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62 
THE HOUSING QUESTION 
which ought to submit and carry out a scheme failed 
to do so, the Ministry of Health could act for them, 
build the houses and charge the Local Authority with 
the whole (or any part) of the cost. 
We have already referred, in investigating the 
fourth excuse, to the futile conditions under which the 
average Rural Councillors are elected and how little they 
represent the working classes or consider their interests. 
In many Boroughs and Urban Councils the same 
thing, unfortunately, is true. Large numbers of 
Councillors did not approve of the Government Housing 
Scheme. When the Act first came into force in 1919 
and the people of England remembered their debt to 
the ex-servicemen, and seemed determined to end the 
housing miseries of the poor, these Councillors lay low. 
But, as time passed and enthusiasm inevitably cooled 
and prices rose and difficulties accumulated, these men 
began to lift up their voices against what they called 
" senseless extravagance,” “ pandering to the poor ” 
and so on. They sat as Councillors, they voted as 
Councillors, but they argued politically on behalf of the 
taxpayer, not of the ratepayer. These men usurped 
the position of Members of Parliament ; they allowed 
their votes as to whether to proceed with Housing 
Schemes to be affected by their party politics and their 
private interests, and in Council after Council they 
killed or mutilated their housing schemes. 
It is true that Local Authorities had great difficulties 
to contend with. The Government was often very 
non-committal and vague as to the financial and legal