Jacob A. Riis (1849–1914). The Battle with the Slum. 1902.
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knew nor cared. Now they do both. That is more than half the fight. Whatever may be the present results of the agitation, in the long run I would rather take my chances with a vigorous Consumers’ League and not a law in the state to safeguard labor or the community’s interests, than with the most elaborate code man has yet devised, and the bargain counter in full blast, unchallenged, from Monday to Saturday. Laws may be evaded, and too often are; tags betraying that goods are “tenement made” may be removed, and they make no appeal anyhow to a community deaf to the arraignment of the bargain counter. But an instructed public sentiment, such as that of which the Consumers’ League1 is the most recent expression, makes laws and enforces them too. By its aid
