above referred to, graphically describes the widely prevalent conditions: congestion, lack of privacy, insufficient and foul toilet facilities, prevalence of bad odors, lack of requirements essential to modern decent living, neglect and decay of houses, lack of proper fire protection, absence of play space and unfortunate environment. The monthly bulletin of the Health Department of the City of New York states: 9 8 "As a result of the abnormal overcrowding, thousands of families are forced into insanitary and dangerous quarters. Health authorities are powerless to cope with it because it is impossible to vacate such premises under present conditions. There are no other and better places to which such families can remove. Overcrowding . . . has resulted in a marked increase in the infant death rate. The relation of bad housing to child health is startling. Infant mortality is 30 per cent higher in districts where there is the greatest overcrowding. Overcrowding has propagated and spread tuberculosis. This disease is at least twice as prevalent in overcrowded quarters as in areas of normal housing." Whether caused by an actual shortage of housing space, or primarily induced by increased rental demands for the quarters occupied, it seems undeniable that the housing situation in New York City in March of 1919 had attained the status of a real and serious emergency. The number of summary proceedings to oust tenants from their homes instituted in the Municipal Courts of New York City in the year 1919 totaled 96,623. 10 Stories of dispossessed tenants 8 Pp. 22-37. Vol. XI, No. 2, February, 1921, page 35. 10 While this number is a large one, it is not the record for this court. The figures for other years are: 1916, 94,813; 1917, 98,591; 1918, 102,963; 1920, 110,197, and pictures of their furniture, piled on the streets, filled the newspapers. Deputations of tenants journeyed to Albany, and others besieged the legislators through the mails with demands for ameliatory legislation. Elsewhere throughout the State, conditions differed only in degree. The report of the Housing Committee of the State Reconstruction Commission states: 11 "Permanent conditions of housing are nowhere in the State as bad as in the City of New York. But this is a matter of degree. In practically every other city one finds embryo slums— wooden buildings serving as houses, crowded together on badly kept alleys, complete lack of sanitation, inadequate water supply, insufficient fire protection, dark rooms.' The Committee sought to analyze the causes of the emergency and to offer a solution that would be fundamental. It examined, as factors going into housing costs, questions of land values, taxes and assessments, financing, planning, building laws and management costs. It found that: 12 "The fundamental difficulties of supplying sufficient houses were the same before the war as they are to-day. At present the problem is accentuated by building conditions and the increased shortage brought about by lack of building during the war. But no solution of a present problem can meet with even temporary success that does not offer means of permanently reducing the cost of houses so that workers throughout the State may be able to live in sanitary, wholesome houses. 13 11 Page 35. 12 Id., page 38. 13 At page 12, the same report says: "Last spring, a group of experienced builders, architects and real estate men estimated the cost of building a group of apartments. They found that at that time if building were carried on on a large scale on cheap land, a very limited return might be had if a charge of "In the past, the return on investment in housing, particularly in the City of New York, has been so small that builders and capitalists have become more and more reluctant about building. A large part of the owners of tenements in New York City have received a small, if any, return on their investment. It is improbable that houses will be built for the poor for many years by any speculative builders excepting those who lack experience. "Past tendencies have been accentuated by conditions arising out of the war. Ameliorative legislation may serve temporarily to relieve some of the present suffering. Fundamental legislation is necessary if we are to have an adequate supply of houses." Obviously, any present solution of the emergency required the construction of "an adequate supply of houses." The Committee submitted two alternative plans looking toward the attainment of this object. Both provided for the establishment of local housing boards in communities having populations over 10,000 and a central State housing agency, to aid in relieving immediately urgent housing needs and to evolve ways and means for systematic economical community building henceforth; for constitutional amendments permitting the State to extend credit at low rates to aid in the construction of moderate priced houses; and for legislation enabling cities to acquire, hold and let lands to aid housing projects. This was a constructive and deliberate program, but the "insistent public demand " 14 upon the Legislature $9 per room were made. Since then prices have greatly increased. . . The price of construction has risen so high and the uncertainty as to cost is so great that it is necessary to charge for new construction a rental far beyond the means of a large part of our population. There is a natural tendency to increase the rentals of the better type of older buildings until they are on the same levels with the prices that have to be charged for new buildings." 14 Harold I. Aron in "Cornell Law Monthly," vol. VI, No. 1, November, 1920, called for quicker and more obvious results. Within five days after the Committee had submitted its report, the Legislature had passed the first of the so-called "Housing Laws" or "Rent Laws," and on April 1, 1920, these laws, Chapters 130 to 139, inclusive, went into effect. Two additional enactments, Chapters 209 and 210, became effective April 14, 1920. These enactments are well described as "emergency" legislation, in the full sense of that term. They sufficed to tide matters over, however, until the fall. On September 20, 1920, the Joint Legislative Committee on Housing transmitted its report 15 on existing conditions, to a special session of the Legislature called for the purpose of considering the housing situation. From this report the following excerpts may be quoted: 16 "At the close of the war the Federal authorities reported a world-wide shortage of housing accommodations and the need in America for one million new houses. The committee estimates the shortage of houses in New York State at this time to be approximately 100,000. "The Federal, State and City Health authorities direct the attention of the nation to the overcrowding, especially in the large cities, and point out that the housing situation presents a potential danger and menace to the public welfare. The old, abandoned, insanitary tenements are necessarily occupied and the slum is again raising its ugly head in the cities. "The housing shortage developed a practice of rent profiteering, national in its scope and consequences. Tenants were evicted by the thousands because they were unwilling or unable to pay a greatly increased rental. Rent riots occurred in a number of the cities. In New York city thousands of dispossess proceedings 15 Legislative Document (Extraordinary Session 1920) No, 1, were brought, a large number of which were settled out of court, through the efforts of local organizations. ... "Profiteering has done more to create resentment on the part of the naturally peaceful citizen than any other element since the war. The most flagrant and the most acute form of extortion and one which is almost inescapable is rent profiteering. And as for eviction, never in the history of the City of New York have there been so many evictions." A table is given showing the summary proceedings commenced in the Municipal Court of the City of New York to have numbered 96,623 for the year 1919, and 87,442 for eight months, from January 1 to August 31, 1920. The report then proceeds to state: "Over 60,000 tenants have been notified to vacate on October 1, 1920, irrespective of the rental, and the President of the Board of Municipal Court Justices of the City of New York stated September 16, 1920, 'the summary or dispossess proceedings against tenants during the month of October will exceed in number the record for the whole year 1919. If the hard-hit public is to be relieved action must be taken within a period of ten days after the Legislature convenes, otherwise our new May day, October first, will find us in a terrible condition. Our courts will be packed with frantic men and women. You will have to act quickly.' "During the past year the calendars of the Municipal Courts of New York City have been so congested with rent cases that other business has been deferred. A court calendar of 300 or 400 cases a day is not unusual. Men, women and children wait for hours, frequently until late in the evening, for their cases to be called. Under these circumstances judges are unable to give but a few minutes to the consideration of a case. "The attempts of some landlords to obtain more rent by taking tenants to court month after month and the granting of short stays from time to time subject families to great anxiety. They |