The Sun

New York and European Cities - Contrast.

Notwithstanding the proud position which New York has in regard to human progress and social elevation, it is a lamentable and humiliating fact with regard to the condition in which the great mass of its population are compelled to exist. We are fairly behind some of the European cities. Not behind monarchical cities in any regard long enough; but that they should surpass in the elevation of that class which a republic is peculiarly to foster with the most jealous care, is a disgrace. In Paris, for instance, the comfort, convenience and social improvement of the working class has been one of the leading studies of the French Emperor; and the fact that he has succeeded in bringing about radical changes in this respect, is the best evidence of the feasibility of those reforms which the Sun has so persistently advocated. In his accession to the throne of France, Louis Napoleon found the great mass of his Parisian subjects in the most wretched condition, crowded together in pestiferous tenement houses built at haphazard, and living without regard to their moral or physical welfare. He at once set to work to inaugurate a thorough reform. In the result achieved what may be seen verified. Even in the comparatively brief period of his rule, the filthy lanes and alleys have been re-cut, widened and cleansed; the infernal tenements in which the people were huddled together have been level and new, commodious, well-lighted and well-ventilated dwellings have been substituted. As a result, the sanitary, moral and physical condition of the people has undergone a material change. Civilization and cultivation now see where once was only vice and criminality.

Here in New York we have also had a change, but unfortunately it is from bad to worse. The high rents have induced proprietors of tenement houses to huddle the people still more closely together, to make their apartments still more narrow, and consequently more uncomfortable and detrimental to health and morality. They make no change for the better, simply because they are not compelled to. The constantly growing demand insures them plenty of tenants, and their cupidity prevents any improvement that does not promise an immediate return in dollars and cents. With such a class it is useless to labor. They know that the wretched habitations, for which they are receiving enormous rents, are little better than pig-sties: but they pay well and that is the sole consideration. We cannot expect to compete with the Emperor in this respect, nor do we need to. The people, fortunately, have the inherent power to effect the needful change, and it is only necessary that they shall take the requisite step. They must combine to elect municipal officers who will have a regard for the interests of the masses; they must secure the passage of an ordinance which shall make standard regulations for the lighting, ventilation and convenience of the tenement houses, and which shall declare all such buildings that fail to come up to that standard nuisances, subject to suppression. This is the true and the only course by which this glaring evil can be reached, and that it would be effectual there can be no doubt. Compel proprietors of tenement houses to erect better buildings, and the large rents which arise from these investments would soon produce a radical change, and at least place New York on a par, in this respect, with the cities of the old world.