RECORD OF TESTIMONY AND STATEMENTS IN RELATION TO 157 



NECESSITY FOR DISTRICTING PLAN 



at noon that a satisfactory luncheon is impossible. But that applies also to 

 the people who work downtown in the overcrowded business buildings. 



Lower East Side 



The congestion of the East Side was created by the needle work in- 

 dustry. If the garment factories were not located on the east side or 

 near the east side of Manhattan, the East Side as a neighborhood for work- 

 ing people would not exist. The condition of the East Side with reference 

 to congestion is particularly the result of a lack of a City Plan. If thirty years 

 ago the area of the City of New York had been laid out into zones much 

 of this tenement legislation and much of the work that reformers have had 

 to do because of congestion would have been unnecessary. 



Districting will prevent a duplication of the evils of congestion in the 

 newer sections of the city. The areas near the new rapid transit roads in 

 Queens ought to be saved from the fate of the lower east side. Sections in 

 the Bronx ought also to be saved. You can save them yet. 



Tenement house manufacturing 



Manufacturing in tenements is harmful to every resident of the tene- 

 ment. I consider it harmful to the operatives. I consider it harmful to the 

 purchaser of goods, because the regulation of contagious diseases in tene- 

 ment houses is bound to be inadequate, and I think that tenement house 

 labor ought to be absolutely abolished. I say this with regard to all kinds 

 of manufacturing in tenements because you cannot regulate the sanitary 

 conditions of tenements and you cannot regulate danger from contagion. 

 I think it is better, especially for the people that have to work, that they 

 work in factories rather than in tenement homes. 



Statement by John J. Murphy, Commissioner, Tenement House 

 Department, May 9, 1916 

 Results accomplished by Tenement House Law 



My duties as Commissioner have brought me into close contact with 

 existing conditions in the City of New York. I have studied all the types 

 of old tenement houses erected before the passage of the present law and 

 some which were erected when there was no law on the statute books 

 affecting tenement houses. When I first came to New York to live thirty- 

 four years ago I lived in a district which, while having formerly been a 

 residential district, was at that time used for tenement house purposes in 

 fact. I may, therefore, say that both by personal experience and official 

 opportunity I can speak on the subject as one who has reached certain 

 definite conclusions. There can be no question that the provisions of the 

 law providing for limitations on the height of non-fireproof buildings, the 

 provision of such yard and court spaces as the law now requires for provid- 

 ing light and ventilation to interior rooms, the control of sanitary arrange- 

 ments of multiple dwellings, and the requirement of adequate means of 

 fire escape have greatly added to the welfare, safety, and longevity of 

 dwellers in congested districts. 



Observation of the enforcement of the law has developed the fact that 

 more stringent requirements would have accomplished more, but it seems 

 that, at the time the law was passed, in view of then existing conditions, 

 these requirements were all that could be enforced. 



