I'l G> R.AR.Y OF THL U NIVER.SI.TY OF ILLINOIS Co D. O CENTRAL CIRCULATION BOOKSTACKS The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was borrowed on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. TO RENEW CALL TELEPHONE CENTER, 333-840O UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN AUG 1 2 1993 V. MAY 2 5 2005 When renewing by phone, write new due date below previous due date. L162 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO REPORT BY THE INVESTIGATING COMMITTEE OF THE CITY HOMES ASSOCIATION TEXT BY ROBERT HUNTER CHICAGO PUBLISHED BY CITY HOMES ASSOCIATION igoi JTijr R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS COMPANY CHICAGO C. o p< PREFACE 7^ ///-,aJ ._ SU !< V ,_ Q ""d 6 ZM a g ore Condition of boxes: Sound 27 C 274. 6: B* Broken - - - on? Io7 T C I7C I 064 Partly filled. ... - 5OO o IQ r 11OA. 24O I 4^.2 Overflowing AA 22 7 7 80 Location: Alley .- _ - - -30 g TCJ. A~\r\ 2^2 i 16^ Sidewalk 2IO 012 2o cei Yard ... - -11 7 I I 4.O House - -- o 2 c Collection : Three to six times a week 84 6? IO 4Q 2IO One or two times a week 71 67 71 I IO 30T Less than once a week 6 21 7 7 41 Not known or renorted _ 421 124 T.C.-2 nn T.lnn These statistics show that in the districts examined there are 1,769 garbage boxes, of which only sixteen are metal and the others are all of wood. This is a little more than one-half the houses. 136 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO One box is nearly always used in common by a front and a rear house. In 238 cases where there was no box on the lot it was reported that the tenants used one near by. In the 355 cases no garbage box at all was found. The absence was accounted for by some of the comments to be quoted later; 1,064, r nearly two-thirds of those reported, were broken. This means usually that the cover was off, and the contents exposed. But not infre- quently the box has fallen to pieces and is utterly useless. The locations of the garbage boxes in 1,659 cases were reported as follows: 1,163 were in the alley; 551, or 33 per cent of all, were on the sidewalk ; 40 were in yards, and 5 were in the house. The garbage box on the sidewalk is seldom seen in Districts 2 and 3, but one-half of all the garbage boxes in District i are on the sidewalks. Especially in those blocks where there is no alley it is customary for the boxes to be placed on the sidewalks. For this reason Polk, Ewing, the north side of Forquer, parts of the Twelfth Place, O'Brien, Thirteenth, Maxwell, Liberty, and Four- teenth streets are lined with garbage boxes. It is impossible to describe adequately the sidewalk garbage box. If regularly cleaned it is bad enough, but if the contents stand for long peri- ods, or only a few shovelfuls at the top are removed, its condition is always foul. Its offensive odor, its ugliness and filthiness, may be only momentarily disgusting to the passer-by, but the residents must suffer it every hour in the day. If it has a top, the children sometimes use it for a play-house by day. On hot nights it is common to see parents escape from their stifling houses, and seek slumber and fresh air, stretched out over its festering con- tents. Five garbage boxes were kept in the houses. In many cases garbage was dumped on porches and in courts and yards. A large brick tenement on Polk, having been built without proper provision for garbage disposal, has several boxes and barrels standing at the door of a central court. For over one hundred people in a four-story tenement, covering almost all of the lot, this is the only provision for the disposal of house refuse. Ten hundred and sixty-four garbage boxes were reported in a broken condition, and eighty were reported in an overflowing condition. Detailed information is given in the following com- ments: TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO '37 Poik Street. "The box is broken and garbage scattered half way across the sidewalk." Alley between Dixon and Holt. "Garbage boxes all broken but one." Ewing Street. "Garbage box thrown into the street; land- lord will not furnish a box." Dekoven Street. "No box, a pile of garbage. Slops thrown out of window." Blue Island Avenue. "As much garbage outside as inside of box." Forquer Street. "Garbage thrown into yard and street." "Garbage thrown into yard." "Thrown directly from windows into alley." Twelfth Place. "Tenants throw garbage into narrow space between houses, causing a bad stench." Maxwell Street. "Garbage piled in hall ; the smell is fearful. " 138 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO Blue Island Avenue. "Garbage mostly thrown on loose heap in alley; part dries and blows broadcast." Blue Island Avenue. "Landlord refuses to supply garbage box, even after order of Board of Health." Several of the comments refer to landlords who refuse to fur- nish adequate garbage receptacles. A single garbage box is not sufficient fora large tenement; but in the following table the reader will see there is an average, in some blocks, of only one box to three houses. Hundreds of tenants have no proper con- veniences in which to empty their garbage. Block Number. Number of Garbage Boxes. Number Dwellings. Population. 41 26 73 917 28 9 27 375 15 25 42 679 17 52 103 1,501 50 77 139 2,327 Differences of opinion existed even in the same neighborhood as to the frequency of the garbage collection. Answers were given in 591 cases, and in thirty-eight per cent fairly satisfac- tory service was indicated of from three to six times a week, in fifty-six per cent of the cases it was once or twice a week, and in six per cent it was less than once a week. The collection is evidently better in Districts 2 and 3 than in District i. In Dis- trict i the boxes were heaped and overflowing in sixty-six cases, while only seven such cases were noticed in each of the other districts. In many cases it was said that the box was not care- fully emptied. A few shovelfuls, it was reported, were taken from the top to keep it from overflowing. This method reduces the number of overflowing boxes, but it permits old matter to remain in the bottom of the boxes for long periods. The ratio of overflowing boxes to all boxes was as one to thirteen in Dis- trict i, as one to fifty-three in District 2, and as one to thirty- seven in District 3. As illustrations of the complaints made, it was said on Desplaines, that the collector "took only the top layer"; on Twelfth, that "the garbage man will not empty the box unless it is full, so it smells bad." The same remark was repeated several times. On Union, it was said that "the garbage TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 139 box has a horrible stench arising from it, residents say it has not been emptied for a long time"; on Dekoven, "that the garbage box has not been emptied for a week ; the people say it is so horrible they want to get away"; on Thirteenth Street it was said several times; "That people are driven indoors by the smell of the garbage boxes; they can't sit on the steps." A number of touching appeals were made to our enumerators by mothers anxious for the welfare of their children. One woman said that she kept her children in the house nearly all the time because of the filth all around. She pleaded with tears in her eyes that some- thing should be done about the garbage collection. It was stated on Twelfth Street that: "A private garbage collector was employed because the city service is unsatisfactory." In order to show more clearly the extremely bad conditions in a particular portion of District i, the number and situation of fehe privies and of the garbage and manure boxes which were found in one alley and a portion of the adjoining alley have been placed on a diagram. The location of the twelve privies will be seen. Besides, in this small section of the block, there are four stables and four manure boxes near the mouth of the blind alley. 140 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO Nearly two hundred persons live in the neighboring houses. The photographs printed herewith illustrate the abominable conditions which exist. The garbage boxes are uncovered and the contents strewn over the alley. The alleys are unpaved and filth of all kinds has accumulated in large quantities. In one place a large pile of manure and trash has been thrown against a barn. The children shown in one picture live in a house of which the old shed is the rear portion. A rear house of two stories with win- dows opening upon the alley is shown in another picture. The air of the people living in this rear tenement comes from this same alley. SHED 8# 25# 16# SHED P SHED SHED STABLE STA- BLE STA- BLE 20#- DIAGRAM SHOWING THE INSANITA] CC )NDITIO NS IN j \N ALLEY 15# PPPPPP 0|0|0|0;0|0| PP lop PP m \ M _ BLIND ALLEY STABLE 121 * :EY G Garbage box. P Privy. :|: Number of persons. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 141 There could hardly be a better illustration of the accumulated evils in a neglected and uncared-for portion of Chicago. All the evils mentioned in the sections on "The Neglect of Garbage" and "Offensive Stables and Manure Boxes," were found com- bined in this small portion of District i. The utter neglect on the part of the municipal authorities, and the irresponsibility of landlords, is shown in the photographs and diagram. MISCELLANEOUS OUTSIDE INSANITARY CONDITIONS Section 7. Many disagreeable and dangerous conditions, which have not been spoken of elsewhere in this chapter, are classed under this head. For a city possessing sanitary laws, the conditions are extraordinary, to say the least. A few of the com- ments of the enumerators will make the nuisances which result from keeping animals in and about tenement-houses explain themselves. The enumerators' comments: Forquer Street. "Chickens kept in yards, several places." Taylor Street. "Seven goats in back yard." Union Street. "Ducks and chickens in yard." Jefferson Street. "Two cows and chickens." Holt Street. "Hogs run loose in yard; Pigeons kept." Noble Street. "Chickens and ducks in yard, bad odor." Noble Street. "Odor from dog kennels where two big dogs are kept." Sixteenth Street. "Ducks in front yard." Throop Street. "Keep poultry in cellar, great odor." In New York a law passed in 1867, and one in Boston, pro- hibits tht "keeping of a horse, cow, or calf, swine or pig, sheep or goat in a tenement-house." * In 1897 the Greater New York charter forbids the keeping of such animals on any part of the premises of tenement-houses.* In 1901 Chicago still retains the village custom. From certain businesses, not cleanly to begin with, accumu- late all sorts of decaying vegetable and animal matter. When an enumerator is driven to call an odor a "terrific smell" in order to describe it, there is some reason for alarm. *Veiller's "Tenement-House Legislation in New York, 1852-1900," page 118. 142 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO Union Street. "Shop and fish market; smell terrific." Jefferson Street. "Odor of butchers' refuse very bad." Thirteenth Street. "Sidewalk a place for chickens and ducks ; fifteen coops in front of house, which is excessively dirty and dilapidated." Thirteenth Street. "Chickens and ducks sold here; feathers flying all about the street." O'Brien Street. "Chicken-coops on sidewalk, poultry in back of yard; very offensive to the neighbors." O'Brien Street. " 'Geese right under the window,' says the tenant. 'You can't sleep nights and it stinks. If you sleep in a room with that right under your head hollering the whole night you can't stand it.' ' Maxwell Street. "Poultry market in basement; sidewalks with feathers and half covered with boxes of chickens." Maxwell Street. "Market in basement horribly dirty; vile smell; sidewalk covered with corn and feathers." Jefferson Street. "Refuse from produce store dumped into broken catch-basin in back yard, and into privy vault. Neighbors complain of rotten eggs and other bad smells about the house." Rag and junk shops and various kinds of depots for refuse materials abound in the Italian and Jewish quarters, and there are a few in the Polish district. Most of these shops have foul odors. Rag-shops particularly are dangerous by communicating disease. They should be prohibited in houses where people live. Laws in other cities forbid rags to be stored in tenement-houses. The comments of the enumerators on shops and upon other con- ditions are printed herewith: Polk Street. "Rag-shops litter the street and make it at times almost impassable. " A Canal Street. "Many back yards covered with musty rags, old sail-cloth spread out to dry. Smell penetrates into all the living-rooms about." Ewing Street. "Stumps of tobacco spread out to dry in several places." Twelfth Street. "Tenants near cap factory say that the odor from it is almost unbearable and makes them sick." Canal Street. "Smoke from the neighboring factories makes bad light and air." TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 143 It will be possible to realize, if one has imagination, how much there is in all of these conditions to degrade the individual. Surrounded by foul conditions, the people almost lose their desire for cleanliness. It is almost impossible for an individual to keep free from the filth of the streets and alleys, the yards, courts, and passageways. The protests of many tenants, compelled to live in these places, are evidence enough of the struggle of many weary housekeepers against the overwhelming odds. The whole chapter is evidence of the pressing need for a municipal cleans- ing. CHAPTER VII SOCIAL PATHOLOGY, DISEASES AND DEATHS THE SOURCES AND VALUE OF THE DATA Section i. The most serious of the evils which result from the tenement-house system are various forms of individual and social degeneration. Happily, the worst conditions in Chicago are of recent origin and consequently those fearful results which come from urban populations living amid surroundings wherever most insanitary and artificial, are not as conspicuously present in Chicago as in certain other cities. But surely no one will doubt that unless active preventive work is soon begun this city will suffer from many of the painful experiences of older cities. Extraordinary sickness, death, pauperism, intemperance, and crime are universally associated with bad housing conditions. Many other cities have been benefited by special studies of these evils and their relation to insanitary dwelling places. The results of these investigations are the severest warning which the older cities may furnish the newer ones. It is to be regretted that in Chicago no studies have yet been made showing the relation of many social diseases to the living and working conditions of the people. There are few things which could be of greater value. The Committee recognized this fact, but in drawing the line some place, it seemed best to make the first inquiry into conditions, a study of the insanitary and dangerous dwelling places them- selves. To show the relation of housing conditions to the death rate and to various forms of social degeneration is in itself a separate and very difficult undertaking.* What is offered, therefore, is obtained mainly from studies made elsewhere and is given merely to show the recognized relation existing between dangerous housing and certain forms of social decay. After all, the results of housing conditions elsewhere must be very much the same as * Report of the New York Tenement-House Commission, 1900, page 72. 