UNSANITARY HOUSING 51 



as the result of the experience of the past fifty years, which 

 has shown us the great expense both in lives and in sickness, 

 and in money, of the growing up of slums in our great cities. 

 Thinking, therefore, of the origin of those slums, we come to 

 the conclusion that by laying down certain principles, as re- 

 gards not only the internal economy and the building of houses, 

 but as regards the inter-relation of the different houses to one 

 another, we can prevent, to a large extent, the growing up 

 of those slums in future." 



Town Planning 



Going a step or two further, I would say no government can 

 justify its existence unless it carefully considers this important 

 question and places upon the statute book a law with ample and ade- 

 quate regulations for dealing with unsanitary houses of all classes 

 of the community and for conferring power on city, town and village 

 municipalities whereby they may not only control, but in a measure 

 direct, town and suburb planning. For, in this period of our growth, 

 the village of to-day becomes the city of to-morrow and the suburb 

 of the town is a portion of the city before we are aware of it. The 

 sins of omission of the rural municipal authorities, as well as the 

 sins of commission of the far-seeing real estate speculator, become 

 an asset of a great city. If the urban authorities have been com- 

 pelled advice is worthless to build and plan on proper lines, then 

 the asset is valuable. It is not a case of building and planning ex- 

 travagantly, but wisely and well. 



Appended is a brief statement of what is being done in the in- 

 terests of sanitary housing and town planning in foreign countries 

 and in Great Britain, where, by reason of the local conditions, the 

 evils of the past have been brought prominently to the notice of the 

 public and the authorities. 



Germany The outline plan of campaign in Germany may be 



given thus: 



(a) Town planning. 



(b) The construction of model tenements. 



(c) The encouragement of private builders and of co- 



operative building societies. 



(d) The demolition of slums, either by the destruction 

 of old tenements and their replacement by new 

 model ones, or by business offices and parks. 



(e) The repair of existing dwellings so as to make them 



sanitary. 



