughout America and Europe, may be regarded as per- manently established in the National Capital. While some influential members of Congress have still to be converted to the principle that public playgrounds are as much to be supported by public funds as are the public schools, still it is in the very nature of things that a program looking toward the purchase of permanent sites for plav- grounds and to the development of different types of playgrounds in . 318 Neglected Neighbors appropriate sections throughout the city will be adopted. This con- sideration is appropriately in harmony with a very broad interpretation of the housing problem. We are not to concern ourselves merely with individual dwellings and the vacant spaces upon their own building lots, but to consider also the neighborhood as a whole and the vacant areas required for the recreation of social groups. Another movement which has helped to broaden the popular conception of housing problems is the modern, great crusade against tuberculosis. It is everywhere branded as a “house disease”. Its close relations to overcrowded dwellings and to unwholesome standards of life are em- phasized. It is a short step in these days from a bacteriological to a sociological point of view. To Promote HEALTH AND POWER From these and similar precedents the popular mind will pass easily to acceptance of the doctrine that modern communities must undertake to assure for their people such wholesome general condi- tions as promote joyous good health and develop that sense of sur- plus power and resourcefulness without which life is unproductive and of little worth. As Mr. F. C. Horsfall puts it in his inspiring book, “The Example of Germany”; “Unless good health, physically, men- tally and morally is made possible in towns,—and it is not possible for a large proportion of the population at present,—the real greatness of this country,—and probably its apparent greatness also,—must soon be lost.” He also emphasizes the importance of developing in all ways the vigorous life powers whose presence is indicated by the feeling that “Life is worth living.” ; As a result of the communities’ neglect along these lines, Mr. Horsfall quotes the example already cited, in the preceding chapter, of the deterioration of native English stock in Manchester, England, where, out of 11,000 merf examined, only 1,000 reached the physical standards by which all normal citizens should be characterized. Eng- lish writers generally are citing this incident as fairly typical of the admitted fact that the conditions of living which have been allowed to develop in the British Isles are definitely reducing the physical, mental and moral stamina of the people. This fact is made a clarion call for social consciousness and for efforts by the community to improve living conditions in every essential feature. As for the United States, it would plainly be the part of wisdom to learn from English and German experiences before we have to pay the heavy costs which indifference has entailed upon these great nations. Except that Rising Social Standards 319 America is a younger country and that some of its natural resources have not yet been entirely exhausted, is there any reason to believe we shall-escape the serious evils developed in Europe unless some such measures as have proven to be necessary there are adopted here,—and adopted in good season? GARDEN CITIES In this spirit it is not too much to suggest that some of Wash- ington’s larger alleys, such as “Average Alley,” “Willow Tree Alley” and “White Alley,’ should be purchased and converted into small public parks or playgrounds. It is not too much to suggest also that efforts be made, by the proposed philanthropic organization and by government departments, to bring about the treatment of some entire squares or blocks of dwellings as a unit, making the private yards very small, or doing away with them, and devoting the center of the square to playgrounds, gardens and attractive grass-plots for use in common by all the neighbors. These are not visions but prosaic suggestions of what has already been done in England, Germany and elsewhere. It is not going too far to suggest, further, that wealthy philanthropists, broad-minded business firms and special organizations of people be induced to follow the example of Mr. W. H. Lever, the soap manu- facturer, who established the model village of “Port