WELFARE

Employees' Welfare Work in a Brazilian Factory

N ACCOUNT of the welfare work carried on by one of the important textile plants in Sao Paulo, the chief industrial

State of Brazil, appears in the November, 1925, issue of the Pan American Union Bulletin (pp. 1139-41).

The factory buildings are five-story concrete structures fitted with the most modern equipment. The motive power of the looms, carding and sewing machines, etc., is electricity from individual motors, and this and the fact that employees are prohibited from cleaning or oiling machines while in motion tend to reduce accidents to a minimum. Large ventilators in all the workrooms prevent the employees from inhaling particles of lint and dust.

Surrounding the factory there are 481 small modern houses for the employees, the rents for which range from $5 to $6 per month; similar dwellings, it is stated, could not be obtained in the city of Sao Paulo for less than $25. Each house has at least two bedrooms, a small parlor, a dining room, and a kitchen.

The plant and its annexed buildings are all on wide, well-paved, well-lighted, and clean streets, surrounded by parks and gardens, the whole group giving the appearance of a small town.

Although there is no legislation in Sao Paulo requiring industrial concerns to provide free medical assistance or day nurseries, both are provided at this plant in addition to a maternity clinic for working women. There are two large day nurseries where babies under I year of age are cared for, and their mothers who are working in the factories are allowed to go in rotation every three hours to nurse or see them. There are 12 rooms with tiled floors and tinted walls each containing 16 cribs and a similar number of small wardrobes containing supplies for the baby's daily needs. Adjoining the nursery there is a well-stocked drug store, a dispensary, and a one-ward children's hospital. In a nursery annex a group of nurses each day take care of approximately 178 children of from 1 to 3 years of age. A specially constructed building is used for the kindergarten, where children from 3 to 6 years old begin their schooling under teachers who have been trained in the United States at the expense of the firm. This is a model kindergarten where every new system recommended for the education of children is put into practice. Modern schools for older children are also provided, which are conducted in the same manner. A large cooperative store controlled by the employees is housed in a special building. All the necessaries of life are obtainable here at cost price; each worker has a charge account and the amount owed is deducted from his wages at the end of the month.

There is also a theater with a seating capacity of 9,000.

The account is concluded with the following statement: "All the services rendered by the management to its employees are free, and the protective attitude toward workmen which we noted in this factory is common to all industrial enterprises in the State of Sao Paulo."

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HOUSING

UN

Living Conditions of Small-Wage Earners in Chicago

NDER this title the Chicago Department of Public Welfare has recently published a study of the conditions, especially as to housing, which affect the small-wage earner of that city. The study was undertaken especially to learn the conditions offered the negroes and the Mexicans who have come in to fill the gap made by cutting off immigration from Europe. The field work, which was carried on from November, 1924, to April, 1925, covered 1,526 households, divided as to the race or nativity of their heads into 668 colored, 266 foreign-born Mexicans, 590 of different white nationalities, and 2 American Indians. The neighborhoods studied were in 11 wards, distributed through the sections of the city in which the colored population is most concentrated.

For comparative purposes, especially in the matter of rentals, in each neighborhood sampled an endeavor was made to secure a sufficient number of homes which were neither negro nor Mexican, so that conclusions might be possible relative to any special hardship in finding shelter to which either negroes or Mexicans were being subjected.

Negroes and Mexicans in Chicago

THE negro population of Chicago has increased with abnormal rapidity since the outbreak of the war, and it is estimated that in September, 1925, it amounted to 147,599. The Mexicans are even newer comers, and are less important numerically. In 1920, according to the census, there were 1,141 Mexicans resident in the eity, but in 1925 it was estimated that the number had risen to about 8,000. As the latest comers to Chicago, both negroes and Mexicans have been obliged to find shelter in the oldest, most outworn and derelict housing which the city still keeps. The localities in which they are concentrated are also run down and unattractive. "In short, the neighborhood conditions are not such that they offset poor housing conditions and lack within the dwellings."

