Builders and Speculators, &c.

Progress, Volume II, Issue 7, 1 May 1907, Page 266

Builders and Speculators, &c.

There is a disposition to condemn severely the speculative builder, for no other reason than that he is a speculator. But the fact happens to be that every builder builds for what he can make out of his venture, in the same way as the man who sells chairs does so for profit. That governs all things in the world of work and wages and contracts. It is unfortunately true that many speculative builders have shown themselves utterly reckless, unscrupulous, and incompetent. But the calling itself is as honourable and useful a one as could be tound, and among its practitioners are many men whose character and abilities would make them a credit to any calling. Especially at a time when the supply of cheap and sanitary houses for the working classes is recognised on all hands as one of the pressing needs of the day, the mar who does anything to meet the demand for such houses, at the same time paying all his just debts, may reasonably claim that he is filling a useful place in the social economy, and that his is the last calling which should be the object of contemptuous animadversion.