who are useless because of their surroundings. When a slum neighbourhood is broken up such characters escape from their evil associations and have a chance to settle down where they may, and often do, become useful to society; the others who go on in their bad ways are not more out of reach, indeed they are often more within reach of the personal influence which best can help them.

Reformers who set themselves to solve the housing problem must not expect to cure all the ills of society; they can only co-operate with other agencies. They cannot do what it is reserved for personal force to do. They must not therefore think too much of the class about whom most is written, or limit their powers while they try to suit rents and accommodation to the needs of people who, until they are educated, will not endure decent lodging. A pig,' it has been said, 'does not become a gentleman by being put in a drawing-room.'

The cost-as Miss Octavia Hill would tell us-of fitting some people to use good houses is greater than that which can be met by grants out of the rates or well-administered building schemes. ‘I am deeply convinced,' says Mr. H. Fyfe-chief sanitary inspector of Glasgow, that no power that can be brought to bear on the health of the common people is to be compared with the power of the loving, personal interest of a man or woman who knows their weaknesses and their legitimate wants.' And the Glasgow Corporation, acting on this conviction, has appointed six female inspectors who, by words of sympathy and small acts of kindness, win the people to better ways. There is much to be done for the lowest class by education, by the Poor Law, and by personal service; but to consider this class as the first object of improved housing is to let feeling blind reason.

(3) Another fact which becomes clear on reflection is that the need of a workman to live near his work is less and less pressing. The eastern districts, for instance, which are occupied by two millions of people belonging chiefly to the working classes, are not mainly centres of industry. Working men and women may be met morning and evening on their way to the north, south, and west. The provision by the Great Eastern Railway of shilling weekly tickets to places as distant as Enfield, and not the existence of factories, accounts for the population of these districts. If other railways had made the same provisions, if electric tramcars were running by the great northern and western roads, workmen could as conveniently live in the west as in the east. There must indeed be provision nearer the centre for men and women who attend the markets or, as at the docks, work at irregular intervals; but the all-night service of trains and trams already meets the needs of many such workers; and for those who are bound to remain, the present provision is probably sufficient.

(4) The last fact which I would submit to reformers excited by the action of owners who raise rents and evict tenants or run up houses

for occupation, is that these 'house jobbers,' these 'house sweaters,' these 'jerrybuilders,' are only speculators using within the limits of law and public opinion the foresight and the energy which make the wealth of the nation. There are, undoubtedly, individuals who behave as tyrants or rogues where public opinion is weak, and there are others who break laws which are feebly administered; but the greater number act on exactly the same lines as other citizens who buy and sell to increase their fortunes. They are the makers of the wealth which is necessary for improvements. They are no worse and no better than other enterprising business men-just as wellintentioned and just as self-seeking.

Small house property is indeed the favourite investment of honest and self-respecting workmen; and many men who twenty years ago began to save their money, are now landlords, drawing their income -as the great of the land draw theirs-from their property. The majority do their duty to their tenants, but there are some who oppress and cheat them; though these latter are more and more condemned by public opinion or held up by the law.

In the same way the so-called 'jerrybuilders' are often builders who, working with their own hands, work cheaply. The houses they build are generally well planned and sufficiently strong. The tendency to build without proper precautions against damp or disease is being more and more checked by the action of inspectors or public authorities; and there are now thousands and thousands of happy and healthy households who rejoice in the occupation, often in the possession, of the little house and garden which have been brought within their reach by the enterprise of small builders. The ugliness of the modern suburb is not the fault of the builders; ugliness is not yet recognised as a national loss. That too will be corrected when taste improves, and when taste is represented on the local authority.

The housing problem rouses, and rightly rouses, the passions of pity and indignation. It is hard to be still when statistics show that where housing is bad the death-rate is double, the poverty irremediable, and degradation hopeless. The nation is rich, and the people perish for want of house-room. There is no language too strong to express the feelings of those who have seen with their eyes how the poor live; but they who feel most deeply must allow that reflection shows forces at work for the remedy of the evil. The public spirit which works through Councils for the establishment of health is more active. The developments of trade tend to scatter the population. The enterprise of individuals is shown both in the provision of houses and in the will to seek homes farther afield. By the action of such forces there has been improvement; the obvious thing to do is to make the way free for the further action of the same forces. The best doctor is the one who works with nature.

PROPOSED WAYS OF PROCEEDING

(1) Public spirit has shown itself in the action of the Councils. Public spirit would do more if the Councils were more enlightened. The ratepayers would endure taxation if they were assured that their neighbours would benefit. There is the will to help if the Councils could show the way. The immediate necessity is more thoughtful, more educated, and more sympathetic local governors. A Council strong in knowledge, whose members were intelligent and familiar with others' needs, would wisely enforce the laws against insanitary property, and gradually raise the standard of cleanliness, warmth, and ventilation; it would prevent unfit building, and at the same time relax some of the pedantic regulations which hinder fit building (these regulations, in theory admirable, in practice unnecessary, often involve much delay and expense); it would spend freely on objects which directly or indirectly spread joys in widest commonality; it would support and restrain its officials; it could without any new law, by wise administration of the existing laws, do away with much of the present trouble.

