264 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



clothing, warmth, and rest ; while another third, comprising 

 together those who create the wealth of the nation, have not 

 the amount of relaxation or the certainty of a comfortable 

 old age which, in a country deserving to be called civilized, 

 every human being should enjoy. This, however, is a step 

 or two beyond land nationalization, before leaving which I 

 must refer to one application of its principles which any 

 Government declaring itself to be " Liberal " ought at once 

 to make law. I call it — 



SECURITY OF THE HOME. 



It is an old boast that an Englishman's house is his castle, but never 

 was a boast less justified by facts. In a large number of cases a working 

 man's house might be better described as an instrument of torture, by- 

 means of which he can be forced to comply with his landlord's demands, 

 and both in politics and religion submit himself entirely to the landlord's 

 will. So long as the agricultural labourer, the village mechanic, and the 

 village shopkeeper are the yearly or weekly tenants of the great land- 

 owner, the squire, the parson, or the farmer, religious freedom or political 

 independence is impossible. And when those employed in factories or 

 workshops are obliged to live, as they so often are, in houses which are 

 the property of their employers, that employer can force his will upon 

 them by the double threat of loss of employment and loss of a home. 

 Under such conditions a man possesses neither freedom nor safety, nor 

 the possibility of happiness, except so far as his landlord and employer 

 thinks proper. A secure home is the very first essential of political 

 security and of social well-being. 



Now, all this has been said many times before, and we may go on 

 saying it, and yet be no nearer to a remedy for the evil. But now that 

 every worker, even to the hitherto despised and down-trodden agricultural 

 labourer, has been given the right of some fragment of local self-govern- 

 ment, it is time that, so far as affects the inviolability of the home, the 

 landlord's power should at once be taken away from him. This is the 

 logical sequence of the creation of Parish Councils. For to declare that 

 it is for the pubhc benefit that every inhabitant of a parish shall be free 

 to vote for and to be chosen as a representative of his fellow-parishioners, 

 and at the same time to leave him at the mercy of the individual who 

 owns his house to punish him in a most cruel manner for using the 

 privileges thus granted him, is surely the height of unreason and injustice. 

 It is giving a stone in place of bread ; the shadow rather than the substance 

 of political enfranchisement. 



Now, it seems to me that there is one very simple and very effectual 

 way of rendering tenants secure, and that is by a short Act of Parliament 

 declaring all evictions, other than for non-payment of rent^ to be illegal. 



