24

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

the  Minister  of  Health,  are  all  the  poor  really  need.  ai
Anything  beyond  is  a  luxury—a  sin  against  the  tax-  p
payer—an  "  economic  loss.”  And,  besides,  the  poor  s<
do  not  understand  it  and  do  not  want  it.  U
As  regards  the  third  excuse,  the  suggestion  is  some-  w
times  made,  not  only  by  those  who  desire  to  stop  any  si
kind  of  housing  by  the  Government,  but  also  by  some  a
of  the  working  classes  themselves,  that  the  houses  a:
which  are  being  built  are  not  worth  having.  This  r<
opinion,  when  honestly  held,  is  often  arrived  at  after  si
seeing  the  houses  at  an  early  stage  of  their  construction,  h
when,  as  is  well  known,  the  rooms  always  look  smaller  o
than  they  really  are.  The  belief  rarely  survives  an
inspection  of  the  finished  house,  if  it  has  been  built  ri
in  accordance  with  the  model  plans  which  in  1919  the  si
Ministry  published  and  promised  to  adhere  to.  a
Have  you  ever  been  into  one  of  these  new  “  Government ­
  Houses  ”  and  talked  to  its  tenants,  a  working
man  and  his  family  ?  They  have  just  moved  in  from
a  very  different  sort  of  home.  With  their  savings  j
they  have  perhaps  bought  a  little  extra  furniture,  and
at  last  after  so  many  years  the  lady  of  the  house  has
the  opportunity,  which  she  so  longed  for  when  she  V
married  years  ago,  of  making  a  real  home.  Have  you  a
seen  the  beauty  of  it  ?  The  little  garden  gate,  the  I s
pretty  walk  to  the  house  and  the  flower  and  vegetable  ri
plots,  which  her  husband  digs  when  he  is  home  from  o
work.  You  enter  and  find  a  tiny  but  carefully  planned  f<
hall  with  a  commodious  living-room,  and  leading  out  g
of  it  a  thoroughly  well-equipped  scullery  and  larder  a