THE HOUSING QUESTION 
27 
Now, Rural District Councils are composed very 
largely of farmers. And farmers have a very sharp 
eye to their own interests. That is why they get elected 
on the Councils. The farmers did not take kindly 
to Dr. Addison’s new-fangled ideas. Only too often 
they opposed the housing scheme altogether. In parts 
of England more than half the Rural Councils have 
done practically nothing to house their ratepayers, to 
whom they are responsible, and whom by Act of 
Parliament they are bound to see housed efficiently— 
not at the expense of the local rates, but at the expense 
of the Treasury. Practically nowhere have they done 
very much. And when they were asked why they did 
so little they usually replied: " The labourers don’t 
want these houses : they’re quite well enough off at 
present.” 
It may be said: “ Why then do the labourers not 
vote such councillors out of office ? ” 0 Sancta 
Simplicitas ! Those who say that know little of Eng 
land and less of rural England. Few labourers know 
much about Council voting, even in this year of grace. 
Nor is there as a rule any other candidate to vote for. 
A labouring man in the country generally cannot 
afford the time and money to get elected and attend 
Council meetings in his own working hours. He 
shakes his head a bit, but accepts the situation as 
ordained by Providence, as his father did before him. 
The farmer is again returned in an uncontested election, 
and sets himself to do little else but keep down the 
rates.