Mr. Lever's address on visit of International Housing Conference to Port Sunlight, 9 August 1907
1909 1909 1900s 10 pages APPENDIX. xvii. Visit of International Housing Conference to Port Sunlight, AUGUST 9th, 1907. MR. LEVER'S ADDRESS. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, First of all let me most heartily welcome you to Port Sunlight. We are, at all times, glad to receive visitors who do us the...
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| Institution: | MCR - The Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick |
| Language: | English English |
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[1909]
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10796/21926E4E-CF29-4A99-855E-0794C5EF28DF http://hdl.handle.net/10796/C7583F5F-75B0-4F30-BE07-6E2E115C160B |
| Summary: | 1909
1909
1900s
10 pages
APPENDIX. xvii. Visit of International Housing Conference to Port Sunlight, AUGUST 9th, 1907. MR. LEVER'S ADDRESS. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, First of all let me most heartily welcome you to Port Sunlight. We are, at all times, glad to receive visitors who do us the honour to come and see Port Sunlight, but especially so when, as in the present case, our visitors are directly and intimately interested in the question of Housing Reform. The Cottage Home is the unit of a nation, and therefore the more we can raise the comfort and happiness of home life, the more we shall raise the standard of efficiency for the whole nation. In the earliest stages of man's civilization and development, the struggle for supremacy was between individuals, and the individual who excelled the most in the possession of health and strength, had the greatest probability of long life and such happiness as the battle and the chase gave to him. Next the struggle for supremacy was between towns, villages, and small communities, but to-day the struggle for supremacy is between nations, not so much on the battlefield as in the field of manufactures and commerce. But still to-day, as of old, that nation will be declared to be the fittest to survive and enjoy the longest life and the utmost possible happiness and comfort, whose individual citizens possess the greatest measure of health and physical fitness. The strain of modern life is ever increasing but this need not necessarily tend to the deterioration of the race. Nay, on the contrary, the very struggle for existence has in the past, and will in the future, if proper attention be paid to healthy home life and environment, tend to produce the greater efficiency of a healthier, stronger and more virile race. Once let a nation become careless and indifferent on the question of the Housing of her citizens, and the reasonable and proper enjoyment by those citizens of healthy relaxation from toil when strenuous work is done, and of the conditions favourable to healthy life, and that nation is bound to witness a gradual deterioration of physique and vigour. All nations, none more so than our own, have been far too long indifferent to this great question of Housing Reform and all that it means. Happily all nations, and none more so than our own, are now awakening to a due appreciation of the importance of this matter. Proper Housing conditions require not only proper air space and good planning within the home, but equally the provision of large open spaces and recreation grounds outside the home. Statistics have proved, beyond the shadow of doubt, that the more the homes of the people are spread over the land in proportions not exceeding 10 to 12 houses to the acre and the lower the death-rate and the higher the birth-rate become. Statistics equally prove that where the homes of the people are packed like sardines in a box from 50 to 80 houses to the acre in the slum areas, the death-rate is more than double the death-rate of those districts where the houses only average 10 to 12 to the acre. Superior conditions for the cultivation of physical fitness has been proved to affect young children most of all, adults may stand for a time conditions of overcrowding, but not so children. Dr. Arkle, of Liverpool, read a most valuable paper at the beginning of this year before the North of England Educational Conference held at Bradford. At the time of reading this paper the Royal Commissions on National Degeneration and the Underfeeding of School Children were holding their sittings. Dr. Arkle, at the request of the Liverpool Educational Committee, had examined all the children in various grades of Schools in Liverpool. The careful method he followed insured the absolute reliability of his information. Dr. Arkle arrived at the following startling conclusions: — (a) That the difference of physique between the children in the Higher Grade Schools and the poorer Council Schools has reached an alarming proportion. (b) That the deterioration appears to grow greater as life progresses. (c) That, medically, there is nothing to account for the deterioration; and (d) That the Industrial School figures show that by care and attention this deterioration can be stopped, and to some extent, at any rate, the leeway made good. Dr. Arkle classified the schools into four classes — HIGHER GRADE SCHOOLS, where the sons of leading wealthy citizens are educated. COUNCIL SCHOOLS. (a) Type of the best Council School, where the parents of the children are well-to-do, and the children have mostly comfortable homes. COUNCIL SCHOOLS. (b) Type of School where the children are mostly of the labouring classes. It was selected as a type for the children of the labouring classes, whose parents have constant employment. COUNCIL SCHOOL (c) the last of the Council Schools, is a type of the poorest class where the parents of the children belong almost entirely to the unemployed or casual labour sections. To this list we will add a fifth class, viz., PORT SUNLIGHT SCHOOLS, which may be taken as equal to the type (b) of the Council Schools, the parents are mostly of the labouring classes, in constant employment, but with the difference that the houses in which the children mostly live are built with ample air space, not more than seven houses to the acre. At 7 years of age we find the average height and weight of boys to be as follows: — Height Weight inches. lbs. Higher Grade Schools ... 47.4 49.3 Council Schools (a) ... 45.3 44.1 (b) .. 44.8 43 (c) ... 44 43 Port Sunlight Schools ... 45.7 50.3 At 11 years of age : — Higher Grade Schools 55.5 70.3 Council Schools (a) ... 53.1 61.4 (b) ... 51.8 59 (c) ... 49.7 55.5 Port Sunlight Schools ... 52.4 65.9
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