89 



He talked and wrote modestly and forcibly. But he did not 

 stop with talking and writing, as so many do. He acted. He 

 accomplished. He arrived. 



r 



He was a pioneer in several important fields of constructive 

 philanthropy. He aided helpfully in all. He inaugurated, in 

 1876, the now national movement for tenement and housing re- 

 form. He also joined in starting, in 1878, the national move- 

 menf for the proper organizing of charity. But no one will ever 



r 



know what were his greatest contributions to the welfare of his 



r 



fellow men. For many things that he did were done so quietly 



m 



and impersonally that his name was never connected with them. 

 His right hand certainly knew what his left hand did, for he was 

 too wise and far-seeing not to weigh consequences and act de- 

 liberately; but no one else's ''right hand'' knew what he was 

 doing, unless it were the right hand of his own wife, from whom 

 he was inseparable until they were parted by her death less than 

 a year ago. 



The pressing need for tenement reform in New York was 

 known before he entered this field, but he was the first one to 

 effectively grapple with the problem. Characteristically, before 

 he did so he went abroad and studied housing conditions in 

 London. Then he came home and instead of starting any propa- 

 gandist movement or appealing for legislation, he built the River- 

 side model tenements in Brooklyn. They were completed in 

 1878 and an addition was made to them in 1890. The group of 

 buildings, consisting of 527 apartments and some thirty small 

 buildings, was fully described in the report of the State Tene- 

 ment House Commission of 1894. These tenements were rented 

 on a strictly business basis, intended to produce a fair return on 

 the investment. They have been fully occupied ever since they 

 were built. No tenant was permitted to stay on who had not 

 paid his rent, but I am quite sure that when unavoidable mis- 

 fortune prevented a tenant from paying his rent it was made up 

 from some source of which the tenant knew nothing. Thus Mr. 

 White, by his example, launched the now national movement for 



