no
THE HOUSING QUESTION
deputation of the Association of Municipal Corporations
in May, 1921, on the needs :—
“ We find that in many cases the original estimates were
rather more what the idealists conceived than what the practical
man considered necessary."
It is in this man’s eyes unpractical idealism to
propose that the women and children of this country
should be taken out of the slums which disgrace our
towns and given healthy houses to live in.
Contrast with Sir Alfred Mond’s sneer at idealism
the following words of the National Housing and Town
Planning Council:
" . . . The present housing policy has been criticised as a
scheme evolved in a ' mist of idealism,’ and it may be readily
admitted that, in comparison with the shameful neglect which
characterised the period preceding the war, the housing policy
was one of fine idealism. But sneers at idealism are so profoundly
unworthy of the men who fought and died for England
that it is difficult to understand why they are given any currency.
Kitchener’s men went singing to France in 1915 in response to
the call of a national duty, and with their heads doubtless filled
with ideas evolved n the same ' mist of idealism.’ Men of
narrow views and atrophied sympathies may regard as of little
moment the fine enthusiasm of the war. But these same fine
enthusiams saved England, and men now sleeping in Flanders
would feel, if they could come to life again, their honour smirched,
and their sacrifice made less noble by the assumption that the
pledges given concerning the future homes of the poorer members
of the community can now be cynically broken. . . .’
Next consider the proposal of the Geddes Committee—composed
of five rich men who appear somewhat
complaisant as to the extravagances of their own
