The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of FactsSanger, Margaret
Science
The Case for Birth Control: A Supplementary Brief and Statement of Facts
Sanger, Margaret
Birth control; Eugenics
This is where the poorest, most lowly persons of the community
live—families of men employed to do the unskilled work in the steel
mills and the mines. They are for the most part foreigners, 78 per cent.
of the mothers interviewed in this ward being foreign born.
Through Woodvale runs the main line of the Pennsylvania Railroad. To the
north of the tracks rises a steep hill, toward the top of which is
Woodvale Avenue, the principal street north of the railroad. (See plate
A.) Sewer connection is possible for the houses along this avenue, as a
sewer main has recently been installed, but the people have not in all
cases gone to the expense of having the connection made, and in other
cases where they have done so sometimes only the sinks are connected
with the sewer and the yard privy is retained.
On the streets above Woodvale Avenue dwellings are more scattered and
the appearance is more rural. A few of the families still have to depend
upon more or less distant springs for their water, although city water
is quite generally available throughout Woodvale.
The streets near the bottom of the hill, as Plum Street, for example,
are so much below the level of the sewer mains that they can not be
properly drained into the sewer. Private drain pipes from houses are
buried a few feet below the surface and protrude from the sides of the
hills, dripping with house drainage which flows slowly into ditches and
forms slimy pools. (See Plates B and C.)
None of the streets on the north side of the railroad track are paved;
sidewalks and gutters are lacking. In cold weather the streets are icy
and slippery and even dangerous on account of the grade. In warm weather
they are frequently slippery and slimy with mud.
Maple Avenue is the principal street of that part of Woodvale lying to
the south of the railroad tracks, and it is the only properly paved and
graded street in Woodvale. The streets on this side of the tracks,
however, are not in as bad a condition as those to the north, nor are
the drainage and general sewerage conditions as offensive as north of
the tracks, but many of the streets are nevertheless muddy and filthy.
(See Plate D.)
Prospect ranks next to Woodvale in infant mortality, having a rate of
200. This section, lying along a steep hill and above one of the big
plants of the steel company, has not a single properly graded, drained,
and paved street. The sewers are of the open-ditch type, and the natural
slope of the land toward the river is depended upon for carrying off the
surface water that does not seep into the soil. The closets are
generally in the yard and are either dry privies or they are situated
over cesspools. Some of the people who live on the lower part of the
slope have wells sunk directly in the course of the drainage from above.
(See Plate E.)
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