houses to be rented below cost price, it impedes private building and produces results the reverse of those expected.

One of the most important factors in the development of the physical, moral, and intellectual is the dwelling. In it the life of the family is passed. It is the sphere in which every individual has a part. The inconveniencies, physical, and moral, of unsanitary dwellings inhabited by the working class and the poor, no one denies. The overcrowding, with its following of disease of all kinds, and its accompaniment of crime and vice have been oftentimes brought to light. The cause is universal. It is to be met with all its saddest results in France, in England, in the United States, in Germany, in Switzerland, in Belgium, and in Holland.

Still, great advance has been made in alleviating the conditions surrounding tenement life. This was brought out very forcibly by Jacob Riis in his address at one of the meetings of the tenement - house exhibit in New York. He showed that in the last twenty-five years great improvement had been made in the architecture and sanitary arrangements of the tenements throughout the country. He gave at that time a very interesting sketch of work done by commissioners appointed by the New York legislature. These reports are summarized in a pamphlet prepared by Mr. Veiller, Secretary of the new Tenement House Commission.

Governor Roosevelt in an address made at the opening of the tenement-house exhibit, said many things which were of great importance. importance. One remark of his made a great impression upon a large number of people. He said he considered that on the whole no movement is so vital to the well being of our people as that of tenement

house reform. "If we succeed in upbuilding the material and therefore moral side of what is the foundation of the real life in our cities, we shall have taken a longer stride than is possible in any other way towards a solution of the great civic problems with which we are confronted."

The present movement for better tenement houses is an effort to cut at the root of the diseases which eat at the body social and eat at the body politic. Among the most effectual means of improving the homes of the working class must be set the improvement of means of communication and cheapness of transport. Very satisfactory results. have been attained by private owners of model houses for the working class in cities. The working people who are in the easiest circumstances, who earn a regular wage, have in some places themselves met their require

ments.

It is undoubtedly to the interest of private industry, of philanthropic enterprise, and of associations of workingmen, to provide better dwellings. If the houses set apart for the dwellings of the workingmen should bring in a fair revenue, their number would at once increase. Work along these lines must proceed step by step. We must offer houses relatively comfortable and healthy, with the option of the tenants to become owners.

Dr. E. R. L. Gould, president of City and Suburban Homes Co., when asked if improved houses will pay, answered that they will, that they have paid here in New York. Upward of one hundred millions of dollars has been invested in the largest European and American cities, and $88,000,000 is now earning and always has earned a comfortable profit.

The building societies of America have done a great deal for the workingman, probably more in the small cities than in the large ones. The

peculiarity of their advances is that they are repayable, capital and interest, by monthly payments. follows that as these societies receive a portion of their capital at once, they are able to make advances much larger in proportion to the actual value of the mortgage property than an ordinary creditor. The advantages to persons of small means are very great; the workingman. earning good wages is able to buy his own house, and often becomes the owner of it at the end of twelve years for a sum very little in advance of what he would have had to pay in rent.

In the town of Leeds, England, during the past twenty years, 1,800 houses have passed through the hands of the Leeds Permanent Building Society, the average value of each house being $830. The same amount of business has been done in Newcastle, Birmingham, and Bristol.

In Philadelphia it is calculated that over 60,000 workingmen own their own homes. A few years ago Philadelphia had deposited savings amounting to $40,000,000. The rapid development along these lines shows a decided tendency on the part of the workingman to own his own home, and whenever the opportunity is given him he is very quick to take advantage of it. In the smaller cities of the United States this system of purchasing homes has taken deep root.

In the city of Elizabeth, N. J., which is a manufacturing centre and a city of over 50,000 inhabitants, many hundreds of workingmen have built their own homes during the past ten years. This has led to the gradual extinction of the small tenements. This same can be said of many of the manufacturing cities of the United States. The individual ownership is a long step in the direction of moral and physical improvement.

The housing problem in the larger cities has the lack of space to contend with; in the smaller cities this is not generally the case, and yet in the smaller cities we find the tenements as a rule huddled together in the worst possible position the cities afford. This is the case in twenty out of thirty of the smaller cities of the east which I have visited, or from which I have received accurate accounts from specialists.

