SEFF
"At the southwest corner of that one square mile of
Union Sto ck Yards and packing-houses where thirty thousand men,
wemen, and children prepar e the animal food for the world's
market.
It is separated from the other side of the city by
railread tracks, the Steck Yar ds, and "Bubbly Creek"--an open
sewer for the accommodation of the packing-houses, but permit-
The
ted against all the laws of civic decency and health.
city garbage dump on the west is the receptacle for the gar-
The houses are of frame, most-
bage of the lakeshore wards.
ly two stories high, accommodating four to six families, and
often as much congested within a given house as in neighbor-
hoods that are more closely built up.
This is not a "slum", but an industrial community
of unskilled workers, who, before the strike of 1904, had an
average wage of $7.40 a week of fcrty hours, with, of course,
a possibility of incr easing the family income by putting the
The 1arge bedy
children, and sometimes the mother, to work.
of casual laborers, composed chiefly of the latest immigrants,
with the irregular hcurs and seasons of enforced idleness,
gives a large number of people who live always on the margin
of extreme poverty.
There is very little pauperism and much
