HOMES AND WAGES 151 



instead of harm." The provision of adequate 

 holdings would have enabled these tenants to 

 pay a proper rent and would have in the long 

 run borne better results for both owner and 

 occupier. 



Public and private efforts having up to the 

 present signally failed to remove the deep 

 seated evils of rural housing some fresh attempt 

 will doubtless be made on the part of the 

 Government to grapple with these difficulties 

 by the employment of State loans or subsidies. 



There are two methods of State aid which 

 are commonly advocated, the advance of 

 loans on generous terms of interest and repay- 

 ment, or the simple grant of a subsidy. There 

 are practical and economic objections which 

 may be brought against either proposal. 

 The effects of a loan-policy in England have 

 been signally disappointing. No such loans 

 can be secured except on the initiative of local 

 authorities, who as a rule are at best dilatory 

 and apathetic with regard to the housing 

 problem, and at worst bitterly hostile. And, 

 further, even if the cumbrous machinery is 

 put into motion and a loan obtained, the rents 

 which must be charged for the new cottages 

 are, as we have already seen, quite out of the 

 reach of the class whose needs are more 

 especially before our eyes. 



