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THE PREVENTION OF
DESTITUTION : BY
SIDNEY AND BEATRICE
WEBB

SPECIAL EDITION PRESENTED
BY THE AUTHO^IS TO THEIR
FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE
NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE
PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

THE PREVENTION OF
DESTITUTION: BY
SIDNEY AND BEATRICE
WEBB

SPECIAL EDITION PRESENTED
BY THE AUTHORS TO THEIR
FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE
NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR THE
PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

CONTENTS

PAGE

Phei'ACE iii

CHAPTER I

Dbstithtion as a Disease of Society [

CHAPTER II

How TO Prevent the Destitution that aeises feom Sickness - ■ 15

CHAPTER III

Destitution and Eugenics 45

CHAPTER IV

How to Prevent the Destitution arising from Child Neglect fil

CHAPTER V

Sweating and Unemployment as Causes op Destitution . . 8G

CHAPTER VI

How to Prevent Unemployment and Under-Employment - - • 110

CHAPTER VII

Insurance ...159

CHAPTER VIII

The Enlarged Sphere of Voluntary Agencies in the Prevention ok

Destitution

221

CHAPTER IX

The Need for a Common Register and a Registrar of Public Assistance 265

CHAPTER X
The "Moral Factor"

293

PREFACE

To OUR Fellow Members.

We are glad to have been able, before starting for
our holiday, to place in the hands of our fellow-members this
new book, in part a reproduction of our recent lectures.
It is essential that the propaganda for the Prevention of
Destitution should be kept up to date. The Minority
Report of the Poor Law Commission, though still quite
accurate, is no longer " topical." Its first purpose was to
describe, in elaborate detail, the Poor Law and its ad-
ministration as it actually is, in order to convert public
Opinion to the abohtion of the General Mixed Workhouse
and the Board of Guardians (in Scotland, the Parish
Council). This purpose has, to a satisfactory extent, been
accomphshed. No instructed person outside Poor Law
circles now upholds a continuance of the present adminis-
tration ; and, so far as Great Britain is concerned, all
three poHtical parties are definitely pledged to carry out
the recommendation embodied in both Reports of the
Poor Law Commission, and to " scrap " the existing
Poor Law machinery by abolishing the present Boards of
Guardians and the General Mixed Workhouse. What
remains to be done, for the members of the National
Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, is to " ham-
mer in " this pledge at every available opportunity, so

fii

iv

PEBFACE

as both to keep alive public opinion on the subject and to
insist that the Government shall lose no time in acting
upon it.

The second purpose of the Minority Report, and one
peculiar to it, was to reveal the gradual supersession of
the Poor Law by the various Preventive Authorities,
which has been going on for the past half-century ; and
to bring home to the public mind the need for completing
this process of " breaking up the Poor Law," and for
transferring the remnant of the services of Medical Treat-
ment, Child Nurture, Control of the Mentally Defective
and Provision for the Aged — still stigmatised as " parochial
relief " — to the newer Pubhc Authorities already perform-
ing these same services, without the stigma of pauperism,
for the community at large ; whilst reserving the
whole treatment of the able-bodied man or woman to a
new National i^:uthority dealing with Unemployment.
The supersession of the Poor Law, though by no means
yet completed, is going on every year— we might ahnost
say every month — with accelerating speed. Since the
publication of the Minority Report, a quarter of a million
aged paupers have been taken out of the Poor Law and
transferred to the Pension Committees of the Town and
County Councils. With regard to the sick, we watch
not only the silent continuous growth of the hospital
service of the Local Health Authorities, but also, in Scot-
land and England alike, their gradual assumption of
responsibility, under administrative orders, for the largest
single class of destitute sick persons— namely, the sufferers
from tuberculosis. In all the large towns, of Scotland as
well as of England, the Local Education Authority is
assuming more and more the position of being the organ

PREFACE

V

of the community for all that concerns Child Destitution,
whether the need be food or medical attendance, clothing
or home care. With regard to the able-bodied, we have a
great step forward in the establishment of a National
Labour Exchange under the Board of Trade, at which
all sorts and conditions of able-bodied persons in search
of wages, whether or not they are destitate, are gratuitously
placed in situations.

Besides these achievements, we have, in the actual
proposals to which the present Government is committed,
considerable further instalments of this supersession of
the Poor Law by Public Authorities dealing with the
population at large. The Home Secretary has definitely
informed the House of Commons that he has in pre-
paration a Bill for taking the Feeble-minded (and with
them the whole class of mentally defective) out of the
Poor Law ; and for making the Local Lunacy Authorities
wholly independent of the Boards of Guardians. And,
to-day, we have before us the colossal scheme of Govern-
ment Insurance agamst Sickness, Infirmity, and Unem-
ployment, by which it is proposed to provide, to the extent
of twenty or thirty millions annually, for the bulk of the
sickness and much of the unemployment from which the
wage-earners at present suffer— not, it is true, on the lines
of Prevention, but ostentatiously in supersession of the
Poor Law. Already more than twice as many people are
being maintained, at the expense of the rates and taxes,
outside the Poor Law as inside it. When the present
administrative developments of the Local Health Authori-
ties and the Local Education Authorities have matured,
and when the present proposals of Mr. Lloyd George and
Mr. Winston Churchill are carried out, the number of

vi

PREFACE

persons still remaining under the care of the Board of
Guardians in England and the Parish Council in Scotland
will have sunk to, perhaps, only a fourth of the number
of paupers on the day that the Minority Report was
published. We think that even the Local Government
Board will then be convinced that it is extravagant to
keep going, from one end of the kingdom- to another, a
separate Poor Law Authority, separate local elections,
separate offices, separate institutions and separate staffs
of officers, in order that this dwindling remnant of women
and children, and odds and ends of men, may be stigmatised
as paupers !

The very rapidity of this movement for superseding
section after section of the Poor Law brings with it new
tasks and new responsibilities to those engaged in the
Crusade for the Prevention of Destitution. It might
easily come about that the Poor Law was superseded,
without exchanging the Method of Relief for the Method
of Prevention. In the great Insm^ance Bill of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, we have an inchoate scheme which,
according to the way in which it is reshaped in Parliament
and administered by the officials, may turn out to be either
a demoralising system of indiscriminate, inadequate, and
unconditional " Outdoor Relief " outside the Poor Law,
or a useful adjunct to the work of the Local Health
Authority in preventing the occurrence or the contmuance
of sickness, and to the work of the new National Authority
in preventing the occurrence of unemployment. Whether
or not the present Bill becomes law within the next few
weeks, the Government scheme, with its universal and
compulsory deductions from wages, its drastic scaven-
gering away of voluntary organisations, and its creation

PREFACE

Vll

of an extensive centralised Civil Service, will be the
dominant interest of the near future. Every clerk, every
mechanic, every labourer, every Friendly Society or Trade
Union member or official — every intelligent taxpayer even
— will " want to know," both as to the facts and as to the
policy. This universal thirst for information and dis-
cussion we must undertake to satisfy. Every speaker,
every writer, even every member of the National Com-
mittee, must form a clear conception, both of the social
value of Insurance, voluntary and compulsory, and of the
outlines of the Government scheme. We have, therefore,
attempted, in a lengthy chapter on Insurance, to analyse
its characteristics, to describe the disastrous results that
any slovenly scheme might produce, and to set forth the
conditions under which Social Insurance can become
not an alternative but a useful complement, to the Policy
of Prevention. And this brings us, face to face with the
overwhehning importance, in any social movement, of
the " Moral Factor," to which we have accordingly
devoted our final chapter.

Sidney and Beatrice Webb.

37, Norfolk Street, Strand, London.
June, 1911.

[To avoid encumbering the pages with foot note references, there will be
loand, immediately following each chapter, an appendix giving exact refer-
ences for the facts and quotations mentioned in the text, with lists of
books, etc.]

THE PREVENTION OF
DESTITUTION

I

Destitution as a Disease of Society

The subject of this book is Destitution as it exists
in the United Kingdom to-day ; and we have chosen
the word deliberately in order to make clear, from the
outset, that we are not referring to Poverty, Poverty is
a rela tive term . Any person is poor who has fess spending
power than is common in the circle in which he lives.
" The poor ye have always with you " is merely a state-
ment of the fact of inequality of wealth ; and it affords
no evidence as to the chronic existence in Judea of any
mass of what is now called destitution, still less of its
mevitableness. By destitution we mean the condition
of being without one or other of the necessaries of life,
in such a way that health and strength, and even vitality,
is so impaired as to eventually imperil life itself. Nor is it
merely a physical state. It is indeed, a special feature of
destitution in modern urban communities that it means not
merely a lack of food, clothing, and shelter, but also a
condition of mental degradation. Destitution in the
desert may have been consistent with a high level of

1

B

2 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

spiritual refinement. But destitution in a densely-crowded
modern city means, as all experience shows, not only
oncoming disease and premature death from continued
privation, but also, in the great majority of cases, the
degradation of the soul. Massed in mean streets, working
in the sweating dens, or picking up a precarious livelihood
by casual jobs ; living by day and by night in overcrowded
one-room tenements, through months of chronic unem-
ployment or persistent under-employment ; infants and
children, boys and girls, men and women, together find
themselves subjected — in an atmosphere of drinking,
begging, cringing, and lying— to unspeakable tempta-
tions to which it is practically inevitable that they should
in different degrees succumb, and in which strength and
purity of character are irretrievably lost. Anyone
acquainted with the sights and sounds and smells of the
quarters of great cities, in which destitution is widely
prevalent— especially anyone conversant with the life-
histories of families below the "Poverty Line" — learns
to recognise a sort of moral malaria which undermines
the spiritual vitality of those subjected to its baleful
influence, and — whilst here and there a moral genius
may survive, saddened but otherwise unscathed — gradually
submerges the mass of each generation, as it grows up,
in coarseness and bestiality, apathy and cynical scepticism
of every kind. When considerable numbers of people
in such a condition are found together — still more when
they are practically segregated in "cities of the poor" —
this means that the community of which they form part
is, to that extent, diseased. It is in this sense that we are
entitled to say that destitution is a disease of society
itself.

DESTITUTION AS A DISEASE 3

Oui- country is suffering to-day from this disease to
an extent which is seldom realised. Last year more
than two millions of different persons found themselves
so unmistakably destitute that they applied for parochial
relief, and were granted it. But we know that, unfor-
tunately, a great many other persons were destitute
without coming within the circle of the Poor Law ; more
than a hundred thousand children were at school without
sufiScient food, and many hundreds of thousands suffering
from lack of medical treatment ; a hundred thousand
sick of different infectious diseases, among whom a
majority were destitute, were dealt with in the hospitals
of the Local Health Authorities ; those whose distress
from Unemployment was acute enough to lead to their
relief by the Distress Committees under the Unemployed
Workmen Act numbered (with their wives and children)
several hundred thousand ; whilst seven hundred thousand
aged persons, all outside the ranks of pauperism, proved
their inability to exist without the aid of the Old Age
Pensions that the State accorded to them. It is, unfor-
tunately, only too plain that the United Kmgdom contains,
at all times, between three .and four millions of persons,
of either sex and of all ages, who are (except in so far as
the public provision or private charity may temporarily
rescue them) demonstrably suffering in body and mind, in
physique and in character, from a lack of the necessaries
of life.

We need not assert that this state of things is peculiar
to the United Kingdom, or that it has become worse than
it was fifty or a hundred years ago. The oft-quoted statis-
tics as to a decline in the percentage of paupers to popu-
lation (from 62 per thousand in 1850 to 16 per

4 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

thousand in 1911) do not prove anything in this con-
nection, because the numbers in receipt of relief can be
(and have been) diminished by greater strictness of
administration, without in any way diminishing the amount
of destitution. Moreover, with the Local Health Authori-
ties everywhere maintaining some of the sick, the Local
Education Authorities feeding many of the children,
the Local Lunacy Authorities providing for more and
more of the mentally defective, the Local Unemplo}anent
Authorities beginnmg to deal with the able-bodied m
distress, and the Local Pensions Authorities all over the
land providmg for those over 70, it would be strange
indeed if the destitute left in the hands of the Poor Law
Authorities did not diminish ! As a matter of fact, though
the percentage of paupers to population has so greatly
diminished in the past half century, the actual numbers
reheved by the Poor Law Authorities have, in the aggregate,
varied singularly little from decade to decade. The
number actually relieved in the course of a year was over
two millions in 1840, and it was over two millions m
1910. The fact that, in the meantime, the more prosperous
sections of the community have more than doubled m
numbers, and more than quadrupled their income and
their capital wealth, leaving this mass of two milHons of
paupers-really between three and four milhons of
destitute persons-undiminished on our hands, does not
seem to us to lessen either the gravity of the problem or
our own social responsibility.

As a matter of fact, it is possible, by careful observa-
tion of all the evidence, to draw the inference that the
actual as well as the relative extent of the disease m om-
society is less than it was one or two generations ago.

DESTITUTION AS A DISEASE

5

The dept b_of_Jlieji£a.titiitiQri is^-iia-^eat as it was when
Lord Shaftesbury began his work, but the area of the
misery is apparently less_,(as, indeed, it ought to be with
all the agencies that are at work), and the outlook for
further improvement far more hopeful. The urgency of
the question to-day arises, not from any sense that things
are getting worse, but because our standards are, in all
matters of social organisation, becoming steadily higher.
First, we have no longer the excuse of ignorance of the
facts or ignorance of how the evil can be remedied. A
whole centmy of experience, and the teachings of science
now at our disposal, make it plain that the disease of
destitution from which our society is suffering is in no
wise inevitable ; it continues merely because we do not
choose to prevent it. At the same time the advance of
knowledge enables all (except those who refuse to learn)
to understand by what steps we can prevent it. The
problem of destitution has, in fact, now become manage-
able ; we have both the knowledge and the power to cope
with it, as we have coped with cholera and typhus, highway
robbery and the slave trade, if only we have the will.
The second ground of urgency may help us to the will.
For our growing consciousness of the stress of international
competition is remmding us that, unless we do take the
necessary steps to rid our society of this disease, we shall
fall still more behind, and eventually succumb before
younger and healthier and more energetic rivals. And
there is a third ground of urgency. The destitute them-
selves, and the manual working-classes next above
them to whom destitution is on their relative comfort
a black shadow into which they may any day pass, now
possess votes, and are steadily acquking political power ;

6 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

so tliat the governing classes find themselves more and
more pressed to grapple with the problem, on pain of
seeing the task taken out of then- hands, to fall, perhaps,
into those of men who may be tempted to deal with it
less in the real and highest mterests of the community
as a whole and in the long run, than for the immediate
material benefit of the sufferers themselves.

To prevent the occurrence of destitution we must,
it is clear, first ascertain its causes and then arrest their
operation. Now, if we examine the two millio ns of sepa rate
persons who got parochial relief in the course of^a&t
y'ear,"or the one or two millions more who were in want
"^ome of the necessaries of life without coming within
the circle of the Poor Law, we shall find that theh desti-
tution had no one antecedent ui common. We are all of us
apt to think of the destitute as if they were all sturdy
beggars, probably vagrants, pretending that they are
unable to find work ! But if any Poor Law Guardian or
Town Councillor will give hhnself the trouble of mentally
surveymg the destitute in his own town— the group
of widows applying for parochial relief, the patients on
their way to the municipal hospital or the Poor Law
Infirmary, the men or women of all ages who are being
certified for admission to the County Asylum, the person
found drunk or dying on the road and brought in by the
Police, the school children reported as underfed or m
need of medical treatment, the little crowd of weedy,
unhealthy, and apathetic men loungmg idly outside the
Labour Exchange, or clamorously applying to the
Distress Committee-he will realise that at least the
immediate causes of theii' condition are as diverse as
their needs. As a matter of fact, we find five well-trodden

DESTITUTION AS A DISEASE 1

paths along one or other of which the vast majority —
we might almost say all — of the three or four millions
have gone down into the morass of destitution. At least
one-thii'd of them are sick or prematurely broken down
in strength, and would not be destitute but for their
sickness or infirmity. Then we have the army of widows
with young children on their hands, who have been
suddenly plunged into destitution by the premature
death of the breadwinner. Of the total, indeed, one-
third are infants and childxen, who are destitute not on
account of any characteristic of their own, but merely
because their parents are dead, or for one reason or other
unable or unwilling to fulfil their parental obligations.
A large contingent have fallen into destitution merely
as the result of the in£rmities of old age ; whilst another
large contingent are in the same condition plainly because
[| of their imbecility, lunacy, or congenital feeble-mindedness.
Finally, we have to recognise the able-bodied person whose
destitution comes obviously from his prolonged inability
—it may be incapacity or unwillingness — to find sufficient
employment at a sufficient rate of pay to provide him and
his dependents with the necessaries of life. All these roads
run in and out of each other, creating what we may ac-
curately describe as a vicious circle round about the
morass of destitution— parents are led more and more to
neglect their children's needs if they have neither work
nor wages ; it is the neglected child which becomes the
"Unemployable" man; the quite unnecessary, prevent-
able sickness to which the wage-earners are now exposed
withdraws even the skilled industrious worker from his
job, or deprives the wife and children of their breadwinner;
whilst mental defectiveness complicates the problem by a

8 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

subtle deterioration of the population as a whole. And the
four millions in the morass are not permanently the same
individuals. Some, let us hope, escape and rise, to reach
again the firm ground of adequate self-support. Many—
possibly 4 or 5 per cent.— die in the course of a year.
Yet the total remains at pretty nearly the same figure.
It is plain, therefore, that there is a constant recruitment.
Every year sees two or three hundred thousand separate^
individuals— perhaps more— pressed down into the morass
"of destitution, along one or other of these roads, for the
''first time7ThlB, it is clear, is what we have to prevent.
This, it is clear, we cannot prevent completely, or even
effectively at all, by dealing with any one only of the
five demonstrable causes of destitution, unless we deal

with the other four.

To this conception of destitution as a diseased con-
dition of part of the body politic, arismg directly from
one or other well-defined cause, each of which can be
accurately observed and treated, we have the objection
that all these proximate antecedents of destitution are
themselves only the varied symptoms of a single under-
lying" cause. There are those who hold— along with
Professor Bernard Bosanquet and the CouncU of the
Charity Organisation Society of London— that destitution
in all its forms is invariably associated with a defective
" citizen-character," a " failure " in the person who is
destitute. There are those who hold— along with Pro-
fessor Devine, who is the Secretary of the Charity Organi-
sation Society of New York— that practical experience
among the poor demonstrates that the destitution of
/great "cities is, in all its manifestations, essentiaUy the
(result of the bad economic conditions to which the

DESTITUTION AS A DISEASE

9

individual is subjected. And among those who attribute
all forms of destitution to personal " failm^e " there are the
Eugenists, who ascribe this deficiency of the individual
to a descent from a bad stock ; and the Educationalists,
who ascribe it, to defective nurtm^e. These abstract
controversies, which dehghted the Early Victorians, are,
we venture to thinlc, amid the concrete scientific methods
of twentieth century administration, somewhat belated.
No Medical Officer of Health, considering the destitute
sick within his jurisdiction, troubles to dispute the general
contention of any one of these controversialists. He
accepts, as demonstrated, that sickness is the product
alilie of bad constitution and bad environment, of heredity
and defective nurture. The official of the Labour Exchange
equally recognises that unemployment and under-employ-
ment sometimes result from congenital feeble-mindedness,
sometimes from shortcomings in physique, in training,
or in character, and sometimes from dislocations, de-
pressions, or fluctuations of trade. The problem before
these practical administrators, as before the legislator,
is not to determine the exact relative importance of these
various generalised factors, either m the individual case
or m the mass— which is impossible— but to discover
some practical measures of reform which will reduce
the sickness and prevent the unemployment. With this
end they will keep in view at all times the need for
stimulathag personal character, eliminating bad parentage,
improving nurture and ameliorating the environment ;
but their measm^es will deal with the sickness, the feeble-
mmdedness, the child neglect, or the unemployment
themselves.

Objections more difficult to satisfy, because less

10 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

philosophical in their attitude of mind, are the multitude
of discordant but clamorous voices, each one urging that
destitution (like all other social ills) is due, not merely to
faulty environment in general, but to one particular
dislocation of the modern state, which needs only to be
put right for all to be well. Among these we find the
fanatical Free Trader or Tariff Reformer, attributing
all forms of destitution to the presence or absence of
customs duties ; the teetotaller to the existence of alcoholic
drink ; the " Single Taxer " to the lack of a tax on site
values ; the Trade Unionist or Co-operator to the absence
of combination among all workers, or of " co-partnership "
between capital and labour ; whilst the member of the
Social Democratic Party prides himself in taking the
widest sweep of all, and on refusing to regard any form
of destitution as anything but the product of the divorce
of the worker from the ownership of the instruments of
production. We fear that neither the Medical Officer of
Health nor the official of the Labour Exchange can
intellectually accept all these contentions together, as he
quite well can those that we before mentioned ; but he
may fairly beg his objectors to " wait and see." They
may find, when they come to close quarters with the
practical issues in each department of the prevention of
destitution, that the measm-es to which science and
experience alil^e point in each case, are not mconsistent
with any of the particular social reconstructions of society
in which they severally put theh trust. It may even be
—assuming, with each in turn, that his particular social
faith is justified— that they will all discover that the
putting of it successfully into practice is dependent on
its including the necessary machinery for preventmg

DESTITUTIONj AS A DISEASE 11

sickness, controlling the precfeation of the mentally-
defective, enforcing parental responsibility so as to pre-
serve all children from neglect, and, finally, taking care
that the supply of specific human services is in each
locality, and at all times adjusted to the demand for
them. *

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I

Notes and References

Page 1. We are driven to use the word "destitution" for liick of any
better equivalent. We may quote Professor Huxley upon its meaning:
"When the price of labour sinks below a certain point, the worker infallibly
falls into that condition which the French emphatically call la misere—a
word for which I do not think there is any exact English equivalent. It is a
condition in which food, warmth and clothing, v,'hich are nee-essaryfor the mere
maintenance of the functions of the body in their normal state, cannot be
obtained ; in which men, women and children are forced to crowd into dens
where decency is abolished, and the most ordinary conditions of healthful
existence are impossible of attainment ; in which the pleasures within reach
are reduced to brutality and drunkenness; in which the pains accumulate
at compound interest in the shape of starvation, disease, stunted develop-
ment and moral degradation; in which the prospect of even steady and
honest industry is a life of unsuccessful battling with hunger, rounded by
a pauper's grave. I take it to be a mere plain truth that throughout
industrial Europe there is not a single large mamifacturing city which is
free from a large mass of people whose condition is exactly that described,
and from a still greater mass, who, living just on the edge of this social
swamp, are liable to be precipitated into it."

The official Poor Law definition of "destitution" may conveniently be
given here. " Destitution," deposed the Legal Adviser of the Local Govern-
ment Board before the Poor Law Commission, " when used to describe the
coadition of a person as a subject for relief, implies that he is for the time
bein'- without material resources (i) directly available, and (u) appropriate
for s°atisfying his physical needs whether (o) actually existing or (b) likely
to arise immediately. By physical needs in this definition are meant such
needs as must be satisfied (i) in order to maintain life or (u) m order to
obviate mitigate, or remove causes endangering life, or likely to endanger
life, or' impair health, or bodily fitness for self-support" (Evidence of Mr.

Adrian, Q. 973). . . * j t. iqo-

" Destitution," declared the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor, 189o,
" mi-^ht be taken in practice to mean a want of the reasonable necessaries
of life such as food, lodging, warmth, clothing, and medical attendance
according to the normal standard of the times" (Report, p. xlvi).

It may be worth while to compare, with these definitions, the actual
economic requirements of the lowest grade of labour, as stated by our
foremost authority : " The necessaries for the eflnciency of an ordinary
agricultural or of an unskilled town labourer and his family in England m
this generation, may be said to consist of a well-drained dwelling with
several rooms, warm clothing, with some changes of underclothing pure
water, a plentiful supply of cereal food, with a moderate allowance of meat
and milk, and a little tea. etc., some education and some recreation, and
lastly sufficient freedom for his wife from other work to perform properly
her maternal and her houseliold duties. If in any district unskilled labour

DESTITUTION AS A DISEASE

13

is deprived of any of these things its efficiency will suffer in the same way
as that of a horse that is not properly tended or a steam engine that has
an inadequate supply of coals. All consumi^tion i\p to this limit is strictly
productive consumption, any stinting of this consumption is not economical,
but wasteful " (Dr. Alfred Marshall, late Professor of Political Economy at
Cambridge University, in Principles of Economics).

Page 2. With regard to the condition of the most destitute stratum of
the population, the student should consiilt not only the works of the Eight
Hon. Charles Booth (Life and Labour of the People in London (3892-1903),
etc.) and Mr. B. Seebohm Kowntree {Poverty), being a corresponding study
of York (1901), but also General Booth's In Darkest England (1890); the
Report on the Physical Condition of 1,400 School Children in Edinburgh
(1907), the monographs that have been prepared on social conditions in
Cambridge (by E. Jebb, now Mrs. Wilkins) ; West Ham (by. M. M. Howarth
and Moua Wilson) ; Norvfich (by A. Hawkins) ; At the Works, by Lady Bell
(1907), being a description of Middlesbrough; and for rural conditions.
Life in an English Village, by Miss Maud Davies (1909). See also The
Wastage of Cliild Life as exemplified by .conditions in Lancashire, by Dr.
J. Johnson (Fifield, 1909); and Report on the Housing and Industrial Con-
ditions and Medical Inspection of School Children in Dundee (Dundee Social
Union, 1908).

Page 2. The "Poverty Line" is the level of income necessary for the
bare sustenance of the worker and a normal family, under existing urban
conditions. For a description of the method of calculation, and a discussion
of its value, see Poverty, by B. Seebohm Rowntree (Macmillan), the well-
known statistical survey of the social conditions of the workers in York
The relation of this line to that taken for London in Life and Labour of
the People, by the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth is disucussed in Professor
Macgregor's article, " Poverty Figures," in Economic Journal for December,

Page 3. The best and most easily accessible statistics of pauperism are
0 be found m the Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission. 1909
(Part 11.. pp. 30-78 of official 8vo edition). These deal, however, only with
England and Wales. For Scotland and Ireland, see the Annual Reports of
the Local Government Boards for Scotland and Ireland respectively The
Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission (the official 8vo edition) gives
exact statistics for the whole United Kingdom under each head.

Page 8. With regard to Professor Bernard Bosauquet's views, the
reader may be referred to an able article on "The Majority Report fof the
Poor Law Commission] " in the Sociological Revieiv for April, 1909 "The
Majority he says " proceed upon the principle that where there is a
failure of social self-maintenance in the sense above defined, there is a
.1' fW ?r " ^liaracter. or at least a grave danger to its integrity;

and that therefore every case of this kind raises a problem which is
moral m the sense of affecting the whole capacity of self-management,
to begin with m the person who has failed, and secondarily, in the whole

'° i'^fl"«"ced by expectation and example" (pp 114-5)

thl EuInfcTl ioMov^ir.^ statement by a Committee of

the Eugenics Education Society :-" The experience of the Committee is
quite clear that the paupers whom they have seen and examined individually
are characterised by some obvious vice or defect such as drunkenness theft
persisten laziness, a tubercular diathesis, mental deficiency, de berate
moral obliquity, or general weakness of character, manifested by 2
initiative, or energy, or stamina, and an inclination to attribute ^heir

14 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

misfortune to their own too great generosity or too great goodness, and
generally to bad luck" (Eugenics Review, Vol. IT., No. 3, pp. 187-8).

It would scarcely be inferred from this statement that o ne-third of all the
£aupers are sick, one-third children, and one-ciuarte FT either "wiaPTys
encumbered by young families, or certified lunatics ! TheaauTE, "aT51e-
' bodied, lieaKhy men, to whom alone the statement applies, number fewer
than 2 per cent, of the total. The 98 per cent, are left out of sight!

The whole argument of Professor Bosanquet, and of the school of thought
which he represents, is subjected to analysis in The Minority Report for
Scotland, which has been separately published by the Scottish National
Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, 180, Hope Street, Glasgow
(price 6d.).

Page 8. The views of Professor E. T. Devine, of the New York Charity
Organisation Society, will be found in his Misery and its Causes (Mac-
millan : 1909), a remarkable book in which the outcome of the experience
of the New" York C.O.S. is presented, with many illustrative cases. Professor
Devine uses the word " misery " (the French la mis'ere) to signify what we
term " destitution." " The question that I raise," he states, " is whether
the wretched poor, the poor who suffer in their poverty, are poor because
they are shiftless, because they are undisciplined, because they drink,
because they steal, because they have superfluous children, because of
personal depravity, personal inclination, and natural preference; or
whether they are shiftless and undisciplined and drink and steal and are
unable to care for their too numerous children because our social institu-
tions and economic arrangements are at fault. I hold that personal
depravity is as foreign to any sound theory of the hardships of our modern
poor as witchcraft or demoniacal possession ; that these hardships are
economic, social, transitional, measurable, manageable. Misery [destitution],
as we say of tuberculosis, is communicable, curable, and preventable. It
lies not in the unalterable nature of things, but in our particular human
institutions, our social arrangements, our tenements and streets and sub-
ways, our laws and courts and jails, our religion, our education, our
philanthropy, our politics, our industry, and our business" (p. 11).

Page 11. Besides the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission
(popular edition, 2 vols., 2s. ; Index, Is.), and the works already cited, the
reader may be referred to the threepenny pamphlet, entitled Destitution :
can we end it? by the Rev. Henry Carter (Wesleyan Methodist '^nion for
Social Service; J. J. Stark, Ashmead, Orleans Road, Upper Norwood, S.E ),
which affords a convenient summary of the present situation, aud of the
proposals of the Minority Report, with references to statistical and other
authorities.

\

1

II

Hoiv to Prevent the Destitution that Arises from Sickness

We are apt to forget that, in all countries, at all ages,
it is siclmess to which the greatest bulk of destitution
is immediately due. From "plague, pestilence, and
famme " — and every famine is combined with illness —
men have at all times specially prayed to be delivered.
In past times whole provinces and kingdoms have been
reduced to abject misery from want of the necessaries
of life owmg to catastrophic waves of disease, of which
the Black Death of the fourteenth century is only the
most commonly remembered. Less dramatic, but perhaps
even more insidiously devastatmg, must have been the
gradual spread of malarial fever to which, as we now
suppose, the sinkmg into chronic destitution of the once-
prosperous populations of the Greek towns, the Roman
Campagna and the Calabrian coast was mamly due.
It is scarcely too much to say that three-fourths of the
mhabitants of the modern state have been, ahnost within
a single century, rescued from a very real liability to
chronic ill-health by the advance of sanitary science, by
medical and surgical discoveries, by improvements in
personal hygiene, and by all the elaborate public ad-
ministration which— though we usually forget the fact-
alone makes it possible for even the rich to live healthily

16 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

amid a crowded urban population. We take all this
improvement for granted as perhaps the greatest triumph
of the nineteenth century. What we forget is that some-
thing like one-fourth of the whole population are still
practically excluded from most of its benefits. It is a
significant fact that the average duration of life of
the whole class of casual labourers " throughout the
kingdom is only about half that of the whole class of
clergymen. The death-rate of the whole Borough of
Hampstead, rich and poor together, is less than one-
third of that prevailing throughout certain extensive
slum quarters within a mile of it. There are, in fact,
in every great urban aggregation, whole grades of the
population — sometimes even whole quarters of the city
— which are, as regards the prevalence of Hi-health
and disease, if not also as regards the death-rate,
still living in the Middle Ages. It is from this one-fourth
of the population that the three or four millions of destitute
persons in the United Kingdom, both inside the Poor
Law and outside it, are almost entu:ely recruited. And
with regard to at least one-third of these— we might
almost say one-half— the recruiting sergeant who brings
them in is Sickness, the sickness that, so far as concerns
three-quarters of the population, we have proved to be
preventable.

This grim fact, mechanically revealed by the statistics,
is read in terms of human suffering by every social worker
among the urban poor. Anyone living or moving among
the lower grades of the wage-earners— among, that is
to say, that one-fourth of the whole population to which
we have referred— becomes only too painfully aware of
the perpetual lack of health, and frequent disabling

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS

sickness all around him. He sees infants and children,
men and women, alike suffering from what seems to be
an unending round of ailments of one sort or another. In
every such family, now in one and now in another of its
members, sores, indigestion, headaches, rheumatism,
bronchitis, and bodily pains alternate ahnost unceasingly,
to be periodically broken into by serious disease, and
cut short by premature death. The excessive death-rate
among the poorest strata of the population has its direct
result in greatly increasing the destitution connected
with widowhood and orphanage, besides helping to make
funeral expenses so much heavier a tax on the poor than
on the rich. Yet the great cause of destitution is not
death itself, but sickness. Any doctor who stops to think
can tell us that the actual loss of wages through ill-health
in the wage-earning class must run into many millions
sterling every year— certainly a hundred times as much
as the loss by strikes and lock-outs. What is more serious
IS that it is just among the poorest section of the wage-
earners that this loss of earnings through ill-health is
greatest, not only because the casual labourers and the
sweated home-workers have most ill-health, but also
because, in the absence of those more humane arrange-
ments which are enjoyed by clerks, by domestic servants,
and sometimes by workmen employed at weekly or
monthly rates, it is just among the poorest section that
a day's absence from work most invariably means the
loss of a day's wages. To the ten or twelve miUions of
thepopulation existing in the United Kingdom on earnings
of less than a pound a week for the whole family, "the
constant drain of sickness is a perpetual menace to their
economic independence. Let the sickness rise above

18 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the normal, and down goes the family into the morass of
destitution. ,

The indirect losses and expenses through sickness in
the poorest strata of the population are probably as great
as the mere shortages in their earnings. What the com-
munity loses through sickness, in the mere cessation from
production of all its members for so many days in each
year, runs into many millions of pounds. Even one
day's sickness suffered by every active member of the
community, reducing us all in turn to incapacity for
production, must mean a duninution of the aggregate
annual product by some six million pounds. More serious
than all the pecuniary loss by sickness is, however, its
" moral and intellectual damage." The lowering of the
standard of effort before and after siclmess, and the
sluggish apathy that accompanies it, means, in the poorest
class, that infants and children go untended, husbands
and wives alike are neglected, the public-house offers
increased temptations, the ability to resist all the insidious
approaches to degradation is diminished, and the lapse
into idleness, begging, and every kind of parasitism
becomes, in many cases, virtually inevitable.

The most obvious and the most effective way of
preventmg the destitution that sickness causes, is
to prevent the sickness itself. Now, without for a
moment dreaming that all sickness can be prevented,
it is demonstrable that a great deal of it can be.
We no longer believe that disease is " the act of God,"
in the sense of being mevitable. We know, in fact,
that, in the course of the past century, we have been
able, by takmg thought, to prevent a large part of the
sickness that used to prevail, and (as regards the more

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS

prosperous classes) actually to get rid of some diseases
altogether. We have accomplished this by various con-
verging methods. We have, to begin with, sought to
remove from our environment all influences noxious to
health ; we have constructed elaborate drainage systems,
discarded overcrowded rooms and insanitary dwellings,
and protected ourselves, by isolation and segregation,
filtration and antiseptic purification, from the germs to
which we now believe most diseases to be due. We have
spread abroad a knowledge of what is and what is not
conducive to health in the way of personal habits ; and,
in spite of all our cynical sarcasm about each other, there
can be no doubt that in personal hygiene we are mostly
far in advance of our fathers. And we have taken to
heart the lesson that, whether for phthisis or for cancer,
for measles or for rheumatism, for enteric fever or for
pneumonia, any aid that the surgeon or physician can
afford will be enormously more effective, and will give
by far the greatest chance of success in staving off in-
validity, and in producing recovery, if it is brought to
bear at the earliest moment, when the aihnent that
we have recognised is in its most incipient stage. It
is m this way that we have, so far as regards three-
fourths of the population, practicaUy eliminated typhus,
greatly diminished phthisis and enteric, and enormously
reduced the mortality of those infants and children on
whom personal care can be lavished.

Unfortunately, we have, so far, only very imperfectly
brought to bear on the sickness that prevafls among
the one-fourth of the population from which the destitute
are recruited, anything like the amount of preventive
mfluences that we have brought to bear on the sickness

20 THE PREVENTION OE DESTITUTION

that used to prevail among the more prosperous three-
quarters of the population. Let us take, to begin with,
the work of the Public Health Authorities, to which we
owe so much. What they have so far given us, in the
main, is a sanitary service common to rich and poor ; in
fact, practically uniform throughout the city. But this
means that the prosperous classes get all that they need,
whilst the indigent quarter goes short. The wealthy house-
holder needed a main drainage system, the paving,
cleansing, and lighting of the streets, and a good water
supply, almost as much as the slum dweller; but he
needed in this department nothing more, and too often
nothing more has been done. Even the parks, the
libraries, the museums, the art galleries, or the tramways,
that our progressive municipalities are providing at the
cost of all alike, mainly profit those above the " Poverty
Line." To the slum dweller, the condition of the house
drainage, the character of the water-closet accommoda-
tion, the laying-on of water to every tenement, the state
of the cisterns, the arrangements for removal of garbage,
the position of the ashpit, the paving of the backyard,
the ventilation, dryness, and sunniness of each tenement,
the extent to which it is aUowed to be overcrowded, its
periodical cleansing and disinfection, the internal pro-
vision for washing clothes, storing food, cookhig meals,
and bathing the children, and a hundred other things
of that sort, are as important in maintaining health as
a street improvement or a main drainage system. Ex:cept
in a few localities and with regard to one or other of these
points, the Public Health Authority has so far not taken
care that as much shall be done for the sanitary envuron-
ment of the slum dweller as for that of the vHla resident,

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS

relatively to the particular needs of the well-to-do and of
the poor. And in this respect the country is often as
backward as the town, and even less conscious of the
fact. In many a working-class village, inhabited only
by coal mmers, fishermen, quarrymen or labourers, even
the main drainage and the water supply are still lacking.
Even in the Telatively well-administered towns there js
stilTajtendency to do only those things that are universally
required, by rich and poor alike, and to d-O.them uniformly
all round. If we really want to prevent disease among
the poor to the same extent as among the rich, we need,
not an equal expenditure on the Public Health service
throughout the whole city, but a much greater expendi-
ture (for improved dwellings, the prevention of over-
crowding and other nuisances, baths and wash-houses,
recreation grounds, hospital accommodation, and so on)
on the needs of the poorer classes than on services which
add convenience or amenity to the life of the ordinary
citizen. The first measure to be taken for the prevention
of the destitution that arises from sickness is accordingly
both a " levellmg-up " of existing Public Health ad-
nunistration, so that the backward districts are brought
into Ime with the most active, and a great stride onward,
even of the most active, in the preventive sanitation of
the tenement and the cottage.

Passing from the environment to personal hygiene,
we see the same disparity between what is done, from
mfancy upwards, to produce a healthy habit of life among
the comparatively comfortable classes and among those
who are poor or destitute. The human bemg does not
spontaneously, as of grace, lead a hygienic life. We all
have to be taught how to live in such a way as to avoid

22 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

disease. Many of those who are rich fail to learn this
lesson ; but to those who are born in the poorest section
of the population it is not even taught. Every Medical
Officer of Health is keenly conscious that, without a much
more highly organised system of hygienic instruction
among the poor, in one way or another, the most improved
model dwellings will have their windows kept shut and
the ventilators stopped up, the baths will be filled with
rags and refuse, the drains will be choked, the children
will be kept up till midnight, the babies will be fed on tea
and bread, and the whole family will dose itself with
patent medicines. These acquired characteristics are not
inherent in the poor. They amount in effect, to an evil
heritage, that we allow to be handed on from parent to
child, because we do not counteract it by any systematic
instruction ; and that we accordingly permit, by its
insidious influence on health and character, to produce
the entirely preventable sickness that drags generation
after generation down mto destitution.

To prevent all this preventable ill-health we must, it
is clear, take care, not merely that the envKonment is
made decent, but also that the poorest are as effectively
taught how to live as those who are pecuniarily better off.
And, in order to begin with the infants, we must see to
it that the mothers are no longer left in ignorance. Some-
thing more may be achieved in the elementary school
than is at present common, to teach the girl ; but with
a school-leaving age of 13 or 14 this will not take us very
far. The best time to bring the instruction to bear is
when the young mother has her first baby. How much
may be effected by systematically hnparting such in-
struction has been demonstrated at Huddersfield and

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 23

elsewhere. We now know, in fact, exactly how neglect
among mothers and disease among infants may be pre-
vented. To organise a system of Health Visiting, by a
trained band of volimteers, so that each mother is seen
and advised how to take care of her infant ; to provide
a " Milk Dispensary," where pure milk, in clean bottles,
is sold and the babies are periodically weighed and looked
at ; to establish a " School for Mothers," where willing
women learn how further to provide for their little ones ;
to have every infant in this way, from birth to school
age, under the watchful care of the Medical Officer of
Health, is— without compulsion, without any but the
smallest addition to the paid municipal staff, and without
appreciable expense to the rates— to reduce the infantile
death-rate by something like one-third; to check the
ravages of the two most fatal of all diseases, measles and
whooping cough ; to prevent the enfeebling or injuring
of those babies who survive ; and to establish, in the
town, a good and worthy standard and tradition of
motherhood. Yet only in a few towns in the United
Kingdom is anything of the kind even attempted.

When the infant is enroUed at the public elementary
school, at the age of 3 or 5, it passes into the supervision
of the Local Education Authority, from which we may
demand that, in theh- 8 or 10 years' stay, the boy and girl
should be taught habits of personal cleanliness, accus-
tomed to regular hours and good ventHation, and made
conscious of the advantages of fresh air, careful diet, and
physical exercise. But, for the most part, we must rely
for the opportunity of effective hygienic instruction of
the adolescent and the adult on getting him under super-
vision and instruction whenever he begins to suffer from

24 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

some ailment — ^from toothaclie to the cough of incipient
phthisis. And this is why the earliest treatment of every
case, and the fullest development of " after care " —
desirable for cure and essential for prevention — are,
from the standpoint of hygienic instruction, simply
indispensable.

This brings us to the question of the medical treat-
ment available for the sick poor, a question very fully
discussed in the Minority Eeport of the Poor Law Com-
mission, and in our book " The State and the Doctor."
We may be as sceptical as we please as to the doctor's
power to cure all diseases ; but the well-to-do, when they
are ill, act on the assumption that the intervention of
the medical man is of some avaU, with an apparently
satisfactory effect on the sickness-rate and death-rate
of this class. Among the very poor, " the number of
cases of sickness — even of dangerous infective disease —
that go entirely without medical attendance of any sort
private or public, is," we are told, " demonstrably enor- •
mous. The proportion of uncertified deaths, indicating
a total lack of any sort of medical attendance, even in
the most advanced stages of diseases, amounts," as the
Registrar-General warns us, " in certain towns in England
to 4 or 5 per cent. ; in certain counties in Scotland, to
20 and even 30 per cent.; in some islands, to as many
as 60 or 70 per cent. But to the community it is of less
importance that people should die without medical atten-
dance than that they should live without it. What is above
all deplorable is the enormous amount of incipient disease
that exists, undiscovered, untreated, and unchecked,"
among the whole manual working-class. " The married
woman, left without medical or even midwifery attendance

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 25

at her first childbirth, is not infrequently injured for
life, both as mother and as industrial worker. The young
artisan, with the seeds of tuberculosis in him, goes on,
for lack of medical inspection and advice, in habits of life
which presently bring him, too late to be cured — after,
perhaps, he has infected a whole' family — ^to the sick
ward of the workhouse." With regard to phthisis, indeed,
"which in itself alone produces one-seventh of all our:
pauperism, and the greatest of all the deductions fromv
the adult working life of the people," we have the fact
that, although it can very frequently be permanently
cured, if taken in hand thoroughly at the earliest stage,
it " is at the present time, among the whole wage-earnuig
class, hardly ever properly treated until its ravages have
advanced too far to be curable." "This neglect of early
treatment is," remarks the Medical Investigator of the
Poor Law Commission, " all the more grave in that, in
tuberculosis, andy as we are beginning to suspect, in many
other cases, it means neglect of precautions against the.
spread of the disease to others."

It is thus plain that a vast amount of sickness among
the very poor could be prevented, and a great deal of it
more quickly and effectively cured, if only we could ensure
that medical treatment were brought to bear, in every
case, at the earliest possible moment, in the most incipient
stage of the disease ; and if the appropriate " after care " .
were afforded to prevent a recurrence. Along with this
treatment would naturally go hygienic mstruction and
advice, on which we are beginning to rely more than on
the bottle of medicine. Nor is this only an unsupported
hypothesis. Exactly this plan of easily accessible medical
treatment for every case, encouragement of the earliest

26 TIIE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

possible application, so as to get at disease in its incipient
stage, and the invariable use of every such opportunity
for giving hygienic advice has now been tried for ten years
in the British Army, with the results on the health and
habits (and also on the moral character) of the soldiers
that can only be described as extraordinary. Not only
has the diminution in the sickness-rate and the invalidity-
rate been most marked, but also the spread of hygienic
personal habits (including the disuse of alcoholic drinks)
has been so great as to have changed the whole character
of the men. Unfortunately, we have so arranged matters
outside the Army that the poorest section of the com-
munity, from whom the destitute are mainly recruited,
must very often go without either effective medical
treatment or hygienic advice. Where they can pay
for a medical attendant at all, they get only the " lightnmg
diagnosis " and the " bottle of medicine " of the " six-
penny doctor." It is true that, in London, and a few
other towns (but not elsewhere), the working-classes
resort to the out-patients' departments of the voluntary
hospitals, in many cases, we fear, without getting anything
much more effective. We should hardly presume to give
this merely as our own opinion. "As a matter of well-
known fact," testified a medical practitioner of experience
to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law, " the out-
patient department is so crowded that the work has to
be done in a sHpshod fashion, and unless the case happens
to be an ' interesting ' one the patient is put off with the
stereotyped ' How are you to-day V 'Put out your
tongue ' ; 'Go on with your medicine.' No one who
knows the system can blame the Infirmary doctors, as
they are notoriously overworked. Many people go there

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 27

who could well afford to pay for outside advice, and whose
complaints are of the most trivial character. The con-
sequence is that cases which really require time and con-
sideration frequently fail to get it from the overworked
house-surgeon or physician." However profitable may
be the out-patients' department in attracting the sub-
scriptions of the benevolent ; however convenient it may
be as a means by which the hospital can pick out
interesting " cases which are wanted inside ; and however
genuinely useful it may be as a preliminary diagnosis
which promptly sifts out and admits the cases requiring
institutional treatment, we are bound to conclude that,
to a large proportion of the patients dealt with, it is,
so far as any preventive or really curative effect is con-
cerned, little better than a delusion. It is, indeed,
dijB&cult to take seriously, in the twentieth century, as
an organisation professing to treat disease, the typical
arrangement under which an overworked and harassed
house-surgeon gives a few minutes each to a continuous
stream of the most varied patients ; without knowledge
of their diet, habits, or diathesis ; without any but the
most perfunctory examination of the most obvious bodily
symptoms ; without even the slightest " interrogation of
the functions " ; and without any attempt at domiciliary
inspection and visitation. " At present," summed up
one experienced medical practitioner, " the out-patient
department of the voluntary hospital is to a great extent
a shop for giving people large quantities of medicine."

As an alternative to the out-patients' department,
there is, for the absolutely destitute, the medical service
of the Poor Law. We wish to say nothing in criticism
of the four thousand Poor Law doctors, of whose services

28 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

— underpaid, unappreciated, and actually discouraged as
they are by the non-medical Authority to which they
belong — we have elsewhere rendered ungrudging praise.
But by the very nature of a Poor Law Medical Service,
this medical attendance is practically never available
at the incipient stage of the illness, when it would be of
most use. The patient cannot claim from the Poor Law
even medical aid until he can convince the Relieving
Officer that he is technically destitute ; and this means,
in practice, until the disease has progressed so far that the
sufEerer has become too ill to go to his employment. Thus,
the Poor Law doctor (as several of them told the Poor
Law Commission) practically never sees a case of phthisis
until it is too far gone to be curable— just as he must
cease to attend, even for hygienic advice, as soon as the
patient can get back to employment. He cannot inter-
vene until destitution has set in, or after it has ceased.
Yet, just at the crisis of destitution, preventive measures
are almost always impossible, hygienic instruction is at
a discount, " after-care " is out of the question, and even
•any rapid or effective cure is far from hopeful. What the
Poor Law Medical Service gives— what it was instituted
iQ give— is, in fact, characteristically entitled "Medical
Eelief." It "relieves" the chronic cases, but so long
as it forms part of a necessarily " deterrent " Poor
Law it is helpless to prevent the occurrence of sickness-
it neither improves the environment nor gives hygienic
instruction— whilst even its treatment of disease, belated
as it must in practice be, necessarily involves what has
been termed the " mortality of delay."

We come back, therefore, to the network of public orga-
nisation which we have abeady set up, in an experimental

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 29

and, so to speak, half-hearted way, for the very pur-
pose of preventing sickness. Eighty years ago, Edwin
Chadwick, as Secretary to the Poor Law Commissioners,
was so impressed by the failure of aU his schemes of a
reformed and deterrent Poor Law, in any way to prevent
the destitution caused by disease, that he practically
insisted on the Government creating another body — now
the Local Health Authority — to proceed upon diametrically
opposite principles. What had struck Chadwick in the
face when, full of his panacea of a deterrent work-
house, he came to deal with Bethnal Green, was that
by far the greatest single cause of urban destitution was,
not any unwillingness to work or inability to employ,
but " fever " — that fever which we now know as typhus,
and which was then killing annually more men than
perished at Waterloo, and reducing to destitution literally
hundreds of thousands of enfeebled survivors. Under
Chadwick's inspiration — reinforced, it is good to think,
by that great opponent of any Poor Law, Dr. Chahners —
the Public Health Authorities began their work of actually
preventing the destitution of disease, by changing the
environment, by searching out every case, by bringing
medical aid to bear at the earliest possible moment, by
insisting on getting in at the incipient stage whatever
the means of the patient, and by promulgating the wisest
hygienic gospel in the enforcement of a quite new personal
responsibihty for preventing the spread of disease. We
all know how the Public Health Authorities proved that
they could succeed where the Poor Law had failed. Within
a generation, so far as England and Wales were con-
cerned, t5rphus, as well as cholera, even among the poorestj
had practically ceased to be ; and all the incalculable

30 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

mass of destitution that typhus and cholera used to
cause, and which even the best regulated deterrent work-
house failed to stop, was, absolutely and in the best possible
way, prevented from occurring.

Now, the Local Health Authorities have, of course,
continued to exist, and to do good work in innumerable
ways, lessening the ravages of enteric and scarlet fever,
diminishing the prevalence of ague and consumption,
and preserving in health countless infants who would
otherwise have succumbed or survived only in an en-
feebled state. But we have never, so to speak, given the
Public Health Department its head. We have persisted
in thinking that the duty of the Local Health Authority
was really only to get good drainage and prevent nuisances ;
and to this day we do not usually realise that it is, in
England and Wales, already medically treating in its own
municipal hospitals every year more patients than all
the much-advertised voluntary hospitals put together !
We continue to think of the Medical Officer of Health
as dealing only with infectious diseases, forgetting that
the Public Health Acts empower and direct him to prevent
all diseases whatsoever, and that the 700 municipal
hospitals are in no way legally restricted as to the cases
that they may admit. In fact, we have ourselves been so
much more concerned about smallpox and scarlet fever
that we have forgotten that it is not only, or even mainly,
the infectious diseases that are the preventable diseases.
" Almost every disease," Dr. McVail expressly told the
Poor Law Commission, " can be dealt with from the
standpoint of prevention ; and whilst phthisis is specially
important, yet the early stages of disorders of all organs
of the body — heart, lungs, kidneys, digestive system.

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 31

brain, and the rest — often furnish indications for pre-
ventive measures," which, if not applied in time, involve
the community in the waste and expense of subsequent
incapacity and destitution.

Nevertheless, in spite of our habitual ignoring of the
real function of the Local Health Authority, and of a
sort of tacit conspiracy to confine it to " drains and
diphtheria," it has, in the pourse of the past quarter of
a century, so persistently grown as to have come, at
last, into conscious rivalry with the Poor Law Medical
Service. We have, in fact, at present the most comical
overlapping of functions and duplication of work between
the two rate-paid medical services. The 4,000 Poor Law
doctors, with their 700 workhouse infirmaries and sick-
wards, have to give " medical relief " to all the sick that
the Relieving Officer deems to be destitute, whatever their
diseases. The Local Health Authorities, with their 700
municipal hospitals, their 1,500 medical officers, and their
two or three thousand. Health Visitors and Sanitary
Inspectors, deal with an ever-widening circle of cases,
whether the patients are destitute or not. The one public
medical service urges patients to come in, and does its
best to search them out. The other, even when dealing
with exactly the same class of patients, suffering from the
same diseases, seeks to " deter " them from applying,
and subjects them to social unpleasantness when they
do apply. In some towns, a penurious Local Health
Authority tries to shunt its responsibility for all Medical
treatment, even of infectious diseases, to the Poor Law
Authority ; and smallpox patients in the commom
lodging-houses have to be removed to the General Mixed
^9?khouse. In other towns, the Local Health Authority

32 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

treats all sorts of diseases, runs a dispensary, through its
Health Visitors acts virtually as general practitioner to a
large proportion of the infants, maintains a "school
clinic " for the boys and girls, and even (like Barry and
Widnes) puts up a municipal hospital exclusively for non-
infectious cases, or " for accidents only." Even with
regard to any particular disease, there ls the greatest
divergence of attitude. In one town the phthisical com-
positor, not yet too far gone to be cured, will, by orders
of the Local Government Board, be refused aU medical
treatment at the public expense, because he is not yet
destitute. In another town, under the same Local Govern-
ment Board, that same phthisical compositor would be
welcomed to the rate-provided sanatorium, and praised
for being wise enough to come before destitution had set
in ! And the multiplication of publicly-paid doctors does
not stop at the duplicate medical services of the Poor
Law and Public Health Departments. We have, also,
actually in the same towns, and drawing pay from the
same fund of rates and taxes, the School Doctor, the
Police Doctor, and the Eire Brigade Doctor, not always
included in the medical staff of the Borough Medical
Officer ; the " Certifying Surgeon " imder the Factory
Department of the Home Office, and another under the
Coal Mines Regulation Act ; the doctor paid by the Post-
master-General, and the one by the Marine Department
of the Board of Trade ; the " medical referee " of the
local County Court, and the local medical practitioner
retained by the Inland Revenue Department. We may,
if we take no thought, find ourselves saddled with yet
another set of State-paid doctors, appointed in coimection
with the Government Insurance schemes. It is a climax

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 33

to the irony of the situation, that with all this unco-
ordinated provision of " State doctoring," amid all the
mass of sickness that goes unprevented and imtreated,
the two diseases that are, in practice, the most contagious
and the most disastrously transmissible from parent to
child, even to the third and fourth generation — diseases
which are, up and down England to-day, creating a vast
mass of specially demoralised and demoralising destitu-
tion—are, in effect, deliberately refused all medical
treatment by public or charitable agencies, and thus
permitted to avoid all hygienic instruction, and escape
all disciplinary supervision. The man or woman suffering
from gonorrhoea or syphilis— even if the innocent victim
of another's guilt — is refused admission to the voluntary
hospital ; deterred, and as often as possible, hustled out
of the workhouse ; and, in spite of the extreme danger
to the public health, wholly unprovided for by the Local
Health Authority.

If we are really in earnest in desiring to prevent the
destitution that arises from sickness, there can hardly,
we think, be a doubt in the mind of any candid persons
as to how we should proceed. It does not require any-
thing new, still less anything that is called " Socialism."
What we have to do is merely, eighty years late, at last
to put into operation the statesmanlike proposals of Dr.
Chahners and Sir Edwin Chadwick. Instead of duplicating
local governing bodies, everywhere dealing, on diametrically
opposite principles, with different sections of the sick
poor, we ought to make, in each district, the directly-
elected Local Health Authority, uniting for this purpose
the existing medical staffs of the Poor Law and the Public
Health services, definitely responsible for the prevention

D

34 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of sickness of every Jdnd. In its crusade against all forms
of preventable disease, the Local Health Authority would
combine all its multifarious sanitary improvements of
the material environment ; all its varied preventive
devices and its " searching out " of every case of untreated
disease, so as always to bring to bear, at the incipient
stage, at any rate the offer of adequate treatment ; all
its volunteer " health visiting " and " after care " com-
mittees, its " Schools for Mothers " and " Milk Dis-
pensaries," its school medical inspection and " School
Clinics " ; all its municipal hospitals and dispensaries,
its sanatoria, and its convalescent homes. And let us
not imagine that this means any new and far-reaching in-
quisitorial powers, or the creation of a local " bureaucracy."
The fact is, few of us are at all adequately aware of the
amount of Local Government machinery that abeady
exists. It is literally true to say that the setting on foot
of such a systematic crusade against sickness as has just
been indicated does not mvolve the grant, to the proposed
Lt)cal Health Authority of the future, of any powers that
are not already possessed, with regard to one part of the
field or another, by either the Board of Guardians or the
Health Committee of the Town or District Council. At
present we hamper both the Poor Law Authority and
the Public Health Authority by their disjunction. We
give each of them the widest possible and most far-
reaching powers, but we arbitrarily lunit each authority
to a fraction of the field in such a curious way that,
at one and the same time, they are extravagantly
overlapping and suicidally leavmg much undealt with.
Nor does such a crusade involve the subjection of the
ordinary citizen, or the individual family, to any new official

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 35

" tyranny " or to any inspection or coercion from which
we are at present free. The powers, the authorities, the
institutions, the officers, are already in existence, abeady
on the rates, already at work. What we do now is to pay
for them, and suffer the inconvenience of their inspection,
etc., without getting more than a small fraction of the
benefit of their existence and functioning. By mere
consolidation, co-ordination, and quite incidental extension
of the existing statutory powers, without any novel
additions, the Local Health Authority would find itself
fully armed for the crusade.

But will the Local Health Authorities, even if so
unified and reinvigorated, put in force their powers ?
How can the elected local councillors — parsimonious,
apathetic, ignorant, or even personally interested in
abuses — be everywhere induced to take their duties
seriously, and become uniformly active in well-doing ?
Here, too, experience teaches us the answer. The Local
Health Authorities, much as they have already accom-
plished,' have hitherto fallen far short of perfection even,
in their sanitary work — some have done next to nothing,
some have put in force only this or that power, few have
attained anything like an all-round development of the
whole range afforded by the Public Health Acts — possibly
not one has done all that was legally open to it. It is
to be remembered that the Local Health Authorities have
not had cast on them the responsibility for the care of
the sick poor. Since we got rid of Sir Edwin Chadwick
they have never been guided and inspired by any definite
instructions to carry out the whole range of their potential
duties. When we, in England, have really wanted to
get Local Authorities to work uniformly up to a high

36 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

standard of efficiency we have known how to do it, by
instituting steady and persistent pressure from a specialised
Central Department and, especially, by backing up its
insistence by a substantial Grant in Aid, made conditional
on and varying according to the degree of efficiency
attained. It was by these means that, from 1856 on-
wards, the Home Office induced the Borough and County
Councils to build up a uniformly efficient provincial
constabulary. It was by the same expedients that the
Education Department, from 1870 onwards, has accom-
plished the far more difficult task of gettmg the Local
Education Authorities to provide a school-place and a
reasonably efficient elementary education for every child.
But, because neither the governing classes nor pubHc opinion
has ever seriously desired to prevent sickness, and never
sincerely believed it to be practicable, there has (with a
trifling and insignificant exception) never been any
Grant in Aid of the work of the Local Health Authorities.
There has — we may almost say consequently— never been
any systematic survey or inspection of their work.' They
are without the advantage of any central criticism or
advice. So little is made Imown about them that they
are not even afforded, to any great extent, the benefit of
mutual emulation. Thirty-two years after the last Royal
Commission that inquired into the Public Health recom-
mended the creation of a Central Department, to stimulate
and supervise the Local Authorities, we are still without
that Central Department; and the odds and ends of
Public Health work that are dealt with by the Local
Government Board are dispersed among no fewer than
five of its branches, and intermingled, in each case, with
whoUy extraneous subjects. And to make matters worse

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 37

the Local Government Board — the stepmother to which
the nation unsuspectingly entrusted its nascent develop-
ments of Public Health — is stiQ essentially the Poor Law
Board, dominated by its " Poor Law Division," with
its 1834 poHcy of "deterrence" and its growing jealousy
of the newer authorities engaged in the work of preventing
destitution. With the supersession of the Board of
Guardians, and the creation of a really effective Local
Health Authority, we must, it is clear, have a corre-
sponding abolition of the "Poor Law Division," and
a transformation of the President of the Local Government
Board mto a Minister of Health.

What might we expect from such a reorganisation
of our existing governmental authorities, and the setting
on foot of such a crusade against preventable sickness ?
We measure our words when we say that, judged from
the facts of the past and the present known to every
medical man, the adoption of such a programme as we
have sketched out would, within a very few years (i)
effect a substantial reduction in the death-rate for the
country as a whole ; (ii) still further reduce the mfantile
mortahty by at least one-third of its present amount; I
(iii) get rid of a very large proportion of our present ill-
health, and bring down with a run the percentage of
invaliding through phthisis, etc. ; (iv) diminish alcoholism
and venereal disease; and (v) consequently prevent
the recurrence of a yearly mcreasing proportion of the
destitution and demoralisation that preventable sickness !
now causes. The substantial accuracy of this prophecy ^
we do not thmk anyone will really doubt. To what extent
the unprovement could be carried it is plainly impossible
to predict. It is, of course, true that any such crusade

38 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

against siclmess (with its obvious gain in money to the
individuals benefited) would mean a certain increase in
collective expenditure, involving, however, with a quite
moderate increase in the Grants in Aid, no necessary
increase in the local rates. Presently, at any rate, it
might be expected to bring about even a diminution in
our local burdens, just as the erection of a smallpox
hospital presently reduces the annual charges of the
Public Health Department. And there is no necessity
to make the medical treatment of the Local Health
Authorities universally gratuitous. What is necessary,
if we want to prevent sickness, is that, besides improving
the environment and giving hygienic instruction, medical
treatment, including the necessary subsistence dm-ing
sickness, should be universally and immediately ob-
tainable. Any arrangement for payment, that is con-
sistent with this universality, will not be mcompatible
with the proposed crusade. We ourselves suggested, m
the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, a
combination of the promptest treatment by the Local
Health Authority with effective arrangements for Charge
and Recovery in every case in which the patient was found
able to pay. We still adhere to this proposal as the one
best calculated to prevent the indispensable provision for
every imtreated case from financially mjm'mg the private
medical practitioner. But the Chancellor of the Exchequer
has smce seen his way to a system of compulsory deductions
from wages by which practically the whole of those em-
ployed at less than £160 a year, together with many
others, will contribute, in advance, the cost of theh own
medical treatment, to be organised under the dhection
of " approved " Friendly Societies. We shall discuss in

DESTITUTION AND SICKNESS 39

a subsequent chapter the advantages and disadvantages
of insurance as a method of provision, whether for sick-
ness, or invaUdity, unemployment, or old age. But we
may say at once that, assuming that efficient medical
treatment on preventive lines is really 'provided for every case;,
whether or not caught in the insurance net, such a scheme
of compulsory sick benefit insurance is entirely consistent
with — though the insurance alone would not, in itself,
effect — the campaign of sickness prevention that we
advocate. And in our chapter on Insurance we shall
show that, without some such camp aign of preventi on,
uniting a_^ progressive improvement of the sanitary e n-
vironment with the promptest treatment..^d-.Jij£gie nid
instruction of the individual patient, any scheme of\
Compulsory Insurance will work out, not only into financial
disaster, but also, by the slowly spreading habits of
malmgering, into an msidious deterioration of personal
character ; whilst it will nevertheless fail to prevent or
provide for the destitution caused by sickness among th?
poorest and weakest sections of the community.

Another objection to our proposal — one also based
on a misapprehension — is that it would inevitably involve
the " municipalisation " of the voluntary hospitals, and
the supersession of all the various philanthropic agencies
that at present do so much to alleviate the sufferings of
the sick poor. In a subsequent chapter, on " The En-
larged Sphere of Voluntary Agencies in the Prevention
of Destitution," we shall describe how the recognition
of the responsibility of the community for preventing
all preventable sickness, and for seeing that every case
is adequately dealt with, will mvolve not only the use
of all the existing voluntary hospitals and philanthropic

40 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

agencies, in whatever way they are willing to be used,
but also an urgent call for more voluntary workers
to co-operate with the oflEicers of the Local Health
Authorities, and for additional specialised philanthropic
institutions of old kinds and of new to supplement the
necessarily " wholesale " provision of the rate-levying
bodies.

Finally, there is the objection that by deliberately
taking the steps necessary to prevent aU preventable
sickness we shall be, in soine way, undermining the personal
independence and destroying the moral character of the
people. In a subsequent chapter, on " The Moral Factor
in Destitution," we shall show that it is, on the con-
trary, only by the systematic carrying out, by duly
co-ordinated public authorities and voluntary agencies,
of the policy of prevention — that is, the enforcement on
every citizen of his personal obligations whilst simul-
taneously ensuring, with equal universality, that every
citizen shall be enabled to fulfil them — that we can stimulate
the maximum personal independence and develop to the
utmost the individual capacity of the people at large.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II

Notes and References

Page 19. The history of the Public Health Movement may be conveniently
read in English Sanitary Institutions, by Sir John Simon (Smith, Elder &
Co.), or in The Public Health Agitation, 1833-48, by Miss B. L. Hutchins
(Fifield). The work of the present day may be gathered from such books
as Public Health Problems, by J. F. Sykes (Walter Scott); The Prevention
of Tuberculosis, by A. Newsholme (Methuen); The Health of the State, by
Sir George Newman (Headley) ; Hygiene and Public Health, by B. A.
Whitelegge and Sir George Newman (Cassell) ; The Conquest of Consump-
tion, by Arthur Latham and C. H. Garland (Unwin); or the Annual
Keports of the National League for Physical Education and Improvement
(4, Tavistock Square, London).

Page 22. As to the remarkable success already achieved— all since 1905—
in the campaign against Infantile Mortality, see the Eeports of the National
Conferences on Infantile Mortality, 1906 and 1908 (P. S. King & Son) ; Infant
Mortality, by Sir George Newman (Methuen : 1906) ; Infantile Mortality and
Infants' Milk Depots, by G. E. McCleary (P. S. King & Son : 1905) ; Infancy,
by T. N. Kelynack ; and the Report on Infant Mortality of the Chief Medical
Officer of the Local Government Board (Dr. A. Newsholme).

Page 23. As to "Schools for Mothers "—sometimes called "Babies'
Welcome," " Infant Consultations," etc.— see The School for Mothers, with
introduction by Sir Thomas Barlow; and the Annual Reports of those at
St. Pancras, Sheffield, Bermondsey, Birmingham, Nottingham, and Wimble-
don; and various descriptions in Progress (British Institute of Social
Service, 4, Tavistock Square, London). The "Babies' Welcome" at Sheffield
is a municipal institution, run by the Borough Medical Officer of Health,
and dealing with over 200 babies per week. At Birmingham and Bermondsey
the whole cost is borne by the rates, but the administration is left to a
philanthropic committee. At Wimbledon and Nottingham only a grant in
aid is given, whilst at St. Pancras and elsewhere, though the Medical
Officer of Health assists by advice, the cost falls wholly on private funds.

Page 23. The use of Health Visitors, sometimes salaried, but" often
mainly volunteers, has spread to many towns— see The State and the Doctor,
by S. and B. Webb (Longmans), pp. 166-85, 207, 235; and various notices in
Progress (British Institute of Social Service) for 1910 and 1911. The Annual
Reports of the Westminster Health Society, and of the Medical Officers of
Health for Huddersfield, Glasgow, and Sheffield should be consulted. See
also "The Work of the Health Visitor," by G. E. McCleary. in Albany
Review, April, 1907; and the Reports of the Association of Health Workers
(53, Berners Street, London, W.); Health Visiting, by the National League
for Physical Education and Improvement ; The Health of Infants, and what
is being done to advance it, by Canon Wilson; and Letters from Miss
Florence Nightingale on Health Visiting in rural districts (P. S. King
& Son, 1911).

Page 24. The quotation is from the Minority Report of the Poor Law

41 "

42 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Commission, 1909 (Part I., ch. V., sec. H; p. 227 of the ofiBcial 8vo edition;
p. 28(5 of the popular edition).

Page 2G. The cxuotations are from evidence before the Poor Law Com-
mission, Q. 51859, par 4, and Q. 51896; compare also Q. 50873, Qs. 33240-5, and
Q. 41888, par 10; see Minority Report, p. 203 of official 8vo. edition; p. 252 of
popular edition.

Page 27. The reader will find in The State and the Doctor (Longmans)
not only a full description of the organisation and working of the Poor Law
Medical Service and the Public Health Medical Service, but also all the
available statistics ; and references to official and medical authorities.

Page 29. For the intervention of Edwin (afterwards Sir Edwin)
Chadwick, see the Pourtli and Fifth Annual Keports of the Poor Law
Commission, 1838 and 1839; and the four great surveys that ensued, the
General Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Populati<Mi,^f
Great Britain, 1842; Local Reports on the Sanitary Condition of me
Labouring Population of England and Wales, 1842; Local Reports on the
Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Scotland, 1842; Report
on the System of Interment in Large Towns, 1843. A brief account of this
movement is given in The State and the Doctor, pp. 2-13; and a fuller one
in The Public Health Aijitation, 1833-48, by Miss B. L. Hutchins.