144 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO H5 those here. Pauperism, crime, disease, etc., are perhaps increased by conditions here in less degree than in older cities, but they are fed nevertheless from the same sources. POVERTY AND PAUPERISM IN THE TENEMENTS Section 2. The cause or causes of poverty in particular indi- viduals have long interested students in economics and sociology. Philanthropic associations in various cities have also collected much data on the subject. A few years ago, with a few impor- tant exceptions, nearly all who gave thought to the matter agreed that subjective causes, such as drink, laziness, extrava- gance, and incapability were the most important. The testimony of those who gave alms contributed largely to this idea. More recently even charity organizationists have broadened their views of causes. A prominent one, Edward T. Divine, says: * "It is possible that in the analysis of the causes of poverty, emphasis has been placed unduly upon personal causes, such as intemperance, shiftlessness, and inefficiency, as compared with causes that lie in the environment, such as accident, disease resulting from insanitary surroundings, and death of bread-winner due to undermined vitality. Economists have duly recognized the effect of climate upon national efficiency, but climate in the sense in which it affects earning capacity is not simply a ques- tion of latitude. It includes rather all those elements of the immediate physical environment which give vigor, elasticity, buoyancy, and recuperative power. It does its work at night when the worker is asleep, quite as much as when he is employed. That there is a favorable climate in Battery Park at the lower end of Manhattan Island is, therefore, by no means evidence that the toilers who make their homes in New York City are its benefici- aries. The overcrowded, dark, ill-ventilated tenements of New York City have a climate less favorable than that of any other great city. Directly, therefore, in their influence upon the physical well-being of human beings the tenements lessen pro- ductive power and so inevitably increase the number who are unable continuously to make a living. *" Charities," weekly of the New York Charity Organization Society, February 24, 1900, page 3. 146 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO "Their indirect effect upon the standard of living is no less marked. One who lives in an attractive home with plenty of light and air and with pleasant outlook from the windows will instinctively improve the other conditions of living, will work harder to provide decent furniture, will place a higher estimate upon all the decencies and comforts of life." In accord with this view many students have spoken of the influence of housing in causing poverty. Robert Treat Paine, several years ago, wrote that he considered bad housing one of the four most important causes of poverty.* Sickness, often the result of insanitary conditions, causes from 14. 6 per cent to 29.5 percent of the poverty coming under the observation of the New York, Buffalo, Baltimore, Boston, and Cincinnati Charity Organization Societies. But as Dr. Amos G. Warner says: "Sickness is more obvious than bad sanitation." j- Diseased appetites and under- vitalization generated in the tenements, cause most degrading forms of poverty. Among other causes are now classed bad climatic conditions, defective sanitation, and degrading associ- ations and surroundings. The overcrowding, foul air, dark rooms, and insanitary housing conditions, shown in the previous chapters, are the handicaps in the competitive struggle which drag many families into a condition of painful and degrading dependence upon public charity. Insanitary housing conditions reduce industrial efficiency, promote exhaustion and weariness, and are potent causes in the growth of a large, dependent class. Pauperism is a different thing from poverty. A pauper legally is he who receives public aid. Charity Organizationists con- sider a pauper one who has a craven, dependent spirit, and willingly receives repeated and perhaps unnecessary aid. A pauper, in the legal sense, may be one constrained because of illness or other reason to accept relief. But he will not be a pauper in the sense of the Charity Organizationist providing he retains his independence and asserts it as soon as possible. In the sense of the latter especially the tenement produces paupers. It destroys the spirit of independence. It cannot be said that the mass of tenements in these dis- * Pamphlet, "Causes of Poverty." t Warner's American Charities, pages 29 and 34. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 147 tricts are in such condition as to be an active cause of poverty or pauperism. Occasionally, however, in. tenements broken, dilapidated, and devoid of almost everything wholesome, with dirt and evident overcrowding, you will find all the condi- tions which make paupers and beggars. Even if insanitary conditions did not weaken the families, the evil associations would do so. For the pauper attitudes and customs are contagious. A single pauper family in a tenement may be looked down upon. But two or three such families set the standard and the getting of free coal and groceries is emu- lated. The Bureau of Charities knows of houses in which every family is pauperized. Houses are known from which paupers have been evicted; but the new families which move in sooner or later apply for relief. Certain tenements have housed scores of families dependent on charity. The contagion is interestingly shown by the fact that the people in certain tenements all receive aid from the county, while in a neighboring house the inhabitants have applied only to the Bureau of Charities. In this way pauper- ism sometimes spreads throughout an entire tenement. Self-sup- porting families often apply unnecessarily for aid simply because others in the same house receive assistance. Begging children frequently encourage their playmates to beg with them. It is this moral degeneration, going on in the bad tenements, which presents a worse aspect than even sickness. INTEMPERANCE AND BAD HOUSING Section 3. Intemperance is caused by bad housing in very much the same way as pauperism. The saloon is attractive. It is warm in winter; it is cool in summer. It is clean, not over- crowded, and is well lighted. It is in marked contrast to small rooms overcrowded, badly ventilated and lighted. The "home- less" tenement causes the greatest amount of intemperance. It is almost unbearable while awake to stay in a close and disagreeable apartment. To leave the home is to go to the only "common" in the neighborhood. For the saloon preaches the lesson of hospitality. No one is denied. Intemperance, there- fore, is often the cost of a cheerful place to spend the even- ings. Recognizing this, a legislative committee in New York, 148 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO appointed in 1866, recommended "the prevention of drunken- ness by providing every man with a clean and comfortable home." * The men who live in the poorest tenements are usually those who do the hardest and most disagreeable kinds of work. Stu- dents of inebriety have given attention to drunkenness as caused by occupations, but the work of a man consumes only a part of his day after which he returns to his home with his strength spent and physically depressed. He may be entertained at a theater if he can afford it, but he is more apt to seek the cheaper attractions of the saloon, not always because his house is small, but because it is unattractive. Furthermore the demands which insanitary conditions invariably make upon the human body cause a craving for stimulants. Dr. Norman Kerr, the eminent specialist on inebriety, saysf that "bad hygienic conditions, ill-ventilated, and overcrowded dwellings, from the vitiated state of the air within them, occasion languor and sluggishness which leads to functional derangement and produces a profound feeling of depression which, in many cases, predisposes and excites to intemperance in alcohol. This is purely a physical process, the blood is imper- fectly aerated and charged with excess of carbonic oxide. ******* "CrothersJ detected the influence of bad sanitation, unsuit- able food and surroundings and neglect in thirty-eight out of five hundred cases. My own observation in England, including about three per cent of all my cases among the very poor, puts the pro- portion at about twenty-five per cent." As for the actual drunkenness which exists in these districts, it is very hard to speak accurately. There are many other dis- tricts where drunkenness is far worse. In certain vile tenements here, as elsewhere, almost everybody, men, women, and older children, are habitual drunkards. Very often the men are regu- larly at work, but their evenings and earnings are spent in saloons. It is safe to say that it will be the cheer of better homes and the gymnastic and sporting features of playgrounds, * Reynold's Housing of the Poor, page 22. t" Inebriety," page 167. JDr. T. D. Crothers, Walnut Lodge Hospital, Hartford, Conn. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 149 parks, and baths which will one day take the place of the warmth, light, and companionship of the saloon. CRIME IN THE HOMELESS, YARDLESS TENEMENTS Section 4. Crime also is caused by the conditions which exist in the worst tenement-houses. Bad hygienic conditions, evil associations, and the collapse of home life produce criminals. For the purpose of showing how bad conditions in Chicago really are, these districts are by no means sufficiently representative of the worst. The Italians, Jews, Poles, and Bohemians here lose to criminality many children, but not in the same awful way as their brothers and sisters in other portions of the city. The effect upon these peoples in the First Ward, for instance, is most pathetic. Coming to us ignorant, but honest and simple-minded, they seek out the tenements whose rents have been lowered by vicious inhabitants. Thousands of Jewish, Polish, and Italian children are growing up in tenements inhabited by the wretchedly poor, by drunkards, criminals, and immoral women. Almost every word these growing children hear, and every action they see, corrupts their minds and destroys forever their purity of heart. No one who becomes a part of the life of these tene- ments can escape their contaminated and corrupt atmosphere. Let any one who doubts look into the demoralization of little children going on along South Clark Street and Custom House Place, Dearborn Street, Armour and Pacific Avenues from Harri- son to Twenty-second Street. It was to just such places as these that Dr. Elisha Harris referred when he said before the New York legislative committee of 1866:* "The younger criminals seem to come almost exclusively from the worst tenement-house districts. When the riot occurred in 1863, every hiding place and nursery of crime discovered itself by immediate and active par- ticipation in the operations of the mob. Those very places and domiciles, and all that are like them, are to-day nurseries of crime, and of the vices and disorderly courses which lead to crime. By far the largest part, eighty per cent at least, of the crimes against property and against the person are perpetrated by individuals who have either lost connection with home life or * Jacob Riis' " How the Other Half Lives," page i. 15 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO never had any, or whose homes have ceased to be sufficiently separate, decent, and desirable to afford what are regarded as ordinary wholesome influences of home and family." Although written in 1866 this is applicable to Chicago to-day. Every state- ment could be sustained by actual facts. The evil associations in the worst tenements and the collapse of home life just spoken of are reinforced as evil influences by the insanitary conditions. For, as Dr. Frederick H. Wines says, in his recent book:* "In- sanitary conditions, especially in the most crowded centers of population, are a cause of crime, because they weaken the vital- ity of those who might otherwise successfully contend against these criminal tendencies." In the districts investigated are present all of the influences just mentioned. They are less patent perhaps than in a few other places in Chicago. For instance, the collapse of home life, because freer from contact with vicious surroundings, is here seldom so complete as one finds it in the tenements in the First Ward. When it does occur it is mainly due to industrial reasons. For example, when the parents are both employed, or are working long hours, their influence upon the children is very slight, and they are left to range at will in the tenement and street. This freedom can hardly be good for them, for in the crowded quarters of the yardless tenement, the children suffer manifold restrictions and are in contact with conditions, physical and moral, which predispose them to criminality. Because of these and other reasons the juvenile criminality of these districts is enormous. Crowded in the tenements where the bedrooms are small and often dark; where the living-room is also a kitchen, laundry, and often a garment-making shop, are the growing chil- dren whose bodies cry out for exercise and play. They are often an irritant to the busy mother and likely as not the object of her carping and scolding. The teeming tenements open their doors and out into the dark passageways and courts, over the foul alleys and upon broken sidewalks, flow ever-renewed streams of playing children. Under the feet of passing horses, under the wheels of passing street cars, jostled about by the pedestrian, driven on by the policeman, threatened by the grocer, without rights any- where, they annoy everyone. They crowd about the music or *" Punishment and Reformation," page 275. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 151 drunken brawls in the saloons, they play hide-and-seek about the garbage boxes, they "shoot craps" in the alleys, they seek always and everywhere activity, movement, life. This using the main open spaces as playgrounds is critically called "the street habit." But both it and "the gang habit," are at first perfectly innocent and natural results of the crowded tenements and of the universal necessity for play. In the failure to satisfy this need of the children with properly equipped mu- nicipal playgrounds, the street habit and the gang habit become the causes of a large percentage of juvenile crime. Sneak thievery and many other forms of vice and wickedness run their course in these gangs of the tenements with the epidemic power. For to contagious disease of all sorts tenements furnish the line of the least resistance. Now a healthy expression in play of the mental, physical, and moral faculties of the children of the tenements is at present almost impossible. In consequence they break windows, they ring door-bells, they steal, they annoy everyone, they especially rejoice in "making it warm" for the unpopular neighbor who displeases them. Without the saving influence of an attractive home or playground they obtain from street life the mental and moral food they require. It impresses itself upon them and they reproduce it all; gambling, drinking, the vaudeville, the fighting, the torch-light processions, whatever they see, good or bad alike, they imitate. It is in this spirit of play that the children commit most of their petty crimes. When one of them is caught stealing he is brought to the juvenile court. He is taken away from father and motV.er and the tenement and sent to the John Worthy School, where he is put behind iron bars and uniformed guards are placed over him, just as if he were a wild animal. And this is often the innocent beginning of a life of crime. For the cause of it all we must go back partly at least to the overcrowded, yard- less, and homeless tenement. The boys become criminals because it can almost be said that in these districts the only things to do worthy of a boy's spirit are those things which are against the law. At any rate the victim of overcrowding sees little differ- ence between the laws which prevent him from "flipping" on and off street cars or playing ball in the streets, and those which pro- I5 2 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO hibit truancy, stealing, etc. He does see that whatever depends upon bravado, which all boys love, is looked down upon by the policeman. The causes of crime are many, but among the im- portant ones are the evil association of the tenement, the bad sanitary conditions, the collapse of home life, and lastly, the yardless tenement itself. SICKNESS AND INSANITARY CONDITIONS Section 5. It is, however, in sickness and death that the tene- ment-house evil exacts its chief tribute from the people. Always and everywhere overcrowding, bad air, dark rooms, and other insanitary conditions cause physical breakdown. The "Testi- mony on the Evils of Overcrowding," Chapter III., Section i, need not be repeated here"; but it will be recalled. The intimacy of the people of tenement-houses makes the spread of disease there almost unpreventable. Not necessarily of smallpox, which receives extraordinary attention from the Board of Health, but of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, and diseases of other kinds. The dread contagion, tuberculosis, growing so fast in all large cities, is in particular caused and fostered by the tenement-house system. The relation of the tenement to this particular disease, is becoming of great interest. Dr. S. A. Knopf, before the New York Tenement-House Exhibition of 1900, in a very instructive paper, said : * "If I should be asked what conditions are most conducive to the propagation of tuberculosis and especially pulmonary con- sumption, I would have to reply, the conditions that prevail in the old-fashioned tenement-houses as they still exist by the thou- sand in this and other large cities. In these tenements there are not only a far greater number of consumptives than in the same area elsewhere, but the proportion is actually greater per number of inhabitants. Thus they not only contain countless centers of infection for old and young, and multiple foci of reinfection for those already afflicted, but these dwellings with their bad air, darkness, and filth make a cure of the disease impossible and a lingering death for all those infected by the germ of tuberculosis a certainty. If anyone thinks me an alarmist, let him glance at * Pamphlet, "Tuberculosis in the Tenements," page i. