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LIBRARY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
PRINCETON, N. J.
HN 30) 3G6.44-4-53
Conference on Christian
politics, economics and
The home
C.0.P.E.C. Commission Reports. Volume III
THE HOME
C.0.P.E.C, COMMISSION
REPORTS
VotumMEI, Tue Nature or Gop anp His
PurPosE FOR THE WoRLD
II. Epucation
Tue Home
IV. Tue Revation oF THE SEXES
LEISURE
Tue TREATMENT OF CRIME
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
CHRISTIANITY AND WAR
INDUSTRY AND PROPERTY
Pouirics AND CITIZENSHIP
Tue Socrat FuncrTion oF
THE CHURCH
HisroricaL ILLusTRATIONS
OF THE SocrAL EFFECTs
OF CHRISTIANITY
First published. . . April 1924
Second Impression ; . July 1924
THE HOME
i
Being the Report presented to the Conference on
Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship
at Birmingham, April 5-12, 1924
Published for the Conference Committee by
LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E.C. 4
NEW YORK, TORONTO
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS
1924
BASIS
Tue basis of this Conference is the conviction
that the Christian faith, rightly interpreted and
consistently followed, gives the vision and the
power essential for solving the problems of to-day,
that the social ethics of Christianity have been
greatly neglected by Christians with disastrous
consequences to the individual and to society, and
that it is of the first importance that these should
be given a clearer and more persistent emphasis.
In the teaching and work of Jesus Christ there are »
certain fundamental principles—such as the universal
Fatherhood of God with its corollary that mankind
is God’s family, and the law “ that whoso loseth his
life, findeth it ”’—which, if accepted, not only
condemn much in the present organisation of
society, but show the way of regeneration. Christi-
anity has proved itself to possess also a motive power
for the transformation of the individual, without
which no change of policy or method can succeed.
In the light of its principles the constitution of
society, the conduct of industry, the upbringing
of children, national and international politics, the
personal relations of men and women, in fact all
human relationships, must be tested. It is hoped
that through this Conference the Church may win
a fuller understanding of its Gospel, and hearing
a clear call to practical action may find courage
to obey.
GENERAL PREFACE
THE present volume forms one of the series of
Reports drawn up for submission to the Conference
on Christian Politics, Economics and Citizenship,
held in Birmingham in April 1924.
In recent years Christians of all denominations
have recognised with increasing conviction that
the commission to ‘‘go and teach all nations ”
involved a double task. Alongside of the work of
individual conversion and simultaneously with it
an effort must be made to Christianise the corporate
life of mankind in all its activities. Recent de-
velopments since the industrial revolution, the vast
increase of population, the growth of cities, the
creation of mass production, the specialisation of
effort, and the consequent interdependence of
individuals upon each other, have given new sig-
nificance to the truth that we are members one of
another. ‘The existence of a system and of methods
unsatisfying, if not antagonistic to Christian life,
constitutes a challenge to the Church. The work
of a number of pioneers during the past century
has prepared the way for the attempt to examine
and test our social life in the light of the principles
revealed in Jesus Christ, and to visualise the require-
ments of a Christian civilisation. Hitherto such
attempts have generally been confined to one or
two aspects of citizenship; and, great as has been
Vv
GENERAL PREFACE
their value, they have plainly shown the defects of
sectional study. We cannot Christianise life in
compartments: to reform industry involves the
reform of education, of the home life, of politics
and of international affairs. What is needed is not
a number of isolated and often inconsistent plans
appropriate only to a single department of human
activity, but an ideal of corporate life constructed
on consistent principles and capable of being applied
to and fulfilled in every sphere.
The present series of Reports is a first step in
this direction. Each has been drawn up by a
Commission representative of the various denomina-
tions of British Christians, and containing not only
thinkers and students, but men and women of large
and differing practical experience. Our endeavour
has been both to secure the characteristic contri-
butions of each Christian communion so as to gain.
a vision of the Kingdom of God worthy of our
common faith, and also to study the application of
the gospel to actual existing conditions—to keep
our principles broad and clear and to avoid the
danger of Utopianism. We should be the last to
claim any large or general measure of success. ‘The
task is full of difficulty: often the difficulties have
seemed insurmountable. |
But as it has proceeded we have discovered an
unexpected agreement, and a sense of fellowship
so strong as to make fundamental divergences, where
they appeared, matters not for dispute but for frank
and sympathetic discussion. Our Reports will not
be in any sense a final solution of the problems with
which they are concerned. They represent, we
vl
GENERAL PREFACE
believe, an honest effort to see our corporate life
steadily and whole from the standpoint of Christi-
anity; and as such may help to bring to many a
clearer and more consistent understanding of that
Kingdom for which the Church longs and labours
and prays.
However inadequate our Reports may appear—
and in view of the magnitude of the issues under
discussion and the infinite grandeur of the Christian
gospel inadequacy is inevitable—we cannot be too
thankful for the experience of united inquiry and
study and fellowship of which they are the fruit.
It should be understood that these Reports are
printed as the Reports of the Commissions only,
and any resolutions adopted by the Conference on
the basis of these Reports will be found in The
Proceedings of C.O.P.E.C., which also contains a
General Index to the series of Reports.
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LIST OF COMMISSION MEMBERS
The Commission responsible for the production of this Report
was constituted as follows.
Chairman :—Capt. R. L. REISS.
Chairman of Executive of Garden Cities Association;
Director of Welwyn Garden City Ltd., and Hampstead
Garden City Trust, Ltd.
Members of the Commission :—
BLAKE, Tue Rev. Dr. Bucuanan, B.D., D.D.
Fellow of the University of Bombay; United Free Church
of Scotland Minister; Author of works on the Old Testa-
ment Prophets and The Meaning of Suffering.
CADBURY, Mrs. Groraes, M.A., O.B.E.
Chairman of the Bournville Village Housing Trust; Bir-
mingham City Councillor; Chairman of the School Medical
Service Committee of the Birmingham Education Authority ;
President of the Midland Division of the Y.W.C.A. and of
the Union of Girls’ Clubs; Vice-President of the N.C.W.W.;
Convener of Peace Committee of the International Council
of Women.
CALDER, Miss MarGARET S.
Director of Helensburgh Dwellings Co.
DEVAS, Mrs. B. W.
EAGAR, W. MW’G., Esg.
Secretary of the Garden Cities and Town Planning Associa-
tion; Chairman of the Federation of London Settlements.
FITZ-GERALD, Miss Marton,
Member of Manchester Women’s Advisory Committee on
Housing; formerly Sanitary Inspector and Health Visitor
for Woolwich; Joint Author of The Smokeless City.
1x
LIST OF COMMISSION MEMBERS
GLOVER, Mrs.’ ARNOLD.
Formerly Member of London School Board; a Founder
of the National Organisation of Girls’ Clubs, and Dining
Centres for Working Girls, Ltd.; Governor of Chelsea
Polytechnic and of the County Secondary School, Fulham ;
Member of the Council of the W.E.A. and of the Mary Ward
Settlement.
JEFFREY, Miss M. M.
Crown Receiver, H.M. Office of Woods and Forests.
McKERROW, Mrs., M.A.
Ex-President ie Glasgow Women’s Citizens Association ;
Member of Home Mission Committee of the United Free
Church of Scotland.
WRELLY OA. RS so, McA.
Travelling Secretary of C.O.P.E.C.
PELLY, Mrs. AwR.
PIERCY, Mrs. W.
REASON, THE Rev. W., M.A.
Organising Secretary of the Christian Social Crusade.
SANDERSON-FURNISS, Mrs.
J.P. for Oxfordshire.
TAYLER, THE Rev. J. LIonEt, M.R.C.S.
Unitarian Minister, Leicester; Author of The Stages of
Human Life; formerly University Extension Lecturer on
Sociology and Biology.
UNWIN, Raymonp, Esg., F.R.I.B.A.
Chief Architect to the Ministry of Health, dealing with
Housing and Town Planning; Past President of Town
Planning Institute and Doctor of Technical Science at
Prague.
WISE, Mrs. E. F., M.A.(Lonp.).
Formerly lived and worked in East London.
The Members of the Commission are greatly indebted to the
Rev. W. F. Howard and Mr. Pite for material contributed to the
Report. They also wish to acknowledge information afforded by
the Reports of Study Circles on the Questionnaire on ‘‘ The Home.”
CONTENTS
Basis. : A : ! 3 1 4
GENERAL PREFACE . : : i : ;
List or MEMBERS OF COMMISSION ; i : 4
CHAPTER I
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SUBJECT . ; ‘ ’
The family and the home: universal institutions—The attitude
of Jesus and the influence of Christianity on the home—
Christian obligations towards social abuses
CHAPTER II
Tue Famity 1n THE Home 2 ‘ ,
The importance of family relations —The home, the natural
unit of power—The Christian home with love as its basis—
Causes of home-making—The spirit of approach to marriage—
Some causes of difficulties in marriage—The importance of
frank discussion between husband and wife
CHAPTER III
PARENTS AND CHILDREN .
. e e. °
The home, a training-ground for the Kingdom of God—Parents’
attitude towards children—The development of character: per-
sonal, social and religious—The relations of children to parents
and the Church’s part therein
CHAPTER IV
Tue FAMILY AND THE CoMMUNITY . ‘ ;
The attitude of the family towards outside interests—Class
distinctions—Domestic service—What the family contributes to
the community, and what the community contributes to the
family .
xi
a
37
51
CONTENTS
ei CHAPTER V
Tue CuristiAN HomME AND THE FuTurE OF THE WoRLD.
The vision of the part the home can play in the world—Aspects
to be stressed
CHAPTER VI
7
Hovusrts AND Homes d : ‘ : A :
The facts of the present housing shortage—The moral results—
The problem of solving the shortage—The required house and
its surroundings—The duty of individual citizens
CHAPTER VII
THe PLANNING oF Towns - ; P
The need for forethought—The problem of the large town and
of abolishing slums—Transport difficulties and the need for
new towns
CHAPTER VIII
RicHEs AND PovEerTY IN THE HomeE . i ; ;
The causes of poverty—-Low wages, unemployment, sickness,
intemperance, old age—The danger of riches—The fallacy of
luxury spending
CHAPTER IX
Tue CoMMUNITY, THE PARENT AND THE CHILD . ‘
Legislation affecting children—The State as “ over-parent”’
CHAPTER X
MotTHErRs AND BaBIEs : ‘ : ‘ ; ,
The difficulties of mothers—Maternity—Ilness—Large families
—Infant Welfare—What is already being done—The need for
further provision—Motherhood endowment—* Home helps”
CHAPTER XI
CoNCLUSIONS . i i : : ‘ : ;
Summary and resolutions
xii
PAG)
61
65
95
107
123
133
149
CHAPTER’ I
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SUBJECT
CHAPTER I
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SUBJECT
A tarcE number of the replies to the question-
naire on the Home show that it has received full
consideration by a great many people. The replies
have been carefully examined and collated. ‘The
subject matter of the questionnaire was extremely
wide, and the Report which we have prepared has
not attempted to follow exactly the lines adopted
in the questions, still less the order of arrangement.
We believe, however, that in the pages which follow
a consideration will be found of all the more impor-
tant questions raised. In our Report we discuss the
application of Christian principles to the vital
relations of husband and wife, of parent and child,
and of the family as a whole to the community of
which it is part. ‘The problems before us, therefore,
concern personal, political and social morality. Thus,
the housing question, which is often considered only
from the point of view of health and comfort, must
in our view be considered first in its bearing upon
the whole life of the family in the spiritual as well
as the material sphere.
Our ideas about family relations and home life,
and the duties of the community towards housing
and kindred subjects, require overhauling and revis-
ing from a definitely Christian*standpoint. ‘here
3
THE HOME
has always been the need for such a revision, but
it is more necessary than ever to-day. Since the
Industrial Revolution, life has become more and
more complex, both for the individual and for the
community, and during the latter part of the nine-
teenth and in the present century this complexity
has grown almost overwhelming. It has increased
rapidly along with the development of science and
invention. ‘The whole pace of life and the currents
of human thought have quickened. ‘To-day we are
faced with problems affecting our relations with each
other which were scarcely contemplated one hundred
years ago. ‘The great European War, while not the
primary cause of the intricacy of those problems,
undoubtedly accentuated the uncertainty and doubt
in which a large number of people find themselves.
‘That many hundreds of thousands of men left their
homes and went to distant parts of the world for a
long period of time had in itself a profound influence.
The principal effect of the war in this connection
was, perhaps, the huge shock that it gave to Society.
The fact that in every generation ideas change
substantially, inevitably produces conflict between
the comparatively old and the young. We all
remember the constant reiteration by our elders of
the warnings, “‘ When I was a child I was never
allowed to do this or that, or to speak to my parents
in such a way,” and their mournful regrets concern-
ing the disappearance of “the sanctity of married
life,” or “‘ the decay of family life.” Such phrases
are by no means peculiar to our own time.
GENERAL SURVEY
Four FuNDAMENTAL QuEsTIons PRropouNDED
We have attempted to answer four fundamental
questions :
1. What demands are made on the family by con-
siderations of the spiritual welfare of its
individual members?
2. What demands are made on the individual
members of a family by considerations of
its welfare as a spiritual unit?
3. In what way can a family as an institution be
of the greatest benefit to the community,
or, in other words, to what extent can it
contribute to the establishment upon earth
of the Kingdom of God?
4. What demands are made on the community
by the-duty of providing for the wholesome
development of family life?
The fourth question differs essentially from the
first three, because any adequate answer to it in-
volves consideration of the character and environ-
ment of the home in so far as these are conditioned
by the activities or inactivities of the community
rather than by the tastes and ideals of the family.
The issues raised by the fourth question are con-
sidered in Chapters VI to X, and it should here
perhaps be phrased more explicitly by putting it as
follows :
What opportunities are within the reach of the
average family for realising the ideals of family
life? What are the material conditions which pre-
vent such realisation, and what efforts to improve
5
THE HOME
those conditions are incumbent upon us all as
members of the community ?
All four questions raise a number of subsidiary
and related questions with which we have been
compelled to deal. Some of them, however, involve
the subject-matter of other Commissions. In a
highly developed social order such as that in which
we live, any adequate discussion of the family and
the home really covers the whole field of human
relations. So far as it is possible, we have indicated
the points at which the issues we have raised are
dealt with in greater detail by other Commissions,
particularly the Commissions dealing with sex,
education, and industry and property. We have
attempted ourselves to specialise upon those issues
which are more obviously raised by our immediate
reference.
Tue Famity AND Home: UNIvErRsAL INSTITUTIONS
‘The family and the home are institutions common
to all countries and races with any degree of civilisa-
tion. ‘There are obvious biological reasons why the
family as an institution is bound to continue in
some form or other. as long as the human race exists.
From time to time, philosophers, from Plato to
Mir. H. G. Wells, have suggested the possibility that
children might be regarded as the children of the
State and entirely divorced from parental care and
parental control. So far, however, history shows us
no example of the success of such an experiment,
and in our view it is unlikely and undesirable that
the contingency should ever arise. It would imply,
6
GENERAL SURVEY
among other things, the disappearance of any per-
manent union of husband and wife. But, though
the family is an abiding human institution, its
character and the relations of its members have from
time to time changed in the course of history. While
many abuses and many evils have resulted from
family life, there can be no doubt that on the whole
its influence has been of the greatest benefit to the
human race. It is easy to talk of its ‘‘ decay,” but
on a broad interpretation of history we believe that
the family relations have evolved in such a way as
to show a marked improvement. As stated above,
there are always arising fresh ideas and changes in
social customs which are apt to cause jars and con-
flicts between the older and the younger generation.
The elder in practically every period has usually
assumed that it was right and that the younger
people were tending to destroy either family life or
something else that seemed equally important.
And yet family life continues.
Undoubtedly the simplest and most familiar social
unit is the family, and, as has been frequently
pointed out, it is also the most rich in potential
Christianity. Our Lord Himself used the word
“ Father ” as the most satisfactory symbol of a loving
God, and the word “ children” as the best expres-
sion of what our relation should be to Him. In
recent times, whenever the members of a social
organisation have desired to emphasise in words the
closeness of the bond of union between them, they
have usually adopted the word “ brother,” and this
word has stood for the higher social ideal. “Thus it
is in common use among members of friendly
7
THE HOME
societies, of trade unions, of Masonic lodges and of
religious communities, to say nothing of the bodies
which are actually called brotherhoods and sister-
hoods. “The Fatherhood .of God and _ the
brotherhood of man” is one of the most cherished
phrases of our time. It expresses the faith that the
solidarity and co-operation which we learnt in family
life will yet ee common in our wider social
relations. {
INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY ON THE FAMILY
In the earlier stages of civilisation the family was.
not, even in theory, held together mainly by love.
Prof. Rauschenbusch says, “ In its early stages the
patriarchal family, from which our own family organ-
isation was derived, was held together by stern force
and selfishness quite as much as by love and kinship.
Wives were dragged off as the booty of war or pur-
chased. A patriarch with a lot of wives was a
capitalist and became rich on the surplus value they
created for him. His sons were his fighting outfit
with which he gained and protected his wealth and
property.” + Moreover, in more primitive com-
munities the economic nexus between the members
of the family was a strong one. The head of the
family directed its work and allotted its gocds.
He was the household priest and ‘the ruler and
judge over his own.” Custom, which gradually
acquired the force of law, upheld his despotic power.
In fact the law was made and the precedent set by
1 Christianizing the Social Order, by Prof. Rauschenbusch,
Professor of Church History, Rochester, U.S.A.
8
- GENERAL SURVEY
him and his peers. He could divorce his wife or
ring in other women to share her privileges, and,
if she was unfaithful to him, he could kill her. On
the other hand, she had no corresponding claim on
his fidelity, for he had the right to do as he liked.
Over his children also he had the power of life and
death. Whether we examine the dawn of Eastern
civilisation in India or among the Israelites, or the
early history of Rome and Greece, we find similar
conditions prevailing.
The Old Testament gives us an intimate insight
into a number of families, either as they actually
lived or as later tradition imagined them. ‘The
family relations of Jacob, David and other famous
personages in Biblical history were such that no
self-respecting Church could retain them as members
if they acted in the same way to-day. Gradually,
however, as civilisation progressed, there was a slow
decrease in despotism and exploitation. As time
went on the wife gained an assured legal status.
When polygamy ceased and adultery was considered
a crime in man as well as in woman, the basis was
laid for real equality between man and wife. The
relation between father and children also grew less
autocratic. The killing of children by the father
became rare, then illegal, and finally a crime.
Instead of exploiting them for his own enrichment,
the father has learnt to sacrifice himself for their
education and advancement. Correspondingly, their
legal status has changed.
Since the dawn of the Christian era there has
been a great improvement in actual family relations
as well as in the ideal of what such relations should
a
THE HOME
be. Continually, however, obstructive forces have
warred against the attainment of that ideal, and
periods of progress have been followed by reactions.
Sometimes the reactions have been due to mis-
guided attempts to enforce a rigid code upon people
not prepared to accept it. It is no matter of chance
that the Puritanism of the Cromwellian period was
immediately succeeded by the laxity of the Restora-
tion. ‘Those who complain to-day of the decay of
family life should recall the apparent acquiescence
of a large proportion of the population in the family
relations of Henry VIII, Charles II and George IV.
Speaking broadly, the character of the family has.
passed through a slow ethical transformation. ‘The
despotism of man, fortified by law, custom and
economic possession, has passed into an approximate
equality between husband and wife, and children
have become the free companions of their parents.
Here Christianity has continually been on the side
of progress. ‘Io say this, however, does not mean
that Christian living has become automatic in the
family and requires no religious effort. It is still
one of the greatest triumphs of personality to make
the home an abiding sanctuary of love, peace and
beauty. The number of families which achieve any
measure of success in this is still small. But yet the
family as we know it to-day claims from even selfish
and wayward individuals some measure of decency
and love. As Prof. Rauschenbusch says, “‘ The fact
that the institution as such has been Christianised
predisposes the individuals living in it to be Christian.
If they are personally temperate, loving and swayed
by religious convictions and duties, they will find
10
GENERAL SURVEY
the family responsive to their highest desires. If
they are not, they will at least find it a restraining
and disciplinary influence.”
Our Lorp’s TEACHING ON THE SUBJECT
In the Gospels there are practically no sayings
of our Lord which point out directly the duty of
parents to children or children to parents, though
He deals with the relation of husband and wife and
emphasises the indissoluble nature of their union.
