THE HOUSING QUESTION 
37 
not take the sensible course of spreading the building 
programme of 735>ooo more houses over, say, 10 years ? 
We shall then only have to borrow annually in capital 
thirty or forty millions a year. And are we not 
entitled to say that a nation which spends annually 
on drink and tobacco five or six hundred millions, 
on cinemas as much more, and which can raise in new 
issues of capital three or four hundred millions a year, 
can certainly afford the nine millions annually needed 
for “ losses ” incurred in re-housing the working 
classes ? 
It should not be forgotten, too, that the building 
of working-class houses greatly stimulates the trades 
which supply furniture, cutlery, linen, etc. The 
benefit to the nation in such ways is incontestable. 
EIGHTH EXCUSE 
That more Houses cannot be built for 
Lack of Labour 
NINTH EXCUSE 
That the Operatives of the Building Trades are 
generally idlers, whereas Building Contractors 
have generally been content with a Normal 
Profit 
These two statements may well be considered 
together.