The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-05-02
CITY IF PARIS |S
 OVERCROWDED
  Problem Grows More Seri- 0us Every Year MORE HOUSES NEEDED One-Tenth of Population of the Great City Lives in Rooms Without Air and Light = Remedy to
 the Situation
MORE HOUSES NEEDED

Paris. May 1.-fSpecial.) .)-France gen. erally, and Paris especially, is confronted with a problem familiar to Americans. problem which, incidentally has been growing more serious every year. On ;he other hand the country Is threatened with the over-population of the towns, and on the other hand there is a constant drain age of farm laborers from the agricul- tural districts. The evil has been steadily growing and the government, occupied with other matters, has temporarily shelved this question, but it has now become so al-important that further de- lay is dangerous and drastic steps will have to be taken before worse befalls.
 Judging by the most conservative esti- mates, the annual influx to Paris from the provinces is between 25,o0o and 260O0 and as the number of workmen's dwellings has only been slightly increased in the past few years the difficulty of finding house-room for these new corners is rapid- ly becoming serious. According to the "Moniteur Industrial" Paris alone, at the present moment, Is sorely in need of 600 workmens dwellings, as according to lntli llkuito lHtft dfo OtVYVJV ptOplC in the French capital who are bad ly housed. Other authorities state that these figures under estimate rather than over estimate the number of workmen's dwellings which are needed, and they fur thed point out that owing to the enor- mousy enhanced cost of land, and the increased cost of building, which has risen, there is no immediate prospect of solving the difficulty.
 MT. Bertilon has stated that no less than one-tenth of the inhabitants of Paris are living in rooms without air and with out light. This in itself is deplorable, but when. in addition to this, house rent, especially in the poorer quarters, has in- creased enormously. it will readily be seen that the steady and continues influx of provincials still further aggravates an already critical situation.
 This however is only one side of the question; another and even more disas- trous side is the steady depopuation of the agricultural districts. for the farm laborers do not confine their migrations to Paris alone; the same state of affairs prevails in nearly every provincial towh. It is quite conceivable that the attractions of town prove irresistible to the average farm laborer, for time at any rate; he probably has had a glimpse of the gaities of the capital while doing his military service, but until quite recently this glimpse was all sufficient. He was per fectly content to return to the farm and
 live on the memory of those, to him. delirious days Now, however, all this is changed. There is no longer that love of the country. that love of the farm and of ali the animals on it, which prompted Alphonse Daudet to write Car cassonne" and his other poems of farm life.
 From many points of view the capital appears to be a Mecca to the average farm laborer. His wage will be better, his lodgings more comfortable or, 1t any rate, he thinks they will be, while if he is i'll, or accident should happen to him, he is cared for at no expense to himself. But while the wages he re- ceived are larger he forgets to take into consideration the increased cost of living, and although after a brief sojourn he is disillusioned, he still fatuously hangs on, Micawber-like, waiting for better things to turn up.
 All ills, fortunately, have their reme- dies. The first thing, therefore, to be done is the ameliorate the condition of the farm laborers, and this will go far to easing the congestion of the towns There can be no doubt that the small holdings idea has proved a failure, and it only re- mains for the government to formulate some scheme by which inducements can be held out to the farm laborer so that he will be content to remain in the agri- cultural districts.
 So serious is the problem that the gov ernment would be well advised to sub sidize, and subsidize generously all farm ing industries found and maintain tech nical schools, and generally ameliorate the condition of the farm laborer, anl thus woo him back to the land This will then relieve the congestion in the towns and then the various muncpalt- ties will be able to cope satisfactorily with the workmens dwelling difficulties with out danger of being swamped by the steady influx from the provinces.