SHERRATT & HUGHES Publishers to the Victoria University of Manchester Manchester: 34 Cross Street London: 60, Chandos Street W.C. in England Its Statistics, Legislation and Policy BY ERNEST RITSON DEWSNUP, M.A. = Professor of Railway Economics in the University of Chicago MANCHESTER PREFACE. THE present essay is an attempt to consider the housing problem in England with regard to three definite points, (1) the condition of the housing of the poor, as indicated by the statistics of the last two censuses, (2) the attitude of the legislature towards the amelioration of the evils connected with that housing and the extent to which the statutory facilities afforded by it have been made use of, and (3) some criticism of the policy involved in such attitude. The essay does not profess to be complete. It has been written in fragments as the too brief intervals of a busy life have given opportunity. In many places, lack of time for further investigation has compelled my treatment to be merely suggestive in nature. Still, I feel that in so far as the book constrains its reader to view the housing problem of England from a broader standpoint than is customary, the time spent upon its preparation will be more than repaid. It may be my good fortune at some time in the future, when leisure is more abundant, to amplify and strengthen both the statements of fact and the arguments advanced in the present volume. The statistical work of Chapter 3 places in a convenient form for the first time the actual condition of overcrowding in England. I say actual condition because by such an arrangement of facts alone is it possible to comprehend satisfactorily the real extent and present tendency of overcrowding. A favourite method of "writing-up" the housing problem (made use of not only by the general press but by more formal writers) is to pick out extreme cases of insanitation and overcrowding, dwelling upon the 163713 |