I find that in the cities of Connecticut, New Jersey, Maine, Vermont, and Delaware, they are generally located in the old part of the city, and are almost always the cast-off residences of the rich of eighty or one hundred years ago, residences that in their best days did not contain proper sanitary arrangements, and in which those that have been added are cheap and inadequate. This applies also to the cities. of New Jersey, and in fact to all of the smaller cities of the east. The great trouble in connection with the majority of these tenements is the inadequate sanitary arrangements and the overcrowding which necessarily follows. In sixteen out of twenty-five houses which I personally investigated in the cities of New Jersey and Connecticut, I found that the hall bedrooms were rented to lodgers; and in the two larger rooms, night and day, were huddled together anywhere from seven to ten adults and children of both sexes. Owing to the scarcity of tenements and the high prices paid for rent, the boarder is a necessity. In nine out of sixteen I found three beds in the bedrooms, generally one made up on the floor.

The tenement generally found in the small cities is built of wood, either single or double, twenty-five or fifty feet wide and thirty feet. deep, is three stories high with basement. In ninety-two out of the one hundred which I inspected I

found the basement occupied by foreigners, principally Italians and Poles. Dirt and filth of all kinds, with the dampness from the bad drainage, made these places intolerable. They were generally occupied by two families of not less than ten persons.

That tenements of this description can be built, so as to prevent the tenants from using the same hall and staircase, has been proved in many smaller cities, such as Elizabeth and Plainfield, N. J., by the construction of outside halls with stairs. This can be done at no great expense, and will give a privacy which is generally appreciated by the

tenants.

There are some suggestions which can be made in connection with the

building of small houses. They should be built with opportunity given to the tenants to become owners by means of annual installments; and where the conditions permit it, little. gardens should be added in the interest of the workingman and his family. Plans should be arranged so that the tenants do not meet on the staircases and landings. tenements should be well lighted. There should be a proper division into three rooms always, in order to permit the separation of the sexes.

SIMPLIFY THE TENEMENT LAWS.

All

The exposure of continued sweatshop evils in this city, despite carefully framed legislation to suppress them, forces upon public attention. anew the apparently inharmonious. agencies by which it is sought to solve the tenement-house problem.

The question is one large enough and vital enough, it would appear to the observant layman, to be dealt with in all its phases in a single comprehensive statute, applicable either to our cities of the first class-New York and Buffalo-or to New York

specifically, because of the unique conditions prevailing here. But regulation is involved in three directions by two state laws and by city department regulations; the state factory law; the city charter; and a miscellaneous lot of rules by the building, health, and police departments formulated under authority of the charter.

The amended factory law of 1899, it is found, is violated in various ways-in the issue of licenses for manufacturing to undeserving persons; in the immunity of sweatshops which continue business despite the refusal of licenses; in disregard of the legal requirements concerning cleanliness, light, ventilation, the storage of new clothing in rooms used for sleeping purposes; and in the occupancy of a manufacturing flat by more than one family.

This matter comes within the province of factory legislation because of its effect upon the interests of labor outside of sweatshops, and because of the direct peril to the entire community in the distribution and sale of clothing made in an unsanitary environment. At the same time, certain conditions are prohibited in sweatshop manufacture for reasons which apply with equal force to the general subject of tenement-house reform, in which the primary aim is the welfare of the tenement population.

The new tenement-house commission has not yet taken up this sweatshop abuse. It has ample power to do so, regardless of the factory law as opposed to the tenement law. Its power of report and recommendation extends, after certain specifications, to "all other phases of the so-called tenement-house question that can effect the public welfare."

Whatever may be the causes of dereliction in the enforcement of the factory law-whether they be political influence, incapacity, or bribery,

or all of these-it is to be hoped that the commission will probe this subject to the bottom, with a view to recommending legislation that will cover, in a single comprehensive statute, every phase of the tenement problem, leave less room for the exercise of departmental discretion in the formulation of rules, and eliminate the division of responsibility for enforcement between state and municipal officers.-Mail and Express.

MILITARISM AND CHARITY.

