(1922) the betrayal of the slums

8/14/2019 (1922) The Betrayal of the Slums

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THE BETRAYALOF THE SLUMSBytheRt.Hon.CHRISTOPHER ADDISONUC-NRLF

*B 5T5 Q 4?


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io THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSAlmost at once certain weaknesses and

neglects in the training, equipment, organisa-tion and physical capacity of the peoplebecame apparent, often with a tragicalrevelation. It was realised with a poignantacuteness that the drab, unsavoury and un-healthy conditions under which so manyof our people have to spend their lives,were not only a great drawback to ourworking efficiency, but a real danger to theState.At that time men of all sections, realisingthese conditions, declared that they would

engage themselves not only to secure emanci-pation from the burdens and perils of war,but to unite in a sustained endeavour toimprove the conditions of life of thosemillions of our fellow-countrymen who in-habit dilapidated cottages or wretched tene-ments in mean streets, and who are destinedto struggle continually against conditionswhich produce gravely disabling effects andconstitute altogether a menacing weakness toour whole society.

Responsible leaders of the Governmentwere forward and eloquent in promising thatthe effort should be made and should be


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THE BETRAYAL npersevered with. There can be no doubtthat many a young man who died for hiscountry derived some comfort from theconviction that in the time to come therewas a brighter hope for those whom he lovedat home and that they had some prospect ofescape from squalor and of the attainment forthemselves and their children of a betteropportunity in life.The pledges in question were of a verydefinite character, and were often repeated.They were embodied in a precise form in theHousing and Town Planning Act of 1919,and the records of the proceedings thereonbear witness to the fact that one of thedifficulties of the Minister in charge of theBill was to resist proposals which wouldhave made the task exceed the limits of anypossible form of execution. The intentionof the Government to persevere in thiseffort was very clearly stated to the peoplein the manifesto of the Prime Minister andMr. Bonar Law when their support wassolicited at the General Election of 1918.The Prime Minister at one time declaredthat in this matter " the interests of publichealth and humanity are at stake."


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THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMS


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WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUTOne of the pledges given by the Govern-ment to our fighting men was that theyshould have habitations fit for human beings,

in other words, that those plague spots, theslums, should be gradually wiped off ourmap. That promise has not been redeemed.

Dr. Addison, the first Minister of PublicHealth, reveals the actual conditions of thehomes to which heroes had to return, andwhich produce C 3 men out of A 1 material.He calls for a definite policy which,without being extravagant in finance, willexercise a great economy in human life.


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THE BETRAYALOF THE SLUMSBY

THE RT. HON.CHRISTOPHER ADDISON, M.D.,M.P.FIRST MINISTER OF HEALTH

HERBERT JENKINS LIMITED3 YORK STREET ST. JAMES'S

S.W.i ffi MCMXXII


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U&7333A3j-n


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CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGE

I. THE BETRAYAL 9II. ITS CIRCUMSTANCES - - 1 9

III. IMMEDIATE RESULTS 32IV. WHAT THE PROPOSED GRANTWILL DO - - - - 48V. LIFE IN SLUM HOUSES ITSGENERAL CHARACTER 59VI. LIFE IN SLUM HOUSES SOMEOF ITS RESULTS 72VII. LIFE IN SLUM HOUSES SOME

ITEMS OF ITS COST 85VIII. SOME METHODS OF DEALINGWITH UNFIT HOUSES - - 93IX. FUTURE POLICY AND A PRO-

POSAL - 108


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THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMS


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THE BETRAYALOF THE SLUMSCHAPTER I

THE BETRAYAL

ITseems but yesterday that the peopleof this country with one accord cameforward to oppose aggression. Ourword had been pledged to defend another

nation against an unprovoked attack, andour honour was at stake. From rich homesand from poor, from mansions and fromtenements people came and freely offeredtheir labour or their lives. In that timeof trial it was seen more clearly than everbefore how dependent we are upon oneanother, how, in its turn, this class or thatcomes to fill a vital part in the defenceor maintenance of our organised nationallife.


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io THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSAlmost at once certain weaknesses and

neglects in the training, equipment, organisa-tion and physical capacity of the peoplebecame apparent, often with a tragicalrevelation. It was realised with a poignantacuteness that the drab, unsavoury and un-healthy conditions under which so manyof our people have to spend their lives,were not only a great drawback to ourworking efficiency, but a real danger to theState.At that time men of all sections, realisingthese conditions, declared that they would

engage themselves not only to secure emanci-pation from the burdens and perils of war,but to unite in a sustained endeavour toimprove the conditions of life of thosemillions of our fellow-countrymen who in-habit dilapidated cottages or wretched tene-ments in mean streets, and who are destinedto struggle continually against conditionswhich produce gravely disabling effects andconstitute altogether a menacing weakness toour whole society.

Responsible leaders of the Governmentwere forward and eloquent in promising thatthe effort should be made and should be


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THE BETRAYAL npersevered with. There can be no doubtthat many a young man who died for hiscountry derived some comfort from theconviction that in the time to come therewas a brighter hope for those whom he lovedat home and that they had some prospect ofescape from squalor and of the attainment forthemselves and their children of a betteropportunity in life.The pledges in question were of a verydefinite character, and were often repeated.They were embodied in a precise form in theHousing and Town Planning Act of 1919,and the records of the proceedings thereonbear witness to the fact that one of thedifficulties of the Minister in charge of theBill was to resist proposals which wouldhave made the task exceed the limits of anypossible form of execution. The intentionof the Government to persevere in thiseffort was very clearly stated to the peoplein the manifesto of the Prime Minister andMr. Bonar Law when their support wassolicited at the General Election of 1918.The Prime Minister at one time declaredthat in this matter " the interests of publichealth and humanity are at stake."


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12 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSThe issues involved were clearly expressed

by Mr. Bonar Law, who said : "If we didnot make every effort to improve the con-dition of the people, we should have a sullen,discontented, and perhaps angry nation, whichwould be fatal in the last degree to trade,industry and credit/' The national inten-tion also was forcibly stated by Lord Longwho knew, as well as any man could know,that thereby we were committing ourselvesto a work of restoration that must occupymany years of continuous effort when hesaid : " It would be a black crime, indeed,if we were to sit still and do nothing by wayof preparation to ensure that when thesemen came back they should be provided withhomes with as little delay as possible. Tolet them come back from the horrible water-logged trenches to something little betterthan a pig-sty here would indeed be criminalon the part of ourseives, and would be anegation of all that had been said during thewar."

Finally, His Majesty the King, on Aprilnth, 1919, evoked universal acclamationwhen he expressed the policy of the Govern-ment in these carefully considered words :


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THE BETRAYAL 13"I am informed that the immediate

need of working class houses for Englandand Wales alone is estimated at approxi-mately 500,000. To meet this need thesame untiring energy and enthusiasm willbe needed as that which enabled thecountry to meet the demand for munitionsof war. It is not too much to say thatan adequate solution of the housing questionis the foundation of all social progress.If this country is to be the country whichwe desire to see it become, a great offensivemust be undertaken against disease andcrime, and the first point at which theattack must be delivered is the unhealthy,ugly, overcrowded house in the meanstreet, which we all of us know too well."Many people gave loyal and ungrudging

help to the Government in this matterbecause they believed that no distractionwould turn them from a resolute endeavourto fulfil the noble and solemn promises givento those whose loyalty and sacrifice had beenabundantly revealed, and who had no placeworthy the name of a home for themselvesand their families.


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14 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSIt was therefore a matter for grave concernwhen it was decided, in July, 1921, to set

aside these engagements and to restrictassistance in the building of houses to anumber substantially identical with thatarranged for at the end of the month ofMarch and, worse still, to ignore the obli-gations which the State had assumed underthe law passed in the year 1919, wherebyassistance would be afforded in the replace-ment or improvement of insanitary dwellingsfor some years to come, and to substitute agrant in respect of all the unsatisfactoryhouses in Great Britain which, as willappear, is of so trifling a character that itwill not suffice even to make good theamount of deterioration that is progressivelyoccurring.