Composition of Households

THE HE households visited showed some variations in composition, according to race and nationality. In the homes of the negroes children under 14 formed 20 per cent of the occupants, in the homes of Mexicans they were 30 per cent, among the native-born whites 26 per cent, and among the foreign-born whites 42 per cent. Among the newcomers it was not uncommon for two or more families to combine and form one household. Thirty per cent of the negro and 26 per cent of the Mexican households consisted of more than

one family, while among the native-born whites this was the case in only 13 per cent. The size of the households likewise varied.

Among the native white homes visited, 68 per cent had five or less persons per household; among negroes 64 per cent; among foreign-born other than Mexican 54 per cent; and among Mexicans 44 per cent. The household of median size among native whites numbered 4; among negroes and foreign born, exclusive of Mexicans, 5; among Mexicans, 6.

Housing Conditions

THE HE study of the homes showed that they were very largely in buildings which fell far below the standards the community has approved.

About 8 per cent of the 770 buildings in which the families included in this study dwelt occupied the rear of the lots and had another building in front of them. Almost 6 out of every 10 buildings (59 per cent) had not more than two floors. Fifty-six per cent had only one or two dwellings in them. Fully half were of frame construction, though within the fire limits.

Ninety per cent of the total number of buildings studied had no vacancies and the percentage of vacancies in the whole group was only 3.7. "It has been estimated that 5 per cent represents the minimum surplus of vacant apartments which will permit a sufficient equality in bargaining power between landlord and tenant." About one-twelfth (8 per cent) of the homes were situated in basements. For all races the apartment most frequently found was one of four rooms. Rooms having no opening to the outer air were found to the number of 177. Seventy-one of these were being used as bedrooms. If it is to be considered that an apartment is overcrowded when there are two or more persons to each room, 6 per cent of the negro and the native-white households, 28 per cent of the Mexican, and 9 per cent of the other foreign-born households were overcrowded. Instances of extreme overcrowding were found.

In South Chicago one large basement room, the equivalent in size of three rooms on the first floor of the house, was the home of 13 persons making up three related families. Each family had children in it. One end of the room had been separated from the rest by a board partition extending only part way to the ceiling. No windows were in this section of the room partitioned off and used as a bedroom for one family. The larger portion of the room served as kitchen for all and bedroom for the rest of the household.

Other examples were two Mexican families, consisting of eight persons, living in a two-room shack, a Mexican household of 15 living in 6 rooms, and a negro household of 11 persons in three rooms and a closet. Often other conditions were extremely bad. "In a rear basement on Milton Avenue was a family of six occupying two rooms for $10 a month. The toilet was under the sidewalk; light at night was from oil lamps; both rooms served as bedrooms.' A number of the dwellings were badly off in regard to conveniences. Many of the houses were old, and where such modern improvements as running water, bathrooms, toilets, and the like were provided, they were often of an objectionable type or their location was inconvenient and sometimes detrimental to the family health and decency. Of the 1,312 rented apartments, 85 per cent were "coldwater flats," with no means of heating other than stoves and no provision for a hot-water supply. "Many bathtubs were not used because there was nothing but a cold-water tap in them. Hall,

porch, and basement toilets outside apartments in these unheated flats were sometimes useless for long periods in cold weather because frozen."

Tenure and Rentals

OF F THE 1,526 households studied, 214 owned or were purchasing the homes in which they dwelt. No Mexicans were among these. Of the native white families, 17 per cent, and of the negro families 11 per cent were home owners. The difficulty of finding a place to rent at a figure which they could pay was instrumental in making a number of these families buy. Unfortunately the same causes which made it possible to raise rents to such a figure increased the price of houses too, and in some cases buying meant a long struggle ahead before the family would own their homes free of debt. In the discussion of the rents, attention is again called to the "age of the majority of the buildings, their almost uniformly poor state of repair, the frequent evils due to originally poor construction and plan which have been aggravated by the years, and the wretchedly inadequate plumbing. The great majority of the rented homes (1,111) had no heat furnished and were warmed by stoves at the tenants' expense. This was the strongest factor affecting rent.

Among apartments with heat furnished, rentals ranged from $22.50 for two rooms to $120 for eight rooms, with a median monthly rental of $65 to $70. Thirty-eight per cent of the heated apartments cost $70 or more per month. Three per cent of the unheated apartments rented for less than $10 a month; 5 per cent cost $50 or more each month. The median rental in unheated flats was $20 to $25 for native whites; $15 to $20 for foreign born; and $25 to $30 for negroes. As a group, negroes are paying much more for shelter than other classes in the community.