One of the most extraordinary, and from our point of view, deplorable incidents of the resurgence of militarism, is the diversion of funds devoted to charitable purposes to the expenses of government. When we went to war with Spain, Congress

once put a tax, amounting in many cases to fifteen per cent, on bequests to philanthropic institutions although several of the states had already imposed taxes of a similar nature. The theory of such taxation is apparently that the subjugation of foreign peoples by war is philanthropy on the grandest scale, and that private benefactions must be diminished in order to further this magnificent purpose. No past experience justifies this theory, nor does anything now taking place in the world support it. Not long since the civilized world was horrified at the expulsion of the Jews by the Russian government. That government professed to be actuated by enlightened benevolence, but its course was generally regarded as barbarous. The late Baron de Hirsch, at all events, was universally applauded when he devoted his great fortune to the alleviation of the misery caused by the expatriation of the Russian Jews. It might have been supposed that enlightened communities would have hastened to lend all the aid in

their power to so noble a bencfaction, or at least that they would do nothing to hinder or discourage it. Yet, we are now informed that, under the English law, the Jewish Colonization Association, formed to carry out Baron de Hirsch's merciful enterprise, must give up to the gov ernment, as a succession duty, no less than £1,250,000 of the £8.000,000 with which it was endowed. Baron de Hirsch died before our government took up the rôle of philanthropic militarism, or his gifts might have been cut down in this country also; but hereafter such wealthy individuals as think of doing good to mankind on a large scale will be taught by severe penalties to be less presumptuous. -Evening Post.

At the monthly meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland, Ohio, on May 15, the Board of Directors submitted a report calling attention to the desirability of establishing some system of supervision of the solicitation of money for charitable and benevolent objects. They have instituted some inquiries as to methods of solicitation now in vogue; and they conclude that a system of regulating the solicitation of funds would be most effective if conducted under the auspices of an organization not primarily engaged in benevolent work. They quote a letter from Mr. W. J. Akers, in which he says: "There should be a committee of the chamber on charities and benevolent organizations. Worthy charities should be presented with a certificate, so that when they solicit subscriptions show their certificate. they can. Business men have not the knowl

edge or the time to look up the worthiness of the solicitors or their charity. Merchants would soon learn to ask for these certificates; this would strengthen the worthy charities and shut off many of the needless and unworthy ones. My experience as the director of charities and long association with the Beth El Associated Charities, have convinced me that much good can be done if the chamber will take this matter up and carry it through." The board asks authority of the chamber to appoint a special committee on charity and benevolent associations to devise and carry out plans to provide some means of certifying institutions and insuring the public that the money they give will be wisely used.

The new building of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the gift of Mr. Jacob H. Schiff, was dedicated and opened to public inspection Wednesday, May 30. Dr. Leipzeiger and Mr. J. J. McCook delivered addresses, then Mr. Auerbach introduced Mr. Schiff to the audience. When he arose he was greeted with a mighty cheer, and the entire audience rose in one body. From Mr. Schiff's remarks we quote the following: "I am by no means so narrow as to believe, because a man expends part of his means for public or philanthropic purposes, that he owes responsibility to no one but himself. On the contrary, I am impressed that the ability to be of advantage to the community constitutes a sacred privilege, upon the exercise

of which every care should be expended, the advice and counsel sought which shall be best calculated to assure in every instance the highest results it may be possible to obtain. . . . The chief value of wealth consists in the opportunities it presents to make others contented, to expend it freely in an endeavor to equalize the accidental differences in human life."

After the exercises Mr. and Mrs. Schiff were presented by Mr. Menken, in behalf of the board of directors, with a loving cup.

It is an especially interesting report that the Union Relief Association, of Springfield, Mass., sends out for the year 1900. There are the usual

statistics for the information of members of the association and of others who are concerned; but there is, furthermore, a particularly suggestive account of the sort of work the association has been doing, and accounts of some illustrative cases. We note its work, somewhat out of the usual line, of aiding people who have a certain amount of property, but who can not use it to good advantage, because of lack of means. An instance is given of a second mortgage made to enable a woman to put in bathrooms in her two tenement houses, which would not rent as they were. As soon as the modern improvements were put in, the tenements were rented, and she now pays her interest and other expenses, and has $4 a week to live on herself. Another instance is of a woman who was ill and had but a short time to