The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-12-23

.tributed, first, to the large number of
men who are in the army and the food
Of emigration that has been gong TO
the United States, thus causing n scar
ity of labor and high wages. II is also
attributed to the movement of the coun-
try population to the cities, which has
contributed to the same result.
The scarcity of farm labor and the
increase Of wages have increased the
cost of production Of all forms of food,
and in order to pay their market and
grocery bills the wages of consumers
have been advanced, and so on and so
forth.
The price Of bread and meat and
vegetables is from twenty to fifty per
cent higher in European cities than it
was ten years ago, and the rents, have
advanced in the same ratio. In Vienna,
Budapest and other cities of Austria
and Hlmgary-and I suppose the same
is true in Germany, France and Italy
house rents have been raised so rapidly
that many working people cannot pay
them. Landlords are becoming more
and more obstinate in their objection
TO the tenants with children, which has
rendered the situation of the poorer
classes, who have the largest number
of children almost desperate. In Wien.
ma and Budapest the municipal shelters
provided for the homeless have been
overcrowded almost daily with evicted
families, and these shelters have had to
be enlarged to meet the expected de.
mands of the coming winter
On the one hand parliament is asked
to pass a law taxing bachelors, widow
ers and childless husbands in order to
keep up the birth rate and on the other
hind parents with children are unable
to find homes for them within their
means.
apartment Houses Popular.
AS you know, everybody-all classes
of the population-in Europe lives in
apartment houses. There is no such
thing as cottage home, even in the
country villages. Farmers as well as
mechanics are crowded into suites of
two, three or four rooms in lofty brick
buildings covered with stueco and orna-
mented with holdings. This gives an
imposing appearance, and the sanitary
laws, which are strictly enforced, re
quirc so many cubic feet of space and
so much ventilation, so many closets
and bathrooms and so many chimneys.
But they are comfortless barracks COM
pared with the homes of American
workmen, and cost the tenant quite as
much.
But something should be said in be-
half of the landlord. He, too, has his
burden. People in the United States
who are grumbling about high taxes
should find much consolation in the
knowledge that their property is not
situated in any of the European CAPT
tails. In Berlin, for example, American
life insurance companies are required
to invest a certain amount Of their as
sets in city property, and their taxes,
which are no higher than those of other
zeal estate owners, amount annually to
more than one-third of their receipts
from rentals.i1n Vienna taxes are even
higher. The man who owns the build
ing in which the American consulate is
located divides the rent with the gov
eminent in equal shares. The same
rates prevail in other large European
cities.
In addition to this the building regu.
lations are rigid and make construction
very expensive. Every structure must
be fireproof with stone staircases to the
top floor; double walls, floors and roofs
of steel and terra Gotta. The front
must correspond with the adjoining
buildings in height and architectural
treatment, A poor man cannot build a
home in any of the European cities.
He must 60 into the suburbs. Hence
most of the ground owned by individ-
uals is leased 10. building companies and
capitalists esl ntf .+ tFv
Development of Vienna.
The architectural development of the
new part of Vienna, under the direction
of the government, stimulated private
enterprise throughout the entire city.
The old suburbs were torn away and re.
placed by modern buildings of an ornate
and solid character. The entire popula-
ton lives in apartment houses with the
exception of such members of the nobil-
ity as are rich enough to maintain
places of their own. Rentals are very
high, and, although the apartments are
spacious and handsomely decorated,
they are almost uniformly without the
comforts and conveniences which the
American taste and habits demand.
Bathrooms are very scarce. An Ameri.
can who was looking for an apartment
NV iVAi6 hSO W buc Itdl GS-
tate agent that there were no bath
rooms in the apartments offered him at
a rental that would pay for fine house
in Chicago or Washington. The agent
replied that there was public bath on
the same street only four blocks away,
and seemed surprised when informed
that such an important circumstance
made no difference. He intimated that
Americans are too particular.
To furnish suitable homes for work
people in Vienna, Budapest and other
large cities of the empire is considered
the business of the government, and
social reformers are agitating legisla-
ton for that purpose. The recent cen
sus of Vienna shows, for example, that
500, or 43 per cent of the whole popu.
lation, live in an average of one room
each, exclusive of kitchen, and that
go per cent of married couples live in
single room, with or without children.
This is due to the high rents, rather
than the disposition of the tenants, and
is considered dangerous to the public
welfare for many reasons. In the first
place, il is considered unhealthful to
cook and live and sleep and eat in the
same room; and il is conceded that it
is not only unhealthful, but unwise, for
grown people and children to live in the
same room, and that this congestion