Sunlight” and of Mr. G. Cadbury who founded, near his chocolate works, the garden city called “Bournville”. The ownership of “Bournville” was made over to a board of trustees who are to manage and develop the town entirely for the public good. In making this munificent gift to his countrymen, Mr. Cadbury said; “The founder is desirous of averting the evils which arise from the insanitary and insufficient accommodations supplied to large numbers of the working classes and of securing to workers in factories some of the advantages of outdoor village life, with opportunities for the natural and healthful occupation of culti- vating the soil. The object is the amelioration of the condition of the working class and the laboring population in and around Birmingham and elsewhere in Great Britain, by the provision of improved dwellings with gardens and open spaces to be enjoyed therewith.” Hints oF THE City LirE WHIcH Is TO BE The general living conditions of an entire community have been taken up in the manner and spirit typified by “Port Sunlight” and 320 Neglected Neighbors “Bournville” in at least twenty places in England. In Berlin there are tenement blocks surrounding entire squares whose central spaces are treated as common recreation grounds and gardens. In Sheffield, England, and elsewhere, rows of small houses, each designed for one or two families, are located around a central area reserved for grass plots, play spaces and means of good light and ventilation for all the houses and their tenants. Such towns as “Bournville” and “Port Sun- light” are cities “‘made to order”. That is, a large vacant tract has been purchased on the outskirts of a city or in the distant country and plans have been made in advance for the development of an entire village. These garden cities are provided with swimming pools, gymnasia, places of assembly and amusement, playgrounds, common garden areas subdivided for allotment to individuals, smaller gardens attached to the little houses, attractive parks, broad shaded streets and wholesome houses of attractive types of architecture. The treatment of small communities as a unit, with common gardens, playgrounds and social centers, has been worked out for single, large tenements and for individual city squares in German, Austrian, English and American cities. In Brooklyn, New York, an example is offered in the pioneer model tenements erected thirty years ago by Mr. Alfred T. White. In Washington, “The Sanitary Housing Company” proposes soon to erect rows of houses on the four sides of a city square, developing the central space for certain uses in common by all the households which surround it. These social oases, the model towns which dot the world like the first seeds of a great growth that is to be, forecast in concrete form the proper principle and scope of future municipal control. Details will differ. In some places the city will itself build houses,—as many European cities have already done for years; in others it will merely stimulate and guide the activities of individuals and organizations. Where it does not provide all the public utilities which need to be used in common by all the people, the municipality will see that they are provided in appropriate quantity and character. The essentials of proper living conditions for the community will be interpreted, as is already the case in some places, to include considerations as to art and beauty. More and more the community will insist that the houses which mold the lives of its citizens shall be appropriate to each other, to their surroundings and to the standards of living which their resi- dents should be stimulated to observe. APPENDICES “THE PRESIDENT’S HOMES COMMISSION’ THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED az (321) “In the mud and scum of things, There alway, alway something sings.”’ The Ideal Rising Above Neglected Conditions; the Washington Monument in Contrast to the Dump Heap Where People are Finding Food. [Photo by Weller] (322) APPENDIX A “THE PRESIDENT’S HOMES COMMISSION” The fifteen members of this Commission, appointed in May 1907 by President Roosevelt, organized by electing General George M. Sternberg, president, Dr. George M. Kober, secretary, and Mr. John B. Sleman, Jr., treasurer. The other members are; Mr. Emmett L. Adams, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Miss Mabel T. Boardman, Mr. P. J. Brennan, Professor George W. Cook, Mr. William F. Downey, Mrs. Thomas T. Gaff, Mr. Whitefield McKinlay, Mr. T. C. Parsons, Mr. James Bronson Reynolds, Mr. Frederick L. Siddons, and Mr. S. W. Woodward. COMMITTEES AND THEIR FUNCTIONS The scope and plans of the Commission are best suggested by the enumeration of its committees: Of “The Committee on Building Model Houses” General Stern- berg himself is chairman. He has completed a careful analysis of all the less expensive residences built in Washington during the last five years. On the basis of this and other studies his committee hopes to bring about the erection, both by philanthropy and by stimulated busi- ness enterprise, of a large number of modest homes which are needed to meet the “house famine” prevailing in this class of houses. Dr. H. C. Macatee, the assistant secretary of the Commission, was employed to assist in this work. “The Committee on Improvement of Existing Houses and the Elimination of Unsanitary and Alley Houses”, with Mr. William H. Baldwin as chairman, is endeavoring to assist the District Commission- ers and Congress in planning and securing the enactment of legislation by which the two hundred and sixty-one hidden, residential alleys of the National Capital shall be converted into minor streets. The Com- mittee is also interested in the compulsory repair or condemnation of unsanitary dwellings. Of “The Social Betterment Committee” Dr. George M. Kober is chairman. He has completed a special report on “Industrial and (323) 324. Neglected Neighbors Personal Hygiene” which appears to be the first extensive study of its kind undertaken in America. It is hoped that this analysis of specific dangers in various occupations, the suggestion of safety devices and precautions for promoting health, and the discussion of undesirable habits or indulgences and other remedial conditions affecting the health of the laboring classes will be of general value throughout the country. “The Social Betterment Committee” has also prepared an ex- haustive schedule which has now been filled out for more than twelve hundred typical homes. This schedule deals not only with physical conditions but with standards of living, including family expenditures for food and other necessities, and considerations as to savings, insur- ance, purchases made on the time payment system, typical dietaries and the wastes through intemperance, unwise purchases and in other ways. This important investigation has been carefully directed by Mr. G. A. Weber, one of the leading statistical experts of the Bureau of Labor, who has had specific experience in this field of work in Wash- ington, as well as in other portions of the country and in Europe. Mr. Weber is the official “Statistician” of the Commission. “The Committee on Building Regulations”, with Mr. F. L. Sid- dons an experienced lawyer as chairman, has been organized to assist the District Commissioners and the Commission which is now working under the guidance of the local Inspector of Buildings, to frame and secure the enactment of a complete, harmonious, adequate code of laws. It is hoped that the threatened development of a tenement house problem may by this means be averted; that various unsanitary condi- tions which have grown up in other communities may be forestalled ; and that existing evils may be steadily eliminated or reduced. It is through this committee principally that the Commission hopes to assist in planning and determining the future development of housing condi- tions here so that the future may be safeguarded against preventable evils and the housing of the people made as nearly ideal as possible. “The Finance Committee”, with Mr. S. W. Woodward as chair- man, completed the solicitation of the funds necessary for the work. From outside of Washington a contribution of five thousand dollars was promised on condition that a similar amount should be raised here. Members of the Commission subscribed eighteen hundred dollars and the balance was readily secured from public-spirited Washingtonians. It is expected that the work of the Commission will be completed before the expiration of President Roosevelt’s term of office. APPENDIX B> THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED Of such credit as this study may be found to merit, a generous share belongs to the many helpers who have aided in its preparation and especially to Miss Janet E. Kemp, a trained worker, formerly a teacher