the foul air, and drunkenness is so common as to excite no remark.
Sexual impurity finds its nest amid the darkness and ill-endowed
children swarm in the streets.

242. =Possible Improvements.=--There must be some way out of these
evil conditions that is practicable and that will be permanent. Those
who are interested in housing reform favor two kinds of
measures--first, the prevention of building in the future the kind of
houses that have become so common but so unsatisfactory, and the
improvement of those already in existence; second, provision of
inexpensive, attractive, and sanitary dwellings outside of the city,
and cheap and rapid transit to and from the places of labor. Both of
these methods are practicable either by voluntary association or State
action, and both are called for by the social need of the present.
There are definite principles to be observed in the redistribution of
population. The principle of association calls for group life in a
neighborhood, and it is as idle to think that people from the slums
can be contented on isolated farms as it is to suppose that they can
be converted readily into prosperous American agriculturists. Close
connection with the town is indispensable. The principle of adaptation
demands that the new homes shall answer to the needs of the people
for whom they are provided, and that the neighborhood shall be suited
to those needs. The houses will need to be enough better than those in
town to offset the greater effort of travel. The principle of control
demands that the new life of the people be regulated as effectively as
it can be by municipal authority, and if necessary that such municipal
authority be extended or State authority be localized. There are
difficulties in the way of all such enterprises, but social welfare
requires improvements in the way the working people live.

It is notorious that immigrants and working people generally have
larger families than the well-to-do. The children of the city streets
form a class of future citizens that deserve most careful attention.
The problem of the tenement and the flat is especially serious,
because they are the factories of human life. There the next
generation is in the making, and there can be no doubt about the
quality of the product if conditions continue as they are. It is
important to inquire how the children live, what are their occupations
and means of recreation, their moral incentives and temptations, and
thei