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METHODS 
 
 OF 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM 
 
METHODS 
 
 OF 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM 
 
 ESSAYS CRITICAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE 
 
 BY THOMAS MACKAY 
 n 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE ENGLISH POOR" 
 EDITOR OF " A PLEA FOR LIBERTY," ETC. 
 
 0FTHE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LONDON 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 
 
 1896 
 
SPRECKEIS 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE author desires to thank the proprietors of 
 the various Reviews who have kindly given their 
 consent to the republication of several of the 
 articles reprinted in the following collection. H e 
 also wishes to express his gratitude to the 
 numerous friends who, from time to time, have 
 supplied him with information with regard to the 
 local administration of the Poor Law. 
 
 113664 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION ... ... ... ... ... i 
 
 POOR LAW REFORM 
 
 The Problem Defined ... ... ... ... 22 
 
 The Precedent of 1834 ... ... ... ... 29 
 
 1834 and 1895 37 
 
 The Necessity for Inquiry ... ... ... ... 46 
 
 The Nature of the Evidence ... ... ... 53 
 
 The Administration in Whitechapel ... ... ... 63 
 
 The Statistical Result ... ... ... ... 69 
 
 Bethnal Green ... ... ... ... ... 75 
 
 Classification ... ... ... ... ... 79 
 
 Stepney and t. George-in-the-East ... ... ... 86 
 
 Birmingham and Manchester ... ... ... 89 
 
 A Rural Union ... ... ... ... ... 98 
 
 A General Conclusion ... ... ... ... 104 
 
 E POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT ... ... 105 
 
 J ^THE WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW ... ... 149 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE ... ... ... 173 
 
 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS ... ... ... ... 213 
 
 1 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY ... ... ... 259 
 
 PEOPLE'S BANKS ... ... ... ... ... 286 
 
 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE v. THE " COLLECTIVE BARGAIN " 31 1 
 
METHODS OF 
 
 SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 ASSAYS CRITICAL AND CONSTRUCTIVE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE "State of the Poor" has now established 
 itself as a permanent controversy, and, before long, 
 it may be thrust into the fore-front of practical 
 politics. This consideration will, it is hoped, 
 warrant the author in his desire to reissue, at 
 the present time, and in book form, a selection 
 from the contributions which he has made, during 
 the last few years, to this vexed and important 
 inquiry. Some of the papers contained in this 
 volume were originally delivered as addresses at 
 Poor Law Conferences, or at gatherings of a 
 kindred nature. Others have been reprinted from 
 the reviews in which they originally appeared. 
 The paper on Poor Law Reform and that on Free 
 versus Collective Bargaining are now printed for the 
 first time. 
 
 The choice of articles for inclusion in the 
 
 B 
 
2 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 present volume, has been made with a view of 
 illustrating two aspects of the problem which 
 appear to the author to be of super-eminent 
 importance. On the one hand, the absolute 
 harmfulness of the collectivist principle, which 
 lies at the root of our English poor law system, 
 is strongly maintained. It is argued that the 
 countenance given, by persons in exalted station, 
 to proposals for its wider application, is seriously 
 and mischievously diverting the attention of the 
 poorer classes of the country from truer methods 
 of progress. These proposals, which it is not here 
 necessary to specify more particularly, amount in 
 the aggregate to a policy of using taxation not 
 as a means of providing for the public services, 
 but as an instrument for redistributing property. 
 On the other hand, it is the purpose of these 
 pages to express a belief in the existence and 
 possibility of those truer methods of progress, 
 which consist in developing, on voluntary lines, 
 the natural constructive forces of a free society. 
 Briefly, the first portion of the volume is critical 
 and destructive ; the second endeavours to indicate 
 and explain, by means of concrete illustration, 
 the nature of the true constructive elements of 
 civilised society. 
 
 The paper on Poor Law Reform deals in a 
 practical spirit with the present administration of 
 the law. Though firmly convinced of the futility 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 of any compromise of principle, the author is 
 prepared to admit that the drastic remedies, which 
 in his judgment are necessary if we hope for any 
 large reformation, must be applied gradually, and 
 in such manner as to carry with it the approval 
 of public opinion. The only contribution which 
 the author can make to this desirable end is to 
 put on record his experience and conclusions 
 without any attempt at compromise. For, what- 
 ever may be the case with regard to the appli- 
 cation of sound principles, with regard to their 
 enunciation, there is no room for compromise. 
 The articles which follow on The Poor Law as 
 an obstacle to Thrift, The Interest of the Working 
 Classes in the Poor Law, Old Age Pensions and 
 the State, contain, for the most part, negative 
 criticism. The article on The Abuse of Statistics 
 deals with certain statistical fallacies by which the 
 view here maintained has been assailed ; while that 
 on The Co-operation of Charitable Agencies with the 
 Poor Law develops at somewhat greater length one 
 of the methods of administrative reform which has 
 been found most efficacious in bringing about a 
 reduction of pauperism. 
 
 The articles on Peoples Banks and on Free 
 vers^ls Collective Bargaining lead the reader into 
 a more hopeful atmosphere. The first directs 
 attention to a most successful experiment in 
 promoting a wider distribution of private property 
 
4 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 by the methods of acquisition and tenure recog- 
 nised as legal by the consent of civilised society. 
 This is contrasted with attempts to transfer 
 property from one class to another by legislation 
 and taxation, the pastime which occupies so much 
 of the energies of political adventurers of all 
 parties. It is argued that until our national 
 enthusiasm can be diverted from the superstitious 
 reverence with which their proceedings are fol- 
 lowed, and our interest roused in favour of 
 voluntary and constructive methods, our efforts 
 after social reform must be cursed with sterility ; 
 indeed, such progress as the country is permitted 
 to make will be made in spite of the empirical 
 strivings of delegates representing greedy and 
 aggressive majorities, animated by all the anti- 
 social and retrograde instincts by which humanity 
 is still influenced. 
 
 The -last paper in the volume is designed to 
 show that freedom of exchange, and not coercive 
 combination, is the best and most beneficent 
 guarantee for the continuous advance of labour 
 in the social scale. A denial of this proposition 
 seems to involve a fallacy which, in the author's 
 judgment, is most unwarranted as well as most 
 mischievous. Interference with freedom of ex- 
 change in the sphere of labour, whether brought 
 about by legal, or extra-legal, but still coercive regu- 
 lation, ignores an elementary truth in economics ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 viz. that voluntary exchange brings a profit to 
 both parties. Ex hypothesi, at the point of time 
 when the bargain is effected, both parties are agreed 
 that an exchange shall take place, and in the case 
 of adult citizens, it is difficult to understand why 
 they should be deprived of their liberty to act on 
 what they conceive to be their own interest. 
 
 It is not denied that classes, at different times 
 in the world's history, have been so depressed 
 that the momentary advantage, derived from a 
 free exchange, still leaves them in a miserable 
 and unsatisfactory condition. Nay, further, it 
 may be conceded that there are occasions when 
 the poverty and degradation of a section of the 
 community may warrant the confiscation and 
 redistribution of property, in other words, a 
 revolution ; but, even in this case, the subsequent 
 redistribution has to be effected by means of the 
 recognised tenures. The property which belonged 
 to A may be taken from him and given to B, 
 C, and D, but when this necessary or inevitable 
 injustice is done, the right to hold or to sell 
 emerges again as the only possible tenure by 
 which men can satisfy their wish to profit by 
 that sub-division of industrial energy which is 
 the distinguishing feature of modern civilisation. 
 
 Most reasonable men will agree that in a normal 
 state of society there is enough of equity and of 
 happiness to warrant a resistance to revolution. 
 
6 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 It then remains that, in a society which would 
 avail itself of the advantages arising from a sub- 
 division of labour, exchange is the only orderly 
 process by which profit and wealth can be created 
 and distributed. The reason that a man or 
 a class can only secure what appears a poor 
 rate of exchange for his services and property is, 
 that he has nothing, in the opinion of his fellow 
 men, of much value to offer. His services, such as 
 they are, can only be converted to more valuable 
 purpose, by allowing him to pursue freely the 
 exchanges that are open to him. The mutual 
 principle of exchange will lead him, in pursuit 
 of his own interest, to seek better remunerated 
 work. This, together with the willingness and 
 ability of his neighbours to reward one industry 
 better than another, provides a guarantee that, 
 in the long run, and in proportion as the im- 
 pediments to this distributing influence are re- 
 moved, each unit of labour will be carried to the 
 point or market where it can be employed most 
 profitably to itself, and to the community at large. 
 This automatic, natural, or voluntary principle of 
 adjustment is no quick working panacea ; we may 
 deplore the tarrying of the millennium, but we can 
 find no surer or better guide ; all we can do is to 
 clear away the impediments which stand in its 
 path, and to preserve an unfaltering faith in the 
 true beneficence of the reign of freedom. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 The country has lately gone through the throes 
 of a general election, and a party has been returned 
 to power pledged to devote itself to what it vaguely 
 terms social reform. This verdict of the con- 
 stituencies has been interpreted as marking the 
 intensity of the national wish to legislate about 
 our social arrangements. Elsewhere, and probably 
 more truly, the result of the late election has been 
 imputed to popular disgust with a government 
 whose social legislation, dictated by the noisiest, 
 most mischievous, and at the same time least 
 influential of its supporters has harassed and 
 alarmed every respectable section of the com- 
 munity. There is some truth in both represen- 
 tations. The victory of the Conservative party has 
 been gained, on the one hand, by promises of a 
 wild and impracticable policy of state socialism, 
 and, on the other hand, by the vote of those who 
 support a party which, as they think, cannot, 
 fortunately for the welfare of the country, do 
 much to redeem these pledges. 
 
 It is not an altogether satisfactory situation. 
 The desire for social improvement is very intense 
 and very sincere, but it is quite another thing 
 to admit that social reform, in any real sense 
 of the term, can be promoted by legislative action. 
 To take property from A and give it to B, 
 C, and D, in order that they may buy old age 
 pensions, or freehold houses, is a revolutionary 
 
8 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 proceeding, and no permanent and satisfactory 
 superstructure can be built on such a foundation. 
 Speaking at Doncaster on the 2Oth of July, 1895, 
 Mr. Balfour very justly remarked (Standard, 
 July 22, 1895): 
 
 " It was as impossible for us to live upon perpetual 
 political revolutions as it was for an individual to obtain 
 a wholesome diet upon pills. The Gladstonian Party 
 seemed to think that a passionate love of Constitutional 
 change was the great characteristic of Democracies. 
 Nothing of the kind. All history was against that 
 view, and probably the most vehemently Conservative 
 population in the whole universe was the American 
 Republic, where change was not desired, and where, 
 if it was desired, it would be almost impossible under 
 the multitudinous safeguards which their Constitution 
 provided. The Anglo-Saxon race did not differ in 
 that respect on the two sides of the Atlantic. As 
 a Conservative people we must ever in the end oppose 
 senseless and stupid revolutionary projects, forced 
 forward by no national necessity, required by no social 
 growth, and not called for by any real pressing need 
 of the time. Such revolutionary proposals would from 
 time to time be the expedient of the demagogue." 
 
 The English constitution is very well in its 
 way, but there are elementary social truths of 
 more transcendent importance. A social difficulty 
 is not overcome, when it is solved by some 
 coercive act of the legislature. If by an act of 
 the constitution, poverty is given the right to 
 endow itself at the expense of property, a 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 revolutionary attack is aimed at an order of 
 things far more fundamental and far more im- 
 portant than any political constitution. 
 
 The problems which these revolutionary pro- 
 posals are intended to solve, will not be aban- 
 doned as insoluble, except by those who are 
 inappreciative of the history of the past, and 
 unduly sceptical of the possibilities of human 
 progress in the future. The ever-recurring con- 
 flicts of interest such as that which arises between 
 the rich and the poor can be solved by action 
 which is at once mutual and voluntary. In the 
 sphere of economics the most salient manifestation 
 of this co-ordinating spirit of conciliation is to be 
 found in the principle of exchange. In every 
 exchange both parties profit. The law of the 
 market, which is for ever driving commodities to 
 a lower range of prices, is at the same time 
 distributing and directing labour to more useful 
 and, therefore, to it, better remunerated purposes. 
 This is a fact attested by history and theory 
 alike. Of the spontaneity of this natural order 
 of progress, freedom is the guardian. 
 
 The moral of this would seem to be obvious. 
 Social reform is the ardent aspiration of all men. 
 Yet, alas! the highest intellect of the land, the 
 most vehement enthusiasm of all but a small 
 minority, a vast amount of time and of treasure 
 are expended in hunting solutions that are no 
 
io METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 solutions, but rather aggravations of our diffi- 
 culties. A tenth part of a tithe of this spirit of 
 devotion directed to voluntary methods of reform, 
 accompanied by a recognition that this was the 
 true path of progress, would do more to bring 
 about the object of our desire than the legislation 
 of centuries. 
 
 No one, who has not learnt it by personal ex- 
 perience and observation, can form any conception 
 of the harm that is done to the best interests of 
 the poor by the illusory electioneering promises 
 which are thrown out so profusely by ambitious 
 political adventurers. The dead weight of 
 dependent inertia is thereby rendered heavier and 
 more impervious to the inspiriting and quickening 
 influence of the arts of independence and progress. 
 
 There are sections of our poorer classes, where 
 the feeling of personal responsibility has been 
 legislated and " electioneered " out of existence. 
 This spirit of dependence has to be exorcised, 
 possibly by the repeal of some legislation, but 
 mainly by the successful development of the 
 salutary instincts inherent in every free society. 
 
 Those who claim to lead and teach the people 
 must endeavour to divert men's minds from seeking 
 profit in the coercive or legislative spoliation 
 of their neighbours, and persuade them rather 
 to improve the value of their own services, and 
 the services of their children, by following and 
 
INT ROD UCTION. 1 1 
 
 interpreting the market ; to retain and invest 
 some portion of their earnings, to make use, in 
 other words, of the necessary institution of private 
 property as a protection against sickness, old age, 
 and all the other economic ills to which flesh is heir. 
 At every step in this process, voluntary effort is 
 urgently required, not only from the poor them- 
 selves, but from the well-to-do who sympathise 
 with them in their sufferings. The better adminis- 
 tration of the poor law is largely dependent on the 
 right development of voluntary charity. The better 
 organisation of opportunities and inducements to 
 save and invest, is an enterprise most urgently 
 demanding the assistance of volunteers. The 
 absolute failure of the Post-Office as an insurance 
 agency, its comparative success, in spite of the 
 unpopularity of aggravating official regulations, 
 as a savings bank, performing moreover only a 
 portion of the beneficent functions of a banker, 
 suggest that there are vast fields of usefulness open 
 to voluntary effort in connection with the thrift 
 institutions of the labouring class. 
 
 The man who devotes himself to a political 
 life derives, it may be hoped, some entertainment 
 from his calling ; if he is successful in obstructing 
 or repealing legislation he may haply do some 
 good, but the politician with his programme of 
 constructive legislation is a pure source of calamity 
 to the nation at large. This is a proposition which 
 
12 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 probably no one, unless himself actually engaged 
 in politics, will seriously deny ; our superstitious 
 belief in the efficacy of politics is not due to 
 conviction, but arises from pure idleness and 
 disregard of the vast promise of reform which 
 lies ready to be gathered by voluntary action. 
 There are signs now that the nation is getting 
 tired of the spectacle of political adventurers 
 climbing to notoriety by playing experiments 
 with the foundations of society. Lord Melbourne 
 was probably right when he summed up his 
 experience in the remark that mankind was not 
 corrupt, but " damnably vain." These schemes of 
 social reform by means of legislation are well 
 meant, but to the increasing circle of those who 
 take a scientific view of the fact that society 
 grows naturally and is not made by spasmodic 
 efforts of legislation, it is clear that their projectors 
 are imagining a vain thing. 
 
 One last prefatory explanation seems desirable. 
 There are those who, with some justice, are 
 disposed to regard philanthropy as to some extent 
 an unwholesome virtue. It is undoubtedly a 
 dangerous calling for any man to take up, and 
 in many cases it has a most mischievous effect 
 upon the subjects of his experiments. In philan- 
 thropy, as in other virtues and vices, there are 
 degrees of depravity. The man who "does his 
 diligence," at his own charges, even if his action 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 does not always show much respect for the higher 
 possibilities of human nature, compels our respect. 
 The vicarious philanthropist who, in a reckless 
 race after a cheap popularity, uses the rate 
 extorted from his neighbours to multiply the 
 occasions of stumbling set before the helpless, 
 miserable crowd who are only too ready to 
 fall into dependence, is surely a very despicable 
 creature. 
 
 This truth, and, in large measure, it is a truth, 
 has never for long been absent from the mind 
 of the author of these pages. The reader, it is 
 requested, will observe that the methods of reform 
 here advocated will reduce the necessity of 
 philanthropic patronage to a minimum. Reform 
 consists in a re-creation and development of the 
 arts of independence. The plea, in fine, is not 
 for more philanthropy, but rather for more 
 respect for the dignity of human life, and more 
 faith in its ability to work out its own salvation. 
 
 Lest the phrase, "the arts of independence," 
 appear vague to the reader, it may not be unfitting 
 in the close of this introductory chapter to explain 
 more fully the meaning which the author attaches 
 to it, and the place which it fills in his theory of 
 society. The social creed, which underlies the 
 view upheld in this volume, may be summed up 
 in the proposition that human happiness and the 
 right ordering of society have depended and still 
 
14 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 depend, in the main, on a recognition and 
 acceptance of the doctrine of personal responsi- 
 bility. All the constructive forces, which build 
 up and then hold together the framework of 
 society, take their rise and afterwards draw their 
 life from this source. The personal motive, the 
 executive element, if the phrase may be allowed, 
 of a personally responsible unit, is, in this theory 
 of life, sufficient to account for the purely 
 automatic act of self-preservation, and also, and 
 with equal naturalness, for the superior cogency 
 of the social law which urges men to acts of self- 
 abnegation and heroism. In other words, the 
 personally responsible human being, left face to 
 face with the experience of life, is prompted to 
 action by motives of self-preservation, but, over 
 and above this, the mutuality of the social life, in 
 which he has of necessity become a part, suggests 
 to him naturally, and with an insistence not to be 
 denied, that course of social action which men call 
 moral. 
 
 In the economic sphere of man's action, this 
 truth, as to the mutuality of social life, is brought 
 prominently forward in the theory which represents 
 every economic action as a form of exchange. 
 In this connection, speaking as an amateur, whose 
 interests only fringe on the science of political 
 economy, the author desires to express his great 
 indebtedness to the writings of Mr. H. Dunning 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 MacLeod. By insisting that the phenomena of 
 exchange are the sole subject matter of the science 
 of economics, and that as a preliminary to their 
 discussion, our so-called economic actions must 
 be analysed and shown to be modes or forms of 
 exchange, Mr. MacLeod has, in the opinion of the 
 writer, introduced scientific order into a subject 
 which otherwise is apt to degenerate into misty 
 disquisitions on the nature of things in general. 
 
 Exchange is merely one manifestation of man's 
 natural capacity for apprehending and shaping 
 his conduct in accordance with the necessary 
 mutuality of his environment. Its action has 
 raised about us the material fabric of industrial 
 society. Darwin has told us how it was the 
 speculations of Malthus on the subject of 
 population that supplied him with the first hint 
 of his own famous hypothesis. In this instance 
 the debt of the naturalist to the economist has 
 been duly acknowledged. In a similar. way, from 
 a survey of the mere material growth of industrial 
 society and from observation of the organising 
 influence of exchange, we may derive an item 
 of contributory proof for the hypothesis of a 
 natural origin of ethics and for the opinion that 
 ethical sentiment is a natural growth ; further, the 
 same line of argument will suggest that it is 
 unnecessary and unphilosophical to invent the 
 hypothesis of a dual origin, in one part rational, 
 
16 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 in another ultra-rational. This reasoning does 
 not depend on any particular theory of knowledge, 
 nor does it preclude that effort of faith which 
 derives the observed order of the evolution of 
 nature from an initial act of miraculous creation. 
 It assumes, what cannot be denied, the mere fact 
 of personal consciousness. That granted, it is 
 alleged that there is no break either historically 
 or theoretically in the evolution of human activities 
 from the automatic movement of self-preservation 
 to the most carefully calculated action which we 
 describe as moral or immoral. Social or moral 
 sentiment has been dictated to us by the experience 
 of the individuals who compose the race. Personal 
 experience, issuing in personal action, has rejected 
 the impossible creed that the units of society are 
 warring atoms, 1 and has bound men together in the 
 bonds of a recognised brotherhood. 
 
 In other words, personal responsibility is the 
 automatic principle which has brought society 
 thus far upon its journey, and there is no reason 
 why we should seek to make it abdicate its 
 
 1 This view, as far as the author can discover, is a figment 
 imagined for rhetorical purposes by socialist writers, and imputed 
 by them to their opponents, whom they have most inappropriately 
 nicknamed individualists. Thus Dr. Westcott, Bishop of Durham, 
 in a paper read at the Church Congress in Hull in 1890, says : 
 "Individualism regards humanity as made up of disconnected or 
 warring atoms," an absurd opinion held, as far as the author is 
 aware, by no sane person, and of course easily susceptible of 
 -rhetorical condemnation. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 authority for such voyage as lies before us in the 
 future. 
 
 As necessary corollaries from this truth, several 
 important and constructive principles seem at once 
 to emerge. Personal responsibility necessitates 
 personal action. The mutuality of life insists that 
 our actions, in so far as they affect others, shall be 
 by way of exchange ; the principle which should 
 govern the limitation of personal freedom is thus 
 at once suggested. The necessity to act or to live, 
 limited as above stated, involves the necessity of 
 exchanging services, and the earnings or wages 
 of services. The necessity of exchanging services 
 involves the principle of personal freedom. The 
 exchange of the earnings of services necessitates 
 the institution of private property. The term 
 "necessity" is here advisedly substituted for the 
 term "right." It is more accurate both histori- 
 cally and philosophically. Thus the institution of 
 private property does not rest on any metaphysical 
 or empirical basis of "right," but on the fact 
 that the experience of civilised society has every- 
 where recognised it as the sole or necessary alter- 
 native to an insupportable system of universal 
 scramble. Communism, involving a community of 
 property, is a mere postponement of the period of 
 appropriation, a mere variation of the principle 
 of division. Products, whether they be food, 
 clothing, or shelter, must ultimately be personally 
 
 c 
 
i8 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 appropriated. Every man has private property in 
 his own dinner and his own coat. Under the 
 present rule of private property, these things come 
 to a man as the result of exchange for the right of 
 gift and bequest is involved in the larger right of 
 exchange conducted according to the recognised 
 jurisprudence of the land. Under communism they 
 would come to him, because they were awarded to 
 him by the bureaucracy, and under anarchy, if 
 such a thing were conceivable, 1 they would come to 
 him as the spoil of a struggle like that of " the 
 mammoths in their prime." 
 
 Private property is sometimes described as an 
 evil ; it would be more correct to say that the 
 limitation of supply, which renders it necessary, is 
 an evil. Private property is a remedial measure 
 forced upon mankind by the niggardliness of 
 nature, which has limited supply. The problem 
 is : How is this evil of limitation to be mitigated ? 
 If not by means of a course of action in which the 
 institution of private property is the first step, by 
 what other means ? 
 
 Again, let us appeal to the verdict of the civilised 
 world. The answer up to a certain point is clear. 
 We cannot scramble for the good things of this 
 
 1 The qualification in the text is inserted, because, it is submitted, 
 a state of anarchy, in which voluntary observance of rule has 
 ceased to exist, is inconceivable. Some new term is required for the 
 philosopher's ideal of an anarchy distinguished by a rigid but 
 voluntary observance of the dictates of morality and justice. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 life ; we must recognise the necessity of orderly 
 appropriation. When we pass beyond this ax- 
 iomatic truth, opinion and practice become less 
 uniform. The bureaucratic theory of life still 
 holds, in an undefined or uncertain form. The 
 right of taxation is tacitly assumed to reside in 
 the sovereign power, and there are sections of the 
 community who desire to use taxation not as a 
 means of raising money for various necessary 
 public services, but as a method of distributing 
 property and the advantages of property on what 
 seems to the governing class a more equitable 
 principle. In view of the theory maintained in 
 these pages, such a method runs altogether counter 
 to the natural constructive forces of our social life. 
 Devices (such as a poor law, especially a poor law 
 which goes beyond providing relief of destitution), 
 designed to render personal appropriation un- 
 necessary, are destructive of the organic principle 
 of progress. As above stated, orderly personal 
 appropriation is the first remedial step. It is a 
 retrograde step to reverse this process and to make 
 personal property a matter depending on the 
 caprice of the legislature. If, as seems un- 
 fortunately too probable, a tyrannical public 
 authority is to claim a right of ownership over the 
 private property of the individual, and to use its 
 power not for maintaining the public services, but 
 for redistributing wealth, a serious blow is aimed 
 
20 METHODS OF SOCIAL REFORM. 
 
 at a fundamental principle of civilisation. Hitherto 
 governments, monarchical and oligarchical, and 
 therefore weak, have, because of their weakness, 
 used their power of taxation sparingly. Their 
 malversations amounted to jobbery, but not to 
 revolution. A strong democratic government, 
 animated by the prevalent spirit of philanthropic 
 rapine, and officered, as seems inevitable, by wild- 
 cat politicians of all parties, is a more serious 
 danger. The necessity of curbing the power of 
 the State over the purses of its subjects is a 
 problem to which the nation before long will have 
 to give serious attention. 
 
 State-socialism, it is affirmed, is a retrograde 
 step. What, then, is the legitimate course of 
 development ? Property is in its essence monopoly, 
 and as such is only a first step towards a remedy. 
 Each monopoly or ownership of exchangeable 
 property is of course limited to that property ; but 
 the wants of the monopolist are by no means 
 satisfied. He is impelled to increase the numbers 
 of objects over which he can exercise monopoly, 
 not for his own consumption, but for purposes of 
 exchange. Monopoly is thus rendered innocuous, 
 because it is tempered by the necessity of the 
 monopolist to exchange. There lies, then, on 
 every man a natural necessity to own his own 
 person, to appropriate his own earnings, and to 
 exchange his own services and commodities ; and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 the evil of primitive poverty will by this process 
 be mitigated through the multiplication of property 
 or monopoly in many hands, and through the 
 principle of free exchange. By this means, and by 
 this means only, can we reach the true socialisation 
 of wealth. 
 
 Such, then, according to the theory here 
 presented, are the constructive elements to which 
 mankind must look for a better organisation of 
 society, and it will follow that no system of public 
 relief, however well ordered, has been, or ever can 
 be, a healthy constructive force. 
 
 As an apology for this dogmatic presentment of 
 his own view as to the origin of ethics and of 
 society, the author may be permitted to remark 
 that it is intruded here for the purpose of showing 
 that the opinions set forth in the following pages 
 are, as he believes, part of a reasoned theory of 
 society, and, further, that he does not shrink from 
 the logical conclusions which seem to follow from 
 the premisses, but that, on the contrary, finding 
 these larger conclusions reasonable and natural, 
 he is the more firmly convinced of the justice of 
 the view gathered in the narrower field of observa- 
 tion, in which he has been especially interested. 
 
I. 
 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 THE PROBLEM DEFINED. 
 
 POOR Law Reform is an ambiguous phrase, and 
 may be interpreted to cover a great number of 
 contradictory opinions. At the outset, it may be 
 stated that in the following pages the phrase must 
 be taken to mean such an alteration in the poor 
 law as will secure adequate relief for the destitute, 
 and, at the same time, foster independence and 
 reduce pauperism. 
 
 It is not necessary to discuss proposals for using 
 the poor law as a means of bringing about equality 
 of fortune and condition among all classes of the 
 community. For though it is part of the Socialist 
 programme to use taxation as a means of abolish- 
 ing " Capitalism," and for handing over the wealth 
 of the country to some form of collective tenure, 
 it is not proposed, as I understand it, to use the 
 poor law for this purpose. In a Fabian tract on 
 the Reform of the Poor Law, it is admitted that 
 " no instructed person would for a moment venture 
 
THE PROBLEM DEFINED. 23 
 
 to run any risk of restoring the evil days of the old 
 poor law." Again, " Socialists who object to an 
 industrial system, which condemns to pauperism 
 one-tenth of the population, believe that the 
 greater part of the need for poor relief would 
 cease if the owners of land and capital were com- 
 pelled to restore to the workers collectively the 
 tribute of rent and interest which is now exacted 
 from them individually. Nevertheless, in a land of 
 accident and sickness, poverty cannot be wholly 
 extinguished until a complete Communism is 
 reached. Some system of relief for the destitute 
 must therefore continue to exist for a long time to 
 come." It is a fair interpretation to put on this 
 passage that a complete Communism is to be aimed 
 at, not by the endowment of poverty through the 
 poor law, but by expedients of taxation and 
 "restoration" which do not here concern us. The 
 quarrel of the Socialist is not specially with the 
 poor law, but with the present mechanism of 
 society, which, in his opinion, makes a poor law 
 necessary. This argument against the endowment 
 of poverty by the poor law is illustrated by the 
 following criticism reported to have been made 
 on our English poor law system by a well-known 
 continental Socialist. It is said that when Madame 
 Louise Michel was in England, she was taken over 
 some of our poor law establishments. She remarked 
 that she now understood why England had had no 
 
24 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 revolution. There is a certain amount of truth in 
 the suggestion. The more intelligent Socialists 
 seem at times to appreciate the argument. If the 
 poor become satisfied with the provisions of the 
 poor law, agitation becomes more difficult, and 
 the Socialist's opportunity is gone : the necessary 
 revolution becomes impossible. 
 
 The same view is taken for different reasons, by 
 those who, like the present writer, believe in the 
 possibility of independence for the poor. We argue 
 in favour of a cautious and continuous restriction 
 of the facilities for obtaining poor law relief, 
 because we believe that this course will force the 
 poor not into revolution, but into the orderly 
 acquisition of property by means of the tenures 
 already recognised by civilised society. We believe 
 that the poor law has acted as a narcotic on the 
 natural thrift and acquisitive instincts of the poor, 
 and that at present it is one, at all events, of the 
 chief impediments that stand in the way of work- 
 ing-class progress. 
 
 In passing, it may be remarked that, to an un- 
 initiated bystander trying to appreciate and under- 
 stand the Socialist position in this matter, it is 
 difficult to reconcile this fear of returning to the 
 old poor law and the indiscriminate relief of the 
 able-bodied which was its characteristic feature, 
 with the enthusiastic advocacy of State Pensions 
 for the Aged, Collective Provision for the Sick, 
 
THE PROBLEM DEFINED. 25 
 
 Public Burial of the Dead, which are some of the 
 items of reform recommended in the Fabian tract 
 just quoted. If dependence on public relief is un- 
 desirable for the labourer during his working life, 
 why should it be so desirable for him during his 
 sickness and old age ? Why should personal 
 responsibility be the rule in the one case and not 
 in the other ? Is it not a singular comment on his 
 philosophy, that the " instructed " Socialist recoils, 
 as well he may, from condemning the labourer to 
 have his maintenance measured out to him by a 
 poor law bureaucracy, but is quite content to hand 
 him over, body and soul, and the rest of the 
 country with him, to the tender mercy of some 
 glorified assembly of the " complete communism." 
 With this inconsistency, we have here nothing to 
 do ; the matter is mentioned only to justify the 
 course followed in this essay, which is to treat the 
 poor law not as an instrument for assimilating 
 the fortune of the rich and the poor, but as 
 a means of relieving destitution without at the 
 same time becoming a discouragement to the 
 desire to maintain independence at all periods 
 of life. 
 
 Summed up, the position of the Socialist seems 
 to be that though it is impossible to advance that 
 "complete communism," which is the goal of 
 Socialism, by an endowment of poverty qud 
 poverty, it is still desirable to endow sickness, old 
 
26 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 age, childhood, etc., etc., and to begin here that 
 transference of responsibility from the individual 
 to the state which one day will become complete 
 communism. The theoretical Socialists are a small 
 body, and this belief in the possibility and ex- 
 pediency of relieving men of their responsibilities 
 for their children, their widows, their sickness, their 
 old age, and the expenses of their burial is not 
 shared by that large class of persons who like to 
 describe themselves as practical men. 
 
 It is characteristic of the practical man that he 
 abhors a logical conclusion as he would the plague. 
 While he is certainly not of the opinion of the 
 Socialist, he will not be at the trouble to draw the 
 conclusion that if the Poor Law Amendment Act 
 of 1834 proclaimed, and has since succeeded in 
 establishing, the independence of the able-bodied, 
 there is no ground for despairing of the independ- 
 ence of the poor in their childhood and widowhood, 
 in their sickness and in their old age. The Social- 
 ist does not appreciate independence, or rather 
 interprets it to mean dependence on the bureau- 
 cracy of a complete communism ; the practical man 
 does value independence, but seeing the difficulty 
 by which the subject is beset and having many 
 other things to do, he is content to despair of the 
 independence of the poor, nay, perhaps he will go 
 further, and deem it a virtue to think merely of the 
 adequacy of relief, and denounce those who still 
 
THE PROBLEM DEFINED. 27 
 
 hold sacred the independence of the poor, as cruel 
 and churlish doctrinaires. 
 
 The purpose of these articles is, if possible, to get 
 a hearing for the views of those who do not despair 
 of the independence of the poor, and who regard it 
 as at least of equal value to any stall-fed content 
 that can be bred of lavish public relief. The 
 subject in these days is one of pressing import- 
 ance. The practical man is assailed by rhetoric, by 
 demography, by threats, by innumerable well- 
 meant panaceas. His poor bewildered brain sees 
 that if the state feeds a man, he ceases to be 
 hungry ; if it gives him a pension in old age, he 
 ceases to be destitute ; if it finds him work, he can 
 no longer call himself unemployed. 
 
 This solution seems so simple, that the ordinary 
 voter is ready to listen to the obvious remedies 
 proposed by empirics ; he is unwilling to admit 
 that pauperism, a disease of the body politic 
 requires the treatment of the specialist, and is 
 as little a matter to be decided by voting as the 
 practice of medicine. Over and above this danger, 
 there is the now imminent risk of allowing this 
 question to become a mere secondary issue in 
 the game of politics. Optimists may argue, with 
 some plausibility, that the verdict of the con- 
 stituencies on a subject which has been presented 
 to them fairly and squarely, is not likely to err. 
 This may be so, but the misfortune is that this 
 
28 THE PROBLEM DEFINED. 
 
 question has not been so presented. Issues, that 
 appeared to them of graver import, have occupied 
 exclusively the attention of leading politicians. 
 None of them have been bold enough to face this 
 question and attempt to educate public opinion. 
 Agitation is not a weapon which those who take 
 a scientific view of the pathology of pauperism 
 find easy to wield. On the other hand, the 
 condition of the poor is a theme on which it is 
 easy to tear a passion to tatters. The ear of the 
 politicians therefore has been secured by the more 
 sentimental section of the philanthropic public. 
 No prominent statesman has grappled with the 
 real difficulties of the subject, and under pressure 
 of the above-mentioned influences, the less 
 responsible politician has been lavish of promises, 
 some of which, there is reason to fear, he may be 
 obliged to fulfil. 
 
 The danger is grave and imminent, and I do 
 not think that the next section of this article can 
 be devoted to a better purpose than to a recital 
 of the precedent for making this a national rather 
 than a party question, one to be treated by 
 scientific rather than by electioneering methods 
 of reform. 
 
POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 29 
 
 THE PRECEDENT OF 1834. 
 
 THE Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 in more 
 than one respect is an admirable precedent in 
 poor law legislation. The bill was introduced by 
 a Liberal Government in the first reformed House 
 of Commons, and was supported by the Tory 
 party, then led by Sir R. Peel and the Duke 
 of Wellington, and passed through both houses by 
 overwhelming majorities. 
 
 The difference of principle which then divided 
 the two great parties in the state was intelligible 
 enough. The country had just gone through the 
 heated agitations attendant on the passing of the 
 great Reform Bill. While the Whigs professed to 
 trust in the popular aspiration as expressed by 
 the new constituencies, the Tories put their faith 
 in the constitution. To-day both parties are 
 purely democratic, and the precedent followed by 
 the democratic party of 1834 would seem to be 
 equally binding on both parties at the present 
 time. The Whig Government had a large majority, 
 and if they had thought that the reform of the 
 poor law was a matter on which popular suffrage 
 
30 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 was in a position to adjudicate in detail, they 
 might have legislated at once. They felt, however, 
 that this was not a matter which could be trusted 
 to the chances of a faction fight on the floor of the 
 House of Commons. They resolved, therefore, to 
 await the report of the Royal Commission of 
 Inquiry, which they had appointed in 1832. 
 
 This Commission, as is well known, examined the 
 whole question of the administration of the poor 
 law in the most exhaustive and thorough manner, 
 and collected evidence which was absolutely con- 
 clusive in favour of the recommendations of its 
 report. It is not too much to say that the debates 
 which followed the introduction of the bill by Lord 
 Althorp were dominated by the irresistible force 
 of the testimony and reasoning contained in this 
 historical report. The criticisms which were 
 directed against the bill were for the most part 
 aimed at the principle of central control. It 
 has generally been assumed, and probably with 
 justice, that under the circumstances a central 
 control was an absolute necessity; and it was 
 avowedly on the ground of expediency that Lord 
 Althorp defended this device, which was without 
 doubt the integral feature of the bill. The Govern- 
 ment, in effect, did not feel itself strong enough to 
 amend the law, being, as it were, mere delegates 
 of a popular suffrage, which, though much more 
 restricted then than now, easily becomes inflamed 
 
THE PRECEDENT OF 1834. 31 
 
 over a question of sentiment. They therefore 
 appointed a permanent and non-elective body to 
 carry out the necessary reform. 
 
 The Poor Law Amendment Act, 4 & 5 William 
 IV. cap. 76, is in this respect a most remarkable 
 piece of legislation. Direct legislation on the 
 subject of poor law relief is in this Act conspicuous 
 by its absence. The Act, it is true, made provision 
 for the establishment of unions, and certain alter- 
 ations in the law of settlement and bastardy, but 
 these are minor matters. The principal operative 
 part of the Act was the appointment of three 
 Commissioners, to be styled the Poor Law Com- 
 missioners for England and Wales. 
 
 Section 15 to use the words of the summary 
 given by Sir G. Nicholls (p. 290, vol. ii.) " directs 
 that 'the administration of relief to the poor 
 throughout England and Wales, according to 
 the existing laws, or such laws as shall be in 
 force at the time being, shall be subject to the 
 direction and control of the Commissioners,' who 
 are authorised and required to make and issue 
 all such rules, orders, and regulations for the 
 management of the poor, for the government of 
 workhouses, and the education of children therein,, 
 and for the apprenticing of poor children, and for 
 the guidance and control of all guardians, vestries, 
 and parish officers, so far as relates to the manage- 
 ment of the poor, and the keeping, examining, 
 
32 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 auditing, and allowing or disallowing of accounts, 
 and making and entering into contracts, or any 
 expenditure for the relief of the poor, and for 
 carrying this Act into execution in all other 
 respects, as they shall think proper, and may 
 suspend, alter, or rescind the same, 'provided 
 always that nothing in this Act contained, shall 
 be construed as enabling the said Commissioners 
 or any of them to interfere in any individual case, 
 for the purpose of ordering relief.' " 
 
 Again, in section 52, the Act, "after reciting that 
 relief to the able-bodied is in many places so 
 administered as to be productive of evil, and * as 
 difficulties may arise in case any immediate and 
 universal remedy is attempted to be applied/ 
 empowers the Commissioners by such rules, orders, 
 and regulations as they may think fit, to regulate 
 the same ; and all relief administered contrary to 
 such regulations, unless in cases of emergency, is 
 declared to be unlawful, and is to be disallowed." 
 
 The subsequent history of the question shows 
 how right Parliament was in doubting its own 
 power. The tremendous outcry which followed, 
 and the virulence of the attacks directed against 
 the new Commissioners, would probably have been 
 sufficient to destroy or terrify into submission any 
 government. The Commissioners were permanent 
 officials, who happily had the courage of their 
 opinions ; they did their duty, and withstood the 
 
THE PRECEDENT OF 1834. 33 
 
 wave of pauperism which was overwhelming the 
 country. 
 
 At the same time, it is impossible to deny that 
 there was a substratum of truth in the objection 
 to a centralised control, and we are beginning to 
 find some of the inconveniences now. If local 
 bodies are set to run in leading-strings, they will 
 not learn responsibility ; some of them are sure 
 to think that they could do their work better, if 
 they were not so confined. The Commissioners 
 and their successors, the Poor Law Board and 
 the Local Government Board, have succeeded in 
 abolishing some of the more glaring abuses of 
 the old poor law, and, in spite of occasional 
 clamour, they have refused to retreat from .the 
 position they have taken up. Thejr ha.v.e JSUG- 
 ceeded, from a legislative point of view, in 
 rendering illegal all that was explicitly con- 
 demned in the Royal Commissioners'- Report. 
 At The same time, both individuals and asso- 
 ciations gather wisdom from liberty of experiment ; 
 in the matter of poor law administration, liberty 
 of experiment has not been allowed. No very 
 flagrant maladministration has been possible, no 
 parishes have, as under the old poor law, been 
 brought to insolvency, and, as a consequence, 
 public attention has not been concentrated on 
 the subject. This comparative immunity from 
 grave abuse is, of course, something gained, but 
 
 D 
 
34 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 against this gain we must set the fact that the 
 mass of voters, and of administrators also, have 
 had no opportunity to learn by experience the 
 wholesome nature of the regulations laid down 
 by the Local Government Board ; and, on the 
 contrary, there is a great disposition to kick 
 over Local Government Board control altogether. 
 Further, it is notorious that strong recommenda- 
 tions have been made for years from the Local 
 Government Board to the local unions, to induce 
 them to restrict out-door relief, also that these 
 recommendations have been largely neglected. 
 Implicitly, these recommendations were contained 
 in the Royal Commissioners' Report, but neither 
 the legislative nor the administrative powers 
 entrusted to it have enabled the Local Govern- 
 ment Board to have this advice carried out by 
 the unions. 
 
 If we had had no central control, we should 
 have had extraordinary and mischievous eccen- 
 tricity of administration, but in all probability by 
 this time we should have arrived at one of two 
 conclusions : (i) Either that the powers entrusted 
 to local administrators of the poor law were far 
 too extensive, and that it was necessary to curtail 
 them (just as the powers which were abused under 
 the old poor law were curtailed), if the country was 
 to escape the demoralisation and bankruptcy of 
 pauperism. This curtailment might have taken 
 
THE PRECEDENT OF 1834. 35 
 
 place by direct legislation, or, as before, by 
 appointing a commission with explicit instruc- 
 tions to legislate. (2) Or we should have come 
 to the conclusion that poor law administration, 
 being in its nature judicial, was not a matter to 
 be entrusted to an elective body. 
 
