MR. RITCHIE ON THE HOUSING QUESTION.
MR. RITCHIE'S speech at Toy nbee Hall last Tuesday evening on problems of London Government, and the 'lousing Question in particular, was an important and welcome utterance. In its tone it indicated some adequate conception of the immense gravity of the issues involved,—issues to the magnitude of which, as of so many other national questions, the present Imperial crisis is calling attention in a fashion which not even the most callous or cynical can ignore. In writing last week on the subject of physical and military training in elementary schools, we laid stress, as we were bound to do, on the specially urgent necessity for such training as an influence in counteraction of the physically as well as morally degrad- ing operation of the home surroundings of multitudes of working-class children. That, we said, was due in large measure to our practical failure, as a nation, seriously to grapple with the housing question. It is, of course, in London that the failure is most glaring, and every passing year, with its added population. makes the difficulty very substantially greater. It has been pointed out in the painfully interesting and very useful series of articles, headed "No Room to Live," published in the Daily News, and since republished in a shilling volume, that not far short of a million of persons, or a fifth of the population of London, are at present in a condition of illegal over- crowding,—that is to say, of numbers per room, or per cubic feet of air in the room, occupied, exceeding the very modest minimum of breathing requirements fixed by the Public Health Act. And that statement is only a slight and partial indication of the evils existing. For, as the same investigator shows, in a very considerable proportion of cases the overcrowding is not merely just beyond, but far beyond the limits prescribed by law, both in respect of air- space and in respect of the decencies of life. But, further, this wholesale defiance of the declared opinion and will of Parliament in regard to the most rudimentary needs of health to body and soul, which is going on in the imme- diate neighbourhood of the seat of government and legislation, cannot, as things are, be stopped or appre- ciably mitigated. Rather would any general attempt to enforce the law against overcrowding in London lead, through unspeakable miseries in the case of those evicted in the name of health and decorum, to a condition of living even more noisome, physically and morally, than that which had been disturbed. The overcrowding must go on, the undermining of all the foundations of sound and effective citizenship must continue, and must be con- stantly aggravated—for there is an accession of sixty thousand to the population of London every year—until the vast discrepancy between the supply and the demand of house accommodation can in some manner be re- adjusted.
That isthe cruzof the housing problem. The sanitary con- dition of the dwellings of the poor, in so far as it depends on regular cleansing, adequate arrangements for drainage, water-supply, and so forth can, doubtless, be immensely improved by the separate action and the co-operation of local authorities and philanthropic private individuals ; and such work is blessed, and is urgently needed in every direction. In this department of their duties, it may reasonably be hoped that the new London Borough Councils, manned by a much higher type of citizen than that which has, to so large an extent, sought and obtained seats on the Vestries, will achieve much. But even if the great majority of existing working-class dwellings could be made and kept, in the ordinary sense of the word, sanitary by regular and efficient inspection followed up by equally regular and peremptory pressure on their owners, the radical evil of their total insufficiency to meet the demand for accommodation would be untouched. And, unfor- tunately, an appreciable proportion of the existing dwell- ings are so essentially ill-constructed and defective that nothing in the way of repairs would ever make them really healthy abodes. They deserve to be swept away as so many propagating beds for the germs of all kinds of disease and inefficiency, and possibly, in a large total number of cases, that ought to be done coats qua cogte. Yet the inevitable consequences of such measures may well give pause to any philanthropist whose nerves are not very robust, and may even raise serious doubts as to the net balance of public advantage that, under existing circumstances, can be secured by clearing even the most unquestionably insanitary areas. It is, therefore, a fact of first-rate, and, as we hold, of most happy, signifi- cance, that Mr. Ritchie was able to announce on Tues- day that "he hoped the Government would introduce and carry this Session" a Bill which would enable both the London County Council and the Metropolitan Borough Councils to "go outside their areas and provide dwellings for the working classes." Within their areas it is im- possible for them to meet the need, or more than a small part of it, at any rate on anything approaching to business lines. It is conceivable that the rigid conditions exacted by the Treasury as to the repayment of loans made to public bodies for the provision of artisans' dwellings might be made to operate less hardly in the way of elevating the rents, by a policy of building houses of less eternal durability. But even so, it is difficult to see how, with the prices of land such as they commonly are in the Metropolitan area, the County Council or Borough Coun- cils can, as a rule, put up there houses, providing accom- modation at prices which the really poor can afford to pay, without throwing very heavy burdens on the rates. And even if they could, what is wanted is not merely cheap houses in place of, but very largely indeed in addition to, those which ought on sanitary grounds to be demolished. It is obvious that nothing but a great amount of new building will meet the need. It seems equally obvious that the need, in its present terrible scale, would never have arisen if private enterprise, with which there has been so much very proper anxiety not to inter- fere, had been equal to supplying it, whether in the London area itself or in outside districts. We are far from being oblivious of the advantages of leaving such a business as that of providing houses for the working classes to the normal working of action prompted by commercial, or by partly commercial and partly philan- thropic, motives. We are fully sensible, with Mr. Ritchie, of the "many dangers connected with municipal authorities taking up the housing of the working classes." But we emphatically agree with him that "there are no dangers so great as the want of healthy dwellings," and therefore share his readiness that the municipal authorities—County Council and Borough Councils— should "face all the dangers rather than allow things to remain as they are, and permit human beings to live in surroundings that are not fit for dogs."
Mr. Ritchie went on to say that he believed that through the cheapness of communication, by tramways and other means, the working-classes could be housed outside London at a cheaper rate than they were housed in London, even after paying the cost of communication ; and he also expressed the opinion that, if used judiciously; the power of providing suitable artisans' dwellings under the new conditions need not add to the rates. The aim thus set before the future Borough Councillors, as well as the County Councillors of London, is one of the highest and most inspiring which could possibly present itself to any citizen of this country. We cannot but trust that the prospect held out by Mr. Ritchie's announcement of the possibility of effective participation in the gradual removal of a state of things which is at once a scandal to British civilisation and a drain at the heart of British national strength, will have the effect of inducing many of our best citizens to come forward for work on the new Metropolitan Councils. The best judgment, the best business qualities, not less than genuine patriotism and philanthropy, will be needed for the avoidance of the very real dangers of municipal house-providing to which Mr. Ritchie referred, and the entirely worthy discharge of the high responsibilities which, as we all now see, will devolve on the members of those bodies. While glad that the Government have decided on liberating the municipal authorities of London from shackles which would be fatal to the effective treat- ment of perhaps the greatest problem within their range, we venture to hope that they will also consider in their proposed legislation some corresponding emancipation of Rural District Councils from the restrictions which, as the Special Commissioner of the Daily News has shown in a second series of articles, tend to hamper their ostensible powers for dealing with the scarcity of cottage accommodation in the country. The hardships and abuses due to that state of things are of the gravest character. They affect the moral, intel- lectual, and physical efficiency of the farm labourer, and by making life wretched in the country they are a constant reinforcement of the influences tend- ing to aggravate the overcrowding of London. No measure, in our opinion, could be more worthy of a party which embraces a very large proportion of English country gentlemen than one which would facilitate the sanitation and the improvement of village life ; and certainly none, if party interests are to be considered, could do more, if as much, to consolidate the Unionist position.
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