Farm Cottages It is not surprising but none the less
regrettable that the Committee appointed by the late Labour Government to inquire as to the -cottages provided by farmers for their labourers should have presented two conflicting reports. For there are two conflicting considerations to reconcile. It is hard that a good servant should not be able to leave a bad employer without losing his home. It would be hard that a good employer should not be able to replace a bad servant by a good one because he had no cottage to give him. The difficulty is the shortage of cottages.‘ Landowners and farmers are as a rule too impoverished to be able to do much, and the district councils dread an increase in the already burdensome rates. Sir Arnold Wilson's article, which we print elsewhere, shows what can be done by private enterprise at a moderate cost for the better housing of villagers. If his example were widely followed, not merely in the building of modest new cottages but also in the recon- ditioning of older cottages that have been neglected, rural England would be far happier and healthier.
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