of sociology, who was employed for five months in 1905 by the “Associated Charities’ Committee on the Improvement of Housing Conditions”. Serving as their special ‘Investigator’ she has filled out most of the schedules on which was based the report prepared in 1905. Mr. S. W. Woodward, chairman of the Housing Committee, and Mr. Wm. H. Baldwin, one of its leading members, have been especially helpful. In addition to giving advice and encouragement the latter scheduled personally the forty-one families in Washington’s largest tenement. The following volunteer inquirers have also aided materially by scheduling from one to thirty-one dwellings each: Dr. and Mrs. Truman Abbe, J. Bowman, Dr. W. A. Boyd, Miss Eleanor Buynitsky, Miss Florence E. Frisby, Mr. and Mrs. Edward S. Gilfillan, Miss Pear] Goodman, Dr. Julia M. Green, Mrs. M. I. Hill, Miss F. J. Heaton, Mrs. Kirke Holmes, Mrs. R. E. Lawson, George X. McLanahan, Fred D. Maphis, J. B. McCarthy, Mrs. William Melbourne, Rev. Sylvester Norwood, Mrs. Leila L. Pendleton, Miss Mary Sewall, Mrs. Webb and Mrs. Thomas West. Mr. Wallace Hatch, Committee Secre- tary of the “Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions”, helped in several ways. Special counsel and assistance have also been given by Dr. William C. Woodward, Mr. G. A. Weber, Mrs. Vernon Bailey, Mrs. H. E. Bebb, C. E. Baldwin, Corcoran Thom, Dr. William C. Fowler, G. Wallace Hanger and Mr. Malet. The voluminous sched- ules were printed, without charge, by the Crane Printing Company and the Law Reporter Printing Company. Tue AssoclATED CHARITIES Not only the special “Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions”, but also the Board of Managers of the Associated Chari- ties have been cordially generous in promoting the writer’s work. All (325) 326 Neglected Neighbors the agents of the Association have been efficient colleagues and special mention should be made of Mrs. Mary C. Rugg, Mrs. Edna Keene Bushee, Mrs. Ella West, Miss H. Ida Curry, Miss Ida A. Green, Mrs. Kk. E. Howells, Miss Zaida E. Udell, Miss Edith M. Irvine, Mr. D. A. Glascoff, Miss F. S. Crosby, Miss Inez M. Southworth, Miss Helen S. Spencer, Miss Laurel C. Thayer, Miss Louise C. McConnell, Miss Cecelia M. Brennan, Miss Clare S. Hobart, Miss Margaret F. ‘Simpson and Mr. T. Hubert-Jones, who became, in August 1908, the acting general secretary of the Association. These generous helpers, who have been connected with the Associated Charities at various times, have given the best of help. OFFICIALS OF THE LocAL GOVERNMENT Headed by Commissioner H. B. F. Macfarland, all the officials of the local government who have been asked for aid, have given it with cheerful generosity. Commissioner Jay J. Morrow and his assistants in the office of the Engineer Commissioner, Dr. William C. Woodward and the Health Department, Major Richard Sylvester and the Police Department, Mr. George S. Wilson and the Department of Charities, have all been especially helpful. Mr. Roy E. Haynes, inspector of the Board for the Condemnation of Insanitary Buildings, has given effect- ive co-operation. Aid has also been received from: Messrs. Andrew B. Duval and f. F. Smith of the District Attorney’s Office and from Superintendent Thomas E. Drake of the Department of Insurance. Two ORGANIZATIONS AND TWELVE FRIENDS For help in the revision, extension and publication of the study in 1908, the writer is deeply indebted to “the President’s Homes Commis- sion” and to all its members personally. Also to the beneficent “Rus- sell Sage Foundation” and its director-secretary Mr. John M. Glenn. From Messrs. Paul and Arthur Kellogg of “Charities and the Com- mons” encouragement and good suggestions have been received. Mr. James Bronson Reynolds has given indispensable assistance. Professor A. P. Winston, Dr. George M. Kober, Mr. William H. Baldwin, Mr. Edward T. Hartman, Mr. Frederick L. Siddons, Miss Mable Board- man, General George M. Sternberg, Mr. James B. Reynolds and Edward M. Winston have patiently read and criticised portions of the manuscript. Professor A. P. Winston and Miss Clara Jessup Van Trump have kindly read all the proof sheets. Those Who Have Helped 327 UsEFuL Booxs Some of the first suggestions received for the final chapters of Part IV came from Mr. Benjamin C. Marsh, Mr. John P. Fox and their “Congestion Exhibit”. Among the books which have been especially helpful there are four without which