There is much, however, in our Lord’s teaching
which indicates His fundamental assumptions in
regard to the family. His constant use of the
phrases “ Father,” “Son” and “ Brother” show
that He regarded the family relation as being the
best way of exhibiting the new outlook and duty
both in regard to God and man. / Moreover, the
story of His stay as a child at Jerusalem for discussion
with the Doctors and of His subsequent action is
significant. While, on the one hand, He said to His
parents, “ Wist ye not that I must be about My
Father’s business?”? and apparently made no
apology, on the other hand it is recorded that He
subsequently went home with them “ and was sub-
ject to them.” One of His last actions was to
entrust His mother to the care of His favourite
disciple.
In the matter of family relations, as elsewhere, our
Lord “came not to destroy the law but to fulfil it.”
He found a considerable degree of co-operation and
love between the members of families. On the
basis of His own experience, He was able to make
1
THE HOME
clear the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood
of mankind, but many of His sayings recorded in the
Gospels indicate His realisation of the inevitable
conflict which would often arise between the claims
of the family and the claims of God.” Thus, His
reply to the disciple who said, “‘ Lord, suffer me to
go and bury my father,” was, “ Follow Me, and let
the dead bury their dead.”’ In the directions to the
apostles regarding their missionary enterprises He
made it clear that their message would cause family
feuds. /‘‘ The brother shall deliver up the brother
to death, and the father his child, and children shall
rise up against parents and cause them to be put to >
death.” And again, “‘He that loveth father or
mother more than Me is not worthy of Me, and
he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not
worthy of Me.” When He was talking to the people
and someone said, “ Behold, Thy mother and Thy
brethren stand without desiring to speak with Thee,”
He answered, “‘ Who is My mother and who are My
brethren?” ‘Then, pointing to His disciples, He
added, ‘‘ Behold My mother and My brethren, for
whosoever shall do the will of My Father who is in
heaven, the same is My brother and sister and
mother.” Later He said, ‘‘ There is no man that
hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or mother,
or father, or children, or lands, for My sake, but he
shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, and
in the world to come eternal life.”
The lessons to be drawn from the records of the
Gospels seem to be as follows: In the first place
our Lord regarded the family relations as those
which most clearly revealed the spirit of love. Basing
12
GENERAL: SURVEY
His teaching on this fact, He declared that family
love must be extended to the greater family of the
whole human race. ‘The love of brothers must not
merely be the love of blood relations, but of all men,
for all men are brothers, and we are ‘all sons of Garr
In the second place He made it clear that His own
claims and those of the family would often be in
opposition, and that when they clashed the latter
must not be allowed to interfere with the higher
call. Obviously, therefore, the ideal family life is
that which gives to its members the best training for
broader co-operation as members of the large family _
of the human race. As St. Paul said, “If a man
know not how to rule his own house, Hen shall he
take care of the Church of God? ”
THe FAMILY AND THE HOME NOT ENDS IN
THEMSELVES
Much confusion has arisen from a failure to recog-
nise that the family and the home are social institu-
tions which must not be regarded as ends in them-
selves. Again, many conflicts have arisen because
some parents have endeavoured to exercise despotic
powers over their children and to bring them up in
their own image. There has, moreover, been a
frequent tendency to interpret the proverb,“ Charity
begins at home,” as if it had been “ Charity begins
and ends at home.” It was the danger of this which
led Bacon to say, with that profound knowledge of
human nature which characterises his writings, “A
single life doth well with Churchmen; for Charity
will hardly water the ground where it must first
13
THE HOME
filla pool.” Many people although called Christians
have neglected to seek for others what they have
constantly sought for themselves, and have made
demands quite incompatible with our Lord’s own
teaching. As we have already pointed out, Christ
made it quite clear that where there was a conflict
between the claims of parents and His own claim, the
latter must prevail, and that if necessary people must
leave father and mother for His sake. Yet we find
well-to-do ladies regarding it as entirely wrong for
their daughters to leave home in order to undertake
social work in the poorer districts of our large towns
or missionary work in the foreign field, although they
are quite content to have other people’s daughters
leave home and live in their houses as nurse-maids
or scullery-maids. Unless we regard the family life
as a means to an end rather than an end in itself,
we shall never be able to reconcile our duty to the
members of our family with our duty to God and the
community. While we are far from accepting the
many strictures which Mr. Bernard Shaw has made
on the subject of the family and “ the family ideal,”
and while the beginning of the following quotation
is no doubt over-stated, there is an important truth
contained in the latter part of it. In the famous
preface on “‘ Parents and Children ” he says: “ The
family ideal is a humbug and a nuisance: one might
as reasonably talk of the barrack ideal, or the fore-
castle ideal, or any other substitution of the
machinery of social organisation for the end of it,
which must always be the fullest and most capable
life: in short, the most godly life. And this
significant word reminds us that though the popular
14
GENERAL SURVEY
conception of heaven includes a Holy Family, it
does not attach to that family the notion of a separate
home, or a private nursery or kitchen, or mother-
in-law, or anything that constitutes the family as
we know it. Even blood relationship is miraculously
abstracted from it; and the Father is the father of
all children, the Mother the mother of all mothers
and babies, and the Son the Son of Man and the
Saviour of His brothers : one whose chief utterance
on the subject of the conventional family was an
invitation to all of us to leave our families and follow
Him.”
Tue Home THE TRAINING GROUND FOR CHRISTIAN
LIFE
We have tried in our Report to interpret the
teaching of our Lord in so far as it concerns the
relations of members of the family to one another
and to the community. ‘The family as an institu-
tion can be of the greatest possible value if its
members attempt to learn forbearance and co-
operation in their mutual life, and also try to apply
the lessons so learnt to their dealings with their
neighbours and to their public activities. But the
family often fails to be a good school because some
member of it acts with selfishness or despotism. For
instance, the attitude of parents towards their
children should be one in which their own interests
are subordinated. ‘Their desires should be only
to secure the children’s interests and help them
take their part in the greater work which they
are called upon to do for the community. The
15
THE HOME
lack of realisation of this truth has caused many
conflicts.
After considering the relations of the members
of the family to each other, and trying to arrive at
some kind of conclusion with regard to the ideal
family life, we are led inevitably to a discussion of
the material conditions which make such a life
possible. If all men are our brothers, then we
should try to secure for them what we would try to
secure for those who belong to our own families.
This will involve, not merely the extension of a spirit
of brotherhood towards our personal acquaint-
ances, nor what is commonly called charity, or
vaguely termed “social work.” It will involve
political action. We have reached the stage at
which we cannot hope to satisfy the essential
material requirements of human beings merely
through the medium of charity. We must estab-
lish a community which will banish want and
poverty, and give to each of its members adequate
opportunities for a full and vigorous life.
In saying this we do not for one moment imply
that the ideals of family life can never be realised
except where material conditions are satisfactory.
Indeed we all know how magnificently these are
overcome. Yet undoubtedly material conditions
play a tremendous part in creating unnecessary
difficulties and obstacles. Whether looked on from
the standpoint of those who are in comfortable
circumstances or from the standpoint of those who
are living in poverty or in slum areas, the existence
of such wide disparities of material surroundings and
circumstances 1S a serious menace to our common
16
GENERAL SURVEY
life. In some cases children have no proper chance
physically because their parents are too poor; in
other cases they have no chance morally because
their parents are too rich. Family life may be
ruined either by the inability of the head of the
family to obtain work or by the fact that he is
under no economic necessity to do any work what-
ever. Children may be neglected in one home
because their mother is always overworked, in another
because she spends her whole time in outside
amusements.
CHRISTIAN OBLIGATIONS TOWARDS SociAL ABUSES
We have, therefore, in the later chapters of our
Report considered in detail many of the important
social questions of our time—the results of the present
bad housing conditions, the failure to plan our towns
properly, the existence of poverty, the relationship
of the State to children and of the mother to Society,
and all the matters which profoundly affect home
life and family life. Here love and faith must take
control. ‘There is a definite Christian obligation
on everyone of us to see that the evils which sur-
round us are remedied. As we have already pointed
out, while much can be done by individual action,
the fundamental wrongs can only be attacked by
political and municipal legislation and administra-
tion. In future “ to take no part in politics ” must
be regarded as a breach of duty. Unless those who
represent us in Parliament and on Local Authorities
regard their obligations from a definitely Christian
standpoint, we shall never make real progress to-
C 17
THE HOME
wards solving the social and economic questions
which so vitally affect the welfare of the popula-
tion. If they are to be solved, all those who pro-
fess and call themselves Christians must do every-
thing in their power to get the right representatives
upon national and local bodies. In no other way
is it possible to create the new social order of which
we dream and for which we hope.
CHAP TERE
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
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CHAPTER II
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
Tue word “‘ home ”’ is often used for the building
in which a family, or even a single person, dwells,
but in the fuller sense it includes the dwellers
themselves and the life they live together. This is
the meaning we give it in the present chapter. In
the main we are considering the family home as the
normal unit which fulfils the great social functions
of continuing the race and bringing its children
through the long period of growth from infancy to
manhood and womanhood.
It is the function of the family to be the first and
most intimate group in the social life of humanity.
Within its home the individual personality can
unfold, and can learn the various forms of union
with other different and complementary personali-
ties; while around the home-centre wider contacts
with social and national life develop.
If the family unit is to give the best opportunity
to its members, and is to make its full contribution
to the larger society of its neighbourhood or its
nation, its life and its home must be beautiful. ee
The words Goodness, Truth and Beauty convey
great conceptions, and are not very easy to define
or to separate ; but they all have their place in the
complete family and home. Goodness implies the
21
THE HOME
right impulsé of the individuals to live to the full
the life God has given them according to His Will;
Truth the only sound basis for the human contacts
and relations leading to beauty of life and ultimately
of material surroundings. Beauty is a spiritual
need, and without it we unconsciously starve our-
selves. ‘The conventions and restraints of the home,
so far as such may be needed, must be directed to
promote and maintain the degree of order and peace
without which beauty of life and home cannot be
secured. Not only should the home afford the
most favourable soil for the growth within it of
fine personality, but everyone who visits it from —
outside should go away conscious that contact has
been established with a home life which has itself
something to reveal, and to contribute to the
common stock.
This does not depend on luxury; it depends on
loving care for the details of the home, on thought
in their arrangement, and on taste in their selection ;
but perhaps more than anything else on a harmony
between the home and the life of the home. If the
life of the family is a good and beautiful life, nothing
will add more to the charm of the home than the
expression of its complete adaptation to that life,
however simple in its scale the life may be. Space
in the house and in each room, allotted to the work,
the culture, or the play, each according to the
family value set upon it ; colours, furniture, decora-
tions and ornaments, chosen because they, or their
associations, are loved by some or all of the family ;
these things lead to expressiveness, and, with a very
moderate endowment of taste, to beauty in the home.
22
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
Care for the life of the family and truth in express-
ing its habits do not demand or excuse the want of
equal care and consideration for the visitor, who may
be made to feel a true contact with the actual family
life without necessarily being made to share all the
sacrifices of comfort or luxury which the individual
standard of the particular family may cause it to
choose. In view of the imperfection of human
faculties some conventions and restraints are always
a necessary condition of social intercourse. ‘The
family should be the sphere in which these may be
the least irksome and the most fully understood.
As the sphere of contacts expands, conventions and
restraints must increase. Good manners in the
home and in society spring from a nice appreciation
of these conventions and an understanding of their
purpose, coupled with a desire to make them easily
complied with and fearlessly set aside when the
spirit of good relations clashes with the letter of
convention.
The home is a natural unit needing no_ higher
sanction than the very conditions which make it
possible. It is one of the greatest witnesses to the
nature of God. ‘There are, therefore, many beauti-
ful examples of home life outside the Christian
religion, but the force of centuries of Christian
example has combined with natural law to bring
something like the ideal we set out within the reach
of any two partners.
The home is the test of other social organisations
which, however far they deviate in practice from
its ideals, pay homage to them. ‘The “ father of
his country” is the ideal ruler. ‘‘ Patriotism ”
23
THE HOME
and the “‘ mother country” are expressions that
show that man’s highest social hopes are in an
extension of the principles of the home to wider
associations.
Because of the primary quality and strength in
the institution of the family its relation to religion
is vital. ‘The regenerating power of religion in
other social organisations can at best be temporary,
if not entirely illusory, unless it is the foundation
of home life. But if religion is intimately related
to home life, it will spread, with the other influences
of the home, into all the wider associations of
men. |
Herein lies the importance of the Christian home.
Jesus came to fulfl. He accepted the home as a
natural organisation and filled it with spiritual
power. He showed that if Christian home life was
strong, Christian influences would prevail in the
world.
The foundation of religion is in the influence of
the home on children. Even those who would not
be termed religious at all are conscious that they
owe what religious ideas they have to what they
learnt in their homes. ‘The Church itself is con-
stantly and naturally being recruited from Christian
homes, and it is to the reality of the faith as seen
and taught there that we must look for the main
method of preserving and increasing its best life.
If the place and method of the home were
understood and taught, the foundation would be
truly laid for the structure of the new society and
the unit of power for its realisation discovered.
Whatever ideals the citizen is to have, whatever
24
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
principles he is instinctively to act upon, must first
be found in home life and in family relations.
The answer to the questions with which we are
faced is, therefore, of supreme importance. The
life and ordering of the Christian home must be
the foundation of the whole Christian order of
Society.
The basis of the home must then be the same as
the basis of Christianity—Love. Without love the
machinery of the simplest household breaks down ;
it cannot even fulfil its purely material functions
satisfactorily, and it certainly cannot be the leaven
of Christianity for the whole world. According to
the extent to which family life is governed by love
will the family fulfil its important part.
If the ideal of a home filled with such unselfish
love makes us conscious that we have all failed in
some degree—whether from selfishness or thought-
lessness or hypocrisy—it also shows the causes of
failure and the reasons why the average, ordinary
home is the source of so much strength, beauty and
healing. This is not, therefore, to set up a
practically impossible ideal. To think so is to
mistake utterly the purpose both of an ideal and of
Christianity. An ideal is not for condemning but
for leading into a healthy growth.
Love, it is true, means sacrifice; and the greater
the love the more acute will be the pain for all when
any member of the home suffers. Only a great
vision can make that sacrifice be accepted willingly.
But the Christian has that vision. Love is the
centre of his faith and it covers the whole field.
Failures of any kind or description in family relations
25
THE HOME
and in the influence of home life rest at bottom on
lack of love.
To discuss the actual application of this rule of
love presents many difficulties. ‘There is a danger
of appearing to enunciate a series of platitudes
which are too obvious to need statement. We are
fully aware that much of what we say may appear
obvious. ‘This, however, does not remove the
necessity for stating it. Until we are able ourselves
to live in accordance with what we regard as obvious
truths, those truths must be reiterated and restated.
Again, the subject is so intimate and complicated
that our own views are inevitably coloured by the
homes we know. We cannot avoid this limitation.
Every reader will think of problems in family
relations known to himself and judge how the
universal law of love should be applied in particular
cases. He may also have studied family relations
in works of fiction—in such novels as Pendenuts,
Richard Feverel, The Forsyte Saga, etc.—and con-
sidered why the home described failed to be a
success. We cannot cover every circumstance
in family relations, and it is not so easy to depict
the family strength as the family weakness. Yet, if
family relations are as fundamental as we believe,
the subject is too vitally important to be passed
over without fuller comment.
We recognise that the causes of home-making are
complex. People act at least as much from instinct
as from reasoned purpose. ‘The desire to “ have a
home of one’s own” may have nothing to do with
marriage or parenthood, though it will gain in force
when these two come into play. It is the instinct for
26
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
self-realisation, which demands a place for the
expression of personal tastes and activities as well as
for privacy and retreat.
But the fullness of meaning requires, in addition
to these, the instincts for mating and for the making
of a family. These work together, but they are
sufficiently distinct for one or the other to be at
times practically lacking. In some communities it
is the rule rather than the exception for marriage to
be arranged without reference to “‘ romantic love ”’ ;
regard being given chiefly to the establishment of a
family. Conversely, there are many marriages
based on purely personal attraction with little or no
concern for the responsibilities of home-life and
parentage. It cannot in fairness be said that the
average results of the former are worse than those of
the latter; probably from the simple point of view
of “running a family establishment ” they may be
better. Sometimes, where the matching of personal
qualities has been fortunate, such marriages may
provide the ground from which a genuine love of
the best kind will spring. Similarly, the romantic
love may be wiser in its unpurposed selection than
any other mode of choice, though the results of its
mistakes may be the more tragic. But the home
can only find a really satisfactory embodiment when
both forces are working together. ‘There is no need
to stress the tragedy of a loveless marriage or a
loveless home. Physically it may meet some of
nature’s purposes, but spiritually it is a failure.
Romantic love is then a firm foundation if it
means more than mere mutual attraction. The
outlook of people approaching marriage need not be
27
THE HOME
identical—for differences are often valuable—but
they do need to have a common vision of life and a
deep understanding of each other. They are
beginning a joint life whose influence is far-reaching
for them and for the world, and they should face
this fact. Above all they should know what marriage
means and how it requires the full co-operation of all
faculties—of body, mind and spirit. A great
responsibility rests, therefore, on their parents and
the home they have created. For parents to inter-
fere after the choice of a mate has been made is
generally useless. Jt is from the atmosphere of the
home, from the lessons learnt there of mutual
adjustment and forbearance and of the principles on
which the parents’ life is based, that the children
will come quite naturally to choose their right
partners. They will see the full significance of
marriage and what it means—the greatest oppor-
tunity both for self-realisation and joy and for
service.
Failures in married life are due to lack of love
or to encroachments by the enemies of love, such
as hypocrisy or selfishness. ‘They may also be due
to a misunderstanding of what love really means.
Both romantic love and the love of one’s house-
hold. may remain largely egoistic, a preoccupation
with one’s own emotions, an appropriation of
desired objects for the gratification of self, rather
than what our Lord taught as love. This, in the
words of the Apostle, is a love that “ seeketh not
its own,” but the good of those who are loved, and
finds its inspiration and its power in the love of
God in Christ for us.
28
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
Love is “a way of living.” Of its nature it
must grow and deepen; and the effort foreseen in
marriage must be continually kept up. If this is
realised, disappointment will not make the spirit
dissatisfied. Love is always exploring and seeking
a still fuller life; there are always more discoveries
to be made and more experiments to be tried. It is
too often forgotten that courtship should last as
long as life. Sometimes even ordinary sociability
and courtesy are left behind.
There are certain things for which everybody,
single as well as married, seeks in his or her own
home. They are quite legitimately looked for by
both husband and wife, but if demanded as rights
may be obtained only at the cost of clashing of
wills and the defeat of one or the other. In any
case, the fine flavour of the satisfaction will be
missed. But where love is watching to serve, not
only are the needs more fully met, but the true
home spirit finds embodiment. _
It must, of course, be an intelligent service.
The husband who is relieved of all responsibility
in his own home on the ground that business cares
are sufficient for him to bear, or the wife who is
“* shielded from all anxiety,” is not so much served
as excluded from a great part of the other’s life.
The solicitude to save the other from all trouble
and pain is, in fact, often merely a subtle form of
selfishness ; it is not so much the other’s pain as
the effect of it upon ourselves that we want to
avoid. ‘The greater service is not to shield from
effort, pain or trouble which it is the other’s right
to bear, but by sharing it to help in its mastery.
2)
THE HOME
With the grosser forms of selfishness which mar
family life and often wreck homes—such as brutality,
drunkenness and gambling—it is not necessary to
deal, but a spirit of giving is needed in great measure |
in all aspects of family relations. ‘This spirit is
more than unselfishness, for that is a purely negative
virtue. It is rather a positive joy—a natural part
of love—involving no conscious sacrifice, for we
rejoice to do it. Between husband and wife this
spirit will be in constant operation, and where there
are children the need for it is intensified. There is
of necessity a large amount of drudgery and irksome
work which easily leads to a sense of overstrain or
injustice unless the drudgery itself becomes trans-
muted into a thing of joy by the ordering of love
and by the help of the other partner. ‘lowards
and from the children this attitude must be
maintained, even to the time when they have
homes of their own or stay at home after they have
grown up. It means that parents will often see
events taking a different course from any they could
have foreseen or wished. Family life demands great
faith.
Some parents who have preferred to live a life
of simplicity first find real difficulty when their
children grow up. A conflict comes between the
parents’ ideals and the children’s material ad-
vantages. ‘The parents will realise that they should
not surrender their own ideals, just as they would
not wish the children to surrender theirs for them.
Nor must selfishness be allowed to envelop the
family itself as a unit. Neither the family nor
members of it should become so absorbed in itself
30
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
that it neglects to cultivate outside interests. The
home that concentrates solely on the welfare of its
own children to the exclusion of other children is
failing to see the vision of home life in relation
to humanity. It is not really Christian, just as,
on the other hand, there is something lacking in the
Christianity of those parents who are so engrossed
with world problems that their own homes are
excluded. ‘There may be a conflict of duties—both
extremes are bad.