This decision involved not only an alterationin the method of rendering assistance in theimprovement of housing conditions, but adefinite reversal of policy. This was deniedat the time, but it has become progressivelymanifest during the past year. Assistancefrom the State was required in this matterbecause the insanitary and overcrowded con-ditions of multitudes of the people's dwellings


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THE BETRAYAL 15had arisen whilst we were content that privateenterprise alone, or substantially alone, shouldbe expected to meet the necessities of thecase.On March 9th, 1922, the Minister ofHealth, in reply to a question in the Houseof Commons, expressed the hope

"thatfuture State intervention in any form will not

be required, and that the building industrywill return to its pre-war economic basis/'

It would no doubt be an inestimableadvantage if private persons once more wereable to build houses for working people atsuch a cost that the rent paid would besufficient to provide a proper and adequatereturn upon the capital invested. But thefact that this course alone had hithertofailed either to mitigate the evils of slumlife or to prevent their increase, was theprimary cause of State assistance beingrequired.That the present policy involves a com-plete reversal of that previously declaredand embodied in legislative form was further

explained by the Minister of Health a shorttime after the reply in Parliament justreferred to.


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16 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSIn an interview with a representative of

the Daily News newspaper on March 27th,the Minister stated explicitly that " we musttry to get the country back to the old economicsystem/' and, in further reply to questionsrelating to the difficulties of young marriedpeople starting family life under the presentovercrowded conditions, he is reported tohave suggested that " the newly marriedshould be so happy that they can enjoyliving even in one room," and further to havesaid : " But isn't the demand of the newlymarried for a separate house a comparativelymodern development ? In China and theEast generally, I understand they continueto live under the parental roof quite con-tentedly."

It has, I understand, been contended thatthese remarks were intended to be humorousin some way, but, in principle, they arein complete accord with the statements madein Parliament. The tragic condition underwhich so many of our fellow country-men have to live is scarcely a subject forhumour, but in any case the pledges givento the people were given seriously andwere so understood, and the standards


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THE BETRAYAL 17of hope that were set before them bore norelation to those accepted by Eastern people.An examination of this decision will showthat it bears no adequate relation to theneeds of the people.

In the last completed year of nationalexpenditure and in the third year after avictory of unprecedented completeness, wewere confronted with the position that thetax-payers of the United Kingdom werecalled upon to contribute, if the sum weredistributed equally for every man, womanand child of the population, a sum of 87/3per head for the maintenance of war services,whilst the burden it was proposed that theyshould bear for the replacement or improve-ment of poor homes was to be limited to acharge of id. per head. These figures alsoof the cost of war services for the year1921-22, do not take account of all thepayments of that class. The additional ex-penditure, for example, in Mesopotamiaand Palestine involved a further taxation ofn/2i for each member of our populationat home.There is in these things an inequality of

effort in the interests of our at home


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18 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSwhich is dishonourable and gravely unwise.If a small portion only of what might be savedfrom this expenditure were devoted to theredemption of slums it would provide acontribution sufficient to pay for the workthat could practically be executed duringeach year. Moreover, this disparity of sac-rifice and this disregard of obligationsdestroy the confidence of those who suffer,and is inimical to ordered progress and topeaceful development.


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CHAPTER IIITS CIRCUMSTANCESACLEAR understanding of the casenecessitates some review of itsattendant circumstances as well as

of those associated with the Government'sdecision to abandon our national effort todeal with it.For years past thinking and patriotic

people of all parties have been seriouslydisquieted by the fact that in England andWales alone there are nearly a million dwellingplaces so-called homes which consist of notmore than two rooms. People are com-pelled to live in them, because no otherhabitations are available. In these places,as well as in vast numbers of others whichcontain more than two rooms, the processesof deterioration are necessarily constant andrapid. The great majority of them arelacking in many of the simplest amenities,and whilst great numbers by repair or


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20 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSreconstruction could be made fit to live in,it is not disputed that there are at least200,000 of them which are so bereft of ordinaryconveniences, are of so poor a structure andso insanitary, that they are beyond amends,and ought to be demolished. These wretchedhomes are to be found in every town andvillage in the land.

In Scotland, the conditions, as revealedin the unanimous findings of the RoyalCommission, are, if possible, worse. Nearlyhalf the people of that country have housesthat consist of not more than two rooms.Many of them are no better than hovels,and a great proportion are condemned asaltogether unfit for human habitation.Homes of this kind are a perpetual hind-rance throughout life to the people who haveto live in them. They allow no privacy,afford little or no quiet or rest, even for thechild, they give no opportunity for the mindand provide a continual poison for the body.The physical consequences are disastrous tothe inhabitants and involve costly burdenson the rest of the community.From the year 191 1 onwards, the buildingof new houses was less than it previously


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 21was. So much so, that for four years previousto the year 1915, in the county of Londonfor example, more working-class rooms weredemolished than were provided by newbuilding. During the war there was almosta complete cessation both of new buildingand of repair, so that by the end of it theconditions had become worse, because thenormal wear and tear had not been madegood for a number of years. The shortagehad become so acute that, coupled withthe demand which the war had broughtfor a better standard of living, publicopinion was wholeheartedly in support ofa great national effort being made to meetthe deficiencies.

In the latter half of the year 1917, and againin March, 1918, specific proposals, worked outby those thoroughly acquainted with thepractical difficulties involved, were submittedby the Ministry of Reconstruction, whoearnestly advocated that definite preparatorysteps should be taken in preparing thenecessary organisation, in the acquisition ofsites, in the preparation and sanctioning ofplans and in kindred matters, and pointedout that otherwise great and unavoidable


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22 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSdelays must be met with after the conclusionof the war. The papers and memoranda,available bear testimony to the fact that,notwithstanding these repeated and urgentrepresentations, no practical action whateverwas taken, and consequently amid the stressof demobilisation and resettlement we werecompelled to spend many months makinggood these neglects.At the same time, the Ministry presenteda scheme of finance, based upon the proposalsof Lord Salisbury's Committee, which itrecommended on the ground that, after aterm of years, the responsibility for anyexcessive cost would fall upon those whoincurred it. This was set aside in favourof the proposal that the State should bearall the loss beyond the proceeds of a pennyrate. This latter, whilst simpler and possiblymore expeditious in its working, possessedthe serious defect of containing no substantialincentive to economy on the part of the localauthorities concerned.

During the year 1918 also a number ofreliable and experienced people under theChairmanship of Sir James Carmichaelworked out with immense care a scheme for


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 23promoting the expeditious and economicalprovision of building materials throughoutthe country. Their proposals were basedupon an examination of the capacities of thedifferent districts to produce material andof what would be required to stimulate out-put as quickly and as economically as possible.The general conception underlying theirscheme was that, in the absence of the stepsbeing taken that they had worked out inassociation with the industries concerned,any extensive plan of purchase would lead toan unnecessary inflation of prices. Theseproposals were somewhat brusquely set aside,and the twelve months' patient labour of theexperienced people Sir James Carmichaelhad called to his aid was wasted. On thecontrary it was directed that a large sum ofmoney should be provided wherewith theMinistry of Munitions should make purchasesof building material. It cannot be doubtedthat this decision in conjunction with thecompetition prevailing during the years 1919and 1920 contributed to serious and avoid-able increases of cost.

In January, 1919, as President of theLocal Government Board, the present writer


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24 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMScirculated a memorandum, pointing out withcomplete frankness how unfortunate the posi-tion was and how disabling the absence of theneedful preparatory work might prove to be.

During the year 1919, although the neces-sary personnel, both centrally and locally,was not available for many months, thepressure to make haste was very great indeed,and continued substantially throughout theyear 1920. The clamour, indeed, even withthat section of the Press which has latelyvehemently condemned the whole endeavour,was so great that it served to exaggerate theincrease of prices that the demand itselfotherwise made inevitable. There were manyoccasions indeed on which the Prime Ministerbrought great pressure to bear for morerapid progress to be made, notwithstandingthat he was fully informed of the increas-ing cost and of the grave difficulties that itoccasioned.These difficulties arose partly from the

neglect of preparatory work, but much morefrom the fact that an industry, greatlydepleted of men, found itself confrontedwith an unprecedented accumulation of de-layed repair work and with those vast


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 25demands for new building of all kinds whichcharacterised the apparently prosperous timesof the year 1919 and of the early months ofthe year 1920. Whilst only a small per-centage of the men in the building tradewere actually employed at that time uponhouse-building, there was an altogether reck-less competition both for men and formaterials in connection with contracts forindustrial and other building which hadbeen entered into without any definite pricehaving been fixed and which, added to thepressure to make progress with housing,resulted in very alarming increases of prices.

