36 
THE HOUSING QUESTION 
that can spend £140,000,000 a year (the reduced figures n< 
after the Geddes cuts) on the fighting services can P 1 
spend £9,500,000 on making us an Ax nation, whereby Vi 
incidentally two private soldiers would become as good tl 
fighters as three of our present population can be. ei 
A warning may here be given against accepting 01 
without investigation the statements recently circu- 01 
lated by the Ministry of Health that the cost of houses is 
to-day is less than £400 and approaching a figure at c: 
which private enterprise can build for an economic f< 
rent without assistance. cl 
In the first place these abnormally low tenders are 
generally offered only for a few houses by an odd firm 0 
or two, who have already got their plant on the ground " 
and wish to keep a section of their men at work for a b 
while. Such offers cannot be considered normal 
market prices until made upon a large scale. 
In the second place, the house for which such tenders 
are offered is always of a non-parlour type, and will be 
found also to be one with abnormally small rooms and 
greatly reduced amenities (as recently encouraged by 
the Ministry), far below the standards set by the 
Ministry and by informed public opinion in 1919. 
And finally to refute the fallacy that the capital 
cannot be found. Of course, if we are going to persist 
in the mistake of the present Government and try | 
and build all the houses the country wants in three 1 
years, we shall, besides sending up builders' prices to a 
fabulous figure, exhaust the supply of Capital, except ' 
at a ruinous rate of interest. But why do this ? Why t