[To thr Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The recent articles in
the Spectator are a challenge to us all, and especially to- everyone who takes upon himself the name of Christian. The fact is now driven home to us that the slums of this country can be abolished. It will cost much money to effect, but it can be done if we will have it so. If the Churches and we who are members of the Churches were to say : " Because we are Christians, we will no longer tolerate slums in a Christian country. Come what may of effort and expense, we will not rest until they are swept away "—the thing could be done. But it will mean
effort and expense.
The Great War cost Great Britain 11,076 millions of pounds
(Whitaker's Almanack, p. 262), and lasted 1,549 days, or an Average of well over six millions per day. It has been esti- mated by a competent authority that thirteen days' expendi- ture on the War would have sufficed to destroy and replace all the houses in England and Wales which ought to be con- demned by public authorities as unfit for human occupation. Three months' expenditure on the War would suffice to demolish all slums (in England and Wales) and rebuild them
as model cottages.
Those huge sums-61 millions a day, seven days a week,
for four years—were poured out for purposes of war. Shall Ire say that we cannot afford one-sixteenth part of that suns for the decent housing of our people ? A soldier, writing from the battlefield of Flanders, said, " I wish we were fighting for a better England. Have you wondered what it is for which our men are really fighting, or believe themselves to be fighting ? Is it for England as she is ? Is it for the privilege of living in slums, bringing up children stunted in growth and starved in mind ? Why are thousands of our ill-fed, ill-educated men from the slums of Ancoats and Whiteehapel (and he might have added Westminster) going out to fight ? Surely not for the England they know, but for the England they want t,o know. And when they return, will they be content with sordidness and slavery to material conditions ? One hopes
and believes not."
In 1916 the following message and solemn appeal constituted
the closing words of a pamphlet by Mr. Bertrand Russell. They are worth reproducing here in connexion with the Spectator's campaign :— " Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and could be abolished by a united effort within a few years. If a majority in every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years, abolish all abject poverty, quite half this) illness in the world, the whole economic slavery which binds down nine-tenths of our population ; we could fill the world with beauty and joy, and secure the reign of universal peace: It is only because mon are apathetic that this is not achieved—only because imagination is sluggish, and what always has been is re- garded as what always must be. With good will, generosity, and a little intelligence, all these things could be brought about. What is wanted is hope—not personal hope for our separate lives, but hope for the World, and belief in the destiny of mankind. Now, while the World is dark and pain and strife surround us, I summon you to this hope and this belief, and to the courage that will give them life."
2 Weaponness Park, Scarborough.
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