THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

37

not  take  the  sensible  course  of  spreading  the  building
programme  of  735>ooo  more  houses  over,  say,  10  years  ?
We  shall  then  only  have  to  borrow  annually  in  capital
thirty  or  forty  millions  a  year.  And  are  we  not
entitled  to  say  that  a  nation  which  spends  annually
on  drink  and  tobacco  five  or  six  hundred  millions,
on  cinemas  as  much  more,  and  which  can  raise  in  new
issues  of  capital  three  or  four  hundred  millions  a  year,
can  certainly  afford  the  nine  millions  annually  needed
for  “  losses  ”  incurred  in  re-housing  the  working
classes  ?
It  should  not  be  forgotten,  too,  that  the  building
of  working-class  houses  greatly  stimulates  the  trades
which  supply  furniture,  cutlery,  linen,  etc.  The
benefit  to  the  nation  in  such  ways  is  incontestable.

EIGHTH  EXCUSE
That  more  Houses  cannot  be  built  for
Lack  of  Labour

NINTH  EXCUSE
That  the  Operatives  of  the  Building  Trades  are
generally  idlers,  whereas  Building  Contractors
have  generally  been  content  with  a  Normal
Profit
These  two  statements  may  well  be  considered
together.