THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

25

and  bath.  On  the  other  side  of  the  house  is  a  small
parlour  where  guests  can  be  entertained,  where  the
son  of  the  house  can  study,  or  where  the  maiden  of
twenty  summers  can  talk  things  over  with  that  someone
who  is  so  much  to  her.  Go  upstairs  by  the  well-lighted
stair,  and  enter  the  three  bedrooms,  and,  as  you  look
at  the  order  and  beauty  with  which  the  mother  has
arranged  her  nest,  think  for  a  moment  of  those  dark
rooms  you  have  known  in  a  vile  and  insanitary  slum,
from  which  perhaps  these  people  have  moved—as  from
hell  to  heaven.  And  ask  the  mother  what  she  thinks
of  it  all.
And  then  ask  yourself,  firstly,  whether  those  are
right  who  say  that  the  working  classes  do  not  want
such  good  houses  ;  and,  secondly,  whether  the  houses
are  not  worth  having.

FOURTH  EXCUSE
That  the  Rural  Labourer  is  Content  with  things
as  they  are
When  Dr.  Addison  became  Minister  of  Health  and  was
armed  by  Parliament  with  powers  to  re-house  the
Nation,  he  was  rightly  advised  that  the  bane  of  the
rural  labourer  was  the  “  tied  "  cottage,  the  cottage
owned  by  the  landlord  and  handed  over  to  the  farmer
for  the  use  of  his  labourers.  These  cottages  were
generally  situated  on,  or  close  to,  the  farms,  a  considerable ­
  distance  from  the  nearest  village.  This  system