[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —Your last interesting article
on the Slums says " the writer has grasped at the outset that what is vaguely called ' the problem of the slums' is, in the first instance, a problem of re-housing." I beg your leave to challenge that dictum and to urge the view that experience clearly demonstrates that " the problem of the slums " is, in the first instance, a problem of pressure of population. Were this not so, how can the decadence of whole streets and districts of per- fectly well-built, decent houses into ill-kept, insanitary rabbit-warrens be accounted for ?
This fact is surely clear proof that, build as you may, you will only clear slums in one direction to reproduce them else- where unless you take steps at the same time to encourage a cessation of the rate of growth of the population in excess of the rate of provision of new housing. If there were no increase of population at all—and opinion seems to be fairly unanimous that this country is over-populated—the slum problem would probably be very quickly solved.—I am, Sir, &c., ALEXANDER QUICKE, 23 St. Petersburgh Place, IV. 2. Captain, R.N.
Previous page
