Scientific American Supplement, No. 520, December 19, 1885 | Page 3

restricted to the
employes of the proprietor. On the other hand, they differ from all
co-operative and socialistic communities in that they are an adaptation
to existing circumstances, propose to demonstrate no new theories of
economics, are free from all religious bonds, do not depend on any
unity of opinion, and do not touch the question of the proper
distribution of wealth.
It is, of course, no new thing for owners of large factories, particularly
in country districts, to furnish tenements for their operatives, and

oftentimes it is quite indispensable that they should, because there
would otherwise be no accommodation for their workmen. What is
recent and exceptional is the spread of the belief that it pays to make
the accommodations furnished healthful, convenient, and attractive.
The sources of profit from this careful provision are these: the
proprietors have control of the territory, and are able to prescribe
regulations which keep out the saloon and disreputable characters, and
at once there is a saving in police and court and poor taxes; for the
same reason the workmen are more regular and steady in their labor,
for there is no St. Monday holiday, nor confused head and uncertain
hand; the tenants are better able to pay their rents, and when their
landlord and employer are the same person, he collects his rent out of
the wages; the superior accommodations and more settled employment
act strongly against labor strikes. It will be seen that the larger and
better product of labor is a great factor in the profitableness of such
enterprises, and that it arises from the improved character of the laborer,
on the same principle that a farmer's stock pays him best when it is of
good breed, is warmly housed, and well fed. Against the operations of
the London Peabody and Waterlow funds it has been alleged that they
dispossess the poor shiftless tenant and bring in a new class, so that
they do not improve the condition of their tenants, but afford
opportunity for better ones to cheapen the price of their
accommodations. The manufacturing landlord cannot wholly do this,
because the first thing he has to consider is whether the applicant for a
dwelling is a good workman, not whether he can be trusted for his rent.
His labor he must have. His outlook is to make that labor worth more to
him, by placing it in the best attainable surroundings. Can this be done?
If so, the ends of humanity are answered as well as the purse filled, for
both interests correspond.
Mr. Pullman, who founded the enterprise on Calumet Lake, has uttered
sentiments like these, and has proved that in this instance it does pay to
make his workmen's families comfortable, and secure from sickness
and temptation. As a financial operation Pullman is profitable. There
are now 1,700 dwellings, either separate or in apartment houses, in this
town, where five years ago the prairie stretched on every side unbroken.
Every tenement is connected with common sewerage, water, and gas
systems, in which the most scientific principles and expert skill have

been applied. The price of tenements ranges from $5 per month for two
rooms in an apartment house to $16 for a separate dwelling of five
rooms; but there is a different class of houses for clerks,
superintendents, and overseers. The average price per room is $3.30 a
month, or nearly twelve per cent. higher than in Massachusetts
manufacturing towns, where it is $2.86. Taking each tenement at an
average of three rooms, this rate will pay six per cent. on an investment
of $3,140,000, without taking into account taxes and repairs, or say six
per cent. on $3,000,000. But one source of profit of great moment must
not be overlooked, and it is the appreciation of real estate by the
increase of population. This is a small factor in a great city, at least so
far as concerns the humbler grade of dwellings, but in the country it is
enormous. A tract of land which has been a farm becomes a village of
from 1,000 to 10,000 inhabitants. Its value advances by leaps and
bounds.
At Pullman, in addition to the shops and dwellings, there are trees and
turf-bordered malls and squares, a church, a theater, a free library with
reading rooms, a public hall, a market house, provided at the expense of
the company. Liquor can only be sold at the hotel to its guests, and then
under restrictions. There is a system of public schools under a board of
education, which is about the only civic organization, strictly speaking,
in the community. One man suffices for police duty, and he made but
fifteen arrests in the last two years. It is reported that the death rate so
far, including the mortality from accidents, has been