flats; the council cannot. Under such circumstances comparison between the results of his enterprise and the council's is idle. The remedy is either to curtail Lord Cadogan's freedom until it is no greater than the council's, or else to make the council as free as Lord Cadogan. As the former alternative would end in nothing being done at all, and rendering impossible such great improvements as have been made both in Chelsea and Battersea by Lord Cadogan's enterprise, the second alternative—that of untying the hands of the ratepayer—is obviously the sensible one.
Mr. Bernard Shaw arrives at the conclusion that the housing problem cannot be satisfactorily solved until the municipality owns all the land within its boundaries, and is as free to deal with it as our ground landlords are at present. In the Times pamphlet, already referred to, the following passage is interesting:
At the conference of the municipal representatives held at Glasgow in September, 1901, to discuss the housing question one of the speakers said: "We don't want to house everybody;" whereupon someone else called out: "Why not?" These two words sum up the whole situation as the socialists see it.
The street-car or tramway traffic has been taken up all over the country by municipalities, with great success. I looked with astonishment on the great suburban cars running out of London, usually crowded with passengers; and at Southampton and elsewhere I rode in municipal trams. Of course, even these do not fail to meet with opposition, particularly since they must inevitably interfere with the local railroad traffic, and with various interests along the line. For example, it has been found that when the tramways were extended into certain neighborhoods close to great cities, people who formerly traded at the local stores would get on the cars and do their shopping in the large city establishments, where there was greater variety of choice, and very likely better prices. This sort of difficulty, which is undoubtedly far from imaginary, is gravely cited as something inherent in municipal enterprise, as if it did not result from private commercial enterprise everywhere! I knew a storekeeper in New Mexico who vigorously opposed the coming of the railroad, and quite rightly so far as his own personal interests were concerned.
