Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-10-20
LIKE ANTS IN A MOUND.
THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING PEo
PIE ON THE SoUTHSIDE.

| That Exclusively Industrial Community
Needs ReIief-Hundreds of Small Houses
Needed-workers Must Live Near Their
Work-Big Bonanzas for Capitalists.
There is probably no section OF the city in
which the industrial class Of people are
crowded and packed into small houses like
sardines in box, as on the Southside. 1t
is an industrial community. Whole wards
are occupied exclusively by the homes of
the people who form the great army that
keeps in motion the wheels of the worlds
workship. 1t is true that many of these live
in hampered condition from choice, rather
than spend a sufficient amount of their earn
ings to keep themselves and families in q
decent and comfortable condition. But the
great majority OF them are forced to "double
up" like the guests at the hotels had to do
during the visit of the British Iron and
Steel Congress.
The employees Of the mills and glass houses,
whose turns begin at all hours of the day
and night, cannot live at a distance from
their workshops They must live within
easy access of the mill, else too much
strength is exerted getting to and from their
work. In no section of the Southside have
houses been built to suit the convenience of
this class of people and as a consequences the
workingman is compelled to pay three times
as much rent as he can really afford to pay,
or live in a house containing half a dozen
other families.
A BONANZA FOR INVESTORS.
A. P. Weidman, of Campbell & Co., the
real estate agents, said: 81 could have
rented at least so small houses in the last
month if had had them. We have appli-
cations for them every day, but unfortu-
nately they are not in existence. If any
man who has money to invest will cone to
the Southside and build so or 100 four and
ive-roomei houses he will have bonanza.
The people are compelled to crowd them
selves into large houses, or go up on the
hill, and by the time they go on the mill,
rent a small house for $40 OF S12 and pay
incline fare for a month they are worse off
than if they had stayed down on the South
side and paid higher rent"
Otto Reihling. an ex-member of a build
ing and loan association, said: mo one
knows anything about the way the people
live over here, who has not made a tour
among the residences. All of the Huhgar-
ians, a good many Polish and a few Irish
just tumble themselves in four or five fam
lilies in house-any way at all so they get
inside. 1 have seen families of five and six
trying 10 live in one room. They don't
live; they merely exist. But in many cases
it is the best they can do. They are not
able to build houses of their own, and other
people won't do il for them"
Mr.. Reihling put in a good word for the
Germans, and referred to building and
loan association book, which showed that
out of a total membership of S8 nearly 60
are Germans, and are paying for small
homes of their own.
vATnARIE MISSION
Robert Blaze, foreman of the mold depart
ment of the King Glass Company's factory,
said their workmen had forssken the plan of
living in houses with two or three families,
and most of them are paying for homes in
the Twenty-seyenth ward.
John Udder, a mill worker, said: "I am
glad The DISPATCH has taken this matter
up. If you can bring the monied men to
understand that they will help the social
and physical condition of the Southside
workingmen BY erecting small houses and
lowering the rent ior the same, you will be
performing a valuable mission to our class
of people. Do YOU want to see how some of
us live? just 60 down to the foot
of some of our streets-South
Seventh for instance, or up to
South Thirtieth. Make a tour through some
of the lower streets anywhere from South
Tenth to Twenty-ftth street, and then go up
the Twenty-seyenth street hollow. Ii You
won't find more families living in squalor
and dirt than YOU find living in civilized
condition then 1 know nothing about the
subject"
1t was not necessary to make the tour sug-
gested by Mr.. Vedder. Half dozen other
men corroborated every statement he made.