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HAS WELLAND SLUMS?
[Welland Telegraph, 12 January 1912]
Every city has slums. Nor are some of the smaller places to be out done in this respect. For a town the size of Welland to have a section in which the people are crowded into houses almost like cattle, however, would seem almost beyond belief, but it is nevertheless a fact.
Several reporters accompanied one of the local police officers through two foreign boarding houses in search of a man wanted for stabbing on Thursday night.
The conditions in these two houses were surprising. In several of the small rooms at least three or four beds with two men in each were found. The bed-clothing was dirty, and the rooms close and filled with the smell of tobacco smoke and of filth. Some of the occupants, from appearances, had not used soap and water, or had their clothing changed in at least a year.
One of the boarding houses consisted of nothing but bedrooms with the exception of one room which was reserved for cooking and eating. The smell outside of the house was equally as bad as inside and the interior walls were covered with filth.
There should be a regulation prohibiting such a large number of people from sleeping in one room and the effect on the health of the inmates cannot help but be disastrous, weakening their vitality.
One sad feature was that in one of the houses a bright-eyed little girl was numbered among the occupants. In time the environments to which she is subjected would have anything but the desired effect while proper surroundings would help to make her a better Canadian woman.
Either the Board of Health or Council might well investigate.
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