The Councils of to-day are better than the Councils of ten years ago, but the Councils of ten years hence should be much better than those of to-day. Men and women must bring to that service the advantages they have gained by wealth or study. They must be willing to sacrifice their leisure and give up their late dinners so as to take part in local affairs. The candidates for a Council must be in every sense the best people, desiring no favour and fearing no enmity, daring to raise their neighbours' assessment or dismiss an official. There is at the present moment no such honour obtainable as that to be won in municipal service. It is an honour to be won by the courage to stand the fire of criticism and the opposition of ignorance, and it has for its reward the happiness of the people.

Better local authorities must exist before the settlement of the housing problem is possible; and more public spirit, more readiness on the part of people of character, knowledge, and position, to offer themselves for election and endure the weariness of committees, must exist before better local authorities are possible.

(2) The other force at present working towards a remedy is the private enterprise which has been developed by prosperity and education. It may sometimes need restraint, but its constant need is space. A good Council may exercise such restraint, prevent the tyranny of the strong or the scamping of work by the weak; but there must be some change of law to give enterprise the necessary space for activity. Private enterprise is at present limited for want of land and for want of facilities of communication. It suffers because of previous public neglect.

If builders could get land on which it would pay to build, they

would set to work to-morrow. There are many ways in which land could be brought within their reach:

(i.) The owners of condemned property might be given only such a price as would admit of the land being let or sold to builders at a rate which would allow them to build habitable houses at a fair profit. A butcher who sells bad meat gets no compensation when it is condemned; a landlord whose houses are so bad as to be unfit for habitation need have no claim for compensation beyond the bare value of the land as a building site for workmen's dwellings.'

(ii.) All vacant land within the area of the borough or township, and land within a certain area outside its limits, might be rated. A further suggestion is sometimes added that the community, even Parish Councils, should have the right to purchase such land at the rateable value. If this were adopted there would always be land which could be let or sold to builders; but even without this power of compulsory purchase the rating of vacant lands and another system of rating would have great effect. To quote Mr. Young, valuer to the London County Council: According,' he says, 'to the present system, the burden of taxation tends to fall on the property taxed rather than upon the occupier. No one will build till the value of the site is able to bear the burden of taxation. . . . The effect of this on the provision of house accommodation can hardly be overestimated.' Mr. Wallace-Bruce, the ex-Chairman of the Housing Committee, puts the same argument in another way: 'If central rates could be removed from buildings and land to land only, so that the value of the land only should be taxed with rates, it would greatly assist building on cheap land. In the outskirts the house is, say, six times the value of the land, and rates are therefore a tax on the building industry, which impedes building; near the centre, land is six times the value of the house, and should pay central rates for improvement accordingly.'

Mr. Young and Mr. Wallace-Bruce argue as experts, but a plain. man can at once see how largely the incidence of rates affects building operations. There is land now burdened by slums; there is vacant land within every city or borough boundary; there are acres of land on the outskirts. All this land is ripening for the owners' benefit, who in a few years will reap the fruit of others' industry. It ought not to be impossible to throw this land on the market for builders to buy, or, better, to rent in perpetuity on renewable leases.

Builders are waiting to build houses for people waiting to occupy them. An enlightened Council, having control of land, could create villages such as that Mr. Cadbury has lately created at Bourneville. It could, for instance, preserve the trees and natural beauty; it could

The price might be fixed at a public auction, at which the land being cleared of buildings should be offered ear-marked for the erection of industrial dwellings. The price so offered should represent the amount to be paid as compensation to the

owner.

preserve open spaces, give room about each house, and break up the monotony of the long straight trenches in which builders, for want of land and imagination, are now accustomed to build. enlightened Council having land at its disposal could give liberty for the taste and energy of the builders, while it controlled the avarice which would put in bad work or bad materials.

Want of land is one limit on private enterprise, another is the want of facilities of communication. Owners cannot put their land on the market, and so, by increasing the supply, reduce the price of land; builders cannot use their capital and skill in building; workpeople cannot move to the outskirts because means of access are insufficient or non-existent. The provision of such means is certainly not beyond the resources of English intelligence or wealth. The railways, in return for their monopoly, might be required to do more. The Chairman of the Artisans Dwellings Company tells how his Company forced the railway to reduce the third-class return fare of 10d. to Noel Park; and what a private company has done public bodies might accomplish. Every railway out of a great town might be required to run cheap trains to suburban districts. Tramways might be much extended, or, as in America, laid down in anticipation of a population. Good direct roads might be kept open for the use of motors and 'buses.

The housing problem cannot, it is often said, be solved by private action. This is true, because private action has been limited by public action, and public action is necessary to break down those limits. Only a public authority can increase facilities of communication, and that public body which is most earnest in cheapening, hastening, and opening the means of travelling is doing the most for the housing of the people.

The objection is sometimes urged that improved communication benefits the landowner. To this there are two answers. The first is that if sufficient and various means of communication are opened, there will be so much land thrown at the same time on the market that competition will settle the price. The second is that possibly the public authority might have the right to purchase land at its rateable value. At any rate, a wise system of communications extending in every direction from the centre would break up the population, and possibly also prevent that settlement of classes-the rich in one suburb and the poor in another-which is so fatal to the development of a civic or national sense. Mr. C. Booth, in a pamphlet lately issued, brings all the weight of his knowledge to recommend the improvement of the means of locomotion as the one solution of the housing problem. In his own words, he urges (1) that, with improved means of communication, the evils (connected with present overcrowding) become capable of cure; (2) that without them all other proposals would be impracticable or ineffective, and consequently that improved locomotion is the first, even if not the only thing needful.'