New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-10-25
DWELLINGS F0R THE PEOPLE.

elaborate report ON dwellings for the labOring
classes, by Edwin Chadwick name widely
and favOrably known i'll England In c0nnec-
ton with sanitary and other important re-
forms. His paper is comprehensive III us scope,
touching AS well on the best construction OF
small independent houses, grouped together in
villages especially built for operatives, as on
the most approved form of model dwellings,
for workmen in large cities. We quote largely
from this report because there are few sub
iects which more closely connect themselves
with the interests of humanity and win
the social reform OF the masses. MI
Chadwick states as the result OF IN
auiries into the sanitary condition of what he
calls the "wage classes of Great Britain ana
Ireland, that If proper attention were pad 10
improvement in their dwellings and surround
ings. "their usual death-Iatc would be about
"one-half what it now is, even III The rural
" districts Squalor, discomfort, and we may
doubtless add overwork, kill off half the labor
ing population of England. But it is not alone
the deaths of those who thus unnecessarily
perish that are chargeable to this vicious
system. 1t influences. to an extent that
is seldom realized, the habits and the
most extensive experiments in the way OF I'M
proved dwellings for labOrers in France have
been made in the vicinity OF Mulhousc; and
Mr.. Chadwick states rs the result OF the expe-
ricnce of NJ. DOlfus, an eminent manufacturer
and the present Mayor of Mulhouse, the opinion
that the great point of attack on the progressive
mass of evil among the poor of France ought
to he the amendment of their habItatiOns.
Such agencies of prevention he had found far
superior in their results to all measures OF care
or alienation by charities. The French En-
pcror has given much attention to this
subject During the time he was President
of the Republic, in 1Si9, he caused to be
erected "ciif ourriere'-a workman's quar-
term Paris 1t occupied an entire
street, the Rue Rochecourt. Three
years afterwaId, as Emperor, he caused to be
| allotted the sum of ten millions of franc5-say
two millions dollars in gold-for the ameor-
! ton of the dwellings of the laborers IN the
great manufacturing cities. Yet his practical
! knowledge on the subject seems not to have
caualed his zeal His plans for the model
tenement houses of the Rue ROchecturt did
not meet the approval of the persons for whom
they were intended Governed, doubtless, by
his military ideas, hc lodged the worllmen as he
might the soldiers of his army. The rooms for
a family were not constructed on that principle
of the complete independence OF each tenement
which i, maintained in the plans OF Mr. Pea
body. and in those also of Miss Burdctt Coutts,
who IN, done much in this matter The work
men of Paris refused TO be cdsarn6,' rs they
called it-lodgcd in baracks-and TO this ex-
] 4 a
The wishes even the prcjudices, OF those for
whom we work must be respected II we desire
20 improve them. 1t will be observed that,
according to the plan of houses in the Mulhouse
village, entire independence Is maintained /;
each dwelling being complete in itself, with ITS
own yard attached. BY grouping four houses,
however. the direct ventilation is lost but all
the rooms can be ventilated Oblquely through
the front and gable windows.
That this reform has not made greater
progress is due, in measure to the inherent
difficulties which attach to il. 1t is doubtful
whether the segregation of the families OF
workmcn in a labOrcrs village is desirable or
beneficial 1t is to he wished THAT the differ
ent classes of society should be brought into
daily contact such reciprocal intercourse tends
to mutual improvement. Again, there Is a serl-
Gus disadvantage in lodging workmen who are
to be employed in a city mt any considerable
distance from the place of their daily labor
conveying them thither by cheap railway tran
sit. Ii is noticed by Mr.. Chadwick, as an un-
expected difficulty, that the men make com
plant that, after a hard days exhauStng
work, they feel the vibration Of the common
railway carriages, as they are now constructed
to be peculiarly disagTeeable, If not injurious;
and their experience is that after Il few weeks
of such railway travelling, they suffer from
lassitude, and are not so well up to their work
as before. On our railways, perhaps, with
equal comforts for all, the same result might
not occur.
But as regards our own city, there is a much
more serious objection to this plan of adjacent
laborcrs' villages as a sole mode of relief. 1t
leaves the numerous and miserable tenement
houses of which the pcstiicrous influence now
decmates the inhabitants i'll several of the
wards of the city, Gin their present condition
Of filth and wretchcdncss, nurseries ut once OF
vice and of contagious disorders. IL we
merely empty these TO people country villages,
the worthless tcnements will be filled anew by
a population more miserable than that which
lelt lhcl1. hc plOpIlclolo Vi 1hVoo u"'iii"oo
cannot afford of couIse, to let them stand
empty and by whom will they be filledP The
true answer is, by a population corresponding
TO the accommodations that are offered to
them by population such as came to light
during the riots of 1853. If it should ever en-
ter into the hearts of some of our milliOnnalres
to devote some twenty or thirty millions to the
extirpation from the city that has enriched
them of the worst phases of vice