354 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— F. 



Reconditioning. — Much may be done by reconditioning and by ' maldng down,' 

 converting large houses into several small ones, but mainly by compelling the owners 

 of existing slums to put them in order where possible, and thereafter seeing that they 

 are kept in good order. Good second-hand houses are better than neglected slums, 

 just as a decent second-hand suit of clothes cleverly patched perhaps, is better than rags 

 for those who cannot afford new clothes. The purchase of existing slums for recon- 

 ditioning requires very special care ; it is being increasingly attempted, mainly by 

 Public Utility Societies, but they are only able to touch a tiny corner of the field. 

 The financial results are very varied and at present insufficient to encourage private 

 enterprise to bu}^ and recondition on any large scale. As the capital value of slum 

 property falls (it is at present thought to be artificially inflated) its acquisition for 

 improvement and renovation should become profitable to both private enterprise and 

 semi-philanthropic bodies. So long as subsidies are granted for building new houses, 

 so long can claims be justified also for financial assistance for approved schemes of 

 reconstruction. 



Midway Houses. — In the writer's opinion subsidies are not justified for new houses 

 of the present high standard and should be confined to encouraging experiments in 

 various types of simpler dwellings. They should be elementary in fittings, but strong. 

 They must be controlled and managed firmly and sympathetically. Their success 

 will depend largely upon their management. Just as classes of tenants vary, so the 

 types of houses should vary. A very special type is urgently required for the struggling 

 poor and even for the lowest class of tenants, the submerged, who are weak and 

 characterless, and rejected by all self-respecting landlords. If ever a subsidy is 

 justified it should be for the provision of housing for this class — if on no other grounds 

 than the savings in cost of Police and Public Health Administration. 



After careful inquiry, a Municipal Housing Commission in Glasgow before the war 

 advised that a trial be made in building new types of simple houses, whose mere 

 existence would justify clearance schemes, remove any excuse for misplaced leniency 

 in administration and provide for those dispossessed or rejected from other dwellings. 

 This recommendation was adopted by the Corporation of Glasgow, but partly through 

 the intervention of the war, little action has yet been taken. Experiments, however, 

 have been made elsewhere and prove that the idea is by no means Utopian. Out- 

 standing examples are to be found in Holland — at the Hague and Amsterdam. These 

 are extraordinarily interesting and instructive and will be briefly described. 



Sir JosiAH Stamp, G.B.E. — Refort of the CommiUee upon Inheritance. 



Monday, September 8. 



Prof. P. Sargant Florence. — A Statistical Contribution to the Theory of 

 Women's Wages. 



There is evidence that the low wages obtained by women compared to men in 

 similar industrial occupations does not reflect a corresponding inferiority in their 

 efficiency and reliability, as measured by various objective tests. And though the 

 heaviest types of work are closed to women, there are plenty of occupations still 

 pursued by men for which women are not physically unfitted. Under these circum- 

 stances one would expect employers, in so far as they are ' economic men,' to be 

 continually substituting women's labour for men's, thus getting ' better value for 

 money.' In fact, however, statistics do not show such substitution on any large scale. 



How is this apparent paradox to be explained ? Is women's efficiency estimated 

 as low, compared to men's, as their comparative wages indicate ? Are employers not 

 economic men ? Do the conventions or such institutions as Trade Unions block 

 purely economic action ? All these theories have been put forward, but the most 

 important factor has not hitherto received much attention : the restricted supply of 

 available women. 



Except among the very poorest ' strata,' or where (as in the textile industry) 

 skill has been acquired, or where homework is still carried on, women leave industry 

 on marriage and do not readily re-enter the labour market. The supply of women 

 available for employment consists therefore chiefl}' of spinsters (and, possiblj% widows) 

 of working age, i.e. 14 to 65. But the population Census and other statistical enquiries 

 show that in typical manufacturing centres the great majority of unmarried women of 



