The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1896-10-02
HOUSING OF ThE POOP.
The wage Earnsr Has . Deep interest In
Thfa Subject

In1a sul1ect-
What are the wage earner's spe-
ciai interests in improved housing?
In the first place, this class is vital
ly interested in the conservation of
health. Good health means earning
power, and as workingmen lead
more or less of a hand to mouth ex-
;stence any loss of earning power is
a serious matter. Lord Beaconsfeld
aptly voiced this truth in an ad-
dress delivered at the opening of
some new blocks of improved tene-
ments in London. He said "the
health of the people is really the
foundation upon which all their
happiness and their power depend. "
Few realize the loss of productive
energy through sickness brought
about by bad living environments.
Sir James Paget, the distinguished
English physician, estimates that
the whole population of England be-
tween 10 and 65 years old works in
each year 20, 600, 900 weeks less than
it might if it were not for sick
ness. He puts down the loss infiiot-
ed on wage earners at nearly $751;
600, 600 annually. He refers simply
to a purely preventable loss. Some
years ago the London health au-
thorities instituted inquiries in GER
tain low neighbofhoods to estimate
the value of labor lost in a year, not
by sickness, but from sheer exhaus-
tion induced by unfavorable sur
roundings. 1t was found that, upon
the lowest average. every worker
lost about 20 days in the year from
this cause. One might go on multi
plying such instances, but it is not
necessary to enforce the argument
by cumulative citation
Wage earners are vitality interest
ed in the passage and enforcement
of wise sanitary laws. Bad santa
ton entails proportionally worse
economic consequences to them than
to the more highly favored. They
are also more often the victim ol
sickness and epidemics, fostered by
insanitary neighborhoods- The
workingman has q positive interest
in using whatever political power
he possesses to secure legal RENE
dies gainst uninhabitable houses
through appropriation laws such a:
those current in England and the
measure recently put into operation
by the board of health of New Yorl
city under the tenement house Law
of 1895. Who, if not wage earners
are interested in the obliteration O
rookeries where the death rat
equals 73 in l, 900? Whatever pro
notes better living conditions, n,
matter whether. it comes from lega
enactment or private effort, will fint
support from wage earners who ap
preciate their true interests.
Important as are the physical ant
economic aspects of this question
they are not the sole, perhaps the,
are not even the chief, considera
tions. Ethical issues have create
ultimate significance. Many of on
moral and social ills are more near
ly connected with bad housing thar
appears upon the surface. Take
for example, drunkenness. How ah
surd to suppose that immoderat
liquor drinking can be suppressed $,
long as people are left to live il
houses where lack of elementar-
sanitation saps vitality, while noise
someness and unattractiveness i'm
pei a search for outside relief. ]
is entirely unjust to suppose tina
only low impulse to debauch or
reckless disregard of family dutie
leads wage earners to contract tn
saloon habit" The utter dullnes
and the lack of individuality in tene
ment house existence often lie bac
of the fatal temptation.