CHAPTER XI

TENEMENT-HOUSE REFORM

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As long as the people of the United States lived in
the country or in small towns, the isolated house occu-
pied by a single family was the unit in our living arrange-
ments. And it was commonly assumed that any en-
terprising artisan could become a home owner by the
practice of industry and economy. Accordingly, house-
hold sanitation was deemed to be a matter wholly within
the management and direction of the family itself. Gov-
ernment interference was looked upon as an unwarranted
invasion of the domestic "castle."

The attitude toward public control, which was natural
enough under the conditions just described, has perdured,
although the vast majority of the people in our large
cities, as was pointed out in the first chapter, are not
home owners, and millions are housed in multiple dwell-
ings. Our typical proletarian does not possess a home ;
he does not determine the arrangements of his dwelling;
and the only alternative presented to him, in case he does
not like the treatment he receives from his landlord, is
to move — an expensive and often inconvenient opera-
tion. Inasmuch as he has little or no control over the
physical structure of his house and its management, he
can find relief only through the development of public
intervention. And the need for such intervention has

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288 American City Government

been shown above in the chapter on " The People of the
City."

Those who are opposed to drastic legislation dealing
with tenement houses, or are indifferent to the imperative
need for far-sighted improvements in the living condi-
tions of the people of our great cities, often take refuge
in the time-honored fallacy that the poor prefer to live
in squalor and filth. Every advocafe of tenement-house
reform has met more than once in the course of his labors
the old argument that it is no use to provide well-ap-
pointed homes for the " lower classes," because they will
right speedily reduce the better environment to their own
level. 