The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-11-17
<. ORKINGMEN's HOMES.
Projects That Have Been Undertaken !
IN Germany and France.

IN Germany and France.
From tie Philadelphia Ledger.
In Germany the oues5lon of workingmen's
homes has been under discussion for forty
years, and it is still being talked over by
professors and philanthropists, with little
practical result. The government, as
usual, is expected to do everything, and it
has set the example in some OF its public
works, which has been successfully followed
at many of the great private industrial
centers. Thus, at Saarbruck, between 1872
ami 1871. S,0Sl houses have been built, to-
ward which the government gave outright
5000, 200, loaned $3.50 600, and guaranteed
100000 advanced by the savings banks.
ktupD's famous works at Essen, founded in
1910, with only ~ workingmen in 1S4S, by
1881 had 20,0O0-with their families, 65
O0l OF this number 1S,60S are living in
houses owned by Krupp, each house
containing from two to sixteen lodgings. at
an average rent of SIS, their wages aver
aging 5000 year. For the unmarried men
large barracks are provided free of cost,
their oard costing very little.
Holland, Italy, Spain, and Denmark.
nave all more or less SUGGEST full enterprises
tor providing homes for the workiugmeN.
In France the great manufacturing firms
set the example, and as far back as 1889 at
Mulhouse one concern put up 80 small
houses, each with two sleeping rooms, a
kitchen, cellar and garden, rented verv
cheaply, on condition that the tenant should
cultivate the garden, lend his children to
school, and make a weekly deposit in the
savings bank. Out of this grew a compauv
organized In 1851, which by 1881 had built
996 houses of which 672 had become the
property of the tenant making a total cf
S150,0OO thus invested This and other
plans have been adopted by tae great iron,
coal and other industrial establishments
partly as necessity for large works in re-
mote places, where 1t was a matter Of ecoiI-
omy for the employer 70 provide bones for
the working men. In soma of the large
towSs the same good work has been carried
on. At Lille building association has
put up 243 houses, paying ) per cent. 10 tho
shareholders, end the city has also helped in
other such enterprises by loans and guar
antees. At Orleans private enterprise has
built 2l5 houses, thus showing wha5 can be
done without state help even in France At
Havre liz houses have been put up by a
building society and sold at $3.50 apiece.
AT Rouen, the old crowded quarter OF the
town, with death rate of 81 per ,00O, was
destroyed, aud a building society formed
which put up one huge house containing
100 lodgings, for 400 persons, and they
were sold for 81 900 for each set OF CHI am
bers-not dear, considering the abundant
sanitary provisions, but beyond the average
working mans reach.
AT Lyons, after a careful investigation, a
company put up five houses of four stories.
providing sixty sets of apartments, each of
three rooms, with asphalt yards, gas, ETC.,
renting for SIS each, and netting per cent.
on the Investment. The result is SO encour-
aging that the enterprise is to be carried
forward on large scale. The other large
towns-Amiens, Rheims, Nancy, Bordeaux
are going on with similar building opera
tons In Paris in 1852, tie government gave
S2,0O0,OO0 to provide improved homes for
workmen; over half was used in building
asylums, part for seventeen apartment
houses, which we're SO fine that thew were
at once let to men far better off than the
workmen, and the balance was ad vanced to
individuals who, instead of building homes
for workmen, put up houses that soon
found very different class of tenants. The
error was repeatedly made of houses far too
expensive for workmen and promptly
rented by well-to-do class only too glad to
escape the usual discomforts of Paris houses.
OF late a company has built at Passy. near
Paris, fifty small houses renting at $45, on
the basis Of 4 per cent, and by annual in
stallmentS of $50 in twenty years the ten
nant becomes owner; but even this is for
the best class of workmen and not for the
great mass whose need is most pressing.
Not per cent of the workmen of Paris can
get the benefit of this and similar plans.
One set of houses, each of three rooms, with
kitchen, etc, can be sold for 81, $50 on an
annual payment for twenty years of 800,
and another for S125 a year for fifteen
years, or for 81 900 cash, but only few
even of those who can pay these prices are
thus provided for.
In Paris there is abundant room for
large investment both for profit and phiau-
thropy. There the poorest lodgings cost
$50 year, and near the factory or work
shop $50 is often asked and given. For
three rooms $50 would be the very lowest,
and that means daily earning Of 81 day,
In the rooms let by the night the price is
rarely less than 25 cents, making au annual
return of $50, enough to secure comfort
and decency, in lieu of the Indebtedness
and vice that are implied in the night lodg-
ing houses. There ought to be no trouble
in so regulating the matter that the work
man should get the worth of his money
but as it is, it pays better to rent rooms to
the poor than to the rich Some of the
crowded tenement houses return their own
ers 20 per cent of their value Nor is it only
the money loss, for the landlord of the poor
is often their worst taskmaster, enforces
harsh conditions and makes no allowance
for sickness or want Of work 1t is only
where philanthropy intervenes that these
are considered.
A SERIOUS JOKE.