Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/686

 662 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

culate. In my opinion, it is impossible to overstate the seriousness of the situation.

Nothing remains to be done now, apparently, except for the Department of Health to try to perfect its plans for turning part of North Brother Island into a summer sanatorium for consump- tive patients, or for the Department of Public Charities to establish a large hospital in the very midst of an unfavorable city environment. 1

Without any desire to enter into a discussion of the problem of municipal ownership, one is tempted to suggest the need which New York city has for municipal baths and laundries, or even municipal markets. These public utilities are features of many of the European cities ; and considering, for instance, the abso- lute necessity for public bath-houses, in the interests of both health and cleanliness, would it not be easier to keep these in a proper sanitary condition if they were owned and operated by the Health Department itself ? It is a well-known fact that many of the better classes of people living in the tenement dis- tricts of the lower East Side refuse to make use of the present private bathing establishments because of their great uncleanli- ness. And it has also been demonstrated that these places, as well as the public river baths, are common sources for the spread of trachoma and other contagious eye diseases. Nearly a decade ago the city of Paris established school baths in connection with its elaborate system of medical inspection of school children.* But though there are already a few baths attached to some of New York's public schools, and one built and managed by the city, there seems no reason why the number should not be raised, either by the Department of Health or by the Board of Educa- tion. To be sure, the more rigid inspection of private baths undertaken by Dr. Lederle's present administration has done much to lessen the risk of contagion, and seems to point to a further extension of municipal regulation, rather than ownership. Still, baths owned and operated by the municipality could be

1 During the early summer of 1903 both these last-mentioned steps were taken, but they fall far short of the real needs of the city.

"SHAW, Municipal Government in Continental Europe, p. 121.