Page 29. It is sometimes forgotten that Dr. Chalmers, the great apostle
of voluntary charity as a sufficient and preferable alternative to any Poor
Law, never intended to abandon the sick to voluntary charity. What he
objected to (and in this we hold him to have been thoroughly borne out
by our subsequent experience) was a ny Poor L aat, .or public -orga nisation
for the relief ofjdeSitltut_ion ("indjgence ") as such. But so far was he from
deprecatlSg appropriate specialised provision, or CTOvernment action, that
he repeatedly advocated and demanded complete public provision for the
sick, complete public provision for the mentally^, defective, and a national
system of educational provision for the chil3ren=H;liۤe forming at least
two-thirds of alT^our^iSresen-t pauperism. " The distinction," he said,
""^between ... a public charity for the relief of indigence and a public
charity for the relief of disease must not have occurred to the civilised
governments of Europe, else it would have more frequently been acted on;
and yet on the moment of its being stated it is a distinction, abundantly
obvious in itself, and alike obvious in the reasons for it. An ostensible
provision for the relief of poverty creates more poverty. An ostensible
provision for the relief of disease does not create mors diagase. The human
will is enlisted on the side of poverty by the provision which is made for it.
No such provision will ever enlist the human will on the side of disease.
. . . Though poverty in itself be not pleasant, yet the path of indolence and
dissipation which leads to it is abundantly pleasant and alluring; and so
thousands are prepared to rush upon this descending path, on the moment
that the consequent poverty is disarmed of its terrors, by the protection
and promises of law. It is thus that under such a system men are tempted,
and that in constantly increasing numbers, to become voluntarily poor;
but no system, no multiplication of funds or of hospitals will (with a few-
rare exceptions, far too rare to be practically of any weight in a general
argument) tempt men to become voluntarily diseased. No man will break
a limb for the sake of its skilled amputation in an infirmary; or put out
his eyes for the beneiit of admittance to a blind asylum; or become wilfully
dumb or deranged or leprous, that he might lay claim to any treatment or
guardianship which may have been provided at the expense of the nation
for these respective maladies. ... An indefinite provision for want is ever

NOTES AND REFERENCES

43

sure to .multiply its objects; and the evil recedes and enlarges, with every
advaucs that is made upon it. A certain definite provision, on the other
hand, for disease, will be as sure to overtake its objects. By every new
contribution we approach the nearer to distinct and satisfactory fulfilment;
nor does the benevolence, whether of the government or of associated
philanthropists, need to stay its hand under the apprehension that one
sufferer more will be added to the melancholy catalogue of disease because
of all the care and tenderness which can possibly be bestowed upon it.
This forms the great distinction between the two cases. The open proclama-
ti on of a fre e entry into asylums of disease would make a clean abridgment
of human misery, and bring no new or additional disease into existence.

. The halt, and the blind, and the maimed, and the impotent, and flie
dumb, and the lunatic stand before us, with a special mark impressed
upon them by the hand of ProvidenceT and which at, once announces both
their necessity and their claim, for the unqualified sympathy of their
fellows. It would give rise to no ulterior demand on the benevolence of the
country thoiigh receptacles were opened wide enough and frequent enough
to harbour them all. A certain definite amount of suffering and distress
would be cleared away from the territory of human wretchedness, without
any baleful operation on the territory beyond it. . . . The argument against
a public charity for indigence applies so little to the public charities for
disease that, practically, while the former ought to be abolished, the latter,
with a proper degree of regiilation and watchfulness, might be encouraged
to the uttermost."— (/In Essay read before the Royal Institute of France, in
Works, vol. 21, pp. 390-404.)

Dr. Chalmers did not confine himself to advocacy of institutional treat-
ment, but asked for " a cheap, if not rather a gratuitoiis supply of
professional services for the general popiilation." And he greatly objected
to the treatment of the sick being made part of the relief of the destitute.
" A Bill," he wrote, " was lately in progress through Parliament, having
for its single design the promotion of the public health, and especially
among the lower classes of society— those, in particular, who are congre-
gated together in the deep and dark and densely populated recesses of our
larger towns. We trust that it will fully comprehend, at whatever expense,
all the provisions which might contribute to the success of so beneficent a
measure— as drainage, and ventilation, and the minimum size of houses, and
the proper width of streets and alleys; and withal the establishment of a
medical police for the removal of nuisances, and even a cheap if not rather
a gratuitous supply of professional services for the general population.
The object is triily admirable and free of all exception; and I therefore
regretted all the more, when at first the proposed legislation was confined
to Engl and and Wales — leaving out Scotland. . . . And what we apprehended
as forthcoming for Scotland, was, instead of a measrrre for health singly, a
general measure of assimilation, by which to bring both parts of the island
under one and the same regimen— at least so far as to insinuate the
principle of an assessment for mere poverty, along with an assessment for
health which shall extend to all our parishes; and thus in company with
or under the cover of what is excellent, expose our beloved people to an
admixture of the vile with the precious, or the importation of a hurtful
ingredient, that would prove the germ of an interminable and ever-growing
mischief" (The Sufficiency of the Parochial System, in Works, vol. 21,
pp. 170-81).

Page 33. As to the very grave position with regard to venereal disease,
the evidence before the Poor Law Commission should be consulted (notably

44 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Q. 52840, par. 15-16; Qs. 41231-346; Q. 37927. par. 10; Qs. 37928-30; Q. 21504;
Q. 19462a. See also Report of Departmental Committee on Physical
Degeneration, 1904, p. 77; and The State and the Doctor, pp. 77, 151-2,
209, 213).

Page 36. For a full description of our system of Grants in Aid, and how
they work, the student is referred to Grants in Aid; a Criticism and a
Proposal, by Sidney Webb (Longmans : 1911).

Page 37. Even the Times editorially asks the nation to " regard the
problem of sickness among the poor from a collective rather than from an
individual standpoint"; and declares that the "transfer of the medical
care of the absolutely or relatively destitute from authorities charged with
the relief of distress to authorities of suflBcient weight and dignity who
should be charged with the preservation of the public health, would, we
entertain little doubt, be followed before long by a marked diminution in
the amount of disease . . . and by a corresponding increase of safety for all
classes of the community" (Times, April 15th, 1909, leading article).
Compare The Dawn of the Health Age, by Professor Benjamin Moore
(Churchill: 1911).

Ill

Destitution and Eugenics

We have reserved for a separate chapter the con-
siderations raised of recent years in the name of Eugenics.
So far as we understand the teachings and warnings of
Sir Francis Galton, Professor Karl Pearson, and Dr.
Saleeby, the discoveries and conclusions of Eugenics, or
the " Science of good breeding," far from being in any
way opposed to any such crusade against sickness, or
any such prevention of destitution as we advocate, furnish
in reahty the strongest of arguments in its favour. It
is significant that many of the keenest supporters of
Eugenics are, at the same time, the most zealous workers
for this as for other social reforms. But it would be idle
to ignore the existence, in the minds of many other ad-
herents of the new science, of a more or less definitely
formulated idea that Eugenics offers what is really an
alternative poHcy. Some of these persons seem to feel,
as believers in "evolution" and the "survival of the.
fittest," that the community would be doing positive harm
to the race by deliberately taking further steps to prevent
the occurrence of disease or to reduce the death-rate.
Others vaguely imagine that, as " acquired characteristics
are not inherited," it is neither necessary nor of any public
importance to prevent disease or bad habits, or any other

45 "

46 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

physical, mental, or moral injury to the individual.
Others, again, are so much impressed by the extent to
which certain specific evil strains of body and character
are inherited that they would gladly see the whole energy
and expenditure of the community concentrated on an
attempt to breed only from the best stocks. These three
phases of common " Eugenic " belief are apt to be com-
bined into a practical indisposition to give assistance or
encouragement, not to schemes for the Prevention of
Destitution only, but to every social reform or ameliorative
proposal of any kind. This is, in fact, just now the most
fashionable kind of laissez faire !

Considering these objections one by one, we take
first that of the crude biologist, who deprecates in the
name of evolution any attempt to lower the death-rate,
who objects to any proposals for preventing sickness, and
who resents, especially, any effort to diminish the terrible
holocaust of infantile mortality. What he wishes to
avoid, he explains, is any interference with the struggle
for existence.

Now we venture to suggest that, on all the principles
and discoveries of his own science, laissez faire is, necessarily
to a Eugenist the worst of all policies because it implies
the definite abandonment of that intelligently purposeful
selection in which he puts his faith. Even if we were
agreed that the rigorous " selection " of the " state of
nature " were the sort of selection best suited to the needs
of a modern highly-civilised community, it would not be
practicable or possible to let that " natm-al " selection
take its course. If, for a moment, we, as a nation, for-
swore our humanitarian sentiments, and decided to abolish
collective provision for the weak and the unfit, there

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 47

would inevitably follow an outburst of the most senti-
mental private charity. The fanatical Eugenist of the
Individualist school is strangely oblivious of human nature
if he imagines that he can persuade the ordinary Christian
man and woman to see little children die of starvation
without making spasmodic and even desperate attempts
to prevent it. And it is characteristic of such indis-
criminate and spasmodic charity that it not only neglects
aU Eugenic principles, but that in so far as it has any
discrimination, it usually discriminates the wrong way.
That is to say, it tends to maintain without any possibility
of segregation exactly the worst — i.e., the weakest, the
most afflicted, and therefore the most appealing cases.
Under such a system of private doles we know by ex-
perience that it is the parents who beg, and cringe, and He,
and sometimes even deform their offspring so as to excite
compassion, who succeed in extracting a subsistence
from the charitable. ^

But suppose that it were possible to suppress Christian

• charity and all philanthropic care for children, as well
1 as all public provision, could we then afford to leave the
I desirable " elimination of the unfit " to the blind action

• of an unchecked death-rate ? There is, in truth, absolutely
: no evidence that the unchecked ravages of disease, or the
: fatal efiects of a pernicious environment, ever result (any
imore than a war or a famine) in an improvement in the
1 human stock. Any such improvement, that we should
(deem an improvement, is, under the supposed conditions
(of absolutely unrestricted individual struggle for existence
iand " natural " selection, actually improbable. " Nature "
iis not intelligently purposeful, and knows nothing of the
.'Standards of civilised man. If let alone, " Nature "

48 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

neither breeds from the best stock — as we estimate it —
nor selects the best individuals for survival. There is
no reason why those who are elitniriated in the struggle
of unrestricted competition should coincide with those
whom we, as civilised men, would most wish to survive.
To give one example among many, it is notorious that
under a given stress of circumstances more male babies
die than female ; but this does not prove that men are
inferior to women, or that (in a community having a
surplus of women) they are less " fit " to survive. In
fact, as any biologist knows, there is positively no relation
between " viability " and social fitness. The question
who is to survive is determined by the conditions of the
struggle, the rules of the ring. Where the rules of the ring
favour a low t5^e, the low type will survive, and vice
versa. The survivors of an unregulated epidemic of scarlet
fever or t5rphus may owe their escape to constitutional
peculiarities which are otherwise perfectly valueless, and
which may even perhaps only be found amongst persons
whom, from every other point of view, we should caU
unfit. If, for example, it were possible for an epidemic
of malarial fever to spread unchecked all over the United
States of America, it is highly probable that the whites
would be eliminated and the blacks would survive. There
is, indeed, always a general presumption that the un-
regulated unpurposeful struggle will distinctly favour
the less individually developed and more prolific organisms
as against the more highly developed and less fertile.
In short, the " survival of the fittest " in an environment
unfavourable to progress may— as every biologist knows
— mean the survival of the lowest parasite.

The second objection— that, however degraded and

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 49

demoralised the poorest section of the population may
become, tke matter is of comparatively little importance
because these acquired characteristics are not inherited —
surely overshoots the mark ! For it shows a strange
callousness, or perhaps forgetfulness, not only with regard
to the effect of adverse prenatal conditions, which ad-
mittedly account for so much definite malformation of
brain or body, and not a Httle " congenital " disease,
but also with regard to the adverse effects on the germ-
plasm of such " racial poisons " as syphilitic infection,
lead, and, perhaps, alcoholism, which demonstrably
effect the offsprmg by genuine inheritance. Moreover,
there is such a thing as social inheritance, as well as
biological. Even if each generation of babies inherited
nothing of the physical degeneration of its parents, of which
we can by no means feel confident, there is certainly a very
potent family tradition and " class atmosphere " of
slovenliness, physical self-indulgence, and irresponsibility
— it may be actually of "parasitism" — which is quite un-
mistakably transmitted from one generation to the next.
To put the case more generally, we cannot afford to leave
unchecked the influences that produce, not death alone,
but even more widely slums and disease, physical starva-
tion, mental perversion, demoralisation of character, and
actual crime, however convinced we may be that the evil
characters acquired in such an environment are not
and will not be physically transmitted from parent to
child. What does it profit us to be told that " acquired
characteristics are not inherited" if we permit the
existence and therefore the social transmission of an
environment which injures or corrupts each generation
before it is born, and after it is born ? This refusal to

50 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

realise the effect of environment is, in fact, singularly
out of place in those who believe in the Science of Good
Breeding. The object of the Eugenist is not merely to
produce fine babies, but to ensure the ultimate pro-
duction of fine adults. No matter how perfect the stock
from which an infant is born, if it be exposed to sufficiently
adverse conditions it will grow up a stunted weakling.
" By far the more serious matter affecting the common-
wealth in every possible way at the present time," writes
a great authority on children's diseases, referring to
infantile mortality, " is the condition of babies who do
not die, but who are reared in a condition of hopeless
malnutrition. Let us consider, for instance, one disease
— rickets. Its effects on the nervous system are of the
most far-reaching character. Of the ' convulsions ' which
cause the death of babies at about twelve months of age,
rickets is practically the sole cause. At a later stage of
life the manifestations of the injuries caused by this
disease are seen in epilepsy and in insanity. The Lunatic
Asylums are largely occupied at the present time by cases
of insanity arising from injuries of the nervous system
by rickets. Adenoid growths, one of the common
troubles of childhood, are practically caused entirely by
deformed structure due to rickets. If you go to the
chest hospitals and select the patients who are under
treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis, you will find
the majority of them are suffering from deformities of
the chest due to rickets. The pulmonary disease is simply
a secondary result of the injuries to the chest and of the
injuries to the tissues arising from rickets. All sorts of
deformities which ^o to make up the number of cripples
that we are acquainted with are caused by the same

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 51

disease, and in addition to specific disease and deformities,
rickets is responsible for a general and permanent en-
feeblement of mind and body." And rickets is a disease
which, though widespread enough, is practically confined
to the children of the slums, and is caused definitely by
neglect, fundamentally by malnutrition. It is the outcome
not of bad stock but of bad environment ; and if we aim
at the production of a fine adult race we cannot afford
to leave that bad environment alone. That which kiUs
off some, damages many more ; and even if we did not
much want to lower the infantile death-rate, we should
stiU need to do our utmost to diminish the damage-rate
among the survivors, which (as Dr. Newsholme has once
more conclusively demonstrated) varies in very close
relation to the death-rate.

The problem that the Eugenist has to face, in the
deterioration of each successive generation by the evil
environment of urban destitution, is becoming all the
more important and urgent by reason of the volitional
restriction of births, which is now rapidly spreading over
the civilised world. This restriction is clearly differential.
Within the wage-earning class, it takes place most among
prudent, thrifty, responsible artisans, enjoying regular
work under relatively good conditions. It takes place
least among the casual and irregular labourers, who fill
the one-room tenements of our slums. The absence of
decent accommodation, the recklessness which comes
from a precarious living, the idleness and liability to
drink, which characterise the ''under-employed man," are
some among many reasons which tend to this result.
Anyone who has observed the change in character which
is brought about by regular employment and decent

52 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

accommodation realises that the restriction of the birth-
rate, which is now characteristic of the regularly employed
working-class, is largely due to the mere improvement
in their circumstances. This differential birth-rate is
certainly resulting in fewer births from our best stocks,
or from those who are in better conditions for child
nurture. That is to say, the unfit by inheritance or by
environment are actually multiplying, and being multi-
plied, as the direct result of the unorganised condition
of the labour market and the bad housing, which their -
very existence creates and perpetuates. We can alter
the anti-Eugenic breeding only by changing the environ-
ment which is responsible for it. To raise the condition
of the dock-labourer even only to that of the railway
porter is demonstrably to check the prolific multiplication
of the lowest section. For the rest, what seems indis-
pensable and urgent is to alter the economic incidence of
child-bearing among the artisan and lower middle classes.
Under present social conditions the birth of children in
households maintained on less than £3 a week (and these
form four-fifths of the nation), is attended by almost
penal consequences. The central problem of all practical
Eugenics is, as Professor Karl Pearson has suggested, to
makethe_wel^born_c

This is the ideal which we should all like to see carried
out. At present we have no practical scheme to bring
it about ; and, in the meantime, the best we can do, on
this side of the problem of Eugenics, is, at any rate, to
make the well-born child less of a burden to its parents.

We now come to the thkd, and, as we venture to
believe, the most valid of these Eugenist demurrers to
the policy of prevention ; the quite reasonable desire to

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 53

concentrate all possible public attention, and aU available
effort and expenditure on the importance of " breeding
from the best stocks " ; and especially on taking im-
mediate steps to prevent tbe persistent multiplication
of tiie congenitally feeble-minded. But this does not
warrant any indifference to tbe prevention of destitution.
It is, indeed, just because tlie nation does not at present
" prevent " but merely " relieves " destitution, tbat
this breeding from the congenitally feeble-minded stocks
is permitted, and even encouraged and subsidised. The
existing Poor Law operates almost exclusively as an
anti-Eugenic influence ; notably in the laxity of its pro-
vision for feeble-minded maternity, in the opportunities
for undesirable acquaintanceship afforded by the General
Mixed Workhouse, in its inability to search out defectives
and wastrels who do not apply for relief, and in its failure
to provide any practical alternative to the Outdoor Relief
now afforded to tens of thousands of feeble-minded or
physically defective parents. To deal with one aspect
only of the present system, as things stand at present the
Poor Law Authorities cannot even try to check the con-
tmued procreation of known but uncertified mentally
' defective persons. Indeed, such influence as they exercise
in the granting of reHef to such persons is aU the other
• way. It is not generally known that some fifteen thousand
babies are born m the workhouse every year. To the feeble-
immded woman, or to the woman who is mentally and
1 morally degenerate without being actually imbecile, the
Poor Law offers free and unconditional medical assistance
.at the time of her confinement. Thousands of these
unfit " mothers treat the local workhouse or Poor Law
■ infirmary simply as a free maternity hospital. They

54 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

come in year after year tliroughout their child-bearing
period ; and having received, at the expense of the rates,
the most slcilful care that modern medical science can
provide, they go out again, taking their infants with them,
only to return as a matter of course and of right when
their next confinement draws near.

This abuse of the system of public provision for the
destitute not only is not but cannot be prevented under any
Poor Law or system of relieving destitution as such.
"Under any Poor Law, the Authorities are bound to provide
the necessaries of life for all who are destitute, they are
bound to relieve only those who are destitute — that is to
say, only when they are destitute — and thus they are
bound to discharge their patients as soon as these wish
to leave. Their one weapon is " deterrence " — that is
to say, they may (at the risk of leavmg cases wholly
untreated) try to deter people from applying for rehef by
making the conditions as disgraceful and unpleasant as
possible. The treatment of a woman during her con-
finement cannot, in the nature of the case, be made
■actively distasteful to her, so that the disgrace of pauperism
is the only deterrent infiuence available. Needless to say,
the women to whom we refer are quite impervious to any
such immaterial influence, and so the abuse goes on.
Such, indeed, are our present arrangements that the only
necessitous persons who are effectively deterred from
accepting pubhc assistance at these crises are the very
persons whom, as Eugenists, we should IH^e to encourage
to increase and multiply. Pubhc subsidy without selection
is bad enough, but here we have the Poor Law actually
^selecting, in practice, the mferior stocks for its subsidies.
To quote the Minority Report of the Poor Law

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 55

Commission : "If the State liad desired to maximise both
feeble-minded procreation and birth out of wedlock there
could not have been suggested a more apt device than the
provision, throughout the country, of General Mixed
Workhouses, organised as they now are, to serve as
unconditional Maternity Hospitals."

But it is not our Poor Law only that is in this way
at fault. Our whole penal system, harsh and cruel as
it is in its dealings with these feeble-minded folk, who
require treatment not punis-hment, actually subsidises,
as "ins and outs," by its spasmodic provision of shelter
and maintenance for them in its short sentences, a con-
tinually multiplying class. Our gaol records reveal that
a considerable proportion of the prison population are
congenitally feeble-minded. " From the earliest age,"
report the Prison Commissioners, " when they appear
before the Magistrates as children on remand or as juvenile
offenders, until and throughout the adult period of their
lives, the mentally defective, at first reprimanded and
returned to their parents, then convicted and subjected
to a short sentence and returned to their parents, and
then later continually sentenced and re-sentenced and
returned to their parents or friends till, for crimes of
greater gravity, they pass to the convict prisons, are
treated, as this reiterated evidence shows, without hope
and without purpose, and in such a way as to allow them
to become habitual delinquents of the worst type and to
propagate a feeble-minded progeny which may become
crinoinal like themselves." "Punishment," adds Dr.
Scott, of the Brixton House of Detention, " has Httle
effect upon them. Eeforming influences also fail with
them usually. As they have very little self-respect, and

56 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

home ties, if they have any, do not weigh much with
them, they do not fear coming to prison. Indeed, to
many of them, prison is rather a harbour of refuge, as
they are spared the trouble of thinking how to get food
and lodging."

Thus, by Poor Law and Prison alike, we now keep
the feeble-minded class alive and at large. And they do
not succumb in the struggle. Indeed, it may almost be
said to be a peculiarity of the congenitaUy feeble-minded
that they will not die of starvation. The girls drop into
prostitution and the boys into theft on the least pro-
vocation. Thus, a policy of laisser faire on the one hand,
or a policy of deterrent treatment on the other, is equally
futile. By common consent, indeed, we may now say
that both these policies, when faced with the problem of
feeble-mindedness, are alike whoUy bankrupt.

In view of this terrible indictment of each section
of the present public provision for the congenitaUy feeble-
minded, persons of all shades of opinion find themselves,
after the convincing testimony of the Royal Commission
on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, unanimously
in agreement. Whether we approach the problem from
the standpoint of Christian humanitarianism concerned
to prevent the continuance of unwitting prostitution and
crime, or from the standpoint of Eugenics intent on
eliminating the inherently bad stock, or from the stand-
point merely of preventing (instead of relieving) this
like other manifestations of destitution, we all converge
on an identical Line of reform. What we have to do is
to search out and permanently segregate, under reasonably
comfortable conditions and firm but kindly control, all
the congenitaUy feeble-minded. This involves, as aU

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 57

agree, tlie subtraction of these unfortunates from the Poor
Law and the Prison Authorities, as from the ordinary
school and the normal population. It involves their being
dealt with, not as paupers or as criminals, but definitely
as mental defectives by an Authority specialising on
mental defectiveness. This means, as aU agree, the
transfer of jurisdiction over and responsibility for the
congenitally feeble-minded to the Central and Local Authori-
ties already charged with the custody of other persons of
unsound mind.

The recommendations of the Royal Commission on
the Feeble-m i nded, endorsed by both the Majority and the
Minority Reports of the Poor Law Commission, represent
the completion of a process of superseding the Poor Law
by the Lunacy Authority which is abeady far advanced.
A century ago there was only one authority which could
deal with persons suffering from mental deficiency. If a
lunatic was found wandering about in a state of destitution
he was taken to the workhouse, there to be treated by
the Board of Guardians as a destitute person of an ex-
tremely unpleasant kmd. Presently, Parliament became
aware of the inconvenience of wandering lunatics and of
the disastrous mischief which they might inflict on them-
selves and other people. Hence, the establishment of
the Lunacy Authority— now the Asylums Committee of
the County and County Borough Council. This authority
was required to search out lunatics and to bring them
under care and control, irrespective of the fact of whether
they were destitute or had the necessary means of sub-
sistence, with a view so to treat them that they could
be cured of their lunacy or, if incurable, should be con-
trolled in the interests of themselves and of the community.

68 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Now we perceive that there are forms of mental deficiency
which are even more dangerous to the community than
acute lunacy, because of the greater liability to be trans-
mitted to offspring. Hence the proposal to give juris-
diction over all mentally defective persons to an authority
which can search them out and bring them under control
and treatment, irrespective of whether they are destitute
or not.

We see, therefore, that the universally accepted
'Conclusion, with regard to the feeble-minded, far from being
in opposition to the other prospoals for the Prevention
<of Destitution, runs upon exactly the same lines. We are,
with regard to this section, to " break up " the Poor Law,
and abandon, frankly and completely, all and any mere
" relief " of destitution. We are, on the contrary, to place
the responsibility for this particular section of the destitute
'on the committee of the County or County Borough
Council specialising on the larger class to which, by its
characteristics, it belongs ; and to require that conmiittee
to pursue the policy of " searching out " every case and
of providing for it the most appropriate treatment. And
it is interesting to notice that the application of this
appropriate treatment to all the congenitally feeble-minded,
at an early stage in life, before evil consequences have
manifested themselves — the point on which Eugenists
and humanitarians alike lay most stress — depends on the
extent to which the other proposals for the Prevention
of Destitution, described in this book, are actually put
into force. Unless we have a Local Authority responsible
for " searching out " and brmgmg under medical in-
spection every child of school age, the Local Lunacy
Authority will not hear of many of the congenitally

DESTITUTION AND EUGENICS 59

I'

feeble-minded girls until harm is done. Unless we have
a Local Health Authority responsible for seeing that every
sick person is under medical treatment, and an Unemploy-
ment Authority, through its registers, cognisant of all
men and women unable to get employment — and thus in
a position to report all apparently feeble-minded cases for
further inquiry with a view to segregation — the feeble-
minded mother of illegitimate children, the feeble-
minded vagrant wandering along the roads, and the
feeble-minded parasite of urban soup-kitchens and free
shelters, will, to our undoing as a nation, continue to
perpetuate their deficiency.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III

Notes and References

Page 45. The reader will find in the pages of the Eugenics Review, the
organ of the Eugenics Education Society, the best account of this movement.
See, in particular. Parenthood and Race-Culture, by Dr. C. W. Saleeby
(Cassell); The Family and the Nation, by W. C. D. and Mrs. AVhetham
(Longmans: 1909); The Endowment of Motherhood, by H. D. Harben
(Fabian Society : 1910) ; and National Life from the Standpoint of Science,
by Professor Karl Pearson (Black).

Page 47. In Chapter VIII. of the present book ("The Enlarged Sphere
of Voluntary Agencies in a Preventive Campaign against Destitution ") the
reader will find instances of the way in which private charity rushes in to
defeat any attempt at restricting relief to the destitute.

Page 48. Dr. Ray Lancaster, in his Parasitism, drew pointed attention to
the fact that "evolution" and the "survival of the fittest" just as easily
led to parasitic development as to any rise in the biological scale. See also
Professor D. G. Ritchie's Darwinism and Politics.

Page 50. The quotation is from Dr. Ralph Vincent, of the Hospital for
Children. Vincent Square, Westminster, in The Infants' Hospital and its
Work (London : 1908). See also Minority Report of the Poor Law Com-
mission, 1909 (p. 78 of ofiicial 8vo edition).

Page 51. As to the momentous changes in the number of children born,
see The Decline of the Birth Rate, by Sidney Webb (Fabian Society,
3, Clement's Inn, London, W.C.), in which references are given to all the
statistical and other authorities. See also The Fertility of the Unfit, by
W. A. Chappie (Whitcombe : 1904).

Page 53. For the estimated number of births annually in the workhouses
and poorhouses of the United Kingdom, see Minority Report of the Poor Law
Commission, 1909 (p. 78 of official 8vo edition). The number in London is
about 3,000; in the workhouses of Ireland over 2,000.

Page 55. The quotation is from the Annual Report of the Prisons Com-
missioners for England and Wales for 1909 (published in 1910). Compare
Crime and Criminals, 1876-1910, by R. F. Quinton (Longmans : 1911).

Page 56. The Report of the Royal Commission on the Care and Control
of the Feeble-minded (Cd. 4202), 1908; with seven volumes of evidence,
reports, appendices, etc. (Cd. 4215-21), has been reproduced in brief abstract
as The Problem of the Feeble-minded, by Sir Edward Fry, Sir Francis
Galton, Miss Mary Dendy, and others (London : 1909).

The Reports of the National Association for the Feeble-minded, including
those of its Conferences in 1906, 1908, 1909, and 1911, should be consulted
(Denison House, Vauxhall Bridge Road, London) ; and the papers and
proceedings of the section relating to the mentally defective of the First
National Conference for the Prevention of Destitution (P. S. King & Son :
1911). See also The Feeble-minded, by E. B. Sherlock (Macmillan : 1911) ;
and Feeble-mindedness and Children of School Age, by C. P. Papage, with
an Appendix by Miss Dendy on Treatment and Training (Manchester
University Press : 1911).

6o

-♦

IV

How to Prevent the Destitution arising from Child Neglect

We all find ourselves in one and the same world ; but •
it is amazing in how many different aspects that world
may appear to us. To one set of people the world seems to
be primarily a play-house in which they are to amuse
themselves. We visualise this as a " Green World " —
the green of the springtide, the green of the cover and the
golf-course, the green of the race meeting, the green even
of the billiard table in the low public-house of the slum
quarter ! To another set the world presents itself as a
place for " making money," growing rich beyond the
dreams of avarice, and " founding a family," by securing,
to all its members for ever, access without personal effort
to the " Green World." To others again, who happen to
comprise the bulk of the population of our own State, the
world is the scene of unending daily toil, amid a chronic
anxiety as to the morrow's means of subsistence. To the
spiritual idealist the world may seem a place in which
souls are to be saved, or knowledge to be advanced, or
works of art to be created. To the modern statesmen, we
suggest, the world has another aspect, not less important
than any of these. It is the breeding ground and training
ground of each successive generation, on the production
of which the very existence of the nation depends.

To the economist there comes the wholesome reminder

6r

62 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

that the most valuable, as it is the most costly, of the
products of the nation, is not the wheat harvest or the
lambing, the yield of our coal-mines, the cotton that we
weave, or the ships that we launch, but our annual output
of men and women. This million of young people that we
add annually to our adult population, to replace thbse
who have died, how much have they not cost to get born,
to rear, to educate, in twenty-one long years of effort and
care to bring to maturity ? We have no measure for their
value, any more than for the unstinted parental love and
travail that has been lavished on them. But m hard
cash, in mere out-of-pocket expenses, each annual output
of a million adults will have cost the community, in
the twenty-one years' rearing, certainly not less than
£150,000,000. And, immeasurably more important in
this case than the cost is the quality of the product. Upon
this " quality " of each generation — ^we may almost say
upon this alone — depends that which we, any of us, care
about — subsistence, wealth, happiness, art, knowledge,
and spiritual salvation itself.

In what condition are we now, in this country,
delivering our annual quota of young men and young
women at the end of their twenty-one years' rearing ?
How would they appear if we could make them pass before
us, as an Australian squatter rounds up his uncounted
flocks and herds ? Suppose that it were possible for the
King annually to review, in one great national parade,
those each year entering upon adult citizenship. First of
all we should notice that those who were mustered on
parade would fall far short of the total that, twenty-one
years ago, were born into the world. Death takes his
toll continuously from the moment of birth, and involves

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 63.

us therefore in the enormous pecuniary loss and waste;
implied in the bearing, nurturing, and training of children'
who do not survive to maturity. The greater part of this,
toll we know to be quite unnecessary. The premature-
deaths need not take place. We have, already, by taking,
thought, in the past twenty years, greatly diminished
them ; and everybody knows that we can diminish their
nimiber still further, as soon as we choose to take the
necessary action. Meanwhile, all the premature deaths
increase the cost per head of those who live to appear on
parade at the age of twenty-one.

First to go past the King would be the mass of reason-
ably healthy yomig men and women, who would have
gone through, with more or less distinction, their schooling,
their preliminary vocational training, such preparation
for parentage and citizenship as we now afford to them..
But then there would come, among the million, a great-
army of more or less physically defective — the stunted,,
the ansemic, the flat-chested, the round-shouldered, those;
with undeveloped muscles and undeveloped brains. Such
. as they are at 21, such they are apt to remain through
life, except that, with many, their defect becomes in-
• tensified. Then we should see the crippled, the blind, the.
< deaf-mutes, the tuberculous, the syphilitic, the epileptics,,
' the great army of the feeble-minded, and the contingent,
t of the morally deficient. Among them all would be those.
! individuals who had somehow escaped adequate in-
■ struction and trainmg, comprismg, alas, no small section ::
tthe uncivilised, the undisciplmed, the "hooligans."
I Fmally, sad to say, there would be at the end of the column,
i guarded, and in an ugly uniform, a quite substantial con-
ttingent of actual crimmals, destined for the most part,

64 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

to pass periodically in and out of prison garb for the rest
of their lives. Eorty per cent, of all the crime of this
country, the Chairman of the Prisons Commission informs
us, is perpetrated by youths between 16 and 21, and it
is for the most part perpetrated when they are temporarily
out of a regular situation.

We might at first be quieted by the reflection that
the defects and shortcomings that we had with so much
concern observed were due to evil inheritance ; that as
the parents were, so the children must be ; and that,
bad and regrettable as was the fact, practically nothing
could be done to remedy it. This might blunt the edge
of our social compunction for a moment ; but then we
should awake to the discovery that this was a fallacy*
We should learn that there was absolutely no warrant for
supposing, with regard to the great majority of the defects
that we had observed, that they were to be ascribed to
physical inheritance ; that whatever might be thought
of the congenitaUy feeble-minded and the deaf-mutes,
the other deficiencies are not heritable ; that ordinary
young criminals and " hooligans," the undisciplined young
labourers with untrained brain and fingers, even the
young men and women of stunted growth, anaemic,
round-shouldered and tuberculous, were not born such;
that, in fact, so strong is nature that 80 per cent, of
babies are born healthy, whilst the others mostly die;
and that it is undeniable that the great bulk of the failures
at 21 had been made into failures by the circumstances
to which they had been exposed.

And if we were then to turn to the conditions under
which large numbers of these young men and women had
grown up — to the conditions under which to-day are

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 65

growing up the corresponding output of young people to
be delivered in future years — we should cease to be
surprised that there was, at each annual parade, so great
a loss by premature death to record, and so much lacking
among the survivors. We compel all children to come to
school from the age of 5, when we begin to spend upon
their school trainmg, out of public money, a sum of some-
thing like £50 per head. Yet we have so far taken almost
the min im unI"^iFtrouble to ensure that the raw material
thus presented to the teacher is not already spoilt. In a
few towns, the Medical Officer of Health has been allowed
to arrange for a visitation of all births, and a periodical
and quite optional inspection of infants under 1 year
by his volunteer Health Visitors ; a few towns have " milk
clinics " and " schools for mothers " ; a few towns deign
to admit to the care of the Local Health Authorities a
small proportion of the innumerable cases of measles and
whooping cough. And this is aU. " There is no doubt "
states a recent official report, " that the absence of public
provision for children under five, so far as the poorest
classes are concerned, is a crying evil. The evils of slum
life in relation to these children cannot be minimised.
Probably the influences of the slums upon them affect their
whole lives, and make the whole question of education
right up to fourteen more difficult." By our curious
oversight in not providmg any machinery, so far as
children under five are concerned, either for enforcing the
parental responsibility for decent home care or for securing
in any way, as regards this all-important period of develop-
ment, the " National Minunum " of Child Nurture, we
inevitably incur the penalty of a certain proportion of
wreckage, almost fi'om the start.

66 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

When we get the child to school, knowledge of its
condition becomes forced upon the community. The first
results of systematic medical inspection are bringing home
to our minds what every teacher knows, namely, that a
large proportion of the children are not in a fit state to
have the public money spent on teaching them, because they
are suffering to such an extent from neglect as to be unable
to obtain full advantage of the instruction. What emerges
from the cautious summaries of the Chief Medical Officer
of the Board of Education for England and Wales (Scotland
and Ireland being at least as bad) is that out of all the
six million children in the elementary schools about 10
per cent, suffer from serious defect in vision ; from 3 to
5 per cent, suffer from defective hearing ; 1 to 3 per cent,
have suppurating ears ; 8 per cent, have adenoids or
enlarged tonsils of sufficient degree to obstruct the nose or
throat and to require surgical treatment ; 20 to 40 per
cent, suffer from extensive and mjuxious decay of the
teeth ; 40 per cent, have unclean heads ; about 1 per
cent, suffer from ruigworm ; 1 per cent, are affected with
tuberculosis of readily recognisable form ; and ^ to 2 per
cent, are afflicted with heart disease.

And the same official report of the Chief Medical
Officer of the Board of Education may make us realise
that, in more than a hundred thousand cases, day after
day, these children are suffering to such an extent from
actual lack of food that dinners at school have to be pro-
vided for them. This contmued semi-starvation of the
growing child between 5 and 13 is, to say the least of it,
not the way to produce even a normally developed adult.
" I do not laiow how many children I exammed among
the poorer sort," reports the doctor who inspected the

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 67

Liverpool scliools in 1907, " who were in a sort of dreamy
condition, and would only respond to some very definite
stimulus. They seemed to be in a condition of semi-
torpor, unable to concentrate their attention on anything
and taking no notice of their surroundings, if left alone.
To give an example of what I mean, if I told one of these
children to open its mouth, it would take no notice until
the request became a command, which sometimes had to
be accompanied by a slight shake to draw the child's
attention. Then the mouth would be slowly opened
widely ; but no effort would be made to close it again
until the child was told to do so. As an experiment, I
left one child with its mouth wide open the whole time I
examined it, and never once shut it. Now that shows a
condition something lil^e what one gets with a pigeon
that has had its higher brain centres removed, and is a
very sad thing to see in a human being. I believe both
these types of children are suffering from what I would
call starvation of the nervous system, in one case causing
irritation and in the other torpor. And further, these
cases were always associated with the clearest signs of
bodily starvation, stunted growth, emaciation, rough and
cold skin, and the mouth full of viscid saliva due to hunger.
With such children I generally had to make them swallow
two or three times before the mouth was clear enough

to examine the throat I do not think I need say

any more to show that the extent of the degeneration
revealed by this investigation has reached a very alarming
stage. . . . What is the use of educating children whose
bodies and minds are absolutely unable to benefit by it ?
In my opinion the children must first be taught how to
live, and helped to get food to enable them to do it."

68 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

To permit a large proportion of the future citizens of the
Empire to get into this condition, even for a few years of
their childhood, is, to put it mildly, not the way to turn
them out at 21 as healthy, self-supporting adults.

At 13 or 14 we let the boy or girl pass out of the
educational discipline and supervision ; and go off, quite
without any public control, into independent wage-
earning. In some districts there is even a specially
demoralising gap of a year or two, after the boy or girl
has ceased to attend school, before he or she usually gets
regularly into employment, or even into employment at
all. When a situation is obtained, actually a majority
of the young people find themselves employed in occupa-
tions which teach them no skilled trade or specialised
service by which they may count on ever earning more
than unskilled labom^er's wages. Many of them, indeed,
are so unfortunate as to find then only means of livelihood
in occupations which have the further evil of subjecting
them to irregular hours, demoralising spells of idleness or
mere waiting, the temptations and distractions of the
streets, the corruption of companionship with the idle
and the profligate. It may be said that it is the duty of
the parents to take care that then: sons are placed out
in situations where they will receive proper industrial
training. Unfortmiately, as is only too clear, the great
majority of parents, even when they give sufiicient thought
to the matter, find it impossible to give thek sons a proper
start in life. " What stares m the face the exceptionally
careful parent of the poorer class, who tries to start his
son well, is, in London, the difficulty of discovering any
situation in which his boy can become a skilled worker
of any kind, or even enter the service of an employer who

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 6&

can offer him advancement. We have, on the one hand,
a great development of employment for boys of a thoroughly
bad type, yielding high wages and no training. We have,
on the other hand, a positive shrinkage — almost a dis-
appearance—of places for boys in which they are trained
to be competent men." Nor can we hope, by any such
philanthropic agencies as " Juvenile Employment
Committees," and the use of the Labour Exchange, to
avoid this result. All the boys and girls who leave school
each year have got to fill all the places — good, bad, and
indiSerent in their effect on the young people — that
happen to be vacant. The well-meant advice of the
teacher or the member of the Children's Care Committee,
of a " Juvenile Employment Committee," or the Labour
Exchange may save particular boys from the worst places,
and steer particular favourites uito painfully selected
apprenticeships. The good that may be done will be to
get all the best boys mto the best situations. It
will not diaiinish by one the numbers who are demoralised
by the bad situations.

Now, quite apart from other factors that may drag
down to destitution the man or woman of normal growth,
this appalling wreckage of body and mmd that we see
produced even at the age of 21 is, in itself, an ahnost
irresistible cause of subsequent destitution. The majority
of physically defective men and women, whether blitid or
crippled, are never able to earn their livelihood. The
stunted and anaemic, the round-shouldered, and the
phthisical have, for the most part, such msufficient
physical strength, and succumb so easily to disease, that
they almost inevitably fall into destitution sooner or
later, owing, really, to the mjuries which they received

70 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

before becoming adult. The boy or girl of slow intelligence,
the " mouth-breather," chronically half -starved at school,
becomes too often the victim also of the uneducational
or positively demoralising occupation of adolescence, and
graduates almost inevitably into unemployment", and
frequently, at a quite early age, into " uneniployable-
ness." It is from the unemployed youth, undisciplined,
untrained, and already vitiated by evil habits, that is
recruited the young criminal and, to a large extent, also
the lower grades of women of immoral life. It is plain
that we have, in the whole range of child neglect, from
birth to manhood, a prolific cause of subsequent desti-
tution and crime. Eighty per cent, of all the uimates of
our prisons wiU be found, on inquiry, to have gone to
gaol for the first time before they were 21. The vast
majority of all the inmates of om^ workhouses can be
shown, on any hivestigation, to have suffered, in theu
childhood and adolescence, from one or other of the forms
of neglected nurture that we have described. Do what
we may as regards the subsequent life of the adult, it is
clear that, so long as we permit the wreckage, before
reaching manhood, of so large a proportion of our annual
million of recruits, we cannot hope to avoid their smking
into destitution.

Now, with regard to this whole story of child desti-
tution, we do not think that there can be, m the mind
of anyone who sincerely desires to brmg it to an end, any
doubt as to the policy that we ought, as a nation, to pursue.
We have, in the first place, definitely and decidedly to
set out to secure, at all ages, hi all places, fi-om one end
of the kmgdom to the other, that " National Mmhnum "
of child nurture which we have, m the Children Act of

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 71

1908, akeady put on the statute book. Is it too muck too
ask, at this tinie of day, that we should take care that no
child is so insufficiently provided for as to be made to
suffer seriously in health or character ? And when we
consider how this can be done, the first general outline
of the answer is equally clear. When, a generation ago,
the nation tardily awoke to the danger of one form of
child neglect, which manifested itself in illiteracy, Parlia-
ment threw over altogether the policy of waiting until
the parent would apply, and gave up all notion of " deter-
rence." It took this part of the child's needs entirely out
of the Poor Law. It entrusted the service to a separate
authority, specially empowered and required to provide
schools for all the children who were being m this way
neglected. Whether or not the parents were themselves
illiterate because they were pecuniarily destitute, the
child was not allowed to be so. And concurrently with
the new responsibility assumed by the community, and
the new provision which it thereby made for the children's
needs, an altogether new responsibility was imposed on
the wage-earnmg parent. He had, for the first time in
history, to forego his legal right to the use of so much of
the child's time and energy in the household service, even
his legal right to the child's earnings in supplement of
the family income — to submit, m short, though we usually
forget the fact, m the public mterest, to an act of " con-
fiscation " of the family resources, compared with which
any mere rise m the Income Tax oh the propertied classes
is a fiea-bite. An entirely novel standard of parental
care was set up. The parent was required, under penalty
of fine and unprisonment, to get the child up and dressed
and washed by an arbitrarily fixed hour every morning

72 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of the school year ; to see that the child attended con-
tmuously and regularly at school ; even to take care
that he or she attended in a fit state, a requirement which
is being gradually (and quite arbitrarily) made to mean,
cleansed and clothed, and booted, with body and garments
and hair reasonably free from vermin. At various stages
of this development, middle-class objectors to increased
public expenditure on the poor tried to raise the cry of
unjustifiable interference between parent and child, and
even suggested that such an extension of parental res-
ponsibility was an unwarrantable hardship to the poor.
But working-class opinion resolutely upheld this endeavour
to secure equahty of opportunity for all children in what-
ever class they happen to be born, and cordially approved
the twofold method of prevention of destitution that the
Local Education Authorities adopted, public provision
on the one hand, and the enforcement of the responsibilities
of the individual on the other. . And so successful has been
the Local Education Authority, with its universal pro-
vision of school places for aU the children needing them,
its searching out of all the children who were growing up
illiterate, and its enforcement of parental responsibility
by its School Attendance Officers, that the particular form
of neglect which alone it was established and definitely
instructed to prevent, is now, except for an infinitesimal
fraction of exoeptional cases, from one end of the country
to the other, prevented.

What we propose is that, with regard to children of
school age, the Local Education Authority should, definitely
and obligatorily, in respect of all forms of Child Destitution,
assume the same sort of responsibility, and proceed along
the same lines, as it has in respect of illiteracy. Incidentally,

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 73

we propose that aU children of school age now in receipt
of any form of poor relief, should be, in the fullest sense,
taken out of the Poor Law," relieved of all stigma of
pauperism, and made, instead, the wards of the Local
Education Authority. So far as regards the five-sixths
of the population among which occur practically all the
cases of neglect of the physical needs of childhood, the
boys and girls come daily under the eyes of the o£ficers
of the Local Education Authority, which is, therefore,
unlike a Poor Law Authority, bound to become
immediately cognisant of any falling away from a normal
standard of child nurture. We propose that the existing
social machinery of the teacher and the school nurse,
the school medical inspection and the school " clinic,"
the friendly inquiries of the Children's Care Committee,
and the house to house visitation of the School Attendance
Officer, should be brought to bear on every manifestation
of Child Destitution — taking no higher standard than
that of the Children Act, which is anything causing the
child to suffer, or to be likely to suffer, seriously in health,
as they are now on failure or irregularity of school atten-
dance. And whenever it is ascertained that a child is
beginning to sufier, it will be for the Local Education
Authorities, through their machinery of voluntary Chil-
dren's Care Committees and their School Attendance
Officers, to discover the cause of this suffering, to secure
that it shall be brought promptly to an end, and to see
that the necessary remedial measures are taken. In this
way, the influences of aU available voluntary agencies that
will assist the child can be to the fullest extent utilised ;
but, failing these resources, the Local Education Authority —
as it is already legally obligatory on the Scotch School Boards

74 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

to do, for all children in attendance at their schools — will
provide whatever is necessary for the well-being of the
child out of the Education Rate.

It may possibly seem, to those unacquainted with
the actual facts, that the proposal to make the Local
Education Authority responsible for supplymg, to the
destitute child, when the means of the parents and the
resources of the volmitary agencies are proved to have
failed, not merely education but also maintenance, and
where necessary, even home nurture, involves the adoption
of some new and revolutionary principle, and means the
entrusting to what is essentially a mere scholastic agency
of an entirely novel service. But this is a mistake. The
principle is actually embodied in our legislation, and
Parliament has gone far, already, in transforming the
Local Education Authority into the executive organ of
the community for everything that concerns the child
of school age. Upon the Local Education Authority has
already been placed the duty of becoming acquainted with
the state of the bodies, and, as regards certain standard
requirements, even with the condition of the homes, of
all the children in its schools. It is upon the Local Educa-
" tion Authority that has been placed the statutory duty
of systematically inspecting all these children, at repeated
intervals, by its own doctors and nurses, so that it may
keep itself aware of the physical condition of each one of
them. But this is not all. Bemg thus aware, and being
the only authority thus aware, of the physical condition of
all the school children, the Local Education Authority
is now authorised and directed to make whatever arrange-
ments may be necessary to ensure that no smgle child
goes without whatever medical or surgical attendance

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 75

and treatment that its condition requires. Moreover, if
any child is in attendance at school insufficiently nour-
ished, it is the duty of the Local Education Authority,
under the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act of
1907, to take notice of the fact ; and if it finds that in
its district children are not being adequately fed by their
parents or by other agencies, it is authorised and directed,
and, in Scotland statutorily required, under certain con-
ditions, to supply, out of the Education Rate, whatever
meals it thinks necessary. In a hundred different towns
of England and Wales more than a hundred thousand
children are already being thus fed. But food and medical
attendance are not everything. In London, which is
one-seventh of England and Wales, the Local Education
Authority is now specifically empowered and directed to
secure to every child in that vast area what may be called
the national minimum of home nurture. Whenever any
child is without " adequate " food, clothing, medical
aid, or lodging, in such a way that its health is suffering,
or is likely to suffer, it is the duty of the London County
Council, under the Children Act, 1908 (a duty assigned
to its Educational Committee), to proceed against the
parents or guardians of such child, with power to get such
child placed under other guardianship, or sent to a boarding
school, or admitted to a day feeding school, or otherwise
protected against future neglect. Throughout all England
and Wales, moreover (as in Scotland), the Local Education
Authority is empowered and directed by the Children
Act to intervene whenever any child within its district is
found living in a bad environment, or with parents of
drunken or criminal habits, or is found in the streets
begging or receiving alms, or is found wandering, and so

76 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

on ; with a view, not necessarily to convicting the child
of any offence, or even of committing it for a term of
years to a reformatory school, but merely to admitting
such child to a day feeding school, where it will be adequately
fed, trained, and looked after, without being removed
from parental custody. It is quite a mistake to suppose
that this power and duty is confined to children committed
by the magistrate. The Local Education Authority itself
may make this provision, if the case requires it, for any
child whose parents consent. Finally, there is the power
and duty imposed on all Local Education Authorities to
enforce on aU parents a certain mmimum standard of
home nurture, by taking proceedings mider the Children
Act against parents so drunken, so criminal, or so immoral
as to be providing home conditions gravely injurious to
the child ; the Local Education Authority then providing
completely, in residential schools (due contribution being
levied on the parents) for the children rescued from homes
falling thus below the statutory minimum standard. It
is interestmg to note that Local Education Authorities,
though they have hardly yet begun to use this power of
securing the national minimum of home nurture, are already
maintaining out of the rates and taxes more than thirty
boarding schools for children thus rescued from evil
conditions, besides nearly a score more for blind or deaf
children. The Education Committee of the London
County Council actually " boards out " a number of special
children, for whom it finds it better to provide main-
tenance in suitable families than in residential schools.

But though the Local Education Authority has been,
by various statutory clauses, given, all these indiscriminate
powers to prevent child destitution, it has not been

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEG-LECT 77

required by Parliament to carry tiiem out, or even definitely
instructed to do so by the Central Education Departments
wliicli pay the Grants in Aid. These powers have, in fact,
been regarded rather as emergency powers to fill up
accidental gaps in the work of the charitable agencies and
of the Poor Law, than as definite duties of every Local
Education Authority. Moreover, these powers are ludic-
rously restricted. At present, the Local Education
Authority is only supposed to be cognisant of the needs
of the child when it is attending school. It has no res-
ponsibilities, and no powers to search out and provide
for child destitution on Saturdays and Sundays, and
• during the holidays, however much privation at these
times may render the child incapable of doing its work
iat school. In face of all the restrictions, it is wonderful
Ihow much of tliis work of providing for the destitute
(child the Local Education Authorities have already
1 undertaken.

This haphazard development of the Local Education
.Authorities, into the sphere of providing for the children
(of school age found to be destitute of one or other
(of the necessaries of life, has, in fact, already gone far
(enough to produce an mtolerable " overlap " with the
IPoor Law Authorities. In every large town there are now
ttwo separate authorities providing out of the rates and
itaxes for the children's needs, each ignorant of the other's
jproceedings. In London, for mstance, the thirty-one
IBoards of Guardians are maintaining about 24,000 children
(of school age. The Education Committee of the London
(County Council is sunultaneously feeding 50,000. And in
Ibetween one and two thousand cases, both authorities are
^supplying food for the same children ! This demoralising

78 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

duplication exists, to a lesser extent, in every other town.
It has been going on now for five years, and no possibility
of stopping it has been found.

The scandal — though the Local Grovernment Board,
unable to devise a remedy, persists in ignoring it — has
become gross. The overlapping must be stopped. Yet
it is plainly quite impracticable to reverse all the legislative
tendencies of the past two decades — ^to put back into the
Poor Law, and to brand as paupers, the children now being
fed by the Education Authority, those now being clothed
by the Education Authority, those now being medically
inspected and treated by the Education Authority, those
now being maintained in the residential schools of the
Education Authority, and those being even " boarded
out " by the Education Authority — their numbers, in
the aggregate, already amounting to nearly as many as
those of the children of school age dealt with by all the
Poor Law Authorities put together ! The only practicable
way to put an end to the existing wasteful duplication of
authorities, and demoralising overlapping of service, is
to have, as all would agree, in each locality, " one Public
Authority and only one Authority " providing for the
children whatever is provided out of the rates and taxes.
That can now hardly be any other than the Local Educa-
tion Authority.

Nor would the duties to be transferred from the
Poor Law Authorities constitute any serious addition, in
England, to the work of the Town or County Council, and
of its Education Committee, and in Scotland to that of
the School Board. On this point there exists so much
misapprehension, and so much ignorance of the relative
figures, that we propose to examine, in some detail, the

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 79

case of a fail* specimen of all the 327 Local Education
Authorities of England and Wales. Let us visualise what
the proposed enlargement of the sphere of the Local
Education Authority would mean in a typical English
county, such as Gloucestershire. In such a county the Local
Education Authority is already maintaining and directing,
with an elaborate organisation of teachers and inspectors,
day schools all over the county for something like 50,000
children between 3 and 14 ; it is, through its School
Attendance Officers and local committees of managers,
quite successfully getting practically all of them between
5 and 13, and a large proportion of the others, on the school
rolls, and therefore under constant observation ; it is, by
its school doctors and nurses, getting all these under
periodical medical inspection, and gradually making
; arrangements for them to be, somehow, medically treated ;
it is even finding boarding school accommodation, of
I different sorts in different ways, for nearly a hundred
boys and girls, some because they are specially good (the
I County Scholars), some because they are specially bad
I (at reformatory schools), some because they are blind or
• deaf, or mentally defective (at special schools), some
because they have had to be rescued from unsatisfactory
Ihome surroundings, or were found destitute of parental
(care (industrial schools).

Meanwhile, in such a county, there are perhaps ten
(or twelve Boards of Guardians, having among their paupers
i about 1,000 children of school age. This is actually the
I usual number in the Gloucestershire Unions. Not more
tthan 100 of these are entirely under the Guardians' care
J and management, a few placed out in residential institu-
Itions, but most of them dispersed in little knots among the

80 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

ten or a dozen workhouses from which, by common
consent, it is vitally important to rescue them. These
latter children the Education Committee would at once
dispose of, like the similar number with which it is abeady
dealing, by placing them in suitable residential schools, or
by " boarding out." The other 900 child paupers will be
found living at home, already, for the most part, attending
the elementary day schools of the Education Committee,
and known to the Boards of Guardians only as reasons
for giving their widowed mothers or sick fathers so much
more Outdoor Relief. The Education Committee would
treat these Outdoor Relief children as being " boarded
out " with their own parents, to whom, by the agency of
its local sub-committees, it would pay the necessary
weekly sum for their maintenance, and at the same time
extend, to each chUd individually, that continuous friendly
supervision and periodical medical inspection that every
such " ward of the State " imperatively requires. Thus,
the new work to be undertaken by the Gloucestershhe
Education Coromittee, as an addition to its present care of
50,000 children, including residential school acconmiodation
for perhaps 100, would be no more than the finding of
residential school accommodation for less than 100 more,
and the " boarding out " of perhaps 900 children with their

own mothers.

We have so far left out of account the adolescent, the
boy or girl exempt from school attendance, and entering,
often at 13 or 14, upon independent wage-earnmg. At
present the Local Education Authority has no power
to requhe anything of anybody with regard to him. The
Poor Law Authority, unless he actually throws himself
upon the Relieving Officer as starving, wHl do nothmg

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 81

for the able-bodied young person in healtb, even if he has
been, up to the age of 14 brought up as a pauper, on the
pittance of Outdoor Eelief that the Guardians allowed to
his widowed mother. At present, we look on, apparently
unconcerned, and without any public authority intervenmg,
at such a youth going to the devil in his own way ; and
no authority interferes to enforce, with regard to this
potentially valuable young life, the fulfilment of any
responsibility whatsoever, either on the boy, on the parent,
or on the employer. We propose, in concert with practic-
ally every person who has expressed an opinion on the
subject, that this absurd irresponsibility, which de-
monstrably leads to much crime and destitution, should
be brought to an end. We suggest that, if we must let the
boy or girl go to work as early as 13 or 14, or even 15, it
is vital to the life of the community that it should keep,
under effective guardianship of some sort, the all-important
years of adolescence. We would place this duty on the
Local Education Authority, which is abeady attracting a
certain proportion of these young men and young women
to its voluntary evening continuation schools. It would
be quite easy to extend the School Attendance Officer's
existing registration of children up to 14 into one of young
persons up to 18. It ought to be possible to bring all these
young people under educational control. It should be
made a condition of any employer being permitted to make
use of such immature young people in his industry that he
should under no circumstances employ any particular
individual among them for more than thirty hours per
week (as is«ilready law for " partially exempted " children
under 14), and should see that they were entered on the
roll of one of the institutes of the Local Education

82 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Autliority. That Authority would then be responsible for
providing, for practically the whole population between
14 and 18, a " half-time " or " sandwich " curriculum —
either by alternate sessions, alternate days, alternate weeks,
or alternate seasons of the year, according to the circum-
stances of the occupation or the locality — calculated to
ensure to every boy or girl proper physical development,
general training of hand and eye, and as much technological
or domestic economy instruction as may be found practic-
able. But, above all, the Local Education Authority
would be able to keep the growing boys and girls under the
necessary disciplmary supervision, to subject them to
regular hours and persistent effort, and to bring to bear
upon them a certain amount of civilising uifluence, in such
a way as to ensure that none of them, when reaching adult
life, would be, as is unfortunately too often the case at
present, destitute of the very elements of a self-supporting
citizen life.

Even this amount of expansion of sphere of the Local
Education Authority involves but little extension of
principle. The Local Education Authorities are already
empowered to provide classes and schools and institutes
for pupils of any age ; and in all large towns, strenuous
efforts are already made to induce the young people to
attend. The great difficulty is the demand made upon
their time and energy by their industrial employment,
which leaves comparatively little opportunity even for the
willing, and renders any universal compulsion to attend at
evening classes both undesirable and impracticable. In
Scotland, the law has already gone a step further, and now
permits the School Boards to pass by-laws making
attendance up to 17, at hours ensm'ing that the young

DESTITUTION AND CHILD NEGLECT 83

^people will be relieved from some of tliek* industrial work^
Megally compulsory. But to get any such, law generally
(■enacted and enforced will mean, it must be admitted, a
iconsiderable addition to the work of the Local Education
.'Authorities. To get on the roll the three millions of young
[people between 14 and 18, to provide school places (even
lihalf-time) for such a number ; to make all the necessary
ladjustments in working hours or changing shifts, demanded
hby particular trades in particular localities ; to work out
aa suitable curriculum for aU these adolescents ; and finally,
tto get them all in regular half-time attendance, means, we
imust contemplate, a growth in our Local Education
.Authorities equivalent to perhaps 25 per cent, of their
ppresent business, an increase which is, roughly speaking,
mo more than they have actually grown during the past ten
\years. We cannot imagine any development of Local
iCrovernment expenditure that the community as a whole
would be more certain to find promptly and overwhelmingly
[profitable. At each annual parade that we have imagined
doi the new generation then arriving at adult citizenship,
tthe spectators would see, on an average, a rising stature
land a more perfectly healthy form, gentler manners, and
m more virile energy ; an annual recruitment of the com-
munity by men and women competent, in the mass, of
ihigher ranges than heretofore of self-government and
communal life, and producing a larger number than
iheretofore of individuals capable of the advancement of
^knowledge and of the development of higher and more
•varied artistic and spiritual impulses.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IV

Notes and References

Page 63. We are unable to adduce statistics as to the proportion or
uiimbere of persons aged 21 who are, in the several ways referred to, so far
defective as to be likelj^ to fall into destitution. "But nothing turns on the
numbers, which are admittedly large. The figure of ^'150,000,000 as the
amount spent annually on children and young people under 21, in excess of
their prodiictiou (and therefore upon each year's quota, from birth to
manhood), is a mere estimate. It may be added that the amount suggested
is about 8 per cent, of the nation's income.

Page G5. The quotation is from the Report of the Consultative Com-
mittee of the Board of Education upon the School Attendance of Children
below the age of 5 years, 1908 (Cd. 4259).

Page 66. With regard to the physical condition, the medical inspection,
and the medical treatment of children of school age, see The Annual
Reports of the Chief Medical Officer of the Board of Education for England
and Wales, and the Annual Reports now being issued by the Medical Officers
of Health of the various Counties and County Boroiighs {e.g., Hampshire,
by R. A. Lyster; Herts, by F. E. Fremantle; Croydon, by Meredith
Richards, etc.

The London County Council has issued some instructive reports as to
school feeding; see Report of the Joint Committee on Underfed Children
for the Season 1906-7 (L.C.C., No. 1074, 1907) ; Reports on the Home Circum-
stances of "Necessitous" Children in twelve selected schools (L.C.C., No.
1203, 1909); and the successive Annual Reports of the Medical Officer
(Education) to the Council.

Page 67. The Condition of the Liverpool School Children, by Dr. A. S.
Arkle (Tinling & Co., Liverpool, 1907).

Page 68. The quotation is from the Minority Report of the Poor Law
Commission, 1909, Part II., ch. v., B (i) (p. 651 of official 8vo edition).
See also Report to the Poor Law Commission on Boy Labour, by Cyril
Jackson. The Town Child, by Reginald Bray, L.C.C. (XJnwin : 1907), should
also be consulted.

For the attempts now being made to adapt the organisation of the Labour
Exchange to the problem of juvenile employment, see The Labour
lixchange in Relation to Boy and Girl Labour, by F. Keeling (1910);
Juvenile Labour Exchanges and After-Care, by Arthur Greenwood (P. S.
King & Son: 1911); Memorandum by the Board of Trade and Board of
Education with regard to co-operation between Local Exchanges and Local
Education Authorities exercising their powers under the Education (Choice
of Employment) Act, 1910 (Wyman & Son: 1911); the Memorandum of the
Edinburgh School Board and co-operation between the Educational, Informa-
tion and Employment Bureau and the Labour Exchange (Edinburgh School
Board : 1911) ; and the papers and proceedings of the Education Section of the
First National Conference on the Prevention of Destitution (P. S. King &
Sou: 1911).

84

NOTES AND REFERENCES

85

Page 73. The extent to which the more energetic Local Education
Authorities are now taking cognizance of the physical needs and home
circumstances of their pupils is not commonly realised. The London
County Council has a special " Children's Care Sub-Committee." The
Edinburgh School Board has a " Health Committee." The great instru-
ment for this purpose, apart from the School Doctor and the School Nurse,
is the " Children's Care Committee," or " School Canteen Committee,"
appointed in pursuance of the Education (Administrative Provisions) Act
of 1907. For these bodies see School Care Committees : a Guide to their
Work, by Miss Maud F. Davies; and Children's Care Committees : how to
work them in Public Elementary Schools, by Miss Margaret Frere.

Page 73. For the obligatory nature of the Provisions of the Scotch
Education Act, 1908, see the Memorandum on the Feeding of School
Children in Edinburgh, by J. W. Peck, Clerk to the Edinburgh School
Board, 1910.

Page 77. For a precisely authenticated description of the ineptitudes of
the Poor Law administration, whether in England or in Scotland, with
regard to children, the reader must be referred to the Minority Eeport of
the Poor Law Commission, 1909, Part I., chs. iv. and v. (pp. 71-170 of
official 8vo edition); and the Minoritij Report for Scotland (Scottish
National Committee, 180, Hope Street, Glasgow).

Page 80. How easily the Local Education Authority could manage the
duties proposed to be assigned to it, may be seen in the interesting Report
to the Edinburgh School Board upon the proposals of the Poor Law
Commission, so far as they affect the work of the Board, by J. W. Peck,
Clerk to the Board (Edinburgh : 1911).

Page 83. It is interesting to see the Times editorially approving of the
proposal that "every public provision for the general care of children be
placed under the control of the Education Authority " (Times, May 22nd,
1909, in leading article).

V

Sweating and Unemployment as Causes of Destitution

We can imagine some readers being impatient at the
elaborate proposals of the preceding chapters. To them
it seems that the principal cause of destitution, out-
weighing all others, is simply the deficiency of income of
the wage-earning class. If you will but secure, such
objectors are apt to say, to every willing worker regular
employment at standard wages, there will be practically
no destitution ; every head of a household will be able to
pay his own way ; and there will be no need for all this
elaborate and complicated social machinery dealing with
sickness and children. There is reason in this protest.
A large amount of the sickness in working-class households
is due simply to the lack of food, to the over-crowding of
the dwelling, to the inability to take either adequate rest
or- precautions against exposure, all this arising directly
from want of money. An enormous proportion of the
child destitution that we have described comes, not from
any carelessness or cruelty of the parents, but from sheer
insufiiciency of income to permit those who are neither
saints nor geniuses to obtain good nm'ture for their children.
It is quite true that, so far as concerns all the sickness and
child destitution arising solely from the parents' insuffici-
ency of earnings, by far the best method of prevention is

86

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 87

to ensure to every willing worker regular employment
at an adequate wage. We believe that this can be done,
and that both unemployment and sweating can be
prevented, to a degree, and with an approach to uni-
versality, far greater than has hitherto been supposed ; and
in this and the following chapter we shall describe how
it has been done, here and there, with regard to sweating,
and how it can be done with regard to unemployment.
But even with regular work at standard wages, diseases
arise and spread unless they are deliberately prevented ;
the whole sanitary organisation of the city has to be
looked after ; and the range of preventive hygiene, for
rich and poor alike, becomes every day greater. An
efl&cient Public Health Department will be needed even
by the best paid city. Moreover, even if we secured to
every adult a substantial livelihood, he would find it
neither economical nor convenient to do without his
municipal government, and to be driven to arrange with
private contractors for the pavement in front of his
house or for a street lamp at the corner, or to depend
solely on competitive enterprise for the school, the hospitals
and perhaps the lunatic asylum that the different members
of his family might require. We find, on the contrary,
that the more secure and financially prosperous any
conimunity of wage-earners becomes, the more disposed
it is to develop the social machinery of co-operation,
whether in their distributive stores, the enterprises of their
municipal council, or the public services of the State. But
be this as it may, we cannot afford to let sickness devastate
our population, and child destitution enfeeble each
successive generation, whilst we are waiting for the
necessarily slow and difficult evolution of a perfectly

g8 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

organised industrial State. Moreover, any such better
organisation is itself dependent on there being a better
bred and better nurtured population, of a higher type than
much that we at present produce. If it be true that
unemployment and sweating cause much sickness and child
destitution, it is equally true that so long as we let the
feeble-minded increase and multiply, so long as we permit
sickness to prey upon us, so long as we allow the children's
lives to be wrecked through lack of nurture and training,
we certainly cannot promise regular employment at good
wages to everybody, for the simple and sufficient reason
that a large proportion of us will not be fit for it. Thus
we are bound to take the most energetic action poafeible
to prevent each and every cause of destitution, whenever
and wherever we find it in operation, even though we may
believe that each successive victory, whether over one
cause or the other, will, in itself, render unnecessary a
great deal of the subsequent campaign.

And first with regard to what is commonly known as
" sweating," the grim fact that, among the sixteen millions
of adult wage-earners there are a huge uncounted multitude
whose condition, even when in constant employment,
brings them within, the classic definition of the House of
Lords Committee m 1890: "Earnings barely sufficient to
sustain existence : hours of labour such as to make the
lives of the workers periods of almost ceaseless toil :
sanitary conditions injurious to the health of the persons
employed and dangerous to the public." These sweated
workers are, of course, not women only. The unskilled
labourers of our great industrial centres, even some of the
worst paid of the handicrafts of men, are in no better
circumstances. Alike in London and in the provincial

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 89

towns, and even in the rural districts, we find innumerable
cases of the same adverse conditions, notably in all the
nooks and crannies of the industrial world where the work
is done in the worker's own home, or under " the little
master " or otherwise than within the organisation of the
factory system or " great enterprise," upon which better
conditions can be enforced. The families of all these
sweated workers are, it is clear, chronically destitute of
one or other of the necessaries of life. No sweated worker,
for instance, can afford to buy fresh milk for her child, stiU
less pay for medical treatment either for herself or any
member of the family, whilst the tenement of the low-paid
operative is chronically overcrowded, frequently to the
point of insanitary and indecent occupation below any
civilised standard.

Now, it requires only a little acquaintance with
English industrial history to recognise that the evil of
sweating is not only an old one, but also a diminishing
one. A century ago the greater part of the manual
working-class was in the position that the minority of
sweated workers are to-day. The nation has succeeded in
rescuing large sections of the wage-earners — notably the
coal miners and the cotton operatives, who were once
amongst the most " sweated " of all workers — from the
morass of sweating and consequent destitution, in which,
at the beginning of the nineteenth century, they were
sunk. The means by which the area of . the morass has
been lessened are known to us. We, as a community,
know, by practical experience, exactly how sweating has
been prevented, and how the rest of the morass can be
drained, as soon as we, as a conamunity, choose to take the
necessary action.