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 153 the charts exhibited in this building. There he will see that there are houses in which can be counted as many as twenty con- secutive cases of tuberculosis during the last four years. This number represents, however, only the cases reported to the Board of Health. Now, you must not think for a moment that these represent the actual number of cases of tuberculosis existing in that particular tenement. They are only the ones where the dis- ease had so far advanced that medical aid became imperative, a physician had 1o be called in, and the case was reported. But how many of the moderately advanced cases are made known to either physician or Board of Health? I venture to say those not reported are more numerous than the reported ones. They con- stitute that class of pulmonary invalids who are still able to work, and who imagine themselves to be suffering only from chronic bronchitis, and the equally large number of children suffering from tubercular manifestations other than pulmonary. To the uninitiated it may sound like a paradox when I say that the tubercular invalid who is still up and about, perhaps supporting his family, is often the greatest danger to the community, to his friends, his neighbors, and to those who may succeed him in the tenement he lives in. It is this class of consumptives, which, from either ignorance or carelessness, spread their disease broad- cast by depositing their infectious sputum everywhere without any regard to the danger." But aside from contagious diseases, the insanitary conditions of tenement-house life cause forms of debility and exhaustion. Lord Shaftesbury said,* before the Lords Committee on Housing that "the Board of Health instituted inquiries in the low neigh- borhoods to see what was the amount of labor lost in the year, not by illness, but by sheer exhaustion and inability to do work. It was found that upon the lowest average every workman or workwoman lost about twenty days in the year from simple exhaustion, and the wages thus lost would go toward paying an increased rent for a better house." That deterioration in health which often does not figure in the death rates is perhaps the most striking result of bad housing. From the purely economic point of view the cost to working people of insanitary dwellings is enormous. A sick rate would * Report of Lords Committee on Housing, page 4. 154 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO be far more accurate than a death rate as a basis upon which to judge the costs to the people of the tenement-house system. Dr. E. R. L. Gould says:* "The economic value of sanitary reform has never been fully appreciated. The loss to any nation by allowing insanitary conditions to prevail is simply tremendous. It is likewise twofold. There is in the first place a great waste of productive power which might otherwise be utilized; and secondly there is the expense of maintenance of hospitals and pauper institutions, a large number of the inmates of which are recruited through sickness caused by unhealthy living environ- ment. " In speaking of this subject it is safe to say that the experience of all cities is more or less common. The cost of weariness and various forms of sickness to the working people of Chicago is doubtless greater than any estimate based on this investigation would indicate. No inquiries were made concerning the sick- ness which existed in the district; therefore, any conclusions which could be drawn from the inquiry would be based upon the observation of the enumerators and upon those complaints which were offered voluntarily by the people. It is hardly worth while to go into these data. It is safe to conclude that however much or little sickness has resulted from the housing problem in the past, its importance is slight compared with the increase which invariably follows the growth of the double-decker. DEATH RATES IN NEGLECTED DISTRICTSf Section 6. It is well known that the published death rate in Chicago is below that of other large cities, and this fact has in- spired efforts to impeach the accuracy of the records of the Health Department. So far as the present investigation has dealt with this subject quite incidentally nothing, except the fact that contrary to the practice of many cities no account is taken of deaths occurring within twenty-four hours after birth, has been found to justify the assertion that the Health Depart- ment's vital statistics establish an unfairly low death rate for the * Report of National Bureau of Labor on Housing, page 423. fThe wards mentioned in this section are necessarily referred toby their old numbers. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 155 whole city. It is, however, undoubtedly the fact that, perhaps because of insufficient appropriation, the records of the local health office are kept in a most antiquated way and afford very meager information. The Health Department of a large city performs one of the most valuable functions of the governmental service. It has to do with the life and death of a community. In its office are filed by law all of the important facts concerning the cause of death, the age, etc., of each decedent. It is particularly important for the wel- fare of the community that none of these facts should be neg- lected. Municipalities should require a perfect ordering of the material collected and its classification in various forms fitted to convey most successfully to the people a knowledge of the pre- cautions which are necessary to save human life. In Chicago deaths are recorded alphabetically and registered in huge volumes. No other classification than this is observed. Such a method of filing effectually buries an enormous accumulation of extremely valuable material and makes it inaccessible even to those most interested. For instance, to find the death rate in a particular block or group of houses, is the work of weeks. The history of deaths in particular houses is therefore totally lost, even to the Health Commissioner. Charts and maps, so common in foreign cities, showing the progress of diseases in particular localities and their relation to bad housing and dwellings without sewerage, with foul privies and low undrained lots, are absent from the local records. There are houses in the districts investigated in which a large number of deaths occurred last year, and blocks where the death rate was as high as thirty-seven per thousand. But at present such districts and blocks are unknown to the Department. It is obvious that unless a system of cataloguing is adopted in which deaths may be registered in several different classifications, it will be impossible for Chicago to have such information concerning its mortality statistics as will enable it to deal effectively with local or neighborhood conditions. In perfecting the local statistics it is also necessary to have facts which only a census of the entire population can furnish. For this reason it is of the greatest importance that the school census should be taken as much for the benefit of the Department of Health as for the Board of Education. For the use of the I5 6 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO Health Department, facts should be obtained concerning the name, age, sex, race, and occupation of each person and the loca- tion of his dwelling; that is, whether front or rear. Totals should be made of these facts for each block in Chicago. If this information were gathered and the records of the Health Depart- ment made to conform, the vital statistics of Chicago would pass beyond the stage of vague generalization and approach scientific accuracy. It is, however, necessary to say that students of vital statistics have encountered great difficulty in reaching satisfac- tory conclusions as to the degree to which any one cause is responsible for death. But great advances might be made in showing the relation between insanitary and bad housing condi- tions and mortality rates if further progress were made along the above lines in the collection of vital statistics. The difficulties of the subject are so great that in the report of the New York Tenement-House Commission of 1900 no attempt is made to draw any definite conclusions from mortality statistics. How far bad housing conditions contribute to the death rate is certainly a sub- ject upon which no absolutely scientific deductions can be made. The mortality rates of Chicago have long been collected and published according to wards. This in itself makes it impossible to show the relation of mortality rates to housing conditions, because conditions may, and in fact do, vary widely in the same ward. For instance, there is one ward in the city which has a well to do and well housed population with a death rate of about nine per thousand, a colored community with a death rate of twenty-eight per thousand, and a death rate for the other resi- dents of twelve. The mortality of the whole ward, when the average is drawn, is low in spite of the high death rate among the colored population. Ward death rates become in such cases as this a generalization which conceals a high mortality in cer- tain portions of the ward. In another ward there is a very insanitary district, where the death rate may be in all probability forty per thousand, but in a rural community adjoining in the same ward the rate is doubtless not more than seven per thousand. For the entire ward, therefore, the mortality may be about twenty- three per thousand. What are the reasons for the difference in death rates between the Eleventh Ward and the neighboring Eighteenth TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 157 Ward? The first has a death rate of 12.9 and the second one of ninety per cent greater. To what is due this shocking difference? There is no explanation given by the Department of Health. Yet certain conclusions may be asserted with reasonable confi- dence. Fifteen wards, eight of which border on the limits of the city, have death rates not exceeding 12.76 per thousand; while nine river wards have a mortality of from sixteen to twenty-three per thousand. To what is this difference due? Why is it pos- sible that nearly twice as many persons per thousand die in one portion of the city as in another? In the river wards, which are also, generally speaking, tenement wards, certain blocks covered by this investigation had a death rate as high as 31.03 and 37.17 per thousand, and among the people in certain insanitary tene- ments in these blocks there was a fearful mortality. Such a strik- ing contrast between the mortality rates which exist in one part of the city, where sanitary rules and regulations are observed, and those of another part of the city, where the sanitary conditions are abominable, would indicate very clearly that to a certain extent the death rates differed because of the varying degrees of sanitation. Death rates of a great city should be gathered for the purpose of showing the difference which exists in various portions of the city having the same characteristics (irrespective of the local ward boundaries) so that the influences of drainage, habitation, nationality, etc., upon mortality would appear. It is, however, impossible with the facts now at hand, to explain the causes of the difference in death rate in the various wards of Chicago. As the comparison between the various wards of the city may result in erroneous notions, so the comparison of vital statistics of Chicago with those of other cities is likely to result in inaccu- racies. For example, the local death rate cannot be compared with those of Southern cities. Such a comparison fosters a wrong impression, because Chicago's death rate should naturally be lower than those of Southern cities, since the colored people, who make up so large a proportion of the population in the South, have an enormous death rate. In order to compare the death rate of Chicago with death rates elsewhere, it is necessary to determine the mortality rate of the various nationalities, and the death rate per thousand of all persons living in certain age 158 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO periods. Further reference will presently be made to these sub- jects, but just here it may be suggested that the mortality rates should be obtained for children under one year, for children under five years, for persons between the ages of five and ten years, and so on until the age limit is reached. Death rates gathered in the various cities on such a basis could be compared so as to avoid serious errors. There is another consideration which invalidates comparisons between cities. Chicago's rate is often compared with that of cities like Boston, which do not include within their boundaries many surrounding districts that are practically portions of the various municipalities. The comparison of rates between this city and cities of that sort is hardly justified. In Boston only the densest portion of a large urban and suburban district is included in the city limits, while Chicago includes in its boundaries many sparsely settled and almost rural wards. A low death rate in these outlying districts considerably lowers the average death rate of Chicago. If a true comparison were made, Chicago would be compelled to drop out several suburban wards where the death rate is extremely low. Still, the question will be asked, Do conditions here urgently demand reform? Chicago as a whole has fewer deaths per thou- sand than the other great centers of population in the country; is there, then, any pressing reason for remedying the conditions which have been shown to exist by this Report? To such ques- tions the answer is that there is every reason for reform. To be sure, there are climatic influences here which, other things being equal, will always tend to keep down the death rate; such are the proximity of the city to a large body of fresh water, and especially the searching south wind, which in hot weather con- sumes animal and vegetable corruption and is even life-giving as compared with the heavy humidity that in other localities satu- rates the summer atmosphere. Besides this, Chicago has a large population of Jews, among whom the death rate is low. A curious illustration of this is found in a comparison of the vital statistics of two of the river wards. In the old Seventh the death rate is only 11.99 per thousand, while in the neighboring ward it is 45.9/6 higher. The sanitary conditions of both wards are as bad as possible, but in the ward with a low death rate the Jews live. The only known cause for the difference in death rate in these TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 159 two wards is the difference in nationality. There is still another reason why the general death rate is materially reduced, and it lies in the fact that any child not living to be twenty-four hours old is not registered as having died. But despite all of these various influences which are at work in keeping the death rate low, the rate varies so enormously in different wards as to prove