The housing of the poor : a lecture / by Peter Fyfe.

  • Fyfe, Peter.
Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The housing of the poor : a lecture / by Peter Fyfe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    9 ■i THE HOUSING OF THE POOR. “ The Housing of the Poor ” I selected as the subject of my first Corporation Lecture, because it lies nearest my heart of all the problems of sanitation, and I know it also was a subject in which Councillor Erekine, who invited me to lecture, had the deepest interest. It is due to its selection that I have the great honour to see in the chair our civic chief, than whom no man has done more earnest work (to use his own words) “ to fully develop the moral and social advantage of every section of the community.” It is the grandest, and yet the saddest, problem upon which the brain and the heart of any man could labour. The problem is not to be solved by recourse to any one particular agency or energy. The present houses of the poor are the product of many evil forces, both positive and negative—forces which have grown and gained force through generations, and which it will take generations to uproot and destroy. The moral degradation of slum-land must, to a large extent, be met by spiritual influences working through the personal contact of kindly and sympathetic citizens — minister of the gospel and missionary workers. This influence is what “ General ” Booth calls “ aiming at the heart.” The physical side of the problem is that which immediately concerns the municipality; or how are light, fresh air, good drainage, abundant water, sanitary con- veniences, houses sound in the walls, roofs, and floors, to be found for every man, woman, and child in our great city, and, when found, how are these things to be maintained ■uviolatc and intact? It is with a terribly serious and responsible feeling that one goes officially fi-om door to door among the poor of a city