In this work there is a distinct opportunity for
women. A woman as a rule is more successful
than a man. This is not strange, as the larger
part of tenement house management is nothing
more nor less than sympathetic understanding

.78



THE FIELD OF PRIVATE EFFORT

and good housekeeping. The secret of success is
in maintaining satisfactory relations with the
tenants, in making them consider it a real privilege
to live in your house and a calamity to be forced
to go elsewhere. This result is not so difficult to
bring about as it may seem. As soon as the
tenants experience the benefits of the new regime
and realize that their landlord has human relations
with them, most obstacles to a proper understand-
ing disappear.
Of course a proper understanding can not be
had with tenants unless they are decent people;
but decent landlords need have no other kind.
If they get them, it is entirely their own fault.
That they do get them to the great extent which
they now do, is not surprising in view of the fact
that they make little effort to safeguard them-
selves. Nothing is easier than keeping out of
one's house objectionable tenants, provided one
is willing to take a little pains. It is a perfectly
simple thing before taking in new tenants, to
require references as to character, especially from
the places in which they have previously resided.
It is equally simple to adopt the practice of visit-
ing their previous residences and there ascertain-
ing the essential things with regard to them,
namely, whether they are respectable, temperate
people and pay their rent promptly. This is an
essential prerequisite to proper tenement house
management.
