The representative., 1901-04-25
THE PEOPLES TRUSTS
Municipal Ownership Has Made Glas-
glow the Best Governed City in
the World.

the World.
The city of Glasgow, Scotland, is in
the fortunate position of being able to
pay all the expenses of the city govern
ment out of the revenue derived from
its public improvements state of
things which has earned for this city
the title to be called the, most advanced
and best governed city in the world.
The details regarding the system en-
ployed by the municipal authorities are
given in letter from Mr.. J. A. Johnson,
In the Morning Call, San Francisco from
which it appears that the progress of
improvement of the city dates from the
year 1854, when number of philan-
thropic citizens formed an association
for improving the condition of the slum
population. This was practically the
beginning of reform movement which
ultimately resulted in an act Of parlia-
ment empowering the city corporation
to carry out the work which phian-
thrOpy and private effort had failed to
u.
time the condition of the poor in this
city was worse than in any other of the
cities in Great Britain. On July IL oc-
Cured the 31st anniversary of the pas
sage by the British Parliament of the
Glasgow Improvement Trust act The
measure has worked SO well that today
the slum districts are practically eradi-
Gated. The city condemned the wretch
ed condition of tenements and erected
in their place the very best forms of
modern sanitary buildings, containing
one, two, three, four and five-roOm
apartments, which the city rents to the
tenants at from S3 to SIT a month. The
water and gas rates which are paid to
the city are merely nominal and reduce
the cost Of living to a minimum. There
are altogether over 1000 of these suits
of rooms or flats owned by the city and
rented at the prices named above, and
at the average rate of six persons to the
fiat, there are over 5000 people accom-
modated in this way. The scheme has
been so we'll managed that the income
derived from the city not only covers the
interest of the investment, cost of main
tenance, and all Incidental expenses, but
there has actually accumulated a sink
ing fund which is wiping out the debt
incurred in the purchases of the con-
demned property and constructing the
new tenements.
Encouraged by the success Of this ex
pertinent, the city organized a system of
relief and benefits for widows and wild
overs with small families who are oblig-
ed to 60 to their daily labor and have
no one in whose care they can leave
their children. A large building was
erected containing IT'S bed rooms and a
number of nurseries, bath rooms, kitch-
ems, play rooms for the children and
a staff of nurses was engaged to look
after the little ones during the entire
day. The charges are extremely low,
including as they do heat, light, wash
ing and care of the children, etc. The
prices paid are as follows: For
mother and child, 70 cents a week;
mother and two children, 951s cents;
with three children, 81, and 12h cents
for each additional child. For father
and one child, $1.O4 a week; father and
two children, $1.21 per week; with three
children. $1.3S per week. and 16 cents
extra for each additional child. In ad-
dition to this, board is provided for
adults at 5 cents for breakfast, 8 cents
for dinner and cents for supper, or
10 cents day. Summing up these items
we find that a widow with three child
rem can live very comfortably for $33S
per week, and a man with three children
for 1915.
of this laudable system of government
is now being carried out by which the
city will be given parliamentary power
to provide sanitary dwellings for all the
working class. So excellent is the credit
of the city that it is able to borrow ali
the money it needs at 21a per cent, a
rate of interest which will go far to
make the venture financial success,
and 1t is reasonably expected that the
social and sanitary results will fully
compensate the city for the outlay. 1t
may be mentioned here that many years
ago the city established public wash
houses; where for cents an hour a
woman is allowed the use of hot and
cold water wash tubs and may have the
washed clothes machine dried and man
gled all within the hour.
1t is claimed that of all the vast num-
ber of operations of this kind under
taken by the city, none has proven a
failure, and what this means can be