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  selfpreservation,
  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.