92 
THE1H0USING QUESTION 
before the war, as if this were a great discovery made by hie 
Department, and that therefore you had got a huge provision for 
two and a half million people. That is a cheap arm-chair sug 
gestion. 
“ Anyone who knows anything about the real needs in connec 
tion with the housing of the working-classes knows that those 
450,000 empty houses are an absolute essential, not only for the 
working classes themselves, but also for industry. Where you 
have got, as you have at present, every single house bound up 
and full you cannot possibly have any movement of people, 
and thus industry is clogged. You cannot start a new industry 
in any particular district without bringing people from other 
districts. You have to bring your artificers and special tradesmen 
probably from other towns, and that is one of the many things 
which has been clogging industry since the war. . . 
(4) The attitude of the Government towards the deliberate 
restriction of output by the Association of Manu 
facturers of Light Castings. 
This case, more perhaps than any other, indicates 
the grave partiality of the Coalition Government 
towards employers and manufacturers, as compared 
with its censorious attitude towards Labour. The 
Government in 1919, under great pressure appointed 
Board of Trade Sub-Committees to go carefully into 
the conduct of the businesses of manufacturers pro 
ducing the various kinds of building materials. The 
feeling in the country was that house building was 
being impeded, partly by the high prices, and also by 
restriction of output. 
The reports of the Sub-Committees differed, some 
acquitting the manufacturers, and others to a varying 
extent condemning them. But there was no doubt