38 
THE HOUSING QUESTION 
As regards the former, what again are the facts ? 
The facts to-day are these : that whereas in August, 
1921, 148,026 skilled operatives were being employed 
on Council houses, this figure had dropped in June, 
1922, to 66,651. What had become of the other 
81,000 ? Had they gone to private building ? Every 
one knows that there is less private building than 
months ago. What are the 81,000 doing ? d 
They are mostly drawing unemployment allowance. ti 
They are costing this country about £700,000 a month. b 
In addition to this it is possible that the actual number \ 
of unemployed building trade operatives immensely v 
exceeds these 81,000, for the Housing Schemes of Local 
Authorities have probably never employed more than / 
a fraction of the operatives, and it is unquestionable ii 
that private building has also declined, probably to ( 
a greater extent proportionally than has Housing. 
The number of operatives in the building trade in 
England and Wales is between eight and nine hundred 
thousand. 
Last autumn the Prime Minister announced that the 
Cabinet affirmed that the building trade would be kept 
employed up to the limit of its capacity in the Housing 
Schemes of Local Authorities. Let us again quote i 
the oft-quoted words of Mr. Lloyd George in the debate ; 
in the Commons on the 21st July, 1921, when he in- 1 
duced members to vote for the policy of approving 
no more housing contracts :— ] 
" The present commitments will fill up the building trade for 
18 months—in Scotland, I am told, for two years. What will