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Show H WORKING ON THE SLUM PROBLEM I. problem or alloy reform has 'J- been engaging a good denl of attention at-tention in many of our cities during i tho last few yean and to some extent r It Is finding a solution. J i The typical alley is a breeding place j, I of vice, disease and crime. Its mis- ' chiefs are usually tho result of mu nicipal neglect. Quite often, oddly '( : enough though this wh much more J i) commonly the case In foii.-.rr days i v than new the best residential blocks I are bisected by alleys that are noto rious slums ( Such an alley, wherever located, is : characterized by tumble-down build- ji Ings, many of them too far gone foi i! human occupancy, yet inhabited at I 1 high rents. These decrepit houses or- dlnarlly have no sewer connections and no cemented ground floors. The occupants get their water (usually j 1 biore or less polluted) from a public I hydrant, and everywhere there Is a ' plentiful distribution of decomposing rats and filth of all kinds. Property of tho sort is enormously profitable to its owners, but a stand-J stand-J v ing threat to the health of the com- jf L reunify. City-wldo epidemics often j 1 etart in alleys, where "crowd-poison," j due to impure air. Insufficient light it end encouragement of contagion, Is the worst of many evils, (ft , Crowding not only promotes inde- jjf eency and vice, but kills people by Wholesale. Study ; the subject in j many cities has proved that the death rate Is largely determined by the num- ' ber of persons to a room. Tho mor- ' tallty from infectious diseases ln- f I creases astonishingly with the density j of house population. i Take tho population of an alley and j ) concentrate it in ono big building. You jj' j bavo then a "tenement houso" of the K ;j; typical slum type. It Is even worse If 'j than an alley, because of greater B y! crowding. Hero Is tho greatest social puzzle of the largo city. For an alley Typical of the tenement by reconstruction may be converted into a decent and sanitary "minor street," but a tenement houso preserves pre-serves many of its most objectionable attributes even when transformed into an up to-dato building. It Is the crowding that In always the chief trouble. There are too many people flocking together in closo quarters. quar-ters. Some of them are decent, others are not. Terrorism Is exercised by the rough and brutal over the timid, the latter feel unable to resist. Under such conditions people become be-come brutalized. The children of tidy and decent families suffer a swift degradation. deg-radation. Tho stairs are blocked by dirty children, the yell of tho drunkard BCD oe a through tho hallways. Intolerable Intol-erable is tho life of any respectable, hard working family in such circumstances. In tjio tenement house there Is tho same menace, of crowd-poison as in the alleys, but worse. There are too many occupants per room, with ron-eequent ron-eequent pollution of air and tendeni v to tho spread of infectious and contagious con-tagious diseases. Also, there is greater danger from fire than in alley; For the present the tenement-house problem must ho met aside as wholly unsettled But the alley problem is comparatively easy to tackle It in VOlves, to hpfcln with, the emptying and razing of all buildings below a fixed standard of safety and sanitation, whereupon those buildings should be replaced with proper ones, provided with sewer connections, water supply and xas. Mere theory ? Not a bit of it. In some of our cities ("Washington, for example) many of the formerly worst alleys have been converted Into decent and attractive minor streets by lining them with small two-story houses, each consisting of two independent flats Each flat has a separate entrance, a separate cellar, yard and bathroom, and a well-equipped kitchen Plumbing, Plumb-ing, light and ventilation are first class Three commodious closet are provided for each apartment. How about the rent? Not so exorbitant. exor-bitant. Twelve dollars a month for a four-room flat, or $9 50 for one of three rooms But the owners of the jvoperty grant a rebate of ono month's rent each eir lo tenr.nts whose apartments apart-ments have not requLred Inside repairs re-pairs In other words, a company engaged en-gaged In this kind of business usually allows one month's rent money annually annu-ally fo such repairs, and whatever Is sa ed out of It foes to the tenant. This encourages tenants to take good care of their quarters. Investment in this kind of improved alley property is not a purely humanl tarlan proposition It pays about 6 per cent a year net. |