1. Municipal Government

• Published date: 01 November 1902
• DOI: 10.1177/000271620202000311
• Date: 01 November 1902
• Subject Matter: Articles

NOTES
1.
MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT
Greater New York.’-Statistical Work of the Tenement House Depart-
ment.-The subject of statistics probably receives greater recognition in the
Tenement House Department than in any municipal department not organ-
ized for the collection of statistics.
The framers of the law, and those
directing its organization, have made statistical work a requisite in the
administration of the department. Co-ordinate with the inspection bureau
and the executive work is the Bureau of Records, which is a sort of clearing
house.
To this bureau all clerks in charge of special work make daily
reports, which recorded on appropriate forms, show at once the exact status
of any action of the department. All original reports made by inspectors
are ultimately filed in this bureau, and the several city departments supply
daily reports of their work, so far as they affect tenements or the tenement
population of the city.
This combined, furnishes in a single bureau a
summary of the entire municipal activity in this given line.
The greater portion of the material for this summary is naturally fur-
nished by the department. Plans for all new tenements must be approved
before work is begun, and during the course of construction of any new
building, inspectors make frequent visits to see that the plans approved are
followed.
In the case of existing tenement houses the law provides that
those in which apartments bring a monthly rental of twenty-five dollars
or less must be inspected at least once a month,-higher class apartments
may be inspected at the discretion of those in charge. This entire work
requires that some two hundred men devote their time to inspection, and to
reporting conditions found. The statistical work has to do with these reports.
An inspector is not given carteblanche to report any and all conditions he may
find, but his work is carefully supervised, those in charge selecting a certain
kind of work that shall be done at a given time. This work determined upon,
a printed card, five by eight inches in size, is made, which is given the
inspector, and he, by a series of check marks or interpolations indicates the
conditions found. These cards, one for each house, are returned to the
department and, after action by the proper bureaus, ultimately become the
property of the Bureau of Records. These cards cover a variety of subjects,
such as structural changes, urgent conditions, fire-escapes, basements, over-
crowding, night-lighting, etc.
Their nature is best shown by giving the
subject-matter of at least two.
The urgent card, technically known in the department as the &dquo;U&dquo; card,
aside from the table showing condition of hall-lighting, unoccupied spaces, and
halls and stairs on the several stories, contains data relating to the condition
1
Contributed by W. R. Patterson, Ph.D., Chief Statistician.

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164
of the roof, water supply, flushing apparatus, cast iron pipes, lead pipes,
fixtures, garbage cans, ash cans, house drain, lowest floor, floor, ceiling, water-
closet, compartments in building, yard fixtures, compartments, school sink,
vault, cesspool, out-buildings and disinfection needed.
The so-called inspection, &dquo;I,&dquo; card permits the tabulation of the dimen-
sions of the shafts and windows, and the condition and number of the sinks
and water-closets, besides giving the data concerning skylight, scuttle-bulk-
head, ladder-stairs, windows in hall, fire-escapes, yard fixtures, closet accom-
modations, bakery, interior rooms. Cards similar to the above are made for
fire-escapes and basements; others cover the subjects of overcrowding, night-
lighting, etc.
The remainder of the general summary will be obtained from the health,
police and fire departments. Each of these departments will ultimately
supply daily reports of their work so far as it has to do with the-tenement
of the city. The Department of Health will report all cases of contagious
disease and death, giving the name, age, sex, and disease or cause of death;
the Police Department a similar report of arrests, giving name, age, sex, and
cause of arrest; and the Fire Department, sta~ing cause of fire, point of origin,
path, damage done and number injured or killed.
Cards five by eight inches in size, of distinctive colors, have been pre-
pared for the tabulation of these reports. Every tenement of the city will
have its individual set of cards, and when a case of contagious disease,
arrest, etc., is reported in a given house, a proper entry will be made on the
death, police or fire card belonging to that house. In this way a continuous
record of each tenement will be kept, which will be filed according to
street and number with all cards prepared by the department, and in that
way will give a complete history of the house in small compact space.
Finally, it is the intention of the department to make this material
available by taking a census of the tenement population. The schedule will
be brief, containing but a few entries, yet of such a nature as to give a
comparative base from which conclusions as to the effect of certain tenement
conditions may be drawn.
Pennsylvania.-personad registration in municipalities is provided in
the act prepared by the Joint Committee for the Promotion of Electoral
Reforms and the Merit System in Pennsylvania. This committee represents
the following organizations : Pennsylvania Ballot Reform Association, Civil
Service Reform Association, Municipal League of Philadelphia. Hon. Clinton
Rogers Woodruff, Secretary of the National Municipal League, is chairman.
Registration districts are to contain about, but not over 2,500 voters, the
districting to be done by the county commissioners. The appointment of
registrars rests with the court, each registrar to name a clerk whose qualifica-
tions shall be the same as those of the registrars; viz, citizenship, five years’
residence, &dquo;sober and judicious.&dquo; It is furthermore provided that they shall not
all be of one party. &dquo;They shall not be eligible to any civil office to be filled
at the ensuing election.&dquo;
Compensation is fixed by the court. Rive registry
days are named before general elections, sixty-fourth, sixty-second, twenty-

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165
ninth, twenty-seventh, and seventeenth and three days before municipal
elections, the twenty-ninth, twenty-seventh, and seventeenth. The hours of
registration are 10 a. m. to 6 p. m., and 7.30P.B m. to io p. m. Registration
must be in person. In addition to the usual identification the voter must
state whether he will require any assistance in marking his ballot, and the
reason for such requirement. When able to write, the voter must subscribe
his own...