This means that the attempt to get up a case
against the landlords as ruthless and profligate feudal tyrants, after the manner of Mr. Booth's attack on Sir John Ramsden, which was fathered by the Daily News, has proved, as of course every sane man knew it must, to be a hopeless failure, and that Mr. Lloyd George and his friends mean to fall back on the other line of attack and to declare that the landlords are well-meaning incompetents, and that the State must step in with a large box of Socialistic pills. Though we are shy of quack remedies, it must not be supposed that we do not realize that there are many evils to be encountered in our rural districts. The greatest of all is the dearth of cheap cottages and the apparent inability to supply more at rents which the labourers can pay. We suppose we shall be thought to be hopelessly incompetent if we suggest that one of the most effective ways for meeting this difficulty is to make use of every possible means for cheapening construction, whether by providing cheap capital or cheap materials. Yet in our our opinion the £150 cottage still holds the field as the ideal.
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