7 JULY 1923, Page 11

On the housing question we would specially wish to join

issue with Mr. Massingham. The scheme of Mr. Lloyd George and Dr. Addison was a failure, and in our opinion a failure because of its Socialistic basis. It proposed to do, by means of the State, a thing which would be much better done by private enterprise. A proof of our contention on this point is to be found in the admirable scheme set forth in our issue of to-day by Sir Theodore Chambers in his description of the Welwyn Garden City. There, by an admirable system of voluntary Socialism working through the ordinary building contractor, labourers' cottages have been built almost at pre-War prices. We may note also that this has been accomplished under a system which, without destroying the legitimate hire, or rather stimulus, of a profit, limits the wages of capital to a fixed sum. After that, though profits are made, they are distributed through the Welwyn voluntary community as a whole.