In the autumn of 1919 the draft of a Billdesigned to enable us to check the causesof these unwarrantable increases in priceswas submitted to the Cabinet. These pro-posals were not accepted in any effectiveform, although they were founded on ex-perience gained in kindred matters duringthe war in respect of which substantialsuccess had been obtained. With the inci-dence of bad trade, however, and the cessationof much competitive building, prices beganto decline, and the reductions obtainedduring the six months ending March 31st,


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26 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMS192 1, were even greater than those securedduring the following six months, althoughmany ill-informed statements to the contraryobtained a wide publicity.

Coincident with this decline of an artificialprosperity and in the presence of seriousdiscords at home and abroad, there ensueda sudden and violent reaction. Those whobefore had been loudest in their protestsat the insufficient rapidity of our progressnow became the foremost champions in thedemand that the housing and slum reclama-tion projects should be abandoned. It isperhaps inevitable in agitations of thischaracter that the point of attack shouldbe some domestic concern and one withwhich all the people are familiar. It wasso in this case, and services designed toimprove the health and housing conditionsof the people were at once sought out fordenunciation. The just proportion of thingsis only slowly emerging,

and the Report ofSir Eric Geddes's Committee is a noteworthycontribution to public enlightenment. It is,however, a fact that there were branchesof national expenditure in which vast eco-nomies could be made that came in for little


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 27mention and that in those, grouped as warservices, our expenditure amounted to asmany hundreds of millions as there were tensdevoted to all the purposes of health andhousing put together.

It will always be a reproach to the Govern-ment that instead of informing the people ofthe real proportions of these things theysought to appease an uninstructed clamourby a hasty capitulation in respect of thoseservices which were designed to improve thelot of the poor and of the unfortunate.It would be unfair to attribute to thePrime Minister a special degree of responsi-bility for this lamentable decision if the factsof the case did not abundantly warrant it.The recital of them unfortunately necessitatespersonal references.With a view to limiting our commitmentsto build houses at the high prices then pre-vailing, whilst at the same time completelyhonouring the obligations we had enteredinto with local authorities and keeping theindustry employed, it was agreed on Marchnth, 1921, after considerable inter-depart-mental discussion with Mr. Chamberlain,then Chancellor of the Exchequer, that for


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28 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSthe present the matter should be left on thebasis prescribed by him in a letter to me ofMarch gth. The agreement in this letterwas that I should ration localities on thebasis of 250,000 houses, including publicutility society schemes, on the understandingthat before June, 1922, the matter shouldbe reviewed in the light of costs and ofthe results up to date, seeing that upto that time the local authorities wouldhave plenty of work to do in carrying outthe building thus allotted to them. Therewas no alteration suggested in respectof the programme for slum restorationwork.

Before this arrangement had been an-nounced, at the commencement of the greatcoal strike and under circumstances whichare not material to the present purpose, mywork as Minister of Health came to an end,as, at the repeated request of the PrimeMinister, I accepted the office of Ministerwithout Portfolio. For some reason withwhich I was not made acquainted, thearrangement with the Chancellor of theExchequer was never acted upon. Theagitation to which reference has been made


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 29was at that time being very actively con-ducted, and it gained strength in consequenceof certain bye-elections adverse to theGovernment. Towards the end of June, inresponse to directions which were given with-out discrimination to curtail expenditure, theMinister of Health circulated a Memorandumin which he pointed out that so far ashousing expenditure was concerned no furtherlimitation could be devised beyond stoppingthe schemes at the point of existing contracts.At the same time he pointed out that alarge sum was still required in connectionwith slum clearances and restoration, andthat proposals which would have eitherof these effects could not be defendedso far as the needs of the people wereconcerned.On Saturday, July 2nd, I received, marked" for information/ ' the findings of a FinanceCommittee presided over by the PrimeMinister, which had decided to arrest thescheme. I at once challenged the findings ofthis body, and in the discussion that subse-quently ensued received substantial andinfluential support. So much so that thesubject was referred to a specially appointed


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30 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSCommittee. This body met on Tuesday,July 12th, and on Wednesday, the 13th.^At the latter meeting, notwithstanding thatan important part of the work before us wasthe consideration of alternative proposalswhich it had been agreed I should bringforward, the Committee was informed bycertain of its members that they had beeninstructed that morning by the Prime Ministerthat the findings of the Finance Committeemust still be adhered to. In this way delibera-tions on the merits of the case were broughtat an end. I declined to accept an autocraticruling of this kind on so grave an issue ofdomestic policy, and resigned my office thenext day after the announcement of thedecision to the House of Commons.

It will be seen, therefore, that the decisionwas peculiarly that of the Prime Minister.It limited assistance to new building sub-stantially to the number of houses for thebuilding of which arrangements had beenmade at the beginning of the previous April,and replaced all our legislative and othercommitments in respect of the improvementor replacement of insanitary houses by a grant

1 of for the whole of Great Britain.


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ITS CIRCUMSTANCES 31Before examining precisely the effect of

this grant upon the restoration of insanitaryareas, there are certain effects of the decisiontaken as a whole that must be dealt with,and an illustration or two should be given ofthe immediate effect of its incidence.


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CHAPTER IIIIMMEDIATE RESULTS

INthe autumn of 1921 a special session

of Parliament was called to deal withthe subject of unemployment. The

numbers of the unemployed were not farshort of two million persons. For the greaterpart of the year 1921 the figures generallywere near that appalling total, and evenduring the month of June, 1922, when thisis written, the number still exceeds 1,200,000.During the autumn session of 1921 pro-posals were submitted to Parliament thatinvolved the expenditure of large sums ofpublic money in aid of the execution ofvarious public works and otherwise. ThePrime Minister had declared that it was theintention of the Government that the buildingtrade should be employed up to the limitof its capacity in the housing schemes ofLocal Authorities. Many people therefore


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 33money which was to be devoted to the reliefof unemployment would be applied to build-ing a certain number of houses where theywere urgently wanted beyond the limit fixedby the decision of the previous July.

It was manifest to every one who had con-sidered the case on its merits at all that itwas not physically possible to make good theundertaking with regard to the employmentof men in house-building unless the limitwere raised, because, as the contracts weregradually completed, the men employedthereon were likely to become unemployed.The proposals of the Government, however,provided for no addition to this work ; onthe contrary, by a sort of perversity that isincomprehensible, the conditions of grantwere so drawn as specifically to exclude anyof the money being applied to house-buildingor even to house-repair work, although alarge and increasing number of men in thebuilding trade were out of employment.One would have thought, if additionalpublic money were to be expended in pro-viding useful employment, that at leastsome of it might have been spent by em-ploying these men either in building or in


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34 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSrepairing a certain number of houses. Onecannot with advantage employ a carpenteror a bricklayer or a plumber on ordinaryroad-making, and the amount of employmentfor men of their craft in most of the publicworks which have been aided is very limited.The only alternative method adopted wasto assist the unemployed men by a system ofdoles, or through the poor-law, apart fromwhat they might obtain through their tradeunions or from other provident agencies.

Notwithstanding the Prime Minister'sundertaking, as indeed was inevitable, thenumber of men employed on housing schemessteadily declined. In replies to Mr. TrevelynThomson in the House of Commons, theMinister of Health stated that the number ofmen employed on the housing schemes ofLocal Authorities and of public utility societieshad declined as follows : Number

unemployedOctober ist, 1921


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 35In the course of five months, therefore,

47,000 men who had been engaged in house-building lost their employment.During the same period the number ofmen registered as unemployed in the building

trade and eligible to receive monetary assist-ance through the Labour Exchanges, accord-ing to figures supplied by the Minister ofLabour, increased as follows :

October, 1921 . . . . 130,831 were unemployeuFebruary 1st, 1922 . . 176,119It cannot, moreover, be contended thatweather conditions were responsible for this,

since from an analysis of the trades of themen unemployed as supplied by the Ministerof Labour on January 10th the figures wereas follows :Numbers unemployed in the building tradeby occupations :January loth, 1922. Carpenters . . . . 12,860

Bricklayers . . . . 7,422Masons . . . . 3,578Slaters and Tilers . . 605Plasterers . . . . 623Painters . . . . 34,377Plumbers .. .. 3,573Other skilled trades 6,555Unskilled . . . . 100,752

Total unemployed on January 10th, 1922 168,745


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36 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSIt will be observed that the vast majority

of the skilled men unemployed were thoseconcerned with interior work, and it isgenerally accepted that the employment oftwo skilled men involves the employmentof three unskilled.

