Bad Conditions Found

Almost beyond belief are the conditions found by Dr. M.D. Shie, an investigator for the United States government, and the housing and living conditions of workmen at South Lebanon and Kings Mills. The reports have been placed on with the ordinance department at Cincinnati, and steps are being taken to remedy the situation. Dr. Shie was aided in his survey by the Red Cross. The conditions came to the attention of the authorities in connection with the influenza epidemic. Sanitation formed a serious problem after the importation of Kentucky mountaineers as laborers. Two thirds of them are said to be victims of tuberculosis. In South Lebanon the imported laborers moved into houses that were abandoned after the flood of 1913. In many cases several families occupied one house and some took in boarders. Cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and smallpox frequently are reported. Housing conditions are described as wretched, with vermin and filth everywhere. “In the Fries home,” says the report, in which six persons sleep in two rooms containing 1040 cubic ft. of air space, five fresh skunk hides were found drying, the windows being tightly closed.” There is no sewage system, and the facilities constitute a continual menace to the health of the community, the report declares. In one case a deep vault drains directly into the wells from which the drinking and cooking waters obtained. There is also no system of garbage disposal, and in the summer months the region is infested with flies. Of the personal habits of the Kentuckians, the report says that “baths are unknown.” Not until Mrs. Wilson, a Red Cross nurse, demonstrated to them that there was such a thing did some of them know of washing. The Ohio law compelling the children to go to school is not enforced among the Kentuckians. Measures have already been taken to remedy the situation and more will be taken by the authorities, it is stated. Kings Mills’ conditions are about the same as at South Lebanon. The district is not incorporated, so there is no local government. The companies conduct everything on what the investigator calls a “feudal system”. The tenements which have been built for the laborers brought in by the rush of war orders are slightly better than the housing arrangements at South Lebanon. It was found that five persons were sleeping in one small room and one was badly afflicted with tuberculosis.