SLUM TENANTS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIRS I have read with much interest the article by Mr. Townroe in your issue of December 3rd, but I do not agree altogether with him in his opinion that it is necessary to ." discipline " the destructive tenant. In the course of my work as a general medical practitioner in an industrial and mining town of 20,000 inhabitants, I am brought into close contact with the type of tenant to whom he refers in his article, and I think that there is an alternative method which could be applic C.. with every chance of success.
As I see it, the root of the trouble is that such tenants have no idea of the first principles of housekeeping. They, and their parents and grandparents before them, have spent all their lives in houses of the slum type, and except for the small percentage who have been in domestic service have never had an opportunity of learning the proper methods of keeping a house, or even of seeing the results of such a method.
If therefore they are to change the habits of generations, they must be shown how such changes are to be effected and also the benefits such as better health, fewer doctor's bills, etc., which will follow from the alteration in their mode of living.
If at the same time some pecuniary or other material induce- ment could be offered, then I believe that an important advance would have been made towards eradicating the trouble.
Periodic inspections by persons in an official or semi-official capacity are often resented covertly if not openly, where advice (if coupled with a small reward) would be gratefully
received and acted upon.—I am, Sir, &e., J. S. L.
[We agree with the writer. Together with the progressive work of the pulling down of the slums and the rehousing of their occupants, there should be inaugUrated an educational cam- paign. How to live decently, how to cook food properly, especially vegetables, so as to retain the nutritive salts, how to care for their own and their children's health, how to practise rudimentary laws of hygiene. Here is work, and worth-while work, for every voluntary worker in the country.—En. Spectator.]
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