Since the month of March, 1922, thenumbers of houses being built has furtherdeclined, and there has now been a full yearof the application of this policy. It is cer-tainly a moderate estimate to say that forfifty weeks up to the end of September, 1922,the Government's decision has resulted in theadditional unemployment of 25,000 men perweek in the building trade alone. The num-bers engaged on the preparation and manu-facture of the different materials that enterinto a house who have correspondingly lost"work would of course be additional. Letus, however, confine ourselves to this verylow estimate of 25,000 men. What havethey cost the community in cash paymentsfrom the insurance funds, the poor-law,trade union and other funds ? It sufficesagain to take a low figure, and it is certainlyan underestimate to take the cost altogetherat 25s. per man per week. At this rate of


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 37benefit there has been expended during thefifty weeks a sum exceeding 1,500,000 in themaintenance in idleness of men able andwilling to build or repair houses.At the same time the statements of theMinister of Health indicate that the price ofbuilding has so fallen that, including the costof land, drainage and fencing, a house maynow be provided for 500. On this basis theannual loss on such a house at the moderaterental of 8s. per week, with interest andsinking fund charges at 5J per cent., wouldbe as follows :

s. d.Interest and Sinking Fund on 500 at 5 1

per cent. . . . . . . . . 27 10 oRepairs, maintenance and empties, say 850

35 15 oLess rent at Ss. per week . . . . 20 16 o

Net annual loss 14 19 oIf the million and a half paid to the men

for doing nothing were treated as a capitalsum, even at the same rate of interest, andputting the annual loss on the house at 15,it represents, at the rent of 8s. per week, theprovision, without a penny of loss, of some5,500 houses. It is difficult to understand


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38 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMShow any body of rational beings couldpersevere in a policy of this kind at a timeof such serious unemployment.The process, however, is still going on,and the estimate given is certainly muchlower than the total actual cost.

This is one immediate result of the Govern-ment's decision. Let us take another equallyserious.The present Rent Restriction Act expires

in June, 1923. This Act and its predecessorsarose out of the great housing scarcity. Itwas found that, owing to the supply of housesbeing much less than the demand, it was nolonger possible to leave it to the freeplay of the market. A great outcry arosein many places because of attempts to exactlarge increases of rent or to obtain possessionby means of the eviction of tenants unableor unwilling to pay what was demanded.Rent strikes and riots took place in conse-quence, and in some places where attemptswere made to evict ex-service men they wereof a violent character.The Government was compelled, if for no

more than for the maintenance of publicorder and security, to adopt an expedient


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 39of this kind. In some form or another,whatever Government is in power, the re-imposition of this Act is inevitable until thehousing scarcity is appreciably relieved. Sofar, indeed, did the demand go when therecent amending Act was before Parliamentthat it was with the greatest possible difficultythat Parliament was restrained from extend-ing it much further still. It is true that, atpresent, the Act does not apply to newly-built houses, but there can be no possiblesurety that this exemption will continue, forpeople will object just as much to unreason-able increases of rent or to eviction from anew and convenient house as in other cases.Economically unsound and damaging in somedirections as these Acts certainly are, theymust be continued until the shortage ofhousing accommodation has been so over-taken as not to occasion injustice and hard-ship when freedom has been restored.The fact is, however, that we are very farfrom overtaking even half of that shortage.Before the year 1910, even under the systemwhich accompanied the creation of our slums,there were on the average some 75,000 newhouses of the working-class type provided


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40 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSannually to compensate for wear and tear andfor new provision. From 1910 onwards untilthe war there was a substantial reductionin the average rate of new building. Duringthe four and a half years of war there werenot more than 50,000 such houses built inthe country altogether, so that by thebeginning of the year 1919 the arrears ofnew building, altogether apart from the arrestof slum replacement or restoration, hadmounted up to a prodigious figure. Thehardship and overcrowding that exist fromone end of the country to the other aresufficient evidence of the truth of thesestatements, apart from the estimation of anygross totals.

In the face, then, of this scarcity, only asmall percentage of which has yet been pro-vided for, with the Rent Restriction Act onthe Statute Book and its extension inevitable,the special scheme of extra provision hasbeen brought to an end, and it is proposed tolook to private enterprise to make up thedeficiency.But what does private enterprise require ?A man who makes it his business to buildhouses, just as much as another who manu-


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 41factures pieces of cloth or who builds engines,will continue to carry on his business onlyso long as he finds it profitable to do so andso long as he possesses a reasonable oppor-tunity of making the best of the productsof his enterprise. Notwithstanding the grati-fying fall in the costs of building, the costof building a house, providing the land, doingthe drainage, fencing and other necessarywork involves a capital expenditure fargreater than the average rents obtainablewill provide a sufficient return for, even inindustrial areas.

In country districts the discrepancy is muchgreater owing to the standard of rent and ofwages having been reduced by the practice ofproviding cottages at nominal and uneco-nomical rents. If, however, by a furthersubstantial decline in building costs thebuilding of cottages by private enterprisebecame a nearer possibility, the Rent Restric-tion Acts would still be present to the mindof the builder. At any time he might bedeprived of his freedom in dealing with theproperty in which he had invested his money.Human nature and the facts of the case beingwhat they are, it is certain that there will be


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42 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSno sufficient revival of house-building byprivate enterprise so long as the RentRestriction Acts continue.

Therefore, at one and the same timethe Government prevents the accumulatedshortage being made good by State ormunicipal assistance and, by prolonging theshortage, commits the community to thecontinued operation of that statute whicheffectively prevents its being met by privateenterprise.We need refer only to one other generalconsequence of the effect of this decision

before entering upon a closer examination ofthe problem presented by insanitary anddilapidated houses.

Its effect was immediately paralysing uponall the work that had been undertaken inresponse to the pledges that had been made.For the first time the authorities, great andsmall, throughout the country had made anexamination of the needs of the people intheir district in respect of overcrowding or ofdilapidated or insanitary houses, and hadset before themselves with remarkable unisona thought-out scheme of improvement whichwould gradually be carried into execution


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 43during the years to come. Their labourswere brought to nought ; all their expenditureof time and thought was made to end indisappointment, and patriotic people of allcreeds and classes turned away with sorrowfrom disinterested public service. Impulsesand forces of that kind cannot easily bemobilised, and having once been broughttogether with a worthy purpose before themand having then been dissipated, they cannotbe gathered together again for a long time.The loss to the nation of all this goodwillmust be well-nigh incalculable, and it isappropriate in closing this chapter to give abrief account of what I saw at that timewhen taken round by a public authority,to witness, as it were, the funeral of theirhopes.With great courtesy the Mayor and C01-poration of the City of Wakefield invited me tovisit them. The number of new houses towhich they had been limited under the newdecision was 200. They required more thanfour times that number for additional accom-modation alone, whilst they were furtherconfronted in the city with no less than 1,100inhabited houses which were condemned as


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44 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSunfit. Many of the latter were in an area inwhich the death rate was 27, whilst that forthe city as a whole was 15-6. In that samearea the death rate from tuberculosis, with allits resulting charges to the ratepayers, wasthree times as great as in the city as a whole.Tenement after tenement, row after rowshowed the same squalor and insufficiency ofdecent accommodation. A soldier who hadlooked for a home lamented the fact that hewas now shut out from the possibility ofobtaining one. His family occupied a singleroom looking out on to the wall of a narrowcourt. It served for kitchen, scullery, coalcellar, wash-house, living-room and bedroom,and was rented at 75. per week.

It is to be noted also that there was onlyone vehicle to be seen in that street, and itwas the carriage of the relieving officer.

In the afternoon a neighbouring authority,similarly limited, invited me to inspect somefarm buildings at the end of which twofamilies had their abode, and for whom nowthere was no chance of betterment. Inboth families the husbands had seen longwar service. One tenement provided for afamily of four, and the other housed a young


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 45couple who had one child. Both men wereof good character and with regular employ-ment. The tenements of each were similara room below served as living-room andkitchen, and in both cases the diligent wifehad made the very best of it, both as tocomfort and cleanliness. Up a steep, narrowand rickety stair we found their sleeping-places. There was one room above the kit-chen and another, scarcely larger than a good-sized cupboard. The larger family had touse both, but the young soldier at the backhad had to abandon the larger room, notbecause of the falling plaster or the brokenand sinking floor-boards, but because therewere so many rats with runs in and out ofthe skirting-boards that they disturbed theirsleep. The rats had even invaded the furni-ture. The human inhabitants had surrenderedand taken to the small room because it wassomewhat freer from vermin. The little roomwas freer from the rats, because beneath itsfloor-boards there was no harbourage forthem as it formed a part of the roof of thepig place. It is true that the grunting of thepigs disturbed the family somewhat, butthat was less objectionable than the rats.


