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THE HOUSING QUESTION 
97 
defeat a member of the Coalition Government, and the 
great man got his subsidy, the Minister justifying the 
payment by saying that the house in question was an 
interesting experiment, and his Department gave 
instructions that the application of the reduced schedule 
be antedated, no doubt to meet the convenience of the 
nobleman. 
Compare the above with the following, which 
illustrates the attitude of the Ministry of Health, as at 
present directed respectively to the working classes 
and to their employers. In a certain Rural District 
the Local Authority, with the approval of the Ministry, 
had signed a contract for a few houses with a local 
builder. This contract was on the Ministry’s standard 
form which provides that a schedule of the wages paid 
by the contractor should form part of the contract, 
and that, if the wages actually paid differed from 
the schedule, the total amount payable on the con 
tract would be increased or diminished accordingly 
as the wages paid exceeded or fell short of the 
schedule. 
This particular builder, with the knowledge of the 
Local Authority, paid wages both to skilled and to 
unskilled men, much below his contract schedule. 
He said they were " Ex-Service improvers,” though in 
reality they were as skilled as anyone in the country 
side (a fact which the rapid progress of the building 
proved). The excuse was particularly absurd as applied 
to unskilled men. 
The local Trade Union representative appealed to the 
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