Inside and out they compare unfavorably with those in the other districts. The percentage of houses reported in "good repair" was 71 per cent in the Polish district, 57 in the Bohemian, and 54 in the Stockyards, while in both the Jewish and the South Chicago districts it was only 28 per cent. The South Side colored district (the more nearly homogeneous district, it will be remembered) falls even below the percentages of the two last-named districts, with only 26 per cent of the buildings in good repair. On the West Side, while 44, or 35 per cent, were said to be in good repair, 31 per cent were absolutely dilapidated—a state of disrepair greater than in any district investigated except the Jewish section. Brokendown doors, unsteady flooring, and general dilapidation were met by the investigators at every side. Window panes were out, doors hanging on single hinges or entirely fallen off, and roofs rotting and leaking. Colored tenants reported that they found it impossible to persuade their landlords either to make the necessary repairs or to release them from their contracts; and that it was so hard to find better places in which to live that they were forced either to make the repairs themselves, which they could rarely afford to do, or to endure the conditions as best they might. Several tenants ascribed cases of severe and prolonged illness to the unhealthful condition of the houses in which they were living.

I

The sanitary provisions in these districts are in many cases inadequate. Since most of the houses are one- and two-family houses, it might be expected that a large proportion would have private toilet facilities. Table IV shows that one-third of the families in each district, however, do not have closets within the apartment, and use yard, basement, and hall closets, which though illegal for new-law tenement houses, are still allowed in old-law houses and in one-family houses. Since only 5 "new-law" houses, that is, houses built since 1902, were found on the South Side, and only one on the West Side, the hall, yard, and basement closets found by the investigators are not illegal. They are, however, no more conducive to the good health or morals of the tenants when found in old houses than in new; and most of them are of the antiquated "long hopper" variety which is now outlawed. Moreover, although the privy vault has been outlawed since 1894, there • Tolman, Municipal Code, sec. 434.

were found in the West Side blocks six privy vaults, three unused, and three used by five families.

The colored families do not as a rule live in the small and cramped apartments in which other nationalities are so often found. Even the families who apply to the United Charities for relief are frequently living in apartments which would be considered adequate, as far as the number of rooms is concerned, for families in comfortable circumstances. Of course the opposite extreme is sometimes met with; several colored families live in one-room apartments; and sometimes houses are so crowded with lodgers that members of the family are reduced to such schemes as that of one South Side housewife who, having rented all her rooms, puts her ironing-board across the bath-tub at night and sleeps on it. The following table shows that the majority of the families in these blocks have five- or six-room apartments.

In four other districts investigated the majority of the families live in four rooms, while in the Jewish neighborhood the ordinary family lives in three rooms. Many colored families lease these large apartments in the hope of filling them with lodgers; others, seeking smaller and less expensive apartments, find that they apparently do not exist; for many of the houses have been built for use as single houses and are not easily cut up into more than two apartments. Cellar and basement apartments are seldom utilized. No cellar apartments were found in either district, and only fourteen basement apartments on the South Side and seven on the West Side.

One of the most important provisions of the tenement code is that which relates to overcrowding. According to the present ordinance any room in a tenement is illegally crowded if it does not contain 400 cubic feet of air space for each adult "living or sleeping" in it, and 200 cubic feet of air for each child under twelve. This regulation applies to old-law and new-law houses alike.

Table VI shows that 29 per cent of the rooms used for sleeping were overcrowded; that is, that the law specifying the minimum of air space was violated in nearly a third of the sleeping-rooms. The numbers above the black lines in this table indicate cases in which the law was found to be violated. Such cases are those on the South Side, where three adults and one child were sleeping in one room, with less than the minimum for two adults, or that on the West Side where four grown persons and one child were sleeping in a room not large enough for two persons. They mean, in actual life, a lack of privacy which can hardly fail to be demoralizing, especially for the children.

Some of this crowding would be unnecessary if the colored people were willing to follow the customs of other nationalities and use all of the rooms in their apartments as sleeping-rooms. In only six apartments on the South Side and two on the West Side were all the rooms used at night. This means that unlike the immigrant, even the poor colored people like to keep a kitchen and "parlor," and occasionally a dining-room, distinctly as such and not crowded with beds.

When overcrowding takes place in an inadequately ventilated Tolman, Municipal Code, sec. 420.

sleeping-room, the level of health must eventually be depressed. A room without a window, or with a window opening only into another

TABLE VI

NUMBER OF PERSONS SLEEPING IN ROOMS OF SPECIFIED CUBIC CONTENTS
SOUTH AND WEST SIDES

To avoid confusion, one adult is used also when two children were occupying the room, since, according to the law, two children require the same cubic air space as one adult.

room, or upon an outer wall without space for fresh air to enter, cannot be a proper place for sleeping. Fifty-one of such rooms were found on the South Side and seventeen on the West Side.' The

NUMBER OF PERSONS SLEEPING IN ROOMS WHICH CANNOT BE VENTILATED A. SOUTH SIDE (4 BLOCKS)

ordinance providing that every habitable room shall have its window area equal to one-tenth of its floor area, and all windows opening directly to the outer air1 applies only to new-law tenements, but the necessity of good air and light, like that of adequate sanitary provisions, is as important for a family living in a house built in 1900 as for one living in a house built in 1903. Rooms without windows, of which sixteen were found in the first district and five in the second, are illegal in both classes of tenements and in private houses.

A large number of rooms were found to be inadequately lighted. "Dark" and "gloomy" are at best only relative terms, but an attempt was made to standardize them as far as possible; the investigators recorded a room as "dark" when it was possible to read only when standing close to the window, and "gloomy" when one could read only a few feet away from the window.

Table VII shows that 32 per cent of the rooms in the first district were inadequately lighted, and 22 per cent of those in the second.