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46 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSI thought of Lord Long's moving pledge

as to the places that are no better thanpigsties, and which he said, truly, that itwould be a "black crime " to continue totolerate.The man whose family was thus housed

was a clean, fresh-faced young Englishmanwho had served through the war. For fouryears he had been a prisoner of war inGermany, and after his emancipation thiswas all he could secure for a home. But thefresh colour in his face was deceptive, for oncoming down the stairs from seeing the bed-room, I saw a familiar coloured form on thetable that he had received that morning. Onreference to it, it transpired that he had beenfound to be suffering from tuberculosis, andhad been summoned to go for sanatoriumtreatment. One does not wonder at hishaving contracted tuberculosis. He will costthe State about 2 15s. per week while he is apatient in the sanatorium. The bed that hewill occupy has cost the State 180 to pro-vide, apart from the contribution of thelocal ratepayers. These charges will con-tinue for many months, and if we add tothem the cost of the maintenance of the wife


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IMMEDIATE RESULTS 47and child during that time, and the loss ofhis work and earnings, it is not difficult todiscover that the occupancy of that barn-end will have been a costly business.The tragedy and the sorrow of such casesas these are not to be concealed from thepeople. Disappointment may well give wayto bitterness, and the economies demandedin these things by the apostles of " Anti-Waste," which were so precipitately con-ceded, may indeed prove to have been anextravagance. Cases like these, existing asthey do in abundance throughout the land,are seeds of bitterness ; the harvest of themmay be delayed, but it is continually ripeningin sorrow and in sullenness, in disputes andin diminished production, and the garneringof it will be very costly.


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CHAPTER IVWHAT THE PROPOSED GRANT WILL DO

AS a result of the Government'sdecision, Local Authorities will notreceive the assistance to which theHousing Act of 1919 entitled them. Underthat Act any losses they might have incurredbeyond the proceeds of a penny rate, upon

. all their housing expenditure, includingwhat they spend upon the replacement orrestoration of insanitary houses during fiveyears, would have been made good to them.This is to be replaced by a grant not ex-ceeding 200,000 a year for the whole ofGreat Britain.

Before examining the application of thisproposal it is necessary to refer to certainconditions and limitations that attach to allschemes of restoration work of this kind,whatever may be the form of assistance.The magnitude of the task acts as abarrier. Apart from the hundreds of


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PROPOSED GRANT 49thousands of new houses that are requiredas new accommodation to compensate forovercrowding, it exists sufficiently in theinsanitary houses which are to be found in allour towns and villages. A low estimate, asalready stated, is that 200,000 of them inEngland and Wales are so derelict and in-sanitary that they can only be demolishedand an equivalent number of new dwellingsprovided. Beside these there is a verymuch greater number that require substantialrepair or reconstruction before they can besaid to comply with the most modest standardof what a home for a family should contain.

In Scotland 539,000 homes, or more thanhalf the houses in that country, consist ofnot more than two rooms in all. Apart fromovercrowding, the Royal Commission unani-mously found that 57,000 of them were sodamp and abominable that they ought to becleared away.These houses have gradually come to theirpresent state, and the private owner has

often had little or no power over the eventswhich have led to these results. In a greatnumber of cases the houses, either indi-vidually or in small groups, are in the handsD


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50 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSof people of relatively modest means, andit is certain that in the great bulk of casesthe private owner has neither the moneynor the credit to carry out the necessaryreconstruction and repair work. If he had,he would incur great loss by executing thework at present or prospective prices andrents.For the most part, private enterprise can

only carry out a reconstruction scheme andrealise a profit when the greater part ofthe ground or property is devoted tocommercial or industrial uses. When thishappens the result aggravates the existingovercrowding.A Local Authority in the first instancedoes all it can to secure the execution of thenecessary repairs and sanitary improvementsby the private owner. When this has beenexhausted, it finds itself confronted with agreat number of bad houses which eitherought to be demolished and replaced bynew accommodation, or subjected to suchreconstruction or adaptation as the presentowner cannot afford and cannot fairly beasked to carry out.When an area consisting for the most


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PROPOSED GRANT 51part of this class of property has to be dealtwith, the best and most economical use canbe made of it only if the Local Authorityacquires it as a whole. This necessitates aconsiderable commitment in respect of pur-chase, and the preparation of a scheme orplan of however provisional a kind, fordealing with it as a whole for housing andfor other purposes. In other words, unlessthe transaction is to be unnecessarily waste-ful, the Authority must commit itself to anundertaking which will require some yearsto carry out, and of which the execution iscomplicated by the fact that reconstructionor replacement must be proceeded withpiecemeal if the area is at all considerable,because of the hardship from dishousingthat would otherwise be occasioned.Such property, under the provisions of the

Housing Act of 1919, can now be acquiredon terms which, it is hoped, will cease toput a premium on slum property, and atthe same time be just both to the ownersand to the public. Nevertheless, underthe most favourable conditions any LocalAuthority, in committing itself to animprovement scheme, has to accept extensive


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52 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSobligations, and the burdens it will castupon the ratepayers must be a governingconsideration.

It is accordingly recognised, both byStatute and by common consent, that theresponsibility for the existence of extensivebad housing in different places is not onethat can rest wholly upon the locality itself,since the conditions have resulted both fromlack of national policy, and from social orindustrial circumstances over which thoseinhabiting the particular district have hadlittle or no control. Indeed, housing improve-ment has stood still in poor areas, and willcontinue to stand still unless outside help isafforded, because the poorer the district andthe more dilapidated its houses the less isits credit and its ability therefore to dealwith them. In addition to this, the nationaldisabilities which result from bad housinghave led all sections of opinion to recognisethat national assistance in some form shouldbe afforded.

Unless, therefore, the share of the grantwhich a Local Authority will receive bears areasonable relation to the amount of assist-ance that the task before them requires that


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PROPOSED GRANT 53they should obtain if the burdens upon theirown ratepayers are not to be of a prohibitivekind, no scheme will be undertaken thatwill be sufficient to produce any sub-stantial amelioration of the present evilconditions. If this does not prove to be thecase, then the effect is to deter authoritiesfrom preparing effective schemes of improve-ment. The consequence in such cases in-evitably is that matters will go on gettingworse, for the amount of deterioration thatthe present overcrowding is causing, even inproperty that is not yet classified either asdilapidated or insanitary, is extensive and isaccumulating. No inducements that amountto anything more than occasional coats ofwhitewash are going to accomplish anythingin the reclamation of our slums or in theprevention of their extension.The effect of the grant may best betested by applying it to cases where theAuthority is strong financially and is wellequipped with able and experienced muni-cipal executive officers. If it proves to beinsufficient in such cases, it will certainly bequite inoperative where the Authority ispoor, possibly inexperienced, and saddled


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54 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSwith the burdens of an overcrowded andbadly-built district.We will therefore examine it by applyingit to the cities of Leeds and Glasgow, relyingfor a statement of the facts upon two Govern-ment publications.The first case will be found stated in theSecond and Final Report upon Unhealthy

Areas recently presented to Parliament bythe Committee presided over by the Rt.Hon. Neville Chamberlain, M.P., and thesecond is contained in the unanimous findingsof the recent Royal Commission on Housingin Scotland.

In the City of Leeds Mr. Chamberlain'sCommittee informs us that there are 72,000houses built back-to-back in close parallelrows, without through ventilation and withoutany circulation of fresh air being possible.An examination of these houses shows that12,000 are fairly substantially built, and havefifteen feet of space between the front of thehouse and the road. They also have aseparate w.c. entered from this space. Theseare the best houses of the 72,000.The second group consists of 27,000 housesbuilt in blocks of eight. Between each pair


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PROPOSED GRANT 55of blocks there are sanitary conveniences forthe inhabitants of each of the two groupsof eight houses. In order to get to theseplaces the people have to go along thestreet, as there is no garden or court ofany kind attached. These are the secondbest houses.The remainder consist of 33,000 houses

built back-to-back in long continuous rows,opening directly on to the street, and crammedtogether at the rate of seventy or eighty tothe acre. The sanitary conveniences andthe houses themselves are so atrocious that,we are informed, it is difficult to suggestany satisfactory method of dealing with themshort of complete clearance.Now a small part of the grant may bereserved for specially hard cases, but sub-stantially it must be distributed, as all suchgrants are, on a population basis. TheSecretary for Scotland has already told usthat the share of Scotland is to be 30,000.On that basis the City of Leeds will receivesomewhat less than 4,000.