 These remarks are not made with any desire 
 to ignore the admirable work done by the Local 
 Government Board. The country advisedly 
 adopted a certain policy of reform ; probably at 
 the time it was the only possible scheme. All 
 that the Commissioners and their successors, 
 the Poor Law and Local Government Boards, 
 were explicitly told to do, they have done, and 
 they have made a gallant effort to impose on 
 the local unions recommendations implicitly 
 contained in their original instructions. Here 
 the policy of central control has to some extent 
 failed, and there are signs of considerable reaction 
 even against those salutary rules which seemed 
 most firmly established. 
 
 As already remarked, we have for all these 
 years enjoyed a certain immunity from graver 
 forms of maladministration, but we have prevented 
 the local voter and the local administrator from 
 finding out by experience the disastrous con- 
 sequences of many of the experiments which they 
 are now clamouring to try. 
 
 If the poor law guardian is to be a purely 
 
36 THE PRECEDENT OF 1834. 
 
 elective officer it is plain he can only be controlled 
 by an enlightened popular voter. Now a popular 
 voter is, as a rule, a very ill-informed person 
 on this question, and often an interested party. 
 Most of us who have followed this question 
 have had occasion to meet suggestions made by 
 eager but inexperienced voters and adminis- 
 trators by reference, perhaps, to the parish work- 
 shops of 1848, or to the parish farm and the 
 other abominations of the old poor law ; these 
 instances, which are so convincing to the serious 
 student of the question, are like water on a duck's 
 back to these enthusiastic philanthropists. " Those 
 were not fair trials," they exclaim ; " let us try it 
 again and see what we can do." And unless this 
 difficult matter is handled with patriotism and 
 courage by our party leaders, these experiments 
 will be tried again, and a course adopted which 
 may go far to condemn our working class to 
 another century of dependence. 
 
 The precedent of the conduct of parties at the 
 time of the Poor Law Amendment Act is, I submit, 
 one worthy of imitation. Responsible politicians 
 on all sides should enter into a self-denying 
 ordinance that they will not make capital with 
 the groundling vote by misrepresentations on 
 this difficult and dangerous subject. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 37 
 
 1834 AND 1895. 
 
 THESE considerations appear to me to warrant 
 the expression of a hope that this difficult problem 
 may be kept out of party politics. If the parlia- 
 ment of 1834 felt itself unable to legislate, much 
 more would it be dangerous, at the present day, 
 to allow political parties to enter into a reckless 
 competition to gain the popular vote. The faith 
 of Lord Althorp and his colleagues in popular 
 government had just been tried by a fiery ordeal, 
 and they might well have been justified if they 
 had insisted in committing poor law administration 
 entirely to the arbitrament of the newly created 
 constituencies. They recognised, however (and the 
 truth is just as obvious to-day as it was then), that 
 the duty of the poor law guardian is in part that 
 of the physician and in part that of the judge. 
 Pauperism is a disease requiring scientific treat- 
 ment. Further, the taking of relief from one class 
 and giving it to another is a judicial function, 
 which ought not to be performed solely at the 
 dictate of the persons who are to receive. Now 
 obviously scientific laws of health are not to be 
 
38 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 determined by popular suffrage, nor ought judges 
 to be chosen, because of the subserviency of their 
 views, by the majority of litigants in a pending 
 suit. This were to poison the administration of 
 justice at its source. 
 
 Here, perhaps, is the place to enter a protest 
 against the assumption that in this or any other 
 country the poor have an inalienable right divine 
 to have a compulsory levy made on society in 
 their behalf. By custom and by legislation the 
 absolutely destitute have been given a guarantee 
 of maintenance, but society has a right to prescribe 
 the manner in which this maintenance shall be 
 given. As experience has amply proved, this 
 legal endowment of destitution introduces a most 
 dangerous and at times demoralising influence 
 into our social arrangements. A heavy onus of 
 proof therefore lies with those who wish to extend 
 the provision for the poor beyond the relief of 
 destitution. If an effective test of destitution can 
 be devised and applied, no serious disintegration 
 of society need result, but those who contend that 
 the legal endowment of poverty can never be 
 made a salutary constructive influence in the life of 
 the poor, must continue to insist that even the 
 guarantee of maintenance, held out to destitution, 
 is an unnatural and disturbing element introduced 
 into the living organism of society. Its real 
 necessity is by no means proven. Its apparent 
 
1834 AND 1895. 39 
 
 necessity arises mainly from the fact that the 
 system has created its own dependent population. 
 The power, which a local majority already possesses, 
 is an infringement, perhaps an unnecessary infringe- 
 ment, of our liberties, and it is in accordance with 
 all the best precedents of our constitutional history 
 that its exercise shall be jealously watched and 
 carefully circumscribed. 
 
 Now as well as in 1834 there are two logical 
 and extreme courses open, (i) It may be argued, 
 This is a scientific and judicial question. We 
 will appoint functionaries, a new branch of the 
 civil service, to administer a definite law 
 without fear and without favour. Our present 
 law is very imperfect and very indefinite, we 
 will amend it, and put in the hands of our new 
 functionaries a precise and well-understood in- 
 strument. (2) Or it may be said, This is a 
 matter which cannot be withdrawn from popular 
 management. We are now definitely committed 
 to a trust in the people. True, in a sense, this 
 is a judicial and scientific problem, but the people 
 are quite competent to determine its merits. We 
 will, therefore, confide the matter quite frankly 
 to a popular constituency. We must, however, 
 be careful to see that the constituency is really 
 autonomous, that it has a real opportunity of 
 learning by experiment what is right and what 
 is wrong in dealing with this subject. The law 
 
40 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 obviously can only enforce on such popular bodies 
 the minimum amount of control in the right 
 direction, but there is a danger (and this is now 
 more apparent than in 1834) that popular bodies 
 may be elected utterly unconvinced of the wisdom 
 of the control put on them, and they will find 
 very little difficulty in evading this control. If 
 we want a really autonomous body to go right, we 
 must give it power to go wrong. It is a bold 
 measure, but as we are allowing the people to be 
 its own physician and its own judge, let us do 
 what we can to give it opportunity of deciding 
 between right and wrong. With this end in view 
 let us, if possible, narrow by definite enactment 
 the powers which guardians may exercise, and 
 within these limits leave them free to use their 
 discretion. We will not disfranchise those who by 
 themselves and by their friends may be interested 
 as possible- recipients of relief, nor, on the other 
 hand, will we obscure the merits of this complicated 
 question by absolving them from payment of rates, 
 and setting them to vote what apparently is a levy 
 on other people for their own benefit. We shall 
 insist upon direct payment of rates by all voters, 
 and though the smaller ratepayer may still per- 
 suade himself that he will profit as a recipient of 
 a lavishly distributed bounty rather than suffer 
 as a payer of a mischievously wasted and 
 therefore tyrannical impost, still that is an 
 
1 834 AND 1895. 41 
 
 anomaly in popular representative government, 
 which cannot be altered, and the dangers of which 
 cannot in this case be wholly avoided. These 
 were the extreme alternatives before the Govern- 
 ment in 1834, these are the alternatives before 
 the country to-day. 
 
 In 1834 the Government avoided both, and took 
 a middle course, adopting a compromise which, 
 as already hinted, contained both the advantages 
 and disadvantages inseparable from such ex- 
 pedients. Can the same course be followed 
 to-day, or, if not, to which of the two obvious 
 alternatives above described shall we incline ? 
 
 The reason why we have again to face this 
 problem, after an interval of sixty years, is that 
 the disadvantages of the compromise seem now 
 to be greater than its advantages, or at least to 
 be asserting themselves somewhat strongly. 
 Briefly stated, it is this. We have still an 
 electorate, and, in many cases, a local administra- 
 tion absolutely indifferent to the scientific aspect 
 of the question, and often, with the mandate of a 
 corruptly influenced election before their eyes, 
 incapable of performing judicial functions. Mean- 
 while, the democratic power has grown, and the 
 influence and control of the central authority 
 is perfectly unable to cope with it. Thus, although 
 the crisis is by no means so severe, we have 
 practically come back to the old order of things. 
 
42 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 Again, the case of the able-bodied unemployed 
 has taken its place in the forefront of the agitation 
 against the poor law. A few years ago the duty 
 of the public authority towards the unemployed 
 seemed to be a matter settled for ever in the 
 spirit dictated by the Poor Law Commissioners' 
 Report, but the controversy has again been opened. 
 
 The causes of this seem to me to be very similar 
 now to what they were in the period pre- 
 ceding 1834. 
 
 A protective tariff, restricting that expansion 
 of industry and production which is indispensable 
 in countries where population is increasing, finds 
 its counterpart to-day in the restrictive regulations 
 of trade unionism, and in the penalising legislation 
 directed against private enterprise. These restraints 
 upon the natural expansion of industry, which 
 otherwise had proved commensurate with the 
 increased ambitions and increased numbers of our 
 population, caused then and cause now a certain 
 difficulty in finding employment for the less 
 competent workmen in all trades, and for the 
 natural growth of population. The remedy applied 
 in those old days was the parish farm, the rounds- 
 man system, and the general degradation of the 
 labourer by the poor law. To-day we have the 
 restrictive policy of trade unionism, reckless and 
 wasteful public expenditure which together con- 
 stitute a burthen and a menace to the development 
 
1 834 AND 1895. 43 
 
 of industry. On the other hand, our casual wards, 
 and an enormous multiplication of voluntary 
 shelters, have already consolidated a large de- 
 pendent population. We have circulars issued 
 from the Local Government Board, suggesting the 
 creation of public relief work. Such at least is the 
 interpretation which nine men out of ten will put 
 on the cautiously worded electioneering circular 
 which various presidents of the Local Government 
 Board have thought it consistent with their duty 
 to issue. Some of the London Vestries bluntly 
 replied that they were not relief authorities, and 
 that they would have nothing to do with the 
 matter. Others, putting the only practical inter- 
 pretation on it which seems possible, have for the 
 last two or three years spent unnecessarily large 
 sums in street cleaning and other similar work. 
 The expectation excited has grown in volume, 
 and every winter the clamour of persons who 
 want work to be found for them is louder. One 
 vestry, which has made itself prominent by giving 
 up contract work and by the disuse of street 
 cleaning machinery in order to give hand-broom 
 employment to the unemployed, found the 
 pressure on it growing greater, and summoned 
 a meeting of other vestries to discuss proposals 
 for starting public works on a gigantic scale, 
 the creation of light railways for removing the 
 refuse of London, and the reclamation of waste 
 
44 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 land by the sea shore. It is the old experience 
 over again. Restrict the legitimate expansion 
 of trade in one direction, and open a door leading 
 into a cul de sac of rate-supported industry in 
 another direction, and the old problem of 1832 
 is brought back again in all its essential features. 
 
 It is a splendid material for political intrigue. 
 A promise of legislation on the subject may be 
 made to serve as the decisive trump card in 
 the great Irish tragi-comedy. Politicians protest 
 that their intentions are honourable, and in 
 private life their assurances would be readily 
 accepted, but in practical politics circumstances 
 are too strong for them. Many avowedly believe 
 in the inspiration of the majority, and accept the 
 doctrine of delegacy. Yet, if the history of the 
 subject teaches us anything at all, it is that true 
 methods of poor law administration are not likely 
 to be learnt by listening to the advice of an 
 uninstructed public opinion. 
 
 It is submitted that the first step to be taken 
 now is that which was taken sixty years ago, viz. 
 Inquiry by an authority altogether independent of 
 politics. The Royal Commission of 1832 was 
 composed of men entirely independent of party 
 politics. Not a single member of the House 
 of Commons was nominated to serve on this 
 important inquiry. The mere fact that a man 
 was a politician seems to have been enough to 
 
1 834 AND 1895. 45 
 
 disqualify him for the onerous duty of serving. 
 They were men of high character and position, 
 and they had no object in view but to bring out 
 the truth. This plan seems to me to be more 
 likely to prove productive of useful result than 
 that now in use, which is to embark the leading 
 agitators of irreconcilable schools of opinion on 
 what ought to be a judicial inquiry, and trust a 
 tribunal of hostile witnesses to worry through with- 
 out coming to blows. 
 
46 
 
 THE NECESSITY FOR INQUIRY. 
 
 LORD ALTHORP'S statement on February i, 1832, 
 with regard to the necessity of the appointment 
 of the Commission, was as follows ; 
 
 "That the general question of the poor laws was a 
 subject of great magnitude, and involved such a variety 
 of important considerations, that any member of the 
 Government, or of that House, would not be justified 
 in bringing forward a measure, that would apply 
 generally to the whole collective system of the poor 
 laws of this country. ... He must observe that all 
 the evidence which had been taken before the different 
 committees on this subject had been derived from 
 gentlemen who came before those committees with 
 preconceived opinions on the subject, and who seemed 
 to want a knowledge of the working of the different 
 systems that prevailed in different parts of the country." 
 
 Such a knowledge, he said, was absolutely neces- 
 sary ; the Government therefore was of opinion 
 that the best course to pursue was, by means of 
 investigation and inquiry on the spot, to find out 
 the effects of the different systems as they existed 
 in the different parishes throughout the country. 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR INQUIRY. 47 
 
 Ministers therefore would await the report of the 
 Commission. 
 
 At the present day this plea for inaction on the 
 ground of the ignorance and inability of ministers 
 and government might not be true to the same 
 extent. It would, however, be less than the truth 
 as to the absolute ignorance and prejudice of 
 the constituencies on the subject ; and to-day 
 the opinion and knowledge of the constituencies 
 is much more important than it was in those earlier 
 days when the doctrine of delegacy was unknown. 
 
 There is, therefore, the same necessity for 
 inquiry, but rather for the sake of the constituencies 
 than for the sake of the Government- 
 
 For it is one of the singular features of this 
 controversy that there is a practical unanimity of 
 opinion among all who have had any experience 
 of the subject. A short tenure of office at the 
 Local Government Board is sufficient to make even 
 the keenest politicians aware of the devastating 
 influence of a lax administration of the poor law. 
 
 The voice and recommendations of the permanent 
 officials of the Local Government Board are also 
 unanimous. Students of poor law literature will 
 find it difficult to recall the name of any writer 
 of repute who has not urged the necessity of a 
 restrictive policy. Among what is called the 
 instructed public there is only one opinion on. 
 the subject. The difficulty is to bring the force. 
 
48 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 of this experience to bear on the popular imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 Nothing, in my judgment, would be so conducive 
 to this end as an exhaustive inquiry by some 
 authority of a judicial character and independent 
 of all political party. Such commissioners, of 
 course, would not discover anything that is not 
 very familiar to those who have paid attention to 
 the question of poor law administration. Still, they 
 would collect much material together, and they 
 would restate the issues of the problems, and pass 
 judgment with an authority that could not be 
 gainsaid. 
 
 Would the effect of this report enable the 
 legislature to proceed in the right direction ? 
 
 I propose in subsequent sections to set out the 
 nature of some of the evidence which lies ready for 
 the consideration of any commission of inquiry 
 which may be appointed. When he has considered 
 this, the reader will be in a position to form his 
 own judgment on the proper course to be followed 
 by the legislature in the present crisis. 
 
 Throughout the hearing of the evidence, it may 
 be well to bear in mind the three courses which are 
 open to the legislature, (i) They may determine 
 that poor law administration, like the judicial 
 functions of the bench, is not to be entrusted to 
 popularly elected authorities. We must appoint 
 poor law administrators, as we appoint judges, with 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR INQUIRY. 49 
 
 some sort of regard to their qualifications for the 
 office. (2) They may decide that the matter must, 
 for good or for evil, be given over to a popular 
 electorate (as is already done by Sir H. Fowler's 
 bill). All we can do in this case is to take guarantees 
 for reasonable administration, (a) by insisting on 
 direct payment of rates, and on the disfranchise- 
 ment of those who pay no rates ; or (#) by 
 restricting the at present very wide power of 
 guardians, on the ground that the existing license 
 is a source of very great mischief where guardians 
 administer laxly. (3) Or they may decline both 
 of these courses and, following the example of 
 1834, may decide to strengthen the hands of the 
 Local Government Board and give it explicit 
 instructions to bring to an end certain forms of 
 maladministration, and leave it to the Local 
 Government Board to choose the time and the 
 manner in which it thinks best to enforce its 
 advice. In other words, Parliament and the 
 Government may say, as in 1834, Poor Law 
 Reform is not a matter which can be carried out 
 in detail by an elective assembly. We will appoint 
 a judicial body, and, laying down for its guidance 
 certain principles of action, leave to it the onus of 
 legislation. 
 
 There is much to be said both for and against 
 all these alternatives. The only utterly inde- 
 fensible course is that followed by the legislature 
 
 E 
 
50 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 with regard to the Local Government Act, 
 1894. 
 
 Lord Rosebery's Government was avowedly try- 
 ing to provoke the House of Lords to a trial of 
 strength. The handing over of local administration 
 to an electorate, the majority of which pays no 
 rates direct, seemed a point on which the House of 
 Lords would have been justified in acting ; but 
 the tactics of the game, in the judgment of the 
 Duke of Devonshire, made this intervention un- 
 desirable. The Opposition in the House of 
 Commons had felt obliged to imitate the Govern- 
 ment in avoiding any cause of offence to that 
 irresponsible section of parliamentary voters whose 
 good will is commonly supposed to be fickle and 
 venal No one had been found bold enough "to 
 bell the cat" The Opposition, therefore, must 
 share with the late Government the responsibility 
 for the result, which is that an important measure, 
 one which purports to be the foundation of our 
 system of local government, has ostentatiously 
 set aside the time-honoured constitutional maxim 
 that representation and taxation must go together. 
 
 The utterly contradictory arguments used by 
 ministers in support of this portion of their measure 
 bring into relief the true nature of the situation. 
 Sir H. Fowler's uneasy shifting from one argument 
 to another wholly contradictory of it, and the 
 remarkable collapse of the Opposition, suggest 
 
THE NECESSITY FOR INQUIRY. 51 
 
 that, in this instance at all events, our system of 
 party government has failed to protect society 
 from a gross injustice, which is bound in the future 
 to give rise to trouble and disaster. Sir H. Fowler, 
 as minister in charge of the bill, represented it to 
 be a measure based on trust in the people ; the 
 people paid no direct rates, but they smoked and 
 drank beer and spirits, and grants were made from 
 the Imperial treasury in aid of local burdens ; 
 economical administration would, therefore, be to 
 the interest of those who paid duty on tobacco and 
 beer. By the time the bill got into committee, Sir 
 H. Fowler seems to have grown ashamed of this 
 utterly inadequate argument, and to the complaint 
 of those who said that trust in the people did not 
 carry with it the corollary that we must trust in the 
 wisdom of one section of the people when engaged 
 in spending the money of another section, he 
 replied that sufficient check against abuse was to 
 be found in the control of the Local Government 
 Board. A more futile and insupportable argument 
 could not easily have been found. It is notorious 
 that, without infringing the rules laid down by the 
 Local Government Board, a perverse local body 
 can easily multiply its pauperism to an almost 
 indefinite extent, and exercise unchecked their 
 power in a manner destructive to the character of 
 the poor and ruinous to the interests of the rate- 
 payers. And, secondly, it is equally notorious that 
 
52 THE NECESSITY FOR INQUIRY. 
 
 evasion of the law as laid down by the Local 
 Government Board is extremely easy, and of daily 
 occurrence. 
 
 No impartial person, who will candidly examine 
 the course of this bill through the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, can fail to be convinced of the utter unfitness 
 of such assemblies (in their present temper, at all 
 events) to arrive at any reasonable conclusion on 
 this delicate question. The difficulty of a body 
 like the House of Commons in dealing with a 
 subject like bimetallism is obvious enough. Poor 
 law reform is not perhaps so complicated or so 
 abstruse, but it has the additional disadvantage that 
 it cannot be discussed in the dry light of logic and 
 common sense alone. Every disputant has his eye 
 on the electorate, or rather on a section of the 
 electorate, whose misfortunes indeed entitle it to 
 every consideration, but from which it is idle and 
 dishonest to pretend that we shall derive a true 
 diagnosis of the disease with which it is afflicted. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 53 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 
 
 WHILE it is not possible for a single writer to 
 gather evidence from so wide a field of observation 
 as a commission of inquiry, there is yet a great 
 deal of information ready to hand in blue books 
 and pamphlets, and in the reports of the proceed- 
 ings of the poor law conferences. The more 
 formal treatises on the subject, though perfectly 
 sound as to the doctrine they lay down, have been 
 published some years, and as a consequence are 
 rather belated in the accounts they give of 
 more recent and successful experiments in poor 
 law administration. 
 
 With a view of bringing my narrative within 
 reasonable limits, and not from any lack of 
 material, I propose in the next section to give 
 an account of what I believe to be sound ad- 
 ministration in a town, and in a rural, union, 
 mentioning by way of illustration similar but 
 not identical experiments tried elsewhere, and 
 contrasting it with examples of what I believe 
 to be bad administration. 
 
 First, however, a word of caution should be said 
 
54 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 as to the value of such comparisons, in so far as 
 they are based on statistics alone, for in my 
 judgment nothing is more calculated to mislead 
 than indiscriminate comparisons and indiscrimi- 
 nate use of poor law statistics. 
 
 The truth is that poor law administration is not 
 a matter on which a comparison of statistics can 
 throw very much light. It is much more a 
 question of common sense. The problem, from 
 a statistical point of view, may be thus stated : 
 How many persons have been obliged, in any 
 given union, to abandon their independence and 
 accept, either an addition to their income or a 
 complete maintenance, from the rates ? Obviously 
 any numerical answer to this question must be 
 largely affected by two considerations, (i) The 
 nature of the relief offered and the ease with 
 which it can be obtained. (2) The character 
 and circumstances of the population of the 
 union. 
 
 In very many statistical inquiries even those 
 conducted by demographists as reputable as Mr. 
 Booth these two considerations are often entirely 
 overlooked. It is the most usual thing in the 
 world to compare the percentage of pauperism 
 per head of population, as shown in several 
 different unions. It is then triumphantly pointed 
 out that there is a low rate of pauperism in Wharf- 
 dale and in Penzance, as well as in Bradfield, 
 
THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 55 
 
 Brixworth, and Atcham. Again, there is a fairly 
 high rate of pauperism in the London Union of 
 St. George-in-the-East and in Manchester, as 
 well as in Barnstaple and Honiton. The ad- 
 ministration in these Unions differs largely. In 
 Bradfield, Brixworth, and Atcham, in St. George- 
 in-the-East, and in Manchester, the proportion 
 of out-door relief to total relief is very small, 
 while exactly the opposite conditions prevail in 
 Wharfedale, Penzance, Barnstaple, and Honiton. 
 It is argued, therefore, by Mr. Booth, that 
 administration has very little to do with the rate 
 of pauperism. A moment's consideration shows 
 the absurdity of such an argument. The con- 
 ditions of land tenure and industry may in many 
 unions be such as to make a high rate of pauperism 
 impossible. Such, one might guess, was the case 
 in Wharfedale, a Yorkshire valley where the 
 holdings are small, and where the work of the 
 farm is done by the members of the farmer's 
 family, or by hired and unmarried labourers 
 living on the farm. A lax system of poor law 
 relief need not have more effect on such a popu- 
 lation than it would have on the inhabitants of 
 Belgrave Square. The only way of arriving at 
 the result of different systems of administration 
 is by watching the effect of a change of policy 
 in one and the same union. 
 
 Naturally, that is, apart from the influence of 
 
56 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 administration, the tendency towards pauperism 
 varies largely in different unions. Racial and 
 economical considerations are involved, too 
 numerous and complicated to be here fully dis- 
 cussed. One or two points may be mentioned. 
 There is the drift of the vagrant population at 
 certain seasons to the towns, attracted by 
 fortuitous charity, and still more by the improved 
 accommodation given by the infirmaries and work- 
 houses. These persons, if the tabulation admitted 
 of it, should be deducted from the list of the settled 
 poor, as is generally done with vagrants and 
 lunatics. The very serious nature of this drift of 
 unsettled pauperism can be best gathered from the 
 fact that out of 9584 admissions to the Whitechapel 
 workhouse and infirmary during the year ended 
 Lady-day, 1895, only 871, i.e. 9*1 per cent, came 
 from their own or friends' houses. The other 
 90 per cent, were practically homeless. 1 
 
 In computing numerically, therefore, the pauper- 
 ism of large towns, the fact must be remembered, 
 that we are dealing also with a portion of the 
 unsettled pauperism of the whole country. The 
 official statistics give us no assistance in estimating 
 the amount of this population. 2 There is evidence, 
 
 1 Report of Guardians of Whitechapel Union for year ended 
 Lady-day, 1895. 
 
 2 For a fuller discussion of the ebb and flow of this unsettled 
 population, and its disturbing influence on the statistics of the 
 subject, see pp. 244, 250. 
 
THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 57 
 
 however, to show that it has a tendency to con- 
 centrate itself in some unions rather than others ; 
 in unions, for instance, where there are philan- 
 thropic shelters and common lodging-house ac- 
 commodation, and also in unions where the 
 infirmary and workhouse are, by reason of their 
 superior comfort, want of discipline, or some other 
 reason, popular with this class. Increased comfort 
 and cleanliness, it should be observed, are generally 
 to be found in unions where the guardians are 
 restricting out-door relief, and concurrently paying 
 more attention to the proper management of 
 their in-door establishments. It is fair, however, 
 to add, that, in one instance at least, a union work- 
 house appears to be very popular with this class, 
 not on account of the liberal scale of its in-door 
 management, but rather by reason of the free and 
 easy nature of its regulations. 
 
 The most valuable comparison, then, will be 
 between different methods of administration in 
 the same union. 
 
 Even in this case, however, changes of condition 
 will go a long way to invalidate conclusions drawn 
 merely from statistics. Thus, in comparing the 
 pauperism of to-day with that of fifteen or twenty 
 years ago, it must never be forgotten that, as 
 already stated, a very great change has come over 
 the administration of our in-door pauper establish- 
 ments. Previous to 1867, sick, lunatic, and imbecile 
 
$8 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 paupers were for the most part retained in the same 
 buildings as other paupers. In 1866, there were in 
 all the London workhouses only in nurses, and 
 only 3 trained night nurses ; the rest of the service 
 was performed by the able-bodied paupers. As a 
 consequence of the passing of Hardy's Act, there 
 were at the date of the House of Lords' Inquiry 
 of 1888 at least 11,000 beds in separate infirm- 
 aries many of them in every respect equal to 
 hospitals and over 1000 trained nurses. Similar 
 improvement has taken place in the provision 
 made for pauper children. Separate schools, 
 cottage home schools, and systems of boarding 
 out, have been adopted with a view of making 
 the education of pauper children more efficient. 
 The general management of the workhouse has 
 in many respects been largely improved. The 
 term workhouse is now an entire misnomer. For 
 the aged and infirm the workhouse is an almshouse 
 and not a task house. In many places kindly 
 visitors vie with one another in doing all they can 
 to relieve the monotony of the inmates' lives. The 
 fare, though simple, is adequate, and a principal 
 grievance of the inhabitants is that the airiness and 
 cleanliness of the dormitories is more agreeable to 
 the dictates of sanitary science than to the comfort 
 of persons accustomed to small, close, and some- 
 times crowded rooms. Further, Parliament has, 
 in its wisdom, decreed that persons, who are 
 
THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 59 
 
 chargeable for medical attendance only, shall not 
 be, like other paupers, deprived of their parlia- 
 mentary franchise. 
 
 All these considerations must be taken into 
 account when we compare the pauperism of the 
 present time with that of twenty or twenty-five 
 years ago. But for the greater comfort and 
 advantages, deliberately introduced into our poor 
 law establishments, there can be no doubt that 
 in-door pauperism would be much less than 
 it is. 
 
 To a certain extent, it will be urged, the improved 
 conditions of existence in a poor law institution 
 are counteracted by the higher standard of living 
 among the poorer classes which has happily 
 become possible of late years. Unfortunately, 
 however, much turns on the word "possible." 
 There is a class, which seems to lack motive to 
 avail itself of its possibilities. An increase of 
 income does not suggest to it saving, thrifty effort, 
 or even the purchase of articles which give employ- 
 ment to labour. Too often it only means a some- 
 what more lavish scale of living while the income 
 lasts, or a cessation of work on a variety of 
 pretences, a disagreement with an employer, or a 
 desire for leisure, which less euphemistically might 
 be termed a love of idleness. With this class, the 
 increased possibilities of life have not raised them 
 above the hand to mouth existence, and their 
 
60 P6OR LAW REFORM. 
 
 attitude is the cause of all the difficulty of poor 
 law administration. Our present inquiry may 
 perhaps lead us to think that this love of a purely 
 proletariate life is fostered by the remedies applied ; 
 in other words, by the fact that the ordinary 
 administration of the law guarantees an eligible 
 maintenance from the rates to sickness, old age, 
 widowhood, and orphanhood. These contingencies 
 are the natural competitors of claims of mere self- 
 indulgence. They supply the motives which urge 
 men to the first steps to rise above the merely 
 proletariate life. If the so-called remedies for 
 pauperism take the form of making these first steps 
 unnecessary, it is obvious that the remedy may 
 very easily become a cause of disease. 
 
 One other caveat as to the danger of reckless 
 comparisons must be mentioned. The point is very 
 obvious, and has already been indicated, but it is 
 so important that it deserves to be explicitly stated. 
 In dealing with poor law statistics, it is idle to 
 attach the same weight to out-door pauperism as 
 to in-door pauperism. The amount of out-door 
 pauperism is a matter turning entirely on the 
 caprice of the various boards of guardians ; it will 
 be found, singularly enough, that proportionately it 
 is smallest in the poorest unions of the metropolis, 
 mainly because a resolute resistance to the en- 
 croachment of its demands has been found to be 
 the only alternative to bankruptcy. In-door relief, 
 
THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 61 
 
 on the other hand, is guarded by an automatic test 
 of a constant nature. 
 
 People do not become in-door paupers till they 
 have determined that it is best for them to give up 
 such livelihood as they have outside, in exchange 
 for a maintenance in some poor law establishment. 
 The question is affected, as already indicated, by 
 the varying value of the maintenance offered in 
 the workhouse, but subject to this qualification the 
 numbers of in-door pauperism are the only poor 
 law figures of any value as an index to poverty. 
 On the other hand, the amount of out-door relief is 
 governed by totally different factors ; the applicant 
 gives up nothing, but is actuated by the universal 
 desire of all mankind, viz. to add to his resources. 
 Against this universal pressure there is no barrier 
 except the caprice of guardians and the easily 
 evaded rules of the Local Government Board. 
 
 The giving of out-door relief has a further dis- 
 turbing influence on the statistical aspect of the 
 question. In the majority of cases, notwithstanding 
 the increased comfort of the in-door establishments, 
 a diminution of out-door relief brings also a 
 diminution of in-door relief, and for a reason that 
 is obvious enough. When a population is trained 
 up to expect relief at their own homes in every 
 crisis of life, naturally a greater dependence is 
 placed on this source of income than in places 
 where such relief is not obtainable. The dependent 
 
62 THE NATURE OF THE EVIDENCE. 
 
 feeling originated and fostered by out- relief 
 increases as life goes on, and children and friends 
 more readily absolve themselves from the duty of 
 supporting the aged ; and, notwithstanding the 
 decrease of old age pauperism as a whole, in 
 places the tendency of old and infirm people to 
 gravitate to the workhouse is strengthened and 
 confirmed. 
 
 If we wish, therefore, to arrive at any statistical 
 estimate of the amount of necessary destitution, 
 represented by the poor law returns, we should 
 consider only the in-door pauperism ; and, from 
 the in-door pauperism in unions where out-door 
 relief is freely given, we should deduct a certain 
 percentage, if we wish to make due allowance for 
 the artificial manufactory of pauperism above 
 referred to. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 63 
 
 THE ADMINISTRATION IN WHITECHAPEL. 
 
 LET us first consider the case of a town union. 
 
 The following account of the administration of 
 the law in Whitechapel is taken, slightly condensed, 
 but almost verbatim, from a pamphlet written 
 by Mr. Vallance, the clerk of the union, and used 
 by him as a basis for his evidence given before 
 the Lords' Committee of 1888. 
 
 Up to 1870 the system followed for the relief of 
 apparent distress was the granting of small doles of 
 out-door relief; the in-door establishments at that 
 time consisting of a mixed workhouse for the adult 
 sick and healthy poor, and a separate school at 
 Forest Gate being reserved for the destitute poor 
 who voluntarily sought refuge in them. Out-door 
 relief in money and kind was given to the able- 
 bodied unemployed in return for work done under 
 the rules laid down by the Out-door Relief Regu- 
 lation Order. Under this system the administration 
 was periodically subjected to great pressure ; the 
 aid of the police had frequently to be obtained 
 for the protection of the guardians, the officers, 
 and the property of the union. The matter came 
 to a climax in the winter of 1869-70; and the 
 
64 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 guardians determined to reform a system which 
 was felt to be fostering pauperism and encouraging 
 idleness, improvidence, and imposture, whilst the 
 relief in no sense helped the poor, being, as a rule, 
 utterly inadequate. Voluntary charity merely con- 
 sisted in indiscriminate almsgiving ; no intelligible 
 distinction was observed between the functions of 
 charitable and poor law relief, and much additional 
 distress was the result of this thoughtless and in- 
 discriminate benevolence. It was an object with 
 the guardians to lay down a distinction between 
 legal and voluntary relief, to interpret the former 
 as relief in the workhouse or some other poor law 
 institution, the latter as personal sympathy and 
 helpful charity. They began, therefore, by restrict- 
 ing out-door relief in " out-of-work " cases, and 
 they practically suspended the Out-door Relief 
 Regulation Order, and applied strictly the prin- 
 ciple of the Prohibitory Order. The first of these 
 orders permits out-door relief to be given to able- 
 bodied men and their families, in return for work 
 done in a Labour Yard. Such relief may not take 
 the form of wages, but must be proportionate to 
 the requirements of the man and his family. 
 Relief in large towns is, as a rule, administered 
 under this order. The Prohibitory Order, as its 
 name implies, forbids all out-door relief to the able- 
 bodied, except in cases of sudden and urgent 
 necessity. 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION IN WHITECHAPEL. 65 
 
 The labour yard was closed in Whitechapel in 
 1870, and has never since been re-opened. During 
 this process of restriction about one in ten of those 
 offered in-door in place of out-door relief accepted 
 the offer, and these gradually withdrew, and the in- 
 door pauperism resumed its normal condition. 
 
 The out-door relief of all kinds was next care- 
 fully reviewed. Pains were taken to make it 
 adequate, temporary, and usually conditional on 
 some promise of effort to avoid application to the 
 rates in future for instance, a man would be 
 relieved temporarily on condition of his promise 
 to join a benefit club. Widows with dependent 
 children were in some cases given temporary relief, 
 pending inquiries as to their friends and efforts to 
 place them in a position of independence. Employ- 
 ment as " scrubber " at the Infirmary was obtained 
 in some cases, and, failing other arrangements, the 
 guardians offered to receive some of the children 
 into their district school, and the mother was left 
 free to provide for herself and one or two children, 
 a responsibility which, in the experience of the 
 guardians, a widow might fairly be called on to 
 discharge. 
 
 Out-relief was given to the aged and infirm 
 only in those cases where there was evidence of 
 thrift, and when the guardians were satisfied 
 that there were no children or relatives whose 
 duty it was to support the applicant. The class 
 
 F 
 
66 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 was not found to be numerous, and, with the 
 better organisation of charitable funds which 
 resulted from the adoption of a definite policy 
 by the guardians, it was, later on, dealt with entirely 
 by the Tower Hamlet Pension Committee and 
 other voluntary relief agencies. 
 
 The system of out-door relief thus gradually 
 came to an end, and no new cases other than 
 those of sudden and urgent necessity relieved 
 by the relieving officer in kind have now for 
 about twenty-five years been added to the out- 
 door relief list. 
 
 Contemporaneously with this discontinuance of 
 out-door relief, a great improvement took place 
 in the in-door establishments. The time of the 
 guardians was not consumed in the vain task of 
 trying to adjudicate impartially on the claims 
 of the many applicants for out-door relief, and 
 they were therefore able to devote more attention 
 to the in-door arrangements. 
 
 The change in the character of the Whitechapel 
 workhouse and its allied establishments is due 
 partly to this cause, and partly also to the 
 fact that the guardians there have availed them- 
 selves very freely of the powers given them by 
 the Metropolitan Poor Act 1868. It was charged 
 by the anonymous author of a pamphlet entitled 
 "Plain Words on Out-Relief," that the abolition 
 of out-relief in Whitechapel had brought about 
 
THE ADMINISTRATION IN WHITECHAPEL.fy 
 
 a great increase of expenditure. The answer, of 
 course, is that the expenditure in question followed 
 naturally on the passing of the Metropolitan Poor 
 Act, and was quite independent of the action of the 
 guardians with regard to out-door relief. The rise 
 in expenditure has been just as great in other 
 unions, where there has been no corresponding 
 decrease in the expenditure on out-door relief. 
 The great change cannot be brought out more 
 clearly than by quoting from a letter written by 
 Mr. Vallance to the Local Government Chronicle, 
 and reprinted in the Report of the Whitechapel 
 Guardians for the year ended Lady-day, 1 894. The 
 great increase in salaries and also the general cost 
 of in-maintenance has been caused " by reason of 
 the operation of the Metropolitan Poor Act, 1868, 
 which had not appreciably affected expenditure 
 in 1870, but which later brought into force the 
 separate infirmary system, with its abolition of 
 all pauper service, and the elaborate net-work 
 of small pox and fever hospitals, etc., under the 
 control of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. 
 In 1870 the separate infirmary, with all its 
 attractiveness to the sick poor, was not in 
 existence; the official staff attached to the 
 infirmary department of the workhouse being 
 then represented by two visiting medical officers 
 and four nurses, whilst in 1892, there was a 
 separate infirmary certified for 590 sick poor, with 
 
68 THE ADMINISTRATION IN WHITECHAPEL. 
 
 three resident medical officers, hospital-trained 
 matron and assistant, a staff of forty-two highly 
 trained nurses, paid servants, washers, scrubbers, 
 house-labourers, and the various other workers 
 necessary in an institution exclusively devoted 
 to the sick, and from which all pauper labour 
 is excluded. The cost of the staff of the infirmary 
 alone in 1892 was 6103 ; additional to which 
 1263 was charged to Whitechapel in respect 
 of the official staff of the Metropolitan Asylums 
 Board." 
 
 These improvements, all pointing to a more 
 considerate and efficient treatment of the sick 
 poor, have been willingly undertaken by the 
 Whitechapel Board and are the result of the Act 
 of 1868. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 69 
 
 THE STATISTICAL RESULT. 
 
 THE statistical result of the Whitechapel method 
 of administration can be most conveniently given 
 by a somewhat lengthy quotation from the Report 
 of the Guardians for the year ended Lady-day, 
 1894. 
 
 " The retrospect of twenty-five years' administra- 
 tion, which was contained in the last year's Report, 
 was a personal one, 1 but inasmuch as the early 
 winter of 1869-70 was the real turning point in 
 the history of the modern poor law in White- 
 chapel, and as the present year (1894) marks the 
 close of a quarter of a century of uniform adher- 
 ence to principles then laid down, it may be fitting 
 at the risk of some repetition to append the 
 following statistical table, exemplifying the gradual 
 nature of the restriction of out-door relief and its 
 contemporaneous effect, if any, upon the in-door 
 pauperism. It will be seen that the sixth week of 
 the quarter ended Lady-day, 1870, has been taken 
 as a starting point, that being the week in which 
 
 1 This refers to Mr. Vallance's personal connection with the Board 
 which dates from 1868. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 the highest pauperism was reached ; the table 
 being so arranged as to show the number of 
 paupers relieved, the ratio per cent, of in-door 
 and out-door paupers, and the amount expended 
 in out-door relief in that and the corresponding 
 weeks of the intervening years up to 1894, viz. : 
 
 
 
 
 TWol 1*Jn 
 
 
 Cost of Out-door Relief 
 
 
 in-door 
 
 Out-door 
 
 i otal JN o. 
 f Paupers 
 relieved 
 
 Ratio 
 per cent. 
 
 i.e. in money and kind). 
 
 
 
 
 'aupers 
 
 Paupers 
 
 exclusive 
 
 
 
 During 
 
 
 re- 
 
 relieved. 
 
 of 
 
 
 During the 6th 
 
 year 
 
 
 lieved. 
 
 
 ^unaticsin 
 
 
 
 week of the 
 
 ended 
 
 
 
 
 Asylums. 
 
 In- 
 
 Out- 
 
 Lady-day Qtr. 
 
 Lady- 
 
 
 
 
 
 door. 
 
 door. 
 
 
 day. 
 
 
 (i) 
 
 (a) 
 
 (3) 
 
 (4) 
 
 (5) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (7) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 *. d. 
 
 
 
 1870 
 
 1419 
 
 5339 
 
 67580) 
 
 21 '0 
 
 79'0 
 
 168 17 4 
 
 6,685 
 
 1871 
 
 1219 
 
 2568 
 
 3787 
 
 32*2 
 
 67-8 
 
 120 14 3 
 
 6,073 
 
 1872 
 i873 
 
 1000 
 
 1163 
 
 1568 
 845 
 
 2568 
 2008 
 
 57*9 
 
 42-1 
 
 75 18 7 
 So 4 5 
 
 4,730 
 2,654 
 
 1874 
 
 1154 
 
 609 
 
 1763 
 
 65*5 
 
 34'5 
 
 36 ii i 
 
 2,114 
 
 1875 
 
 1170 
 
 346 
 
 1516 
 
 77'2 
 
 22-8 
 
 22 9 o 
 
 1,406 
 
 1876 
 
 1268 
 
 1*6 
 
 1454 
 
 87-2 
 
 12-8 
 
 16 19 7 
 
 916 
 
 1877 
 
 1203 
 
 122 
 
 1325 
 
 90-8 
 
 9-2 
 
 12 2 9 
 
 873 
 
 1878 
 
 1221 
 
 141 0) 
 
 1362 
 
 89-6 
 
 10-4 
 
 II 06 
 
 73 1 
 
 1879 
 
 143 * 
 
 1430) 
 
 1574 
 
 90-9 
 
 9-1 
 
 9 15 3 
 
 592 
 
 1880 
 
 1464 
 
 128 (b) 
 
 1592 
 
 
 8-0 
 
 9 7 7 
 
 546 
 
 1881 
 
 1582 
 
 121 (b) 
 
 1703 
 
 92-9 
 
 7-1 
 
 8 17 4 
 
 528 
 
 1882 
 
 1478 
 
 105 (b) 
 
 1583 
 
 93'4 
 
 6-6 
 
 7 6 ii 
 
 584 
 
 1883 
 
 1482 
 
 91 (b) 
 
 1573 
 
 94-2 
 
 5-8 
 
 4 8 10 
 
 521 
 
 1884 
 
 I4l8 
 
 770) 
 
 1495 
 
 94-8 
 
 5*2 
 
 429 
 
 463 
 
 1885 
 
 1370 
 
 740) 
 
 1444 
 
 94*9 
 
 s;i 
 
 4 8 i 
 
 309 
 
 1886 
 
 1305 
 
 700) 
 
 1375 
 
 94*9 
 
 
 3 3 5 
 
 167 
 
 1887 
 
 1247 
 
 6i0) 
 
 1308 
 
 95'3 
 
 47 
 
 2 7 ii 
 
 13* 
 
 1888 
 
 1356 
 
 630) 
 
 1419 
 
 95 '5 
 
 4*5 
 
 2 10 II 
 
 ii7 
 
 1889 
 
 1308 
 
 460) 
 
 1354 
 
 96-6 
 
 3*4 
 
 i 15 7 
 
 86 
 
 1890 
 
 1258 
 
 520) 
 
 1310 
 
 96-0 
 
 
 i 16 3 
 
 84 
 
 1891 
 
 1345 
 
 710) 
 
 1416 
 
 95 'o 
 
 5' 
 
 354 
 
 77 
 
 1892 
 
 1342 
 
 560) 
 
 1398 
 
 96*0 
 
 4-0 
 
 2 14 10 
 
 67 
 
 1893 
 
 I5l8 
 
 470) 
 
 1565 
 
 97 -o 
 
 3*o 
 
 I 19 2 
 
 72 
 
 1894 
 
 1623 
 
 300) 
 
 1653 
 
 98-2 
 
 r8 
 
 066 
 
 45 
 
 It is to be observed that in 1870 the imbecile paupers were main- 
 tained in the Workhouse and are accordingly enumerated in col. i. 
 
