"RED VIENNA."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1934, Page 6

"RED VIENNA."

HUMANITARIAN WORK IN DANGER. ' (To the Editor.) The article on "Red. Vienna" by Donald" Grant in Tuesday's "Star" shows what tan be done for the relief of poverty by municipaleffort. Vienna has a population of 1,863,780, and the Municipal Council operates, both as a City Council and as a provincial parliament. Its members are elected for a period of five years directly by the people of Vienna on a basis of proportional representation. It > aims to provide cheap lighting, transport, housing and bathing facilities. The Social Democrats gained control at the first municipal elections held after the war, in May, 1919. At that time the city was bankrupt, and the housing conditions were among the worst in. the world. Of every 1000 flats built in. the. city before the war 953 had no water supply;! and 958 no sanitary conveniences. In 1917" out of 554,000 families in Vienna 406,025 lived in single rooms or at best in one large and one small room. The normal rent which a worker had to pay was one-fifth of his income. The municipality borrowed £0,000,000 at 6 per cent, and built 64,000 apartment house dwellings, housing 200,000 persons. These houses have gardens, libraries and playgrounds, and the " rent is one-fifth of the pre-war rent for then inferior dwellings. Municipal transport rediiced'4 all fares by one-quarter, and thereby doubled the number of passengers carried. The city lias waged war against tuberculosis and cancer. , It has halved the number of deaths from tuberculosis, and done much to relieve the sufferings of cancer patients. The work was • recently described by the "Manchester Guardian" as the finest social work in Europe. It has been ably seconded by private effort, and • the "Blue Eagle Alliance," recently, started,"' pledges its members to find some extra work' for unemployed men. It will be a tragedy if ; all this work falls a victim to Fascist violence.'' W.G.M.