If we omit the 12,000 of the better housesof the insanitary class, the grant for Leedsin respect of the remaining 60,000 represents


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56 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSa subsidy of one shilling and fourpence perhouse per annum. If it were confined tothe second class, it would represent threeshillings per house per annum, and if it wereconfined to the worst of all and to those onlythat need demolition and replacement, itwould be equivalent to assistance to theextent of half a crown annually for eachhouse. Is it to be expected that the munici-pality of Leeds will enter upon the acquisitionand reconstruction of the 27,000 housesthat are worth reconstruction, or of anysubstantial number of them, entirely apartfrom the demolition and replacement of the33,000 that are altogether condemned, withthe help derivable from a grant of thesedimensions ?On a basis twice as favourable as thatexisting at present their allowance may sufficeto meet the charges falling upon them forthe reconstruction of 250 of these houses atthe most, leaving not a penny over for anyother purpose.

It is a mockery to suggest that the Cityof Leeds will be induced to undertake itsgigantic task or any sensible proportion ofit by an offer of that kind.


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PROPOSED GRANT 57How would the proposal affect Glasgow ?

In this city, in the year 1911, there were32,742 houses consisting of not more thanone room, and they accommodated 104,621people, or more than three persons in eachroom. At the same time there were 75,536houses consisting of two rooms, which pro-vided homes for 267,341 people. These twoclasses of houses together therefore provideddwellings for 470,000 people, or a little morethan 62 per cent, of the total population ofthe city. That percentage was the sameten years previously, and it has certainlynot improved since then. A large numberof these dwellings, besides being overcrowded,are utterly insanitary and inadequate. It isnot a misuse of words to say that in thesedwellings the City of Glasgow is presentedwith a problem of appalling dimensions. Itsshare of the Scottish grant is estimated tobe about 6,000 !Test it where we will, the grant affordsno material help and provides no scheme

of policy for any place that is handicapped bybad housing conditions. It leaves the burdenstill upon the inhabitants, and present con-ditions testify to the evil results of that policy.


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58 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSIn view of the fact, however, that this

decision may be maintained it behoves us tolook closely into the conditions governing thelives of people under these circumstances andinto the results which follow to themselvesand to the community.


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CHAPTER VLIFE IN SLUM HOUSES '. ITS GENERALCHARACTER

WHEN we examine the results ofliving in overcrowded or insani-tary houses, we are apt to turnto the mass figures of census returns and ofGovernment Reports. Such figures, however,may give no adequate indication of thoseunderlying realities from which alone we canobtain either a true understanding of theposition or guidance for future action.

It will not be needful, therefore, to givemany figures.The census of 191 1 revealed that in Englandand Wales 3,139,472 people were living in430,000 tenements at the rate of more thantwo occupants to each room, and that therewere 915,182 houses in the country thatconsisted of not more than two rooms. Therecent census has revealed an increase in thepopulation in England and Wales of 1,814,750

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60 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSpeople, but the corresponding figure of over-crowding is not yet known. The diminishedrate of building since 191 1 and the absenceof repair work during the war make it certainthat the number of people living in over-crowded conditions will be substantially in-creased. In the City of London in 191 1there were 758,786 people living under suchconditions.

According to the recent Report of theRoyal Commission, there were 399,876 peoplein Scotland living in houses of one room only,and 1,881,529 others living in houses of notmore than two rooms, so that in effect2,281,405 people or nearly half the popula-tion of Scotland lived in houses of one ortwo rooms. So far as the condition of thesehouses is concerned, the Royal Commissionsays :

" To our amazement, we found that, ifwe take overcrowding to mean more thanthree persons per room, we should, tosecure even this moderate standard forScotland, have to displace some 284,000of our population. But this is not all. Weconclude that at least 50 per cent, of the


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SLUM HOUSESCHARACTER 61one-room houses and 15 per cent, of thetwo-room houses ought to be replaced bynew houses. . . . For such gigantic figuresour Report submits full justification. Onthis point the Commission is unanimous/ '

The foregoing figures, however, are limitedby the definition adopted for the termM overcrowded/' In England and Wales thestandard adopted is that of more than twopersons for each room and in Scotland ofmore than three persons for each room. Suchstatistics, moreover, tell us nothing of thevast number both of people and of housesbeyond those so overcrowded, in which theconditions are insanitary and in which theinhabitants are not supplied with barefacilities for the ordinary and decent conductof family life. When these are taken intoaccount, as they must be, and as they werein the returns made to the Ministry of Healthin 1919, the numbers of those who have tolive under unhealthy conditions is enormouslyincreased. Whatever may be the shockingtotal, the figures in their very greatness revealone thing that cannot be challenged. Theyshow that any suggestion that the people


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62 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSconcerned are made up of thriftless personscannot be entertained at all. In the mainthey are working people who live under theseconditions because there is no opportunity forthem to live under any other.

It is not the people's fault that their life isspent in unsavoury tenements wherein theyand, often enough, two or three other familieshave to share the same water tap in the yardor on the next landing, as well as a dirtycloset which it is nobody's business inparticular to keep clean. It is no fault oftheirs that the mother of the family has onlyan ordinary fire-grate in which to cook themeals and that the same room has to serveas wash-house, living-room and bedroom. Itis not their fault that there is no possibilitymorning, noon or night, for any memberof the family to have any manner of privacywhatever ; that the infant and the littlechild have to sleep in the room which othershave to frequent when they come in forsupper and during the evening ; that it isnot possible for fresh air to get through thetenement because it opens either on to astuffy landing or is backed by another house ;that the boys and girls have to sleep in the


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SLUM HOUSES CHARACTER 63same room together ; that even at the timeof birth, or in the hour of death, the sameunyielding conditions, save for the kindli-ness of neighbours, similarly circumstanced,govern the whole conduct of their family life.There is no over-statement in any of this,but it is better to take the facts as they emergefrom unchallenged and impartial inquiry.We have seen that more than half thepopulation of the City of Glasgow live inone or two-roomed houses and make up apopulation of 471,982 persons a greaternumber than is contained altogether in manyof our important towns and cities. Dr. JamesBurn Russell was for twenty-six years theMedical Officer of Health for that City, andlater became the Medical Member of the LocalGovernment Board of Scotland. He spenthis life studying these conditions. His testi-mony is beyond question and is worthy ofstudy.*He wrote as follows :M Figures are beyond the reach of* " Public Health Administration in Glasgow."Memorial Volume of the Writings of James Burn

Russell, B.A., M.D., LL.D., edited by A. K. Chalmers,M.D. Maclehouse & Sons, Glasgow. 1905.


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64 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSsentiment, and if they are sensational, it isonly because of their terrible, undisguisedtruthfulness. You must not think of theinmates of those small houses as familiesin the ordinary sense of the term. Noless than 14 per cent, of the one-roomedhouses and 27 per cent, of the two-roomedcontain lodgers strange men and womenmixed up with husbands and wives andchildren, within the four walls of smallrooms. Nor must I permit you, in notingdown the average of fully three inmatesin each of these one apartment houses, toremain ignorant of the fact that there arethousands of these houses which containfive, six and seven inmates, and hundredswhich are inhabited by from eight up evento thirteen.

11 1 might ask you to imagine yourselves,with all your appetites and passions, yourbodily necessities and functions, your feel-ings of modesty, your sense of propriety,your births, your sicknesses, your deaths,your children in short, your lives in thewhole round of their relationships with theseen and the unseen, suddenly shrivelled andshrunk into such conditions of space. I


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SLUM HOUSES CHARACTER 65might ask you, I do ask you, to consider andhonestly confess what would be the result toyou ? But I would fain do more. Gener-alities are so feeble. Yet how can I speakto you decently of details ? Where can Ifind language in which to clothe the factsof these poor people's lives and yet betolerable ? . . ." It is obvious that no manner of occu-pancy will make the one-room house ahome in the proper sense of the word.Not that many an isolated man or womanor aged couple may not find in it a whole-some and suitable dwelling-place and enjoytherein the privilege of independence. Eventhe young couple who have ' married forlove ' while yet in the stages of ' workingfor siller ' may light their first fire on thehearth of the one-room house. These arethe anomalies of life, and, under certainconditions, I take no exception to the one-room house in itself, because it undoubtedlymeets them ; but, I repeat, a home inthe proper sense of the word, a place forthe nurture of a family, it can never be . . .

