Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/467

 THE FIRST GERMAN MUNICIPAL EXPOSITION 449

and a Zubehor what Shaw calls a "closet-like appurtenance of a room" in Plauen, Chemnitz, Halle, Rixdorf, Posen, Magde- burg, Breslau, Berlin, etc. In two-room dwellings we find eleven or more persons in the following cities, in order: Plauen, Leipzig, Dresden, Posen, Hannover, etc. In almost all cities we find the extreme case of six or more persons in houses with no heatable room especially noticeable in Berlin, Rixdorf, Hamburg, Mag- deburg, Posen.

3. Houses to be let. The percentage of dwellings unoccupied in 1900 was comparatively large in Miinchen, Gorlitz, Dresden, Hamburg, an increase in the previous five years being noticeable in Dresden and Leipzig. On the other hand, the percentage was very small in Frankfurt a. O., Berlin, Halle, Kiel, and Magdeburg, with noticeable decrease in Magdeburg and Halle, in preceding five years. In Leipzig, Dresden, Magdeburg, Halle, and Liibeck, for the years 1896-1900, we find that of one-room dwellings, with rooms that may be heated, a relatively small percentage were vacant; of two-room dwellings a relatively smaller percentage were vacant; of three-room dwellings the number vacant was almost nil; while of four-, or more, room dwellings a relatively large percentage were vacant. A need of dwellings is expressed, then only in the case of the smaller ones; but here there seems to be a real need. Of course, these tables omit to specify price, sanitary condition, etc. The rise of the standard of living, and a better understanding of hygiene and sanitation, bring to our realization the uninhabitability of many houses. Again, the rent may be so high as to make the people think they must resort to taking lodgers to help pay it. Consequently, it may be possible that there is really a greater need than these figures would show.

Sometimes objection is made to the community's interfering with private enterprise in the furnishing of dwellings. Some people see a dangerous precedent in such activities a prece- dent which step by step will take us into the quicksands of com- munism from which we shall be unable to extricate ourselves, and where we shall sink ever deeper. Such conditions, however, as so appreciably affect society as a whole not only for the present, but also for the future must be cared for by the social