90 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Our first expedient, it is instructive to realise — the i
one that seemed to the enlightened folk of the time
inevitable and mere commonsense — was to deal with the
sweated workers by the Poor Law. When a man or
Woman could, by constant toil, earn less than enough to i
maintain himself and his family, the remedy was Poor
Relief — what was, in the South of England, afterwards
called the " Rate in Aid of Wages." "SYhen the sweated i
worker or his family fell ill, the Poor Law doctor visited <
them and gave them bottles of medicine. When the
sweated weaver or the agricultural labourer succumbed
under his privations, it was the Poor Law Authority that \
buried him, and doled out the barest subsistence to his
widow and orphaned children. And as all these activities
of the Poor Law Authority in relieving the destitution of
the sweated worker, did nothing to prevent sweating, th*
sweating went on year after year creating more destitution
to be relieved. In fact, things got worse. The Poor Law
relief of the destitution caused by sweating acted as a sort
of " bounty " to those trades and those employers not
paying full subsistence wages, and led to a constant
extension of the system. What was happening was ai
ousting of the self-supporting by the parasitic industries.
" Whole branches of manufacture," eloquently summed up
the Poor Law Commissioners of 1834, " may thus follow
the course, not of coal mines, or of streams, but of
pauperism ; may flourish like the fungi that spring from
corruption, in consequence of the abuses which are ruining
all the other interests of the places in which they are
established, and cease to exist in the better administered
districts, in consequence of that better administration."

Gradually we learnt a better way. In 1834, by the

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 91

dramatic revolution recommended by the Poor Law Com-
mission, we turned all these sweated workers out of the
Poor Law, and pereniptorily stopped the " Rate in Aid of
Wages." It must for ever remain as a blot on the memory
of the Whig Government of that date that this harsh, and
in some of its applications inexcusably cruel measure, was
not accompanied either by any systematic prevention of
sweating or by any new provision for those who were
ousted by the method of reform employed. Fortunately,
in the very same decade, on the inspiration of Lord
Shaftesbury and another school of reformers, we were
slowly and tentatively applying a new expedient in the
legislative enactment of minimum conditions of employ-
ment, below which no worker was allowed to fall. This
expedient — the collectively prescribed " Common Rule " of
minimum conditions — was what the organised workmen
had long been striving for in their Trade Unions, and what
they have since more and more elaborated in their formal
agreements with the organised employers in each industry.
Lord Shaftesbury and his successors got the same expedient
embodied in the long succession of Factory and Workshop
Acts, Mines Regulation Acts, Merchant Shipping Acts,
Railways Regulation Acts, Shop Hours Acts and now the
Trade Boards Act. Beginning at first with children, and
-gradually extending to young persons and women, this
labour code has only tardily and imperfectly come to include
..adult men. Starting only with textile factories, its range
gradually widened so as to take in coal mines and paper
mills and potteries ; all other factories ; then all sorts of
workshops and ships and railways and industrial enterprises
of all kinds. Dealing at first only with sanitary conditions
.and hours of labour, the "National Minimum" is now

92 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

coming to apply, in trade after trade, even to the rate of
wages and the list of piece-work prices. In the United
Kingdom, Avhilst this "Labour' Code" has already-
prevented perhaps the greater part of the sweating that
used to exist, we have as yet stopped short of any complete
and consistent application of the remedy. Many classes of
workers, and several of the conditions of emplo3rment yet
remain untouched, and open to the " sweater." In New
Zealand and Australia very nearly every wage-earner, in
very nearly every industry, finds, under the Arbitration
Courts and Wages Boards, this democratically prescribed
" National Minimum " of wages, leisure and conditions
of health and safety definitely guarding him against the
possibility — not, it is true, of unemployment, but of being
sweated — against having to submit to " earnings barely
sufficient to sustain existence ; hours of labour such as to
make the lives of the workers periods of almost ceaseless
toil ; sanitary conditions injurious to the health of the
persons employed and dangerous to the public."

We do not propose here to discuss the argument under-
lying this policy of the National Minimum, which has been
demonstrably so successful in preventing sweatmg wherever
it has been applied ; nor can we stay to elaborate the
particular measures still required in the United Kingdom
before we shall be giving, to every sweated worker, the
same sort of legislative security that we actually accord,
with so much financial gain to the industry, to the Lanca-
shire textile operative. The reader will find all these
points, and all the objections that can be urged, dealt with
in both technical treatises and popular manuals. We
must content ourselves on the present occasion with
repeating our opinion — an opinion from which we do not

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 93

think that any qualified economist will dissent — that if the
" sweating system " is still with us, it is merely because we
do not, as a community, choose to take the scientifically
ascertained means of preventing it.

But although a universal and thorough-going applica-
tion of the policy of the Factory Acts can, without any
insuperable difficulties, secure a standard wage and
standard conditions to every person who is actually in
employment, it leaves untouched the problem of unem-
ployment. The best possible Factory Act, like the most
effective Trade Union, does not prevent the dismissal of
the wage-earners from their situations at every decline in
the employer's trade. We have chosen to assume, when
we have troubled to think about it at all, that any wage-
earner thus turned off will be readily " absorbed " by " the
Labour Market " ; and that he will at once find some other
place. We realise now that this exposure of the workman's
livelihood, and the whole conditions of existence of his
family, to such extreme dependence on the ever changing
volume of trade, is to subject him and them to an uncer-
tainty which is both cruel and demoralising. Moreover,
we cannot nowadays shut our eyes to the fact that many
thousands of workmen are not able to find another place,
without a delay which exposes them and their families to
great hardship, and which is often so prolonged as to bring
them, both financially and in personal character, to ruin.
In a word, we have become acutely conscious of " the
unemployed."

Unemployment is, of course, in the United Kingdom
as elsewhere, no new thing ; and there is no reason to
suppose even that it prevails to any greater extent, or in
any more extreme form, than throughout the past hundred

94 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

years. The number of workers unemployed in any one
season, or in any particular year, fluctuates up and down ;
and although no exact statistics are available, it is certain
that the depressions of past times were quite comparable
in severity, and that they produced quite as much distress
as those of our own day. Our own impression, indeed,
derived from wide and prolonged study of aU the facts, is
that such years of acute crisis as those of 1816, 1841, and
1879, witnessed a considerably larger proportion of men
out of work, and certainly more widespread destitution and
misery, than anything that this generation has suffered.
But the evil is so great, and the amount of destitution that
it causes is so enormous, that any gratifying comparison
with the past seems to us, in the twentieth century, out of
place.

To the ordinary man of the middle or upper classes,
" Unemployment " is apt to mean a condition in which,
whilst the great bulk of the manual working wage-earners
are in situations at wages — and here he may think vaguely
of his coachman or his gardener — there are also the
" unemployed " ; a group, a special section, or a more or
less permanent class, who for reasons which he cannot help
suspecting to be in some way personal to themselves, find
it impossible to get situations at all. Quite naturally, he
thinks that, somehow or other, there is " not enough work
to go round " ; and his mind turns to schemes of getting
" more employment," if not by " Relief Works," then by
the results of a reformed tariff or by afforestation. Or, as
a mark of enlightenment, he may prefer to concentrate
attention on the possibility of regenerating, by means of
" Detention Colonies " and perhaps emigration, the class
whom he thinks of as " the unemployed," and he will

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 95

sonietinies be charitable enough mdignantly to deny that
they are all "unemployable."

To the workman, " unemployment " is not the
|, attribute of a special class, or indeed, of any particular
period or place, but the invariable accompaniment of the
wage-earner's life in the present organisation of industry.
To him, " unemployment " means always the actual
.dismissal of some workman from his means of livelihood.
He knows that such dismissals are always occurring, in all
trades, to men of all degrees of skill, all ages, and all
characters, quite irrespective of any personal circumstances
vor conduct. He sees that such dismissals take place from
•all sorts of causes. He realises, perhaps more clearly than
lany other class, how incessantly the volume of his particular
:i3ervice that is demanded by the world, waxes and wanes —
Ibhrough the cyclical fluctuations of national trade, the
. yearly succession of the seasons, the unaccountable changes
lia taste or habit or fashion, the invention of new machines,
Ibhe discovery of new materials, the adoption of new
vprocesses, the shifting of industry or population from one
iiocality to another, the bankruptcy of this particular
Bmployer, or the death of another. He is, therefore,
:^eenly alive to the fact that the one thing certain about
wery wage-earning employment is its perpetual insecurity,
and the one assurance is that the number of the dismissals,
at any one moment, at any particular season, or during
any given year, can never be predicted in advance. This
bhronic msecurity and this uicessant liability to change
«eems to hun to be becoming more and more characteristic
bf mdustrial life. And when the workman has lost his
blace, the weary, heart-breaking search for another
lutuation may extend over a longer or shorter period

96 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

his life, according to luck or circumstances. Sometimes
a man who has been dismissed gets taken on somewhere
else, with no longer interval (and therefore no longer
cessation and loss of the family income) than a few days ;
sometimes he has to wait until the slack season has passed
over ; sometimes, again, he will hunt in vain for an
employer needing an additional hand for as long as twelve
months, or even longer ; and occasionally, he may fail ever
to get taken on at all at the trade which he had cherished
as his possession, either because it is being superseded, or
because he himself has gradually become so elderly as
never to take the fancy of any foreman. This, in one
degree or another, is the experience that falls to the lot —
excepting only in a few specially continuous occupations,
in which a certain proportion of the men get, in effect,
virtually lifelong employment — of practically every one of
the sixteen millions of manual working wage-earners of the
United Kingdom. Moreover, quite apart from these
perpetual, and more or less frequent, dismissals from
employment, which to the workman constitute the problem
of Unemployment, there is a further and distinct evil. He
is conscious of the existence all around him of a large class
of men, of all ages and, like those in his own trade, of all
grades of conduct and character, who pass then- whole
lives neither in employment nor out of employment — that
is to say, they have never been fortunate enough to get
any situation at weekly wages, and they have to subsist
on a succession of brief casual jobs, of a few hours' duration,
without assurance either of getting enough of such jobs in
the week to enable them to live, or of getting so few of them
as to make some other source of food indispensable. This
large class of dock and wharf labourers, market and

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 97

warehouse porters and innumerable other kinds of casual
workers, are the chronically " Under-employed " who form
actually the bulk of the workers in certain industries, and
a fringe about many others.

To those who have not actually experienced or not
closely observed the life of the unemployed (and property-
less) man, it is difficult, without " sensationalism," and
harrowing details, to describe the effect of prolonged
Unemployment or chronic " Under-employment " on the
family life. Meaning as it does, the lack of food, clothing^
firing, and decent housing conditions, it punishes the
women and children at least as much as it does the men.
It punishes them not merely by physical hardship but also
by the insidious moral degradation that, under the actual
circumstances of destitution in an urban slum, almost
inevitably accompanies it. For the able-bodied man him-
self, nothing is more demoralising than the disheartening
and disabling search for work, the consciousness that wife
and child are suffering at home, the sickness of hope
deferred, the long periods of absence, the weariness of
continual walking from one place to another, the necessary
waiting about at factory gates and street corners, the
-inevitable temptation to accept the drink offered by more
fortunate comrades. Yet this is the ordeal to which
nearly every working-class family is exposed. At all
times — even those that we of the propertied class call
prosperous — many thousands of working-class families
are simultaneously being subjected to this trial : at most
times tens of thousands : and, every few years, hundreds
of thousands. And bad as is the effect on family life and
personal character of this spasmodic Unemployment,
that of chronic Under-employment — the " casual "

H

98 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

existence of the dock and wharf labourer, and of tens of
thousands of others of which he is the type — is demons-
trably even worse.

If we contemplate that, even at the best of times,
in the busiest of seasons, the number of men discharged
from employment in the United Kingdom, certainly
amounts to several millions in the course of a year ; that
there are, at any moment, several hundred thousand
men seeking work and unable to find it during the current
week ; and that many tens of thousands of them, in one
trade or another, are out of work for weeks and even
months together — this at the best of times — it seems
incomprehensible that a practical business community
should permit such a state of things to continue. Even
from the narrowest standpoint of wealth production, it is
conceivably short-sighted. If at every temporary cessation
of orders to a particular firm, the directors not only stopped
the engine, but also turned all the machinery into the
street to be rained upon, so that it was found rusty and
unserviceable when new orders came in, the behaviour
would not be more wasteful than the way the community
treats its manual working wage-earners. And this analogy
directs attention merely to the deterioration, under Un-
employment, of the physical or mechanical powers of the
man. It does not compel us to realise the deterioration
of character which is the commonest result of a hopeless
search for work. To the thoughtful workman, it is adding
insult to injury when the propertied classes make it a
ground for complaint and reproach that men who have
been subjected by the community to the terrible experiences
that we have indicated, suffer the ahnost inevitable con-
sequences and become, in the end, " unemployable."

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 99

The failure of the directors of industry, the statesmen
and the propertied classes generally, to realise the social
wreckage which they are creating, is due partly to their
lack of realisation of what Unemployment and Under-
employment actually means in a working-class household,
but partly also to a real callousness as to the economic
waste, a callousness arising from the assumption that
there will perpetually be a new supply of labour-force
leaving school and begging for situations, at rates
covering no more than the current cost of subsistence.
If new machinery were obtainable in a similar way,
without payment of the capital cost, for no more
than its running expenses, the directors who, on every
temporary cessation of orders, turned all their mechanical
appliances into the street, would be financially justified,
because they could always begin again with new plant
without cost to themselves. As things are, they cannot
afford to let their machinery be spoilt, whenever it has
to stop, because if they did they would have to bear the
capital cost of replacing it. This capital cost is exactly
what the community as a whole has to bear with regard
to each successive generation of human beings. The " new
hands " at the factory gate, the youths and maidens, by
whom the employer is perpetually replacing those who
have been rendered " unemployable," have cost a large
sum to rear. But this is not the whole expense to the
community of the "wrecking" process. The spofit
machinery can be "scrapped," but damaged human
beings cannot in this way be disposed of. The
community necessarily finds itself bearing the expense
of maintaining (whether in prison or in hospital, by
invalidity or pensions in the workhouse) those whom

100 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the organisation or disorganisation of industry has
wrecked.

How have our statesmen dealt with this problem ?
Throughout the nineteenth century — in that Victorian
era which thought itself so clever in its " Political
Economy " — the short and easy way of dealing with
Unemployment was to refer the man out of Employment
to the tender mercies of the Poor Law. To the unemployed
man who could find no situation, as to the chronically
under-employed man who could not live on his few jobs,
the Poor Law offered — alike to those who had exhausted
the savings of painful thrift and to those who had never
saved — prior to 1834, the extraordinarily demoralising
Outdoor Relief of the " rate in aid of wages " ; and after
1834, the deliberately deterrent conditions of confinement
in the Workhouse. Eor the most part, the man who is
chronically under-employed refuses (as it was desired and
intended that he should) to accept Poor Law relief on
the terms on which it is now offered, especially as it
involves the breaking up of his home, and the entry of
his wife and children into the Workhouse. Thus, so far
as the decent, self-respecting, and respectable workman
is concerned, the Poor Law effects nothing. But this is
not the worst of it. As the penal relief that is offered,
the deliberately deterrent conditions of the Workhouse
for the able-bodied, cannot be made sufficiently deterrent
on the side of the physical requirements of life — seeing
that even the harshest Workhouse must afford enough
food, clothing, warmth, and sleep — the deterrence has to
be secured by offering mentally penal conditions — shame
and disgrace, degrading toil and brutalising associations.
Hence it is accepted, normally, only by the lowest and

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 101

most demoralised men. And to just this section, tlie
conditions of tlie Workhouse are not deterrent ! To the
casual labourer of a certaia type, as to the habitual
vagrant, the abundant coarse food, the warmth, the long
hom's of sleep, even the promiscuous bad company, that
he finds in the harshest Workhouse, are quite acceptable
for a spell, whilst he is recovering from his last debauch,
or waiting for the weather to get warmer. Thus the whole
of the Poor Law provision for the able-bodied man —
obviously futile in preventing Unemployment, and to
the decent workman useless even as a means of succour
— becomes actually a series of spasmodic subsidies, to the
system of chronic " Under-employment," the evil con
sequences of which it promotes and extends. It is, in
effect, a modern form of " Kate in Aid of Wages," applied
as a sort of bounty in the lowest and more demoralised
grades, as if it had been desired to subsidise the particular
way of engaging " hands " which has proved to be the
most socially pernicious !

But there is no end to the injurious results of our
barbarous way of dealing with the unemployed man under
the Poor Law. An obvious reaction of the penal Casual
Ward is the philanthropic Free Shelter. Wherever there
are destitute people who will not, for good reasons or bad,
go into the Workhouse, we see developed an array of
spasmodic and unsystematic voluntary charities of one
sort or another — shelters and soup-kitchens, the winter
distribution of food on the Thames Embankment, and
so on. These voluntary agencies give, as a rule, only
the barest momentary relief, in food and lodging — they
can afford no more — but they give it without the degrading
conditions of the Workhouse, often, indeed, with the

102 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

most praiseworthy love and devotion. This form of
treatment of the unemployed man, whilst it gives us no
solution, actually serves as a subsidy to the system of
" casual " and under-employed labour, just as the Poor
Law does. Whether its total efEects are better or worse
than those of the Workhouse is a question that may be
left to the reader's own judgment.

Dissatisfied both with Poor Law relief, lax or strict,
and with the spasmodic benevolence of the charitable
and the religious, the community turned in despair towards
the latter part of the nineteenth century to " Relief
Works." The idea of " setting the poor to work," of
" organising the imemployed " in mutually supplying
each other's needs, of " bringing the landless man to the
manless land," and so on, which has captured the imagina-
tion of successive reformers for three centuries, came once
more into vogue. But all sorts of experiments, voluntary
and municipal, gave only the same invariable and dis-
appointing result. The essential feature of all kinds of
" ReUef Works," or plans for " finding employment for
the imemployed," is that of waiting until men have been
discharged from their situations, and are unable to find
others ; and then of taking on, at wages, at the artificially
invented enterprise, the men thus " unemployed." But
these men, at any particular time and place, are of the
most diverse kinds. There are casual labourers and
" navvies," painters and carpenters, tailors and grooms,
shop-assistants and cab-drivers. In order to employ
them all, the enterprise must be something that they can
all help at. Hence it is impossible, with any given group
of " unemployed " men, even if the capital and directing
ability were available, to undertake the supply of anything

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING loa

that tlie community might require, or to start any in-
dustrial undertaking of any high type — the making of
any commodity in a factory, the building of a ship, or
even the erection of a house — because this involves having
an exactly proportionate number of each of a series of
different kinds of skill and labour. The heterogeneous
crowd of men who happen to be simultaneously " un-
employed " at any given place and time can practically
be put to nothing but digging — that " ground work " which
is the special craft of the nawy, and which all other men
do badly ! The idea that the crowd of unemployed towns-
men could be successfully put to agriculture — that they
could, without training, grow food for each other — proved,
it need hardly be said, as great a delusion as they could
build an ocean liner or run a machine shop. In despair,
they had to be put to road-making, or cleaning away a
hill, or filling a swamp. And when such piece of " digging "
is invented, in order to employ the unemployed, it is
almost invariably found to cost so much in management
and supervision, use of plant and tools, purchase of
incidental stores, hire of horses and carts, etc., that it
would have been as cheap to the community to have,
given the men their wages in return for marching up and
down the ground all day ! And such a course would be
hardly less demoralising than the solemn pretence of
" Belief Works," which inevitably produce a bad eSect
■on the men employed. It is not in human nature con-
tinuously to put forth one's full stroke, on a job which
I one knows to have been invented for the sake of giving
• employment, under a foreman who knows it also, with a
'universal feeling that the longer the job takes the better
' the purpose will be served for the sake oi which it was

104 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

undertaken. And to get into a habit of " slacking " is,
in foreman and labourer alike, subtly demoralising. Thus,
to provide Relief Works for the unemployed, whatever form
they take, is— without in any way preventing the occur-
rence of unemployment — not only to subsidise the specially
evil system of " casual " labour but actually to deteriorate
the labourers themselves.

There is, we think, an almost universal feeling that
all these methods of dealing with the Unemployed — in-
dispensable as they may be in an emergency — result in
little but failure. Resembling each other, as they do, in
a common failure, it is instructive to consider what other
features they have in common. The Poor Law prior to
1834, and the Workhouse of to-day, the philanthropic
Free Shelter and the Municipal Relief Works, all have
the feature that they wait until men are actually thrown
out of work — until Unemployment has occurred — and
then try to relieve the sufferers ; just as we used to wait
until typhus had occurred, and then carried relief to the
sufferers. All four methods agree, too, in a policy of
delay, in asking the sufferers as long as possible to make
shift for themselves, and only to present themselves for
treatment when they can remain away no longer — just
as the Poor Law does still, with regard to sick people
generally, and just as the Parish Overseer did with regard
to the sufferers from typhus. Finally, what these methods
do for the sufferer from Unemployment, when they have
got him under treatment, comes, in all four cases, to
something very like that which the Poor Law did at
last provide by way of relief for the t5rphus patient ; it
never prevented the disease from spreading, it seldom
effected a cure, and it always had incidental bad results

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 105

on family life and personal character. Following the
analogy, may we not say that we must discover some
way of dealing with the social disease of Unemployment
that shall be free from all these features, and that shall
be comparable with the way in which the Public Health
Authority has so successfully dealt with the equally fell
disease of typhus ? We must aim, primarily, not so much
at relieving the particular sufferers, but, by altering the
environment, at preventing the occurrence of the disease —
that is to say, at so changing the conditions that we may
to a great extent render it unnecessary for employers
to discharge men at all. We must aim, moreover, at
limiting the disease where it does occur, to the narrowest
possible area, and therefore at dealing at the earliest possible
moment with every case — that is to say, we must give up
all idea of " deterring " men who are out of work from
making known their position and their needs, and we
must, on the contrary, do our utmost to encourage them
to come forward and have situations found for them.
And, in order to do this, we must, as a community, accept
the responsibility (as we do now, not only for typhus but
for most infectious diseases) not only for scientifically
treating " all cases of unemployment, but also for pro-
viding, wherever necessary, as part of the treatment,
the means of subsistence for the patient and his dependents.
Only in this way (as with the hospital treatment of typhus)
can we ensure that the treatment shall be effective for
good, and shall, at any rate, not deteriorate the patient
whom we subject to it.

Now, we do not claim that we have discovered, or
that any one has discovered, any instant panacea against
Unemplojroient, or any quite easy and perfectly certain

106 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

method of altogether preventing its occurrence. Social
evils are not to be exorcised by any expeditious device.
We may illustrate the position by an historical analogy.
The framers of the great Report of the Health of Towns
Commission in 1844 saw their way to the prevention of
disease on a large scale, notably tj^hus. But this did
not mean that they saw their way to prevent the occur-
rence of all disease whatsoever, or even to abolish all typhus
straightaway. It took a whole generation of further
scientific research and additional administrative ex-
perience to work out their policy and to put it into opera-
tion ; to get anywhere near a satisfactory main drainage
system and water supply, or adequate sanitary inspection
and hospital isolation, even in the large towns ; and,
whilst much was at once achieved, and more has since
been accomplished, in actually preventing the occurrence
of disease, we are still, by the incessant perfecting of the
technique, developing our disease-preventing organisation,
and thereby still further lowering both the death-rate
and the " damage-rate." The idea of actually preventing
the occurrence of Unemployment, as contrasted with
relieving the men after they have been thrown out of
work, is in much the same position as the idea of actually
preventing the occurrence of typhus was before the
passing of the Public Health Act. The new public service
of preventing the occurrence of Unemployment, and of
scientifically treating aU the cases that do occur, in such
a way as to obviate the evil results, must necessarily
take a long time to work out experimentally, and to
bring into operation at all points of the industrial field.
What we assert is that the economic discoveries of the
past decade make clear, for the first time, not only the

DESTITUTION AND SWEATING 107

several causes of Unemployment, in its different mani-
festations, but also the way in whicli the evil can be
prevented. We can now see before us, as was never pre-
viously the case, a national policy dealing with every
aspect of the problem, which, if deliberately pursued and
experimentaUy developed, will progressively operate so
as more and more to prevent the very occurrence of in-
voluntary Unemployment and " Under-employment "
in the mass to an extent, and within an approach to
completeness, that we can hardly yet foresee ; and which
will enable us, at the same time, to apply such treatment
to the sporadic cases that must necessarily continue to
occur — cases that will be, for a long time to come, numer-
dus enough — as will prevent deterioration of physique
or character, either in the men thrown out of work or in
their dependents.

This national policy, explained with much detail
in the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission
(especially Chapters IV. and V. of Part II.) will be
1 sketched in outline in the following chapter.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER V

Notes and References

Page 88. What is known as " Sweating," in industry, was the subj ect of
elaborate inquiry by a Committee of the House of Lords in 1888-1890; and
the Eeport of this Committee (1890), with its voluminous evidence, afiorde
still the most useful information on the subject.

A Short Bibliography of Sweating and . . . the Legal Minimum Wage
(National Anti-Sweating League, 34, Mecklenburgh Square, London, 1906,
price 3d.) gives a full survey of books and pamphlets on the subject. See,
in particular. Sweated Industry and the Minimum Wage, by Miss
Clementina Black (Duckworth : 1907) ; The Case for Wages Boards, by Miss
Constance Smith (National Anti-Sweating League : 1908) ; and Makers of
our Clothes, by Lady Meyer and Miss Clementina Black (Duckworth : 1909).

Page 90. For the treatment of " sweating " by parochial relief, cul-
minating in the so-called " Allowance System," of the " Speenhamland
Act," see the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, Part II.,
ch. i. (pp. 437-8 of official 8vo edition), and the contemporary authorities
therein cited. See also The State of the Poor, by Sir P. Eden, 1797, Vol. I.,
pp 575-7; The History of the English Poor Laiv, by Sir George NichoUs,
Vol. II., p. 131; Pauperism and the Poor Law, by Eobert Pashley, p. 258;
and Eeport of the Poor Law Commissioners, 1834 (pp. 121-7 of reprint of
1905).

Page 91. See, for all this development. The History of Factory Legisla-
tion (King : 1910), by Miss B. L. Hxxtchins and Miss Amy Harrison (Mrs.
F. H. Spencer) ; and the chapter entitled " Social Movements " in the
Cambridge Modern History (ch. xxii. of Vol. XII). The economic argument
for these prescribed "Common Rules" is- given, with answers to objections,
in our Industrial Democracy (pp. 715-806) ; and, more succinctly, in Socialism
and National Minimum (Fifield).

The student will find the very successful Compulsory Arbitration and
Wages Boards legislation at the Antipodes well described in State Experi-
ments in Australia and New Zealand, by the Hon. W. P. Reeves (2 vols.,
1902); Newest England, by H. D. LUoyd (New York: 1903); and New
Zealand in Evolution, by Guy H. Scholefield (Unwin : 1909) ; or, more
briefly, in the new Introductory Chapter to our Industrial Democracy. A
more critical account will be found in State Regulation of Labour and
Labour Disputes in New Zealand, by H. Broadhead (Whitcombe & Toombs :
1908) ; and in the Eeport on Wages Boards and Industrial Conciliation and
Arbitration Courts of Australia and New Zealand, by Ernest Aves (Cd. 4167,
1908).

Page 93. On the subject of Unemployment and the Unemployed the
literature is endless. An extensive classified list will be found in the
Bibliography of Unemployment and the Unemployed, by Miss F. I. Taylor,
1909 (P. S. King & Son). The Minority Report of the Poor Law Com-
mission (Part II.) includes a compendious survey of the history of the
subject for the past century, an account of the various experiments tried,

io8

NOTES AND REFERENCES

109

a description of the different kinds of unemployment and unemployed, and
detailed proposals for dealing with the problem. By far the weightiest and
most scientific monograph is Unemployment, a Problem of Industry, by
W. H. Beveridge (Longmans: 1909). See the papers and proceedings of the
TJnemploymeut Section of the Tirst National Conference on the Prevention of
Destitution (P. S. King & Son: 1911); and Unemployment, by Cyril Jackson,
L.C.C. (Longmans: 1910).

Page 102. As to the experience of "Relief Works" of every kind, and of
other forms of provision for the unemployed, when we have let unemploy-
ment occur, see the works already cited. But the Report to the Poor Law
Commission by Mr. Cyril Jackson and the Rev. J. Pringle on the effect of
employment and other forms of relief of the unemployed (Wyman : 1910)
should be studied ; the Board of Trade Report on the Agencies and Methods
of dealing with the Unemployed in certain foreign countries (Cd. 2304..,
1905) ; and The Vagraney Problem, by W. H. Dawson (King : 1910).

VI

How to Prevent Unem'ployment and Under-employment

It is so difficult for those who do not belong to the
wage-earning class to realise the position of the household
dependent on weekly wages that we must, at the risk of
wearisome iteration, once more insist that the evil with
which we are dealing is not any abstract " state of the
labour market," but the dismissal of a workman from his
situation, the breach of continuity in his employment
involving, as this does, so serious a dislocation of his
own life, and of all the conditions of his family existence.
It is obviously far better to prevent a man from losing his
situation, if this can be done, than to let him be thrown
out of work, with all the delay, trouble, loss, and dis-
location involved in getting him into a new situation.
What we have to do, it is clear, is to deal one by one with
the causes that lead to workmen being discharged, and
see, in the first place, how far it is possible to arrest their
operation. And in this survey the reader must have the
patience to be content to consider one cause of Unemploy-
ment at a time, and not to make it a ground of complaint,
with regard to each specific proposal, that it does not
deal with all the causes together.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 111

(a) The Cyclical Fluctuations of Trade

Now, of all tlie causes leading to workmen being
discliarged, one stands out conspicuously. Apart from
the circumstances of individual employers, or the defects
of particular workmen, we find, throughout practically
all industries, a periodical " reduction of hands," or even
temporary " shutting down " of works due to " bad
trade." These waves of depression, affecting all trades
in all countries, show themselves in a diminished volume
of business and a lessening of production, involving, in
the United Kingdom alone, the dismissal of hundreds of
thousands of workmen, from absolutely no fault or short-
coming of their own. And when, in such a time of depres-
sion, a workman loses his place, the Trade Union records
prove that, even the best of workmen, with the most
unblemished of characters, may possibly be many months
before he can regain employment. These " cyclical "
and international depressions of trade, which are seen to
operate quite irrespective of seasonal fluctuations, in-
dustrial revolutions or personal shortcomings, obviously
account for a great mass of Unemployment, though, of
course, by no means the whole of it.

Can this large proportion of quite undesired dis-
missals and quite involuntary losses of situations be
prevented ? The answer now is that, to a very large
extent, at any rate, it is within the power of the Govern-
ment to prevent them from happening, by rendering
them unnecessary. We cannot prevent the cyclical de-
pression itself, for its causes are beyond our grasp, even
beyond our certain knowledge, any more than we can
stop the East Wind. But because we cannot stop the

112 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

East Wind tliere is no reason why it should be allowed I
to give us all cold ! There is such a thing as an i
overcoat. What is suggested is that it is within the power
of the Government, and of the Government alone, to
make such arrangements as will prevent the cyclical
depressions of trade from causing the total demand for
commodities in the country as a whole to fall off ; from
lessening the amount of orders that reach the whole body
of employers, and therefore from necessitating, in the
aggregate, any reduction of staff or dismissal of workmen i
owing to lack of business. -

Let us consider how much the recurrent cyclical
depression amounts to. The proportion of men in employ-
ment among the three-quarters of a million Trade Unionists
entitled to " Out of Work Benefit " varies from 98 per
cent, in good years to 89 per cent, in the worst years.
According to the best available statistics, as given in
evidence to the Poor Law Commission, the amount spent
in wages in the United Kingdom in the best year of the
past decade may have reached £700,000,00*0, employing
on an average, perhaps, sixteen million wage-earners of all
ages and both sexes. The corresponding amount in the
worst year of the decade can, we are assured, hardly have
-been less than £680,000,000, employing, on an average,
according to the same calculation, fifteen millions five
hundred and fifty thousand operatives. And let no one
<;avil at the figures, which do not profess to be more than
the roughest of estimates, upon the accuracy of which
the argument does not depend. What we have to realise
is that, even in the blackest period of trade depression,
something like fifteen-sixteenths of all the wage-earners
still find employment, and something like 95 per cent, of

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 113

tlie highest aggregate of good years is still being paid in
wages. In fact, in the last decade, judging from all the
available evidence, it was the falling short of little more
than two or three per cent, of the total wage bill — of
something like fifteen or twenty millions sterling — that
made the difference between a year at the top of
the " boom " and a year at the bottom of the " slump "
the former with its overtime, its night and day shifts,
its mad rush to open more mines, to build additional
mills, to launch new ships, its feverish over-production ;
the latter, with its bankruptcies of thousands of em-
ployers and its harvest of semi-starvation, misery and
degeneration to perhaps two or three hundred thousand
workmen's homes. Meanwhile, during these same ten
years, the Government, national and municipal, was
spending, on an average, something like £150,000,000 a year
— actually eight or ten times the amount of the difference
in the total wages bill between one year and the other — in
works and services, 'practically without heed to the contem-
poraneous state of the Labour Market, blindly giving its
orders just when each head of a department thought fit,
and in the aggregate to an approximately equal amount
each year. It is calculated by Dr. Bowley, the Reader
in Statistics at the University of London, who is un-
doubtedly the greatest living authority on the subject,
that, if only 3 or 4 per cent, of the Government orders
year by year were reserved, to be executed all together
when trade began to fall off, this would counterpoise the
cyclical fluctuation, so far as all the industries are con-
cerned in which cycHcal depressions are at present met by
dismissal of hands instead of going on short time. The
re-arrangement in this way of no more than forty millions

114 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of expenditure during the whole of the decade 1897-1906
would have smoothed out all the yearly fluctuations in
the volume of business during this period, and would
have made the national aggregate demand for labour
in these industries approximately uniform one year with
another.

Here we have our overcoat against the East Wind !
Without securing an approximate uniformity, one year
with another, in the aggregate demand for labour in the
community as a whole, it is clear that Unemployment
on a large scale cannot be prevented. The only possible
way in which that uniformity can be secured is, so far as
can be seen, the use of the Government orders as a counter-
poise to the uncontrollable fluctuations in the other
orders. If this involved stopping all the Government
orders in the good years and doing all the Government
work in the bad years, the proposal would be an impracti-
cable one, because the Government business must go on
continuously, whatever the state of the Labour Market.
But if the desired end can be achieved by rearranging,
within the decade, no more than three or four, or even six
or eight per cent, of the work that would otherwise have
been done evenly year by year — if it can be even partly
achieved, and the loss and misery only to that extent prevented
— it is impossible to believe that so relatively small a
readjustment is not possible.

We have sometimes been asked, in what way this
proposed manipulation of the Government orders for
works and services, so as to employ men in the lean years
of the decade, who would otherwise not be then employed,
differs in its nature and in its results from the policy of
Relief Works which is now so universally condenmed.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 115

In reality, the two policies are poles asunder. It is not
a matter, as is sometimes supposed, of doing work which
is of genuine public utility and actually required by the
community. Nor does anything turn on the rate of wages
paid. What gives to Eelief Works their evil character,
whether or not they are of real public utility, and whatever
rate of wages is paid, is that the men employed upon them
are taken on because they are unemployed. Accordingly,
Relief Works are of the nature of relief, not prevention.
They do not prevent the occurrence of Unemployment ;
they do not prevent that breach of continuity in the
workman's industrial life which is, in itself, so harmful
to him. They merely come in, by way of succour, after
the breach of continuity has occm-red. And by having
to take on only those men who have already been thrown out
of work, and taking them on because they have remained
out of work, the managers of Relief Works necessarily
find themselves saddled with a heterogeneous crowd of
worlanen, who are not individually picked out for employ-
ment because their specific services are required, in exactly
due proportion one to another, and because these individual
persons have proved themselves in competition among
all the candidates, the best fitted, by character and skill,
for the particular vacancy ; but are taken en bloc, whatever
then- several qualifications and antecedents, just because
they happen, at that particular time and place, to be
together unemployed. Now, it is characteristic of any
mdustrial enterprise of remunerative character in our
own day, that it involves a high degree of organisation,
division of labour, the employment of the various grades
and kinds of workers required in a certain exact pro-
portion one to another, and so on. The result of not

116 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

being able, in anything of the nature of Relief Works,
to pick exactly the men having the skill and antecedents
that are required, and of having, instead, to take on a
heterogeneous crowd, is that no industrial enterprise of
any highly organised character can possibly be under-
taken, and the work accordingly hardly ever can be re-
munerative, or, indeed, of public utility, and can certainly
never form part of normal productive- industry. But it
is not so much in the extravagant cost, or in the waste-
fulness, or in the lack of real utility that the evil of Relief
Work lies. It is in their bad effect on the character of the
men whom they are intended to succour. The taking on
of the heterogeneous crowd, not to work each of them
at his own trade, for his own Standard Rate, but to labour
at some common occupation that can simultaneously
find employment for them all ; which is known to have been
undertaken merely in order to give them employment ;
from which they cannot practically be dismissed, and
where they receive wages at a rate arbitrarily fixed with
a view to what they can live on rather than to the market
rate for any particular kind of labour, inevitably has an
adverse psychological reaction on the men themselves
and on the foremen over them.

Now, contrast this with the proposal to give out the
Government orders for works and services unevenly, and
more in the lean years, rather than evenly year by year.
The mere fact that, on the Index Number of Unemploy-
ment beginning to rise, the Government puts in hand
slightly more building work than would otherwise have
been the case, orders rather more printing, somewhat
increases its usual shipbuilding, raises this year the
amount of its orders for blankets and sail-cloth above

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 117

the normal, and temporarily accelerates the rate at which
the telegraph wires are being laid underground, and
the telephone is being extended to every village,
would not mean the taking on of any crowd of unemployed
workmen anywhere. What it would mean, in the first
place, would be that various building firms and printing
establishments all over the country would find themselves
relieved from the necessity of turning off men ; some
shipbuilding yards would be able to abstain from reducing
hands ; the mills producing blankets and sailcloth would
not need to go on short time, and the contractors for the
telegraph and telephone extensions would find themselves
continuing in employment, and placing upon the Govern-
ment work members of their staffs whom they would
otherwise have had to dismiss. All this prevention of
discontinuity in the employment and wages of tens of
thousands of workmen all over the kingdom, and, for
that matter, also in the profits of hundreds of employers,
would, as we have already indicated, automatically result
in preventing much other discontinuity elsewhere. Even
the gramophone makers might find themselves continu-
ously, instead of intermittently, employed ! And where
employers, by reason of the enlarged Government orders,
had actually to engage additional men they would do so,
not with any view of " employing the unemployed " not
€ven of confining themselves to the men who were at the
moment actually out of situations, but deliberately in
order to attract to their service, it might be from some
ether employers' service, exactly the kinds and grades
of workmen, individually selected on their merits, as being
the most skilful and the most regular workmen who could
then and there be found, in exactly the due proportion

118 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

one to another that the expansion of the particular
business required. There would in this way be no adverse
psychological effect on the workmen, any more than on
the foreman who selected them and supervised their efforts
or on the employer who saw to it that the normal discipline
of his establishment was maintained. Indeed, it would
not even occur to any of them that there was anything
" artificial " or abnormal in the Government order for
sailcloth, for which they had successfully tendered, being
this time 10 or 20 per cent, larger than it was the previous
year.

We cannot now go into details as to how this re-
arrangement of Government works and orders could most
easily be undertaken. We must content ourselves with
a few explanations to avoid the most usual misunder-
standings. It is not suggested that the orders for any
works or commodities that are actually required in any
particular year should be delayed. The Government
will not be asked to forego adding Dreadnoughts to the
fleet, or buying the soldiers necessary boots or buttons,
just because trade is temporarily brisk. What could be
relegated to a ten years' programme, and put in hand
only when trade was showing signs of falling off, are such
items as one-half of the yearly appropriation for rebuilding
and multiplying new post-offices, barracks. Metropolitan
Police Stations and " section houses," departmental offices
and other Government buildings (the other half, in addition
to mere tenancies, sufficing for particularly urgent require-
ments) ; one-half of the normal annual provision for such
stores as blankets, canvas, and Khaki cloth, of which there
is always a large stock ; the whole (or one-half) of the sum
allocated annually to the gradual placing of telegraph wires

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 119

underground, and the gradual extension of tiie telephone
into every little village ; the whole of such printing as the
reports of the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and the
official history of the South African War ; at least one-half
of the annual expenditure on developing the Government
forests and improving the property of the Duchy of
Lancaster ; a considerable proportion of the Board of
Education grants for the building of new training colleges
and secondary schools ; some part of the year's normal
ship-building other than the urgently necessary Dread-
noughts, such as the provision of cruisers, torpedo
boats, etc., which can be built at one time as at another ;
at least one-half of the annual appropriation for new rifle
ranges and drill halls for the Territorial Force ; most of
the capital expenditure of the Congested Districts Board
in Ireland, and so on. And to this should be added the
whole of the sums, amounting to more than a million a
year, already placed at the disposal of the Development
Commissioners and the Road Board. It is clear that
there is, in the aggregate, a very large amount — out of
which the total of four millions a year could easily be
selected — and a very considerable variety of expenditure
which could, without any appreciable inconvenience, be
rearranged within the decade. This policy of using the
Government expenditure to " regularise " the national

«

aggregate demand for labour has, in fact, been expressly
adopted in the Development and Roads Improvement
Funds Act, 1910, in which Parliament laid it down that,
in all proceedings under the Act, regard should be had to
the state of the Labour Market.

Is it necessary to guard against the misunderstanding
that there is here a proposal that the Government should,

120 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

in order to employ tlie unemployed, execute four millions
worth a year (some k«" honest " critics said forty millions
worth a year) of new work ? It is not proposed that any
work should be undertaken, or any order given, that is not
already decided on quite irrespective of Unemployment.
As a matter of fact, the proposed rearrangement of works,
on a ten years' programme, involves literally no cost to
the Government, and only the efiort of " taking thought."
There might even be economy in it, to be set off against
possible incidental expenses (such as interest on temporary
loans), because the expenses of production, even if standard
rates of wages are maintained, are apt to be lower in bad
years than in good ; capital can be had at cheaper rates,
and contractors are eager for business.

Nor is the proposal open to the criticism that any such
rearrangement of Government work would create as much
Unemployment in the good years as it would prevent in
the bad years. What might be lessened in times of brisk
trade, by the Government withholding and reserving a
fraction of its orders, would be the lengthened hours of
work, the night shifts, the " cribbing " time in defiance of
the Factory and Workshops Acts, the overtime and the
pressure, which are harmful in themselves. But to a large
extent the regularisation of the national aggregate demand
for labour, which the rearrangement of the Government
works would produce, or at any rate tend towards pro-
ducing, would mean a real addition to the productivity
of the nation. It is not commonly remembered that, in
our present industrial anarchy, capital is periodically
unemployed as well as labour. At every depression of
trade furnaces are blown out, ships are laid up, mines are
shut down, works are closed, plant and machinery lies

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEK-EMPLOYMENT 121

idle, mills run only half-time, warehouses and shops find
their turnover reduced far below their capacity, capital
in mobile form heaps up at the banks, the gold reserve
swells at the Bank of England, and the rate of discount
goes down to 2 per cent. If, by a regularisation of
national demand, we prevent this recurrent idleness of
capital, concurrently with the involuntary idleness of
unemployed men, we make a real addition to the national
product, increasing both profits and wages.

We do not assert that it is practicable for the Govern-
ment to " regularise " the demand for labour in any
particular trade, but only the aggregate of demand in all
industries together. To this extent, accordingly, the
proposed regularisation of the aggregate might still leave
periods of great pressure in some industries, and of
unemployment in others. These would usually be greatly
mitigated. But as the Government works and orders,
though extending to nearly all trades, form only a tiny
proportion of the business of some of them, we must
contemplate that any possible rearrangement would
directly affect such trades only to a very slight extent.
Here, however, must be remembered what the economists
know as the " reverberation " of Unemployment. There
seems, for instance, at first sight, no way by which any
redistribution of Government works and orders could
prevent the falling off in the production of gramophones
in a Surrey village. The Government does not buy
gramophones. But consider how it happens. In good
years, the shipbuildmg yards of Jarrow or Sunderland are
humming with business. The shipwrights earning regular
wages make busy all the little shops that supply their
household needs. These little shops make busy the

122 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

wholesale houses in London and Manchester and New-
castle, and these again the manufacturers all over the
kingdom, and even, at every port, the importing
merchants, and the dock-labourers. And among all these
people there are some who are ordering gramophones, and
thereby unconsciously keeping in regular employment in
some Surrey village the skilled artizans who make them.
Let now the slump in shipbuilding come, and Jarrow and
Sunderland be rendered desolate. If profits fall off, and
men are unemployed all along the line, there are fewer
gramophones ordered. It is easy to see how the mere
'"reverberation" throws the gramophone maker out of
work. Now, if the proposed rearrangement of Govern-
ment orders kept the national aggregate demand for labour
and therefore the national aggregate of wages, approxi-
mately uniform year by year, there would— even if the
Government itself did not buy a single gramophone —
never be any gramophone makers thrown out of work
merely by reason of a general depression of trade, though,
of course, other causes might operate to make the demand
for gramophones fall off. And the same would be true of
innumerable other industries, and indeed, to some extent,
of all industries. The very depression itself creates in
every direction more depression. Prevent it in one
industry and you, to a corresponding extent, prevent it
in others. Regular isation of the aggregate would tend
greatly to regularisation of every part of the aggregate. We
put, therefore, as the indispensable preliminary to any
effective prevention of Unemployment, the deliberate use
of the Government orders for non-urgent works and
services, as a means of regularismg the national aggregate
demand for labour year by year, so that the aggregate

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 123

volume of employment in the community as a whole may
remain fairly constant.

Finally, we have to meet the objection, often hastily
put forward by someone priding himself on his knowledge
of Economics, that the attempt of the Government to
increase the volume of employment in the lean years must
necessarily fail, because the Grovernment can only increase
its spending power at the cost of diminishing the individual
spending power of the ratepayers and taxpayers. We are,
in fact, invited to believe that any increase in the Govern-
ment orders for works and services causes, in this way,
just as many coachmen and gardeners to be dismissed, or
as many theatrical workers or waiters in holiday resorts
to. suffer from a lessened expenditure on amusements, as
it causes operatives to be employed upon Government
orders. But this is a simple economic fallacy. It assumes,
that what the Government spends the individual taxpayers
will have to forego spending. It assumes, moreover,
that the same amount of capital is employed year
by year. Neither of these assumptions is true. There
is, as we have already mentioned, as muth. Unemployment
of capital as there is of labour ; and in the lean years there
is always any amount of capital, in every conceivable
form, from mines to machines, from excessive stocks of
raw material to swollen current accounts and Bank of
England gold reserve, which is only begging to be used.
Nor does the Government, in order to rearrange the 3
<or 4 per cent, of its orders, in such a way as to con-
<centrate them m the lean years, need to dimmish the •
I income or lessen the spending power of any taxpayer
^whatever. All that it need do is to execute the works in
tthe Ten Years' Programme, when the time comes, out of

124 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

short loans ; borrowing, in fact, in the lean years, some
of the capital then lying idle, and repaying the whole
within the decade by a ten years' annuity. The fact that
the owners of this capital find themselves earning interest
on it, which they would otherwise not have received, does
not, it may be suggested, lead them to dismiss any
gardener, or spend less on their amusements.

(6) The Seasonal Variations of Employment.

We come now to the second great cause of terminations
of engagements among the wage-earners, the " seasonal "
fluctuations of business, which prevail, to some extent, in
almost all trades, whilst in some they amount to devas-
tating tidal waves. These seasonal fluctuations may arise
from the annual succession of seed-time and harvest, or
of winter and summer ; or they may be dependent on
such social arrangements as the dictates of fashion, terms
and vacations, city gaieties and seaside hohdays. To
hundreds of thousands of workmen's homes they mean, at
present, the cessation of employment and of means of
subsistence for many weeks, and sometimes months, in '
every year. Here, again, it is impracticable to stop the
fluctuations in demand. But here, also, it is not necessary
that the fluctuations should be permitted to work havoc
with the workers' lives.

So long as we confine our attention to any one trade,
the seasonal fluctuations in the demand for labour seem to
be not only inevitable, but also without eflective remedy.
But it, is one of the discoveries brought to light by the
Poor Law Commission that there is practically no seasonal
fluctuation in the demand for labour in the community as a

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 125

whole. Though there is a slack season in nearly all trades,
this occurs at different parts of the year. There is, as the
Board of Trade, from accurate statistics of the past
decade, is able positively to testify, no month in the year
in which some great industry is not at its very slackest, and
equally no month in the year in which some great industry
is not at its very busiest. Thus, taking the actual facts
of the last ten years, whilst January is the slackest month
in iron-mining and the furnishing trades, it is actually the
busiest at the docks of London and many other ports, and
one of the busiest for coal-mining ; in February the
plumbers have most unemployment, but the papermaking
trade is at its briskest ; in March and April the coopers
are at their slackest, but the steelsmelters, the textiles and
the furnishing trades are busy ; May and June are the
worst of all months for the great industry of coal-mining,
as well as for the London dock-labourers, but they are the
best of all months for the wide ramifications of the clothing
trades, as well as for mill-sawyers ; July sees the iron and
steel and tin-plate works at their lowest ebb, but the
railway service and all the occupations of the holiday
resorts are near their busiest ; in August and September
the paper-makers, printers, book-binders, textile operatives,
and tobacco-workers are more unemployed than at any
other time, but (besides the holiday resorts) all forms of
agriculture harvesting are at their height ; the clothing
trades are at their very slackest in October, but the iron
and steel works are then at their busiest ; November, on
an average, sees the least shipbuilding in progress, but it
is the best of all months for printing and book-biading,
tobacco and tia-plate, and for most of the metal trades ;
December is the worst of all months for carpenters and

126 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

engineers, mill-sawyers, and coach-builders, leather-workers
and brush-makers, but then it is the best of all months
for coal-miners, the very extensive theatrical industry,
the Post Office service and the producers of gas and electric
light. In fact, when we come to think of it, we nearly all
of us get our incomes week by week, or quarter by quarter,
throughout the year ; and we nearly all of us spend our
incomes as we get them. We do not spend them each
week in the same way. Sometimes most of us are buying
clothes, and sometimes, most of us, holiday amusements ;
and this variation in demand causes the seasonal fluctua-
tions in particular trades. But week by week we are all
using or consuming much the same amount in the aggre-
gate, and therefore setting to work, in the aggregate, the
same amount of labour. Putting it definitely, we may say
that if we could get accurate statistics of the total number
of wage-earners in employment in the United Kingdom
this week we should find it to be very nearly identical
with the total number for any other week of the present
year. This is almost certainly true with regard to the
great mass of miskilled and only slightly specialised
labour. The seasonal alternations of over-pressure and
slackness to which so many workers are subjected, with
such evil results, are due only to failures of adjustment.

Now, it is not suggested that there is any way by
which the local and temporary supply of each particular
kind of labour can be precisely adjusted to the local and
temporary demand for it. But it is clear that, if only we
put a little more deliberate organisation into the matter,
a great, deal could be done to avert the worst of the
calamities. As a matter of fact, since the Minority
Report was published, the National Labour Exchange

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 127

wliicli the Board of Trade is now conducting, has proved,
in case after case, that Seasonal Unemployment can often
be prevented. It has often been found practicable to
prevent any cessation of Wage-earning or loss of income
in a temporary slaclmess, either by finding without any
-delay, sometimes even before dismissal has taken place,
the requisite situations in another town, or in another
occupation, which is actually needmg more hands. What
is needed to make this general is little more than a full and
complete use of the Labour Exchange by masters as well
as by men, hejore Unemployment actually occurs — every
employer in the kingdom giving (as it now rarely occurs
to him to do) as much previous notice as possible to the
Exchange of his intention to reduce his staff ; everv
labourer in the United Kingdom going straight to the
Labour Exchange as soon as he becomes aware that he
: is likely to be, or actually is, discharged ; and every
• employer in the kingdom, individual or corporate, giving
I to the Exchange the earliest possible previous notice of
I every prospective increase of staff, as well as of every
; actual vacancy. The national aggregate demand for
'.unskilled and only slightly specialised labour remaining
\week by week remarkably constant, telephonic inter-
i communication and prompt advance of railway fares will,
iin the vast majority of cases, achieve the desired result.
We need not suggest that the skilled and specialised
worker can always be so provided for ; or that it would
be always desirable for the family to move. But when
\we remember that one-half of all the wage-earners are
ttechnically unskilled labourers, or workers of extremely
^slight specialisation ; that many of them already habitu-
ally pass from town to town and even from occupation to

128 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

occupation as these alternate from slackness to briskness ;
and that it is just in this class that we have ground for
thinking the national aggregate demand (apart from the
cyclical fluctuations of trade) to vary least from month
to month, it is impossible not to believe that only organisa-
tion is required to secure practical continuity of employ-
ment throughout the year, in one occupation or another,
in one locality or another, for the vast majority of such
of these men as are in employment at all. With regard,
at least, to the unskilled and unspecialised half of the
wage-earning population, the existence of Unemployment
through seasonal slackness means — in all but a few
exceptional cases — merely that our National Labour
Exchange is not yet completely at work, or is not every-
where being directed with intelligence and purpose.

With regard to the skilled and specialised worker,
whilst something can be done to secure continuity of
employment throughout a seasonal slackness by means
of an intelligent organisation of the Labour Market, as the
best Trade Unions and the most competent Labour Exchange
managers have already proved, we need not suggest
that temporary Unemployment can always be prevented.
It is, in the skilled trades, usually impracticable to " dove-
tail " employment at any other occupation. It often
involves too much cost and disturbance of family life to
take advantage of a temporary situation in another
town. We suggest that this is a case in which it costs
more to prevent Unemployment than to provide for it.
In some great industries, such as coal-mining and the
textile manufactories, seasonal slackness is met by the
expedient of "short time," which ought to be supple-
mented by insurance. Elsewhere we suggest that the

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 129

skilled workers^ should be helped, by Government sub-
vention, to provide by insurance for Out-of-Work pay
sufficient to meet all seasonal slackness. But, for every
class of society, the deliberate organisation of leisure is as
necessary as the organisation of work. We may foresee
a time when these skilled workmen will be advised and
assisted to spend their " idle time," which they have paid
for by their insm-ance, partly in holiday excursions, and
organised games, and partly in the technical and literary
and music classes that the Local Education Authority
ought to be providing.

(c) The Under-employment of Casual Labour.

We have left to the last, of all the forms of Unemploy-
ment, that which is most evil in its results, and has
hitherto been the most intractable. The chronic " Under-
employment " of the hundreds of thousands who, in all
our great cities, live only by "casual labour," was
discovered by the Poor Law Commission to be the cause
of more pauperism than even phthisis itself, and to be far
more destructive of family life and personal character. We
all know the figure of the dock-labourer, fighting for the
chance of a few hours' work at sixpence an hour; the
subsistence of his household depending on his getting a
job that day ; and jobs never proving to be enough to go
round the whole crowd of applicants. We have never yet
been able to remedy this perpetual evil congestion of the
market for casual labour — the chronic presence of 24,000
dock labourers in London to share among them the work
that, on the busiest day that the port has known, could be
done by 15,000; the similar competition at Liverpool

130 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

among 15,000 men, for work which never employs more
than 10,000— because it was not discovered, until the
other day, to what this chronic and ubiquitous over-supply
of casual labour was due. We owe the discovery — perhaps
the most momentous of this generation in the realm of
economic science — to Mr. W. H. Beveridge. We know
now that the cause is simply and solely the particular
method by which the employers choose to take on their
men. Wherever this method is used, the chronic conges-
tion is seen in all places, at all times, in good years and
bad, in slack seasons and in brisk. Where it is not used,,
the same inevitable chronic congestion does not exist. It
is, in fact, the system of engaging men, not for regular
weekly or monthly wages, but for casual jobs ; and the
method of taking them on, there and then, at the dock or
factory gate, that creates the peculiar evil of Under-
employment. As the men never know at what hour, or
in what numbers they may be required, there is always a
little crowd round each such place at which extra men
may be engaged. Each such crowd tends to be equal to
the number of men required at that place or by that
particular employer on the busiest day. It suits the
employer or the foreman that this should be the case,
because he wants to be sure of never having to go short of
labour ; and the men are discouraged (or even forbidden)
to go elsewhere in search of work. Thus, each employer
keeps his own reserve of labour adequate , to supply his
needs on the busiest day. But the busiest day of one
employer is not that of another, and not necessarily
coincident with that of the port as a whole. Hence the
sum of all the separate reserves necessarily and at all times
exceeds the number of men required by the port as a

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 131

whole ; actually, it seems, in London and Liverpool, by
about 50 per cent. As the casual jobs are divided, more
or less unevenly, among all the men in attendance, the
result is, not that a third of the men are wholly unemployed,
m which case they would perforce abandon the occupation,
but that all the men are chronically "under-employed,"
wasting, on an average, something like one-third of their
working time, and many of them two- thirds.

It is tempting, now that we have so clearly discovered
the cause of the evil, to propose that it should be at once
banned by Act of Parliament. The system of casual
employment causes, indeed, such grave evils that we may
one day be driven to prohibit it, just as we prohibited the
Truck System. But it must be remembered that the
system of casual hiring for the job is not confined to the
docks and wharves. We find it in various forms, at every
market and fair, almost, we may say, at every railway
station. Moreover, in nearly all trades there is a fringe
of " casual hands." To prohibit the taking on of a man
for a temporary job, or to require that, every such man
should be guaranteed a month's employment, would be,
under any system of government, a practical impossibility.
Nor is any such prohibition required. The evil of Under-
employment springs directly, as we now see, not from the
casual jobs themselves, but from the maintenance of all
the separate " reserve " of labour. This, in itself, involves
the perpetual waiting about of more than enough men to
do all the jobs. The remedy is plauily to substitute, for
all these separate reserves, for all these " stagnant pools "
of labour, one conamon reserve in each place, on which all
employers would draw and from which all the casual
labour would be supplied, and supplied on the principle of

132 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

dove-tailing the jobs, so that each man got, as nearly as
possible, continuous employment ; and in which there
would accordingly remain no more than enough men to
supply all the needs of the busiest day. This would leave
employers of casual labour as free as at present to take on
men for the briefest casual jobs ; and to pick their men as
they now do, or to give such preferences as they may
choose. All that is required is that it should be imperative
on them not to pick up their hands at their own gates, but
to send, for such men as they require, whenever they
require them, to the Labour Exchange, which would, in
effect, maintain the common reserve for the whole town.
The Labour Exchange, by dove- tailing the jobs, and thereby
deliberately filling up as much as possible of the time of
the men who were employed at all, would be able to
secure, for these men, a regular five or six days of work in
each week throughout the year. " Under-employment "
would in that way be stopped, as, indeed, it has been largely
stopped where the experiment has been tried, to the great
advantage of both employers and employed.

{d) The Ahsorftion of the Surplus.

But though it is possible to " decasualise " the casual
labourer ; and, without prohibiting casual jobs, to secure
almost constant emplojmaent to those who are employed
at all, this can only be done at the cost of something
comparable to a surgical operation. We have, in fact, to
cut away the existing surplus of casual labour. To
substitute, for the many " stagnant pools " of chronically
" under-employed " labour, a single reserve force m each
w n, to all the members of which something approaching

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 133

to continuous wage-earning can be ensured, involves the
exclusion of a number of other men from the scrambling
chance of casual employment on which they now attempt
to subsist. This is naturally a grave operation. We may,
indeed, make some beginnings at the task of decasualisation
in times of expanding trade, relying on the probability
that the excluded men will drift away and find employment
on some new undertaking. But this is a cruel process,
which falls very severely upon individual labourers and their
families. It ought not, in our judgment, to be carried
far ; and it is indeed, never likely to be allowed to go on
long, without a great outcry arising from those who are
being excluded. The adoption of a policy of deliberate
decasualisation must, in our opinion, be accompanied by
an undertaking to make substantial and definite provision
for every man who is thereby excluded. And, as it would,
for many reasons, not be practicable to offer the alternative
of mahitenance to the whole mass of casual labourers whom
we are going to exclude, decasualisation is practically
dependent on there being found some means of absorbing
into normal productive mdustry, at any rate, the great bulk
of the men to be displaced by the improvement in industrial
organisation.

Can this absorption be secured ? The Mmority Report
of the Poor Law Commission describes ui detail how it can
be done, by the adoption of three social reforms, each of
them urgently requ^ed and socially justified for its own
sake ; and all of them together ensuring the absorption,
into steady employment of at least as many persons as
the process of decasualisation would set free.

The first of these reforms — one to which the nation is
aheady in principle conamitted— is the prevention of

134 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

excessive hours of labour on railways, tramways, and
omnibuses. We do not wish to dogmatise as to what are
excessive hours of labour, nor need we hazard any assertion
as to the exact number of men now subject to such
excessive hours. But it is clear, alike from official returns,
from the evidence given at the periodical inquiries into
railway accidents, and from personal observation, that
quite apart from any cases of emergency, or extreme
instances, there are, under certain railway companies, and
certain tramway and omnibus administrations, though not
under all of them, many thousands of men habitually or
frequently employed for twelve hours a day or more ;
sometimes for eighty-four or even more hours in a week.
Parliament has already prohibited such excessive hours, so
far as railways are concerned ; and the Board of Trade has
power to call upon the companies to adopt more humane
time-tables for their men. The process of reduction of
hours is, in fact, already going on, though very slowly. All
that is necessary is that, concurrently with any measures
of decasualisation, it should be pressed forward on all
railway compaiiies, extended to tramway and omnibus
administrations, and embodied m some reasonable definite
maximum of permissible working time in any one day and
in any one' week. Our whole policy of Factory legislation
is based on the principle that no shareholders, any more
than other capitalists, have any moral right to cause or
to allow their wage-earners to work m any way that is
demonstrably injurious to the community as a whole ; and
excessive hours of labour, let the limit be fixed as may be
thought fit, are now^ recognised as a grave social evil. If
the necessary reductions were enforced concurrently with
the measures of decasualisation, they would involve the

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 135

taking on by the companies of some thousands of extra
men — not necessarily the particular men who would be
extruded from dock-labour, but the best men that the
companies could attract to their service, whose places the
Labour Exchanges would then have to fill.

The second reform is of even greater urgency, and of
wider scope. We have already mentioned the grave
social evils resulting from the employment of boys and
girls, from the time of leaving school until they reach
manhood and womanhood, in occupations that teach them
nothing, or nothing but evil, where they are subjected to
irregular hours, and from which they gravitate almost
mevitably into Unemployment. There is practically a
consensus of opinion that, seeing that we cannot absolutely
prohibit such uneducational employment of our adoles-
cents, we must, at anyrate, retain them up to 18 for a
portion of their time, under educational supervision and
discipline. What, in short, is necessary is, as regards all
employment under 18, the embodiment in our Factory
Code and our Education Acts, of something in the nature
of a " half time " or " sandwich " system, by which the
youth will spend half the time at work and the other half at
some continuation school or technical institute, in physical
and technical training and organised recreation. Now, it
is an incidental result of any such reform, on the necessity
for which there is almost universal agreement, that it
would, in effect, halve the supply of boy-labour and girl-
labour ; and thus involve the substitution, in many occupa-
tions (among them, we may hope, newspaper selling and
carrying golf-clubs) of adults for adolescents, often of men
and women too elderly for heavy work for boys and girls
too immature to be properly put to it. Thus, here too, if

136 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

put in force concurrently with decasualisation, an urgently-
needed social reform would enable the Labour Exchanges
to get into regular situations, indirectly through the
creation of vacancies, if not directly in replacement of the
boys, many thousands of those whom decasualisation
would exclude.

Finally, there is another reform, to the urgency of
which on humanitarian as well as economic grounds, the
Poor Law Commission drew attention. At the present
time, something like 100,000 widows in the United
Kingdom, burdened with the care of young children, are ia
receipt of Poor Law Relief of entirely inadequate amount.
In spite of repeated injunctions to make the relief adequate,
the Boards of Guardians in England and Ireland, and the
Parish Councils in Scotland, in all but half a dozen places,
persist in allowing to such widows a sum altogether
insufficient for the proper maintenance of the children and
their mother. In England, for instance, a common rate
of Outdoor Relief, even in London and other large towns,
is eighteenpence per week for each child, whatever its age,
and nothing for the mother. One result, gravely disastrous
to the community, is that certainly more than a hundred
thousand children, exposed to these conditions, are being
brought up, actually at the public expense, in such a state
of destitution that they almost inevitably, in adult Hfe,
themselves become a burden on the nation. Another
result is that their mothers are driven to go out to work
(and are usually incited by the Poor Law Authorities to do
so) to the neglect of their children. We ought at once to
insist that, where young children have to be maintained
at the public expense, and where the mother is not unfit
to have them in her charge, they should be treated as

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 137

" boarded out " witli their own motliers ; and a sum
adequate for the full subsistence of the household provided.
It would be an incidental consequence that the mothers
would naturally then be required to devote themselves to
the care of their young children, and not be allowed to
neglect them by going out to work. Here, again, therefore,
we have a social reform which, if carried out concurrently
with decasualisation, would place a certain number of
vacancies at the disposal of the Labour Exchange.

We have now described a large part of the campaign
for the Prevention of Unemployment which it has become
possible for the nation to undertake. It is, we make bold
to assert, now quite practicable, by means of such a
campaign, for Unemployment in mass to be prevented ;
for each of its three principal manifestations — the cyclical
depressions of trade, the seasonal fluctuations and the
chronic " Under-employment " of casual labour — to be suc-
cessfully grappled with ; and for the involuntary idleness
of any large numbers of workers to be, merely by deliberate
forethought and social organisation, rendered unnecessary.
But because it is claimed that it is now possible to deal
with Unemployment on the lines of preventing its occur-
rence, it is not suggested that all Unemployment can be
thus prevented — that there can ever come a state of
things in which no workman will find himself discharged
from his situation. There are, in fact, some causes of
Unemployment which it is undesirable to prevent. There
must, for instance, under any organisation of society and
any system of government, always be perpetual changes
m industry — new inventions, new processes, new materials,
revolutions of taste, alterations in habits and customs, and
what not — changes which it is neither possible nor desirable

138 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

to hinder, and which must necessarily, from time to time,
destroy whole trades, and sometimes render valueless the
skill and proficiency of thousands of blameless workers.
There are, moreover, other causes of the dismissal of
workmen from their situations which it is impossible to
control. There will, we may assume, always be, in the
realm of private enterprise, bankruptcies and deaths of
employers, and, under any system of administration, the
closing or shifting or merging of businesses, by which many
operatives will^ lose their situations. We have, too, no
ground for expecting that there will ever come a time
when there will be no capricious dismissals by foremen,
and no merited discharges on account of idleness, careless-
ness, disobedience, or the irregularities of inebriety. More-
over, whatever may be accomplished by the Government
in the way of " regularising " the national aggregate
demand for labour, and in the way of mitigating seasonal
fluctuations, it would be vain to pretend that the adjust-
ment, as regards any particular kind and grade of labour,
at each particular time and place, can ever be quite
perfect. At first, indeed, the very prevention of Unem-
ployment must, as we have seen, necessarily result, in some
cases, in half-employed workers being deprived of what
little employment they had ! And whilst our preventive
measures are being got to work, we have on our hands the
results of the past disorganisation of the Labour Market, in
the clamorous applicants for situations, who are, notwith-
standing a relatively brisk state of trade, still besieging
every Labour Exchange. We require, therefore, along with
the measures for preventing the occurrence of Unemploy-
ment, some plan for dealing with the cases that nevertheless
occur— just as our campaign against typhus required, along

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 139

with its preventive changes in the environment, also a
hospital for typhus patients.

We suggest that, in this as in other departments of
the Prevention of Destitution, we must throw over, once
for all, the attitude of deterrence. The position taken up
by the Poor Law with regard to the able-bodied man who
is unemployed, whether resident or vagrant — that of
trying to induce him to stay away, and not present himself
for treatment — is, we suggest, inept. Nor is this merely
a question of humanity, or desire to relieve the individual
sufferer. Every unemployed worker at large and unpro-
vided for is a public danger, just as every unisolated
scarlet fever patient is. The mere fact that the man is
without occupation, and without mcome, even if he is not
yet actually in want, means, in the great majority of cases,
that he is suffering degeneration in skill, in health and in
character, and that he is running grave risk of demoralisa-
tion. In all probability, the weekly supplies on which his
household depends, are not fully forthcoming, and the wife
and children are beginning to go short. We ought,
therefore, in the interests of the community as a whole, at
once to go to the aid of every unemployed man. We
ought to welcome him when he presents himself, even
before he has left his former situation, and endeavour to
secure that not a moment is lost before getting him another
situation. This, rightly enough, is the attitude assumed
by the new Government Department created to deal with
Unemployment, which is, pending, we may hope, the
appointment of a Minister of Labour, placed under the
direction of the President of the Board of Trade.

If the Grovernment Department dealing with Un-
employment, whilst preventing as much as possible its

140 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

very occurrence, can promptly discover any suitable
situations, in any part of the Kingdom, for those who
find themselves unemployed, this— together with any
necessary advance of railway fares and some arrangement
by which, ui necessitous cases, emergency relief could be
granted— is all that is required. As a matter of fact,
however, whilst every Labour Exchange has, on its
books, some actual vacancies which it cannot fill, it also
finds on its hands, even at the best of times, a consider-
able number of odds and ends of workers, for whom it
can find no situations. There are, in some cases, men of
exemplary character and long service, thrown out of some
narrow groove by the death of their lifelong employer ;
they may (like grooms and cab-drivers) be men of skill in
a trade or of a kind which is beiug superseded by a new
machine or a new process ; they may be men of all sorts
of occupations and all grades of proficiency, who suffer
from some defect of body or mitid, or some shortcoming
in. personal character ; they may be seasonal workers or
workers necessarily subjected to discontinuity of em-
ployment (like the building operatives) for whom the
desirable " regularisation " or " dove-tailuig " has not
been completely accomplished ; they may form part of
the great army of unskilled or casual labourers whom
" decasualisation " or the introduction of labour-saving
appliances is beginning to afiect. In many cases they will
soon be without resources, their families suffering, their
wives driven to go out to work, their children needing
to be fed at school. What must the community do with
them?

