quarters, it is 36; in some districts, where the poorest among the workers dwell, the deathrate is between 40 and 50. Turning to Belgium, we find that in the working-class quarters of Brussels 1 person in 29 dies every year, whereas in the best bourgeois quarters only 1 person in 53 dies each year. Thus the working-class deathrate is nearly twice as great as the bourgeois deathrate.
The mean duration of life in the case of the bourgeoisie, in the case of those who live in well-lighted, dry, and warm dwellings, is nearly half as long again as the mean duration of life of those who are crowded into the cellars and attics of the working-class quarters.
In Budapest, the mean duration of life of persons dying at an age exceeding 5 years, was as follows:
When we examine the figures relating to child mortality, the comparison between the working class and the bourgeoisie shows that the latter possess a still greater advantage in this respect. In those bourgeois dwellings where there is an average of only one person per room, the deathrate among infants (those under one year) is only one-fourth of the infantile deathrate in those working-class dwellings in which there are more than three persons per room. As regards children aged 1 to 5, the bourgeois deathrate is only half the working-class deathrate.
Not only do the workers in their gloomy and pestiferous habitations die on the average 15 years earlier than the bourgeois; in addition they have to pay capitalist landlords for the privilege. Tribute goes to the house-owner for every corner, every cellar, and every garret, not to mention every real room or tenement. If you don’t pay, here is the key of the street! House rent always swallows a large proportion of the workers’ wages, usually as much as 15 to 35 per cent. The cost of housing continually increases — for the workers — in capitalist lands. In Hamburg, for example, for every 100 marks [shillings] earned per month, there was paid in house rent :