THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

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did  not  really  begin  till  the  autumn  of  1919.  By  the
Spring  of  1922,  100,000  houses  are  nearly  completed.
This  rate  compares  well  with  most  pre-war  years,
taking  into  account  the  reduced  numbers  and  output
of  operatives  and  the  abnormal  demand  for  private
building  and  repairs  after  the  war.
The  twelfth  excuse  is,  as  has  been  remarked,  the
private  property  of  Sir  Charles  Ruthen,  whom  Sir
Alfred  Mond,  his  ally  in  South  Wales,  appointed
Director  General  of  Housing.  At  an  address  which  he
gave  in  January,  1922,  to  the  Society  of  Architects,
of  which  he  was  then  (but  by  desire  of  the  Society  no
longer  is)  President,  he  said,  firstly,  that  the  prime
responsibility  for  the  failure  of  the  Government  Scheme
rested  on  the  shoulders  of  architects,  and,  secondly,
that  architects  had  profiteered  in  their  schemes.
There  was  a  prompt  rebuttal  of  these  remarkable
charges.  The  following  letter  in  The  Builder,  February
10th,  1922,  from  a  late  Housing  Commissioner,  may
be  quoted  :—

Architects  and  Housing.
"  Sir,—With  reference  to  the  charges  brought  by  Sir  Charles
Ruthen,  Director  General  of  Housing,  against  the  architectural
profession,  I  ought  to  narrate  what  was  my  experience  while
Housing  Commissioner  from  March,  1919,  to  September,  1921  :—
“  (a)  The  plans,  &c.,  submitted  by  architects  for  the  local
authorities  in  the  Region  were  very  rarely  in  excess  of  the  standard
set  in  the  '  Manual  for  State-Aided  Houses  ’  issued  by  the  Ministry
of  Health  in  1919,  and  in  the  model  form  of  specification  similarly
issued.