The Mmority Report answers confidently that the
community, when itjs prepared to carry on to the utmost

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 141

its campaign for the actual Prevention of Unemplo5niient,
and when it is thereby enormously reducing the numbers
who find themselves out of work, must, for its own sake,
as a mere matter of economy, boldly accept the res-
ponsibility of temporarily maintaining, in full health and
vigour, all those for whom the Labour Exchanges can
find no situation, for so long a time as none can be found.
But seeing that these persons are demonstrably not
capable of rendering any service that the community
requires, at any rate for the moment, the maintenance
should be conditional on their submitting themselves
to such training — physical and mental, general and
technological — as may be found appropriate to their
needs.

If there are really no vacancies for such men any-
where in the Kingdom it positively makes matters worse
to let them even go on short rations — ^partly because
this means injury to their families, if not to themselves,
and partly because their consequent diminution of
demand becomes itself a cause of further Unemployment
somewhere else. And seeing that such men (like the
rest of us) are always physically " out of condition " ;
that, although sometimes possessed of a skill which has
becomes valueless, they are usually quite inadequately
educated and trained ; that many of them are suffering
from hardship and exposure, if not from bad habits ;
^ and that they are, at best (as we all are !), far short of
perfection in technical skill and personal character, the
most valuable use to which the community can put their
necessarily unemployed time is to make it in the highest
sense productive hy sf ending it in their own training.
And it is remarkable that just this part of the Minority

142 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Report proposals that seemed, to many people, rather
fantastic and even uncalled for — for why, it was said,
should we ask adults to go to school again ? — has, in the
few years that have elapsed, already been proved, by
experience, to be the one of all others most clearly sup-
ported by the facts. The couple of hundred Labour
Exchanges that have been opened throughout the country
have had brought home to them the paramount and
pressing need for supplying training to the Unemployed.
Every manager of a Labour Exchange has had repeated
experience of having opportunities for getting men and
women into good and steady wage-earning employment
which he cannot embrace — actually vacancies which he
is not able to fill because he can find no qualified person
disengaged. On the other hand, every manager also has
the melancholy experience of seeing a crowd of men on
his books, often men of good conduct and unimpeached
character, who, because of their inability to do any work
for which there is a demand, remain, in a time of good
trade, month after month unemployed — too many of
them degenerating steadily under his eyes, from idleness,
hopelessness, and insufficient food, for sheer lack of the
discipline and regular life that training would afi'ord.

What is proposed is that there should gradually be
opened, under the Minister for Labom*, and in close
association with the Labour Exchanges — in substitution
alike for the Workhouse and for the spasmodic Relief
Works of the Distress Committees, — a number of small
Training Establishments, under carefully chosen instruc-
tors, at one or other of which any man or woman, for
whom the Labour Exchange could find no situation,
should willingly (but entirely optionally) be enrolled, for

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 143

as long or as short a period as he required maintenance
for, and m those cases in which the men had provided for
themselves by Trade Union or other insurance so long
as they might desire. These Training Establishments,
which might be quite experimentally set up one at a time,
should be both town and country. Some of them would
probably be on the outskirts of the town, and would be
used only in the day time. Others, of the nature of
Farm Colonies, would be residential. But whether day
or residential, town or country, it is of the essence of
the proposal that, unlike the HoUesley Bay or any other
Farm Colony yet established and unlike all the German
and Swiss Labour Colonies of one type or another, they
should be run exclusively as places of training, with a
single eye to the improvement of their inmates, without
the least pretence of making their labour productive ;
and without, indeed, producing anything for sale or use
outside the institution itself. We make no pretence of
submitting any curriculum or course of training at these
establishments, which should, indeed, in order to meet
as many different needs as possible, all differ one from
another, and which would have to discover by experiment
how best they can perform their educational task. But
it is clear that every person enrolled would have to be
carefully examined at the outset, to discover both in what
respects, if any, he fell short of the average standard in
physique, general capacity and particular skill, and
exactly in which directions he could be most appropriately
educated, trained or improved in body and mind. He
would, whilst in training, receive no wages but would be
given enough plain and nourishing food for perfect health ;
whilst (as with the men now sent to the Hollesley Bay

144 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Colony) an allowance would be paid to his wife for the sup-
port of herself and her children. It is clear that regular and
continuous occupation would be part of the treatment, and
it is essential that, in the day estabhshments, the men
should be required to attend every morning at 6 a.m., and
to remain for at least the full working day, with suitable
intervals for rest and meals ; whilst it would be desirable,
as part of the treatment, to get them to remain even later,
perhaps by supplying an evening meal at seven o'clock.
The men under training would find their whole time
mapped out in a continuous and properly varied programme
of physical and mental work, all of it being made of the
utmost educational value. It is clear that well-devised
physical exercises, with suitable "remedial drill" for
particular defects, would play a large part, until every
man had been brought up to the best possible condition.
Those who had trades would presumably be exercised in
their more difficult branches, under suitable instructors,
in such a way as to turn the usually very imperfect painters,
carpenters, bricklayers, or compositors, who are the first
to be thrown out of work and the last to get taken on
again, into more competent craftsmen than they were
before. Those who belonged to displaced or decaying
trades would be helped to acquire proficiency in some
craft for which there was, as the Labour Exchange would
report, an increasing demand. But the bulk of the men
would be found to be merely general labourers, many of
whom (as the Labour Exchanges declare) are without a
vestige of industrial capacity other than their brute
strength. To these there could at any rate be taught the
use of all the ordinary tools, and some accuracy of hand
and eye. All men can usefully be taught to draw, to read

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 145

a map or plan, to work to scale, to keep accounts and
understand the simple book-keeping of daily life, to cut a
piece of work to the thirty-second of an inch, to understand
the practical arithmetic and geometry of the workshop.
There is no reason, moreover, why every man should not
be taught to swim ; or why every man should not be given
the sailor's common proficiency in sewing and cooking.
There would also be the necessary work of the establish-
ment to be performed, in which all would naturally share
in turn ; the meals to be prepared, the clothes to be washed,
the accounts to be kept, minor repairs to be executed, the
boots to be mended, the horses or cattle to be attended to,
the garden to be kept in order — all these services to be
utilised as opportunities for education. It is clear that
there would be no lack of useful training to be given, even
without falling back on the elementary schooling or
University Extension lectures, to which some of the
unemployed Lancashire operatives were put during the
Cotton Famine.

We may conveniently forestall some common mis-
understandings. Thus, there are critics who assert that
it is quite a mistake to suppose that even the best of training
will prevent men from being thrown out of work, and that
it is accordingly futile to teach the Unemployed anything —
it will not, it is said, prevent their future unemployment.
But the object of the training is not in the least to prevent
the future unemployment, of these or any other workers.
Unemployment can, as we have already shown, to a large
extent, be prevented, but only by taking the appropriate
means of prevention, and without such means, it is true,
no amount of technical training will avail. When unem-
ployment has, however, occurred, with regard to any

L

146 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

particular man, what the nation gains by utilising his
idle time in improving his physique and capacity, is not
necessarily any security against his future unemployment,
but the improvement itself ! It is demonstrably better
for the community to have, as its citizens, strong,
disciplined and trained men than half-starved and physic-
ally incompetent weaklings, unable to use either hands
or brain to any practical advantage, with irregular habits
and uncontrolled will — and all the more so if they are liable
to he periodically unemployed. And the special advantage
of this way of filling up the time of the Unemployed men,
as compared with any other way, is that it has a good
pyschological effect on them. Idleness is demoralising ;
freedom to loaf, whether in fretting or in gossiping, is
demoralising ; the pretence employment of Relief Works
is demoralising. But physical and mental training in com-
panionship is invigorating and hopeful ; the regular hours
and continuous occupation under discipline are exactly
what is required ; and the obvious improvement in
physical efficiency has, in itself, a bracing efiect on
character. The work is, in fact, productive in the economic
sense in exactly the right way, namely, in increasing the
capacity of the human factor ; and it therefore represents
actually a national investment of lasting value.

Another objection which is really based on a mis-
conception, is that the proposal is one of too harsh a
nature to be ever accepted by working-class opinion,
seeing that it amounts to " herding " of the Unemployed
in " Detention Colonies," to " shutting them up in com-
pounds," and so on. But this is, either carelessly or
wilfully, to misconceive the whole scheme. What our
proposals offer, to the great mass of those who now find

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDEE-EMPLOYMENT 147

themselves periodically unemployed, is the prevention of
that evil, and therefore an unbroken continuance of their
ordinary work in the ordinary way. Some Unemployed
there must be, and the question is as to the provision to
be made for this remnant. And here the objector
frequently confuses — sometimes, we fear, with wilful
perversity — the provision to be offered to the man who
remains unemployed merely because there is no situation
available for him, and the compulsory segregation to be
imposed on those who have been convicted by a Court of
Justice for wilfully neglecting to provide for themselves
or their families. To the former — the Unemployed for
whom the National Labour Exchange can find no situation,
. and who have failed to provide for themselves by State-
aided Insui-ance — the offer is one of all the food that they
need for perfect health; with an adequate money allow-
; ance to their wives for the maintenance of the home ;
• conditionally only on their putting in the same regular
; attendance at the Training Establishment as they would
if it were a factory in which they were employed at wages.
And the arrangement is quite optional. The unemployed
iman need not accept the offer if he can manage to Hve
^without sponging on the public. Those critics who reject
ithis plan of maintaining the Unemployed as being too
1 harsh are invited to find some other that is preferable. We
lhave ourselves failed to do so.

Another objection, in diametrical opposition to the
i foregoing, is that the scheme is too " soft " ; that tq
I provide maintenance for the man and his family, even
I under the condition that he attends for training, will be
^so fatally attractive as to tempt thousands to let themselves
1 become unemployed in order to drop into so comfortable

148 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

a position. This objection comes, one finds, always from
" Armchair " critics, of no practical experience either of '
Labour Colonies or of Technical Institutes. The Labour
Exchange, which is already filling fifteen hundred situations
per day, can always test the man's willingness to work by
ofJering him employment. As a matter of fact, the adult
workman is not so fond of education as to prefer a whole
long day of continuous instruction and drill, even if varied
and duly graduated to his strength, with wholesome plain
meals, but without alcohol, tobacco or pocket money, to
normal industrial emplojTtnent at his own trade at regular
wages. The very regularity and continuity of the life in
the Training Establishments will make the men glad to
resume their normal occupations as soon as they can ; and
such experience as has been gained indicates that there
will be an eager scrambling to hear the daily messages
from the Labour Exchange as to the situations that can
that day be offered. What is true is, not that the men will
prefer the training to normal employment at wages, but
that they will prefer it to the weary waiting and hunting
for work, without either adequate food for themselves or
maintenance for their households, which is characteristic
of Unemployment. And this is desirable in order that
the latter condition— which is the lot of so many of the
unemployed to-day — may, as being ruinously costly to the
nation, always be avoided. Far from wishing to deter
such of the Unemployed as are not fully provided for by
savings or insurance from coming into training, we wish,
so far as is possible, to tempt them to come in ! So long
as they are out of a situation, it is in every way less
expensive to the community to have them under training
than to have them degenerating at large.

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 149

But there will, we must expect, be difficult cases — the
quiet docile man of weak will and nerve who asks nothing
better than to remain ; the man of slight defectiveness of
mind or body whom the Labour Exchange simply cannot
get into regular employment ; the man of irregular habits
who " breaks out " periodically ; the man mentally so far
below par that he cannot respond to any sort of traming,
and so on. We must visualize these men as being given a
succession of trials, both in different industrial situations
or offers of situations fomid for them by the Labour
Exchange, and by transfer to different Training Establish-
ments, in town and country. No man, experienced
managers advise, ought ever to be allowed to remain for
more than three months in one establishment. So long
as there was any hope of eventually getting the patient
into regular wage-earning employment, the attempt at his
improvement and training, in one direction or another,
should go on. But, after endless trials, some would have
to be medically certified as being below the minimum
standard — as actually unable to earn their livelihood —
either because of " feeble-mindedness " or other mental
deficiency (when they would be transferred to the care of
the Local Lunacy Authority) ; or because of some physical
defect or invalidity (when they would get their " Invalidity
Pension," if such a pension is established, or else be
transferred to the care of the Local Health Authority) ; or,
it might be, because of moral obliquity, an obstinate
refusal to work for a living, or determined recalcitrancy.
And with this last class we come to the final proposal of
the scheme.

It was a criticism of the late Sir Charles Dilke, on both
the Majority and Minority Reports of the Poor Law

150 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Commission, that they were alike spoilt, as politically prac-
ticable proposals, by their " Bridewell clauses I " By this ,j
he meant that both Reports recognised the need, at the i
base of the system of public provision, of some institution
to which persons should be penally relegated, and com-
pulsorily detained. It is, indeed, impossible, for any
honest person, to avoid a recognition of this need ; and if
the House of Commons, in its sentimentality, cannot bring
itself to face the fact, the Trade Unions and the workmg-
class electorate, which have no such illusion, will have to
make their influence felt. As a matter of fact, at the
present time, we put the person who refuses to work for
his living and prefers to haunt the Casual Ward ; who is
recalcitrant in the Workhouse ; or who leaves his wife and
children unprovided for rather than accept a situation
offered to him, spasmodically into gaol. Probably om- .
legislators would be shocked if they knew how many
thousands of such men axe annually sentenced — many of
them repeatedly — to short terms of imprisonment for no
other offence. This system, whatever else may be
thought of it, is costly and futile to the last degree. The
prisons get filled with short-sentence vagrants, or men who
have preferred the gaol to the workhouse, and who are the
very reverse of improved by their brief stay. By common
consent of all who have looked into the question, we must
find some alternative. The Minority Report finds it in
the proposal to establish two or three Reformatory
Detention Colonies of a new type, not under the Prison
Commissioners, nor in any way connected with the prison
system, but under the Minister for Labour. These Refor-
matory Detention Colonies would be entered only upon
actual judicial conviction of some offence agamst the

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT l5l

existing law. What is proposed is that when a man is
convicted of wilfully refusing to maintain his wife and
children, or of any offence under the Vagrancy Act, or of
definite recalcitrancy in any public institution, he should
not, in future, necessarily be sentenced to imprisonment,
but should usually be committed instead, for a term of
months, to one of the Reformatory Detention Colonies,
where he would be put to agricultural and other work,
and subjected to the best influences that can be discovered
with a view to effecting a reformation of character. How
far the experiment may be successful — ^in what proportion
of cases the desired improvement of character can be
effected — no man can foretell. We may be sceptical or
we may be hopeful, according to our temperament and our
knowledge. But it would be, in any case, a gain to keep
this class of men out of the prisons, where they are at
present doing absolutely no good. It would be an
enormous gain to the ordinary unemployed workman to
get this class of men removed from his midst. It may be
that we shall find, in such a Reformatory Detention Colony
as is here proposed, the means of rescuing other classes of
minor offenders from our gaols. But be this as it may, we
cannot escape the conclusion that some such experiment
in Prison Reform is absolutely essential to any effective
plan of dealing with Unemployment.

We have now surveyed the whole field of the campaign
against Unemployment to which the Minority Report
invites the nation — the regularisation of the national
aggregate demand for labour, the systematic dovetailing
of seasonal occupations and the decasualisation of casual
labour, in such a way as actually to prevent the occurrence
of the great mass of the Unemployment from which so

162 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

large a proportion of the wage-earners now suffer ;
and, concurrently with these preventive measures, the
systematic provision of the best possible treatment for
every case in which the disease has not been prevented —
treatment by maintenance and physical and mental
training in town and country — and the substitution, for
those who won't work and are at present periodically
sentenced to imprisonment, of Reformatory Detention
Colonies for the common gaol.

It is interesting to notice how little reference this cam-
paign, or any portion of it, has, either to any particular fiscal
policy, or to the controversy between Individualism and
Socialism as a method of ownership and administration of
land and capital. It is not suggested, either by the most
fanatical Free Trader, or by the most enthusiastic Tariff
Reformer, that any arrangement with regard to customs
duties will in any way affect the great international
cyclical ups and downs of trade. If it is desired to prevent,
on each recurrent period of depression of trade, the falling
off in business, the shutting down of furnaces and mills,
and the discharge of hundreds of thousands of operatives,
it is plain that some action must be taken other than a
reform of the customs tariff. We see no ground for expect-
ing that the great cyclical fluctuations of international
trade can be prevented, either by the Free Trader, or by
the Tariff Reformer, from working out into corresponding
fluctuations in the aggregate volume of employment,
otherwise than by some such use of the Government
orders as a counterpoise, as the Minority Report suggests.
Equally with regard to the seasonal fluctuations, which
now account for so many breaches of continuity in the
workman's industrial life, it is, we suggest, obvious that

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 153

neither the presence nor the absence of a Customs Tariff
can possibly affect their operation, nor render unnecessary
the systematic and deliberate " dovetailing " of occupa-
tions that we propose. Finally, the chronic Under-
employment of the dock-labourer, as of other forms of
casual labour, is equally unaffected by fiscal changes, and
must, we suggest, be dealt with on the lines of " decasualis-
ation " by Free Trader and Tariff Reformer alike. And
if for a moment we confine ourselves to the proposal to
protect British home industries by a " scientific " Tariff,
, we may concede to its advocates, for the sake of argument,
every advantage for it that the most enthusiastic among
them can claim, and nevertheless see an equal need for the
remedies for Unemployment that we propose. Indeed, let
it be granted that such a tariff may, by increasing the
consciousness of security, and by ensuring to the British
manufacturer all the home market, greatly stimulate the
investment of capital in British industries, and lead to a
much greater use of inventions and machinery and the
employment of the additional chemists and inventors, in
which the great German and American firms now excel
our own, the result" must necessarily be — even if profits
are enormously augmented and wages raised — to make it
more than ever necessary to cope with the Unemployment
that would be produced. For the very object of the
Tariff Reformers is to create, on a large scale, a diversion
of trade from its existing channels to the advantage. of the
English manufacturers and farmers. However profitable
may be such a diversion to these classes— however
advantageous it may be deemed to the community as a
whole — it is clear that it involves a great loss of business to
the present importing merchants, the warehousemen and

154 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

dealers who dispose of the imported products, the whole
carrying organisation by which they are conveyed to theii-
destinations, and the other distributing agencies concerned.
This means — though it is not always sufficiently borne in
mind — a wholesale reduction of establishments and the
dismissal of hundreds of thousands of wage-earners by the
firms whose business will be injuriously affected, to recruit
the ranks of the Unemployed. The social problem of
" Under-employment," in particular, would at once become
acute. The dock and wharf labourers at every port, who
even with the handling of the enormous imports that we
have hitherto, perhaps mistakenly, fostered, find them-
selves existing on an average of only three or four days
work a week, would — in such a diversion of trade from
imports to home production as we are now contem-
plating — find their chronic Under-employment far worse
than before. We may, in fact, confidently predict — even
assuming all the asserted advantages of a " scientific "
tariff — that if its advent is not to be accompanied by such
a spasm of Unemployment as will lead to actual riots ;
and if its subsequent operation is to be guarded by some-
how preventing the recurring cyclical depressions and
seasonal fluctuations from working out into the periodical
dismissals of hundreds of thousands of workers, the new
tariff will have to be accompanied by exactly the sort of
measures for the Prevention of Unemployment that we
have expounded.

It is not difficult to see that the same argument applies,
with equal force, to any such " nationalisation of the
means of production, distribution and exchange " as we
call Socialism. The Socialist Government, ownmg all the
land and industrial capital, and employing all the workers

UNEMPLOYMENT AND UNDER-EMPLOYMENT 155

as national or municipal civil servants, would find its
imports and exports affected at every calamitous flood or
famine in China, at every desolating drought in India or
Australia, by the same recurrent cyclical fluctuations that
now impinge on our shores ; would find prevailing exactly
the same seasonal fluctuations as at present, needing the
presence of more workers here and fewer there, of greatly
increased staffs temporarily in one occupation and then
in another ; would find the same results of chronic Under-
employment flowing from the practice of allowing the head
of each department in each place to keep his own separate
reserve of labour, and to take on casually, for short spells,
the extra labour force that he required at every recurring
spurt of trafiic. It is, we hasten to admit, inconceivable
to any Socialist, that a Government formed as he would
desire could possibly permit such results, and we may
easily agree with him. But the point is that the mere
transfer of the ownership and direction of industry from
individual proprietors to the collective organisation of
community at large would not, in itself, prevent any of
the evil results that we have described. The Socialist
Government, like the Tariff Reform Government, and
equally with a Free Trade Government, would, if it
desired actually to prevent Unemployment and Under-
employment, find itself regularising the national aggre-
gate demand for labour, dovetailing seasonal occupations,
transferring workers from town to town according to the
changing volume of business, setting up in each place a
common reserve from which to supply the needs of each
department for casual hands, maintaining Training Es-
tablishments in which the workers displaced by new
machines or new processes (for we may hope that

156 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

inventions will not cease to be made, nor changes of taste
be prohibited, in a Socialist State !) will be taught new
trades whilst they are waiting to be again absorbed in
normal industry ; and, finally, as we may venture to
predict, superseding an obsolete and discredited prison
system, by Reformatory Detention Colonies on the latest
and most approved plan. Great as we may believe to
be the advantages of a Socialist State, these advantages
do not mean that such a State could dispense with the best
possible social organisation, whether in the prevention
of unemployment, the prevention of disease, the prevention
of child neglect, the prevention of an uncontrolled multipli-"
cation of the feeble-minded, or the prevention of any other
social evil ; they mean, on the contrary, that the adoption
of the best possible organisation for each and all of these
purposes will become obvious and inevitable, and, as it
may well be contended, all the more easy of achievement.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI

Notes and References

Page 110. For other expositions of the plan of preventing unepiployment,
see the Minority Eeport of the Poor Law Commission, Part II., chs. iv.
and V. (1909); the Introduction to the Bibliography of Unemployment and
the Unemployed, by Miss F. I. Taylor (King : 1909) ; and, in brief and
popular form. How the Minority Report deals with Unemployment
(National Committee for the Prevention of Destitution : 1909).

Page 111. The cyclical depressions are well described in Unemployment,
a Problem of Industry, by W. H. Beveridge (Longmans : 1909). For
suggestions as to their causes, see Lombard Street, by Walter Bagehot
(Paul : 1908) ; Commercial Crises of the Nineteenth Century, by H. M.
Hyndman (Sonnenschein, now Allen : 1892) ; Economic Crises (with biblio-
graphy by E. D. Jones (Macmillau : 1900); Financial Crises and Periods
of Industrial and Commercial Depression, by T. E. Burton (1902) ; and
Investigations in Currency and Finance, by W. Stanley Jevons (new edition,
Macmillan : 1909).

Page 112. As to the statistical extent of the cyclical fluctuations (which is
usually much over-estimated, owing to insufficient account being taken of
the great mass of relatively stable employment— probably more than half
the whole— only slightly affected by these particular fluctuations), see the
instructive evidence before the Poor Law Commission of Dr. A. L. Bowley,
Reader in Statistics at the London School of Economics (University of
London); under Q. 88192; and compare his article in Westminster Gazette,
March 27th, 1907.

Page 124. The " seasonal " fluctuations of employment have hitherto
received little attention from the economists. Most information is to be
found in the Board of Trade Memorandum on Statistics of Seasonal
Industries and Industries carried on by Casual Labour (Poor Law Com-
mission, Vol. IX. of evidence, see Appendix XXI. D). See also Unemploy-
ment in the Building Trades, by Norman Dearie (Dent : 1909), and Eeport
of Inquiry by Charity Organisation Society into Casual Labour, by C. J.
Hamilton (C.O.S. : 1908) ; and the Annual Eeports of the Irish Government
relating to Irish Migratory Labourers.

Page 129. During the past twenty years much has been published on
Casual Labour, most of which will be found summed up or referred to in
the works already mentioned. To these may be added the various Eeports
to the Poor Law Commission on the Eelation of Industrial and Sanitary
Conditions to Pauperism, by Mr. A. B. Steel-Maitland, M.P., and Miss
Squire (Wyman : 1907-9).

^For the dock labourer in London see Life and Labour of the People, by
the Rt. Hon. Charles Booth; The Story of the Dockers' Strike, by Sir H.
Llewellyn Smith, K.C.B., and Vaughan Nash, C.B. (Unwin : 1890); Final
Eeport of Eoyal Commission on Labour (Cd. 7421, 1894); Third Eeport of
House of Commons Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, 1895 ;
Report on Dock Labour and Poor Law Relief, by Hon. G. Walsh, 1906; and

157

158 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the Reports of Mr. A. D. Steel-Maitland and Miss Squire, and of the Com-
mittee of the Charity Organisation Society already cited.

Foi- the dock labourer at Liverpool, see Report on the iTnemployed
Problem in Liverpool, by Mr. Charles Rouse (Liverpool Labour Conference,
1893) ; Full Report to the City Council of the Commission of Inquiry into
the subject of the Unemployed (Liverpool Town Council: 1894); The Port
of Liverpool, by Mr. William Grisewood (Liverpool Central Relief and
C.O.S. : 1897); iteport of Dock Labour Conference, 190G; and the very valu-
able Report of an Inquiry into the Conditions of Labour at the Liverpool
Docks, by Miss E. F. Rathbone and Mr. G. H. Wood.

Page 134. See as to the hours of labour of railway servants, the periodical
returns issued by the Board of Trade under the Regulation of Railway Acts,
1889 and 1893.

Page 135. The evils of the uneducational employment of boys and girls,
between leaving school and reaching adult life, have been much written
about during the past ten years. The student will find this summarised in
the Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909 (pp. 650-4 of official
8vo edition; cf. The Town Child, by Reginald Bray, L.C.C. (Unwin : 1907);
Contitiuatioii Schools in England and Elsewhere, by Professor M. E. Sadler
(Sherratt : 1908) ; The Children of the Nation, by Sir John Gorst (Methuen :
1906) ; Labour and Childhood, by Miss Macmillan (Sonnenschein : 1907) ;
Child Life and Labour, by Mrs. Alden, M.D. (Headley : 1908); Studies of
Boy Life in our Cities, by E. J. Urwick (Dent : 1908); The Labour Exchange
in relation to Boy and Girl Labour, by F. Keeling (King: 1909); Van-Boy
Labour, by K. I. M. Medley (Apprenticeship and Skilled Employment
Association: 1911); Child Problems, by Dr. George Mangold (Macmillan:
1911); Juvenile Labour Exchanges and Aftcr-Carc, by Arthur Greenwood
(King: 1911).

VII

Insurance

The various improvements iii our industrial organisation
described in the last chapter, by which it is proposed,
on a large scale actually to prevent the occurrence of un-
employment, seem to some people, to involve too much
deliberately taking in hand of the conditions of social life, to
be politically practicable. We have become so accustomed
to a state of society in which the great mass of the popula-
tion have no sort of assurance of an uninterrupted con-
tinuance of the little incomes on which their households
depend, that we cannot believe that this perpetual econo-
mic insecurity is as unnecessary as the rattling of a motor
car — is, in fact, merely the result of our omission to make
the necessary social adjustments, and to employ the
various practical devices, without which, as we now know,
under any system of society, Individualist or Socialist,
the machinery will not run smoothly. Similarly, the cam-
paign for the actual prevention of sickness, and thereby
of all the destitution caused by preventable sickness,
seems, to many a worthy citizen, little more than a fad.
He does not really beheve (because he will not take the
trouble to become aware of the facts) that any large
proportion of disease can be got rid of, any more than
death itself. Our scepticism is strengthened by our

159

160 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

personal contentment. We are, usually, so far removed
from the terrible evils tliat spring from tke economic
insecurity of the wage-earner's life that the prospect of
having, as the price of getting rid of them, to put in more
thought and deliberation, or to incur some trouble and
expense, is enough to make our statesmen reluctant to
grapple with the problem. Is there not some easier solu-
tion ? We might, it is said, at any rate provide for the
systematic relief of the destitution caused by sickness and
unemployment, and provide for it, in the main, at the
expense of the wage-earners themselves, by a system
of insurance.

Now, insurance is a social device of proved value,
and we count on its being made use of in the campaign
against destitution. It has, however, one fundamental
drawback which stands in the way of its being any real
alternative to the proposals of this book. Insurance does
not prevent. Fire insurance, for instance, does not prevent
fires, or make them any less dangerous to life or destructive
to property. Death insurance (which we euphemistically
call life insurance) does not prevent death, even pre-
mature and obviously preventable death. Accident
insurance does not prevent accidents from occurring.
Marine insurance saves no vessel from shipwreck. The
insurance of crops against hail-storms does not protect
the crops. Whatever economic loss is caused to the
community by shipwrecks and conflagrations, by the maim-
ing or premature death of productive citizens, or by
destructive hailstorms, is not obviated, or, in the long run,
even lessened in amount, by being spread over different
people, or different periods. Whatever of human pam and
grief is due to the physical suff ermg or premature death is

INSURANCE

161

not got rid of by ingenious devices for shifting money pay-
ments from one pocket to another. Insui'ance, accord-
ingly, m no way weakens the case for actually preventive
measures agamst the occurrence of sickness, or against
the occm-rence of unemployment, any more than it does
the case against leaving feeble-mindedness uncontrolled, or
against the neglect to provide infants, children, and
adolescents with the requisites for healthy development.
No one ever suggests, for mstance, in London, where
practically every house is covered by a fire insurance policy,
that this is any reason for disbanding the Fire Brigade, and
for lettmg all the fire-preventive buildmg regulations fall
mto abeyance. The universal prevalence of marine
insurance is considered no ground for dispensing with
lighthouses or fog-signals, or with the " Rule of the road "
at sea.

We shall realise this limitation of the practical value
of sickness insurance, if mstead of sickness generally, we
consider some particular disease. At the present moment
East Anglia, and England at large, stands in some
danger of an outbreak of bubonic plague. Shall we
" insure " agamst the plague ? " Lloyds " would quote
low premium. Or shall we set on foot a campaign against
rats and fleas and overcrowding and dirt, and see to it
that every suspicious case is at once isolated ? There can
be no doubt as to the answer.

Or, to go back to the past, suppose that, three-quarters
of a century ago, when typhus was desolating thousands
of homes, the Government had shrunk from drafting the
long and troublesome Public Health Act that Edwin
Chadwick was recommending, and had proposed instead
a universal and compulsory system of insurance against

162 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

typhus. Quite a low premium on all the wage-earners
would have sufiS.ced to give every sufferer from typhus
ten shillings a week and as many bottles of medicine as
he could swallow ! But, as we now see, it would have been
scarcely a statesmanlike way of dealing with typhus.
It was actually cheaper to the community in the end,
as well as in other respects more advantageous, to prevent
the occurrence of typhus, than to let it occur, and then
pay for the maintenance and treatment of the sufferer,
even by means of insurance.

To-day we stand, with regard to tuberculosis, very
much as our grandfathers did with regard to typhus.
Sixty thousand deaths a year (one- third of them actually
in the Workhouse) ; one-seventh of aU the pauperism ;
and an untold proportion of all the destitution are caused
by the " Great White Plague " which we know how to
'prevent. Now, say various kindly people, let us, instead
of preventing tuberculosis at the expense of the Pubhc
Health Act, arrange that all the poor shall " insure "
against it, by paying 2d. a week so that when they
are stricken down they may get 10s. a week and some
medicine, or even the chance of a few weeks in a
Sanatorium !

It is, moreover, not unimportant to remember that,
whilst insurance does not prevent, it mB2:_3iiite.^2£obably
(unless very carefully safeguarded) actual ly increase the
evil for which it purports to provide. Fke insurance has
been known to lead to arson, and a great many conditions
and precautions have been found to be indispensable,
to say nothing of the criminal law, if we are to prevent
fire policies from actual multiplying conflagrations. Marine
insurance has been reported to lead to more wrecks : Mr.

INSURANCE

163

Plimsoll said tliat it was a direct cause of the deliberate
sacrifice of notoriously unseaworthy ships, and of a
positively criminal waste of life. Let us hope that sub-
sequent legislation has quite put an end to anything so
wicked. But every experienced worker among the poor
realises the criminal tragedies for which infantile life
insurance is responsible. The inner records of Friendly
Societies and Trade Unions contain many cases in which
the provision of sick pay and unemployment benefit
has led to sickness and miemployment being made to
last longer than would otherwise have been the case.

Once we have clearly realised that insurance is not
an alternative to prevention; that its, adoption affords
no excuse for not embarking on the campaign against
the occurrence of the social evils that we have described ;
and that, on the contrary, in order to prevent an actual
multiplication of the evil, any system of insurance will
make even more necessary than before the starting of
such a campaign, we can proceed with an open mind to
consider how far a system of insurance can advantageously
help us to provide for those sufferers whom we have failed
to protect. And in this examination of insurance, we may
discover how it may be rendered, not merely not hostile
to a poHcy of prevention, but actually a useful adjunct
of such a policy. We shall limit this analysis to the in-
surance of the wage-earning class against sickness,
accident invalidity, old age, and unemployment.

We have, as examples of social insurance of this
kind, first the greatlriendlySocieties, in which we see
how successfully some five _or si^^illions_of workmen
and others have provided for themselves, by paying
regular premiums throughout their lives, both medical

164 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

attendance and a weekly allowance whenever they are
ill. Then there are the great Trade Unions, in which
three-quarters of a million of workmen, in certain highly
organised industries, have provided for themselves definite
weekly allowances in both unemployment and sickness.
Finally, we have the example of the Ger man Emp ire,
now followed by some other countries, in which this
individual and voluntary insurance has been generalised
into a national and compulsory system of provision of
both medical attendance and sick pay, in return for
universal and obligatory deductions from wages. Why
should not we, it is said, adopt a similar national system,
as regards both unemployment and siclmess, and arrange,
by compulsory deductions from everybody's wages, to
provide for everybody, both medical treatment when sick
and a weekly payment, whenever, through sickness or
involuntary unemployment, he finds himself unable to
bring home the wages on which his household depends ?

We ought first to notice the very marked distinction
between the two sides of any system of insurance, whether
voluntary or compulsory — between its revenue side and its
expenditure side — between the incidence of the cost as
borne by the contributories and the character of the
provision as enjoyed by the beneficiaries. What stands
out most prominently, to the English mind, in the sick-
ness and unemployment insurance that we know, is the
revenue s^de. What an admirable thing it is, exclaim
the historians of our Friendly Society movement, that
the whole cost of this great national service should be
provided at the expense of the persons who themselves
benefited by it. This " independence," which has made
such co-operative insurance against the special risks of

INSURANCE

165

working-class life extraordinarily attractive to the success-
ful Engiisli artisan, has earned it great praise and approval
from the propertied class. Insurance, in this sense, has
come, in England, to be indissolubly connected in thought
with doing without Poor Relief and requiring none of the
charitable alms of the rich and middle classes. And this
method of bearing the cost has undoubtedly had the
incidental advantages of developing foresight and thrift,
ability to manage affairs and willingness to subordinate
present enjoyments to future needs. All this, we feel, is
magnificent. No institution appertaining to one class of
society has ever produced such a feeling of legitimate
self-righteousness amongst those who have originated it
and benefited by it, and such a glow of satisfaction on the
part of other social classes, as the Friendly Society move-
ment, and the " friendly benefit " side of Trade Unionism.
The veryjyord^^^jnsuraacej^ has, in consequence, come,
in Englancl, tobe, as it were, enpircled with a halo of
consecration ! ^

The other side of the account — the expenditure of
these great working-class organisations, and the nature
of the provision that they are able to make— has hitherto
attracted less attention. To those who have studied its
workmg, the results of what is actually the largest national
organisation of provision in calamity are not quite so
satisfactory. It seemed, in the middle of the nineteenth
century, an unmense boon to secure to the sick man, or
to the operative thrown out of employment, even as much
as 7s. or 10s. per week, for a limited period, in lieu of the
20s. or 30s. that normally maintained his household. But
household requirements are_.nglLe.ssen ed by the^kness,
or even by the unemplojnuent, of the bread-winner. It

166 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

is a grave indictment of this method of provision that, by-
its inevitable insufficiency, it half-starves the overworked
wife, makes the children go short of food, accelerates the
physical degeneration which unemployment in itself
causes, and actually interferes with the quick and satis-
factory recovery of the sick man. Moreover, even this
insufficient provision is always definitely limited in duration.
The sick pay or out-of-work benefit of the Friendly
Society or Trade Union may be drawn only for a limited
number of weeks, at the end of which the unfortunate
member, even if he has not yet become able to resume
wage-earning, becomes " out of benefit." And experience
shows that it is very far from being an advantage that this
inadequate and limited weekly payment should also be
practically unconditional. Apart from certain minor rules
as to sick men not working and not being out at night, and
as to unemployed men " signing the book " daily, the
member drawing sick pay is not required to subject
himself to any hygienic regimen, to go into hospital, or
practically to " co-operate in his own cure " ; and the man
drawing out-of-work pay is under no restrictions as to
conduct and under no necessity to be so very energetic in
discovering a new situation. Finally, so far as regards
some, at least, of the contributors, we have the curiously
dubious result upon the mind of having paid an insurance
premium — the half-conscious determination^to get value
for their money by drawing out in benefits the full measure
of their own contributions ; a psychological effect due, we
suggest, partly to the personal character impressed on
the contribution, but partly also to the unconditional
nature of the right to benefit. It does not occur- to the
ordinary ratepayer that, in order to get value for the rates

INSURANCE

167

he has paid, he must go every year into the Municipal
Hospital, or borrow books that he does not need from the
Public Library, up to the exact amount that he has paid.
But, as every Friendly Society official knows, there is a
very real tendency in the mind of his members, powerful
enough to affect the statistics of the society as a whole, to
feel that they are, each year, morally entitled to draw, at
any rate, as much as they have paid in ; and therefore a
tendency not perhaps to strive quite so much against the
minor ailment or the danger of unemployment to which
they succumb. It is an ominous feature that, in spite of
all the general improvement in health, the Friendly
Society members are, judging from the statistics of sick
pay, not themselves getting healthier. The sickness-rates
of the Friendly Societies go steadily up, notwithstanding
that the death-rate, which usually measures the amount
of real disease, is falling among the Friendly Society
membership as among the population at large. It is more
ominous still to notice that the si ckness-ra te, and therefore
the average amount of sick pay drawn, is great est in the
ce ntralised^ national societies, where the members feel they
are aU drawmg on a common purse ; less in the one national
society which obscures that fact by a nominal allocation
of funds among its branches ; and least of all in the
local lodges and branches of the great Orders, hi which
the local members know that they have jointly to
bear the burden of their own ill-health. But it is
found even there. It is not a good thing that there
should come to be recognised, in certain Trade Unions, a
set of men who regularly draw, year after year, practically
all the unemployed benefit to which the rules entitle
them. Both the Trade Unions and the Friendly Societies

168 THE PKEVENTION OP DESTITUTION

have failed, in fact, to prevent a quite extensive growth of
malingering. In these depressing jgsychological reactions
— inherent, we think, in the provision made by insurance
in the ordinary sense — we have a grave set-off against the
encouragement of thrift, the independent exercise of self-
goverimient, and the satisfaction of providing for one's
own needs, which have been universally placed to the
credit of the system of raising the means of providing
against calamities by the personal and voluntary contribu-
tions of the beneficiaries.

Let us now consider how all these advantages and
disadvantages of a system of voluntary insurance against
the contingencies of the wage-earner's life are affected by
the intr oduction of the element of compulsi on. It is not
difficult to see why this element of compulsion is desired.
From the statesman's point of view the voluntary insurance
of the Friendly Societies and the Trade Unions has the
grave drawback that it necessarily provides only for a
section of the community ; leaving outside its scope those
who are too poor, too ill, too improvident, too seriously
depressed by chronic mider-employment, or too much
liable to unemployment, to be able to make provision
against future calamity. As it is exactly this class which
principally recruits the great army of the destitute,
voluntary insurance fails as a method of defence just
where it is most needed. Hence the temptation to extend
the defence to the whole community by making insurance
universally obligatory.

But coropulsory insurance is almost a misnomer. The
special features of thrift and foresight, the independence
in self-govermnent and the willingness to subordinate the
present to the future, which are, as we have seen,

INSURANCE

169

characteristic of the insurance which is an optional and
voluntary act of individual prudence, disappear altogether
in a national and compulsory and universal system.
Compulsory insurance, as we see it in the German Empire,
and as it is embodied in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
scheme of 1911, with its automatic and obligatory deduc-
tions from wages, entails on the contributor no act of
thrift, involves no exercise of the quality of foresight,
demands no responsibility for administration, and implies
no subordination of present impulses to future needs. The
contribution arbitrarily levied on every wage-earner
amounts to nothing more nor less than a tax — the poll-tax
that we got rid of in 1381 — Shaving no connection with the
idiosyncrasy of the contributory, and no more ji]dumss
on hi^ moral character than any other tax. Moreover,
the beneficiaries have to recognise that, as in the case of
any other Government service, they are reaping what
they have not themselves sown. For it must be re-
membered that in the Governmental system of sickness
insurance, and, indeed, in practically every universal
and compulsory scheme, the beneficiaries can no longer
pride themselves on paying for their own benefits. A
considerable proportion of the funds are contributed
from other sources ;~'frQ|n the employers who are not
entitled to benefits, and from the Government, involving
taxation upon all the persons, rich and poor, who are
outside the scope of. the scheme. And when we con-
sider the question of self-government, we can hardly
recognise as independence the condition of the " Approved
Friendly Societies" under the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer's scheme of 1911— a condition in which the
hitherto autonomous society has to accept a Government

170 THE PKEVENTION OE DESTITUTION

scheme of benefits in lieu of its own, performs none of the
work of collection, exercises no control over the accumu-
lating^ funds, has no responsibility for their investment,
is compelled every three years to vary its benefits as it
may, on valuation, peremptorily be required to do, and
is even to be subject to governmental regulation and
control in respect of the formation of branches, and the
appointment and payment of the medical men on whose
skiU and honourable dealing the whole efficiency, and,
indeed, the actuarial solvency of the organisation depends.
In fact, the " Approved Friendly Societies " under this
scheme become merely canvassing agents and benefit-
paying cashiers to the great new Government Department,
which will control the taxation on employers and wage-
earners of some five and twenty million pounds amiually,
and which will manage the investment of a fund presently
running into a hundred millions.

Hence, we are obliged to test the value of the revenue
side of Compulsory Insurance, not, as in the case of the
voluntary contribution to a Friendly Society, by its
incidental advantages in promotmg thrift and independent
self-government, but, in the mam, by the ordmary canons
of taxation. Now, regarded as a method of raising revenue,
compulsory insurance of all the wage-earnmg population,
with its elaborate paraphernalia of weekly deductions, its
array of cards and stamps, its gigantic membership cata-
logue, its inevitable machinery of identification and pro-
tection against fraud — involving not only a vast and
perpetual trouble to every employer, but also the appomt-
ment of an extraordinarily extensive Civil Service staff —
is, compared with all our other taxes, ahnost ludicrously
ll costly ancfcumbersome to all conce rned^ And if we add

INSURANCE 171

to tlie cost of the new Department of Government, the
outlay of the " Approved Friendly Societies " in armies
of canvassers perpetually seeking out new recruits with
good lives, from among a population all of whom must
in any case find themselves automatically insured, we
believe that the nation will presently wake up to the
fact that it will be spending from 20 to 25 per cent, of
the whole insurance revenue in the cost of its collection,
as compared with the 2 or 3 per cent, for which the Inland
Revenue or Customs Departments would actually raise
these aMitional_jthirty^ jailli through one of the re-
cognised channels of direct or indirect taxation. We
shall be wasting from two to five milhons a year !

From the standpoint of a prudent Chancellor of the
Exchequer, there is an even graver indictment of any
scheme of Compulsory Insurance that includes within its
scope the whole of the artisan and lower middle classes.
The financial obligation of the Exchequer is quite un-
necessarily enlarged. What is, in the public mterest,
required is merely to ensure medical treatment and main-
tenance for those in whose cases it is at present lacking.
What any miiversal scheme involves is a similar grant
to innumerable others who do not need it. Among the
sixteen millions who would find themselves compulsorily
insured under Mr. Lloyd George's scheme, there are millions
who do, at present, without help from the State or from
the employers, provide at least as adequately for the
sickness of themselves and their families as is now pro-
posed. In future, it is suggested, these millions of inde-
pendent citizens, shall have, at the expense of the Exchequer
and of the employers, considerably more than half of this
expenditure found for them. This it is that makes a scheme

172 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of Compulsory Insurance so extravagantly costly com-
pared with the practical alternative of doing, at the
public expense, only what is necessary to maintain and
enforce the prescribed standard of civilised life through
the kingdom. In its campaign against smallpox or scarlet
fever, the Public Health Department " searches out "
every case, and ensures that every case receives the
promptest and fullest treatment to the end of the con-
valescence. But this does not mean that all persons
suffering from infectious diseases — ^not even all such
persons under £160 a year mcome — are maintained and
treated at the public expense. Many families, even of
moderate means, willingly themselves provide the medical
attendance, nursing, and isolation that the Medical Officer
of Health requires. Moreover, even where it is con-
venient and desirable that accommodation should be
sought in the Isolation Hospital, it is quite practicable,
if Parliament so decides, to obtain payment from such
individuals benefited as are in a position to contribute
to the cost. In fact, many Local Health Authorities do
levy considerable sums in this way, in towns, or as regards
particular classes, in which this policy commends itself.
The Secondary Schools of Eastbourne, for instance,
jointly pay £180 a year on behalf of their resident pupils
for this municipal hospital accommodation. Similarly,
in the field of lunacy, where the public provision is prac-
tically universal, the State does not find it necessary to
bear the charge for any but those patients whose families
are not in a position to contribute. The Local Lunacy
Authorities in England and Wales find no difficulty in
recovering an average of two or three pounds per annum
on all the patients with whom they deal. When Parliament

INSURANCE

173

decides that medical treatment and maintenance in sickness
shall be as universally enforced in all cases, as it is now in
smallpox or lunacy, it will be unnecessary for the Chancellor
of the Exchequer to do more than find the cost for those
whose means do not enable them to come up to the pre-
scribed standard.

It is interesting to notice that it is exactly the
unnecessary public provision and unnecessary public
expenditure, involved in any Compulsory Insurance of the
entire artisan and lower middle class, which has stirred
to rebellion the whole medical profession. Sojar as regards
five-sixths of the heads of households throughout the
kingdom, individual private practice is thereby com-
pulsorily and peremptorily destroyed, without compensa-
tion ; in order to be merged in a gigantic extension of
" club practice," under Friendly Society Committees, at
capitation fees. But any such wholesale revolution in
medical practice is unnecessary. The required object of
ensuring medical attendance and maintenance for every
person in the kingdom can be achieved without depriving
any doctor of any paying patient. To place upon the Local
Health Authority the same responsibility for " searching
out " diseases in general, which it now exercises with
regard to scarlet fever ; to insist on its providing prompt
and adequate medical attendance (and, wherever necessary,
maintenance) in those cases in which this is not otherwise
being provided ; and to safeguard this by rigid arrange-
ments for Charge and Recovery in every instance in which
it is ascertained by inquiry that the family could have
. afforded a doctor's fee — say, all cases in which the avail-
able income exceeds sixpence per head per day, — would
leave untouched every penny of the private practitioner's

174 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

present earnings, whilst involving the addition, to the
medical profession as a whole, at per case or by salary,
no inconsiderable subvention from public funds.

But, to the Statesman, waste of money in an un-
necessary public provision is of small importance compared
with waste of " character." It is when we consider the
effect of Compulsory Insurance on personal conduct and
individual character that the instructed critic finds most
reason for hesitation. It is no mere matter of theory
that in a national system of compulsory insurance, obli-
gatory on the whole wage- earning class, with substantial
contributions from the employers, and a subvention from
the Government, the dangers of malingering are greatly
increased. Even in the select membership of voluntary
s'ocieties, under the most complete self-government, it is
found difficult to prevent an individual from " getting the
better " of his fellow-members, if not by actual false
pretences, at any rate by making a practice of drawing
aU the possible benefits, whenever the happening of the
contingency insured against gives him a chance — a course
which, if generally pursued, would promptly bankrupt the
society. And when any large part of the funds is derived
from other sources than the contributions of the
beneficiaries themselves, it may well be to the
pecuniary advantage of the whole body to make
a practice of claiming the utmost possible benefits,
as they would, on an average, each be getting,
in addition to what they had themselves paid in,
their proportionate shares of the funds derived from other
classes of the community. Public opinion against such a
course, at any rate within the utmost limits of the rules,
could hardly fail to be weakened. Hence, in any national

INSURANCE

175

system of universally compulsory insurance, with, funds
derived partly from other than the beneficiaries themselves,
we have, as the combined result of the personal nature of
the contribution, the unconditional " right " which it gives
to benefit, and the award of the benefit in the shape of a
money payment, the utmost possible temptation, and, as
the experience of the German Empire demonstrates, an
inevitable tendency, to a great deal of malingering.

Finally, we must note that one of the essential
characteristics of voluntary insurance, the fact that there
is no guarantee that its benefits shall last as long as the
wage-earner's disability, and that they are, on the contrary,
always definitely limited in duration, irrespective of the
continuance of the disability, is characteristic also of
compulsory insurance. Apart from such a disability as
can be definitely certified as permanent and irremediable,
no insurance scheme can provide sick pay or unem-
ployed benefit for more than a specified number of weeks
at a time, however prolonged may be the sickness
or the involuntary unemployment. This definit ejimita-
tion of liability is, indeed, one of the attractions of insurance
schemes to the class which contributes to the cost without
participating in the benefits. But from the standpoint of
the statesman concerned to find some really effective
gjovision against destitution, this arbitrary limitation,
irrespective of the duration of the disability for wage-
earning, is a serious def_ect. We see, at once, as regards
the public provision for the needs of children, that it would
never do for the Local Education Authority to limit its
work to any arbitrarily defined number of weeks or months :
it provides schooling for the whole period dm^ing which
'the child requires schooling. The Local Health Authority

176 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

does not limit its care of the scarlet-fever patient to any
fixed nmnber of days : it provides for the whole duration
of the illness, however prolonged this may be. The Local
Lunacy Authority does not offer the lunatic only so many
months' custody and control : it undertakes his treatment,
in the " mental hospitals " into which our lunatic asylums
are now being transformed, for the entire period of aliena-
tion, until the patient can be restored to sanity. In all
these instances, the collective provision is, deliberately, in
the public interest, made to last for so long as the case
requires. We can see, indeed, that in schemes of sickness
and unemployment insurance, the community makes a
bad bargain, even from a pecuniary standpoiut, in
commuting, for an unconditional weekly payment which
the beneficiary may expend as he pleases, its inevitable
liability for preventing the wage-earner and his family
from dying of starvation. The limitation of the pecuniary
responsibility to a definite number of weeks is, in the end,
largely fictitious. The sick man who " runs out of
benefit," or the unemployed man who can no longer draw
out-of-work benefit, has still to be maiutauied somehow.
After exhausting his savings, and even the wide generosity
of his own class, such a workman, dragging his wife and
children down with him, too often ends up in parasitic
dependence on Poor Relief, or on the spasmodic and
unorganised charity of the wealthy.

Unfortunately, we have, in the Enghsh Government
scheme of 1911, an extraordinary aggravation of this
inherent defect of Insurance in the provision that is
offered to the poorest and weakest of the beneficiaries.
Under Mr. Lloyd George's proposals the " Approved
Friendly Societies " are to retain their present power to

INSURANCE

177

select their own members out of the whole population of
contributories^ — a notable departure from the German
model, m which each Sickness Association has to accept
all lives, good, bad, or indifferent, within the territorial
or trade sphere assigned to it. Hence, under the English
Government scheme of 1911, there will be a steady tendency
towards the segregation of good lives in the strongest
societies, leaving the descending scale of indifferent and
bad lives to fall into the other societies, in more or less
proportion to their strength and efficient management.
We shall have the curious spectacle of those Friendly
Societies which prove to contain the wealthiest and the
healthiest persons, who are quite capable of providmg
for their own sickness without help from others, voting
themselves triennially larger and more varied benefits
out of the unnecessarily liberal Government subvention
and employers' contribution; whilst other Societies,
reduced to accepting the indifferent lives of the very poor,
will find themselves, at each valuation, struggling to
maintain the prescribed minunum of solvency ; unable,
in many instances, to avoid an actual reduction of bene-
fits ; and, in the worst cases, breakmg up in insolvency,
leaving the last lot of members saddled with a " Crown
debt," in the shape of heavy levies ui order to keep up
the benefits to those to whom they have already been
awarded. And at the bottom of the scale w@^ shall find
a heterogeneous crowd of so-called "Post Office con-
tributors," literally millions in numbers, of all ages and
both sexes, men and women who have been rejected by
all Societies, or who have fallen out of benefit and have
been refused re-admission, or who are the victims of a
Friendly Society insolvency, which they will have had no

N

178 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

practical power to prevent. For these persons, necessarily
the poorest and most liable to sickness among the whole
population, yet often without any moral fault or personal
shortcoming of their own, the English Government scheme
of 1911 affords no protection and no adequate provision.
They are to be admitted to what is euphemistically called
" Deposit Insurance." But they will have the beneJ&ts
neither of insurance nor of a savings bank deposit. Their
scanty earnings will have been taxed with the same rigour
as those of the healthy and best paid workers, and usually
at a greater proportionate rate. But all they will get
in return will be, according to the 1911 Bill, permission
gradually to draw out the deposits made in their names,
under elaborately restrictive conditions — only after a
whole year's accumulation — then only when sick as dis-
tinguished from any other need ; only in the case of their
own sickness, irrespective of that of another member of
the family ; only at a prescribed rate ; and only after
the Government has levied a toll for expenses. When
the deposit is exhausted, they will get nothing more, not
even the possibility of admission after the current year
to the new Sanatorium provided out of general taxation,
and they are left — in spite of the Compulsory Insurance
tax levied on them in past years — to fall into the Poor
Law, to which they can now resort without being sub-
jected to the new weekly poll-tax. And if they have not
been ill, and have resisted the temptation to malinger,
so that they have not been permitted to draw out the
deposit, not even that portion of it which represents what
the Government has arbitrarily and compulsorily stopped
from their scanty earmngs, when they die, the whole sum
is to be confiscated ! However poor may be the widow,

INSURANCE^

179^

the children, or the next of km, the unfortunate " Post
Office contributor," whom the Grovernment has thus taxed
to his or her hurt, is actually, at his death, to be buried
by the parish as a pauper.

Thus, it is a general characteristic of the English
Government's scheme of 1911 that, with a compulsory
expenditure of five and twenty or thirty millions a year
under Government control, of which only a third will
come from the class of beneficiaries themselves, the pros-
perous and healthy lower middle class and well-paid
artisans will get most ; the struggling workman of en-
feebled frame, the labourer and the woman worker much
less ; and the phthisical men and women, and the poorest
casual labourers the least. To the statesman, surveyuig
the whole field of national sickness, there is even a further
anomaly. At the present moment, the section of the
community in which there is most untreated sickness
and in which the deficiency has been most authoritatively
revealed and enumerated, is that of the children at school.
It is just among these seven millions of school children
—along with the additional millions of infants below
school age ui which the lack of medical attendance is known
to be responsible for an excessive death-rate, and a still
more calamitous "damage-rate" from the sequelce of
untended measles, etc—that the community, as a whole,
has the greatest interest, and has the most to gain, in
preventing ill-health and premature enfeeblement. It is
a special featm^e of the sickness among this not-unim-
portant class, comprising one.-quarter of the whole popu-
lation, that they can hardly be supposed to have brought
their little diseases and ailments on themselves, by any
moral fault or personal shortcoming ; and they are not

180 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

likely to be able to defraud us by malingering ! We kave,
as a community, already admitted our public responsi-
bility for ensuring, to every one of these little ones, the
necessary medical attendance without which they cannot
grow up to effective citizenship ; and by the Children Act
of 1908, and the provision for universal medical inspection
at school, we have practically shouldered the burden of
seeing to it that this imperative need is supplied. For the
last three years. Local Education Authorities, aU over
the country, have been drafting schemes and building up
organisations for getting all this medical attendance pro-
vided, without a single penny of aid from the Exchequer ;
and for lack of this indispensable help and stimulus, only
an infinitesimal portion of the work is yet undertaken.
Every voluntary hospital dealing with children has had
an intolerable burden thrown upon its resources, and
upon the mainly gratuitous services of its medical staff,
because the Local Education Authorities have been
refused any pecuniary assistance for this novel addition
to their duties ; and the Government has turned a deaf
ear. The President of the Board of Education for England
and Wales, and the Secretary for Scotland as head of the
Scotch Education Department, reveal themselves to the
nation as men struggling with adversity, and unable, for
lack of a million or so of additional Grant in Aid, to put
the Local Education Authorities in a position to discharge
the new duties which, at the instance of the Government,
Parliament has imposed upon them. And now, when it
appears that the nation can afford twenty-five or thirty
millions a year for the better succour in sickness of its
adult wage-earning population— three-fourths of them
adult males — not a penny is appropriated for the far

INSUKANCE

181

more pressing necessities of tKe children and the infants,
because the Government refuses to pay what remains
out of the worker's own money !

If the reader desires to observe, within our own
country, some of the drawbacks of insurance as a method
of provision against the contingencies of the wage-earner's
life, let him study the experience afforded by the Work-
men's Compensation Act of 1896, Here, Parliament, by
imposing upon employers the obligation of paying com-
pensation for all industrial accidents, indirectly (and
perhaps unmtentionally) set up a vast and almost universal
scheme of insurance. In this case the contributions come
exclusively from the employers, who are not themselves
beneficiaries, and they take the form of insurance
premiums, automatically and ahnost universally paid to
great financial corporations, in return for being relieved
of all risks. We must note, ui the first place that accidents
have not been prevented. It is commonly asserted that
the fact of being virtually com,pelled to pay these insurance
premiums has not made employers more careful to prevent
what occasions them no pecuniary loss, whilst it may
possibly have made workmen somewhat less careful. At
any rate, the number of accidents does not appear to have
dunmished, and there is grave reason to fear that the
steady increase m the number reported means the total
number happening has been actually increased. The
asserted mdifference of the employers to the occurrence of
accidents may be due partly to the fact that there is no
connection between their liabiHty and their conduct:
their nommal responsibiHty, which they pay the msurance
companies to assume, being the same whether an accident
is caused by the " Act of God " or by some personal

182 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

default. On tlie other hand, the workmen naturally feel
that as neither they nor their mates are bearing the cost,
there is no reason why they should not take the maximum
possible advantage of their right to exact money benefits.
And when we turn to the expenditure side of the account,
and examine the nature of the provision made for the
sufferers, we see that this is practically an unconditional
money payment — it may be a temporary weekly allowance,
it may be (and in fact usually is) a lump sum to the totally
incapacitated workman, or to the widow and orphans of
the man who is killed. Here the community, which
ultimately, in their enhanced prices of commodities, bears
the whole cost — estimated at three or four million pounds
a year — gets neither prevention, nor any assm*ance that
the sufferers are properly provided for. There is nothing
to ensm*e that the incapacitated workman, or the widow,
does not lose or squander the sum handed over by the
insurance company as " compensation " for the accident,
and eventually become as dependent on Poor Law reUef
as if the community had provided nothing at all. As a
matter of fact, there are already, among the paupers in
the industrial districts, thousands of such cases, and their
number increases annually. And when the incapacity is
only temporary, the unconditional right to a weekly
money payment affords the utmost possible temptation to
"make the most" of every industrial mishap, and
■encourages the beneficiaries to postpone as long as they
can, their complete recovery and the resumption which it
entails. We do not under-rate the enormous advantage
to the community, or the act of justice to the sufferers, of
having secured some provision for those who are injured,
■or who are bereft of the bread- wmner, by industrial

INSURANCE

183

accidents. If we had. to choose between the former state
of thmgs, when such provision was only occasionally and
partially made, as an act of grace, and the Workmen's
Compensation Act with all its defects, we should unhesitat-
ingly prefer the latter. But seeing that the community
had come, in 1896, to recognise the magnitude of the
loss involved m our annual holocaust of wounds, diseases,
and deaths from industrial accidents, and showed itself
prepared to pay three or four millions a year to relieve the
sufferers, it is annoymg to think that so little thought was
put into makuig the scheme really preventive in its
operation, and really effective in providing for those whom
we failed to protect.

We regard it, accordingly, as established— and already
strikingly borne out by the experience of the German
Empire — that any Government which embarks on a
system of universal and compulsory social insurance
(especially if this involves substantial contributions from
other than the beneficiaries), unless it concurrently sets to
work at least as elaborate social machinery for actually
preventing the occurrence of the contingencies insured
against, and for bringing them, in each case, as quickly

. as possible to an end, will do, on the one hand, no
small amount of psychological damage to its beneficiaries,
and will almost certainly discover, on the other, an
ever-mcreasmg drain on its insurance fund, involving

;a progressive rise either of the premiums or of the

.'subventions, and, in any case, of the total burden on the

I conmiunity.

It becomes, therefore, of importance to consider in
further detail, the safeguarding conditions which any
i scheme of social insurance ought to involve. These

184 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

conditions naturally differ according to the contingency
insured against.

The minimum of safeguarding conditions is required
by insurance against old age. The beneficiary cannot,
by any effort of will or laxness of moral character, bring
himself prematurely into eligibility. AU that is required
is accurate registration of birth and reasonable certainty
of identification, both of which present no great difficulties.
Even a limitation of the Old Age Pensions to persons
without more than a defined small income, though present-
ing additional temptations to evasion and fraud, is found
not seriously to hamper the working of the scheme. Thus,
a system of Old Age Pensions, heavily subsidised by the
State, or, indeed, wholly provided out of the taxes, offers
hardly any difficulties or dangers. Whether or not any
direct and obvious personal contribution to the pension
should be compulsorily exacted from each person in
advance, in addition to his taxes, becomes merely a question
of the incidence of taxation generally. If it is thought
that the taxation of the country is so arranged that it is
both equitable and convenient to raise an additional sum
by what is virtually a poll-tax, and a poll-tax from which
even the poorest are not exempt, we may insist on a
universal deduction from wages. How far such a universal
deduction from the earnings of the lowest stratum may
prove to encroach injuriously on the necessary means of
subsistence of the labourer's family, and how far this " tax
on wages " will be a burden on industry, we may leave
the economists to decide. If, on the other hand, the
grant of Old Age Pensions is regarded as an entirely safe
and harmless way of effecting, to some slight degree, that
more equal distribution of national income that we all

INSURANCE

185

profess to desire, we shall prefer to let the whole cost be
borne by the propertied class.

The question has been settled, for the United
Kingdom, so far as Old Age Pensions after 70 are concerned,
by the decision embodied in the Old Age Pensions Act of
1908, to make them entirely non-contributory. No
administration will attempt to withdraw that boon. But
it is important to notice that there is no insuperable
di£6LCulty in grafting on the non-contributory Old Age
Pension Act, a contributory scheme of pensions beginning
before 70, or even beginning whenever permanent invalidity
sets in. In the latter case we get the new element of
danger that invalidity can be produced at will, and can,
to some extent, even be simulated. What we are warned
by the experience of Germany on this point is as to the
importance of the State insisting, from the outset, on the
patient having, not necessarily the medical treatment that
he might choose or prefer, or any limited amount of it, but
the very best preventive hygienic advice and surgical aid
and the kind of treatment that, according to the highest
available authority, is most calculated to postpone his
invalidity. It is plain that if the payment of an Invalidity
Pension is to depend on a medical certificate, we cannot
afiord to allow the claimant a " Free Choice of Doctors " !
Coupled with some readily accessible public provision for
good medical and surgical treatment, both domiciliary
and institutional, in order, as long as possible, to avert
disability ; and safeguarded by very precise and annually
renewed certification by expert officers acting for the
pubHc, universal and compulsory insurance against clearly
ascertained permanent invalidity becomes nearly as safe
as insurance for pensions dependent on age alone. ■ On

186 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the other hand, 'as with Old Age Pensions, the question
of whether or not we should exact, in addition to all the
other taxes, a specially ear-marked contribution from each
beneficiary in advance, by means of a universal and
compulsory deduction from wages — being, in effect, a
universal poll-tax — is, in reality, one as to what is the
most equitable and most convenient incidence of
taxation.

It is when we come to sickness, much of which is
plainly preventable, and most of which may be assumed
to be only temporary, of no fixed duration, that we are
brought face to face with the difficulties and dangers of
provision by means of insurance, especially when the
insurance is universal and compulsory, and largely
subsidised by other than the beneficiaries, and even by
the State. Be the intention what it may, the Government
will actually be " paying the people to be ill " ! Hence,
the problem is, not only how to prevent the multiplication
of quite unnecessary illnesses caused by flagrant neglect
of hygienic precautions, and how, when illness does occur,
to insist on the patient co-operating in his own cure, but
also how to protect the funds against malingering in aU
its conscious and sub-conscious forms. To rely, as it is
sometimes fondly imagined that we may, on the safeguard
of paying as sick benefit only one-half or one-third of
the usual earnings of the beneficiary, is, as regards a quite
enormous proportion of human beings, to depend on a
broken reed. Not only are there innumerable people who
would at any time prefer one-half of their income m
idleness, rather than the whole of it in return for work,
but it is scarcely too much to say that, at one time or
another, we are all of us sorely tempted to do so. And

INSUKANCE

187

when we remember, how exceptionally liable (!) to illness
the Trade Union giving sick benefit finds its unemployed
members, especially when they have exhausted their right
to out-of-work pay ; when we see to what an extent a
weakly man or a lazy man will " live on his wife " ; when
we remember that even the worthy man may sometimes
be willing to eke out his sick pay by his savings or even
by the proceeds of a second insurance, so as to be able to
be idle without having to go on short commons at all, we
may realise how vain is the assumption that no man will

' ever wish to draw sick pay when he might, by " maldng

ian effort," be earning full wages.

Thus, the protection of the insurance fund against
malingering comes to depend exclusively on the nature of
the arrangements as to medical treatment. To give sick
pay whenever a member chooses to declare himself sick,
even if coupled with abstention from wage-earning, is
plainly impossible. To require only the production of a
medical certificate from the patient's own doctor is a

' direct inducement to the patient to go to the doctor who
will grant such certificates most easily, and a standing
temptation to the doctors to emulate each other in this
laxness. Moreover, certification does not necessarily
involve treatment, certainly not continued treatment, and
least of all, any of that co-operation of the patient in his

I own cure which is shown by obeying the doctor's instruc-
tions. It is found, in practice, alike in our own voluntary

: societies and in foreign government schemes, that the

isick man havmg a " Free Choice of Doctors " is seldom
well-informed enough to select the doctor or adopt the
treatment^still less lead the life — that will promote
his quickest and most effectual recovery. We do not

188 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

necessarily mean that the patient wishes to defraud the
insurance fund, or that he deliberately wishes to remain
ill — though such cases not infrequently occur — but merely
that the sick man naturally prefers the doctor who is
" kindest " in giving hun the necessary certificate ; most
ingratiating in prescribing only what the patient likes ;
least censorious about personal weaknesses, and most
indulgent in dragging out the convalescence. If the
person drawing sick benefit fails to get early and
continuous medical treatment ; if he is able to go to any
doctor that he chooses and to act on his advice or to
disregard it ; if he is free to live as he pleases, with whatever
diet, personal indulgences, home sanitation and " going
out at night " he persists in, then we know from abundant
experience that there will be a great, and even an increasing
amount of sickness ; that illnesses will be long drawn out ;
and that all sorts of malingering will take place. Hence,
it is clear, as the experience of continental systems has
abundantly demonstrated, that any attempt to combine
a system of Compulsory Insurance against sickness, with
a " Free Choice of Doctors " by the beneficiaries, means,
inevitably, a steady rise in the amount of sickness, and an
even greater rise in the amount that will be drawn in Sick
Pay ! Whilst the Government, in one of its departments —
that of Public Health — will be expending much money and
energy in diminishing sickness, in. its other department —
that of the Sickness Insurance Fund — the Government
will be simultaneously spending no less money and energy
in actually increasing its amount.

We are bound, it is clear, to take care that the State
does not set up a new department to counteract the pre-
ventive operations of its own Public Health Department-

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189

We may even ask that any Government Insurance
scheme shall be so framed as to operate, in conjunction
with the efforts of the Public Health Department, actually
for the prevention of sickness. This requirement, it is
sometimes urged, is surely satisfied by the manner in
which insurance schemes inevitably lead to preventive
measures. We cannot say that we are impressed with
the e£6.cacy of our own voluntary insurance against sickness
in developing any such measures. The managing com-
mittees of our Friendly Societies seem to take sickness for
granted, as an inevitable visitation of Providence, just as
their fathers and grandfathers did. They do not even
ask that obviously preventable sickness should be pre-
vented. We do not fimd the Friendly Society members
using their almost irresistible electoral force to make the
Local Health Authorities maintain a high standard of
sanitation, or develop the municipal hospital service ; we
do not see the Societies insisting on every city having its
' Tuberculin Dispensary and its Phthisis Sanatorium ; we
'do not find the insured members particularly eager
I supporters of a system of Health Visiting, or enthusiastic-
;aUy demanding School Clinics. Beyond the establishment
I or support of a few Convalescent Homes, and a few
i subscriptions to hospitals used by their members, we are
not aware of any help given by the powerful Friendly
: Society movement to the cause of Public Health.

