40
BOCHUM.
September or December. Rent ,is payable on the first day of the month or
quarter, according to agreement, and whether it is paid in advance or not
depends on circumstances. As a rule, the cost of water, of chimney sweeping,
and of removing refuse is borne, in the first instance, by the landlord, though it
comes upon the tenant either in or with the rent ; in many cases, however,
these items are lumped in a separate monthly charge.
In tenements of three and four rooms it is common for lodgers to be taken
by way of relieving the rent. Where possible a room is let to two young men
(or women, as the case may be) at a charge of irom 125. to 155. per month,
inclusive of coffee and rolls for breakfast ; though if the room is furnished in
superior style, I85. to 205. may be charged ; tor the other meals the lodgers
make their own arrangements, and as a rule they are taken either at the works
canteen or at an eating-house.
Before rooms can be let to lodgers they must be approved by the police,
who issue certificates, which must be displayed on the walls of the rooms so
used. The rooms are visited by the police or other municipal officials at least
once a year. No record is kept of the number of lodgers at any one time, but
every year between 600 and 700 new certificates are issued, and between
November 1st, 1901, and January, 1906, nearly 20,000 lodgers had been
reported to the police.
A system of general house inspection, on the other hand, has not as yet
been introduced into Bochum. The Health Committee of the Corporation, the
Building Bureau, and the police co-operate with a view to detecting insanitary
conditions, and, where found, remedying them, but no regular visitation takes
place.
Retail Prices.
Groceries and other Commodities.
The working classes of Bochum are like those of similar towns everywhere
in that the character of their labour in the mines and ironworks and their
comparatively good earnings dispose them to live as well as possible. There
are co-operative stores in connection with two large works, and another
unattached store conducted as a purely working-class undertaking. The stores
of the Bochum Verein have a nominal membership of 5,000, and they supply a
large part of the groceries and other household requirements of the workpeople
employed by this Company. The firm of Krupp has also a store for the
benefit of the colliers who work its mines outside Bochum. In both cases
the trading profits go to the members in the form of a yearly dividend. The
Bochum and District Co-operative Society has a membership of over 1,300,
but its turnover is disproportionately small. The Society sells only for cash,
however, and the Bochum working-man prefers credit, and, indeed, is almost
compelled to have it in many cases, where his wages are paid only fortnightly or
monthly. But the German Co-operative Society, here as elsewhere, is not an
aggressive institution. For this the regulations under which it is allowed to
trade are largely responsible. The general principle is sale to members only,
save in the case of commodities, like bread, which it actually produces, for these
may be supplied to the outside public. This restriction stifles enterprise ;
the shops of the Bochum Society are open only for two or three hours in
the forenoon and an equal time in the afternoon. Thus the members know
when they can be served, and if they should have needs at any other hour they
have either to wait or to go elsewhere ; the reports of the Bochum Society, with
their complaint of inadequate patronage for staple articles of consumption, seem
to indicate that they do the latter. The prices charged by the co-operative
stores are not, in general, lower than those of the private traders, though no
bread in the town is cheaper than theirs. For the Polish and Italian workmen
special grocers’ shops exist, in which their favourite foods can be obtained.
In determining predominant prices, regard has been had to the large proportion
of working-class custom which falls to the two industrial co-operative
stores referred to. In October, 1905, the predominant price of coffee was
lid. per lb., though qualities as high in price as Is. Id. were sold. Loaf
sugar cost 2Jd., and granulated 2d. to 2JJ. per lb. Fat bacon cost 8jd. per lb.,
and streaky bacon 9|J. Dutch and Limburg cheeses were the kinds most
eaten, the former costing 8|d. to 9fd. per lb. and the latter 5hd. to 6^d., while
