The Survey October 1916-March 1917 . lter- Thc single men for whom these cottages were built by the company deserted for the white lights of the city. They arc now occupied by families at $5 a month. quiet, too far removed from the life of the business when the construction gangs left, many of them moved toShacktown and took up their quarters in the vacated barracksthat are already becoming dilapidated. Barren and ugly, theair filled with acid fumes and with frequent showers of soot,Shacktown offers but two attractions: there rent freeand are just across the railroad from t
The Survey October 1916-March 1917 . lter- Thc single men for whom these cottages were built by the company deserted for the white lights of the city. They arc now occupied by families at $5 a month. quiet, too far removed from the life of the business when the construction gangs left, many of them moved toShacktown and took up their quarters in the vacated barracksthat are already becoming dilapidated. Barren and ugly, theair filled with acid fumes and with frequent showers of soot,Shacktown offers but two attractions: there rent freeand are just across the railroad from the city. Meanwhile the James river villages are being populatedwith families, the old bachelor quarters converted into three-room apartments that rent for $5 a month. When it was too late to prevent the disorderly developmentof Hopewell, the company bought large areas at both endsof the city and began there the erection of rubberoid cot-tages like those at its Penns Grove plant. In the northern development, named A village, live the. Shacktown, bachelor quarters built of short-lived rubberoid, furnishes separate sections for Negroes, native whites and foreign-born workingmen. 230 THE SURVEY FOR DECEMBER 2, 1916 ing plant are not figured in. To be sure, part of the watersystem cost should be charged to the mills, which use themalso, but part belongs to the houses. Then there is the cost of garbage collection and of cleaning,for the company keeps all its houses and their surroundingsin the most sanitary condition. A part of the work of itssanitary squad is the draining of marshes and the oiling ofstagnant pools. Were all these costs figured in, it is doubtfulif the 10 per cent gross would show any per cent net. There is no intimation in this that the company is of aphilanthropic bent. What it has done, it has done becauseit is good business. The wife of one of its employes who livesin B village said that her family had never been so well intheir lives as during the year they have
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidsurv, booksubjectcharities
