Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/49

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and sailors, have discovered one or-more of the four principal housing evils that are to be found in cities and villages throughout the country:

A. Lack of suitable water supply—failure to have running water in the house where this is possible.

B. Lack of proper sanitation, lack of proper ventilation and of sanitary toilets.

C. Lack of privacy because of not enough rooms.

D. Structural defects, i. e., leaky roofs, damp walls, cellars flooded with water, thin board walls that do not keep out the cold.

In larger cities there is, in addition, the lack of space about the houses, no yards, and buildings erected so close to one another that the dwellings have not enough light and air. Moreover, despite all the improvements that have been made in city housing, there are still to be found thousands of rooms which have no outside windows and which obtain their light and air either through a door or a window cut into another room.

When a Home Service worker finds a family living under any of the conditions that have just been described, she immediately urges them to move into better surroundings. She tells the members of the family to require three things of the house in which they desire to make their home—cheerfulness, sanitation, privacy.

This means that every house should have fresh air and sunlight, that it should be in good repair, that the plumbing should be of such kind and in such condition that waste matter moves quickly into sewers. It means that there should, of course, be running water in the dwelling. When scrubbing the floor or taking a bath