forcibly the necessity for reform. The ill-housed people, those living in insanitary conditions, and those living in conditions most unfavorable to life, have such high death rates as to neces- sitate on the part of public-spirited citizens an investigation into the conditions in which they live. But even if the difference in death rate were not great and the death rate should not be the only criterion by which to determine the welfare of a commu- nity there are other reasons for reform. The evils apparent in Chicago tenement-house districts are prolific of misery, crime, and moral degradation, to say nothing of disease in forms which sap vitality without inducing death. However, the tenement-house problem in Chicago is, in its most important aspect, one of prevention, comparatively simple if dealt with now, but full of danger for the future. For there is a set of influences tending to lower the death rate here which must in time be expected to disappear. For instance, the factor of favorable age distribution may be but temporary. Chicago has an enormous population between the ages of five and forty- five years, at which time the death rate is extremely low. A large proportion of this class are sturdy emigrants, and the strongest and ablest of the young men and women from the farms of this and neighboring states. When ill, especially with diseases like consumption, the unmarried ones often return to their homes to die. The vast population of Chicago (which, it must be re- membered, has doubled in the last fifteen years) is perhaps, to a greater extent than that of any other great city, made up of new- comers who have been here a comparatively short time. They are the first generation in the city and have excellent resistance when placed in insanitary surroundings resistance due to the youth and strength and energy which are always found in the mass of those who seek new homes. Is it to be doubted that this vital advantage will steadily dwindle as time passes? Still another thing which has kept the death rate "low is the condition of the 160 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO tenements in Chicago. In Manchester, England, the death rate exceeds that of New York and the difference is largely due to the fact that there are in the former city, which has very old tenement districts, many houses fairly alive with germs accumu- lated through generations, not to be long resisted by the hardiest constitutions. And if the current tendencies in Chicago be not checked, Manchester conditions will become Chicago condi- tions. Tenement-houses in Chicago are still largely old, frame buildings, affording a good quantity of light and air. As ground becomes more valuable and the frame dwellings become unin- habitable, they will surely be replaced more and more by the dark and overcrowded double-decker, if this form of tenement is not prohibited by law. Such considerations as these emphasize the serious nature of the problem with which the people of Chicago must deal. For it is true to-day, and the truth if not dealt with now will grow in significance as time passes, that to a very large extent, at least, the people who die in neglected wards in excess of the natural quota of deaths, die because of neglect. As William Farr, the eminent student of vital statistics, said long ago: "If the people were shot, drowned, burned, poisoned by strychnine, their deaths would not be more unnatural than deaths wrought clandestinely by disease in excess of the quota of natural deaths." * * Vital Statistics, William Farr, page 148. CHAPTER VIII. CONCLUSION A REVIEW OF REMEDIAL EFFORTS THE HOUSING PROBLEM AND THE LACK OF PREVENTIVE MEASURES IN CHICAGO Section i. Those who have read the foregoing chapters will realize how many municipal problems are associated with that of housing. The conditions presented in these pages represent those in which the great majority of working people of low wages are compelled to live. Two and even three tenements are placed on certain lots, until either in this way or by entirely covering the land with one house, it is made to yield maximum profits. Under the faulty administration of the law, landlords can now build dark rooms with impunity. Basements, dilapidated cot- tages, tenements unfit for habitation, and houses with danger- ously defective plumbing are used as dwellings. In addition to these conditions directly connected with the dwellings, there is great neglect of streets, alleys, and sidewalks, of garbage, etc., which result in disagreeable and unhealthful surroundings. Many of these evils have long prevailed, but the worst of all is a new one, the double-decker. Any foreshadowing of the future on the basis of this inquiry must recognize the increase of this most unwholesome form of tenement and suggest measures for its prohibition. Chicago has no intelligible, well-planned building and sanitary code. Complicated and contradictory ordinances are common. The laws concerning sanitation and the building of new tene- ments are not classified and published in cheap form so that they may be put to use by the residents of Settlements, the Visiting Nurses, the Bureau of Charities, and others.* Representatives from these various charities are constantly inspecting tenement- *A11 the city ordinances are codified and printed down to 1897. The Citv Homes Association has secured from the City Hall the codifying of the Health arid Building Laws from that date to the present, and hopes very soon to have them printed. 161 162 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO house premises and wishing to prevent and check insanitary con- ditions. Without some ready method of referring to the statutes and ordinances on building and sanitation, the public is quite helpless either to assist the city departments or to learn how far city officials enforce existing regulations. Chicago is both uninformed and unprepared for the future. The new evils of crowded areas, dark and overcrowded rooms, lack of thorough ventilation, houses too dilapidated for use, and many others, are not to be prevented or effectively restricted by the present laws. To prevent these evils definite laws should be enacted. At present the details of the sanitary construction of all new buildings are left largely to the "discretion" of our Health Department. It is easy to see in what a difficult position these officials are placed. It would take a singularly brave and honest department to force upon a landlord with political influence and power a series of restrictions which are left for enforcement to the "discretion" of the department. With present political ideas it would never be "discreet" to enforce the very laws which are now the ones most needed in Chicago. To leave the control of the construction of all future dwellings to the "discretion" of the Health Department, places upon it alone the responsibility for deciding whether or not there will be in twenty years a slum of double-deckers. In other words, if the six hundred tenements built each year in Chicago are to be a benefit instead of an injury to the city, there must be a compre- hensive code of laws which will insure, if enforced, light, air, and a sufficient amount of space to every human being. It is easier to prevent than to reform. It is simpler and less expensive to check in its infancy the anti-social tendency of certain classes of property owners than it is to spend millions of dollars to destroy, remodel, or renovate their insanitary property. The most im- portant reason for an adequate code of laws is, that very great preventive work is possible. THE TREND OF ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION IN OLDER CITIES Section 2. Those cities which have suffered severely by the tenement-house problem have all developed three lines in a pro- tective policy. First, supervision and regulation of new tenement- TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 163 house building is planned so as to permit no new building which will be injurious to the community. Second, tenements danger- ous to health are demolished or altered and renovated. Third, regular supervision and inspection of tenements is carried on for the purpose of preventing conditions which endanger the public health. Except for the second of these activities, Chicago has already made a tentative beginning. But for some reason, perhaps the lack of co-ordination in the activities of the various 'municipal and state departments, many weaknesses exist in administrative efforts. Several different departments are depended upon for the enforcement of the laws regarding tenement and lodging house construction and regulation. The Building Department, the State Factory Inspectors, the State Board of Health, the City Board of Health, and the Bureau of Streets and Alleys, and other official bodies now divide the responsibility. Each one of these various departments is burdened with numberless other duties and only a portion of its time can be given to the consider- ation of tenement-house evils. The French, with their remarkable gift for classifying and systematizing all efforts, established in Paris several decades ago a permanent commission of experts, including physicians, archi- tects, and engineers, whose sole duty is the supervision of dwell- ing-houses. Between the years 1872 and 1892 the Commission des Logements Insalubres secured the alteration, improvement, or destruction of fifteen thousand houses and in this manner affected the lives of about a half a million people.* Paris was first to see that the housing question was of sufficient importance to require the services of a special commission devoted to this "single feature of sanitary administration." The London County Council has, after a certain fashion, followed the leadership of Paris and appointed a committee on "Public Health and Housing, "f This committee has taken a broad view of the housing problem. It has seen that the question of furnish- ing the people "room to live" is the most serious municipal prob- lem of the century. It means the redistribution of a population of over a million people. It involves the question of a cheap and *Albert Shaw's Municipal Government in Europe, pages 90-92. [Shaw's Municipal Government in Great Britain, page 288. 164 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO quick suburban train service; the regulation of factories situated in the central portions of the city, and the prevention of the old evils arising within growing suburbs. In a word, the whole time of that committee is given to the work of managing on large and comprehensive lines the sanitary housing of London's population. Your committee would recommend careful consideration of these efforts to place upon a single responsible body the duties of regulating the existing tenements, of controlling the new build- ings, and of rationally grouping the population of Chicago. There are really magnificent opportunities in this city for a com- mittee with such powers. With architects and men of business and science on such a board, we could look forward to what every citizen wants, a healthy and well built city. The New York Tenement-House Commission is now planning a body whose duties will be extended even beyond the ones indicated here.* Their plan makes the commission assume, so far as tenements are con- cerned, the duties of the Health Department. There may be objections to a plan of this sort, which will be seen upon a more careful study, and at this time a consideration only of these previous efforts is urged, as affording suggestions which may be of great interest and value. THE NEW LAWS MOST NECESSARY AND THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR INSPECTION Section 3. Quite outside of the question of administrative reform, a few new laws are necessary to prevent the building of harmful tenements and gradually to secure good types of tene- ment-house construction. That this is most important should be realized at once, for in 1895, 957 new tenements were constructed ; in 1896, 562 tenements; in 1897, 531 tenements, and in 1898, 410 tenements. These facts illustrate what power the Health and Building departments of Chicago could exert in preventing evils. But plans of each of these 2,460 tenement buildings were inspected by these departments before the tenements were constructed, and yet this inquiry shows that of this number many tenements were improperly constructed and insanitary. The main fault with the present law is, that too much is left to the "discretion" *See advance sheets of its report, page 38. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 165 of the officials. Chicago doubtless needs some additional legis- lation on the subject of tenements. A limit should be placed upon the proportion of land which may be covered by buildings, and upon the height of tenements. Stringent requirements for lighting and ventilating all habitable rooms are needed, since a prevention of the further growth of dark and badly ventilated rooms is most important. A law is needed which, in its logical outcome, will restrict overcrowding. Laws should provide for a certain number of cubic feet of air- space for each individual. Perhaps the most successful method now in use to prevent overcrowding of apartments is the one established in many English cities. Some of the dwellings most often found overcrowded are ticketed by the local authorities. By this method a card or ticket is exhibited upon the tenement showing that no more than a certain number of people are per- mitted to dwell in it. It enables the inspector, when making an investigation, to know exactly how many people should be per- mitted to dwell in a particular tenement. A more thorough plan of making certain that landlords obey the law is a plan for licens- ing tenement-houses. This is being very generally urged in New York City. By this method all tenements are made to pay a yearly fee of a few dollars. If any of the sanitary laws are vio- lated, then the licenses are revoked and the tenement-houses closed. This plan has two great advantages. First, it assists the city in its control, and second, if applied to all tenement- houses, new and old, it supplies a sufficient fund to carry on the work of an efficient corps of inspectors. Perhaps the next most important matter is the necessity for some authority to demolish dangerous tenements. In 1895 a law, which is in substance a section of the English Hous- ing of the Working Classes Act of 1890, was passed in New York.* In 1897, Mayor Quincy, of Boston, copied this New York expropriation act. As Jacob Riis says in "A Ten Years' War," page 72: "It provides for the seizure of buildings that are dangerous to public health or unfit for human habitation, and their destruction, upon proper proof, with compensation to the owner on a sliding scale down to the point of entire unfitness, when he is entitled to the value of the material in his house." * See Charter Greater New York, Chapter 567, Section 7. 166 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO Many houses have been demolished in both cities under this law. No compensation is given to owners, because it is held that the owner of property unfit for habitation has no claim for damages. If a new method of administration and a new and model code of laws were obtained in Chicago, the city would be little advanced beyond its present situation if inspection and enforcement were wanting. In the administration of sanitary and housing laws for the regulation of existing tenements, great improvement can be made. Regular and frequent inspection of all tenements should be undertaken. The inspectors employed at present are able to do little more than report upon complaints. This, of course, handicaps the department. It has been repeatedly said that laws were not enforced. Some laws of vital importance to the public health seem to be entirely ignored. In commenting upon the lack of enforcement, it is not meant that the Board of Health or other departments of the city government are entirely to blame. Undoubtedly the number of inspectors should be enlarged in order to enforce the laws now on our statute books. To be sure, the work of inspection decreases when the public realizes that there is a determination to enforce laws. It would be diffi- cult, therefore, to say how many inspectors, clerks, and other officials would be necessary to properly enforce the old and the laws here proposed. It is, however, an economy to have a suffi- cient force to execute the important duties of the Health and Building departments, for, above all, in sanitary measures there is economy in quick and heroic action. THE NEED OF SMALL PARKS AND GARDENS Section 4. There are other reforms necessary than those con- cerning mere tenement-house construction and management. The subject of open air-spaces in the crowded districts should occupy a chapter by itself, as so much is to be said of vivid interest on this topic. The National Bureau of Labor* after its investigation seven years ago made the statement that Chicago's tenement-house districts have fewer yard spaces than similar districts in Phila- * See page 96 of the Report of the National Bureau of Labor on Slums of Great Cities. 