One of the forms which selfishness takes is that
of jealousy, which is the outcome of the egoistic
element in romantic love. There is, of course, a
rightful exclusiveness in the relations of husband
and wife, but it is only achieved by giving and not
by demanding. We are here concerned, not with
the sins against love which violate that exclusive-
ness, but with the jealousy that presses it beyond
its rightful bounds.
This jealousy on the part of husband or wife may
view with suspicion all friends of the other sex
or even of the same. It may be oblivious to the
truth that the growth of personality in each requires
much greater variety of human association than any
one being can give to another, and that this varied
association does no violence to the sacred bond at
the centre. ‘The jealousy is almost wholly instinc-
- tive and can be dangerous. It should, therefore,
be recognised and laughed away. Such friendships
springing from a Christian home are of benefit to
all concerned, and should be approved by the
general Christian conscience.
One of the main pitfalls in married life is lack
31
THE HOME
of mutual understanding. It is easy to feel that
little things do not matter and are hardly worth
considering. But in these little things is the germ
of trouble, and the beginning of the loss of the
essential balance. Frank and full discussion is
necessary all the way. And, further, there must be
agreement on joint action about everything. We
select five things for special mention.
(a) Hypocrisy is the greatest enemy to any
society. In the home it is fatal. This is most
clearly seen where the spirit has gone out of religious
forms; where pious practices and pious phrases
make religion forced or sham. Against this there
should and must be revolt, for it is unspiritual and
tries to impose by force what can only be learnt by
love. ‘There must be no pretence or sham whatever
in family relations, and least of all in their spiritual
aspect.
(5) Love increases the power of friendship and
would not countenance the giving up of pre-
marriage friends and interests. A right attitude
towards relatives also is of fundamental importance.
The friends and relations of the other partner must
be accepted and welcomed.
(c) It is not our province to discuss matters of
sex and sexual relations, but the dangerous results
of lack of mutual respect and confidence in this ©
matter are so devastating to married life that we
must point out the urgent importance of mutual
discussion and understanding of any matters con-
nected with it.
(d) ‘True co-operation is impossible unless both
parents know the financial position of the home.
32
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
The husband earns his contribution to the home
in cash payment for his services elsewhere; the
wife gives her contribution by direct service. Both
are of equal value. It is the family’s money and not
that of any one of its members. Thorough frank-
ness here breeds the only family responsibility worth
having, and there is much to be said for a joint
bank or savings account.
(e) The training and education of the children
is from the beginning a joint undertaking. And
later on parents should consider the kind and place
of education most suited to the individual child
and try to keep in touch with its interests and
teachers. |
To keep even the smallest matters undiscussed
does not prevent friction. It increases it in the
end. It may be said that lack of sympathy in
tastes ought to have been thought of before marriage,
and that it is very difficult to remedy afterwards.
Unfortunately it is too often the case that powerful
personal attraction in one or two respects has
obscured a diversity, even an opposition of intel-
lectual and esthetic interests, and this abides when
the glamour of romance has passed. As most
people want a home of their own for self-expression,
it may become-very difficult to express both per-
sonalities in the same home. This may lead to a
struggle for the mastery, or to a drifting apart, so
that the home is only an expression of the dominant
self or a bit of crazy patchwork. Here again it
is only the genuine love that seeks the other’s good
that can save the situation. It will at least respect
the other’s tastes, and such respect is the first
D 33
THE HOME
condition of a possible sharing. As with friends, it
will have to be recognised that there are more
appreciations and satisfactions in any one personality
than can be fully shared by any other one, and that
to exclude all that is not common to both is to
dwarf both. But the love that affords each other
scope for self-expression, even though it begin, like
Bofhin’s Bower, with part of the same room given
to the “ high-flier after fashion,” and the other
part to the homely comfort of an inn, will end by
making the divers tastes complementary and creat-
ing a home that is more than “ the sum of its parts.”
Divergent tastes and opinions are bound to show
themselves, and the only way to deal with them
is to talk them over. And when, as may happen
in the best of families, the jars do come, the
point at issue must be discovered and faced. It is
little use trying to make a virtue of patient endur-
ance alone. ‘The cause of friction should be thought
and prayed about, and some definite step be taken
to remove or minimise it.
The essentials of happy married life—truth,
beauty, unselfishness and frankness—are simply the
fruits of love, and the causes of failure are one and
all due to people being too self-centred.
The ideal family as we picture it would start
with all the romance of love. ‘This love would be
coupled with a realisation of mental and spiritual
sympathies which would be so complementary to
each other as to ensure that, as the years of married
life rolled by, love would continue to grow and
deepen. This will be achieved by co-operation
in all the relations of family life, by complete free-
34
THE FAMILY IN THE HOME
dom of mental intercourse, by the tenderest con-
sideration, and above all by a common desire that
the lives of parents and children shall be ordered
by continued communion with our Lord. When
children come, the ties will be strengthened and
tightened and the co-operation made more real in
their up-bringing. By each member desiring the
others to express their own personalities as much
as he desires to express his own, all will be bound
together by the attempt to make “ Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all
thy soul and thy neighbour as thyself” the funda-
mental rule of life.
In the true home Love Himself will be the Head
of the house and His Spirit will pervade and test
everything. Even those who but touch that home
and pass on will feel that it is ruled by a spirit and
a law that is not of the general world, and that there
flows from it a determination to create love and joy
and peace and make them possible in every home
and habitation in the world.
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CHAPTER III
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
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CHAPTER III
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
Tue Home a TRAINING-GROUND FOR THE
Kincpom oF Gop
Tue family home is not complete until husband
and wife become father and mother. The coming
of children has two profound effects : (1) it modifies
the relation of husband and wife to each other, and
(2) it introduces fresh persons into the home.
1. The relation of parents to each other.—We have
said that while romantic love is the indispensable
basis of home life of the best type, it may retain
strong elements of egoism. A well-known cynical
saying defines the absorption of each partner in the
other as “ égoisme 4 deux”’; a kind of co-operative
selfishness. Parenthood seems to afford the readiest
and most natural way of transmuting this into
something that makes less appeal to passion but 1s
of finer and more abiding worth.
There is a joint responsibility for someone else ;
a responsibility which from its nature calls for at
least a certain amount of sacrifice. A new bond
of interest is created, demanding a new kind of
co-operation. ‘There is an immediate challenge to
the other-regarding love to which the romance
should have been the natural prelude. If it is
39
THE HOME
taken up, the mutual self-giving for the children
brings a development of personality that is the
richer for being not consciously sought.
To achieve this result, the co-operation must be
real. Children must be neither “my” children
nor “your” children, but “our” children. The
mother naturally has most to do with the children,
especially at the first, and her very devotedness may
seem to push the father aside. He on his part,
perhaps unconsciously, may tend to resent and
become jealous of this deflection of time and interest
which had been given to himself. On the other
hand, the father may be so moved by the instinct ©
of pride in offspring and continuance of his family
line as to make his wife wonder whether she has
been wanted for any other reason. ‘These are the
old pitfalls of jealousy and exclusiveness in a new
form. A frank facing of the matter in the spirit
of real love at the beginning will lead to making
room for both fatherhood and motherhood to
find expression, and holds out the only hope
of settling satisfactorily the inevitable clashes ot
opinion.
Parentage, indeed, at every stage affords the
fullest opportunities for the sharing of confidence
and playing of different but complementary parts.
What is given and what is received are reciprocal,
and often the opportunity to give is itself the best
gift that can be conferred. Neither parent should
seek to “spare” the other the responsibility, pain
or trouble that the true father or mother would
be hurt to miss. Each has something that the
other cannot ordinarily give, and children that are
40
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
jointly loved do not, in spite of an exaggerated
psycho-analysis, set one parent over against the
other.
2. The relation of parents to the children—The
Christian principle of the sacredness of personality
has already done much to deliver the child from
being merely the chattel or the plaything of the
parent. But it has yet much more to do. When
Jesus *‘ took a little child and set him in the midst,”
He set forces at work more powerful than the _
replacement of one code by another. ‘The fact
that each child in the home is a person challenges
love itself to more intelligent and understanding
service. It is a great thing to care for physical
health by good feeding, clothing and similar minis-
trations. It is greater to give a good education.
But the greatest is to develop a character. ‘This is
generally more dependent upon the home life than
upon all other influences.
(a) It must be the child’s own character—The
home has one supreme advantage over other insti-
tutions. Its laws and habits spring almost wholly
out of its life and are not imposed by rule. ‘The
discipline of the home is natural, and therefore in
a unique way it is a place for real education for
prospective citizenship both of the Kingdom of
God and of the world. Education received at
home is not really given by a series of authoritative
parental prohibitions, but by unselfish, temperate
example and an appeal to the mind and heart by
truthful and rational explanations. It is what they
see rather than what they are told that has weight
with children, and an atmosphere of understanding,
41
THE HOME
frankness and sympathy does more than any direct
teaching.
A standard of conduct, however excellent, that is
merely enforced from without is liable to fail in
important respects. It will be of no use to the
grown boys or girls when they have to stand on
their own feet and make their own decisions. Even
while they are children, if it does not in some way
command their own assent, it will lead to evasions
and a sense of resentment. ‘There is a strong case
for the modern psychological belief that mere
repression of instincts and desires leads to much
mischief both of a physical and a moral nature.
This applies to tastes and abilities, as well as to
what are more narrowly considered as morals.
Where these are discouraged because they do not
accord with those of the parents it may lead to
the thwarting of the child’s own personality and
the loss of much that he might contribute to the
common life. Parents will try to grow alongside
of their children and be their real friends. For
parent and child to differ is natural, but the parent
who is a friend will at least understand how the
child came to its conclusions, and not be so divorced
in understanding as to put differences down to
sheer ‘‘ wrongheadedness.” Nor is it necessary to
maintain a tradition of parental omniscience, which
is soon found out. A frank avowal of ignorance,
and a readiness to contribute what one does know,
will command much greater respect.
It is hardly necessary to say that parents should
treat all their children with impartiality, and make
it clear by action as well as word that boys and girls
42
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
are of equal value, but in addition both boys and
girls will be expected to contribute equally to the
home and to their share of its service. No unfair
proportion should fall on either the boys or the
girls nor on any one of them. And towards them
all the parents will remember that they grow in
mind as well as stature, and be careful to treat
them according to the years they have attained, and
help them to reach full independence.
(b) It must be a social character—The home itself
is-a society, in which the child must somehow -
adjust his own self-expression to that of others.
There is here much opening for conflict, which is
of frequent occurrence. Children have a keen
sense of justice, and it is natural that this should
be most sensitive about what is due to themselves.
But in a really good home they learn to regard the
just claims of others and discover that in a little
community where this is done they find a fuller
expression of themselves than when each has to
fight for his own hand.
Amongst themselves they learn the first lessons
about human nature and about leadership, co-
operation and mutual forbearance. They learn to
live together with others of differing temperaments
and capacities, in peace and common service. ‘The
home makes a small world in which to learn both
the pleasant and the disagreeable before entering
the larger world.
In the main this training is gained unconsciously
from the tone of the home life, but there are certain
social matters worthy of mention which the parents
will watch with especial care.
43
THE HOME
It is at home that the value of money and the
economics of spending should be taught.
The scale of living adopted by each family repre-
sents a rough measure of its consumption of the
wealth available for the community, the share of
the common stock which is appropriated to its
maintenance. It would not be unreasonable, there-
fore, that each family should adopt such scale of
living and expenditure within its available means
as may be necessary for the efficiency of its members
in their several callings, such as will secure reason-
able intercourse with those who are working on
allied lines and whose fellowship may be necessary
to efficiency, and will enable a sufficiently wide
experience of men and things to be enjoyed, accord-
ing to the needs of each. Expenditure in excess of
such a standard seems to fall into a different class,
much more difficult to justify, much more open to
the various criticisms which all needless consumption
of wealth tends to call forth. Incidentally it is
often found coupled—even in many so-called
Christian homes—with the grave scandal of a wicked
delay in paying bills, and even not paying at all.
A great number of the bankruptcies among trades-
people is due to the failure to pay bills on the part
of those who could well afford it.
We feel, therefore, that children should realise
that in the home of each Christian family any
expenditure which goes beyond what is required
for the efficiency of its function or for the develop-
ment of its real culture should be scrutinised with
care and with suspicion, and should need some
definite justification on grounds more worthy than
44
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
those connected with social climbing or personal
ostentation. If this course were adopted much of
the scandal associated with great wealth would be
removed, and incidentally a fund of some magni-
tude would become available which in various ways
might help to level up the condition of many whose
family spending is clearly below the minimum
standard.
It also is not fair to allow children to grow up
in ignorance of great social evils like drinking and
gambling, or with strange half-morbid fears or un-
satisfied curiosity about the “evil world.” ‘They
must learn the facts and the reasonable Christian
attitude as far as the parents understand it towards
these as well as lesser problems of Christian conduct
about which there may be difference of opinion.
Lastly, there must be education in the meaning
of lasting love and of marriage. In the first place,
to the parents falls a special responsibility with
regard to sex. Sex facts must be taught with
absolute frankness at home and from an early age:
and it is the duty of parents to learn the best way
of imparting this knowledge. Another Commission
is dealing with what is called “sex teaching,” and
we would only say here that the frankness which
imparts what ought to be known at the proper age
is not inconsistent with a wise reticence—a reticence
that implies sacredness and in no sense shamefulness.
In the second place, means must be found for
wholesome and natural friendship between the sexes
throughout growth, and every opportunity given
for mixing with a wide social circle to enlarge
understanding and range of choice.. Over and above
45
THE HOME
this for the children will stand the knowledge of
what love and marriage means for their parents,
who will unconsciously demonstrate its co-operative
freedom and, while urging foresight, will show that .
romance is part of the life of the spirit and comes
first, however serious economic considerations may
be.
(c) Lt must be a religious character.—It is the con-
cern of both parents to undertake the religious
education of their children as a natural and simple
part of the home life. ‘Too often it is done by
only one, or by both without complete agreement.
Here, once more, example is much more valuable »
than precept or rule. If the parents really draw
near to God regularly and with joy, the children
will naturally do the same. The early formation
of religious habits stands everybody in good stead.
Habit within reason is the ground of efficiency.
There can be no freedom until the method is
mastered. Yet religious observance simply as such
may become artificial and a real hindrance later on
if parents are not ever watchful that the right
balance is kept, so that habits, however useful, are
not merely habits but have reality and life behind
them. It is sometimes urged, with a show of
fairness, that all teaching of religion should be
left until with matured mind the grown man or
woman is able to make an intelligent choice. In
actual life this is not possible, for a child naturally
seeks God from the very start. Moreover, neither
the mind nor the heart can be kept like an unused
slate through all the years of childhood. Some-
thing gets written on it, and if no care is taken to
46
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
see that what is written is true and worthy of the
child’s acceptance, the result will be a curious
mixture of beliefs, prejudices and superstitions, as
is too frequently the case. The child cannot help
forming some ideas and, what is of chief importance,
making his personal response in life. He will put
something in the supreme place and give it his
allegiance. He will be moved by some guiding
principles, will have his own standard of good and
evil, and will put his faith in some power. If he
does not trust in God, there are other gods that
children and men make for themselves.
The importance, therefore, of the training ,
element in home life is difficult to exaggerate, as
it is in the home that character is formed. ‘The
moral standard, the social ideals and all the spiritual
values are learnt consciously or unconsciously at
home. Children leave the home with an attitude
to life which it is very difficult to change. And in
facing the world they have but to turn the good
habits of home to the service of the community,
to possess the highest standard and the best
prospect of success. If this or anything like it is
achieved, the home has fulfilled its function in
society and in the universe. It has given to its
founders the fullest, most useful, and most joyous
life, and sends out its young members into the world
equipped at all points to meet it in service of their
own day and generation.
3. Lhe relation of children to parents will be on the
same basis. “They have their duties and responsi-
bilities too, and in a home after the pattern we are
describing they will have been brought up to enjoy
47
THE HOME
helping from the start. They will learn in the
fellowship of the family its own rules of conduct,
one to another. As they grow up it is for them to
settle how much time they can give to outside work
and still take their fair share in the work of the
family. ‘They will learn to distinguish the true
respect for parents from the false, the one that
springs from love and sympathy from that which is
based on fear or the expectation of gain. And also
the children as a group, whether married or single,
will face their responsibility for the care and comfort
of their parents’ old age.
Every generation seems to have deplored the
increasing laxity of the younger folk and a breaking
away from parental authority and influence, so that
the present age might be considered merely to
repeat a usual experience. ‘There are good reasons,
however, for believing that it is one of those special
times of transition which occur now and again.
The general spread of education, the linking up of
all parts of the world, and the extraordinary develop-
ment of the Press have brought all kinds of problems
within the range of boys and girls, and they feel
themselves more or less equipped to deal with them
on their own account. ‘There has also been a great
change of custom and public opinion, removing
many restrictions, particularly in connection with ©
the choice of recreations and the conditions under
which these can be enjoyed. Possibly the reaction
may have been over-stressed in some measure, and
the years of war were not helpful. If anything has
been lost, it seems clear that it will not be regained
by attempting to restore the coercive methods.
48
PARENTS AND CHILDREN
Children must be brought to understand what is
due from them to their parents and to give it as the
right and natural thing.
The general Christian conviction and teaching
might well be more definite in this matter. It is
more fitting that the Church should instruct the
children in the honour due to their parents than
that these should have to claim it for themselves.
The best parents are the most sensitive about
demanding as a right what they value most when
given spontaneously ; the others too often obscure
the real reasons for it by the manner of enforcement.
It will also have a fuller meaning for the young people
themselves when it is put to them as part of God’s
good purpose, recognised as such by the community
to which they belong.
CHAPTER IV
THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY
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CHAPTER IV
THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY
WHILE in a true sense the family is the “ social
unit,” it is not self-sufficient for the fuller purposes
of life. It has much to contribute to, and it has
much to receive from, the wider life of village, town,
nation or the world. ‘The families taken collec-~-
tively are the community, and from them come
continually the new citizens, giving a perennial
freshness of vigour and possibility of advance to
better things. ‘This, however, is dependent upon
the new-comers taking up in full the rich inheritance
of acquired experience and knowledge and increas-
ing it by rightful use. ‘There are always dangers of
retrogression as well as hopes of progress. ‘The
relations of the home and the community are there-
fore of supreme importance. ‘The ideas, principles
and purposes which the children are gathering in
the homes to-day become the moulding forces of
the nation fifteen or twenty years hence.
The question of the attitude of the family to the
wider life and interests of the community is difficult.
There is the vexed question whether Clubs, Girl
Guides, Boy Scouts, and similar activities im-
poverish or enrich the family life. It seems that in
so far as each member brings back to the family all
the enrichment of his own personality, all the fun
53
THE HOME
and joy and interest that he has had, they must
enrich it. But if the member ceases to have
interests in the family, and to care only for the club,
then family life is poorer. It is really the use and
not the abuse of clubs that is important. The same
applies to the clubs of either parent. Outside
interests are essential for all the family, if the family
life is to be the best possible. Our civilisation is
too complex to allow of isolated family life, and
where artificial isolation is attempted the com-
munity and the family both suffer. Marriage has
been called the “ death of public spirit.” There is
something radically wrong if this is so, for the family
is not an end in itself. It should be the greatest
support of a true community life.
Class distinctions present one of the great difh-
culties in the building up of a sound home life.
They encourage family selfishness, giving a false
class standard to be lived up to, and confusing
function with worth. Real religion in the home will
fight this by setting up its own true standards.
Personalities and persons will be valued—possessions
and material things will be subservient to them.
To the Christian the individual counts most. The
material environment of the home, though import-
ant, is not of first importance. If possessions were
really subordinate to persons, many of the worst
features of our present class distinctions would
disappear.
If a sense of brotherhood is essential to Chris-
tianity, it becomes one of the most important
duties of the parent to preserve in the child that
sense of equality which most children instinctively
54
THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY
possess, and which is destroyed by our artificial
conditions. If we wish to abolish false class dis-
tinction we must educate our children with our
neighbours’. ‘This does not mean that we must
send our children to any school of whose education
or conditions we disapprove. It means that our
choice must not be made on a purely class basis,
and if we want the best for our own children, as
Christians we must want it for all children.
We must also face the Domestic Service problem...
In a really Christian community, the people who
most need help, the aged and infirm and mothers
with young children, would have the first claim on
the services of the community. In our topsy-
turvy world, the mother with young children is
often driven by financial stress to work for the
wealthy, able-bodied and childless woman. ‘The
making of beautiful and clean homes should be
considered a service of great value to the community.
