Page:Lectures on Housing.djvu/75

 State to help their poorer neighbours whenever that summons can be enforced without evoking gravely injurious reactions upon the production of weath [sic] and, therewith, ultimately upon the fortunes of the poor themselves. In view of the fact that good conditions of life undoubtably [sic] increase the industrial efficiency of those who enjoy them, State assistance—granted always that it is so arranged as to avoid directly tempting workers into idleness—might, I think, be given in considerable measure before any such injurious reactions were set up. This proposition seems to me to hold good of State subsidies upon education, insurance, housing, food and clothing equally. No decisive objection in principle can be established against any of these things. It is evident, however, that the practical problem of arranging a system of subsidies in such a way that it shall not contain obviously objectionable features is much more difficult as regards some of them than it is as regards others. Articles of food and clothing are