142 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



tectural skill. The same building, no matter how handsomely built, situated 

 in a narrow street with buildings close to it on either side, or at the front 

 or rear, so that those living in less high buildings are deprived of light and 

 air. is a manifestation of man's thoughtlessness or, what is worse, selfishness 

 and greed. 



Sunlight 



Sunlight and air are as essential to man's well-being as water. If I 

 shut off water so that my neighbors cannot procure any, I should be prose- 

 cuted as a criminal, and justly so, for thus I take away what does not belong 

 to me. In that case I should be a thief pure and simple. Yet I may con- 

 struct in any narrow street as high a building as my means and the builder's 

 skill will permit, thereby depriving a great number of my fellow-men of the 

 light and air which are necessary to, their health. In other words, I may 

 steal from them the sunlight and air which God has given all his children, 

 and to which all should be entitled by right of being free-born American 

 citizens. There is as yet no law which will punish me for this crime, for 

 that is what it is. 



Deaths from tuberculosis 



Tuberculosis, which is propagated by bad air, foul air and lack of sun- 

 light, causes annually a loss of 200,000 citizens to the United States. In 

 the City of New York during the last statistical year it was responsible for 

 10,000 deaths. This disease could be largely prevented if we lived and 

 worked in pure air, in air relatively free from mineral and vegetable dust, 

 and, last but not least, if we were to construct the buildings in which we 

 live and labor so as to allow sunlight to enter more freely. Tuberculosis 

 is far more prevalent among the workers in our downtown tall office build- 

 ings than is generally known and much more than should be the case when 

 one considers the wealth which is represented there and the relatively good 

 pay the bookkeepers and clerks receive as a rule." 



Tuberculosis among garment workers 



Carefully gathered statistics show that in the City of New York the 

 garment workers are afflicted more frequently with tuberculosis than any 

 other class of workers. The majority of these workers do not, as is often 

 thought, work in their homes. They work in the tall crowded buildings, 

 situated in congested districts, ten, twelve, twenty, or more stories high, 

 where every floor masses hundreds of workers. Many are tuberculous 

 without knowing it. Others know that they are tuberculous, but, perhaps 

 fearing discharge, hide their disease as long as they can ; but in the mean- 

 time they disseminate the germs of tuberculosis by coughing in their neigh- 

 bors' faces or over the clothing they manufacture, or, what is still more 

 frequent, spread the disease by careless expectoration on the floor. During 

 luncheon hour they crowd the streets and avenues, and those afflicted with 

 the disease expectorate freely on sidewalks and streets. The infectious 

 sputum dries and pulverizes and is inhaled with the dust and causes tuber- 

 culosis in any susceptible individual who may frequent that street. 



Fifth avenue 



And now, not content with the many altogether too tall buildings already 

 lining the part of Fifth Avenue south of Twenty-third Street and the ad- 

 joining streets, some (let me hope not greedy but only thoughtless) capi- 

 talists wish to increase the number of disease-breeding and death-trap sky- 