THE STATISTICAL RESULT. 71 
 
 In 1871 those paupers had been transferred to Imbecile Asylums, 
 and had ceased to be so enumerated until 1879, when they were 
 required to be again included in the return of in-door paupers. This 
 will explain the sudden diminution in the in-door paupers in 1871, 
 and the sudden rise in 1879. 
 
 (a) The figures for 1870 may be regarded as exceptional to the 
 extent of about 2000 paupers, there being at that period a severe 
 temporary pressure upon the administration ; but it is nevertheless 
 interesting to note that the experience of the winter of 1869-70 
 induced the Guardians to voluntarily suspend the Out-door Relief 
 Regulation Order early in the following year, and to apply strictly 
 the principle of the Out-door Relief Prohibitory Order. 
 
 (b) These figures include 30 boarded-out children in 1878, 36 in 
 1879, 42 in 1880, 52 in 1881, 55 in 1882, 60 in 1883, 49 in 1884, 
 49 in 1885, 54 in 1886, 48 in 1887, 41 in 1888, 38 in 1889, 42 in 
 1890, 37 in 1891, 34 in 1892, 30 in 1893, and 26 in 1894. 
 
 "Adopting, moreover, the forms of comparison 
 of last year and bringing the figures down to the 
 latest possible date, we find that the mean numbers 
 of in-door paupers (inclusive of vagrants) relieved in 
 
 the year 1870 and 1893 respectively were as follows : 
 
 1870. 1893. 
 
 England and Wales 156,800 192,512 
 
 Metropolis 36,441 59>9Oi 
 
 Whitechapel i>3H J >374 
 
 thus showing an increase in England and Wales of 
 22'9 per cent. ; the Metropolis of 64'3 per cent. ; 
 and Whitechapel of 4*8 per cent. 
 
 "Taking next the out-door paupers, the mean 
 numbers relieved in the above-mentioned years 
 
 were in 
 
 1870. 1893. 
 
 England and Wales 876,000 566,264 
 
 Metropolis 114,386 47,472 
 
 Whitechapel 3554 3 12 
 
 thus showing a decrease in England and Wales of 
 
72 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 35'3 per cent. ; the Metropolis of 58*5 per cent. ; 
 and Whitechapel of 91*2 per cent. 
 
 " Or, taking both the in-door and out-door paupers, 
 the mean numbers relieved were in 
 
 1870. 1893. 
 
 England and Wales 1,032,800 758,776 
 
 Metropolis 150,827 107,373 
 
 Whitechapel 4,865 1,686 
 
 thus showing a decrease in England and Wales of 
 26-5 per cent. ; in the Metropolis of 28'8 per cent. ; 
 and in Whitechapel of 65-3 per cent. 
 
 "The expenditure upon in-door relief 'in 1870 and 
 1892 (being the latest return appended to the 
 Report of the Local Government Board, 1892-3) 
 was in 
 
 1870. 1892. 
 
 England and Wales ... 1,502,807 2,044,062 
 
 Metropolis 420,006 75736i 
 
 Whitechapel 13,076 15,932 
 
 thus showing an increase of expenditure in in-door 
 relief in England and Wales of 36*0 per cent. ; in 
 the Metropolis of 80*3 per cent. ; and in White- 
 chapel of 2 1 '8 per cent. 
 
 "The expenditure upon out-door relief m 1870 and 
 
 1892 was in 
 
 1870. 1892. 
 
 England and Wales ... 3>633,o5i 2,374,380 
 
 Metropolis 412,817 181,406 
 
 Whitechapel 6,685 799 
 
 thus showing a decrease of expenditure in out-door 
 relief in England and Wales of 34^6 per cent. ; the 
 
THE STATISTICAL RESULT. 
 
 73 
 
 Metropolis of 56*0 per cent. ; and Whitechapel of 
 88*0 per cent. ; or, excluding the cost of ' boarded- 
 out children' (48 5), the decrease of expenditure 
 in out-door relief in Whitechapel will be found to 
 be no less than 95-3 per cent. 
 
 "Taking also the quinquennial periods from 1870, 
 the ratio of each form of pauperism to population 
 in England and Wales, the Metropolis, and White- 
 chapel, respectively, stood as follows, viz. : 
 
 
 England and Wales. 
 
 The Metropolis. | Whitechapel Union. 
 
 
 In- 
 door. 
 
 Out- 
 door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 In- 
 door. 
 
 Out- 
 door. 
 
 Totel -|idSr. 
 
 Out- 
 door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 1870 
 1875 
 
 
 
 39 '4 
 
 27-6 
 
 46-5 
 
 33*8 
 
 "J 
 
 1 11-6 
 
 36-0 
 20- S 
 
 47'5 
 31 9 
 
 16-6 
 17-0 
 
 45'0 
 9'2 
 
 6r6 
 26-2 
 
 1880 
 
 7'i 
 
 24-7 
 
 31-8 | 13-0 
 
 I.V7 
 
 267 
 
 17-6 
 
 5'S 
 
 23-1 
 
 1885 
 
 6-8 
 
 21'8 
 
 28-6 
 
 13-8 
 
 II '6 
 
 25-4 
 
 18-9 
 
 4'5 
 
 23-4 
 
 1890 
 
 6'6 
 
 207 i 27-3 
 
 ! I4'i 
 
 11-8 
 
 25'9 
 
 177 
 
 4' 3 
 
 22*0 
 
 1893 
 
 6'5 
 
 19-3 
 
 25-8 
 
 14-1 
 
 in 
 
 25-2 
 
 18-4 
 
 i 
 
 4'i 
 
 22-5 
 
 "These figures need no justification. They are 
 absolute in themselves, and are free from the objec- 
 tion that they involve fallacious deductions. Of 
 late, more than one attempt has been made to 
 reach logical conclusions as to the results of a 
 given policy of administration, by a comparison of 
 pauperism and expenditure in or between indi- 
 vidual unions, or by a calculation of the ratio of 
 pauperism to population in certain unions. It is, 
 however, entirely misleading to compare White- 
 chapel with its migratory population, represented 
 
74 THE STATISTICAL RESULT. 
 
 by the 8000 beds, or thereabouts, in common 
 lodging-houses, shelters, refuges, &c., and from 
 which the pauperism is largely, if not mainly, 
 recruited with another union, even of the 
 poorest character, but with probably a more 
 settled population ; whilst it would be equally 
 inconclusive to compare pauperism, or expendi- 
 ture, in different unions, with population, without 
 due regard to the character of such population." 
 
 The report hardly makes enough of the 
 exceptional difficulties of the situation in White- 
 chapel ; but even in face of these it is satisfactory 
 to note the great reduction of pauperism which 
 has been achieved by a courageous application of 
 sound principles of administration. To see the 
 full extent of the vast improvement that may be 
 effected, it is necessary to turn to a rural union, 
 such as Bradfield, to be presently noted, which lies 
 remote from the demoralising influences of the 
 poorest and roughest quarter of the largest 
 metropolis in the world. 
 
 What is less satisfactory, but equally plain from 
 a consideration of these figures, is the unnecessarily 
 high average of pauperism maintained throughout 
 England by reason of the fact that many boards 
 of guardians still obstinately adhere to every form 
 of abuse which the law unfortunately enables them 
 to exercise. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 75 
 
 BETHNAL GREEN. 
 
 BETHNAL GREEN is a union contiguous to White- 
 chapel, where unfortunately the guardians have 
 taken a different view of their duty. Practically 
 the Bethnal Green Board gives out-door relief 
 to all applicants. During a great part of the year 
 their relieving officers are besieged by importunate 
 crowds ; interim relief, under the plea of sudden 
 and urgent necessity, is given by the Relieving 
 Officers to able-bodied men in a way that is 
 probably illegal. The most inadequate sums are 
 given, and it is not too much to say that the 
 out-relief system followed in Bethnal Green is 
 simply a centre not for the distribution of adequate 
 relief, but for the dissemination of the virus 
 of pauperism. If we turn to the in-door system 
 what do we find ? First, that for the last twenty 
 years the Bethnal Green Board has lived in 
 a perpetual state of warfare with the Local 
 Government Board, because of the disgraceful 
 condition of its workhouse and the absence 
 of all proper accommodation for the treatment 
 of the sick. The case of Bethnal Green is a very 
 
76 POOR LA VV REFORM. 
 
 remarkable one and deserves more attention than 
 it has hitherto attracted. It has all along been 
 a union where the old plural vote had little effect. 
 During the debates on Sir H. Fowler's bill, its 
 mismanagement was quoted, as an instance of the 
 level to which the " one man one vote " principle, 
 irrespective of ratepaying, could reduce a con- 
 stituency. The unsatisfactory administration of 
 the law in Bethnal Green attracted the attention 
 of Sir Walter Foster, Under-Secretary of the Local 
 Government Board, and on receiving a deputation 
 from Bethnal Green on the subject of an infirmary 
 site, he is reported to have spoken his mind very 
 freely as to the disgraceful condition of the work- 
 house. Some reforming members of the board who 
 were present urged that Sir Walter should print 
 and publish his remarks. At the moment, in view 
 of the fact that Sir H. Fowler's bill was assimilating 
 the franchise of the whole country to that which 
 already obtained in Bethnal Green, the exigency 
 of party politics or some other cause prevented 
 this, but in the interest of the poor of Bethnal 
 Green it is desirable that some publicity should 
 be given to the facts, of which the following are 
 cited as a sample. 
 
 In January, 1894, it was reported at a meeting 
 of the Board that the guardians had been served 
 with a summons by the Sanitary Authorities for 
 not carrying out their orders with respect to the 
 
BETHNAL GREEN. 77 
 
 drains and insanitary and dirty condition of the 
 house. The medical officer of the Union, Dr. 
 Knox, appearing as witness before the Select 
 Committee of the House of Lords, admitted that 
 the Bethnal Green Workhouse was the worst institu- 
 tion of the kind in London ; that it was so bad 
 that it could not be amended, but must be pulled 
 down. Further, it is stated that Bethnal Green 
 is the only Union in London which engages pauper 
 nurses in the sick wards, and that the accommoda- 
 tion is so grossly inadequate that the workhouse is 
 always over-crowded. 
 
 Yet with all these inconveniences the Bethnal 
 
 Green Workhouse is not unpopular. Dr. Hunter 
 
 was able to say, in his article in the Contemporary 
 
 Review ) March, 1 894, that Bethnal Green was among 
 
 the In-door Relief * Unions, that is, the unions 
 
 which gave more than the average amount of their 
 
 relief inside the house. As already stated, there is 
 
 no disposition to refuse out-door relief, and the 
 
 paupers who enter the house do so from choice, 
 
 or because they belong to the vagrant class and 
 
 have no homes. 1 Here is a description given by 
 
 one of the inmates in a letter addressed to the 
 
 Board and to the Local Government Board. 
 
 After drawing attention to the opinions expressed 
 
 by certain members of the Board in their addresses 
 
 before the election in regard to the classification 
 
 1 For proof of this see p. 241. 
 
78 BETHNAL GREEN. 
 
 of inmates according to character and disposition, 
 the letter went on to say, " The unfortunate 
 inmates were herded together like cattle. On 
 Sunday the place was a regular pandemonium- 
 Casuals came in and stayed till Monday, and the 
 language used by some of them was disgusting, 
 while the time was passed in playing cards and 
 dominoes, in whistling, howling, singing of obscene 
 songs, and dancing." It would not be fair as a rule 
 to quote the criticisms of a pauper inmate as 
 conclusive evidence, but in this case the substantial 
 accuracy 01 the description is not seriously denied. 
 Some time ago, a new master was appointed, 
 and a complaint was brought before the board by 
 some of the inmates that the door between the 
 apartments of the male and the female inmates 
 of the house was locked at night. It appeared 
 that for many years this had never been closed. 
 These things seem hardly credible, but they are 
 vouched for to me by unimpeachable evidence. 
 
 What must be the class of people who flock 
 into this rate-supported common-lodging house? 
 What a terrible injustice this laxity of discipline 
 inflicts on the more respectable inmates ! Contrast 
 this pandemonium with the clean and orderly 
 workhouse and infirmary at Whitechapel, with its 
 medical officers and trained nurses. 
 
POOR LA W REFORM. 79 
 
 CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 TAKE, again, the question of classification. Every 
 agitator on the poor law declares himself to be 
 in favour of better classification, but few of them 
 have any conception of the difficulties which 
 beset the question, Mr. Vallance, whose com- 
 petence and ability will be readily acknowledged 
 even by those who differ from his view on poor 
 law relief, has always declared that for himself 
 he. would be very unwilling to have the responsi- 
 bility for classification according to character 
 and merit thrust on poor law officials. It would, 
 in his opinion, be an exercise of arbitrary power 
 which could not, without much risk of abuse, 
 be entrusted to poor law officials. The cry for 
 classification in the mouth of the agitators is 
 somewhat inconsistent. In one breath they are 
 complaining of the harshness and cruelty of the 
 poor law official, and yet they clamour to clothe 
 him with new and arbitrary powers. They are 
 backed up in this demand, not by conscientious 
 officials like Mr. Vallance, but by the electioneering 
 
8o POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 promises of the representatives of Bethnal Green. 
 Classification admittedly is desirable ; but, as Mr. 
 Vallance has shown, the only practicable classifica- 
 tion must be a voluntary one. If the buildings 
 are adequate, there need be no over-crowding, and 
 inmates will classify themselves. 
 
 The Local Government Board, very properly, 
 insists on a threefold classification, the able-bodied, 
 the sick and infirm, and the young, and these are 
 divided again according to sex. The able-bodied 
 in the workhouse are very few in number, and 
 the plan pursued at Whitechapel is to isolate them 
 from one another, as far as possible, and to keep 
 them all employed in some useful work. There 
 is no oakum picking, but the inmates are employed 
 in painting and carpentry according to their 
 ability. They are not, of course, paid wages 
 for this, and they are made to understand that 
 if they wish to become independent they must 
 go out and seek work in the ordinary channels 
 of trade. The isolation is agreeable to the more 
 respectable, and is distasteful to the idle, gossiping 
 loafer. With regard to the women more especially 
 women coming into the infirmary to be confined 
 of illegitimate children it has been urged, and 
 with some degree of plausibility, that classification 
 according to degree of respectability should be 
 attempted. A closer consideration of the question, 
 however, confirmed by the experience recorded 
 
CLA SSIFICA TION. 8 1 
 
 by Mr. Vallance, will, I think, bring most reason- 
 able persons to a different conclusion. The 
 disabilities and sufferings of women in this 
 unfortunate class are more than sufficient, and 
 it is difficult to imagine a crueller suggestion 
 than that they should be herded together and 
 marked out as a class with which no one is to 
 associate. 
 
 Mr. Vallance has recorded an instance of a 
 provincial union where this classification took 
 place. Unfortunate young women, who, to the 
 eye of some functionary, appeared more depraved 
 than others, were collected together apart from 
 the other inmates, with the result to be expected. 
 The insult and the degradation called into activity 
 all their worst instincts, and Mr. Vallance has 
 described to me his last sight of the whole party 
 being dragged off to the police-court charged 
 with riotous and obscene conduct. The plan 
 pursued in Whitechapel is quite different. There 
 are, of course, a considerable number of women 
 in this condition passing through the infirmary. 
 It is the business of the matron to see them, and 
 it is not difficult for a woman of sympathy and 
 common sense to learn something of the character 
 of each. When the women are able to go about, 
 the matron makes it her business to send them 
 to work in different parts of the establishment. 
 One goes perhaps to the kitchen, another to the 
 
 G 
 
82 POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 laundry, or to the scrubbers. If they are anxious 
 to make a new start in life, some lady is induced 
 to interest herself in the matter, and employment 
 outside is obtained, and, during the year to 
 which my information relates, I am told that 
 fifty-one women were helped in this way and 
 given a chance, at all events, to live a respectable 
 life. If unfortunately, as may occasionally happen, 
 paupers of this class show themselves perverse 
 and unmanageable, it is perfectly easy for a 
 judicious official to isolate such persons by 
 finding them employment in remoter parts of the 
 establishment. These arrangements are made 
 not by way of punishment, but merely in the 
 ordinary routine of the domestic work of the 
 institution. 
 
 The treatment of the sick is entirely a doctor's 
 question. It is the duty of the guardians to 
 secure the services of a competent medical man, 
 of a duly qualified staff of nurses, and to see 
 that sufficient and suitable accommodation is 
 provided. The fever hospitals under the metro- 
 politan asylums boards are open for infectious 
 cases, and such further classification as is necessary 
 must of necessity be left in large measure to the 
 doctor. 
 
 The classification of the aged and infirm, again, 
 is a question much debated. Mr. Vallance's 
 advice may be quoted again. It is that ample 
 
CLASSIFICATION. 83 
 
 accommodation be provided, that the wards should 
 be divided up as far as possible ; some small 
 tables and movable chairs, with a few screens, 
 the last given perhaps by some charitable person, 
 will enable the inmates to arrange themselves 
 in groups. The kindly association presided over 
 by the Countess of Meath, known still as the 
 Brabazon scheme, has been extremely useful 
 in finding simple employments to beguile the 
 idle hours of the aged and infirm. A friend, who 
 has devoted the best years of his life to the onerous 
 duties of a London poor law guardian, told me 
 how he once sought counsel on this point from 
 an old man who had for years been an inmate 
 of a certain London workhouse. The old fellow 
 unexpectedly came into some money and left the 
 house. Some months after, my friend met him 
 in the street, and in the course of conversation 
 asked him his candid opinion on the manage- 
 ment of the workhouse, and the question of 
 classification in particular. The old man said, 
 " Don't you bother yourself about that ; we classify 
 ourselves ; if you were to classify us you would 
 classify us all wrong. You should give us a better 
 pudding on Friday, but otherwise I have no 
 complaint to make." 
 
 This, I think, is the common sense of the 
 matter. For the able-bodied, discipline and 
 task-work is necessary, but the aged and infirm 
 
84 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 are not required to work. They should be kept 
 employed to save them from utter weariness, but 
 for them the workhouse is an almshouse, and 
 the most considerate treatment is to leave them, 
 as far as possible, free to choose their own friends 
 and associates. After all, it must be remembered, 
 the most respectable are not of necessity the 
 best company. A great deal of this talk about 
 classification is merely bred of presumption and 
 ignorance. 
 
 With regard to the children, there is little 
 difference of opinion. Separate schools are 
 indispensable. Admittedly some of the London 
 schools have grown too large. Others, again, 
 leave little to be desired. The plan of having 
 cottage homes is also recommended, but it is 
 extremely costly. Boarding out is, in a limited 
 number of cases, a successful method of bringing 
 up pauper children. Obviously, however, this 
 method is only available for deserted or orphan 
 children, and if carelessly supervised it is liable 
 to terrible abuses. Miss Mason, the Local Govern- 
 ment Board inspector of boarded-out children, has 
 more than once dwelt on the fact that it is at 
 times very difficult to find a sufficient supply of 
 suitable foster-mothers. The great majority of 
 pauper children must continue to be brought up 
 in the schools, and if some of the many futile hours 
 devoted by guardians to "discriminating" on the 
 
CLASSIFICATION. 85 
 
 merits of applicants for out-door relief could be 
 given to the schools, these important institutions 
 might be greatly improved. 
 
 Here our brief account of the reformation at 
 Whitechapel must end. 
 
86 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 STEPNEY AND ST. GEORGE-IN-THE-EAST. 
 
 A SIMILAR reform was, about the same time, 
 begun and carried out in the contiguous union of 
 Stepney, and in 1875 the example was followed 
 by St. George-in-the-East. 
 
 In Stepney the account given by Mr. Jones, 
 for many years relieving officer in that union, 
 dwells specially on the policy of insisting that 
 out-relief, when given at all, shall be adequate. 
 In Stepney he represents that it had the following 
 effect The out-relief list, when the reform began, 
 was very extensive, and the relief given grossly 
 inadequate. To make it really adequate, the 
 guardians must have faced a very large extra 
 expenditure. In justice to the ratepayers, this 
 was a matter requiring careful consideration. 
 The claims of each applicant for out-relief were 
 therefore carefully scrutinised, with the final result, 
 that a disuse of the method of out-door relief 
 quite as complete as in Whitechapel became 
 the rule at Stepney. 
 
 The remarkable feature in the case of St. 
 
STEPNEY AND ST. GEORGE-IN-THE-EAST. 87 
 
 George-in-the-East was that the change was made 
 suddenly. 
 
 "On Jan. i, 1875, the number of paupers in St 
 George-in-the-East (population about 47,000, and the 
 district as poor as any in London) was 3047 ; of these 
 1248 were in receipt of in-door relief, and 1799 f 
 out-door relief. The guardians suddenly set to work to 
 revise their out-relief list, with the result that on Jan. i, 
 1876, the numbers were: indoor, 1258; outdoor, 548; 
 total 1806." (The Administration of the Poor Law, a 
 pamphlet by A. G. Crowder, Guardian of St. George- 
 in-the-East, 1888.) 
 
 If, as is now generally admitted among those 
 who have paid any impartial attention to the 
 matter, a restriction of out-door relief is a good 
 thing, it becomes a very interesting and important 
 matter to decide by what method a transition 
 is to be made. 
 
 It is, I think, possible that in practice there was 
 not so much difference in the method followed 
 as would at first sight appear. In none of the 
 unions, as I believe, were any new cases of out- 
 relief put on the books after the decision of the 
 guardians to reform their administration. The 
 St. George's Board, it is possible, acted more 
 boldly, because the policy of the Whitechapel and 
 Stepney Boards had already proved the advan- 
 tage and possibility of a change ; its action in 
 dealing with the cases already on the out-relief 
 
88 STEPNEY AND ST. GEORGE-IN-THE-EAST. 
 
 list seems to have been more drastic, but the 
 policy of all the unions had this most important 
 and vital feature in common, that tacitly it was 
 agreed that no new cases should be put on the list. 
 This, I expect, is the secret of the continuity of 
 policy in these three unions a continuity in the 
 case of Whitechapel and Stepney of a quarter of 
 a century. Considering what human nature is, 
 considering the class of men who are responsible 
 for local administration, more especially in the 
 poorer parts of London, I do not believe that 
 they could have resisted the temptation to use 
 the patronage at their disposal, unless a custom 
 equivalent to an absolute rule of the board had 
 stood in the way. As is well known, the tendency 
 to restrict out-relief has been general throughout 
 the country, but its restriction has been very 
 gradual, and unions are liable to a reversal of 
 policy. The continuity of policy in these unions 
 has been due partly to the presence on the board 
 of one or two men, who had thought the matter 
 out and were trusted by their colleagues, but even 
 more to the fact that practically no applications 
 for out-door relief are now considered. 
 
POOR LAW REFORM. 89 
 
 BIRMINGHAM AND MANCHESTER. 
 
 A DIFFERENT practice has been adopted for 
 bringing about a reduction of out-door relief in 
 other urban unions. In Birmingham, in Man- 
 chester, and in Paddington, the process has been 
 more laborious. There, the general understanding 
 that no more cases shall be put on the out-relief 
 list has not been reached. Rules have been 
 laid down for the administration of out-relief, and 
 a somewhat laborious system of inquiry and 
 cross visiting has been instituted. Each case 
 is considered on its merits, but the result has 
 been a very large reduction of out-door relief. 
 
 In Birmingham a Special Committee of the 
 Board was appointed on Oct. 4, 1882, 
 
 " to examine into the whole question of out-door relief, 
 as administered in this parish, with power to inquire into 
 the system adopted in other large towns, and to report 
 any suggestions or alterations they might consider it 
 desirable to make." 
 
 The Committee recommended the appointment 
 of a superintendent of the Relief Department, 
 
90 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 whose duties should be to attend all relief com- 
 mittees, to see that the orders of the committees 
 were carried out, that the regulations of the 
 guardians were adhered to, and to exercise a 
 general supervision over the officers and arrange- 
 ments of the Relief Department. 
 
 They also recommended the appointment of 
 a cross visitor, as assistant to the superintendent. 
 His duties were to conduct, " independently of the 
 Relieving Officers, inquiries with regard to such 
 applicants for or recipients of relief, as may be 
 referred to him by the superintendent, and to 
 report to him." Next, recommendations were 
 made with a view to re-arranging the staff of 
 the Relieving Officers. The question as to the 
 number of cases which each officer can supervise 
 was left open till the results of the appointment 
 of the superintendent and cross visitor could 
 be ascertained. 
 
 It was further urged that steps should be taken 
 to secure uniformity of action in the different 
 relief committees of the Board ; that, for this 
 purpose, the following rules should be adopted. 
 
 " That out relief be refused to the following classes of 
 applicants for relief, except in special cases 
 
 (1) " Single able-bodied men. 
 
 (2) " Single able-bodied women. 
 
 (3) " Able-bodied widows without children. 
 
 (4) "Married women (with or without families) whose 
 
BIRMINGHAM AND MANCHESTER. 91 
 
 husbands, having been convicted of crime, are under- 
 going a second or subsequent term of imprisonment. 
 
 (5) "Married women deserted by their husbands, 
 whether with or without families. 
 
 (6) " Persons residing with relatives where the united 
 income of the family is sufficient for the support of all 
 its members, whether such relatives are liable by law to 
 support the applicant or not. 
 
 (7) " Widows with children, during the first six months 
 of their widowhood, if on the death of their husband, 
 they receive money from a club, which, in the opinion of 
 the committee, was lavishly spent in mourning or funeral 
 expenses. 
 
 (8) " Any person who fails to satisfy the committee 
 that their destitution has not been caused by improvidence 
 and intemperance." 
 
 The report further recommends that a Central 
 Out-door Relief Committee should revise the 
 decisions of the Sectional Relief Committees in 
 doubtful cases. 
 
 Relief, further, should only be given for a short 
 period ; and attention is also called to the practice 
 of the Whitechapel Committee in relieving the 
 children of widows in the district schools without 
 requiring the parent to come into the house. 
 
 These relief regulations were put into force on 
 January I, 1884. The Central Relief Committee 
 was duly appointed. In 1884 they were called on 
 to revise fifty-two decisions of the sectional com- 
 mittees. This necessity for ' revision steadily 
 
92 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 decreased till, in 1889, there were no revisions at 
 all ; in 1890 there was one. In 1891 there were 
 two. A very similar result attended the work of 
 the cross visitor. In 1884, forty-nine cases were 
 struck off the list by the Board on the report of the 
 cross visitor, while in 1890 and 1891 only one and 
 three cases were reported and dealt with as un- 
 satisfactory. The reduction of out-door relief made 
 it possible to reduce the number of Relieving 
 Officers in 1891 from six to five. 
 
 Relief committees issue orders for admission to 
 the workhouse from time to time to persons who 
 are recipients of out-door relief, either as a test of 
 destitution, when the case seems undeserving of 
 out-relief, or when the home conditions are unsatis- 
 factory. In 1884 one hundred and seventy such 
 orders were made. In 1889, twenty-one; in 1890, 
 twenty-eight; in 1891, twenty-two. In 1889 and 
 
 1890 none of these orders were accepted, and in 
 
 1891 only three of them were used. 
 
 In 1883, prior to the New Regulations, there 
 were 1138 orders for the workhouse given; of 
 these 344 were used. This number has gone on 
 steadily decreasing till, in 1891, only forty-five 
 orders were given ; of these only twenty-one were 
 applied for, and only fourteen of these were used ; 
 " therefore," says Mr. Fothergill, the Superintendent 
 of out-relief, in his report to the Board in 1892, "it 
 may be presumed that there was no real necessity 
 
BIRMINGHAM AND MANCHESTER. 
 
 93 
 
 for the applications in these cases where the orders 
 were not used." 
 
 Of the general result of this system the following 
 figures will speak : 
 
 PAUPERS RELIEVED ON JAN. i, EXCLUSIVE OF LUNATICS. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Out-door. 
 
 In-door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Proportion of 
 paupers to popu- 
 lation, one in 
 
 I88 3 
 
 4905 
 
 2550 
 
 7455 
 
 33 
 
 1884 
 
 4496 
 
 2643 
 
 7139 
 
 34 
 
 I88 5 
 
 3810 
 
 3043 
 
 6853 
 
 35 
 
 1886 
 1887 
 
 3514 
 3108 
 
 3028 
 3158 
 
 6542 
 6266 
 
 37 
 39 
 
 1888 
 
 2388 
 
 3H7 
 
 5535 
 
 44 
 
 1889 
 
 1851 
 
 3135 
 
 4986 
 
 49 
 
 1890 
 
 1263 
 
 3037 
 
 4300 
 
 57 
 
 1891 
 
 1183 
 
 3088 
 
 4271 
 
 57 
 
 1892 
 
 904 
 
 3003 
 
 3907 
 
 62 
 
 With regard to the increase in the workhouse, it 
 is to be observed that there has been a continuous 
 improvement in the infirmary treatment of the sick 
 poor, and that to this cause much of the in-door 
 pauperism is to be attributed. " The opening of 
 the New Infirmary," says Mr. Fothergill, in his 
 report for 1889, "has thrown a great responsibility 
 on my department, for the cunning schemes that 
 are planned to secure admission are many, and, 
 when they are not successful, insults and abuse are 
 heaped upon the relieving officers. The fame of 
 the infirmary has spread far and wide, and large 
 numbers come seeking the benefit of the improved 
 
94 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 provision made for the sick here." The report 
 goes on to give instances of persons who had 
 travelled long distances in order to avail themselves 
 of the benefit of the infirmary. 
 
 The figures above quoted show that the number 
 of admission orders given by the Board both in the 
 case of first applications and to persons in receipt 
 of out-door relief, has steadily diminished. The 
 great majority of the inmates of the workhouse and 
 infirmary were admitted on the authority of the 
 master of the workhouse on their own application, 
 and each year a considerable number of out-relief 
 paupers voluntarily gave up their allowances and 
 asked to be admitted to the workhouse. In 1884, 
 the first year of the new regulations, as many as 
 forty-nine took this step. These considerations 
 account in a perfectly natural and not unsatis- 
 factory manner for the slight increase in in-door 
 pauperism. 
 
 The history of the Manchester and Paddington 
 Boards is not dissimilar. An interesting account 
 of the history of poor law administration in 
 Manchester is given by Mr. Alexander McDougall, 
 J.P., Vice-chairman of the Manchester Board of 
 Guardians. 1 
 
 1 See p. 304 of a volume entitled, " The Organisation of Charities, 
 a report of the sixth section of the International Congress of 
 Charities at Chicago." Baltimore : the John Hopkins Press. 
 London : The Scientific Press, Limited, 428, Strand. 1894. 
 
BIRMINGHAM AND MANCHESTER. 95 
 
 About twenty years ago rules almost identical 
 with those at Birmingham were adopted by the 
 Board, with the following statistical result : 
 
 OUT-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 For the year ending March 29, 1873, average number of 
 persons receiving relief on one day was . . 3198 
 
 For the year ending March 25, 1893, average number of 
 persons receiving relief on one day was . . 594 
 
 Decrease . . . 2604 
 
 IN-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 For the year ending March 29, 1873, average number of 
 persons receiving relief on one day was . . . 2298 
 
 For the year ending March 25, 1893, average number of 
 persons receiving relief on one day was . . .2718 
 
 Increase . . . 420 
 
 Commenting on these figures, Mr. McDougall 
 remarks : 
 
 " This large reduction in the number of persons granted 
 out-relief has not been at the cost of hardship and suffer- 
 ing. Careful inquiry has failed to discover any cases of 
 necessity unrelieved because of strict adherence to the 
 regulations. On the other hand, it has raised the respec- 
 tability of out-relief, and made really worthy persons less 
 disinclined to apply." 
 
 It may here be pointed out that the argument of 
 those who advocate an absolute rule against out- 
 relief is that with regard to "really worthy persons" 
 it is the business of private chanty to meet such 
 cases, and that, according to their testimony, no 
 
96 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 insuperable difficulty has been found elsewhere in 
 solving the problem in this way ; see Mr. Vallance's 
 remarks re Tower Hamlet Pension Committee, 
 p. 66. "The collateral results," Mr. McDougall 
 continues, " have been most beneficial ; the cha- 
 racter of notoriously pauperised localities has 
 been changed. Out-relief, readily granted, causes 
 groups of improvident persons to localise. These 
 nests of pauperism are soon broken up when out- 
 relief becomes restricted to exceptional cases only." 
 Mr. McDougall next dwells on the improvements 
 made in the infirmary and in the workhouse 
 generally. " There is but little unwillingness," he 
 says, " on the part of the sick poor to go into the 
 infirmary; it has become popular even to an extent 
 not desired by the guardians, as it is a fact that 
 sick persons from a distance are attracted." This 
 fact is universal in most populous places. In 
 response to a very proper feeling of humanity, 
 great improvements have everywhere been made, 
 and this fact must be held largely responsible for 
 the increase in the numbers of in-door paupers. 
 
 Mr. McDougall then describes the assistance 
 which has been given to the reform of public relief 
 by the Manchester and Salford District Provident 
 Society, an association which works very much on 
 the lines of the Charity Organisation Society of 
 London. With regard to the aged, an account is 
 given of the efforts of one of the guardians (I 
 
BIRMINGHAM AND MANCHESTER. 97 
 
 believe that Mr. McDougall himself is the person 
 in question), who has raised from voluntary sources 
 a small pension fund, which he pays out to a 
 number of destitute, respectable old people. " The 
 number of such persons," he says, " even in a large 
 population is not great, because the majority of 
 aged persons have children able to contribute to 
 their support ; " a view of the situation which 
 confirms the already expressed opinion that if 
 charitable people will unite in taking a reasonable 
 attitude on the subject, there is no reason why 
 the guardians should not make their rule against 
 out-relief well-nigh absolute, and leave the hard 
 cases to be dealt with by private charity. 
 
 H 
 
98 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 A RURAL UNION. 
 
 IT remains to add a brief narrative of the reform 
 of administration carried out in a rural district. 
 The Bradfield Union comprises 62,650 acres, 
 situated f in Berkshire and \ in Oxfordshire, to 
 the west of Reading, having a total rateable value 
 of .136,979. The population was 15,853 in 1871, 
 and in 1891, 18,017, in spite of a transference of 
 a populous part of the Union to Reading in 1889. 
 It is, in the main, an agricultural union. An 
 agricultural labourer earns a nominal I2s. to i$s. 
 per week ; but with extras and harvest money, etc., 
 really makes about 17^. to 2os. per week. The 
 average rent of a cottage and garden is i s. 6d. 
 
 On January i, 1871, there were in receipt 
 of poor relief 999 out-door and 259 in-door 
 paupers (exclusive of lunatics in asylums and 
 vagrants), a total of 1258, or one in thirteen 
 (7*7 per cent.) of the population. The total poor 
 law expenditure for the year was 10,865, and 
 the poor rate stood at 2^\d. in the pound, entailing 
 a cost of 1 3^. 8 ^d. per head of population. 
 
 On January i, 1893, the corresponding figures 
 were as follows : out-door paupers, 22 ; in-door, 
 99 ; total, 121, or i in 148 (0*67 per cent). 
 Expenditure during the preceding year, 1995 ; 
 poor rate, $\d. ; cost per head of population, 2s. 2^d. 1 
 
 1 The above facts are given on the authority of an interesting 
 
A RURAL UNION. 99 
 
 At the annual meeting of the London Chanty 
 Organisation Society in 1891, the Chairman of 
 the Bradfield Union, the late Mr. Bland-Garland, 
 gave a most remarkable and impressive narrative 
 of his experience. 
 
 " I am only a country guardian," he began ; " I have 
 only the old story to tell you nothing whatever new 
 the old story as told by the Poor Law Commissioners 
 of 1834, which has been shamefully neglected by 
 guardians ever since neglect which has caused more 
 misery, in my opinion, to the poor of this country than 
 all other causes put together. How does the restriction 
 of out-door, relief promote thrift and independence? 
 It is the chief cause of pauperism. I hope I shall 
 persuade many of you before I have finished that four- 
 fifths of the pauperism of this country is due to out-door 
 relief, that drunkenness and crime contribute com- 
 paratively in only a very small measure to it. ... It 
 is a far-reaching evil, much more so than is generally 
 supposed. Not only the recipients are pauperised by 
 it, but the whole neighbourhood for a considerable area 
 learn to depend upon it, when it is given freely. They 
 are all looking forward to it when their time comes. 
 The actual numbers in receipt of it are no criterion 
 to the numbers that, though not in receipt of it, are 
 being pauperised by the expectation of it. I can speak 
 very strongly from my own personal observation of 
 twenty years on this subject. I doubt not that, as we 
 
 paper, p. 350, contributed by Mr. Willink (who succeeded Mr. 
 Bland-Garland as Chairman of the Board) to the International 
 Congress of Charities at Chicago. The full title, etc., of the Report 
 is given on p. 94. 
 
ioo POOR LAW REFORM. 
 
 have hundreds of thousands at the present day in 
 England and Wales receiving out-door relief, and being, 
 of course, paupers, we have millions who are prepared 
 to be paupers, and who would, if it were not for the 
 malign influence of out-door relief, be exerting them- 
 selves to provide for sickness and old age." 
 
 Mr. Bland-Garland's address, which has been 
 reprinted by the Charity Organisation Society 
 under the appropriate title " From Pauperism to 
 Manliness," goes on to explain the result of the 
 refusal of out-door relief. In the old days some 
 seven hundred medical orders were given during 
 the year. An old medical officer told Mr. Bland- 
 Garland that in the village where he had lived 
 for thirty years, every one (tradespeople as well 
 as labourers) used to get medical attendance from 
 him. This was made to cease, and all orders were 
 given on loan, and, where practicable, repayment 
 was enforced. In 1890, twenty-four orders only 
 were given ; " the people have got to be too 
 independent now. They have learnt to stand 
 on their own legs, and to go into the medical 
 officer's clubs, and to be independent of the 
 guardians." 
 
 From 1876 to 1890, 55 widows with 213 
 children had made application. Of these, only 
 i widow and 1 1 children accepted the offer made 
 by the Board to receive them into the work- 
 house. 
 
A RURAL UNION. 101 
 
 " The remaining fifty-four widows and 202 children 
 who declined to go into the workhouse are far better 
 off than similar widows and children were when they got 
 out-relief. As a matter of course the children of widows 
 in receipt of out-relief are brought up as beggars and 
 pauperised from their infancy, and the pauperism hangs 
 to them. . . . You may consider that hereditary 
 pauperism. . . . The widows, it is very easy to see, are 
 improved. They are free from the incubus of pauperism. 
 They can demand full remuneration for their labour. 
 They could not do that when they were receiving the 
 pauper dole. They only got a pittance then from their 
 employers. Those that require assistance from their 
 relations get it far more readily than they did when they 
 received the pauper dole. I would say from my heart 
 that one of the happiest circumstances of my life is that 
 we refused to give any more out-door relief to widows, 
 because I see plainly, all over the Union, that they are 
 far better off, and far happier than ever they were before." 
 
 Then, after referring to the reduction of the rate, 
 he goes on 
 
 " It becomes comparatively easy now for me or any 
 of my fellow guardians to say to the gentlemen who 
 reside in the parishes where we occasionally find a poor 
 person, or couple, whom we would rather not bring into 
 the house, ' Well, now, this is a subject for private 
 charity. We recommend you to get your neighbours 
 to contribute to a small pension for life for these people.' 
 We always say what the pension ought to be, in order 
 that it may be sufficient, if possible. We are enabled 
 to add, to give force to the recommendation, ' You know 
 now that you only pay a 5^. rate, instead of a 2^\d. 
 
102 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 Surely you can afford it.' And we find that very 
 effective." 
 
 He then gives some account of the increase of 
 thrift, due, as he argued, to the better adminis- 
 tration of the law. Medical clubs showed an 
 increased membership of 148 per cent, and Friendly 
 Societies of 150 per cent. 
 
 "It is said that the restriction of out-door relief is 
 a hardship to the poor, because it drives them into the 
 workhouse. It does nothing of the kind, ladies and 
 gentlemen. It drives them into thrift and independence. 
 How can it drive them into the workhouse, when it has 
 reduced the number of inmates of our workhouse to less 
 than one-half, when we have done away with all out-door 
 relief, you may say ? " 
 
 The same kindly but clear-headed authority 
 dwells in this same address on the pains taken 
 by the guardians with the children who come 
 under their care. They do not " board out," which 
 he thinks more suitable for large unions. The 
 children are kept in a part of the house separate 
 from the adult paupers. They are sent to the 
 village school and mix with the other children. 
 They are taught to use their hands, and are brought 
 up in a healthy way. Care is taken in the selection 
 of masters and mistresses for them, when they are 
 ready to go out into the world, so that they may 
 not be taxed above their strength. 
 
 This careful and sensible policy is rewarded 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSION. 103 
 
 with success, and it is satisfactory to learn that 
 the children so brought up do not relapse into 
 pauperism. 
 
 One last quotation from this interesting address 
 enables the reader to appreciate the difficulty of 
 providing for exceptions by rule. 
 
 " As to the exceptions in favour of out-door relief, you 
 must lay down some rules, I suppose. Some unions that 
 have been reformed have laid down a great many rules. 
 But with too many rules I think you may get into great 
 difficulties. Our exceptions have been simple ones. 
 We simply make an exception in favour of giving 
 a widow four weeks' out-door relief after the commence- 
 ment of her widowhood, in order that she may have time 
 to make her arrangements. Beyond that we only give 
 out-door relief to temporarily urgent cases arising from 
 sickness or accident. Well, we find these exceptions 
 are so clearly defined that no one leans upon them. 
 The evil of exceptions is that they tend to become the 
 rule. When they go beyond what I have just stated 
 they become dangerous. People then begin to lean 
 upon them in the expectation of getting this poison 
 out-door relief." 
 
 A GENERAL CONCLUSION. 
 