these final chapters could not readily have been prepared. The volumes are named here in the hope that readers of this study may be led to secure some of them, particularly the first: “The Improvement of the Dwellings and the Surroundings of the People; The Example of Germany”; by T. C. Horsfall. Published by the University Press, Manchester, England. Price, one shilling ($.24). “Report of the Housing Committee to the City Council of Bir- mingham’”. Copies obtainable from W. S. Body, clerk to the Housing Committee, Council House, Birmingham, England. Price, 2 shillings 6 pence ($.60). “The Housing Handbook”, second edition, by W. Thompson. Published by the “National Housing Reform Council”, 432 West Strand, London, W. C., England. “Practical Housing” by J. S. Nettlefold. Published by the “Gar- den City Press”, Letchworth, England. Price, 1 shilling ($.24). No study of the American movement for better housing conditions could be complete without some knowledge of the pioneer work of Robert W. de Forest and Lawrence Veiller, whose two-volume collec- tion of essays by various authorities is helpful. It is entitled “The Tenement House Problem”, published by the Macmillan Company. Reports of the “Tenement House Department of New York City”, Edmond J. Butler, Commissioner, are to be had for the asking and are useful. “Poverty; A Study of Town Life”, in York, England; by B. Seebohm Rowntree; published by Macmillan and Company ; gives sug- gestive information regarding the nature and consequence of low standards of living. Instead of attempting a complete bibliography here, the writer has merely named a few of the many books which he has found serviceable. Tuer PICTURES AND PUBLICATION In the important task of providing illustrations for the study Mr. Lewis W. Hine, the exponent of ‘Social Photography”, has given 328 Neglected Neighbors invaluable generous aid as has also Mr. D. A. Glascoff. Others who have supplied photographs for the book are Eugenia W. Weller, Frank J. Cullen, Herbert Lewis and the author. Professor A. U. Craig made the mechanical drawings. Mrs. George W. Stone and Miss Janet Kemp assisted in making the drawing of “Average Alley.” With all these friends it was mainly a labor of love. For the cover design Mr. J. P. S. Neligh and Mr. Hine contributed essential suggestions and Mr. Christopher D. Jefferson, of Philadelphia, made the drawings and dies. “The National Engraving Company” of Washington, D. C., Mr. Charles P. Hancock, president, made all the cuts and took a kindly, helpful interest in the book as did also Messrs. ‘Charles H. Clarke, E. Marshall Scull and Charles F. Kindt of The John C. Win- ston Publishing Company. A Worp or Earnest APPRECIATION Altogether, so much help has been received that it is impossible to acknowledge it all specifically but the writer desires to express his earnest thanks to the generous co-workers who have made possible the completion of a rather extensive undertaking. The acknowledgment of his fundamental indebtedness to Mrs. Eugenia Winston Weller, his wife, the writer has left to the last although she has been his first and most constant helper in the various details of this study as also in the seven years of residence and work in Washington among neglected neighbors and bad conditions of which she has ever helped him to understand the human meanings. INDEX [Prepared by Eugenia Winston Weller] PAGD Air, Fresh (see Ventilation). ANUSHATt gre eeecraiuc th SRL oes eo tacllg 2 3 oot I4I, 144, 145, 150, 170, 196 Airshaft (see Courtways). Aarsia tts: IPICtu ness itesre sed uaehtaiie nt ox wea) partners tse reins fale ae wep asearia s 140 Air Space (see Ventilation). Alley Near’ Capitol; Picture Of. o.ncc00¢00casaaeuvs oiawebavadeengaaaeaeees 316 PATO Sivas luge cane acho Minune eek th, An seo tohe Wend 4 ld 4, 5, 9, 122, 268 Alleys (For Particular Alleys see Names of Each). Alleys, Eval not Growitie wicncces cc cc pi saeenesadaies vn anees Shee aaaanne nhs 93 Alleys, Elimination of (see Elimination). Alléys;.-a Southern Cities: awscyixie cane sankidnulsaea dase dee ney opus eseabennad 255 Alleys; ‘Ongint- OF: ses awacectea eh eaen eee Soko ae Gindabue Senko) ad Oaelnies 76 AnacOstiac RIVET: « svc a deaasseen Maks Shes ae ah selaagis Adonai RAR 233, 234, 241 Anacostia River (Eastern Branch) ............. 0.00. ccc cece cece eee ee cece 238 Animals: Kepton- Premises: suceasesaw ven acu nce see sulted en awn aces oases 86 Associated ‘Charities ........... 