THE RURAL PROBLEM 23 



the existing law in bringing the facts before the owners from 

 time to time by notices and summonses, much could have 

 been done to prevent houses getting into a state of dis- 

 repair. By strict supervision houses gradually falling into 

 an insanitary condition might at slight cost be made habit- 

 able in the early stages. This in turn would pay the owners 

 of the property, because repairs carried out regularly can be 

 done at small cost, whereas neglect entails considerable out- 

 lay at the best, and the demolition order at the worst. 

 Whatever difficulties there may be in the way of building 

 new cottages, keeping the existing ones in reasonable repair 

 under the existing law, so as not to be a nuisance or injurious 

 to health, is practicable, and ought to be insisted upon." 



But however great the need of inspection may be, it is 

 obvious that the real need is more cottages. People do not 

 live like pigs because they want to ; they would not put up 

 with insanitary cottages if they had any possible alternative. 

 There was a row of cottages in Buckinghamshire known as 

 Hell Corner, whose inhabitants were living in a most degraded 

 condition. A neighbouring landowner bought them up a few 

 years ago as an experiment, and rehoused the same people 

 in new, clean, and roomy dwellings, and in every case, with 

 one exception, the new cottages are a model of cleanliness, 

 and the tenants are perfectly satisfactory. There can be no 

 doubt that had such cottages been available before, the 

 families would have gladly moved into them. It is the 

 dearth of cottages that is responsible for the fact that dirty, 

 overcrowded, and insanitary dwellings are inhabited at all. 



The same dearth is the direct cause of the tyranny of the 

 tied cottage system, which has already been mentioned in 

 connection with day labour. This tyranny is well known, 

 but it is sometimes misunderstood. The cases of political 

 persecution which come into prominence in the daily Press 

 occasionally are really of small importance beside the con- 

 stant pressure that is brought to bear on men to live in 

 unhealthy places, drink unwholesome water, and work for 

 wages even smaller than usual, simply by the fact that the 

 cottage in which they live belongs to their employer, and 

 they have nowhere else to go. 



A good deal of public odium is attached to the employer 



