and therefore practically the same rents are asked and obtained. The standard frontage for all these types is 14 feet; outside walls are 9 inches in thickness.

There seems to be an economical method of division of ground, which lends itself to the types here described, or which has been

responsible for the types. A block bounded by four thoroughfares or main streets is divided into four minor blocks by two minor streets. These minor blocks of varying length are 100 feet in width, allowing the construction of two rows of houses back to back, the houses being 40 feet deep, leaving a clear space of 20 feet, divided into two 8 foot yards, and a 4 foot cement alleyway between the back fences.

The small alleyway, cemented so as to make a slightly concave

gutter, drained at intervals, and the cement-covered yards appeared to be kept in the perfection of cleanliness.

The impression made by the survey was that homes are provided in Philadelphia in abundance and at very reasonable rentals; that sanitary, comfortable dwellings may be had there in large numbers at rentals which we consider available for unskilled laborers; but that, so far as this investigation went, this class of humanity has not availed itself of these dwellings, but, as everywhere else, has sought, and remained content, with minimum rentals, and the accompanying congestion and squalor.

V.

THE HOUSING PROBLEM IN ENGLAND AND GERMANY.

While the problems connected with the housing of the laboring classes are somewhat different in different countries and in different parts of the same country, there are many points in common and in considering these problems we will do well to take advantage of the experience gained abroad. In England, especially, this subject has occupied the attention of philanthropists, and of legislators, for many years. During the past fifty years no less than twenty-eight Acts of Parliament have been passed dealing with the housing question and for the last ten or twenty years a strenuous agitation in favor of housing reform has been steadily growing.

In the practical work of eradicating insanitary houses and providing sanitary houses for their occupants, two plans of procedure have been adopted, as described below by Nettle fold.*

"Under Part I the Local Authority must satisfy itself that the sanitary defects of any area cannot be effectually remedied otherwise than by making an improvement scheme for the re-arrangement and reconstruction of the streets and houses on the area. This entails heavy expense and great delay in the preparation of exhaustive reports and minute detailed maps and estimates. The scheme has to be advertised several weeks; notice has to be given every owner and an answer obtained; the Local Government Board has to be petitioned, and names of dissenting owners have to be given. The Local Government Board has to hold an inquiry to ascertain the correctness and sufficiency of the scheme and to hear objections. An Act of Parliament has to be obtained to confirm the order of the Local Government Board and either House of Parliament may refer the scheme to a Committee of the House. The costs of the Local Authority in promoting the scheme, the costs of the Local Government Board itself, and also the costs of any owners opposing the scheme may be charged to the Local Authority by the Local Government Board.

*"Practical Housing," by J. S. Nettlefold. Published by the "Garden City Press," Letchworth, England. Price one shilling.

"In addition to all this, there is a probable obligation to provide accommodation in a congested district for a working class population equal in number to that displaced. It is the almost invariable experience of these schemes that the population displaced does not return to the new houses, but finds accommodations elsewhere; while others move in who would be much wiser to live outside the town.

"All the land and buildings have to be bought up by the Local Authority on the terms of compulsory purchase, which entails paying anything from 10 per cent to 50 per cent above the real value. All the old buildings must come down, good and bad together. Very often manufactories and public houses have to be purchased and demolished. The worse the neighborhood the more the rate payers have to pay for the public houses, whilst the demolition of the manufactories deprives the inhabitants of their means of livelihood. Most schemes under Part I entail the construction by the corporation of new roads, new sewers, and new water mains, on the top of which comes the rebuilding of the houses, some of which-indeed, often many of which were quite satisfactory.

"The expenditure incurred is very large for the result obtained, but that is not the worst feature. Bad landlords are rewarded for neglecting their houses, whilst good landlords are often penalised.

Under Part 2 the procedure is by no means as easy as it might be, but it is far simpler, fairer and less expensive than Part I.

"It is the duty of the medical officer of health to draw the attention of the Local Authority to any houses in his district that in his opinion are unfit for human habitation. The Local Authority considers the representation of the medical officer of health, and if they consider it to be justified, then an order is made that notices shall be served on the owners to repair their houses at their own expense, and not as under Part 1, at the expense of the ratepayers. If the necessary repairs are not executed within a reasonable time, then the magistrates are asked to make a closing order, on the ground that the houses are unfit for human habitation. The object of applying for a closing order is to enable the Local Authority to prevent the owner from receiving rents for houses that are unfit to live in. If the closing order is granted, then the houses remain empty until the necessary repairs are executed, or until the time has elapsed (three months), which the act allows the owner for doing what is required. If at the end of that time the owner has done nothing, then the case is again considered by the Local Authority, and if circumstances justify such a course, a resolution is passed by them deeming it advisable that the houses shall be demolished. The owner is advised of the passing of this resolution and invited to attend a statutory meeting of those who have passed it, and state his reasons why the house should not be demolished. If the Local Authorities are satisfied with the reasons given, then the houses are allowed to remain standing. If they are not satisfied, a demolition order is made, against which the owner has a right of appeal to Quarter Sessions.

"In my experience, which is now fairly long, this right of appeal has never been exercised, owing, perhaps, to the fact that demolition is not resorted to unless there is a strong ground for doing so.

"If a property owner shows the slightest inclination to meet the authorities, it is always advisable to exercise patience and give him a chance of carrying out his promises.

"The object of Part 2 is to ensure that houses that are unfit for human habi

tation shall be made fit to live in or demolished. It is generally impossible to achieve this end without removing one or more of the adjacent buildings, because the most insanitary houses of all are generally found in thickly built neighborhoods.