15, 25, 26, 27, 28, 37, 40, 41, 79, 99, 159, 183, 203, 239, 267, 278, 313 Associated Charities’ Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions.. 5, 93, 112, 113, 118, 207, 242, 257, 271 Associated Charities’ Committee on Prevention of Consumption ......... 25, 20 Atlanta, Georgia—Interior Alleys in ........0 . 0c cee cence cece tenes 255 IATSERIA. scraac ccisvraretacee eg aety eae ee bode add Miata lla deat aise seueeatennte tape deanna aula Sn 320 “Average” (Blagden’s) Alley .................45. 9, 10, II, I4, 17, 36, 57 to 69 “Average” (Blagden’s) Alley, Pictures ........... 0... cece ee ee eee 18, 61, 64 “Average” (Blagden’s) Alley, Drawing ............. cee eee cece eee eee, 58 B Babies (see also Children) . ibe Reade Re ease Meee line Jit Ty 3OLOde 173 Babies; Pictutés:.. asscodesey oes davaaoe se easeasapemnr seuss “2 31.50 204, 263 BabyfarinS peassacescsaas abe iee wear edtannd sak Ruiae etneda es cease lh! 85 Baldwitte Witt Piss esta pt are chins Gad Shia bhdan Aa ted acentnand Ga mainile g 189 COR atl A [1ey? ost ee Neus ede Sine? Hester Soaianin Samia eee hey. OT LOT “Ball Alley”, Bietnres A Alan canann hala page cha ae eee ANA eae Galerie 82, 182 Ballot, Privilege of, not Granted to Citizens of Washington ................ 255 Baltimore, Building Regulations in ............ 0... s cece eee 193, 196, 197 Barracks of Civil War Used as Dwellings ............. 0000.00. cece eee ees 202 far racks ic DT NGtud sympemeeek aimee nas Dyes ween aah ase Me cae aes 97 Bassett’s Alley” escdeon ss obacna nessa ciepaakveheal sey eae tap nbacaa FIle 93 tO 75 330 Index PAGH “Bassetts Alley. “Pictiite: ica dul sabes eagian yeva Gs pein atea a oomeed: 74 Basenients: sass s oan ck spice oe eek 4 Oe EE 133, 161, 162, 171, 182, 183, 221 Basements, Picture oiccida cede ued ab aneabobes dewerakee etacceanmmacseces 108 Bel: 5404244 sesame nga be a ates, Coane eo y Se hurcaa nny e BOIS BOO, 3EL Berlina acsiweg voce eee aanne eet etee ers peceee mae te es 292, 203, 294, 306, 316 Birmingham .......... souidepinecinws UA Micha enim aaaarin CO9p BOTs, 31S Blagden's Alley (see Meraee: Alley” ). Blind! Wall. 9.c3 hc: Uses acnaccins tay nates aaginaalee aa ala dele lala neat mae COO OO Boards -of ‘Charities, State 204 aeews ehodag sapeasiens and ae Bebwab ceeds daedae 278 Bet Waite «2% ciaidtasiel bald ard.kuaie ave kdsstensbebe ts Sivareiss Qisemaciie Dice Sua leteccine A oaeinaleces toe 269 Boston, Building Regulations in 2.22... .. cece eee eee eee eens 193 SHO SLOT L ecirah Shard sah ban best ad. Terta ao eerie abe tay Rac rnana Peed the eS ta St aside 224 “Boston's: -PiChiie: pvsn ee see ene ver lnn ey seen BAG os Be EO Oe baa en oan 225 “BOUT E aes sak oy BURR A ARR ee g Soe Mesa so Decanhadeanmnics 292, 319, 320 SB PAMSOILAS NOME = (ass Sheoraynltnvhs Nad ie ca amunetinis SLs abieniihieh 4a arden ast os 84 Boy Problem in Washington ............ 0000 cece cece e eect teen enn 284 Breslatt cute sadness ser c ora saWiase vaesllsloueemas eral h 4 ansiennncenn mone SLA “Brickyard Hill” vus¢es $4 bee aed Eten bone Te Bye case nasa ayes 223, 228 Brooklyn, N. Y. . . dshotbal nx scence Cac ce eustetabees co ees iyshanentes tease Seed eaeaehasci ge BLO Buffalo, Building Rewulations { Ml: bhai ane anes eee Ae Oe earn eee eee sialy OS: Building Areas, Overcrowding of .......... 0.0.0. cee cece eee “188, 192, 196 Building Areas, Legislation on Subject in Various Cities ................. 193 Bitilding: Code Got Washington): 2ccccc gece ie esnee d geae sd sw pauneve ian a 281 Building Companies ...... ald had anh Daketn Mca a veeee.. 287 to 289 Building Inspector’s Department. see steebe BAG eg 93, 217, 262, 274, 275 Building Lot, Shape of .... ..... 151, 196 Building Regulations (see Boilding gens. ‘Building Lat Ventilation, etc.).. 150, 192, 262, 280 Building Regulations Varying According to Style of Building ............ 280 Building Regulations Varying According to Location of Building .......... 283 Building Regulations of Other American Cities ................... 0.02... 193 Bittldiie SOCityes: “gs sscshucserai sos acne tia.» edad wleqioe snes, WitseeerGide weer hed pers opdeenenack kate 311 Building Societies, Co-operative ....... 