THE  HOUSING  QUESTION

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disingenuous  to  say,  as  Ministers  and  Coalition  Members
too  often  say,  that  unwilling  Local  Authorities  know
best  and  should  be  let  alone.  Such  Local  Authorities
know  the  facts  perfectly  well.  The  housing  conditions
and  misery  of  the  poorer  of  their  constituents  are
patent  everywhere.  They  know  the  facts  but  will  not
apply  the  remedy—because  they  believe  that,  as
taxpayers,  their  pockets  will  be  touched,  and  because
Councillors  are  often  slum-owners,  or  the  friends  of
slum-owners,  and  know  that  new  houses  will  lower
the  value  of  their  own  ignoble  property.  They  prefer
that  the  working  classes  shall  remain  miserable  and  in
unhealthy  conditions,  rather  than  that  they  themselves
and  their  friends  should  have  to  pay  for  improvements.
All  honour  to  the  many  Local  Authorities  and  to
the  innumerable  Councillors  who  have  worked  with  a
will  to  press  on  with  their  Housing  Schemes.  But
there  are  others,  and  it  is  hypocritical  to  deny  it.  And
the  Coalition  Government  have  protected  them  in
their  criminal  neglect.

NOTES  ON  THE  FOREGOING.
The  following  quotations  from  the  Housing  Debate
of  13th  March,  1922,  give  an  indication  of  the  present
Minister  of  Health’s  complaisant  attitude  towards
private  enterprise  in  cottage  building,  and  what
other  people,  including  some  of  the  supporters  of  his
Government,  think  about  it.