THE HOUSING QUESTION 
Zi 
On the 17th October, 1920, Dr. Addison, in the Sunday 
Times, vigorously attacked Labour for its unwillingness 
to agree to dilution, in the following passage :— 
" Looked at purely from the point of view of sectional self- 
preservation, the attitude of the Unions is superficially reasonable. 
Unemployment has been the bugbear of the trade in the past, 
and they have often been very badly treated. The contention 
is that, if the personnel is to be unduly inflated now,unemployment 
will be even more rife when the present demand is satisfied. 
The contention is reasonable only on the surface ; because it 
deliberately ignores the fact that the demand for dwelling-houses 
alone is sufficient under the most favourable conditions of progress 
to provide steady work for a largely increased number of workers 
for a long period of years to come.” 
Have ever a man’s rash words come home more 
quickly to roost ? Where to-day is the “ steady work 
for a largely increased number of workers for a long 
period of years to come ? " The Labour Party knew 
their Coalition Ministry better than Dr. Addison did, 
even when he was a member of it. (He knows them 
better now.) The far-sightedness and shrewd caution 
of Labour has saved the building operatives from an 
intensity of unemployment far worse than that from 
which they now suffer. 
It would, however, be unjust not to remind the 
reader of the way in which Dr. Addison resigned office 
last year rather than be a party to the reactionary 
policy and broken pledges of his former colleagues, 
and of the continual fight he has since made on the 
platform and with his pen for a return to an adequate 
Housing policy.