DÜSSELDORF.
207
the fact that Düsseldorf to-day combines all the activities and resources
of a large industrial centre with the advantages of a residential town ; for
the great works which have made Düsseldorfs wealth, and which give
employment to the mass of its workpeople, are situated either entirely outside
the town or on its extreme periphery. The appearance of the workmen
creates on the observer a very favourable impression. They are well and neatly
dressed, and the quality and condition of their attire seems to indicate that
they go about the streets in one set of garments and work in another, a custom
which is encouraged by the plentiful supply of lockers at the factories and
workshops. It is also unusual to see workmen returning home unwashed, and
here again the factory lavatories and baths must be cited in explanation.
For some years the town has energetically pursued a policy of land
purchase. In all quarters of the town and district eligible land is bought
whenever a favourable opportunity offers, and gradually a very valuable
estate is being built up. The idea is to lease or sell this land as the
development of the town may require, so facilitating extensions where
they are most desirable and combating unhealthy speculation by entering
the market in competition with private individuals. A special fund has been
set aside for the purpose of transactions in real estate, and the town is
prepared to increase it as the success of this department of municipal trading
may justify. Moreover, for the purpose of promoting healthy conditions of
credit, the municipality in 1900 established a Mortgage Bank with a capital of
a million pounds, raised on the credit of the town. The interest charged on
advances is ^ per cent, more than the town pays for its own loans. Money is
usually lent on dwelling houses up to 60 per cent, of the value, and on
manufactories, inns and other business premises to a somewhat lower limit.
Düsseldorf can claim relatively favourable vitality statistics. Its death
rate in 1905 was 17 per 1,000 of the population, which was the lowest rate yet
recorded, and the birth rate was 35T per 1,000, comparing with 40'7 per 1,000
in 1898, since when there has been a gradual decrease, though Düsseldorf here
is not peculiar. The marriage rate in 1905 was 10T per 1,000, a rate only
slightly below the average of the past ten years. The infant mortality rate in
1905 was 191 per thousand of the births, comparing with a maximum rate of
220 and a minimum of 176 during the past decade. The deaths from pulmonary
consumption were equal to a rate of 1*47 per 1,000 of the population. The
proportion of illegitimate to total births was 8 per cent. ; there has been a
steady increase in the proportion from 6 4 per cent, in 1896 and 5*6 per cent,
in 1899, the proportion of illegitimate births to the population having remained
at about the same level, while the legitimate birth-rate has fallen over 4 per
1,000 of the population.
The following Table shows the birth and death rates and the infantile
mortality rate for a period of ten years :—
Year.
Birth rate per 1,000
of population.
1896
1897
1898
1899
1900
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
39-8
39- 7
40- 7
395
38-9
38-3
373
36-0
35-6
35-1
Death rate per 1,000
of population.
infantile mortality
per 1,000 births.
18 3
19-9
191
202
19-4
188
183
17 3
18-0
17 0
184
220
206
209
197
206
176
188
204
191
Occupations, Wages and Hours of Labour.
No exact data exist for determining the growth of the industrial population
•of Düsseldorf during recent years, the most recent classification of the population
according to occupations for which the data are av ailable oeing that obtained
from the Industrial Census of 1895. Some idea of the growth of the principal
