DÜSSELDORF.
215
property in good condition, to make all slight repairs up to a cost of 3s. at his
own charge save in so far as they relate to the structure of the house, to live at
peace with his neighbours, to pay his rent regularly twice a month, and to
refrain from sub-letting without permission. A month’s notice, dating from the
first of the month, must be given on either side. It should be noted that the
society builds houses but does not sell them, and working men can only be
accepted as tenants on condition of purchasing a share of £10, bearing interest
at 4 per cent., which sum they must contribute by minimum instalments of
los. 3d. per annum. They may, however, invest any sum beyond this £10 as
a loan, at the same rate of interest. So far, the society has done exceedingly
well, for while charging rents which are below those required by private owners
for equal dwellings it has been able to pay to the Insurance Board the contract
interest of 3 per cent, with 1J per cent, additional by way of redemption, and to
return to its shareholders 4 per cent, on their invested capital of £7,000.
There is also in Düsseldorf a Housing Association, whose object it is to
" help necessitous and respectable families to obtain the minimum amount of
living room and the indispensable articles of furniture, as well as to promote the
comfortable arrangement and use of their dwellings.”
Here, as elsewhere, the Central Insurance Board readily lends money for the
erection of cheap dwellings to Building and other registered Co-operative
Societies and to individual insured persons, and up to the end of 1904 the
Board for the Rhenish Province had advanced £2,200,000 in this way. As a
rule, 75 per cent, of the attested value, or 85 per cent, of the entire cost of
building, is advanced at 3 or 3& per cent, interest, besides 1^ per cent, by way
of repayment of loan. Where money is lent to individual workmen, it is on the
guarantee of an accredited society.
As a rule Düsseldorf workpeople prefer to live as near as possible to their
employment. Hence it is that some of the larger industrial companies in the
outskirts provide comfortable houses for a portion of their employees. The
smaller officials and men of long service are generally given preference, and
after them the heads of large families. The rents charged for these dwellings
are invariably lower than those charged by private owners. Thus the average
rent per room in the case of the 221 dwellings (with an aggregate of 735 rooms)
belonging to the Düsseldorf Röhren- und Eisen walz werke is slightly under 6a.
per month, and here a piece of garden ground is added to half the houses, an
outhouse to many, and a cellar to all.
Some of the large engineering works go beyond the requirements of the
Insurance and Factory Laws in promoting the welfare and convenience of their
workpeople. Special funds exist for the purpose of supplementing the benefits
and pensions claimable under the Insurance Laws ; factory canteens and
kitchens are not uncommon ; and bathing facilities are provided by several
Works in addition to the more general arrangements for washing ; at one concern
14 bathing cells are in constant use and as many as 1,000 shower baths are
taken weekly. Several employers maintain a creche, which is managed by sisters
of the Red Cross.
Little has been done in Düsseldorf to meet the needs of unmarried workmen
in the matter of lodging. As yet the large works have made no provision
of the kind such as is found in Bochum, Essen, and other towns, and while the
Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches conduct “ Homes ” and “ Hospices ”
for the special benefit of workmen—especially those on the road attached to
their distinctive faiths, the settled workman without home of his own is in the
main dependent on private families, die accommodation he obtains is, as a i ule,
tolerable enough, but in the measure that the lodger is well provided for, the
accommodation that remains for the household with which he lives is too often
unduly restricted. A good deal of the overcrowding of homes which comes
before the notice of the housing inspectors owes its origin to the practice of subletting
in its various forms. An investigation made in Decernoei 1900, brought
to light cases in which the majority of the rooms contained in a house were let to
lodgers ; thus 7 out of 10, 8 out of 13, and even 18 out of 23 in one instance.
Before long, however, it is likely that provision for unmarried men will be made
by the establishment under public auspices of a large boarding house for the