 It is no part of the purpose of this article to 
 insist on the superior merit of one method of 
 reducing out-door relief as against another. 
 Personal and local considerations must in most 
 cases decide the precise policy to be followed by 
 
104 POOR LA W REFORM. 
 
 any reforming board of guardians. All that can be 
 done at present is to direct public opinion to the 
 necessity and practicability of administrative reform. 
 The possibility of legislative reform is a matter on 
 which it is more difficult to speak with confidence. 
 The treatment of pauperism is a science, and locally 
 elected, democratic science is a conception, not 
 likely to be realised in our time. The other horn 
 of the dilemma is, that no centralised authority 
 might be sufficiently powerful to apply the requisite 
 measures of social surgery. A legal provision for 
 the poor is a dangerous principle, creating a large 
 proportion of the pauperism which it relieves. It 
 has, however, become an integral part of our 
 social life, and if we cannot abolish it, we must 
 control and limit it, as best we can. A formal 
 inquiry conducted by some competent and im- 
 partial tribunal might, like the similar inquiry 
 of 1832-34, create such a volume of opinion 
 throughout the country, that the legislature might 
 be able to take away from the local authorities 
 some portion of the powers which at present are 
 too often used to the detriment and demoralisation 
 of the poor. Till that is done, all that the poor 
 law reformer can do is to urge on the local 
 authorities that they should voluntarily adopt the 
 principles and practice of one or other of the 
 models which have been briefly and imperfectly 
 sketched on the foregoing pages. 
 
II. 
 
 THE POOR LAW 
 AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 1 
 
 INFORMATION as to the relation of Friendly 
 Societies to methods of administering poor law 
 relief prior to the passing of the Poor Law Amend- 
 ment Act of 1834 is of necessity very scanty. Our 
 principal source of knowledge is Sir F. Eden's 
 " State of the Poor," three vols. 4to, 1797. Of 
 course, many facts as to the poor law and as to 
 Friendly Societies are to be obtained from various 
 and separate other sources, but no one has so 
 clearly appreciated the close connection which 
 subsists between the two as Sir F. Eden. His 
 second and third volumes are devoted to a 
 statistical account of all matters relating to the 
 poor in "several agricultural, commercial, and 
 manufacturing districts." The facts set down by 
 the author are, for the most part, the result of 
 personal inquiry, and in his passage from town 
 
 1 Republished with some additions from Insurance and Saving. 
 A report on the existing opportunities for Working Class Thrift. 
 Charity Organisation Society Series. Sonnenschein & Co., 1892, to 
 which volume the present essay formed an Introduction. 
 
106 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 to town, this most painstaking investigator 
 enumerates, in almost every instance, the number 
 of Friendly Societies in each town or district, and 
 in many instances gives very elaborate details as 
 to their rules, membership, etc. Sir F. Eden was 
 a keen observer of human nature, and no dealer 
 in panaceas ; he saw very clearly the close 
 connection between the alternatives of Friendly 
 Society insurance and the less honourable main- 
 tenance to be obtained from the rates. This 
 action in setting the two things in statistical 
 juxtaposition is the beginning of a long train of 
 circumstantial evidence, all tending to show that 
 the relation between the two is very close. 
 Unfortunately, it is not a subject on which Govern- 
 ment has collected any statistics. It is obvious 
 that if various eligible forms of poor law relief are 
 curtailed, there must be more inducement to 
 provide for emergency by means of insurance and 
 saving. That this is, in fact, the case we hope to 
 be able to prove by an array of figures and instances 
 which, if not so full as could be wished, are yet 
 significant and convincing. 
 
 In the preface to his work, Sir F. Eden, speaking 
 of the characteristics of Friendly Society members, 
 remarks, "that rejecting, as it were, a provision 
 gratuitously held out to them by the public, and 
 which was to cost them nothing (the poor law) 
 they chose to be indebted for relief, if they should 
 
SIR F. EDEN'S OPINION. 107 
 
 want it, to their own industry and their own 
 frugality. And I would fain hope that I do not 
 deserve to be set down as wanting in respect for 
 parliamentary wisdom, if, in a case like this, I 
 should declare my preference of the wisdom of 
 the people. I cannot recollect any act of the 
 legislature for many years that has either pro- 
 duced such important national advantages, or been 
 so popular, as the institution and extension of 
 Friendly Societies." 
 
 Again : " I do not find," he says, " that any 
 parish has been burthened with the maintenance 
 of the member of any Friendly Society, nor are 
 the instances numerous of the families of members 
 being burthensome." 
 
 Again : " There are great objections to all com- 
 pulsory schemes for erecting Friendly Societies ; 
 whatever benefit is intended the poor, obliging 
 them to subscribe is, in effect, taxing them. . . . 
 Why use force, when mutual convenience will 
 probably make that palatable which legislative 
 direction may render nauseous ? Few of us will 
 be driven, but most of us may be led." 
 
 In another passage he remarks : " Any attempt 
 to combine those voluntary associations with 
 parochial taxes will, I am persuaded, do much 
 harm, and lessen that sense of independence which 
 a member of a benefit club totally unconnected 
 with a poor rate now enjoys." 
 
io8 POOR LA W AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT^ 
 
 He estimates that the aggregate Societies in 
 England and Wales amounted to something like 
 7200, with an average membership of 90, or, 
 in all, 648,000. These clubs spend each about 62- 
 per annum, or, in all, ^"421,000, and the subscrip- 
 tions amount to something like 500,000 per 
 annum. 
 
 Later on he sums up the situation with his usual 
 impartiality and caution (vol. i. p. 615) : "Whether 
 Friendly Societies will or will not eventually con- 
 tribute to reduce the poor's rate, the limited extent 
 of my inquiries does not allow me peremptorily to* 
 decide. That, however, these institutions increase 
 the comforts of the labouring classes who belong to 
 them will be evident from comparing the condition* 
 of those who are members of them, and of those 
 who in the same village are contented to rely on. 
 the parish for relief. The former are generally 
 comparatively cleanly, orderly, and sober, and 
 consequently happy and good members of society, 
 whilst the latter are living in filth and wretchedness,, 
 and are often, from the pressure of a casual sick- 
 ness or accident, which incapacitates them from 
 working, tempted to the commission of improper 
 acts (not to say crimes), against which the sure 
 resource of a benefit club would have been the best 
 preservative. . . . Although, however, I cannot 
 speak confidently on the probability of a great 
 reduction of the poor's rate being the consequence 
 
FRIENDL Y SOCIETIES. 109 
 
 of an extension of Friendly Societies whilst that 
 national tax has no bounds assigned to it but what 
 depend on the caprice, humanity, or discrimination, 
 of overseers and justices of the peace, I flatter myself 
 the reader will in the course of the following pages 
 meet with some not unimportant information 
 relative to the state and progress of these useful 
 institutions." 
 
 The words in italics give the key to the situation, 
 for in the existing state of the law it was useless to 
 think of any extension of business-like Friendly 
 Society insurance. 
 
 The close connection between the extension of 
 Friendly Societies and a decrease in pauperism is 
 here fully recognised, and the fact is further recorded 
 in the preamble of the 59 Geo. III. c. 129, which 
 sets out : " Whereas the habitual reliance of poor 
 people upon parochial relief, rather than upon their 
 own industry, tends to the moral deterioration of 
 the people, and to the accumulation of heavy 
 burthens upon parishes ; and it is desirable that 
 encouragement should be afforded to persons 
 desirous of making provision for themselves and 
 their families," etc. 
 
 It is, perhaps, worthy of note that in 1802 (ac- 
 cording to the " Insurance Cyclopaedia," sub voce 
 "Friendly Society") there were more Friendly 
 Societies in Scotland, in relation to population, 
 than in England. In 1824 the Highland Society 
 
i io POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 of Scotland published a valuable " Report on 
 Friendly or Benefit Societies, to which are ap- 
 pended tables showing the rates of contribution 
 necessary," etc. 
 
 The leading part which Scotland took in this 
 matter of Friendly Societies is .capable, perhaps, of 
 explanation. In Scotland, down to the time of Dr. 
 Chalmers, there was no universal compulsory assess- 
 ment for the poor and so it happened that a very 
 poor and sparsely populated country took the lead 
 in this matter before its richer and more populous 
 neighbour. The proverbial thriftiness of the Scots 
 is due, in part at all events, to their exemption 
 from this demoralising law, and a common saying 
 in the north, " Thrift went out with the new poor 
 law," bears witness to the far-seeing wisdom of 
 Dr. Chalmers and those of his compatriots who 
 opposed the introduction of the English system 
 into Scotland. 
 
 Mr. Sturges Bourne's Select Committee on the 
 Poor Laws, 1817, remark in condemnation of the 
 system then existing in England 
 
 "The system ... is peculiar to Great Britain; and 
 even in Scotland, where a law similar in principle was 
 about the same period enacted, the intelligent persons to 
 whom the administration of it has been entrusted, appear 
 by a valuable report for which your Committee are 
 lately indebted to the prompt exertions of the General 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland to have had so 
 
MR. ST URGES BOURNES COMMITTEE, in 
 
 much foresight and judgment as to its effects, that they 
 have very generally and successfully endeavoured to 
 avoid having recourse to its provisions for a compulsory 
 enactment." 
 
 There is a grim pleasantry in a parliamentary 
 committee dwelling with approval on the foresight 
 and judgment of intelligent persons who thus 
 generally and successfully evaded the provisions 
 of an act of the Legislature. 
 
 Mr. Sturges Bourne's Committee on the Poor 
 Laws, which sat in 1817, paid considerable attention 
 to the Friendly Society question. The Committee 
 were of opinion, " that it will be expedient to enable 
 parishes to establish Parochial Benefit Societies, 
 under the joint management of the contributors 
 and the nominees of the parish." The insuperable 
 objection to subjecting Friendly Societies to 
 parochial assistance and parochial supervision does 
 not appear to have been urged on the Committee's 
 attention. In the apology for a subsidised 
 Friendly Society which follows this suggestion, 
 the Committee urge that persons joining a society 
 drawing subsidy from public funds, should be 
 subjected to a poor law rather less favourable than 
 that applied to the general community. Similarly 
 Mr. Charles Booth, the most logical, but the most 
 impracticable of State pension projectors, has at 
 the present time suggested that when the universal 
 endowment of old age has been enacted, the system 
 
ii2 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 of out-door relief shall be brought to an end. This 
 suggestion to barter one form of legal relief, which 
 has proved mischievous, for another form which 
 in the opinion of its projectors would be attended 
 with beneficial results, is one to be received with 
 grave suspicion by all those who would deal with 
 facts and not with names. The incident is 
 recorded, because it marks a growing appreciation 
 of the rivalry and antagonism which must exist 
 between Friendly Societies and every system of 
 legal relief. The evidence tendered to the Com- 
 mittee on this head is of very considerable 
 interest. Mr. William Hale, treasurer of the parish 
 of Spitalfields, spoke to the great increase of 
 pauperism and to the breakdown of the national 
 independence and character of the people owing 
 to the operation of the poor laws. He qualifies 
 this statement by the remark 
 
 " I speak of that class of the poor who have been in 
 the habit of taking regular parochial relief, for there are 
 many who can still say, ' Thank God, I never have been 
 a pauper ; ' many of them belong to benefit clubs ; it is 
 rarely we have an application from any person who 
 belongs to a benefit club, and very rarely that I observe 
 any individuals apply for relief who have been in the 
 habit of saving any money ; if it is only thirty or forty 
 shillings, a man possessed of that will preserve it and aim 
 to increase it ; but it is the individuals who have never 
 saved anything, let their earnings be what they will ; 
 
THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT. 113 
 
 they know they can take parochial relief, and with them 
 present enjoyment is better than future comfort." 
 
 The Rev. Richard Vivian, Rector of Bushey, 
 tells of a reduction of pauperism in his parish, an 
 event which at this date was extremely rare. He 
 attributes the decrease to better management of 
 the poor law, mainly in the direction of resisting 
 the allowance system, i.e. out-door relief to the 
 able-bodied, and secondly to two benefit clubs, 
 which numbered 360 members, men and women, 
 out of a population of 1060. 
 
 Mr. George Moncrief, merchant, of Edinburgh, 
 spoke of the large number of Friendly Societies 
 in Edinburgh, and stated that pauperism was 
 practically unknown among members of Friendly 
 Societies. The Committee also took evidence 
 from Mr. Morgan, a distinguished actuary of the 
 day, who had devoted attention to Friendly Society 
 insurance. 
 
 After the passing of the Poor Law Amendment 
 Act, 1834, a very rapid increase took place in the 
 deposits at savings banks, and in the membership 
 of Friendly and Provident Societies. 
 
 The vast change introduced into the administra- 
 tion of the law is strikingly shown by the follow- 
 ing " Summary of what Sussex Pauperism was 
 under the old system, and what it is after a 
 little more than one year's experiment under 
 
 I 
 
ii4 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 the new." (" Encyclop. Brit," 7th edition Poor 
 Law.) 
 
 Population ..... 205,936 
 
 Able-bodied paupers at the time of forming the 
 Unions (i.e. previous to the passing of the 
 Act of 1834) . . . .6,160 
 
 Number of able-bodied paupers, March, 1836 . 554 
 
 n June 125 
 
 Reduction in rate .... 45 per cent. 
 
 The above may be taken as a specimen of the 
 result of the new law in a southern agricul- 
 tural county. The change, in fact, involved the 
 abolition and disendowment of the able-bodied 
 pauper. 
 
 The able-bodied population, whose subsistence 
 on the rates was withdrawn by the provisions of 
 the new law, not only maintained itself, but pro- 
 ceeded to extend and consolidate the system of 
 saving, self-help, and insurance, which has since 
 grown to such remarkable proportions. That this 
 is so the following facts afford proof. 
 
 In the Appendix to the Fourth Annual Report 
 of the Poor Law Commissioners (pp. 220-222), 
 Mr. Tufnell, after citing many indications of 
 improvement in the condition of the labouring 
 class, gives it as his opinion, "that their welfare 
 seems to have been on the whole in a state of 
 steady advancement since the enforcement of the 
 regulations of the new poor law. As one proof 
 
SA VINGS BANKS. 1 1 5 
 
 of this I beg to refer to the following table, which 
 shows the deposit during the last seven years in the 
 savings banks in the two counties of Kent and 
 Sussex from Friendly Societies, and from depositors 
 of sums under 20. I have selected these two 
 classes of depositors, as amongst them, more than 
 in any other class, the labouring population are 
 chiefly to be found " : 
 
 Date. 
 
 Kent 
 Savings Banks. 
 
 Sussex 
 Savings Banks. 
 
 Observations. 
 
 Nov. 20, 1831 
 
 1832 
 1833 
 
 
 
 93,694 
 87,592 
 91,317 
 
 
 
 41,164 
 39,889 
 41,686 
 
 Years previous to the 
 passing of the Poor 
 Law Amendment Act. 
 
 . 1834 
 
 94,918 
 
 43,466 
 
 (Poor Law Amendment 
 \Act discussed & passed. 
 
 > 1835 
 
 97,613 
 
 45,897 
 
 Poor Law Amendment 
 Act brought into/ar- 
 tial operation. 
 
 1836 
 1837 
 
 106,156 
 110,156 
 
 50,148 
 51,409 
 
 Poor Law Amendment 
 Act brought into uni- 
 versal operation. 
 
 The three years previous to the passing of the 
 Poor Law Amendment Act were by no means 
 unprosperous, yet it will be perceived how slowly 
 deposits increased, and that in 1832 there was a 
 large diminution. 
 
 In the same report is to be found the following 
 
ii6 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 table, showing the increase of the various classes 
 of depositors in the Tunbridge Wells savings banks 
 between 1831 and 1837: 
 
 
 1831. 
 
 1837- 
 
 Increase per cent. 
 
 Servants 
 
 361 
 
 483 
 
 34 
 
 Agricultural Labourers 
 
 46 
 
 137 
 
 200 
 
 Children 
 
 357 
 
 388 
 
 9 
 
 Journeymen and Apprentice 
 Charitable Societies. 
 
 39 
 H 
 
 57 
 26 
 
 46 
 
 86 
 
 Benefit Societies 
 
 
 5 
 
 2 5 
 
 Small Shopkeepers . 
 
 8 
 
 16 
 
 100 
 
 Small Farmers and others 
 
 54 
 
 68 
 
 26 
 
 Total 
 
 883 
 
 1180 
 
 34/ 
 
 Of the Friendly Societies the same authority 
 remarks that " they are now more generally estab- 
 lished on principles calculated to secure a certain 
 provision in sickness and old age, instead of those 
 injurious institutions hitherto so prevalent which 
 seem intended only to minister to the profit of 
 publicans, and which are usually founded on prin- 
 ciples that must inevitably cause their dissolution 
 when old age overtakes the members." He goes 
 on to cite, by way of specimen, the numbers that 
 have annually belonged to three Benefit Societies 
 the first a Friendly Society in Sussex, the 
 second and third Kentish Societies : 
 
INCREASE OF DEPOSITORS AFTER 1834. 117 
 
 
 SUSSEX. 
 
 KENT. 
 
 Years. 
 
 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 1831 
 
 84 
 
 
 461 
 
 1832 . 
 
 64 
 
 37 
 
 477 
 
 1833 - 
 
 56 
 
 363 
 
 519 
 
 1834 . 
 
 48 
 
 356 
 
 533 
 
 1835 - 
 
 49 
 
 353 
 
 609 
 
 1836 . 
 
 64 
 
 420 
 
 611 
 
 1837 . 
 
 98 
 
 478 
 
 770 . 
 
 These figures all point to an acceleration of steady 
 growth after the passing of the new law. 
 
 "These contrasts," says Mr. Tufnell, "are, how- 
 ever, far less favourable to the present system than 
 they would appear, had not the failure of the crops 
 and the hardness of the seasons during the last 
 year and a half pressed with peculiar severity on 
 the labouring classes of this district." 
 
 As to the effect over the whole country, the 
 following facts are given on the authority of Mr. 
 Tidd Pratt, for many years Chief Registrar of 
 Friendly Societies (see Fourth Annual Report of 
 Commissioners, p. 84) : "The Benefit Society Act 
 passed in 1829, and the number enrolled from 
 July, 1829, to August, 1830, in the first year was 
 510, and in the second 560, in the third year 1180. 
 (This last number was abnormal, the witness goes 
 on to explain, owing to a change in the law.) In 
 > 470; in 1834, 350. Since that, under the 
 
n8 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 Poor Law Amendment Act, the next year was 
 700, the next 670, the next 739." The witness 
 was further asked : 
 
 Q. 1671. Have you any reason to know that 
 the increase in the number of depositors (see table 
 below) is at all attributable to the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act ? A. From conversations which 
 I have had with parties who have spoken to 
 me respecting Friendly Societies, I should say 
 decidedly it has. 
 
 Q. 1672. Will you state the nature of these 
 communications ? A. The communications have 
 been these : Upon parties forming Benefit Societies 
 they have stated to me that heretofore it was no 
 use belonging to a Benefit Society, because if a 
 man belonged to a Benefit Society, whatever 
 allowance he was entitled to was deducted, the 
 overseer made no allowance, and therefore that 
 it was no use to belong to a Benefit Society, for 
 if he did he would get less than if he belonged 
 to no Benefit Society ; the consequence was that 
 it was better for him to save his money in any 
 way, than contribute to a Benefit Society ; in 
 addition to which it has been stated to me in 
 letters that now is the time that parties must look 
 to themselves, as they could not receive out-door 
 relief under the new law} 
 
 1 It should be remembered that our present out-door relief 
 system is due to the fact that the Poor Law Board and Local 
 
MR. TIDD PRATTS EVIDENCE. 119 
 
 Q. 1673. From those different communications 
 have you reason to suppose that the Poor Law 
 Amendment Act has led to this great increase 
 of deposits? A. I have no doubt that it has, 
 particularly with regard to Benefit Societies. 
 
 Q. 1674. Do you know whether within the last 
 year the increase of deposits has been in the 
 larger or smaller sums? A. Decidedly in the 
 smaller. 
 
 Q. 1675. May not the reason of that be 
 from the change in the Act of Parliament? 
 A. No ; when I say smaller sums, I mean sums 
 f $> l * The Act of Parliament applies 
 to 20. 
 
 The following table is drawn from official 
 returns. [Slightly abridged from the return pub- 
 lished (p. 87) of the Fourth Annual Report of the 
 Poor Law Commissioners.] 
 
 Government Board have never used the discretion vested in them 
 to carry out, to its logical conclusion, the maxim of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners' Repert, viz. "That 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 independent 
 labourer ; " and secondly, that all distribution of relief in money 
 or goods to be spent or consumed in the pauper's own house is 
 inconsistent with the principle in question. The Prohibitory 
 Orders of the Board have never prohibited out-relief to the aged. 
 A large number of exceptions to the General Prohibitory Order 
 have been allowed in other cases, with the result that many of 
 the evils of the old poor law are still with us. This view attributed 
 to the "parties" conferring with Mr. Tidd Pratt was strictly 
 logical. 
 
120 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
THE FRIENDLY SOCIETY MOVEMENT. 121 
 
 The above figures show conclusively that, as 
 might have been expected, a restriction of the 
 maintenance provided by the rates at once in- 
 creased the useful activity of savings banks and 
 Friendly Societies. 
 
 It can further be shown that it is only within 
 the last fifty years that the Friendly Society move- 
 ment has put off its convivial and less serious 
 aspects, and assumed the character of a business- 
 like system of insurance. 
 
 The figures as to membership in Friendly 
 Societies in these earlier days are somewhat 
 obscured by the frequent secessions which took 
 place. The Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, now 
 the wealthiest and one of the best managed of the 
 affiliated societies, was definitely constituted as an 
 affiliated order in 1822. In 1834 it numbered 
 about 60,000 members. In 1846 the number had 
 risen to 251,727, notwithstanding the fact that 
 there had been in 1844 a secession of 21,461 
 members (Baernreither, English Associations of 
 Working Men, p. 256). The Foresters were re- 
 organised in 1834 under their present title of 
 Ancient Order of Foresters, and from that period 
 their growth has been continuous. The Hearts of 
 Oak, the largest of the centralised societies, dates 
 from 1842. It is not possible to enumerate all the 
 provident institutions which took their rise on the 
 decade following on the reform of the poor law ; 
 
122 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 a long list of the Friendly Societies originating 
 about this time will be found in the article, 
 "Friendly Society," in the "Insurance Cyclopaedia." 
 
 It may seem invidious to dwell on the fact that 
 the vast improvement in the aims and manage- 
 ment of Friendly Societies, which has taken place 
 within the last fifty years, would have been im- 
 possible but for the determined courage of the first 
 reformed Parliament, which, despite much senti- 
 mental opposition, took the first step in restricting 
 the degrading but yet enticing alternative of the 
 maintenance provided by the old poor law. 
 
 It remains for this present generation to 
 complete the work of reform which was com- 
 menced in 1834. It is significant; but, if our 
 argument is correct, it is also very intelligible 
 that arrangements for making provision for old 
 age are still very far from complete. On the upper 
 stratum of the working-class the poor law has 
 long ceased to exercise any dangerous fasci- 
 nation, and it is in the great Trade Unions be- 
 longing to this section of the labouring class 
 that the largest and most successful effort has 
 been made to provide for old age. Thus the 
 largest item of expenditure in the Amalgamated 
 Engineers is for superannuation pay. 1 But in the 
 
 1 See Appendices, Ho well, " Conflicts of Capital and Labour." 
 From this it appears that in 1889 this society expended ^40, 170 on 
 superannuation, out of a total expenditure of ^132,560. In 1876 
 the superannuation expenditure was only ,12,538. 
 
OPINION OF EXPERTS. 123 
 
 classes which are more or less "submerged," to 
 use a phrase which is now classical, it is to be 
 feared that men still look on old age as a time 
 for which the rates, and not they themselves, must 
 provide. Guardians, too, often from ignorance 
 or a mistaken tender-heartedness, lend themselves 
 to this view and give old age pensions out of the 
 rates, thereby setting up a disastrous competition 
 with the more honourable methods now under 
 consideration. 
 
 Those reformers who at the present day demand 
 a further restriction of the maintenance provided 
 by the poor law, rely on these figures as evidence 
 of the beneficial result likely to follow adminis- 
 tration based on the same principle. They rely, 
 moreover, on the assumption that human nature 
 is not very different now from what it was in 
 1834, and they proceed to substantiate their 
 position, first by the evidence of experienced 
 witnesses conversant with the present administra- 
 tion of the law and of Friendly Societies ; and 
 secondly, by quoting a few concrete instances in 
 which the truth of the foregoing views have been 
 locally demonstrated. 
 
 First, to quote the opinion of the experts. 
 Chapter vi. of the Fourth Report of the Friendly 
 Societies' Commission (1874) is entitled, "On 
 the Connection between the Poor Law and 
 
124 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 Friendly Societies," and is full of information of 
 the most important character. 
 
 The Commission had evidence put before it to- 
 show that in some districts "the labourer calls in 
 the parish doctor on the slightest account what- 
 ever, and always looks to the poor law for relief 
 in old age ; and, under these circumstances, it was 
 hardly surprising to hear from many experienced 
 witnesses that the poor law acts as a direct 
 discouragement to providence, either preventing 
 labourers from joining clubs at all, lest they should 
 waste money by doing for themselves what they 
 have learnt to expect others to do for them ; or 
 leading them to join such clubs as will not inter- 
 fere with their receipt of what they have begun 
 to consider as their own property, as a sort of 
 rent-charge on the land for their benefit, and as 
 part of the wages they are entitled to for their 
 labour." One witness tersely expressed the feel- 
 ing among the poor of the south of England to 
 be, "that the poor law is the best benefit club, 
 because everything is taken out and nothing paid 
 in." l To this may be traced the popularity of 
 
 1 Poor law reformers often meet with the argument that the 
 poor ratepayer does put something into the poor law club, and 
 that for this reason he is entitled to draw out for his necessities 
 on his own terms. A moment's reflection will show the fallacy 
 of this argument. The poor law rate is not an insurance premium,, 
 but is a compulsory levy for the relief of those who are destitute. 
 It is obvious that if ratepayers pay a premium, all are equally 
 entitled to relief, and all poor ratepayers at any rate will apply 
 
SHARING-OUT CLUBS. 125 
 
 the " sharing-out clubs," which may be said to be 
 framed in such a manner as to secure for them- 
 selves a release from the burthen of aged and 
 infirm members, whose maintenance is forthwith 
 suffered to fall upon the rates, which become, in 
 fact, the virtual superannuation pay of this kind 
 of Friendly Society. 
 
 The allusion of the Commissioner, whose words 
 are here summarised, is to the practice of " sharing- 
 out clubs " to dissolve at the end of each year, and 
 to begin again with the New Year. Owing to 
 this system, old men and men in chronic ill-health 
 are allowed or even forced to drop out of these 
 associations just at the time when there is most 
 need for assistance. 
 
 The foregoing statement is, we conceive, of the 
 very greatest importance. The extreme laxity of 
 
 for it, and the rate must be multiplied to an enormous extent. 
 If men are to pay an adequate premium for the benefit which they 
 expect to receive (the only terms on which the benefit can he 
 honourably accepted), they will obtain their requirements much 
 more cheaply from a Friendly Society or other insurance agency 
 than from the State. Unfortunately, some colour is given to the 
 statement that the poor man puts nothing into the poor rates, by 
 the provisions of the Small Tenements Act and the Poor Rate 
 Assessment Act of 1869, by which owners of houses below a certain 
 value are in certain circumstances rated instead of the occupiers. 
 This custom obtains very largely in London. Of course the 
 occupier does not escape taxation, for the owner takes care to 
 recoup his expenditure in rates by obtaining a higher rent, or by 
 giving a worse house for the same money, while the real incidence 
 of the poor rate, which in the end falls heavily on the poor man's 
 dwelling, is concealed from his view. 
 
126 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 guardians in granting out-door relief to the aged 
 explains, to a very considerable extent, the slow 
 progress which has been made in the task of 
 providing for old age. Even in the best clubs, 
 subscription for superannuation in old age is not 
 popular, and it is probably altogether a mistake 
 to suppose that a lifelong subscription for a 
 deferred annuity is ever likely to be a popular or 
 wise form of investment. The man who is saving 
 and frugal is more likely to be actuated by a 
 wish to provide for his wife and family, and for 
 his own sickness and want of work. If he succeeds 
 in putting by something for these objects, the 
 money will come in useful if he survives to old age. 
 It is not possible for men of small means to 
 earmark each portion of their savings exclusively 
 for one particular purpose. Dr. Baernreither 
 (p. 393) discusses the reasons which have prevented 
 the superannuation scheme of the Foresters and 
 Manchester Unity of Oddfellows from becoming 
 a success. Many members have made other 
 arrangements for their old age, some by saving, 
 and some by subscription to the superannuation 
 fund of their Trade Union ; but while, no doubt, 
 the more provident and enterprising of the class 
 have taken these steps, a portion of the lower 
 grades of labour continues to look forward with 
 apathetic indifference to the disablement of old 
 age. We should like here to disavow any 
 
INFLUENCE OF TPIE POOR LAW. 127 
 
 intention of imputing this fact as a reproach to 
 the working-class. We are fully aware of the 
 almost heroic self-denial which is required to 
 enable a working man with a family to make 
 provision for his old age. But it is well to 
 remember that exactly the same remark was often 
 made during the early stages of the controversy 
 on poor law reform. Is it reasonable, it was 
 asked on the eve of the great reform of 1834, to 
 tell a poor man to provide for a numerous family 
 and for his period of want of employment? Yet 
 the first reformed Parliament passed the stringent 
 provisions of the new poor law, which prohibit 
 out-door relief to the able-bodied, and no sane 
 person at the present day wishes to lead the 
 country back to the old state of things. The 
 increased stringency of administration is sought, 
 not on account of the saving to the rates, not on 
 behalf of the intelligent artisan population on 
 whose motives and conduct the poor law has no 
 influence, but for the protection of the lower grade 
 of labour against its own weakness. There never 
 was a time when all classes of society were more 
 anxious to remove the reproach of pauperism 
 from our midst. Little progress, however, can 
 be made while a lax administration of the law 
 continues to decoy the less fortunate among the 
 labouring class away from the ladder of self- 
 respect and voluntary effort, by which the more 
 
128 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 successful of their class have already climbed to 
 a measure of independence and security. No 
 amount of " jerrymandering " can ever make 
 maintenance on the rates an honourable solution. 
 We appeal to members of Friendly Societies to 
 urge the Legislature to withdraw from guardians 
 of the poor their present power of competing 
 with Friendly Societies by the giving of out-door 
 relief, to the detriment not only of the ratepayer, 
 but of the character of the poorest class. There 
 is a natural but as yet unrecognised alliance 
 between those who would restrict the attractions 
 of the poor law and those who have done and 
 are doing so much for the independence of the 
 poor by the work of Friendly Societies and 
 savings banks. It is to be hoped that the 
 identity of their aims will bring about a better 
 understanding between the two. 
 
 At Boards of Guardians, where out-door relief 
 is given, a very great difficulty has arisen with 
 regard to allowances to be made to members of 
 Friendly Societies in receipt of sick or old age 
 allowances in cases where such allowances are 
 insufficient for the maintenance of the man and 
 his family. It has been argued that it would be 
 an encouragement to thrift if poor law relief was 
 given as a reward to members of Friendly Societies, 
 and without fully taking into account the allowance 
 given by the club. 
 
RELIEF TO FRIENDLY SOCIETY MEMBERS. 129 
 
 There is, however, a poor law minute issued on 
 this subject by the Poor Law Board in 1870, which 
 seems unanswerable. The Board points out " the 
 great difficulty in drawing distinctions between 
 annuities from Benefit Societies and other kinds 
 of property. If, instead of subscribing to a Benefit 
 Society, a man had invested in a savings bank, 
 he would have shown himself equally prudent, 
 and his widow might equally claim to have the 
 property thus bequeathed to her left out of account 
 if she asked for parish relief. Property left to a 
 widow in cottages, or derived from a policy of 
 insurance on the husband's life, might be held 
 to establish a similar claim. The result accord- 
 ingly would be that a vast number of persons 
 not destitute would be encouraged to become 
 paupers. The principle of leaving property 
 bequeathed to widows out of account in granting 
 relief would establish the principle that the rates 
 were not the very last resource of the poorest 
 class, but a collateral insurance fund, to which 
 not destitution alone, but the receipt of annuities 
 from other sources would establish a claim." 
 
 With regard to suggestions 1 made by other 
 witnesses as to the wisdom of Poor Law Guardians 
 discriminating in favour of members of Friendly 
 
 1 The most reasonable of these was that of the Rev. C. P. Tidd 
 Pratt, who suggested that when necessary, out-door relief should 
 be given to a member of a Friendly Society, but that only in-door 
 relief should be given to other persons. 
 
 K 
 
130 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 Societies, the report sums up, "it would be im- 
 possible to lay down any rule in the matter which 
 should not conflict with the principle of the poor 
 law, viz. that every person has a legal right to 
 have his necessities relieved without regard to 
 his deserts. ... It should be remembered that 
 guardians have to deal simply with destitution 
 and not to expend a charitable fund, and the 
 tendency of holding out such favours to members 
 of Friendly Societies is to encourage men to insure 
 for less than their real need with a Friendly 
 Society, and to count on poor law relief to make 
 up the sum required for their support. It cannot 
 but be a mistake to deceive people into supposing 
 that they are not receiving relief when they are 
 in point of fact receiving it, and to hold out as an 
 inducement to them to join clubs, a promise that 
 they may thus become paupers on more favourable 
 terms. . . . We may remark that the best managed 
 Friendly Societies object most strongly to any 
 connection with poor law administration." The 
 truth of this sentence will not be disputed by 
 those who are acquainted with the literature of 
 the Friendly Society movement. If proof were 
 wanting, it is to be found in the strenuous 
 opposition that is being offered by the great 
 Friendly Societies to the modern proposal to put 
 out-door relief on a better footing by re-introducing 
 it under the title of State pensions. 
 
ATTITUDE OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 131 
 
 The leaders of these societies are well aware, 
 though politicians ignore the fact, that a man, who 
 by fault or misfortune comes to be dependent for 
 the necessaries of life upon rates or taxes taken 
 from his neighbours, is a pauper. Their aim is to 
 achieve lifelong independence for their class, and 
 they see very clearly that to sit down content 
 either with out-door relief or old age pensions from 
 the rates is by no means the goal which they have 
 in view. To do this, argues one of the Friendly 
 Society journals, " is to admit that the income of 
 the workers of Britain is insufficient, and that it is 
 necessary to pauperise them." The proper remedy, 
 it insists, is to struggle for better wages if that be 
 necessary, and by no means to sit down content 
 in perpetual pauperism under the title of State 
 pensioners. There is no analogy, in the minds of 
 the Friendly Society leaders, between the policy 
 of free education and free or assisted pensions. 
 It may be sound policy in the interest of the future 
 generation to absolve men from the responsibility 
 of educating their children, but it is clearly, in their 
 opinion, contrary to public policy to absolve a 
 large class of the community from the task of 
 supplying themselves with the first necessaries 
 of life during a portion of their lives. What 
 society requires for its reformation is not that 
 each man when he comes to the age of sixty shall 
 find that his fairy godmother, the State, has put 
 
132 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 a balance at his bankers, but rather that, during 
 his life, he shall have followed the prudent course 
 of so limiting his responsibilities to his income, 
 that at sixty he finds himself in possession, by his 
 own exertion, of adequate provision for his old 
 age. The valuable thing is not > s. d., but the 
 character and the capacity for further progress 
 which is created by this wholesome discipline. 
 To remove the necessity of providing for old age 
 would be to remove one of the most potent 
 influences of civilisation. 
 
 We can see nothing in these proposals for State- 
 aided pensions which differentiates such relief in 
 anyway from our present system of out-door relief, 
 and in our opinion it would have exactly the same 
 demoralising effect on the thrifty instincts of the 
 people. In proportion as the conditions attached 
 to it tend to make it in any real sense an 
 education in personal thrift by requiring a serious 
 effort from the insurers, in exactly that proportion 
 does it tend to become inoperative as regards 
 the lowest class whom it is specially designed to 
 affect. 
 
 Let us look at one or two of the alternative 
 proposals more closely. Sometimes it is proposed 
 that the whole population on reaching a given age 
 shall be entitled to a pension, and it is argued that 
 as every one will accept the State pension dole, no 
 one need feel pauperised ; but the " submerged," 
 
COMPULSORY THRIFT IMPOSSIBLE. 133 
 
 for whose benefit all this agitation arises, cannot 
 be taxed ; to them the pension will be more or less 
 pure gain, and it is surely absurd to persuade 
 them that they are not accepting poor law 
 relief, and that they are therefore justified in 
 declining effort and resting content with their 
 position. Or, again, if the rate is based on 
 actuarial calculation, and if no one may partici- 
 pate who has not contributed in full, in what way 
 will this benefit the submerged, who, of course, 
 would not contribute ? Even those persons who, 
 in such a scheme of compulsory thrift, have 
 money taken from them which they would other- 
 wise have wasted, are not really bettered by the 
 transaction. Repugnance is by such methods 
 bred against the whole idea of insurance, and 
 the voluntary exercise of 'thrifty instincts is neg- 
 lected, and it is these last alone which have social 
 value. 
 
 At other times it is argued that the pensions 
 are only to be given to poor people who require 
 them, and who have lived thrifty and respectable 
 lives. Now, it may be true that any man may 
 go without question into a free library without 
 being pauperised, but if at the age of sixty he has 
 to render account of all his life, and to be cross- 
 examined thereon by some parochial board, it is 
 obvious that he is put in a very humiliating 
 position, and is precisely in the same position as 
 
134 POOR LA W AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 those who, at present, come before Boards of 
 Guardians to claim out-door rather than in-door 
 relief. And will not the parochial board re-intro- 
 duce into the system of pensions all the abuses 
 of the present out-relief systems? The pension 
 board will do as present Boards of Guardians 
 do, and will give pensions to their own tenants, 
 poor relations, and dependants. Nor will it be 
 possible to avoid a discouragement to efforts made 
 by the poor to provide for themselves. It will 
 be their interest not to do so ; and if they do 
 provide for themselves, they will be aggrieved 
 when they see neighbours, who have wasted 
 their means, living on a fund contributed by their 
 industry. 
 
 Before concluding this brief review of the 
 opinion of experts, it is desirable to add a few 
 extracts from the Local Government Board 
 reports. The great experience of the officials 
 of the Board, more especially of the poor law 
 inspectors, gives a weight to their opinion which 
 will be universally recognised. In the circular 
 addressed by the Board to the inspectors in 1871 
 it is remarked : 
 
 "A certainty of obtaining out-door relief in his own 
 home whenever he may ask for it, extinguishes in the 
 mind of the labourer all motive for husbanding his re- 
 sources, and induces him to rely exclusively upon the 
 rates instead of on his own savings for such relief as he 
 
VIEWS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. 135 
 
 may require. It removes every incentive to self-reliance 
 and prudent forethought on his part, and induces him, 
 moreover, to apply for relief on occasions when the cir- 
 cumstances are not such as to render him absolutely in 
 need of it." 
 
 In the same sense Mr. Baldwyn Fleming, in the 
 2 ist Local Government Board Report, writes : 
 
 " Upon one of the questions of the hour, namely, thrift 
 by means of Friendly Societies, the unnecessary grant 
 of out-door relief has a distinctly hostile influence. A 
 working man might truly say that he saw little good in 
 joining a Friendly Society, because the amount he re- 
 ceived from it would be deducted on estimating any 
 claim for relief from the rates. If he did not belong to 
 a benefit society he would at once get a proportionately 
 larger amount of relief, and, therefore, it is a pure waste 
 of money in him to pay into a club. This may be 
 answered by saying that the guardians need not take 
 club payments into account, but if they did not, they 
 would compel the ratepayers to give the man more than 
 his necessity required, which would be indefensible. 1 
 Hence the grant of out-door relief militates against 
 Friendly Societies in two ways : 
 
 " (i) It is a positive inducement not to enter, because 
 the provision it affords is better than is given by Friendly 
 Societies, inasmuch as medical attendance and what are 
 
 1 The course which Mr. Fleming rightly calls indefensible has, 
 since he wrote, been expressly countenanced by Parliament. All 
 persons interested in the great cause of the independence of the 
 poor must reprobate that ill-considered electioneering measure 
 known as the Out-door Relief (Friendly Societies) Act, 1894. 
 
136 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 known as medical extras (stimulants, meat, expensive 
 medicines, etc.) are supplied free of cost. 
 
 " (2) The members are actually placed in a worse posi- 
 tion than those who are not members, if the necessity for 
 relief should arise. They have spent money upon club 
 payments, and have to keep on so spending money, 
 while they get less relief than men who are not in a 
 club. Thus, out-relief must compete, and compete very 
 mischievously, with provident societies. On the other 
 hand, in-door relief does not, and cannot, compete with 
 them." 
 
 Mr. (now Sir H.) Longley, in his exhaustive 
 report on out-door relief, published in the 3rd Local 
 Government Board Report, p. 185, writes as 
 follows : 
 
 "The suggestion that a man in receipt of regular 
 weekly wages may be fairly called upon to secure his 
 widow (if able to work for her living) against dependence 
 on poor law relief, is not so impracticable as it may at first 
 sight appear. . . . The cost of making provision for this 
 special contingency need not, it would seem, press un- 
 duly upon the husband, while the general adoption of the 
 more stringent rule of relief to widows would, it is to be 
 hoped, encourage him to make the necessary sacrifice. 
 But even a less substantial provision than this would, I 
 believe, in many instances rescue a widow from pauper- 
 ism. It is frequently found that a widow, willing and 
 able to work, requires some help to make a start, or to 
 ' take advantage of some ' special opportunity of obtain- 
 ing employment. A lump sum of no large amount, 
 secured to be paid to her at her husband's death, would 
 in these cases be of the utmost service. Assistance of 
 
VIEWS OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD. 137 
 
 this kind is supplied to widows more frequently than is 
 generally known, by subscriptions raised among the fellow- 
 workmen of the husband, or among the poorer neigh- 
 bours. Indeed, I have been led, in the course of these 
 inquiries, to believe that what amounts almost to an 
 interchange of charitable assistance among the poor of 
 London is not uncommon, and that tKey assist each 
 other in distress to an extent which is little understood, 
 and for which they receive but little credit. It is scarcely 
 possible to conceive a form of charity which combines 
 so completely its highest reciprocal benefits, with the 
 absence of the mischief so frequently incident to alms- 
 giving." 
 
 The same authority, a few pages earlier in his 
 report, remarks on the same subject 
 
 " Believing as I do that the present system of relief to 
 widows of this class has largely contributed to deter them 
 from making the special exertions to maintain themselves 
 and their families, which their unfortunate condition calls 
 for, I must protest against the doctrine that their posi- 
 tion is to be treated by the dispensers of poor law relief 
 as anomalous, even in theory ; and this, because the 
 condition of a widow with a large family, however de- 
 plorable it undoubtedly is, is one of the ordinary contin- 
 gencies of human circumstances, which may, in some 
 degree or other, be provided against, equally with sick- 
 ness, or accident, or other bereavement. The difference 
 between these contingencies seems to be one of degree 
 rather than of kind, and though no doubt the widow's 
 condition is specially hopeless and forlorn, yet, from one 
 point of view, that of the wife of a working man disabled 
 by lingering sickness, and who is prevented by the need 
 
138 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 of her constant attendance upon him from exerting 
 herself to support their family, is still more helpless than 
 that of a widow." 
 
