76 PROBLEMS OF VILLAGE LIFE 



repairs or compulsory closing. In some un- 

 happy cases a labourer has himself invested all 

 his savings in the purchase of the tumble-down 

 cottage in which his life has been largely spent. 

 The problem of housing reform is sorely 

 encumbered with the hard cases of the poor 

 proprietor. 



Such in brief are the admitted evils of rural 

 housing. They have existed in our midst for 

 years, and while the national wealth advances, 

 and the prosperity of agriculture increases, 

 this social blot still remains on the surface of 

 our body politic. The evil gets worse if any- 

 thing as the years roll on, for the supply of new 

 houses does not keep pace with the disap- 

 pearance of the old ones. " The English 

 squire, the ruler of England," writes Mr. 

 Chesterton, " has made the one great mistake 

 of supposing that if you leave a thing alone 

 it goes on as before. If you leave a thing 

 alone it goes to the devil." 



Side by side with economic causes, there are 

 other reasons for the pitiful decline in our 

 agricultural population. By painfully slow 

 steps the proletariat of England is being 

 educated, and from improved knowledge and 

 decreased religion is born that eager cry 

 for more pleasure, greater happiness. Cheap 

 trips in over-crowded trains, the huge attend- 