It must be recorded to the credit of compulsory
.Insurance that something has been done in this direction
J in Germany. The authorities managing the different
Insurance Funds have been so impressed with the need
ifor protecting their finances agauist the rising Sick Pay
tthat they have spontaneously established phthisis sanatoria

190 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

for the benefit of their members. It is, perhaps, an
mdication of how little connection there seems to be
between Sickness Insm?ance and Sickness Prevention that
so much has been made of these Sanatoria, which number,
it appears, after more than twenty years of insurance, only
71, nearly all of them quite small mstitutions, for a
population of nearly sixty-five millions, with more than a
hundred thousand deaths from tuberculosis annually. The
managing committees of the German Insurance Funds
deserve full credit for having made even this tiny amount
of provision of a preventive character. But when we
remember that, in England and Wales, alone, with a little
more than half the population of Germany, the Local
Health Authorities have found it necessary to provide, not
71 but 700 municipal hospitals, in order to cope only with
zymotic diseases far less extensive than phthisis, and that
these hospitals treat a hundred thousand patients a year,
and that it is just by means of these isolation hospitals
that we have succeeded in preventing so much zymotic
disease, we shall realise how relatively minute is the
contribution of the German Insurance Funds towards
what is required in any worthy campaign of prevention.
It is scarcely too much too say that although the Local
Health Authorities in Great Britain have only just begun
to provide for phthisis patients, that there is akeady, ui
proportion to population, nearly as much municipal
sanatorium accommodation for these patients in this
country, as has been built up in all the twenty years'
achievement of the German Insurance Funds. This tenta-
tive work of the Local Health Authorities in the preventive
treatment of phthisis, which it has been understood to
be the policy of the Local Government Board to encourage,

INSURANCE

191

will not be promoted, and may easily be ckecked, by the
setting-up, in every county and county borough, of a
rival " Health Committee," definitely responsible for the
treatment of phthisis out of public funds.

We attribute the failure of both the voluntary sickness
insurance of England, and the compulsory sickness
insurance of Germany, to instigate and promote any
really effective campaign for the prevention of sickness, to
their common divorce from the Public Health administra-
tion of their respective countries. Owing to their organisa-
tion on an entirely different basis of membership than
that of the Public Health area, the Sickness Insurance
Funds of Germany are, in fact, as little connected with
what we should term the Public Health Service as are the
Friendly Societies of om- own country. The managing
committees, in both cases, have their minds set on relief,
not prevention ; in both cases they are powerless them-
selves to undertake the campaign necessary to do for
phthisis what has been so successfully done for typhus ;
in both cases the cost of such a campaign would fall upon
one set of shoulders, whilst the direct pecuniary benefits
would fall upon a different set. So far as our own country
is concerned, we suggest that the only practical chance of
turning to account, as an incentive and a help to the
actual prevention of sickness, the vast expenditm-e and
extensive organisation involved in universal and compul-
sory sickness msurance, would be to associate it very
closely with the existing Public Health Service. We see
no way in which the community can effectually prevent
malingeruig, except by bringing to bear the resources of
the Public Health administration. The Local Health
Authority is already definitely charged with the prevention

192 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of disease, and it has, in its medical and sanitary staff,
its 700 municipal hospitals, and its organisation of Health
Visiting and sanitary inspection, the nucleus of a service
concentrated entirely on preventive methods, and already
treating successfully more than a hundred thousand
patients a year. The Medical Officers of Health have been
taught by long experience in their work in preventmg
epidemics, to search out disease in its incipient stage ; to
offer hospital treatment where the conditions of the home
do not admit of quick recovery ; by changes in the
environment, to alter, where necessary, the permanent
conditions of the patient's life, and to insist on hygienic
conduct so as to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of
the disease. If the administration of Sick Benefit were
intimately associated with this work of prevention, a
National Insurance Scheme might not merely be safe-
guarded from fraudulent claims, but might become a
potent instrument for diminishing the sickness-rate.

The problem of how to prevent what may be called
malingering with regard to Unemployment is more
complicated, if not actually more difficult than with
regard to sickness. If a man is suffering from any specific
disease, the fact can now, in the great majority of cases,
be ascertained with scientific certainty. Assuming that
sensible arrangements with regard to medical diagnosis
and treatment were made in each case, by an expert officer
acting in the public interest, there would be comparatively
little temptation to remain fraudulently on the sick list.
But to be, whilst in health, unemployed, and idle, with
maintenance nevertheless coming in, is a state not
painful to any of us, whilst, to some temperaments, it is
of all conditions in life the most agreeable. And the

INSURANCE

193

insurance organisation has here, not merely to discover
the ascertainable fact of Unemployment, but also to
satisfy itself that the workman is and remains unemployed
not because he likes it, but because there is no possible
situation for him to be found. Hence, it is vitally necessary
that the Insurance organisation should be bound up with
an organisation having the power and opportunity to
discover whether the unemployment is involuntary, and
the necessity of connecting the proposed Government
scheme of Unemplojrment Insurance with the National
Labour Exchange, which alone knows all the chances of
employment, becomes apparent. But this comiection
brings with it problems of its own.

It will, we see, be of the utmost importance to the
administration of the Government Unemployment Insur-
ance that it should become aware, automatically and
immediately, of every vacant situation in the trades
within its scope, in order that it may be able to satisfy
itself that the men drawing Unemployment Benefit take
instant advantage of every vacancy. It will accordingly
be necessary for the National Labour Exchange to be
resorted to, either voluntarily or under compulsion, by
every employer in the insured trades, whenever he requires
a workman. It may prove to be the case that all the
employers, recognising that they are themselves paying a
quarter or three-eighths of the cost of the Unemployment
Benefit, will realise that it will be ultimately to their own
interest to make the National Labour Exchange the only
means of filling the situations that they have to offer, in
order to give the Government the utmost assistance in
testing the involuntary nature of the Unemployment that

it is paying for. But as any particular employer will find

o

194 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

himself paying only a fixed and uniform contribution,
common to all the employers and even to all the insured
trades, and as the chance of his ever having this contribu-
tion either raised or lowered will appear to him very
remote, and only to an infinitesimal extent, if at all,
affected by any action of his own in any particular case,
the inducement to make exclusive use of the National
Labour Exchange does not seem a very potent one.
Compulsory Insurance will, therefore, we suggest, so far
as the insured trades are concerned, necessarily bring in
its train a legally compulsory use of the Labour Exchange —
just as the need for supervising the sailor's condition has
involved, for half a century, the legally compulsory use of
the Mercantile Marine Office. This we regard as no
disadvantage, and though many employers in the msured
trades will at first resent it, they may be expected to find
the arrangement not really more objectionable than the

shipowners do.

But if the Government Insurance Fund is to pay the
umemployed workman so much a week until a situation
can be discovered for him, the question necessarily arises,
what situation ? What sort of situation is it that the
unemployed workman will be required to accept, under
penalty of haying the Unemployment Benefit— for which
he has been made to pay in advance— withheld fi'om
him ? It must clearly be a situation in his own trade :
an engineer cannot be told that he must go labourmg.
Some difficulties may arise here in connection with the
disputes as to the lines of demarcation between trades, but
these ought not to be insuperable. If the vacancy is not
in the place where the unemployed man is residmg,
difficulties may arise as to the inconvenience and expense

INSURANCE

195

of moving his houseliold ; but these, too, can be overcome.
Much more thorny is the question of the rate of wages. Is
the unemployed workman to be required to accept any
situation that is vacant in his own town at his own trade,
irrespective of the rate of wages offered ? The maintenance
of a definite Standard Rate, below which no man shall
work, is the most universal, the most persistent, the most
passionately upheld principle of Trade Unionism. It has
been, after a whole generation of argument, endorsed by
the economists; as applying to Government employment
and Government contracts, it has been adopted, in
principle, by all political parties in the House of Commons ;
and with regard to certain industries, it was, in 1908,
actually embodied in the Trade Boards Act. It is, in
most trades, now willingly accepted by the majority of
employers. But there are, m all trades and in most towns,
a few firms who stand out ; who insist on paying less than
the Standard Rate, and who, in consequence, employ no
Trade Unionists. It is a corollary that the members of
Trade Unions are forbidden, on pain of forfeiting their
membership, to accept situations at such establishments —
technically " unfair shops " — even if the employers would
engage them. Now, with a Government Insurance Fund,
it will either be necessary to compel the unemployed
workman, under penalty of having his Unemployed
Benefit stopped, to accept the vacancy reported in the
"unfair shop," below the Standard Rate — in which case
the scheme deals a staggering blow at Trade Unionism, and
flies in the face of the now orthodox conception of the
importance of maintaining a Standard Rate ; or else the
Government admits, as a valid excuse for not taking a
vacant situation, that the wages offered were below the

196 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Trade Union Rate — in which case, though it might have
on its side the economists and all the " good " employers,
it would find itself taking the momentous step of virtually
making the local Standard Rate compulsory on aU the
firms in the town. We should not, ourselves, regard the
latter alternative, properly safeguarded, with any dis-
favour ; but we doubt whether the present House of
Commons will agree with us ! It implies the assumption
of a very real responsibility, not merely for enforcing what
might be termed a general " moral " minimum for industry
as a whole, but for determining what shall be regarded
as the proper rates of wages, hours of work, conditions
of engagement, precautions against accidents and sanitary
arrangements for every worker in every trade — at least, to
the extent that the Government Insurance Fund will
avowedly and notoriously be prepared to pay Unemploy-
ment Benefit to persons refusing to accept situations
under conditions deemed to be, in the public interest,
undesirable.

It has been suggested that these difficulties might be
got over by constituting, in each town, a joint committee
of representative employers and workmen belonging to
the insured trades, who should determine, in any case of
doubt, whether or not an unemployed workman was
justified in refusing to accept a situation which the Labour
Exchange had found for him. Such a committee would,
however, need to proceed on one assumption or another ;
and it is hardly likely that an issue so important to the
whole Trade Union Movement would be left open in the
House of Commons. It has accordingly been suggested
that it might be laid down in principle, that no workman
should be expected or pressed to take a situation at any

INSURANCE

197

lower rate of pay than he had previously been receiving.
This, it is said, would secure tlie Trade Unionist or other
j&rst-class workman, who had actually been earning the
Standard Bate, from ever being required to derogate ;
whilst it would leave open to engagement by the employer
paying below the Standard Rate all those workmen,
whether " second-rate " or merely non-unionist, whom
he would anyhow have been able to engage. This is an
ingenious solution, because a workman who is unfortunate
enough to be unemployed can hardly expect to use that
particular moment actually to better his industrial position
by raising himself from the " improver " or " below rate "
stage to that of the Standard Rate. Bat it fails to meet
the case of conditions other than the rate of wages — the
hours of labour, the method of remuneration, etc. — m
which a given situation may be below the standard. It
fails also to meet the case of the employer who refuses
to employ Trade Unionists at all, and whose offer of a
situation is therefore virtually coupled with the condition
that the workman must resign his Trade Union member-
ship. And, what is perhaps most conclusive, it fails to
meet the difficulty presented by the great differences in
Standard Rates between town and town. Let us take,
as an example, the engineering trade in Manchester and
Keighley respectively, or in Leeds and Gainsborough.
If a Trade Unionist fitter, or any first-rate fitter, is un-
employed m Manchester, he will expect the local Standard
Rate of 37s. for a week of 53 hours. The Trade Unionist
or other first-rate man in Keighley gets only 30s. for a
week of 54 hours. The fitter at Leeds will expect 34s. for
a week of 53 hours. At Gainsborough he gets only 28s.
for a week of 54 hours. Suppose that a Keighley or

198 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Gainsborough fitter, previously earning the local Standard
Rate of 28s. or 30s., finding himself unemployed, walks to
Manchester or Leeds and registers himself at the Labour
Exchange. Is he, just because he had previously earned
only 28s. or 30s. a week in his former town, to be required,
under penalty of having his UnemplojTnent Benefit stopped,
to accept a situation at Manchester or Leeds, with their
higher cost of living, at the Keighley or Gainsborough
rate ? Any such action, which would inevitably undermine
the Standard Rate in the higher paid towns, would in-
cidentally confer an actual benefit on the " unfair shops "
in those towns. At present they can only engage in their
service the workmen who are unable to get into situations
at the Standard Rate, and are therefore presumably inferior
men. The Keighley or Gainsborough man was, in his
own town, of the first class, and is not necessarily or even
presumptively inferior to those who, in Manchester or
Leeds, are earning the higher Standard Rate. In fact, the
ambitious young immigrant from the low-paid district
quickly gets the higher rate of his new town. Will he,
under a Compulsory Insurance scheme, be forbidden to
migrate in search of work to any town havmg a higher
Standard Rate than that which he has been enjoying ?
Questions of this kind will, we suggest, render irresistible,
in the House of Commons, the amendment which those
who believe in the principle of a Standard Rate — and they
are to be found in all four poHtical parties — may be ex-
pected to move to any Compulsory Unemployment
Insurance scheme. Such an amendment may properly
take the following form : —

Provided that no workman shall, in comiection
wit,h the Insurance Fund, be in any way penalised

INSURANCE

199

or placed at any disadvantage by reason either of
belonging to a Trade Union, or of refusing to accept
a situation (i) at wages below the currently accepted
standard rate in his own trade for the locality in
which the situation would have been held ; or (ii)
below the cuiTently accepted standard rate in his
own trade for the locality in which he is actually
residing ; or (iii) upon conditions with regard to
hours of labour, method of remuneration, arrange-
ments for sanitation or safety or other circumstances
of employment, less advantageous to him than those
specified in any Award or Determination imder
the Conciliation and Arbitration Act, or in the
currently accepted Working Rules or other collective
agreement made by representatives of the employers
and of the employed, and actually in force m the
trade and for the place in which the situation would
have been held.

It is, we think, clear that a scheme of universal and
compulsory insurance against Unemployment, like the
corresponding scheme of insurance against sickness, does
not offer such an easy alternative to complicated measures
of prevention as may at first sight appear. The Trade
Unions will find themselves steadily more and more
transformed, from associations depending in the main
on the methods of Mutual Insurance and Collective
Bargaining, into associations absorbed in perfecting, by
persistent political pressure, the more drastic Method of
Legal Enactment. The necessary conditions of a uni-
versal and compulsory Unemployment Insurance
Fund cannot fail to exercise a far-reaching influence

200 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

on the organisation of industry and the terms
of the wage-contract — an influence which, exercised under
the control of the House of Commons, we are ourselves
disposed to regard as beneficial, but which bids fair to
develop into a collective control more drastic than any-
thing that we have ventured to propose. We wish, in
particular, to give credit to the idea of Unemployment
Insurance for its potentialities in promoting the " decasu-
alisation " of casual labour — a reform so urgently needed,
so far-reaching in its beneficial effects, and, withal, so
difficult of achievement that every possible ally in the task
must be warmly welcomed. It has been suggested that
such casual labourers as those employed at the London
and Liverpool docks and wharves, the Manchester Ship
Canal, and about the warehouses of great cities, might
be so brought into the Insurance Fund as to give to their
employers an almost irresistible inducement to " de-
casualise." If the ordinary compulsory deduction from
wages — say, 2|d. — had, in the case of casual labourers,
to be made from each separate man employed dm-ing the
current week — the employer having to add thereto, say
another 2|d. — each employer would find it distinctly
cheaper to employ the same man throughout the week.
If he preferred to continue to take on men indiscriminately
and casually, as at present, an alternative inducement
could be offered to him to take them all from the Labour
Exchange (which would then be able to "dove-tail" their
jobs), by allowmg him, on this condition, a substantial
rebate on his contributions, which could be commuted for
a periodical lump sum payment. A still further rebate
might be allowed to him in return for an agreement to
take from the Labour Exchange during the year a definite

INSURANCE 201

quantum of labour force, with a certain average distri-
bution week by week. It is obvious tbat sucb a scheme
might enable various substantial inducements to be
offered for what, in effect, would be a valuable improve-
ment in the methods of employing casual hands.

But here again we are compelled to ask, what is to
be the fate of the Casual labourer or the artisan who falls
out of benefit through long periods of unemplojrment ; still
more of those who find themselves ousted from their
previous occupations by this ingenious device for de-
casualising labour ? " Decasualisation," as we are apt
to forget, means so altering the conditions of employment
as to give some men more continuous work, at the cost of
depriving other men of what little employment they had.
These persons have committed no crime ; they have
refused no situation, and they will be, in many cases,
innocent victims of a new industrial organisation imposed
by the strong arm of the State. What provision is to be
made for them and their families ? Are they to be referred
to the Casual Ward and the Able-bodied Test Workhouse,
which is what the policy of the Local Government Board
allows to them under the Poor Law ; or are they to go
" on the road " and still further swell the growing horde
of vagrants, with the option of the alternative of com-
mitting some petty crime in order to secure the hospi-
tahty of His Majesty's prisons ?

Our conclusion is, therefore, that any scheme of
universal and compulsory insurance against sickness or
unemployment, largely subsidised by persons who are
not beneficiaries, or by the State, will necessarily have
to be bound up with an organisation which can prevent
the occurrence of sickness or unemployment, and bring

202 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

to an end as quickly as possible such sickness or unemploy-
ment as has not been prevented ; and which can also
prevent those fraudulent or semi-fraudulent cases of
sickness and unemployment which may fairly be described
as malingering. This involves, in the case of sickness,
certification, not by the patient's own doctor, but by an
accredited representative of the community ; and the
provision, in the public interest, of the promptest and
best treatment, coupled with power to insist on a reason-
ably hygienic conduct of life, and to offer treatment in
hospital (along with the maintenance allowance for the
family) whenever malingering is suspected, or even when
the cause of ill -health cannot be certainly diagnosed, or
when the proper treatment cannot otherwise be secured.
The amount of collective responsibility for, and of authori-
tative interference with, the patient's own life that will
be required if there is not to be, under the influence of
compulsory insurance an actual increase of siclmess, and
a gravely demoralising malingering, is more than is
usually contemplated. With regard to any universal and
compulsory insurance, against Unemployment, even more
is involved. Not merely must the insurance organisation
be bound up with the organisation for the prevention of
Unemployment, but it must also be given powers over the
conditions of wage-earning life which, however desirable
in the public interest, are likely to be resented both by
employers and workmen. It was because of -these impli-
cations of universal and compulsory insm^ance, as well
as because insurance does not in itself prevent, and fails
to provide for the poorest and the weakest — who have
surely the first claim on the community, — that we refused
to recomnaend it in the Minority Report.

INSURANCE

203

We have examined, in some detail, tlie advantages
and disadvantages of voluntary insm:ance on tlie one
hand, and, on the other, of the compulsory and universal
schemes that are, at this moment, so much in the public
eye. ^But these alternatives do not exhaust the possi-
bilities of insurance. Apart from the entirely voluntary
and self-supporting insurance of the Friendly Societies
and the Trade Unions, and from the compulsory and
subsidised schemes of the German Government, and of
the present Cabinet of the United Kingdom, to which
practically the whole wage-earning population can be
subjected, there is an intermediate form which, whilst
not achieving so much as may be promised by the universal
schemes, greatly extends the benefits of the voluntary
system, and appears to us to offer many advantages over
any compulsory system. We could, in this country, accom-
plish very considerable results, with few of the drawbacks
that we have mentioned, by the use, in the department
of social insurance, of that characteristic instrument of
English Government, the Grant in Aid. Nor is this mere
theorising. W^e actually have this successfully at work
on the Contment m what is known as the " Ghent "
system of insurance against Unemployment. It is not
usually remembered that compulsory insurance against
Unemployment is nowhere in force. Even the German
Government, which has made so much use of universal
and compulsory insurance, and which is contemplating
still further extensions of it, has never thought it practicable
to apply the system to Unemployment. But the " Ghent "
system, introduced originally " at Ghent, has spread to
nearly all the Belgian towns, to Holland, to Denmark, to
Norway, and to some cities of Germany and France. This

204 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

is a system of subsidies from public funds to societies
affording voluntary insurance against Unemployment.
The Trade Unions, or other organisations affording Out-
of-Work Benefit, assume the whole responsibility for the
maintenance, during involuntary Unemployment, of all
their members, and retain therefore all the freedom to
decide whether or not a given situation ought to be ac-
cepted, and to make such precaution^ as they choose
against malingering. These voluntary organisations giving
Out-of-work Pay continue to undertake the whole business
of enrolling recruits, collecting contributions, awarding
benefit and paying it to the beneficiaries without official
interference. After the expiration of each year, the
Government (local or national) makes a grant to the
society, based either on the membership or on the amount
actually paid in Unemployment benefit during the year,
but never amounting to more than a portion of what has
been expended, so as to leave unimpaired the pecuniary
inducement to prevent malingering, to diminish Unem-
ployment, and generally to exercise economy in the
administration. This Government Grant, paid after the
year has expired, may be deemed a commuted payment
from public funds in return for a definite service which
has actually been performed by the Trade Union or other
society, in having, throughout that year, held the public
funds harmless, in respect of all its members, so far as
regards Unemployment and the destitution which it
causes. The result has been to make it possible for many
Trade Unions to insure their members against Unemploy-
ment in industries where this had previously been beyond
their means ; and in this way greatly to increase the
number of workmen who have, with all the advantages

INSURANCE

205

of voluntary insurance tliat we have described — the
fostering of foresight and thrift, the training in self-
government, the deliberate subordination of present
indulgence to future needs— been protected against the
worst evils of Unemployment. It will be regarded as a
special advantage that the Government avoids, in this
way, any obligation to decide whether or not a workman
ought to accept a given situation ; escapes all responsi-
bility for maintaining or not maintaining the Standard
Rate ; places no special bm^den upon the employers ;
and is under no necessity to establish itg own network
of organisation to enable it to prevent malingering, and
to enter into direct personal relations with every in-
dividual workman.

Apart from certain Government subventions to
Friendly Societies, in France and elsewhere, we do not
know that this " Ghent " system has been applied to
insurance against sickness, but we see no reason
why this should not be done. In view of the great and
patent advantages of the voluntary insurance of the
Friendly Societies, and of the Trade Unions giving Sick
Pay, we see nothing but good in their all being offered a
Grant in Aid from pubHc funds to enable them to extend
their beneficent work. This payment should be made
year by year in arrear, not in any way as guaranteeing
the soundness or the future solvency of such societies,
but merely in recognition of a definite service actually
rendered to the State during the past year, in having
held it harmless, in respect of the entire membership, so
far as regards sickness and the destitution caused thereby.
It would be easy for each society to make a claim, year
by year, in respect of its membership in the past year.

206 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

giving the age of each member. The value of the service
. thus rendered, dependent on the average age of the
\ membership, could then be actuarialy determined ; and a
I certain definite proportion would thereupon be paid
j simply for " work done." The State need enter into no
' partnership with any society ; need give no guarantee,
formal or " moral," as to its future solvency ; need not
concern itself about its management ; and need impose
no restrictions on its freedom. The Govermnent could
pay for the work thus done by any society whatsoever,
and would be absolved from the invidious and difficult
task of deciding which societies were, and which were not,
on a proper basis, honestly and economically managed,
and actuarialy solvent. If the society went bankrupt,
or broke up at any time, it would simply be unable to
make its claim in the ensuing year, and would receive no
payment.

Such a system of insurance against sickness, com-
bining all the advantages of volmitary insurance, with
the possibilities of extension offered by a subvention from
the Exchequer, would have, for the prudent statesman,
the attraction over a universal and compulsory system
that the persons who would receive, when sick, an un-
conditional money income, and the right to choose their
own medical treatment, would be persons who had selected
themselves because of their superior foresight or thrift
or capacity for self-government. And though they would
be getting the contribution from the community without
the onerous conditions which in other circumstances
might be deemed advisable, either to prevent malingering
or to secure the quickest possible termination of the
illness, they would, on the other hand, not be getting

INSUKANCE

207

the whole of their maintenance from the community, nor
even so large a part of their mamtenance as persons who
had not chosen voluntarily to insure, and whom the
community has necessarily to maintain when sickness
overtakes them. In short, to use the phraseology of the
Poor Law, to every citizen who voluntarily insured himself
agamst sickness, by joining a Friendly Society or Trade
Union giving Sick Pay, the State would offer to contribute
towards " unconditional relief " ui sickness, in his own
home, with a doctor of his own choice, under whatever
arrangements he and his fellow-members chose, to make
among themselves. On the other hand, for those who did
not voluntarily insure themselves — including those who
had been excluded from Friendly Societies, and those who
had " run out of benefit " — whom the State must, in the
public interest, perforce maintain ui sickness, there would
be provided efficient medical treatment, including main-
tenance, and, where required, even maintenance of the
family ; because we cannot afford, as a nation, to let people
: remain ill and unproductive a day longer than is in-
' evitable, whether or not they are without means of their
I own, and we can still less afford to let their wives and
• children degenerate m body and mind whether or not the
breadwumer is ill. But we are not necessarily called upon
ito give them either medical treatment or maintenance in
ithe form, or under the conditions that would be most
iagreeable to them. The community can, in their case,
iproperly and advantageously do what is best in the public
linterest. Thus, with regard to these uninsured masses,
we have every reason to take precautions against the
(creation of unnecessary illness and against malingering ;
we need not invariably, or as a matter of course, assume

208 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

that the treatment must be domiciliary because they like
it so, or that the patient himself must have the spending
of a money income ; or that what would be accorded to
him, in the interest and at the expense of the cormnunity
as a whole, would be accorded to him without those
disciplinary conditions, hygienic in their nature and intent,
which to the average sensual man are less agreeable than
merely spending his Sick Pay as he chooses, but which
are really conducive to his recovery. And the same argu-
ments apply, it is plain, to the case of insurance against
Unemployment. To the workman who had voluntarily
insured himself, the State could offer its contribution to
enable him to spend his undesired hoHday time as he
pleased, subject only to such regulations as his Trade
Union, which would be bearing half or more of the cost,
might choose to make for its own protection. On the
other hand, to the workman who had refused or neglected
to insure against Unemployment, or who had " run out
of benefit " or who belonged to an industrial grade in
which the workers were miable, in spite of the offer of
a Government subvention, to form the necessary voluntary
organisation for the purpose, the Government Department
dealing with Unemployment would offer the indispensable
maintenance under conditions of training calculated to
check malingering and to secure to the community, in
return for the public expenditure, at anyrate an enhance-
ment in the vigour, skill, and regularity of habit of those
who were unemployed.

We throw out, for consideration, another possible
modification of the famous "Ghent" system, which,
though we should not ourselves recommend it, is certainly
preferable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's scheme

INSURANCE

209

of 1911. The present popularity of insurance, as a
method of provision against the contingencies of
the wage-earner's life, is due rather to the nature
of its revenue side than to any special excellency
in its expenditure side. The very grave social
and industrial difficulties to which, in the case of unem-
plojnnent and sickness, any system of compulsory and
universal Insurance necessarily leads, are, as we have
seen, all connected with the expenditure side. Why,
then, should we not distinguish between the two sides of
any insurance scheme — the contribution and the provision,
— making the contribution universal, and compulsory and
uniform, whilst the provision is differentiated according
to the circumstances of the persons to be dealt with ? If
public opinion among the propertied classes clings to the
levy of a special and obvious personal contribution, week
by week, on every wage-earner, even if his earnings are
insufficient for maintenance, and makes this method of
meeting the cost an indispensable condition of providing,
for the sick and the unemployed, that which is now seen to
be socially necessary, this type of public opinion will
probably have its way. It is quite possible to add to our
fiscal system what would be, in effect, a poll-tax, of 10s.
or 20s. per annum, on all persons having less than a
prescribed income, though there might be difficulties in
enforcing its collection from those (such as the coster-
mongers, the home workers, the little jobbing craftsmen,
the small shop-keepers, and the casual labourers) who
are not actually in receipt of wages or salaries from specific
employers. But once that we have decided to extract from
the wage-earners the weekly contribution that we think
it is for their spiritual welfare that they should pay, we

210 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

need not wantonly encounter all the difficulties tkat lurk
in tlie universal distribution by the Government of weekly
money doles to all who are sick or unemployed. To " pay
people to be ill " or to " pay people to be unemployed,"
is a difficult operation to perform with national safety,
and one which it is somewhat surprising to find advocated
in quarters where it is most warmly supported. It be-
comes more practicable if it is not extended to the whole
population. Why should we aim at subjecting aU the
wage-earners, merely because they have been subjected
to a uniform Government tax, also to a uniform method
of Government provision ? To those among them who
have, by voluntary insurance, over and above the com-
pulsory Government premium or tax, marked themselves
out as possessing the qualities of foresight and thrift,
the faculty of self-government, and the capacity to sub-
ordinate present indulgencies to future needs, we may
safely and justly accord — not, indeed, more money than
the rest, out of the common fund to which aU will have
equally contributed, but what they will value even higher,
the privilege of receiving their share through their own
Friendly Society or Trade Union in the form of a freely
disposable money income, to spend as they choose, and
the boon of using their periods of unemployment exactly
as they please. But those who have refused or neglected
voluntarily to insure themselves, or who have run out
of benefit, and are therefore unable to give to the State
the indispensable assistance which the Friendly Society
or Trade Union machinery would afiord, cannot, we
suggest — if they are to be found maintenance out
of the common fund whenever they are sick or un-
employed—safely be accorded the same free spending

INSURANCE

211

money and the same free idle time as those for
whom the social machinery of the voluntarily formed
Friendly Society or Trade Union is available. All such
persons must, m the public interest, be provided for
during the whole period of sickness and unemployment,
and provided for in the best practicable way ; and we do
not suggest that any less should be spent upon them, out
of the common fund, than on the members of Friendly
Societies and Trade Unions. As a matter of fact, as a
large proportion of these persons will have, for one reason
or another, " bad lives," they will, under any wise
administration, or, indeed, under any administration what-
ever, necessarily cost the community, in one form or
another, actually more per head for maintenance and treat-
ment than those citizens who are capable of voluntarily
joining and continuing in self-governmg Friendly Societies.
But those who remain outside the organisation of the
Friendly Societies and the Trade Unions must necessarily be
dealt with by the public departments ; and it is vital to any
prudent administration that they should be dealt by those
public departments which have for their function the
actual prevention of the contingency to be provided for
—in the case of sickness the Local Health Authority, and
in the case of Unemployment the new National Authority
of which we have the nucleus in the Labour Exchange.
Only by the use of the preventive machinery of these
authorities can we secure even the measure of prevention
of malingering that the Friendly Society and the Trade
Union provide for their own members. And we suggest
that whilst the sick or unemployed persons for whom
the Pubhc Authorities have in this way to provide should
have a definite right to the best treatment that can be

212 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

afforded to them, they should, in contrast with the Friendly-
Society or Trade Union members, have no right to any
money payment for their own spending. What they
would get would be the treatment, domiciliary or institu-
tional, best suited to their condition, with a view to
returning them to the ranks of productive citizens, whether
or not this involved a money payment. It would be only
when it was ascertained that they were permanently
invalidated and could not be cured, and yet were not
guilty of criminal malingering, that they would be raised
to the rank of pensioners, free to spend their little
weekly sum in the way they thought fit. If they were
discovered to be wilfully malingering, either in the way
of sickness or the way of unemployment, they would have
to be handed over (but only on judicial conviction) to
some hospital or Reformatory Detention Colony where
then' state of mind might be properly attended to.

In conclusion, we wish to make our own position clear.
We repeat, with regard to the various proposed schemes of
Sickness and Unemployment Insurance, what we said
a few pages back about the Workmen's Compensation
Act : The necessity and the urgency of making some
provision out of public funds for the sickness and un-
employment of the wage-earners is so great that we should
regard the final rejection of even a defective scheme as a
net loss. We owe to Mr. Lloyd George, with his broad-
minded humanitarian zeal, the teaching of Parhament to
" think in millions " when approaching the pressing
problems of unemployment and sickness ; and the
persuading of the whole nation to contemplate with equa-
nimity the undertaking of new and far-reaching obligations
in respect of the mamtenance in health of the entire

INSURANCE

213

wage-earning class. We ourselves look upon a weekly poll-
tax on the manual worker, and a " tax on wages " levied on
the employer, as an inequitable and extravagantly costly
method of raising public revenue. We consider that the
payment, to all persons who are ill or unemployed, of an
inadequate and practically unconditional income in cash
will not ensure either the medical treatment or the personal
conduct likely to lead to the earliest possible restoration
to productivity, or even to the adequate maintenance of
the patient, his wife or his child, in which the community
has the greatest interest. We doubt whether the nation
makes a good bargain for itself when it seeks to limit
its liability to a definite number of weekly payments,
irrespective of whether or not the patient has been restored
to wage-earning, and gives up, for this illusory limitation,
the right to require anything from the patient in the way
of co-operation in his own cure. But we are, at this moment,
face to face with an obsession of the public mind in favour
of insurance. This obsession is not likely to be removed
by any demonstration that it depends on a confusion
between voluntary and compulsory insurance, which have
entirely different attributes, and lead to entirely different
results ; or that it involves an extravagant expenditure
of public funds on persons who would in any event have
mamtained themselves at the prescribed standard of civil-
ised life. Those who desire to improve the present
deplorable state of things have to accept popular obsessions
and misunderstandings as part of the situation with
which they have to deal. Hence, the philosophic on-
looker will be prepared to accept both an unintelligent
method of taxation and an equally unintelligent method of
provision as a necessary preliminary to persuading the

214 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Gommimity to adopt a policy of preventing sickness
and preventing unemployment. Whatever scheme of
insurance is adopted — especially a bad scheme —
will plainly not be final. We shall have to learn
from our own experience, if we are too foolish to
learn by the experience of others ; and we shall find, as
the German Government has found, that insurance
schemes are always in the melting pot. And it is an
interesting corollary that the more universal and the
more compulsory the scheme — the more heavily it involves
the pecuniary interests of the community as a whole —
the more quickly and the more certainly will the nation
become alive to the necessity of a Policy of Prevention.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII

Notes and References

Page 160. We know of no adequate study of Social Insurance as such,
though we give particulars below of the principal literature relating to
Friendly Societies and Government Insurance on the Continent of Europe.
But see State Insurance : a Social and Industrial Need, by F. W. Lewis
(Constable : 1909) ; and Workingmen's Insurance, by W. F. Willoughby
(1898).

Page 163. The Friendly Societies of the United Kingdom have been
elaborately described in English Associations of Wo7-king Men, by J. M.
Baernreither (Sonnenschein : 1891) ; The Friendly Societies Movement (1885)
and Mutual Thrift (Methuen : 1892), both by Eev. J. Frome Wilkinson;
and Provident Societies and Industrial Welfare, by Sir E. Brabrook
(Blackie : 1898)— all these being, now somewhat belated ; and, it is under-
stood, out of print. Later statistical information will be foimd in the
Annual Report of the Chief Registrar of Friendly Societies, published as a
Parliamentary Paper.

The Friendly Societies have an internal literature of their own which is
well worth study. See, for instance, the Friendly Societies' Guide Book
(King : ,1900) ; the Oddfellows' Magazine, the Foresters' Monthly Magazine,
and similar periodicals; the Annual Reports of the various societies; the
quinquennial reports of their actuarial valuations; the proceedings at their
various annual conferences; and various works by their actuaries (such as
An Inquiry into the Methods, etc., of a Friendly Society, by E. P. Hardy,
1894; An Account of an Investigation of the Sickness and Mortality Experi-
ence of the Independent Order of Oddfellows {Manchester Unity) during
the years 1893-7, by A. W. Watson).

The " friendly benefit " side of Trade Unionism is described in our
Industrial Democracy ("The Method of Mutual Insurance," pp. 152-72;

■ " Trade Unionism and Democracy," pp. 826-9) ; see also Trade Unionism,
old and new, by George Howell (Methuen: 1907); and the Reports of the
Labour Department of the Board of Trade on Trade Union Statistics.

The various Governmental systems of Social Insurance, started by
Bismarck in the German Empire in 1881, and now adopted, in various
incomplete forms, in Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Norway, and

1 France, will be found in Workingmen's Insurance and Compensation Systems

I in Europe (U.S. Commissioner of Labour: 1911).

The principal German works, apart from an extensive pamphlet literature,

1 are as follows : —

Die Arbeiterversicherung, by Dr. Zacher, 5 volumes, describing elaborately
I both the German systems and those of alj other countries.

Forderungen und Vorschlage der Aerzten zur Ahdnderung der Deutschen
, Arbeiterversicherungsgesetze.

Die Krankenkontrolle, by Fiebig and Hananer.

Die Mission der deutschen Krankenkasscn, by Kampffmeyer.

2IS

216 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Stellung und Aufyabe dcs Arztes aufdem Gebiete der Krankenversicherung,
by Jaffe (1903).
Die Wirtschaftliche Jtuin des Acrztesstandes.

Buch der Arbeiterversicherung, by Fuuke and Hering (Berlin : 1905).

Stdtistik der Arbeiterversicherung des Deutschen Reichs, 1885-1906, by
G. A. Klein (Berlin : 1908).

As to the steady rise in the rate of sickness, at all ages, coincident with a
steady fall in the death-rate, at all ages, see the appended inscriptive diagram
of the greatest of all Friendly Societies, the " Manchester Unity " of
Oddfellows, which has over a million members, and an admirable reputation
for honesty and solvency.

Compiled from data given in " An Account of an Investigation of the
Sickness and Mortality Experiences of the I.O.O.F., Manchester Unity,
during the years 1893-7," by A. W. Watson, F.I.A., etc. (pp. 18-19).

With regard to the cause of this rise in the rate at which Sick Pay is
drawn, we content ourselves with reprinting a footnote to our Industrial
Democracy (Longmans : 1897), referring to the function of the Branch in
Trade Union organisation. "The utility of this jury system, if we may so
describe the branch function, may be gathered from the experience of other
benefit organisations. It is, to begin with, significant that . the great
industrial insurance companies and collecting societies, with their millions
of working-class customers, and their ubiquitous network of paid officials,
but without a jury system, find it financially impossible to undertake to
give even Sick Pay, let alone Out of Work Benefit. The Prudential Assur-
ance Company, the largest and best managed of them all, began to do so,
but had to abandon it because, as the secretary told the Royal Commission
on Friendly Societies in 1873, ' after five years' experience we found we
were unable to cope with the fraud that was practised.' Among friendly
societies proper, in which sick benefit is the main feature, it is instructive
to find that it is among the Foresters and Oddfellows, where each court or
lodge is financially autonomous, that the rate of sickness is lowest. One
interesting society, the Piational Sick and Burial Association (established
in 1837 by Robert Owen and his ' Rational Religionists '), is organised
exactly like a national amalgamated Trade Union, with branches adminis-
tering benefits payable from a common fund. In this society, as we gather,
the rate of sickness is slightly greater than in the Affiliated Orders, where
each lodge not only decides on whether benefit shall be given, but also has
itself to find the money. Finally, when we come to the Hearts of Oak
Benefit Society, the largest and most efficient of the centralised friendly
societies having no branches at all, and dispensing all benefits from the head
office, we find the rate of sickness habitu^J^y far in excess of the experience
of the Foresters or the OdHfellows, or even of the Ralionals, an excess due,
according to the repeated declarations of the actuary, to nothing but
inadequate provision against fraud and malingering. During the eight years
1884-91, for instance, the "expected sickness," according to the 1866-70
experience of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows (all districts), was
1,111,553 weeks ; the actual weeks for which benefit was drawn numbered no
fewer than 1,452,106, an excess of over 30 per cent." (An Enquiry into the
Methods, etc., of a Friendly Society, by R. P. Hardy, 1894, p. 36).

Page 181. On the problem of compensation for industrial accidents, see
Industrial Insurance in the United States, by C. R. Henderson (Unwin :
1909); The Practice of Insurance against Accidents and Employers' Lmhihty,
by Alfred Foot (1907); Handbuch der UttfaUvcrsirhcrinui (Leipzig: 1909-10:
3 vols.).

NOTES AND REFERENCES

217

Rate of Sickness per Member
per annum (Weeks>.

Rate of Mortality per ICl Mem
bets per annum.

218 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

1

It may be convenient to nppend a statistical STimmarv of the operations o\
the German Govorunient's Social Insurance schenjes for lUtiS. The total
population of the Empire was estimated at 31,084,1100 males and 31,898,000
females, making a total of 62,1)82,000.

TtDI.E SHOWING, rOK THI YEAB l!l'l-<, THE KCMBrB OP PCn;>(.NS INSURED, THE NUMBEK

OF SEPARATB OK0ANI8ATIONK, THE AMODNTS CON! R! II!. TED AND PAID. AND THE

Kl.MBIiit OF PKRSONS IN RECEIPT Or nENKFITS, IN RESPUCT OF SICKNESS, ACCIDENT
AND INVALIDITY, AND OLD AGE.

SICKNMS.

ACCJDtKT.

iNVAl IDl rv ANU

Old Act.

No. of persons covered by in-

surance ( membership 1

Males

9.880,541

14,795,400

10,559.900

Females

.1.309.058

8,87S.f«)

4,672.100

Total

13,189.599

23,674.000

I5,Jj;.0OO

No. of separate associations

administering the bcnetits..

23.057

114

41

Amount contributed by wage-

fl 1.81 1. 009

earners

nil.

£4.610,559

Amount contributed by em-

ployers

£5.745.693

£9.079,827

£4.610,559

Amount contributed or expended

by Government

nil.

nil.

£2,526.091

Interest, etc.

£■743.003

£1.297.694

£2.546,892

Total receipts

.^1S..:99.706

£10.377.521

£14.294,103

Amount distributed in cash to

beneficiaries ...

.(.■l6.552.493

£7,894.236

£9.073,838

No. of beneficiaries within the

/ 958.844 •
I 127,873 t

year

5.701.180

1,008,677

Administrative expenses

£■"74.712

£1.296,700

£973,116

I'unds

£l3.f>j5.418

£l6,330,072

£74,480,530

• lunlidiiy PcniioDi.

t Old A{c PcBsicBt.

Details op Espenditukb
Sick Insurance

Medical Treatment
Medicine and Appliances
Sick Pay to Members...
Sick Pay to Relatives...
Child Birth Pay
Hoopital Treatment
Bnrial Money ...
VarioQs

Total* ...

JB

3.577,215
2.322,397
7,169,968
210,947
296.576
2,290.602
«6,758
268,333

0^16,552,490

I

NOTES AND EEFERENCES

219

Accident Insurance

Treatment ... 180,307

Sick Pay during Waiting Time 41,092

Hospital Treatment 251,321

Allowance to Relatives 68,663

Allowance to Injured ' ... 5,763,541

Lump Sums 82,446

Burial Money ... - ... ... 37,054

Annuities to Relatives of Deceased 1,410,061

Lump Payments to Widows... 47,060

Lump Payments to Foreigners 12,086

Total* ^67,894,231

Invalidity and Old Age

£

Treatment 894,722

Augmented Allowances to Relatives 55,261

Treatment of Invalids in Homes 27,429

Invalidity Annuities 6,646,618

Sickness Allowances 170,292

Old Age Pensions 817,662

Money Returned—

(a) At Marriage ... 293,454

(b) On Injured being Compensated under Acci-

dent Insurance 2,599

(c) At Death 165,798

Total* c£9,073,835

Page 194. It is not commonly realised that, under the Merchant Shipping
Acts, the Government has, for the past fifty years, maintained a compulsory
Labour Exchange for all persons employed on board ship, as sailors or
otherwise. No engagement of any such person may be concluded except at
the Mercantile Marine Office, one of which exists at each port, and in the
presence of the Superintendent. Thus, every unemployed sailor or fireman
knows that there is only one place in each port at which he can find a job;
and that all vacancies will be reported there. More than half a million
situations a year are thus filled. See the description of the working of the
organisation in Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission, Part II.,
ch. iv. (p. 640 of official 8vo edition).

Page 194. As to the difficulties arising from disputes about the demarca-
tion between trades, particularly prevalent in the shipbuilding industry,
see our Industrial Democracy (ch. si., "The Right to a Trade." pp. 508-27).

• The slight discrepancies between these totals and those in Table I. are due to fractions of
pounds being omitted from the items of expenditure in Table II.

220 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Page 197. The rates and hours quoted iu the text for fitters at Manchester,
Leeds, Keighley, and Gainsborough respectively are those (1911) now recog-
nised by the Amalgamated Society of Engineers. More extreme diversities
can be found in the lists of recognised rates in the Annual Reports of the
Amalgamated Society of Engineers or the Amalgamated Society of Carpenters
and Joiners. As to these local differences in wages, see our Industrial
Democracy, pp. 320-1, or Local Variations in Wages, by F. W. Lawrence
(Longmans : 1899).

Page 203. For the achievements and potentialities of the Grant in Aid,
see Grants in Aid : a Criticism and a Proposal, by Sidney Webb (Longmans :
1911).

The " Ghent System " of Unemployment Insurance is described in
Insurance against V nemployment, by D. P. Schloss (King : 1909), and
Unemployment Insurance, by 1. Gibbon, with preface by Prof. L. T.
Hobhouse (King: 1911).

VIII

The Enlarged Sphere of Voluntary Agencies in the
Prevention of Destitution

It is sometimes claimed for the United Kingdom that
it is, of all countries, the one in which private charity
and philanthropy have the largest scope. The continental
observer in London has remarked, with surprise, the
frequency with which he meets the mystic formula " Sup-
ported by Voluntary Contributions." It is, however, an
insular delusion to suppose that, in the field of provision
for the needy. Voluntary Charity plays a proportionately
larger part with us than in other countries. In most
Roman Catholic nations, in Russia, in Turkey, in India,
and throughout the Far East, there is proportionately
more almsgiving, and the State plays a smaller part
in the provision for the poor, than in the England of the
past half century. What is really distinctive of the Britain
of the present day is, on the one hand, the extensive
substitution for the personal distribution of alms, of
independent corporations and societies administering,
through salaried officials, funds voluntarily subscribed
for the purpose ; and, on the other, the use that is made,
as part of the governmental machinery, central or local,
of the unpaid and voluntarily serving amateur. We see,
in fact, the paradox that a large and growing part of the
activities of the Voluntary Agencies in all our great cities

222 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

are exercised, not by volunteers, but by a paid bu3;eaucra cy;
whilst over an extensive and steadily increasing field the
operations of the local or central Government are carried
on, not by officials, but by unprofessional volunteers.
We have been groping our way to a clear and rational
theory as to the proper relationship between the Govern-
ment, on the one hand, whether national or municipal,
and the Voluntary Agency on the other. An examination
of this relationship, and of the theories by which it has
successively been directed, will make plain the very
great enlargement of the scope of private philanthropy
that the proposed campaign for the Prevention of Desti-
tution involves.

The idea that there ought to be any deliberate or-
ganisation of our charitable feelings, or that there can
be any systematic relation between individual philan-
thropy and the action of the State, is a cornpaia trvely
modern one. There are still many good people among us
who instinctively resent any discouragement of the
personal impulse to give alms or to perform " good
works " as a rehgious duty by which we " acquire merit "
or do glory unto God, quite irrespective of the effect
really produced upon the recipients and beneficiaries.
To them, at least in theory, personal charity is every-
thing. On the other hand, there are still amongst us
representatives of the unspoken views of the " Early
Victorian " economists, who regard, every kind of philan-
thropic action as a hideous mistake, calculated to under-
mine the independence and lessen the energy of the poor,
and even to promote the survival of the unfit. To them,
personal charity and Government provision are, at least
in theory, alike anathema.

VOLUNTAKY AGENCIES

223

We may trace a certain succession in tke abstract
tkeories of relationship between the philanthropic efforts
of voluntary agencies and the provision made by the
State ; or rather in the modifications of these theories
under the stress of practical application. The Poor Law
Commissioners of 1834 left, in their theory, little standing
ground for private philanthropy. They allowed it clearly
to be seen in their classic Report that they regarded all
charity, whether public or private, as objectionable in
principle, as interfering with the beneficent effects of the
competitive struggle. They felt obliged to sanction the
bare relief of actual destitution in a " well-regulated "
workhouse, lest the desperation of starvation should lead
to riot and crime. But the assumption implicit throughout
this school of thought was that, if all were unflinchingly
left to suffer the consequences of their own actions, the
constantly acting pressure of the fear of want would compel
everyone to be self-supporting — that the able-bodied
unemployed would be automatically absorbed by an
entirely free and unorganised Labour Market, or else
driven to emigrate to new lands ; and that even the chil-
dren, the sick, and the aged would, if no other means were
forthcoming, be maintained by their able-bodied relations.
The suppressed alternative was that, in so far as this did
not happen, the weaker ones would die, and, by relieving
the pressure of population, leave the survivors better off !

But even in 1834 human nature was too weakly
indulgent for a consistent theory of this kind ; and as the
Poor Law Commissioners realised that what they were
proposing was a revolution -in policy that would be
condemned as inhuman and unchristian, they thought it
expedient to leave a loophole for charity. Whilst laying

224 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

down as an axiom of universal application that the able-
bodied person (and his dependents) should be refused all
public relief otherwise than in a deterrent workhouse, they
suggested that, in really deserving cases, which they
evidently regarded as exceptional, private charity might
intervene and " prevent " the sufferer fromjbecomng"^
pSuperT This peculiar use of the word " prevent " became,
so to speak, classical among those who wrote and spoke
about the treatment of the poor. A " preventive policy "
meant always a policy preventive of pauperism — that is,
preventive of dependence on the Poor Rate — ^not in the
least a policy that prevented the occurrence of destitution.
It was, for instance, a " preventive " treatment of the case
if, after destitution had come, some charitable person or
philanthropic agency supplied a pension or even gave
temporary relief to tide over a period of unemployment,
because it prevented the destitute person from applying
for parochial relief. This we may term the fender or
" Cowcatcher " theory of the relationship between
voluntary agencies and public provision. Of prevention
in the other sense, the arresting or counteracting of the
causes of destitution, so that it should not occur, we hear,
in this connection, nothing. When the causes had
operated, and the destitution had occurred, or was at any
rate obviously near at hand, it was hoped that, if the case
were a " deserving " one, private charity would intervene
to catch the sufferer and ward off his falling upon the
Poor Rate.

A more elaborate and precise formulation of the
relationship between voluntary agencies and the Poor Law
was attempted in Mr. Goschen's Memorandum of; 1869.
This arose out of the great and widespread distress of the

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 225

preceding years, especially in tlie East End of London ;
and out of a recognition of the demoralisation produced
by an indiscriminate distribution of " Relief Funds " and
other doles. Mr. Goschen saw that between those for
whom the " deterrent " treatment of a strict Poor Law
could be justified and maintained, and those who needed
only to be temporarily warded off from falling into its
demoralising clutches, there existed an extensive class for
whom permanent provision had somehow to be made. As
President of the Poor Law Board, he had no desire to
extend the sphere of the Poor Law Authorities. He
therefore not only recognised the necessity for the per-
manent and ubiquitous existence of voluntary agencies
alongside the Poor Law, but he also left to them the
permanent care of this large class of cases. The Poor Law
was to be confined exclusively to the relief of the destitution
of those who were wholly destitute in the strictest sense
of the term, and without any income whatsoever, whilst
those who were only so far as necessitous as to be partly
without the means of subsistence were to be relegated
entirely to voluntary agencies. What Mr. Goschen set up
may be called the " parallel bars " theory of the relation-
ship between State action and voluntary agencies, each
h aving its own appropriate c lientele of beneficiaries.
" The principle that he laid down," says the Majority
Report of the Poor Law Commission, " was that there
should be co-operation between Poor Law and charitable
societies, but not ov erlapping ; that is, that each case
should be fully dealt with by either one or the other agency,
and that, neither unwittingly nor of set purpose, should
there be a supplementation of the allowances of one agency
by the relief granted by others."

Q

226 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

In this Memorandum by Mr. Grosclien, promulgating
wliat we have called the "Parallel Bars" theory, we see
the origin of the conception ever since entertained by the
Charity Organisation Society of the relative spheres of
Voluntary Agencies and State action, with regard to the
provision for the necessitous. It is interesting to notice
that the only State action contemplated either in
Mr. Goschen's Memorandum of 1869, or in the conception
to which we have referred, i s the reli ef of destitution by
the Poor Law Authorities. This curiousT limitation of'
view'has clung to this theory throughout its subsequent
development. In no analysis with which we are
acquainted, of the actual or desirable relationship between
the public and the private treatment of the poor, have we
found any notice taken of the very extensive provision, of
one sort or another, made by the Local Health Authorities,
the Local Education Authorities, the Local Lunacy
Authorities, the Local Pension Authorities or the Unem-
ployment Authorities, which are together providing to-day,
actual maintenance out of the rates and taxes for more
than twice as many persons as are being maintained by
the Poor Law Authorities. The very lengthy chapter on
Charity, in the Majority Report of the Poor Law Commission
of 1909, ignores all these developments of State action as
completely as did Mr. Goschen forty years previously.

The first interpretation of the " parallel bars " theory
—the separation of the wholly destitute (to be dealt with
exclusively by the Poor Law) from the insufficiently
maintained (to be provided for entirely by the Volmitary
Agencies)— proved, in practice, quite impossible. No such
sharp line of division was found to exist; and in the
majority of cases the division, however made, was transient

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

227

only. Any family suffering from insufficiency of income
is, in fact, removed from destitution by such a short stage
that the distinction soon becomes obliterated. Wherever
Voluntary Agencies did not exist, or were not very prompt
and not very ubiquitous in their action, the Poor Law
Authorities had necessarily to come to the help of the
families whose exiguous resources were insufficient for full
maintenance, under penalty of seeing these families very
promptly drop into complete and often irreparable
destitution. This silent and gradual expansion of the
action of the Poor Law Authorities — notably with regard
to the sick, the children, the widows, the physically or
mentally defective and the aged — with the consequent
enlargement of the official definition of " the destitute "
so as to make it (as the Local Government Board informed
the Poor Law Commission) practically synonyruous with
" the necessitous," bade fair to leave no independent
spliere for private charity. On the other hand, if
Voluntary Agencies were to be expected to succour all the
cases in the state of insufficiency of income, as Mr. Goschen
had suggested, there was, on the one hand, the obstacle
that charitable funds and private agencies were hopelessly
inadequate to the task ; and, on the other, wherever and
in so far as they were adequate, there was the danger of a
wholesale supplementing of inadequate wages which would
have undermined the obligation for self -maintenance. It
mattered little in the Roman Empire whetTier the great
distributions of food to all and sundry in relief of destitu-
tion were given by the Emperor or by some great patriot
eager to curry favour with the people. It became obvious
that Mr, Goschen's Memorandum, with its " parallel bars "
theory of a division of spheres between Voluntary Agencies

228 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

and State action, had to be interpreted by some other
method of discrimination than the enquiry whether a
person was wholly or only partially destitute.

A great step forward was made in the coming into
action of the Charity Organisation Society. We do not,
in this generation, adequately realise how great an advance
in thought was expressed in the very name of the society ;
and in its constant lesson that c harity, like eve rything
else, must be judged by its total results upon the^com^
munity in the long run, and that it accordingly needed,
if it were not to become a positive evil, to be deliberate and
well-informed, and in the best sense highly orgamsedr'The
able and zealous leaders of this society set themselves,
among other things, to devise a good working hypothesis
as to the relative spheres of private charity and State
action, to be exemplified in their own practice as to the
relation to be set up between Voluntary Agencies and the
Poor Law. They started with a ready acceptance of the
new departure made by the energetic Inspectorate of the
Local Government Board in 1871-5, in endeavouring to
suppress Outdoor Relief, and to apply the " Workhouse
Test," not as the 1834 Report had proposed, to the able-
bodied and their dependents alone, but to all applicants
for Poor Relief. It was, in fact, " now argued," says
Mr. T. Mackay, " that just as in the Act of 1834 the fear
of the Workhouse had obliged the able-bodied to assume
responsibility 'for the able-bodied period of life . . . the
application of the same principle to the other responsi-
bilities of life would produce equally advantageous
results." In accordance with this policy, the " strict "
Boards of Guardians refused Outdoor Relief, and offered
only admission to the General Mixed Workhouse, to the

VOLUNTARY j AGENCIES 229

aged and the infirm, the chronically sick, and the widow
encumbered with young children, as a means (i) of
persuading other men and women, in their able-bodied
years, to save up enough to provide for themselves and
their dependents in sickness, widowhood, orphanage and
old age ; and (ii) of putting pressure on the relations of
the applicants, including those not legally liable for their
support, to make them pay up rather than see their
relations suffer the disgrace and the hardships of workhouse
pauperism. This momentous " extension " of the prin-
ciples of 1834 enormously increased the number of cases
in which there seemed ground for the intervention of
Voluntary Agencies to ward off the necessity of going into
the workhouse. The need for charity, which had appeared
to the Poor Law Commissioners of 1834 to be sporadic
and occasional, was now, as Mr. Goschen had indicated,
recognised to be ubiquitous and permanent ; but its
appropriate sphere was taken to be, not so much that of
supplementing the resources of those who were not
destitute, as that of preventing the " deserving " person
who was qualified to receive Poor Law relief from having
to apply for it. The " Cowcatcher " theory was accepted
as defining the principal purpose to be fulfilled by Voluntary
Agencies, whilst the "Parallel Bars" theory governed
their form and then- methods of action.

But this view of the relation of Voluntary Agencies
to State action proved, in practice, to be as inapplicable
as its predecessors. The funds of the charitable and the
personal services of the voluntary helpers were soon
discovered to be as inadequate to provide for all the
" deserving " destitute, who needed to be fended off the
Poor Law, as they were to supplement the insufficient

230 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

incomes of the merely necessitous, who were not to be
quaMed for Poor Law relief. And this proved to be true
of town and country alike. It was soon realised, though
not quite so soon explicitly avowed, that there were,
among those to whom the Boards of Guardians were being
told to offer nothing but the Workhouse, large numbers
of most " respectable " and " deserving " people, who had
no relations from whom any adequate support could
possibly be obtained — aged widows whose blameless lives
of incessant toil had outlasted those of all their relations ;
sufferers from chronic and incurable disabling illnesses,
whose relations were quite unable to maintain them ; the
host of blind, deaf and dumb, crippled, epileptic, and
feeble-minded ; the pathetic contingent of the orphans and
foundlings ; the tragic army of the phthisical, sinking
gradually into premature death, and dragging down with
them, by slow contagion, the wives and children with
whom, in the absence of other provision than the work-
house, they had perforce to live. In many instances,
indeed, what was required for these most eminently
" respectable " and " deserving " cases was something
which it was beyond the capacity of personal service or
private charity to give — sometimes an alteration in the
conditions of industry, sometimes a change in the environ-
ment of the home, sometimes the permanent relegation
to a specialised institution.

Meanwhile the other aspect of the theory — the
restriction of Poor Law Relief to those who were undeserv-
ing — coupled with the contemporary belief in the efficacy
of a deterrent regimen, made the workhouse a quite unfit
place into which to thrust the blameless aged, the
chronically infirm, the sick or the children ; and, indeed,

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

231

any " respectable " or " deserving " person whatsoever.
If the Poor Law relieved all the destitute, sheep as well as
goats, there might conceivably be some chance of decent
company and decent treatment for the good. But when it
became the accepted doctrine that Voluntary Agencies
\\ would prevent all the deserving from smkmg into Poor
I Relief, it followed that the Workhouse had to be run
\as an institution to which only the reprobates resorted.
At the same time, just when it has become of vital
importance to classify correctly the " deserving " and the
" undeserving " — the treatment to be meted out to the
sheep and goats being so immensely different— kindly men
and women realised that this classification was beyond
human power. The most vigilant scrutiny of the past — a
scrutiny which was bitterly resented even by the most
" respectable " — failed to afford sufficient material on
which to estimate personal desert. " What's done we
partly may compute ; but never what's resisted." It was
impossible to allow for aU the adverse circumstances of
heredity and early nurture, and all the complex environ-
ment of any particular life. It was impossible to separate
the helpless innocent wife and child from the man whom
we could convict of lack of strenuousness, inability to
resist the jovial glass or failure to save something of his
scanty income. Moreover, with regard to the important
point of reformation or improvement, anythmg like
personal desert, as shown by a blameless record, turned
out to be curiously irrelevant. Some of the most " unde-
serving " cases, judged by past conduct, were found to
yield, when placed under a wisely humane treatment, the
most valuable results. Young girls who had fallen into
sexual itnmoraiity ; men and women who had, under stress

232 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of worry or grief, or in the agony of prolonged unemploy-
ment, succumbed to intemperance ; persons of either sex
and of aU ages who had suddenly yielded to outbursts of
passion or temptations to theft or embezzlement, were
often more quickly reformed and could be more thoroughly
set on their feet, in complete economic independence, than
the most " worthy " characters or the most " blameless "
lives, who had never fallen into sin or self-indulgence, but
who were always and irremediably below a sufiicient level
of physical vigour or mental efficiency.

The outcome was a gradual refinement of doctrine by
the Charity Organisation Society. Henceforth the cleavage
was to be made, not by any estimate of moral desert, but
by a decision as to whet her th e^se could or could not be
effectively " helped," by the kindly buFamateur personal
service and somewhat restricted means at the disposal of
any Voluntary Agency. The vast mass of cases which
could not be so helped, which required a greater or more
lasting expenditure than could be afforded, or which
involved interferences beyond the capacity of any private
philanthropy — however " blameless " the record, however
" deserving " the personality — were perforce relegated,
along with the flagrantly undeserving, the scallywags and the
drunkards, to the tender mercies of the Poor Law. But
this necessary refinement of doctrine, which has led the
Charity Organisation Society to subst itute, as its be ne-
ficiaries, the " helpable^ Mor the " deserving," deprived
what we have called the "^Paraliel Bars'' theory as to
the relationship between Voluntary Agencies and State
action, of all its ethical justification. If the most deserving
aged, the most blameless incurable sick, the chronically
infirm who have led beautiful lives of patient endurance,

VOLUNTAKY AGENCIES

233

tlie innocent wives and children of thriftless unemployed
men, the man or woman broken down by a hard life of
excessive toil, and every person who, from whatever
misfortmie or affliction, requires continuous and permanent
treatment, are to be abandoned by the Voluntary Agency,
as not within, its resources " helpable " ; and are therefore
to be required to enter the Workhouse, there to be mixed
up with the " workshys," the drunkards and the wastrels,
the position becomes untenable. The Board of Guardians
finds it impossible, on the one hand, to subject such
guiltless and respectable persons uniformly to the horrors
and indignities of the workhouse ; and, on the other, to
maintain, in the Workhouse that inevitably becomes
" mixed," anything like the regimen desirable for the
healthy able-bodied men of bad conduct. The enforced
abandonment by the Voluntary Agency, of the function
of providing for the deserving, makes, in fact, impossible
the restriction of State action to the maintenance of a
deterrent Poor Law.

This breakdown of the " Parallel Bars " theory of the
relationship between Voluntary Agencies and State action
has had the result of preventing the Charity Organisation
Society from accomplishing the task for which it was
established. It has failed to " organise " charity. It has
not even succeeded in stopping, and (as may be estimated)
not even in reducing in amount, the perennial flow of
, unconditional and iadiscriminate doles all over the country,
which most observers believe to do so much harm. Indeed,
within little more than twenty years of the foundation of
the Charity Organisation Society, there came into play an
organised and indomitable attempt to deny and oppose
the whole doctrine embodied in its principles and practice.

234 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

As tlie Charity Organisation Society, and those charitable
agencies which it could influence, refused all help to many
a destitute person, on one plea or another, and as the Poor
Law refused help except on terms which both the best and
the worst of the destitute refused to accept — as both alike
were demonstrably failing to prevent the creation of fresh
destitution — the more fervent Christian Churches found
it impracticable to refuse food and shelter to those who
were palpably in need of them. The alliance between a
discriminating philanthropy and a deterrent Poor Law,
which had seemed at first so plausible, found its determined
opponent in Greneral Booth and the Salvation Army.
Revealing to an astonished world, m 1890, the extent of
the mass of chronic destitution in all our large towns — the
putrefying and soul-destroying social misery ui which
one-tenth of the entire population, deserving and undeserv-
ing, was plunged — General Booth exposed the futility of
the assumptions and doctrines on which most " organised "
charity was founded, with a thoroughness and a popular
advertisement that had never before been witnessed. He
convinced public opinion that the " deterrent " regimen
of the Poor Law had so far succeeded, or so far failed —
whichever view might be preferred — as to leave outside
its scope, at all times, hundreds of thousands of persons
whose destitution was real enough to be a social danger. It
became beyond the possibility of doubt that a great mass
of persons who had become thriftless, vagrant, mendicant,
dishonest, " workshy " or criminal, would not accept the
penal relief offered to them in the workhouse ; except,
perhaps, for a few days when it suited their convenience.
They even shewed a slight preference for the hospitality
of His Majesty's prisons ; and found the commission of

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

235

some little theft, whicli might possibly not be discovered,
a more agreeable gate to maintenance in extremity than
application to the Relieving Officer. Whether " deserv-
ing " or " undeserving," these unfortunates had, for
General Booth, souls to be saved. In their existing state,
it was practically impossible to approach them with the
means of Grace. Mixed up with this putrefying mass, and
steadily dragged down by its pressure, were individuals
more sinned against than smning, men and women who
had succumbed to unmerited misfortune, people with
characters good, bad and mdifferent, dependent women,
innocent children, all submerged in the same morass-
" Darkest England " showed, in fact, that both the Poor
Law and charity had failed to prevent or.-eveii to relieve
destitution. But General Booth carried the war into the
enemy's camp. He announced his intention of offering
the necessaries of life to all and sundry who were in want,
however " undeserving " they might be, in the hope of
saving their souls. He appealed for funds, he opened Free
Shelters, he distributed free food, he gave clothes, he
lavished help on everyone who was, or who might become,
a penitent. His example was quickly followed by the
Church' Army and by other religious denominations.
Opposite the strictly administered workhouse, in nearly
every great town, there arose a Free Shelter with its free
meal, open to everyone who refused the penal discipline
of the workhouse, or who had been rejected, or had never
been discovered, by the zealous workers of the Charity
Organisation Society and similar bodies. And this general
public provision for the " Submerged Tenth," administered
by the apostolic zeal of the different religious organisations,
has never since slackened.

236 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

There is a curious pathetic irony in the attempt made
by the Charity Organisation Society, and the strict
administrators of the Poor Law, to hide their heads in the
sand and to refuse to recognise the complete breakdown
of their theory of the relationship of Voluntary Agencies
and the Poor Law. Thus, Mr. Crowder— who has for
30 years devoted himself to the strictest possible admin-
istration of Poor Relief on the St. George's in the East
Board of Guardians, and to a wonderfully zealous direction
of the Charity Organisation in the same parish — came
before the Poor Law Commission to testify to the complete
.success of the relationship between the Poor Law and
charitable agencies that we have described. He was all
for " the rigour of the game." " The business of the Poor
Law " he said, " is the relief of destitution as distinguished
from poverty. The fundamental principle with respect to
legal relief is that the condition of the pauper ought to be,
on the whole, less eligible than that of the poorest class of
independent labourer. Where cases of real hardship occur,
the remedy must be applied by individual charity, a
virtue for which no system of relief derived from a com-
pulsory tax can or ought to be a substitute." And he
claimed that the invariable " offer of the House," with the
Charity Organisation Society outside, had been proved
entirely successful. " I think," he continued, " the proof
of the pudding is in the eating. We can point to the fact
that there are all these very poor people in St. George's
getting their own living ivithout out-relief. We conclude
that their energy and industry have increased, and their
thrift, and so forth." " In St. George's the people have
been systematically taught, for many years . . . not to
look to the parish, but to provide for themselves ; hence.

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 237

in ordinary tunes, applications for Outdoor Relief are
rarely made." Happy and prosperous and virtuous
St. George's in the East, after thirty years of this stern
and unbending schooling !

What Mr. Crowder did not tell the Poor Law Com-
mission, and what, in fact, he refuses to see, is that,
during these very years the Salvation Army and the
Church Army, and various charitable agencies acting on
similar impulses, have been freely and indiscriminately
giving the relief that Mr. Crowder 's Board of Guardians
and Mr. Crowder's Charity Organisation Society were
refusing ; and that, accordingly, any such inference as he
drew from the diminution in the number of paupers or of
Charity Organisation Society cases, is entirely unwarranted.
Here is an extract from the appeal for funds that is
perpetually being issued by one of these rival religious
agencies, established twenty-five years ago in Mr. Crowder's
own parish, where he fondly beheves that, by refusing
Outdoor Rehef, he has been schooling the people into
" getting their own living," and that, by this policy, as
they do not now apply to him, we may conclude that
" their energy and industry have increased," so that they
now " provide for themselves ! " " This Soup Kitchen,"
we read, " is carried on for the benefit of the Dock
Labourers out of Work, and poor women and children, who
abound in this squalid and impoverished district. . . The
hundreds one sees starving in the East End of London . .
make one's heart bleed. ' Death through starvation ' is
the verdict of the Coroner's Jury every other day. I
therefore most earnestly and urgently appeal to those who
can afford it to come to our assistance. 2s. 6d. provides
15 meals, 5s. feeds 30 hungry people, £l feeds 120 hungry

238 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

people, £5 gives food to 600 persons." " What has been
done with our funds in one year : —

24,000 Meals to the starving, at the time of their
necessity.

5,880 Breakfasts, Sunday Teas, Christmas Dinners.
4,000 Garments, Boots, Blankets, etc., given away.
5,400 Children maintained in the day Nursery.
4,530 Surgical and Hospital Letters given away.
18,000 Bibles, Tracts, etc., distributed."
" We have many letters of thanks from men who
have received help and employment through this
Institution."

The Minority Report gives other instances in which the
efficacy of a stern and unbending administration of the
Poor Law, and a rigidly discriminating distribution of help
by the Charity Organisation Society, have been rendered
entirely nugatory by the mevitable reaction which they
have set up, in the form of an undiscriminating provision
of meals for the hungry and shelter for the homeless, good,
bad, and indifferent, by those who take their Christianity
literally.

