Slum Clearance at a Profit We must congratulate the St.
Pancras House Improve- ment Society on the completion of a third block of flats for very poor people on its Somers Town estate. These 35 flats, well equipped but let at modest rents, were opened last week by Lady Patricia Ramsay. The society hasp now built 180 flats of the kind. By careful manage- ment it makes them pay, while at the same time it confers untold benefits on its tenants who were formerly living in rickety and overcrowded tenements near by. If such societies could only secure some of the millions of money that is lying on deposit and earning virtually nothing, they could rapidly enlarge their rehousing; operations and still pay the lenders a fair rate of interest. They have the knowledge and experience which are essential, and they have the personal enthusiasm which does not always inspire municipal housing schemes. The work that the St. Pancras society and its kindred organizations in other parts of London are doing is of fundamental importance. Until the slum-dwellers are taken out of their deplorable surroundings, they have no chance of becoming good citizens.
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