The Alien Invasion

by W. H. Wilkins

The sanitary conditions amid which the great majority of these alien immigrants labour and live may truly be described as appalling. It is a remarkable thing that just as the lower organisms of animal life are capable of living under circumstances which are intolerable to higher organisms, so can these people exist—and even to a certain extent thrive—in an atmosphere and amid surroundings which to the more highly-developed Englishman and Englishwoman mean disease and death. Cleanliness and sanitation are peculiarities of Western rather than of Eastern nationalities. When Peter the Great went back to Russia after his famous visit to London two centuries ago, he left behind him such a filthy habitation, that the cleansing of it had to be defrayed by an especial grant from the Exchequer. This is a matter of history; and if rumour is to be believed, a similar experience in connection with the visit of an Oriental potentate has occurred in very recent years. If this sort of thing is incidental to the visit of Eastern Princes, how much rather then is it liable to accompany the wholesale inundation of poor and degraded foreigners, who flock into London and our large cities from every country in Europe?

In treating of this sanitary aspect, in order to avoid any possible charge of exaggeration, I prefer to quote the statements of unimpeachable authorities rather than to advance any theories of my own. The surroundings amid which these people are content to labour and to live are deplorable and filthy beyond description. To quote from the Majority Report of the Sweating Committee—a Report which has been attacked because of the undue moderation of its language, and which certainly cannot be said to unduly exaggerate the evil:—

"Three or four gas-jets may be flaring in a room, a coke fire burning in the wretched fire-place, sinks untrapped, closets without water, and, altogether, the sanitary conditions abominable. A witness told us that in a double room, perhaps 9 feet by 15 feet, a man, his wife, and six children slept, and in the same room ten men were usually employed, so that at night eighteen persons would be in that one room. These witnesses alluded to the want of sanitary precautions, and of decent and sufficient accommodation, and declared that the effects of this, combined with the inadequate wages earned, had the effect of driving girls to prostitution."

The state of the sweaters' dens in East London is revolting beyond measure, and resembles rather the description of Dante's Inferno, than the abodes of a professedly civilized people. Here is the description of one taken almost at random from a mass of evidence teeming with similar details. A Factory Inspector, who described it, says it gives a fair idea of all the rest, and he certainly ought to know, seeing that some 4000 factories and "workshops innumerable" are under his inspection. He says:—

"You find a filthy bed, on which garments which are made are laid; little children, perfectly naked little things, lying about on the floor and on the bed; frying-pans and all sorts of dirty utensils with food of various descriptions on the bed, under the bed, over the bed, everywhere; clothes hanging on a line, with nothing more than a large gas-stove with the ashes all flying about, and the atmosphere so dense that you get ill after a night's work there; and that is the reason I am deaf now."

In respect of sanitation, the foreign Jews appear to be the worst offenders. The Sanitary Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians admit in their Report that of 880 houses visited by the inspector, 623 were defective, and below the standard required by the Local Authority. Of these no less than 341 were in Whitechapel alone. To quote a few samples:—

"In Whitechapel, some so-called 'Model Dwellings' exist, in which the drain of a water-closet had been entirely stopped up for three weeks prior to the visit of the Inspector, while two of the cellars (inhabited) were flooded with sewage, and had been so flooded for four days past. At another place, where a noxious odour had prevailed for years, the refuse which the Committee succeeded in causing to be removed from the basement room, contained among its various components the dead bodies of five cats, a dog, and a rabbit. The water-closet drains of three other houses were discovered on the Inspector's visit to have remained in a choked condition for three, five, and six weeks respectively. At a house in St. George's-in-the-East, three boot-finishers were found at work in a front basement room, while the adjoining back basement room was flooded with sewage, which forced its way up a gully supposed to be protected by a bell-trap. The cover of this trap, as is generally the case with these appliances, was absent, and thus the sewer had direct and unobstructed communication with the interior of the house."

This extract is taken bodily from the Report of the Sweating Committee of the Jewish Board of Guardians. They are writing of their own people, and are certainly not likely to exaggerate the state of affairs.

The habitations of the Italians are little better; in fact in many ways they are just as bad. The sanitary arrangements of the cheap dwellings around Saffron Hill, where the Italians mostly abound, leave everything to be desired. On this subject I had lately some conversation with an officer of the Italian Benevolent Society. He described to me a sleeping-room—it often served as a living-room as well—in one of the ordinary dwelling-houses in the neighbourhood of Saffron Hill. In this one room, neither very lofty nor very large, may frequently be found a dozen persons herded together rather like cattle than human beings, sleeping promiscuously as follows:—In one bed, or what serves as a bed, a married couple; in the next, two young girls; in a third, a single young man; in the fourth, three or four children of different ages and sexes—and so on. Owing to the lack of ventilation, and the number of human beings crowded in the room—to quote the words of my informant—"the stench was awful." The result of all this upon the victims, both physically and morally, can easily be imagined. Another instance was that given by Inspector Holland to Mr. Biron the magistrate.[20] An Italian, who was summoned for sending his little girl out begging, was traced to his home, and there the police inspector found the parents occupying a miserably furnished little apartment in Aldis Mews, with six children. The room, which "smelt horribly," contained a single bed, under which were kept the appliances for making ice-cream; and Inspector Holland also found the room to be inhabited by a dog, a cat, a monkey, and several white mice. The moral of all this is obvious, viz. that these people are able to live under conditions amid which it would be impossible for an average Englishman to exist at all. Therefore it is only one more illustration of the unfair nature of this unnatural competition.