The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-02-13
IeIIs Why He Recognized SOUiet

been under consideration. On the day 1 the late government was defeated 6 letter was written from the postoffice the effect of which was to create aI absolute and complete deadlock. There fore, with the postmaster general, we had to consider the whole matter de nevo. If the labor government has any ambition at all except to do sober and effective work, it has got an ambition to try and do its work in a business. like way. As soon as we were faced with that difficulty we appointed a small committee to inquire into the whole situation. I hope by the end of this week I shall have a report from it. a report which will enable us to deal effectively with the matter.
 Care Of Ex.Service Men
 "Then there is the matter of the ex- service men. We have already taken administrative power to put an end to the internment of ex-service men whose reason was imperiled in pauper institu- tions. I am perfectly certain the House will condone us for our haste to do that justice and to report a thing done rather than thing we intended to do.
 
 what I have mentioned we shall ask the House to support. have in front of me moreover the kings speech for which, the party opposite is responsible.
 Il find it not inconvenient quarry, and if I take little bigger boulders out of that quarry than probably would have come if that party had remained in power, am sure some of them will do a little sparing with their chisels to knock corners off bills which we will produce under their titles; for instance, bills for permission to improve the position of pre-war pensioners, and to deal with the encouragement of thrift involved in the present old age pensions legislation. The late government prom ised probationary system for dealing with first offenses, bill to consolidate the factory and workshop acts and cer- tain bills relating to the subject of legitimization. We shall carry on the inheritance we have received in the Kings speech.
 There are one or two very large questions which any government com ing in now must try to conceive in a large way. The small pettifogging methods and policies and proposals will be found to yield nothing that is worth having. The first of these is housing. The view of the labor government quite generally is this: On the great problem of housing as far as housing means the providing of houses for wage earn CTS which shall be rented with some re- lation ot their wage income, we have only just touched the fringe. The labor party wants to get right into the heart of it.
 Solving Housing Problem
 T hope before long the minister of health will be here to present his de tailed proposals. Do not let us shirk our responsibility. The housing prob lem can only be solved when decent hu. man homes are provided for most of the working classes of the country and rents which can be borne by the aver age income of those persons. In the production of these homes it will be necessary somehow or other to get the material and labor which are required. Provision for this has been made since the war by subsidies. We are going to continue that, and at present we shall continue it in relation to this problem of how we can build houses on the average for f500 and let them on the average for nine shillings, including rents and rates.
 That is the problem. I say aver age price of the house is f500 and the average rent and rates nine shillings From that we have to work out all sorts of possibilities possibilities of con- struction, of finance, of funding, of ar. ranging with local authorities and so on. Take what are called the Addison houses, not 10 per cent of those houses are inhabited by the class of people whose. needs must be solved if you are going to solve the housing problem.
 "Then the late Chancellor Exchequer produced a scheme, but apparently that scheme is going to be fruitful, if fruit. full at all, in the building of houses for sale. That does not solve the prob lem. It is essential that the class catered for in that way should be catered for, and so far as we are con cerned, we shall do nothing against it But that is the mere fringe of a bis problem into the pearl of which we art determind to dig our way in the hope of bringing up some scheme that vii really face this tremendous problem o. labor. Today we have only got 50 pel cent of men in the building trade tha we had there before the war.
 Continuous Work Guarantee
 Why? Because private building ha failed. Trade had become so disor ganized, the demand so intermittent, tn, ups and downs so abnormal, that nt man or woman who had a choic thought of putting their child into tn building trade. Take also the question of dilution. The laying of bricks is , highly skilled trade and to merely tall about dilution, and say all you want t do is to take men in, is to talk non sense. What is the way to face thi very difficult problem? First, we hay, to give the building trade a guarante of continuous work over certain mum Der of years.
 There is no harm in it and there i no difficulty about it for the shortag of houses is so great that all that i required is to create a program, stretch ing over a number of years. That i the guarantee of time. And tha guarantee would have to be givel whether you had a shortage of labor O not. For only on a basis of continue, program of houses can you construc rational financial system by whicl you have to solve the problem itself.
 But that is not all. The workmel quite rightly say if they are to admi this thrush of men they must have guarantee that that thrush will not b used to reduce their wages and stil further disorganize the trade. It i organization and foresight.
 Qnterrurtion by member.) "It Ii protection of labor that is what it is.
 Tt is organization, foresight; it i the capacity that the state has for deal ing, not with a few men and two O three interests, but the combined in herent and unified interests of tn whole community to produce what i