* * *

The question of what rent a family may reasonably pay depends on the family income. Budgetary studies are quoted as showing that generally one-fifth of the income is looked upon as the proper proportion to spend for rent. From 886 of the households, data were secured as to both the total income during the month preceding the visit of inquiry and the rent paid.

The report calls attention to the fact that over two-fifths of these families are paying less for rent than they could reasonably afford.

The families paying out less than 20 per cent of their earnings in rent could afford to live in better houses if any were available for them. The fact that they could afford to pay more in rent alters not one whit this other fact that the old and insanitary houses they occupy are too costly at any rental, however small the sum. The significant thing for the community is that apparently it is compelling a goodly proportion of its small-wage families to dwell in houses less good than they can afford to rent. A rental market for better homes for wage earners exists in Chicago to-day.

However, exclusive of the native whites, well over one-half of the families and over three-fourths among the negroes, were paying in rent a larger proportion of their earnings than they should. In addition, a study of the family earnings showed that a large number of the families really could not afford to pay much.

Paying high rentals is clearly out of the question for the majority of these families. Only one family in 10 should afford a rental of $40 or more for an unheated apartment. One in three ought not to spend as much as $16 for rent without heat. While it is a hazard to these families to have to live in the out

worn houses and tenements they occupy, it will nevertheless be a misfortune for them to have the old buildings pass unless newer and better ones are made available at rentals which are within their economic grasp.

Of the 1,244 families reporting the total income for a month, the father was the sole breadwinner in 43 per cent, in 24 per cent he earned nothing at all, and in 47 per cent mothers and wives were gainfully employed.

Women's earnings were not large as a rule. More than one-fourth of the woman earners (28 per cent) added less than $20 to the family income in the month; 60 per cent made less than $50, while only one woman in five (20 per cent) earned $80 or more. Yet in about one-fifth of the families on the basis of the amount of their earnings, mothers were the chief breadwinners in the month reported upon.

The month's earnings were secured for 1,115 male breadwinners. Of these, two-thirds of the Mexicans and a trifle over one-half of the other foreign born and of the negroes had earned less than $100, and 91 per cent of the whole group had earned less than $150.

The pursuits in which the men of the families were engaged varied widely.

Those in business for themselves varied from 15 per cent among other foreign born to 2 per cent among Mexicans. Seven per cent of the negroes were working on their own account, not for wages. Of the Mexican wage earners, 23 per cent were employed at the stockyards, 20 per cent were in the employ of the railroads and 27 per cent labored at the steel mills. Among negroes 15 per cent were employed on the railroads, more of them as porters or waiters than in any other occupations; 12 per cent worked in the stockyards; 8 per cent were in city or Government employ; 7 per cent in the building trades; a like number in foundries; 6 per cent in the steel mills; 4 per cent worked on automobiles; 3 per cent were waiters, cooks, etc.; 3 per cent were employed in laundries; and 2 per cent in tanneries.

The three industries, stockyards, railroads, and steel mills, which together employed 70 per cent of the Mexican men and 33 per cent of the negro, had 25 per cent of the rest of the men on their pay rolls. Industries and occupations were most diversified among the native or European born white, least varied among the Mexicans, with the negroes occupying a midposition between the other two groups.

As a result of the study, it is strongly urged that the city should adopt some plan for housing small-wage earners. The demand is great for homes at a rent of $40 or less a month, and private enterprise is not meeting the need. The time is opportune for improving the situation. Under the zoning plan the city is turning over to industry and commerce some of the oldest tenement districts where conditions are worst. With this movement there should be correlated some comprehensive plan for supplying suitable houses, at rents which the small-wage earner can pay, in sufficient numbers to meet the needs of the situation. With this should be worked out a program for determining when houses are really too old, too dilapidated, and too insanitary to be fit for habitation and for retiring them when this stage has been reached. Particular attention should be given to providing for the negroes and Mexicans who have come in to meet the labor shortage due to the restriction of immigration.