Science in Public Affairs 



or deterioration by kind hearts acting without 

 thinking heads. But out of the ashes has risen 

 (largely owing to Mr. Charles Booth) the phoenix 

 of a " more excellent way." 



THE CONDITIONS OF TOWN LIFE 



"We are very much in need," said the Right 

 Honourable James Bryce, in his address on the 

 aims of the Sociological Society, " of the exact 

 and thorough scientific knowledge which alone 

 can solve the social problems with which this 

 country has to deal." . . . " Britain must bear 

 worthily her part in the great task of synthetising 

 knowledge and turning it into practical account 

 in the field of human sciences," and it is " Civics 

 as applied to sociology," which Professor Geddes 

 urges the thoughtful to study, because only "on 

 the sociological view of city development is to be 

 found the basis of an adequate civic policy." 



A very short study of the conditions of town life 

 is enough to show that the dwellings of the people 

 is one cause from which follows health or disease, 

 happiness or misery, strength or weakness.' The 

 houses which are the homes of so large a number 

 of the population of the richest nation in the world 

 have been often described. I will quote one such 

 description : 



" Thousands of our fellow-countrymen are com- 

 pelled to live under conditions which are a scandal 

 to our civilisation. They are housed in close, dirty, 

 evil-smelling lanes and courts, deprived of fresh air 



46 



