We Americans have an unhappy faculty of not
remembering until after we have forgotten, of
not beginning to conserve our resources and save
our forests until after we have lost them. But
we are surely practical enough to profit by ex-
perience. And experience applied to housing
reform establishes the proposition which should
be printed in large type that No growing

AMERICAN CITY, HOWEVER FREE FROM TENE-
MENTS NOW, CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT BUILD-
ING REGULATIONS TO PREVENT DARK ROOMS

AND UNSANITARY CONDITIONS. There is uo hard-
ship to anyone in so regulating the future building
of all houses intended to contain three or more
families as to ensure an open space in the rear, a
window for every room, opening either on the street
or an open rear or an open court proportioned
to height, also water supply, sewer connection
and a separate toilet. There can be no intelligent

viii



FOREWORD

Opposition to such a regulation, be it by state law
or city ordinance. Such regulation, however
much tenement evils may have come to exist,
will safeguard the future, even if some of the past
is lost. It is in the line of least resistance and
greatest accomplishment.
There is nothing inherently objectionable in
the tenement as a type of city dwelling; that is,
in a multiple house intended to be occupied by
three or more families living independently.
The objection lies in permitting them to be built
without proper regulation. It is the wellnigh
universal form in many European cities. It is
likely to be increasingly the form in American
cities.
