AACHEN. 
47 
local super-tax incomes between £33 and £45 are also liable, the tax being 
135 per cent, of an assumed State tax of 4s. The effect of the super-tax is that 
small incomes would pay the following amounts for local purposes :— 
Amount of local surtax. 
5s. 5d. 
8s. Id. 
12s. 2d. 
16s. 2d. 
21s. Id. 
28s. 4d. 
35s. Id. 
41s. KM. 
Incomes. 
£33 to £45, inclusive 
£45 to £52 10s., inclusive 
£52 10s. to £60, inclusive 
£60 to £67 10s , inclusive 
£67 10s. to £75, inclusive 
£75 to £82 10s., inclusive 
£82 10s. to £90, inclusive 
£90 to £105, inclusive 
While the housing accommodation provided during the last 30 or 40 years 
is good, and increasingly so as it is of more recent origin, there is a vast amount 
of unequivocal “ slum ” property. The conditions in some of the older houses 
are extremely bad —dilapidated buildings, dark and fetid approaches, landings 
which barely allow of the doors turning on their hinges, small and low rooms, 
damp and rot in wall and wood, and a mass of poverty, dirt, and squalor beyond 
description. Many of the staircases are enveloped in pitch darkness, so that it 
is necessary to grope one’s way by the help of a rail, and others so steep that 
it is unsafe to descend them face forward. In such districts house regulations are 
of no avail, and it would be useless to attempt to enforce their provisions as to 
cleanliness and order, for dirt and grime seem to belong to the natural order of 
things. In normal houses, however, tolerable tidiness is preserved in the 
approaches, and in many cases, where children are not too numerous, the 
condition of things is beyond reproach. The rule is that stairs and landings 
must be brushed every day and washed twice a week (on Wednesday and 
Saturday), the tenants taking the duty in turn, and, where the landlord lives in 
the house or is represented by a good agent, the rule is faithfully observed. 
Several extracts from the report of the House Inspector for the year 1904 
will give a fair indication of the prevalent deficiencies. “ During the year,” he 
writes, “ 114 properties, containing 174 inhabited houses (¿.<?., blocks) were 
inspected. These 174 houses contained 1,106 tenements, with 2,390 living and 
bedrooms, including kitchens (an average of 2T6 rooms per dwelling). 1,808 of 
these rooms were used as bedrooms, 1,752 by members of the tenants’ families, 
and 56 by lodgers or servants. Of the 2,390 rooms, 1,089 were used 
exclusively as bedrooms, 719 as kitchens and bedrooms, and 582 as living- 
rooms or kitchens. In these 2,390 rooms were 616 male and 623 female persons 
under 12 years, and 1,534 male and 1,540 female persons above 12 years, these 
all being members of the tenants’ families ; while in the 56 rooms occupied by 
lodgers and servants were 38 males and 11 females. Of the 1,107 inhabited 
dwellings inspected, 278 consisted of one room, 467 of two rooms, 190 of 
three rooms, 79 of four rooms, 15 of five rooms, and 31 of more than five 
rooms. There were 47 empty dwellings, containing together 78 rooms—viz., 
24 of one room, 17 of two rooms, four of three rooms, and two of four rooms. 
Complaint was laid in respect of 64 alcove bedrooms, 11 bedrooms on account of 
overcrowding, 105 bedrooms on account of non-separation of sexes, 77 bedrooms 
where the floor was less than 10 inches above the earth level, 34 bedrooms 
on account of damp, three bedrooms on account of bad doors, 47 bedrooms whose 
windows were insufficient in size, 22 bedrooms with defective flooring, and 
10 bedrooms which were simultaneously used as workshops. The following were 
also condemned:—16 buildings with defective stairs or balustrades, one 
building With defective roof, 23 dwellings in which the plaster on ceilings and 
walls wits defective, 35 properties with defective w.c. arrangements, two cellars 
and eio'ht attics on account of accumulations of filth, 27 buildings with 
defective chimneys, and three properties without proper water supply.” 
Unquestionably the most serious aspect of the housing question at Aachen 
is the smallness of the dwellings (two rooms, as has been shown, being the 
predominant size), for it is here that the children problem comes in. Large 
families are common among the working classes of Aachen, and under such 
circumstances the observance of hygienic and moral conditions of life is a matter