Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-01-03
Workmen's Dwellings.

Lord Salisbury has written an article
ou"Laborers' and Artisans Dwellings.
which appears in the November num-
Der of the National r. ricv LAS COM
petition becomes closer" says Lord
Salisbury, .',he sutfcrjngs of the poor
from bad housing becomes very severe
Thousands of families have only sim
gle room to dwell in, where they sleep
and eat, multiply and die. For this
miserable lodging he is speaking, of
course, of towns ''tehy pay price
! ranging from two shillings to five shil-
| lings week. 1t is difficult to exagger-
ate the misery which such conditions of
| life must cause, or the impulse which
they must give 10 vice. The depres-
sion of body and mind which they cre-
ate is an almost insuperable obstacle to
the action of any elevating or refining
influences.
He then proceeds to examine the vari-
ous ways by which some remedy may
be effected. He inquiries whether IT
would be better worth while to build
"high' that is to say many storied
dwellings on the spot. or to build ''afar"
in other words, to transfer the work
ing population to places outside the
town, but communicating with it by
railway; and this latter question again
leads him into the rates charged and
the accommodation provided by the
railway companies for the working
classes. The Peabody trustees, Sir
Sidney Waterlow's company, and MIR.
Gatliff's company, are considered, one
after the other, and the general con-
clusion reached is that private enter
prise cannot offer o cheaper article than
the Peabody trust, and yet that this ar
ticle is too dear for the bulk of the
working classes. There is no reason,
he says, why parliament should not aid
the great work by loans, and he pro-
ceeds to point out that there is also no
reason why the owners of property in
towns who employ number of hands
should not do in towns what owners of
property in the country do for their
tenants and for, rural 1aborers.
''Thc government, he concludes,
might fifty lead, the way. They en-
ploy in the post-ofiice, in the police, in
the -hense and at other govern
ment establishments q large number of
people whose wages are considerably
below Fl 3s., which is the average in
come of the Peabody tenants; but do
not believe they have made any pro-
vision worth speaking of for the hous-
ing of those people. 1t has never been
held to be their duty to do so, but in
the present exigency it is a task which
they may well be called upon in the
public interest to fulfil. Ii the example
we're set by them it would probably be
followed before long by the large COM
panies who, by virtue of the great po-
sition which parliamentary powers have
given to them, fill quasi public char
acter-dock companies, railway COM
panies, and the like. There can be lit
tie doubt that if provision to this extent
were made the stress upon the dwelling
market would be greatly relieved, and
the residue of the laboring poor would
find it much easier TO obtain cheap
lodging than they do now." Such meas
ures, at all events, Lord Salisbury, says
would be palliativcs, though an entire
cure may be very distant. He says
there are indications enough that in
one way Or another, by public and pri-
vate action. a remedy IS possible for
very much of the misery and degrade
ton which east so terrible shadow
over the prosperity of the country.