168 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO delphia, New York, or Baltimore. This is so startling that it has been doubted by many people, and it is to be regretted that the present investigation could not thoroughly cover the whole sub- ject for the city. However, there were no parks or playgrounds in the districts covered to report upon, and there are very few in the whole city. What open spaces there are consist of little more than streets and alleys, small yards, passages, and courts. A few vacant lots exist, but they are not available for use by the public, and are, in many cases, so low and damp and filled with rubbish that they would be of little service if free to the use of the neighborhood. In some parts of Chicago, populations with a density of from three hundred to nearly five hundred persons per acre live with- out a single open space near them, and on summer evenings the people, leaning from the windows, sitting upon the steps, the curb, and the wooden garbage boxes, and walking up and down the streets in crowds, are proof enough of the need of small accessible parks or "places." At present the only alternative to walking about and sitting in these streets, which seems to many of these incomers from cleaner foreign towns impossible to bear, is a trip over car lines for miles to find a spot of open garden. This, on account of the expense, is impossible to vast numbers of these families with young children. The utter absence of beauty in these districts is a condi- tion almost as important as the sanitary and social sides of the subject. In District i there are but fifty-eight trees. About the same number exist in the Polish district, and only twenty-eight were found in the Bohemian quarter. The accompanying print illustrates the charm bestowed by even a few straggling willows and poplars in districts otherwise unattractive and bare. There were found but 266 small gardens for 2,117 dwellings. Most of these were less than ten feet square. Many large cities see the necessity of furnishing numerous breathing-spaces in the heart of congested districts. The Ger- man cities have done most in this direction. Berlin has nearly one hundred open spaces within the city limits. Munich has forty-two, Breslau thirty-six, and Hamburg fifty-seven. Paris has about the same number of small parks as Berlin and has cut wide tree-bordered boulevards through tenement quarters. Glas- 17 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO gow, besides thirteen large parks, has fourteen small recreation grounds. The London County Council has established over forty of these small breathing-spaces.* Mr. Roy Maltbie, in a monograph on Municipal Functions, published by the Reform Club of New York, says that:f "The first public open-air gymnasium in the world was maintained by the City of Boston in one of its small parks known as the Charles River Embankment. A more complete model playground for children has been established at Philadelphia, and many other playgrounds have recently been provided In New York a number of the schoolhouses are used for playrooms during the summer months. Boston has recently been presented with a large and well-equipped indoor gymnasium in East Boston, which is maintained by the Park Commission free to the public. The London City Council has six open-air gymnasiums for adults and twelve for children." In 1897, Philadelphia had thirty play- grounds, besides the model one mentioned above. It is fast being recognized by the older cities as a municipal duty to provide overcrowded districts with as many small parks as possi- ble, and to give the children of the tenements larger opportuni- ties for development. Much has also been done by private initiative. The Metro- politan Public Gardens Association, formed in London in 1882, has done an important work of this kind. It is purely a volun- teer effort which has for its purpose the establishment of public gardens and playgrounds. It has placed seats in roads and recre- ation grounds and has planted trees in thoroughfares. It aids in acquiring public spaces and prevents encroachments upon com- mons, burial-grounds, and other open spaces. It also supports out-of-door gymnasiums. In these and other ways, it has pro- moted those species of common possessions which yield untold benefit to the people. J Contrast what has been done in other cities with what has been done in Chicago, and with the fact that of the one hundred thousand dollars appropriation recommended by the Special Parks Commission last year, but ten thousand dollars was appropriated * Municipal Affairs, December, 1898, page 107. fSee same, page 108. JSee Reports. Q Z D O M O I7 3 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO for the purpose. A strong plea must be made to the ultimate arbiter of civic necessities, the public, for the holding, while there is yet time, of space enough all through the city to afford all of our citizens their needed refreshment. The children of the tenements need, as part of their education, a place to swim, skate, play base-ball, foot-ball, and games of all sorts. Play- grounds fully equipped with a competent instructor are of as much educative importance in this day of the yardless tenement as the schools themselves. They are a municipal necessity. Could not the city economize its efforts and meet many needs by ordering that space should be made for parks and playgrounds near every schoolhouse? New York has passed a law providing that every schoolhouse shall have a playground, and is now forced to comply with it oftentimes by utilizing the roof. The Chicago Board of Education, in the spring of 1900, passed a resolution that in future school sites should have provision for playgrounds. This indicates the attitude of the school board on this subject, but as yet it is not law. Will not the city see that this becomes law and that this necessity is assured? The imagi- nation could then see not far in the future many forces operating together for the welfare of the community. With the school itself more and more discovering the real educative needs of the indi- vidual, and with a well-equipped playground in every case, these two necessities of work and of play thus properly provided for would undoubtedly keep out of the juvenile court many of these more innocent than guilty offenders. Then, with the school- house, a public possession already provided, and this allotment of public space, part of which could be park-like and suiting the needs of the older population, could not permission be had to use the schools for neighborhood centers? It seems that this pro- vision cannot long withstand the growing attention given to it on every side. The benefits of such a provision might be untold and capable of infinite expansion. PUBLIC BATHS SHOULD BE RECREATIVE AND EDUCATIONAL Section 5. Next in importance to the open space movement should be considered the active efforts which are being very generally made for the establishment of public baths. Over a TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 173 hundred years ago Liverpool began the movement which has spread with rapidity, especially during the last fifty years, not only throughout all European and continental cities, but also to most large cities of this country. London has over thirty public baths. New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and many other American cities have undertaken to satisfy this pressing need. Boston has progressed far beyond the others.* There are at present four free public baths in Chicago, and in several of the pumping stations arrangements have been made to give spray baths; but without under-estimating these efforts as important beginnings, several new lines of development are essen- tial for a rounded municipal scheme of public baths. Bathing should be made more than a dull chore which is to be put off as long as possible. Public baths should be places of recreation. To satisfy this need, large swimming tanks, which no one is allowed to enter without having first taken a spray bath, have been estab- lished in this country and abroad. In these baths swimming clubs are encouraged and competition between the clubs of the various bathing establishments lend interest and spirit. In several cities the swimming tanks are in use both summer and winter, but in some cities the larger swimming pools are floored over in the winter season and turned into a gymnasium. One of the most beautiful baths in this country is in Brookline, Massachusetts. The location of the new baths is the center of population of the town, close to its principal playground and its new high school. Systematic instruction is given on regularly appointed days to three thousand school children. f Educationally, the bath in the public school ranks with the playgroui.d; sprays should be established in connection with every public school where children can be taught to bathe prop- erly and with regularity. It is said of the baths of this kind that have already been established: "Teachers are unanimous in asserting that school baths are beneficial, that they foster bodily vigor, brighten the minds of the pupils, increase interest in study, dispel laziness, improve the air of classrooms, and increase neat- * See reports of the various cities, and Municipal Affairs, December, 1898, pp. 108-113. t Report of Mayor's (New York) Special Committee on Baths, etc., page 63. 174 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO ness, cleanliness, decorousness, as well as the general health and happiness of the pupil." * Mr. William P. Gerhard, in a paper on this subject before the American Social Science Association, says: "In all sections of this country, as in most other civilized and progressive countries, great attention is being paid to school sanitation. But though much care is here devoted to lighting, ventilation, and heating, to drainage and furniture in the schoolroom, comparatively little attention has hitherto been paid to the requirements of bodily cleanliness of the pupils. In the best modern schoolhouse, sani- tarily planned, drained and ventilated, children are brought together who may and often do carry on their bodies and in their clothing the germs of infection. It was this very obser- vation which compelled the hygienist, Professor Fluegge, of Gottingen, after an examination of the healthful and clean school interiors of his city, to exclaim, f 'Of what good are all these modern sanitary arrangements when dirty children with disease germs lurking on their bodies or their clothes are brought into these healthful classrooms?' " THE WORK OF SANITARY AND HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS Section 6. Sanitary and housing associations have been formed in many cities. A sanitary aid society, such as the "Mansion House Council on Dwellings of the Poor in London," or the "Sanitary Aid Society of New York," would find a great field for usefulness in Chicago. The purposes of these societies are, first, to create and maintain public sentiment which will support the health department in doing its whole duty; second, to obtain necessary legislation ; third, to make special inquiries and investigations, and fourth, to educate the public by any means possible in the elementary principles of sanitation and hygiene. The chapters preceding show what scope there is for such societies. For a law enforcement organization, years of per- sistent effort could be planned. This is a most opportune moment to investigate certain evils and the cost of reforms. Suggestions by private associations to * Journal American Social Science Association, 1900, page 30. t Journal of American Social Science Association, 1900, pp. 30-49. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 175 assist our city council to deal effectively and economically with the garbage and street-cleaning problems, would be most valu- able at this time. Plans for the regulation of certain trades asso- ciated with tenement-houses should be submitted to the public authorities. A carefully prepared building and sanitary code, including some necessary new laws, would be of great value. In its largest usefulness a sanitary aid society should not only under- take investigations, but should also follow up all its inquiries with practical remedial efforts. For instance, the "Social and Sanitary Society of Edinburgh" has inspectors who are constantly engaged in reporting sanitary and housing evils to the municipal authorities. The London society has groups of inspectors in every district of the city which make constant inspections for the purpose of bringing to the various vestry boards instances of sanitary neglect. The most important private effort in the direction of provid- ing remedies to actual evils is the work of the housing associ- ations. Almost every large eastern or foreign city has examples of model tenement construction. Such tenements have been built by companies which are first purely commercial; second, com- mercial with a tinge of philanthropy that is to say, limiting their income to a small dividend; and third, philanthropic, where the surplus income is devoted to the extension of the work. Besides these efforts, many large employers with commercial interests in view, have furnished housing accommodations to their employes. This movement has spread with considerable rapidity throughout foreign cities. In London alone there are eleven large housing corporations, with capital amounting to fifteen million dollars, yielding an income of six hundred and eighty thousand dollars a year.* In New York the Riverside Buildings pay six per cent.f The New York Improved Dwelling Association pays five per cent regularly. J In 1896 the City and Suburban Homes Association was organized with a capital of one million dollars. Dr. E. R. L. Gould, the president, states as the objects of this association : "To offer to capital a safe and permanent five per cent invest- * Christian Social Union Leaflet II (London). | See annual statements. JSee annual reports. Prospectus of the Association, page I. I7 6 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO ment and at the same time to supply wage-earners with improved wholesome houses at current rates." The association has made an effort to remove the better paid wage-earners from the con- gested districts of the city. The inner circle of all large cities almost always has a pressure of overcrowding from many differ- ent sources. It is next to impossible to remove various classes of unskilled wage-workers. To build tenements in the central portion of a city for skilled laborers or those drawing sufficient wages to enable them to live out of the inner circle, is to add more crowding to the already congested district. But the New York association has also built tenements which would furnish poorly paid laborers with sanitary homes situated in the down- town areas. It is certainly most important that model tenements which are designed to house the better paid wage-earners should not be built in the inner circle of any city. Efforts in model housing are too numerous to specify. Wash- ington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Boston, New York, and almost every foreign city, have model housing companies. Many more such companies would be formed probably, if it were known that model tenement building had been in the past a very safe investment. Dr. E. R. L. Gould said before the New York Tenement-House Exhibition that,* "Upward of one hun- dred millions of dollars have been invested in improved housing in the largest European and American cities; and eighty-eight per cent, that is, eighty-eight million dollars, is now earning and always has earned a commercial profit. Six per cent, that is, six millions of dollars, has returned a savings bank rate of interest, and only six million dollars out of the whole one hundred million dollars have been invested less profitably." The purposes of the improved housing companies have varied. The largest effort has gone in the direction of establishing model block dwellings with little or no personal influence exercised by the builders. In cer- tain cases, some of the worst and most insanitary pieces of prop- erty have been bought by model housing companies. Following this, some skilled person has been placed in charge for the pur- pose of improving the condition of the tenants. Certain extremely valuable results have been attained in this kind of work by Miss Octavia Hill and Miss Victoria Cons, of London, and by Miss *See "Charities," February 17, 1900, page 9. TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 177 Collins, of New York. These few people have at least demon- strated that the foul and insanitary conditions which exist in the worst tenements are not due alone to the habits and neglect of the tenants. They have shown that the mass of tenement-house property is very badly managed. A most interesting suggestion in the way of tenement-house reform is made by Mr. Lawrence Veiller, of New York, and is illustrated by models and plans.