 To this testimony must be added the weighty 
 words of Mr. J. J. Stockall, the Friendly Society 
 representative on the Royal Commission on the 
 Aged Poor. The memorandum which he appends 
 to the majority report of the Commission, is so 
 short, pithy, and characteristic of that honourable 
 love of independence, which inspires the whole 
 body of the Friendly Society membership, that I 
 venture to reproduce it verbatim. 
 
 " Having signed the report, with which, on the whole, 
 I cordially agree, I think it well to express my opinion 
 that danger may arise to a portion of the class who now 
 make provision in some measure for old age for them- 
 selves in the various friendly and other thrift societies, 
 should they be induced to depend upon relief from the 
 rates, or a pension from the State, as a part of their sub- 
 sistence in old age, and to look for it as a right, rather 
 than depend upon a provision made entirely by them- 
 selves. Such provision, as the evidence brought before 
 us clearly proves, is increasingly being made by the 
 labouring classes. I fear and believe it possible a 
 worse evil may be created than any now supposed 
 to be existing under the administration of the present 
 poor law, if rate or State aid should come to be received 
 with complacency by any material proportion of those 
 who now provide for themselves. In my opinion, the 
 granting of such aid would lead to entire dependence 
 upon the State of a great number of those who now, 
 
VOLUNTARY CHARITY. 139 
 
 without the hope of such assistance, are nerved to make 
 provision for themselves, by which process self-respect 
 is gained and character given to the nation. 
 
 " I entirely concur in all our recommendations which 
 favour a different treatment to persons of good character, 
 as distinguished from that apportioned to the wastrel and 
 drunkard. While holding that the former class are en- 
 titled to such consideration as would make their lives as 
 happy as possible, I am not prepared to endorse the view 
 that these deserving poor should be encouraged to look 
 upon parochial or State provision with satisfaction, or as 
 a desirable source of provision for their old age." 
 
 The relation of voluntary charity to provident 
 associations does not strictly fall within the limits 
 of our subject, the briefest reference therefore 
 must suffice. If charity is distributed by great 
 official institutions without due precaution, if it 
 is given indiscriminately and inadequately, it can 
 be just as disastrous in its effects as the poor 
 law. This is not the place to combat the evils of 
 great institutional systems of charitable relief, or 
 to repeat again the danger of indiscriminate and 
 inadequate methods ; it will be sufficient to remind 
 those who administer such funds of their great 
 responsibility in this matter. 
 
 Miss Octavia Hill told the Lords' Committee that 
 in London it was well-nigh impossible to make 
 provident dispensaries compete with the gratuitous 
 medical relief given in hospitals, but that in some 
 
140 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 of the suburbs of London, where hospitals were less 
 plentiful, no such difficulty arose. The hospital 
 system, as at present organised, is largely antagon- 
 istic to a due development of the thrifty instincts 
 of the poor, and reform is urgently needed to make 
 these great institutions auxiliaries and not com- 
 petitors of provident institutions. 
 
 To those who distribute charitable relief in money 
 or kind, the necessity of circumspection is urged, 
 lest they discourage thrift by habitually putting the 
 unthrifty in the same position as the thrifty. The 
 argument which condemns any attempt to give 
 easier terms of becoming a pauper to the Friendly 
 Society or provident man, does not apply with 
 the same force to charitable funds. It is rather 
 distinctly the duty of the administrators of these 
 funds to supplement with considerate courtesy and 
 kindness the efforts of those who have tried to help 
 themselves. It is not too much to say that some 
 proportion of the charitable funds which are every 
 year distributed throughout the country is from 
 neglect of due caution directly inimical to the 
 development of methods of self-help. We venture 
 to quote a paragraph from the report of one of 
 the District Committees of the Charity Organisa- 
 tion Society. 
 
 " The uniform action of the associated charities of this 
 district as represented by this Committee has, it is to be 
 hoped, done something to influence public opinion 
 
CO-OPERA TIONOFPOORLA WAND CHARITY.i^i 
 
 among the poor. Great stress, for instance, is always 
 laid on the rule that to qualify themselves for charitable, 
 rather than poor law relief, the applicants should have 
 made some reasonable attempts to provide for their 
 own wants. For many years applicants have been daily 
 asked in this office : Do you belong to a Friendly Society ? 
 Have you ever put by anything for a rainy day ? and 
 when it is found that relief is readily given to those who 
 can make a satisfactory answer to the questions, and 
 that a majority of those who have neglected these 
 precautions altogether are referred to the less agreeable 
 machinery of the poor law (in this Union only in-door 
 relief is given by the guardians), the Committee hopes 
 that this perpetual iteration of sound advice has produced 
 some effect." 
 
 It is urged that the precaution here described is 
 a wise one. One of the objects which all co- 
 operation of poor law and charitable agencies must 
 have in view, is that the whole machinery of 
 relief shall cease to compete with the noble institu- 
 tion of self-help which the working-classes of 
 England have made for themselves, without a-ny 
 assistance from Government or from the rich. 
 
 It remains now to bring forward a few specific 
 instances of the disastrous way in which poor law 
 relief laxly administered competes with the honour- 
 able but arduous independence attainable by means 
 of subscription to a Friendly Society, or some other 
 method of thrift. 
 
142 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 The following story is told by Mr. Vallance, 
 clerk of the Whitechapel Board of Guardians, in 
 a paper read at a poor law conference some years 
 ago: 
 
 "I well recollect, some years since, the case of a 
 man, with a wife and several children dependent upon 
 him, who, on account of his own sickness, was relieved 
 by the guardians in money and kind. By a singular 
 coincidence, his next-door neighbour a man employed 
 in the same department of the same factory, earning no 
 more than the other was capable of earning, and having 
 the same number of children dependent upon him was 
 also at home suffering from sickness. This man, 
 however, had been thrifty and industrious, and was, at 
 the time, in receipt from a sick club of about the same 
 amount as his neighbour's pauper relief: and, in his 
 enforced confinement to his home, became an observant 
 student of the operation of the poor law as exemplified 
 next door. He saw the relieving officer periodically 
 visiting his neighbour's house ; he saw the wife as she 
 started upon her weekly errand to the relief office, and 
 he saw her and her children returning home laden with 
 parish bread ; and reflection taught him that he, a 
 provident man, was being taxed for the maintenance, in 
 equal comfort with himself, of his neighbour, an im- 
 provident man. Under a sense of injury, this man 
 came to me shortly afterwards and complained, in 
 unmeasured terms, of a system of relief which recognised 
 the claims of bare walls and floors without regard 
 to the habits of life which occasioned them, whilst the 
 cleanliness and comfort of his own cottage, and his 
 efforts to maintain his independence, not only debarred 
 
SPECIFIC INSTANCES. 143 
 
 him from participation in * parish relief,' but imposed 
 upon him a portion of the burden of his neighbour's 
 maintenance." 
 
 The next quotation is from Mr. Fawcett's book 
 on " Pauperism," p. 40 : 
 
 " An event which lately happened in a western county 
 will serve as a striking illustration of the extent to which 
 prudential habits are discouraged by the distribution of 
 large parochial funds among those whose improvidence 
 is their sole title for public support. Not many months 
 since a report appeared of a large meeting which had 
 been held of Somersetshire colliers. The meeting 
 appears to have been suggested, and everything 
 connected with it arranged, by the workmen themselves. 
 The object of the gathering was to promote the formation 
 of a Friendly Society. There was at first an unanimous 
 feeling in favour of the proposal ; presently it was 
 mentioned by one of the speakers that those who 
 became members of the Friendly Society would lose 
 all chance of obtaining parochial relief. The whole tone 
 of the meeting changed; the hint having once been 
 given, it was quickly seen that the amount which they 
 might subscribe to the Friendly Society would simply 
 reduce the rates. A resolution was ultimately passed 
 that the society should not be established as long as 
 a claim to a share of the rates was forfeited by belong- 
 ing to it. It is difficult to over-estimate the mischief 
 which such an occurrence must produce. Colliers are 
 proverbially an improvident class, and a movement 
 which must have promoted the development of 
 prudential habits amongst them was prematurely nipped 
 
144 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 in the bud by an extraneous circumstance, which 
 legislation has created and has power to control." 
 
 The remarkable dispauperisation of the Union of 
 Bradfield has been quoted (p. 98). 
 
 The Chairman of this Union, Mr. Bland- 
 Garland, read a paper at a poor law conference on 
 December 12, 1888, on "State Relief and other 
 Obstacles to Thrift." After commenting on the 
 improved condition of the labouring class in his 
 Union, he says : " To give you direct proofs of 
 increased thrift is a more difficult task. I cannot, 
 of course, have access to the books of the savings 
 banks or those of the great collecting insurance 
 companies, but I have obtained returns of nearly 
 all the Friendly Societies that are established or 
 have branches within the Union, including even 
 the public-house clubs (the members of which 
 have much decreased in number), and also of the 
 medical clubs, and they show that the member- 
 ship of the Friendly Societies has increased 148 
 per cent, since 1871, and that of the doctors' clubs 
 152 per cent.; this is satisfactory as far as it goes." 
 It is worth emphasising the fact that these figures 
 come out even though there had been a great 
 reduction in the membership of the old rotten 
 public clubs, which are happily now becoming 
 a thing of the past. The difficulty of giving direct 
 proof is very great, as Mr. Bland-Garland justly 
 remarks, but it is really not a point on which 
 
SPECIFIC INSTANCES. 145 
 
 the public is entitled to ask for proof. In the 
 seventeen years under review, 1871-1888, 1116 
 paupers became merged in the independent 
 population. It is not reasonable to ask that Mr. 
 Bland-Garland should be ready with detailed 
 information as to the sources of income which, 
 under their present happier circumstances, have 
 enabled these persons to remain independent ; 
 he has said enough to show that increased 
 membership in Friendly and Provident Societies 
 has had something to do with it. 
 
 Very similar has been the experience in 
 Brixworth in Northamptonshire, where the same 
 sound policy has been followed. On January 1st, 
 1870, there were in the Union noi out-door and 
 104 in-door paupers, in all 1205, or one in every 
 ii of the population. The out-door list has 
 gradually been diminished, till on January 1st, 
 1890, there were 39 out-door and 92 in-door 
 paupers, or one in every 101 of the population. 
 
 The Chairman of this Union, the Rev. W. Bury, 
 writes, " The history of Friendly Societies in our 
 Union during the last twenty years might be 
 summed up in few words. The disappearance of 
 utterly rotten ones ; the honest endeavour on the 
 part of a large number of local clubs to strengthen 
 their position, stimulated thereto by the restriction 
 of out-door relief ; their failure to do so ; and the 
 very large and increasing accession of strength 
 
 L 
 
146 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT, 
 
 to the affiliated orders, such as the Oddfellows. 
 Medical clubs during the same period have com- 
 pletely covered the Union." In his evidence 
 before the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor 
 Mr. Bury gave some interesting particulars as to 
 the popularity of investment in co-operative 
 trading in his neighbourhood, all tending to show 
 increased activity of thrifty instincts ; a result 
 which it is impossible not to connect with the fact 
 that the imagination of the poor is no longer 
 attracted to an expectation of maintenance on 
 the rates. 
 
 In an elaborate statistical paper by Dr. J. 
 Milsom Rhodes, read before the Manchester 
 Statistical Society, and now published by Knight 
 & Co., Fleet Street, great pains have been taken to 
 show by a series of maps the relation of poor law 
 relief to the growth of thrift of various forms. 
 Information is defective, as it is difficult to localise 
 accurately the results of different systems ; but one 
 or two points are worth mentioning. Staffordshire 
 is a county of importance both as regards 
 population and manufactures, and in this respect 
 it contains some of the essential conditions for an 
 extension of co-operative enterprise. The out-door 
 pauperism in this county is 26*4 per thousand of 
 population as against 5-5 in-door paupers. Is this 
 the reason that Dr. Rhodes is able to comment on 
 the "extraordinary sudden drop in the number 
 
OPINION OF A STATISTICIAN. 147 
 
 of co-operators in Staffordshire as compared with 
 the surrounding counties " ? " It is a remarkable 
 fact," says the same authority, " that nearly all the 
 counties on the north of the line that represents 
 the is. poor rate are believers in co-operation to 
 a much greater extent than those south of it." 
 The parts lying south of this line have the larger 
 amount of out-door pauperism. Again, he asks, 
 " In looking at the map, the question suggests 
 itself Why is the number of depositors so high in 
 Berkshire and Shropshire? No doubt the existence 
 of manufacturing industries to some extent accounts 
 for it, aided probably by the restriction of out-door 
 relief to very exceptional cases, thereby encouraging 
 habits of thrift:' 
 
 In Berkshire in-door pauperism is 8*9 as against 
 19*6 of out-door pauperism per thousand. In 
 Shropshire the figures are 7*0 in-door as against 
 14*1 out-door. We have already alluded to the 
 probable connection of an increase of thrift with 
 the strict administration of the law pursued in 
 Bradfield, a large Union in the former county. In 
 Bradfield 6*8 per 1000 are in-door paupers, and 2*1 
 out-door paupers. 
 
 We conclude with an apposite quotation from 
 Dr. Rhodes's paper. " Let us endeavour," he says, 
 " to impress by every means in our power upon the 
 new democracy the great facts that the last thing 
 in the world that a working man should desire 
 
148 POOR LAW AS AN OBSTACLE TO THRIFT. 
 
 for himself is the ' Statute of the Forty-Third of 
 Elizabeth.' Let him quit the Forty-Third of 
 Elizabeth altogether, and, as Carlyle said, ' rejoice 
 that the Poor Law Amendment Act has, even by 
 harsh methods and against his own free will, forced 
 him away from it. That was a broken reed to 
 lean on if there ever was one, and did but run into 
 his lamed right hand. Let him cast it far from 
 him, that broken reed, and look to quite the 
 opposite point of the heavens for help. His 
 unlamed right hand, with the cunning industry that 
 he has in it, is not this defined to be the " sceptre 
 of our planet " ? He that can work is a born king 
 of something. Let a man honour his craftsman- 
 ship, his can do> and know that his rights of man 
 have no concern at all with the Forty-Third of 
 Elizabeth.'" 
 
m. 
 
 THE WORKING CLASSES AND 
 THE POOR LAW. 1 
 
 THE subject proposed for our consideration in 
 this article is the INTEREST OF THE WORKING 
 CLASS IN THE POOR LAW, in the administration 
 of the law as it at present is, and in proposed 
 reforms of the law as from time to time they are 
 brought forward. 
 
 The working class is now master, and I for one 
 do not believe that they will be less just or less 
 wise than those who in times past have possessed 
 themselves of political power in this country. At 
 the same time I do not believe they will be either 
 more just or more wise. The history of our poor 
 law is a long record of error, and it is impossible 
 to assume that the advent of the working class 
 to power will prevent error in the future. The 
 new poor law of 1834 put us on the way to 
 reform, but we must all confess that our progress 
 has been very partial. The new poor law was 
 
 1 A paper read at the South Eastern Poor Law Conference, 
 November 2, 1891. 
 
150 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 one of the first acts of the first reformed Parlia- 
 ment, and at the present moment there is a new 
 democracy engaged in taking possession of the 
 reins of government, and it lies in its power to 
 make or to mar our poor law system for another 
 generation. 
 
 It is therefore extremely desirable that those 
 of us who have distinct views on the question 
 should arrange our ideas, both for our own 
 enlightenment and in order that we may discuss 
 intelligently with the working class members of 
 the constituencies what their true interest in this 
 matter is. 
 
 Now the workman has an interest in the poor 
 law : (I.) as a payer of rates ; (II.) as an earner 
 of wages, profiting by the spending and investing 
 of the savings of his neighbours; and (III.) as 
 a possible recipient of relief. 
 
 1. As a payer of rates. Those of us who have 
 been in the habit of speaking and writing in 
 support of a strict administration have generally 
 been somewhat apologetic in referring to the 
 saving in the rates, as though the rates were the 
 interest of the well-to-do only. 
 
 It has been proved over and over again that 
 a strict administration will reduce the rate. In 
 Bradfield, as we know, it has in 17 years reduced 
 it from over 2s. to less than 6d. in the pound. 
 Or take the Union of Stepney I quote from a 
 
THE RATEPAYERS'* INTEREST. 151 
 
 table drawn up by Mr. Jones, late Relieving 
 Officer in Stepney and compare the expenditure 
 in 1869 under the old lax system, and in 1887 
 under strict administration ; it shows a saving 
 of 6891 for the half year, or at the rate of nearly 
 .14,000 per annum. This ; 14,000 a-year is left 
 to fructify in the pockets of ratepayers mainly 
 composed of the working class. 
 
 I have been at some pains to find out in one 
 or two instances the amount of the burden laid 
 on the poorer class of property in a certain East 
 End Union. On a house rated at 54 the taxes 
 are 21 6s., of which ,8 2s. is poor rate, i.e. 
 rather more than one-seventh is to be added for 
 poor rate. A house assessed at ig pays 7 in 
 taxes; the taxes are paid by the landlord, who 
 lets the house for 12s. a- week. A very simple sum 
 will show that more than 2s. jd. of this 12s. is to 
 recoup himself for taxes paid, and, of this 2s. jd., 
 is. id. is for poor rate. A third house, assessed 
 at 12, should pay 4 los. taxes, but as it is a 
 compound house, let under 8s. 6d. per week, the 
 landlord, on paying the taxes, receives a com- 
 mission of 14^., and the taxes actually paid are 
 3 i6s. The house is let at 8s. a- week (and 
 probably sublet in single rooms), so that about 
 is. 6d. a- week out of Ss. is for taxes, and of this 
 is. 6d. about jd. is for poor rate. 
 
 I need hardly point out that the fact of the 
 
152 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 landlord paying the taxes is no relief to the 
 tenant, for when the landlord fixes the rent he 
 takes the taxes into account, and I have no doubt 
 that fractions of 6d. are settled in round figures 
 in his own favour. 1 The system of allowing the 
 landlord to compound for taxes is, I venture to 
 think, a bad one, as it is much better that those 
 who really pay should know exactly how the 
 
 1 I have left the text as originally written, for, to the best of my 
 belief, it represents substantially the facts of the case. To my own 
 knowledge, some landlords in the poorer parts of London did raise 
 their rents on the passing of the Free Education Act. The power 
 of the landlord to shift some of the burden of new taxation to the 
 shoulders of the occupier, seems to be a question distinct from the 
 economic problem as to the ultimate incidence of rates. There 
 can, I think, be very little doubt that Mr. Goschen's Select 
 Committee on Local Taxation were entirely right when they 
 reported " that the evidence taken before your committee shows 
 that in many cases the burden of the rates, which are paid by the 
 occupier, falls ultimately, either in part or wholly, upon the 
 owner. ..." Obviously, a tax put on a certain class of property 
 is a deduction, to that extent, from the profitableness of that 
 property, and ultimately must fall upon the owner. An owner, 
 in such circumstances, will higgle with more determination, and 
 in many cases will succeed in obtaining a better rent. If he fails, 
 he will be less ready to repair his houses, or when he builds a new 
 house, he will build a worse house, or he will build no more houses 
 at all. There is only one market for capital, and if the enterprise of 
 housebuilding is ,to continue, it must give the normal return to 
 the capital \engaged in It. It may effect this, by charging more 
 for^he same House, or by limiting supply till increased demand raises 
 the rate of rent, or it may, by restricting repairs or building a cheaper 
 house, .obtain the same rent for a worse article ; in every case, 
 ultimately the consumer or occupier is injured as well as the owner, 
 and, in all probability, of the two he can the least afford it. It is a 
 neglect of these considerations which is mainly responsible for the 
 unsatisfactory housing of the poorer classes. 
 
THE RATEPAYERS? INTEREST. 153 
 
 matter stands. That the poor feel and resent 
 the burdensome growth of the rates there can 
 be no doubt, but they regard the matter as 
 inevitable. 
 
 Some years ago I was sent by Mr. Barnett, of 
 St. Jude's, to canvass some of the poor ratepayers 
 of Whitechapel, to induce them to vote for taxing 
 themselves for a free library. I have often since 
 thought over my reception. The notion of a 
 library was received politely, if not with 
 enthusiasm, and the word "free" was very 
 grateful ; but when they understood that it meant 
 even a trifling addition to the rates, I generally 
 found that my embassy was in vain, for all of 
 them asserted that they had other and better 
 uses for their money. I have still a lively 
 recollection how one old fellow drove me from 
 his presence with many opprobrious words. This 
 was many years ago, and the Act has since been 
 adopted in Whitechapel, but I very much doubt 
 if a majority of the poorer ratepayers were wittingly 
 parties to the arrangement. 
 
 To speak seriously, the struggle to make ends 
 meet is very desperate a few pence a-week 
 represent a man's subscription to his club and 
 to his saving account. Yet, if we take the case 
 of the man paying Ss. a-week rent, he is paying 
 jd. a-week for the support of those who have 
 neglected to belong to a club or to save. 
 
154 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 The poor are not indifferent to a reduction of 
 the rates, but they argue : Do not let us be too 
 hard on the poor creatures who have to come on 
 the rates ; let us pay our money cheerfully and 
 be done with it. If, however, we can show them, 
 as I believe we can, that a lax administration is 
 the very reverse of kindness to those who are 
 ready to fall, I am sure that the argument from 
 the rates will be and ought to be a very useful 
 auxiliary in this important controversy. 
 
 It will be argued perhaps : Well, if the rate 
 presses so heavily on the poor, let us have a 
 graduated rate of Income Tax, and let us absolve 
 the poor altogether from the payment of poor 
 rate. This is not the place to discuss the general 
 principles of taxation ; but, even if we admit 
 that the principle of a graduated rate of taxation 
 is admissible for the purpose of meeting some 
 portion of our national expenditure, it is, I venture 
 to say, utterly inapplicable for the purpose of poor 
 law rating. If the poor are absolved from con- 
 tributing according to their ability, they will 
 cease to have any claim to administer, for it is 
 inconceivable that in any civilised community a 
 class shall administer, and administer with a pre- 
 ponderating influence, a fund from which they 
 alone derive benefit, but which is drawn entirely 
 from the pockets of another class of ratepayers. 
 
 II. As to the interest of the workman as a wage 
 
THE WAGE-EARNERS INTEREST. 155 
 
 earner. Is it to his interest that heavy rates 
 should be extracted from the ratepayers' pockets 
 to be spent in the relief of the poor? Let us 
 follow from an economical point of view the raising 
 and spending of the rate. 
 
 It is taken from an unwilling ratepayer, who 
 no doubt thinks he could find better use for it. 
 There are the tax-collector, the assessment officers, 
 the vestry, poor law, and audit officials, to say 
 nothing of local government inspectors galore. 
 They are all necessary and highly useful persons, 
 but it is obvious that to filter a fund through 
 their hands is an expensive way of dissipating 
 the money of the community. 
 
 Finally, the relief, such as it is, reaches the 
 pauper and who is the pauper? Is he not in 
 many cases the man who has gone through life 
 with his mind's eye fixed on this poor law dole ? 
 He has through life qualified himself and his 
 family to receive it ; and how has he qualified 
 himself? He has belonged to no Friendly Society, 
 for he says, " The poor law is the best club I put 
 nothing into that." He puts no money in the 
 savings bank for the same reason. It will not 
 do to argue : Paying rates is paying a premium 
 of insurance, and those who pay rates are entitled 
 when their time comes to get relief on their own 
 terms. The poor rate is a compulsory levy for 
 the destitute, and is not an insurance premium. 
 
156 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 If the payment of rates was designed to entitle 
 us to the honourable benefit of an insurance policy, 
 on each occasion when we wished to have an 
 addition to our income the poor rate would have 
 to be multiplied a thousand-fold. Further, the 
 pauper and his thriftless ways are a cause of low 
 wages, for he is always in more needy circum- 
 stances than his fellows, as it is part of his habit 
 to keep himself qualified for relief by being 
 destitute, and he is, therefore, the less able to 
 stand out for a good wage. He brings up his 
 children in the same spirit ; he never seeks, by 
 an insurance or otherwise, to make provision for 
 his wife or for his children, for he sees that the 
 law will provide ; and in their turn, when he is 
 old, the children whom he has neglected will 
 neglect him, and leave him to be a permanent 
 burden on the rates. 
 
 In a word, this fund, which we are at so great 
 pains to collect, to administer and to audit, is a 
 standing endowment for the encouragement of 
 those who have a disposition to loaf through life. 
 For I believe it is too often this fatal facility of 
 obtaining relief that has hung like a nightmare 
 over the man's better nature, and has prevented 
 him from stirring himself and becoming a useful 
 member of society. 
 
 Compare with this picture the fund which may 
 be saVed by a strict administration. In round 
 
THE WAGE-EARNERS* INTEREST. 157 
 
 figures it is in Bradfield a reduction from 2s. to 
 6d. in the pound ; in London it is counted in 
 thousands of pounds. The money is either spent 
 or is invested. Now I defy any one to spend or 
 to invest money without giving employment to 
 labour. Even if we buy the stock of an established 
 railway, we set free the funds of the seller, who 
 perhaps is going to build a house or to embark 
 his money in some new and more adventurous 
 industry. * Nothing can deprive the working class 
 of its share of this saving, and it will come to 
 them with less deduction for the cost of manage- 
 ment, and it will come to them in the honourable 
 form of wages for work done. 
 
 I do not of course argue that the unfortunate, 
 or even the vicious, pauper should not be main- 
 tained when he actually becomes destitute, but I 
 insist that in the interest of the wage earner it 
 is necessary to administer the law so as to deter 
 people, except in the last resort, from throwing 
 themselves on the poor rate. 
 
 Economy in the administration of the poor law 
 does not filch away from the poor a fund which 
 in any sense is a benefit to them, but, on the 
 contrary, it is the saving of a fund which must 
 be devoted to the encouragement of industry and 
 to the payment of honestly earned wages. 
 
 Before leaving this second branch of my subject, 
 I will touch on a fallacy which has an attraction 
 
158 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 for many minds, more especially, I think, among 
 the working class. It is that poor law relief 
 could be made less degrading to. the poor and 
 less burdensome to the ratepayers, if fair wages 
 were given to the labourer by the poor law 
 authorities in return for remunerative labour. 
 Sir G. Nicholls, the historian of the poor law, 
 speaking of a proposal of this kind made by Sir 
 M. Hale in the time of Charles II., remarks : 
 " The assumption that this is possible ie opposed 
 to sound principle and at variance with all subse- 
 quent experience." Let me illustrate this by an 
 example. 
 
 A while ago, when times were bad, we heard 
 of agricultural land going out of cultivation 
 because it could not be got to pay. This state 
 of things inspired a good many dwellers in towns, 
 most of them living within the sound of Bow Bells, 
 with the notion that here was a fine opening for 
 pauper labour. Some of you gentlemen live in 
 the country and know what farming is, and I 
 appeal to you if it is not an absurd and ridiculous 
 reflection on your skill and your enterprise to 
 suggest that London pauper labour, marshalled 
 by the worthy tradesmen who act as London 
 guardians, is likely to succeed where you have 
 failed. I think you will agree with an agricultural 
 friend of mine, who was asked what labourers in 
 his part of the country would do if they were set 
 
THE PAUPERS' INTEREST. 159 
 
 down to get their living out of land which farmers 
 had abandoned. " I do not know," he said, " but 
 if they were wise they would run away." 
 
 From this example you can see why all attempts 
 to make relief work remunerative to the community 
 must fail. Ex hypothesi, relief work must be work 
 which it will not pay experts to do in hope of 
 profit ; it follows surely that it cannot be done 
 by amateurs paying the market rate of wages, 
 except at a loss so heavy and continuous that 
 bankruptcy must arrive if such method of relief 
 is made a normal part of our system. If, on the 
 other hand, less than the market wage is paid, 
 a good day's work for a good day's. pay is not 
 given, and cannot fairly be demanded ; and such 
 a system, if adopted on any large scale, means the 
 degradation of labour just as much as the present 
 pauper allowance. 
 
 III. It remains for me now to discuss the 
 interest which the workman has in the poor law 
 as a possible recipient of relief. 
 
 I began my paper by suggesting that there is 
 an analogy between the present time and the 
 present temper of the public, and the time previous 
 to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act. 
 
 I believe that there are exactly the same parties 
 using exactly the same class of arguments, and it 
 is for the general public, more particularly the 
 working class (for with them the responsibility 
 
160 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LA W 
 
 now rests), to say to which side they will cleave. 
 This same principle of division will be apparent 
 in every other crisis in our poor law history. Let 
 me illustrate what I mean by two examples. 
 
 The two most beneficial reforms in our poor law 
 system within the last century have been : (i) "the 
 Act to prevent the removal of poor persons until 
 they have become actually chargeable" (35 
 George III. cap. 101, passed in 1795) ; and (2) 
 the Poor Law Amendment Act. It is almost 
 incredible to us that the abominable tyranny of 
 the old law of settlement should have had its 
 supporters. That law, as you are aware, bound 
 the labourer to the place of his birth. He was 
 not allowed to leave his native place to search 
 for work, as the authorities of the place to which 
 he came could remove him, not because he had 
 become chargeable^ but lest in the future he might 
 become chargeable. 
 
 Adam Smith remarked, " There is scarce a poor 
 man in England who has not in some part of his 
 life felt himself cruelly oppressed by this ill-con- 
 trived law of settlements." Yet the system had 
 its supporters, and we should be wrong in thinking 
 that they were more cruel and indifferent to the 
 sufferings of the poor than the present generation. 
 Each man has, they argued, his right of main- 
 tenance and asylum at the place of his birth. 
 This is his birthright ; let him resist all temptation 
 
THE PAUPERS' INTEREST. 161 
 
 to give it up. There he is a part of the consti- 
 tutional economy of England. Let him rely on 
 this, and not on his own ability to go out and 
 do battle with the difficulties of life. He is far 
 too poor and too ignorant for independence. It 
 is far best for him, and we shall compel him to 
 preserve the certainty of maintenance in the place 
 of his settlement. 
 
 Again, my second example refers to the time 
 of the reform of the poor law forty years later, 
 when many estimable people, headed by the 
 Times, declared that it was the height of cruelty 
 to throw the able-bodied labourer on his own 
 resources, and to hold him responsible for his 
 wife and children. Under the old law relief was 
 regularly paid in aid of wages, and generally the 
 allowance was regulated according to the number 
 of his children. This last practice had been sanc- 
 tioned by the applause of the great commoner, 
 Mr. Pitt. The poor law commissioners, whose 
 duty it was later on to expose and cause this 
 state of things to cease, were for a time the best 
 abused people in England. Sir G. Nicholls has 
 recorded somewhere in his book a list of all the 
 nasty adjectives which were applied to him and to 
 his colleagues. 
 
 Now I ask with confidence, Is any one prepared 
 to go back on the policy of these two reforms, a 
 policy which I would describe shortly as being 
 
 M 
 
162 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 a vindication of the right of the working class to 
 achieve its own independence. I do not for one 
 moment believe it. The workman has set his 
 back with determination to the miserable flesh- 
 pots of settlement and poor law relief, and has 
 passed on from one point of progress to another. 
 He has competed with his employer and exacted 
 a better wage ; he has organised his trade union, 
 his friendly society, his co-operative store, his 
 building society ; he supports savings banks and 
 insurance offices ; and these things are all of them 
 the work of the last fifty years, and have been 
 rendered possible by the restriction of poor law 
 relief, which has ever been a most fatal competitor 
 with thrifty effort and self-help. 
 
 The workman has still, it is true, much to seek, 
 and, as in the two former crises which I have 
 mentioned, he has well-meaning but timorous, 
 and I venture to add most dangerous, counsellors, 
 who urge him to take what he yet requires from 
 the rates. There are many such proposals in the 
 air, and they are termed by their inventors, " Pro- 
 jects for Poor Law Reform." In the past the gift 
 from the rates has been accursed ; its rejection has 
 developed enterprise and self-help, the foundation 
 not only of temporary and present success, but of 
 continuous future progress. Is the operation of 
 cause and effect different to-day ? 
 
 I will advert to two of these proposals, and I 
 
NEW PROPOSALS. 163 
 
 will quote some genuine working-class criticism on 
 each, with a view of showing how very hopeful we 
 should be that wise counsels will prevail. 
 
 One enthusiastic reformer urges that we should 
 have what he calls "Collective Provision for the 
 Sick " ; that is, that all sick persons should be 
 tended in hospital at the public charge. 
 
 Hear, however, as a comment on this, the words 
 of a writer in the Co-operative News, the organ of 
 the workman's co-operative movement, and written 
 for workmen by workmen. He is speaking of Dr. 
 Rhodes's contention that medical relief is too often 
 the germ of pauperism. He says : " Thus easily 
 relieved, thoughtless people come to regard medical 
 relief not as pauperism but as a right. . . . The 
 connection with the relieving officer is established, 
 and the facility of lifting a burden on to other 
 shoulders once enjoyed is nearly certain to lead 
 to further applications for aid, when work is scarce 
 or money runs short. . . . We shall not occupy 
 space in drawing obvious inferences, but satisfy 
 ourselves by passing on a warning note which 
 may cause co-operators to think out for them- 
 selves plans whereby, through the stores, they can 
 encourage or supplement the work of friendly 
 societies, the provident clubs and dispensaries, 
 and the similar agencies, which both foster thrift 
 and keep many off the slippery paths to pauper- 
 ism." This, I venture to say, is the true note of 
 
164 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LA W. 
 
 the independent English working man. The 
 proposal for placing all hospitals and medical 
 treatment on the rates comes, not from a work- 
 ing man, but from a middle-class gentleman who, 
 to do him justice, does not propose it in his own 
 interest, but rather as a short cut by which his 
 poorer neighbours, for whom he has a profound 
 sympathy, may get all that they want. 
 
 Lastly, I would say a word or two on the subject 
 of the proposed State Pensions. The workman 
 has provided, and is providing, for his sickness, 
 for his children, and for many other occasions 
 for which poor law relief was formerly thought 
 necessary ; but it is alleged that he has not pro- 
 vided for his old age therefore, says the tempter, 
 let us put pensions, or a portion of the cost of 
 pensions, on the rates. 
 
 Friendly Society papers and Friendly Society 
 speakers have, as far as I know, rejected the 
 proposal unanimously. Here is a passage from 
 the Oddfellows* ' Magazine, commenting on the 
 suggestion (and a very insidious suggestion it is) 
 that the Friendly Societies should be used as inter- 
 mediaries for receiving the Government grant in 
 aid of pensions 
 
 " No thought of Government or rate-provided subsidy 
 must enter into the calculations of those who would lead 
 the Order along the path which ends in superannua- 
 tion. No sane person could imagine that assistance or 
 
NEW PROPOSALS. 165 
 
 subvention would be given unless accompanied by in- 
 spection and a proportionate measure of control. This 
 would prove a deathblow to the principles on which 
 the Unity has reared itself to its present proud position, 
 viz. self-help and independence. When interference 
 enters the door, independence will fly out of the window, 
 and the decadence of the Manchester Unity will have 
 commenced." 
 
 I next quote a sentence from the admirable 
 presidential address of the High Chief Ranger 
 of the Ancient Order of Foresters, delivered in 
 August of this year ( 1 89 1 ). A considerable portion 
 of his speech is devoted to a criticism of this pro- 
 posal for free or assisted pensions. I quote only 
 one sentence. It goes to the root of the matter. 
 
 " If it be proposed to create a system of State subsidy 
 open to all, then the plan is one for the replacement of 
 individual effort by State aid, without any need for it 
 in the great majority of cases. If, on the other hand, 
 unsolicited assistance is to be given to certain classes 
 of the community, a distinction will be made invidious 
 to those included, and unjust to many of those excluded, 
 which may go far to supersede the teachings of our 
 societies as to the independence and equality of men. 
 In any case it seems a peculiar method of promoting 
 the depauperisation of the people to keep a certain or 
 rather uncertain number of them off the rates for a few 
 years by making a far larger proportion dependent on 
 subsidies from the taxes for nearly the whole of their 
 lives, and during the prime and vigour of manhood." 
 
 I commend to your notice the whole of Mr. 
 
i66 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 Radley's admirable speech ; it is reported in Unity 
 of September, I89I. 1 
 
 I see that Mr. Rankin, M.P., 2 Chairman of the 
 National Providence League, and a great promoter 
 of national pension schemes, has admitted that if 
 the proposal meets with the opposition of the 
 friendly society world, it will be impossible to 
 carry any legislation of this nature. Unless a 
 complete change comes over the attitude of these 
 societies, there can be no doubt that all such pro- 
 posals will be vehemently opposed, and there 
 perhaps we might leave this very impracticable 
 suggestion. 
 
 But I think it is extremely important that 
 those who are interested in the cause of poor 
 law reform should take this opportunity of as- 
 suring the Friendly Societies of their sympathy 
 and support in opposing this measure. And for 
 this reason I cannot regret the controversy. 
 Those who, in season and out of season, have 
 urged the working class to cut themselves adrift 
 from the assistance of the rates and from the 
 poor law, have met with a good deal of abuse, 
 and their motives have been misrepresented. 
 There is a chance, I hope, that some of these 
 misunderstandings may be explained away ; for 
 there is a natural alliance between those who 
 
 1 Price id. Office: 231, Pentonville Road. 
 
 2 Speaking at Birmingham on November 18, 1891, Mr. Chamber- 
 lain made a similar admission. 
 
NEW PROPOSALS. 167 
 
 seek to shut more and more closely the door 
 which admits the poor to the degradation of 
 pauperism, and those who are developing with such 
 admirable success aids to thrift and independence. 
 It is not too much to say that the dispauperisation 
 of the country can be achieved only by an alliance 
 of this kind, and I think it well that we should 
 pay attention to this proposal, and seek to establish 
 a closer understanding among those who in all 
 classes hold a brief for the independence of the poor. 
 We can, moreover, I think, make some con- 
 tribution to securing the rejection of this proposal 
 by arguments drawn from the experience of wise 
 poor law administration. 
 
 Advocates of State Pensions have appealed to 
 poor law statistics and refer to Mr. Burt's Return, 
 according to which there were on August I, 1890, 
 245,687 paupers over sixty-five years of age. Now 
 of these 190,935 were out-door paupers and only 
 54,752 in-door. 
 
 This simple analysis shows to persons who 
 know anything of poor law work how worthless 
 are arguments drawn from such figures, for 
 obviously they merely indicate certain eccen- 
 tricities of administration. Let me give a brief 
 illustration of my meaning. 
 
 There were in 1871, in the Union of Bradfield, 
 1256 paupers in the year 1888 there were 
 only 142. 
 
i68 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LA W. 
 
 If a statistician had come to Bradfield in 1871 
 he might have argued that, as one in every thirteen 
 of the population was a pauper, therefore ex- 
 ceptional legislation was necessary. Take him 
 to Bradfield in 1888, and he finds that there is 
 only one pauper to every 126 of the population, 
 and that pauperism has steadily decreased, and 
 is still decreasing, under a certain policy of 
 administration, and he will admit that here, at 
 all events, the curse of pauperism is being rooted 
 out. And how has this come about ? The story 
 is familiar : it has been accomplished by a wise, 
 firm, and humane administration. 
 
 Apply the same firm measure to this mass of 
 pauperism which is presented to us by Mr. Burt's 
 Return, and it will vanish as it is vanishing at 
 Bradfield. The measure pursued at Bradfield 
 has been the restriction, I suppose I might almost 
 say the abolition, of out-door relief, with the 
 happy result that while the out-door pauper has 
 almost disappeared, the in-door pauperism has also 
 diminished by more than a half. 
 
 I think that we shall be justified in drawing 
 a very different inference from Mr. Burt's Return 
 from that drawn by our State-pension friends, 
 viz. that if the working class, to whom the 
 responsibility has now passed, will but courage- 
 ously withdraw the dole of out-door relief, our 
 labouring population will be borne certainly and 
 
INCREASE OF SA VINGS. 169 
 
 inevitably into a still larger measure of inde- 
 pendence. 1 
 
 But, it will be asked, where are the old age 
 annuities which we might expect to find among 
 the dispauperised inhabitants of Bradfield ? For 
 it does not, for some reason, satisfy our State- 
 pension friends to see the labourer rescued from 
 pauperism they will not rest content unless they 
 see him in the enjoyment of an annuity. 
 
 It is not possible to set out in statistical detail 
 all the little economies of each individual in a rural 
 union who does not become a pauper. This does 
 not prove that these economies do not exist. 
 
 Mr. Garland, the Chairman of the Bradfield 
 Board, has told us that in his Union the member- 
 ship of local provident and' medical clubs has 
 increased 150 per cent. Obviously the books of 
 savings banks and insurance agencies are not 
 open to public inspection, but undoubtedly the 
 poor of Bradfield have their share in the general 
 increase of savings among the working class, of 
 which I add a few items. Co-operative capital 
 has increased from 4,000,000 in 1874 to 
 10,000,000 in 1888; the cash sales, on which 
 a dividend of is. to 3^. in the pound is returned, 
 have risen from 14,000,000 to 28,000,000. 
 
 1 For more detailed comment on Mr. Burt's Return, see Mr. C. S. 
 Loch's " Old Age Pensions and Pauperism." Sonnenschein Co., 
 1892. 
 
i?o WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 Building societies had capital of 12,000,000 in 
 1875 and 51,000,000 in 1888. Savings banks, 
 Post-Office alone, have increased from 23,000,000 
 in 1875 to 58,000,000 in 1889. Fourteen 
 insurance companies doing business with the poor 
 had in 1879 726,000 insurance funds, and in 1887 
 the amount had risen to 5,000,000 ; the total 
 sum insured was the enormous one of 83,000,000, 
 of which 71,000,000 was on adult life. This is 
 what is called industrial insurance. As to the 
 value of this, opinions may differ, but it discloses, 
 at all events, a great potentiality for saving. Of 
 the ordinary insurance effected by the working 
 class, it is more difficult to speak in figures. One 
 company alone is insuring 5,500,000 every 
 year, principally among the working class, and 
 the total insurances in force in this company 
 cannot be less than 30,000,000. The Friendly 
 Societies insure mainly against the risk of sickness, 
 but superannuation allowance is in many societies 
 payable to those who suffer from the infirmity 
 of old age. By the trade unions very large sums 
 are paid as superannuation to those incapacitated 
 by old age. The curious will find some interesting 
 account of this in the appendices to the new 
 edition of Mr. Howell's " Conflicts of Capital and 
 Labour " (Macmillan, 1890). 
 
 I might say a good deal of the costliness and 
 general impracticability of the proposal and of 
 
UNPOPULARITY OF ANNUITIES. 171 
 
 its commonly admitted futility, unless it is accom- 
 panied by compulsion ; but time is pressing, and 
 I will confine myself to asking you a question, 
 which I think will enable us to answer these eager 
 searchers for annuitants. 
 
 Do any of my readers know among their own circle 
 a single person who is providing for his old age 
 by beginning at the age of twenty-five to purchase 
 an annuity ? I expect I could number our united 
 experience of such persons I had almost said 
 of such foolish and eccentric persons on the 
 fingers of one hand, 
 
 Then why on earth should we try to tempt or 
 to compel the working class to do a thing which 
 is evidently so unusual among the general 
 community ? 
 
