56

THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

No,  there  were  not  too  many  of  this  kind  of  official.
There  were  too  few.  Owing  to  the  procrastination  and
niggardliness  of  the  Treasury—in  its  best  penny-wiseand
  pound-foolish  style—Housing  Commissioners  had
to  fight  the  taxpayers’  battle  with  too  few  and  underpaid ­
  quantity  surveyors.  For  want  of  staff  the  flood
of  tenders  and  of  conferences  to  decide  prices  could
not  be  got  through  without  inordinate  delay,  and  all
the  time  the  price  was  steadily  rising  in  favour  of  the
builder,  under  pressure  of  demand.  Moreover,  owing
to  the  poor  rates  of  pay  offered  by  the  Treasury,  the
builders  had  the  pick  of  the  technical  professions—
and  gained  far  more  profit  than  they  should  have  done.
Nor  is  it  any  more  possible  to  maintain  the  eleventh
excuse.  In  1919,  a  new  and  better  style  of  building
working-class  houses  came  into  vogue.  In  many  parts
no  building  had  taken  place  for  twenty  years  or  more.
In  others,  and  these  the  vast  majority,  only  old  and
bad  jerry-built  types  had  been  erected.  Everywhere
builders  were  timid  after  the  war  and  workmen  not
always  at  their  best.  Architects  had  to  get  used  to
procedure  and  the  new  model  plans  and  specifications.
But  once  these  difficulties  had  been  surmounted—and
it  was  extraordinary  how  quickly  they  were  surmounted—plans, ­
  tenders,  and  contracts  were  arranged
far  faster  than  builders  could  set  men  to  work  at
them.  All  honour  is  due  to  the  hard,  self-sacrificing
work  of  the  permanent  officials  of  Local  Authorities
in  clearing  away  all  obstacles  and  getting  the  houses
actually  begun  and  completed.  The  flow  of  contracts