There were first the two small parks to be laid out over on the
East Side, where the Gilder Commission had pointed to the smothering
crowds. I had myself made a member of the Citizens' Committee that
was appointed to locate them. It did not take us any nine years or
six, or three. We did the business in three weeks, and having chosen
the right spots, we went to the Legislature with a bill authorizing
the city to seize the property at once, ahead of condemnation, and
it was passed. We were afraid that Tammany might come back, and
the event proved that we were wise. You bring up the people slowly
to a reform programme, particularly when it costs money. They will
pay for corruption with a growl, but seem to think that virtue
ought always to be had for nothing. It makes the politicians' game
easy. They steal the money for improvements, and predict that reform
will raise the tax-rate. When the prophecy comes true, they take
the people back in their sheltering embrace with an "I told you
so!" and the people nestle there repentant. There was a housing
conference at which that part of the work was parcelled out: the
building of model tenements to the capitalists who formed the City
and Suburban Homes Company; the erection of model lodging-houses
to D.
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