Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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40 AACHEN. come, and so far as foresight can avail the defects of the past have been pre vented for the future. No more manufactories are allowed within the residential portions of the town, and special districts have been set apart for house property suited to different classes of the population. The undertakings carried on by the municipality include the waterworks, electricity works, cattle market and abattoir, baths, library, reading rooms, museum, theatre (now leased), an orchestra, a Kurhaus, a savings bank, and a chemical laboratory. The tramways are in private hands, and the town is supplied with gas by the Imperial Continental Gas Company, whose seat is in London, in virtue of a contract which runs until 1912. From both these undertakings, however, the town derives revenue. The Tramway Company pays to the town 1 per cent, of the surplus of its receipts after deducting working expenses up to an excess of £25,000, and 10 per cent, beyond that amount, the present yield being £350, while the Gas Company pays a royalty on all gas sold, and the revenue which accrued to the town from this source in 1905 was £8,500. The town supplies the tramways with electric power. By its latest contract with the Tramway Company the municipality reserves the right to purchase in 1915 or later. In the interest of working - class and other small tenants the muni cipality subsidises a free House Agency ; it assists a Labour Registry, and provides it with offices rent free, and it also contributes to the support of a People’s Inquiry Office and a writing-room for unemployed persons. For some years the town has systematically carried on relief works (including wood cutting and stone-breaking) during the winter months. Aachen had in 1905 a birth-rate of 29*7 per thousand of the population, the lowest recorded, and comparing with 35 0 per 1,000 in 1890. The illegitimate births in 1905 were 5 5 per cent, of all births, which was the highest proportion yet recorded, comparing with 4'0 per cent, in 1890. In 1905 the general death-rate of the town was 18'9 per 1,000 ; the rate has decreased considerably since 1893, when it was nearly 26 0 per 1,000, but the low rate of 1903, viz., 17-2 per 1,000, is for the present unique. The deaths of children under one year (still-born infants not counted) were in 1905 at the rate of 215 per thousand born. In this respect there has been great and continuous improve ment during the past 15 years, for the rate has fallen in the interval from 380 per 1,000. Of late years philanthropic societies, working hand in hand with the municipality and the medical profession, have energetically striven to combat the excessive mortality amongst children of tender age by measures directed to their better nursing and feeding. One of the most practical of their efforts is the maintenance of a creche for the reception of infants whose mothers work in the factories. The following Table gives the rate of births and deaths for a period of nine years :— Year. 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 Birth-rate per 1,000 of population. 342 35 2 33 9 33 9 343 321 305 312 29-7 Death-rate per 1,000 of population. 20-9 201 22 5 214 19- 9 20- 9 17 2 18-1 18-9 Infantile Mortality per 1,000 births. 251 250 251 231 213 201 193 201 215 It will be observed that there has for some years been a gradual decrease in the natural growth of the population. The excess of births over deaths in 1905 was 10-8 per 1,000 (comparing with 13*9 per 1,000 in the whole of X russia, and 13*2 in the whole of Germany), against 13 3 per 1,000 in 1897. A visitation of the homes of the working classes reveals the existence of a large amount of poverty. The standard of housing is for that reason, amongst others, an inferior one. The organisation of labour would not appear to have made in Aachen the progress which one notices in industrial towns lying

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