0... cece cece eee cette ene eee, 288 Burgomasten 5 si ceee ge Paes Genta ooGade ee a cena gGadbaexaa awe BIE CBinrle Ss ANey a eas cane 5 eects wigs vik Wada dale wed ete bee ts YaRos 173, 185 “Burk’s: Alley’) Picttire: 2 siete atid in daar toa aaa Ne eles aaqaaee OO C Gadbitrys Gt kok aoicndas he Aen RAG cetacean ee aw eee Ava 319 “Canip: Good. Will” sox axaess ae qsemanesersa se ame cdi kts Gide gnesa gw AiG Ae GA PIHON ice haeeneds casa sidsastaatgy satura ch Baas Swae, oe agaasnin a planes arial a oe ays Saanaisesiates 244 Card Catalogue for Study of Housing .......... 00... cece eee eee 2725 274, SCapitol Hulls” gee cusuig cidsauetses sav ven aha Coy bmeclnngae ea aes a muMimen eee eo 233 Carlyle Thomas: ¢ss.cag ess eee ee erence Bheee See eee oa ae artes 73 “Casey st Alley -aieeginszsieg Ga enue Cal Adu clea aaa Ae Nats ede RUA DO» cached a 187 “Castle”: Te: ig se, gkaneaecnannne eae hee Laue ye Cede k Mieke ad Ream | 175 Caucasians (see White People): sisisas cvade cies vey asauiensoned oor ee arineaw s 37 PAGE Census, of Houses, etc, in Germany .....6.c.cesesseceacssseveeuunveecsele 275 MenstissRcdeball (ction sic ts gsceac tats wma lates a feasts winatctal eos ee 255 Census, Police (see Police Census). Chain gang, i: Siamese vist notte tebe A Molen Me MAGE: ce) men 234: GesspOols: amet cashavaiees ates eet aes 67, 75, pee 110, ae 172, 178, 183, 185 “Charities and The Commons” ...... scene . 4, 200 Charities, Associated (see Associated Charities). Charities, Bureau of (see Associated Charities). Charity Organization Society (see Associated Charities). (Charlottenburg eile eek Biri h yee se) a aia mete dea join tecal etic n Ghent npsblioh) 204 (Cheimm itz etidy tau kd Aunt ates gothaus Chena te CLM Lt ANZ echt tak aly 314 PAGHEREY ELA oz seeders’ esa. view Pdeniclaraeratee vet Atos eo A ney wo tore datos the Soils, wate 13, 228 ~Cherty bill”: “Picture ire: uand es auus doen oah poe aatve naapees bod adage patina 226 Chicago! eases ones saniacden vee alate Rie kd a oa eile once haan 244, 255, 285 Chicago, Building Regulations in ..... 0.00.0. cece cece cece cece eu eeseuees 193 CH MERE reneceated ns donee enables (eee ao mde teptles am tote cals heh 5 lsat 29, 36, 183, 211 Children in Immoral Surroundings ......... 29, 48, 50, 51, 53, 128, 173, 225, 226 Children, Mortality Among .........0000 000000 cece ce ceeecn eee eees 30 to 32, 102 Children, Pictures .............0..000000, 43, 61, 92, 108, 154, 174, 198, 204, 204 *“ChiniGh: ROW’ xeing dace ds wdaee oe Sauna eareeneds aunememes 210, 215 to 220, 247 “Ghinch: Rows {Picture 2c pay den es gana were s Oo See Fb Rub aoeaatesaadehe Lae 72 Church :Alley;. Pictute . sisdss cages nena s vaccine aed ata bemtieasld area aeaes 217 Children’s Guardians, Board of ............ 00. ccc cc eee e cence eeeee 54, OI, 205 Cincinnati, Building Regulations in ......... 0.0... eee ccc cece cece ee ees 193 “Cisselésor Gecil* Alley c.ccusies ka qaty ats amen eae tke wees ved d 223, 228, 246 “Cissel” or “Cecil” Alley, Picture ......... 0.00 c ccc ccc ce eee ne ee ensunvenas 229 Cities, Housing Problems due to Growth of ......... 0.0.0. cee cece eee 270 Cleveland, Building Regulations in ........... 0.0.00. ..eeeee sees 193, 196, 107 COLO Siem cece Baran sedsiaeslten Seam RAG Dede ins Rie ou et ne Re ee a A 292 Colored People (see Negroes). Columbia Heiehts -c4-2cduces chore Geek oo ou Lea ehbad ayaa Midobent Menno be 307 Commercial Interests, Leading to Removal of Nuisances ...... 93, 100, 103, 189 Commission,: Spécial. (DiC) vet evita Seve wana cade aaide oeaudsaeaess 4 Commission, President’s Homes ........... 2, 4, 117, 248, 258, 261, 271, 323, 324 Commission, New York Tenement House (see Tenement House Commission). Commissioners (D. C.) 3, 4, 112, 113, 114, 117, 195, 231, 244, 255, 256, 261, 278, 315 Committee on Improvement of Housing Conditions (see Associated Charities). Committee on Prevention of Consumption (see Associated Charities). Compulsory Education. 22) ccsccaseesurs euuedestaebss eewebide vegeageaa aawes 34 Condemnation of Property ........... 0000s cece ce cee eee 103, I13, 115, 189, 267 Condemnation of Insanitary Dwellings, 84, 85, 94, 102, 110, 208, 210, 256, 267, 275 Condemnation of Dwellings (see Insanitary Dwellings). Congestion ‘of Population: 4.2c ccccas cuss diaude te: cease ialnh Marry Le hue see 291 Congress ........-- 4, 25, 71, 76, 93, 113, 117, 206, 231, 247, 255, 256, 288, 315, 317 Congressmen (see Congress). Consumption (sce also Tuberculosis) ............-.. 0005. 23, 24, 25, 26, 102, 159 Consumption, Committee on Prevention of ......... 0. cece cece e cece eee eee 25 Control by Government (see Government Control). 