THE EFFECT

OF

A HOUSING LAW

BY

ALFRED T. WHITE

‘ NationaL Housing AssoctaTION PUBLICATIONS
No: 22

PRICE, FIVE CENTS
JuNE, 1913
105 Kasr 22d Srreet, New York CityREPRINTED FROM THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SECOND
NationaL Housing CoNFERENCETHE EFFECT OF A HOUSING LAW

Mr. Aurrep T. WHITE

Tenement House Committee, Brooklyn, N. Y.

It is inevitable that the National Housing Association
should have to drive two horses. On the one hand we are
interested in promoting the single housing of the people,
on the other in preventing improper housing in tenements.
And yet the two matters are one, because in hindering the
construction of improper houses we certainly encourage
and facilitate the construction of better houses, and most
of all the one-family type of house.

There are some happy cities in this land in which the
tenement house has not yet appeared. There are parts
of others in which the single-family dwelling has ceased to
exist. For the most part, however, the cities of this country
are being forced to consider the relative parts to be played
in their development by the two classes of buildings, and
how to restrict the one and encourage the other.

It is usually only the force of law which secures to the
tenant of a tenement house domestic privacy, light, and
air in every room, and assured safety from fire, and, im
demanding those conditions, the laws at once protect the
occupant of the tenement house and encourage a whole-
some scattering of the population into smaller dwelligs.

The only argument now advanced against rigid tenement-
house legislation is that it increases the cost of tenement-
house construction and >thereby tends to raise rents.
Formerly it was contended ;that a man might build as: cf: as ASR A Pai ER Saat td NRCS EE — —————————————————————— —
Ce ce SE tn aE sa oe

4 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

he chose — had he not a right to do as he pleased with his
own? But this contention is heard no more. The recog-
nition of the duty of the state to protect the public health
is everywhere recognized.

Next the opponents of such legislation argued that the
poorer class of tenants would not care for better dwellings
and would destroy modern conveniences; this argument has
been abundantly disproved and has also been relegated to
the abyss of exploded objections.

Only the effect on rents remains, and as this is often
urged it is well to examine it with some care.

It may be noted in starting that this objection is never
urged by the tenants but always by property owners or
their agents. The labor organizations have, I think, always
thrown their efforts on the side of rigid regulation of
tenement-house construction and maintenance.

All elements which make for higher taxes help to cause
higher rents, as well as tenement-house regulation. We
might have a city of all frame buildings; taxes and rents
would be lower, but who would advocate this? We might
do without public schools or a police force and thus have
lower taxes and rents, but who would live in such a city?
Why is it always the public health thatyis assailed?

Is it not worth something to secure better health in
every family in the community? Of course it is. And note
this — Higher rents may not mean higher costs of living.
If they are caused by better accommodations, so that ill-
nesses are lessened and the lives of children saved, and
strong men and women raised in place of weaklings, then
there may be economy instead of loss in the slight addition
to the rent.

It was a famous Prime Minister of England who said,
“The health of the people is really the foundation upon
which all their happiness and all their power as a state
depend. You may have skillful manufacturers: the arts
may flourish; architecture may scover your lands with fine
buildings, with art museums and Itbraries; but if the peopleat i a ik Es WH SR Se gas ner ieee oe

       
 
  
    
  
  
  
    
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

HEP NCE: OF A HOUSING = Aw. 5

of that land are declining in health, strength, and longevity,
that country is ultimately doomed.”

New York City, with all its congestion of population,
has furnished conclusive evidence of the power of tenement-
house legislation to assure better health and longer life to
the people of crowded cities. Here are the figures from
the reports of the Department of Health for old New York,
the mortality being stated per 1000 of population:

Annual death

rate
Prior to 1867 (Hirst Wenement House Baw) 29 9.2...) .- - over 35
ESOT to 1879: «(Second Maw enacted) -...°.....5 =. 28
S09 tolso> — (ehird aw enacted) =..........9..0..: 26
LSSo to L901 = “(Present law enacted) . =. 45.2 2?
T9024 to 1907. (Under Present baw) 2. 4.5, 19.6
EOS ro LO COUmder Present law) ©. =). 2 7 ee 16.4

Each law has imposed more stringent regulation; each, it
will be seen, has been followed by a sharp decline in the
rate of mortality, until it is now less than half of what it
was only a generation ago.

It would be unfair to claim the whole of this saving for
the tenement-house laws; but there can be no doubt that
a large part of it is due directly to that cause.

On its present population of 5,200,000, the difference
between the old death rate of over 35 in the thousand liv-
ing and the present 1912 rate of under 15 means a saving
in New York City of over 100,000 lives every year.
The money value to the community of these lives and
the saving to these families of the heavy cost of illness
and deaths would far outweigh any added costs of rents
due to tenement-house regulation, and who can measure
the saving of pain and sorrow or put a money value on
that saving?

But there is more saving even than this. To the city
and state, as well as to the individual families, there is an
absolute economy, for the enormous sums which need now
to be expended on our public institutions, hospitals, and
asylums are due in large measure to the existence of city6 NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

slums, sure to grow up where there is no tenement-house
restriction. And while it thus costs the cities and states
large sums to undo the evils which bad housing causes, it
would have cost them nothing to prevent these evils from
arising, for all that a state or city needs to do is to pro-
hibit the erection of unsanitary houses and private capital
can be trusted to build proper and healthy homes.

