Table IX shows that although the code expressly prohibits any room in a cellar being "constructed, altered, converted, or occupied for living purposes,' 118 207 of these prohibited apartments were found in the blocks canvassed. The basement apartment is not prohibited by the ordinance, but the fact that such apartments are often dark, damp, and unwholesome makes the fact that there were 461 basement apartments in these blocks further evidence of the bad housing conditions which prevail in these neighborhoods.

The presence of 668 cellar and basement apartments in these twelve blocks is due, no doubt, in large part to the grading of the streets after the erection of the buildings, so that a large number of yards are themselves below the street level. A considerable number of the cellar and basement apartments were not much below the yard level, although they were below the street level, and while they still are likely to be damp and dark, they are not as objectionable as if they were actually underground. This grading of the streets undoubtedly explains in large measure the increase in the number of cellar and basement apartments in the last decade. In 1901, when the City Homes Association investigation was made, only 20 cellar apartments were found in the Jewish and Italian district of 44 blocks, and 6 were found in the single Jewish block which was recently recanvassed; only 32 were found in 1901 in the 8 blocks in the Bohemian district in contrast to 15 in a single block of that district in 1910, and 49 in the 10 Polish blocks in contrast to 186 in that district in 1910.

If conditions have grown worse with respect to the occupancy of cellar apartments, they have improved in some other respects. An ordinance passed in 1894 made it illegal for privy vaults to be maintained on premises where sewers were possible, but in 1901 when this ordinance was still in force, the City Homes Association's investigators found 1,581 privies in the 44 blocks east of Halsted Street, and these were used by 10,886 individuals in 2,308 families; that is, in 1901, 45 per cent of

Code, secs. 398, 417, 430.

'Out of 455 premises, 381 were four feet or more than four feet below the street level.

all the families in this neighborhood were dependent upon these archaic, illegal, and dangerous toilet accommodations. The committee in 1901 also estimated that 52 per cent of all the families in the Polish district and 21 per cent of those in the Bohemian district were dependent on similar provisions.

It may, therefore, be accounted a very definite improvement in housing conditions that most of these offensive places have been removed within the last decade. In 1901, 71 outlawed vaults were found in the single Jewish block which was recanvassed; last year not one was found. In the recanvassed Bohemian block, a similar improvement had taken place, and there is reason to believe that there has been drastic action all through this neighborhood. In the Polish district where in 1901 it was estimated that 52 per cent of the families were using these offensive vaults, only 7 were found in the recent recanvass. The statistics published in an earlier study in this series for the blocks near the Stockyards showed that conditions in some of the newer and more outlying districts are still far from satisfactory. In the few blocks investigated back of the yards, 44 privies with 21 separate vaults were found by investigators last year. In these blocks 46 families and 248 persons were still using these insanitary vaults.

In spite of these improvements sanitary provisions in the West Side districts still leave much to be desired. In many places the vaults have been replaced by yard water-closets. The yard watercloset is almost equally a nuisance with the privy, but it has been outlawed for new tenements only. In the ten Polish blocks nearly 9,000 persons were still using yard water-closets; in the one Jewish block 165 persons, and in the single Bohemian block 145 families with 600 persons, were dependent upon these insanitary toilet accommodations. In these same 12 blocks, 324 hall and basement water-closets were found in the recent canvass and 108 of these were prohibited "long hoppers," so that it seems to be clear that in very few cases were the old vaults replaced by proper sanitary provisions.

The modern standard for toilet accommodation set by the present code for new tenements requires private toilet facilities for each apartment, except in the case of very small apartments

ILLEGALLY CROWDED ROOM IN POLISH DISTRICT

One man slept here by day, two adults and four children at night; the room contains 513 cubic feet.

containing only one or two rooms. Unfortunately, the same standard is not yet set for old houses, but considerations of decency require that in all houses, old as well as new, each family should have private toilet facilities within its own apartment. Table X, which shows the number of yard, basement, and hall water-closets in the 12 blocks investigated, shows how large an evil we still have in these public toilet facilities.

TABLE X

NUMBER OF YARD, HALL, AND BASEMENT CLOSETS IN TWELVE WEST SIDE BLOCKS

The presentation of totals in a table like this gives no adequate idea of the extremely insanitary cases which are sometimes found. In one case in the Polish district 30 persons were using a single yard closet; in another case in the Jewish district 25 people were using a single yard closet; in the Bohemian district several cases were found where 15 or 16 people were obliged to use a single closet of this sort.

An earlier article discussed the municipal regulations governing light and air and minimum cubic air space per person, and pointed out the large number of violations of these provisions found in the Stockyards district. That illegalities of the same kind are even more numerous in these West Side wards will appear in the following tables. It was pointed out in the earlier report that the provision which attempts to prevent overcrowding by requiring for each person a definite minimum of cubic air space is at once the most important and the most difficult to enforce of all the regulations governing interior housing conditions. The ordinance requires that every room in any tenement house, whether new or old, shall have 400 cubic feet of air for every adult person "living or sleeping" in the room, and 200