Round about a Pound a Week. Mrs. Pember Reeves
of the other two. Moreover, the numbers are few. The results of the analysis, however, though proving nothing, were considered interesting enough to encourage the making of the same analysis of thirty-nine cases of families with three or more children, taken from the records of the weighing-room at Moffat’s Institute (see p. 28). The two lists were kept separate, as the cases at Moffat’s Institute had been passed by no doctor, and hereditary disease may be considered to be more rampant among them. Added to this the wages are, on the whole, lower than the wages of families within the limits of the investigation.
It is curious that the death-rate in the second table for families paying under 6s. rent is much the same as it is in the first. The great difference between the two tables lies in the far larger death-rate in families paying over 6s. rent shown in the second table, where disease and insecurity and poverty were certainly greater factors.
Thirty-nine Families with Three or More Children taken from without the Investigation.
Total of 223 children; 70 dead; death-rate, 31·3.
Arranged according to Number in Family.
| Number born in Each Family. | Number of Families. | Number Dead. | Approximate Death-rate. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per Cent. | |||
| 3 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| 4 | 7 | 4 | 14 |
| 5 | 6 | 15 | 50 |
| 6 | 7 | 11 | 26 |
| 7 | 4 | 8 | 28 |
| 8 | 2 | 2 | 12 |
| 9 | 4 | 21 | 58 |
| 11 | 2 | 7 | 31 |
Arranged according to Household Allowance.
| Allowance. | Number of Families. | Number of Children Born. | Number Dead. | Approximate Death-rate. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Cent. | ||||
| Over 22/0 a week | 8 | 60 | 20 | 33 |
| 20/0 to 22/0 | 20 | 111 | 34 | 30 |
| Less than 20/0 | 11 | 52 | 16 | 30 |
Arranged according to Rent.
| Rent. | Number of Families. | Number of Children born. | Number Dead. | Approximate Death-rate. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Cent. | ||||
| Over 6/6 | 15 | 105 | 26 | 24 |
| 6/0 to 6/6 | 14 | 71 | 26 | 36 |
| Less than 6/0 | 10 | 47 | 18 | 38 |
(See Appendix B, p. 44.)
It is not pretended that the two tables do more than indicate that decent housing has as much influence on children’s health as, given a certain minimum, the quality and quantity of their food. That is to say, it is as important for a young child to have light, air, warmth, and freedom from damp, as it is for it to have sufficient and proper food.
The kind of dwelling to be had for 7s. or 8s. a week varies in several ways. If it be light, dry, and free from bugs, if it be central in position, and if it contain three rooms, it will be eagerly sought for and hard to find. Such places exist in some blocks of workmen’s dwellings, and applications for them are waiting long before a vacancy occurs, provided, of course, that they are in a convenient district. There are even sets of three very small rooms at a rental of 5s. 6d. in one or two large buildings. These are few in number, snapped up, and tend to go to the man with not too large a family and in a recognised and permanent position.
Perhaps the next best bargain after such rooms in blocks of workmen’s dwellings is a portion of a small house. These small houses are let at rents varying from 10s. to 15s., according to size, condition, and position. They are let to a tenant who is responsible to the landlord for the whole rent, and who sublets such rooms as she can do without in order to get enough money for the rent-collector. She is often a woman with five or six children, who would not, on account of her large family, be an acceptable subtenant. If she is a good woman of business, it is sometimes possible for her to let her rooms advantageously, and stand in herself at a low rental—as rents go in Lambeth. But there is always a serious risk attached to the taking of a whole house—the risk of not being able to sublet, or, if there are tenants, of being unable to make them pay. Many a woman who nominally stands at a rent of 6s. or 6s. 6d. for the rooms which she keeps for her own use is actually paying 11s. to 15s. a week, or is running into debt at the rate of 5s. to 10s. a week because of default on the part of her lodgers.
The ordinary housing for 8s. a week consists generally of three rooms out of a four-roomed house where the responsible tenant pays 10s. or 11s. for the whole, and sublets one small room for 2s. to 3s., or of three or four rooms out of a five- or six-roomed house where the whole rent might be 14s. or 15s., and a couple of rooms may be sublet at 6s. or 7s. Some of the older four-roomed houses are built on a terrible plan. The passage from the front door runs along one side of the house straight out at the back. Two tiny rooms open off it, a front one and a back one. Between these two rooms, at right angles to the passage, ascends a steep flight of stairs. Because of the narrowness of the house the stairs