The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1877-08-25
III POOR,

DNS y "C141hR A6SOCldblUu Ill IL
neighborhood of Battersea park, Londol
were thrown open for the reception
lodges on the 23d ult. The buildin,
were the first product of the association
work, and their dedication was cons
quently IN event of Importance.
} distinguished company, including man
d members of parliament, assembled in n
Spouse to cards of invitation. Her M
= jesty the queen, lent her countenance t
! the enterprise by sanctioning the use {
. her name in connection with the build
] 1ngs and the association. The proceed
, 1ngs consisted of remarks by Mr.. Walter
M. P, chairman of the executive com
mittee of the association, and Lord Bea
/ consfeld, the prime minister, who wa
r appointed to give the dedieatory address
These gentlemen made some statement
of interest in relation to the condition O
the London poor, and the measures tina
have been taken for their relief.
The death-rate of London, it is wei
known, is lower than that of any othel
large city in the world, not exceeding 2:
or "a per thousand a year. This average
is produced, however, by the extraordi,
nary healtEiness of the best districts in
the city. In the worst districts the NOR.
tality is 40 to so per thousand a year,
and the excessive mortality, according to
Mr.. Walter, is directly attributable to
filth and foul air. Disease arising in this
manner has an immediate and important
bearing upon the morals Of the people.
1t is a fact capable of easy verifcation
that drunkenness, w~ife-beating, and neg
lect of families are promoted by the pre-
valence of disease. The temptation to
restore failing physical powers by a resort
to drink is often too strong to be resisted,
and in the train of intemperance follow
all the miseries of poverty, decay and
death. Against the death-rate in the
worst portions of the city may be placed
the returns from some of the improved
tenement-houses built through the be-
nevolence Of Mr.. Peabody and Others.
In the years that these buildings have
been established the death-rate has not
run above fourteen in a thousand, which,
it will be observed, is ten in a thousand
less than the average for the whole city.
Nor are these returns partial or too mar
row for purposes of comparison. The
number of improved tenement-houses in
London is larger than generally supposed
in this country. Within the last twenty
years accommodations have been pro-
vided for forty thousand poor people by
various associations engaged in the erec-
ton of improved dwellings, and the
work is in a more vigorous and healthy
condition Than ever before.
But benefcent as is the work that has
thus far been done, it is as yet totally in
adequate, to meet the necessities of the
case. The population of London is in
ereaslng at the rate of forty thousand a
year-a number sufficient to fill all the
improved tenements constructed in
twenty years. The work must be exten-
ded widely if it is to accomplish the ends
for which it has thus far been prosecuted.
The prospects of such extension are not
discouraging. There is ground for hope,
especially in the rational methods which
the founders of these various building
associations have adopted. They do not
ask for outright gifts of money from
those ~benevolent1y inclined, but promise
a return Of interest OIL the investment,
less, perhaps, than the pre-
vailing market rates, but still sufficient !
to silence the upbraidings of restless
British thrift. Stockholders in the Vic
toria association, for instance, are prom
ised, but not guaranteed, a return of five
per cent on their investments. "Sup-
pose" said Mr.. Walter, "an ordinary
building investment calculated to yield
from 6 to 81 and 7 per cent, the share
holders may take out the additional Il
or 2 per cent from the comfortable feeling
they will have that they could not
spend their money better for the good OF
mankind" Mr.. Walter added, with a
force and p~ertinence that must have gone
home to some of his hearers, that capt.
talists might a great deal better spend
their money through associations Of this
description than invest it in the bonds of
bankrupt foreign governments. The
English people might better have put
ESQ, DOC, 900 in dwellings for the poor of
London than in enabling the Turks to
build ironclads and useless palaces.
The economy of united efforts such as
those made by the British building asso-
Citations is apparent. The large scale on
which the tsnements are constructed in
sures ~cheapness. The grouping of a
number of families under one roof, and
the diminishing cost of superintendent
and collection, is another considerable
item. More important than all is the
plan of construction, in accordance with
which the buildings are made many sto-
ries in height, thus utilizing to the ut
most the ground on which they are built.
The managers of these associations be-
lieve there is economy in building Lon
don upwards, instead of spreading it out.
Wo-Lnoar po,,c+ reside nao- 4ho;r ,Iaoo,