Page:This side the trenches, with the American Red cross (IA thissidetrenches00desc).pdf/54



The house was a ramshackle, rickety affair. The steps wobbled so dangerously as the Home Service worker climbed them that she feared that they would break under her. Certainly it was not the sort of place in which the family of a man in the service of his country ought to be obliged to stay. The Home Service worker immediately arranged to move the family to other and more cheerful quarters.

But what about the next family that might move into the house? There ought to be no next family or at least not until the building could be repaired. The Home Service worker knew the law regulating the condition of houses. She was, therefore, able to make a beginning of remedying the trouble by reporting what she had seen to a city official whose business it was to act upon such complaints.

In another town the family of a sailor had been buying a house upon a partial payment plan. The dwelling was not connected with the city sewer. The Home Service workers learned that the municipality was compelled by law to make such connections allowing the householder to reimburse it by installments for the