The conditions now prevailing near the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street need thorough transformation. There the smoke from railroad shops and yards and from standing locomotives combines with the soot sent up by nearly four hundred trains that come and go each day. Steamships, tugs, and other river craft add their contribution; the near-by tanneries and the garbage wagons contribute their odors; the great coal docks, with their noisy buckets and intermittent engines, increase the din; and the streets are covered with the sawdust, coal, and dirt spilled from the thousands of wagons that constantly use this crossing. Close to this intersection is a cosmopolitan district inhabited by a mixture of races living amid surroundings which are a menace to the moral and physical health of the community. [Illustration: CXX. CHICAGO. PRELIMINARY SKETCH OF THE PLAZA AT MICHIGAN AVENUE AND TWELFTH STREET LOOKING SOUTH EAST. COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY COMMERCIAL CLUB OF CHICAGO] The electrification of the railways within the city, which cannot be long delayed, will serve to change radically for the better the dirt conditions in this neighborhood; but the slum conditions will remain. The remedy is the same as has been resorted to the world over: first, the cutting of broad thoroughfares through the unwholesome district; and, secondly, the establishment and remorseless enforcement of sanitary regulations which shall insure adequate air-space for the dwellers in crowded areas, and absolute cleanliness in the street, on the sidewalks, and even within the buildings. The slum exists to-day only because of the failure of the city to protect itself against gross evils and known perils, all of which should be corrected by the enforcement of simple principles of sanitation that are recognized to be just, equitable, and necessary. It is no attack on private property to argue that society has the inherent right to protect itself against abuses; and when the city itself leads the way by the creation of broad streets well paved and cleaned, restrictions against overcrowding, defective drainage, and the heaping of waste in yards and side streets are but a logical sequence. In respect to street cleanliness and adequate air-space, Chicago may well take a lesson from Berlin, where the streets are kept clean by daily washings, and where a property owner may build on only two-thirds of his land, leaving the remainder for a court. Chicago has not yet reached the point where it will be necessary for the municipality to provide at its own expense, as does the city of London, for the rehousing of persons forced out of congested quarters; but unless the matter shall be taken in hand at once, such a course will be required in common justice to men and women so degraded by long life in the slums that they have lost all power of caring for themselves.