The work of the home should be regarded as an
honourable calling, but it will not be so as long as
the worst rooms and the worst food are given to those
who do it, and grown-up people are expected to call
small children “‘ Master” and ‘ Miss” without
receiving any such courtesy themselves from the
children. We have forgotten the reason for domestic
service. We should have it because we are not able
through lack of time to do all the work ourselves.
From that standpoint some of us have drifted into
a frame of mind that makes us expect personal service
as a due and not because we need it. We want
an entire change of values—a real belief in the
Christianity we profess.
55
THE HOME
1. What the family contributes to the community.—
In the home, the social relations and the spiritual
atmosphere are, generally speaking, in marked
contrast from those prevailing in the outer world.
It is, for instance, impossible to base the relations
of the members of a family upon the ability of each
to take what he can for himself, or even upon
relative merit. While it is the good of each, rather
than the reward of merit or ability, that is assumed
to be the purpose of all, the common good of the
family is also the regulator of what each does and
receives. It is not asserted, of course, that this
co-operative harmony is found in perfection simply -
through the fact of family life, or that the members
have in all cases consciously made it their ideal.
But it seems undeniable that from the nature of
the family association it is generally assumed, and
selfishnesses and “ family jars ” are felt to be faults
and failures because they are in conflict with it.
So within these natural social units there is constant
witness to the kind of social life that is the hope of
what the larger social groupings may become, a
rebuke and challenge to the wrong standards of the
outer world, and a refuge from its rougher self-
seeking ways.
Our Lord, in bidding us pray and work for the
coming of the reign of God on earth, made the
Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man the
basis. If the average home, so largely moulded by
instinct and tradition, by its simple existence points
the way to a better order, there are endless pos-
sibilities where the will of God is consciously and
purposefully sought. ‘The home will be the training-
56
THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY
ground for the practice of service, and in this way the
real Co-operative Commonwealth may eventually
be built up, replacing our selfish acquisitive society
by one more in harmony with the law of love which
our Lord taught as the only truly practicable
principle of social life.
2. What the community contributes to the family.—
It is only in thought that we can separate the giving
by the home to the community and the giving by
the community to the home. In actual life they
are reciprocal. In material things the bread-
winners of the family have, in the vast majority of
cases, to give their labour in some shape to meet the
needs of others, in order that they may draw from
associated production the maintenance of their
homes. ‘The problems of housing and the develop-
ment of towns are far too difficult and complex for
separate families to solve for themselves. ‘These
material conditions and some of the social considera-
tions involved are the subject matter of later
chapters of this Report. On the spiritual side there
are some things to be said here.
(a) It is through the community that the family
shares in a larger social life. Comradeships formed
with members of other homes do not impoverish
but enrich one’s own. However strong may be the
attachment of parents and children, brothers and
sisters, it will be all the better for friendships formed
with other households whose ways are not quite the
same and whose members bring different ideas and
points of view from those that have become perhaps
oppressively familiar. The recreative and other
associations may well give an enrichment of
57
THE HOME
personality which in turn enriches the family.
Especially it must be remembered that it is in the
wider community that those attachments are formed
which bring new homes into being. Whether the
larger social life helps or hinders that of the home
depends, of course, both upon its own nature and
the use that is made of it. The community has a
strong interest in seeing that its social arrangements
make for a clean and healthy life, in which parents
are not afraid to let their sons and daughters take
part.
(5) It is through the community at large that the
family enters, so far as it actually does enter, upon
the rich social inheritance of the past. Through
schools, colleges, universities, the Press in its widest
significance, the associations, societies and institu-
tions which gather up and diffuse the contributions
of the arts and sciences, the trades and crafts which
hand on from generation to generation their ap-
propriate traditions and technique, the community
puts at the disposal of its members this inheritance
and the additions that are being made toit. ‘This is
the true meaning of “ culture,” and it is this culture
which is needed to remedy what may only too easily
become the narrowness and stagnation of a merely
sectional tradition in the home.
(c) The better kinds of patriotism bring a stimulus
and a vision into home life which give it a fuller
meaning and purpose. ‘This is perhaps peculiarly
helpful to the housemother, whose especial pre-
occupation with household matters may readily
become too absorbing. Even the gossip of the
village and small town should not be too hastily
58
THE FAMILY AND THE COMMUNITY
condemned. It is not the interest in other people’s
doings and fortunes that is unhealthy; only the
ill-nature which turns gossip into scandal. But
the interest in the common good which brings not
only the father but the mother into touch with the
needs of the village or the town for better housing
or marketing or play spaces for children, or whatever
it may be, does more than help towards the meeting
of those needs; it breaks the monotony of the
narrow round and makes the home itself an organic
part of the larger common life. The loyalty to
one’s own household merges into loyalty to one’s
town, to one’s country, to the brotherhood of man
itself. There are other communities besides those
that are described in regional terms, and each has
its own larger life and interest which, while seeming
to make demands, is really conferring gifts. All
things must, of course, be done in due measure.
But there can be no question that the home which
is in organic relation with the larger communities
receives a hundredfold what it gives.
(d) It is from the Christian community that home
life ought to receive its greatest help and inspiration.
For just as love is the essence of home life, making
the ideal possible and actual, so the distinctive
Christian teaching is that God is love. Fellowship
with those who accept this both as their creed and
‘their working principle should do much to maintain
the high standard of the home ideal amid all
that tends to lower it in the general practice of the
world.
59
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CHAPTER, V
THE CHRISTIAN HOME AND THE FUTURE OF
THE WORLD
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CHAPTER V
THE CHRISTIAN HOME AND THE FUTURE OF THE
WORLD
WE believe that the subject with which we have ~
been dealing is of pre-eminent importance to Church
and State. If we claim that in Christianity there
is the solution of all problems of social life and
international relations, we must first show that it
is competent to solve the simpler relations existing |
in the home. :
Really Christian homes are most desperately
needed. We may not be able to do spectacular
public work ourselves, but we can all do most
needed service in making a Christian home and thus
influencing the world.
The home has always stood, and will continue to
stand, as the very heart of what is called the “‘ social
problem.” To maintain a home is the great motive
which impels most men to industry, and there would
be little ‘‘ industrial unrest ” if all were secure in its
reasonable maintenance. And, indeed, it is the
high business of the home to produce the men and
women, boys and girls, for whose life’s needs all
other production and service are meant. ‘The right
line of advance is to direct all social adjustments
towards making the true marriage and the happy,
healthy home more possible. ‘To make a world fit
63
THE HOME
for children to live in would be to make it fit for
everyone besides.
We have laid stress on certain aspects of home
life that need more thought than has been given
to them in the past. Perhaps the chief of these
are two. First, the home is the supreme place of
education and of training. ‘The impact and the
meaning of this we have as Christians hardly begun
to realise. Secondly, a Christian home means a
home governed by equality in personal values—
between parents, between parents and children,
between family and servants, in relations between
families. ‘This is, again, a standard and a value
which as a Christian community we have not yet
faced.
Both these principles of their very quality demand
infinite faith on the part of parents and of children,
but they are laden with tremendous power. ‘They
need unbounded faith if the vision of them is to be
fulfilled. But behind them stands supreme the
great principle and message of love—a love which if
present in our homes will inevitably bring the whole
world into its kingdom. If we can achieve the rule
of love in family relations, we shall have created
a magnificent instrument indeed, both for changing
values throughout the world and for furthering the
Kingdom of God in all generations.
64
CHAPTER VI
HOUSES AND HOMES
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CHAPTER VI
HOUSES AND HOMES
Amonc the material conditions which vitally
affect the welfare of the family, none is more im-
portant than the dwelling which it occupies. Many
striking examples have shown that it is possible for
a family to rise above the most depressing material
surroundings and for its members in their relations
with each other and their dealings with their neigh-
bours to live an ideal life and to walk in our Lord’s
footsteps. On the other hand, people with ideal
homes and ideal surroundings may be very far from
Christian. But it is beyond question that the
difficulties of a family are increased a hundredfold
where the house is dilapidated, sunless and over-
crowded. No Christian community can rest satis-
fied when a large proportion of its members is forced
to live in such housing conditions as exist to-day.
That such conditions prevail is partly due to the
culpable neglect or inertia of those in authority,
partly to undue consideration of the interests of
property owners, and partly to the carelessness and
indifference of those whose own circumstances are
easy and comfortable. If the material environ-
ment of large numbers of families is in any degree
shaped by forces which are beyond the control of
individuals, but are within the control of an organ-
67
THE HOME
ised community, the Christian Churches will fail
in their teaching of family ideals unless they concern
themselves definitely with those material conditions.
The right attitude of the Christian to social evils
is easily misstated, but the pithy saying of one of
those who dealt with our questionnaire comes very
near the truth: ‘“‘ It seems to me,” said the lady
in question, ‘‘ that our attitude must be that of
saying, ‘ As a Christian [ cannot rest until you have
as good a sink as I... We must, of course, avoid say-
ing, ‘ You cannot be as spiritual as | am unless you
have as good a sink.’”’? ‘To this we would add that
we must equally avoid saying, “I cannot be as
spiritual as you unless my sink is as good as yours.”
While the actual responsibility for action rests on
Parliament and the Local Authorities, individual
Christians must remember that these public bodies
are composed of their representatives, who must be
supported actively when they are pressing for the
right reform and must be stimulated to action when
they are neglecting their duty.
We, therefore, proceed to deal in some detail with
the housing problem as it presents itself to-day, and
to suggest lines of action which should be followed
by Christian people in order to try to remedy the
existing conditions.
Tue Facts
As a result of the war, housing conditions are to-
day considerably worse than they were before 1914.
It is wrong, however, to think that they have ever
been satisfactory. The late Alderman Thompson,
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HOUSES AND HOMES
in The Housing Handbook, published in 1901, gives
abundant evidence of the existence of a house
famine so far as working-class houses were concerned,
and the Report of the Royal Commission on Housing
of 1880 is full of evidence of overcrowding and of
slum conditions. Some picture of these in the period
following the Industrial Revolution is presented in
the novels of Charles Dickens, Mrs. Gaskell and other
Early Victorians. Mr. Lloyd George’s famous Land
Enquiry Committee, which investigated conditions
in I912,. accumulated a mass of evidence of the
appalling conditions then existing both in town and
country. Between Io per cent. and 15 per cent.
of the whole population lived in the slums of our
towns, and a large proportion of our rural cottages
was so dilapidated and unhealthy as to be entirely
unfit for human habitation. The shortage of houses
in the rural districts alone then amounted to
120,000. What this actually meant may be indi-
cated by some cases quoted by the Medical Officer
of Health for Mid-Warwickshire in 1912, in his
official report. He mentions the position of seven
specific families, of which the following two are
typical :
Man, wife and eight children (males, 15, 6, 4,
and 2; females, 14, 13, 9, 7) in one bedroom
partitioned in two parts by sheets.
Man, wife and six children (males, 13, I1, 7,
5, 1; female, 3), one bedroom.
The Committee’s investigations also showed that
there was a shortage of houses in half the towns of
England and Wales. The effects of the resulting
69
THE HOME
overcrowding can readily be gauged from the follow-
ing typical report from the Paddington and Kensing-
ton Tuberculosis Dispensary for 1912:
“ Badly ventilated, overcrowded bedrooms,
full of pre-respired air, and the fact that such
rooms, and even frequently the same bed, are
shared with a consumptive patient by other
members of his family, are probably responsible
for more tuberculosis than any other one single
factor. Table XVI shows that only 134 out
of 766 patients suffering from definite signs of
pulmonary tuberculosis occupied separate rooms
at night-time. ‘The others were sleeping in
rooms shared by one or more persons, and of
these only 179 slept in separate beds, the
remaining 453 actually sleeping in the same beds
as one or more members of the family.”
In some of the boroughs one-third of the whole
population was living more than two to a room,
counting not merely bedrooms but living-rooms for
the purpose of this average. Large numbers of
families lived entirely in oneroom. Medical Officers
of Health had reported officially to their Councils
the appalling conditions existing in their districts.
. The Royal Commission on Housing in Scotland, |
whose investigations started just before the war, and
whose Report was issued in 1917, summed up the
position in Scotland as follows :
“‘ Tnsanitary sites of houses and villages, in-
sufficient supplies of water, unsatisfactory pro-
vision for drainage, grossly inadequate provision
7O
HOUSES AND HOMES
for the removal of refuse, widespread absence of
decent sanitary conveniences, the persistence of
the unspeakably filthy privy midden in many of
the mining areas, badly constructed, incurably
damp labourers’ cottages on farms, whole town-
ships unfit for human occupation in the crofting
counties and islands, primitive and casual pro-
vision for many of the seasonal workers, gross
overcrowding and huddling of the sexes to-
gether in the congested industrial villages and
towns, occupation of one-room houses by large
families, groups of lightless and unventilated
houses in the older burghs, clotted masses of
slums in the great cities. ‘To these add the
special problems symbolised by the farmed-out
houses, the model lodging-houses, congested
back lands, and ancient closes. ‘To these,
again, add the cottages a hundred years old in
some of the rural villages, ramshackle brick
survivals of the mining outbursts of seventy
years ago in the mining fields, monotonous
miners’ rows flung down without a vestige of
town-plan or any effort to secure modern con-
ditions of sanitation, ill-planned houses that
must become slums in a few years, houses con-
verted without necessary sanitary appliances
and proper adaptation into tenements for many
families, thus intensifying existing evils, streets
of new tenements in the towns developed with
the minimum of regard for amenity.” }
1 Report of the Royal Commission on the Housing of the Industrial
Population of Scotland, Rural and Urban, chap. xxxv., p. 346,
par. 2232.
71
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Many Housing Acts had been passed to remedy
the shortage, to close unfit houses, and to secure
the clearance of slum areas. But little was actually
accomplished. Vested interests, lethargy, fear of
increasing rates and various other factors prevented
action from being taken. Comparatively few indivi-
duals really made serious efforts to remedy the
abuses. Here and there members of the Churches
took an active part in trying to secure reforms, but
as a whole the Christian Churches were apathetic.
Insanitary houses were allowed to remain in exist-
ence, and families consisting of father, mother, and
children of both sexes were forced to live, year in,
year out, in a single room.
Bad as these conditions were, the war made them
considerably worse. For four years practically no
new houses were built and little was done to repair
the old ones. When peace came, some enthusiasm
was devoted to trying to improve conditions. A
drastic Housing Act was passed and many of the
Local Authorities began to build houses. But now,
in 1923, the number which has been built does not
even meet the normal increase in population. ‘The
result is that to-day the shortage of houses is esti-
mated at nearly a million, and the slum areas and
slum dwellings are more numerous and in a worse
condition than they have been for many years.
The following are some typical examples of the
present shortage of houses and its results :
Birmingham.—Ex-service man living with his
father and mother-in-law in a two-bedroomed house.
Father and mother-in-law occupy one bedroom ;
the other contains three beds—the ex-service man,
72
HOUSES AND HOMES
wife and child in one; two sisters aged 29 and
II in another; a brother 18 years old in the
third.
On June roth the Corporation had on its books
the names of 11,600 applicants for houses. Fresh
applications were pouring in. On three consecutive
week-days there were 533 inquiries for houses as
against 239 on the corresponding days of last year.
Nottingham.—The Housing Committee, in report-
ing on a scheme for the erection of 198 houses, states
that there are nearly 3000 names on the waiting list
for houses, and that the shortage is now more acute
than ever.
Shefficld.—The shortage of houses at the end of the
war in Sheffeld was estimated at 20,000. The
Ministry of Health cut the Corporation’s estimate
down to 13,000. Since the war approximately 2300
working-class houses have been built. Overcrowd-
ing is reported to be worse to-day than ever it has
been. In one bedroom are sleeping husband and
wife, a daughter aged 26, and two sons aged 21 and
19. The daughter goes to bed first, then the hus-
band and wife, and lastly the sons, who have to climb
over the other beds to get to their own. In the
other bedroom of the same house sleep a husband
and wife and three children of school age.
Prudhoe, Northumberland——From the Report of
the County Medical Officer of Health. House con-
sisting of one living-room and one bedroom, occu-
pied by father, mother, four adult sons (ages 28,
24, 21, and 19), two daughters, the husband of one
daughter and their baby, and an adult male lodger.
The seven male adults sleep in three beds in the bed-
73
THE HOME
room, the three female adults and the baby sleep in
the living-room.
Manchester—House of two bedrooms, living-
room and kitchen; tenant, wife and four children
(two males, 21 and 14; two females, 19 and 16),
all in one bedroom, and in the other bedroom a
married man, his wife and two babies.
Four-roomed house, three families, comprising
four adults and twelve children.
Four-roomed tenement. One tenant, a woman
paying Ios. a week for one room. Each other room
is let to a family, which pays 12s. 6d. to 145. 6d.
Altogether, nineteen persons live in the house, seven -
of whom sleep in the parlour.
Newcastle—Medical Officer of Health reported
May 1922, 2490 houses waiting to be condemned,
at least half of which should be demolished.
Doncaster.—More than 1000 houses sheltering two
or more families, 1100 applications in May 1922.
List closed.
Cases of eight, ten, twelve, and sixteen people
in two-bedroomed houses. In three-bedroomed
houses instances of fourteen and sixteen people, and
one case of eighteen people. A man, wife, and seven
children sleeping in one room.
Malden, R.D.—Three fowl-houses 12’ x 8’ x 53’
high, are being used as bedrooms.
ResuLts oF Bap Housinc
The evil results of these appalling housing con-
ditions cannot be estimated. Some _ indication,
however, may be derived from a comparison of the
74
HOUSES AND HOMES
figures relating to infant mortality and deaths from
tuberculosis in those districts where houses are
satisfactory with the figures in districts where
housing is at its worst. In some good districts the
infant mortality has been reduced to under 30 per
thousand, while in many of the slum districts it has
often risen above 200 per thousand. In a certain
slum area which was cleared by the Liverpool
Corporation, when new and satisfactory dwellings
were put up the deaths from tuberculosis were
reduced by more than half.
This was not due to a change in the character of
the population, as over go per cent. of those who had
formerly lived in the slums inhabited the new
dwellings after reconstruction had taken place.
This shows that the community by refusing to clear
its slum areas, is literally allowing large numbers
of people to be slowly put to death.
At the annual meeting (1923) of the British
Medical Association, Mr. Charles P. Childe, B.A.,
F.R.C.S., M.R.C.P.E., President of the Association,
said, “ ‘The breeding-ground of this disease (tuber-
culosis), the environment most encouraging to its
activities, is the sunless, airless, overcrowded, and
insanitary slum areas of our great cities, where
houses are built forty or more to the acre, and stand
back to back, and side to side, like any jigsaw puzzle,
so that fresh air and sunlight, the proved destructive
agents of the tubercle bacillus, can never enter. Is
it a sound economic proposition to equip and main-
tain, at the cost of millions of the taxpayers’ money,
sanatoria for the so-called cure of tuberculosis,
while we guard intact the very preserves of this
fi
THE HOME
disease by the exclusion of fresh air and sunlight,
which cost nothing, and maintain in our midst a
soil which can breed more tuberculosis in a week
than all our sanatoria can cure ina year? ... In
overcrowding, confinement, want of air and sun-
light we have an environment conducive to the
development of rickets, either by the supply of
conditions favourable to the activities of the virus,
whether microbic or otherwise, or by lowering
natural resistance to it. Conversely, fresh air and
sunlight and good hygienic conditions furnish an
environment which is powerfully antagonistic to the
disease ; they may have the power of damping down
the activities of the virus, whatever it is, or they
can so alter the metabolism of the body as to provide
an increased resistance and immunity to it.”
The medical profession can tell of numerous
female patients now in mental hospitals whose
condition is the result of the worry due to terrible
housing conditions coupled with extreme poverty.
It is not possible to assess in figures the effect in
immorality and intemperance of conditions in which
whole families have to live in one or two rooms, but
those who have any knowledge of the actual facts
are only too well aware how serious these effects are.
Under the heading “ Sex-overcrowding in small
houses,” Dr. Chalmers, Medical Officer of Health
for the city of Glasgow, gives the following appalling
examples in his report for 1921 :
““In a one-roomed house a father of 52
occupied the same bed with a mentally defec-
tive daughter of 24, who had an illegitimate
76
HOUSES AND HOMES
child of 10. In another, with space for five
adults, a father and daughter shared the same
bed. In another, a mother shared the same
bed with two sons of 19 and 20 years respectively.
In two-roomed houses, in one instance, a son
of 19 and a daughter of 21 occupied the same
bed; and in another a son of 19 and a daughter
of 25 who was pregnant.”
