ABSTRACT
The Manchester Guardian denounced Salisbury's proposals as 'State Socialism pure and simple, and the same arguments which are used to justify the housing of a class at the expense of the community might be used to justify it being fed and clothed in the same way.' The Liberty and Property Defence League, founded in 1882, naturally enough played the leading part in opposing the entry of the government into the field of housing construction. The revelations of the 1880s, especially the emphasis in The Bitter Cry on the prevalence of one-roomed living, stimulated a much more sociological and economic approach to the housing question. The 'apparently disconnected invasions of individual freedom of action by the central government', were, in its opinion, 'a general movement towards State Socialism', against which the most effective defence was 'the cooperation of all persons individually opposed to the system of State Socialism'.
