Some remedies for overcrowded city districts

Abstract

The growth of true civilization, the extension of education, and evolution of a better race, constitute national progress. As cities contain the greater part of the population of any country, they are always an important field for social reform. The development of cities is a gradual process. As in natural life, where this development altogether ceases, arrest and decay inevitably ensue. In civic improvement it is important to place qualitative before quantitative progress. Lavish expenditure on large municipal projects is not always a proof of finer civilization. There are many reforms rather than innovations, which when adopted in crowded city districts materially improve them. Being economical, they are specially suited for those cities where extension of the civic area is difficult, and taxation high. Decentralization of housing for the very poor is not easy to carry out, owing to their tendency to crowd together,? the tendency which creates slums in all cities,?the expense of demolishing these, and the difficulty of dislodging those who help to make them.