646 REPORT—1904. 
possessed hy them under special Acts, of tenements of one- and two-apartment 
houses, to be reserved exclusively for respectable people of the poorest class, 
preference being given to those dispossessed; such houses to be situated, if 
possible, near to the area of dispossession, and to be under carefully selected 
caretakers, 
It will be seen that the amount of building recommended is limited, the money 
which the Municipality can spend under the Acts referred to being fixed and known. 
One would have liked, perhaps, that it should have been more rigorously limited. 
It would have been quite possible to take a rough census of the people dispossessed 
and build houses only to the number necessary to accommodate those who really 
suffer by the dispossession—the respectable poor at low wages. And what one 
would have liked, besides, was the clear laying down of the principle that this is an 
exceptional measure, due to an exceptional set of circumstances which can never 
occur again if the Municipality lives up to the powers it has sought and obtained 
from Parliament. Insanitary and illezal houses should never again be allowed to 
come into existence. Overcrowding can now be rigorously kept in check. It will 
clearly be the fault of the Municipality if such a problem recurs. 
But, on the whole, the recommendation seems to me a wise one. It escapes 
the chief objection, that of tempting an influx of new unskilled labour. It does 
not add to the supply of cheap houses, but merely fills the gaps which municipal 
action has itself caused. It has not advised the drastic step of compelling a rise 
of wages by suddenly making it impossible for a class to live without paying higher 
rent—which would have heen accompanied by the serious danger of driving many 
over the verge of subsistence—but it does not give any occasion for still further 
lowering wages, and there is the positive good that the houses to be provided are 
such as naturally make men and women better workers, who will command a 
eradually increasing wage. 
There is, indeed, I am afraid, a ‘loose end’ in the result of the Commission. 
To its subsequent regret it was confined, by the limitations of its remit, to the 
consideration of housing within the city boundaries, and Greater Glasgow is 
growing more rapidly outside these boundaries. I said that the problems of 
Glasgow grew up because the city refused to look forward and lay down the lines 
of its growth. Unhappily, that course is still forced upon it, in that it has no 
control over the operations of its suburbs. Everyone knows that, in the near 
future, Glasgow must extend its jurisdiction and responsibilities. There is too 
much reason to fear that, when that time comes, the city will fall heir to the same 
problem as it has now to face—insanitary property and ill-planned districts. This 
is a problem of all growing cities, and, in my opinion, a most urgent one. 
3ut this is not the whole of Glasgow’s answer to its Housing Problem. The 
municipal houses are to be reserved for the respectable poor. What about the 
non-respectable—probably the majority of those who will be dispossessed? So 
far as I can see, the criminal and the dissolute have no claim on the community 
so far as regards housing. They must be ‘ hustled;’ that is, life must be made as 
difficult as possible for them, till either they can find no rest for the sole of their 
foot among decent people, or are driven to reform. And this hustling will be 
done to a considerable extent when all the insanitary and illegal houses are done 
away with, when the Corporation houses are closed against them, and when 
private enterprise is assisted to get rid of them, as the Commission recommends, 
by more stringent laws against the habits of disorderly and destructive tenants, 
and by more summary powers of ejectment. But there are many who are neither 
criminal nor hopelessly dissolute, and yet cannot rise simply because they are 
down. They have lost their character; money cannot buy them a decent house 
because they have no factor’s line or other guarantee that they are fit for the 
possession of it. It is this class, perhaps, that will be most heavily hit by the 
dispossession, and for them also it seems that some compensatory provision should 
be made by the Municipality. And this seems also in the interests of the com- 
munity, for, if these people are not lifted up, they will be driven down. 
Hence the recommendation of the Commission that ‘an experiment should be 
made in the erection of a building or buildings for those who, while unable to 
