allowed for the child, remains unchanged. The former reduction of 1s. per week for each member of the household in excess of five is no longer in force. A flat rate of 15s., subject to adjustment by way of increase or reduction to meet the circumstances of a particular case, for an applicant living in lodgings or as a boarder, is substituted for the former scale ranging from 12s. to 15s. according to sex and age. According to the former regulations, adjustments were made to the allowance in respect of rent when the net rent was greater or less than the basic rent, which was 7s. 6d. if the scale rate for the household was 24s. to 30s., and was increased or reduced proportionately if the scale rate was below 24s. or above 30s. The present regulations provide that if the net rent actually paid is greater or less than a quarter of the scale rate for the household, an adjustment of the allowance may be made by such sum as appears to the Board's officer, or, on appeal, to the Appeal Tribunal, to be reasonable. The regulations regarding the treatment of earnings have been modified so that the married children of an unemployed applicant and other members of the household less closely related to the applicant than his children or his brothers and sisters, are not required, unless their earnings are high in relation to their direct responsibilities, to contribute to the household more than they might reasonably be expected to pay if they were boarders. For the younger earning members of the household, the requirements are less burdensome than formerly. Wage earners who have reached their 18th birthday are not regarded as contributing to the maintenance of the rest of the household out of the first 20s. of their weekly wages, and subject to this they will be called upon to contribute only half the amount by which their earnings exceed 16s. For example, out of a weekly wage of 40s. the wage earner would be regarded as contributing 12s. to the household and retaining 28s. for himself, including maintenance. Under the age of 18, the wage earner retains all earnings up to 12s. and one-half of earnings above that amount. During the period since November 1931 there was a substantial increase in the average weekly payments under the transitionalpayments scheme. The average weekly payment from November 12, 1931, to March 31, 1932, was 19s., increasing each year and amounting to an average of 21s. 10d. in the period from October 1, 1934, to January 6, 1935. Under the unemployment-assistance scheme, the average weekly payment was 22s. 11d. for the period January 7, 1935, to October 31, 1935, and had increased to 23s. 7d. in June 1936. Special use is to be made of the local advisory committees, in particular with regard to the treatment of rent, the adjustment of payments in rural areas, and the gradual introduction of any reductions in payments that are required to be made by reason of the termination of the Temporary Provisions Act. A Aid for Unemployed Educated Youth in India COMMITTEE appointed by the United Provinces of India to investigate unemployment among educated young men in that country made the following recommendations which the Government has taken measures to implement:1 1. The setting up of a special industrial colony where former students of industrial and technical schools will be trained to develop their earning capacity under normal competitive conditions. These young men will learn how to purchase raw materials and how to sell finished products and will have to keep correct accounts. It is planned to inaugurate such a colony with 30 to 40 students and about six industries. Each student will obtain his requisite machinery and equipment on a time-purchase plan. The Government will provide guidance by competent men, suitable buildings supplied with power and transmission, grants when required, short-term loans, and other facilities. 2. State assistance in the creation and operation of an industrial credit company for marketing and small-scale finance, the maximum liability of the Government to be restricted to a specified amount and for a stated period. 3. Government provision of facilities for practical training in agriculture on a farm where these young men will work for themselves under proper guidance, retaining their profits and bearing their own losses, and an expansion of the present scheme of training on departmental farms. Proposals have also been made to provide instruction in estate management. 4. The appointment of a Provincial Employment Board to collect and disseminate information regarding employment opportunities, to register candidates for employment who will be put in touch with employers, to collect unemployment statistics, to coordinate the activities of employment agencies, to cooperate with educational institutions, and to advise the Government on unemployment problems. 5. Training in subsidiary agricultural industries and grants-in-aid to youths who wish to set up for themselves in such undertakings. 6. Additional budgetary provision to enable a larger number of youths to undergo veterinary training. 7. Additional provision for subsidies to rural medical practitioners. 8. Extension of the district health scheme and of the number of traveling dispensaries. 9. A program of agricultural development in certain canal areas. 1 International Labor Office, Industrial and Labor Information, Geneva, Aug. 10, 1936, p. 195. H HOUSING CONDITIONS Housing for Negroes in Philadelphia OUSING for Negroes is less satisfactory than that for white families in Philadelphia, when the adequacy of dwellings is measured in terms of the condition of structures, age, heating appliances, running water, toilet facilities, and installations of gas and electricity. These facts were brought out in a comprehensive study made by the Federal Works Progress Administration for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania based upon the Real Property Inventory of 1934.2 In 1934 there were 55,842 colored families in the city, or 11.6 percent of the total number of families. The bulk of the colored residents lived in four districts and in one of these areas the colored population represented about one-third of the total number of residents, and in the three others the ratio of colored to white families. was from 1 in 5 to 1 in 4. Structures Occupied SINGLE-FAMILY houses are the predominant type of dwelling for