DUBLIN SLUMS

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVIII, Issue 89, 17 April 1914, Page 2

DUBLIN SLUMS

A SCATHING EXPOSURE

HORROR OF LIFE IN THE

SLUMS

CORPORATION'S RESPONSI-

BILITY

"The report of the- Dublin Housing Committee has startled the whole city," says the Times correspondent. "The citizens knew that the slums were a scandal and a danger, and that the.Corporation is partly responsible for thoir present condition. Until the report was published, how- # over, they had not realised how grave are the scandal and the danger, and how terrible is " the Corporation's response bility.'' "The report is a terrible indictment ■of. the social conditions and civic administration of Dublin. Most .of ' us had supposed ourselves to be familiar with, the melancholy statistics - kif the Dublin slums," says the Irish - Times. "We knew that Dublin has ; a far larger percentage of single-room I -tenements than any other city in the _ kingdom. We did not know that nearly twenty-oight thousand of our | fellow-citizens live in dwellings which j -even the Corporation admits to bo unfit for human ■habitation:. AN APPALLING PICTURE. "Wo had suspected the difficulty of < decent living in the si urns;,this report > proves Qrc responsibility oi' it. Nearly i a, third of our population so lives that i from dawn to dark and from dark xo dawn it is without cleanliness, privacy, .or self-respect. The sanitary conditions are revolting; even the ordinary standards of savage morality can hardly be maintained. To condemn a young child to an upbringing in the Dublin slums is to condemn it to physical degradation and and to an a-ppalliug precocity in vice. "These four level-headed civil! servants have drawn a picture hardly less lurid than the scenes of Dante's * Inferno,' and they give chapter and Terse ior every statement. It is a bitter reproach to Dublin that their report should go forth, to the world; •}»ut it is a necessary and wcil--•deserved reproach." - NEGLECT OF EXISTING POWERS "To all criticism ;in . the past the Corporation has always • replied that it could do nothing without fresh legislation," adds the London Times. "The report shows that many of the city's worst eviis are- due to the neglect or abuse of existing legislation. Members ol the- Corporation are owners of tenement property, some of which is said .to, bo mint for luiman habitation. Rebates "have been allowed improperly to tenement. -.•©Winers within and without the Corporation. , The report finds that the maladministration of civic affairs jS largely responsible for the demoralisation of the tenement owners, the influx of rural labor, and the depression of wages _in the city. "The report describes the existing -conditions of tenement life as both physically and morally bad. Reform must have as its ultimate object the breaking up of the tenement system as it exists. " The condition of -small housos other than tenement houses is condemned. Generally they are. in bad repair, and. many of them lire unfit for human habitation. These --should be absolutely cleared away. The committee think that the Corporation schemes are incomplete and too scattered, and are of opinion that -•every working-class family should be provided with a self-contained dwelling of sufficient size to prevent over--crowding and admit of the separation oi the sexes. The committee think -tLat the minimum of new housing accommodation required is 14,000 Jiouses' or dwellings." "It is generally admitted in Dublin -that Lhe revelations of the report explain a great deal of the recent labor unrest and of the secret of Mr Xiarkin's influence with the working .-classes;" concludes the Times. - -COUNCILLORS WHO OWN SLUM PROPERTY. , "The report finds that the Corporation has grossly abused and mis--managed its existing powers. It has utterly failed to enforce its sanitary authority under the Act of 1890. It has encouraged slum-ownership not merely by connivance! bat' by -example',"! says the Irish Times. "The report finds that three *nem-bers-'of the Corporation—Aldermen O'Reilly and Corrigan and Councillor Crozier—are returned in evidence as owning, or being interested in, nine, nineteen, and eighteen tenement houses respectively. Some of their property is classed a 'third--class property.'"Ten other members ■of the Corporation own, or are interested in, tenement houses. "The report exposes the scandal of the rebate system, which was designed to encourage and reward decent and conscientious management of tenement property. The -Commissioners are or opinion 'that, •in the case of some of the members of the Corporation who own tenesments, rebates have been improperly allowed. They criticise sharply the 'dispensing powers' which Sir Oharles Cameron has1 seen fit to exercise. The Corporation, by its slaok- • ness and ' inefficiency, is - directly responsible for the creation of a number of owners who have little sense •of their duty as landlords. The report finds that if the Corporation had rightly administered its own laws it have prevented the influx into Ihibhn of that large volume of rural Jabor which has depressed wages and intensified the tragedy of the slums, ihe.Corporation's policy has at once <mcreased and demoralised the miserable army of slum workers. THE REMEDY. "Broadly, the report deprecates -atvy large amount of new building in the centre of the city," continues the Irish Times. "It recommends the reconstruction of certain classes of tenement houses, and suggests that in accordance with the spirit of'the Public Health Acts, the cost of su"h reconstruction should fall upon the -owners of the property.. New housing -schemes on a large scale are, of -course, - necessary, and the Committee recommends that they should be -carried out on virgin soil in the outskirts of the city. More than 1100 acres of suitable land for building purposes are said to be available writhin the cuty boundary. The cost •of such -genomes cannot be borne by the ratepayers alone. The Committee tiuiiks that the State should give generous assistance, particularly in - the way of assisting private enterprise. "All these suggestions- will be carefailly examined by tho- citizens of i>ublm. For the moment, however tlie Committee's -proposal for - the . luimre administration of housing ' -•r-iiemos has more urgent- importance! iw rejects the idea of a special Housing Authority,; and thinks that, for 4 many reasons, the-origin and conduct f ■^■■■■hjousmg schemes, must7 remain in « the hands of tho Corporation,, We *

may, -perhapsj- admit that no other course is practicable, but thasfc ad-' mission confronts us at once with a grave, difficulty. ■ * * AN UNFIT CORPORATION. "This report proves clearly that the Dublin Corporation, as now constituted; is utterly unfit tto have the sole charge of any large schemes of housing reform. The first step towards reforms must be a reform in the character of the Corporation. That is a matter for the citizens of Dublin, and we may hope ithat even the most indifferent ratepayer will be stirred Iby this terrible exposure of the intimate connection between civic mal--1 administration and our local problems of poverty and unrest. We want a real Municipal Reform Association, which would not only help to purify the City Hall, but. would co-operate with it in new housing schemes. The present report supplies that painful stimulus to action which Dublin so badly needed and so richly deserved. "Every moment of delay is a moment of disgrace to the capital of Ireland. Until the workers are properly housed there is "a terrible blo(t upon the fair fame of our city. We must go forward with this most urgent reform without faltering, confident that every penny that we expend will-be paid back «many times over by the improvement in the health, morals; and manhood of our I citizens."