Evening star., 1902-08-30

people are to be housed in such cottages
at NOrbury and forty-two thousand at
Tottenham. When the Totten nam improve
ments are completed there viii be a good
sized town there made up entirely of mu-
nicipal cottages.
Homes at Fifty Cents a Week.
The tenements which have been put with
in these cities have large humber in one
building. They are, as it were, flats of two
or more rooms. rented at different prices,
according to the number of roms. The
cheapest two-roomed fats are to be found
III Dublin, where they rent for 30 cents
week; similar quarters in Glasgow cost 80
cents a week; in Liverpool. S5 cents, and in
London a little more than 81 per week.
The rents are supposed to be on a basis
that will pay the running expenses and
furnish sinking fund which will recoup
the city for the cost of the buildings with
in from fifty to 100 years.
This city of Birmingham, where 7 am
now writing, has been noted for such ex-
periments. 1t has erected one set of build
ings at a cost of 100000 which have lOdg-
ings for 100 families. There are shops on
the ground floor with tenements above
them. The first of these structures was fin
ished in September 1890 and was at once
rented to respectable people at a dollar and
twenty-five cents per fat per week. Since
then cheaper fiat buildings have been
erected some of the rents being so low as
seyenty-five cents per week.
Manages Its Own Business.
Birmingham is noted for the number Of
things which the city owns. 1t prides #
self on being a business city run by bust
ness men on business principles. 1t makes
its own gas, provides it's own water supply
and has public museums. art schools and
galleries. 1t has extensive parks, cricket
fields and other pleasure grounds. 1t has
a sewage farm Of / 200 acres, which cost
s2.00O.000 1t has public swimming and
Turkish baths, and laundries for the poor,
where they can have hot water and hot
irons for or cents an hour.
1t has magnificent city buildings. The
council house or the municipal building Is
one of the finest structures of England. 1t
is a great pile built in the renaissance
style in the heart Of the city, with a dome
rising from its center. The main entrance
is at the front, and the building is orna-
mented with sculpture and mosaic showing
the arts and industries of Birmingham,
with central group representing Britannia
reviewing its manufactures.
The interior of the building contains
council chamber, the banqueting hall and
ma gnificent quarters for the lord mayor.
In it there is also a museum and art gal
lery and the various city offices.
Another fine building is the town hall,
designed after the model Of a Roman tenn
pie. This is where public meetings are
held and where the great city organ plays
regularly every "Sch lOI liiC Dcucilt VI liS
people.
Right back of this hall is perhaps the
only monument ever erected as memorial
to a living man. 1t is that Of the Hon.
Joseph Chamberlain, who has perhaps done
more than any other to advance municipal
ownership in the city of Birmingham. The
monument bears a medallian bust Of Mr..
Chamberlain without the eyeglass, and
upon it there is an inscription testifying to
his services for Birmingham.
Old Birmingham.
Indeed. the city of Birmingham has been
recreated by Mr.. Chamberlain and his as
sociates within the past generation. Be
fore 1 describe it let me tell you something
of the Birmingham of the past. The town
has for centuries been the industrial capI-
tai of middle England. It is situated
where was once the forest Of Arden, the
scene of Robin Hoods adventures and of
''As You Like It. and others of Shake
speare's plays. 1t has iron mines and coal
mines not far away. and before coal was
used for smelling iron the people here
made charcoal from the trees of the forest
and thus worked their blacksmith shops
and other house industries.
No one knows when the iron making be-
gan, and today there Is vast amount Of
work that goes on in small factories. The
city is now perhaps the chief hardware