check the supply of houses. But it is also checked by the poverty of the working-man. He cannot pay a rent which tempts the builder; in other words, the margin of profit that the builder can make out of him is so small that his demand for a house is not effective. He wants and needs it, but he cannot pay a price which will secure it.
These, then, are the permanent causes of shortage: that a house takes a century to consume; that land values are, comparatively speaking, inflexible, and that a working-man can only afford a cheap house.
Coming now to the question, "Can satisfactory houses be provided for the working classes at rents which they can afford to pay"? I should like to say that, in my opinion, apart from any question of hygiene, long monotonous rows of houses are eminently unsatisfactory, and I should like to make it impossible to continue to build them. There is no reason why we should not limit the number of houses which may be built to the acre. Just as bye-laws enact that the rooms in a