More than half the population of Glasgow live.
in one-roomed or two-roomed tenements. ‘The
President of the British Medical Association said at
the Annual Meeting of 1923:
“So long as the public house is more com-
fortable and more attractive than a man’s home
the former will claim his leisure hours. Give
him a comfortable and respectable home, and
the lure of the public-house will automatically
diminish. In the debate on Lady Astor’s bill,
a few months ago, a good deal was said about the
improvement of the public-house ; but nobody
suggested that, by devoting greater attention to
the home, we might go a long way to improving
the public-house out of existence altogether.”
The conditions in rural districts are no better.
The following extract from the Report of a special
committee set up by the Ely Diocesan Committee
in I9II to investigate housing conditions in a
typical rural area contains statements true to-day
of a large proportion of our country districts :
‘Not only are the cottages too few; their
size is generally insufficient. On no point do
77
THE HOME
our reports insist so earnestly as on the moral
and physical evils which are caused by lack of
proper bedrooms. Every cottage in which
there is a growing family ought to have three
bedrooms; one for the parents, one for the
boys, and one for the girls. Exact statistics
are not to be had, but it is plain that a small
proportion of the cottages satisfy this ele-
mentary requirement. What this involves is
well indicated by the words of one vicar, which
may be taken as applicable to scores of parishes :
‘Very few houses have three bedrooms;
perhaps the largest number have one bedroom —
and an attic, but nearly as many have only one.
And whole families live in all those houses,
some with lodgers. Boys and girls who have
come to puberty sleep in the same room:
married couples sleep together in the presence
of their children: crying children disturb a
whole household beyond the possibility of
sleep: related adults must undress and relieve
nature in one another’s presence. ‘These evils
will be accentuated in times of sickness, preg-
nancy, childbirth, or in cases of drunkenness,
indecency, irreligion. ‘The thing can’t be put
on paper—perhaps I have put too much
already. But the mere heading of this section
gives no Clue to the vile enormity and magnitude
of the evil.”
The lamentable frequency of incest is directly
traceable to this cause.
The fact that many young couples after marriage
78
HOUSES AND HOMES
have to live under overcrowded conditions in the
home of their parents leads not merely to quarrels
between the younger and older generations, but
to the rupture of the relations between the young
husband and wife themselves. This has been
proved by the evidence in many separation cases
before the Justices.
Many families in well-to-do circumstances and
living in good homes who are to-day conspicuous
for their love and consideration for each other,
would find it difficult to preserve such ideal relations
if they had all to sleep, eat and spend their evenings
in one overcrowded room.
Moreover, it is obvious that children brought up
in areas containing seventy or eighty dwellings to
the acre—dwellings into which the sunshine can
hardly penetrate—children whose only playgrounds
are dark alleys and narrow streets, stand a poor
chance of becoming healthy and useful citizens.
The Lambeth Conference of Bishops? declared
that the supreme claims of life must never be inter-
fered with by considerations of property. To
remedy the housing conditions and to secure
sufficient good accommodation for everyone, and. to
secure better surroundings for the people’s homes,
may involve considerable cost to tax-payers and rate-
payers, and actual loss to owners of dilapidated
property. But while every effort should be made to
economise, economy must not be attained at the
expense of the health and happiness of a large section
of the population.
1 Report of Proceedings of the Lambeth Conference of Anglican
Bishops, 1921.
fit,
THE HOME
The Archbishops? fifth Committee of Inquiry
summed up the position in these words:
“We are not concerned merely, or even
mainly, with the material benefits which would
follow a resolute attempt to cope with the
Housing Problem. Insufficient and insanitary
housing is the source of moral weakness and
spiritual degradation. It undermines the health
of childhood, weakens the bonds of family life
and impairs the comfort of old age. ‘There are
few more urgent duties for Christian men and
women than to play their part in removing this
great and inveterate evil from the life of the
community.”
Tue PRoBLEM
Broadly speaking, the problem which confronts
us in housing and town planning is fourfold :
(1) How to secure sufficient houses to prevent
overcrowding and to provide every family
with a separate home, that its members
may not have to occupy another person’s
house.
(2) How to secure the demolition of slum houses _
which are unfit for human beings to live
in, and how to secure the clearance and
replacement of our congested slum areas.
(3) How to ensure that our towns and villages
shall be better planned than they have
been in the past, so that each dwelling shall
80 |
HOUSES AND HOMES
have sufficient air space and sunshine, and
shall be near adequate open spaces.
(4) How to secure better regional planning,
involving the better laying out of new
industrial and residential areas, and a
closer co-ordination of urban and rural
life.
The first two of these questions are considered in
the present chapter, the fourth in the next, and the
third partly in one and partly in the other.
In 1919 the Local Authorities estimated that the
number of houses which would be required if the
shortage was to be met and if the slums were to be
cleared amounted to about 800,000 in England and
Wales, and about 130,000 in Scotland. ‘These
figures are higher to-day. The main difficulty
in finding a solution for the problem lies in
the economic fact that to invest money in the
building of new houses for the working classes does
not secure what is commonly called an economic
return. Even before the war, the vast majority of
the working classes never got decent houses because
it did not pay anyone to build them, but with the
rise in the cost of building, and the higher rate of
interest which has prevailed since the war, this has
been the case in regard to houses for practically all
weekly wage-earners. ‘There is also the dilemma
that, as a rule, the larger the family the more
house-room it wants, but the less rent it can afford ©
to pay—a matter to which we shall return later.
In any case, unless incomes are very substantially
increased, the vast majority of the people cannot
G: 81
THE HOME
possibly afford such a rent for a new house as will
induce private enterprise to build. This fact was
recognised by Parliament both in the Housing Act
of 1919 (commonly called the Addison Act) and in
the new Housing Act of 1923 (the Chamberlain Act),
where provision is made for the State to subsidise
the building of houses. We are not concerned here
with the relative merits of the two policies contained
in these two Acts, nor with the question whether it
is a wise thing for the State to subsidise private
enterprise to build the houses, or whether they
should all be built by the municipalities.
There is no doubt that in the conditions prevailing
in Great Britain, and apparently in most other
civilised countries, there is always a tendency for the
supply of adequate housing accommodation to fall
short of the need, since the rents which can be
obtained for such accommodation tend to lag behind
what is necessary to maintain an adequate supply
on a completely economic basis. This fact alone
makes it quite clear that we cannot expect the
unaided efforts of private persons to make up the
exceptional housing deficiency due to the war.
Consequently, there is no justification for postponing
the task of dealing thoroughly with the whole matter.
In view of these considerations we set down hed 3
definitely the following propositions :—
(1) That the community should spare no effort
to ensure the building of the necessary
houses in the shortest possible time.
(2) That the houses when built must be
available on terms which will allow the
82
HOUSES AND HOMES
families of weekly wage-earners to occupy
them without stinting themselves in the
other necessaries of life.1
(3) That side by side with the building of the
new houses steps must be taken by the
public authorities to secure the clearance
of slums and the closing and demolition
of unhealthy dwellings.
(4) That it 1s the duty of individual citizens
to see that the above measures are carried out.
Obviously, it is difficult or impossible to pull
down slum houses or to clear slum areas until
there is sufficient alternative accommodation for the
displaced population. ‘Therefore, for the present,
at any rate, our main concentration must be on the
building of new houses. This must be carried out
as economically as may be and with the minimum
of loss to the taxpayer and ratepayer. Public
opinion must therefore enforce such regulations as
will prevent the making of undue profits either
in connection with the manufacture of building
materials, the sale of the necessary land, or the actual
building of the houses. Economy, however, should
not be secured at the expense of the tenants. The
new houses must be sufficiently large and convenient
to allow a normal family to live there not merely in
health, but in comfort and decency. Moreover, in
order that the rents may be such as the ordinary
wage-earner can pay, it will be found in practice
1 This may be achieved either by subsidising rents or by
increasing family incomes (by raising wages or in other ways),
or partly by one means and partly by the other.
83
THE HOME
that a subsidy will be necessary.1 It is no use to
build large numbers of houses if the workers can
only pay for them by depriving their children of
adequate food and clothing. If the policy here
indicated involves a considerable direct cost to
the taxpayers or ratepayers, it must be borne in
mind that substantial indirect savings will result
from the better health of the community. We shall
spend less on tuberculosis sanatoria, hospitals, general
and mental, police services and other charges.
It is sometimes said that the amount of available
labour in the building trade is insufficient to erect
the large number of houses required within a
reasonable time, and attempts are sometimes made
to lay the blame of the present shortage on the
building trade operatives. It must be remembered,
however, that they have in the past suffered severely
from periods of unemployment. ‘They naturally
tend to resist the flooding of the building trade
labour market by means of dilution, when no
guarantee is given that building schemes will be
continued for a reasonable period. In 1920 the
Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Labour tried
to get the Trade Unions to allow a large number of
unskilled men to be brought into the trade. The
Unions were prepared to consider this proposal if
a guarantee of employment was given for a period
of years. ‘That guarantee was refused, and by the
end of 1921 large numbers of building trade opera-
1 It is sometimes suggested that subsidies would be un-
necessary if the State made loans at a “‘low”’ rate of interest.
It should be pointed out that if the State lends below the rate
at which it can borrow, it is really subsidising.
84
HOUSES AND HOMES
tives were actually out of work, as a result of the
closing down of the housing schemes consequent on
the “ Anti-waste”’ Campaign. Under such con-
ditions, no one can blame the action of the Unions.
If, however, the community determined that one
million new houses should be built in the next ten
years in addition to the normal building required
year by year to meet the natural increase of popula-
tion and to replace the wearing out of houses (this
amounted before the war to an average of 80,000
per annum), a reasonable guarantee of labour could
be given and necessary additional men could be
brought into the industry.
It must be recognised that the question of the
supply of labour is complicated by the fact that the
building of small houses only represents a proportion
of the general building industry; and that, when a
large volume of other building operations is in
progress, the men normally engaged on the building
of houses may be withdrawn, and a temporary
shortage may occur. On the other hand, when for
some reason there is a great shrinkage in the volume
of other building, there may be considerable un-
employment in the building industry even if the
numbers employed on the erection of houses are
maintained. Nevertheless, there is a great tendency
for men to specialise on house building, and the fact
that the conditions of employment in the general
industry are bound to react upon house building
does not very greatly diminish the importance of
maintaining the steady absorption of a sufficiently
large number of men in the building of small houses
over a prolonged period ; and it is clear that nothing
85
THE HOME
would be more likely to cause labour troubles in
house building than to add to the general fluctuations
which take place in other building, additional
violent fluctuations in the volume of house building.
The important point to emphasise is that if the
erection of all these houses is necessary, the com-
munity should make its plans for their erection over
a period of years and rigidly adhere to its programme.
Tue House AND ITs SURROUNDINGS
We now pass on to consider the essential require-
ments of the new houses in accommodation and
surroundings. In our climate the primary require-
ments are:
(1) Shelter from rain, wind and cold.
(2) Sufficient air space in the house and around
it.
(3) Proper access for air and sunshine.
(4) Plentiful supply of pure water.
(5) A proper drainage system.
If shelter, space, sunlight or water is insufficient,
or if the drainage arrangements are unsatisfactory,
the health of the family is impaired, and it is
difficult to realise the ideals of the home. Houses,
therefore, must have a certain standard of con-
struction and size; they must be separate and
properly spaced in relation both to other houses
and buildings, and they must be provided with
certain equipments and conveniences. It is not
proposed here to go into all the technical details
of what constitutes a good house. It is of import-
86
HOUSES AND HOMES
ance, however, to state a few minimum conditions.
The argument often used against the provision of
certain items, namely, that they are not properly
used by the inhabitants of the house, is a false one,
because their proper use cannot be learned where
they are not supplied. ‘To take two simple instances,
windows should be made to open even if numbers
of people still persist in keeping them shut; baths
should be supplied even if a few individuals who
were brought up in houses without baths have not
learned to use them.
The following seem to be the minimum require-
ments for the home of the normal family with
children. ‘There must be a good large living-room,
which will allow all the members of the family to
enjoy each other’s society and realise the family
unit. This room should not only be well lit and
ventilated, but original and pleasing in appearance.
There should be full accommodation in a properly
equipped scullery for cooking and washing-up, and
this scullery must be carefully planned, in order to
save labour. There is something to be said for
making it possible occasionally to cook in the living-
room, so that the expense of having a fire and also
using gas in the scullery need not necessarily be
incurred. But it should always be possible to cook
in the scullery as well.
If the family is to enjoy the fullest opportunities
for recreation and self-development, a second
living-room must be provided, though this can be
smaller than the first. Such a living-room, or
parlour, may not be necessary in the case of childless
couples, or where there is only one small child, but
87
THE HOME
where there are growing boys and girls it is practically
an essential. In view of the fact that there are
already large numbers of “ non-parlour ”’ houses, the
vast majority of the new houses should have parlours.
Sleeping accommodation in rooms separate from
those used for domestic operations and the common
life of the family is necessary for the whole family.
The number of separate rooms should be sufficient
to meet the needs of all the members of the house-
hold, and to allow for the separation of different
ages and sexes. At present the latter end is only
secured by putting a bed in the living-room. ‘The
result of this practice is that children are com-
pelled to postpone their bed time until the whole
family retires to rest and that they sleep in a vitiated
atmosphere. Generally speaking, the new houses
should have three bedrooms, although a limited
number may be provided with two bedrooms to
meet the case of quite small families and old people.
In addition to the foregoing requisites, @ bath-
room, a satisfactory hot-water system and proper
sanitary conveniences should be provided in every
house. In certain rural districts, where the only
supply of water is from a well, it may be legitimate
to put the bath in a partitioned recess off the scullery,
but this should be done as seldom as possible.
Adequate space should be provided for a peram-
bulator and the storage of food and of fuel.
It is important to bear in mind that the mere
provision of the above amount of accommodation
is not sufficient. ‘The greatest possible care must
be taken so to plan the house that the amount of
labour involved in running it is reduced to a
88
HOUSES AND HOMES
minimum, whilst it is perfectly fitted for a healthy
family life. Subject to these conditions, economy
should be studied, but considerations of economy
should never be allowed to interfere with the essential
requirements of health, comfort and conventence.
Many working-class mothers to-day complain
that they have no time to go out to play with their
children or to share in their interests, and the faulty
planning of their houses is to a large extent respon-
sible for this. Every plan should be very closely
scrutinised from this point of view, and we should
realise beforehand precisely how the various domestic
operations will be carried out in the house when
built. For instance, the mother, after she has
cooked the food, must bring it into the room where
the family will have the meal. Dirty plates and
dishes must be moved back again to the sink, and
when washed up, crockery has to be put away.
Careful planning can reduce the amount of walking
to and fro very considerably, and the relative
position of the scullery and the living-room should
be considered with this end in mind.
The possibility of simplifying the labour of the
housewife by communal arrangements has been, to
some extent, explored in recent years. Clearly it
is not theoretically essential to the completeness
of family life that she should cook and wash for her
own family. In practice, however, no means have
been devised within the reach of working-class
families to enable the necessary cooking and washing
to be done communally. Moreover, it is difficult
to cater for the needs of different groups. Meals
are required at different times, according to the
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THE HOME
nature of the work of the bread-winners and to the
ages of the children. Further, there is a disin-
clination on the part of most mothers to have the
meals cooked elsewhere and fetch them into their
homes. Probably the best way in which communal
arrangements can be developed is along the lines of
a common supply of heat and power and communal
washing. Such arrangements are comparatively
easy in blocks of flats, but it should be our aim to
secure the self-contained house, since all the evidence
so far tends to show that the great majority of
working-class families object to living in flats. _
No less important than the house itself is its
environment. Most small houses are crowded
close together with inadequate back gardens and
open spaces. Consequently, not merely in what
may be strictly termed slum areas, but in most
working-class districts, they have insufficient light
and air. ‘he children have to play in the streets,
and opportunities of healthy recreation and garden-
ing are lost. In all new housing schemes, every
effort should be made to ensure that not more
than ten or twelve houses are built to the acre,
that every house has a good-sized back garden, and
that there are common open spaces for recreation.
These are needed, not merely for the sake of health,
but to foster a social and communal life.
The experience gained in carrying out various
housing schemes since the war has amply confirmed
the view that it is possible to provide the extra
garden space if proper systems of development are
adopted, in some cases at no extra cost, and in others
at such small extra cost as is negligible in com-
go
HOUSES AND HOMES
parison with the enormous advantage gained. The
garden not only secures ample fresh air and sunlight
to the dwelling, but it supplements the house
itself, and relieves the pressure on the rooms;
moreover, its cultivation is a healthy pursuit which
yields a substantial return, often amounting to
Is. or 25. a week, and thus it improves the economic
condition of the family.
In those countries where the effects of war,
revolution or famine have been most seriously felt,
the demand for the provision of houses with
gardens, in the place of the customary tenement
dwellings, has been extremely insistent and wide-
spread, and we are convinced that for the majority
of working-class families it 1s essential to secure a
house with a garden.
In addition to the provision of adequate gardens,
it will be necessary, as has already been indicated,
to secure adequate public open spaces. Some of
these will be in the form of small children’s play-
grounds, others of playing-fields and parks for
adults. Moreover, where the number of new houses
is considerable, provision should be made for indoor
recreational and educational pursuits. Institutions
and clubs should be provided so that a better com-
munity life may be possible than has existed in the
towns of the past. To build new houses is only
part of our task. Whole schemes must be under-
taken synthetically. Again, the people who make
a bad use of their houses and their gardens must be
prevented from spoiling the conditions for the rest.
This can be achieved, partly by securing the election
of a tenants’ committee, and partly by a sympathetic
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management, in which not merely Local Authorities,
but others take their part.
Wuat INDIVIDUALS CAN DO
We conclude this chapter by summarising the
more important responsibilities of private individuals.
In the first place, in view of the fact that housing
obligations are imposed by law and will in future
have to be carried out in the main through the
Local Authorities, it is the urgent duty of every
citizen to help to secure the best representatives upon
those authorities and to create a public opinion that
will encourage and support them when they are
carrying out their task worthily, and stimulate them
to action if they are neglecting it. As for the choice
of representatives, this must not be deferred too late.
As a large proportion of the electors vote on party
lines, the essential time for the right choice is when
the different political bodies are selecting their
candidates. Men and women, therefore, who are
anxious to secure better conditions should seriously
consider joining one or other of the party organisa-
tions, that they may take their part in selecting
candidates when the time comes.
Once the Local Authority is elected, individuals
‘can do much by making themselves acquainted
with the conditions in their town, by calling attention
to the existence of slum areas, to the defects in
new houses, or to the shortage of houses, and by
exerting continuous pressure in the direction of
reforms.
Those who have a certain amount of capital can
g2
HOUSES AND HOMES
unite with others to carry out housing schemes
themselves through the formation of Public Utility
Societies or other bodies, or they can purchase
existing property which is not being well managed,
and initiate a better and more sympathetic manage-
ment. Enterprise of this kind has been carried out
by many bodies in the past, and could be widely
extended if larger numbers of people were interested.
Above all, it is only by the continuous activity of
men and women of good-will that the housing
problem will ever be seen clearly, in all its aspects,
and solved in a working fashion.
93
CHAP LER Vit
THE PLANNING OF TOWNS
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ake ay My OAD
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CHAPTER VII
THE PLANNING OF TOWNS
To see that new housing schemes are thoroughly
satisfactory is, however, only one part of the task
before us. ‘To-day we are suffering because our
forefathers never looked ahead in the planning of
towns and villages; and urban areas have developed
in a perfectly haphazard manner, to the detriment
of health, amenity and industrial efficiency. Wher-
ever we turn there is hopeless confusion. Industrial
landowners and builders have been allowed to treat
their sites as isolated units, without regard to the
requirements of the rest of the town. Especially in
working-class areas, the largest number of houses
possible has been built to the acre. There has been
no attempt to separate industrial from residential
districts, and factories and dwelling-houses have
been put up side by side. Natural beauties have
been destroyed and natural advantages neglected.
There has been practically no provision for future
needs with regard to transit and main arterial roads.
Houses have too often been erected in large numbers
quite close to railways and docks, on sites eminently
fitted for factories, while factories have been built
in areas that should have been purely residential.
Consequently, not merely have the residential
areas grown less attractive, but a large amount of
H 97
THE HOME
unnecessary traffic and cartage has been created.
No better illustration can be found than the areas
around the London Docks, where thousands of
working-class dwellings are crowded together on
low-lying ground, quite unsuitable for housing
sites, and narrow streets are congested with heavy
vans and drays; the whole situation being too
often one of indescribable confusion and waste of
energy. Another example of a somewhat different
kind is afforded by the Rhondda Valley in South
Wales, where slag heaps from the collieries practically
surround the houses. But in every industrial town
there is abundant evidence of the evil results of
failure to plan.
