The `1building of 12,000 Houses
"There is one aspect of the housing question that can never be dealt with as a purely economic proposition--namely, slum clearance. This is a heritage of past neglect for which the present and succeeding generations will have to pay a heavy toll. The longer it is delayed the more serious the difficulties will became ; and the Government, of whatever party it consists, that will devise a considered scheme for the abolition of slums over a period of years will deserve well of the community."
SIR TUDOR WALTERS, the author of these weighty words, which so thoroughly bear out what we have written on the subject, has just issued a book whose title is that of this article.* No one in England speaks with more authority on what can and cannot be done to solve the difficulties that face us in ensuring our people a decent standard of living, and we feel that his opinions, and the wonderful results that have accrued ficiin putting these opinions into practice, should be broadcast through the length and breadth of England. While others have puzzled and pondered, conned statistics, considered difficulties, it has been his fortunate lot to be up and doing. Under his"able direction there haS been erected a series of garden villages in the Midlands which comprise a total of ne less than twelve thousand houses. This has been done in five years and at no cost to the tax-payer. The Government subsidy has been used only to lower the rents which the tenants are asked to pay. • As Lord Aberconway says in his preface to the volume under consideration, the economic and practical success of the Industrial HouSing Association teaches us three great lessons :— " (1) That State aid can be given to work of national importance on purely business lines, without the help of subsidies.
(2) That by the pooling of the joint credit of big firms in any particular line of business, such work can be financed at the lowest possible cost. (3) That the workers in our great industries can be housed and cared for on a generous if not lavish scale by a charge on their industry which involves no loss to those who raise the capital."
The moral is this. What twenty-four mining companies have done in the last few years; the textile trades or the iron and steel trades could also do to-morrow. We have already written of that foul beast of poverty, which grows stronger on the slime in which it lives, and which can only be defeated by a St. George who will drive it into the light of clay. If our large employers of labour would recognize more fully their responsibilities for the proper housing of their workpeople, the dragon of slum-land would have received a spear thrust in a vital part. The first need is that spirit of co-operation of which . Sir Alfred. Mond wrote recently, and which has already proved so successful on the retail side of marketing, where the workers themselves administer it. The Industrial Housing Association has proved that the advantages of co-operation are just as real for employers as they are for workers, when the principle is applied to the raising of capital and the carrying out of building schemes. Shortly after the War, when money was short and the housing question even more difficult than it is now, a. conference of coal owners, under the presidency of Lord, Aberconway, approached the Government for a loan * The Building of 12,000 Houses. By the Rt. Hon. Sir J. Tudor Walters. (E. Bonn. 21s.) on the security of their joint credit in order to build villages for their workpeople • as rapidly and cheaply as possible. The result, largely owing to the able management of Sir Tudor Walters, must have exceeded all expectations. About £6,000,000 has been spent ; 12,000 houses have been built at a rate which averaged at its peak 100 houses per week, and these houses can be let at from 8s. to 12s. per week, laid out in charming surroundings and with every sanitary and aesthetic convenience that the modern housewife can desire. Such is the splendid answer that these twenty-four companies have given to the despairing dotards who say that the slum problem is insoluble.
To attempt a précis of an already condensed summary is impossible here. The problems which were faced, the decisions that were arrived at, the results which were achieved, make a story of only thirty-five pages of large type, which it is not unreasonable to ask all interested in the Matter to read for themselves : they arc of fascinating interest. We propose to comment only on the lessons to be learned.
First, large-scale building has come to stay. The power it gives in dealing with contractors, in purchasing materials, and in planning the work is indispensable for economy and rapidity. Factory organization would appear to be almost as necessary under modern conditions in building houses as it is in building motor cars.
Secondly, suppliers of building materials must amal- gamate in order to secure an economic output. The idiotic policy of high prices and small production is always and everywhere fatal.
Thirdly, that it is a libel. on the people of England to say that they do not appreciate better housing con- ditions. A favourite, but snivelling, apology for inaction is that the bathroom of the poor man is used as a store for potatoes or other household requisites. " This is certainly not our experience," writes Sir'Tudor Walters. " We find that the bulk of the tenants greatly appreciate a good house and make full use of all. its conveniences. Some of these houses are very well furnished and kept up, and there is no doubt that the influence upon the children of living under conditions which tend to promote cleanliness and self-respect is very great." We are glad to know this on such good authority, for it will deprive reactionaries of one rusty weapon of mistrust.
AS we look through the ninety-eight drawings which illustrate the accomplishment of this great and. good work, with their recreation grounds for children and adults, their curved streets, cottage shops, market squares with sundials, their intelligent planning and planting, their attractive architecture, we cannot fail to be impressed by the forethought, ingenuity, imagi- nation which are so characteristic of private enterprise as distinguished from Socialistic schemes. Every one of these houses is planned with real intelligence to meet the needs of the miner. There is a bathroom in each, and ample cupboards, shelving, and pegs. There is a place for the perambulator and for the bicycle. In some there is a shed for a motor bicycle, and already a garage is asked for in some cases. The more the miners want the better for all of us ; for if they earn more, we are all gainers. Here is a definite, unsensational, eminently practical new world in the making, which is causing a part of industrial England to blossom, if not with the beauties of more favoured parts of earth, at any rate with that higher happiness of the home that should be within reach of all of us—with hale and hearty children, in whose bright faces the hope of England lies.
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