 The fact is that old age is not a risk which a 
 prudent man, as a rule, will seek to cover by 
 insurance. Insurance is obviously designed to 
 cover an uncertain risk. Old age is certain, and 
 it is also remote. 
 
 A prudent man insures against the risks which 
 may come suddenly and early, like death, sickness, 
 want of work ; when he has done this, and while 
 he is doing it, he collects a home about him, he 
 starts his children in life, he increases his deposit 
 at the bank. When old age comes he has children 
 bound to him by gratitude for early care ; he 
 has his little capital at the bank, in furniture, and 
 
172 WORKING CLASSES AND THE POOR LAW. 
 
 perhaps a little business ; his life is probably 
 insured, and he is not the less an honoured 
 guest in his children's home because he has some 
 small savings to bequeath. This sort of thing 
 is going on in many a working-class family, and 
 I venture to think it would be the height of 
 presumption for the rough hand of the law to 
 interfere to coerce or cajole the workman into 
 preferring the remote risk of his own old age, 
 which he may never live to see, to the more 
 obvious claims of sickness, wife and children, 
 more especially as a patient frugal attention to- 
 these will not leave his old age unprovided for. 
 
IV. 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND 
 THE STATE. 1 
 
 OUGHT old age to be a public or a private charge ? 
 That is the issue which the country is being asked 
 to try. 
 
 The principle at stake is one of far-reaching 
 importance. If it is desirable to relieve the in- 
 habitants of this country of responsibility for 
 providing the necessaries of life in their old age, 
 it is obvious that the same principle may be 
 extended to other risks of life. A certain section 
 of the advocates of a State pension admit this, 
 indeed base their advocacy on this very ground. 
 They conscientiously believe in the possibility of 
 Socialism. They desire to see the functions of 
 the State gradually enlarged till at length they 
 absorb all the activities of our social life. They 
 look forward to what they term a complete " Social- 
 isation " of all the instruments of production, and 
 to a time when the whole population shall be first 
 
 1 A paper read before the Society of Arts, February 22, 1893. 
 
174 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 the salaried and then the pensioned servants of a 
 vast bureaucracy. To make the State responsible 
 for the maintenance of old age is to them, therefore, 
 only one step in a much larger revolution. It is 
 not my intention to dwell on this aspect of the 
 question, though it seems to me to be the only 
 logical position which can be taken up by those 
 who desire to make a public provision for old 
 age, otherwise than is already provided by our 
 poor law. I content myself by remarking that, 
 for the present, the difficulty of this view appears 
 to me to be considerable, for though, up to a 
 certain point, a well-organised government might 
 discharge the responsibilities of mankind, as these 
 are at present estimated, no government can re- 
 move from individual men their power of creating 
 responsibility. By responsibility I mean, of course, 
 such things as marriage, and the consequent de- 
 mands of wife and family, the hunger arising from 
 the consumption on Monday of the supplies which, 
 by careful husbandry, should have lasted till Satur- 
 day. The creation of such responsibility is at 
 present held in check by the knowledge that he 
 who creates must also discharge. If this condition 
 be removed, first in one, and then in another 
 direction, it will appear to plain men that we 
 are within sight of a speedy dissolution of 
 society. 
 
 But I am well aware that there are many 
 
HISTORY OF THE AGITATION. 175 
 
 advocates of State pensions who do not take 
 this extreme view, who think it possible to limit 
 the extension of the principle to old age, and that, 
 thus limited, the removal of the responsibility 
 from the individual to the State will be a 
 salutary change. The view of these, the more 
 influential, but, as I venture to think, less logical, 
 supporters of the State Pension policy, can be 
 gathered most conveniently by a brief history of 
 this agitation. 
 
 It began with Mr. Blackley. He observed that 
 a great many people in their old age became 
 destitute, and a charge on the rates. He was of 
 opinion that many, or all of them, ought to have 
 been able to provide for themselves. He, at first, 
 at all events, insisted that old age was a private 
 charge, and of so paramount a nature did he con- 
 sider it, that the law, he argued, should be called 
 into operation to force men to discharge their duty 
 in this respect. His proposal, therefore, was that 
 before reaching a certain age every one should be 
 compelled to deposit with a public department a 
 sum of money, sufficient to provide him with a 
 pension in old age. A Parliamentary Committee 
 considered this, and a kindred proposal for com- 
 pulsory sick insurance, and reported that they 
 were not practicable. Their author has so far 
 accepted this verdict that, for the time being, he 
 has joined himself to the supporters of a different 
 
176 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 proposal, generally known as Mr. Chamberlain's 
 proposal. 
 
 This scheme abandons at once the view of Mr. 
 Blackley, that the maintenance of old age is a 
 strictly private charge. It is proposed by an 
 informal Parliamentary Committee, over which 
 Mr. Chamberlain presided, to pay a subsidy out 
 of the rates and taxes of the country, to assist 
 people to buy deferred annuities. As I under- 
 stand it, Mr. Chamberlain sees no objection, in 
 principle, to making his insurance scheme com- 
 pulsory ; but, practically, all parties seem for the 
 present agreed that compulsion is not possible. 
 The argument, I take it, is as follows : It is not 
 possible, as Canon Blackley has proposed, to 
 compel a man lt to be kind to his old age " ; but 
 if a public insurance department holds out an 
 offer of paying, say 40^. for each i subscribed, 
 the unwillingness and inability of the submerged 
 classes to join in this form of investment will be 
 removed. 
 
 At this point the question is taken up by Mr. 
 Charles Booth and his supporters. They point 
 out that, unless the provision for old age is in 
 some way made universal, it will leave untouched 
 the very class in whose interest this agitation has 
 been raised. If the so-called submerged class will 
 not subscribe to a sick club, by which they become 
 entitled to an immediate benefit in event of 
 
HISTORY OF THE AGITATION. 177 
 
 sickness, it is not likely they will be induced to 
 subscribe for a benefit which will not become due 
 for forty years, which many of them may never live 
 to enjoy. Mr. Chamberlain's new insurance policies 
 might be taken up by well-to-do members of the 
 middle class, but, in all probability, not at all by 
 the lowest stratum of society. 
 
 Mr. Booth, therefore, carries the evolution of the 
 pension theory a step further, and proposes a 
 universal endowment of old age, to the extent 
 of 5^. per week. It is impossible, he urges, in 
 effect, to enforce subscription to an insurance 
 fund ; it is useless to subsidise ; the only way in 
 which our benevolent intentions can be carried 
 out is by endowing every man, when he reaches 
 sixty-five, with a statutory right to an allowance 
 of 5^. per week. To extend this advantage to 
 England and Wales, without any cost of adminis- 
 tration, will add, Mr. Booth calculates, a sum of 
 ;i 7,000,000 per annum to our national expendi- 
 ture. The cost of this proposal, which for the 
 United Kingdom would probably not be less 
 than 30,000,000 per annum, has frightened some 
 of Mr. Booth's most competent allies. 
 
 Mr. T. E. Young and Mr. R. P. Hardy are well- 
 known actuaries. They regard Mr. Chamberlain's 
 scheme as unworkable on an actuarial basis, and 
 they approve of the philanthropic principle which, 
 
 they conceive, underlies Mr. Booth's universal 
 
 N 
 
178 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 endowment, but they recoil from the expense 
 which it involves. They add, therefore, a con- 
 dition of their own to this effect : none are to 
 have the benefit of Mr. Booth's endowment unless 
 they are persons of good character, and actually 
 in want. Mr. Booth has also made a concession 
 in this direction. One of the last additions to his 
 plan is a proposal to exclude from pension those 
 who have been in receipt of poor law relief within 
 ten years of reaching the age of sixty-five. Mr. 
 Booth insists throughout that the question of 
 inclusion or exclusion must not be left to the 
 haphazard discrimination of a board. At first, 
 he was in favour of universal inclusion no one 
 was to be excluded and now the only exclusion 
 he will sanction is an exclusion ' that shall be 
 determined automatically, and not by the fiat of 
 any board or committee. This condition has 
 separated Mr. Booth from another of his sup- 
 porters Mr. Frome Wilkinson. An article by 
 this gentleman, in the New Review for January, 
 1893, brings us back to the status quo ante by 
 proposing that guardians shall give every old 
 person an allowance of 43. or $s. a week out-relief. 
 This last proposal is not a proposal for pensions, 
 but for a wider extension of the facilities for enter- 
 ing the ranks of pauperism throughout the country. 
 The circle is thus complete. We start from the 
 poor law and we return to the poor law. 
 
MR. BLACKLEGS SCHEME. 179 
 
 I have dwelt on this boxing of the compass of 
 opinion because it seems to me to show that the 
 State-pension party has not quite made up its 
 mind as to the grounds on which it asks us to 
 make a very considerable change in our social 
 arrangements. In truth there are several State- 
 pension parties, and their opinions are mutually 
 destructive the one of the other. In polite con- 
 troversy one must always assume that opponents 
 have carefully thought out the bearings of their 
 position. I gladly extended this courtesy of 
 debate to our State-pension friends, for I think it 
 entitles me to remark that if these distinguished 
 gentlemen were to be locked up like a jury they 
 would starve rather than agree upon a verdict. 
 
 We must examine these proposals in some 
 detail. Mr. Blackley's scheme need not detain 
 us long ; it is left derelict by its author, and I fear 
 no one else is likely to adopt this orphan. If 
 any one doubts the wisdom of this abandonment, 
 I would ask him to attend a meeting of un- 
 employed on Tower Hill, and then to explain 
 to us how he proposes to get a deposit of 10, 
 or whatever the sum may be, from the many 
 young fellows who are there agitating their 
 grievances, or from the young men of the class 
 there represented. 
 
 Though I do not believe that Mr. Blackley's 
 scheme is either desirable or practicable, as an 
 
i8o OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 amateur in social panaceas, I very much regret 
 that Mr. Blackley has abandoned his very original 
 contention that every man should provide for his 
 own old age. It gave his scheme an air of 
 Athanasian boldness and a value altogether unique 
 in the history of latter day " movements." 
 
 While on this question of compulsion, I may 
 be permitted to point out, that though it may not 
 be possible to compel men by law to discharge 
 the duty of providing for old age, there yet 
 remains, though we have nearly legislated it out 
 of existence, a certain amount of natural com- 
 pulsion urging a man in that direction. There 
 is an old maxim of the poor law, that it is un- 
 desirable to make the condition of the pauper 
 superior to that of the independent labourer. The 
 maxim has been largely disregarded, as far as 
 old age is concerned, by those who are responsible 
 for poor law administration. Everywhere, with 
 only a few exceptions, the aged and improvident 
 person has been given relief at his own home, 
 and thus put in a superior position to the 
 independent aged person, who has been obliged 
 to practise much self-denial in order to preserve 
 his independence. When this is the condition 
 of the law, it is not to be wondered, if a large 
 number of the poorer classes regard their old age 
 as a thing to be provided for by the law. Over 
 a considerable part of England that is the view 
 
NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL COMPULSION? 181 
 
 taken, not only by the poor, who cannot be blamed 
 for their attitude, but by the administrators of 
 the law. 
 
 Guardians sometimes talk as if they were proud 
 of the number of poor people who have been 
 induced to rely on this provision for their old 
 age. I am afraid, however, that in the rural 
 districts a more selfish motive is often at the 
 bottom of their action. The knowledge that a 
 lavish system of out-relief reduces the farmer's 
 labour bill has had its influence in this matter. 
 If the employer can get old men and widows, 
 partially supported by the rates, to do even a 
 portion of his work for him, he has less work 
 to give to the able-bodied. 
 
 This aspect of the question is important, for, 
 if we sympathise, as I have no doubt many of us 
 do, with Mr. Blackley, in his desire to see every 
 man meeting his own responsibilities, we cannot, 
 I think, avoid the conclusion that the independence 
 of the poor in old age is to be achieved, not by the 
 artificial compulsion which Mr. Blackley himself 
 admits to be impracticable, but by that natural 
 compulsion which urges all men to habits of 
 self-preservation. If such be our view, it is 
 obvious how closely this problem is interwoven 
 with the administration of the poor law. If we 
 must rely on compulsion, the only practicable 
 form of compulsion is a natural compulsion. This 
 
182 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 natural instinct of self-preservation exists in every 
 man's breast, ready to urge him along the path 
 of social and economic virtue, if we do not defeat 
 its power by a lavish and ill-considered adminis- 
 tration of the poor law. 
 
 To pass to the next phase of the question, viz. 
 to the proposal for assisted insurance against old 
 age. Now the difficulties of the poor are very 
 numerous ; old age is not the only risk which 
 they have to meet ; and I have never been able to 
 understand why these philanthropic gentlemen 
 have fixed on this one particular risk, old age 
 after sixty-five, as the one which they are going 
 to subsidise. Is it quite certain that old age 
 is the most pitiable and helpless condition of 
 mankind ? In such a matter as this, the practice 
 of boards of guardians is a very fair test of the 
 average opinion of the world. Now, there are 
 some boards of guardians which give out-relief 
 to widows with children, but refuse it to the aged, 
 on the ground that the destitute condition of 
 a widow is more helpless and involuntary than 
 that of persons who presumably have had forty 
 years of working life, and, therefore, some oppor- 
 tunity to prepare for the inevitable approach of 
 old age. 
 
 Again, one asks, why fix on sixty-five as the 
 age at which a man is entitled to become partially 
 dependent on the rates and taxes? There are 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 183 
 
 no official statistics available to show what 
 proportion of old-age paupers over sixty-five have 
 been paupers from an earlier period of life ; but 
 it would appear, from a calculation made by Mr. 
 Loch, on figures supplied by the relieving-officer 
 of Stepney to Mr. C. Booth, that, of the paupers 
 over sixty-five in the Union of Stepney, nearly 
 one-half forty-four per cent, in fact became 
 chargeable before they reached the age of sixty- 
 five. 1 It is obvious, therefore, that the proposed 
 subsidy, even if accepted largely by the poor, 
 would not abolish old age pauperism. Moreover, 
 it is not possible for one moment to contend 
 that it would be accepted largely by the present 
 pauper class. It is probable that the annuities 
 if, by reason of gratuitous subsidies, they were 
 made what is called in the city " good things " 
 would be taken up by the prudent, investing 
 middle class, as, indeed, has been the case in 
 France and other foreign countries, where sub- 
 sidised deferred annuities exist. As far as 
 the submerged are concerned, the result would 
 inevitably be disappointment ; indeed, the whole 
 proposal shows, I venture to think, some ignorance 
 or disregard of the condition of the class which 
 these insurance proposals are intended to benefit. 
 
 The pauper class in this country is very much 
 what the poor law has made it. I am not going 
 
 1 Loch: " Poor Law Conference Papers," No. 3, for 1892. 
 
184 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 to say that they are a vicious class, or that they 
 are less "deserving," to use a question- begging 
 phrase, than their more fortunate neighbours. For 
 my own part, I believe, that all men are equally 
 undeserving, but I do affirm, and that without 
 any fear of contradiction, that the pauper class is 
 an irresponsible class. To this point, however, I 
 propose to return. I only here wish to say that 
 every one who has any practical knowledge of 
 the subject will agree with Mr. Booth, and the 
 other critics of Mr. Chamberlain's scheme, that 
 no amount of gratuity short of a free gift will 
 have any influence whatsoever on this class, in the 
 way of inducing them to subscribe for deferred 
 annuities. Old age is not the risk which the 
 responsible poor find it most difficult to meet, and 
 the proposed insurance will have absolutely no 
 effect on the irresponsible. 
 
 The next point with regard to this scheme to 
 which I wish to draw your attention is the nature 
 of the investment which it seeks to popularise. 
 It is a proposal to subsidise, not all forms of 
 saving, but only the purchase of a deferred annuity. 
 Now if the choice of old age as the risk of life to 
 be made a charge on the rates seemed to us an 
 arbitrary choice, what shall we say of the selection 
 of this one particular instrument of meeting it ? 
 
 It is extremely probable that there is not a 
 single person in this room who began at the age 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 
 
 of twenty-five to purchase an annuity to become 
 payable at the age of sixty-five. The Post-Office 
 has most elaborate arrangements for facilitating 
 the purchase of deferred annuities. They have 
 been a complete failure. From April 17, 1865, to 
 December 31, 1889, 540 contracts were opened for 
 deferred annuities, money not returnable ; and 1067, 
 money returnable (see 37th Report of Postmaster- 
 General) ; and with regard to these last, the money 
 returnable is very often returned, and the contract 
 is not persevered in as a deferred annuity. 
 
 The great Friendly Societies, the Foresters and 
 the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, started 
 schemes of old age pensions on this principle ; 
 after some years' trial it was found that only three 
 or four had availed themselves of the facilities 
 offered. 1 Mr. Bartley, the successful manager of 
 the National Penny Bank, wrote some time ago, in 
 the Standard, that he does not remember to have 
 come across a single instance of a man saving by 
 means of a deferred annuity. I had the advantage 
 of discussing this question with Miss Octavia Hill 
 some little time ago. She could not call to mind 
 
 1 The Friendly Societies are making great efforts to popularise 
 different forms of deferred annuities. It is very possible that they 
 will be successful. I sincerely hope so, but I submit that no power 
 on earth will ever make a pure deferred annuity or pension a popular 
 investment, and it will be no reflection on the Friendly Societies if 
 they fail. They will succeed, I am persuaded, only by making the 
 proposed investment less and less of a deferred annuity, and more 
 and more of a pure savings bank account, withdrawable at will. 
 
186 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 a single instance of a deferred annuity purchaser. 
 She knew a great many people who were in the 
 habit of saving in various ways ; some put money 
 in banks, others unskilled labourers perhaps 
 made sacrifice, and brought up their children to a 
 trade. She felt strongly the impertinence involved 
 in prying into these poor people's affairs, and she 
 only knew what they chose to tell her ; but she 
 knew enough about them to give her every reason 
 to hope that those people who were really in 
 earnest about saving would not come upon the 
 parish in their old age. I could multiply such 
 evidence as this indefinitely. I will add one small 
 item of official evidence. 
 
 The statement is often made that the Friendly 
 Society man is very frequently forced to come on 
 the rates in his old age. If this is really so, it 
 might seem to throw some discredit on the view 
 expressed by Miss Hill, for the member of a 
 genuine Friendly Society is emphatically a person 
 in earnest about saving. But what are the facts ? 
 A certain Parliamentary return, known as Lord 
 Lymington's return, professes to give the number 
 of persons in workhouses who declare that at some 
 period of their life they have been members of 
 some sort of provident society. The list does not 
 exclude members of the Christmas sharing-out 
 club, or persons who have been a few weeks in 
 some publican's goose club, and the figures are 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 187 
 
 without doubt largely exaggerated and certainly 
 unverified, yet the late Chief Registrar informs us 
 that the return for 1881 only shows a proportion of 
 one in-door pauper to every 354 of the adult 
 membership of the Friendly Society, or if the 
 calculation is based, as it should be, on the number 
 of those who attributed their pauperism to the 
 breaking-up of their club, the tale of in-door 
 paupers did not amount to one in 1000 a striking 
 proof, I venture to think, of the substantial accuracy 
 of Miss Hill's remark. 1 Even if we make a very 
 
 1 A similar return has been made for 1891. On this the Majority 
 Report of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor remarks as 
 follows " In commenting on this return, Mr. Brabrook points 
 out that if it were correct it would show that for every 10,000 
 members now in registered Friendly Societies there are in work- 
 houses twenty-six persons who have left their societies, and twelve 
 whose societies had broken up. He thinks, however, that even 
 these low figures give a misleading impression : first, because the 
 answers of paupers on such a matter are untrustworthy, and they 
 may use the words Friendly Society very loosely ; and secondly, 
 because societies very often break up for reasons other than 
 financial failure ; while, as we have seen, lapses very generally take 
 place a year or so after admission. We agree with Mr. Brabrook 
 and Mr. Wilkinson that this return is very far from showing, as 
 the former tells us it is often used to show, ' a failure of Friendly 
 Societies to fulfil their duties to their members ' : on the contrary, 
 it seems to us to furnish strong testimony to the success of their 
 efforts in reducing pauperism." The same authority comments 
 on the evidence of Mr. T. Ballan Stead, Permanent Secretary of 
 the Ancient Order of Foresters. " He tells us," says the Report, 
 " that, out of 526,000 English members, to whom the returns he 
 has received relate, 490 only have applied for poor relief during 
 the past five years, an average of under 100 per annum ; while 
 in Wales, out of 23,000 members, 8 only sought relief in the whole 
 five years. Mr. Stead thinks that even these figures do not fully 
 
1 88 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 liberal allowance for the number of Friendly Society- 
 members receiving out-relief, I think we may safely 
 assume that the proportion of genuine Friendly 
 Society members who become paupers is very 
 small. The people who become paupers are those 
 irresponsible beings who carefully avoid the 
 Friendly Society and all its works. 
 
 Mr. Brabrook, the Chief Registrar of Friendly 
 Societies, told the Labour Commission that his 
 department had cognisance of over 200,000,000 
 sterling, representing for the most part savings of 
 the working class. 
 
 I have made a rough calculation, from the last 
 Statistical Abstract and other available sources, as 
 to the more obvious institutions where working 
 class savings are deposited. 
 
 I find that, of a total of 220,000,000, only about 
 31,000,000 are ear-marked for one particular pur- 
 pose. The rest is free, and available to be used for 
 old age or any other incident that may arise. Of 
 these 31,000,000, 20,000,000 belong to the 
 
 show the extent to which members have kept themselves inde- 
 pendent of the Poor Law, as the courts and lodges from which 
 he received no reply had presumably no cases to report. . . . 
 There can be no doubt," the Report remarks, " that in general, as 
 Mr. Brabrook says, ' The man who practises providence in one 
 direction, and becomes a member of a Friendly Society, is not an 
 improvident man in any other sense of the word, and he looks 
 forward to old age as well as to sickness, and endeavours to provide 
 against it by opportunities independently of his membership of the 
 Friendly Society.' " 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 189 
 
 Friendly Societies, which, in many cases, do make 
 an allowance in old age. 
 
 Present Time, say 1891. 
 
 1 Post-office Savings Bank, 1891 . 7 1,608,000 
 1 Trustee Savings Banks, 1891 . . 42,875,000 
 1 Government Stock standing in name of 
 
 depositors at Post-Office, 1891 . 5,087,000 
 1 Government Stock standing in name of 
 
 depositors at Trustee Banks, 1891 . 1,282,000 
 
 120,852,000 
 
 1 Building Societies, 1890 52,482,000 
 
 1 Industrial and Provident (Co-operative) Societies, 
 
 1890 15,261,000 
 
 1 Industrial Insurance Companies, 1890 8,873,000 
 
 2 Friendly Societies .... 20,167,000 
 
 3 Collecting Friendly Societies, 1889 . 2,565,000 
 
 31,605,000 
 
 ^220,200,000 
 
 In order that some idea may be given of the 
 rate at which these investments are growing, I 
 have made out a second list, showing the state of 
 affairs during the past fifteen years : 
 
 1 Post-Office Savings Bank, 1877 . ^28,740,000 
 
 1 Trustee Savings Banks, 1877 44 2 38,ooo 
 
 1 Government Stock standing in name of 
 depositors at Post-Office, 1881 (no 
 earlier figures given) . . . 738,000 
 
 1 Government Stock standing in name of 
 depositors at Trustee Banks, 1881 
 (no earlier dates given) . . . 124,000 
 
 73,840,000 
 
 Carried forward . . ^73, 840,000 
 
 1 Statistical Abstract, 1877 to 1891, 39th number. 
 
 2 Rev.T. Frome Wilkinson, "Mutual Thrift" (Estimated), p. 191. 
 ' 3 Ibid. t p. 194. 
 
igo OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 Brought forward . . ,73,840,000 
 
 1 Building Societies, 1876 20,854,000 
 
 1 Industrial and Provident (Co-operative) Societies, 
 
 1876 6,224,000 
 
 1 Industrial Insurance Companies, 1880 (no earlier 
 
 figures given) 1,476,000 
 
 Friendly Societies, 1876 (as estimated by Mr. 
 
 Ludlow's "Chief-Registrar's Report," 1890, 
 
 Part A, p. 9) 9>336,ooo 
 
 111,730,000 
 
 These figures give you a very fair indication of 
 what the humbler classes of society have been 
 doing with their savings during the last fifteen 
 years. Probably not more than a few thousands 
 have been devoted to deferred annuities. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain and his friends very soon were 
 confronted with this difficulty, that no reasonable 
 man of his own accord ever began at the age of 
 twenty-five to put money away beyond his control 
 which would be lost to him entirely if he did not 
 survive to sixty-five. A reasonable man may see 
 fit to insure himself against the uncertain risk of 
 excessive sickness and premature death, but the 
 risk of old age is of a totally different nature. 
 When a man has insured against sickness and 
 death, he very naturally says to himself, " I cannot 
 afford to ear-mark any more of my savings, certainly 
 not, at all events, for a fund which I may never live 
 to enjoy, in which my widow and family cannot 
 participate. Rather than do this I will save what 
 I can ; possibly I shall have a chance of investing 
 
 1 Statistical Abstract, 1877 to 1891, 39th number. 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 191 
 
 it in a profitable business. I will take a share or 
 shares in a co-operative society, I will buy a house 
 through a building society. I will subscribe for an 
 endowment policy of insurance, to become due at 
 death or on my reaching a given age, and if when 
 I reach the age at which it becomes due, I am a 
 lone man with no one dependent on me, I will 
 consider whether I will not buy an immediate 
 annuity. Generally I will bring up my family well, 
 see that the boys are put into trades, and in other 
 ways do what I can to consolidate and improve my 
 position in life. The risk of a destitute old age, if 
 I am spared health and strength to carry out even 
 a part of these plans, does not disturb me. If I am 
 not spared, my little savings will go to those I 
 love, and I shall die thankful that I 'have not been 
 selfish enough to waste my money on one of these 
 absurd deferred annuities." 
 
 Such a view of the question is obvious enough, 
 and after a period it made itself felt in the 
 voluntary Parliamentary Committee, and necessi- 
 tated a change of front. 
 
 At first it had been proposed to pay a benefit 
 in old age only. This, as we have seen, would not 
 do; it was, therefore, determined to make the 
 scheme more acceptable by adding a variety of 
 multifarious benefits to widows and children and 
 nearest representatives. This change threw the 
 whole scheme into inextricable confusion, from 
 
192 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 which, as far as I can make out, it has never 
 emerged. Let me explain. 
 
 It is an easy task for an actuary to draw up 
 a set of tables for deferred annuities, but it is, I 
 believe, an impossible task for any one to calculate 
 the liability incurred by an institution which 
 contracts to give not only an allowance in old 
 age, but in addition to give an allowance during 
 a more or less lengthened period to widows and 
 children (if any). This is not insurance, but a 
 proposal to establish a charitable fund. It is the 
 essence of insurance that each insurer shall pay 
 a premium carefully calculated to cover the risk 
 which he insures. To insure a man, and possibly 
 his widow, as well as an indeterminate number 
 of children yet unborn, in this wholesale manner, 
 for one inclusive capitation fee, is manifestly 
 inequitable to unmarried men and to men with 
 small families, and imports into the contract an 
 element of speculation altogether at variance with 
 common sense and sound economical progress. 
 
 In the earlier stages of the deliberations of the 
 informal Parliamentary Committee there were 
 frequent references to the labours of the com- 
 mittee's actuary, but I notice that their subsequent 
 utterances contain no reference to this gentleman, 
 for whose difficult position we must all feel much 
 sympathy. Actuaries, however, have given opinions 
 on this proposal ; as a specimen, here is what 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 193 
 
 Mr. T. E. Young, a Vice-President of the Society 
 of Actuaries, says of the matter : 
 
 " I am confident, looking to the want of existing and 
 appropriate data, that the incorporation of the element 
 of a pension allowance to widows and children is 
 essentially of the nature of guess-work. ... It may 
 safely be affirmed that the scheme is doomed to failure." 
 
 To sum up, then, the objections which we have 
 taken to this proposal of assisted deferred 
 annuities 
 
 (1) There is no principle in selecting old age 
 at sixty-five, as the estate of life to which State 
 subsidy is to be given. 
 
 (2) Nearly half the old age pauperism of this 
 country probably commences before, sixty-five. 
 
 (3) The proposed scheme will not touch the 
 lowest class of the population. 
 
 (4) The method of deferred annuities is not that 
 which commends itself to the good sense of the 
 labouring population. 
 
 (5) The attempt to meet this objection by 
 throwing in a number of additional benefits is not 
 business, and deprives the fund of any claim to be 
 called insurance. 
 
 One last objection which I have not noticed, 
 though happily it is of more practical importance 
 than all others, is that the scheme is opposed 
 unanimously by the Friendly Society interest. 
 
 O 
 
194 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain and other promoters have ad- 
 mitted that if the Friendly Societies continue their 
 opposition, this measure can never be carried. 1 
 
 Mr. C. J. Radley, High Chief Ranger of the 
 Ancient Order of Foresters, in 1891, in his 
 presidential address, referred to the scheme as 
 an offer of " unsolicited assistance." 
 
 I would beg you to note the words unsolicited 
 assistance. The situation is a curious one. The 
 philanthropists insist that the working-class shall 
 partake of a dole from the rates. Mr. Radley, a 
 man who, in virtue of his office, was as well entitled 
 to speak on behalf of the labouring class on such 
 a subject as any other man in England, rejected 
 the offer without hesitation. "The assistance is 
 unsolicited." Yet the agitation takes its course. 
 
 I am somewhat surprised to see that in his latest 
 contribution to this question, Mr. Chamberlain 
 has seen fit to make complaint in the following 
 terms : 
 
 "Apparently, however, the officials of the great 
 societies have made up their minds to allow no other 
 solution of the old age problem than one which is 
 entirely in their own hands ; " and he goes on " it 
 seems a pity that the officials of these great and valuable 
 organisations . . . should warn off as intruders on their 
 preserves the fellow-workers who are striving to increase 
 
 1 I have already quoted, on p. 165, a specimen of the Friendly 
 Society criticism of this proposal, and it need not be repeated here. 
 
ASSISTED PENSION SCHEME. 195 
 
 the inducements to thrift." Nineteenth Century, 
 Nov. 1892. 
 
 Such criticism, I venture to think, is unjust. 
 I do not think that the opposition of the Friendly 
 Societies to Mr. Chamberlain's proposal can be 
 attributed to such petty jealousy. Their aim and 
 object is to maintain the absolute independence 
 of their members at all periods of life ; and, as 
 the quotation from Mr. Radley's speech amply 
 shows, they rightly or wrongly regard Mr. 
 Chamberlain's overtures to them, not as the 
 assistance of a fellow-worker, but as an attempt 
 to substitute a hybrid form of pauperism for that 
 absolute and complete independence which they 
 prize. 1 
 
 Let us pass now to a consideration of the last of 
 
 1 I have in the text avoided any discussion of proposals for a 
 revision of poor law methods for the relief of old age. I avail 
 myself of a note to mention a Bill introduced into the last Parlia- 
 ment by Mr. Bartley, with a view of giving to the provident poor 
 preferential terms of pauperism. Mr. Bartley's view of the subject 
 involves two important admissions: (i) That the relief of any 
 class of persons from the rates is of the essence of poor law relief, 
 and is not a pension ; (2) that "provident " is a term which cannot 
 be confined to members of Friendly Societies, but must be extended 
 to all who have saved in any way whatsoever. A mere statement 
 of this last proposition is sufficient to show the impracticable nature 
 of the proposal. How is it possible to decide what portion of a 
 man's possessions is the result of providence ! A scheme to set a 
 premium on inadequate saving can never afford a solution of this 
 question. There is no halfway house between dependence and 
 independence. 
 
196 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 these proposals, the universal endowment of old 
 age, advocated by Mr. Booth. 
 
 Mr. Booth proposes that every one who has not 
 been chargeable to the poor rate for ten years, 
 shall, at the age of sixty-five, become entitled to 
 have 5^. a- week. 
 
 The merits of this scheme are said to be 
 
 1. That it will be instrumental in abolishing 
 pauperism. 
 
 2. That it overcomes the difficulty of compelling 
 the submerged classes of the community. 
 
 3. That it will be an incentive to thrift, for the 
 hope of receiving a gift of $s. in old age will make 
 it worth a man's while to save during his earlier 
 life. 
 
 As to its influence on pauperism, if the figures 
 already quoted from Stepney are at all represen- 
 tative of the rest of the country and from in- 
 quiries I have made, and from what I know of the 
 strict administration of the law there and of the 
 lax administration elsewhere, I am sure that 
 the Stepney proportion is under rather than over 
 the average then, by one stroke of the pen, 
 by the introduction of his ten-year limit, nearly 
 one-half of our present pauperism is deprived 
 of benefit under his scheme. 
 
 Again, will a pension of 5y. a-week, even if it be 
 paid weekly (some of the advocates of pension 
 schemes urge quarterly payments, with a view of 
 
UNIVERSAL ENDOWMENT. 197 
 
 keeping down management charges), be effectual 
 in keeping people off the rates ? I recently dis- 
 cussed this proposition with one of the most 
 experienced poor law officials in the kingdom, 
 Mr. Vallance, the clerk to the guardians at 
 Whitechapel. In the first place, he confirmed 
 my conviction that a large proportion of the 
 old age paupers over sixty-five had been paupers 
 before that age ; secondly, he said he had been 
 in consultation with the master and matron of 
 the workhouse, and they had agreed that a very 
 small proportion of the old persons under their 
 charge would be kept out of the workhouse even 
 if they had $s. a-week. This, I may say, was in a 
 union where no out-door relief is given, so this 
 opinion covers all the old age pauperism of the 
 union. A large number of them were friendless 
 and infirm, and were perfectly comfortable in the 
 workhouse ; the rest were of that class that cannot 
 go to sleep as long as they have any money in 
 their pocket. 
 
 This, I believe, is a key to the whole problem- 
 pauperism is not a question of poverty, but rather 
 of habit and character. Time after time, those 
 who observe these matters closely have seen two 
 men starting life in exactly the same conditions, 
 even among the very poorest class of agricultural 
 labourers. One man will maintain his independence, 
 and bring up his family respectably, and the other 
 
198 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 will laugh at his responsibilities, and end his days 
 as a pauper. 
 
 May I remind you of one of Charles Lamb's 
 delightful papers? I hope the digression will 
 be pardoned, for the point it illustrates is strictly 
 relevant to our subject. "The human species," 
 he says, " according to the best theory I can form 
 of it, is composed of two distinct races the men 
 who borrow, and the men who lend. The 
 borrowers are the great race. The lender is born 
 degraded, 'he shall serve his brethren.' There 
 is something in the air of one of this caste (the 
 lender) lean and suspicious, contrasting with the 
 open, trusting, generous manners of the other. 
 What contempt for money, accounting it (yours, 
 and mine especially) no better than dross." 
 
 These reflections recall to our author his friend 
 Ralph Bigod, Esq., a prince of borrowers, fit to 
 compare with the great borrowers of antiquity 
 Alcibiades, Falstaff, Sir Richard Steel, and "our 
 late incomparable Brinsley." " Ralph Bigod was, 
 in youth, invested with ample revenue, and in 
 borrowing had an undeniable way ; mankind 
 at large was his tributary. Like Caesar Augustus, 
 he ordered all to come up and be taxed. With 
 such sources, it was a wonder how he contrived 
 to keep his treasury always empty. He managed 
 it, however, by force of an aphorism which he 
 had often in his mouth, that ' Money kept longer 
 
THE PAUPER HABIT, 199 
 
 than three days stinks.' So he made use of it 
 while it was fresh. A good part he drank away 
 (for he was an excellent toss-pot) ; some he gave 
 away ; the rest he threw away . . . out away from 
 him it must go, like Hagar's offspring, into the 
 wilderness, while it was sweet. He never missed 
 it ; the streams were perennial which fed his fisc." 
 
 It is a picture to the life. Sad havoc this affable 
 spendthrift must often have made in poor Elia's 
 slender store of guineas. Yet with what delightful 
 tolerant irony he delineates the character. 
 
 It expresses to the letter what I have to say 
 about the pauper. The pauper is your Ralph 
 Bigod, Esq., in humble life, and this is the reason 
 that 5^. a-week will not suffice to keep him off 
 the rates. , 
 
 His principal tributary is the poor law, but he 
 will condescend at times to borrow of his neigh- 
 bours. I am told, on excellent authority, that the 
 publicity given to saving by the posting of a 
 savings bank book is much dreaded by the thrifty 
 poor, because of the Ralph Bigods of their 
 acquaintance, and many of them have gladly 
 availed themselves of my informant's permission 
 to have their bank books sent to her private 
 address. 
 
 We all have a sneaking affection for these Ralph 
 Bigods, and I think middle-class philanthropists 
 are mistaken in attributing excessive turpitude 
 
200 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 to the pauper class. They are, though in their 
 humble way, members of the great race, and take 
 their toll from a tributary poor law. 
 
 Another error we sometimes make is, that we 
 are inclined to attribute to the poor an excessive 
 unhappiness in their poverty. I do not know that 
 it is a matter for congratulation or regret, but I 
 think the poor have very little fear of poverty. 
 Over and over again one has seen a poor widow 
 spend the wnole, or nearly the whole, of 10 or 
 20 insurance money in funeral and mourning, 
 although next day she was absolutely destitute, 
 and obliged to apply for poor law or charitable 
 relief. To give a particular instance of this happy- 
 go-lucky sort of disposition, if I may use the term 
 without offence a clergyman, some time ago, told 
 me of a woman who, as he believes, was entirely 
 dependent on a temporary allowance paid to her 
 by him. At the time a small parish excursion 
 was being organised, tickets 3^., etc. ; to my friend's 
 surprise, this woman applied for a ticket, and, on 
 inquiry, he found that she felt her poverty so 
 lightly that she looked forward to buying a happy 
 day in the country with what was practically the 
 last shot in the locker. 
 
 One more illustration. Some eighteen years 
 ago out-door relief was given in St. George-in-the- 
 East, and just outside the relief-office there was 
 a well-known public-house, and on pay-day there 
 
THE PAUPER HABIT. 201 
 
 was a perpetual stream of paupers through its 
 portals. The average allowance was in those days 
 is. per week per pauper. I do not suggest that 
 these people drank to excess, but I think the 
 circumstance shows that they estimated very 
 lightly the fact that this unnecessary expenditure 
 would probably leave them very short of the bare 
 necessaries of life towards the end of the week. 
 The owner of this public-house was an active 
 member of the Board, and one of the strongest 
 opponents of the restriction or abolition of out-door 
 relief which took place at that time. He was 
 actuated, no doubt, by motives of a pure but, as 
 I believe, mistaken philanthropy ; still at the time 
 it was freely admitted that the change would 
 mean to him a considerable pecuniary loss. 
 
 I trust that these anecdotes may not appear 
 irrelevant ; they seem to me to throw light on the 
 nature of the character with which we have to deal 
 in our attempts to improve the condition of the 
 pauper. 
 
 An ingenious acquaintance of mine, lately 
 returned from the tropics, unfolded to me recently 
 a brand new plan for solving the problem of 
 pauperism. " Emigration," he began. " Ah, yes," 
 I interrupted, " we have heard of that before, but 
 paupers will not make good emigrants, and people 
 who can get on in the colonies can, as a rule, get 
 on at home." My friend, however, was none of 
 
202 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 your ordinary panacea-mongers. " Mine is not an 
 ordinary emigration scheme at all," he said. " I 
 have come from a place where bananas grow wild ; 
 the native basks all day in the sun, and feeds on 
 bananas. Now that is the climate we want for 
 some of our failures at home. It is no good send- 
 ing them to Canada, but we will set them down 
 under those banana trees, and they will live happily 
 ever after." Whether my friend is founding a 
 society for the purpose of giving effect to his views, 
 I do not know. I only mention the incident for 
 the purpose of expressing my belief that our 
 pauper class already have their banana trees in 
 the shape of a tributary poor law and a philan- 
 thropic public. Consider the temptations to live 
 down to an irresponsible level that lie in the path 
 of an easy, jovial spirit, with a natural aptitude for 
 playing the part of one of the great race. His 
 children are educated for him ; if he is sick, he can 
 go to an admirable infirmary, or, if he prefers it, 
 he can very often get relieved at his own home. If 
 he dies, his wife will get the usual widow's allow- 
 ance of out-door relief; he has no occasion to 
 violate his favourite aphorism on her account ; 
 and when he grows old he can reckon with tolerable 
 certainty on getting an allowance from the parish 
 equal in amount to what can be saved by that lean 
 suspicious race which he so justly despises. All 
 this he gets from the law of the land, and if any of 
 
THE PA UPER HABIT. 203 
 
 his remaining burdens are irksome to him, he can 
 readily catch a tributary or two on the preserves 
 of the philanthropic public. 
 
 These wild bananas, as I venture to call them 
 (though they are not really wild, but in many 
 cases raised on the privations of the poorer rate- 
 payers), do not satisfy Mr. Booth. The out-door 
 relief allowance in old age is not given with 
 sufficient acclamation and applause, let it there- 
 fore be called a pension, and given to every one, 
 whether he requires it or not. 
 
 This plan, Mr. Booth would have us believe, will 
 be an encouragement to thrift. He speaks, and I 
 am sure thinks, respectfully of the virtue of thrift, 
 for he has not reached the point of view of the 
 Continental Socialist who declares himself "opposed 
 to all institutions of thrift which merely encourage 
 labourers to new privations," or who asks, " What 
 is this doctrine of personal responsibility ? It is 
 economy, it is thrift, that is to say, a doctrine most 
 absurd, for every economy is a crime." 
 
 Mr. Booth does not adopt this language, but 
 surely he takes a strange method of showing his 
 respect for the economic virtue of thrift, viz. by 
 seeking to render it even less necessary than it is 
 already. 
 
 Is it the experience of men of the world that to 
 give a man $s. is an encouragement to him to save 
 another $s. ? I have always been told, on the 
 
204 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 contrary, that it is an encouragement to him to ask 
 for the gift of a second $s. when his occasions 
 require it. As yet the poorer classes of the country 
 have not solicited this assistance, but, on the con- 
 trary, have strenuously protested against it. The 
 politician, however, has been very busy in his offers 
 of service ; already, in the last Parliament, some of 
 those who differ from Mr. Chamberlain about the 
 Irish question, in order not to be outdone, have 
 given notice of bills giving more liberal allowances 
 than Mr. Chamberlain offered. 
 
 But the proposition that a pension will not 
 necessarily keep a man out of the workhouse is 
 not mere matter of theory ; from inquiries that I 
 have made from guardians here and elsewhere, I 
 am able to say that there are a considerable 
 number of army pensioners in workhouses. Their 
 allowance is generally, I believe, is. $d. per diem. 
 If the guardians know of this pension, it is their 
 duty to attach it. Some of these people are no 
 doubt friendless and infirm, and find themselves 
 most comfortable in the workhouse. As a rule, I 
 understand, their pensions more than pay for their 
 maintenance, so that at the end of each quarter a 
 balance is paid over to the pauper. Many of them 
 go out and have a "good time" for a day or two, 
 and then return to the workhouse. 
 