The practical abandonment, by the most extensive
philanthropic agencies of what we have called the " Cow-
catcher " version of the " Parallel Bars " theory of the
relative spheres of Voluntary Agencies and the Poor Law —
of the notion that Voluntary Charities should confine their
help to those cases which can be warded off from any
dependence on Poor Relief, and helped so as to be put in
a position of economic independence — has not only Imocked
the bottom out of the Poor Law application of the theory,
but has also brought about, in all our great cities, a most
serious condition of affairs. Unrelieved destitution and

VOLUNTAKY AGENCIES 239

social misery is, in any Christian or in any civilised com-
munity, an infamy. But an indiscriminate relief of destitu-
tion, wliick tempts all those of weak will and idle disposition
to become destitute, is not only infamous but also directly
dangerous to the State. We are amazed that those who
think themselves specially concerned for the main-
tenance of the obligation of self-maintenance and of
parental responsibility, do not see, or will not recognise,
that the state of thmgs to which their theory has led'
undermines these vitally important elements of personal
character, and renders nugatory all their aspirations. A
Poor Law administration so deterrent that it prevents the
destitute from coming to be treated, along with an
organisation of charity so " discriminating " that it
admittedly fails to save many even of the most virtuous
cases from the deterrent workhouse because they are " not
helpable," not only leaves the problem unsolved, but
actually makes matters worse by the inevitable reaction
that it sets up. Human nature being what it is, and the
Christian religion, the present lavish and indiscriminate
distribution, in St. George's in the East, of unconditional
doles to the mideserving and the deserving, to the
temporarily distressed and the chronically destitute, to
the curable and the incurable, with all the demoraHsation
that they create, is as certainly the outcome and result of
Mr. Crowder's thirty years of stern policy and illogical
theory in that parish — to which he has, from the noblest
of motives, devoted so much unstinted personal service —
as is the " reduction of pauperism " to which he so
complacently alludes.

What, then, do we suggest as the proper theory of
relationship between Voluntary Agencies and State action ?

240 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

To determine this, we must first have clearly in our minds
the specific advantages and actual potentialities of each of
these instrmnents. In the United Kingdom of to-day,
Voluntary Agencies are superior to the public authorities
m three main features ; in invention and initiative, in
their ability to lavish unstinted care on particular cases,
and in the mtensity and variety of the religious influences
that they can bring to bear on personal character.

In the domain of Social Pathology^},; we are, as yet,
only groping in the dark, and experimentmg. The
opportunity and capacity for originating new developments
in the treatment of individuals lie principally with the
Voluntary Agency. The public authority is bound down
by Statute and by authoritative Orders of the Central
Executive Department, as well as limited by the dis-
inclination of the local Ratepayers to expend money in
unfamiliar ways. " We must not experiment with the
Ratepayers' money " is perpetually an effective plea. All
sorts of prejudices and dislikes amongst the elected
members of a committee or of a council have to be con-
sidered. In a Voluntary Agency, a person with new ideas,
or a group of enthusiasts for new methods of treatment
of particular cases, can put new devices to the test of
experiment. Looking back on the social history of the
last hundred and fifty years, we must recognise that nearly
all our_successful developments, in the way of collective
provision for any class, have been preceded and rendered
practicable by private experiments. This is true of
practically our whole educational organisation, from the
Kindergarten to the University College, from the
elementary school to the reformatory training ship, from
cookery instruction and manual training and special

VOLUNTAEY AGENCIES 241

schools for the defective up to University Extension
Courses, and " Vacation Schools." The same sort of
philanthropic experimenting with voluntary organisation
and private funds has preceded, and is still preceding, the
official organisation of our Public Health service, from
paving and cleansing and" lighting the streets to the
provision of a constant water supply, from isolation
hospitals to tuberculin dispensaries, from " Health Visit-
ing " and " Schools for Mothers," right up to School Clinics
and Convalescent Homes. And there is still much to
discover and to learn. The future hides within it, we may
hope and assume, as much as we have found in the past.
It is the first, the highest, and in many ways the most
useful duty of Voluntary Agencies to perform this indis-
pensable service of invention and initiative and perpetual
experimenting in the unknown.

The second specific feature of the Voluntary Agency,
and one which gives it an enormous advantage in its
appropriate sphere, is that the volunteer worker or the
voluntary institution can, if desired, lavish a wholly
disproportionate amount of care on a difficult case or a
difficult class of cases. The salaried teachers or inspectors
of a public authority must " do equal justice to all their
clients " ; the unpaid volunteer can spend days and months
on one particular person or family that may seem to call
for more concentration and thought and feeling than the
orduiary run of cases. A beneficent patron may spend
his whole capital on establishing one particular institution
' of a special type, perhaps for a class of persons statistically
' of no great importance to the community. And as m the
' case, of experiment and invention, though volunteers and
voluntary agencies may fail in 99 cases, the hundredth

K

242 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

case which turns out to be a success, may be of untold
importance to the community.

Finally, we have the significant fact that it is only
through volunteers and Voluntary Agencies that, in the
England of to-day, we can bring to bear, in the treatment
of any individual or class of individuals, the specific
religious atmosphere. It may be that this is not an
inherent distinction between Voluntary Agencies and
State action. It may be that in some communities, in
some phases of public opinion, we might have the public
authority providing an intensely religious atmosphere for
those whom it succours or treats. But, given the strong
feeling against any preference by the State for one denom-
ination over another, and the strong objection to submitting
any person to the influence of a creed with which he may
not agree, or with which his parents may not agree, or
with which the Ratepayers who pay the cost may not
agree, it is practically impossible to bring to bear on the
individual treated in a public institution those potent
reformatory mfluences which are evoked chiefly, and
perhaps exclusively, in an atmosphere of fervent spiritual
faith.

There will always remain, in the mmd of one of the
writers of these pages, a . vivid impression of a brief
residence at the Salvation Army Settlement at Hadleigh
in Essex, the well-known " Labour Colony " which arose
out of General Booth's "Darkest England" campaign,
where some 300 able-bodied men of all sorts and conditions
— discharged prisoners, workhouse habitues, Embankment
sleepers, tramps picked out of the Casual Ward, and
trustworthy men traming for emigration, are to be found
working under a single scheme of management. The

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

243

Salvation Army has developed, iii this experiment, a most
interesting technique of Labom: Colony administration,
which makes the Settlement a little world in itself, in
which every individual is encouraged to rise, by his own
exertions, to better things. But the special feature of the
Settlement is the intensely religious atmosphere : an
atmosphere created by and in the relations between the
unusually large number of " officers " and the Colonists.
The Salvation Army " oJfficer " is, m effect, a member of
a Religious Order who receives bare maintenance in return
for his devoted services ; who works side by side with his
men ; and in whose expression and manners, in every
•little act of courtesy and kindness, one sees the workmg
of a fervent spnit of religion. This day to day close
comradeship, and actual sharing of work, with the
deliberate " choosing equality " of the officers, and the
consciousness of brotherhood which it arouses in the men,
with all its charm of manner and bearmg — the whole being
in striking contrast with the attitude and methods of the
Grovernor and Wardens even of such an improved State
reformatory institution as that of Borstal — would hardly
be possible among the ordinary paid officials of a secular
institution. Moreover, all the Colonists are expected to
attend the wonderfully dramatic and stimulating services
conducted by the " artists " of the Salvation Army, with
their highly trained rhetoric, their well-chosen music, their
emotional personal appeals, and, in some cases, then:
extraordinary " magnetic " and compelling influence. In
these services, which absorb the attention even of the
educated and sceptical critic, one may see a real " spiritual
revival " passing over the audience — a revival which may
well not be permanent, and the ethical value of which is

244 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

certainly open to discussion. No institution, administered
by a publicly elected council, could deliberately subject its
inmates to this intense and specific mental treatment. The
convinced secularist would feel tbat the intellectual
integrity and common-sense, and perhaps even the
permanent mental stability, of the Colonists were being
miwarrantably strained ; the pious Roman Catholic would
object to such appeals to religious emotion without the
sanctification of the Sacraments, the discipline of penance,
and the careful supervision of an experienced ecclesiastical
system ; whilst the Moderate Churchman might weU feel
that this revival was perilously near religious hysteria, and
belonged to that type of feeling which the eighteenth
century Church of England used to condemn as " enthus-
iasm." And no less hostility would be manifested to the
atmosphere of a Roman Catholic Religious Order. By
far the most satisfactory and humane Poor Law institution
in Ireland that came under the notice of the Poor Law
Commission was a workhouse which had been placed
under the charge of eight Sisters of the Order of St. Vincent
de Paul. Here again, the Sisters were giving their devoted
services free of charge to the community, and the extra-
ordinarily refining influence that they exercised in aU the
sordid details of Workhouse administration was something
added to the paid service afforded out of the Rates. Every
corner of the establishment manifested their love of
beauty and order : every inmate shewed by expression
and manner that he felt himself to be personally cared for,
as a soul worthy of salvation. In England, it is to-day
inconceivable that Ratepayers and Taxpayers, with their
multitudinous opinions, and absence of opinions, should
themselves pay for the perpetual inculcation of a specific

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 245

Creed, which is the necessary accompaniment of the
ministration of a Religious Order.

Opinions will differ as to the real efficacy of these
spiritual influences. We may recognise that they are not
appropriate for all cases, nor for all kinds of treatment.
But it would be both blind and intolerant to deny their
value, and even their extraordinary potency, in some of
the cases, and along with some of the kmds of treatment
to which they are appropriate. None but fanatics would
object to making use, under all due safeguards, of
Voluntary Agencies which offer to provide an apparently
efiicacious treatment, with a definitely religious atmo-
sphere, at less cost than that at which the State can itself
do the work, for those sufferers who abeady belong to the
particular denomination in question, or who, being adult,
deliberately prefer such an institution to that which the
State provides. There is, indeed, every reason to believe
that without some such arrangement, we cannot, in fact,
do what is best for the fallen woman or the inchoately
criminal child — perhaps also for some types of the con-
genitally feeble-mirided, the habitual inebriate, and the
" workshy."

The three specific advantages of Voluntary Agencies
are accompanied by equally specific defects from which
Public Authorities are free.

The first of these drawbacks is the unfan incidence
of the cost of Voluntary philanthropy."^ It must be
stigmatised as a distinct disadvantage that those who
actually bear the cost of these agencies are few and far
between, and the bulk of citizens are excluded from a
charge to which all should contribute according to their
ability. This characteristic incidence of the cost of all

246 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

private philanthropy amounts, in effect, to a penalty on
the good and conscientious ; and is, at the same time,
equivalent to a bounty on those who are selfish and without
public spirit. Moreover, the financial basis of voluntary
institutions is not only inequitable, but the revenue thus
obtained is extraordinarily fitful, and its collection absorbs
the time and energy of the organisers to an altogether
extravagant extent. Half the time of the promoters and
managers of the best and most approved volimtary
institutions is absorbed in raising subscriptions to support
them. It is this which makes our voluntary hospitals the
most extravagantly wasteful of funds and energy of aU the
departments of our common life.

The second great drawback of Voluntary Agencies
springs partly from this financial uncertainty, but partly
also from their sporadic and, so to speak, accidental
growth ; it is practically impossible for Voluntary Agencies
to perform any task, or execute any service, completely
and continuously. The most picturesque example of this
lack of completeness and continuity would have been
discovered by a citizen of London in the middle of the
.eighteenth century. In those days it was left practically
to each individual, or to voluntary associations of in-
dividuals, to pave, and light, and cleanse the streets.
The service was naturally very discontinuous. Here
would be a patch of stone cobbles, then a heap of mud,
following that a deep hole, and possibly a plank or some
cinders as an agreeable alternative. One house would have
a lantern, and the next ten would be without them. The
watchmen were long limited practically to such " select "
quarters as St. James's Square, where the inhabitants
decided that they had valuable property to protect. It

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 247

was, in fact, the impracticability of getting any complete
and continuous action from Voluntary Agencies that led
to the first great municipal enterprise of paving, lighting
and watching the streets. The provision of schools for
poor children was long the favourite service of private
philanthropy. But such schools failed altogether to
cover the whole ground ; and it was only the desire to
give complete and continuous education to all children
that led to the establishment of the Local Education
Authority, with its compulsory rate and its compulsory
attendance. The Local Health Authority had to be
called in to supply the deficiency m hospitals, as soon as
it was considered necessary to have the means of isolating
all infectious cases everjrwhere. As soon as it is considered
necessary, with regard to any particular service, any
particular class of patients, or any particular treatment,
that it should be extended to every case, or to every part
of the Kingdom, or for the whole period of the contingency,
the community finds it impossible to depend on Voluntary
Agencies. The Public Authority alone can ensure a pro-
vision that is universal, ubiquitous, complete, or con-
tinuous.

Closely connected with the inability of the Voluntary
Agencies to give complete and ■ contmuous treatment to
the cases that it purports to undertake, is its inability to
" compel them to come in " ; its powerlessness to enforce
submission to treatment or to the conditions of efficacious
treatment ; and, withal, its helplessness in the way of
prevention. This lack of power in the Voluntary^Ageiiby,
as contrasted with the Public Authority, the inability
to alter the social environment, to change the industrial
conditions, to arrest the course of evil influences, to ward

248 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

off physical calamities, at once disqualifies the Voluntary
Agency for the supremely important task of preventing
the occurrence of the destitution that springs from adverse
environment. But the same disability cripples the
Voluntary Agency in its action on the individual. The
most disastrous effect, from the standpoint of personal
character of the volunteer and the Voluntary Agency, is
that treatment is not and cannot be accompanied with any
enforcement of obligation. The Voluntary Agency stands
open to those who choose to accept it, and equally open
to those who choose to leave it. It is perpetually drifting,
whatever the intention of its promoters, into a curious
kind of subsidy to the wajrward impulses of those who
are in need. A sick person may go from dispensary to
dispensary, from hospital to hospital, taking the advice,
or swallowing the medicine that he gets, with or without
a,ny proper maintenance, with or without any hygienic
lodging, even pursuing a course of life bound to result
in an aggravation of the disease which he professes to
wish to get rid of. All the charities for children, however
good their effect may be on the child, are necessarily
uncoimected with any enforcement of parental responsi-
bility ; sometimes, even, a demoralising system of bribes
has to be adopted to induce the parents of the children
to let them enter in. It is extraordinary that persons
who are really concerned about the maintenance of parental
responsibility should prefer to see an organised system
of providing school dinners for the hungry at the expense
of private philanthropy — which camiot by any possibility
be connected with the enforcement of parental responsi-
bility on merely negligent or drunken parents, — instead
of the provision being entrusted to the Local Education

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

249

Authority, which can and might make it an effective
instrument for raising the standard of child nurture and
compelling all parents who could afford it to keep their
children up to the higher standard. And when we leave
the ordinary normal citizen and his family, and pass to
a consideration of the mentally defective, it becomes clear
that all treatment, however benevolent, if it is to attain
its ends, must necessarily be accompanied by a certain
disciplinary supervision and enforced control, involving
powers which are not easily granted to Voluntary Agencies.
Wherever the case requires compulsory removal, segre-
gation, detention or control, the Public Authority must
intervene as responsible for safeguarding the liberty of
the subject.

Once we have realised the characteristic qualities
and defects of Voluntary Agencies, on the one hand,
and Public Authorities on the other, we are in a better
position to determine what should be their mutual rela-
tionship.

We see, to begin with, that it is vital, in the public
.interest, that no case sho uld go undealt with ; and that
no treatment should be left unfinished. Thus, however,
good and however effective may be the Voluntary Agencies
at work, the Local Health Authority, as the only organisa-
tion covering all the field, has necessarily to look after
births, and " search out " all dangerous diseases. However
excellent may be the. Voluntary Agencies in education,
it is the Local Education Authority that must see to it
that no child grows up below the prescribed standard.
* However benevolent may be the Voluntary Agencies
dealing with the mentally • defective, it is on the Local
Lunacy Authority that we put the responsibility for

250 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

getting all lunatics and idiots under proper control. Thus,
in all the great departments of the work, we see that the
Public Authority cannot content itself with dealing with
some, only, of the cases. Wherever there is a reason for
its intervention it must have all the cases on its books.
The prescribed National Minimum has to be ensured and
enforced, at all times, as regards every case. And whilst
on the one hand this indispensable minimum is secured
to everyone — as we cannot, for our own sake, allow
anyone to fall below it, — it is indispensable that personal
obligations and parental responsibilities should be enforced
with equal universality ; and that there should always
be, along with the treatment, the due measure of dLsciplin-
ary supervision and control, according to the nature of
the case, to ensure that the individual co-operates in his
own cure. For all these purposes the Voluntary Agency
is disqualified and inappropriate.

On the other hand, though the Public Authority
concerned must be responsible for the adequate treatment
of all the cases needing attention, this does not mean that
it need do, for all cases, everything that needs to be done.
There is, as we shall see, an enormous part of the work
which Voluntary Agencies can do better than the Public
Authorities, in which they can bring to bear their specific
advantages on particular cases or classes of cases, or in
particular parts of the treatment of all cases. In every
branch of social work, with regard to every conceivable
class of case, there is the utmost need for the initiative,
the inventiveness, and the practical experimentmg which
Voluntary Agencies have so much at their command.
Moreover, there is practically 'no part of the field in which
we do not find particular kinds of need, which require

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

251

and which would repay the devotion to their service of
an amount of individual care and thought and money,
altogether disproportionate to their statistical importance,
which it is seldom within the power of any Public Authority
to bestow. And we shall most of us consider that, alike for
children, for the feeble-minded, for certaui classes of
sick persons, for various types of able-bodied men and
women who have fallen out of regular productive work,
and possibly for others, there is room for institutions and
personal ministrations of more distmctively religious
character than the English Grovernment of to-day will
be permitted to organise. Thus, it is quite impossible to
dispense with or to exclude Voluntary Agencies ; and it
is clear that their part in any effective national campaign
against destitution must be a large and important one.
Nor is there any ground for restricting their co-operation
to the " deserving " case. As General Booth has rightly
insisted, it is just those whom we call the " undeserving "
who present the greatest difficulties to State action, and
for whom the special services of Voluntary Agencies are
often most applicable. This is equally true of the later
form of discrimination adopted by the Charity Organisa-
tion Society. It is not alone for the cases that are classified
as " helpable " that the State needs the co-operation of
the Voluntary Agencies. Many of those whom the Charity
Organisation Society now rejects as " unhelpable " are
admittedly very deserving ; and there is no reason why
these should be excluded from the ministrations of the
charitable. As a matter of fact, it is just among the
so-called " unhelpable " cases that the generous lavishing
of love and personal care, which the State cannot bestow,
has often achieved its greatest triumphs.

252 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

We must therefore reject, once for all, what we have
called the "Parallel Bars" theory of the relationship
between the two which has, indeed, as we have described,
so egregiously broken down in practice. It is indispensable
that the Public Authority should be and remain responsible
for seeing that every case, without exception, receives the
necessary and appropriate treatment ; that every indi-
vidual born into the community is given the opportunity
to maintain the prescribed " National Minimum " of
civilised life ; and that his obhgation to come up to that
standard is uniformly and invariably enforced. Instead
of a division of cases, we get, therefore, a division of
functions. Under this theory, the voluntary agencies,
with their perpetual seeking after new methods of treat-
ment, with their loving care of difficult cases, with then-
varied religious influences, must be deliberately made use
pf in the public service to be constantly raising the standard
of civilised conduct and physical health above the com-
paratively low standard which alone can be enforced by
the Public Authority. Here we have a conception, not
of " parallel bars " wholly separate and distinct from each
other, with a large intervening space of " missed cases " ;
but of an " extension ladder " placed firmly on the founda-
tion of an enforced minimum standard of life, but carrying
onward the work of the Public Authorities to far finer
shades of physical, moral, and spiritual perfection.

We may adduce, as an instance of the co-ordmation
of Voluntary Agency and State action, upon this the
" Extension Ladder " theory of their relationship, the
widespread organisation of Poor Relief in Germany that
we call the Elberfeld system. The Local Authorities,
officially responsible for providing for the poor, make

VOLUNTAKY AGENCIES

253

use of an extensive staff of unpaid and unprofessional
volunteer workers, wlio visit the homes and make them-
selves acquainted with the cncumstances of every family.
This voluntary service is nominally obligatory upon all
citizens, much as were, m our own country, the ancient
offices of the Manor and the Parish surviving in the
Constable and the Overseer. But the really distinctive
feature of the Elberfeld system, and the one to which its
excellence is due, is not this obligation of service, which
is seldom enforced, but the organic relationship in which
the voluntary helper stands with regard to the Public
Authority. To the necessitous family he comes as a friend,
a neighbour and a fellow-citizen, concerned to get them
over their trouble in the best possible way. But on his
other side, the voluntary helper is the agent of the Public
Authority, registering his cases in the official records,
reporting what he has seen, carrying out in his ministra-
tions the official instructions which he has received, pro- ^
curing admission for his families to the several public
institutions, dispensing as Outdoor Relief the funds pro-
vided by the Local Authority out of rates and taxes, and
acting throughout under the constant supervision and
direction of the expert municipal officials in each depart-
ment. He is thus, to our eyes, a combination of the
" Friend of the Street " of the Guild of Help, and the •
Poor Law Relieving Officer ; of the member of a Children's
Care Committee and the salaried Health Visitor sent by
the Medical Officer of Health ; of the volunteer collector
of the Country Children's Holiday Fund and the School
Attendance Officer. He is, in short, not a charitable
worker, but a volimteer official ! The great advantages
of the Elberfeld system are that (i.) no case escapes notice.

254 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

or is prematiu-ely dropped ; (ii.) there is no restriction
of funds or opportunities to those which private philan-
thropy can afford ; and (iii.) the volunteer, having a very
few cases to deal with and being able to take his own time
over them, can give any amount of personal care and
personal friendship in the discharge of his duties. As a
matter of fact, also, he is allowed to use free discretion
within certain regulations.

But although the so-called Elberfeld system of German
Poor Relief has this excellence of form, it has the radical
defect, as we can now see, of concerning itself only with
the relief of the families after destitution has occurred ;
it does not deal with the more important part of the pro-
blem^ — namely, preventing the occurrence of destitution.
It is, in fact, only with regard to the domiciliary treatment
of the destitute that the German Empire has developed
any separate Poor Law administration. Practically all
the institutions are unconnected with Poor ReUef as such,
and (as advocated in the Minority Report) form part
of the specialised local admmistrations dealing with
Public Health, Education, Lunacy, or the maintenance
of the ablebodied unemployed. In these departments of
the work, however, we do not need to go to Germany for
the best examples of what we have called the " Extension
Ladder " relationship between State action and Voluntary
Agencies. In most of our large towns we see developing,
in all branches of the really preventive work, a most
promising system of co-operation between the several
municipal departments and appropriately specialised
volunteers. Working under the Local Health Authority,
in strict co-ordination with the efforts of the Health
Committee, and actually under the direction of the Medical

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

255

Officer of Health, we have the growing staffs of volunteer
Health Visitors, the rapidly multiplying " Schools for
Mothers," the philanthropic Sanatoria and Convalescent
Homes, even here and there a voluntary hospital, all
dependent on private zeal and charitable benevolence
for personal service and frmds. Working under the Local
Education Authority, with the supervision and direction
of the Education Committee and its chief officers, we have
all the varieties of Children's Care Committees or School
Canteen Committees, Country Holiday Fund Committees
and "Spectacle Committees," the Play Centres and the Vaca-
tion Schools, and here and there even a privately subsidised
Dental Clinic or general "School Clinic," all illustrating
the initiative and inventiveness, and the devoted personal
zeal of the voluntary and the philanthropic institution.
Working in connection with the Local Lunacy Authority,
we have already a few "After-care" Committees and various
philanthropic institutions. It needs only the carrying
into law of the recommendations of the Eoyal Commission
on the Care and Control of the Feeble-minded, for the
enlarged Local Authorities for the Mentally Defective,
who will have under their charge the imbeciles and feeble-
minded now dealt with by the Poor Law Gruardians, to
find ready to their hands not only a number of trained
volunteer workers but also a host of voluntary experi-
ments in Rescue Homes and Epileptic Colonies, in
" boarding-out " the feeble-minded children and the
industrial employment of the feeble-minded adult. Here
and there the Local Pension Authorities, new as they
are, have already begun to develop a system of voluntary
" Pension Visitors," and to look out for donors of alms-
houses in which to lodge the most deserving and the

256 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

most helpless of their pensioners. The Labour Exchanges,
which have only been started for two years, have already
Advisory Committees, " After-care " Committees, and
Juvenile Labour Committees, and may find themselves
presently in organic connection with a" series of Labour
Colonies, managed by the devoted zeal of the great
religious denominations. Judged by events, it is abundantly
proved that the newer preventive authorities will call
for, and will obtain, the help of a multitude of voluntary
workers and the co-operation of a whole series of voluntary
institutions— a notable fact when we consider how little
use the Boards of Guardians, in their three-quarters of a
century of administration, have made of the goodwill of
the volunteer and the beneficence of the charitable rich.

We suggest that this " Extension Ladder " theory of
the relationship between State action and Voluntary
Agencies, and the organic connection which it establishes
between the specialised municipal departments and the
similarly specialised voluntary workers and philanthropic
institutions, affords, for the first time, a most promising
basis for that real organisation of charity which is so
badly required. After forty years of incessant and devoted
efforts, the Charity Organisation Society has, everyw^here
and completely, failed in any sense to " organise " even
the corporate charitable agencies. The explanation seems
to us clear. The theory on which they have been working
— the attempt to segregate the beneficiaries into two
absolutely distinct camps, so that the Public Authority
alone deals with one set of poor people, and the Voluntary
Agencies alone with quite another set, virtually excludes
the Public Authority from the work of charity organisa-
tion, whereas it is the Public Authority alone that can

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES

257

accomplish it. No one charitable agency will be allowed
by the others to control them. The Charity Organisation
Society is a charitable agency like any other ; and every
corporate charitable agency, feeling itself in rivalry with
the rest, is intensely jealous of every other one. But
once it is accepted that the Public Authority and the
Voluntary Agencies have both to deal with the same
persons, and to undertake distinct functions with regard
to these persons there is not the same rivalry with the
Public Authority. Moreover, all charitable agencies are,
so to speak, on the same plane. One charitable agency
can seldom do anything to complete and supplement the
work of another charitable agency, because both alike
suffer from the defects of their qualities — they cannot give
continuous treatment, and they cannot exercise disciplin-
ary powers. But, in the Public Authority, the Voluntary
Agency discovers a partner who is willing to remain in
the background, but who has the necessary resources and
the necessary powers to make good the position of the
Voluntary Agency as regards its effect on the character
of the persons whom it treats. The Farm Colony or the
Voluntary Hospital, the Orphanage or the Play Centre,
however excellent may be the treatment which it affords,
can do nothing to prevent the " abuse " of its hospitality ;
it cannot make conditions or exercise supervision as to
the conduct of the person before and after treatment,
though this may be essential to its success. The unlimited i
free medical treatment afforded by the voluntary hospitals 1
is so unconnected with any disciplinary supervision over'
the person who takes advantage of it, that it frequentljTj
acts as a subsidy to unhygienic if not to immoral living.
Moreover, patients have to be turned out with the practical

258 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

certainty that there is nowhere to which they can go to
be saved from dropping back into the disease from which
they have recently emerged. The Farm Colony is hampered
by having no such outlet for the good man as a universal
Exchange and Government responsibility for finding
either work or training would afford ; and at the same
time it can inspire no fear of relegation to a Reformatory
Detention Colony in the man who is hopelessly recalcitrant.
We shaU never get the full advantage of all the brilHant
invention and the devoted zeal and work existing among
our volunteers and our voluntary institution until we can
place them on the sure foundation of pubUc responsibihty
for the maintenance and enforcement of a Minimum
Standard of Life. When we have once secured this soHd
foundation, our Voluntary Agencies will become what
they ought essentially to be — pioneer endeavours to raise
ever higher and higher the standard of what human conduct
can be made to be ; by showmg, in this direction and in
that, how and where it is possible actually to raise the
" National Minimum " ; in this way pushing ever upward
the conception of the order, the freedom and the beauty
that it is possible to secure to and for every individual
in the community.

Thus, far from degrading the volunteer and the
Voluntary Agency to be nothing but a servant and a
subordinate to the Public Authority, this "Extension
Ladder" theory of their mutual relationship gives, in
reahty, to the Voluntary Agency the highest duty and the
most important function. It is in serving' that it will
rule. The Public Authority must always be dealing, in
the main, on normal and regular lines, with the ordinary
and common case, or with the universal requirements.

VOLUNTARY AGENCIES 259

Its special danger is the apathy and duhiess and rigidity
of official machinery and routine. The volunteer workers
in each specialised municipal department, and the manag-
ing committees of the Voluntary institutions associated
with it, are, of all people, the best qualified and the most
competent to supply criticism and suggestiveness, to
furnish new ideas and invent fresh administrative devices,
to the municipal work. We want, in fact, in every town,
something of the nature of Vigilance Committees to see
to it that Public Authorities are always pushing forward.
Hence it is desirable that all our Voluntary Agencies
should not only be dovetailed into the framework of the
speciaHsed Public Authorities, but that they should also
be federated into an organisation of their own, to which
they could appeal and in which they could participate,
independently of their relationship to the public authorities.
And here we see the sphere and function, and the real
value, of the Guild of Help, or Civic League, or Council
of Social Welfare, which is springing up so generally
throughout our great towns. Just as the Municipality,
in the Town Council, represents a synthesis of the work
of — in a sense, is even a federation of — the Local Health
Authority, the Local Education Authority, the Local
Lunacy Authority, the Local Pension Authority, and the
Local Police Authority, so the Guild of Help should
represent a synthesis or federation of all the volunteer
work and Voluntary Agencies associated with these
several departments. The Guild would not be, as it
sometimes now is, a rival of any of these separate agencies,
any more than the Town Council is a rival of its own
Health Committee ; the Guild would be made up of the
Voluntary Agencies themselves, and would have, for its

260 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

function, not any separate philanthropy of its own, but
the co-ordination and promotion of the work of each of its
parts. The ideal secretary of such a Guild of Help would
be perpetually inquiring from the Public Authorities what
volunteers they required, and what additional voluntary
institutions could best supplement their work. Such a
Guild secretary could offer to any willing worker the task
to which he or she was best suited, and not, as is too often
the case at present, nothing but the one task of District
Visiting. Under this relationship, the Guild secretary
could offer work with the sick, work with the infants,
work with the children, work with the feeble-minded,
work with the unemployed — in each case, work which
was not merely the saddening Relief of Destitution, but
which had in it the element of hope, the provision of one
or another kind of treatment, or education, or even of
harmless pleasure. At the same time, the Council of the
Guild, formed out of the general body of volunteers,
would be continually trying to stimulate the activities
of the Public Authorities ; perpetually gathering up for
this purpose the suggestions of the volunteer who some-
times becomes more expert than the hard-worked ojfficial.
The Council of the Guild of Help would, in fact, be the
channel through which all the suggestiveness and in-
ventiveness and devotion of. the outside pubUc would be
brought to bear on the municipality, in such a way as to
raise the standard of thought and feeling among the
elected representatives and officials to whom the community
committed its work.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VIII

Notes and References

Page 223. The subject of the relation of Voluntary Agencies to the
organised action of the State in dealing with destitution (visualised
invariably as Poor Law relief) has been endlessly discussed, almost entirely
from one standpoint, in many publications of the Charity Organisation
Society (of London). The files of the Charity Organisation Review, and of
its predecessors, will yield many references. See also the various works of
Dr. C. S. Loch {e.g.. Charity and Social Life, 1910), Mrs. Bernard Bosanquet
(formerly Miss Helen Dendy)— notably Rich and Poor (Macmillan : 1898),
and The Family (Macmillan: 1906); Miss M. Loane {e.g., Common Growth,
Arnold: 1911); and Sir ^^'illiam Chance, Bart, {e.g.. The Better Administra-
tion oj the Poor Law, Sonnenschein, now Allen : 1895), and Our Ti-eatment
of the Poor (King : 1899). The position has been carefully re-stated on this
side by Professor Bernard Bosanciuet, "The Majority Report," in Sociological
Review for April, 1909.

Another view is taken by the Secretary of the Charity Organisation
Society of New York, Professor Edward T. Deviue, in Misery and its
Causes (Macmillan: 1909), and The Principles of Relief (Macmillan: 1904);
by Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, Chicago, see Twenty Years at Hull
House (Macmillan: 1911); The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (Mac-
millan: 1909); Newer Ideals of Peace (Macmillan : 1907); and Democracy and
Social Ethics (Macmillan: 1902); by the late B. Kirkman Gray, whose
History of English Philanthropy (King : 1906) and Philanthropy and the
State (King: 1908) deserve more notice than they have received; by Mr.
Hobson in The Crisis of Liberalism, and our English Poor Law Policy
(Longmans : 1910). The contentions of Professor Bosanquet are dealt with,
point by point, in The Minority Report for Scotland (Scottish National
Committee for the Prevention of Destitution, 180, Hope Street, Glasgow, 1909).

Page 224. We see this " Cowcatcher " theory of the relation of Voluntary
Agencies to State Action in many representatives of the Local Government
Board. Thus, Mr. Preston-Thomas, a very experienced Poor Law Inspector,
expressed himself to the Poor Law Commissioners as follows, in terms
which the Majority Report adopted with appreciation.

" It always seems to me that the one complement that you want to the
Poor Law is, in every place, some organisation to deal with what ought not
to be Poor Law cases. There are lots of people who are ready to subscribe
money if they can be certain that the money is not wasted, and you want
some organisation in every union, in every district, to take off the rates
people who ought not to go to workhouses, and it would be kindness to
prevent from going to workhouses, or indeed from being pauperised other-
wise, and who would not come within hard and fast regialations. I should
like to see that very much. Of course, in London, you have got various
societies which help in that way." (Majority Report, Vol. II., p. 84. Mr.
Preston-Thomas's Evidence, 12318, 12427.")

Page 225. We suspect that, as with many "classic" documents, "Mr.
Goschen's Minute" is more often cited than read. It does not bear out all

261

262 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

that is attributed to it. It will be found in the Twenty-second Annual
lieport of the Poor Law Board, 18G9-70, p. y. We append some of its
salient passages.

" Under these circumstances the Board consider it equally important
to guard on the one hand against any alarm which might arise on the part
of the public, and result in an indiscriminate distribution of charitable
funds, and on the other hand to take such precautions and make such
preparations as may enable Boards of Guardians and charitable agencies to
work with effect and rapidity if any emergency should arise. . . . And, indeed,
without considering the question of an increase in the numbers of the out-
door poor, and looking simply to the present expenditure on poor relief, it
appears to be a matter of essential importance that an attempt should be
made to bring the authorities administering the Poor Law and those who
administer charitable funds to as clear an understanding as possible, so as
to avoid the double distribution of relief to the same persons, and at the
same time to secure that the most effective use should be made of the large
sums habitually contributed by the public towards relieving such cases as
the Poor Law cau scarcely reach. . . . One of the most recognised principles
in our Poor LaAv is, that relief should be given only to the actually
destitute, and not in aid of wages. In the case of widows with families,
where it is often manifestly impossible that the earnings of the woman can
support the family, the rule is frequently departed from, but, as a general
principle, it lies at the root of the present system of relief. In innumerable
cases its application appears to be harsh for the moment, and it might
also be held to be an aggravation of an existing difficulty to insist that, so
long as a person is in employment, and wages are earned, though such wages
may be insufficient, the Poor Law authorities ought to hold aloof and refuse
to supplement the receipts of the family, actually ofiering in preference to
take upon themselves the entire cost of their maintenance. Still it is
certain that no system could be more dangerous, both to the working classes
and to the ratepayers, than to supplement insufficiency of wages by the
expenditure of public money. . . . The fundamental doctrine of the English
Poor Laws, in which they differ from those of most other countries, is that
relief is given, not as a matter of charity, but a legal obligation; and to
extend this legal obligation beyond the class to which it now applies,
namely, the actually destitute, to a further and miich larger class, namely,
those in receipt of insufficient wages, would be not only to increase to an
unlimited extent the present enormous expenditure, but to allow the belief
in a legal claim to public money iu every emergency to supplant, in a
further portion of the population, the full recognition of the necessity for
self-reliance and thrift."

" It is clear, therefore, that the Poor Law authorities could not be allowed,
without public danger, to extend their operations beyond those persons
who are actually destitute, and for whom they are at present legally bound
to provide. It would seem to follow that charitable organisations, whost
alms could in no case be claimed as a right, would find their most appro-
priate sphere in assisting those who have some, but insufficient means, and
who, though on the verge of pauperism, are not actual paupers, leaving
to the operation of the general law the provision for the totally destitute."

Page 225. The quotation is from the Majority Heport of the Poor Law
Commission (Part VII., Sec. XXVII., p. 83 of official Svo edition).

Page 227. The Ilolborn Board of Guardians, in their reply <o Jii.
Goschen's Circular, pointed out at once that the proposed division n:
cases was quite impossible. Were they to give no outdoor relief (o v idov. ,

NOTES AND REFERENCES

263

thev asked, if this supplemented the widow's insufficient mcome? Mr.
Goschen and the Poor Law Board made no reply (see our EngUsh Poor
Law Policy, 1910).

Page 227. This " enlargement of the official definition of the destitute -
already quoted in the Appendix to Chapter I.-wiU be found m the evidence
gt n to the Poor Law Commission by the Law Officer of the Local Govern-
Lent Board (see Q. 973; compare Minority Eeport. p. iU of official 8vo

^*Pag?228 For the origin and history of the Charity Organisation Society,
see the files of the monthly organ, now the Charity Or gamsation Review
which it has maintained for over forty years (Denison House, Jauxhall
Bridge Road. London); especially CO. Review. 1892. p 3G3; Chapter VIIL
on " Charity Organisation." in B. Kirkman Gray's Philanthropy and the
State, pp. 111-120; or Charity Organisation, by C. S. Loch (Sonnenschein.
now Allen: 1890).

Page 228. The quotation is from the third volume of The History of the
English Poor Law, by Mr. T. Mackay, in continuation of Sir George
Nicholls (King : 1899). See, for the episode of 1871-5, our English Poor Law
Policy (Longmans : 1910). , , i

Page 234. As to the publication and results of In Darkest England by
W. Booth (Salvation Army: 1890), see Minority Report, pp. 522-4 of official
Bvo edition. It is instructive to notice, in the light of subsequent develop-
ments, the criticism with which this epoch-making work was received by
the COS. and the economists ; see In Darkest England : on the Wrong
Track by Bernard Bosanquet (1890); Examination of General Booth s
Social Scheme, by C. S. Loch (Charity Organisation Society : 1890) ;
"General Booth's Panacea," by Prof. W. S. Ashley {Political Saienc,
Quarterly, September, 1890) and "In Darkest England," by Rev. L It.
Phelps {Economic Review, January, 1891). For the work of the Salvation
Army to-day, see Regeneration, by H. Rider Haggard (1911).

For the work of the Church Army, under Rev. W. Wilson Carlile, which
began about the same time, see Wilson Carlile and the Church Army, by
Edgar Rowan (1907). ...

Page 236 Mr. Crowder's evidence before the Poor Law Commission, m
which he supported the total abolition of Outdoor Relief, will be found
under Qs. 17387-1S037; see, hereon, Minority Report, pp. 59-63 of official

8vo edition. .

Page 238. For other indiscriminate charities, see Minority Report,
pp. 63-7, 521-4, of official 8vo edition. We may give another instance of the
development, alongside a deterrent Poor Law administration, of in-
discriminate voluntary charity. The Mayor of Bethnal Green writes to
The Times in November, 1910 : "I am desired to ask you to give publicity
to this fund, which has for its objects the relief of cases of urgent need,
specially affecting children. In this borough, in numerous homes, there is
extreme poverty, and unfortunately the distress and suffering which is the
outcome of want is now very marked amongst the dense population of the
borough, almost exclusively composed of persons of the working classes.
There are hundreds of families existing day by day under the most pre-
carious conditions. The records of the Board of Guardian.s show that
although the estimated population of the borough is 131,000, the outdoor
poor relief afforded is comparatively little. Probably that is mainly due
to the independent character of the parents, whose natural aversion to
Poor Law assistance leads to marked endurance on their part in subsisliiig

264 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

during lengthy periods in almost starving conditions. Useful work is being
done among children attending schools by the distribution of food and
occasional gifts of clothiugi but poverty is so widespread that existing
agencies for affording assistance are absolutely inadequate to deal with all
cases. At this period of the year there is real need for help. . . . Further
particulars M'ill readily be furnished on application being made, and I will
gladly acknowledge remittances sent to me at the Town Hall Bethnal
Green, E."

Page 240. See, for the evolution of method in all branches of treatment,
History of Philanthropy (1906) and Philanthropy and the State (1908), both
by B. Kirkman Gray.

Page 212. See Hadleigh : the Story of a Great Endeavour (Salvation
Army : 1893); or the article by Catharine Carson, "How the Salvation Army
raises the Fallen," in Temple Magazine, 1901; or Regeneration, by H. Rider
Haggard (1911).

Page 259. The movement for the formation of Guilds of Help, Civic
Leagues or Councils of Social Welfare— in substitution for the Charity
Organisation Society— dates only from the twentieth century, but has
already made much progress in the large towns of Great Britain. Most
information as to it may be gained from the pages of Progress, the quarterly
journal of the British Institute of Social Service (4, Tavistock Square,
London); the proceedings of the Annual Conferences of the Guilds of Help;
and the Annual Reports of those of Bradford, Halifax, Manchester, etc.;
and the Local Government Board Report on Guilds of Help (1911). See
The Sphere of Voluntary Agencies under the Minority Report, by the
Dean of Norwich (National Committee fOr the Prevention of Destitution.
37, Norfolk Street, London, W.C.)

IX

The Need for a Common Register and a Registrar of

Public Assistance

The morass of destitution in which, in the midst of
all our wealth, between three and four millions of our
fellow-citizens are sunk is, as we venture to think, the
most appalling feature of our civilisation. But this feature
is made even more ugly and even more disastrous than it
need be by the anarchic chaos of our multifarious attempts
to deal with these destitute people, and the " overlap "
in our efforts for their relief. The failure of voluntary
charity to cope with the task led to the institution every-
where of the Poor Law Authority ; and the failm-e of the
Poor Law to prevent the various forms of destitution has
led, in the course of the past century, to the establishment
of other Local Authorities dealing with the sick, the
children, the mentally defective, the aged, and the un-
employed. It is one of the penalties of our piecemeal
and half-conscious reforms that, whilst multiplymg all
this social machinery, we have failed to provide the means
of co-ordination of its several parts.

The overlap is naturally greatest in the towns. In
every large urban district in Great Britain there are now,
in addition to countless charitable agencies of different
kinds, secular and religious, at least four or five public

265

266 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

authorities — occasionally six or seven — which are, out of
one and the same fund of rates and taxes, dispensing the
mere necessaries of life, food, clothing, shelter, or medical
attendance to persons who are destitute of them. Most
of these public authorities make no attempt to become
aware of what may be the total family resources of their
beneficiaries ; and even the one that makes this inquiry
most completely, the Poor Law Authority, fails in practice,
in many cases, to discover everything that is being done
for the same families by its public rivals, let alone by
private charity. AVTienever, by some accident, an oppor-
tunity is afforded for a partial comparison of the lists of
beneficiaries by the Outdoor Relief of the Board of
Guardians, by the doles of endowed and subscription
charities, by the provision for the unemployed, by the
old-age pensions, and by the school diimers, quite un-
expected coincidences of names — unsuspected even by the
Relieving Officer — are always revealed. The members of
the Poor Law Commission themselves came across families
which were receiving food for children from the Local
Education Authority, milk and medical aid from the
Local Health Authority, periodical doles of relief work
from the Local Unemployment Authority, and spasmodic
Outdoor Relief from the Board of Guardians. In another
family, some of the children were being maintamed in
the Poor Law schools, another child in the residential
Industrial School of the Local Education Authority,
whilst yet another had been sent to a Reformatory School
at the charge of the Local Police Authority ; the parents
being at the same time spasmodically aided by the Board
of Guardians, the Local Health Authority, and the Local
Distress Committee; whilst a grandparent, when he was

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 267

not actually in the Poor Law Infirmary, was on tlie books
of the Local Pension Authority until he entered the asylum
of the Local Lunacy Authority. In more than a hundred
of our large towns, between one and two hundred thousand
children are systematically fed at school each year by
the Local Education Authority ; whilst, in the same
towns, something like an equal number of children in the
aggregate are being supported by the Board of Guardians
on Outdoor Relief. In London, there is reason to believe
that, in between one and two thousand cases, being 2 or
3 per cent, of the whole, both Public Authorities are
simultaneously feeding the same children — other members
of the families being also, at the same time, getting help
from other Authorities, — without any of them being
aware of what the others are doing. In every large town
there is a similar overlap. When we have put up, along-
side of these existing Authorities, the elaborate organisa-
tion of a Government Insurance scheme, dispensing sick
and invalidity and Unemployment benefits to millions of
persons all over the country, we shall surely have raised the
disorder to a culminating point ! If we add to this chaotic
dupHcation of assistance by Public Authorities, the still
more anarchic dispensation of charity in connection with
the churches and chapels, and by Voluntary Agencies of
all kinds, as well as by individuals, it is easy to realise
that it is often distinctly easier, by ingenuity and a gift
for discreet silence, to live as a parasite upon public and
private philanthropy than to get a living by productive
work. This is equivalent to our keeping up a perpetual
attack upon the independence of character and the self-
respect of the poor, assailing them, it may be, at their
weakest point. It is impossible to compute the number

268 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

of individuals, of frail character, inadequately fortified by
training, who, without any strenuous resistance, are
perpetually slipping into the morass of destitution in
order to get the dribbling subsistence coming from all
these sources ; whilst the records of the Charity Or-
ganisation Society, and of the different mendicity societies,
yield not a few cases of persons who, while claiming relief
as destitute, have been found to be actually accumulating
money and living at a high standard of expenditure
on the profits of their profession of " askers." ^Vhen we
recollect the terribly real necessity in which the great
mass of the poor live, and the absence of any adequate
care for their condition, this anarchy and chaos in the
expenditure of public and private funds, amounting
probably to something like a hundred million pounds a
year, comes near to being not only a culpable waste of
the national income, but also a criminal deterioration of
personal character.

It is, we think, strange that whilst the evil of this
demoralising and extravagant system, or lack of system,
has been over and over again laid bare by the Charity
Organisation Society and other persons absorbed in
devoted work amongst the poor, no effective steps have
yet been taken to remedy it. What is clearly required,
to begin with, is an accurate Register of every person in
the locality who is getting any kind of public assistance,
with the exact character of that assistance, and the reason
why it is given. If we could add to this registration of
public assistance, an equally accurate registration of the
assistance given by all organised or corporate Voluntary
Agencies — even if we had to give up the hope of inducing
the charitable individual to follow suit, — we should have

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 269

laid the necessary foundation for the prevention of what
we may call voluntary destitution, as well as for the
more effective treatment of those who are involuntarily
destitute.

We attribute the slowness, and even the reluctance,
to propose the institution of such a Common Register for
each locality, partly to a real inability to credit the extent
of the evil and partly to a disinclination to recognise the
existence of any Public Authority dispensing material
aid except the Board of Guardians. To this day it is
difiB.cult to make even the member of a Charity Organisa-
tion Society aware of the fact that, taking the kingdom
through, there are twice as many people being actually
feda__at_^e expense of the rates and taxes^^^mitside^^e
Poor Law as inside it. It is to this failure to realise the
extent and the diversity of the public provision that has
gTOwn up alongside the Poor Law, that we attribute the
fact that such proposals for a Register as have been put
forward, have nearly always taken the form of registration
by some Voluntary Agency, the Charity Organisation
Society or " Council of Social Welfare " ; and have aimed
principally to preventing the overlapping among rival
Voluntary Agencies, or of any of them with the Poor Law.
At intervals during the past thirty years such a voluntary
: register has been started at different places — always with
the same result of enlisting, at first, the co-operation of
many Voluntary Agencies ; being rejected by others ;
becoming nevertheless of distinct utility ; discovering
various cases of overlapping ; then finding it difficult to
keep up the enthusiasm of the volunteer workers ; and
gradually becoming disused and dropping silently into
suspended animation. Just now, as a consequence of

270 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the revelations of the Poor Law Commission, and of the
tendency to form Guilds of Help and Councils of Social
Welfare, we have half a dozen such voluntary registers
in different localities, temporarily in more or less effective
existence, but already exhibiting signs of decay.

These, like other experimental efforts, have demon-
strated both the utility of a Common Register and the
conditions of its efficiency. Such a register, if it is to
command respect, must be authoritative and impartial.
It is of comparatively little use for registration to be
confined to a single parish, as the ingenious parasites,
who make a living by their wits, soon learn how to make
use of the existence of boundaries to the registration.
It is of little use to register only the outdoor relief of
the Board of G-uardians, without the ministrations of the
Milk Clinic, and other departments of the work of the
Medical Ofi&cer of Health ; the gifts of the Local Charity
Organisation Society, but not the school dinners or the
old-age pensions of the Town or County Council. To be
effective, the Common Register must be universal, com-
plete, and continuous. Moreover, experience shows that
it is not enough to institute a register, and to allow the
different relieving agencies access to it. Many of them
simply will not trouble to consult it. Neither the Local
Health Authority nor the Local Education Authority —
these being now often the two principal relieving agencies
of the locality — can always stop to send to another office
to hunt through, a register. Experience shows that we
shall not prevent overlapping unless the Register is more
than a passive instrument. We must arrange, not merely
for a universal registration of every grant of assistance in
any form whatsoever, but also for making the Register

NEED FOE A COMMON REGISTER 271

itself " talk " — for bringing to the notice of every relieving
person or committee automatically and invariably, with
regard to every case, what is the record of the family on
the new Domesday Book,

This points, we suggest, to the absolute necessity of
having the Common Register in each locality kept by some
Public Authority ; and of the duty being imposed by law
upon all places alike. Nor need anyone object to this
extension of municipal functions. If there is one piece
of work for which the Voluntary Agency is not fitted, and
for which the Public Authority is admirably constituted,
it is the keeping of such a register. In this task we no
longer need the initiator and the pioneer ; nor is it desirable
that religious influence, nor even personal sympathy,
should come in to disturb the mechanical accuracy and
automatonism of the record. Moreover, voluntary action
in instituting a register can never be universal all over
the Kingdom ; it cannot even be complete in any one
locality ; and it will often not be continuous. On the
other hand, what is most required to make such a register
effective is exactly what can be best provided, and perhaps
only provided, by a Public Authority. It is only a Public
Authority that can secure the legal power to compel,
both its own members and officials, and the members and
officials of other public authorities, to use the Register,
whether in providing the necessary information or in
referring to it before action. And it is clearly only a
Public Authority, able to hold out the promise of a Common
Register alike impartial and authoritative, that is likely
to induce competing Voluntary Agencies, and the organised
charities of rival religious denominations, to make full
and lastmg use of such an instrument ; or that could

272 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

possibly be given powers to require registration, if — as,
for instance, in the case of charitable trusts or philan-
thropic agencies receiving public aid — compulsory regis-
tration beyond the Public Authorities themselves were
thought desirable. It is only a Public Authority that
will, in practice, provide the salaries for the continuous,
accurate clerical labour that the mere keeping of such a
Register — a Register that must, in the aggregate, com-
prise hundreds of thousands of separate families — ^wiU
necessarily entail ; still less, the cost of reporting, in every
case, to every Local Dispensing Authority, what was then
the position of the family on the Register. And it is only
a Public Authority that could lay down authoritatively,
for a whole district, and secure continuous adhesion to,
uniform methods of ascertainment, tabulation, and report.
How could we have ever got any accurate and complete
registration of births and deaths if this had been left to
Voluntary Agencies ? The ascertainment, record, and
distribution of information has, accordingly, always been
considered, even by such fanatical individualists as
Herbert Spencer, the peculiarly legitimate function of
government.

We suggest, therefore, that the time has come for
legislation, making it incumbent on the Town and County
Councils to maintain a Common Register of aU persons
residing within their areas who are receiving any form of
public assistance. We hardly need argue that the proper
place for such a Common Register is at the municipal
or county offices, rather than at the Workhouse or the
oflfice of the Clerk to the Poor Law Guardians. Akeady
the Town Council — ^which is, in all the County Boroughs
of England, the Local Health. Authority, the Local

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 273

Education Authority, the Local Lunacy Authority, the
Local Pensions Authority, the Local Police Authority, and,
through its Distress Conunittee, the Local Unemployment
Authority — is distributing public assistance to far more
people than the Poor Law Authority has on its books ;
and whether or not the recommendations of the Poor Law
Commission are adopted, the work of the municipality is
clearly destined to grow, and that of the Board of Guardians
to dwindle. Moreover, if we are to register all forms of
public assistance, and to secure the willing co-operation
of Voluntary Agencies, we must keep the Common
Register as carefully dissociated from the workhouse as
from the gaol.

So far as the institution of a Common Register is
concerned, and its management by the Borough or County
Council, it might be thought that we were, m reality,
pressing at an open door. The evil is so gross, the need so
glaring, and the remedy so plain and unobjectionable
that it seems unnecessary to argue about it. Unfortunately,
neither the Local Government Board nor the Charity
Organisation Society— not even the majority of the late
Poor Law Commission — are takmg any steps to get the
necessary legislation passed. There is no real demand
even for a Common Register. And when we come to the
proposal that the keeping of the Common Register should
be entrusted to an of&cer appointed for the purpose, and,
combined with other duties, we are met by an outburst
of opposition that it is difficult to understand. There have
been, we fear, so many malicious perversions, and with
them so many honest misunderstandings, of what the
Minority Report proposed under this head, that we may
as well take the opportunity of explaining clearly what we,

274 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

at anyrate, desire the Registrar of Public Assistance to
be, and to do.

First let it be stated that, for the comfort of those
who dislike a new name, there is no absolute necessity,
so far as the Minority Report proposals- are concerned, or
our own proposals, for the establishment of any new
department, or the invention of any new designation, or,
for that matter, the creation of any new oflS.ce at all. If
the new duty of maintaining a Register of Public Assistance
is imposed upon Town and County Councils, these Councils
may, if desired, be left to make their own arrangements
for' the execution of their work. They may then, as with
many another additional function, assign the duty to
the Town or County Clerk, with just the same powers as
he now has with regard to the other work of the Council,
with the result that nothmg more alarming than the
necessary addition to the clerical staff of his department
will be made. And the fact that the proposal comes, in
reality, to no more than this, may, in itself, suffice to
remove the misapprehensions — put about, we cannot help
suspecting, sometimes by those who know better — that
the Minority Report intended to set up a " local tyrant "
in each borough or county ; an irresponsible bureaucrat
over-riding the decisions of the Council itself ; a permanent
ofi&cial who would be made the judge in every case of
whether or not Outdoor Relief should be granted, and so
on and so forth. The whole proposal can quite well be
carried out by the existing Town Clerk, with Standing
Orders on the existing model, with no more power than
he at present exercises, and with far less independence
of the elected representatives than is at present enjoyed
by every Clerk to a Board of Guardians.

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 275

But we think that it would be advisable, without
in any way increasing the powers or the independence of
the officer who must keep the Common Register, to give
him a distinct title — the Registrar of Public Assistance —
and (as stated in the Minority Report) with a view to more
effective popular control, to place him directly under the
supervision and control of a committee of the Council.
The Minority Report suggested that the Registrar should
be placed under the General Purposes Sub-committee.
But it appears that such a committee does not exist in
all cases, and may sometimes not be a convenient body
for the purpose. It may well be that there should be a
separate committee dealmg with the business that we
assign to the Registrar's department ; and such a committee
might well be called the Public Assistance Committee.
We suggest, in fact, that some of the work now usually
scattered among several departments of the Town or
County Council should, for the sake of economy of officials
and of effort, as well as that of lessening the present multi-
plicity of inspectors and inquiry officers, be concentrated
in the Registrar's office, and combmed with that of keepmg
the Common Register. Let us now endeavour to visualise
what, in such a city as Manchester, or Birmmgham, such
a municipal department would have to do, and how it
would work.

We must assume, for the purpose of the argument,
that the Board of Guardians has been abolished, and that
the County Borough Council, acting through its various
committees— the Education Committee, the Public Health
Committee, the Lunacy or Asylums Committee, and the
Pension Committee— is responsible, in each large town,
for discovering and treating all destitute persons other

276 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

than those who are able-bodied. We must assume also
that there has been set up a National Authority for pre-
venting Unemployment and for training the Unemployed,
including all able-bodied persons not otherwise dealt
with. We must assume, further, that it shall be obligatory
upon all authorities granting, or proposing to grant, to any
person any form of public assistance, otherwise than in
sudden or urgent necessity, to report at once, for insertion
in the Common Register, aU the prescribed particulars of
the case.

Then there would come in to the office of the Registrar,
week by week, and in populous centres even day by day,
a stream of reports or case-papers, in the form prescribed
by the Council. There would be reports from the Educa-
tion Committee, or its Children's Care Committees, or its
officers, of cases in which children were about to be or were
being fed at school, or in which it was proposed to board
them out, or to send them to day or residential industrial
school ; or to provide them with spectacles, or medical
treatment, or to award them mamtenance scholarships, or
in short, do anything for them beyond schooling. There
would be reports from the Health Committee, or its
Sub-Committees, or its officers, of persons admitted or
proposed to be admitted to the public hospitals, or sent
to the county sanatoria or convalescent homes ; of persons
to be maintained as " contacts," or of wives and children
of persons to be granted Home Aliment whilst the bread-
winner was in hospital ; of persons for whom domiciliary
treatment was being prescribed, including Home Aliment ;
of maternity cases ordered midwifery attendance, and
perhaps milk ; of infants under school age whom the
Committee proposed to board out, and so on. There

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 277

would be reports from the Asylums Committee as to

persons of unsound mind ; and reports from tlie Pensions

Committees as to tlie Old Age Pensioners. Finally, there

would be reports from the local offices of the Minister for

Labour (or other National Authority for Unemployment),

as to the men admitted or proposed to be admitted for

maintenance in any Training Estabhshment, and as to the

cases in which their wives and children were to be or had

been awarded allowances for the maintenance of the home

whilst the man was in training. All these items— which

are, we need hardly say, with the exception of the last

named, actually in existence to-day, in even greater

variety and complexity than we have described — would

need to be entered in the Common Register, under the

actual addresses or residences of the individuals, in such

a way as to reveal automatically all that is being given to

or for the different members of each family. Of course, I

in a small town, or in a rural district, the number, and

even the variety, of the cases would be much smaller ; and

a smaller staff would be required. But it is interesting to

notice that the County Councils Association, representing

the rural County Councils of England and Wales, in its

widely accepted practical proposals for dealing with the

Poor Law, emphatically endorsed the need for the appomt-

ment, not only of a Registrar of Public Assistance for each

County, but also of local Registrars for each of the separate

districts into which the County was, for administration, to

be divided.

It would be the first duty of the Registrar of Public
Assistance and his officers to see that these reports or
case-papers were instantly dealt with and the necessary
particulars entered in the Conamon Register. But his

L

278 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

work would not stop at mere registration. There would
be, at any rate as regards any money grants, regulations
with regard to each case which the Council would have
instructed him to see complied with. Some of these
regulations would be, as at present, of statutory origin.
Others, as at present, would be authoritatively laid down
by Order of the Local Government Board or other central
department. Others, again, would exist only in the form
of Standing Orders or general rules made by the Borough
or Comity Council itself, to be observed in all cases by its
own conmiittees. We may assume that the Council has
a general rule that all statutory and other authoritative
regulations must be complied with, in order to avoid
surcharge. We may assume, moreover, that the Council
will, in its own discretion, have laid down certain conditions
as to the maximum of Outdoor Relief or Home Aliment
to be granted to any one family, or per person in a family.
The Council wiU probably, like some Boards of Guardians,
have fixed a minimum per person, as well as a maximum.
The Council may well prescribe a maximum family income,
within which alone there shall be eligibility for help from
public funds, or different maxima for different kinds of
help (as with scholarships to children). The Council may
have made rules as to sanitary requirements, as to the
emolment of the children on the registers of elementary
or continuation schools, and so on. In many cases it will
not have been within the power of the Committee deciding
on the treatment to see to it, then and there, that all these
conditions have been complied with ; and in others it will
not be convenient for the particular conamittee to do so.
This difficulty becomes all the greater when other
authorities are concerned, such as the National Authority

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 279

for Unemployment, or an endowed charity, or a philan-
thropic body receiving aid from public funds. We suggest
that it should be the duty of the Registrar, as an officer of
the Council, and responsible to it, to satisfy himself in each
case in- which any grant of money to the home was proposed,
that the Standing Orders or general regulations of the
Council have been complied with, so far as these require
definite things, the presence or absence of which is an
ascertainable matter of fact. This is the hind of duty
already discharged, under every Borough or County Council
by the Town or County Clerk. Directly any failure to
comply with, or any direct breach of, these Standing
Orders or general regulations is detected by the Clerk, or
by his representative attending the Committee or Sub-
committee, he bruags it to the notice of the Committee or
Sub-Committee ; and the action is not taken unless and
until it is specifically brought to the notice of the Council,
and a suspension of the Standuig Orders obtained.

We propose that the Registrar of Public Assistance
should act in the same way. When a committee sent the
information with regard to the assistance proposed to be
given to any mdividual, the Registrar would not merely
see that the information was duly entered in the Register,
but would immediately forward to the committee con-
cerned all the information which he possessed about that
particular person, or the family to which he belonged. If
the case is " clear " on the Register— if, that is to say, no
other member of the family is being aided ; or the total
amount of assistance does not exceed the prescribed
maximum ; if the family income is within the prescribed
limits ; if any necessary medical or sanitary certificates
of attendance that the Standing Orders require are duly

280 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

provided — the Eegistrar will return the papers with a
" Certificate of Non-Overlap," or sanction, either in. his
own name, or in that of his committee, as beiag within the
Council's rules and orders. But if the information at his
disposal, from the Register or otherwise, indicates that
the proposed grant of domiciliary assistance would not be
in accordance with the Standing Orders of the Council, the
Registrar and his Committee would have no alternative
but to refuse his " Certificate of Non- Overlap," or sanction ;
and he would immediately return the papers to the Com-
mittee or Sub-Committee or officer concerned, pointing
out in what respect the proposal contravened or failed
to comply with the instructions actually given by the
Council itself. In this way, without giving the Registrar
any authority over the Council whatsoever, whose officer
he would be, and without giving to him or any other officer,
any power to revise the decision even of a Committee,
there would, on the one hand, be scarcely any possibility
of " overlapping " or " duplication " of assistance ; whilst
on the other, the Council, as the elected representative
body, directly responsible to the ratepayers, would obtain
the best possible security that its regulations and decisions
were being carried out. Thus, the Registrar and his
Committee would have nothing to do with the question
of the treatment that each case ought to receive. He
would have no authority to over-ride the decision of any
Committee, or even to criticise its action. He would be
exercising no discretion, and would, in this part of his
work, require no judgment. His business would be
automatically and invariably to supply the information
which he (and he alone) possessed ; and to point out, in
the name of his Committee, any failure to comply with

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 281

tlie Council's own Standing Orders. If there was any
conflict of opinion on the point, and the Committee
concerned considered that its proposal, notwithstanding
the additional information supplied by the Registrar, did
comply with the Council's Standing Orders, it would be,
as at f resent, for the Town Clerk or County Clerk, as head
of the staff, to decide whether the Conomittee's decision
should be immediately acted upon, or brought before the
Council at its next meeting. The Registrar would have
done his duty. If the Conamittee concerned thought that
the case, though clearly contravening the Standing Orders,
was " exceptional," it would appeal to the Council at its
next meeting to allow it (by suspension of Standing Orders
or otherwise) to be treated in any way desired.

We propose, however, to go a step further. We think
that there would be great advantage in separating
altogether the enquiry as to what is best to be done for
the case — which is the work of the Committee concerned,
coming to a decision after hearing the advice of its trained
of&cers — and the enquiry into the pecuniary resources of
the family, which ought to be the function of a separate
staff under a different Committee. The Education Com-
mittee, for instance, ought to be thinking exclusively of
what is best for the child, the Asylums Committee about
what is best for the mentally defective person, the Health
Committee about what is best for the sick patient — not
investigating what wages the father has been receiving, or
whether there is a lodger who pays part of the rent !
Nothing has contributed so much to make the visits of the
Poor Law Relieving Officer odious to the poor as the
mixture of his enquiries — as to the sickness of the person
who is ill, or the lunacy of the person of unsound mind, and

282 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

at tlie same time, as to the means of the family and as to
which relations could be made to contribute. And as
things are, these odious pecuniary enquiries (sometimes
extending to questions to the employer as to the rate of
wages) are not made by the Poor LawReheving Officer
alone, but have to be repeated by the officers of each
Authority ; by the Education Committee which has to
provide the children with school dinners or medical treat-
ment ; by the Health Committee with regard to its
hospitals or " milk clinic " ; by the Distress Committee,
when the man applies for relief work ; by the Pensions
Committee if there is any member of the family over 70 ;
even by the Asylums Committee, if there is any question
as to the settlement of a mentally defective member of
the family, or as to whether or not he should be a " paying "
or a " pauper " patient. Those who exclaitn in horror at
the multiplicity of inspectors and investigators to which,
as they suppose, it is desired to subject the poor man's
home, have probably no idea of the number and variety
of inspections and investigations by the half a dozen
different Local Authorities who at present spy out the
family resources, and to the domiciliary visits of which it
is now subjected — often, as we think, unnecessarily. We
suggest that it should be a distinct advantage, resulting
in a positive saving of officers, as well as in greatly lighten-
ing the burden on the poor, if all the work of investigation
into 'pecuniary resources, with regard to the cases dealt with
by aU the Conmiittees for all purposes, were concentrated
in a single Committee acting by its own specialised
staff of officers, whose business would be exclusively
with the pecuniary resources of the family, and who would
have nothing to do with the treatment of the case, whether

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 283

with regard to health, education, subsistence, control or
institutional or domiciliary treatment. We appeal to
anyone who knows anything about the work of the District
Medical Officer under the Board of Guardians, or that of
the Medical Officer of Health under the Health Committee,
whether the work of restoring the sick to health would
not be greatly promoted if the officers concerned were
relieved from all the odious enquiry into the means of
their patientff and were free to consider exclusively the
medical requirements of the case. We are convinced that
every one who has anything to do with the existing work
of the Education Committee, with regard either to school-
dinners or medical treatment, must recognise how
advantageous it would be if that committee were relieved
of all its present enquiries into the means of the families
to which the suffering children belong ; and if these
investigations, necessary as they are, were in the hands
of a distinct staff, specially trained for the work, by whom
the results would be reported. The various committee
and departments which deal with the particular services
of Education, Public Health, Lunacy, Pensions,, and the
Unemployment cannot each of them have a properly
organised staff of persons engaged in discovering the
pecuniary resources of the families with which they must
be dealing. It is both extravagant for the ratepayers, and
unfair on the poor to be makmg, as is at present the case,
the same enquiries three or four times over. It is, we
suggest, far better that the officers and committees
concerned with the several services should confine their
attention to the character of the treatment required to
bring about the best results, and that it should be left to
one department, and one department only, in each area,

284 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

to discover how far the cost of that treatment ought, in
accordance with the law of the land, and the Standmg
Orders of the Council concerned, to be borne by public
funds. We propose, therefore, that the whole work of
enquiry into pecuniary resources should- be concentrated,
for all departments, in the Registrar of Public Assistance,
and his Enquiry Officers under their own Committee.
Whenever any child was found hungry at school, or in
need of proper home nurture ; whenever any person was
found in need of medical treatment ; or whenever any
mentally defective person required custody and control,
it would be the business of the Education Conunittee, the
Health Committee, or the Asylums Committee, on the
information and advice of their trained officers, to decide
what treatment ought to be given ; but they would at the
same time send particulars to the Committee responsible
for the Registrar of Public Assistance, whose business it
would be, by means of his trained Enquiry Officers, to
discover and report, for the information of aU the Com-
mittees concerned, what were the pecuniary resources of
the family.

We can anticipate at once the objection to this
complete divorce of the decision as to the treatment from
the enquiry into means, which will be raised by those who
are still governed, consciously or unconsciously, by the
dominant conception of a Poor Law. The Poor Law
proceeds on the principle that, however much the treatment
may, in fact, be required, the State ought not to provide
it unless there is ^pecuniary destitution. This, too, is the
principle on which the Charity Organisation Society
proceeds ; and a similar policy is supposed to be adopted
by the " almoners " of those hospitals which are influenced

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 285

by the Charity Organisation Society. In all these cases,
if treatment is really to be withheld from those who could
afford to pay for it — if the treating Authority is (save in
cases of m-gency) to stay its hand, and refer such patients
to their own resources — inquiry must f recede treatment ;
and it may weU avoid delays and misunderstandings for
the treating Authority to maintain, as the Poor Law
Authority now does, its own staff of enquiry of&cers.
Moreover, when what was given was wholly or principally
" relief " in the form of money, the enquiry into the need
was itself an enquiry into pecuniary resources — just as it
is, to this day, commonly understood by Relieving Officers
and Poor Law Guardians to be. But it is the very essence
of the Policy of Prevention that what has to be supplied,
in every case, is not relief, but always treatment and the
treatment appropriate to the need. Wherever the need
is proved to exist, it is of importance to the community,
quite apart from our compassion for the sufferer, that the
appropriate treatment should be instantly supplied, what-
ever may be the pecuniary resources that might
subsequently be made available to meet the cost. This
is the policy pursued by the Local Health Authority, with
regard to cases of infectious disease in need of isolation and
medical treatment ; and in the best organised towns, also
with regard to infants under twelve months old suffering
from lack of milk. This is the policy of the Local Educa-
tion Authority, with regard to children of school age
found not to be under proper instruction, or found at
school suffering from lack of food ; and now, in the best
organised districts, with regard to children discovered to
be in need of spectacles or of medical or surgical treatment,
or requiring " open air schools," or the special provision

286 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

that is made for the physically defective. This, too, ls the
policy of the Local Lunacy Authority, with regard to
lunatics not under proper control. In all these instances,
where the Policy of Prevention is adopted, the need is met
as soon as ascertained. In all these -instances, where
what is supplied is the appropriate treatment, and not a
dole of money, the rule is, Treat first, and enquire (as to
means) afterwards ! And it is highly significant that
when the Majority of the Poor Law Commission were
considering upon what principle their proposed new Poor
Law or Public Assistance Authority should proceed, in
dealing with the paupers who are sick — these forming, as
has been mentioned, from one-third to one-half of the
whole number — the same conclusion was arrived at, for
the ordinary normal cases, as well as for those of urgency.
" In other words," they sum up their proposals, " investi-
gation should follow upon treatment."

