g of whole families in single rooms, in which the
miserable beings sleep, eat, cook, and make clothing for contractors, or
cigars that would never go into men's mouths if the men saw where they
were made--these things seem almost impossible in a civilized and
Christian land. It is horrible to be obliged to think of the human
misery and hopelessness and grind to which hundreds of thousands are
subjected in the city of New York day in and out, without rest or
change. It is no wonder that criminals and degenerates come from these
districts; it is a marvel, rather, that so few result, and that so much
of human kindness and goodness exists in spite of crushing conditions.
There is a bright as well as dark side even to the most disgraceful
districts; but there is no denying that the dark vastly predominates,
and that the struggle for righteousness is too hard for the average
human being. Nearly everything is against the peasant immigrant thrust
into the throng which has no welcome for him, no decent room, and yet
from which he has little chance to get away. He is commonly cleaner
morally when he lands than after six months of the life here. Why should
he not be? What has American Christianity done to safeguard or help him?

[Sidenote: Immigrants Not Responsible]

The existence of the tenement-house evils, it must be borne in mind, is
chargeable primarily to the owner and landlord, not to the foreign
occupant. The landlords are especially to blame for the ill
consequences. The immigrant cannot dictate terms or conditions. He has
to go where he can. The prices charged for rent are exorbitant, and
should secure decency and healthful quarters. No property is so
remunerative. This rent money is literally blood money in thousands of
instances, and yet every effort to improve things is bitterly fought.
Why should not socialism and anarchism grow in such environment? Of
course many of the immigrants are familiar with poor surroundings and do
not apparently object to dirt and crowding. But that does not make these
conditions less perilous to American life. Self-respect has a hard
struggle for survival in these sections, and if the immigrant does not
possess or loses that, he is of the undesirable class. Mr. Robert Hunter
makes the statement that no other city in the world has so many dark and
windowless rooms, or so many persons crowded on the acre, or so many
families deprived of light and air as New York. He says there are
360,000