It is true that here and there portions of a town
have been admirably planned, but mainly in well-
to-do neighbourhoods. Public benefactors, again,
have sometimes given land for parks; but there has
been no systematic effort to provide open spaces to
the extent which is necessary both for health and
happiness.
No doubt the changing conditions of industrial
progress made a certainnumber of mistakesinevitable.
For instance, no municipality, however wise and
far-seeing, could anticipate or make full allowance
for the altered situation arising from the intro-
duction of the railway, and later on, the tramway
and the motor omnibus. Nevertheless, much of
the present chaos could have been avoided.
The lack of planning in the past has cost us much,
both in money and health. Industrial progress has
been delayed. Slums have been created. As towns
have developed, street widenings have become
Es 98
TOWN PLANNING
necessary, which could only be carried out at great
expense.
In the future the fullest possible use must be
made of the Town Planning Acts which are already
on the Statute Book. ‘These Acts enable the Local
Authorities (and, therefore, the community whom
the Local Authority represents) to ensure that all
buildings, whether industrial or residential, shall
proceed systematically, on land at present not built
upon, in accordance with a town-planning scheme.
The community, therefore, can control the whole
future development of the town and see that not
merely in their own housing schemes, but on land
owned by other people, development shall be
ordered, the number of houses to the acre shall be
limited, adequate open spaces shall be provided,
and the factories located in areas reserved exclusively
for this purpose. Examples of how these schemes
operate in practice may be seen on the outskirts of
Birmingham, where the Birmingham Corporation
has for some time past enforced a town-planning
scheme. Many Corporations up and down the
country are preparing to take similar measures ;
and individual citizens can do a great deal both
to stimulate their own Local Authorities, and
see that schemes are framed which will be for
the utmost advantage of the whole community
concerned.
It is outside the scope of this Report to deal in
detail with the technicalities of town planning.
The main points, however, for which a good town
plan should provide are :
(a) “ Zoning,” particularly the separation and
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distribution of industrial, commercial and residential
areas.
(b) The limitation in residential zones of the
number of houses which may be built to the acre.
(c) The provision of new roads and transit
facilities and the reservation of land for the widening
of such roads.
(d) The reservation of adequate open spaces.
(e) The preservation of natural beauties.
Another important matter to be considered in
connection with town planning is how to prevent
the segregation of classes which is so common in
most of our towns to-day.
It should be pointed out that the preparation of
such town-planning schemes is compulsory on all
urban Local Authorities with a population of over
20,000.
In addition we hope that in the future the exist-
ing built-up areas will be gradually replanned.
Obviously, this will be a more difficult and a longer
process than the planning of new areas, and at
present no general powers are given to Local
Authorities which enable them to undertake it.
Where, however, slum areas are cleared, they can
be replanned on better lines, and certain progressive
Local Authorities are thinking of applying to
Parliament for powers to prepare replanning schemes,
Such efforts should be encouraged, and if any real
improvements are to be made, Local Authorities
should ultimately be not only enabled but required
by the State to prepare schemes for the gradual
replanning of their towns.
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TOWN PLANNING
THe PRoBLEM OF THE LARGE Town
Those who have attempted to take part in social
reforms in our largest towns are continuously faced
with peculiar difficulties. In such towns there is
generally no coherence, and little community life.
The congestion of the population is tremendous.
There is small chance for a large number of those
living in the central parts to get open-air recreation,
or more than occasionally to see the open country.
Again, the houses themselves are often packed so
closely together as to constitute slum areas. If the
Local Authorities determine to clear these areas,
they are immediately faced with a dilemma. If
after clearance they try to rehouse the same number
of people upon the same space, they will make but a
slight improvement in the conditions and will
perpetuate congestion. Even if they build flats,
which are unsuited to the needs of a working-class
family, they are still unable to secure proper open
spaces. If, on the other hand, they replan the area
in such a way as to limit the number of families to
the acre to, say, fifteen or twenty, thus reducing the
inhabitants to less than one-half, where are the
remainder to go? In a small town there is no
dificulty about rehousing them on the outskirts,
because in any case they can get easily to and from
their work. In the large towns, however, the
position is different. ‘The people evicted from the
slum would perhaps have to move four or five miles
before they could find fresh accommodation in the
suburbs, and this would not only increase the
congestion of the traffic, but would lay a heavy
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THE HOME
burden upon the poorer wage-earners who had
lived near their work and were now remote from
it. It would mean not only additional expense in
tram or railway fares, but wasted time and wasted
energy. In Greater London, even now, something
like £30,000,000 a year is spent by workers going to
and from their work, and this expenditure is steadily
increasing. What is true of London is true in a
less but substantial degree of Manchester, Leeds,
Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and other big
towns.
Frequently, although the population of the
individual town may not be exceptional, the close
proximity of other towns produces the same
problem. For instance, Manchester and Salford
are completely one, and other towns such as Oldham
and Stockport are so close as really to make the whole
area one vast town with an enormous population.
Other examples are Leeds, Morley, Bradford and
the other towns and urban districts in the immediate
neighbourhood, Birmingham, West Bromwich,
Dudley, Walsall and Wednesbury, etc., Newcastle,
Gateshead and Wallsend, and the conglomeration of
towns surrounding Glasgow and the Clyde. ‘The
only real solution of the problem such areas present
would be entirely to remove part of their industries
and part of their population to new satellite towns
well planned with residential and industrial districts,
and surrounded by permanent belts of agricultural
land. ‘This may sound a huge task, but it should be
borne in mind that there is already a tendency for
industries to move out from the centres of the towns.
While certain industries may have to remain, many
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TOWN PLANNING
more can and would move if proper facilities were
provided. What is required is to co-ordinate this
tendency of industry with the new housing schemes.
Some pioneer efforts have been made in this direction
at Letchworth and at Welwyn Garden City, but
more collective action is needed. ‘The public in
general, and the Churches in particular, must
impress their will upon both Parliament and the
Local Authorities.! ‘The success of Letchworth,
which is already a town of 12,000 inhabitants with
about forty different industries, many of which
moved from London, shows that the proposal is a
practical one. At Letchworth the workers live
in houses with gardens and near open spaces, and
all the factories are grouped in a factory area which,
though separate, is within easy walking distance.
Moreover, by reserving a permanent agricultural
belt, the future of the town is safeguarded and the
population will always be within reach of the open
country, and at the same time close contact can be
secured between urban and rural workers. If all
our large towns were surrounded by a ring of such
satellite towns, each with its agricultural belt and
each offering good facilities for factories and healthy
conditions for the workers, it would be possible in a
relatively short time so to reduce congestion in great
urban areas as to render their replanning on better
lines a practical measure. The Unhealthy Areas
Committee, over which Mr. Neville Chamberlain,
M.P., presided, unanimously recommended this
For a fuller discussion of the Garden City method of develop-
ment and its practical application see Town Theory and Practice,
edited by Mr. C. B Purdom. 5s. (Benn Bros.)
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THE HOME
method of dealing with the slum problem. It
pointed out that unless broad measures of de-
centralisation were adopted, no permanent and
satisfactory improvement could be effected.1
The proportion of population living in towns has
increased enormously, and the social organisation
has not kept pace either with this increase or with
the changing character of urban conditions.
The life of a great city has become extremely
complex, dependent on elaborate organisation for
supplying the necessities and comforts of life and
transporting both the people and goods. ‘This
increasing elaboration can only work smoothly if the
individual citizen can be relied upon to perform a
part in the complicated organism which calls for
increasing capacity and character for its proper
fulfilment ; and in turn this increased capacity and
higher standard of character will only be forth-
coming if the organisation of the city secures to
every individual citizen the necessary space and
opportunity for developing these qualities. It is
not enough that towns should offer greater and
greater opportunities, as they undoubtedly do, for
a limited number of their citizens. They must
provide adequate place for every citizen and adequate
scope and opportunity in that place to enable each |
citizen to play his part.
It is the duty of those who really care about the
nation to work not merely for immediate results, but
for the benefit of future generations, even of future
centuries. A century, after all, is a comparatively
1 Unhealthy Areas Committee, Second and Final Report. 4d.
See p. 16 for summary of conclusions and recommendations.
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TOWN PLANNING
brief period in history! But, be the task long or
short, it is incumbent on us to-day to do all we can
to hasten the development of attractive and well-
planned towns that offer to every family rich
opportunities of health and happiness. In such
towns the social and communal instincts which, in
our crowded cities, are stifled or run to waste will
find their proper outlets and build up a communal
life better and fairer than we have ever known.
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CHAPTER VIII
RICHES AND POVERTY IN THE HOME
CHAPTER VIII
RICHES AND POVERTY IN THE HOME
Various difficult questions which arise when
we consider the problems of poverty and riches are
dealt with by other Commissions, and more particu-
larly the Commission on “ Property and Industry.”
We shall not here discuss all the economic questions
involved. It is, however, essential to examine
certain aspects of poverty, in so far as it affects the
possibility of leading an ideal family life, the
principles of which we have attempted to lay down
in the first part of our Report.
On the subject of riches our Lord had much to
say. A great deal of what He said, if included in
speeches to-day, would be regarded as “ setting
class against class,”’ or as the most extreme form of
socialist doctrine. In His advice to the rich young
ruler to sell all that he had and give to the poor, in
His saying, ‘‘ It is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter
into the Kingdom of God,” and in His warnings
to the rich in the Sermon on the Mount, and in
the parable of Dives and Lazarus, He made it clear
that excessive riches were a stumbling-block to the
individual who owned them or was obsessed by the
care of them. No doubt these sayings must be
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THE HOME
interpreted in relation to their context and the
occasions upon which they were uttered, but when
due allowance has been made for all attendant
circumstances, our Lord’s teaching remains quite
clear.
Upon the subject of poverty we have such sayings
as “* Blessed are ye poor ” (Luke vi. 20), and “‘ Take
nothing for your journey, neither staves nor scrip,
neither bread, neither money, neither have two
coats apiece.” ‘There is also much teaching on the
attitude which should be adopted towards those who
are in poorer circumstances. ‘‘ Give, and it shall
be given unto you,” and the parable of the Good
Samaritan are but two examples.
While Christ’s views with regard to riches in the
main are unambiguous, there has been a good deal
of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of His
sayings on poverty. It has been argued that if the
poor are blessed, there is no merit in relieving
poverty and thereby removing the blessedness.
Again, the words “The poor ye have always with
you” have been taken by some to mean that the
problem of poverty is insoluble and ineradicable.
It is generally found, however, that those who
interpret the sayings on poverty literally contend
that the sayings on riches must not be taken literally. ©
We propose, therefore, to consider to what extent
extreme riches or extreme poverty hinders the
development of Christian family life and the building
up of a Christian community, and also to discuss
what lines reforms might take. As already sug-
gested, we shall not go at length into the economic
aspects of the question, but shall concentrate upon
IIo
RICHES AND POVERTY
the main ethical principles which should determine
our individual conduct and our attitude towards
action by the community or the State.
PoverTYy AND Famizty LIFE
‘ Poverty,” said the late Canon Barnett in 1913,
“is not, as the survival of medizval teaching seems
to suggest, a source of blessing. Conditions have
changed. The want of money did not hinder St.
Francis and his followers from making friends with
the flowers and the birds, from enjoying natural
beauty, and from having leisure and silence; or,
in the society of their fellows, of learning the best
of what men knew. Poverty cut them off from the
‘ deceitfulness of riches,’ but was not so pressing as
hourly to add to the ‘ cares of life. The poor in
pocket could then claim the blessing of the poor in
spirit. But poverty to-day has far different effects.
If it is still very hard for a rich man to see the way
into the Kingdom of Heaven, it is almost impossible
for a poor man to enjoy the fullness of life.”
“Growth, we are taught, depends on the capacity of
the individual to absorb nourishment from environ-
ment. The body cannot grow in health and strength
unless it can take in freely of the food, air and water
which nature provides, and the mind cannot grow
unless it can feed on the thoughts, deeds and dreams
of mankind. Man lives by food, and also by admira-
tion, hope and love. Poverty may thus be defined
as the condition when, for want of a sufficient
income, people are unable to draw from nature or
from their fellow-men the food which is necessary
III
THE HOME
for their bodies and minds. The poverty of St.
Francis, the poverty which is voluntarily borne by
the enthusiastic and the cultured, is not of this
character, but the poverty of the great mass of
English working people is of this character. The
majority of the people of England, to put it strongly,
are not in receipt of an income which is sufficient
for them to reach man’s stature in strength and
wisdom.”
There is a distinction between poverty voluntarily
undertaken and poverty imposed by economic
circumstances; and also a distinction between
poverty and destitution. No family can have the
fullest life without sufficient income to secure a
decent home, adequate food and clothing, education
and leisure. Moreover, if people’s minds are not to
be continually worried with the cares of this world,
they must not merely have for their family’s needs
a sufficient income from week to week, but reasonable
security for the future. As Christians, therefore,
we cannot rest until we have placed every family in a
postition in which as the barest minimum they can
obtain all these necessaries.
The causes of poverty are many, but among the
principal ones are:
(a) Low wages (the effect of which is aggravated
where there is a large family) ;
(6) Unemployment or casual employment ;
(c) Sickness and ill-health ;
(d) Old age;
(¢) In a limited number of cases, intemperance
and other vices.
II2
RICHES AND POVERTY
We propose to consider these causes briefly, and
to indicate the principles which should guide us in
trying to remove them.
Low WacEs
The investigations of Mr. Seebohm Rowntree,
Mr. Charles Booth, Prof. Bowley and others have
shown beyond all question that both before and since
the war a large proportion of the manual workers in
regular employment have received wages which are
inadequate to maintain a family in reasonable
comfort. Opinions differ as to the amount necessary
for this purpose, which, in money terms, must vary
with the cost of living, but that in many industries
the wages are so low as to bring the family below the
poverty line is beyond question to anyone who takes
the trouble to investigate the facts. Large numbers
are below the bare subsistence level, while the
majority of the workers have wages which are
inadequate to enable their families to have the
fullest life. Attempts have been made to remedy
these evils both by Trade Union action and by such
legislation as Trade Boards and the Corn Production
Act and Coal Mines Acts, and considerable improve-
ments have been made as a result of these methods.
Much, however, remains to be done, and it is
necessary to arouse an enlightened and vigorous
public opinion which will protest against the pay-
ment of sweated wages and which will insist that
adequate steps are taken to secure that a living wage
is paid in all industries.
I 113
THE HOME
Canon Barnett, speaking in 1913 of the labourers
earning 205. a week, says :
‘They have few thoughts of joy and little hope
of rest; .. . their lives all through the days and
years slope into a darkness which is not ‘ quieted
by hope.’ Even if wages be gos. a week, the condi-
tion is still one to depress those who on Sunday
thank God for their creation. The skilled artisan,
having paid rent and club money and provided
household necessaries, has no margin out of which
to provide for pleasures, for old age, or even for the
best medical skill. . . . England is the land of sad
monuments. The saddest monument is, perhaps,
the ‘ respectable working man’ who has been erected
in honour of Thrift. His brains, which might have
shown the world how to save men, have been spent
in saving pennies; his life, which might have been
happy and full, has been dulled and saddened by
taking ‘ thought for the morrow.’ ”’ 4
A problem which requires careful consideration
in connection with securing a wage sufficient to
meet the worker’s needs is the variation in the size
of families. A wage which may provide reasonable
conditions for husband, wife and one child is
starvation where there are four or five children.
There are various ways in which this problem may
be solved. One of the proposals is that wages
should be based on the needs of husband and wife,
and special allowances, depending on the number
1 This was written before the war. ‘The figures corresponding
to the 20s. and 40s. would be roughly to-day 345. and 68s. Large
numbers of agricultural labourers are at present receiving only
255. a week.
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RICHES AND POVERTY
of children, should be paid out of a common fund
contributed by employers as a whole. Free meals
at school have been given under the Education
(Provision of Meals) Act to necessitous children,
and certain other forms of assistance have been given
at schools, all of which tend to assist the large family.
So long as the primary causes of poverty remain,
the provision of meals and such-like relief measures
are not merely desirable but necessary. ‘They are,
however, but palliatives and in our opinion attack
the problem at the wrong end. The solution is
more likely to be found in some such manner as
allowance for children as is proposed in Australia,
and as was, in fact, adopted during the war in the
case of the families of soldiers.
UNEMPLOYMENT AND CasuaL EMPLOYMENT
To those who suffer from it, unemployment is an
even greater evil than low wages. As a cause of
poverty its effect varies from year to year and from
season to season. Even, however, in the best
periods of trade there is always a considerable
amount of unemployment. When trade is bad,
from Io per cent. to 20 per cent. of the employable
population are unable to find work. For the last
four years, well over a million persons have been
unemployed and a large number more have been
suffering from intermittent employment and short
time. In certain trades, such as riverside work,
employment is always of a casual nature. In others,
such as the building trade, there is always seasonal
unemployment.
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‘ THE HOME
Unemployment is not merely a cause of poverty
in the household, it is one of the most fruitful causes
of deterioration of character and morale. Where the
father is out of work, the family goes short of the
necessaries of life, and to a less degree this is the case
where there is unemployment among the boys and
girls who have left school. For some time past now
there has been serious unemployment not only
among adults but among boys and girls.
Various attempts have been made to find partial
solutions, for the problems which thus arise. In-
surance against unemployment and poor law relief
have done something to mitigate the extreme
destitution of the families of the unemployed, but
these measures are admittedly but palliatives. In
the first place, the amount allowed is in most cases
quite insufficient to give reasonable conditions of
life, and, in the second place, such help does nothing
to prevent the deterioration of character and
depression of spirits. Moreover, after a long spell
of unemployment, especially if it is recurrent, the
producing capacity of those affected is seriously
impaired. Again, so far as the community is
concerned, less wealth is produced and the general
average standard of life is bound to fall. In our
opinion there is no more pressing and urgent
problem to which Christian people should devote
themselves than the devising of some means of
securing for all an opportunity to work. Some
hold that this goal will never be achieved without a
complete re-organisation of our whole social and
economic system. Others take the view that by
carrying out various forms of public work employ-
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RICHES AND POVERTY
ment can be increased both directly and indirectly
through the increased purchasing power of those
engaged upon such works. A large house-building
programme, afforestation, improvement of canals,
improvement of transport facilities, whether by
road or rail, electrical power schemes, are some of
the undertakings advocated not merely by the
representatives of Labour but by prominent
industrialists such as Sir Allan Smith.
It is outside the scope of our Report to discuss in
detail the various methods suggested. We content
ourselves by expressing our conviction that it is the
duty of Christian people to see that all those who
wish to work should either have an opportunity of
doing so, or should be provided with such mainten-
ance as will safeguard them from destitution,
emphasising the fact that the former is the only
satisfactory solution of the problem. There is a
definite obligation on Christian people to study how
to solve the unemployment problem and to support
those measures which will in their opinion go
furthest towards this.
Those who have money can help also in a small
way by subscribing to such schemes as ‘‘ Home
Helps ” (see pp. 142-5), and by investing in public
undertakings such as Garden Cities, both of which
give employment.
SICKNESS AND ILL-HEALTH
It was estimated by Lieut.-Col. F. E. Fremantle,
M.P., in a paper which he read before the British
Medical Association in 1922, that the total direct
117
THE HOME
material loss in England and Wales from sickness and
disability amounted to a minimum of {150,000,000
a year, a large part of which was the result of pre-
ventable diseases. Disease and ill-health which
are not preventable must be met by a wide extension
of sickness insurance if they are not to result in
extreme poverty. Where disease and ill-health are
preventable, however, it is the duty of the com-
munity to secure their prevention. ‘The spread of
tuberculosis, the prevalence of rickets among infants
and many other scourges could be suppressed by a
better system of public administration. A large
amount of ill-health is caused by bad housing, by
insufficient nutriment, by the pollution of the air
through noxious fumes, and by a number of other
causes all of which could be removed. As the late
King Edward said when Prince of Wales, speaking
on the subject of the Report of the Royal Com-
mission on Housing, ‘“‘If preventable, why not
prevented?”’? So far as Housing and ‘Town
Planning are concerned, we have elsewhere indicated
some necessary measures. But many other steps
could be taken, such as the provision of better and
ampler supplies of new milk, and greater assistance in
connection with infant welfare Above all, we must
steadily endeavour to remove the causes of poverty.
1 The possibilities of preventive medicine are discussed by a
number of experts, and readers are referred, among others, to:
An Outline of the Practice of Preventive Medicine (prepared for the
Ministry of Health), by Sir George Newman; Tuberculosis and the
Public Health, by H. Hyslop Thomson, M.D., 55.; Health and the
State, by W. A. Brend, tos. 6d., and Housing and the Public Health,
by John Robertson, M.D., 5s. See also Chapter X of this Report
on “* Mothers and Babies.”
