It is an interesting fact that among the very earliest pioneers in the movement for better housing conditions were two women, Octavia Hill, of London, and Ellen Collins, of New York. Of these two women, it has been justly said: “They were alike in the fact that before anyone else saw how bad housing underlies more of the mischief that is abroad in a great city than do most other causes, they saw and understood. What is more, they attacked the evil where few in their day had the courage, and fewer the will, to meet it.” Guided by the work done by Octavia Hill in England, Miss Fox, Miss Parrish, and a few others organized, in the pioneer days of housing reform, the Octavia Hill Association, as a branch of the Civic Club of Philadelphia, a woman’s organization which had been investigating congestion in courts and alleys and presenting reports. This association still exists. The members of the association buy property in the tenement districts, and either build new houses or improve old ones which are rented then in the usual way. The shareholders are guaranteed 4 per cent. on their investment and still the houses are kept in perfectly sanitary condition. It is eleemosynary in its interest though profit-making in its appearance. It handles property for those who want it handled by someone who will take more than a pecuniary interest in the tenants. The ideals of this association have been copied elsewhere, as in Detroit and Washington. They were the inspiration for the Women’s Municipal League of Boston, which now manages the property intrusted to its care on the same principles. It regards the rent collector as a social worker of real assistance to the landlord and the tenant. The attitude that so many people have of placing the blame for bad conditions upon tenants largely or solely was well answered by a member of the Octavia Hill Association. After showing that the last annual bill for repairs due to carelessness of tenants in the Association’s 500 houses was only $50, someone asked to what extent tenants are responsible for bad housing conditions. Instantly the answer came, “None.” The work done by Miss Ellen Collins in New York is told by Miss Emily Dinwiddie in “Tenements for a Million People.” Jacob Riis thus had able assistants. Women of wealth have helped to build some of the model tenements which were, in the earlier stages, regarded as most important contributions to the housing movement. Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt, Sr., for example, spent one million dollars in erecting four model tenements in New York to meet the needs of tuberculosis patients and their families.