* It contemplates the condem- nation by the city of a whole block as a park, from which a strip of land forty feet deep on each side should be sold to a private company, who would erect model tenements, under certain restrictions. "This," says Mr. Veiller, "seems the most hope- ful plan ever suggested. The company paying for only forty feet, and being permitted to occupy all of it, can pay a good price and still make six to seven per cent. The land being only forty feet in depth, the buildings would be only two rooms deep, and it would not be possible to have any dark rooms. The city sell- ing two-fifths of the land to this company, would certainly get back two-fifths of the cost. As a matter of fact, it will get back more, for they can sell the outside for more than the inside, so that the city gets 120 by 400 feet of park land, and also gets model tenements at the same time. There is no reason why this could not be repeated all over the city of New York wherever parks are needed. There are sixteen proposed parks which are absolutely necessary at this time. Why should not this scheme be put through? Why should not this work be begun by the city? It would, of course, require special legislation, but it would be the best, wisest, and happiest solution of the problem ever made. " THE EXTENT OF REMEDIAL EFFORTS Section 7. In conclusion, we see what varied municipal and private activities are necessary in order to control the housing conditions in large cities. The most serious reform question before the people of New York and London is the tenement-house problem. In both of these cities, the formation of a responsible commission of experts to control the distribution of population *See Report of Tenement- House Commission, 1900, page 64. Also " Charities," February 24, 1000. 178 TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO is perhaps the most thorough expression of the reform move- ment. With or without a change of administration, there have been in all cities a growing control and regulation by the city of the new buildings and of existing structures. Carefully planned building and sanitary codes, with the most explicit provisions for the sanitary construction and the maintenance of all tenements exist in the older cities. Along with the effort to control the distribution of population goes a carefully planned scheme of dispersing the people by means of workingmen's trains; or in other words, by cheap, rapid, and convenient transportation. In all cities the movement for open spaces and baths is spreading in response to the belief that much of physical weakness, debil- ity, and juvenile criminality are due to overcrowding. Many foreign cities are undertaking the construction of model tene- ments, and are themselves becoming the landlords of large num- bers of working people. It has been said for years that Chicago has no serious tene- ment-house problem, that owing to its prairie location it is free from the pressure which the Manhattan Island site has forced upon New York, so that it presents the most crowded tenement-house district in the world ; that Chicago has not the squalid conditions of East London, which have grown up in three generations of city poor, because the poorer people of this city are for the most part European immigrants who in one generation, or at most two, grow prosperous and move to the newer quarters of the city. It is further added to this statement that Chicago conditions are changing so rapidly that no one district becomes identified with the hateful word "slum," and that whatever the problems may be, they are all in the future. But it is surely true that a problem which arouses reform activity so varied and energetic is not a mere phantom. The results of the foregoing investigation were a surprise to the people most intimately acquainted with the districts, for although each knew of shocking isolated cases, it was supposed that these were exceptional. It must not be forgotten, however, that the temptation to each individual owner to cover his entire lot with buildings is as great in Chicago as in New Yorjc ; and that there is a tendency on the part of the city to neglect those wards which for the safety of the whole community most need its TENEMENT CONDITIONS IN CHICAGO 179 care, and that ten years' residence in an insanitary house would ruin the health of the sturdiest immigrant. This report warns the people of Chicago that the city's location alone will not save it, but that public opinion and legal enactment are essential if Chicago is to escape the housing evils of New York and London. A CHILD OF THE TENEMENTS APPENDIX. I OTHER WORK OF THE COMMITTEE Besides the inquiry showing the sanitary evils in representa- tive portions of the city, the Committee for a time considered a plan for undertaking a series of monographs on certain other neglected districts in Chicago. The conditions of the Stock Yards district and of South Chicago are of special interest in that they show most abominable outside sanitary conditions. These districts show evils which are really anachronisms, and it will surprise many Chicagoans to know that the application of sani- tary principles to the urban standards of health are so extremely backward in these industrial communities. As a matter of inter- est and not as a conclusive or exhaustive treatment of conditions in these and other portions of Chicago, the following hastily pre- pared report, giving a general view of the conditions on the North and South sides, is inserted: "The worst district in South Chicago lies between Eighty-third and Eighty-seventh streets and between Ontario and Green Bay Avenue. The district is almost entirely inhabited by Poles, and there are but few residents of other nationalities. The general impression in walking through this district is that there exists some crowding of people in the houses, although the houses themselves are not crowded upon the lots. The dwellings are almost entirely made of wood. Some of them are dilapidated; all of them seem to be neglected. The houses are built on piles or stilts. The water stands upon the ground almost the entire year, which makes it dangerous for people to live in basements. However, several families in this district live in such apartments. The entire district lies in a swamp, and the houses are built upon land which is about eight feet below the city datum. In some places the sidewalks are eight feet above the lots and the street. There is no sewerage, unless that name is given to a system of gutters by which a cer- 181 182 APPENDIX tain amount of sewage is carried off. There is usually an odor from the foul waste matter which accumulates in these places. The land is undrained and in some cases the water stands for months under the houses and upon vacants lots. In certain places there was a green scum upon the water which showed that it had been standing stagnant for some time. There are no water-closets and the outlawed privy vault is in general use. The yards, streets, and alleys are indiscriminately used for the disposal of all sorts of garbage and rubbish. Almost no garbage boxes were found. None of the streets are paved, and the whole district is filthy beyond description. The atmosphere of the neighborhood is clouded with smoke and the district is ex- tremely dreary, ugly, and unhealthful. In the Stock Yards district there is no large area, such as the one in South Chicago, where the conditions seem to be uniformly bad. On Avenue there are some old rookeries and some new little brick boxes raised on stilts, which will probably be sold on some installment plan to the working people in that vicinity. Many working people have bought, or have tried to buy, these houses, but before they paid up the installments the houses were in bad repair and wretchedly dilapidated. Very often workmen have tried to buy them on the installment plan and have lost them again and again. There is a long row of houses on Avenue where the conditions are about the same as stated above. Very few of the houses in this locality are deficient in provision for light and ventilation, and none of them seem to be overcrowded. The worst features are the external conditions which surround the dwellings. In many parts of the district there are no sewers and the sewage from the houses stands in stagnant pools. The south branch of the Chi- cago River is really a ditch which accumulates a great deal of sewage from the stock yards, and fills the air with poisonous odors. The stench from the stock yards is also present. The district is overshadowed by heavy clouds of smoke from "the yards." Between La Salle and State Streets, all the way from Fortieth Street up to Harrison Street, there are some exceedingly bad housing conditions. Near Thirty-sixth Street and Armour Avenue there is a portion of a block which is called "Hell's APPENDIX 183 Half Acre." The houses are badly overcrowded with colored people, and many of the rooms are dark. People live in cellars and basements which are very near overflowing privies. The alleys are dark and are strewn with garbage. The houses in this particular portion are badly overcrowded on the lots. In many other places in this portion of the city down to Twenty-sixth Street are either old dilapidated frame houses or large tenements. Many rear houses exist, and they are usually overcrowded and in bad condition. North of Twenty-second Street, there are many large tenements. One block is almost entirely covered with double-deckers from three to five stories high. There is no alley in this block, and at the rear of the double-deckers there is a small space which is altogether insufficient to provide light and ventilation. In the Italian quarter there are several large tenements hous- ing hundreds of people. The most dilapidated houses in the city probably exist on Pacific Avenue. Rows of houses in this part of the city should be demolished. There is a group of double- deckers on Pacific Avenue just north of Polk which completely covers five lots. The place is overcrowded with tenants and almost half of the rooms are dark and unfit for habitation. Water- closets are in a hallway on the lower floor of the house. There is a fearful stench arising from them at all times. The tenants complain bitterly, both of the odor and of their location. These tenements are as bad as any elsewhere in this country or abroad. While this, as a whole, cannot be taken as even a super- ficial statement of the evils existing in this part of the city, it is suggestive of the need of a more complete inquiry. On the North Side there are several places worthy of note. On the northwest corner of and streets, there are five or six tenements of four and five stories in height which are built very closely together. The light and ventilation of the houses are exceedingly bad, and the Italians who dwell there are overcrowded in the rooms. At Indiana Street, there are several brick tenements of three and four stories high. The houses are crowded on the lots. At one place in this group of tenements the only open space is a deep four-story shaft, or court, which is mainly used for the purpose of inclosing water- closets. Looking from the top story of these tenements to the 184 APPENDIX bottom of the court, and seeing the children and mothers with babies in their arms walking back and forth in this small breathing-space, is a forceful reminder of New York conditions. Much of the area lying between Franklin Street on the east, Erie on the north, and Chicago River on the west and south, is covered with insanitary tenements. On Court and Street, near Chicago Avenue, there are two long blocks where the houses are closely crowded on the lots. Almost every house has a basement, and all the lower rooms seem to be occu- pied. There is plenty of evidence to show that there is both overcrowding on the lots and overcrowding in the houses." II HISTORICAL, DESCRIPTIVE, AND ECONOMIC FEATURES OF THE DISTRICTS The three districts investigated might be roughly taken to include nearly all of the Italian quarter in the Nineteenth Ward, a large portion of the Jewish Ghetto, a small part of the Bohemian quarter, and a small portion of the Polish colony in the Sixteenth Ward. Many other nationalities, however, are represented in these districts. There are quite a large number of Germans, Irish, and Bohemians in various parts of the Italian and Jewish colonies. Scattered here and there are some Greeks and Austri- ans. It is true here as in most cities that the Italian and Jewish immigrants seek out the poorest and most neglected districts of the city in order to obtain the advantages of a low rental. For this reason and the necessity of both of these peoples living in the inner circle of our American cities, they have chosen to reside in what has been called in this report District i. It is one of the oldest parts of Chicago, and lies in the inner circle, within a short distance of the central business portions of the West and South sides. Real estate has been declining for several years in this locality. Before the great fire of 1871, which started in Block 15, one of the notoriously crowded blocks, this district was largely populated by Americans, Irish, and Bohemians. Immedi- ately after the great fire this district was covered over with small frame and brick houses. But about the time the Jews and Ital- APPENDIX '85 ians began to move in, the better class of inhabitants were begin- ning to move away and leave their houses in a more or less dilapidated state. Almost no improvements, except the question- able ones of enlarging and covering more of the ground space with tenements, have been undertaken since the immigrants have chosen this district for their homes. The rents of the apartments in the districts investigated were not gathered on the general schedules, but in the special investi- gation of apartments it was possible to learn the rents of 420 differ- ent apartments. In the Jewish district 27 families paid for their apartments over $10 a month, 23 families paid from $8 to $10, and 22 families paid under $6 per month. The average rent paid per apartment per month was $8. 