Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1896-10-10
HOUSING OF THE POOR.


Tho Wage.Rarner Has q Deep la
tcrcst In This subject
What are the wage-carNer's special
interests In improved housing? In the
first place. this class ls vitality interest.
ed In the conservation OF health. Good
health means earning power, md as
wOrkingmen lead more or less Of hand.
to-m0uth existence, any loss Of earning
power is n serious matter. Lord Bea.
consfeld aptly voiced this truth In an
address delivered ut the opening Of
some new blocks Of improved tene.
ments In London. He said "the health
Of the people IL really the foundati tiop
upon which all their happiness ana
their power depends" Few realize the
loss Of productive energy through sick.
ness brought about by bad living ell.
vironments. Sir james Paget. the dis.
tinguished English physician. est.
mates that the whole population Of En-
gland between fifteen and sixty.Ave
years old works In each year twenty
millions Of weeks less tlnn they might
n II were not for sickness. He puts
down the loss inflicted ON wage.earners
at nearly fifteen millions Of dollars an.
nually. He refers simply to q purely
preventable loss. Some years ago the
London health authorities instituted In.
quaries In certain low nelghbOrhoods
to estimate the value of labor lost In n
year, not by sickness, but from sheer
exhaustion induced by unfavorable sur
roundings. 1t was found that upon
the lowest average every worker lost
about twenty days In the year from
this cause. One might 90 on multiply
Ing such instances, but It 10 not neces'
sary to enforce the argument by cumu.
lative citation.
Wage-earners nre vitality interested
In the passage ana enforcement Of wise
sanitary laws. had sanitation entails
propOrtiOnally worse economic COnse.
Qucnces to them than to tho more high.
ly favored. They are also more often
the victim Of sickness and epldemics,
fostcred by insanitary neighbOrhOods'
The w0rkingman has positive inter
est In using whatever political power
he possesses to secure legal remedies
against uninha abitable houses through
appropriation laws such as those cur.
rent in England, and the measure re-
Gently put into operation by the Board
of Health Of New York under the Ten
ement House Law of 1895. Who. II not
wage-earners, are interested In tho
ObliteratiOn of rookeries where the
death rate equals seventy-three In q
thousand? Whatever promises better
living conditions, no matter whether II
comes from legal enactment or private
effort, will find support from wage.
earners who appreciate their true inter.
| ests.
Important as are the physical and
economic aspects of this question, they
are not the sole, perhaps they are NOT
not even the chief, considerations. Eth
ical issues have greater ultimate sig
nifcance. Many of our moral and 80
cial Ills are more nearly connected with
bad housing than appears upon the sur
face. Take, for example, drunkenness
How absurd to suppose that immOder
ate liquor drinking can be suppressed
so long as people are left to live In
houses where lack of elementary sani
tation saps vitality, while nOis0menesi
and unattractiveness impels search
for outside relief. 1t Is entirely unjust
to suppose that only low impulse tc
dsbauch or a reckless disregard of fam
lily duties leads wage -earners to con
tract the "salOOn habit" The utte,
dullness, the lack of individuality In
tenement house existence, often liz
back Of the fatal temptation.--Century