in which it is possible for human beings to exist—crowded together in dark, ill-ventilated rooms, in many of which the sunlight never enters, and in most of which fresh air is unknown. They are centres of disease, poverty, vice, and crime, where it is a marvel, not that some children grow up to be thieves, drunkards, and prostitutes, but that so many should ever grow up to be decent and self-respect ing. All the conditions which surround childhood, youth, and womanhood in New York's crowded tenement quar ters make for unrighteousness. They also make for dis ease. There is hardly a tenement-house in which there has not been at least one case of pulmonary tuberculosis within the last five years, and in some houses there have been as great a number as twenty-two cases of this terri ble disease. From the tenements there comes a stream of sick, helpless people to our hospitals and dispensaries, few of whom are able to afford the luxury of a private physi cian, and some houses are in such bad sanitary condition that few people can be seriously ill in them and get well; from them also comes a host of paupers and charity seekers. The most terrible of all the features of tene ment-house life in New York, however, is the indiscrimi nate herding of all kinds of people in close contact ; the fact that, mingled with the drunken, the dissolute, the improvident, the diseased, dwell the great mass of the re spectable workingmen of the city with their families." The conditions in Buffalo present a marked contrast to those of New York City, as thus described. Quoting from the Special Report on Housing Conditions in Buffalo, prepared by two Buffalo members of the Tenement-House Commission, we learn that "the tenement-house evil in Buffalo is practically confined to two districts — the one inhabited principally by Italians, . . . the other inhab ited by Poles. . . .
" It would seem," says the report, " that there is no necessity whatever of the existence of the tenement-house system. There is plenty of room for houses of moderate height, easily accessible from all parts of the city by the present means of transportation, and there is room for very much larger growth under the same conditions. It seems possible, therefore, by the enforcement of sufficiently strict regulations, to exterminate gradually the evil as it exists, and to prevent its development in the future. These are the lines upon which the enactment of law should proceed, and if the time is to come when more un favorable housing conditions must prevail, then the evil day should he postponed as long as possible." The law drawn by the Commission to remedy these evils was enacted by the Legislature, and there was created in the city of New York a distinct Tenement-House Depart ment intrusted with the enforcement of its provisions. The first commissioner of this unique department was Robert W. de Forest, who had been chairman of the Com mission which made the report and drafted the proposed law, and the first deputy commissioner was Lawrence Veiller, who had been secretary of the Commission, and secretary also of the Tenement-House Committee of the Charity Organization Society. It was this committee which, in December, 1898, initiated the movement which within a brief period of three years had culminated in the sweeping victory for tenement house reform in the city where housing conditions were recognized as worse than elsewhere in the civilized world. The new law tene ments afford the greatest possible contrast with those of the dumb-bell type, which were erected with great rapid ity up to July 1, 1900, when the new law became operative. The foul " air-shaft " of the old law buildings immediately gave place, so far as new buildings were concerned, to a large, well-ventilated court, and no house built under the new law may contain any room that is not adequately lighted and ventilated. In the dumb-bell tenements ten rooms out of each fourteen were usually almost totally dark and without ventilation, but under the steady pressure of competition, immediately created by the new and the more desirable houses; the demands of business,resulting in the replacing of some of the worst of the old buildings by warehouses, factories, and shops ; and the operation of the new law, there has already come about a great transfor mation in those housing conditions which have so long been the despair of all who knew them, and which are so effectively described in the report from which paragraphs have been quoted.
The Tenement-House Department, under the judicious and efficient administration of those who had done most to bring about the enactment of the new law, has instantly been recognized as an embodiment of the idea that the social welfare of the great body of the working people is the legitimate object of state and municipal concern. The Tenement-House Department, although a new departure in many respects, fell heir to certain duties which had pre viously devolved upon the other departments. So far as the interior of the houses in which the bulk of the people live is concerned, it virtually is the Health Department. Sanitary inspection, the correction of unsanitary condi tions, and the vacating of buildings unsuitable for human habitation devolve upon it. It brings about the improve ments in housing conditions from which result less sick ness and a lower death-rate and greater decency, and a nearer approach in many ways to rational family and home life.
It was fortunate that the introduction of the new law coincided with the introduction of an efficient adminis tration. Imperfect as the old laws had been, it was found by the investigation of 1900 that practically every new house constructed was built to a great extent in disregard of those provisions. The violation of existing tenement house laws was one of the most flagrant abuses discovered, although even if they had been built as the law directed they would have fallen far short of a reasonable standard. It is said that every new tenement-house built under the jurisdiction of the Tenement-House Department, has been made to conform with the requirements of the law in every detail. New buildings are inspected at stated intervals, and if any important defect is found, it is im mediately remedied or work on the building is stopped by the Department. The law contains a provision that no tenement-house shall be occupied for habitation until a certificate is granted by the Tenement-House Department that it has been built according to law in every respect. Aside from this inspection of new buildings the Tenement House Department, under the new law, systematically inspects occupied tenement-houses, whether old or new, and a system has been introduced by which frequently recurring violations of law cause a house to be classed as a neglected house, resulting in a special inspection and a prosecution of the owner, or an order that the building shall be vacated until satisfactory evidence has been given that the defects which have led to the action will be remedied. By the power to vacate a tenement-house the Department has been enabled to remedy defects far more effectively than by the procedure of tearing down a house as unfit for human habitation, since the property loss involved by this process and the inherent legal difficulties are so great that for practical purposes the power might almost as well not exist. Under the special provisions of the law prosti tution was successfully driven out of the tenements, the effective remedy in this instance being a provision that the house itself becomes subject to a penalty of i1000 if after receiving notice from the Tenement-House Depart ment that prostitution is being carried on, the tenant is not ejected within a period of five days.