118
RICHES AND POVERTY
Oxup AcE
To those whose incomes are ample, old age, as a
rule, has no terrors as a cause of poverty. ‘The vast
majority of manual workers, however, has no means
of putting by for old age. Something has already
been done to mitigate their condition by the Old
Age Pensions Act, and by various voluntary measures.
Such provisions, however, are quite inadequate.
Many manual workers are worn out long before they
reach the age of seventy, and the amount of the
old-age pension itself is the barest minimum. In
practice, the support of aged parents often falls
upon their children at a time when the latter can
ill spare the money owing to the needs of their own
families.
INTEMPERANCE AND OTHER VICES
Intemperance, gambling and other vices un-
doubtedly lead to poverty in a certain number of
cases, but to a much less extent than is often assumed
by those who are anxious to quiet their own con-
sciences with regard to such evils as low wages and
unemployment. We must also bear in mind that
intemperance, for example, may be the direct
result of depression due to unemployment, or of
bad housing conditions, which make it impossible
for men to find peace and comfort at home, and
often drive them to the public-house as the only
way of escape. If an adequate standard of life
were established among the workers, if they lived
in healthy surroundings and possessed economic
119
THE HOME
security, there is no doubt that drunkenness and
other vices would rapidly diminish; and legislation
could do much to deal with the residuum of cases.
We must, however, aim, not at a merely negative
policy, but at the building up of character by every
possible means.
Ricues AND Famity LIFE
If extreme poverty has a disastrous effect upon
large masses of people, extreme wealth, although it
affects only a limited number of families, has often
still graver consequences. In many rich households
there is an atmosphere of luxury and self-indulgence
that is fatal to the spiritual life of parents and
children alike. Where this is coupled with a failure
to appreciate the condition of others, and a reluctance
even to pay taxes for the necessary services or for the
alleviation of distress, we have a continuous fester-
ing sore in the community. It is unnecessary to
elaborate what should be obvious to anyone whose
eyes are open and who has taken the trouble to read
the Gospels. One economic fallacy, however, is
often used by the well-to-do as an excuse for their
own indulgence. They say that to spend money |
on luxuries is to give employment, while to cut off
such expenditure is simply to cause unemployment.
The real answer, of course, is that if the money
spent on luxuries were spent in a useful way, employ-
ment would still be given, but it would be bene-
ficent instead of harmfulin character. For example,
if a woman, instead of employing extra domestic
servants in her own household, employed the money
120
RICHES AND POVERTY
on providing “home helps” for overworked, hard-
pressed mothers who are suffering from bad health,
as much or more employment would be given, but
the result would be very different. Again, if a rich
man, instead of making a costly addition to a house
already large, built cottages for the houseless, the
building trade would still be quickened, but new
houses, new centres of a healthy family life, would
spring into existence.
It should be pointed out, also, that in general the
expenditure of the same sum of money upon
necessaries employs more labour than its expenditure
on luxuries. Thus, {50 spent on a costly ball dress
employs much less labour than {50 spent on a
number of useful garments. Even where a large
house and beautiful grounds are maintained, those
who have the right outlook will take steps to see
that others are able to share in their enjoyment.
(For example, a well-known landowner entertains
in the summer a succession of summer schools of
working-class students.)
In conclusion, therefore, while we do not maintain
that it is either desirable or practicable to secure
complete equality so far as wealth is concerned, our
efforts should be directed far more strongly than
they ever have been in the past towards removing
the more glaring inequalities. On the one hand,
every family should have sufficient coming into the
home to secure adequate food, clothing, housing
and leisure for its members, and, on the other, the
wasteful expenditure upon luxuries which is still so
prevalent should cease. ‘The complicated economic
abuses of our day cannot be remedied by what is
I2I
THE HOME
commonly called “charity.” ‘The loyal citizen
at this time (1913) has two duties—first to see that —
taxes are equitably imposed and carefully expended,
and then to pay them cheerfully. In the days when
our brothers’ needs were met only by charity, it was
said that ‘ God loveth a cheerful giver.’ Now that
they are more efficiently met by the State it can be
equally well said that ‘God loveth a cheerful
taxpayer.’”1 If this was true—as we believe it
was—before the war, it is more patently true
to-day.
1 'The late Canon Barnett.
122
CHAPTER. IX
THE COMMUNITY, THE PARENT AND THE CHILD
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CHAPTER IX
THE COMMUNITY, THE PARENT AND THE CHILD
WeE have already pointed out that with the
growing complexity of modern life it has become
less and less possible for the family to be a law unto
itself. We have long passed the time when, from
an economic or social point of view, it depended on
its own resources. Especially since the dawn of the
industrial era and the growth of capitalism, children
have gone out to work for other employers than
their parents, and town life has brought them more
and more into direct relation with the outside
world. As a result, the State has been forced to
consider children as individuals, and has had to
concern itself both with their immediate welfare
and with their position as future citizens of the
country. Hence, it has become the practice in
Parliament to legislate directly in regard to them,
and for both Parliament and Local Authorities to
vote money for education and various other purposes
affecting the well-being of children. This legisla-
tion has helped parents to provide what they could
not do out of their own resources, but it has also
in some respects interfered with the freedom of
parents in their dealings with their children.
Though the main body of legislation has been
carried out during the last hundred years, it com-
125
THE HOME
menced much earlier. ‘Thus, as early as the Poor
Law Act of 1601, the State regarded it as a duty
and claimed it as a right, in the public interests, to
protect children as future citizens from the results
of their parents’ poverty. The Act referred to
gave power to the Overseers of the Poor to exercise
guardianship over children whose parents were
thought “ not able to keep, maintain and apprentice
them until they were independent.” The Act of
Settlement, 1662, caused great abuses to creep into
this sytem of Poor Law custody, inasmuch as it
made it to the interest of the Overseers to apprentice
children in parishes other than their own, and thus
to escape liability. Protective social legislation
followed the realisation of the evils wrought by
the Industrial Revolution, and since that date a
great body of legislation has grown up, which
regulates the employment of children in respect of
wages, hours of work, health and safety, education,
and protection in cases where they are treated with
cruelty or negligence.
There is a large amount of legislation affecting
children on the Statute Book, but we do not propose
to do more than indicate the general principles
which it embodies, in so far as they affect family
life. ‘The main Act is the Children’s Act of 1908,
which repealed twenty-one previous Acts and parts
of seventeen others and codified and extended their
provisions. This Act penalises parents for active
cruelty, for negligence, or for exposing the child to
conditions which will cause suffering (even where
actual suffering has been obviated by the action of
a third person). It also provides for the punish-
126
THE COMMUNITY
ment of the parent or legal guardian if he fails to
furnish food, clothing, medical advice or lodging for
a child, or if, being unable of his own resources to
furnish these necessaries, he fails to take steps to
procure them under the Poor Law Acts.
The number of Acts codified in the Children’s
Act of 1908 bears evidence to the constant attention
which, during the last century, has been paid to the
welfare of children, and to the growing conviction
that the State should step in to protect the child’s
interests when the parent is unable or unwilling to
do so. The then Home Secretary was conscious,
however, of the danger to parental responsibility
latent in the 1908 Bill, and when introducing it he
said that he desired to “strengthen and guide
parental authority, not to supersede it.” He thought
it of great importance that children should be dealt
with, when outside aid was necessary, not by
official but by voluntary workers. ‘This raises a
further issue—whether the State has a right to
commission private individuals, who may be actuated
by any motive from public spirit to sheer love of
interference, to intervene between parents and
children.
The operation of the Education (Provision of
Meals) Act, 1906, gives perhaps the clearest example
of State intervention in family life. Under this
Act the children are fed, if in the opinion of the
school officials and of the voluntary workers of the
Care Committee they come to school in such a
condition that they are not able to take advantage
of the education given. The children can be fed
and parents asked to pay for meals provided at the
127
THE HOME
school. If the parent refuses to pay and is yet
deemed able to pay, he can be summoned for
the cost incurred. An important differentiation
between this and other methods of State inter-
vention is that the provision of school meals some-
times benefits only an employer who pays sweated
wages. [here are many cases on record of fathers
who receive wages below the level of subsistence,
and claim on that account that their children should
be fed at school.
Other Acts which affect children are the Factories
and Workshops Acts, which limit their hours of
work, which prevent their employment in certain
industries, and which in other ways limit the power
of free contract between parents and employers with
regard to the labour of children.
The Education Acts, by making education com-
pulsory, imposed definite obligations upon parents.
Whilst education is free to those who wish to avail
themselves of the elementary schools provided by
the local Education Authority, any parent who
does not send his children to these schools must
show that they are getting proper education else-
where. ‘The parent is not allowed to have the child
taught according to his own ideas, unless the Educa-
tion Authority can be satisfied that such teaching
will be adequate. ‘The Education Acts also insist
upon the medical inspection of children, and
treatment in certain cases. It has been held, for
example, that refusal or neglect on the part of
parents to provide spectacles for a child for whom
they have been ordered by a school doctor amounts
to legal cruelty. In practice, the duties imposed
128
THE COMMUNITY
upon parents by the Education Acts are enforced in
the case of working-class families, but in general the
Education Authorities assume that parents in
better circumstances are providing proper education
for their children. This to some extent creates a
class distinction which is extremely undesirable,
and it would be well if those who serve on Education
Authorities were to exercise the same control in
the case of children of better-off parents as they do
in the case of those less fortunately situated.
In accordance with the Labour Exchange Acts,
information from the school concerning children
which may be withheld from the parents is divulged
or reported to the official employment agent or
to voluntary workers. Cases occur where parents
resent this procedure, and assert that their child’s
chance of employment is prejudiced by statements
on health, efficiency and intelligence.
It may be said that all the above legislation and
similar Acts are designed to protect children and
to give them a reasonable chance of becoming good
citizens. Certain measures, as, for example, the
provision of school meals, are often criticised as
‘‘ sprandmotherly,” or as calculated to undermine
parental responsibility. In our view, however,
such legislation, at present, is necessary. While it
would be far better for all parents to be in an
economic position which would allow them to
provide entirely for their children upon an adequate
scale, the fact remains that to-day large masses of
them can do nothing of the kind. While this is the
case, the State and the Local Authorities must
continue to step in on behalf of the children,
K 129
THE HOME
perhaps with more generous assistance in the future
than in the past.
Part of the legislation as administered in certain
localities, however, is criticised even more severely
by the parents concerned. ‘They complain that they
are interfered with unduly, and that the State has
no right to dictate to them how to bring up their
children. Now there can be no doubt that in actual
administration of the Acts much harm may be done
by busybodies. Some of the members of Care
Committees may be so tactless as to rouse feelings of
resentment among parents. We do not believe,
however, that this is generally the case; and, as a
matter of fact, the laissez-faire method has become
impossible. If, for instance, a doctor says that
spectacles are necessary in order to save a child’s
eyesight, the community cannot acquiesce in the
parents’ decision that they do not wish the child to
wear spectacles. On the whole, moreover, experi-
ence shows that while at first people may object to
any attempt at supervision of their family relations,
their attitude gradually changes, and they themselves
are educated in the process. In our view the State
or the community has an essential part to play as
“ over-parent,” but, of course, every possible effort
should be made to avoid friction, and to make the
parents feel that their authority is not being super-
seded. ‘Those who undertake Care Committee work
should be properly trained for the purpose.
On the one hand, then, it is necessary to improve
the economic position of parents, and thus enable
them to provide properly for their children; and,
on the other hand, to give better education. Many
130
THE COMMUNITY
parents, with the best intentions, do not know how
to use their powers aright, and as they become
more enlightened, the need for State interference
will disappear. A great deal can be accomplished
by a frank recognition of the fact that adults of all
classes require education in their responsibilities as
parents.
The ideal would be for the State or Local
Authority, as representing the community, to be
ready with help and advice when sought. At
present, however, unfortunately, those who most
need help and advice are least aware of their ignor-
ance. While this, no doubt, may also be the case
among the wealthier classes, their children are more
or less protected, physically if not spiritually, by
the material conditions which habitually surround
them.
The whole question of the extent of public
assistance to education is dealt with by a separate
Commission and we do not propose to discuss it
here.
*
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CHAPTER X
MOTHERS AND BABIES
CHAPTER X
MOTHERS AND BABIES
AuttuHoucH the theme of poets and of artists, the
mother has received scant recognition in practice
for her services to the community. There is no
saying more trite than “the hand that rocks the
cradle rules the world,” but to many hard-worked
and over-burdened mothers it must have sounded
as a bitter joke.
The mother is the centre of family life. Un-
fortunately, under present economic conditions, her
‘life is often one of constant overwork. Not only
does she bring the children into the world and is
responsible for their welfare every hour of the
twenty-four, but she cleans the house, does the
cooking and feeds and clothes the family, she mends
and washes the clothes and pays the rent—all
usually out of a very small weekly income. If food
is short, she goes short. When the children are
young she has practically no opportunity for even
half an hour’s rest, much less any amusement or
recreation. If she is ill or run down, she has no
assistance with her daily work. If she is nursing or
expecting a baby, she has still to cook, wash, clean
and mend. All this would be bad enough if the
house were well planned and well fitted, and the
income sufficient for the family’s needs. Where
135
THE HOME
the house contains only two or three rooms in bad
repair, with no proper facilities for cooking or wash-
ing, and the income is so small that she cannot provide
even the children, much less herself, with sufficient
food, the situation is one which no civilised com-
munity should tolerate. In many cases not merely
has the mother to do all the work of the home, but,
owing to the unemployment or low wages of her
husband, she has to go out to work, and she may act
as breadwinner up to within a few weeks of her
baby’s arrival and again only a few weeks afterwards.
‘Those who really know the conditions in industrial
districts are accustomed to see how often the
factory girl, who at eighteen was full of life and
spirits, is almost worn out before she is thirty when
a mother of three or four children. By the time
she is forty she is frequently suffering severely in
health as a result of improper care and insufficient
food during the periods of maternity, of constant
overwork and of the anxiety and worry of trying to
make both ends meet on an insufficient and extremely
precarious income.
During the last fifty years more attention has
been paid to the needs and the rights of the woman,
and since the war she has been given a political |
status in the country. From an economic point of
view, however, the mother’s position is still one of
entire dependence. While, especially during the
last few years, something has been done in the way
of assistance and advice at childbirth, whilst slight
palliatives have here and there been made through
the feeding of school-children, through the supply
of milk and occasionally by the supply of ‘‘ home
136
MOTHERS AND BABIES
helps,”’ it is undoubtedly the case to-day that the
happiness of family life is for many thousands of
families largely destroyed by the continual struggle
against economic difficulties and depressing environ-
ment, and it is the woman of the household who
suffers most. ‘Those who wish for some picture of
the position of mothers and their babies cannot do
better than read extracts from letters from mothers
collected in 1914-15 by the Women’s Co-operative
Guild and published in 1915 in a book called
Maternity, with an introduction by Sir Herbert
Samuel, an ex-President of the Local Government
Board. ‘Terrible as are the conditions depicted in
that volume, they are not the worst, because the
writers were not generally among the poorest of the
working classes. Even so the facts revealed call for
the immediate attention of the community.
It is a bitter irony to talk about the ideals of
family life whilst the position of so many mothers
remains as it is. We therefore propose to deal
shortly with the position of married women and
their babies in this chapter, and try to indicate
some of the lines along which further reforms must
proceed.
With some of the causes of the present evils we
have already dealt in the earlier chapters of this
Report. Important as good housing is to the father,
it is ten times as important to the mother. She
seldom gets out for more than an hour or two in the
day—often not at all. In any case her burden is
bound to be heavy, but the amount of time and
labour involved in the actual management of the
home and the consequent bad health and worry
137
THE HOME
can be greatly reduced by good planning, adequate
accommodation, proper arrangements for cooking
and washing, and a satisfactory supply of hot and
cold water. The mother’s primary requirement
then is a well-equipped, convenient house with good
surroundings, which include a garden, and, if
possible, playgrounds within easy reach.
The general problem of poverty must be referred
to again in this context. Until there is a regular
income which will enable the mother to provide
sufficient wholesome food and adequate clothing
for the family, and until there is some certainty that
this income will continue, she can have no peace
and no freedom from worry, nor can she be to her
children and husband all that she would wish to be.
In reading the letters from working women to
which reference has been made, no one can fail to
be struck by the appalling effects of continued worry
about employment and the immediate future.
Thus the securing of a living wage in all industries,
and the provision either of work or of an adequate
maintenance during unemployment, are essential
preliminaries to the improvement of the position of
the mother. Under no circumstances should the
mother of young children, still less the expectant
mother, be forced to go out to work in order to
provide for the family owing to the husband’s illness
or unemployment. We are not suggesting that
married women should not be allowed to go out to
work, but that they should not be forced to do so.
It may sometimes be desirable for a woman to con-
tinue to work after marriage, but the income so
derived should be additional to the husband’s earn-
138
MOTHERS AND BABIES
ings, and should enable her to provide a substitute
to perform her household duties in her absence.
Generally speaking, of course, the mother of young
children would not go out to work unless there
were no alternative.
The case of widows with young children will
require separate consideration. It is essential that
some special provision by way of endowment or
otherwise should be made for them. As to the
precise form this should take it is unnecessary to
dogmatise, provided that the result is achieved.
With a satisfactory home and with the assurance
of a certain reasonable minimum income, many of
the mother’s hardships would disappear. ‘There
are, however, several important respects in which
changes and fresh developments in administration
are required, most of all during
(a) The period of maternity ;
(5) Periods of illness of the mother.
There is also
(c) The special problem of the very large family
and of the too rapid increase in its size.
MATERNITY AND INFANT WELFARE
Since the beginning of the century more attention
has been paid to infant welfare, with the result that
there has been a steady decrease in infant mortality.
At the end of the last century the average death-
rate of children under one year of age in England
and Wales was over 150 per thousand births. In
the first ten years of the present century the rate
; 139
THE HOME
was reduced to 128, in the next five years to I10, in
1916-20 to 90, in 1921 to 83, in 1922 to 77, and
in 1923 to 69.1 Infant mortality is, however,
still far higher than it should be. While the
average has come down to 69, there are some
congested districts in certain boroughs where it is
still over 150 per thousand. But the improve-
ment is marked and is mainly due to the greater
attention paid by the State and Local Authorities
to the importance of preserving infant life. ‘The
high figure which still persists in many crowded
districts is to a large extent the consequence of bad
housing and bad environment and can only be
remedied by drastic housing reform.
Until recently, efforts to assist the poorer mothers
and their babies largely depended upon voluntary
enterprise. It was only in certain localities, and
then on a very restricted scale, that any public or
municipal action was taken either by way of advice
or assistance. ‘The inquiries of the Women’s Co-
operative Guild show clearly that the vast majority
of mothers and babies of the previous generation
suffered nearly as severely from lack of proper
instruction as they did from economic evils. We
can only indicate quite briefly some of the measures
more recently adopted by the State and the Local
Authorities to secure better medical attention and
better advice, and to render direct assistance both
to mothers and babies :
(1) The National Insurance Act, by making pro-
vision for maternity benefit (originally 305., now
1 Annual Report of the Ministry of Health, 1922-23, Cmd. 1944,
p. II.
140
MOTHERS AND BABIES
425.) helped to secure proper medical attention and
nursing. Even now it is doubtful whether the sum
is nearly adequate to meet the need.
(2) The certification of midwives and _ their
proper training has undoubtedly improved the
general standard of efficiency with regard to child-
birth.
(3) The provision by the Local Authority, or by
voluntary organisations assisted by grants from the
Local Authority, of maternity and infant welfare
centres to which expectant mothers and mothers
with babies can come for advice and consultation
has done much to relieve the mother from anxiety
and secure both her welfare and that of the child.
(4) The employment by the Local Authority of
health visitors who are properly trained and who
have had experience in a hospital and qualified as
midwives and sanitary inspectors has also proved of
great value, especially where, as is usually the case,
the health visitor works in close co-operation with
the infant welfare committee.
(5) Maternity homes or hospitals have been pro-
vided by some of the Local Authorities, and so long
as housing conditions remain as they are and there
is a lack of facilities and assistance in the home,
there will be a great demand for the increase in
the number. of these institutions, a need which
is emphasised by the Ministry of Health in its
Annual Report. A large proportion of mothers,
however, would naturally prefer to remain at home,
especially where they have other children to be
looked after, and it cannot be regarded as an ideal
state of things that they should have to leave home
141
. THE HOME
because the home is overcrowded or unfit. Muni-
cipal baby hospitals for treating babies and quite
small children have been started in certain districts
and render great assistance to the overworked
mother.
