at, and sleep,
and where privacy is impossible. Thousands of children grow up
unmoral, if not immoral, because their natural sense of modesty and
decency has been blunted from childhood. The poorest classes live in
cellars that reek with disease germs of the worst kind, and sanitary
conditions are indescribable.

If these conditions were confined to the immigrant population,
Americans might shrug their shoulders and dismiss the subject with
disparaging remarks about the dirty foreigner, but housing conditions
like these are not restricted to the immigrant, whether he be Jew or
Gentile. The American working man who finds work in the factory towns
is little better off. The natural desire of landlords to spend as
little as possible on their property, and to get the largest possible
returns, makes it very difficult for the worker to find a suitable
home for his family that he can afford to pay for. Yet he must live
near his work to save time and expense. Old and dilapidated houses are
ready for his occupancy, but though they are often not so bad as the
large tenements, with their more attractive exteriors, they are not
fit dwellings for his growing family. A flat in a three-decker may be
obtained at a moderate rental, but such houses are usually poorly
built, of the flimsiest inflammable material, and they, too, lack
privacy and modern conveniences.

241. =Effects of these Conditions.=--It must not be supposed that
these evils have been overlooked. Building associations and private
philanthropists have erected improved tenements, and have proved that
the right sort of structures may be made paying investments. State
and municipal governments have appointed commissions and departments
on housing, fire protection has been provided, better sanitary
conditions have been enforced, and hopelessly bad buildings have been
destroyed. But slums grow faster than they can be improved, and the
rapidly growing tenement districts need more drastic and comprehensive
measures than have yet been taken. The housing problem affects the
tenant first of all, and in countless instances his unwholesome
environment is ruining his health, ability, and character; but it also
affects the community and the nation, for persons produced by such an
environment do not make good citizens. The roots of family life are
destroyed, gaunt poverty and loathsome disease hold hands along dark
and dirty stairways and through the halls, foul language mingles with