4 88 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



being a rural district where the land was sold prior to this 

 development at £50 per acre. It seems to be often an absolute 

 infatuation of estate agents developing land on behalf of their 

 principal to exercise the utmost ingenuity in showing the maxi- 

 mum number of houses that can be over-crowded on a given area 

 of land, and a matter of professional pride to show the larger 

 income that can be obtained in this way. Towns and Munici- 

 palities under the Town Planning Act are armed with powers to 

 prevent this. They can town -plan in any district and can 

 refuse to pass or approve of the erection of buildings after they 

 have made their plan, except on the lines of their plan. 



And now, with reference to the effect on the health of the 

 people — statistics show that the average death-rate in com- 

 munities where the houses do not exceed ten per acre generally 

 runs about eight per thousand, as compared with an average 

 death-rate of, I think, about fourteen per thousand for the 

 whole country. The birth-rates in these areas are also consider- 

 ably above the average for the country, in some cases as high 

 as thirty-three per thousand. I believe the unsatisfactory 

 housing condition of the workers of this country is a constant 

 cause of irritation to them and danger to the whole community, 

 not only because over-crowding brings ill-health, but because 

 over-crowding means a shutting out of all healthy environ- 

 ment and real enjoyment of life. I rejoice at the workers' 

 discontent as we see it to-day in the country. If the workers 

 were content to live in slums or in monotonous rows of mean 

 streets without a single square foot of ground into which they 

 could put a spade or out of which grow a flower, under such 

 conditions that their children can only play in the gutter, then 

 the outlook for this country and the Empire would be gloomy 

 indeed. 



It may be that some people are alarmed at the sign of what 

 is called " industrial unrest," but they would have much more 

 cause to be really alarmed if there were industrial rest and 

 acquiescence in present conditions. The whole subject is so 

 easy of adjustment. It is merely a question of better plan- 

 ning, or " packing," if I may use the illustration I employed at 

 the commencement, and of better organisation of the spaces 

 available . 



Yours sincerely, 



Leverhulme. 