(6) Milk at less than cost price to expectant and
nursing mothers is provided by certain Local
Authorities. Unfortunately, however, there has
recently been a cutting down of public expenditure
in this respect, and whereas £359,000 was spent
upon this in the year 1920-21, the amount of
expenditure in 1922-23 was only £226,000, which,
even allowing for the fall in the cost of milk, shows
a considerable reduction.
(7) A new form of assistance, and one which could
well be extended considerably, is the provision of
“home helps.”? Certain Local Authorities now
employ women to do the house-work in poor homes
where a baby has arrived. Only £7,000, however,
was spent in the whole country in 1922-23 on this
form of assistance.
The maternity and child welfare grant for all the
above purposes and for other purposes connected
with maternity and child welfare which was dis-
tributed by the Ministry of Health in 1922-23
amounted to £785,000. The Local Authorities
expended a similar sum out of the rates. About
one-third of this was spent upon health visitors,
about one-fifth on maternity homes and hospitals,
and another one-fifth on milk and food, one-tenth
on infant welfare centres, 3 per cent. on day nurseries
and 3 per cent. on midwifery, and about 7 per cent.
142
MOTHERS AND BABIES
on medical officers of health and assistant medical
officers for maternity and child welfare work.
Although the sum is substantial and shows an
important increase on what used to be devoted to
this purpose before the war, it is not nearly sufficient
to meet the needs of the situation. The number
of certificated midwives is still too small. The
Ministry of Health itself states that “nearly 300
additional whole-time health visitors are still required
to bring the number up to the Department’s
moderate standard of one whole-time officer to
every 400 births.” Both the number of infant
welfare centres and their size are inadequate. Far
greater attention, and a larger sum of money, should
be devoted to the supply of pure milk.
Looking at the matter simply from the economic
point of view, the State and the Local Authorities
would do well to spend more money and devote
more attention to this important branch of “ pre-
ventive medicine.” We have got past the experi-
mental stage and have concrete experience to guide
us, and it is generally admitted that the work already
done has reduced infant mortality and improved
the health of both mothers and children. Our
scale of national expenditure is surely wrong when
the total money devoted to maternity and infant
welfare work in all its phases is less than 15. per head
of the population.
To most social reformers the work of infant
welfare centres and health visitors is well known,
but little attention has been paid to the possibility
of extending the scheme of “home helps.” Quite
apart from the medical and nursing attendance
143
THE HOME
necessary with maternity cases, the vast majority
of workers’ homes suffer from the lack of anyone to
manage the house and do the cooking and washing
while the mother is lying in. The result is that she
herself goes on carrying out her household duties
right up to the last moment and often gets up again
within a few days of the child’s birth, a practice
which leads to serious permanent damage both to
mother and child. Sometimes a neighbour or
grandparent gives assistance, but there are many
homes where such assistance is not possible or can
only be provided for an hour or two in the day. In
the letters from mothers to which we have referred,
numbers of instances are given by women from their
own experience, in which they were at the wash-
tub within a few hours of the baby’s arrival and had
to get up five or six days afterwards. The scheme
of “‘ home helps,” originally started in Whitechapel,
and now adopted in a very limited degree by some
other Local Authorities, provides for the employ-
ment of women to go and do house-work and look
after the children for a certain number of hours a
day in homes where there is a maternity case. They
are at present usually employed by a voluntary
agency which gets a grant from the Local Authority,
the Local Authority in turn getting 50 per cent. of
the expenditure from the Ministry of Health. As
has been indicated, however, the movement is quite
in its infancy, only {7,000 having been expended in
this way in the whole country during the year.
Even in areas where the scheme is in operation, its
scope is comparatively small. For instance, in the
borough of St. Pancras, with a population of over
144
MOTHERS AND BABIES
200,000, there are only three or four “ home helps ””
employed. Much more could be done in this
respect, and in some cases small payments could be
received. ‘The scheme has the additional advantage
of providing useful employment at a time when
unemployment is rife.
ILLNEss OF THE MOTHER
The scheme of “ home helps”? to which we have
referred would also be of great value when the
mother is ill. Often the doctor orders rest or even
a visit to a convalescent home. In a poor district,
however, he knows that this advice, though
practically essential, cannot be taken. At present
the community through the Local Authority only
makes grants for “‘ home helps ” in maternity cases.
We believe that the scheme could be extended to
cover cases of mothers’ illness, and possibly it could
be coupled with an amplification of the measures for
insurance against illness which at present only
apply to employed persons.
LarceE FAmItigs
The special problems which arise in connection
with large families need the earnest thought of
Christian people. ‘The consideration of them, how-
ever, inevitably brings us on to ground outside our
province which is covered by the Sex Commission.
We desire, however, briefly to lay stress on certain
aspects of the question.
L 145
f THE HOME
We deprecate minute calculations about the num-
ber of children required in a family, but it is essential
that the mother should take her due share in any
decision that is reached, and her wishes and desires
must be respected. Both parents also must remem-
ber the value of moderate-sized families to the
children themselves if the home is to be the training-
ground we have described. It is not really in the
interests of the children to limit their number—
with a view to increasing their material advantages
—if the gain of mutual co-operation and education
is lost.
The community must realise that the whole
problem is intensified by wrong economic conditions,
of which bad housing is the chief. It imposes
restrictions which would otherwise not be tolerated,
and the lack of space tends to prevent restraint in
sexual relations. Acommunity can hardly be called
Christian which allows children to be brought into
the world in circumstances where they cannot have
a reasonable chance of growing up in healthy con-
ditions. The larger the family the more do material
conditions affect it, and this can only be mitigated—
apart from some form of family endowment and by a
better knowledge of the internal management and
economy of the home—by both parents together
giving thought to the responsibility of parenthood,
and to the damage wrought to the health of the
mother by too rapid child-bearing.
In some walks of life there will have to be as well
an alteration in our standard of values. The new
standard would contain what is essential for spiritual
and physical well-being, and would eliminate much
146
MOTHERS AND BABIES
that we consider necessary in the way of amusements
and luxury. Weshould cease to prefer three servants
and two children to two servants and three children.
We should cease to worry if our children were less
finely dressed than our neighbour’s. We should
not have any ambition to change our “ class,” but
only our culture and capabilities; and we should
give up imagining that for real education we must
send our children to the most expensive schools.
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CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSIONS
CHAPTER XI
CONCLUSIONS
WE are aware that, within the compass of our
Report, we have not been able to deal exhaustively
with the intricate social and economic problems
which are connected with the home and family life
as institutions in our order of society. We have
tried, however, to present the main principles in-
volved and to discuss their application to the prac-
tical matters of every-day life.
Our conclusions, however, if accepted, will only
be of value in so far as they lead to action by Christian
people, both as individuals and as members of cor-
porate Churches.
The Christian Churches have always claimed to be
vitally concerned with home and family life. Be-
cause they are responsible for the family’s spiritual
life, they are responsible also for the material con-
ditions which minister to this. If the Church is
concerned with baptisms, it is also concerned with
infant welfare; if it claims authority with respect
to marriage and its inviolability, it must concern
itself with home-making, and therefore with housing ;
if it performs the last rites over the dead, it must
concern itself with the welfare of the survivors.
In this concluding chapter we summarise some of
151
THE HOME
the chief points in our argument, and the main con-
clusions at which we have arrived.
1. The family and the home are institutions
common to all countries and races with any
degree of civilisation.
2. The family is the simplest social unit and
is also the most rich in potential Christianity.
3. The phrases used to indicate love both in
the teaching of our Lord and in common speech
about human institutions which set before them —
co-operation and service as ideals, are culled
from those used in regard to family relations.
4. The family has evolved from lower to
higher types and—despite many set-backs and
failures—has especially evolved under the influ-
ence of Christianity during the Christian era.
5. The establishment of a Christian Com-
monwealth—and in fact the Kingdom of God
on earth—will best be founded on the family
and home as the unit.
6. Our Lord, although He indicated that the
family was the ideal social unit, and family
relations those which most clearly revealed the
spirit of love, made it clear that the family must
not be regarded as an end in itself. He showed
that occasions would arise when the home and
the family might and would have to be broken
up “‘ for His sake.”
7. Nevertheless, the family-home is the ideal
training-ground for Christian life. The home
is the place where the lessons of service and co-
operation can first and best be learned.
152
CONCLUSIONS
8. The basis of the home and the family must
be the same as the basis of Christianity itself,
that is to say, love.
g. Failures in family life, and particularly in
married life, are due to the enemies of love, which
may be summed up as selfishness. ‘They may
also be due to a misunderstanding of what love
really means. Both romantic love and the love
of one’s household may and often do remain
largely egoistic. Love is a way of living. Of
its nature it must grow and deepen, and the
effort foreseen in married life must be con-
tinually kept up.
10. The home that concentrates solely on the
welfare of its own children to the exclusion of
other children is failing to see the relation of
home life to the community. Neither the
family nor the members of it should become so
absorbed in itself that it neglects to cultivate
outside interests, and the service of others and
of the community.
11. Education of children by parents is not
best achieved by a series of parental prohibi-
tions, but by example, and appeal to the mind
and heart by truthful and rational explanations.
12. Parents should not try to bring up their
children in their own image. ‘There must be a
development of the children’s own character.
The parents must remember that the character
they are trying to develop must be a social
character. The home itself is a society in which
the child must somehow adjust his own self-
expression to that of others. There must be
153
THE HOME
education in the meaning of the lasting love of
marriage. |
13. Itis the concern of both parents to under-
take the religious education of their children
as a natural and simple part of home life.
14. Class distinctions encourage family self-
ishness, giving a false standard and confusing
function with worth. If we wish to abolish
false class distinctions we shall educate our
children with our neighbours’; and if we want
the best for our own children, as Christians we
must want it for all.
15. From the nature of the family association
it is generally assumed that selfishness and family
jars are faults and failures, because they conflict
with the co-operative harmony which is found
to be essential to happy family life. The
achievement of such harmony should lead to the
general social groupings being dominated by the
same spirit.
16. ‘The community can contribute much to
family life. Comradeships formed with mem-
bers of other families do not impoverish but
enrich one’s own. It is through the com-
munity at large that the family enters—as far
as it does enter—upon the social inheritance
of the past.
Under the foregoing heads we have summarised,
what we have stated at greater length in Chapters I
to V, some of the main considerations in connection
with the building up of the family life which we
believe to be in accordance with the Christian ideal,
154
CONCLUSIONS
and also the relation between the family and the
community. While family life of a high character
can be achieved despite material surroundings and
conditions, it is undeniable that the conditions which
at present exist in our country are great obstacles
to the achievement of the ideals at which we aim.
Extreme poverty on the one hand and extreme
luxury on the other, bad housing and dismal sur-
roundings, are all obstacles in the way of living the
Christian family life, which may be overcome but
which should be removed. If the Christian Com-
monwealth is to be achieved, there is a definite
obligation upon individuals and the community at
large to secure better social and economic conditions.
Such improvement will not in itself secure the
achievement of the Christian ideal, but it will make
such achievements more possible. ‘The following are
the main conclusions at which we have arrived in
Chapters VI to X as to reforms in our social and
economic system which should be worked and
prayed for, and which demand both individual and
political action by Christian people. They are:
1. Every family should have the opportunity
of occupying a home with accommodation
adequate for the family’s needs and comfort, so
designed and with such surroundings as will
secure health and amenity. At present there is
a shortage of houses amounting to at least a
million, and a large proportion of the houses
which exist are unsatisfactory in themselves, or
are overcrowded and have depressing and
unhealthy surroundings.
155
THE HOME
2. The present housing situation has, among
others, the following evil results :
(a) Bad health.
(b) Excessive mortality.
(c) In many cases, immorality and other
vices.
(d) Lack of opportunity for culture and
education.
3. It is the duty of the community, and of the
individuals that compose it, to secure the build-
ing at the earliest possible date of houses in
sufficient numbers, properly planned, and with
sufficient space surrounding them, to meet the
housing needs of the time. We believe that if
these houses are not provided in other ways, the
public authorities should provide them, even
though such a course involves a burden upon
the tax-payer or rate-payer. In our opinion,
however, such apparent cost would be more than
balanced by the savings due to improvement in
health and other conditions.
4. The fullest possible use should be made of
the Town Planning Acts, and of such further
legislation as may be found necessary to secure
the better planning of towns. Such plans
should provide for the separation of industrial,
commercial and residential areas, the limitation
of the number of houses that may be built to
the acre, the provision of adequate transit
facilities, the reservation of open spaces and the
provision of recreation grounds.
5. In order to deal with the problem of the
156
CONCLUSIONS
large towns, and to relieve their congestion, it
will be necessary to start new satellite cities
to which both industry and population can be
moved, in accordance with the principles already
put into practice at Letchworth and Welwyn.
6. Extreme poverty, involving continual
anxiety from day to day about the means of life,
is suffered by a large proportion of British
families. ‘This is due to various causes, and in
particular to low wages, unemployment or
casual employment, sickness or ill-health, old
age, and, in a limited number of cases, intemper-
ance and other vices.
7. As Christians we cannot rest until we have
placed every family in a position in which, as
the barest minimum, it can obtain all the
necessaries of life with reasonable security of
continuance.
8. Public opinion should be roused to pro-
test against the payment of sweated wages,
and to insist that a living wage is paid in all
industries, that adequate measures are taken to
deal with the problem of unemployment, that
the Insurance Acts are extended to secure
families against the evil results of bad health,
and that Old Age Pensions are adequate.
g. In general the main responsibility for the
welfare of the children rests upon parents, but
the community must concern itself with their
welfare, not merely by ensuring that the family
shall have sufficient income to provide the
necessaries of life, but also adequate education,
and, where necessary, it must protect the
157
THE HOME
children against the neglect even of their own
parents. Meddlesome interference, however,
should be avoided, and the administration of
legislation for the protection of children should
be in the hands of those who are properly
qualified for the work.
10. We recognise the value of what has been
done in recent years to improve conditions for
mothers and babies, but are convinced that the
community should press for far greater assist-
ance than is at present provided. Maternity and
infant welfare work should be extended on a far
greater scale than is at present the case. The
greater expenditure so involved will be the best
form of economy.
We therefore submit the following resolutions :
1. That the building up of Christian homes
lies at the root of the social problem, and that
it is the duty of Christians to show what Chris-
tian family life can and should be when founded
on love.
2. ‘That Christians should work to secure for
others the necessaries and comforts of home
which they enjoy themselves.
3. That it is fundamental to Christianity to
regard every personality as of equal value in the
sight of God.
4. That Christians cannot tolerate the present
housing conditions, and that it is the imperative
duty of all Christians and all Churches cease-
lessly to demand and work, politically and other-
wise, for measures which will secure:
158
CONCLUSIONS
(a) that such a number of new houses be
built as will completely meet the housing
shortage and abolish the slums ;
(6) that all families have adequate means
of subsistence and the reasonable comforts
and opportunities of life.
This involves both a standard of personal conduct
and an attitude towards public affairs. It involves
making Christianity the governing principle and
mainspring of action not merely in the home but
in the Borough Council, in Parliament, and in the
Departments of State. No Christian can ignore his
or her share in the responsibility for the government
of the country and for any neglect to deal with
pressing social abuses.
To solve the housing problem and to prevent
sweated wages and unemployment may call for
measures which will involve sacrifices by certain
sections of the community. Such sacrifices are as
much Christian obligations as voluntary subscrip-
tions to hospitals and to other ‘‘ Charities.”” What
our Lord said to the rich young ruler contains
lessons not merely for individuals but for nations.
No mechanical shaping and carrying out of legisla-
tion will have the full effect desired without that
moral and spiritual force which it is the part of the
Christian Church to pour into the national life.
159
THE HOME
Signed :
R. L. Reiss (Chairman).
BucHANAN BLAKE.
EvizaABeTH M. Capsury.
MarcareT S. CALDER.
W. M’G. Eacar.
Marion FirzGera.p.
Epiru H. Gtuover.
Mavup M. Jrrrery.
ExvizaBpetH H. McKerrow.
P. Euste Petty.
We Ri PEL ie:
Mary L. Piercy.
Witt Reason.
Averit D. Sanperson-Furuniss.
J. Lionet Tayter.
Raymonp UNwIN.
_ Dorotuy L. Wise.
The members of the Commission who having
co-operated in the preparation of the above Report
attach their signatures, do so as individuals and in
no way commit the Churches or Societies of which
they are members. The acceptance of the Report
by a signatory denotes agreement with the general
substance of the Report, but not necessarily with
every detail.
160
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
I.
1. Trace the development of the home and consider what
events in history affected it. Has there been a general progress
until the present day, o is there any one period when you feel home
life was at its strongest ?
2. What was our Lord’s teaching about the home, and what
changes did it produce?
~
3. Consider the alternative suggestions to normal family life.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of these proposals?
4. What bearing have material conditions on home life? Is it
possible to divorce the spiritual from the material? Have
Christians any obligations towards social abuses? On what does
beauty in the home depend? Is it possible to have a beautiful
home without a big financial outlay? (See Everyday Religion, by
E. S$. Woods, Student Christian Movement.)
II.
1. On what does the importance of the Christian home rest?
Discuss the statement, “‘ The regenerating power of religion in other
social organisations can at best be temporary unless it is the founda-
tion of home life.”
2. Do you know of any successful homes that are not based on
Christianity? Is a definitely Christian home any better than
ordinary homes based on love and mutual forbearance?
3. Discuss the causes of home-making. Is there any specific
contribution Christians have to make on the subject of the
161
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
spirit of approach to marriage? How should this contribution
bemade? Does the Church give any teaching or preparation before
marriage?
4. Can you describe the ideal Christian family? What are the .
greatest obstacles in the way of its attainment?
Ii
yf
1. To what extent should parents subordinate themselves to
their children? Does unselfishness in parents breed selfishness in
children? Is it true to say that both parents have an equal place
and responsibility towards the children at all ages? (Cf. The New
Psychology and the Teacher, and The New Psychology and the Parent,
by Dr. Crichton Miller.)
2. Discuss the type of character needed in potential citizens,
and the various methods of upbringing for securing this. Consider
what are the most important things which parents have to teach
and the right methods of doing it, particularly with regard to
religion.
3. Consider what the Church can do to spread Christian teaching
about the home, to help the home-makers and to show children their
right duty to their parents.
IV.
1. Are outside interests (both for parents and for children)
desirable, or do they always distract from the home? ‘There is
frequently a conflict of loyalties between the home and public
work. What should be the right Christian attitude towards such
questions ?
2. Are class distinctions good or bad? How can the home play
its part in mitigating their evil effects?
3. How should servants be treated? Should they have meals
with the family? How many hours a day should they work?
162
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
4. Discuss the whole important interplay between the family and
the community, and consider how each can help the other on the
spiritual plane.
V.
It is stated in Chapter V that the home is the supreme place of
education and that it should be governed by equality in personal
values. Consider these two statements and think out their impli-
cations in all walks of life. How do they affect accepted ideas
about :
(1) Education.
(2) Nurses and nurserymaids.
(3) Poverty and unemployment.
(4) Servants.
(5) Outside interests?
VI.
1. If possible, the circle might make a survey of the local housing
position and needs.
2. What are the chief moral evils that arise from bad housing
conditions ?
3. How should houses be built? By private enterprise, by the
State, by the Church, by the Local Authority?
4. What are the particular problems of slum areas, large towns,
rural districts? How can these be met?
5. What are the main essentials in a house and its surroundings?
(See C.O.P.E.C. Questionnaire.) Why is town planning so
important? What are the chief requirements of a good town
plan?
VII.
1. To a great extent responsibility over social matters has shifted
from the individual to the community. How can corporate
responsibility be brought home?
163
GUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
2. What can the individual Christian do to forward housing
reform ?
3. Consider the difference between poverty and destitution.
What are the main causes of extreme poverty? How can they be
mitigated ?
4. Why do riches make home life difficult? Discuss the fallacy
of luxury spending and Canon Barnett’s remark: “‘ God loveth a
cheerful taxpayer.”
7
VIII.
1. To what extent has the State a duty as “ over-parent”? Is
it desirable that the State should interfere between parents Pd
children ?
2. What can be done to help the over-worked mother? as a
scheme of domestic service on the same basis as the nursing service
practicable ? |
3. What is being done at present for mothers and babies and Sis
should it be extended? Consider particularly
(1) Milk supply,
(2) Home helps,
(3) Large families,
(4) Motherhood endowment.
(See publications of the Family Endowment Council, 50, Romney
Street, S.W. 1.)
4. Finally, we have to consider how Christian teaching can be’
extended in the home and about the home, and how we can bring
Christian opinion to bear so that Christian homes are made more
possible.
Mapg AND PRINTED IN GREAT Britain. RicHAaRD CLay & Sons, LTD.,;
PRINTERS, BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
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