"Today three-fourths of our people live in tenements, and the drift of the population to the cities is sending increasing multitudes to crowd them. The
fifteen thousand tenant houses that were the despair of past generations
have swelled in to thirty-seven thousand, and more than twelve hundred
thousand persons call them home. We know now that there is no way out; the
"system" that was the evil offspring of public neglect and private greed has
come to stay forever in our civilization. Nothing is left but to make the best of
a bad bargain" - Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Charles Scribner's
Sons, 1890
What is the main idea of this passage? *
20 points
The conditions of tenement living have improved greatly
The number of people living in tenements is declining.
O
Many immigrants face crowded conditions and despair in tenement housing.