ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST.
MR. JOHN BURNS once applied the happy phrase "enlightened self-interest" to the motives of some great London landlords. Certainly those who laid out, for instance, Russell Square or Belgrave Square performed a. public service, and they and their heirs cannot decently be grudged the private benefits which were among the results. Indeed, it is as difficult for a landowner to consult his own interests in the long run without doing public good as it is more generally to discover any points of antagonism between good ethics and good economies.
Lord Lytton, the owner of a rural property now within easy reach of London, is one of the latest examples of those who are trying to do a public service by the manner in which he is developing the part of his land in Hertfordshire, which lies close to the Great North Road and the Knebworth Station on the Great Northern Railway. It is only an accident that Lord Lytton happens to have shown by his work for temper- ance reform and in other directions that he is much more likely to consider the pu'blic advantage than his own. He deserves to, and almost certainly will, find that he has con- sulted his own interests. If only more landowners would hasten to act upon this view we should hear much less of the demand that public authorities should speculate in land with the ratepayers' money and try their hand at a business to manage which they are the least fit and proper persons. The Bill that was lately "talked out" in the House of Commons was a very plausible example of the attractions of this dangerous policy. Some time ago plots of land upon the Great North Road were sold off from the Knebworth Estate for building in the usual way, that is, one by one as demand arose, without any unity of design or harmony of effect. The result, though nothing outrageous as an example of a growing town- ship, is now regarded by Lord Lytton merely as an object lesson in what not to do. The further developments are to proceed by a definite scheme and upon a plan designed by Mr. Lutyens and Mr, Thomas Adams. The suitable sites for the principal buildings, churches, schools, &a., will be set aside now and not sought out with difficulty and dis- satisfaction at the last moment. Open spaces will be
reserved where they are most valuable instead of being either difficult of access or taken from disturbed and resentful occupiers at great expense. The give and take between amenity and utility can be considered in advance to the advantage of both. New lines of communication are to be kept in mind even before they are needed, and will prove to be handsome, well-planted avenues when complete. Vistas and the broad combinations of nature and architecture can be considered with forethought. Thus tho doctrines of modern town-planning will take the place at Knebworth of the old haphazard development. A beginning has been made on a small portion of the whole by the landlord arranging with a company known as "Garden Villages, Ltd.," to join forces in supplying the capital required, land and money. As demand arises the company takes up the free- hold of the plots and builds houses for purchasers or lessees, always in harmony with the larger scheme of planning. There is not much to be said about the buildings at present, since very few houses are yet "reared," as the old builders said. But the plan is already evident by which the houses here will have their frontage to a road widened by the footpath being taken inside the old hedgerow (why should not a low hedge more often divide a footpath from a dusty, motor-haunted road?) and skirting a long piece of public, green. The houses will look on to the green on three sides, having a. frontage of at least thirty feet, and their gardens stretch back various distances from a hundred feet and upwards. As to the few already built, we may give these illustrative details :—(1) a pair of houses with two living rooms, scullery, and larder, three bedrooms and bathroom, £450 each freehold, or 2100 lease- hold, at 22 108. ground rent ; (2) a larger pair with a good kitchen besides two sitting-rooms (12ft. by 10ft. and 10ft. 3in. by 9ft.), three bedrooms and bathroom, freehold £500, lease- hold £400, at £5 ground rent, or in proportion (this seems to be intended for a small family keeping a servant and doing no household washing at home) ; (3) there is a four- bedroomed house, freehold £725. Noticeable points in them all are the roomy lobbies and landings, good larders, fitted cupboards, &c. The difficult question of outhouses, coppers where they exist, and coal stores being cut off, and yet ap- proachable under one roof, is well treated. Coal-strikers may take notice that even in this country district provision is offered for gas-cooking. This probably means that no coal will be used for several months in the year, though in one Louse, at least, a boiler has been fitted behind the living room fire-place (there is no coal range) to supply hot water upstairs and down; this will be an excellent labour-saving luxury in winter, but an extravagance and a nuisance if used in summer as well as the gas "cooker." The roof is not used for bed- rooms in any of these cottages mentioned. This is an advantage as regards temperature, but it is the obvious proof that the most economical building is not aimed at, for the air space is a costly luxury. On the whole these detached and semi-detached houses seem to be well constructed and of good value for the money ; and since they are built for definite clients they evidently satisfy a demand. This is all as it should be, and it is no derogation to so useful a scheme to point out that it does not pretend to offer any solution of the difficulty of housing the rural labourer who can only pay at most his three or four shillings a week in rent even where agricultural wages are comparatively high. We may hope that in the general development at Knebworth serious atten- tion will he given to the problem of finding room for the labourer in cottages built soundly, but so cheaply that his rent will be a fair return on the outlay. The 2150 houses of the Cheap Cottages Exhibition of 1905 are standing as examples in the same county. To enable and encourage those who work in London to spend their nights and Sundays in the country is a good object; to keep the countryman there is a still better one.
The raison d'Atre of a little function held at Knebworth on April 20th was the cutting of the first sod of the land taken up by the Knebworth Copartnership Tenants' Society. Here, again, we can congratulate all concerned. For, as the Spectator has said before, co-partnership in housing is one of the most valuable spheres in which co-operation has developed lately. It is also the most illuminating proof of the fact that land- lords and tenants are partners in the use of land. The turned sod gave Lord Robert Cecil an opportunity for a very interest- ing speech, in which, without waiving any adherence to the theories of the Scottish and Manchester economists of the last century, he pointed out the dangers of excess along the sound lines of the division of labour. He said that excessive specialization does in some degree detach from industry the humanity which ought to inspire it. He saw a remedy in co-operation, and we agree. It brings us back again to the enlightened self-interest in a different scope. It is true that housing and tenancy are not particularly good illustrations of spheres in which an indi- vidual becomes a mere uninterested machine. But the under-
lying principle is there too, and every object-lesson in voluntary co-operation is of great value. In housing there is no doubt that co-partnership produces the best tenants, for they are also interested as landlords. Again we see good ethics and good economics advancing hand-in-hand. A co-partnership estate in no way interferes with the town-planning scheme, for the elasticity of the system makes it unnecessary that it should be confined geographically as to its sites or financially to any class of dwelling. We congratulate Lord Lytton and the co-partners on this early appearance of a Knebworth Society, and trust that it will grow and prosper.
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