.  -  ^VV  >->-  -  •  v  ,  .  ,  ■  .  *->#•*

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  contract ­
  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  countryside ­
  (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
6