The Leader, enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1915-1921, 1916-05-05
HOUSING AND HEALTH

LOT the purpose OF demonstrating
to the nation the relationship be-
tween good housing and good
health. These are to be known
as the Ellen Wilson homes, and
are not in the nature of an expert
ment, but are intended as a dem
onstration to the entire United
States.
The intimate connection be-
tween bad housing and bad health
and good housing and good health
is clearly recognized in Washing
ton, where the alley dwellings
have long been matter of con-
Germ both to the health authori-
ties and to public spirited citizens
who wish tn eCapital city to be
an example to the nation. The al
legs have been paved, sewers and
water mains have been laid in
them, they are lighted and clean
ed as are the streets. Yet they
keep their old lead over the
streets when it comes to totaling
the figures for disease and death
In this, Washington's expert
ence has been like that of Liver
pool and other European cities
which tried unsuccessfully to
make badly situated dwellings
wholesome by cleaning and fumi-
eating. After thirty-three years
of unavailing effort to improve
that which was fundamentally
bad Liverpool finally decided that
the only hope lay in wiping out
its sanitary areas. 1t demolished
old houses by the acre and in
place o them built new houses
Where dwellings have been
crowded so close together that
there was scarcely passage room
for a stout man to squeeze his
way to one Of the old houses, it
built new dwellings opening upon
wide spaces which provided light
and air. Immediately sickness
and death decreased-and with
them vice and crime. What had
seemed a hopeless struggle for
more than generation was
won.
Other cities in Europe have
done the same and with the same
results, but what makes Liver
pools figures of unusual value is
that the new houses are occupied
by the same people who occupied
the old ones. In some cases the
population on a given area in the
new dwellings, is 80 per cent the
same as that which lived on the
area in the old buildings. SO here
the effect of housing is not COM
plicated by questions of different
occupants, of better food or clio
thing or a generally higher STAN
dard Of living. The housing only
has been changed and the results
are striking.
Washington is attempting much
the same work, though in a less
dramatic manner. Congress has
enacted law which goes into ef-
feet on July |, 1918, according to
which all the alley dwellings in
the District of Columbia must
cease to be used for dwelling pur-
poses. Meanwhile, in order that
there may Recommendation for
those who will be forced to seek
new homes in street houses, there
has been organized a limited div
idend company which is to build
houses that will be not only san
itary, that will provide not only
abundance of light and air, but
houses attractive architecturally,
homelike in their arrangements
and containing bath rooms and
provisions for hot water in place
of the old outdoor closets and
hydrants.
Such houses as these cannot,
of course, yield the return upon
the investment that the old
houses did, In fact Congress in
its act Incorporating the Ellen
Wilson Homes, limited its divi-
dends to five per cent. But they
will yield to their stockholders a
dividend in the form of satisfac-
ton because of needed work
we'll done. To their tenants they
will give relief from preventable
sickness and death and an in
crease in the joy of living.