' But/' he goes on to say, M let us askourselves what life in one room can be,


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SLUM HOUSES CHARACTER 67picture books, your space to play in with-out being trodden upon, your children'sparties and your daily airings, your prattlewhich does not disturb your sick mamma,your special table spread with a specialmeal, your seclusion from contact with thedead, and, still worse, familiarity with theliving, where would you find your innocenceand how would you preserve the dew andfreshness of your infancy in one room ?You grown-up sons, with all the resourcesof your fathers for indoor amusement, withyour cricket fields and football club andskating pond, with your own bedroom,with space which makes self-restraint easyand decency natural, how could you washand dress and sleep and eat, and spendyour leisure hours in a house of oneroom ? You grown-up daughters, withyour bedrooms and your bathrooms, yourpiano and your drawing-room, your littlebrothers and sisters to toy with when youhave a mind to and send out of the waywhen you cannot be troubled, your everywant supplied without sharing in menialhousehold work, your society regulatedand no rude rabble of lodgers to sully the


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SLUM HOUSES CHARACTER 69scanty company to the distant and cheer-less cemetery, where the acid and deadlyair of the city in which you lived will stillblow over you and prevent even a bladeof grass from growing upon your grave."This is a terrible portrayal, but it is not

beyond the sober truth, and it would bepossible to multiply quotations from evidencepresented to Parliament in official Reportswhich reveal the character of the family lifeof people whose unfortunate lot it is to liveunder these conditions. It will be useful,however, to record an example from the resultsof an inquiry which was conducted in North-East London shortly before the war, andwhich on more than one occasion was madeeffective use of by the Prime Minister inpublic speeches.A complete report of domestic conditionswas obtained from a considerable number ofstreets. Many of the houses were not in thecondemned class, but for the most part hadbecome inhabited in tenements. As a typicalcase the records may be quoted of the firstten houses on the same side of a street forwhich the information was complete and in


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70 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSwhich the houses, so far as their structurewent, were, in a sound condition, and whichare fairly representative of tens of thousandsof houses which exist throughout the country.A recent examination of the street reveals nosubstantial change. It is described as " amedium broad street of three-storied houses,with basements. The basements are alwaysdark and unfit for habitation. The houseshave fairly large windows and fairly loftyrooms. The yards at the back are of a goodsize, but are shut in by houses at the end."The accompanying table speaks for itself.


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SLUM HOUSES CHARACTER 71The fact that one water-closet served on

the average rather more than three separatelettings, and that the tenants of nearly fourseparate lettings had to share one water tapfor all purposes, gives perhaps a betterindication of the way that family life iscarried on than any bare figures of over-crowding can do.

It was ascertained beyond question thatthe population in these streets consisted almostwholly of average working people, regularlyemployed, who were constant residents. Manyof them, indeed, had been born there. Theylived there because it was " handy for work/'because they could not get other accommoda-tion, because the father and the childrenliked

"to come home for dinner/' becausethey " could not afford railway fares from

the suburbs," and because they were near acheap market, and finally because they " justlived there."There is no point in multiplying examples,for there are many miles of such tenement

streets in London alone. It is better toconsider the effect of such surroundings onthe people concerned.


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CHAPTER VILIFE IN SLUM HOUSES ! SOME OF ITS RESULTS

OFFICIALstatistics in municipal and

other reports prove that life underthe conditions described in the

previous chapter is accompanied by a highdeath-rate, and is conducive to the spread oftuberculosis and other diseases. Let usendeavour to get behind these reports andexamine the effect on the general vitalityand efficiency of the people.As to the statistics, Dr. Russell told us that32 per cent, of the children who die in Glasgowbefore completing their fifth year, comefrom one-room houses, whilst only 2 per cent,come from houses of five rooms or more. Butsuch figures may be submitted to variouscorrections affecting the total numbers andages of those concerned, and Dr. Chalmers, thepresent Medical Officer of Health, as quotedby the Royal Commission, made allowancefor all the different factors affecting age-rates

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SLUM HOUSESSOME RESULTS 73and otherwise, and found that the mortalitystatistics in the different classes of homeswas as follows :

Death rate per house inOne-roomed houses .. .. ..20-14Two-roomed . . . . . . .. 16-83Three-roomed ,, . . .. .. ..12-63Four and more ,, . . .. .. .. 10-32

In Birmingham, Dr. Robertson, the Medi-cal Officer of Health, took two comparableindustrial areas within that city, the onewith some 33,000 houses on a little less than2,000 acres, and the other with 30,000 houseson about 3,000 acres. The first area hedescribed as having bad living conditions,and the second as providing fairly goodaccommodation. The results were obtainedfrom the records of the years 1912 to 1916.In the first area, the general death-rate was21 ; in the second 12. In the first, theinfant death-rate was 171 ; in the second itwas 89.With regard to tuberculosis, an inquirywas made in some London boroughs as tothe home conditions of those who came tothe dispensaries. In one borough only 86out of 482 consumptive patients had a


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SLUM HOUSES SOME RESULTS 75sleep, our ability to do our work, our goodtemper and general bodily and mental healthbegin to suffer. But in these narrow homesit is not possible for the children to getsufficient sleep if the ordinary conduct offamily life is to be possible for the mother andfather and for the older members of thefamily. If they are within doors duringthe evening, they cannot but disturb thesleep of the younger ones or make them go tobed later than they ought to do. This con-sideration, as well as the character of thehome itself, often compels the seniors to findtheir occupation in the streets or elsewhere.How can they be blamed if they sometimesgo to the public-house more than is good forthem ? It provides free conversation, as wellas shelter and warmth when it is raining andcold. In the presence of these obvious factsit is a little difficult to understand whyso many well-meaning people have resistedall attempts to make the public-house apleasanter place than it is. Apart from them,too, society owes more than it sometimes sus-pects to the numerous clubs and associationsthat help to brighten the evenings of thepeople in these crowded districts.


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76 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSla homes of this character wherever there

is a family, and despite all the ingenuity andexpedients that parents may devise to abateits drawbacks, there is an ever-presentobstacle from infancy onwards to the childrengetting a sufficiency of quiet sleep. Thereis not one of us, more fortunately circum-stanced and with young children of our own,who has not passed in the evening along suchstreets and seen tiny children playing aboutdoorsteps and on the pavement at a timewhen our own were already in bed. It needsno expert to convince us that plenty of sleepis essential for a child's growth and goodnutrition, but these children are handicappedin that way from the beginning as the recordsof the school medical service will presentlyreveal.The case is made worse because of the fact

that their chances are usually prejudiced intwo other matters almost equally vital togood health : namely, in the quality of theair they have to breathe and in the characterof the food they have to eat.

It is plain that the air in our home, of allplaces, should be as pure as we can get it,because we breathe it for a longer time than


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SLUM HOUSES SOME RESULTS 77any other. The mother of a family spendsmost of her time within doors. The childrenspend at least two-thirds of theirs. Evengrown-up persons who go to daily work andreturn in the evening, spend nearly half oftheir lives at home, if we take the whole yearround. When people, for all these hours, arebreathing air largely used by others, toocrowded in their rooms, and very often inrooms that cannot be ventilated, it is inevit-able that they should be injured thereby andbecome specially prone to the infection ofcolds, tubercle and other complaints.We have all experienced at different timesthe lassitude and ill-effects which arise froma long stay in a stuffy room ; but this is notthe occasional, it is the usual condition inmultitudes of these homes. Take those72,000 houses built back-to-back in the cityof Leeds, and which, being shut in by a wallat the back, cannot possibly have throughventilation. The only opening in such cases,beside the front window, is the door, whichopens, often enough, on to a landing that isstuffy and that is shared by the inhabitantsof other tenements in which the air is similarlystagnant. Under these circumstances, it is