We extend this principle of treatment first, enquuy
into means afterwards, to all provision by the Public
Authority, which never ought to do anything else than
give the treatment that is appropriate to the case, even
though, as fart of the prescribed treatment, a money grant
has to be made to supply the necessities of the home. And,
paradoxical as it may appear, it is only by this policy that
the community can hope, not merely to prevent rather
than perpetuate destitution, but also enforce on fathers
and mothers a fulfilment of their parental responsibihties.
It is, in fact, the existence of the Poor Law Authority,
pursuing the opposite policy of confining its provision
to the pecuniarily destitute, that is responsible for the
continuance of the present fearful amount of failure to
fulfil these responsibilities. This, however, will be dealt

NEED FOR A COMMON REGISTER 287

with in the next chapter. Meanwhile, it must suf&ce to
add that, although wherever there is ascertained need of
treatment, the Public Authority must instantly supply
that treatment, it does not follow that this is to be done
gratuitously ; or that someone may not have to be made
liable for reimbursement of its cost.

This brings us to the last of the functions of municipal
government with which we are here concerned. At the
present time nearly every public authority has the power
to charge and recover the cost of its service, and especially
of the maintenance given to a poor person, either on the
person benefited or on those who are legally liable for
his maintenance. But the conditions and the practices
differ from service to service. In the chapter on " Charge
and Recovery " in the Minority Report, there is a detailed
description of the unutterable confusion, loss and waste
which at present exists in this whole sphere. We propose
there that some kind of order and system should be
introduced into the law, and that Parliament should
definitely lay down, once for all, which services shaU be
charged for, what shall constitute ability to pay, and who
shall be liable in each case. Once the whole law with
regard to Charge and Recovery is consolidated and made
consistent, it is desirable that it should be administered
in each town by one authority only. It is ludicrous that
the Education Authority should be proceeding with one set
of officials, according to one particular law or policy ; the
Public Health Committee with another set of officials and
another law or policy ; the Lunacy Authority with yet
another ; whilst the Board of Guardians with its own set
of officials, and its own particular law and poHcy, is also
in the field, and may be considered, at the present time,

288 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the most expert at this particular kind of work — if by
expert is meant the power of extracting money out of
people who are, according to the law, " destitute " of it !
It is absurd that these different Authorities and officials
should be simultaneously taking action, against one poor
family. It is cruel when, as we have ourselves witnessed,
one of these authorities gets a man committed to prison
for not paying its charge, at the very moment when
another of them is granting him Outdoor Relief on the
ground that he is destitute. In some large municipal
bodies, all such work is already concentrated in a
" Solicitor's Department." We propose that the whole
work of charging and recovering the cost of treatment,
where Parliament declares that it shall be charged and
recovered, should fall, along with the whole work of
ascertaining the pecuniary circumstances, in each County
Borough, to the department of the Registrar of Public
Assistance, acting, of course, under its appropriate Com-
mittee of the Town Council, and in accordance with the
Standing Orders, or other rules laid down by the Council.

It would be the business of this Committee, and of the
Registrar as its chief officer, to see that the Standing
Orders and decisions of the Council were carried on in
each case, without partiality or favour. The cases in
which any charge was to be made would be determined
according to law and general rules. The particular
amounts to be recovered would have to be decided in each
case, after the necessary enquiry into the persons liable
and their pecuniary means — not only in exact accordance
with law, but also with due regard to the actual ability
to pay. And, as experience has abmidantly demonstrated,
charges assessed in this way, case by case, after skilled

NEED FOE A COMMON REGISTER 289

enquiry, lead, not only to the exclusion of those who are
able to afford the whole cost— as these, finding that they
are most rigorously compelled to pay the whole cost,
prefer in future to provide the treatment for themselves —
but also to the quite successful recovery, from those who
can properly bear only a part of the cost, of a substantial
contribution to the resources of the Local Authority. It
is mere ignorance of the actual facts of the Local Grovern-
ment around us that leads to the constant repetition of
the statement that where provision is made for all who
need treatment recovery is found to be practically
impossible. It is where the charges are made without
regard to ability to pay, or (as in the case of school dimiers)
in a service confined to those who are without means, that
there is, at present, a complete failure to recover ; as,
indeed, there ought to be. Where the service is performed
for all who need it (as in the case of the care of lunatics),
and where the charges are levied, not uniformly, but after
careful ascertainment of what the income can bear (as in
the case of children in Reformatory Schools), the proportion
of the charges that are recovered is quite surprisingly
large. More than_half ^a m illion pounds a year is, in fact,
recovered. iii_this way in England and Wales, in spTte 6i
the lack of a Registrar of Public Assistance. We anticipate
that, with the organisation that we propose, the amount
would — assuming that Parliament maintained anything
like the existing liabilities — be largely increased.

u

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER IX

Notes and References

Page 265. The following is by no means an exhaustive survey of the
different Authorities, and of the different kinds of Public Assistance,
simultaneously existing in Great Britain :—

(i) The Local Health Authority; dispensing medical assistance and
material aid in connection with (a) 700 Municipal Hospitals, mostly for
particular diseases regarded as exceptionally infectious, but now more
and more dealing also with phthisis, measles, accidents, etc.; and at
Barry and Widnes exclusively for njan-infectious cases; (b) municipal
dispensaries or out-patient departments, especially for phthisis, ring-
worm, etc.; (c) municipal "milk clinics," or milk dispensaries, for
mothers and infants; (d) provision of board and lodging for, and occa-
sionally payments in lieu of wages to, "contacts" segregated by way
of precaution; (e) distribution of diarrhoea mixture, anti-toxin serum,
etc.; (/) provision of nurses in the homes; (g) "health visiting."

(ii) The Local Education Authority; dispensing (a) school dinners,
breakfasts, etc.; (b) residential schools for truant children, blind
children, deaf and dumb children, mentally defective children, etc. ;
(c) Industrial (boarding) Schools under the Children Act ; (d) " Day
Feeding Schools," or Day Industrial Schools, for children of parents
unable to attend to them during the day ; (e) "boarding out" of children
to enable them to attend special schools; (/) work of school nurses;

(g) "school clinics" for dentistry, ringworm, or ailments generally;

(h) other forms of provision of medical and surgical treatment; (i) pro-
vision of spectacles ; (j) " Open-air Schools " and " Vacation Schools,"
including meals, etc. ; (/c) in Scotland, provision of boots, clothes, etc.,
under Scotch Education Act, 1908; (Z) maintenance scholarships;
(m) school baths.

(iii) The Local Lunacy Authority dispensing (a) board and residence
in asylums; (b) "boarding out" of mentally defective persons in
families.

(iv) The Local Pensions Authority awarding Old Age Pensions to
persons having not more than ,£31 10s. per annum.

(v) The Local Unemployment Authority, under the Unemployed
Workmen Act, dispensing (a) doles of relief work ; (b) board and residence
at Farm Colonies; (c) home aliment to families of men in these colonies;
(/) payment of railway fares and migration expenses ; (g) cost of
emigration ; (h) employment of women in workrooms at sewing, etc.

(vi) The Local Police Authority dispensing (a) admission of children
to Reformatory Schools; (b) gifts of clothing out of the "Police Aided
Clothing Fund"; (c) in Scotland, night's lodging to vagrants.

To these must be added the Local Poor Law Authority dispensing (a)
admission to Workhouse or Poor House or Casual Ward; (b) admission to
the Poor Law Infirmary; (c) admission to the Poor Law School; (d)
" boarding out " of children, frequently with their own relations ; (e)

290

NOTES AND REFERENCES

291

medical attendance and "medical extras"; (/) nursing; (g) Outdoor Relief.
And now we have also the National Employment Authority, with its Labour
Exchanges, dispensing railway fares to other places.

Presently there will be a ninth authority at work, still dealing with the
same fund of rates and taxes, in the Insurance bodies or officers to be set
up imder the State Insurance Bill of 1911.

Page 266. For cases of hitherto unsuspected overlapping, revealed, even to
the Relieving Officers, by an exceptional comparison of lists, see the Minority
■Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, Part I., pp. 63-7 of official 8vo
■edition : Report ... on Endowed and Voluntary Charities . . . and the
Administrative Relations of Charity and the Poor Law, by A. C. Kay and
H. V. Toynbee, especially pp. 61-62, 96, 118, 127; such evidence before the
Commission as Qs. 35, 693, 93, 392, etc.

Page 267. As to the overlap in the provision of School Meals, see the London
County Council Report on the Home Circumstances of Necessitous Children
in twelve selected schools (L.C.C. No. 1,203 of 1909); and subsequent negotia-
tions between the Council and the Metropolitan Boards of Guardians on the
matter, 1909-11 ; Report on the Condition of the Children in receipt of Out-
relief, by Dr. Ethel Williams, 1908, p. 155; Minority Report of Poor Law
Commission, pp. 165-7 of official 8vo edition.

Page 269. Such efforts at voluntary registration have, within the past few
years, been started at Hampstead and Stepney (Cotincils of Social Welfare),
and at Chelsea (Charity Organisation Society), among other places. The
most interesting case is that of Derby, where a salaried " Registrar of
Public Assistance" was appointed, early in 1910, by a Joint Committee
representing the Town Council, the Education Committee, the Distress
Committee, the Board of Guardians, the Guild of Help, and the Charity
Organisation Society. Five-sixths of the cost is borne by the Board of
Guardians, with the sanction of the Local Government Board. In the first
nine months' working, out of 2,470 cases reported by the participating
authorities as relieved, no fewer than 438 were found to be getting duplicate
assistance. Nevertheless, we learn, it was proposed to abandon the experi-
ment; and it was only tentatively and conditionally decided to continue it —
largely because the different relieving bodies disliked the criticism of their
action implied in the discovery of the overlapping ! See, for other instances,
the Local Government Board Report on Guilds of Help (1911).

Page 286. The Majority Report proposal was that any applicant, being in
need of medical aid, " should be allowed to apply directly to a medical
officer for treatment, and that his application should be dealt with as soon
as possible afterwards by a Committee of the Public Assistance Authority.
In other words, investigation should follow upon treatment." (Majority
Report of the Poor Law Commission, Part V., ch. 3 (v.), p. 384 of official 8vo
edition.) The Majority Report relied, as the Minority Report did, on (o)
power to recover cost, where ability to pay was found; (b) systematic
inquiry after each case had begun to be treated (ibid., p. 384). This did not
refer merely to " urgent " cases, but to all ; for " in the interests of the
community it is of utmost importance that the applicant should first be
treated, and the question of his economic position and his capacity to pay
determined afterwards. Accordingly, we think that this is the principle
upon which the Medical Assistance Authority of the future should proceed "
(ibid., p. 383).

We think that the subsequent inquiry into means can best be done by the
Registrar and his staff.

1 cna

292 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Page 287. See the chapter entitled " Charge and Uecovery by Local
Authorities" ii the Minority Report (Part 1., ch. viii., pp. 286-312 of
official 8vo edition).

Page 289. The question has been raised as to an " appeal " from the deci-
sions of the Registrar ; and such an " appeal " by the local authority con-
cerned to a Central Department was mentioned in the Minority Report
(Part I., pp. 407-9 of official 8vo edition). This has been misunderstood.

So far as the rules or regulations or Standing Orders, which any proposal
might infringe, are those of the Council itself, the Committee wishing to
treat a case in any way forbidden thereby, would naturally have to bring
the matter specially before the Council itself, in order to get the Standing
Orders suspended, or special sanction given by the Council for a departure
from its own rules. It would not be the Registrar's decision which stood in
the way, but the Council's own* orders ; and hence the request to the Council
to allow a departure from them would not be an "appeal" against the
Registrar, who is only an officer of the Council, carrying out the Council's
will.

But the provision contravened by a proposed grant might be imposed by
statute or by authoritative order of the Central Department. In this case,
the Council would not have any power to sanction a departure from the
rule. The Minority Report contemplated, in that case, a representation by
the Council to the Central Authority, requesting its sanction, so far as the
statutes might permit, for a departure from its own orders. This has been
wrongly described as an appeal from the decision of the Registrar. It
corresponds to the innumerable requests now made to the Local Govern-
ment Board or the Board of Edvication for special sanction.

Page 289. We have, we find, omitted to mention in the text, the proposal
made in the Minority Report (Part I., pp. 409-410 of the official Svo edition),
that to the Registrar of Public Assistance should be committed the manage-
ment of the receiving House, which was thought to be necessary for the
strictly temporary accommodation, for a day or two, of accidental odds and
ends of cases in which food and shelter may be urgently required, and for
whom it may not always be possible to gain admission to the appropriate
institution ; such cases as the man found dying on the road, the lunatic
awaiting conveyance to asylum, the foundling discovered too late for relega-
tion that day to the Children's Home, etc. We think that the Committee
dealing with the Registrar and his staff might well deal also with this tiny
institution; which would, we suspect, turn out to be nothing more than a
couple of rooms, almost invariably empty ! But to which of its Committees
and wliich of the officers the Cotxncil entrusts it seems to us unimportant.

X

The " Moral Factor "

In this final chapter we come down, in the problem of

Destitution, to what, in many senses, is " bedrock " — the

question of human character and personality. And it is

in the fullest sense true that the " moral factor " is the

supreme issue. Emphatically and distinctly are we

warned off " short cuts " and easy solutions. However

much we may better the material circumstances of a

family, a class or a generation, if in so doing we have

lessened the energy, lowered the intellectual standard or

degraded the motives of those concerned, or of the

community as a whole, we shall have achieved naught and

less than naught. For as all experience tells us, and all

philosophy teaches, we shall, in this " debasing of the

moral currency," but have laid the foundation for more

extended and more intense destitution and misery. But

to make this indubitable fact a reason or an excuse for

doing nothing at all — as is too often done — is either

intellectual sloth or sheer hypocrisy. It is exactly this

connection between destitution and the " moral factor,"

which gives irresistible force to the demand for a Policy

of Prevention, based on the definitely ascertained facts

and the highest available scientific knowledge. We see

that, just because of the results on human character and

293

294 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

personality, the nation cannot afford to go on, as it is now
doing, continually creating destitution and relieving it, for
in this way it is insidiously lowering the character of the
community, if not of the race. We who here write have
always based our appeal for a National. Campaign against
Destitution — our call to a New Crusade — not on any plea
of material privation, or even of physical suffering ; but
on the argument that Destitution, in modern urban
conditions, is found, in fact, just as chattel slavery was,
to be accompanied by a sort of moral malaria and spiritual
degradation among the destitute themselves, and by a
distinct lowering of the moral purpose of the whole
community, rich as well as poor.

We believe that this " moral " effect is the result of
a " moral " cause ; a cause that may be traced in all the
immediate and, in a sense, material antecedents of Destitu-
tion that we have described in the first seven chapters
of this book. If our social order suffers from the Disease
of Destitution, we attribute it — we may almost say in aU
cases- — to a definite " moral " failm'e ; either to an obtuse-
ness, if not a lack, of moral consciousness, or to a refusal
to act on its dictates. But the " moral " failure may
not be in those who are destitute. Sometimes, it is true,
the moral failure is definitely that of the individual
destitute man himself ; and the consequent tragedy, in
spite of all human effort to avert it, might happen, so far
as we can foresee, in any social order. Sometimes, on the
other hand, the failure is that of other individuals, or of
the community itself ; and the consequent wrecking of
individual lives is all the more tragic in that, like the fall
of the Tower of Siloam, it overwhelms, so far as we can
compute, good and bad alike.

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

295

We see this rooting of the causes of destitution in a
moral failure, and at the same time, the frequent dis-
junction between " moral " failm-e in the community
itself, or in some individuals, and the wrecking of the lives
of others, very strikingly in the case of much preventable
sickness. There is a vast amount of ill-health, and all
its consequent destitution, demonstrably produced, among
quite innocent people, often children and other helpless
dependents, by the culpable neglect of owner or
occupier or employer to keep the premises for which they
are responsible in a weather-proof and sanitary state, free
from over-crowding, dirt or disorder injurious to health.
The obligation of the community to prevent such evils,
admitted in our manorial and common law proceedings
against nuisances, is still, as we are all of us quite aware,
very imperfectly fulfilled. The spread of infectious disease
is often a result of the definite failure of individuals so to
act as not to injure their neighbours ; and, at the same
time, of the failure of the community to perform its
recognised duty in affording facilities for isolation. Where
we trace back adult destitution to Child Neglect, we have
a clear failure on the part of father or mother to fulfil
parental obligations ; though this is often accompanied by
an equally obvious failure on the part of the community
to give to the able-bodied breadwinner any opportunity
of discharging his duty. The whole area of " sweating "
has been well said to be characterised by " the absence of
a responsible employer " — that is, one who is constrained
by the community, whether through law or public opinion,
to give the wages, the leisure and the sanitary conditions,
without which his workers cannot continue in health. And
when we come to Unemployment and Under-employment,

296 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

we find ourselves amid a crowd of instances in which the
evil effects on both innocent and culpable are due either
to vicious methods of taking on workers (failure of obliga-
tion on the part of the employing class, and of the
community which permits it), or to failures of workmen
to execute their work honestly and efficiently when they
have got it, or to seek or accept the available opportunities
for work when they have not got it. In the destitution
brought about by Unemployment, we have, it is true, in
the great cyclical depressions of trade, or in the recurrent
seasonal fluctuations, causes which seem, at first sight,
purely " economic," and unattributable to any " moral "
failure of individuals or communities. In the Unemploy-
ment and consequent destitution brought about by new
machines, new processes or new groupings of industrial
organisation, we have another purely " economic " cause —
a cause which in some states of society it was felt as a
national obligation to inhibit because of the dislocation
that it wrought, but which, in modern society, we have
deliberately elected to allow freely to operate, because of
the increase in national wealth that, notwithstanding aU
the accompanying losses, we believe it to produce. But
we see now that, whilst these " economic " fluctuations and
changes cannot or ought not to be arrested, it is mere lack
of forethought or lack of goodwill on the part of the
community as a whole that permits them, quite
unnecessarily, to work out into the Unemployment of
hundreds of thousands of workmen, and the reduction to
destitution of innumerable guiltless families. And with
our ever-growing social consciousness that we are not
justified, as a nation, in heaping up riches, so long as we
fail to prevent what is preventable and to remedy what

THE "MORAL FACTOR" 297

is remediable in these industrial dislocations, we may
count it as a moral failure on the part of the community
as a whole that it has not yet begun to prevent the occurrence
of the preventable Unemployment thus occasioned. The
maintenance of a definite standard of civilised life is
certainly a universal obligation ; but to secure its fulfil-
ment is not within the power, and therefore not within
the moral duty, of the individual alone. It is the joint
responsibility of an indissoluble partnership between the
individual and the community, in which neither must fail
in duty. They are accordingly — though possibly in a
larger sense than they intend — fundamentally ""right who
say that there is no destitution which has not, at root, a
moral factor ; and that it is always to the moral failure —
which is, of course, often a moral failure of the community as
a whole — that remedial action must be directed.

Such being the position, our duty as a community
depends, it is clear, on the state of our knowledge. Two
hundred years ago, as in the Middle Ages, we knew neither
how to prevent the occurrence of destitution, nor how to.
treat it in any curative or reformatory way. Whether it
came as the accompaniment of Sickness, or as the result of
Child Neglect, or as a consequence of Unemployment, the
only thing that we could do, either as individuals or as a
community, was to " relieve " it. To give alms was
accordingly one of the highest moral duties ; and the
EHzabethan Poor Law, with all its shortcomings, was
admirable statecraft. Then came advance of knowledge.
From Daniel De Foe's " Giving Alms no Charity," down
to the latest number of the Charity Organisation Review,
we have been refining our methods of relief ; gradually
learning, in these two centuries, that some acts of so-called

298 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

charity and some methods of State ReUef are so harmful
in their results as to be positively immoral. But even
those who have discovered this new knowledge, and who
have done most to drive it home to the public mind, still
assume that we must base our State policy, like our
personal philanthropy, on the provision of " relief." The
thesis of the present volume is that a further advance of
knowledge has made this conception as obsolete as its
predecessor. We know now, as a community, how to
prevent the occurrence of destitution, so far as the great
mass of it is concerned ; and we Imow also, to a great and
steadily increasing extent, how to treat such cases as we
have been unable to prevent in such a way as, in many
instances, to effect a cure. And these methods of preven-
tion and treatment, whilst incidentally including all
necessary provision, are proved by actual experience to
be free from the adverse psychological reactions on personal
character which it has been found so difficult to dissociate
from even the wisest form of " relief." Accordingly, the
time has come when the community is failing in its moral
duty if it does not base its policy on Prevention and
Treatment.

We must therefore, in the present state of knowledge,
condemn any indulgence in the mere rehef of destitution "
whether by a Poor Law Authority or by Voluntary
Agencies, as unjustified by religion or humanitarianism,
because we now know a more excellent way ; and as
positively injurious to the community. Such rehef of
destitution, however " wisely " and " discriminately " it
is administered, cannot avoid subsidismg, and therefore
perpetuating, extending, and intensifying, all the different
forms of " moral " failure that we have referred to. A

THE "MORAL FACTOR" 299

whole century of experience has now taught every educated
person that " relief " of the sweated or under-employed
worker — whether from the Poor Law Authority or private
philanthropy — is responsible for enabling the evil system
to continue ; even for developing the demoralising industry
at the expense of competing trades ; and for serving
actually as a bounty to the careless, inej6B.cient or positively
oppressive employer, in his continuous struggle with
worthier rivals. Again, the " medical relief " and " medical
extras " afforded by a Poor Law Medical Service (or for
that matter, by the ordinary " club practice " of the
Friendly Society), to the victim of workshop insanita-
tion or domestic overcrowding, make it easier for these
defaults to continue, and actually help the slum landlord
or " sweatmg den " employer to compete with those who
feel constrained to behave more conscientiously to their
tenants and workpeople. Equally disastrous is any form
of relief in affecting the conduct and character of the
prostitute and the drunkard. It is not too much to say
that under our present system the Workhouse and the
Poor Law Infirmary, even apart from the doles of the
charitable and the chances of Outdoor Relief, act, just
because their doors must stand always open, and because
they can give nothing but reHef , as a perpetual subvention
to the misconduct of the drunkards, whom they succour
in their delirium tremens, and to that of the prostitutes
and the men of unmoral sexual life, who are relieved in
the extremities of disease. In the same way the Poor
Law subsidises the careless, irresponsible, and even cruel
parent. At the gate of every large workhouse the observer
may see, at frequent intervals, the tragic spectacle of a
worthless man and woman taking their discharge ; and

300 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

being presented by the officials with their children — fetched
from the Poor Law School or Children's Home, clean,
well-fed, and under proper discipline and training —
condemned, at the caprice of their worthless parents, to
be dragged back into the indescribable conditions of dirt,
misery and cruel neglect which are characteristic of the
" In and Out " pauper. For in and out of the morass of
destitution these children are allowed to go, as
Miss Florence Davenport Hill pointed out, " like buckets
on a dredging machine." For fifty years the Poor Law,
because it restricts itself to the relief of destitution, has stood
helpless before this problem. It cannot follow these
children into their homes or into the streets which serve
instead of a home, because the parents choose to say they
are not, for the moment, destitute. For it is of the essence
of any mere relief of destitution, confined as it is to those
who are destitute, at the period of their destitution, that
it is necessarily precluded from bringing to bear upon those
whom it relieves, either moral suasion and preventive
influences prior to the crisis of their destitution, when
alone they can be of real avail, or the indispensable
disciplinary supervision after the crisis has passed. Thus,
the more definitely we accept the view that destitution
has always a " moral " factor, the more clearly it comes
out that the mere Relief of Destitution can do nothing
but help the individual over the bad time brought about
by the misconduct of himself, of other individuals, or of
the community as a whole — misconduct which it accord-
ingly palliates and promotes. It is, in fact, this very
subsidy to misconduct, inherent in any Poor Law, and in
all mere relief by Voluntary Agencies, which seemed, to
some thinkers, to warrant the abolition of all such relief.

THE "MOKAL FACTOR" 301

whether public or private, in order that the destitute
might be left to suffer the consequences of a misconduct
which was assumed to be generally their own !

It is the claim of this book that the nation can now
escape from the dilemma thus presented to it. We assert
that the mere relief of destitution, whether by State action
or Voluntary Agencies, with all its demoralising effect on
personal character, and its inevitable palliation and
encouragement of " moral failure " — however necessary to
our conscience such relief may have been in the seventeenth,
the eighteenth, or the nineteenth century — can now be
dispensed with, without suffering and without inhumanity.
The advance of knowledge, and, in the United Kingdom,
the growth in national and municipal organisation, now
for the first time permit us to substitute, for all kinds of
mere " relief," measures of prevention of the several
causes of destitution, and measures of treatment of every
case not prevented, which, whilst ensuring that no person
whatever goes unprovided for, can be demonstrated to
be without injurious effect on personal character or
national energy. The whole " moral " effect of the work
of the preventive Authorities is, in fact, in the opposite
direction, tending always to mcrease the consciousness
of obligation, and to promote a more extensive fulfilment
of it. If we take, for instance, the work of the Local
Health Authorities, we see that this actually arose out of
the old manorial system of " presenting " citizens who
were found failing in their public obligations, with a view
to bringing home to their consciousness the existence of
these obligations, and of bringing to bear on their will the
suasion of public opinion and the penalty of a fine, in
order to stimulate them to fulfilment. To-day if we study

302 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the whole range of Public Health administration, whether
with regard to housing or sanitation, the treatment of
infectious disease or the " standardising " of the conditions
of employment, we cannot but observe the steady growth
in the amount and in the range, both of the consciousness
of what is required, and of deliberately concerted
action by owners, employers and occupiers in fulfilment
ot hygienic obligations. The extensive work of the Local
Health Authorities with regard to infantile mortality, the
conmionly recognised infectious diseases, and now, more
and more, the various forms of tuberculosis — far from
making people less conscious of their obligations, more
disposed to be ill, and increasingly lax in their moral
character — has meant a steadily growing subordination of
\ personal impulse to the general will, the recognition of
ever-increasing obligations towards one's neighbours and
the community ; and more and more the deliberate
ordering of life so as to promote the health of one's self
and one's family.

The same tendency to extend the range of the
obligations that are recognised as morally obligatory,
and the same steady increase in the actual fulfibnent of
these obligations, is seen in the work of the Local Education
Authority. Few persons realise the enormous increase
in personal obligation in the households of five-sixths of
the population that was involved in the Education Acts.
There are, we believe, still some who fondly imagine that
these Acts relieved parents of responsibility ! Such
persons can never have known what it has meant to the
father, and still more to the mother, in many hundreds
of thousands of poor households, to have to do without
the elder children's help ; to adjust the exiguous family

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

303

budget without their little earnings ; to get them up and
dressed and sent off regularly and punctually to school ;
to conform, with many a painful struggle, unsuspected by
those more fortunately situated, with the ever-rising
school standard of personal cleanliness, hygiene and
clothing ; often to prepare the separate meals necessitated
by the lack of correspondence between the school and
workshop hours, or by the distance of the school from
home. It is, in fact, impossible to measure the vast, far-
reaching and ubiquitous influence on the parents, in this
teaching of regularity, self-subordination and self-control,
which the elementary school has exercised. The quite
new requirement, now being more and more made, that
the children's heads and bodies and clothes shall be reason-
ably free from the once universal vermin, is only one
among many successive rises in the " National Minimum
of Child Nurture " which it is the real function of the
Local Education Authority to enforce. In the universal
medical inspection of the children, and the insistence on
proper medical and surgical treatment of hitherto dis-
regarded ailments, we recognise a further elevation of this
National^ Minimum. Up and down the country we see
the parents, on the children's need bemg brought home
to their consciousness, gladly taking the not inconsiderable
personal trouble, submitting to the very real tax of loss
of working tune, and, in the vast majority of cases, even
paying part of the cost, required to get these ailments
properly treated. In the background, as with the greater
part of all our moral obligations, there is the liability to
prosecution and punishment, on conviction of glaring
failure to fulfil this new parental responsibility ; but it
is remarkable (as now with the duty of school attendance)

304 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

how rarely the law has to be called ui. It is only when the
Local Education Authority — its hands forced by the defects
in the rest of our administrative system — descends to
the mere "relief of destitution," as in the case of spas-
modic doles of dinners to half-starved children, that we
find a danger of undermining parental responsibihty.
If, instead of being empowered merely to give food to the
starving child, the Local Education Authority had been
made defi^nitely responsible for searching out all forms of
child neglect ; if it had been expressly charged to insist
on the parents themselves remedying that neglect to the
extent that they had power to do so ; and if steps had
been at the same time taken to ensure that every willing
worker had been guaranteed a real opportunity of fulfilling
his parental obligations, the universal ensuring of food
for the children would have achieved as great a rise in
parental responsibility as the universal ensuring of educa-
tion has already done, and as the miiversal ensuring of
cleanliness and personal hygiene is already visibly beginning
to effect.

When we come to the problem of Unemployment
we reach the keystone of the arch of the enforcement of
moral obligation. By the activity of the Local Health
Authority and the Local Education Authority, in searching
out neglected infants and neglected children, we are steadily
increasing our demands on the personal care, and even on
the pecuniary sacri&ce, of all such persons as Jiave the
means of maintaining their offs'pring in a fit state. But
there is no way of bringuig home to those parents, who
are without the means of subsistence, this progressive
enlargement of the obligation to maintain themselves
and their families, unless there is some organisation such

THE "MORAL FACTOR" 305

as the National Labour Exchange, where their willingness
to work can be tested, and some such policy of preventing
Unemployment and of providing for the Unemployed as has
already been outlined. It is impossible to enforce the ful-
filment of parental obligations on fathers and mothers
whom we permit to remain actually unable to fulfil them.
What is in this connection even more significant is that
it is found in practice impossible to enforce any such
obligations even on negligent or recalcitrant persons, so
long as there is no way of ensuring, to all who are willing,
an opportunity of doing their parental duty. If, however,
any such Policy of Prevention and Treatment, as we have
in our sixth chapter described, were systematically
carried out — if every able-bodied parent were guaranteed
either the opportunity of continuous employment at
wages or the opportunity of mamtenance under training
— it would become as practicable to insist on the universal
fufihnent of parental responsibility with regard to food
and clothing, as it has proved to be with regard to educa-
tion, and as it is proving to be with regard to cleanliness.

We pass now to the " Moral Factor " in the problem
of destitution, as affecting the all-important life of the
home, and what is called the integrity of the family.
It is a curious delusion to imagine that concern on this
point is the monopoly of any one school of thought.
It is common to practically all reformers — as it certainly
is to all serious social students — to regard the preservation
of the family group as essential to the progress, if not to
the very continuance of our race. What is not so universal
is the realisation that our present industrial system, with
its palliating "relief of destitution," is actually destroying
the family and the home. Let anyone who doubts watch

X

306 THE PEEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the wholesale desecration of home life and disintegration
of the family among the dwellers in the slums of om:
great centres of population ; among, in fact, the greater
part of the three or four millions who were destitute last
year. There is one black accompaniment of destitution
— an accompaniment which has incalculable evil efEects
on home life, and yet which is an inevitable corollary of
insufficient earnings in a crowded city — the indecent
occupation of the overcrowded, insanitary tenement.
The herding together, by day and by night, of men and
women, of young and old, of boys and girls, of all degrees
of relationship or no relationship, not only destroys
health, but makes, to the ordinary human being, the parti-
cular virtue upon which the integrity of the family depends,
wholly impracticable. Can anyone who has lived in a slum,
and has observed the day by day and night by night
circumstances of a one-roomed tenement, lay the flattering
unction to his soul that if he and his family had been
subject, from infancy upwards, to this inevitable corollary
of urban destitution, they would have maintained any
decent standard of family life ? Any person who, like the
present writers, has lived the life of the London streets, or
dwelt among the denizens of the slums in a capacity that
compelled a personal acquaintance with the inside of every
tenement, or worked for wages in the " sweat-shops " or
" sweating dens," cannot fail to have had brought home
to him the existence of a stratum of society, of no in-
considerable magnitude, in which children part with their
innocence long before puberty, in which personal chastity
is virtually unknown, and in which " to have a baby by
your father " is laughed at as a comic mishap. We have
here perhaps the biggest " moral failure " of all — and,

THE "MOKAL FACTOR"

307

as responsible citizens of a nation which knowingly and
deliberately permits such a state of things to continue,
this moral failure is our own. What we do not think too
bad to allow to exist, we ought not to think too bad to
have brought home to our consciousness. We should like
every legislator, every member of a Local Authority, and
every national or municipal official, from one end of the
kingdom to another, to be forced to gaze every day on
a series of photographs of the " going to bed " of literally
hundreds of thousands of families — comprising a larger
proportion of our fellow citizens than all the payers of
unabated Income Tax put together — with fathers, mothers,
sons and daughters, children and infants, lying in the same
bed, often with male and female lodgers occupying corners
of the same room. With these facts constantly before
their eyes, the propertied class and the official class, who
are at the present time really responsible for the govern-
ment of the country, might at last realise the true meaning,
of the " Moral Factor " in destitution.

All this desecration of the home, this disintegration
of the family, this failure to maintain the conditions of
nurture necessary to the race, is what we get from our
present policy of leaving each family to suffer the con-
sequences of its own (!) conduct and confining our collective
action to the relief of destitution. And what the Poor Law
does not prevent is not prevented by the alms of the
charitable. Experience tells us that the distribution of
doles, or even charitable help of a wiser kind, does little
or nothing to diminish the indecent occupancy of single-
room tenements, or even the overcrowding of others;
whilst it tends to subsidise the slum landlord and the
grinding employer, and to palliate and perpetuate the

308 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

failure of the Local Authority to exercise its powers under
the Housing Acts. Moreover, the fathers and mothers,
demoralised by these conditions, and snatching their
livelihood from the pity of the charitable, are frequently
tempted to excite this pity by making the condition of
their children, by gross neglect and sometimes even by
bodily cruelty and mutilation, more pitiable than need
be. Here, as elsewhere, the " moral failure " which is
at the root of the destitution, whether it be that of the
community as a whole, in permitting such conditions,
or that of the individual in submitting to them, is actually
subsidised and encouraged, permitted and perpetuated*
by the policy of relieving destitution. The withdrawal
of the alms of the charitable from every person living
below whatever might be deemed the essential minimum
of family accommodation and home nurture, indispensable
to the proper rearing of the race, might lead to more deaths
from starvation than at present occur, and perhaps to
more " sedition," but it would probably actually decrease
the amount of deliberate neglect and cruelty by parents.
Exactly the same effect is produced by the Poor Law,
with its usually indiscriminate and invariably inadequate
and unconditional Outdoor Relief. Here, at any rate,
the findings of the Royal Commission of 1834 are repeated
almost word for word in the Majority and Minority
Reports of the Commission of 1905-9.

It is in this inability of the alms of the charitable
or the Outdoor Relief of the Poor Law to cope with the
supreme " Moral Factor " in the problem of destitution,
that we find the explanation of the adoption by the Poor
Law Commissioners of 1834 of the drastic policy of
" breaking up the family " with regard to all those who

THE "MOKAL FACTOR"

309

were really destitute, and of dispersing its different
members in tlie separate workhouses that the Report of
1834 recommended, or in the separate departments of
the " well-regulated " workhouse that was presently
adopted. As it was naturally found that no policy of
merely " relieving " destitution could prevent the cor-
ruption of the home and the desecration of the family
which the destitution itself caused, and that, as a matter
of fact, any such relief to the family in the slums served
usually to perpetuate, if not even to extend the area of
corruption, the only alternative that seemed open to the
Poor Law administrator was to abolish the home and
disperse the family ! This policy of " breaking up the
family " as a condition of relief was carried to an extreme
point by Mr. Goschen and Mr. Stansfeld, and the zealous
inspectorate of 1871-5 ; it is, be it remembered, still that
of the Local Government Board, and of its imperative
Poor Law "Orders" (including the latest draft revision
of 1911) ; and it is, in fact, to this day, that of so-called
Poor Law " orthodoxy." These authoritative Orders
relating to Poor Relief, which have governed the work
of the Boards of Guardians for the last three-quarters of
a century, have been, with regard to the normal household
group, elaborate codes for " smashing up the family "
among such of the destitute as have had to submit to them.
Apart from cases of actual sickness, it has been made a
condition of affording any relief to a destitute father of a
family in the great majority of the Unions of England
and Wales (save only temporarily, in sudden and urgent
necessity), that the family should give up its home and
its home life ; that all its members should enter the
Workhouse, there to be absorbed into institutional life ;

310 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

the husband to be herded with other men of all ages and
characters in the men's day ward and night dormitory ;
the wife with other women in the women's day ward and
night dormitory ; the infants, day and night, in the
workhouse nursery ; the other children in the workhouse
•itself, or, m the best cases, in the distant " barrack "
schools— there to remain separated from each other, with
only occasional brief interviews in the presence of other
people, so long as they are receiving any relief at all. The
stricter school of Poor Law administrators — the school
which has always received the blessing of the Local
Government Board — has gone a step further. Even where
the only parent is a widow, who admittedly cannot be
expected to earn both her own livelihood and that of her
children^ — where, in fact, it is known that unless she has
quite extraordinary skUl, and is prepared seriously to
neglect her domestic duties, it is impossible for her to
do so, — she has been refused all relief, except the reUef
of having some of her children taken away from her !
This policy of depriving the children of widows even of
such home life as their mothers could afford, and of herding
the children thus artificially orphaned with a crowd of
other pauper children, either in a Poor Law School, or
actually in the Workhouse (where 20,000 children are still
to be found residing, in England and Wales alone), has
been pursued, and is to-day being pursued, not merely
with regard to homes which are undesirable, or mothers
who are " undeserving," but as a matter of principle, to
mothers of the highest character, with homes without
reproach. In fact, from " breaking up the family " where
the home may have been undesirable, the so-called
" orthodox " school of Poor Law administrators, with the

THE "MORAL FACTOR" 311

eager support of the Charity Organisation Society, have
gone on to " break up," as a matter of principle, the home
even of the irreproachable and the deserving. And seeing
that this " abolition of the home " and " breaking up of
the family " is still going on to-day, upon a large scale,
with full official and charitable approval ; that, in the
United Kingdom, something like ten or twenty thousand \
families were thus " broken wp " last year, and dispersed ij
in Poor Law institutions ; and that the Minority Report |f
was one long protest against such a policy, it must be
ranked as one of the strangest ironies of controversy that
the defenders of the existing Poor Law and the advocates
of this very pohcy of deliberately and intentionally des-
troying the home and destroying every vestige of family
life, even where the family life is exceptionally good,
should accuse the promoters of the Policy of Prevention
of " breaking up the family " !

This extraordinary accusation has so frequently been
made, and has been repeated in good faith by so many
uninformed people, that it is desirable to answer it fully
and explicitly. The Policy of Prevention put forth in
the Minority Report, and in the present work, involves
placing the full responsibility for preventing the occurrence
of destitution, and for scientifically treating such cases
as do nevertheless occur, with regard to each natural
class of persons — infants, children of school age, sick,
mentally defective, aged and able-bodied unemployed —
on the specialised Authority dealing with that class.
This means that the Local Health Authority will deal
with sickness and infirmity (including maternity and in-
fancy) ; the Local Lunacy Authority with mental
deficiency ; the Local Education Authority with the

312 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

nurture of children of school age; the Local Pensions
Authority with the aged unable to manage on their
pensions ; and the proposed new National Authority for
Unemployment, of which we have the nucleus in the
National Labour Exchange, with the needs of the able-
bodied unemployed. Hence it is asserted that one and the
same family will fall into the hands of five separate
Authorities, which may, any or all of them, intervene to
deal separately with each of the members ; and that this
necessarily implies that the family will be " broken up " !
The accusation seems to be based, in the first place, on
a quite ludicrous misunderstanding of the common
official term "Authority." As a matter of fact, apart
from the proposed National Authority for the Able-bodied
Unemployed, in nearly every place of ten or twenty thous-
and inhabitants, all but one of these " Authorities " ;
and in the County Boroughs of England and Wales,
comprising half the population, literally all these " Authori-
ties," are one and the same body ; the Town (or Urban
District) Council, acting through its various committees.
Why it should any more " break up " the family, for the
Manchester Town Council, with its several committees, to
deal with the several members of the family, than for
the Manchester Board of Guardians to do so, also by a
series of committees, is not at first apparent. But the
accusation seems to be based, among those who are aware
that the Local Education Authority, the Local Health
Authority, the Local Lunacy Authority, and the Local
Pensions Authority, are only different legal terms for the
Town Council, on the entirely groundless assumption that
each of these several " Authorities " will adopt and take
over the policy of the Poor Law of trying to restrict itg

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

313

work as far as possible to tlie management of institutions.
But this policy of " offering the Workhouse " is part of
the attitude of " deterrence " which has characterised,
perhaps necessarily, the mere relief of destitution ; and
it is quite opposed to the habits of the various Authorities
pursuing the diametrically opposite Policy of Prevention.
We do not find that the Local Health Authority, in those
towns in which it is actively pursuing a Policy of Pre-
vention with regard to Infantile Mortality, has any idea
of separating the infant from its mother ! On the contrary,
the whole of its work — the supervision of midwifery, the
universal notification of births, the Health Visiting, the
Municipal Milk Clmic, the "School for Mothers "—is
based on the principle of maintaining the home, however
humble it may be, and of teaching every mother how to
make it really a place of the best nurture for her infant.
Is it suggested that, when the Local Health Authority is
made definitely responsible for " searching out " all
neglect of infancy, and for maintaining the " National
Minimum " of infant nurture, that it will pursue a policy
of tearing the infants from their mother's breasts and
bringing them up in a converted workhouse nursery ?
In those towns in which the Local Education Authority
is going actively to work to prevent child neglect, we see
it multiplying effort after effort to maintain the home —
the domiciliary visiting not only of the School Attendance
Ofl&cer but also of the Children's Care Committee, the
repeated messages of the teachers to the parents as to
what the child lacks, the expository visits of the School
Nurse, the invited presence of the mothers at the medical
inspection, the explanations to the parents of the medical
treatment that the child requires, the maintenance

314 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

allowances made to the scholarship winners, even the
"Day Feeding School" for the children of parents unable
to attend to them dm-ing the day — and only in the last
resort, when it is clear that the parents either cannot or
will not give the child even the prescribed low minimum
of nurture and control, do we find the Education Authority
summoning parent and child before the magistrate, and
getting the child committed to a residential Industrial
School. Is it imagined that when the Local Education
Authority is made definitely responsible for " searching
out " all neglect of children of school age, and ensuring
for all of them the prescribed " National Minimum " of
child nurture, that this Authority will reverse aU its
action, close all its day schools, and put all the children
into " Barrack Schools " ? The services of the present
National Labour Exchange in finding situations for the
men out of work, and the " Ghent " system of Unem-
ployment Insurance that we recommend as a useful
adjunct for the seasonal trades, do not seem to point
to any other intention than that of " keeping the home
together." The proposed Training Establishments,
for the maintenance under training of such able-bodied
men as cannot be found situations, where the unoccupied
man will be kept all day from the street-corner and the
public-house, and sent home at night, disciplined and
refreshed, to his wife and family, who will have their own
maintenance allowance, indicate at any rate more desire
to " maintain the home " and preserve the " integrity of
the family," than the universal reception of the able-
bodied in the workhouse which is recommended by the
Poor Law Division of the Local Government Board. But
some institutional treatment there must be, and when we

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

315

consider what is actually done in this way by the Local
Health Authority, the Local Lunacy Authority, or the
Local Education Authority, we see that (unlike the Poor
Law workhouse) the institutions of the preventive Authori-
ties do not " break up the home," but actually tend to
maintain it. What is done with regard to the fever
patient, the lunatic, or the truant child, is to remove from
the home circle that member of the family only whose
infirmity is dangerous to itself or to the home, with the
object, whilst the home is preserved and the family
integrity maintained, of curing him or her and restoring
him or her to family life. There seems to be an extra-
ordinary notion that, unless the Local Authority takes
over the whole family, it is not " dealing with the family
as a whole." We can imagine what an outcry there would
be if it was the practice to commit the whole family to
the hospital of the Local Health Authority, the asylum
of the Local Lunacy Authority, or the residential school
of the Local Education Authority, merely because one
member of the family needed such treatment. Why
supply institutional treatment to the whole family when
only one member is in need of it ? No self-supporting
citizen goes to one department of the municipality, or to
one " Authority," or to one institution, any more than
to a single shop, for all that the different members of his
family require. Surely, the only sensible policy is to let
each responsible Local Authority see to it that every
person requiring its specialised assistance, gets that
specialised assistance at the moment, and in the form,
in which it will be most effective, leaving the rest of the
family and the home to go on, as nearly as possible, in a
normal way.

316 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

We cannot help suspecting that this curious mis-
understanding as to the treatment of the different members
of one and the same family is rooted in another mis-
understanding as to the nature of what will be given.
To the Reheving Officer, as to the Poor Law Guardian,
to the ordinary philanthropist as to the Charity Organisa-
tion Society worker, what seems in question is always a
gift of money. This, it is true, is nearly always the form
that (apart from the workhouse) is taken by " relief " ;
and this undifferentiated succour must naturally be given
to the head of the family, and might well be best doled out
by a single Authority. But this conception is already
obsolete. The greater part of what is now done by the
community for those whom it collectively succours is
not " relief," and much of it is not given in money at all.
Under the Policy of Prevention that we advocate, with
the Poor Law abolished, there will be no giving of " relief."
What will be provided for each individual is first, whatever
specialised alteration in the environment may be necessary
for the prevention of the cause of his need ; and secondly,
as incidental to these alterations, the specialised treatment
that the suffering individual proves to require. Thus, in
many cases, perhaps in the majority of cases, there wiU
be no question of a dole of money, And if money has
to be given, it will be given, not as " relief " but as a
necessary incident of the treatment — as part of the
medical treatment in sickness, as the payment for " board-
ing out " the children with their own widowed mothers,
as the pension due as of right to the aged and the per-
manently incapacitated, as the wife's rightful Home
Aliment whenever the breadwinner is withdrawn to
hospital, asylum or training establishment. It is the

THE "MOEAL FACTOR" 317

conception of " relief," and relief in money, that makes
the " treatment of the family as a whole " loom so large
to those who criticise the policy of the Minority Report.
But there will, under the Minority Report scheme, be no
" relief," least of all " relief by a money dole."

We think that we have now made good our point that
the Policy of Prevention sketched in this volume, and the
substitution of scientific treatment for relief, far from
implying a demoralising laxness, or any decay of parental
responsibility, or any disintegration of the family, would,
as a matter of fact, produce a tightening up all along the
line. This all-round increase in the extent and the
intensity of the moral obligations, which we regard as an
incidental advantage of the Policy of Prevention, has, of
•course, roused some objectors. An eminent statistician.
Professor Karl Pearson, recently asserted that the increase
in parental responsibility entailed by the Factory and
Education Acts, has promoted, if it has not caused, a
disastrous restriction of the birth-rate, and that any
further enforcement of parental responsibility, if persisted
in, may gradually extinguish the race ! We are glad to
record the conclusion that the Education Acts and the
Factory Acts have raised the standard of parental responsi-
bility, and we are undismayed by the statistical inference.
When we remember that, until the other day, all proposals
for improving the position of the wage-earning class,
whether by Trade Unionism or Factory Acts, Free Schools
or Free Maternity Hospitals, were denounced on the
exactly opposite ground, that these subsidies to the
manual workers would lead to a reckless child-bearing on
-the part of the "lower classes," so that we should be
suffering from a " devastating torrent of babies "—when

318 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

we remember the potent argument of a whole race pressing
on the means of subsistence — it is difficult to resist a smile
at the magnificent attempt to turn topsy-turvy the whole
Malthusian argument against Social Reform. Though we
disagree with the positive assertions of Professor Karl
Pearson, and especially with the data oh which he has
based his argument, we have already stated that, assuming
that the restriction of the birth-rate to be volitional, any
such rise in the position of the three or four millions of
people who are now destitute, as we believe it possible for
our Policy of Prevention to bring about, would unquestion-
ably lead to a slackening of the present rate of multiplica-
tion of this lowest stratum. Such a slackening in the
rate of multiplication of the destitute — which Professor
Karl Pearson himself would desire — would be an unmixed
advantage. And even if the rising Standard of Life of
the whole manual working-class should, with the growing
enlargement of parental responsibilities, lead to an
exceptional restriction of the birth-rate among the prudent
and the conscientious, the remedy is an easy one. If the
community should come to wish to have a larger number
of babies born to the best of the working-classes, the
community can get as many as it likes if it is prepared to
pay even a small part of the cost of production. At
present, it is not too much to say, motherhood in four-
fifths of the homes in the land, is penahsed. We have
chosen so to arrange our society that the working-class
mother has frequently to work immediately before and
after child-birth to get bread ; she has, in any case, to
incur no light illness without the community yet making
any adequate provision for her needs ; repeated confine-
ments mean a very serious loss of service, loss of health.

THE "MOKAL FACTOR"

319

and loss of money ; we give tlie wife no power of compelling
her husband to make proper provision for her, even if he
is in a position to do so ; and all that we offer her by way
of pubhc help, for a service that we are appealing to her
to perform, is the shame and disgrace of pauper relief, in
the company of the wanton and prostitute. If the nation
is alarmed lest any proper enforcement of parental
responsibility should unduly restrict the birth-rate among
the prudent and the self-respecting, the nation has the
remedy in its own hands. By merely providing free
medical treatment and any necessary attendance at child-
birth, and milk for the mother and child, without any
stigma of pauperism, the community can secure a higher
birth-rate whenever it chooses and can make this provision
a lever to secure for the child a good home. And if any
further measures were needed to maintain the desirable
increase of population, a small endowment of the mother
before and after the birth of the child — still more an
endowment of the child during infancy and school age —
would not only provide as many babies as the community
desired, but would enable the community to choose, by
its preference, both such parents and such homes for the
up-bringing of the future generation as were deemed
likely to produce the finest citizens. Child-bearing, we
venture to assert, is an occupation that the bulk of women
would prefer to any other, if any proper provision were
made for it. We do not, ourselves, think that such drastic
steps will be required to prevent such a slackening of the
birth-rate as would be injurious to the race. At present,
owing to the steadily decreasing death-rate, thefe is still
an adequate increase of population. But we are glad to
welcome this testimony to the way in which the preventive

320 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

policy of the Local Healtk and Local Education Authorities
have actually so much increased parental obligation, that
they have relieved us from the Malthusian bugbear which
still, in the minds of some people, affords an unanswerable
argument to any practical proposals for social improve-
ment.

A more general objection to this all-round increase
in the consciousness and fulfilment of moral obligations is
the fear that we are thereby threatened with what has been
picturesquely termed " the servile state." If men and
women who are inclined to neglect their children ; if able-
bodied people who lilie begging, or otherwise imposing on
the public ; if families which prefer dirt, disorder and
disease, are to be forced by persistent pressure, and, in the
last resort, even by legal process, to mend their ways,
what a terrible restriction on the liberty of the individual !
This objection is always ostensibly urged on behalf of the
manual worker, the wage-earner or other poor person who,
being in a state of destitution or partial destitution, is
likely to fall under the supervision of the preventive
authorities. It is insinuated that the person with property,
being able to fulfil these primeval obligations of family
maintenance without personal effort, escapes any kind of
supervision. We have, accordingly, an appeal made to
the democratic sentiments of the people to resist this
attempt at " class legislation," But it is interesting to
observe that these objections never come from persons of
the manual working or wage-earning class. In fact, the
arguments to which Mr. Harold Cox, on the one hand, and
Mr. Hilaire Belloc on the other, have urged, are already
familiar in the fulminations of the Liberty and Property
Defence League ; and they have been repeatedly employed

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

321

during tlie past three-quarters of a century, on behalf of
the landlords and capitalists, as a means of obstructing
every proposal to raise the Standard of Life of the wage-
earning class. We do not find that either the wage-earners
or then chosen representatives in the Trade Unions,
Co-operative Societies, or the Labour Party, have ever
advanced this objection to the successive Public Health,
Factory, or Education Acts, which have embodied the
enforcement of new obligations. The explanation is
simple. In so far as this legislation and administration
has directly or indirectly led to a higher standard of
personal obligation, and a more general fulfilment of
parental responsibility, it has presented a different aspect
to the salaried brainworker and the man of property, than
that which it presents to the propertyless class. To the
employer and to the landlord, all this enactment of
" common rules," and all this enforcement of a " National
Minimum," low as it might be, loomed as a limitation of his
personal freedom. It limited the range of his power over
the lives of others, and therefore, as it seemed to him, was
likely to reduce his opportunities for extracting the
swoUen profits and rents of sweated labour and slum
tenements. It meant, to him, in any case, increased
efforts and greater thought, sometimes even a larger
expenditure, without any corresponding mcrease in the
amenity of his own life. But the other side of the shield,
seen by the wage-earner as the outcome of this same
legislation, is an enormous growth in practical freedom of
action, a liberty positively enlarged by law, increased
leisure, better health, greater Amenity of life, further
opportunities of advancement for his children, and some-
times even higher money vv^ages. So long as we offer to

322 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

every wage-earner at all times the opportunity to earn a
full livelihood for himself and his family, or if this
opportunity cannot, through industrial dislocations, be
provided, an honourable maintenance under training, while
a new situation is being found for him — though he may
have aspirations after a "Co-operative "Commonwealth"
of which he does not recognise the approach — he will have
no objection to a rigorous insistence, by the community,
that he shall accept work when it is there for him to do.
The great bulk of wage-earners have no sympathy with
the " work-shy " and the wastrel. It is the same with
the enforcement of other obligations. The ordinary work-
man would consider it an extravagant phantasy that any
one should object to send his child to school, or to permit
his child to be medically inspected and treated, if the
community provides the school and the medical treatment.
He will even, for the sake of the child, willingly pay part
of the cost. And assuming that any member of his family
is so feeble-minded as to be beyond control, or is suffering
from an infectious complaint he is glad to be permitted,
still more to be invited, to accept at the earliest possible
moment the treatment which may cure the sickness or
bring the lunatic or feeble-minded person under control.
And, it is the same with regard to the conditions of employ-
ment. The wage-earners have never yet objected to a
general limitation of the hom-s of labour, or to the
enforcement of a standard rate, so long as it did not entail
ousting them from their means of subsistence. In fact,
this whole conception of a joint responsibility of the
individual and the community for the universal main-
tenance of a prescribed standard of civilised life, is
extraordinarily sympathetic to the English manual

THE "MORAL FACTOR'

323

working-class, for the simple reason that the evil with
which they are confronted in practical life, is not any over-
regulation of their conduct and impulses, but the disaster
of periodically being deprived of the opportunity of
maintaining themselves and their children at any standard
at all. And if we pass from this extreme of economic
insecurity and survey the people at work on any one day,
we shall realise that it is not the highly-organised Trade
Unionist enforcing the Common Rules of his craft, or the
healthy citizens of a " progressive " municipality with
its elaborate code of sanitary and other by-laws, who
exhibit "serviHty" of spirit ; who submit uncomplainingly
to the oppression of the landlord or the exactions of the
capitalist ; who suffer meekly the consequences of a
badly-organised social system, or who sell their votes to
reactionary representatives of the governing class. It is,
on the contrary, just those sections from whom the pro-
tective organisation of the State has been so far with-
held ; the umegulated laundresses ; the sweated workers
to whom the Factory Acts do not apply ; the labom-ers
in the country villages where collective action is at a
minimum ; the slum dwellers of enfeebled health and
demoralised will, who succumb to the temptations of
servility and add a degradation of soul to their unfor-
tunate material surroundings. In the past three-quarters
of a century, every step in Trade Unionism, every advance
in Factory Legislation, every development of municipal
activity — far from increasing servility — has, in fact,
diminished the area of " the servile state."

But, in any wide programme of Social Reform, it is
not sufficient to prove a case and refute objections. It is
even not enough to carry conviction to the minds of the

324 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

electorate and to watch the gradual dying away of
opponents into silence. We fully recognise that, even
assuming the whole community to be agi-eed on a
substitution of universal Prevention and Treatment for
relief, it would find its progress checked by two practical
considerations — the need for funds and the need for
knowledge.

What would such a policy cost, and how is the money
to be found ? Any pretence at a detailed estimate, based
as this must necessarily be on purely hypothetical con-
jections, would be absurd. We know that it is almost
always cheaper to prevent the occurrence of an evil than
to pay for its disastrous effects. We know^ too, that,
although it may suit particular individuals, and even
particular classes, to postpone measures of prevention,
because they thereby escape taxation, the nation itself
has, in the end, to pay the bill in full, in the extravagantly
costly destitution and crime, inefficiency and degeneration,
that have not been prevented. Moreover, it is obvious
that the cost of the whole policy, or of any part of it, will
necessarily depend, not merely on the rapidity and com-
pleteness with which the several hundred Local Authorities
of the United Kingdom choose to put it into operation — a
point on which prediction is impossible — but also on the
standard that we choose to set up. Let us take, for
instance, the part of the policy which is most generally
accepted — the part, by the way, which is the most costly —
namely, the segregation of the congenitally feeble-minded.
Up to what point is this to be carried ? We might,
perhaps, without any serious increase in the total public
expenditure, at once segregate in suitable institutions for
their whole lives, the distinctly feeble-minded gu:ls who

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

325

now come in and out of our Poor Law Infirmaries on their
melancholy progress of bearing feeble-minded infants ; for
what we should spend on the potential mothers, we should
save in the cost of the present annual crop of degenerate
children. A small additional expenditure would enable
us to take permanent hold of the young cruninals, mostly
boys, who now pass in and out of prison throughout their ,
lives, by reason only of their congenital feeble-mindedness.
But, before we can feel that we have dealt with the whole
evil of Feeble-mmdedness, we must accept responsibility
for all such children in the Mentally Defective Schools, as
can, at the end of school age, be definitely certified as
congenitally feeble-minded ; and we shall have to deal
with a good many similarly certifiable persons who do not
now come before a Public Authority, but who would
easily be discovered by offering free maintenance m the
Public Asylum. If we were suddenly to adopt this drastic
policy, up to a high standard, from one end of the kingdom
to another, we might be let in for an expenditure of several
millions a year. Our own impression is that the ratepayer
and the professional advocate for the freedom of the
individual will intervene long before we have reached the
standard of normal mentality which it is desirable, ui the
interests of the race, that we should enforce ! On the
other hand, the more of this action in segregating the
feeble-minded that we now take, the lighter will be the
burden and the problem for the next generation. In
practice we shall doubtless begin only with the really bad
cases ; and without much additional expenditure in any
one year, we should be able to rise, decade by decade, to
a higher standard of certification.

Much the same may be said with regard to the

326 THE PKEVENTION OF DESTITUTION

prevention of sickness. Those Local Health Authorities
which have chosen to spend money on effectively combating
the notifiable infectious diseases, now find their Isolation
Hospitals nearly empty, and are beguming to use them
for preventing phthisis. In other districts the ratepayer
is apt to intervene, and to prescribe • an economy in
, sanatorium accommodation which ends in his successors
having to bear the cost of disease which might have been
prevented. With the varying standards of many hundreds
of separate Local Health Authorities it is plainly impossible
to estimate what will be the additional expenditure on
tuberculosis, when tuberculosis is ranged amongst the
infectious diseases to be prevented by the Local Health
Authority, instead of amongst those to be " relieved " by
the Poor Law Authority, after a whole family has been
infected ! All that we can predicate is that the more we,
in this way, spend in the present, the less we shall need
to spend in the future. And it is the same with the Local
Education Authorities. Even supposing that they were
to be made as definitely responsible for preventing all
forms of Child Neglect, as they have been for preventing
the lack of schooling, experience tells us that the ratepayers
will inevitably resist the sudden or complete fulfilment of
their obligations. It took no less than twenty years fi'om
the passing of the Education Act of 1870 to get all the
children into school ; it may perhaps take another twenty
years to get all the children in Great Britain provided with
proper medical and surgical treatment for theii* little
ailments, and universally so fed that they can profit by
the instruction that we pay for. The universal provision
of training on the half-time or " sandwich " system for
aU boys and girls up to eighteen years of age, would cost

THE "MORAL FACTOE "

327

some millions a year, but we should be thereby preventing
the creation of a great many future paupers and criminals,
as well as making room for many unemployed men squeezed
out by " decasualisation," all of whom would otherwise
have to be maintained. Finally, we come to the problems
of Sweatmg and "Unemployment. If we were suddenly,
without due preparation, to raise the wages of all the
sweated workers to something permitting even a minimum
standard of civilised life, we should not, it is true, thereby
put any new charge upon the taxpayer, but we might, m
the case of many articles, raise the cost of production to
the employer and the price to the consumer. But all
the experience of the past, as every contractor knows,
proves that a gradual and moderate increase in wages, step
by step, up to the point of full subsistence, creates such a
rise in productive efhciency that it actually decreases the
cost of production and lowers prices. With regard to
" decasualisation " and the regularisation of the aggregate
national demand for labour, we might even find ourselves
making a distinct economy by the better organisation of
industry that such regularisation would promote, alike in
the cost of labour to the employer and in the public
provision for the Unemployed. On the other hand, the
cost of the establishment of our National Labour Exchange,
of the provision of Training for those for whom no situations
can be found, and still more, of any general subsidising
of Insurance, will have, in effect, to come out of the
pocket of the taxpayer, though the cost of this new
pubhc Department of Unemployment would be balanced
by the saving of our present expenditure on charity,
under the Poor Law, and in prison administration, in
respect of the present large class of vagrants, wastrels,

328 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

and petty criminals. Any net increase thus occasioned
in our total collective expenditure on the poor will, we
believe, be more than made good by the all-round increase
in the productivity of the manual working-class that
would accompany their better health, their more regular
conduct, their greater technical skill and "the prolongation
of their average working life. This is, at any rate, the
counsel of the Political Economist as it is that of those
practical men of affairs who have watched the results of
good food, discipline, and education in different countries,
at different periods, on different classes and races. Hence
the not infrequent abuse of a Policy of Prevention by the
more fanatical of the Socialists on the ground that all the
improvements in sanitation, education, hours of labour
and habits of life, of the past half century, whatever may
have been their beneficial effect on the wage-earners
themselves, have meant also a great increase in the rents
and profits of" the propertied class as a whole, which
accordingly finds itself, after fifty years of rising public
taxation, more wealthy than ever ! Exactly the same
objection might have been made to the abolition of chattel
slavery, a revolution which can be proved, in theory and
practice, to have increased the productivity of labour
and therefore the amount drawn in rent and interest.
No student of working-class history in Great Britain can
doubt that the political enfranchisement of the workers,
with the growth of Trade Unions and Co-operative Societies,
and the general development of personal dignity and
intellectual capacity of the operative, have greatly in-
creased the wealth-production, and, with it, the " sm-plus
value " of the nation. We are, in fact, members one of
another ; and no improvement can come to any one

THE "MOEAL FACTOR"

329

section of the community without other sections also
benefiting. How much of the material wealth-production
continues to flow to the propertied classes will depend on
the way we choose to organise our society. It is clear,
though the Socialist does not always remember it, that
any such reconstruction as he desires involves, as a con-
dition, that we should first have put to an end to the
degradation and demoralisation in which so large a pro-
portion of the wage-earners are, by their destitution,
enslaved ; and that the best hope lies in securing, for
the children of the whole population, such a standard of
health, intelligence, and education as will enable them to
take their part in the Co-operative Commonwealth.

With regard to the money, there is, indeed, little to be
said. If we tackle the problem, bit by bit, in our
practical British way ; working usually through the Local
Authorities ; leaving to their initiative the pushing onward
of the experiments ; and stimulating their efforts both by
the counsel of the Central Departments and by progres-
sively increasing Grants m Aid, we suggest that there will
be no real difficulty in raising, year by year, the very small
increase of taxation that the year's progress requires.
As a matter of fact, the sums in question are far less than
those to which recent Budgets have accustomed the
taxpayer. A nation which can shoulder a burden of
thirteen millions a year merely to maintain its old people
after 70, or thnty millions a year to afford its adult sick
medicine and sick pay, cannot pretend to be unable to
spend a million or two on the economy of prevention !
In a- political Democracy, growing ever more conscious of
itself, the growth of collective provision for common needs
— which the economist advises as actually promoting

330 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

increased production— may be regarded as inevitable. We
have all of us, for a whole generation, been deploring the
unequal manner in which the national income is distri-
buted — how too much falls to the wealthy, and too little
to the industrious poor. The workmen themselves are
now learning what it amounts to. Up and down the
country they are realising that, out of a total annual
income of two thousand million pounds a year, their class,
constituting four-fifths of the whole population, gets
barely one-third ; that the greater part of the other two-
thirds is monopolised by a small section of the community
and either accumulated in privately owned wealth or
spent in personal luxury. Twenty years ago, Professor
Marshall put the amount annually wasted by the wealthy
classes at four hundred million pounds a year. Last
year more money was spent on motor-cars alone than
would have sufficed to carry out the whole Minority
Report !

Paradoxical as it may appear to the majority of our
readers, the most formidable obstacle to the adoption of
the Policy of Prevention and Treatment is, not resistance
to the necessary public expenditure, still less inability to
raise the money, but the lack of administrative science
and the shortcomings of om* administrative machmery.
Merely to relieve destitution has been nearly as easy as
doing nothing. But successfully to intervene in order to
prevent — whether to prevent sickness, to prevent the
neglect of children, to prevent the multiplication of the
mentally unfit, or to prevent Unemployment — involves
the discovery of causes, the formulation of large schemes
of policy, the purposeful planning of collective action m
modifying the environment of the poorer classes, together

THE "MORAL FACTOR"

331

with scientifically diversified treatment of those individuals
who fall below the recognised standard of civilised life.
Unless we have a very determined effort to clear up all
these problems by continuous observation and verification,
we may still see large sums of public money spent on what
is virtually a slovenly relief of destitution and not its
prevention. In some of the legislation that has been
passed during the last two decades, and in a good many
of the projects put forward by each political party in turn,
we see the fatal attraction of the easy policy of " relief,"
in contrast with the arduous mental labour involved in
mastering the technique of prevention. Great Britain, in
fact, finds it difficult to break out of a vicious circle. Our
governing class — ^Ministers, Members of Parliament, Judges,
Civil Servants — do not seem yet to have realised that
social reconstructions require as much specialised training
and sustained study as the building of bridges and rail-
ways, the interpretation of the law, or technical improve-
ments in machinery and mechanical processes. The result
is that the amount of knowledge available, 6ven of
knowledge of facts, when a Minister is faced by a problem,
is always ludicrously insufficient, whilst adequately trained
expert students of the subject are seldom to be found.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the electorate, the organised
working-class, can hardly be expected to have time to
.think out for themselves, the necessary changes in environ-
ment or to develop any new social technique ; and in
default of intellectual leadership, they are apt to alternate
between a somewhat cynical apathy and an impartial
acceptance of the first easy-looking device for improving
their condition that is presented to them.

The first condition of effective social progress in this

332 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

country is that we should get out of this vicious circle.
We must grow, alike among the few who can draft, pass
and administer Acts of Parliament, and among the many
who can, if they choose, dictate policy, a vigorous public
opinion in favour of a more deliberate choice of purpose
and a more scientific selection of the means by which this
purpose can be best attained. And though our progress
may be slow, experience indicates that only in this way
can it be sure. Any student of the long and gradual
development of Public Health administration, of Public
Education, or the public treatment of the mentally
deficient, necessarily comes to realise the alternate failure
and success in every progressive development of the work,
and the gradual emerging, from all the experiments, of
the realised knowledge by means of which we are now
able, with some approach to accuracy, to attain our ends.
And exactly as the momitain climber finds, when he has
reached what seemed to be the summit, another summit
beyond him, so the administrator discovers, when he has
fulfilled' one purpose, another and a higher purpose opening
out before his powers of attainment. And this involves
not only the gradual working out of technique, but also the
steady and careful elaboration of our social machinery.
This is, of com'se, particularly clear with regard to an
entirely new public service such as the Prevention of
Unemployment and the training of the Unemployed.
Here we have as yet only the rudiments of the machinery
for the simplest operations. We have, as yet, no class of
representatives or officials accustomed to transacting even
these simple operations, and only a few officials and
amateurs who are trying to understand the new develop-
ments that are required to bring the whole policy into

THE "MOEAL FACTOR"

333

action. But in practically all departments of the work
of Prevention — in the campaign against infantile mortality,
child neglect and preventable disease ; in the campaign
against mental degeneration and in favour of promotion
of better breeding ; in the campaign against the ruin of
adolescence, the creation of Unemployment and the demora-
lisation of the Unemployed — we are always being stopped
by the need for further experimenting and additional
research. We know enough now to know how supremely
important it is to extend our knowledge. But research
and experiment in social subjects cost as much as research
and experiment in chemistry, or electricity ; and the
public does not yet realise this fact ! Here, indeed, is a
magnificent field for the volunteer worker and for the
munificence of many a millionaire. Whether in practical
experiment or in pure research, there is no range of work
that is more likely to bring about immediate social better-
ment than this of the various means of preventing
destitution, and of scientifically treating the cases that
occur.