332 Index PAGn ConvenitiGri: SELaM .. <8 oe siren deck 20% as ae 8 optishvauh Sh Siow Gs ieee oat nde cnecla lier 246 Co-operative Building Societies 2.0.0.0... ccc cece cee tne eee nee eas 288 Coroients: iquest ts; cp aurea Sui nie estan mises a otenteanea we eg net BS wee ann hans 244 Courier], “Roi. Or City? i. 50 e-coniayeseeeinans Pours wcceonadveeid Ss a2 ¢ad Reade 295, 307, 314, 315 Cotintry Oriein Of City Ne@SiOeSs: seis uae cia wetansaley vo aces weeded HAE ea actu bn 153 Country Homes for Laboring Men ........ 0.0.0 ccc eee cece eee een ee es 310 COUrhWayS. 2.icecamcan em ye ne Reread Ming ve ARO NESTA Wd Wace aks eae een ee 196, 197 Courtways (see Airshafts). Culde=Sacs, age idiuu-4 adhe tosadnaw aa Gaon oma gee ae Oamioearma oes 76, 88, 122 Guisliilig® Placé-ns este conan daaten duean andukbe odeanin waediiea eae Melee eAs 70, 242 D de: Poorest, Robert: Wai ites te aha aes tee sadeachatach wanaa 240 Death (Rates: cainiacauwavs Mee eneemust-aal ai Sena ey eee 30, 32, 81, 99, 218 Degeneration, Physical, Due to Housing Conditions .................... 269, 318 Destruction of Insanitary Dwellings (see Insanitary Dwellings and Con- demnation of Insanitary Dwellings). DICKS “COUnt £agwatiuc oudewd.sesuud abet ades od wOme ake cade gene aS 79 Dilapidation ............63, 64, 65, 74. 81, 84, 86, 94, 95, IOI, 102, 107, 109, I10, 161, 173, 179, 208, 200, 212, 216, 217, 221, 228, 230, 241 DilaprdaOn, -Pictuges avd giles se g. cunlanar sce anbcel id a doteanssie io alesse ecdlanpsebevd ous tach. lends 127 Dispensary, Free, for Consumptives ............. 000 cece ce eens 25 Distributionof Population. ses vane cend scam ga cases vo cae ate ep eeeeas eee 191 Distgict: of ‘Columbia, + .iseeeys nny ees y aaede las pe dnd SERSE2 3 a ee ds as 255, 315 "WM Oiielas Tats iG. see erage cs, Getuel seb /s Foal Y Suciastybybeananaes aise law Bas ana eek 149, 153, 246 “Douglas Flats’ Picture icine ccstanmanatins aoneteascrben det ameiy eas 149, 153 DHCS CEI - Saearece sacs eee sua raene wae ee oe omer ta ean la aes Dee ee one eran ens 314 “Durr Alley” vss aueetasdoeas se acuees eve des a eb eee dee Ghee ee Bate Re 30 Disseld ait, esa taiteenddoasana Ss oh dem sa tienes eee dae eae aoline ae? os 292, 297, 308 Dwellings Unfit for Human Habitation (see Insanitary Dwellings). Dwelling-houses Converted into Tenements ........ I4I1, 162, 165, 167, 182, 228 Dwelling-houses Built by Government ......... 00.0. c cece eect eee nee 287 Dwelling-houses, Improvement Of .......... 00. cece ence nee thee ths alee tes 292 E “Eastern Branch’ (see Anacostia River). Edmonid's: Liaw: cusses tase acaocaeuaueariele swe mtiacs Seed oe cae a Cad eke Mak 214 Ridiiaton nese eee hepa eon dee ne Sanam eee eo yecened iad baead 79, 212, 274 Editeation,. ‘Compulsory os0:¢ a2. cbs cee SES ae ad a Que eA haces anemia meee areas 34 Education of the General Public on Social Questions ................. 271, 272 Education of Tenants, on Care of Homes ........... 0.00000 cece eee eee ee 273 Edweation, in. Practical Hygiene. ccc vise vd os whee Seeded mua adams 273 Education: 111. Séxtial: Matters. c4.2cvaeeed pins apne nWevisaw tegatana faxes 273 Fiiteationy: PaCtUre snagcss wile nin eres 8 OS dee SAAS RE ant ne SO Raa cma peed 49 Elberfeld (Germany), System of, In Charitable Work .............0.020000. 277 Elimination of Alleys, by Condemnation of Insanitary Dwellings ...... 94 to 99 Elimination of Alleys for Commercial Reasons .......... 0.0050 e eee 93, 100, 104 Index 333 PAGH Elimination of Alleys by Legal Conversion into Minor Streets ........ 108, 120 England eaeeaeey 269, 275, 281, 287, 291, 206, 298, 299, 305, 306, 309, 318, 310, 320 English (see England). Entrance: to: Alleys: «ry saasyd duds vests dus wedasedvdac cones. 73, 76, 70, 97, 105 Entrance to Alleys, Picture 00.0000. 0 00 ccc ccccccccccececeeceeccceeee. 106, III BUrOPe. ig eevcdscced ewes 103, 281, 285, 287, 291, 209, 301, 305, 309, 311, 319, 320 Experts Needed to Work out Housing Problems ....................... 280, 282 Experts Needed as Heads of City Departments ........... 000000 cee 000 314 F PActOries stacy ran aaeuianasan puatesma bata a teeta Aaah Peek els 283, 284, 292 SCH try PA re cs ota chav eve ssaces sh diese fataeeda he Gl} abide Peeedoay tice Seles se 13, 211 Fares (see also Transportation) 2.0.0.0... ec cc cece cece cece cucevcceeceee 309 BILE Caracas petit Suciname ie: dad okie Sancuranhbais.