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THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

of  housing  conditions  ;  if  drink  and  crime  are  to  be  successfully
combated,  decent,  sanitary  houses  must  be  provided.  If  *  unrest'
is  to  be  converted  into  contentment,  the  provision  of  good  houses
may  prove  one  of  the  most  potent  agents  in  that  conversion.  .  .

For  these  words  of  the  King,  his  Ministers,  the
present  Coalition  Government,  were  responsible.  What
kind  of  “  untiring  energy  and  enthusiasm  "  have  they
shewn  since  ?
An  old  rhyme  runs  :—
"  When  war  is  raging  and  danger  nigh,
God  and  soldiers  is  their  cry.
When  war  is  done  and  things  are  righted,
God  is  forgotten  :  the  soldiers  slighted.”
A  fitting  epitaph  for  the  Coalition  Government.
But  although  the  Coalition  Government  will  doubtless ­
  be  buried  by  the  verdict  of  History  in  the  pit  into
which  they  have  cast  their  avalanche  of  broken
promises,  the  fight  will  continue,  and  it  will  need  hard
and  continuing  effort  on  the  part  of  all  who  wish  to  help
the  working  men  and  women  of  Britain  to  bring  about
a  real  betterment  of  their  conditions.  In  spite  of  all  the
soothing,  and  often  genuinely  well-meant  words  of
those  who  desire  a  union  of  feeling  between  classes,
such  union  can  never  be  brought  about  under  the
present  grossly  unfair  economic  conditions.  The  great
struggle  between  the  principle  of  aristocracy  and  the
principle  of  democracy,  which  is  going  on  all  over
the  world,  will  never  cease  until  the  conditions  which
have  brought  about  that  struggle  are  overthrown.