colored people in Philadelphia. Of a total of 59,096 dwelling units for colored families, 40,124 (67.9 percent) were of the single-family type. Store and dwelling buildings provided 3,272 family accommodations, or 5.5 percent. Most of the families in multiple dwellings occupied buildings that housed six families or less. A tabulation of age of buildings indicated that white families enjoyed newer facilities, for of 47,432 houses built in the 10 years preceding the time of the survey only 634, or 1.3 percent, were occupied by Negroes. As the age of houses increased, tenancy by colored families also rose, 2,227, or 47.2 percent, of the buildings 100 years old or over having Negro occupants. The median age of houses of white families was found to be 32.7 years as compared with 53.7 years for colored occupants. Good conditions were reported for less than one-third of the structures housing Negroes, while minor repairs were needed in nearly onehalf. Measured in the percentage of houses needing structural repairs the situation for colored people was less favorable than for whites, the percentages being 23.0 and 5.2, respectively. 1 Colored Housing in Philadelphia. Philadelphia Real Property Survey, 112 North Broad Street. (Philadelphia Surveys (W. P. A. Project 4744) Bulletin 37, released Aug. 14, 1936 (mimeographed).) See Monthly Labor Review, March 1935 (p. 723). 93855-366 885 Modern Conveniences HOUSES without central heat that were occupied by colored families numbered 855. This was 1.78 percent of the total, compared with 0.68 percent for all Philadelphia housing;3 for housing without running water in building or yard the respective figures were 1.2 and 0.4 percent. Although 21.1 percent of the colored families were without bathrooms, the total population without such facilities represented only 9.3 percent of the total. For indoor water-closets the ratio was much the same, the percentages being 19.6 and 7.5, respectively. Gas and electricity were absent in 6.5 and 7.7 percent, respectively, of the colored homes. The comparable figures for the city were 1.4 and 2.3 percent. T Work of District of Columbia Alley Dwelling Authority HE Alley Dwelling Authority for the District of Columbia (which is coterminous with the City of Washington) reported that 10 squares had been acquired for redevelopment and negotiations begun for 2 others, in a progress report issued as of June 24, 1936. Actual purchase of property began about a year before the issuance of this statement, and the Authority in starting its work concentrated its efforts on single-block properties to avoid the delays incident to securing title to a number of parcels held by different interests. Nearly 200 squares in the city contain inhabited alleys. The Authority is given until July 1, 1944, to reclaim these alleys and to put them to productive uses. The Alley Dwelling Authority was authorized by an act of Congress on June 12, 1934. It is an independent Federal agency working with funds appropriated by Congress. Alleys reclaimed are in the old city where most of the available land is in use. In securing land, condemnation is resorted to only after making every effort to purchase from owners under an equitable arrangement. Prices paid may in no case exceed the assessed land valuation plus 30 percent; the average purchase price to date has been 12.25 percent above the assessment. Some purchases have been made at less than the assessment, but in general the value for tax purposes has been regarded as approximately the actual value. The Authority is obligated to put the land acquired to productive uses. On the plots secured it has built an automobile repair shop, two groups of storage garages, and a parking lot, begun the contruction of two groups of row houses and reconditioned others, tracted for the erection of storage garages that will be sold as .res are not given for white families separately covering the various measures of convenience. a unit to the home owners on the surrounding streets, and drafted plans for low-rental apartments to be sold to a limited-dividend corporation. In addition two sites have been sold for a Negro hotel and a nonprofit corporation, and a third sale is being negotiated to provide a Negro boys' club. Undertakings approved had absorbed all of the available appropriation except for a small margin, but with the beginning of the new fiscal year (July 1, 1936) the Authority anticipated that funds would become available, from sales, leases, and other sources, with which to continue operations. The Alley Dwelling Authority works with a high degree of independence. It is, however, obligated to secure approval of plans for replotting and methods of condemnation from the District of Columbia Commissioners (a body of three persons responsible for the city government) and must conform to existing building and zoning codes. Certificates of title to land are subject to approval of the Attorney General of the United States, and the Comptroller General must approve expenditures before they may be made. NEA Slum Clearance in Dundee, Scotland 1 EARLY 6,000 new houses have been built under public auspices in Dundee since 1929 when the British Parliament made provision for subsidizing the slum-clearance programs of cities and provided that all such slum clearance and rehousing should be done under the sponsorship of the local or town governments. The subsidy from Parliament amounts to £2 10s.2 for each person rehoused. Among the provisions for obtaining this subsidy from Parliament is one specifying that under such plans the density shall not exceed 16 to 20 families per acre. As the slums cleared were generally filled at four to five times such density, it has been necessary to acquire new land upon which to construct houses for the other four-fifths of the dispossessed population. The cost per house built in Dundee has averaged £400, and the city's contribution towards the construction of new houses has added £3,000,000 to the city's debt. As slum clearance is not yet ended, plans for continuance of the work are being made. Present housing conditions in Dundee.--The city medical officer of health and the chief sanitary engineer completed a survey of housing 1 Report of E. Talbot Smith, American consul, Dundee, Scotland, June 11, 1936. 2 Value of pound in United States currency at par=$4.866; shilling=24.3 cents; and penny-2.03 cents. |