28, and the average per room was $2.12. The rents in the Italian colony are considerably lower than those in the Ghetto. Only one Italian family paid over $10 per month for rent; 7 paid between $8 and $10; 30 between $6 and $8; 88 between $4 and $6, and 26 families paid under $4. The average rent per apartment in the Italian district was $4.92, while the average rent per room per month was $1.78. The houses in the Italian quarter are more dilapidated than those in the Ghetto, which accounts for some of the differences. The following is a tabular statement of the above and addi- tional facts: TABLE OF RENTS District. Classification of Rents Paid. Average Rent. $10 or over. $8 to $10. $6 to $8. $4 to JS6. Under $4- Per Apt. Per Room. Italian . I 27 2 2 7 23 18 2 2 3 22 41 18 22 88 12 36 17 10 26 2 3 7 2 $4-92 8.28 6.24 5.66 5-93 $1.78 2.12 2.O4 I.4O 1.64 Jewish. Between Jewish and Italian District 2, Polish District 3, Bohemian - The value of tenement-house property depends, of course, upon the rents. But land in parts of District i is worth little, if any, more than it was twenty-five years ago. It is worth less than it was seven years ago. A place on Ewing Street for which $17,000 was offered in 1893 can now be bought for less than 1 86 APPENDIX $10,000. A vacant lot of 25 feet in width on Jefferson Street was sold eighteen years ago for $2,500; it was bought back recently by the former owner for $1,800. Property on the busi- ness streets, such as Halsted, Twelfth, and Canal, is much more valuable. Many non-resident landlords own vacant lots and some tene- ment-house property, all of which are permitted to be in a most wretched state of neglect, mainly because they are holding the property until it can be sold to advantage. In this district 44 factories, 116 stores, and 731 other places of business were found. Many of these were cigar and tailor shops. Some were saloons, but the mass were the small shops of Jewish and Italian grocers, etc. The following table shows the number of stores, factories, and shops in the three districts investigated. The majority of all businesses, as should be expected, is in District i. There were 33 tailor and cigar shops which are also used as living apart- ments. In several places it was found that apartments were partitioned off in the rear of saloons, groceries, and other stores. Most of the provision stores and clothing establishments of one kind and another were found on Twelfth Street, on Jefferson, and on Halsted. STORES, FACTORIES, AND SHOPS District. Exclusively Used as Tailor and Cigar Shops All Other Shops. Stores. Factories. Lived in. Not Lived in. District i 116 12 7 44 5 21 33 4 7 93 26 43 605 131 174 District 2 District 3 Total 135 70 44 162 QIO District 2, or the Polish district, lies in the Sixteenth Ward. The workers are nearly all unskilled, but are thrifty and indus- trious. The business interests of the district are small, and it will be seen in the foregoing table that very few businesses were found in the districts investigated. There are, however, a few APPENDIX 187 stores bordering on Milwaukee Avenue and quite a number of tailorshops. The houses are nearly all owned by the Polish people, and the owners in most cases live in their own tenement- houses. There were very few pieces of property for sale, and only 24 "for sale" cards were found. The Polish people are content, of course, to hold this property as long as residents of their nationality predominate. The majority of tenants, as will be seen in the foregoing table, pay for their apartments between $4 and $8 per month. The average rent per apartment is $5.66; the average rent per room, $1.40. It is significant to note that while the average rent per apartment is larger in this district than in the Italian district, the average rent per room is less, showing, of course, that the Poles receive, after all, more for their money. District 3, or the Bohemian district, lies near Eighteenth Street and Blue Island Avenue. There are a large number of tailoring shops and other factories in the district. The few stores enumerated are on Blue Island Avenue. This district is rather more prosperous than the other two. But many Bohe- mians live in very poor homes. The rents for this district are very nearly the same as those in the Polish district. The majority of residents pay between $4 and $8 per month for rent. The aver- age rental per apartment is $5.93, and per room $1.64. The housing conditions in Districts 2 and 3 are in many ways quite different from those in District i. The houses are larger. They are built of brick and frequently cover a very large per- centage of the lot. It is not uncommon in either district to see a two and three story brick tenement covering the entire depth of the lot. In a block without an alley in the Bohemian dis- trict there are occasionally three-story tenements running solidly through from street to street. Over half of the front houses in these districts are of 3 stories in height and 63. 7 per cent are of either 3, 4, or 5 stories in height. The majority of rear tene- ments in this district are of two stories, although three-story brick tenements are frequent. More evidence of the new housing problem and of the excessive greed of landlords is exhibited in the Bohemian and Polish quarters than in District i. But there are no tenements in either Districts 2 or 3 which will equal in size or viciousness several large double-deckers in District i. 1 88 APPENDIX The mass of tenements in both the Bohemian and Polish districts are more often reprehensible. The statement in regard to conditions in these districts would not be complete without some facts regarding saloons. The following table will show the statistics on this subject: RATIO OF SALOONS TO POPULATION No. of Sa- loons. No. of Individ- uals. Ratio. No. of Fami- lies. Ratio. Italian District north of Twelfth Street, Blocks I to 24 c6 Id. ^60 2C6.4. 3,108 ee c Jewish District south of Twelfth Street, Blocks 25 to 44 24. 10.4.^2 A^.? 2,o6o 858 Polish District, Blocks 45 to 54 46 11.821; -3QO i\ 2,716 CQ Bohemian District, Blocks 55 to 63, in- clusive 3Q 7,006 2H.IJ I.C4.4. ei.4. Totals 156 4^.64^ 2Q1.2 0,4.28 6o.4 This table shows the number of saloons in proportion to the population. It will be seen that the largest number of saloons in proportion to the population is in the Bohemian district. There is, however, very little difference between the ratio in the Italian district and that in the Bohemian. The lowest ratio, as expected, is in the Jewish district. The saloons, however, in these districts are not out of proportion. In Chicago as a whole the ratio of saloons to population is one saloon for every two hundred and sixty-two persons. Therefore, the averages here are about the same as those existing in the city at large. The following small towns with a population about the same as that of this district have many more saloons, for instance Yonkers, New York, has 222 saloons; Waterbury, Connecticut, 193; Fort Wayne, Indiana, 160; Youngstown, Ohio, 179; Covington, Kentucky, 201, and Galveston, Texas, which has a population of 8,000 less persons than are found in these districts, has 317 saloons. In the investigation of the Commissioner of Labor in 1894 into the number of saloons per person in Chicago as a whole, it was found that there was one saloon to every 212 persons. While in the investigation of the slum district of the First Ward, there was APPENDIX 189 one saloon to every 127 persons. This shows quite clearly that the conditions in these districts are fairly good compared with those elsewhere. It is safe to conclude, what is after all an old obser- vation, that the people in these districts are for the most part sober and law-abiding citizens. Ill STATISTICS ON THE CONSTRUCTION AND THE SIZE OF HOUSES MATERIAL OF HOUSES The following table shows that half of all houses investigated were frame houses. The percentage runs much higher than this when only the rear tenements are considered. In District 2 the percentage is much smaller. This is of course what should be expected from the studies made in the main body of the report. The old frame cottages and two-story frame houses have been moved to the rear of the lot. This is especially true in District i, which is the oldest of the three districts investigated. The Polish and Bohemian districts have, as will be seen, a large num- ber and percentage of brick houses. But that there is a growing number of brick tenements in District i is shown by the fact that at present one-third of all the front houses are of brick. There are not many houses of combined brick and frame. The photo- graph on page 35 will show a common type of this kind of house. Very often a frame cottage will be raised upon a basement story of brick. The reconstruction makes a tenement-house of either two or four apartments. In District i, where this type of house is most common, we see that one in every nine houses is con- structed of this material. 190 APPENDIX MATERIAL OF HOUSES BY DISTRICTS Com- Frame. Brick. bination Brickand Loca- tion. Frame. Per Cent. Total. Num- Per Num- Per Num- ber. Cent. ber. Cent. ber. District i- j Front -- Rear .: 8l 5 3 2 9 54.6 I 5O2 79-9 ! 57 33-7 H 175 26 II.7 6.1 I.4Q2 412 District 2- \ Front -- Rear .. '8 167 34-9 70.5 279 53 52.7 22.3 65 17 12.4 7.2 529 237 District 3. j Front -- Rear . 74 39 20.5 48.1 266 28 73-6 34-6 21 H 5-9 17-3 361 81 Total i,6og 5i-7 1,185 38 318 10.2 3,112 The tables and diagrams following show all of the front and rear dwellings classified according to the number of stories. As will be seen, the majority of front houses- in District i are of two stories. This is also true of the rear houses in this district. A considerable percentage, however, of all front houses are three stories in height. A small percentage of front dwellings are four and five stories in height. In District 2 the conditions are some- what different. There are more three-story houses and more four and five story tenements. In District 3 the conditions are con- siderably different from those in the other two districts. Over half of all the front houses are of three stories and one house in every ten is of four stories in height. What is true of this district is also true of all the others, namely, that the largest number of rear tenements are of two stories in height. The tables show that half of all dwellings are of two stories. It also shows that there are almost as many houses of three, four, and five stories as there are of one story. I APPENDIX 191 o r- C/3 O E- O fc HH p ptf o u u M *i ! ! ! 1 ! i ! ! ! O H = jj z- 12 s O CO ^O O" O I^N. t>*. I>x M ^O *-* -O M CO N O N fT ro o ^CJ rf | -*3- ] OO | CO OJ-* 53 II W i ro > ^d" i ^^ o ! o ^^ \O ^1" t**^ ' r*^ "^ s ** co O o f^CJ ro f i s - 1 VO Tj- co is OO *-' M ] O *-" O 5 N vo N t^coo-coun^ VOVO co u o ^u OO VQ >-< O -^"OO "H "^ D O 1-1 CO od O VO M CO S -' 'S^JRg'^O^ OO s ^** ^jj ^-t^vovo v^^-^-^- CO ^f ^J- o ^^ S c C^ M r^. < O CJ ^U pi\d "* X O t i rt -_ v. 3 U OO CO S PS cn Z w P3 S T s 13 o o vOOO 1 4 8 J CO"1 o h X S c - oq co CO O 1* ^u N r^ **" O w i_i I* p ^^- fe Pi to < c- 5 a T i I s I I M -* J^ o ^ 1 t^. u crt O i i J O 4) t/2 4 \O tn C>'* co O 4- _1 , W | 0^ E c 3 D <* oo PI to 5 a i w T I CO 00 ^o S S 1 * oi o h c/: C i O W rt 5? o II ^ APPENDIX IV '95 STATISTICS OF POPULATION, OCCUPATION BY NATIONAL- ITIES, ETC. STATISTICS OF POPULATION Block No. Adults. Children. Total. Families. I Sl6 442 Q c8 212 2 -3QO 2^8 ^38 1 12 3 170 171 314 77 4 IQO I4C, 3Qi: 72 5 408 380 884 2O2 6 764 ^o^ 665 148 7 3Q1 248 CC2 1 14 8 j^4 163 183 ->->t 346 7S * "J 611 ^2^ 1,134 232 10 182 iw 337 71 ii 2O7 s 16^ 372 88 12 1 80 1 68 348 72 IT SO7 44 $ oC2 loo 14 228 160 388 08 1C 373 ^06 670 I 70 16 172 I4o 321 64 iy 828 'fV 67^ I SOI -3-37 18 274 223 4Q7 116 IQ 244 232 476 1 13 2O - - IQI 237 428 QO 21 428 2QQ 727 ISS 22 aOC 28; rQQ I3O 23 214 2Q^ c;o7 OQ 24 218 26s 483 QT. 2C 1 86 IIQ 2QO 68 26":::"" 284 266 SSO in 27 i IQ 141 3 3 260 S4 28 ISO 216 37S 60 2O 121 IO? 226 47 3Q 2O6 212 418 IO3 O - 31 224 342 566 I O2 32 1 20 IQ7 322 63 3-3 y 116 118 234 47 3.4. 41 1 c;o2 QI3 181 ^1 2^^ 176 4OQ 84 J 5~ ^6 ^JJ 61^ led I,O72 200 37 2IQ ^^ SS4 1 06 38 mi 22$ ^f 376 65 ^o 2'3,I 241 472 88 40 ^ 342 607 136 41 -- 386 C1I 917 178 42 1 70 138 314 58 4^ 447 3l8 76s 161 44 2g8 4I 1 ; 713 128 45 _ 616 519 1,135 227 46-.. 614 r-QQ SOO i, 202 230 196 APPENDIX STATISTICS OF POPULATION CONTINUED Block No. Adults. Children. Total. Families. ATI co2 680 1,182 228 48 - 676 484 1,160 2^6 AQ 7Q-2 Ij023 1,816 J72 co 078 1, 7 lO 2,^27 4^2 Ci V/" 760 8-^2 j / 1,601 u,-,* ^16 j C2 "U8 767 I "^K 2^Q C-I 478 406 O7Q 187 CA C4C 568 I 11^ 22O ee 2 1O 1 20 ^U 8q 11" coy 4.74. I. cm 2IO $7 m8 424 042 2O4 58 3 1U 2O7 I7O 446 IOI Co coo SlQ I.IOO 2^^ ? V 60 C7Q ^84 ^i'^y QO^ 2IQ 61 82 ^8 I2O 26 62 J.-5Q Vtt 781 61.. CQ2 66^ /"J I.20I 28d TOTALS Population. Families. District I north of Twelfth Street, Blocks i to 24. District I south of Twelfth Street 14,360 IO.4^2 3,108 2,o6o District i, total 24 812 5 168 District 2_ ._. n, 821- 2,716 District 3 7 006 I ^44 Total oi LI 'istricts AC. f)AT, o 428 OCCUPATIONS BY NATIONALITIES Occupations. Italian. Jewish. Bohe- mian. Polish. All Others. Unskilled: Laborers- I 3 3 6 42 27 4 Paper-sellers Scrub-woman __ - I I 2 I Express and teaming 2 2O I 3 I Janitors - 1 ..__ i Peddlers-- Fruit-venders Bootblacks - 2 Iceman I 2 Rag-pickers I Totals . 117 12 AC 28 o APPENDIX 197 OCCUPATIONS BY NATIONALITIES CONTINUED Occupations. Italian. Jewish. Bohe- mian. Polish. All Others. Skilled: Cook - Waiter j Bakers I Machinists Q 2 A Blacksmiths Tinsmith I Printers I 2 Bookbinders - - 2 Masons I 2 Carpenters I 8 \ 2 Shoemakers I 7 2 Tailors T 27 21 Barbers A 2 4 Butchers 2 I Jeweler - I Cigarmakers - A 2 Firemen _ j j Sailor - _ I Coopers I j \Veaver I Electricians ^ Whitewasher I Upholsterer - I Painters I I Plumbers 2 Conductor - I Totals, skilled 16 =;6 60 18 16 Commercial: Storekeepers C 17 -3 j 2 Saloonkeepers - 2 J Bartender I Clerks A 2 Horse-dealer - I Junk-dealers I I Totals 7 24 8 i j Special: Rabbi I Teachers 6 Owners, retired- I I 2 i 2 Midwife - I Totals, soecial . I 8 2 i } 198 APPENDIX SUMMARY Italian. Jewish. Bohe- mian. Polish. All Others. Unskilled IV7 T/2 A.S 28 Skilled J 16 r6 18 16 Commercial and special 8 3 2 IO 2 6 Per cent unskilled 85 26 7 -in I ;8i 2o Per cent skilled 10 466 C2 2 V7 1; C T C Per cent commercial and special - e 26 7 87 d 2 TO A Totals IOO IOO IOO IOO IOO OCCUPATIONS AND NATIONALITIES PROPORTION OF CERTAIN NATIONALITIES IN THE THREE MAIN GROUPS OF OCCUPATIONS AS FOUND IN 475 CASES IN DISTRICT I Italians. Jews. 26.7$ 46.6$ 39-1* Bohemians. 58.3^ 37-5^ Poles. All others. 