"The necessity for the removal of obstructive buildings is specially provided for in Part 2, Section 38, of the 1890 Act, which empowers Local Authorities to pay compensation in these cases. This power, carefully used with due consideration for the interests of the ratepayers, and sympathetic consideration of the wishes of property owners, not only facilitates the work of slum reform, it also makes it possible to ensure thorough repair in place of the slum patching which is only too prevalent.

"By dealing with individual houses in this gradual manner only bad property is repaired or demolished, whilst what is sound is left standing, thereby avoiding one of the causes of great waste under Part I, and also all danger of creating a house famine.

"The procedure under Part 2 is not only far less expensive than under Part 1, it is also fairer, because it puts the cost of repairing insanitary houses on the right shoulders, and makes the neglect of small house property unprofitable. There are some who would amend Part 1 in order to make it more workable, and no doubt the procedure might be improved in detail; but my contention is that Part is thoroughly unsound in principle, whereas Part 2 is fair in principle, besides being efficient, and in practice very cheap.

"My experience is that Part 2, administered with vigor and discretion, is capable of doing what is required without putting any serious burden on the ratepayers, and it should be much more freely used. One thing, at any rate, is quite clear, Part 1 has not failed for want of being tried.

"It is probable that far better results would be obtained if Part 2 were adopted all over the country instead of Part 1.

"To avoid confusion I will take only those houses provided under Part 1, the cost of which is clearly given: 10,805 houses have been dealth with; £4,202,655 has been spent; 54,030 persons rehoused, giving an average of £77 15s per person.

"The cost per head of rehousing varies from £40 19s in some places to £197 4s in others.

"Very many more than 10,805 houses have been dealt with under Part I, and of course, a great deal more money spent, but the data is not sufficiently clear and reliable to justify their inclusion in this calculation and comparison.

"The cost per head of rehousing under Part 1 averages £77 15s all over the country, but let us for the purposes of this comparison take it at £50.

"The cost of replacing hovels with good cheap houses under Part 2 works out in Liverpool at £7 per house. Taking the usual average of five persons to a house, this works out at £1 8s per head. The cost per head in Birmingham of similar work under Part 2 comes to £1 4s 3d.

"As Liverpool gives the best example of work done under Part 1, a short description of their Hornby street scheme (for which I am indebted to Mr. F. T. Turton), will be interesting, and may be compared with what has been done in Birmingham, where Part 2 has been used to a greater extent than anywhere else.

"When the Hornby street area was scheduled as an 'Unhealthy Area' in 1902, under the Housing of the Working Classes Act, 1890, the number of in

sanitary houses which it contained was 511, in addition to which there were 23 sanitary houses, making a total of 534, representing a population of 2,431.

"The insanitary houses were of the back to the back type, situated in narrow and ill-ventilated courts, each court containing from 10 to 12 houses. The sanitary arrangements were very defective, in many cases one convenience being used by the occupants of five or six houses.

"The total contents of the area was 27,600 square yards, and the freehold of the land and buildings was acquired at a total cost of £56,000, or £2 per yard; but it must be mentioned that five licensed public houses were included in the area. Excluding these public houses the cost of acquiring the area represents 33s per square yard.

"Hornby street is thirty-six feet wide, but by setting the buildings back from the existing building line for a considerable length of the street, the width between the main line of the buildings is now about seventy feet.

"The frontage to the dwellings in Hornby street have been laid out as grass plots flanked with a low wrought iron ornamental railing, and here and there strong seats are provided for the use of the tenants only, while at the rear of all the buildings, separate yards have been avoided and the whole space thus available finished so as to form large playgrounds for the children, it being expected by this means the children may have room to play their games away from the dangers of street traffic.

"The whole of the area comprises, as previously stated, a total of 27,600 square yards. Of this amount 2,019 square yards have been voluntarily given up for street widening and 3,200 square yards allocated for the provision of grass plots in front of the dwellings.

“In addition, the scheme provides for a recreation ground of 1,633 square yards in the center of the area, surrounded on three sides by shrubberies six feet wide and provided with gymnastic apparatus and a sand pit about forty feet by twenty feet. A large shelter is placed in one corner of the ground and a drinking fountain nearby for the use of the children.

"The new dwellings comprise twenty-three blocks containing 453 tenements, which it is estimated will accommodate 2,446 persons. There are 50 four-roomed, 211 three-roomed, 173 two-roomed and 9 one-roomed dwellings, together with a superintendent's house, office and stores, seven shops, a coal yard, and a recreation ground of about a third of an acre in extent.

"The buildings, with the exception of the superintendent's house, are three stories in height, the height from floor to floor being, generally speaking, nine feet ten inches.

"The construction of the buildings is of a fireproof character, the sub-floors consisting of rolled steel joists spaced about three feet apart and embedded all around in a thickness of seven inches of coke breeze concrete.

"In the first place, a portion of the area was demolished which contained a population of 724 persons, and on the site so cleared new dwellings were erected to accommodate 768 persons.

"A second portion was then demolished, and the persons dispossessed, viz., 822, had the opportunity of inhabitating the new dwellings erected on the first portion rebuilt. In like manner a third portion was cleared, from which 885 persons were dispossessed, and were accommodated in the new dwellings erected on the site of the second portion cleared. The new dwellings to be erected on the third portion are in course of erection at the present time.

UNIVERSI