Page:The homes of the working classes and the promises of the Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.djvu/8

4 acquainted with the district, have given of the dreariness, the intense dreariness, the lack of everything that can give interest or pleasure to life in these places." After this expression of his own deep sympathy with the working classes, the orator, in a promise so clear and distinct as to be unmistakable, proceeded to unfold his remedy: "Well, we are going to displace 9,000 people, and the architects tell me they have not the slightest doubt that by a rearrangement of the blocks of buildings and by an improved construction they will be able to build good houses for 18,000 people." After referring to the Glasgow lodging-house system, he goes on to say, "Well, then the committee will no doubt also erect buildings which I should say will be in flats or storeys. The time has come when that must be done if the poor are to be housed within close proximity to their work and for reasonable rent." On the rent question Mr. Chamberlain went on to say, "We shall not be able to secure these houses being built for the use of the public at lower rates than hitherto have prevailed, yet the actual result will be that the rental will not be much higher than they have hitherto been accustomed to pay."

Having given Mr. Chamberlain's promise to erect dwellings in place of those destroyed, let us see what the actual rents were which the people had hitherto been accustomed to pay. Mr. Councillor White, in proposing the scheme, said, "he had seen houses at 1s. per week, others at 1s. 9d. and 2s. 3d.; the last figure appeared to be a tolerably high rent."

On the strength of such pleas alone the Town Council would have been prepared to pass the scheme, but connected with it was the brilliant financial prospect which Mr. Chamberlain held forth. The scheme was to cost the town only £18,000 per annum for fifty years; by the increased rateable value of property £6,000 per annum was to be obtained, thus reducing the net cost of the scheme to £12,000 per annum. As 18,000 artizans were to be provided with model dwellings, the majority of the townsmen endorsed the action of the Town Council.

Well, a million and a half of money was sanctioned to be borrowed to carry out the great improvement scheme. Many properties were purchased on the route of Mr. Chamberlain's new street, which was to rival the glories of Continental cities. By no stretch of imagination could the properties purchased between New Street and Bull Street be called unsanitary. Three years went past, and in 1878 it gradually dawned upon the Birmingham people that they had been deceived, and that their consent to the scheme had been obtained under false pretences. Questions showered thick and fast upon the Improvement Committee as to when they would begin to build the artizans' dwellings. The chairman of the committee, Mr. White, was obliged to confess that it would be impossible to provide