194$ Unskilled. Skilled. Commercial and Special. APPENDIX 199 It will be seen in the above tables and diagrams that the mass of Italians are unskilled. Their occupations are usually street work or various other kinds of shoveling or heavy lifting. They have usually come from the rural districts of Southern Italy, and when they arrive in this country they are handicapped by their inability to speak the language and by their lack of general edu- cation. They come quickly under the leadership of one of their own nationality who is generally able to obtain for them work from the railroads or the city. The Jews are peddlers and tailors. Quite a number are store-keepers, but a few do unskilled work. A great number of Bohemians are tailors and skilled in other trades. The Poles, like the Italians, are most often common laborers. The largest number of Bohemians are skilled and the largest number of Jews are store-keepers. The Poles and Bohemians are usually more thrifty and hard-working than the Italians, and Jews have these qualities more pronounced than either of the former. V MISCELLANEOUS THE IMPORTANCE OF DRY SOIL The sanitary importance of dry soil is not generally realized. Land which has been made or built up in a swamp is apt to be dangerous to health, unless by some artificial method it is pre- pared to drain off water and the various other fluid accumula- tions. Where the population is exceedingly dense and where the waste slops of the population and the contents of the privy vaults are not properly cared for, the results are perhaps more danger- ous to health than those of any other outside insanitary condition. Dampness, as has been shown elsewhere, is the cause of many forms of sickness. Lung diseases and rheumatism are particu- larly associated with dampness of the soil. A very large number of houses in all three of the districts have been built upon low land and made soil. In order that such a house may be sanitary it is very necessary that the whole area on which the house is built should be covered with a thick layer of some kind of con- crete or cement. Damp courses also should be made to run 200 APPENDIX about the walks. These may be of asphalt or slate imbedded in concrete. Very few houses in the districts investigated have been built with any provisions for preventing insanitary evils resulting from the wet soil. In the three districts investigated there were 1,017 lots which were from two to six feet below the level of the sidewalk adjoining; 1,654 lots were at least two feet below the level of the street adjoining. Only 603 lots in the three districts were above or on a level with the street. This shows a most extensive prevalence of bad conditions resulting from a low land. Mr. Charles F. Wingate, a specialist on the sanitary construction of houses, says in an article on that subject published in the Municipal Affairs: "One of the most potent things which affect health is dampness. Manhattan Island is largely covered with rock, whose fissures collect and retain moist- ure. Much of the water front is filled in soil, and there are large sections of made land. Many natural water-courses have never been properly drained, and saturate the soil with moisture. To these combined influences we may ascribe much of the mor- tality from consumption and kindred diseases, which will certainly continue until the subsoil is drained and made dry, or the law now on the statute books which requires all tenement cellars to have an impervious flooring is strictly enforced. I consider the influence of soil dampness far more potent and insidious than the influence of bad plumbing, and therefore regard these forms as of vital importance." Many outside insanitary conditions will appear, in the light of the foregoing, to be of more importance than they would otherwise be considered; 738 lots covered in this investigation in District i were not drained to the sewer; 781 cellars had no kind of drainage. These conditions, of course, accentuate the evils of the soil saturated with moisture. In parts of the districts investigated it was also true that the land was so low the sewer pipes were unable to be laid so that there was a sufficient fall and flow. In consequence, during certain seasons of the year the sewage backed up in the pipes and endangered the lives of the many thousand people living in these portions of the city. In fact, all drainage and sewer pipes are made more dangerous by the conditions which prevail in a district where the soil is wet and low. APPENDIX 201 FIRE ESCAPES Almost no attention has been given in this report to the ex- ceedingly important question of fire escapes and fire construction. There were almost no fire escapes reported, and there are many violations existing in all three of the districts of the laws on that subject. The law in Chicago requires that all tenements over three stories in height are to have fire escapes and standpipes. But only eight fire escapes were reported by the enumerators. Our laws on fire construction are exceedingly defective. It depends largely upon the Building Department whether or not there is any construction in tenement-houses which will prevent dangerous fires. By law the partitions between apartments are to be made entirely of incombustible material. In tenements less than five stories high the light shafts may be made of combustible material. In other cases the light shafts are to be made from incombustible material. Our laws are decidedly inadequate as compared to those of New York and other cities. The writer recently in looking at a tenement housing a very large number of people saw that the fire escapes were covered with boxes and barrels, and if a fire had occurred, the fire escapes would have been useless. There is no law to prevent incumbrances such as those spoken of. Enormous improvements can and should be made in our laws and in the enforcement of the laws which we already have. There are hundreds of tenements in Chicago which are veri- table fire-traps. Tenements housing five or six families and built solely of frame are frequently found in District i. The writer has one in mind in which the most dangerous conditions prevail. There is a bakery in the basement where doughnuts are boiled in fat. By the merest slip the fat may drop into the fire and the whole tenement go up in a furious conflagration. Thousands of lives are endangered night and day by reason of the extremely faulty construction and the methods of escape which are now provided. Many terrible fires in tenement-houses have already occurred, and it is only a matter of time until some horrible and cruel disaster will awaken Chicago to the need of radical reform in this line. 202 APPENDIX THE SCHEDULES The data gathered by the investigation was systematized and returned on the following schedules: The purpose of Lot Card "B" was to obtain all facts regard- ing certain inside and outside sanitary conditions in and about all dwellings. Questions regarding the condition of the side- walks, garbage boxes, and stables were gathered upon this schedule. Facts regarding the material and condition of each dwelling were placed in the section which have portions allotted for the front, middle, and rear house. On the back of this same schedule is a plumbing card. Information was gathered con- cerning the sanitary condition of all plumbing in all dwellings. Apartment Card "C" was used in investigating certain apart- ments thought to have bad inside sanitary conditions. By this means it was determined whether or not the cellar or base- ment had good floor material, was water-tight, and whether or not it was damp on dry days. In regard to the cellar and the other apartments, the amount of cubic air-space per person was determined, the openings upon which windows faced and the con- ditions of light and overcrowding. BIBLIOGRAPHY HOUSING STUDIES REFERRED TO IN THIS REPORT. Baths, Report of Mayor's Special Committee on. (New York.) Bowmaker, Edward, " Housing of the Working Classes." Bulletin, Federal Bureau of Labor, September, 1900. "Charities," Weekly of New York Charity Organization Society. Charter, Greater New York. Christian Social Union Leaflet II. (London.) Department of Health, Chicago, Pamphlet on Laws. Department of Health, Chicago, Report, 1897-1898. Department of Health, Chicago, Bulletin, December, 1900. Department of Public Works, Chicago, Report, 1898. Estabrook, Harold Kelsey, " Some Slums in Boston." Farr, William, "Vital Statistics." Gould, E. R. L., " Housing of Working Classes," Report of National Bureau of Labor. Haw, George, " No Room to Live." Hill, Octavia, " Homes of the London Poor." Hill, Octavia, "Work Among the Poor." Housing of the Working Classes, Report of House of Lords Committee on, 1884. Hunter, Robert, "Chicago's Housing Problem." Report of the Improved Housing Association. (Not published.) Journal of American Social Science Association, 1000. Kerr, Dr. Norman, " Inebriety." Knopf, Dr. S. A., "Tuberculosis in the Tenements." Lincoln, Alice N.," Concerning the Management of Tenement Houses." Maltbie, Roy, Monograph on Municipal Functions, "Municipal Affairs." Mann, John (Glasgow)," Better Houses for the Poor; Will They Pay?" Massachusetts Bureau of Labor, Reports for 1892 and 1893. Metropolitan Public Gardens Association, London Reports. Newsholme, Arthur, "Vital Statistics." New York Tenement House Commission, Report of, 1894. New York Tenement House Commission, Report of, 1900. Paine, Robert Treat, " Causes of Poverty." Prospectus of City and Suburban Homes Association. (New York.) Revised Statutes of Illinois, 1899. Reynolds, " Housing of the Poor." Riis, Jacob, " Ten Years' War." Riis, Jacob, " How the Other Half Lives." 203 204 BIBLIOGRAPHY Shaw, Albert, " Municipal Government in Great Britain." The Cottage Question: Reports from the Land Law Reform Association, London. The Slums of Great Cities. Report of National Bureau of Labor. Thompson, W., Alderman, " Housing of the Working Classes." (Richmond, Surrey.) Veiller, Lawrence, "Tenement House Reform in New York, 1834-1900." Veiller, Lawrence, " Housing Conditions and Tenement Laws." Veiller, Lawrence, "Tenement House Legislation in New York, 1852-1900." Warner, A. G., "American Charities." Wines, Dr. Frederick H., " Punishment and Reformation." Wingate, Chas. F., " Sanitary Construction of Houses," " Municipal Affairs." Worthington, T. Locke, " Dwellings of the People." INDEX Air, need of fresh, 73. Air shaft, law regarding, 201. Alleys, badly paved, 117. statistics of unclean, 117. Asphalt, pavements, extension of, recommended, 116. Average number of persons per apartment, 65. per room, 64. Badly lighted rooms, number of, 78. Basements, conditions of, 88, 89. fitted for habitation, 92. Baths, difficulty of obtaining, 109. public, 108. Board of Health, 80, 99. State, 83. Bohemian district, 14, 42, 149, 187. Bohemians, 199. Boston, 32. baths, 173. Boxes, garbage, condition of, 136. location of, 136, refusal to furnish, 137, 138. statistics in regard to, 134. overflowing, 138, 139. Brookline baths, 173. Bureau of Charities, 161. Bureau of Labor, National, 166. Catch basin, definition of, 103. Cellars, 88. defined by city ordinance, 91. Chicago river, south branch of, 182. Chicagc " slum," 178. Chickens, 141, 142. Children, 125, 126. City Attorney, 120, 122. City and Suburban Homes Associa- sociation, 175. efforts of, 176. Classification of air space, per per- son, 86, 87. Cleanliness of buildings, 73. Closets, hopper, 106. pan, 106. sidewalk, 106. tank, 106. water, 105. Collins, Miss, 177. Commission des Logements Insaln- bres, 163. Commissioner of Labor, investiga- tion of, 188. Comparative density of population, 54, 55- Cons, Miss Victoria, 176. Construction and size of houses rela- tive to districts, 189. Courts, filthy, 126. report of, 126. Cramped living quarters, 66. commented upon, 67. Crime, cause of, 149. Crothers, Dr. T. D., 148. Data, manner of gathering, 202. Dampness, results of, 199. Death rate, 154. impossibility to ascertain, relative to housing conditions, 156. in proportion to Boston, 158. why materially reduced, 159. Death rates by wards, 156, 157. Defective sidewalks, in. Degeneration, individual, 144. moral, 147. social, 144. Degeneration of two-story frame and brick houses, 22. Devine, Edward 1'., 145. District, Bohemian, 14, 42, 149, 187. Italian, 13, 92, 94, 149, 183, 185. Jewish, 12, 26, 32, 59,92,94, 119, 149, 158, 185. Polish, 14,26,41,54,59,64,108, 149, 181, 186, 187. Districts in the center of Chicago, 72. Double-decker, defined, 43-46. examples of, 46. result of, if permitted to grow, 49. Drainage, bad, 200. Drained lots, 102. Dry soil, importance of, 199. Ducks, 141, 142. Dwellings of the working class, 22. Edinburgh, improvement of, 19. Evils, prevention of, in New York and Boston, 23. 205 2O6 INDEX Exhaustion, 153. Examination of plumbing, 100. Examples of bad sanitation in base- ment dwellings, 90, 91. Expropriation Act, New York, 165. Boston, 165. Farr, William, 160. Fetter, Dr. Frank, 58, 98. Finance committee of city council, report of, 119, 120. Fire escapes, law regarding, 201. incumbrances on, 201. Fluegge, Professor, 174. Frame houses, neglect of repair, 94. Front and rear tenement houses, 30, 37, 75- Garbage boxes, 31, 130. statistics in regard to, 134. location of, 136, 137. Garbage, 133. systematic disposal of, 134. Gerhard, William P., 174. Glasgow, demolition of slum quar- ters, 19. Gould, Dr. E. R. L., 154, 175, 176. Gymnasiums, open air, 170. indoor, 170. Harris, Dr. Elisha, 149. Haw, Mr. George, 70. Health Department, 154, 155, 162. "discretion of," 162, 164. "Hell's Half Acre," 183. Hill, Miss Octavia, 176. Housing associations, work of, 175, 176. Housing committee, whom it should consist of, 164. Housing conditions, in Liverpool, 16. comparison of, by districts, 187. Housing, examples of, 12. problems, 11. Indecent overcrowding, influence of, 7071. results or, 71. Insanitary conditions, 141, 142, 143. Inspectors, 165, 166. Intemperance, 147, 148. Investigation.by committee on Tene- ment Conditions, 14. Italian district, 13, 92, 94, 149, 183, 185. Jewish district, 12, 26, 32, 59, 92,94, 119, 149, 158, 185. Jews, 199. John Worthy School, 151. Juvenile criminality, cause of, 150. results of, 151. Kerr, Dr. Norman, 148. Knopf, Dr. S. A., 152. Law, prohibiting sidewalk closet, 107. Law regarding air shaft, 201. air space, 83. cellars, 94. depth of building, 24. fire escapes, 201 lodging nouses, 88. of New York and Boston pertain- ing to houses, 99. partitions between apartments, 201 play grounds in connection with schools, 172. plumbing, 106. removal of manure, 132. window space, 78. water closet, 106. Lighting, need of, 73. Liverpool, housing conditions in, 50. Locke, Worthington, 128. London county council, 163. Lord Shaftesbury, 71, 153. Lot, overcrowding by buildings, 31, 36. percentage to be occupied, 24. Low land, bad conditions resulting from, 200. Maltbie, Mr. Roy, 170. Manchester, Eng., 160. "Mansion House Council on Dwell- ings of the Poor in London," purpose of the, 174. Manure, neglect of removal of, ^131. law regarding removal of, 132. boxes, 129, 130. Material of houses, relative to dis- tricts, 190. Method of legislation, relative to building tenements, 165. Metropolitan Public Gardens Asso- ciations, the, 170. Municipal authorities, difficulties confronting, 17. Municipal legislation, need of, 26. Need of demolition of dangerous tenements, 165. Need of reform in laws relative to construction of buildings, 201. INDEX 207 New laws necessary for good types of tenement construction, 164. New York, crowded condition of, 52. New York law regarding, keeping of animals, 141. play ground in connection with school, 172. removal of manure, 132. New York tenement house commis- sion, 43, 51, 114, 164. New York Tenement House Exhi- bition, 152, 176. North Side, conditions on, 183. Open space, need of, 168. Ordinance, London, concerning water closets, 107. Outside sanitary condition, import- ance of, ii i. Overcrowding, illustration of, 34. method of, 43, 51. results from, 51, 52. Paine, Robert Treat, 146. Pan closet, 106. Parks, 166. need of, 168. Pavements, asphalt, 116. block, 114. granite, 116. kinds of, 114. Pauperism, 146. definition of, 146. Percentage of families per apart- ment, 61, 62. Playgrounds, 170. Plumbing, definition of, 100. important part of, lop. law regarding, in Illinois, 101. Poles, 199. Polish district, 14, 26, 41, 54, 59, 64, 108, 149, 181, 186, 187. Povertv, 145. Preventative measures, lack of, re- garding housing problem, 161. Privies, statistics of, 105. Privy vault, definition of, 104. Professor Huxley, 83, 87. Public baths, establishment of, by Liverpool, 173. in Boston, 173. Rag and junk shop, 142. Rear houses, 88, 94, 96. Rear tenement, definition of, 37. their description, 36. Report of Bureau of Labor, 32. Dr. Fetter, 42. Royal Commission, 52. New York tenement commission, 43, Si- Relative working qualities of the Bo- hemians, Italians, Jews, Poles, 199. Rents, in Bohemian quarter, 187. in Italian quarter, 185. in Jewish quarter, 185. in Polish quarter, 187. Restrictions of crowded tenants, 49. Results of investigation of City Homes Association. 178. Riis, Jacob A., 46, 165. Rooms, badly lighted, 79. badly ventilated, 75, 77. Saloons, ratio of, in different dis- tricts, 1 88. in proportion to other cities, 188. Sanitary Aid Society of New York, purpose of, 174. Sanitary reform, economic value of, 154. Sewage, 88. Sickness, 152. Sidewalk closet, law prohibiting, 107. Sidewalks, 117. defective, 119, 120, 122. statistics of, 118. wood, 1 18. , ' Social and Sanitary Society of Edin- burgh, 175. South Chicago, conditions in, 181. Special Parks Commission, 170, 171. Stables, condition and description of, 130, 131. offensive, 128. Statistics regarding apartments relative to floor space, 61, 62. area and population of Chicago, 58. conditions of houses, 96, 97, 98. defective lighting, 80. height of buildings, 190, 193. lighting and ventilation, 77. manure boxes, stables, etc., 129, ISO- population, 53, 155, 156. rents, 185. sinks, 102. stores, factories, shops, 186. streets, 112, 114. tenants in each tenement house, 59- Stock Yards District, condition of buildings in, 182. 208 INDEX Streets, badly paved, 112, 116, 117. statistics of, 112, 114. unclean, 112. Supervision of new tenement house buildings, 162. Tenement house, history of, in Chi- cago, 21. Tenement house reform, manner of, in New York and London, 177, 178. suggestion of, 177. "Ten Years' War" in New York, 16, 46. 'The Health and Housing," 163. Tuberculosis, 152. Unclean streets, 112. alleys, 112. Vacant lots, filthy, 124, 125. " Visiting Nurses," The, lol. Warner, Amos G., 146. Water closet, 92. definition and kinds of, 106. insanitary, 107. lack of, 108. Wines, Dr. Frederick H., 150.