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78 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSunavoidable that medical inspection ofschool children should show that hundredsof thousands of them suffer from variousdisordered throat conditions ; from chroniccatarrh, enlarged tonsils, adenoids and therest. Great numbers of the children, owingto the spread of the affections from thethroat to the ear, become affected withdeafness, with all its attendant disadvan-tages when they come to have to earn aliving.The case of food is equally striking and isequally traceable. A great proportion of the

houses now used in tenements in this countrywere originally designed for single-familyoccupation, and in most of them the room thatwas originally the kitchen is the only room inwhich there is a fire-place on which a womancan cook meals with the usual facility. Inthe other tenements of the house, the womenhave to do the best they can with their potsand pans perched on the bars of an ordinaryfire-place. Even when this is not the case,there is usually no proper provision forkeeping the food fresh and clean, either beforeit has been cooked or afterwards. Too fewof us realise under what continual disad-


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SLUM HOUSES SOME RESULTS 79vantage the heroic mothers of millions of ourpeople have to labour in the conduct of theirhome life. These disabilities, of course, affectthe family diet every day. They limit verymuch the kind of meals that can be cooked,and impose sameness and lack of varietyupon their food. One consequence often isthat there is an excessive use of ready-cookedfoods, pickles, and of other tasty thingsdifficult to digest. Continued through aseries of years, diet of this kind is repre-sented by widespread digestive disorders.The proportion of the working classes thatsuffer from them is very high indeed as therecords to which I shall shortly allude beartestimony.An interesting side-light on this aspect ofthe question is afforded by the experience

gained during the special efforts which weremade during the years 1919 and 1920 tocombat the high infant mortality. Great en-deavour was made to concentrate our effortsboth centrally and locally on the improvedmilk feeding of infants. It is not materialhere to detail all that was done, but thesimple diet of milk that the infant requiresafforded an opportunity to secure that in


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SLUM HOUSES SOME RESULTS 81recruiting stations during the war. Peoplewere shocked. It is easy to forget it now inpeace time. But our forgetfulness does notabate the constant and continuing operationof these damaging influences. They continueto produce malnourishment and many of thephysical disabilities that limit the person'sability to do good and useful work, and to doit regularly. The industrial loss involvedmust be prodigious, and to it must beadded the increased liability to unemploy-ment pay and to dependence upon publicsupport.

Familiar, however, as many of these thingsare, it came as a surprise to many, two yearsago, to find that the insured population ofEngland and Wales lost fourteen millionweeks of work through sickness every year.These were people, be it noted, who had workto do, but who were unable to go to it becausethey were sick. The loss was so gigantic thatno study of its causes could be too careful.A detailed examination, therefore, was madeof the sicknesses of insured persons as faras they could be ascertained. Three con-clusions emerged from the Report withclear and irresistible dominance, and they


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82 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSdeserve to be quoted. They were stated asfollows :

" i. That the conditions which impairthe health and even lead to the disable-ment of men, women and children are notchiefly the conditions which kill them,though they may, in many cases, predisposeto mortal disease."2. That relatively little of the sickness

is attributable directly to infectious disease,and" 3. That a substantial proportion is

preventable."Apart altogether from grave diseases, whatwere the two conditions that bulked largest

amongst those for which the people soughtmedical aid ? They were respiratory dis-orders, other than grave disease, andindigestion. In representative cities itappeared that out of every thousand disordersfor which insured persons sought advice, noless than 324 were accounted for in these twogroups.There are all sorts of risks and disad-

vantages to be encountered in adult andworking life, but such results are not to be


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SLUM HOUSES SOME RESULTS 83wondered at if we consider the home con-ditions that have prejudiced the air and thefood that has been taken by so many peoplefrom childhood onwards. It is reports of thiskind that begin to reveal the waste that slumlife represents in loss of labour and produc-tion, in the cost of medical attendance and ofsickness payments.

Parenthetically it may be observed that,at the time this inquiry was being made, adetermined attempt was made by animportant newspaper to do away even withthe meagre records that we have of what thepeople suffer from. It is strange that politicalmalignity should go so far as to seek to depriveus of a knowledge of the causes that preventpeople being able to continue at their workbecause of sickness.

It would be easy, but it is not necessary,to extend this examination of the physicaldisablements which are so conspicuouslypresent amongst that section of the peoplewhich includes so many that are overcrowdedand badly housed. The material is ample,and is plainly set out in the report of almostevery independent inquiry that has beenconducted on the subject.


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84 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSIt may, however, be profitable, seeing that

the national effort to deal with these con-ditions has been arrested on the ground ofeconomy, to inquire a little more preciselyinto the costs which are otherwise attendantupon the present state of affairs.

In doing so, also, we must defer for thepresent the consideration of those otherresults of life under these circumstanceswhich are not ascertainable in terms ofbodily ailments, or in cash payments for thesick. They will, no doubt, be present allthe time to the minds of thinking people,but the data are not available whereby wecan assess the national loss arising out of themisery and sorrow, the discontent and thebad habits that assail with such advantagethe lives of those who have to spend theirdays in these gloomy and unhealthy places.


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CHAPTER VIILIFE IN SLUM HOUSES \ SOME ITEMS OF ITSCOST

WEhave no means of calculatingprecisely the loss occasioned bythe diminished production and

by the loss of earnings which accompanypreventable sickness. A substantial propor-tion of the fourteen million weeks of worklost through sickness annually is clearlyassociated with sickness that is preventable,and it is markedly prevalent amongst thatsection of the people whose homes we areconsidering.We know what cash payments are madethrough official agencies to those who aresick, and what is spent in various directionsin remedial treatment. There are, however,so many deficiencies in our knowledge ofthe bill of costs, that at the time when Iwas Minister of Health I directed Mr.Vivian, the Registrar-General, to try and


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SLUM HOUSES SOME COSTS 87received weekly sickness payments on accountof loss of work. Owing to the fact, however,that the duration of the disease is prolongedand that tuberculosis patients received pay-ments on an average for nearly fourteenweeks each, against a general average offive weeks, it emerged that out of every100 that the Society paid in sickness benefits,those affected with tuberculosis received5 2s., or a little over one-twentieth part of

the whole.It is not necessary to describe the elaborate

calculations which accompanied Mr. Vivian'sgeneral application of these conclusions.There were 46,318 deaths from tuberculosisin England and Wales during the year 1919,and allowances had to be made for the agesof those affected, their occupations, earnings,and for many other circumstances, beforeany final estimate of the loss could be arrivedat. His conclusion, however, is represented inthe following table from which there is omittedfrom lack of separate data any estimate ofthe share of the cost that tuberculosis entailsupon our public health services.


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88 THE BETRAYAL OF THE SLUMSTOTAL ANNUAL DIRECT COST OF TUBERCU-LOSIS TO THE COMMUNITY (ENGLANDAND WALES) :

Loss by death of production and servicescalculated to afford a net annual addi-tion to capital of . . . . . . 9,600,000Loss by incapacity of production andservices estimated at, say . . . . 2,350,000

Cost of National Health Insurance cashbenefits, say . . . . . . . . 300,000Cost to public funds of curative provisions,say 2,000,000

Annual Cost Total . . . . 14,250,000It is to be observed that, although tuber-culosis is a long continuing disease, the

payments for sickness benefit made in respectof it were only about one pound out of everytwenty pounds that societies paid to theirmembers on account of sickness. The re-maining nineteen pounds and the corres-ponding losses and costs that attach to themhave to be accounted for. It is in themthat we are confronted by the fact alreadystated that respiratory and digestive dis-orders, apart from grave and defined maladiesof either of those two classes, account for noless than 324 out of every 1,000 disordersfrom which insured persons annually seekadvice. When we couple together the life


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SLUM HOUSES SOME COSTS 89conditions which favour the occurrence ofthese disorders with the conclusion that muchof the sickness is preventable, we begin tohave some glimmering of the extent of ourcommercial and industrial losses arising fromavoidable sickness. All the evidence avail-able goes to show that the sum, whateverit is, is so large that it might well bear com-parison with the greatest items in our nationalexpenditure.From whatever direction indeed this prob-lem is approached, and when all fair allow-ances have been made for other causes, theconclusion is irresistible that the cost inphysical disability, the loss of work and ofworking efficiency, the cost of paymentsfor sickness, for treatment, for unemployment,for poor law and other charges arising out ofbad housing conditions form a prodigious total.Some further light upon this is providedby a table of our present annual expenditureon medical services which was supplied bythe Ministry of Health. It includes expendi-ture from rates, from the exchequer and fromassigned revenues, together with compulsoryindividual contributions and the cost ofhospitals and of voluntary contributions.


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(1922) the betrayal of the slums

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