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specialists, such as physicians, artists, writers and dentists, all of whom we consider useful public servants, with an extra room for their work, when the workmen's council allows this award.
"All licensed houses of ill-repute were abolished by decree, but this department went further and removed the women to two hotels outside the City, and both men and women were replaced by proletarian families. We knew exactly where these houses were, as each householder had to fill out declaration blanks and our inspectors afterwards verified the records.
"In twenty-eight villages around Budapest, we have socialised the houses, and intend as soon as possible to include all the largest towns in the provinces. So far the peasants have not been disturbed. We have already planned to build ten thousand houses of available stone, but want of coal handicaps us. We have an engineering and building department for repairs, as most of the houses have deteriorated during the war, and must be kept up for the benefit of the whole community. As to the ownership of small houses: the owners of small, one family houses, who have bought their houses with their own wages, are generally allowed to keep and own their houses, but individual cases are decided upon by the local council of workmen."
DAY NURSERIES NEAR FACTORIES.
At one of the socialised factories which I visited in Budapest, I got another side-light on the lack of fear in taking up the responsibilities of married life which the Hungarian proletarians were showing. At this factory, the controlling council of workmen (women were represented on it) decreed that the extra rooms in the neighbourhood occupied by the prosperous bourgeoisie (who formerly received the profits from the factory) should be turned into day nurseries for the children of the factory workers. The family could therefore come to the factory itself in the morning, deposit the children in pleasantly situated houses near by, at noon the mothers and fathers could spend their two hours of rest with the children, and at night the family could again be united in their journey home. "The factory is no place for children." remarked the Chairman of the Controlling Council.