 In some instances, the guardians do not know 
 of these pensions, and then the man gets his 
 
PAUPER PENSIONERS. 205 
 
 pension and his maintenance as well. I accident- 
 ally heard of one such case within the last few 
 days. 
 
 These remarks refer to men in the body of the 
 workhouse or infirmary ; l but, beyond this, it has 
 always been a mystery to some of us to know what 
 are the attractions of the casual ward. Possibly, 
 this has something to do with it. There are in the 
 casual wards every night a considerable number of 
 ex-soldiers, pensioned or unpensioned ; it is not 
 possible to say how many, for the casual paupers 
 go in and out of the wards without question ; no 
 one asks what their profession is, and there is, 
 therefore, no danger of their , pensions being 
 attached. They, therefore, to use what I believe 
 
 1 Since this was written, Mr. Campbell-Bannerman, replying to a 
 question in the House of Commons, stated that the number of army 
 pensioners, whose pensions were attached by the poor law authorities, 
 was very small. It will be seen that this covers a very small portion 
 of my argument. I am inclined to believe that numbers of army 
 pensioners avoid the workhouse and infirmary and confine them- 
 selves to the casual wards, for the very reason that no questions are 
 asked. Of the chargeability of this class the War Office cannot 
 possibly have any knowledge. The whole question of casual wards 
 is extremely unsatisfactory. The very phrase so familiar to us, 
 " lunatics and vagrants not included," shows that this class is 
 excluded both from statistical and philanthropic consideration. My 
 suspicion that the casual wards are largely recruited by old soldiers 
 is confirmed by an inquiry made by Mr. Pyddoke, of Toynbee Hall, 
 into the Whitechapel Casual Ward. He says, "As many as 22 
 per cent. 119 out of 550 have admitted being in the army at one 
 time or another ; and the real proportion is said to be more like 70 
 per cent." Report of Whitechapel Board of Guardians, Lady-Day, 
 1895. 
 
206 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 is a technical term, " tumble to," and adapt them- 
 selves to the life of a casual ward. 
 
 I had an interview with the superintendent of a 
 London casual ward a few days ago. In answer 
 to my inquiry, he told me that there were certainly 
 a considerable number of army pensioners in the 
 habit of coming to his wards. One, whose name 
 he gave me, was in receipt of a pension of 2s. per 
 diem. As quarter time drew near, he heard in the 
 wards talk and gossip on the subject, and, imme- 
 diately after the quarter day, there was a sensible 
 diminution of the numbers in the wards. 
 
 Now, if I4J. or 9^. lid. a-week do not keep a 
 man off the rates, what can we say about $s. a- 
 week ? These facts, I confess, have only recently 
 come to my notice, and I do not know whether 
 the pauperism of these pensioners can be proven 
 to any very considerable extent ; but I have learnt 
 enough to tempt me to hazard the hypothesis that, 
 to the character undisciplined in the habits of 
 saving, and the frugal living which this necessitates, 
 these pensions, coming as a sort of windfall, are as 
 likely to be an incentive of riot as of thrift. 
 
 My argument is, that pauperism is much less a 
 question of poverty than we generally suppose. 
 But what, some one will ask, is to be said about 
 the agricultural labourer and his miserable wages ? 
 In the first place, I question if the agricultural 
 labourer is really so much worse off than his urban 
 
MR. BRABROOK'S OPINION. 207 
 
 neighbours. His nominal wages are low indeed, 
 but he has extra wages at harvest time; he has 
 a cottage, as a rule, at a less rent than the town 
 labourer pays for a single room, and he has a 
 garden, and, in many cases, an allotment. 
 
 I was told, a few days ago, of a Shropshire 
 labourer, receiving 15^. a-week, who migrated to 
 the town and got a situation, first at 18^., and 
 then at 22s. a-week ; but after some experience 
 he voluntarily gave up his place and returned to 
 1 5 s. a-week as an agricultural labourer. 
 
 Still, wages in the country are low ; but are 
 pensions any remedy for low wages ? Let me 
 quote to you what the Chief Registrar of Friendly 
 Societies says in his Report of 1891 : 
 
 " I do not understand how any plan for relieving the 
 working man of that which ought to be a charge upon 
 his wages, can be other than a disadvantage to him, by 
 leading him to refrain from claiming and enforcing his 
 right to such wages as will enable him to meet the charge. 
 It is for his Friendly Society to fix what he ought to pay, 
 and for his trade union to see that he has the means of 
 paying it. It is better for the State, that is, the general 
 body of tax-payers, that he should be paid suitable wages 
 for such services as he renders, than that it should be 
 made up to him for a deficiency of wages by doles of 
 any kind." 
 
 There can, I think, be no doubt as to the justice 
 of this view. A system of pensions would certainly 
 tend to reduce wages, and for the reason given by 
 
208 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 Mr. Brabrook. Whatever view we take of the 
 theory of wages, it is certain that the standard of 
 comfort aimed at by the labourer has much to do 
 with the rate of his remuneration. If a provision 
 for old age is made no part of his standard of 
 comfort, his wages will tend to be proportionately 
 lower. To supply to him, out of the rates, the 
 necessaries of life which ought to form a portion 
 of his standard of comfort, is to condemn him to 
 a permanence of inadequate wages. A principal 
 cause of low wages in the past has been the grants 
 in aid of wages, sanctioned by the old poor law ; a 
 principal cause at the present time is an adminis- 
 tration of the poor law which deludes the labourer 
 into resting content that his old age shall be sup- 
 ported by the rates, and not by the adequate wages 
 to which his manhood is entitled. 
 
 Those who have followed with attention recent 
 controversies on poor law administration, will bear 
 me out when I say that the most remarkable suc- 
 cesses in rescuing populations from pauperism 
 have occurred not in towns, nor in places where 
 wages are exceptionally high, but in agricultural 
 districts where low wages prevail. I allude, of 
 course, to such remarkable reformation as has 
 taken place in the rural Union of Bradfield. 
 Poverty, alas ! has not been eradicated, but a 
 first step in that direction has been taken : inde- 
 pendence has been restored. The pauperism of 
 
THE BETTER WAY. 209 
 
 the Union has been reduced from over 1200 in 
 1871, to about 120 at the present time. And how 
 has this been accomplished? Not by any great 
 rise in wages, not by any system of pensions, but 
 by resisting the beginnings of that irresponsible 
 spirit which is the cause of pauperism. Medical 
 relief, the first step in the descent to the Avernus 
 of pauperism, is not given except on loan, and the 
 borrower is not allowed to put himself in a better 
 position than his more self-respecting neighbour. 
 What is the result ? That no one now wants to 
 borrow, and, with hardly an exception, every 
 family in the Union is a member of a medical 
 club. Further, out-relief is not given when the 
 breadwinner of the family is sick. What is the 
 result ? That the breadwinners are members of 
 Friendly Societies, and they and their families 
 remain independent. 
 
 And what has this reformation cost the poor 
 inhabitants of Bradfield? I venture to say very 
 little more than the price of a few pots of beer, 
 and in exchange they have gained, and are gaining, 
 disciplined habits of frugality and independence, 
 which are the only sure foundations of future 
 progress. 
 
 The problem of old age is not pressing at 
 Bradfield. While the old pauperism over 60 in 
 some 26 unions selected by Canon Blackley is 42 
 per cent, of the estimated population over 60, in 
 
 P 
 
2io OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 Bradfield it is only 4 per cent. The disease is 
 arrested in its early stages, and the problem will 
 grow easier each succeeding year. And all this, 
 mind you, despite the proverbial poverty of an 
 agricultural union ! 
 
 The cause of pauperism is not poverty, the cause 
 of pauperism is State relief, more especially as it 
 is administered in the form of out-door relief. We 
 shall not get rid of pauperism by extending the 
 sphere of State relief, as proposed in this pension 
 scheme of Mr. Booth. On the contrary, its adop- 
 tion would increase our pauperism, for, as is often 
 said, we can have exactly as many paupers as the 
 country chooses to pay for. 
 
 In the last pages of the volume of " Life and 
 Labour of the People," published in 1891, Mr. 
 Booth stated that he was preparing to equip 
 himself for a practical discussion of the poor law. 
 This admission of inexperience in the practical 
 work of administering relief is characteristic of 
 Mr. Booth's candour. I read and noted it at the 
 time, and I confess that I was somewhat surprised 
 to see that, before the year was out, Mr. Booth 
 had come forward with a stupendous scheme for 
 the revolution of our poor law, involving an 
 expenditure of not less than ^"30,000,000 a year. 
 I trust it is not hypercritical to remark that 
 the gravity of the matter in hand might have 
 warranted a greater show of deliberation. One 
 
THE BETTER WAY. 211 
 
 other consideration I ask leave to place before 
 you. 
 
 There is probably no institution of which the 
 working classes and the country are more justly 
 proud than the Friendly Society. It is a unique 
 Anglo-Saxon institution, of purely working-class 
 origin. 
 
 Now, if some Mr. Booth of fifty years ago had 
 induced the Legislature to say that sickness was 
 to be an honourable public charge, would these 
 admirable institutions have ever reached their 
 present splendid and impregnable position ? 
 
 Who is it that will say, "Thus far and no further," 
 to the onward march of working-class independ- 
 ence? Is it Utopian to believe that in resolutely 
 grappling with the problem of age there will be 
 given to the wage-earners of this country a new 
 accession of strength and of resolute, independent 
 character, which will carry them forward along 
 the path of progress? If this be our hope, we 
 must summon up courage to say to the poorer 
 classes of this country, "These are your responsi- 
 bilities, do not let any specious counsels filch away 
 from you your right to overcome them. They 
 are the ladders by which you will rise to higher 
 things." 
 
 It is very possible, as some tell us, that we shall 
 be worse before we are better. The new ruling 
 classes of this country must buy experience at 
 
212 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND THE STATE. 
 
 some cost, but, in the long run, truth and common 
 sense will win ; and I do not believe that the 
 working class is likely to ruin itself and the 
 country, by proclaiming a universal cessation of 
 personal responsibility. 
 
 In the mean time, we must have our poor law 
 it is an inevitable evil but, to justify its existence, 
 it must perpetually be making war on the irre- 
 sponsibility which is the main cause of pauperism ; 
 it must, in fact, be so administered that it tends to 
 throw the people more and more on their own 
 resources, to diminish, and not increase, the 
 number of those permanently dependent. 
 
 To insist on the view which I have endeavoured 
 to present in this article is, at the present day, 
 an ungrateful and unpopular duty. All that I 
 will say, in conclusion, is, that I shall be glad if 
 I have succeeded in doing so without offence. 
 
V. 
 
 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 1 
 
 " MANY of us suppose that when we have got into statistics 
 we have got away from cheap fancy and sentimentalism. 
 Never was any opinion more delusive. The arithmetical 
 fancy, the passion for calculation and results, is one of 
 the commonest forms of a superficial imagination, and 
 exercises a mysterious influence over half-educated minds. 
 The temptation to calculate rather than to analyse, to 
 fly at once to a mechanical process rather than pause 
 for one which is laborious and demands original 
 research, is active in many of the sciences, and, within 
 the limits of a working hypothesis, it may have results 
 of a certain very restricted value. . . . The pages of 
 the late Professor de Morgan are full of examples that 
 show how readily the handling of figures becomes the 
 organ of the crudest superstition. The general principle 
 which governs all argument by calculation is this that 
 figures, being only very mutilated abbreviations of fact, 
 are wholly insignificant, except to those who by concrete 
 experience know precisely and completely for what facts 
 they stand." 2 
 
 1 Republished from the Quarterly Review, No. 358, October, 
 1894. 
 
 2 "The Civilisation of Christendom, and other Studies." By 
 Bernard Bosanquet, formerly Fellow of University College, Oxford. 
 
214 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 This criticism, at once trenchant and precise, 
 from the pen of so thoughtful a writer as Mr. 
 Bosanquet, gives cause to fear that the legitimate 
 value of statistics is in danger of being discredited 
 by the extravagances of some of its votaries, more 
 especially in their manner of applying this method 
 to the elucidation of social problems. A com- 
 petent authority, the author of the article on 
 Statistics in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," 
 expresses himself to the same effect in more 
 technical language : 
 
 "The statistical method," he says, "is essentially a 
 mathematical procedure, attempting to give a quanti- 
 tative expression to certain facts, and the resolution of 
 differences of quality into differences of quantity has 
 not yet been effected, even in chemical science. In 
 sociological science the importance of differences of 
 quality is enormous, and the effect of these differences 
 on the conclusions to be drawn from figures is sometimes 
 neglected, or insufficiently recognised even by men of 
 unquestionable ability and good faith. The majority 
 of politicians, social 'reformers,' and amateur handlers 
 of statistics generally are in the habit of drawing the 
 conclusions that seem good to them from such figures 
 as they may obtain, merely by treating as homogeneous, 
 quantities which are heterogeneous, and, as comparable, 
 quantities which are not comparable." 
 
 So long as statistical inquiry is confined to 
 questions of pure science, its method and its 
 primary figures are subjected to the criticism 
 
MR. BOOTH'S WORK. 215 
 
 of experts, and the danger of error is incon- 
 siderable. When, however, we pass into the 
 burning region of " Sociological Science," the 
 atmosphere is altogether changed. Sociological 
 Science is akin to politics, and politics is the 
 business of the democracy and all its organs. 
 Here the arithmetical fancy luxuriates, and a 
 passion for definite results urges the statistician 
 himself, and still more his less critical audience, 
 to include in one category facts which in their 
 nature are essentially different, to distinguish and 
 classify according to appearances which are only 
 incidental, to mistake coincidence for cause and 
 cause for coincidence. In such a subject-matter 
 valuable results can only be obtained by the most 
 careful analysis, guided by the teaching of 
 experience, for which no mechanical dexterity 
 in the manipulation of figures can be a substitute. 
 
 We propose in this article to draw attention to 
 several statistical works bearing on a question of 
 great practical importance, and it may be well 
 before proceeding further to say something of 
 their history, and of the controversy on which they 
 purport to throw light. 
 
 Mr. Booth is evidently a born demographist, 
 not easily to be restrained from the manipulation 
 and decimal-pointing of all figures within his 
 reach. He does not claim to have any practical 
 experience of the administration of public relief. 
 
2i6 THE ABUSE OF STA TISTICS. 
 
 He set out, obviously, with no preconceived 
 opinions, but, as we venture to think, without 
 realising the elusive complexity and heterogeneous 
 nature of the phenomena which he seeks to subject 
 to his statistical processes. His good faith is 
 above suspicion a fact that was the more readily 
 acknowledged when it appeared that his first book 1 
 was designed to prove nothing in particular, and 
 that the author had no views of his own. Mr. 
 Booths self-restraint did not, however, last for 
 long. In the interval between his first and second 2 
 works his imagination appears to have been 
 captured by some plausible panaceamonger (we 
 are putting our own gloss on Mr. Booth's sudden 
 change of method), and his established reputation 
 as an industrious and impartial investigator has 
 given unexpected currency to a proposal for 
 universal pensions, which has no obvious connection 
 with his statistical inquiry, and as to the merits 
 of which an astronomer or a chemist is as well 
 fitted to judge as a statistician. The desire to 
 make all men happy by some deft stroke of 
 legislation has to certain minds all the fascination 
 which the squaring of the circle had for the 
 " paradoxers," whose fame Professor de Morgan 
 has embalmed in his "Budget of Paradox." It 
 
 1 " Labour and Life of the People." Edited by Charles Booth. 
 3 vols. London, 1889-1891. 
 
 2 " Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age." Charles Booth. 
 London, 1892. 
 
OTHER STATISTICIANS. 217 
 
 must always be matter of regret that Mr. Booth 
 has allowed himself to be put forward as the 
 advocate of this utterly impracticable proposal. 
 In his last volume l Mr. Booth returns to his 
 statistics, but, unless we are mistaken, he cannot 
 lay aside the attitude of advocacy which he has 
 now assumed. He promises us more books and 
 more practical suggestions. It is time, therefore, 
 to examine the foundations on which this super- 
 structure rests. 
 
 There are other types of statisticians whose 
 efforts we shall have occasion to notice in the 
 course of our criticism. The attitude which they 
 have taken up is more controversial than that of 
 Mr. Booth in the earlier stages, at all events, of 
 his various publications. Their position is best 
 made clear by a short historical recital. A long 
 succession of poor law administrators has up to 
 the present time endeavoured to carry out to their 
 logical conclusion the maxims laid down by the 
 Poor Law Commissioners of 1832. It has been 
 their endeavour to state the matter shortly to 
 render the influence of the poor law centrifugal 
 rather than centripetal. In other words, it has 
 been sought by a strict and careful administration 
 to give the stream of pauperism a movement away 
 from the poor law toward the more honourable 
 condition of independence. The more advanced 
 
 1 "The Aged Poor: Condition." London, 1894. 
 
2i8 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 school of administrators have tried to attain this 
 end by a restriction, in some cases by an abolition, 
 of out-door relief; that is, the relief given to 
 people at their own homes. The opposite policy 
 has been adopted in a few isolated cases ; but 
 though some unions may have moved in the 
 opposite direction, the average shows that the 
 general practice of guardians is tending toward 
 the stricter system. Now, it is obvious that the 
 adoption of this policy must necessarily reduce 
 the number of persons receiving relief. The 
 assertion of those who point out that, in any given 
 union, the restriction of out-door relief must reduce 
 the number of paupers within that union, is 
 incontestable. 
 
 This admission of course is a very small point 
 in the general controversy. Guardians may and 
 do refuse their consent to the proposition that this 
 restrictive policy is just, and humane, and impartial. 
 The scruples of such dissentients ought to receive 
 the utmost deference. Their argument is a 
 perfectly honest and straightforward one. They 
 say in effect, " We may pay too high a price for 
 the independence of the poor, we may inflict too 
 great hardship if we hurry too fast the withdrawal 
 of these facilities for relief." For many years this 
 controversy has gone on, outside the atmosphere 
 of practical politics. The contention, self-evident 
 as it is that a restriction or abolition of out-door 
 
THE POSITION A TTACKED. 219 
 
 relief will reduce the number of paupers had 
 practically been conceded. A subsidiary and less 
 important controversy as to the relative cost of 
 the two systems seemed also to be settled. The 
 erection of improved poor law establishments 
 might in some cases make a temporary increase 
 of cost ; but inasmuch as out-relief is eagerly 
 sought for, when obtainable, and in-door relief 
 only accepted^ when absolutely necessary, it was 
 being practically conceded that in the long run 
 the in-door system was also the cheapest. The 
 question of cost has never been felt to be of 
 much moment, for the advocates of the strict 
 system with the consent, we , may hope, of all 
 reasonable men argued that the cost was of 
 secondary importance. Pauperism is a social evil, 
 and society should be ready, if necessary, to pay 
 highly for an instrument that would reduce its 
 dimensions. Or, expressing it in figures, we should 
 prefer, so the argument goes, to pay a thousand 
 pounds for a system which would reduce our 
 pauperism to one, rather than a hundred pounds for 
 the maintenance of ten. The controversy whether 
 the strict policy is just and humane remained and 
 remains. Unions where the strict system has been 
 adopted have been closely watched, and the 
 success of the plan has been confidently asserted. 
 Poor law literature and poor law conferences for 
 the last twenty years have dealt with very little 
 
220 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 else. The authority of the Local Government 
 Board inspectors, with almost complete unanimity, 
 has supported the stricter school. The text-books 
 and the historians of the poor law are, we believe, 
 absolutely unanimous on the same side. The 
 London Charity Organisation Society has, from the 
 outset of its career, and of late years with many 
 signs of increasing conviction, used its influence in 
 support of this view ; and, by its practical work, it 
 has enforced the argument that such relief as can be 
 judiciously given to applicants at their own homes, 
 is best given from voluntary sources and private 
 charity. Of recent years the advance of these 
 opinions has been indubitable. Though all did 
 not absolutely agree as to the exact measure of 
 restriction to be used, those in favour of restriction 
 of some kind included, it may be said without 
 exaggeration, every one who had ever seriously 
 and impartially considered the subject. 
 
 The situation is now changed. The problem of 
 the administration of the poor law is being dragged 
 into the vortex of practical politics. It is all too 
 evident that the rate devoted to the relief of the 
 poor can be made an admirable electioneering fund. 
 The debacle has already begun. The poor law 
 electorate before Mr. Fowler's Bill was by no 
 means perfect. Electors who were not direct 
 ratepayers abounded, but the anomaly was met 
 to some extent by a counter-anomaly which gave 
 
THE POLITICAL BIAS. 221 
 
 a plural vote to the larger ratepayers, who in many 
 unions were the only bona fide contributors to the 
 poor rate. By a barefaced disregard of every 
 principle of constitutional government, the public 
 purse has been put at the disposal of a local 
 electorate, the majority of which is in many cases 
 financially irresponsible. Attempts have been freely 
 made from both sides of the House to purchase 
 the Friendly Society vote by offering preferential 
 terms of pauperism to members of these associations. 
 On what grounds the man who has invested his 
 savings in a Friendly Society, as distinguished from 
 a depositor in a Savings Bank, should have this 
 unsought-for privilege thrust upon him, does not 
 appear. There is, however, a politician who does 
 not argue. His idea of statesmanship Is confined 
 to attempts to win the support of different 
 sections of the community by proposals for 
 looting the rates in their interest. The demoralisa- 
 tion is proceeding at an accelerated pace. The 
 temptation to make political capital by advocacy 
 of an out-door relief policy is growing irresistible, 
 though hitherto it has seemed too thoroughly dis- 
 reputable even for the latter-day politician. 
 
 At this juncture, therefore, it would be a godsend 
 to a party on the look-out for a good political cry, 
 if a man would come forward with argument and 
 statistics, and his hand on his heart, to show that 
 out-door relief was an electioneering card that an 
 
222 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 honest man could play. The psychology of 
 political conviction is inscrutable. Men find 
 salvation in many ways. Far be it from us to 
 say that Mr. Hunter 1 and the author of an 
 anonymous pamphlet, entitled, " Plain Words on 
 Out-Relief," 2 are not honestly persuaded that a 
 cry in favour of out-relief is not only not dis- 
 reputable, but, on the contrary, the highest states- 
 manship. Every subject must have its "paradoxers," 
 and at another time the line they have taken 
 would have been a harmless eccentricity. As 
 it is, Mr. Hunter's figures will be used to give 
 a cloak of decency to electioneering devices from 
 which respectable politicians have hitherto stood 
 aloof. Already the London Reform Union has 
 more or less adopted Mr. Hunter's policy for the 
 abolition of workhouses. At a recent meeting 
 convened by the Union, Mr. Stansfield, who, as 
 a former President of the Local Government Board, 
 knows something of the subject, got so far as to 
 speak "very sympathetically" of this new idea, 
 and expressed a hope that some one would one 
 day discover a test of destitution other than the 
 offer of relief within a poor law establishment. 
 In progressive circles to express a hope is equivalent 
 to complete achievement of the thing desired. 
 
 1 "Out-Door Relief," by W. A. Hunter, M.P. : Contemporary 
 Review^ March, 1894. 
 
 2 " Plain Words on Out-Relief." Knight & Co. London, n.d. 
 
THE "PARADOXER." 223 
 
 Mr. Stansfield knows something of the subject 
 and will not talk absolute nonsense, but the 
 London Reform Union is a less judicially minded 
 body. It is chiefly remarkable for its fantastic 
 optimism, and its exuberant belief in the power 
 of sentimentality to advance the millennium. 
 Many of its members, we are sure, will quite 
 honestly believe that Mr. Hunter has succeeded 
 in showing that no test is necessary to protect 
 the rates from those who desire an addition to 
 their income, and that an out-door system is 
 cheaper and more repressive of pauperism than 
 an in-door system. It is the honest simplicity 
 and enthusiasm of the " paradoxer " and his dupes 
 that constitute them a danger to society. 
 
 Lastly, we have certain statistics prepared by 
 Mr. Loch, 1 in defence of what we may call the 
 common-sense view against the attack of Mr. 
 Hunter and the author of "Plain Words," and 
 incidentally also traversing some of the conclusions 
 of Mr. Booth. Mr. Loch's position, however, is 
 somewhat different from that of the other con- 
 tributors to this controversy. His opinions on 
 the problems of poor law administration have been 
 arrived at independently of statistics. He has 
 adopted the view of the poor law experts which is 
 based on administrative experience, and on a careful 
 
 1 "The Statistics of Metropolitan Pauperism," by Charles S. 
 Loch. London, 1894. 
 
224 THE ABUSE OF STA TISTICS. 
 
 analysis of human motive. Hitherto it has not 
 been thought necessary to defend the position by 
 elaborate statistics. The interest of the discussion 
 lay elsewhere. The reduction of pauperism by 
 means of the strict system seemed unquestionable, 
 and the only matters on which argument seemed 
 possible were the justice and humanity of the 
 course pursued. The new attack, however, leaves 
 these aspects of the question comparatively in 
 the background, and produces a number of figures 
 which traverse the commonly received opinion. 
 If the received opinion is to stand, these figures 
 must be refuted or explained. To this task Mr. 
 Loch applies himself. 1 
 
 Such in brief outline has been the course of this 
 controversy. We have thought it convenient to 
 take this preliminary survey before proceeding 
 to an appreciation of the figures and methods which 
 have been used. To this part of our subject we 
 now turn. 
 
 " My object," says Mr. Booth, 2 " has been to attempt 
 to show the numerical relation which poverty, misery, and 
 depravity bear to regular earnings and comparative comfort, 
 and to describe the general conditions under which each 
 class lives." 
 
 Throughout Mr. Booth treats his readers with 
 
 1 Since this was written, an elaborate and conclusive vindication 
 of the common-sense view, by means of statistics, has been published 
 by Mr. W. Chance, Hon. Sec. to the Central Poor Law Conference, 
 in the National Review, July, 1895. 
 
 2 " Life and Labour of the People," vol. i. p. 6. 
 
MR. BOOTH'S CLASSIFICATION. 225 
 
 entire frankness ; if an importance altogether 
 unwarranted has been attached to Mr. Booth's 
 calculations, the censure should fall, not on him, 
 but on those who are responsible for the uncritical 
 way in which his figures and conclusions have 
 been received. In the above quotation and else- 
 where we have put into italics words of his own 
 which seem to govern the whole of his procedure. 
 Here and throughout Mr. Booth treats poverty, 
 misery, and depravity as three forms of one and the 
 same identical quality, and he contrasts them not 
 with absence of poverty, but with the appearance 
 of comparative comfort. This is not a mere verbal 
 quibble, it is essential to a proper understanding 
 of Mr. Booth's method. On p. 33 Mr. Booth 
 describes the eight classes into which he divides 
 the population of London. They are as follows : 
 " A. The lowest class of occasional labourers, loafers, 
 and semi-criminals. 
 
 B. Casual earnings " very poor." 
 
 c. Intermittent earnings ^ 
 
 D. Small regular earnings } together " the poor." 
 
 E. Regular standard earnings above the line of 
 
 poverty. 
 
 F. Higher class labour. 
 
 G. Lower middle class. 
 H. Upper middle class." 
 
 We were warned of the assumption made. It 
 is this ; where misery and depravity are obvious, 
 the terms " poor " and " very poor " are applied ; 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 where comparative comfort is apparent, there the 
 absence of poverty is assumed. " Poor " is further 
 defined to mean those "who have a sufficiently 
 regular though bare income, such as iSs. to 2is. 
 per week, for a moderate family ; and by * very 
 poor' those who for any cause fall much below 
 this standard." In his second volume (p. 18), he 
 remarks, "A good many families have been 
 reported as poor, who though they are poor, are so 
 without any economic necessity." Now Mr. Booth's 
 classification is not a mere division of the 
 population into manual and non-manual labourers, 
 a distinction which might be successfully made 
 by a cursory inspection of a man's dress and 
 appearance, but an elaborate subdivision of 
 manual labourers into at least six classes, with 
 reference to a condition for which the most varying 
 definitions have been given. First, poverty is 
 identified with the visible signs of misery and 
 depravity. Next, it is made to turn on the 
 possession of a definite income ; but such precision 
 as this implies is at once destroyed by the quali- 
 fication " for a moderate family," while a still 
 further uncertainty arises from the admission 
 that the poverty chronicled is not an economic 
 condition, but merely an enumeration of persons 
 in the humbler ranks of life who have families 
 and other occasions of expenditure, in their own 
 or Mr. Booth's opinion, immoderate relatively 
 
DEFINITION OF POVERTY. 227 
 
 to the amount of their income. No complaint 
 is made of the introduction of these considerations. 
 They are, each and all, important and determining, 
 but how is it possible to give to them quantitative 
 expression ? All who know the poor are well 
 aware that comparative comfort is not incom- 
 patible with low wages if combined with moderate 
 ambitions, and vice versd that high wages are 
 not necessarily exclusive of misery and depravity. 
 If poverty is not a definite economic condition, 
 but a want of equilibrium between a man's habits 
 and his income, we are clearly embarked upon an 
 inquiry of an extremely vague nature : it is honey- 
 combed by the ambiguity of these hypothetical 
 definitions. The earning of i&s. or 2is. a week 
 is a definite fact, and, if we had any means of 
 discovering the number of those in that position, 
 we could express it in terms of quantitative value. 
 No attempt has been made, or could have been 
 made by Mr. Booth, to ascertain the earnings 
 of the enumerated population. In place of this 
 we have the opinions of a large number of 
 anonymous persons, mostly School Board visitors, 
 on a long series of controversial subjects. These 
 cannot be taken as a statistical product from 
 which trustworthy conclusions are to be drawn. 
 
 The justice of the foregoing criticism will be 
 confirmed by an inspection of the specimen entries 
 of the note-books given in vol. i. pp. 7-24. 
 
228 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 On page 13 : 
 
 Labourer, 3 school children, is put in Class E. 
 do. 2 do. do. A. 
 
 Lazy, drunken vagabond, etc. 
 
 Here the classification is by degree of depravity. 
 There is no evidence as to earnings. 
 On pp. 14, 15 : 
 
 Bootmaker, 3 school children, i baby, 2 boys over 
 
 school age, is put in Class B. 
 
 Good workman, but cantankerous. 
 
 Bootmaker, i child, i baby, is put in Class E. 
 
 Here, unless a bad mark is given to No. i for 
 being cantankerous, the classification is apparently 
 by degree of responsibility, though whether allow- 
 ance is made for the earnings of the boys over age 
 does not appear. 
 Page 16: 
 
 Smelter, 3 children, i baby, is put in Class B. 
 Earns good money, but both drink, etc. 
 
 Classification by alleged depravity, income being 
 disregarded. 
 Page 17 : 
 
 Washerwoman, i child, is put in Class D. 
 do. 3 children, do. B. 
 
 i boy at work ; has parish relief. 
 
 Here, notwithstanding the addition to income from 
 
THE PRIMARY FIGURES. 229 
 
 boy's earnings and from parish, the " immoderate " 
 family apparently determines the classification. 
 Page 21 : 
 
 Foreman dung-carts, 2 school children, i baby, 
 
 is put in Class E. 
 Pleads poverty, but should do well. 
 
 This last note shows an attempt to grapple with 
 the uncertainty of all this hearsay evidence, but in 
 the majority of cases such discrimination was im- 
 practicable. Indeed, the whole process reminds 
 one of the children's game of Russian scandal. 
 One visitor is credulous, and makes himself a 
 conduit for any gossip that reaches him ; another 
 discounts all pleas of poverty. This brings us to 
 the important question how far the vague im- 
 pressions of School Board visitors, noted down not 
 for the purposes of Mr. Booth's inquiry, but as 
 memoranda to assist them in their own duties, can 
 form a trustworthy foundation for the super- 
 structure which has been based on them. 
 
 The principal business of the School Board 
 visitor is to get the children to go to school. His 
 measure of mankind, mutatis mutandis, is not 
 different from that of Punch's dustman, who 
 divided society according to its ability to fill 
 dustbins. The School Board visitor judges his 
 constituents according to their appreciation of the 
 benefits provided by the School Board for their 
 
230 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 children. An argumentative shoemaker may very 
 well be of opinion that his boy is better employed 
 helping him at his work than earning a grant for 
 his school by displaying proficiency in the higher 
 standards, and there would be nothing very 
 wonderful if (as in the case quoted above) the 
 father was put down as lazy because he wanted 
 his boy to help him, and cantankerous because he 
 had freely expressed the opinion that the law and 
 possibly its representative " was a hass." Further, 
 both with regard to fee-paying and half-time 
 arrangements, it was to the interest of the poor 
 to make out a plea for poverty. Such a plea is 
 detected and remorselessly pilloried if made by such 
 an exalted personage as a foreman of dung-carts, 
 but the same bias is present in the mind of every 
 single person interrogated. Again, every one who 
 knows anything of the more unskilled labouring 
 class in London, is well aware of the extreme 
 vagueness of the term "labourer," and of the 
 general looseness of statement with regard to 
 occupation. The School Board visitor rarely 
 crosses the threshold of the door, and his inter- 
 views are, as a rule, with the women of the family. 
 The trade of the head of the family and the 
 amount of his earnings are quite immaterial to 
 the main purpose of the visitor's errand. In his 
 classification Mr. Booth is obviously much guided 
 by the trade assigned to the head of the family, 
 
ENUMERA TION OF UNEMPLOYED. 23 1 
 
 yet we cannot avoid a suspicion that the in- 
 formation on this head is very liable to error. 
 Again, no two men take exactly the same view of 
 social phenomena, and there is no means of bring- 
 ing their impression to any common standard. It 
 is true that general inquiries were made of the local 
 clergy, and that Mr. Booth or one of his assistants 
 inspected the various localities ; and if the division 
 was merely between those who are manual labourers 
 and those who are not, we might be willing to 
 admit that a fairly accurate conclusion had been 
 reached. In his second volume Mr. Booth wisely 
 abandons the division between classes C and D, 
 mainly on the ground that the trade of the head 
 of the family has not been obtained, and it would 
 have been wiser if this affectation of minute 
 accuracy had been avoided altogether. 
 
 It is of course impossible to say what amount of 
 inaccuracy has been introduced into the primary 
 figures from these and other considerations ; but, in 
 one or two other similar inquiries, accident has 
 made it possible to show how large a source of 
 error they will prove in a subject of this contro- 
 versial nature. 
 
 In March, 1887, Mr. Ritchie directed an inquiry 
 to be made as to the number of the unemployed in 
 certain poor districts of the Metropolis. Of this 
 return Dr. Ogle, the official responsible for the 
 work, remarked, " The tabulation is a tabulation of 
 
232 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 statements, not of facts. ... I have come to the 
 conclusion that these returns are of a very small 
 statistical value." Yet want of employment, unlike 
 poverty, is a definite condition, and the inquiry was 
 made adrem. Again, Mr. Booth and his assistants 
 have tabulated what they imagine to be the causes 
 of pauperism in one country and in two London 
 unions. The estimates assign drink as the cause 
 of from 12*6 per cent, to 21^9 per cent, of the 
 pauperism of these unions. Mr. MacDougall, a 
 gentleman well known as an active guardian in 
 Manchester, calculates that drink is the cause of 
 pauperism in 52 per cent, of the pauperism of his 
 union. It is not likely that this great difference is 
 warranted by the greater prevalence of drunken- 
 ness in Manchester ; it is much more likely that it 
 is due to the extremely vague nature of the phrase 
 " cause of pauperism," and to the varying attitude 
 of different temperaments toward the vice of 
 drunkenness. 
 
 Again, with regard to questions of poverty, it is 
 notorious that many well-meaning men permit 
 themselves great latitude of expression. An 
 extreme case is that of a reverend witness before 
 a recent Royal Commission, who asserted that 
 many persons in his union had been "done to 
 death" owing to the neglect of the guardians in 
 giving relief. Naturally members of the Commission 
 pressed for chapter and verse. On inquiry it turned 
 
STAR VA TION RE TURNS. 233. 
 
 out that some of those who, it was alleged, had 
 been " done to death " were still alive and well, and 
 apparently the term " done to death " was a mere 
 fa$on de parler. This is an extreme case, for only 
 the most hysterical controversialist will fail to dis- 
 tinguish between the living and the dead. Still, if 
 excellent persons can be found to confuse the living 
 and the dead, much more will they fail to be 
 accurate over a matter so difficult to define as the 
 relative degrees of poverty. Again, if we proceed 
 beyond the bare fact of death and attempt to 
 tabulate causes of death, the temperament of those 
 charged with the enumeration plays us sad tricks. 
 In a paper read to the Economic Section of the 
 British Association of 1892, Mr. Loch drew attention 
 to the fact that in the central division of London 
 there were seventy-six deaths in 1873 of which the 
 cause was alleged to be starvation, while in each of 
 the years 1874 and 1875 there were only seven. A 
 new coroner seems to have been appointed in 1874, 
 and Mr. Loch is probably correct in suggesting that 
 the difference is caused by a different interpretation 
 of the term " starvation." Yet starvation is a more 
 definite conception than poverty, and, though 
 " Crowner's Quest Law " is not impeccable, the 
 verdicts are arrived at with all the solemnity of 
 judicial procedure. Indeed, the longer we look 
 into the matter, the more certain does it become 
 that the primary figures on which the whole inquiry 
 
234 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 turns are unverified and unverifiable. Occasion- 
 ally attempts have been made to verify by an 
 independent investigation, and, as might have been 
 expected, no two enumerators have produced the 
 same results. Each fresh inquiry brings out an 
 answer not only absolutely different, but showing 
 great relative differences between the various sub- 
 divisions. Mr. Loch tells us that, being struck with 
 what appeared to him unduly high percentages of 
 poverty in certain districts as given by Mr. Booth, 
 he caused an independent inquiry to be made. In 
 three areas in Marylebone Mr. Booth's figures were 
 60*2, 39'9, and 52-5. Mr. Loch's informants, who 
 included the relieving officers, were unanimous that 
 the poverty of the middle district was markedly 
 greater than that of the first district, and that both 
 were poorer than the third district. Similar results 
 attended similar inquiries made in Clerkenwell, and 
 in Haggerston and Hoxton. 
 
 We have no wish to press the accuracy of Mr. 
 Loch's informants as against Mr. Booth's ; though 
 possibly it might be argued that a relieving officer 
 is a better judge of the poverty of a neighbourhood 
 than a School Board visitor. All we desire to urge 
 is, that no two persons, however impartial, are likely 
 to agree in their manner of arranging the minute 
 subdivisions attempted by Mr. Booth. 
 
 The untrustworthy nature of the whole inquiry 
 becomes more apparent when we turn to one of the 
 
MR. BOOTHS POSTULATE. 235 
 
 postulates which Mr. Booth asks us to concede. 
 The classification according to poverty, based on 
 the notes of School Board visitors, covers only the 
 portion of the population who have children of 
 school age ; that is, about half the population. Mr. 
 Booth asks us to concede that the remainder, i.e. 
 the portion who have no children of school age, 
 may be distributed, among the several classes of 
 poverty, in the same proportions as those who 
 have children of school age. Surely this is a most 
 inconsistent demand. The moderateness or im- 
 moderateness of a man's family has, as we have 
 seen, been a governing consideration in Mr. Booth's 
 classification according to poverty. Let us suppose 
 that a naturalist wished to classify animals accord- 
 ing to their possession of a certain quality x. His 
 observation extends over half the animals in a 
 given area. He makes a discovery, which when 
 once pointed out is indubitable ; namely, that the 
 possession of quality x is largely dependent on the 
 size and power of the tail ; and in absence of 
 definite observation of the presence of the quality 
 x y he has been guided largely by the size of the 
 tail while classifying animals according to their 
 possession of quality x. He then wishes to classify 
 the other unobserved half of the animals. These, 
 however, possess no tails, and one of his principal 
 guides to their classification is therefore absent. 
 Now, if the statistical argument of Mr. Booth is to 
 
236 THE ABUSE OF STA T1STICS. 
 
 be admitted, it would be safe to argue that the 
 unknown and tailless half may be classified 
 relatively to x in the same proportions as the 
 known and tail-bearing section of the animals 
 under consideration. Nowhere, we imagine, except 
 in the exact science of statistics, would such a 
 method be allowed to pass. 
 
 In his first work Mr. Booth made no practical 
 suggestions. There was a vague reference to the 
 advisability of "harrying" the poor into a more 
 satisfactory way of life. It was not possible to 
 suppose that Mr. Booth was in favour of penal 
 legislation against poverty, and this ambiguous 
 phrase was interpreted, by some at all events, to 
 mean that the poor should be allowed to retain 
 the privilege of confronting and overcoming their 
 own responsibilities. At the end of the second 
 volume of " Life and Labour," he leaves us with 
 the assurance : " To the proposals for a revision 
 of the poor law I shall return, but not until I am 
 better equipped for its practical discussion." This 
 not altogether precise announcement seemed to 
 imply that Mr. Booth was going to give up his 
 statistics for a season, in order to gain some 
 practical experience of poor law administration. 
 Both these interpretations proved to be erroneous, 
 for, within a year, Mr. Booth's second work, on the 
 " Endowment of Old Age," made its appearance. 
 This contains proposals for amending the law for 
 
MR. BOOTH'S SECOND BOOK. 237 
 
 the relief of the poor in the most revolutionary 
 manner. The responsibility of the poor for their 
 old age is to be removed by a universal pension 
 scheme. Under the guise of a benefit, this may 
 prove, as some assert, a great injustice to the 
 poor, but it is an abuse of language to describe 
 it as "harrying." Either Mr. Booth under some 
 new influence had changed his opinion, or his 
 earlier language was singularly inappropriate. 
 
 In his second work Mr. Booth lays aside the 
 office of statistician and becomes the advocate 
 of limited and experimental socialism. Before 
 leaving the statistical portion of Mr. Booth's 
 labour, we may record our conviction that he has 
 made a very gallant attempt to solve the insoluble. 
 He has, in our opinion rightly, declined to consider 
 poverty as a mere question of income. He has 
 rightly treated it as a question of character and 
 habit, but in so doing he has amplified the limits 
 of his subject and carried it into regions altogether 
 beyond the ken of the statistical method. Further, 
 even if we could believe that some accuracy had 
 been attained in spite of the difficulties of the in- 
 quiry, it is obvious that the results obtained are 
 of no practical value whatsoever. If poverty were 
 purely a question of income, we might say that 
 by doubling every one's income, poverty would 
 be made to cease out of the land, but the poverty 
 chronicled by Mr. Booth is not economic poverty, 
 
238 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 but a much more complex thing, and we must 
 consider it as affected by the standard of life 
 current in different classes and even in different 
 families, and by the multiform and often incom- 
 prehensible motives which govern the conduct of 
 men. These problems remain, when our tabula- 
 tion is accurate and complete, just as difficult 
 and insoluble as they were at the outset. 
 
 Over the special method employed in this second 
 work we may pass somewhat lightly. The descent 
 of ladies with notebooks and pencils into various 
 rural villages has produced much varied and inte- 
 resting information ; but when reduced to per- 
 centages and decimal points, we hardly suppose 
 that any serious person will attach much value 
 to it. Here and in his last volume, " The Aged 
 Poor : Condition," Mr. Booth relies mainly on the 
 official returns. In this he is followed by Mr. 
 Hunter and the author of " Plain Words." 
 
