The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8. A NEW WORLD.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 205, 8 December 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8. A NEW WORLD.

Almost all political and national events of the past decade go towards showing j that there is no necessity for a "submerged tenth." The elimination of great disparities between sections of people is a problem on which the greatest minds of all nations are fixed. Advanced states are using every effort towards the betterment of the "under-dog," and the organisation of the hitherto more or less, "submerged" gives them a power never before suspected. There is an earnest desire among statesmen, philanthropists and thinkers of the world over for the adequate feeding, the healthier and more comfortable housing and the better education of the people on whom the rich depend for their riches. There is a reasonable disposition to make comfort more general, to give the young a better chance of life and the old and infirm a mode decent life's winter. All over the world the almost new idea that the physical health of the- nations is t'heir insurance against annihilation is spreading with wonderful rapidity.. Science in antagonism to coercion concentrates fts matter-of-fact attention on the problem of the weak-mindfed, the weak-bodied, the criminal. Wherever the democracy is dominant, there will be found a greater understanding and a more potent struggle for the ultimate good of the masses as against the classes. While individual minds set the pattern for the nations, the state of the nations is the inspiration of the' guiding minds. The man who by the use of a great idea achieves millions for himself is not so great as he of the idea that decreases poverty, increases comfort, eliminates distress or makes health a general possession. The onrush of popular reform is world-wide, because every modern State sees that it is better to avoid distress, poverty and crime than to pay for it where it is allowed to exist. The States know that the majority of folks of small means are not "provident," and) so it is common enough for them to insist that workers be insured. Germany, for instance, has had a State-aided compulsory scheme of insurance in operation for twenty years, and ninety million pouadsi sterling has been distributed under the scheme. The problem of the upkeep of possible paupers is therefore not allowed to exist. Ninety-four million German workers have since 1895 received compensation. Many other States have machinery of like description, and although we in New Zealand talk glibly enough of schemes of workers' homes as if we had invented it, such schemes are common enough in most European countries, mainly because the States recognise the inestimable value of a population that is solvent, healthy and comfortable. Switzerland undertakes remarkable work for the people, and under its military system the physical health of the whole of the male population is under review. There is nothing more important than this. This advanced country has now come to the conclusion that the health of its women is of as great importance as the health of its men, and is now calling on them to submit themselves to medical tests, in order that candidates for matrimony may at least enter it knowing their physical state. The value of such reforms • carried out by any State lies in the fact that other States ultimately copy the best of them. We have recently mentioned the importance of proper housing to the health and comfort 'of the people. If the schemes of eminent thinkers ''take hold" in any single country, it follows that their success will spread like wildfire. Dr. W. T. Mills has lately written to the Wellington Times detailing an interview he had with the great Edison, who is concentrating his genius on the better housing of the worker. Dr. Mills, it is explained, was a commissioner for the city of Milwaukee, U.S.A., which has purchased an area of four thousand acres in order to build workers' home on a better system than | has ever before been attempted. The adj vantage of municipal ownership or control will be patent to everyone. Here is a portion of Dr. Mills' letter:—

"I stated to Edison the nature of my errand. Then I said, 'I am here especially to learn about the progress of your plans for cement houses, and if it be found that our city could make use of your plans, 'whether we could deal with you direct as a municipality.' He was on "his feet instantly. 'Let me show you what I am doing.' he said, and at onceturned .to a near-by table with a model of the cement house completed in full. Every room with double lights and cross ventilation, all high, light, beautiful—the porch a model of comfort. The roof of red tile, the cement work, including foundations, walls, floors, stairways, and roofs, all completely reinforced, the joints in the house pipes of every kind effected by electric welding, all modern comforts and conveniences in a working-man's home. He showed me samples of the stone as it will show in the completed wall—called attention to the .extensive art work in design for both exterior and interior decoration. He showed me the men working in clay, whose designs are afterwards made into plaster and finally cast into solid iron. Doorways, ceilings, windows, the cornices, all portions of the .house where ornamentation would be in order —none are being neglected. He showed me where the casting into iron was taking place, and finally, on a great machine of his own invention the castiron forms are so carefully milled that the parts are made to fit together with sucli accuracy that not a cross line will be visible in the finished work. He showed me the half-finished structure rising as rapidly as the forms are ready. He explained how the cement would be machine mixed, machine carried to moulds, how completely the cement was protected from bubbles', and, finally, how in process of use the forms would not be completely unbolted in going from one building to another, but whole sections of the'forms could be unbolted and carried on steel cranes directly from one ftruetiure to another, and so both taken down and lifted up with the least possible expenditure of time or toil. He gave me estimates showing that thirty-seven men with a joint equipment costing about oOOOdoI. (£looo} £cr man

could build 225 houses in a year at an expense of SOOdol. ( £100) a house, including their wages!, and that these houses could not be produced with the same comforts under present methods for less than SOOOdoI. (£1000) each. 'And then,' said toe, 'they would be no such houses as mine will be.' These cement houses will be beautiful, sanitary; will have great variety in architecture; cannot possibly burn up, and will last for ever. They will be sound-proof, dustproof, and vermin-proof, easily heated, and cool andi comfortable in the warmest weather.'"

Edison does not want a dollar profit for ibis invention, and, of course, the world will benefit. As far as the housing of the people of New Zealand is concerned the* day cannot be far distant when the erection of the temporary wooden structures which do duty for homes must cease for lack of material. The problem of permanent housing must not be allowed to be solved by private speculators, and municipalities should specially interest themselves in this important phase of the country's needs, for one of the first considerations in establishing a strong, healthy, independent and reliable race is to see that its members are properly housed. Fortunately the problem of adequate feeding—for adults, at least—has not cropped up in New Zealand. As New Zealand begins where the old countries of the world' "knock-off," so to speak, there should be not the least difficulty in the housing problem.