Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/474

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456 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

results accomplished by the department are pronounced quite satisfactory.

Building dwellings which shall furnish to people of small means such conditions as are considered indispensable is another way of meeting the housing problem. The means for this is furnished by private individuals, by building societies, or by the municipality itself.

In Essen, dwellings for the operatives of the Krupp Gun Works are provided by the Krupp bequest. In Chemnitz similar houses for families of workmen in the Saxon Machine Factory are provided. In both these instances as, indeed, in all the cases to be cited the aim has been to provide good and sani- tary homes for as low rent as is consistent. In Dresden the Johann Meyer gift has provided, at a cost of 206,700 marks, three buildings containing forty-eight dwellings. Of these, eight have two rooms; the rest have two rooms and kitchen. To each dwelling belongs cellar space, attic space, and a small garden of about 30 square yards. Further, there are broad, well-lighted stairways; each kitchen has water supply and drainage. In a build- ing in the court are four laundries and a mangle-room. Moreover, drying places, bleaching places, and children's playgrounds are to- be found in the neighborhood. In Leipzig, the gift of H. I. Meyer, three million marks, has served, thus far, to erect three large tenements. The bequest furnishes for the tenants, further, nurseries, a kindergarten, instruction in housekeeping, gardens, and children's playgrounds. Before very long the dwellings provided by this gift will be able to house 1.3 per cent, of the inhabitants of Leipzig (population about 455,000).

Building associations have undertaken to provide for inexpen- sive dwellings in many of the cities. In some cases the munici- palities have furnished the land on which to build the houses, e. g. t Frankfurt and Leipzig. In Barmen cottages are thus erected which may be bought on terms of small monthly pay- ments. In Darmstadt the building society " Daheim " erected between 1898 and 1903 twenty-six houses story and a half, semi-detached cottages to be sold at 5,000 to 8,000 marks. The Public Building Association in Dresden has erected eighteen