; but the broken gambler remains a burden and a
threat to honest society. Gambling, lotteries, and speculation cause
embezzlement, crime, unhappy homes, and wrecked lives.[6] Here are
to be found with difficulty the true boundaries between ethics and
expediency. A busybody despotism may protect the fool, but it thereby
helps to perpetuate and multiply his folly; yet if the fool is left
alone, he too often is a plague to the wise and the virtuous.

Sec. 7. #City growth and the housing problem#. In 1790, of our population
only 3 per cent lived in cities of over eight thousand inhabitants;
in 1900 the percentage was 33. Then the largest city (Philadelphia)
numbered 50,000; in 1910 the largest city (New York) numbered
5,500,000; that is, 110 times as large 120 years later. The total
number of persons living in cities of 8000 had increased in more than
double that ratio. The rapid growth of cities brought with it many
evils. Considered in their more material aspects, nearly all of these
are summed up in the expression "the housing problem."

As population grows denser in cities, land rises in value, yards and
gardens narrow and then disappear, light, sun, and air are shut out,
and cleanliness, decency, and home life become more difficult and,
for many, impossible. The residents gradually group themselves in
districts corresponding to their economic incomes, and the poorer
parts of the population become tenement dwellers in the neighborhood
of factories or become segregated in "slum" districts of unsanitary
and dilapidated houses.

Sec. 8. #Good housing legislation.# Two policies are open under
these conditions. The one, always followed for a time, is to leave
individual self-interest unguided to solve the problem. If the tenant
agrees to rent a disease-breeding house, he is the first to suffer.
The interests of investors, it is said, will supply as good a house
as each tenant can pay for. The other policy now adopted is to set
a minimum standard of sanitation and comfort, in respect to plans,
lighting, materials, and proportion of lots to be covered, to which
standard all builders and owners must attain. Complying with the legal
requirements, they are left free to collect whatever rent they can
get. As one bad building may bring down the rent of all on the street,
such legislation may sometimes be in the interest of the body of
landowners as against the selfish desires of some individuals. Mainly,
however, the regulation