AN ARISTOCRACY OF LABOUR.
IT is curious that Socialists should find it so agreeable to dally with privilege. By profession they are the extreme champions of democracy, yet it is becoming a familiar fact that these champions are the first to abandon their avowed principles. It was the Socialists who tried to short-circuit democracy by sei ting up the Council of Direct Action. It is the Socialists, again, who, as a means of solving the housing problem, are ready to turn the building trade into a privileged reserve and make the majority pay for what the minority are going to enjoy.
We would not be misunderstood. There is a con- siderable amount that is good, and we are sure a great deal more that is very sincere, in Mr. Wheatley's housing plan, and the last thing we want to do is to find fault unnecessarily. We know perfectly well that unless there is something like general agreement upon method the shocking scarcity of houses will never be remedied ; and though we see much to complain of in Mr. Wheatley's proposals, we are still of the opinion that with a reason- able number of alterations and, above all, with strict vigilance in the House of Commons, the plan may be made to work and to yield the houses that are required.
As the proposal stands, however, it amounts td this —that the Government are knocking down a valuable privilege to a, ridiculous bid. They propose to give security to the building trade for fifteen years, and so far as we can discover there are no adequate safe- guards for keeping down the cost of building. The public will have to bear the burden in the form of both direct taxes and local rates. The price that the trade is to pay for its privileges is, as we said, ridiculous. We will say more on that subject in a moment, but we must remark here that it is not only among the builders that privilege is to be set up. Mr. Wheatley took credit to the Government for arranging to build houses that will not be sold to a new class of householders, but will be let to tenants. We agree, of course, that this is the type of house most urgently required, but as the new houses are to be subsidized probably more heavily than any houses built hitherto, the new tenants will also be a privileged class. No doubt there will be a rush for the new houses, which will be the last word in improvements and accommodation, but the happy occupiers will be living appreciably at the expense of their ratepaying and tax-paying neighbours, and this fact makes the need for economy in any housing measure an imperative duty.
Now as regards the price that the building trade is paying for its privileges. We by no means complain of the security given to the trade, for it is generally agreed that a building scheme extending over a con- siderable number of years is necessary. The trouble is that the conditions under which the security is granted are so unsatisfactory. The simple truth is that the building trade is absurdly undermanned, and hitherto the unions have resisted all the threats, appeals and cajoleries addressed to them to induce them to enlarge their numbers. Mr. Wheatley conceived the idea, which was, of course, quite a good one in itself, that he would persuade Capital and Labour in the building trade to get together and make willingly such conces- sions to the national necessity as could not be wrung from them by compulsion. The Advisory Committee, which consisted of representatives of the employers and men, rapidly produced a scheme, and Mr. Wheatley has recommended that it should be accepted. But, alas, it is not good enough ! It is almost derisory when we regard it as an alleviation of the present distressing industrial spectacle. There are still about three-quarters of a mil io.t men kicking their heels without work, drawing the unemployment grant, and gradually, through no fault of their own, becoming demoralized. There is also such a shortage of houses as condemns some hundreds of thousands of decent families to live under conditions where decency is almost impossible. One would think that all humane men, and particularly men with the acquired political convictions of Socialists, would be inspired to rush to the rescue. One would expect them to set aside all prejudices, all questions of ultimate advantage, all trade union principles, however sound or defensible these things may be in general, and to perform an act equivalent to that of saving life.
Yet the expansion to which the building unions will agree is to be all too small. They will consent to take on only one apprentice to every three craftsmen, and they will not take on any boy over twenty years of age.
Figures recently published show that there arc now only 57,000 bricklayers, whereas there were 68,000 in 1913 when the need for houses was nothing like so urgent as it is now. There arc now only 16,000 plasterers compared with 20,000 in 1913 ; and only 22,000 masons compared with 39,000 in 1918. At the very first glance most people would say that here is a glorious oppor- tunity for simultaneously helping the unemployed and working off the arrears in houses. The answer of the trade is that skill in building is skill of a very real kind, and that it must be acquired during an apprenticeship of at least four years. After all that was accomplished in the War, however, we cannot believe that this is true. Everything was then speeded up. Jobs that had for generations been supposed to require highly skilled labour were taken on and done extremely well by persons who learned their skill in a few months.
If there is not now a real need for a general speeding up and for deliberate iniprovization when is there likely to be ? In our belief the time deemed necessary for acquiring most accomplishments is almost always over- estimated. Old readers of the Spectator will remember our effort to demonstrate—as was done with remark- able success—that military drill could be learnt to perfection in six months instead of in the long and necessarily expensive training which had always been regarded as indispensable for the soldier.
There must be many thousands of men now unem- ployed who are already halfway towards being house- builders. They have experience and skill in allied industries, and the transition from their own trade to another would be a fairly easy one. The Government, if they want to show that they are really concerned in this vital matter of housing, and are really democrats who do not desire to create privilege, and who are really lovers of their kind, should insist upon the building trade raising the age up to which apprentices may be accepted—we would suggest thirty instead of twenty —upon the man-poaier of the building trade being expanded much further than is proposed, and upon the length of the regular apprenticeship during the fifteen- year period of security being reduced. According to estimates which have been published, the contemplated increase of the workers in the building unions amounts at the highest to 60,000 men and may even be as low as 35,000.
Mr. Snowden, in an article published in an American newspaper, stated that there will be a loss of Gs. a week on every house, 4s. of which will be paid by the State and 2s. by the local authorities. That means a heavy bill to be faced anyhow, but it will be much worse if the prices of building materials rush upwards as they are likely to do under the proposed conditions. The Statutory Committee which is to be set up is, of course, designed to prevent an increase of prices. But will it, or, rather, can it ? The Committee apparently will be for the most part, and quite naturally—such is its com- position—interested in the building trade rather than in the needs of the nation. We hope that the House of Commons will insist most scrupulously and jealously upon every possible check being put upon a rise in prices. The very suggestion that foreign building materials should be excluded is in itself an invitation to an upward flight of costs. Above all, the House of Commons should insist that the adversity of the people shall not be made the opportunity of a class. The interests of the mass should always prevail over those of the few. It is astonishing that a Socialist Govern- ment should quietly consent to any other doctrine.
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