And here, as elsewhere, the researcher and experi-
menter will have to remember that the worst of the evils
which he is seeking to overcome is not the material
privation or physical suffering which destitution connotes,
but the moral degradation with which it is, in modern
communities, almost always accompanied. And just as
it is our horror of this moral degradation that inspires our
work and steels our will, so in our choice of means and
choice of ends, we must, of course, weigh not merely the
material results that ensue, but also the inevitable psycho-
logical reactions in human motive and human character.
It is, indeed, after all, the " Moral Factor " in the problem.

334 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

wLether manifested in the fuller development of individual
faculty, the finer tone of family life, or the widening grasp
of public spirit, that is and must remain the dominant
consideration in every attempt at Social Reconstruction.
But noble purpose will not alone suffice. In the latest
of the sciences to be developed, we shall require not
only a perpetual enlargement in the social purpose of
the whole community, but also a larger and larger
measure of foresight, invention, and technical efficiency
on the part of specialised groups of brain-workers
on whom, for the most part, the execution of this social
purpose will necessarily devolve. And it is in the closer
communion for the future, of these two great social forces —
the public-spirited citizen exercising his influence and
manifesting his will in public opinion, and the specialised
social investigator and trained official, supplying the
organised knowledge and carrying out the social purpose —
that our progress in the Prevention of Destitution, as in
aU other branches of Social Reform, wiU, in the main,
depend.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER X.

Notes and Eeferences.

Page 297. The gradiial evolution of knowledge as to the effects of charity
may be traced in Kirkman Gray's History of English Philanthropy, and
his Philanthropy and the State. Daniel Defoe's Giving Alms no Charity
and employing the Poor a Grievance to the Nation, appeared in 1704.

Page 300. Miss Florence Davenport Hill's book. The Children of the State
(1861), is still worth reading; see also her evidence to the Departmental
Committee on Poor Law Schools, vol. i., p. 72, vol. ii., Q. 3,081. For the
present position of these children, see Minority Eeport of the Poor LaAv
Commission, Part I., ch. IV., sec. Vll. (a), pp. 136-ld3 of official 8vo
edition.

Page 308. The actual recommendations of the Poor Law Eeport of 1834—
very commonly mis-stated and misunderstood — will be found accurately
analysed in English Poor Law Policy, by S. and B.Webb (Longmans : 1909) ;
which also describes and explains how it was that the abolition of the General
Mixed Workhouse, recommended in that Eeport, was never carried into
effect. See, on this point, the Majority Eeport of the Poor Law Commission,
1909, Part IV., ch. IV. (pp. 1G3-1G5 of official 8vo edition); and Minority
Eeport, Part I., ch. I. (pp. 7, 17-21 of official 8vo edition); and the Eeturn to
the House of Commons, No. 108 of 1838.

Page 309. The great lengths to which between 1871 and 1875 the Inspectors
of the Local Government Board carried their campaign of " breaking up
the family," and destroying the home among the destitute— apparently as a
means of rooting out destitution— are described in our English Poor Law
Policy (1909).

Page 310. How best to deal with the widow suddenly left helpless with a
young family is the standing problem of the Poor Law Guardians and the
C.O.S. worker. For some discussion of the problem, see various papers by
the C.O.S. on "How to Help Widows," "The Migration of Widows"; the
chapter on "Widow and Orphan" in Kirkman Gray's Philanthropy and
the State (pp. 274-288); the Eeport on the Condition of the Children under
the Poor Law, by Dr. Ethel Williams, 1909; Majority Eeport of the Poor Law
Commission, 1909, Part IV., ch. VIII. (pp. 246-252 of official 8vo edition);
Minority Eeport, Part I., ch. II., pp. 36-45; ch IV., pp. Ill, 164-7.

The solution of the difficulty, we believe, will be found when the Local
Health Authority and the Local Education Authoriti>s are definitely made
responsible for universally enforcing a National Minimum of Child Nurture,
in usually " boarding out the children with their own mothers "—giving,
not " relief " to the mother, but payment for maintaining the child— and,
where the mother is unable or unwilling to provide decently for the child,
its admission to a " Day Feeding School," where it is provided for from early
morning, but returns to its home in the evening. Where the home, through
drunkenness, immorality, or cruelty, is proved to be absolutely unfit for
child nurture, the child must be " adopted " by the Local Education
Authority, and brought up as an orphan.

335

336 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Paqk 310. As to tho children in workhouses, see the authorities cited in
the Minority Ix'eport, ]'J09, Part I., ch. IV. (pp. Ill-IH of official 8vo edition);
and Minority Report for Scotland, 1909, Down to 1911 the number of children
artnalhj residing in the General Mixed Workhouses nj the United Kingdom
had not been diminished. We see no sign of any official intention to take
the steps necessary for compelling the removal of these children from the
Workhouse. The optimistic figures quoted always refer to something else.

Page 317. See The Decline of the Birth Rate. (Fabian Society, 3, Clement's
Inn, London).

Page 320. The question is always cropping up, whether this or that develop-
ment of Democracy is inimical to Personal Liberty. We suggest that the
answer depends on what is meant by the term. On this point we venture to
append an extract from our Industrial Bemocractj (1897) : —

" If, then, we are asked whether democracy, as shown by an analysis of
trade iinionism, is consistent with Individual Liberty, we are compelled to
answer by asking, What is Liberty? If Liberty means every man being his
own master, and following his own impulses, then it is clearly inconsistent,
not so much with democracy or any other particular form of government, as
with the crowding together of population in dense masses, division of labour,
and, as we think, civilisation itself. What particular individuals, sections,
or classes usually mean by ' freedom of contract,' ' freedom of association,'
or ' freedom of enterprise ' is freedom of opportunity to use the power that
they happen to possess; that is to say, to compel other less powerful people
to accept their terms. This sort of personal freedom in a community com-
posed of unequal units is not distinguishable from compulsion. It is,
therefore, necessary to define Liberty before talking about it, a definition
which every man will frame according to his own view of what is socially
desirable. We ourselves understand by the words ' Liberty ' or ' Freedom,'
not any quantum of natural or inalienable rights, but such conditions of
existence in the community as do, in practice, residt in the iitmost possible
development of faculty in the individital hmnan being. Isow, in this sense
democracy is not only consistent with Liberty, hut is, as it seems to us, the
only way of securing the largest amount of it. It is open to argument
whether other forms of government may not achieve a fuller development
of the faculties of particular individuals or classes. To an autocrat,
untrammelled rule over a whole kingdom may mean an exercise of his indi-
vidual faculties, and a development of his individual personality, such as
no other situation in life would afford. An aristocracy, or government by
one class in the interests of one class, may conceivably enable that class to
develop a perfection in physical grace or intellectual charm attainable by no
other system of society. Similarly, it might be argued that, where the
ownership of the means of production and the administration of indxxstry are
unreservedly left to the capitalist class, this ' freedom of enterprise ' woiild
result in a development of faculty among the captains of industry which
could not otherwise be reached. We dissent from all these propositions, if
only on the ground that the fullest development of personal character
requires the pressure of discipline as well as the stimulus of opportunity.
But, however untrammelled power may affect the character of those who
possess it, autocracy, aristocracy, and plutocracy have all, from the point of
view of the lover of liberty, one fatal defect. They necessarily involve a
restriction in the opportunity for development of faculty among the great
mass of the population. It is only when the resources of the nation are
deliberately organised and dealt with for the benefit, not of particular

NOTES AND KEFERENCES

337

individuals or classes, but of tlie entire community; when (he administration
of industry, as of every other branch of human affairs, becomes the function
of specialised experts, working through deliberately adjusted Common Rules;
and when the ultimate decision on policy rests in no other han is than those
of the citizens themselves, that the maximum aggregate development of
individual intellect and individual character in the commiinity as a whole
can be attained.

" For our analysis helps us to disentangle, from the complex influences on
individual development, those caused by democracy itself. The universal
specialisation and delegation which, as we suggest, democratic institutions
involve, necessarily imply a great increase in capacity and efficiency, if only
because specialisation in service means expertness, and delegation compels
selection. This deepening and narrowing of professional skill may be
expected in the fully-developed democratic state, fo be accompanied by a
growth in culture of which our present imperfect organisation gives us no
adequate idea. So long as life is one long scramble for personal gain— still
more, when it is one long struggle against destitution— there is no free time
or strength for much devolpment of the sympathetic, intellectual, artistic,
or religious faculties. When the conditions of employment are deliberately
regulated so as to secure adequate food, education, and leisure to every
capable citizen, the great mass of the population will, for the first time,
have any real chance of expanding in friendship and family affection, and
of satisfying the instinct for knowledge or beauty. It is an even more
unique attribute of democracy that it is always taking the mind of the indi-
vidual off his own narrow interests and immediate concerns, and forcing him
to give his thought and leisure, not to satisfying his own desires, but to
considering the needs and desires of his fellows. As an Elector— still more
as a chosen Eepresentative— in his parish, in his professional association,
in his co-operative society, or in the wider political institxitions of his state,
the ' average sensual man ' is perpetually impelled to appreciate and to
decide issues of public policy. The working of democratic institutions
means, therefore, one long training in enlightened altruism, one contimial
weighing, not of the advantage of the particular act to the particular
individual at the particular moment, but of those " larger expediencies " on
which all successful conduct of social life depends.

" If now, at the end of this long analysis, we try to formulate our dominant
impression, it is a sense of the vastness and complexity of democracy itself.
Modern civilised states are driven to this complication by the dense massing
of their populations, and the course of industrial development. The very
desire to secure mobility in the crowd compels the adoption of one regulation
after another, which limit the right of every man to rrse the air, the water,
the land, and even the artificially produced instruments of production, in
the way that he may think best. The very discovery of improved industrial
methods, by leading to specialisation, makes manual labourer and brain-
worker alike dependent on the rest of the community for the means of
subsistence, and subordinates them, even in their own crafts, to the action
of others. In the world of civilisation and progress, no man can be his own
master. But the very fact that, in modern society, the individual thus
necessarily loses control over his own life, makes him desire to regain
collectively what has become individually impossible. Hence the irresistible
tendency to popular government, in spite of all its difficulties and dangers.
But democracy is still the Great Unknown. Of its full scope and import we
can yet catch only glimpses. As one department of social life after another,

338 THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

bocoines the subject of careful examination, we shall gradually attain lo a
more complete vision. Our own tentative conclusions, derived from <lie
study of one manifestation of the democratic spirit, may, we hope, not only
suggest hypotheses for future verification, but also stimulate othor students
to carry out original investigations into the larger and perhaps more
significant types of democratic organisation " (pp. 847-50).

Page 334. AVe gladly recognise that some progress has been made in
organising social and economic research. The foundation in 189.5 of the
London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London)
supplied the need for a centre of study and researcli; and the great and
continued success of this institution, with its extensive professoriate, its
post-graduate students and "seminars," its undergraduate classes with their
1,500 men and women in attendance, and its uniciue " sociological museum "
in the form of a collection of 200,000 documents, etc., affords a most promising
opening for further developments of the work. Unfortunately, it is still
without endowment, and is now quite intolerably cramped for space; and
nothing would be likely to do more to further economic and social research
in this country than the provision for this institution of a new building in
which the work could be expanded and of a series of endowed Research
Scholarships or Fellowships, to enable work to be done by those who are not
themselves rich.

Just as we write, we have to welcome the organisation of a great " National
Conference on the Prevention of Destitution," in London, at Whitsuntide,
1911, when something like a thousand delegates from local governing bodies
and voluntary agencies, from one end of Great Britain to the other, will
meet for a ioxiv days' conference to consider— leaving entirely aside the Poor
Law and the Poor Law Aiithority as dealing only with relief— how best the
Local Health Aiithorities, the Local Education Authorities, the Local
Lunacy Authorities, and the National and Local Unemployment Authorities
can take up the campaign for actually preventing the occurrence of destitu-
tion, and for scientifically treating such cases as they do occur. The
Conference will apparently devote Itself to the working out of the technique
of prevention in such subjects as Tuberculosis and other preventable
disease; the needs of the infant, the child, agd the adolescent; and the
prevention of cyclical and seasonal iTnemployment and underemployment,
together with the method of meeting the cost and charging the individual.
More than a hundred papers will be contributed, in the five sections into
which the Conference is divided, by practical experts in the several
subjects; and the volume containing these papers and reports of the
discussion (to be published by P. S. King & Son at half a guinea net) will
evidently prove a mine of information.

We venture to hope that this Conference will become a permanent organi-
sation, on non-partisan lines; committed neither to the Majority nor to the
Minority Report, nor to any other programme or scheme; but organising
both annual Conferences on a national scale, and quarterly Conferences for
particular provinces of Great Britain, in which the members and oflScials of
the different preventive Authorities, with representatives of the Voluntary
Agencies co-operating with them, could meet and discuss the most practical
methods of carrying otit their work. We may perhaps look to these Confer-
ences for a " new synthesis " of municipal activity, as in its several depart-
ments the corporate agency for actually preventing destitution— a synthesis
in which the Town or District Councillor will find something more inspiring
than the care of the drains and the rates !

INDEX

" Absorption " by the " Labour Mar-
ket," 93; of "Surplus," 132-6.

Accidents not prevented by Insurance,
160; not diminished under Work-
men's Compensation Act, 181.

Acquired characteristics, non-herita-
bility of, no argument against- Pre-
vention, 49.

Addams, Miss Jane, 261.

Adenoid growths due to rickets, 50 ;
prevalence of, 66.

Adolescents, lack of supervision of, G8,
70, 80-1; should be under Local Edti-
cation Aiithority, 80-3; "half-time"
"for, 135; cost of, 326.

Adoption of children by Local Educa-
tion Authority, 335.

Adrian, Mr., 12.

Advance of railway fares, 140.

Afforestation, 94.

"After-care," 25, 255.

Aged Poor, Eoyal Commission on, 12.

Ague, 30.

Alcohol, , see Drink.
Alden, Mrs., 158.
"Allowance System," the, 108.
Amalgamated Society of Carpenters

and Joiners, 220.
Amalgamated Societv of Engineers,

220.

" Appeal " from Registrar, 291.

Apprenticeship and Skilled Employ-
ment Association, 158.

Army, improved health in the British,
26.

Arson, resiilting from fire insurance,
- 102.
Ashley, Prof. W. J., 263.
Association of Health Workers, 41.
Australia, legislation against sweating
in, 92.

" Authority," meaning of, 312.
Aves, Ernest, 108.

Babies, mostly born healthy, 64.
" Babies Welcome," the, 4l'.
Barlow, Sir Thomas, 41.

Baernreither, J. M., 215.

Bagehot, Walter, 157.

Barry, municipal hospital at, 32.

Belgium, insurance in, 203.

Bell, Ladj^ 13.

Belloc, Mr. Hilaire, 320.

Bermoudsey School for Mothers, 41.

Bestiality, production of, 2.

Bethnal Green, fever in, 29; indis-
criminate charity in, 263.

Beveridge, W. H., 109, 130, 157.

Birmingham School for Mothers, 41.

Birth-rate, restriction of, 51; least in
lowest stratum, 51 ; increased by rise
in standard of life, 52; statistics of,
60 ; slackening of the, 317-20, 336.

Black, Miss Clementina, 108.

Black Death, the, 15.

" Blind alley occiipations," 68.

Board of Education, Annual Eeport of
Chief Medical Officer to, 66.

Board of Trade and Hours of Work on
Eailways, 134, 158: and Railways
Eegulation Acts, 158; memorandum
on co-operation with Education
Authorities, 84 ; ditto on seasonal
trades, 157.

Boarding Schools of the Local Educa-
tion Authorities, 75-G, 78.

" Boarding Out " by Local Education
Authority, 76, 80; of children with
their own mothers, 136, 316, 335.

Booth, Rt. Hon. Charles, 13, 157.

Booth, General William, 13, 234, 251,
263-4.

Borstal, 243.

Bosanquet, Mrs. Bernard, 261.

Bosanquet, Prof. Bernard, 8, 13, 14,
261, 263.

Bowley, A. L., 113, 157.

Boys, excessive death-rate among, 48 ;
difficulty of apprenticing, 68-9.

Boy Labour, Eeport to Poor Law Com-
mission on, 84; how to deal with,
135.

. Brabrook, Sir E., 215.
Bray, Mr. Reginald, 158.

339

340

INDEX

" Breaking up the Family " the Poor
Law Policy, 309-11 ; pursued by
L.G.B. Iiispectornte, ; still the
policy of L.G.B., 30'); in the case of
the able-bodied man, 309-10; in the
case of the deserving widow, 310-11;
how many families thus broken up
last year, 311 ; denounced in Minority
Keport, 311.

"Bridewell clauses," 150.

British Institute of Social Service, 41,
264.

Broadhead, H., 108.
Burton, T. B., 157.
Building Trades, 125, 157.
Bureaucracy of Voluntary Agencies,
the, 221.

Cambridge, social conditions in, 13.
Cancer, 19.

Capital, unemployment of, 120-1, 123-4.
Carlile, Eev. W. Wilson, 263.
Carson, Catherine, 264.
Carter, Rev. Henry, 14.
Case-papers to be prescribed by Coun-
cil, 276.

Casual Labour, 129-36; evil results of,
129; cause of chronic iTnderemploy-
ment of, 130-1; method of dealing
with, 131-6, 157; need of provision
for, 201.

Causes of Destitution, 7.

Certifying Surgeon, the, 32.

" Certificate of Non-Overlap," 279-81.

Chadwick, Sir Edwin, 29, 33, 35, 42.

Chalmers. Eev. Dr., 29, 33, 42, 43.

Chance, Sir William, 261.

Chappie, W. A., 60.

Character destroyed by destitution, 2;
as cause of destitution, 13; effect of
compiilaory insiirance on, 174; discus-
sion of effects on, 293-338; evil effect
of any "relief" on, 298-9; bracing
effect of prevention on, 301-2.

" Charge and recovery " for medical
treatment, 38; to be concentrated in
■Registrar's Department, 287-8; to be
settled by law and Standing Orders,
288-9 ; ease of recovery at present, 289.

Charity, prevalence of in other coun-
tries, 221; disliked by early econom-
ist, 222; less in Great Britain than
elsewhere, 221.

Charitv Organisation Society of New
York, 8, 14, 261.

Charity Organisation Society of Lon-
don, 8, 157, 226-38, 251, 256-7, 261-3,
268-70; origin of, 228; early theories
of, 228-32; refinement of theory by,
232 ; on the " deserving " and the
"helpable," 229-35; effect on the "de-

terrent" Poor Law, 233; as to sphere
of Voluntary A gencie.s, 220-38; always
ignores the newer Preventive Au-
thorities, 226; futility of estimate of
past character, 231-2; failure to
organise charity, 233-5; reason of Ibis
failure, 2.56-7; in St. George's in the
East, 236-9 ; as to the " undeserving "
and the " unhelpable," 251; as to
"overlapping," 268-70; history and
literature of, 261, 2G3.

Child destitution as due simply to
poverty of parents, 86-7; to their neg-
lect, 61-85.

Child neglect as cause of adult desti-
tution, 61-85; cost of preventing, 326.

Children under five, report of Consul-
tative Committee on School Attend-
ance of, 84; condition of, 65; failure
to provide medical attendance for,
179.

Children Act, 1908, 70, 73, 75, 180.
Children at School, proportion found

defective, 66; failure to provide

medical attendance for, 179-80.
Children's Care Committees, 69, 73, 85,

255, 313.
Cholera, 29, 30.
Church Army, the, 235, 263.
Civic League, the, 259.
" Cities of the Poor," 2.
Clerks usual Iv paid during sickness,

17.

"Club practice," 173.

Collective Bargaining, abandonment
of, by Trade Unions, 199.

"Common Rule," the, as preventing
Sweating, 91.

Commimity, the " moral " failure of
the, in preventable sickness, 295; in
child neglect, 295 ; in Unemployment,
296; in indecent housing, 307.

Compulsion, attraction of in insur-
ance, 168.

Compulsory Continuation School By-
laws in Scotland, 82.

" Compulsory Insiirance " a mis-
nomer, 168-9; essentially wasteful
nature of, 170-5.

Consumption, see Phthisis.

Convulsions due to rickets, 50.

Co-operation, 10, 321.

Cost of Policy of Prevention, 324-30 ; of
dealing with the Feeble-minded,

324- 5; of prevention of sickness,

325- 6; of preventing child neglect,
326; of providing for adolescents,

326- 7; of preventing Sweating, 327;
of preventing Unemployment and
Under-employment, 327-8.

Country Holiday Fund Committee, 255.

Index

341

County Court, Medical Keferee of, 32.
Coiinty Council to keep the Common

Eegister, 272.
" Cowcatcher " theory of Voluntary

Agencies. 22^-31, 261.
Cox, Mr. Harold, 320.
Crime bv youug people, 64, 70.
Crowder, Mr., 236-9, 263.
Croydon, condition of school children

in, 84.

Cyclical fluctiiations of trade, 111-24.

" Damage-rate," the, 51, 106, 119.

Davies, Miss Maud, 13.

Dawson, W. H., 109.

'• Day Feeding School," 75-6, 314, 335.

Day Industrial Schools, use of, 75-6,
314, 335.

Dearie, Norman, 157.

"Debasing the moral currency," 293.

" Dealing with the Family as a
Whole," 305-17.

" Decasualisation," 132-6, 140 ; as possi-
ble result of insurance, 200.

Decline in percentage of pauperism,
3, 4.

Deductions for medical treatment,
38 ; as basis of scheme of insurance,
164-5.

Defoe, Daniel, 297, 335.

Degradation accompanying modern

destitution, 2; resulting on indecent

occupation, 305-7.
" Demarcation " dispxites, 219.
Dendy, Miss Mary, 60.
Denmark, insurance in, 203.
Dental clinic, 255.

Departmental Committee on Physical
Degeneration, Report of, 44.

" Deposit Insurance," 178.

Depression of trade, the waves of,
111-24.

Derby, Registrar of Public Assistance
established at, 291.

Destitution, definitions of, 1, 12; a
disease of society, 2; extent of, 3;
gradual decrease of, 4, 5; specific
causes of, 6; due to defective growth
and nurture, 09, 70; the moral fac-
tor in, 293-338.

Detention Colonies, 146, 149-50.

Deterrence, complete alDandonment of
policy of, 139.

Development and Road Improvement
Funds Act, 1910, 119.

Devine, Prof. E. T., 8, 14, 261.

Dilke, Sir Charles, 149.

"Disablement Benefit," 185-6.

Disease, destitiition as a social, 2; as •
fruitful cause of destitution, 15-44;
not prevented by Insurance, 159-61.

Distress Committees, extent of work
of, 3.

Distress from Want of Employment,
House of Commons Committee on,
157.

Dock Labour and Poor Law Relief,
Report on, 157.

" Docker," the London, 129-31, 157, 200.

Domestic servants, paid during sick-
ness, 17.

"Dovetailing" of seasonal occupa-
tions, 126-9; of casiial jobs, 132-0.

Drink, 2, 10, 13, 26, 37, 49, 138, 232;
accompanying destitution, 2 ; as cause
of destitution, 10; as cause of unem-
ployment, 138; as racial poison, 49;
in British Army, 26; how we could
diminish the evils of, 26, 37; re-
clamation of the victims of, 232.

Dundee, social conditions in, 13.

Eastbourne, payment by Secondary

Schools at, 172.
Eden, Sir F., 108.

Edinburgh, report on school children
in, 13.

Edinburgh School Board, Memo on
Labour Exchange, 84; Health Com-
mittee of, 85; reports to, on School
feeding, 85 ; on Poor Law Commission
Report, 85.

Educationalists, the, and the cause of
destitution, 9.

Education (Administrative Provisions)
Act, 1907, 75, 85.

Education Acts, increase in parental
responsibility caused by, 302-3; vir-
tually tax on parents, 71.

Education Anthoritj', extent of
"relief" work done by, 290; not
aided to supply medical attendance,
180; great development due to Grants
in Aid, 36.

"Elberfeld System," the, 252-4.

" Elimination of the Unfit " not neces-
sarily making for progress, 48.

Embankment, food distribution on the
Thames, 101.

Emigration, 94.

Endowment of Motherhood, the, 52, 60.
Enquiry into means to be separated

from treatment, 281-7.
Enteric fever, 19.

Eugenics and Destitution, 45-59; as a
ground of laisscr fairo, 46; real
lesson of, 58-9.

Eugenics Education Society, 13, 14, 60.

Eugenists. the, and the cause of Desti-
tution, 9.

Evolution and Destitution, 45-52.

342

INDEX

" Extension Ladder " theory oi rela-
tion of Voluntai-y Agencies to State
action, 252-60.

Factory Acts as preventing Sweating,
91.

Family, integrity of the, 305; under-
mined by slum life, 306-8; destroyed
by Poor Law, 308-10; maintained by
Policy of Prevention, 311-5 ; the Poor
Law policy of " breaking up," 303-11;
in the case of the able-bodied man,
309-10; in the case of the deserving
widow, 310-11.

Farm Colonies, 143.

Feeble-minded, the congenital, 53;
encouraged by Poor Law, 53; as
prisoners, 55; segregation of, 56; cost
of dealing with, 324-5.

Feeble-minded, Royal Commission on
the Care and Control of, 56, 60, 255.

Fiebig und Hanauer, 215.

Fire Brigade doctor, the, 32.

Fishing villages, insanitation of, 21.

Foresters, Independent Order of, 215,
216.

France, "Ghent System" in, 203; sub-
sidies to Friendly Societies in, 205.

"Free Choice of Doctors," 185, 187,
188. •

Freedom, definition of, 337-7; how far
Democracy inconsistent with, 336-7.

Free Shelter, the, 101, 235-8.

Free Trade as cause of Destitution, 10;
need for preventive measures under,
152.

Fremantle, Mr. F. E., 84.

Friendly Societies, Annual Report of

Chief Registrar of, 215.
Friendly Societies, 38, 163-220, 3; not

interested in prevention, 189 ; sxibsi-

dies to, 205.
Fry, Sir Edward, 60.
Funeral expenses, heavy tax on poor,

17.

Funke and Hering, 216.

Gainsborough, rate of wages at, 197.

Galton, Sir Francis, 45, 60.

Garland, Dr. C. H., 41.

George, Rt. Hon. D. Llovd, 169, 171,
173, 176, 212.

Germany, insurance in, 164, 169, 175,
177, 183, 185, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,
203, 215, 216-9; Poor Relief in, 251-4;
Labour Colonies, 143; statistics of
insurance in , 218-9; "Ghent System"
in, 203.

" Ghent System " of insurance, 203-12,

220, 314.
Gibbon, Mr. J. G., 220.

GFasgow, Health Visiting at, 41.

Gloucestershire, work of Local Educa-
tion Authority in, 79; child statietics
of, 79-80.

Gonorrhosa, 33.

Gorst, the Rt. Hon. Sir John, 158.

Goschen, Viscount, 224-9, 261-2.

Government orders, use of as counter-
poise, 113-24.

Gramophone jnakers, how affected Ir
bad trade, 121-2.

Grant in Aid to Local Health
Authorities, 30; possible use of for
insurance, 203.

Gratuitous supply of labour, 99; of
medical treatment not univer.sally
necessary, 38.

Gray, B. Kirkmau, 261, 263, 264, 335.

" Green World," the, 61.

Greenwood, ^Iv. A., 84, 158.

Grisewood, Mr. William, 158.

Guild of Help, 253, 259.

Hadleigh, 242-4, 264.

Haggard, Mr. H. Eider, 263, 264.

"Half-time" for adolescents, 81, 135;
cost of, 335-6.

Hamilton, Mr. C. J., 157.

Hampshire, condition of school chil-
dren in, 84.

Hampstead, low death-rate at, 16;
voluntary register started at, by
Council of Social Welfare, 291.

Harben, Mr. H. D., 60.

Hardy, Mr. R. P.. 215.

Harrison, Miss Amy, 108.

Hawkins, Mr., 13.

Health, Minister of, wanted, 36, 37.

Health Authorities, work of in reliev-
ing destitiition, 4; e.^tent and variety
of such work of, 290.

Health of Towns Commission, 1844,
106.

Health Visiting, 23, 31, 32, 41, 65, 189,
255, 313.

Heart disease among school children,
66.

Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, 216.

Hertfordshire, condition of school chil-
dren in, 84.

Hill, Miss Florence Davenport, 300,
335.

Hobhouse, Prof. L. T., 220.
Holidays, Local Education Auilicrity

not permitted to protect children in.

77.

Hobsou, Mr. J. A., 261.
Holborn Board of Guardians. 2(;2.
Holland, insurance in, 203.
Hollesley Bay Farm Colony, IW.

INDEX

343

Home Circumstances of Necessitiiis
Children, L.C.C. Eeport on, 81.

Hospitals, excessive work of, 26 ; evil
of out-patients' departments of, 27;
enlarged sphere for, 39, iO, 255.

Honrs, reduction of, 134-5.

House of Lords Select Committee on
Sweating, 1890, 88, 108.

Howarth, M. M., 13.

Howell, George, 215.

Huddersfield, Health Visitiug nt, 41.

Humanity as forbidding the abandon-
ment of the weak, 47.

Hutchins, Miss B. L., 41, 42, ICS.'

H:uxley, Prof. H., 12.

Hygienic instruction, not given to the
poor, 22.

Hyndman, Mr. H. M., 157.

Illiteracy as Child Neglect, 71; how it
has been prevented, 71, 72.

Indecent occupation, horrors cf, 30G-7.
Individualism as cause of destitution,
10.

Industrial Schools, use of, 75-G, El 4.
Infants, instruction as to, 22; how to

prevent mortality among, 23, 37;

books on, 41; lack of piiblic care for,

65.

Inheritance, physical, 47; of acquired
characteristics, 49; social, 49.

" Inqiiisitorial " inquiries, proposed
diminution of, 282-3.

" Ins and Outs," 300.

Insanitary living of the poor, 22.

Insecurity of the workman's life, 95.

Insurance, 32, 39, 159-220; does not
itself prevent, 160; not incompatible
with campaign of prevention, 39 ;
against fire, 161; against death, 161;
against accident, 121; marine, 161;
hailstorms, 161; plague, 161; typhus,
161-2; tuberculosis, 162; sickness,
163-4; unemployment, 164; in Ger-
many, 164; special staff of doctors
for, 32.

Invalidity, pensions on, 185-6.

"Integrity of the Family," 305;
destroyed by Poor Law, 308-9; main-
tained by Policy of "Prevention,
301-5.

Ireland, migratory labourers from,
157 ; statistics as to, 13.

Jackson, Mr. Cyril, 84, 109.
.Taffe, 216.
Jebb, Miss E., 13.
.Tevon.s, W. Stanley, 157.
.Fohnson, Dr. J., 13.
Jones, Mr. E. D., 157.

Juvenile Employment or Labour Com-
mittees, 69, 256.

Karapffmeyer, 215.

Kay, A. C, 291.

Keeling, Mr. P., 84.

Keighley, rate of wages at, 197.

Kelvnack, Dr. T. N., 41.

Klein, G. A., 21G.

Labour, Eoyal Commission on, 157.
Labour Colonies, 143, 256, 257.
Labour Exchange for boys and girls,
69.

Lancashire, social conditions in, 13.
Lancaster, Sir Eay, 60.
Latham, Dr. A., 41.
Lawrence, Mr. F. W., 220.
Lead poisoning, 49.
Leeds, rate of wages at, 197.
Leisure, organisation of, 129.
Lewis, Mr. F. W., 215.
Liberty and Property Defence League,
320.

Libertj', definition of, 336-7 ; how far
Democracy inconsistent with, 33G-7.

Liverpool, undei-fed children at, 67;
chronic surplus of labourers at, 129-
30; dock labour in, 158; possible de-
casual isatiou at, 200.

Lloyd, H. D., 108.

Loane, Miss M., 26L

Local Government Board not a Central
Health Department, 30; defines desti-
tution, 12^

Local HealFh Authorities, how to in-
vigorate, 35.

Loch, Dr. C. S., 2G1, 263.

London, chronic surplus of labourers
at docks of, 129; lack of good open-
ings for boys in, 68.

London County Council Education
Committee as the authority for en-
forcing National Minimum of Child
Nurture, 75; children fed by, 77, 84.

London School of Economics and
Political Science, 339.

liunacy, charge and recovery in, 172.

Liinacy Authority, origin of, 57; pro-
posed enlargement of sphere of, 58;
work of in relieving destitution, 4.

Lyster, Dr. E. A., 84.

Machinery turued oat to rust and

decay, 98, 99.
Macgregor, Prof., 13.
Mackay, Mr. T.. 228, 263.
McCleary, Dr. G. F., 41.
Macmillan, Miss M., 158.
McVail, Dr., 30.

344

INDEX

Maiutenance tor Uuemployed, need of,
141.

Majoi"ity Keport of Poor Law Commis-
sion, 13, 149, 22.-J, 22G, 262, 291, 308, 335.

Malarial fever as destructive of Greek
cities, 15; may lead to preservation
of lower type, 4.8.

Malingering in Friendly Societies and
Trade Unions, 1G3, 166, 167, 186-8,
192, 204-5, 216.

MalthiTsian Theory, reversal of the,
317-320.

Manchester Ship Canal, 200.
Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, 215-7.
Manchester, rate of wages at, 197.
Mangold, Dr. George, 158.
Marshall, Dr. Alfred, 12, 13, 330.
Maternity, encouragement of, 318-320.
Measles, neglect of, 19, 65, 179.
Medical Inspection of School Children,
66.

Medical Officer of Health, 9, 10, 22, 23,
30, 31, 32, 40, 42, 65, 66, 84, 254-5, 270,
283.

'^Medical Relief," 28, 31.

Medical services, miiltiplicity of State-
paid, 32.

Medley, K. I. M., 158.

Mental defectiveness as cause of desti-
tution, 7.

Mercantile Marine Office, 194, 219.

Merchant Shipping Acts, 91, 219.

Methods and agencies of dealing with
the Unemployed, Board of Trade
Report on, 109.

Meyer, Lady, 108.

Middlesborongh, social conditions in,
13.

Midwifery, lack of, 24, 25.
Milk Clinic (or Dispensary), 23, 34, 65,
313.

Milk,' fresh, unknown to sweated
workers, 89.

Mines Regulation Acts as preventing
sweating, 91.

Mining villages, insanitatiou of, 21.

Minister for Labour, 139.

Minority Report of Poor Law Commis-
sion, 13, 14, 24, 38, 39, 42, 54, 60, 84,
85, 107, 108, 133, 140, 149, 150, 151,
157, 158, 202, 219, 238, 261, 263, 273,
274, 275, 287, 291, 292, 308, 311, 330,
335, 336.

Minority Report for Scotland, 14, 85,

261, 336.
Misere, la, 12.
" Missed Cases," 252.
" Mr. Goschen's Memorandum," 224-9,

261-2.

Money doles to be avoided, 284-6, 316.
Moore, Prof. Benjamin, 44.

'• Moral Factor," the, 293-338.

"Mortality of Delay," the, 28.

Motor-cars cost more than Minority
Report, 330.

Municipal hospitals, extent of, 30, 31.

Muuicipalisation of hospitals, not in-
volved, 39.

Mutual Insurance, abandonment of by
Trade Unions, 199.

Nash, Mr. Vaughan, 157.

National Anti-Sweating League, 108.

National Association for the Feeble-
minded, 60.

National Committee for the Preven-
tion of Destitution, 157, 264.

National Conference on the Preven-
tion of Destitution, 60, 85, 109, 338.

National League for Physical Educa-
tion and Improvement, 41.

" National Minimum," the, as en-
forced by Factory, etc.. Acts, 91; by
Conciliation and Arbitration Boards,
92; of Child Nurture, 65, 70; means
enlarged freedom, 321; progressive
enforcement of, 258.

"Natural Selection" not necessarily
making for Progress, 48.

Need should not be "pecuniary,"
284-6.

Neglect of children by widowed mothers
driven out to work, 136.

Newman, Sir George, 41.

Newsholme, Dr. A., 41, 51.

New York C.O.S., 8, 14.

New Zealand, legislation against sweat-
ing, 92.

Nicholls, Sir George, 108, 263.
Nightingale, Florence, 41.
Norway, Insurance in, 203.
Norwich, social conditions in, 13.
Norwich, the Dean of, 264.
Nottingham School for Mothers, 41.

Oddfellows, Independent Order of
(Manchester Unity), 215, 216, 217.

Old Age as cause of destitution, 7; in-
surance against, 181-5 ; pensions, 184-5

Old Age Pensions Act, 1908, 3, 4, 185.

Omnibus service, excessive hours of
laboiir in, 134.

Orphanage as cause of destitution, 7.

Outdoor Relief, campaign against,
228-9; to widows. 136.

Out-patients' departments, unsatis-
factory character of, 26, 27.

Output of young people, cost of
annual, 63.

Overcrowding, indecencies of, 306-7;
not abated by alms, 307.

INDEX

345

Overlap in feeding children, 77-8, 291;
greatest in the towns, 265 ; variety of,
290-1; with charities, 291; method of
preventing, 265-92.

Papage, C. P., 60.

Parasitism as a possible result of evo-
lution, 48, 60.

"Parallel Bars" theory of relation-
ship of Voluntary Agencies to State
action, 225-52.

Pauperism not coincident with desti-
tution, 3; decline in rate of, 3, 4; as
remedy for sweating, 90-1.

Parental responsibility decreased by
Poor Law, 300; increased by Educa-
tion Acts, 303.

Parents' inability to place boy in a
good place, 68.

Pashley, Eobert, 108.

Paul, St. Vincent de, 244.

Pearson, Prof. Karl, 45, 50, 60, 317,
318.

" Pension Visitors," 255.

Phelps, Rev. L. E., 263.

Phthisis, 19, 24, 25, 28, 32, 37, 41, 50,
63, 66, 162, 189; incipient cases not
found by Poor Law, 28; caused by
rickets, 50.

" Play Centres," 255, 256.

Plimsoll, Samuel, on Marine Insur-
ance, 163.

Pneumonia, 19.

Police Authority, extent of " relief "

work done by, 290.
Police Doctor, the, 32.
Police Force, built up by Grants in

Aid, 36.

Poll-tax, compulsory insurance as,

169, 209, 213.
Poor Law and the Unemployed, 100;

and sweating, 90-1; and children,

77-85.

Poor Law children in London, 77; in
Gloucestershire, 79-80; shortcomings
of Poor Law administration as to, 85.

Poor Law Medical Service, 27, 28.

Poor Law Report of 1834, 90-1, 108,

' 223, 228, 308-9, 335.

Poor Law, Royal Commission on, 12,
13, 24, 25": 26, 28, 38, 39, 42, 54, 60, 84,
85, 107, 108, 133, 140, 149, 150, 151,
157, 158, 202, 219, 225, 226, 238, 262,
263, 273, 274, 275, 287, 291, 292, 308,
311, 330, 335, 336.

Poor Law Schools, Report of Depart-
mental Committee on, 335.

"Population Theory," reversal of,.
317-20.

" Post Office c ontributors," 177-9.

" Poverty Line," the, 13.

Preston-Thomas, Mr., 261.

Prevention, of Destitution, why now
urgent, 5; of sickness now possible,
19; of sweating, 91-3; of unemploy-
ment, 110-58; not effected by insur-
ance, 160-3.

" Preventive work " in charity, 224.

Pringle, Rev. J., 109.

Prisons, futility of short sentences in
the, 150; reform of, by Detention
Colonies, 151.

Prisons Commissioners, Annual Re-
port of, 60.

Protection, need for preventive mea-
sures under, 152-4.

Prudential Assurance Company, 216.

Psychological effects of insurance,
166-7; of Policy of Prevention, 301-5.

Public Health Acts, 29, 35, 106, 161-2.

Public Health Authority, origin of, 29 ;
extent and variety of work of, 31;
imperfect development of, 35; not
yet effective for needs of poor, 20;
sickness insurance unconnected with,
191.

Quarry villages, insanitation of, 21.
Quinton, E. F., 60.

Racial poisons, 49.

Railways, excessive hours of labour
on, 134.

Railways Regulation Acts, as prevent-
ing sweating, 91, 158.

"Rate in Aid of Wages," the, 90-1,
101, 108.

Rathbone, Miss E. F., 158.

Rational Sick and Burial Association,
216.

Receiving house, under Registrar, 292.

Recruitment of the destitute, 8.

Reeves, the Hon. W. P., 108.

Reformatory Detention Colonies, 149-
50, 258.

Register, Common, 265-92.

Registrar of Public Assistance, un-
necessary as new olBcer, 274; already
in existence at Derby, 291; Town
Clerk might well be, 274; no new
powers required, 274-5; must be
under a committee of Council, 275;
how his department would work,
275-92; recommended by County
Councils Association, 277; as to
"appeals" from, 292.

Registration, by Voluntary Agencies a
failure, 269; advantages of Public
Author it V foi-, 270-2.

346

INDEX

Eegularisatiou of uatioual aggregate

demand for labour, 113-24.
Relief, guilt of any policy of mere,

298.

Eelief Works, 102-4, 114-16; nature of
114-16; do not prevent unemployment,
115; can never bo productive, 116.

Religious influences, 242-5.

"Remedial Drill," 144.

Rheumatism, 19.

Ritchie, Prof. D. G., 60.

"Reverberation" of Unemiiloyment,
121-2.

Richards, Dr. Meredith, 84.
Rickets, evil results of, 50.
Ringworm, 66.
Rowan, Edgar, 263.
Roman Catholic Charity, 221 ; manage-
ment of workhouse, 244.
Rouse, Mr. Charles, 158.
flowntree, Mr. B. Seebohm, 13.

Sadler, Prof. M. E., 158.

Sailors' Labour Exchange, 219.

St. Georges in the East, 236-9.

St. Pancras School for Mothers, 41.

Saleeby, Dr. C. W., 45, 60.

Salvation Armv, work of the, 234,

242-5, 263-4.
Sanatoria, 189; in Germany, 189-91; in

Great Britain, 191.
" Sandwich System " for adolescents,

81-2, 135, 326-7.
Sanitary triumphs, limitation of, 16.
Sanitary inspectors, 31.
Scarlet fever, 30.
Schloss, Mr. D. F., 220.
Scholefield, Mr. Guy H., 108.
School, hygienic instruction at, 22, 23;

medical inspection at, 34.
School Attendance Officers as agents

for enforcing National Minimum, 73;

registering adolescents, 81 ; enforc-
ing standard, 313.
School Boards in Scotland required to

feed, 73-4.
School Canteen Committee, 85, 255.
School children, most urgent need of

medical attendance for, 179.
School clinic, the, 32, 34, 189, 255.
School doctor, the, 32.
School feeding, overlapping in, 2G7;

obligatory in Scotland, 73-4.
School for mothers, 23, 34, 41, 65, 255,

313.

School nurse, the, 313.
Science, need for political, 330-4.
Scotch Education Act, 1908, 85.
Scotch Education Department, 180.

Scotland, statistics for, 13; Minority
Report on, 14; uncertified deaths in,
24.

" Searching Out," 34.

Seasonal fluctuations of employment,
124-9; in various trades, 125-6; why
absent from the community as a
whole, 126; how the Labour Exchange
deals with, 127; insurance suitable
for skilled workers subject to, 128-9.

Seasonal Trades, statistics of, 157.

"Servile State," the, 320-3; declining
area of, 323.

Servility diminished by collective
action, 323.

Shaftesbury, Earl of, 5, 91.

Sheffield, School for Mothers at, 41;
Health visiting at, 41.

Shelter, the Free. 101.

Sherlock, E. B., 60.

Shop Hours Acts, as preventing Sweat-
ing, 91.

Sickness as cause of destitution, 7, 16;
prevalence of among poor, 17; in-
direct losses by, 18; economy of pre-
vention, 18 ; practicability of preven-
tion, 19; dangers of insurance
against, 186-7; "Free Choice of Doc-
tors" in, 187-8; increase of among
Friendly Society members, 167,
216-7.

Siloam, the Tower of, 294.

Simon, Sir John, 41.

" Sixpenny Doctor," the, 26.

Slums, sanitary needs of the, 20; life
in the, 2; production of rickets in,
51 ; the family in the, 305-8 ; influence
on character of, 65.

Small-pox, 30, 31.

Smith, Miss Constance, 108.

Smith, Sir H. Llewellyn, 157.

Social Democratic Party, 10.

Social inheritance, 49.

Socialists' object that we shall in-
crease wealth, 328-9; will still have to
prevent unemployment, 154-6.

" Spectacle Committees," 255.

" Speenhamlaud Act of Parliament,"
the, 108.

Spencer, Mrs. F. H., 108.

Squire; Miss R., 157, 158.

" Stagnant pools " of labour, 130-1.

Standard Rate of \Vages, 195-9.

Starvation among school children, 66;
effects of, 67.

"State doctoring," extent of, 32.

Steel-Maitland, Mr. A. D., 157, 158.

Stepnej', Council of Social Welfare at,
291.

Struggle Tor l']xistciicc, not necessarily
making for Progress, 48.

INDEX

347

"Submerged Tenth" the, 235.

" Survival of the Fittest " and Desti-
tution, 47-52; not necessarily leading
to progress, 48; may produce para-
sitisms, '18.

Sweating as cause of destitution, 8G-
107; diminishing area of, 89; Poor
Law treatment of, 90; Lord Shaftes-
bury's successful remedy for, 91-3.

Switzerland, Labour Colonies in, 143.

Svkes, Dr. S. P., 41.

Syphilis, 33, 37, 43, 44, 49.

Tariff as cause of destitution, 10.
Tariff Reform, need for preventing

Unemployment under, 152-4.
Taylor, Miss F. I., 108, 157.
Teeth, prevalence of decayed, G6.
Town Council to keep the Common

Eegister, 272.
Toothache, 24.
Toynbee, Mr. H. V., 291.
Trade Boards Act, as preventing

Sweating, 91.
Trade Unions, effect of Insurance on,

199; subsidies to, 204; insurance by,

1G3-220; statistics of on Unemploy--

ment, 112.
Training Establishments, 142-50, 314.
Training for the Unemployed, 141-50.
Tramways, excessive hours of labour

on, 134.
Treatment, not relief, 284-G.
Tuberculosis, see Phthisis.
Tuberculin Dispensary, 189.
Typhus, 19, 29, 30, 104-6, 138-9, lGl-2.

Uncertified deaths, 24.
"Under-employed," the, 9G.
Under-employment among casual

labourers, 129-3G; evil results of,

129 ; cause of chronic state of, 130-1 ;

method of dealing with, 131-6.
Unemploved Workmen Act, 1905, 3, 4,

104-5, 290.

Unemployment as cause of destitu-
tion, 7, 8G-107 ; usual misunderstand-
ing of, 94; real nature of, 95-6, 110;
comparative prevalence of, 93-4; ex-
tremes of in 181G, 1841, and 1879, 94 ;
as dismissal of a workman, 110;
causes of, 110-38; inevitability of
some causes of, 137-8; how to pre-
vent, 110-58; effect of, cn workman's
family, 97 ; on character, 97 ; extent
of evil, 97-8; insurance against, 192-
200; failure of provision for, 101-5.

Unemployment Aiithorities, work of,
in l elicviug destitution, 4, 104-5, 290.

Unemployment Insurance, danger of,
192; malingering in, 193; connection
with Labour Exchange, 193-5; lead-
ing to compulsory Labour Exchange,
193-4; to enforcement of Standard
Kate and Conditions, 194-9; to trans-
formation of Trade Unionism, 199-
200.

" Unified Medical Service," 33, 34.
Urwick, Mr. E. J., 158.

" Vacation Schools," 255.

Vagrancy, 109, 139, 150-1, 201.

Venereal disease, 33, 37, 43, 44, 49.

Viability, not necessarily connected
with quality, 48.

Vincent, Dr. Ealph, 60.

Vision, children of defective, 66.

Voluntary Agencies, sphere of, 221-264;
theories as to relationship of, to State
action, 223-GO; inventiveness and
initiative of, 240-1; lavish devotion
of, 241-2; religious influences of,
242-5; costliness and unfair incidence
of, 245-6; incompleteness and discon-
tinxiity of, 24G-7; lack of disciplinary
powers of, 247-9.

Voluntary Contributions, 221 ; inade-
quate to designed task, 227, 229;
costly and wasteful to obtain, 245.

Wages, lost through ill-health, 17; tax
on, 213; amount of national aggre-
gate of, 112; even good and regular,
no remedy, 87.

Walsh, Hon. G., 157.

Watsou, Mr. A. W., 215, 216.

Wealth-production affected by ill-
health, 17; increased by Policy of
Prevention, 328.

Welfare, Council of Social, 259.

West Ham, social conditions in, 13.

Westminster Health Society, 41.

Whetham, W. C. D. and Mrs., 60.

Whitelegge, Dr. B. A., 41.

Whooping cough, 65.

Widnes, municipal hospital* at, 32.

Widowhood as cause of destitution, 7 ;
methods of dealing with, 136, 2G2-3,
335.

Widows, driven to go i.ut to work,
136; difficulty of relieving, 262-3; how
to deal with, 335.

Wilkins, Mrs., 13.

Wilson, Miss Mona, 13.

AVilkinson, Eev. .T. Frome, 215.

Williams, Dr. Ethel, 291, 335.

AVilloughby, W. F., 215.

Wilson, Eev. Canon, 41.

348

INDEX

Wimbledon School for Mothers, 41.

Wood, Mr. G. H., 158.

Workhouses, births in, 53-4; in Lou-
don, GO ; in Ireland, 60 ; children
residing in, 33G; numbers not dimin-
ishing, 336; and the unemployed, 100;
the reaction in the Free Shelter and
the Soup Kitchen, 101.

" Workhouse Test," the, 228.

Workmen's Compensation Act, 1896,
181; increase of accidents under',
181-2; malingering under, 182-3.

York, social conditions in, 13.

Zacher, Dr.', 215.

GARDEK CITV PltESS I IMITKD, PRINTERS, LETCHWORTH, HERTS.

Works by Sidney and Beatrice JVebb

Grants in Aid:

A CRITICISM AND A PROPOSAL

By SIDNEY WEBB

Demy 8w, i^SPP- (i9iO' ■^^^'-^ S^-

This is the first volume dealing with Grants in Aid as an
instrument of government. In the United Kingdom, at the
present time, a sum of about thirty millions sterling is annu-
ally paid by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the various
Local Governing Authorities of the Kingdom. This large
subvention has important effects on Local Government
which have never before been critically examined. The
author's thesis is that in the Grant in Aid we have un-
consciously devised an instrument of administration of
extraordinary potency ; and that its gradual adoption
during the past three-quarters of a century has created a
hierarchy of local government, far superior to that of
France and Germany on the one hand (termed by the
author "The Bureaucratic System") ; and to that of the
United States on the other (which the author describes as
" The Anarchy of Local Autonomy "). But the efficiency
of our English system depends on the particular conditions
upon which the Grants in Aid are made ; and the book
concludes with a detailed proposal for the complete
revision, on novel principles, of all the existing subventions,
and for their extension to other services. An elaborate
bibliography is appended.

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W orks by Sid7tey a72d Beatrice Webb

English
Poor Law Policy

i^mj %vo, xiii and 379 pp. (19 10). Price 7/6 net

In this volume the authors of Industrial Democracy and
English Local Qovemment TpvQs&nt what is practically a history
of the English Poor Law, from the Report of the Royal
Commission of 1832-4 down to that of the Royal Com-
mission of 1905-9. For this work they have analysed, not
only the statutes, but also the bewildering array of General
and Special Orders, Circulars, Minutes, Inspectors' exhorta-
tions, and unpublished letters, by means of which the Poor
Law Commissioners, the Poor Law Board, and the Local
Government Board have sought to direct the policy of the
Boards of Guardians. No such history has before been
attempted. For the first time the gradual development of
policy can be traced, with regard to children, to the sick, to
the aged and infirm, to vagrants, to the able-bodied, etc.
The reader is enabled to watch the gradual and almost
unconscious evolution, from out of the " principles of
1834," of what may be called the "principles of 1907" ;
being the lines of policy to which the experience of three-
quarters of a century had brought the administrator when
the recent Royal Commission overhauled the subject. Two
concluding chapters summarise and analyse the proposals of
the Majority and the Minority Reports.

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Works by Sid7tey and Beatrice Webb

THE STATE AND
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We do a great deal of State Doctoring in England — more
than is commonly realised — and our arrangements have got
into a tangle, which urgently needs straightening out.
Everywhere there is a duplication of authorities and more
or less overlapping of work. We are spending out of the
rates and taxes, in one way or another, directly on sickness
and Public Health, a vast sum of money annually — no man
knows how much, but it certainly amounts to six or seven
millions sterling.

There is no popular description of our existing State
Doctoring. Many worthy people, thinking themselves
educated, don't even know of its existence. This sketch of
what is actually going on at our expense, and this analysis
of the various proposals for reform, will serve to place the
reader in a position to make up his mind as to what ought'
to be done.

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Works by Sidney aitd Beatrice JVebh

THE BREAK-UP
OF THE POOR LAW

BEING PART I. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF
THE POOR LAW COMMISSION

Edited, with Introduction, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb

I)e7ny 8>o, xx and 604 pp. 7/6 net. Uniform with
'•'•English Local Qo')>ernment''

Bluebooks, it has been said, are places of burial. The Report of the Royal
Commission on the Poor Law and the Agencies dealing with the Unem-
ployed is a ponderous tome of seven pounds weight, crowded with refer-
ences, footnotes, and appendices, impossible either to handle or to read.
Mr. and Mrs. Webb have, therefore, rescued from this tomb the Minority
Report signed by the Dean of Norwich, Messrs. Chandler and Lansbury,
and Mrs. Webb herself By omitting all the notes and references, and
printing the text in clear type on a convenient octavo page, they present
the reader with something which he can hold with comfort by his fireside.

This Minority Report is a new departure in such documents. It is
readable and interesting. It is complete in itself It presents, in ordered
sequence, page by page, a masterly survey of what is actually going on in
our workhouses and in the homes of those maintained on Outdoor Relief
It describes in precise detail from carefully authenticated evidence what is
happening to the infants, to the children of school age, to the sick, to the
mentally defective, to the widows with children struggling on their pittances
of Outdoor Relief, to the aged and infirm inside the workhouse and out-
side. It sets forth the overlapping of the Poor Law with the newer work
of the Education and Public Health Authorities, and the consequent waste
and confusion. It gives a graphic vision of the working of the whole Poor
Law machinery in all parts of the United Kingdom, which is costing us
nearly twenty millions sterling per annum.

The volume concludes with a Scheme of Reform, of novel and far-
reaching character, which is elaborately worked out in detail, involving
the abolition of the workhouse, the complete disappearance of the Poor
Law, and the transfer of the care of the children, the sick, the mentally
defective, and the aged to the several committees of the County Borough
Councils and County Councils already administering analogous services.

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Works by Sici7tey and Beatrice W^ebb

THE PUBLIC
ORGANIZATION OF
THE LABOUR MARKET

BEING PART 11. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF
THE POOR LAW COMMISSION

Edited, with Introduction, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb

Demy Sw, x))i and 332//). 5/- net. Uniform with
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The Problem of the Unemployed, which the Royal Commission on
the Poor Law was incidentally set to solve, is the question of the
day. Part II. of the Minority Report deals with it in a manner at
once comprehensive and complete. The whole of the experience
of the Poor Law Authorities, and their bankruptcy as regards the
destitute able-bodied, is surveyed in vivid and picturesque detail.
There is a brief account of the work of Voluntary Agencies.
A lucid description is then given, with much new information, of
the movement started by Mr. Chamberlain in 1886, which culmin-
ated in the Unemployed Workmen Act of 1905. The story is
told of the various experiments and devices that have been tried
during the past twenty years, the Relief Works and the Farm
Calonies, e^tc. This leads up to an altogether novel descriptive
analysis of the Unemployed of to-day, who they actually are, and
what they really need. The final chapter on Proposals for Reform
gives, in elaborate detail, the Minority's plan for solving the whole
problem of Unemployment — not by any vague and chimerical
panacea, but by a series of administratively practicable reforms, based
on the actual experience of this and other countries, which are
within the compass of the Cabinet, and could, if desired, be carried
in a single session of Parliament.

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ENGLISH LOCAL
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(THE PARISH AND THE COUNTY)

FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL
CORPORATIONS ACT

Demy 8>o, xx^i and 66^ pp. (1907). Price 16/- net

This work, the result of eight years' research into the manuscript
records of the Parish and the County all over England and Wales —
from Northumberland to Cornwall, from Cardigan to Kent —
combines history and description in a continuous narrative of extra-
ordinary interest. Avoiding the questions of the origin of English
local institutions, and even of their mediaeval development, the
authors plunge at once into a vivid description of the Parish Officers
and the Vestry, Quarter Sessions and the Justices of the Peace, the
Lord-Lieutenant and the High Sheriff, together with all the other
authorities by which the internal administration was actually carried
on. An entirely new view is presented of the social and political
development of Parish Vestry and Quarter Sessions, of their relations
to the Squire and the Incumbent, and of their attitude towards Par-
liament and the problems of their age. But the book is more than a
contribution to history and political science. Practically all the
counties of England and Wales, and literally hundreds of parishes,
find place in this unique record of life and manners, in which are
embedded not a few dramatic episodes of absorbing interest. It is
a new picture of English life between 1689 and 1835 as it actually
was in country and town, with graphic tracings of its results on
national progress and on the social and economic problems by wliich
we are now confronted.

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FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL
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In this second instalment of their English Local Government the authors
apply their method of combined history and analysis to the fascinating
story of the towns and the manorial communities of England and Wales.
An interesting new account is given, from unpublished materials, of the
organisation and development in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
of the Manor and its several Courts, with picturesque glimpses of the
hitherto undescribed part played by the Jury in the common-field agri-
culture. But the Manor is shown to be also the starting-point for a
whole series of constitutional developments, passing through grade after
grade of Manorial Borough, hitherto undescribed, into the complete
Municipal Corporation. Their extensive study of the manuscript records
enables the authors to set forth the inner working of the "Municipal
Democracies" that existed alongside the chartered oligarchies, with their
many analogies to modern American cities ; and to bring vividly to notice
the conditions and limitations of successful Democratic government.
There is an interesting sketch of English hierarchies of town government,
chief among them being the Cinque Ports, the constitutional position of
which is presented in a new light. The anomalous history of the City of
Westminster is explored by the light of the unpublished archives of its
peculiar municipal organisation. An altogether novel view is presented
of the constitutional development of the greatest municipality of all, the
Corporation of the City of London, to which no fewer than 124 pages
are devoted. The work concludes with a picturesque account of the
"Municipal Revolution" of 1835, ^nd the Homeric combat of Brougham
and Lyndhurst which ended in the Municipal Reform Act of 1835.

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Some Press Notices of

English Local Government

"A book of the deepest, even of fascinating interest. Here for the first
time we have a real study of local life in England, in village and town and
country. . . . Everywhere we follow the gallant fights of humane and just
men whose stories are scattered through these pages, along with the sharp
dealings of the astute. Familiar names meet us— a great-uncle of Cecil
Rhodes making his ' Empire ' in St. Pancras ; the novelist Fielding cutting
down the gains of the magistrate who preyed on the poor. . . . Noble
figures stand out among the ignoble. As in the parish, the rulers of the
county . . . found themselves left free ... to administer as they thought fit.
They used the power fully ; governed, legislated, silently transformed their
constitution, and showed themselves capable of the same extremes as the men
of the parish, except that they never surrendered to the ' boss.' . . . We
have only touched here on the tale the authors give, so absorbing in interest
to any Englishman. . . . The best tribute to the writers of this most
valuable work is the difficulty of turning away for comment or criticism
from the subjects they present in such a vigorous and human form. . . .
They have opened a new chapter in English history." — Mrs. J. R. Green,
in Westminster Gazette.

" Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb's monumental work on our local
institutions must be a source at once of pride and of something a little like
shame. Here at last we have a book which is more than worthy to be placed
beside those of the great continental writers on the subject. . . . Mr. and
Mrs. Sidney Webb are as learned as the Prussian, as lucid as the Frenchman,
and as scholarly and careful as the Austrian. ... If it is literature to present
a singularly vivid picture of a past stage of society, to render it real and
lifelike by a careful selection and skilful grouping of illustrative details, and
to explain its meaning with clearness, sound judgment, and not infrequent
touches of quiet humour, then assuredly is this volume literary as well as
learned. . . . Packed as it is with quotations and references, it is full of
transcripts from life which one reader at least has found more fascinating
than many of the efforts made to revivify the past through the medium of
historical romance or romantic history. The story of the rise, the decline,
and the fall of the parish autonomy and the old county oligarchy is in itself

English Local Government — contd.

a sort of epic not wanting in the elements of adventure, and even of tragedy.
. . . Here and there a remarkable personality emerges." — Mr. Sidney Low,
in Standard.

" Without exaggeration it may be said that this work will necessitate
the rewriting of English history. ... We are ushered into a new world,
full of eager and heated interest. . . . The authors have contrived to
make these dead bones live. Everywhere are peepholes into the lives of the
people, and occasionally a connected story . . . throws a flood of light on
English society. There is not a chapter which is not full of facts of general
interest, while the whole volume . . . will be altogether indispensable to
the serious student. . . . There is a fascinating tale of the ' boss ' of
Bethnal Green. ... A history of the English people, richer in local
colour, more comprehensive in its survey of social aifairs, and more truly

human in its sympathies than any treatise hitherto given to the public."

Mr. R. A. Bray, in Daily News.

" Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb continue their laborious and luminous
studies of English local institutions. In the last two volumes we find the
same characteristics as those already published respecting the parish and the
county — a minute investigation conducted not in the spirit of the antiquary,
but with an eye to realities which are of interest to the politician, the
historian, and the economist ; an examination of the vast mass of printed
matter on the subject, much of it practically inaccessible ; and exhaustive
enquiry among unedited manuscript records, some of them probably never
before read. A few lines in the text or in a footnote are the results of
prolonged local investigation ; a few unobtrusive words at the close of a
sentence, or qualifying some general statement, are the fruits of a careful
search among the muniments of some corporation. We cannot speak too
highly of the industry and patience which these volumes attest. They
possess even rarer merits. The whole subject is set in a new light. We get
away from traditional formula and conceptions. We see the local institutions
at work, and they appear very different from what they are represented by
hwyexs to be." — Times.

" If it be true, as many deep thinkers maintain, that history affords the
only sure key to a thorough knowledge of political institutions, then the
work of which these two learned and elaborate volumes form a part is
indispensable to every serious student of English Local Government, for the
history of that subject has never yet been expounded with such completeness
and so scientific an impartiality. ... A pioneer in a new way of writing
the history of institutions. ... By the skill with which they present the

English Local Government — contd.

general movement of institutional developments as the outgrowth of natural
forces, and constantly.illustrate it by particular points of actuality and human
interest, these writers have given new life to a study too long neglected."—
Scotsman.

" Closely packed tomes, crowded with detail, and exhibiting the result
of a sum of research and investigation which leaves the indolent, irresponsible
reviewer almost wordless with respectful admiration. . . Such a collection
of original material has been weighed and sifted as might move the envy of
any German professor." — Evening Standard.

" For years to come they will still be sifting, amassing, arranging, but
their reputation as the foremost investigators of fact now amongst us is
likely to be confirmed rather than shaken. Their work is as minute in
detail as it is imposing in mass. In their patience they possess their
intellect, and they remind us of the scholar with a magnifying glass in a
picture by Jan van Eyck." — Observer.

Works by Sid7tey and Beatrice Webb

THE HISTORY OF

TRADE UNIONISM

Demy Svo ; Tenth Thousand ; New Edition^ with
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This work describes, not only the growth and development of the Trade
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organisation or record of strikes, but gives, in effect, the political history
of the English working class during the last one hundred and fifty years.
The opening chapter describes the handicraftsman in the toils of the
industrial revolution, striving vainly to retain the medieval regulation of
his Standard of Life. In subsequent chapters the Place Manuscripts and
the archives of the Privy Council and the Home Office enable the authors
to picture the struggles of the early Trade Unionists against the
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led to their repeal. The private records of the various Societies, together
with contemporary pamphlets and working-class newspapers, furnish a
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of 1830-34, with its revolutionary aims and subsequent Chartist entangle-
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traced from point to point, new light being incidentally thrown upon the
defeat of Mr. Gladstone's Government in 1874. A detailed analysis is
given of the economic and political causes which have, since 1880, tended
to divorce the Trade Union Movement from its alliance with "official
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last few years. The final chapter describes the Trade Union world of to-
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in difficulties with his woi-kmen, the Trade Unionist confronted with a
new assault upon his Standard Rate, the politician troubled about a new
project for Factory Legislation, the public-spirited citizen concerned as to
the real issues of a labour dispute, will find elucidated in this work the
very problems about which they are thinking. It is a storehouse of
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parts of the Kingdom; systematically classified; and made accessible by an
unusually elaborate Index. But the book is more than an Encyclopedia
on the Labour Question. The century-long experience of these working-
class organisations aflbrds unique evidence as to the actual working of such
expedients as the Referendum, the Initiative, Government by Mass
Meetings, Annual Elections, Proportional Representation, Payment of
Members, and, generally, the relation between the citizen-elector, the
chosen representative, and the executive officer. Those who regard the
participation of a working-class electorate in the affairs of government as
the distinctive, if not the dangerous feature in modern politics, will here
find the phenomenon isolated, and may learn how the British workman
actually deals with similar issues in his own sphere. The intricate consti-
tutions and interesting political experiments of the thousand self-governing
Trade Union republics are dissected and criticised by the authors in such
a way as to make the work a contribution to Political Science, as to the
scope and method of which the authors, in describing their investigations,
propound a new view.

A new Introductory Chapter deals at length with Compulsory Courts of
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Works by Sidney aitd Beatrice Webb

PROBLEMS OF
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Co-operative Movement in
Great Britain

By BEATRICE POTTER (Mrs. Sidney Webb)

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Socialism in England

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The Eight Hours' Day

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has issued the following publications^ which may be obtained
at 37, ISlorfolI^ Street, or from P. S. KJNG & SON,
2, Great Stnith Street, J-Vestminster, London, S.JV.

THE CRUSADE.

Monthly, one penn)' ; with illustrated supplement supplying up-to-
date information with regard to one branch of the problem.

THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE POOR LAW COMMISSION.
Cheap edition in two volumes. Part I. — The Brf.ak-up of the Poor
Law. Price is. (postage 4d.) Part II. — The Unemployed. Price is.
(postage 3d.) Full Index. 90 pp. Price is. (postage 2d.)

THE MINORITY REPORT FOR SCOTLAND.

Cloth covers, 88 pp., 6d. (Scottish National Committee for the
Prevention of Destitution, 180, Hope Street, Glasgow.) From all
Booksellers (or by post i^d. extra.)

BOOKLETS.

Consisting of reprinted chapters of the Minority Report, bound separately in
paper coders. Trice ^d. each, post free.

1. THE CARE OF THE CHILDREN.

2. THE TREATMENT OF THE SICK.

3. BIRTH AND INFANCY.

4. THE RECOVERY OF COST.

5. THE DISEASE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

6. THE SCHEME OF REFORM. Part I.— The Poor Law.

7. THE SCHEME OF REFORM. Part II.— UNEMrLOVMENT.

8. SUPERVISION AND CONTROL BY THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT.

9. GRANTS IN AID.

TRACTS.

Explaining briefly the general outline and the ')>arious parts of the Scheme.

Price id. each, post free.

1. An Outline of the Proposal to Break-up the Poor Law. i6 pp.

2. The Failure of the Poor Law. 8 pp.

3. How the Minority Report deals with Unemployment. 16 pp.

4. How THE Minority Report deals with the Sick. 20 pp.

5. How the Minority Report deals with the Children. 16 pp.

7. The Poor Law Medical Officer and his Future. By [Mrs. Sidney

Webb. 8 pp.

8. The Reports on the Poor Law. By the Right Hon. Sir John Gorst,

I^C. 1 6 pp.

9. The New Charter of the Poor : What is Meant by the Break-up

OF THE Poor Law. 8 pp.

10. Seven Reasons for Supporting the Minority Report of the Poor

Law Commission. 'By J. W. Willis Bund, Chairman of the
Worcestershire County Council. 4 pp. (Two copies for id.)

11. The Sphere of Voluntary Agencies under the Minority Report.

By the Very Rev. The Dean of 'Norwich. 24 pp.

12. The Majority Report and Why we should Reject it. B'^ J.

Theodore Dodd, M.A. 1 6 pp.

13. The Minority Report in its Relation to Public Health and the

Medical Profession. By (Mrs. Sidney Webb. 24 pp.

14. The Problem of Poor Law Reform. By the Right Rev. [Mgr.

Parkinson, D.D.

ILLUSTRATED PAMPHLETS.

Issued originally as supplements to '■'^ Crusade.''' Trice id. (by post, i\d.)

THE PREVENTION OF UNEMPLOYMENT.
THE PROBLEM OF THE FEEBLEMINDED.
THE ORGANISED PREVENTION OF DISEASE.
HOW TO PROVIDE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.
THE PROBLEM OF BOY LABOUR.

TERMS OF MEMBERSHIP OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE.

Non-subscribing members are cordially welcomed, but in general the Committee's
literature can only be sent to subscribers, as follows :

53. a year and upwards covers a copy of the Minority Report, The Crusade, and

all the Committee's literature as published.
2S. 6d. a year covers the smaller literature and The Ckusadk.
13. 6d. a year covers The Crusade alone.

J II sympathisers are earnestly incited to communicate with the Honorary
Secretary, 37, tKorfolk Street, Strand, London.