_Housing_


Housing evils are mainly of two kinds. Houses are often dark, damp, and
evil-smelling, which means ill-health. And houses are often too small,
which means that human beings are packed so closely that privacy is
impossible. Both results affect morality. A man below par in general
health is far more susceptible to the lure of evil than a really
healthy one. And the same is true of girls. There are to be found in
some corners of our towns lewd and unwholesome-looking youths whose
talk and whose actions are unclean and sordid. We perhaps shudder as we
pass by and sense what is their moral condition, but if we knew the
houses from which they come we might hardly wonder. Then plainly it is
hostile to wholesome living when husband and wife cannot have a
sleeping-place separate from the rest of the family, and when growing
boys and girls share the same room, so that natural modesty is
confronted with constant obstacles to its normal development. When I
wrote some pages back about the disciplinary value of the daily cold
bath, I could hardly forbear stopping at that point to comment on the
fact that that primary condition for bodily and moral health is beyond
the reach of millions. Our housing has not yet reached the bathroom
standard for the majority of our people.

All these considerations are perfectly obvious and have often been
urged before. But though I have known of many cases where moral evil
has followed from bad housing conditions, I have known so many
instances where in spite of bad housing conditions morality has been
perfectly preserved, that I do not make so much of this point as some.
I have yet to learn that morality is made safe by the most elaborate
and healthy housing conditions. It is true that the level of morality