Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/306

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HOUSING PROBLEM. 266 HOtrSSA. Court in Xcw York has Invn imprnvoil, and Mrs. Lincoln has ust-d this niothtxi in Boston. Anionp the companies providing tn'tter lious ing facilities may be mentioned: In Knpland^ the Metropolitan Association for Improving the Uwellinps of the Industrious Clashes (1H41), which owns fourteen estates in London, and pays ••'•! ppr cent.; the I'eabody Donation I'uncL which own.■^ enormous hhicks of tenements: the Im- proved Industrial l)«ellini;s t"i>nip;iny of Lon- don, founded l>y Sir Sidney Waterloo as the re- sult of a successful experiment (1802), which endeavors to combine beauty and utility in large hhx'ks; the Guinness Trust. On the Conti- nent of Europe are the Berlin Mutual Uuilding t'onipany (1840). and other cniiuncrcial and semi philanthropic companies in dilfercnt cities. In the United States .. T. White founded the Improved r)«elling Company of Brooklyn (187G), which has erected the Home Tower and Riverside buildings, the older buildings paying 10 per cent., the new buildings 5 or C per cent. Other New York ent»ri)rise.s are the Astral Apartments {Brooklyn) of Pratt Institute; Im- proved Dwellings Asso<-iation with nuKlel tene- ments at Seventy-first .street, paying (i percent.: Tenement House Building Company, with prop- erty on Cherry Street. In Boston, the Harrison Avenue Estate, the Rufus Ellis Memorial Build- ing. Coiiperative Building Company (1871), and the Improved Dwelling Association (1885). In Pliiladclphia, Theodore Starr Property. The City

ind .Suburban Company of New York City wa.s

organized in 1806 as the outcome of the Improved Housing Conference. It aims to ofTer a safe in- vestment returning 5 per cent., and to provide the best accommodations for working classes. The company is willing to undertake the recon- slrtiction of the East Side of Xew York City. In this connection the Marylebone Association of London, Avhich undertakes to improve 'the im- mediate surroundings of working-class homes, should be mentioned. Companies have been formed to build and sell property, or to make it possible for the artisans themselves to build. The Artisans', Laborers', and General Dwelling Company of London has opened up sulmrban estates: the Workingmen's Dwellings Company of Pa.ssy-Auteuil, the Dis- count Bank of Paris, and the Berlin Building Association are important examples. In the Vnited States, building and loan associations, started in Philadelphia, have reached low-sal- aried clerks and artisans. The best and cheapest method originated in Belgium in 1889. and it has been tried in France and Germany. General savings banks with Government guarantee loan capital to companies of responsible individuals, who act as intermediaries in making loans to workingmen. There are two general forms of companies: (1) .Toint-stoek and eoiiperative-loan companies, which allow the individual to select his land and lend him money to put up his house; and (2) joint-stock and coilperative-building companies, wlm build houses and sell them. The workman pays 10 per cent, and gives a mortgage. The important feature of this system is the ar- rangement for a life insurance which prevents any loss to his family in case of death. Railroad, mining, and manufacturing compa- nies in several countries have erected dwellings for their employees, .-^mong the cottages and even entire villages put up by employers are those of Friedrich Krupp at Essen ; Pullman Palace Car Company, Pullman, 111.; I-ever Brothers, Birken- head, England ; ,lames Smieton & .Son, Canoustie, Scotland; Van Marken Mo<iern Dwellings, Delft; Merriniac Manufacturing Company, Lowell, Mass.; Howland Mill Corporation, New Bedford, Ma.ss. Another important aspect of the housing problem is the question of lodging-houses (q.v. ). Thus far the improvements in housing have hardly reached the class who iiit'd them the most. It has been satisfactorily demonstrated that com- mercial enterprises for building homes for the working classes pay a fair return on the invest- ment. Of the KiO.OOO Londoners living in model tenements less than 25 per cent, live in tene- ments maintained by bequests. The tendency for rent to rise in the centre of the city makes it im- perative to take away the competition of the artisan class by moving them to the suburbs. This is largely a question of rapid transit. In the L'nited .States the twentieth century opens with a widespread interest in housing prob- lems, largely stimulated by charity organization societies. Investigations have been set on foot in Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, New- York, and Cincinnati, illustrated lectures given, and asso- ciations formed to seek to improve conditions. BlBLlotin.vpnY. Inited States Eighth Special Report of Commissioner of Labor, 180,5 (Plans and Enterprises) : Reports of Tenement House Commissions for State of New York; American Economic Association Publications, viii., Nos. 2-,3 (Bibliography) ; Cily Uomes Assorialion, Tenemoit Conditions in Chicago (Chicago, 1001) (which gives an excellent account of Chicago's housing condition, illustrated: Lechler, Rationale ^Vohnunrt.frcfnrm (Berlin. 180.t) : Congr^s Intei'- national des Habitations il Bon March*"', Compte Rendu el PoeiimcnlK (Paris, 1000) (which con- tains a number of articles on the housing condi- tions of various countries) : Rowntree, I'oicrtii, A Study of Toim Life (New York, 1001) ; Syke's, Piihlie Health and Housinit (London, 1001) (a discussion of London conditions from a medical standpoint) ; Shaw, Vuniripal Government in Great Britain (New Y'ork, 1805), and Municipal Government in Continental Europe (Xew Y'ork, 1807). See Te.nemext HofsE Problem; Hill, OcT.vviA; Sta.ndabu of Living. HOTTSTIAN. LArRENCE (lSf.7-). An Eng- lisli author and illustrator. His drawings, en- graved on wood by his sister, Clemence Hous- man, with a flavor of the pre-Raphaelite, illus- trate The Gohlin Market. The ^'cre Wolf. Jump to Glory Jane, and other grotesque stories and poems, as well as several of his own books, iiotablv The Field of Clover (1898) ; A Farm in Fairfiland (1804) ; and The Uouiv of Joy (1895). Housman wrote, besides the critical cs.says, The Mritinfjs of William Blake (1803) and ".4rtfttir Boi/d Iloufthton (1896), a book of verse. Green Arras (1890); All Fellows, illustrated by the author (1806) ; prose allegories, with inserts of V erse in the Old French manner ; the clever satire, Gods and Their Malrrs (1897); a book of devotional Terse, Spikenard (1803): and the popular Love Letters of an Enylishwoman (1901, anonymotisly), which is scarcely typical of the author. HOTJSSA. See Hausa States.