ABSTRACT
Lawrence Veiller did much to transform the movement for housing reform from a well-meaning but sporadic and ineffectual pastime of a few moral-minded individuals into a comparatively disciplined, organized campaign. He first revealed his qualities for leadership as secretary of the New York State Tenement House Commission of 1900, which he was instrumental in creating and which he developed into one of the most successful agencies of reform in the history of the housing movement in America. Veiller's participation in the housing movement, however, involved more than the addition to its ranks of a tough-minded realist and an expert manipulator of public opinion, legislative draftsman, organizer, and strategist of pressure groups. Neither his realism nor his administrative responsibilities dampened a deeply rooted moral sensibility. Veiller's humanitarianism was closely linked to a belief in the potentialities of tenement reform as a means of social control.
