Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/496

 478 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

a rental of $18 per month. Think of it, $18 a month for a pest hole, disease-breeding place like that ! Doubtless it was hard on the poor tailor to compel him to give up his quarters ; but in this instance there was nothing else for the inspector to do, since no child could long survive the unspeakably foul air and dirty surroundings which were found in that little basement on the Bowery. Consequently the whole place was immediately vacated, the tailor and his family were helped by the inspector to find a new and far better home, and the landlord compelled to abandon his wretched basement forever as a lodging.

This was a somewhat extreme case, to be sure. Still, the Department of Health must ever be on the lookout for such unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. Else, to whom could the poorer class of citizens turn, unable as they are to pay for the services of a private lawyer or too ignorant to see that their own health and that of their children are being ruined ? No, it is the city officials, whom we choose to rule over us, who must do these things. And we who have intrusted to them such mighty powers for the care of the public health must also see to it that they perform their duties honestly and efficiently.

Another instance of the splendid work which has recently been accomplished by the sanitary inspectors in New York is the cleaning up of the Chinese quarter in the lower part of Man- hattan. In the autumn of 1902 an epidemic of the bubonic plague had broken out in San Francisco among the Chinese of that city, and there was some alarm lest it spread to New York. Dr. Lederle accordingly ordered a thorough sanitary inspection of "Chinatown," and in little more than two months that section of the great city had received a thorough cleaning up such as it had never known before. Five inspectors began the work on November 10, 1902, each taking a city block and visiting practi- cally every building in the district, and by the end of the first six weeks they had made 326 inspections, including 309 com- plaints. The plumbing, cleanliness of cellars, halls, and apart- ments, and everything affecting the general sanitary condition of Chinatown were looked into. And where the conditions were not what they ought to be the department served orders on the