Is it not plain, then, that the last argument against
stringent tenement-house laws falls dead? Is it not estab-
lished that such laws not only protect the lives of the people,
but that they are an economy to the citizen, the community,
and the state, and that in their enactment and enforcement
lies also the most efficient weapon to dissipate congestion,
scatter population, and build up cities in which, so far as
local conditions will allow, the separate dwelling for every
family may be, as it is here in Philadelphia, the general
and happy rule?NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION

OFFICERS AND DIRECTORS

O20) 5 0) 250 ie), ee.

cote eee ROBERT W. DEFOREST
cote, ead JoHN M. GLENN

3 2 = LAWRENCE VBIEDER
oe ae JoHN IBLDER

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

ALBANY:

Marcus T. Hun
BALTIMORE:

J. B. Nort Wyatt
BOSTON:

Puitre CABOT

ELMER S. FoRBES
EDWARD T. HARTMAN
FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED

BUFFALO:
FREDERIC ALMY
CHICAGO:

Miss JANE ADDAMS
CHARLES B. BALL
Mrs. Emmons BLAINE
VictToR ELTING
ALLEN B. Ponp

CINCINNATI:

J. G. SCHMIDLAPP
Max SENIOR

CLEVELAND:

Paut L. FEIss
COLUMBUS:

EpcGAr L. WEINLAND
DALLAS:

EDWARD JTITCHE
ELIZABETH:

CLINTON MACKENZIE
EVANSVILLE:

Mrs. H. E. BAcon
HARTFORD:

Rev. ERNEST DEF. MIEL
INDIANAPOLIS:

Linton A. Cox
LOS ANGELES:

Dr. TITIAN COFFEY

LOUISVILLE:
Mrs. GrEorce H. Gray

MILWAUKEE:
H. H. Jacogs
MINNEAPOLIS:
Otto W. Davis

NEW HAVEN:
Pror. HENry W. FARNAM

NEW ORLEANS:
Miss ELEANoR McMaIn

NEW YORK:

GROSVENOR ATTERBURY

Paut D. CRAVATH

ROBERT W. DEFOREST

Joun M. GLENN

JoHn Martin

ALFRED T. WHITE
PHILADELPHIA:

Miss HANNAH Fox

GEORGE W. Norris

Miss HELEN L. ParrisH
PELESBURGHE ||

H. D. W. ENGLISH

PROVIDENCE:

CHARLES V. CHAPIN
SE LOUIS:

J. Hat Lyncw
SAN FRANCISCO:

Miss Atice S. GRIFFITH
SAVANNAH:

G. A. GORDON
TORONTO:

W. S. B. ARMSTRONG
Dr. CHARLES J. HASTINGS

WASHINGTON:

Dr. GreorcE M. KoBer
GEN. G. M. STERNBERG

YOUNGSTOWN:
H. M. Gartickee ee ee ER ee feu

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NATIONAL HOUSING ASSOCIATION
PUBLICATIONS

 

THE AWAKENING OF A STATE-4INDIANA
By Atpion Fettows Bacon. /Three cents by the hundred.

WHAT BAD HQUSING MEANS TO THE COMMUNITY — 2p EpiTIon
By ALBIoN\FELLows Bacon. Three cents by the hundred.

TEACHING PE TENANT
, By JOHANNA VON Wacner. Four cents in quantities of one hundred or more.

ONE MILLION PEOPLEAIN SMALL HOUSES — 2p EpitI0n
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HOUSING ANDZHEALTH — 2p EDITION
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THE SURVEY AND THE SMALLER CITY
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more, wee

THE HOME AS A FACTOR IN PUBLIC HEALTH
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SUN-LIGHTED TENEMENTS — Thirty-five years experience as an owner
By Atrrep T. Wuite. Ten cents each; nine cents by the hundred.

THE WORK OF A HOUSING COMMITTEE
By Joun Intper. Two cents apiece for twenty-five or more; one cent by the
hundred.

HOW.:SOCIAL WORKERS CAN AID HOUSING REFORM
~ By Mary E. Ricumonp. Three cents by the hundred.

_ WHAT KIND OF HOMES ?— How a Chamber of Commerce is Helping to Solve

the Housing Problem.
By Howarp Stronc. Three cents by the hundred.

A HOUSING PROGRAMME
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MODEL TOWNS IN AMERICA
By GRosvENoR ATTERBURY. Ten cents each; nine cents by the hundred.

ROOM OVERCROWDING AND THE LODGER EVIL
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THE MENACE OF GREAT CITIES

By THE RicHtT HONORABLE JAMES Bryce. Four cents by the hundred.
THE EFFECT OF A HOUSING LAW

By ALFRED T. WHITE. Two cents by the hundred.

RURAL AND SUBURBAN HOUSING
By Ermer S. Forses. Three cents by the hundred.

Single copies of the above pamphlets may be obtained from the National
Housing Association, 105 East 22d Street, New York City, for five cents, except
Sun-Lighted Tenements and Model Towns in America, ten cents.

Other Pamphlets in preparation.

HOUSING PROBLEMS IN AMERICA
Proceedings of the First National Conference on Housing in America. Cloth
bound. $2.00 postpaid.
Proceedings of the Second National Conference on Housing in America. Cloth
bound. $2.00 postpaid.