 Admitting for the sake of argument the 
 substantial accuracy of the half-yearly returns 
 and of Mr. Burt's return, 1 we still have the 
 difficulty of interpreting these documents. For 
 this purpose it is necessary to have a very full 
 knowledge of the facts for which these figures 
 stand, and here not unfrequently our statistical 
 
 1 "Boards of Guardians: Persons in Receipt of Relief," No. 36. 
 December 9, 1890. A return showing number, age, and sex of 
 persons over sixty chargeable to the Poor Rate, etc. 
 
MR. BURTS RETURN. 239 
 
 friends will be found to fail. To take the most 
 important example. In common sense, and 
 presumably in statistical inquiry, a totally different 
 value must be given to out-door and in-door 
 pauperism. In many unions out-door relief is to 
 be got by the aged for the asking ; there is no 
 strong feeling against claiming it among the poor 
 themselves ; it is a pension paid to the poor 
 persons at their own homes, an addition to their 
 all too limited incomes which it requires some 
 strength of mind to decline. In-door pauperism, 
 on the other hand, represents in most unions 
 (with the exception of London, to be presently 
 explained) the irreducible minimum of helpless 
 and friendless old people. Throughout this in- 
 quiry, however, statisticians have been apt to 
 treat all pauperism, whether out-door or in-door, 
 as if it were of the same material. Yet in the 
 view put forward by the most experienced poor 
 law administrators the solution of this whole diffi- 
 culty turns on the distinction between these two 
 forms of pauperism. Thus, according to Mr. 
 Hurt's return, there were on August I, 1890, 
 286,867 paupers over sixty years of age ; of these 
 218,743 were out-door and 68,124 in-door. In 
 reply to those who say that this total is excessive 
 and that heroic remedies are necessary, the experts 
 point to the administration of the Union of Brad- 
 field, Berks. A very potent cause of pauperism, 
 
240 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 they argue, is the offer of out-door relief. If this 
 is removed, both in-door and out-door relief will 
 be reduced. In 1871 there were in Bradfield 1258 
 paupers, 999 out-door and 259 in-door. In 1871 
 the policy of restriction began, and in 1893 the 
 pauperism had fallen to 121, of these 99 were 
 in-door and 22 out-door, the latter being all old 
 people, whose vested interest in the allowances 
 given them under the old system has not been 
 disturbed. Very similar results have been obtained 
 elsewhere, wherever this policy has been applied. 
 It is argued, then, that if the country really wishes 
 to reduce its old age pauperism, the numbers can 
 be brought down by an application of the Bradfield 
 system from 280,000 to 60,000. On the merits of 
 this controversy, statistics, except so far as they 
 are involved in the elementary facts here stated, 
 can throw no manner of light, and yet it is ob- 
 viously most important. As already remarked, 
 it is self-evident that if a union ceases to give 
 out-door relief, it will have fewer paupers, and 
 there remains only one question of interest : Is 
 this a humane and justifiable course to follow ? 
 Mr. Hunter and the author of "Plain Words" 
 have ignored the obvious strategical advantages 
 which a joining of this issue offers to the advocates 
 of out-relief, for, in this connection at all events, 
 sentiment is often a stronger force than logic, and 
 they attempt to show that increased facilities for 
 
MR. HUNTERS METHOD. 241 
 
 obtaining relief do not increase the number of 
 those who accept it. Space does not permit us 
 to follow them into all the arguments by which 
 they support this paradox. One or two instances 
 will suffice to show that the desired answer can 
 only be obtained by an utter neglect of the facts 
 for which the figures purport to stand. 
 
 Mr. Hunter divides the London unions into what 
 he calls out-door and in-door unions. More than 
 the average amount of out-door relief is given by 
 thirteen unions, while seventeen give less and are 
 classed as in-door. Now, every one who has the 
 most superficial knowledge of the administration 
 of the poor law in London is aware that the 
 Guardians of Bethnal Green rarely refuse out-door 
 relief. It is a matter of surprise, therefore, to find 
 Bethnal Green among the in-door unions. The 
 explanation is simple and instructive, and obvious 
 to any honest inquirer who is not a perfervid 
 statistician. The policy of Bethnal Green is 
 neither in-door nor out-door, but simply a policy 
 of allowing every man to choose for himself. 
 During nineteen consecutive weeks (Jan. to May, 
 1894), 1767 admissions to the Bethnal Green 
 Workhouse were recorded ; of these only 162 
 went in on an order of a relief committee of 
 the Board. The rest (1605) applied direct to 
 the relieving officer, and became in-door paupers 
 because presumably they preferred in-door to 
 
 R 
 
242 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 out-door relief, though the last can be obtained for 
 the asking by the settled poor. This is the more 
 remarkable, because the Guardians of Bethnal 
 Green have lived for many years in a perpetual 
 state of controversy with the Local Government 
 Board, by reason of the very inadequate equipment 
 of their in-door establishments. If therefore the 
 poor, of their own free will, enter the Bethnal 
 Green Workhouse which, though popular be- 
 cause of the general laxity of discipline, is still 
 much below the average of comfort to be found 
 in the London workhouses it would follow that 
 the same is done in unions where there are good 
 infirmaries and clean accommodation. From in- 
 quiries made, we have no doubt that this is the 
 case. 
 
 Mr. Hunter's contention that in London it is the 
 refusal of out-door relief which drives the poor 
 into the workhouse is obviously erroneous. As a 
 matter of fact the comparatively high percentage 
 of in-door to out-door relief in London is due, not 
 to the restrictive policy of the guardians, but to 
 other causes. With the exception of one or two 
 unions, the policy of the London guardians is not 
 one in favour of the restriction of out-door relief. 
 The high rate of in-door pauperism is due to 
 two causes: (i) the great improvement in the 
 infirmaries and workhouse accommodation gene- 
 rally, in virtue of the provisions of the Metropolitan 
 
LONDON IN-DOOR PA UPERISM. 243 
 
 Poor Law Act of 1867; (2) the large number of 
 homeless poor who avail themselves of shelters 
 and casual wards while they are well, and who 
 crowd into the infirmaries when they are ill. Mr. 
 Loch discusses the first cause at considerable 
 length : he shows that the change in the law and 
 its administration followed on the revelations of 
 an inquiry known as the Lancet Commission, 
 which had exposed serious shortcomings in our 
 poor law establishments. He proves conclusively 
 that the greatly increased expenditure which 
 followed the Act of 1867 was due, not to a desire 
 to restrict relief, but to a wish to make relief, more 
 particularly relief to the sick and infirm, more 
 adequate and more humane. , As we have seen 
 in the case of Bethnal Green, the poor are not 
 unwilling to avail themselves of the relief offered 
 in a workhouse. Secondly, the great numbers of 
 the vagrant class are often overlooked by our 
 statistical enthusiasts. It is assumed that a man 
 who enters a workhouse or infirmary is torn from 
 his home and family. In the great majority of 
 cases nothing can be further from the truth. The 
 facts revealed by the following extract from a 
 return prepared for the Stepney Board, showing 
 the number of persons admitted into the work- 
 house of the Union, is an interesting comment on 
 this assumption. 
 
244 
 
 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 ADMISSION CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 Return for Half-years. 
 
 Resident 
 Poor. 
 
 Admissions from 
 Shelters or 
 Homeless. 
 
 Percentage of recent 
 Arrivals in London on 
 Total Admissions 
 from Shelters. 
 
 Ending Michaelmas, 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 Per cent. 
 
 1891 
 Ending Lady Day, 
 
 67-9 
 
 32-1 
 
 42-9 
 
 1892 
 Ending Michaelmas, 
 
 59'3 
 
 407 
 
 46-5 
 
 1892 
 
 59'3 
 
 407 
 
 42-2 
 
 A tabulation even more remarkable is the fol- 
 lowing from the Report of the Whitechapel 
 Guardians for year ending Lady Day, 1895. 
 
 Whence admitted. 
 
 Workhouse. 
 
 Infirmary. 
 
 Total. 
 
 From their own or 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 Per 
 
 cent. 
 
 Per 
 cent. 
 
 friends' homes 
 
 145- 27 
 
 726. 16-8 
 
 871. 9'I 
 
 Homeless or from in- 
 
 
 
 
 stitutions 
 
 1658. 31*5 
 
 320. 7-4 
 
 1978. 20-6 
 
 From lodging-houses 
 
 1945- 37'o 
 
 2088. 48-3 
 
 4033. 42-1 
 
 From shelters 
 
 1156. 22 '0 
 
 926. 21-4 
 
 2082. 217 
 
 From casual wards ... 
 
 153- 2'9 
 
 144- 3'4 
 
 297. 3-1 
 
 Remands from police- 
 
 
 
 
 courts 
 
 205. 3-9 
 
 
 205. 2'2 
 
 Born in infirmary 
 
 
 118. 27 
 
 118. 1-2 
 
 Totals 
 
 5262. 
 
 4322. 
 
 9584. 
 
 The strict London Unions -Whitechapel, Step- 
 ney, and St. George-in-the-East in order to put 
 aside the reproach of inflicting hardship, have 
 
VAGRANT POPULATION. 
 
 245 
 
 expended much money and care on their in- 
 firmaries and workhouses ; and on this very 
 account, as well as owing to the character of the 
 neighbourhood, these East-end unions collect more 
 than their share of this vagrant population. 1 In 
 unions where out-door relief is freely given, 
 
 1 As proof of this invasion of the Union of Whitechapel by 
 Shelters, and its effect on poor law statistics, the following table 
 is quoted from the Whitechapel Guardians' Report, Lady Day, 1895. 
 
 Shelters. 
 
 No. of Admission 
 Orders given by 
 District Medical 
 Officers. 
 
 Salvation Army Shelter for men,, 
 272, Whitechapel Road 
 Salvation Army Shelter for women, 
 194, Hanbury Street 
 Salvation Army Shelter for men, 
 Quaker Street 
 Salvation Army Shelter for men, 
 Royal Mint Street 
 Church Army Shelter for men, 83, 
 Whitechapel Road 
 Jewish Shelter, 84, Leman Street ... 
 Barnardo's Shelter for women, 12, 
 Dock Street 
 Barnardo's Shelter for women, 81, 
 Commercial Road 
 Tenter Street East Philanthropic 
 Shelter 
 
 294 
 279 
 83 
 
 55 
 ii 
 
 2 
 30 
 
 54 
 
 22 
 
 Wood Street Church Army Home 
 Working Lads' Institute, 137, White- 
 chapel Road 
 Pelham House, Spital Square 
 
 
 Total ... 
 
 830 
 
246 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 workhouse accommodation is still, to a section 
 of paupers, more attractive than out-door relief. 
 Naturally in such places the rate of pauperism does 
 not rapidly diminish. The author of" Plain Words " 
 devotes a section of his pamphlet to showing : 
 "Why 1852-1853 should be taken for purposes 
 of comparison with 1892-1893." We need not 
 trouble the reader with his reasons. The insuper- 
 able objection to this procedure is that previous to 
 1867 there was no attractive in-door accommoda- 
 tion. Now, the workhouse, the infirmary, and the 
 schools have their attractions ; and, except in one 
 or two instances, the guardians are almost as lavish 
 of out-relief as ever they were. 
 
 To proceed with our indictment of Mr. Hunter's 
 method. Having grouped together Bethnal Green 
 and Whitechapel, which represent the opposite 
 extremes of poor law policy, he uses the figures 
 obtained from this incongruous classification to 
 point a moral against the administration pursued 
 in Whitechapel. Let us next consider the tests 
 which he and the author of " Plain Words " use in 
 judging between different methods of administra- 
 tion. They have relied chiefly for the purpose of 
 these comparisons on (i) the number of paupers 
 per head of population ; (2) the cost per head of 
 pauper. Now, if it can be shown that these tests 
 are clearly fallacious in one instance, it is obvious 
 that they are not trustworthy in any, unless 
 
FL UCTUA TION OF POP ULA TION. 247 
 
 supplemented by information which is not 
 statistical. Mr. Loch has pointed out that in 
 1871 the population of West Ham Union was 
 99,143, and its pauperism was high, 59*5 per 
 1000. In 1891 its population was 365,130, and its 
 pauperism seemed to be low, 21 '8 per 1000. The 
 policy of the Union has not been changed in the 
 interval. It is and always has been an out-relief 
 Union. The actual number of paupers was 5904 
 in 1871. In 1891 it was 7964. The addition to 
 the population was mainly due to the immigration 
 of able-bodied artisans altogether above the pauper 
 class. Yet by the test proposed, the decreased rate 
 of pauperism per head of population would be used 
 as an argument in defence ,of the method of 
 administration followed at West Ham. The 
 administration may be good or may be bad, but 
 this is not the way to prove it. In poor and 
 central parts of London the fluctuation of popu- 
 lation is all in the other direction. In St. George- 
 in-the-East the population is decreasing, owing 
 largely to the emigration of the more prosperous 
 and adventurous labourers. These considerations 
 demonstrate the fallacy of this method of direct 
 comparison. 
 
 The cost per head of paupers is put forward as 
 the next test. Again we take our disproof of its 
 efficacy from Mr. Loch. An inspection of the 
 following table will be enough. 
 
2 4 8 
 
 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 
 Population. 
 
 Total Relief. 
 
 No. of 
 Paupers. 
 
 Cost per Head 
 of Paupers. 
 
 Bishop's Stort- 
 
 
 
 
 
 s. d. 
 
 ford (Herts) 
 
 21,513 
 
 12,798 
 
 1,275 
 
 10 o 9 
 
 St. Neot's 
 
 
 
 
 
 (Hunts) 
 
 15,238 
 
 3,803 
 
 253 
 
 15 o 7 
 
 Mr. Hunter argues that unions where the cost 
 per pauper is low, have an advantage over unions 
 where it is higher. The above instance clearly 
 shows the worthlessness of the test. A large 
 number of paupers inadequately relieved would by 
 this method of judgment be preferred to a small 
 number adequately relieved. The author of " Plain 
 Words " ingeniously goes out of his way to complain 
 that the official statement of the cost of in-door and 
 out-door maintenance takes no account of sums 
 spent on " workhouse and other loans repaid and 
 interest thereon, on salaries, rations, and of officers, 
 assistants, and servants," and on " other expenses 
 of or immediately connected with relief." This, he 
 thinks, should be added to the cost of in-door 
 maintenance as officially stated. But we have seen 
 that the policy of improved and more costly in- 
 door management has no necessary connection with 
 the policy of restricting out-door relief, and in many 
 instances it has been adopted without any departure 
 from the old plan of giving out-door relief to all 
 who press for it. 
 
MR. RITCHIE'S RETURN. 249 
 
 We now return to Mr. Booth's latest volume, 
 " The Aged Poor : Condition." In the first pages 
 he explains that the demand for "trustworthy 
 official statistics" has been satisfied by the pro- 
 duction of Mr. Ritchie's Return (No. 265). This 
 shows, classified according to age, the number of 
 fiaupers relieved on January I, 1892, and the total 
 number relieved during the year ended at Lady -day, 
 1892. This return, Mr. Booth contends, confirms 
 his own calculations ; and Canon Blackley, who 
 also deals largely in estimates, wrote to The Times 
 of May 22, 1894, to claim a like confirmation of his 
 own figures. He specially bases his reputation for 
 correctness on the return furnished by St. Saviour's, 
 Southwark, where the rate of pauperism among the 
 population of those over sixty-five years of age is 
 alleged to be eighty-four per cent. 
 
 Now, it is not often that an answer in figures 
 bears its own refutation on the face of it. This 
 return of Mr. Ritchie's, however, seems to be one 
 of these few exceptions. In the preliminary 
 memorandum we are informed of some of the 
 difficulties that stood in the way of getting a 
 correct yearly census of pauperism. In one 
 London union the calculation took six weeks of 
 continuous work. First, there were the duplicates 
 for the two half-years to be eliminated, then the 
 duplicate entries in each separate establishment, 
 then the duplicates arising from paupers who have 
 
250 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 been in more than one part of the workhouse. It 
 has been frankly admitted by not a few clerks to 
 the unions, that the yearly census portion of the 
 return is altogether untrustworthy. Among others, 
 the clerk to St. Saviour's Board has admitted in 
 a letter, quoted publicly by Mr. Loch, that the 
 duplicates were not rigorously excluded in his 
 Union. One difficulty, it may be pointed out, is 
 quite insuperable. We have it on the authority of 
 one union clerk that a certain pauper, who at the 
 time of the return was in the infirmary of a London 
 union, declared that he had left Darlington four- 
 teen weeks earlier in the year, and during the 
 interval he had been in the following workhouses 
 (not casual wards) : Northallerton, Knaresborough, 
 Birmingham, Burton-on-Trent, Market Harborough, 
 Leicester, Bedford, Luton, Barnet, Holborn, Strand, 
 and several others on the road which he had for- 
 gotten ; say, roughly, fourteen different workhouses 
 in as many weeks, or fifty in a year. Such a man 
 is in himself a perfect stage army of paupers. 1 The 
 absurdity of the affair reaches a climax when we 
 take the figures recorded of St. George-in-the-East. 
 Here the number of paupers over sixty-five years of 
 age during the year is alleged to be 2863 ; but as 
 
 1 According to Mr. Pyddoke (Report of Whitechapel Board, 1895), 
 the casual ward population " is made up for the greater part of the 
 same men coming back again and again, and can only include a few 
 thousands for the whole of London." A few thousand men will 
 make a very imposing stage army, if they are counted often enough., 
 
" NEGA TIVE RESUL TS? 25 1 
 
 the estimated population of that age is only 1600, 
 these figures proved too much even for the most 
 omnivorous statistician. On p. 96, Mr. Booth puts 
 down the percentage of old age pauperism in this 
 Union at 66 per cent, of the population of that age. 
 He has evidently used a different set of figures, 
 which we understand has been supplied privately 
 to the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor by the 
 authorities of St. George-in-the-East. One glaring 
 error has thus been detected and admitted, but 
 there is no evidence that the remainder of the 
 figures are more accurate, and we have positive 
 evidence with regard to Southwark that they are 
 quite untrustworthy. Surely in this affair the 
 statisticians are hoist with their, own petard. 
 
 On p. 100, Mr. Booth remarks that "the results 
 attained are chiefly negative." Yet, on the next 
 page, certainly in very obscure language, he 
 suggests a solution of a controversy which, as we 
 have already shown, is probably the most important 
 in all this matter. He sums it up again on p. 423, 
 in these words : " Remarkable instances of suc- 
 cessful administration are to be found with any 
 proportion of out-relief from over 80 to under 7 
 per cent." The statement and the argument are 
 full of ambiguities and of unwarranted assump- 
 tions, such as could only be made by one who is 
 stubbornly blind to the heterogeneous nature of 
 the figures which he manipulates. "Successful 
 
252 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 administration" is assumed to mean an administra- 
 tion which yields a low rate of pauperism irrespec- 
 tive of the population with which it deals. He 
 therefore compares without flinching Wharfedale 
 with Bradfield,Oxford with Bridlington, Manchester 
 with Dunmow. It would be instructive to analyse 
 the different character of the pauperism and of the 
 population in all these unions, but space obliges us 
 to confine ourselves briefly to one instance. Let 
 us take at random Fylde and Bradfield, the first 
 and last names of the list on p. 101. Fylde, 
 according to Mr. Booth, gives 65 per cent, of its 
 relief out of doors, and has 2'2 per cent, of pauper- 
 ism. Bradfield gives 1 8 per cent, out of doors, and 
 has 1 7 per cent, of pauperism. Here Mr. Booth has 
 struck out a new line of error for himself. Contrary 
 to the usual custom, he has, in reckoning the per- 
 centage of out-door to total pauperism, taken the 
 cost and not the numbers of out-door pauperism, 
 a method which, as already shown, must in the case 
 of inadequate out-door relief prove quite untrust- 
 worthy as a true test of policy. Thus Bradfield gives 
 1 8 per cent, of its relief to 22 old persons, or an 
 average of $s. id. per person per week. Fylde gives 
 65 per cent, of its relief to 374 persons, of whom 170 
 are children, i.e. about is. yd. per week each. The 
 method used in this comparison obscures the dif- 
 ferent nature of the pauperism in the two unions. 
 Next, as to the population. Fylde is a Union 
 
THE UNION OF FYLDE. 253 
 
 where there has never been a high rate of pauper- 
 ism. It contains a rapidly growing and flourish- 
 ing watering-place, Blackpool. An immigrant 
 population is not one in which much pauperism 
 is to be found. The rural parts of the Union have 
 been described in some detail by Mr. Wilson Fox 
 for the Royal Commission of Agriculture. " There 
 are few labourers' cottages, . . . because many of 
 the farmers employ no labour, and those who do 
 usually have hired men who live and board in 
 the farmhouses. . . . These are unmarried men." 
 Bradfield, on the other hand, up to 1871, was 
 administered on the policy which now prevails in 
 Fylde, and had, as already stated, a high rate of 
 pauperism. This has been reduced to a low per- 
 centage by a change of administration. Bradfield 
 is a rural district, with a stationary population ; 
 wages are low ; there is a large number of labourers' 
 cottages, and the small farmer cultivating his land 
 with assistance from his family and without hired 
 labour is almost unknown. There is no inducement 
 to the labourer to defer marriage in the hope of 
 acquiring a farm, as in Fylde. The conditions of 
 tenure and labour are thus totally different. Mr. 
 Booth's procedure entirely evades the point of the 
 experts' argument. If in a union where pauperism 
 is naturally high, it can by administration be 
 reduced to the low percentage shown at Bradfield, 
 much more, they argue, could the naturally low 
 
254 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 pauperism of Fylde be reduced to vanishing point 
 by an adoption of the Bradfield system. The 
 argument may be answerable, but Mr. Booth 
 neither answers nor attempts to answer it. 
 
 No candid student of the subject can fail to see 
 the fallacy of these promiscuous comparisons. 
 
 On p. 103 (and here we are glad to agree with 
 him) Mr. Booth refers to the desirability of having 
 some test by which the general poverty of one 
 district can be compared with another. He 
 suggests density of population, but this gives no 
 sort of indication of prosperity or adversity except 
 in the few places which are clearly overcrowded, 
 and it assists us not at all with the rural districts. 
 What we really want is to get some measure of the 
 relative proneness to pauperism in various districts. 
 We very much question if this is possible. Mr. 
 Loch has suggested a method of correcting the 
 recorded rates of pauperism in such a way as to 
 make it possible to compare union with union ; 
 but his device, though ingenious, only professes to 
 remove the uncertainty arising from a fluctuating 
 population. This, we have seen, is only a small 
 part of the problem. Differences of race, of land 
 tenure, of industry, depressions of local trade either 
 permanent or temporary, are matters with which 
 the most highly trained arithmetical fancy must 
 fail to deal. We cannot devise any substitute for 
 experience, common sense, and detailed analysis. 
 
WALES AND THE BORDER COUNTIES. 255 
 
 To one other of Mr. Booth's conclusions drawn 
 from his " negative results " we think it necessary 
 to draw attention. On p. 422 he writes : 
 
 "The improvement shown in the decade 1881-1891 
 is greatest in Wales and the West. Wales on the whole 
 represents an out-door, and the border counties an in- 
 door, policy. In both divisions the rate of improvement 
 is the same, thus suggesting that it is the result of causes 
 other than policy of administration." 
 
 No one, so far as we are aware, has ever argued 
 that administration is the sole cause of the rise 
 and fall of pauperism ; but it is idle to maintain 
 that the varying degrees of facility with which 
 relief is administered can fail to have an effect on 
 the numbers who receive it. 
 
 On p. 505 we get some indication of the way in 
 which the above conclusion is reached. " In Wales 
 itself out-relief is given very freely, but among the 
 border counties the original example of Sir Bald- 
 win Leighton's administration of Atcham has had 
 a great effect." This, as far as we can judge, is 
 the only argument used to show that the border 
 counties pursue an in-door policy. The union 
 with which Sir Baldwin Leighton was officially 
 connected was the Atcham Union. Here, on 
 January i, 1893, the proportion of out-door 
 paupers to in-door was as i to 67. The unions 
 of the border counties selected by Mr. Booth as 
 illustrations of the policy of the late Sir Baldwin 
 
256 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 Leighton show, according to his own statement, 
 a proportion of out-door to in-door paupers of 
 nearly 4 to I. They are, in fact, illustrations of 
 the result of a policy exactly the opposite of that 
 advocated by the late chairman of the Atcham 
 Union. Of course, if we permit ourselves to 
 classify according to our view of what might be, 
 but evidently is not, the sphere of influence of a 
 gentleman who has been dead for twenty-three 
 years, whose estate lay partly in Wales and partly 
 on the Welsh border of Shropshire, who was 
 therefore no more responsible for the unions of 
 the border counties (other than Atcham) than for 
 those of the Welsh counties which were nearer 
 his home, there need be no limit to the conclu- 
 sions to be drawn even from negative results. This 
 may be statistics, but it is not common sense. 
 
 The history of the Union of Atcham contains 
 a singular episode. In 1871 the urban Union of 
 Shrewsbury, with a population of 25,753, was 
 thrown into the rural Union of Atcham, with a 
 population of 18,313. Up to this date Shrewsbury 
 had been an out-relief Union, with a comparatively 
 high rate of pauperism. After the amalgamation 
 the stricter policy of Atcham prevailed, and in 
 1873 within, that is, two years the pauperism 
 of Shrewsbury fell to the level of that of Atcham, 
 and has continued to fall ever since. The following 
 figures are exclusive of lunatics and vagrants : 
 
THE LESSON OF ATCHAM. 
 
 257 
 
 
 Out- door. 
 
 In-door. 
 
 Total. 
 
 Percentage 
 of Out-door 
 to Total 
 Paupers. 
 
 Percentage 
 of Paupers 
 on Popula- 
 tion. 
 
 Jan. i, 1871. 
 Atcham 
 
 Shrewsbury 
 (Still separate unions.) 
 
 Combined Totals 
 
 129 
 
 138 
 
 267 
 
 48-3 
 
 1'4 
 
 638 
 767 
 
 1 88 
 326 
 
 826 
 
 77-2 
 
 3'o 
 
 1093 
 
 70-1 
 
 2-3 
 
 Jan. i, 1873. 
 Atcham (now includ-") 
 ing Shrewsbury) .../ 
 
 264 
 
 283 
 
 547 
 
 48-2 
 
 I'2 
 
 Jan. i, 1881. 
 Atcham (now includ-^l 
 ing Shrewsbury) ...j 
 
 88 
 
 373 
 
 461 
 
 i 
 
 I9'o 
 
 0'94 
 
 Jan. i, 1893. 
 Atcham (now mclud-^1 
 ing Shrewsbury) ...J 
 
 52 
 
 352 
 
 404 
 
 I2'0 
 
 0-83 
 
 It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that under 
 the old system Shrewsbury had a maximum of 
 pauperism, which under the policy followed after 
 the amalgamation was speedily reduced to a 
 minimum. 
 
 This last classification of unions by Mr. Booth 
 can only be explained on the hypothesis that, no 
 doubt quite unconsciously, he holds a brief for 
 the party which, in its advocacy of State Pensions, 
 argues that a reduction of pauperism is impossible 
 by a careful administration of the poor law. Of 
 
 S 
 
258 THE ABUSE OF STATISTICS. 
 
 Mr. Booth's desire to be fair we have already 
 spoken. But this last argument, bearing proof of 
 its irrelevancy on the face of it, fairly takes our 
 breath away. Is such reasoning due to the keen- 
 ness of the advocate, or to the fact that Mr. Booth 
 does not know, from concrete and practical ex- 
 perience, for what facts his figures stand? It is 
 impossible not to admire the industry, public 
 spirit, and good faith of Mr. Booth. At the same 
 time the subject at issue has assumed national 
 importance ; and Mr. Booth is the last man to 
 complain if those who distrust his figures and 
 dispute his conclusions decline to swell the un- 
 critical chorus of adulation which has accompanied 
 all his efforts. 
 
VI. 
 
 THE POOR LAW AND 
 CHARITY. 1 
 
 ALL agencies for the relief of the poor should 
 have two objects in view : (i) The relief of distress ; 
 (2) The removal of the causes of distress. It is 
 sometimes said that the Charity Organisation 
 Society concerns itself too exclusively with the 
 prevention of pauperism, and that it is indifferent 
 to the cause of abundant and adequate relief. 
 On this criticism I will only remark that the 
 bitterest element in the distress of the poor arises, 
 
 1 A paper read at the fourth meeting of the Charity Organisation 
 Conferences, London, May 17, 1893, on the "Co-operation of 
 Charitable Agencies with the Poor Law." An apology may be 
 thought necessary, for republishing a paper addressed to one 
 particular form of society, without some attempt to enlarge its scope, 
 and make it applicable to charitable societies generally. The answer 
 is that as far as the author is aware, no other society has attempted 
 to co-operate with the poor law, to the same large extent as the 
 London Charity Organisation Society. Certainly no Society has 
 done so much to attract public attention to this aspect of the 
 question. It is, therefore, impossible to discuss co-operation of 
 charitable agencies with the poor law without repeated mention of 
 the Charity Organisation Society. 
 
260 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 not from mere poverty, but from the feeling of 
 dependence which must of necessity be an 
 ingredient in every measure of public relief. 
 This feeling cannot be removed, but is rather 
 intensified by liberal measures of public relief. 
 This fact might in itself be justification for those 
 who would say, " The object of our efforts is not 
 only the relief of the poor, but their independence." 
 There is a section of the well-to-do classes of 
 society who, unfortunately, limit their conception 
 of their duty to their poorer neighbours to relief, 
 and plenty of it, from legal or from voluntary 
 sources. It is in their view the ransom due from 
 those who are well to do in this world's goods. 
 There is a section also among the poorer classes 
 who have a vague feeling of some injustice which 
 depresses them. It is foreign to the purpose of 
 this paper to discuss how far this feeling of resent- 
 ment is justified. It is mentioned only to remark 
 that this feeling sometimes makes itself felt by 
 demands on the poor law for forms of relief which 
 have been already tried and condemned in the 
 experience of the past. It is worth notice that 
 such demands, as a rule, are for "work, not 
 charity," and that among the poor themselves little 
 or no support has been given to a mere policy 
 of extensive relief, such as making the old age 
 maintenance of the community a charge on the 
 rates. What the poor want, they say, are better 
 
INDEPENDENCE OF THE POOR. 261 
 
 wages and better conditions of life. Controversy, 
 of course, rages as to what is the best course 
 for the poor to follow in this quest. The Society, 
 unpopular though it may be with the working 
 class, can yet distinctly claim to have them on 
 its side in this matter. Its business is to insist, 
 in the hearing of all men, that independence is 
 a nobler ideal than any form of dependence, 
 however adequately and abundantly relieved. 
 
 As a further justification of the practical wisdom 
 of its attitude in aiming at the independence as 
 well as the relief of the poor, it may point to the 
 fact that during the fifteen years covered by the 
 last report of the Statistical Abstract, 1877-91, 
 the invested savings of the working class have 
 risen from in millions to 220 millions. 1 Here 
 is a new creation of wealth, not arising out of 
 the confiscation of other men's goods, but owned 
 and acquired in accordance with the laws of our 
 country and the principles of private property. 
 Surely a process is here disclosed from which 
 we can justly hope for the spread of the blessing 
 of independence among our labouring class. 
 Contrast this with the vague hopes held out 
 that some species of common property will yet 
 be devised which will make the acquisition of 
 private property by the poor an unnecessary thing. 
 I will not carry this controversy into other fields, 
 
 1 For further particulars, see p. 189. 
 
262 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 but in the province which it has made its own 
 the Society protests against the futile assumption 
 that the progress of the poor can be advanced 
 by inducing them to rely on the common property 
 which can be derived from the voluntary bene- 
 factions of the rich, or from the enforced con- 
 tributions of the taxpayer. 
 
 The Society has, however, taken up no 
 doctrinaire position ; its subject matter is the 
 charitable effort of the community at large, and 
 if it can be shown that there is no adequate 
 provision made for a certain form of distress, 
 the Society, as is shown by its recent report on 
 the condition of the feeble-minded and epileptic, 
 is ready to advocate an extension of charitable 
 effort. In the case cited, a certain form of 
 co-operation between the poor law and voluntary 
 effort is recommended. It is suggested that 
 charitable agencies shall establish and manage 
 the necessary institutions for these unfortunates, 
 and that the guardians shall be permitted to send 
 patients there and pay for them out of the rates. 
 Under certain restrictions this form of co-operation 
 already exists, but I think I am right in saying, 
 that in every instance the persons in whose favour 
 this exceptional provision is made are, so to speak, 
 marked out and separated from the rest of the 
 community automatically or, as it is sometimes put, 
 by the " act of God." 
 
THE LINE OF DIVISION. 263 
 
 By reason of this condition, it is obvious that 
 we get rid of some very familiar difficulties in 
 poor law administration ; the capricious discrimi- 
 nation of guardians and the rankling feeling of 
 injustice to which it gives rise ; and, secondly, that 
 deterioration of character which results when 
 the poor are tempted, as they are by out-door 
 relief, to qualify themselves for pauperism by 
 presenting themselves in a real or feigned con- 
 dition of destitution. It is the absence of these 
 dangers that warrants the Society in urging that 
 from one source or another ample provision should 
 be made for this class. 
 
 Let us go a step further, and attempt to apply 
 this automatic principle as a dividing line between 
 two classes of pauperism : 
 
 (1) Those who become paupers by fulfilling or 
 accepting an automatic test, (a) Those afflicted 
 by some congenital disabling disease, e.g. epilepsy, 
 deficient intellect ; (b) those who accept in some 
 shape or another the workhouse test. 
 
 (2) Those who are selected arbitrarily by 
 guardians for out-door relief, and who in many 
 cases (it is impossible to say how many) have been 
 brought to their present condition by the attraction 
 of a maintenance to be obtained without effort. 
 
 With regard to the first class of paupers those 
 determined by an automatic test there is a very 
 large field for the work of charitable volunteers. 
 
264 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 As recommended in the Society's report already 
 mentioned, charitable bodies may establish and 
 manage institutions to which paupers may be 
 sent. Volunteers may with great advantage visit 
 the poor law institutions, schools, infirmaries, 
 workhouses ; may organise employment for the 
 old and infirm on the lines of the Brabazon 
 experiment ; may take steps to help inmates of 
 the workhouse to make a new start in life ; may 
 by judicious interposition save young people from 
 lives of pauperism ; and do a variety of kindly 
 actions which it is impossible to enumerate. 
 
 Here the poor law and charitable agencies 
 combine to assist the same person, and for the 
 sake of clearness I will term this form of action 
 co-operation proper. 
 
 A totally different account, and a totally 
 different recommendation, is to be given in regard 
 to the second class of pauper. 
 
 Those who have paid most attention to the 
 question condemn the state of the law which 
 permits a man to receive from the rates an 
 addition to his income to be used in exactly the 
 same way as a similar sum derived from wages 
 or savings, on the sole condition that he can 
 succeed in persuading guardians that he is 
 destitute. It has been shown over and over again 
 that relief given under these ccriU'itions is rarely 
 adequate and is always demoralising. 
 
SUBDIVISION OF LABOUR. 265 
 
 Those, therefore, who wish well to the poor 
 are anxious to reduce the evil results of the 
 present law to the smallest dimensions. Their 
 recommendation is simple. They say to guardians, 
 Cease to give this demoralising form of relief, and 
 allow such relief as may be required by people 
 at their own homes to be administered by voluntary 
 agencies. This form of co-operation I will call the 
 subdivision of labour as between the poor law and 
 voluntary agencies. 
 
 By this division of labour there will result, they 
 argue, a great diminution in the burden borne by 
 the poor law, and a great diminution also in the 
 burden borne by charitable institutions, for a third 
 agency will be called into existence, viz. the 
 successful effort of the poor themselves. If these 
 expectations are realised, if, by this policy, sickness, 
 old age, premature death, and the ordinary risks 
 of life are more and more provided against by the 
 provident associations of the poor, it is obvious 
 that the demand both on compulsory and voluntary 
 funds will be a diminishing quantity. 
 
 For this reason there is a disposition to argue, 
 by those who hold this view, that we should 
 not commit ourselves irrevocably to the pro- 
 position that the feeble-minded and the imbecile 
 should be relegated to the care of the law and 
 made a burden on ratepayers ; for it is maintained 
 that in the future in the not very distant future, 
 
266 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 let us hope the ordinary risks of life will be so 
 fully provided for by the thrift associations of 
 the poor, that the contributions of the charitable 
 will be set free for extraordinary occasions of 
 distress such as arise from epilepsy and deficient 
 intellect. 
 
 This condition of affairs has not arrived. It 
 is my task to show that this prospect of reformation 
 is not Utopian. I will endeavour to do this by 
 a brief reference to the past and present history 
 of the subject. And at the outset let me insist 
 on one point which I believe to be the governing 
 truth in all this controversy. Reformation will 
 not come from any jerrymandering of the poor 
 law or charitable funds, but from the development 
 of the poor man's capacity for a life of inde- 
 pendence. All our administration of legal and 
 voluntary relief should be made subservient to this 
 idea, provided always that adequate relief is not 
 thereby withheld. 
 
 The most serious crisis of poor law adminis- 
 tration which this country has ever experienced 
 was that previous to the Poor Law Amendment 
 Act of 1834. The idea that an able-bodied 
 working man could support himself and his family 
 was regarded as chimerical. Every man received 
 an allowance from the rates in proportion to the 
 number of his children, and the employer obtained 
 his services at a nominal wage. The single man 
 
THE OLD POOR LA W. 267 
 
 or the man without a family was not employed, 
 because the farmer or manufacturer had to pay 
 his wages in full. The poorer classes of the 
 country lived in a state of discontent and open 
 rebellion ; land went out of cultivation because 
 its produce was not sufficient to pay the rate. 
 The country was brought to the verge of ruin. 
 The Poor Law Commissioners inquired and 
 reported on this state of affairs. Now what was 
 their recommendation ? It was simple enough. 
 Stop, they said, all out-door relief to the able- 
 bodied. Throw the poor man absolutely on his 
 own resources, and do not fear for the result. 
 Their advice was carried into legislation, and, as 
 all now admit, with the happiest results. It is 
 hardly an exaggeration to say that we have got 
 rid of the able-bodied pauper or, to be more 
 correct, and the distinction is important, we have 
 got rid of those economic conditions which 
 condemned the able-bodied man of that day to 
 pauperism and dependence. Poor law reform 
 does not war against the person of the pauper, 
 but against the economic conditions which arise 
 when the poor are encouraged to look to rates 
 rather than to wages and savings for their 
 maintenance, and against the formation of the 
 parasitic habits of dependence, the necessary 
 correlatives to this economic condition. 
 
 But to return. We have got rid of able-bodied 
 
268 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 pauperism, but we are still struggling with a 
 pauperism that is not able-bodied. 
 
 Let us review the situation briefly. Throughout 
 a great part of the country, more especially in the 
 rural districts, there is still a perfectly unbroken 
 tradition of pauperism handed on from generation 
 to generation. It is assumed that the labourer 
 must become a pauper in his old age, in his 
 time of temporary sickness ; that his widow and 
 children must at his death become pensioners on 
 the rates. 
 
 Is it possible for us, without inflicting undue 
 hardship, to break this tradition ? and if so, how 
 is it to be done? Time does not permit me to 
 elaborate all the detail of the argument. I will 
 state, however, in baldest outline, the policy which 
 I think has now become an integral part of the 
 theory of those who support the Charity Organisa- 
 tion Society. 
 
 In the first place, we rely with absolute con- 
 fidence on the precedent of the abolition of able- 
 bodied pauperism. The only way in which the 
 legislator or the administrator can promote the 
 reduction of pauperism is by abolishing or 
 restricting the legal endowments provided for 
 pauperism. The country can have, there is no 
 doubt of it, exactly as many paupers as it chooses 
 to pay for. Abolish or restrict that endowment, 
 or the more acceptable form of that endowment 
 
PRIVATE CHARITY. 269 
 
 I mean, of course, out-door relief and new 
 agencies are called into activity, man's natural 
 capacity for independence, the natural ties of 
 relationship and friendship, and under this head 
 I would include private as distinguished from 
 public charity, for private charity in any real sense 
 of the word is not a virtue practised toward a 
 stranger, but arises out of the natural affection 
 of neighbours, and proceeds on the gospel rule 
 of seventy times seven, rather than on any pedantic 
 weighing of merit and demerit. By the action 
 of these forces pauperism, so to speak, evaporates. 
 
 I insist on this aspect of the question, for I think 
 it is apt to be overlooked. The abolition or 
 limitation of out-door relief is urged not merely 
 because out-door relief can be best administered 
 by voluntary agencies, but because its abolition 
 restores men to their independence. 
 
 There are many subsidiary reasons why it is 
 desirable that the poor law should confine itself 
 to giving relief within the walls of some one of 
 its institutions, and leave the relief to be given 
 at people's homes to voluntary agencies; but I 
 venture to think that the reason I have given is the 
 paramount reason, viz. that this policy more than 
 any other calls out the successful effort of the poor 
 themselves. Every other consideration, though 
 some of them are of great force, 1 is relatively trivial. 
 
 1 To one of these other considerations I am conscious that I have 
 
270 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 Now let me meet the objection which is at once 
 raised to this. It is often said, but I think only 
 by persons who have no practical experience of 
 such matters, that there is no difference brought 
 about by transferring the duty of giving out-door 
 relief from a legal to a voluntary agency, and 
 seeing no difference they ask what is the necessity 
 for this. If we could secure really good boards 
 of guardians, Professor Marshall has argued, 1 they 
 would administer out-relief with quite as much 
 discrimination as any Charity Organisation Society. 
 This argument evades the whole point of our 
 contention. We do not rely on the greater 
 discrimination used by a voluntary agency. We 
 
 not, in the text, or perhaps elsewhere in this volume, done full 
 justice. It is that the remedial power of personal sympathy is the 
 only force which can counteract the enervating influence inseparable 
 from all methods of relieving distress. Obviously this personal 
 element cannot exist in a system of legal relief, nor is it easy 
 to preserve its healing virtue in large schemes of public charity. 
 This aspect of the question has been insisted on with great 
 earnestness in the teaching and example of Miss Octavia Hill and 
 many other devoted friends of the poor, and, in theory, at all events, 
 its truth is fully recognised. Of the immense amount of good that 
 is being done by quiet, indefatigable, personal effort, I am deeply 
 conscious ; if I have said less about it than it deserves, it is because 
 my argument has been chiefly concerned to show the vast amount 
 of harm that may be done by systems of legal and public relief, 
 from which the element of personal sympathy is necessarily absent, 
 and, as a consequence, more attention has been bestowed on 
 proving the need of reform in a system of relief which creates 
 distress, than on setting out the details of admirable and devoted 
 work done in the relief of unavoidable and unmerited suffering. 
 1 Nos. 5 and 6 of the Economic Journal. 
 
THE MODERATION OF THE POOR. 271 
 
 rely on a much more efficacious protection, viz. 
 the greater moderation of the poor in making 
 claim on a charitable fund. 
 
 Legal relief seems to be, indeed is, the right 
 of all the poor equally. All are "poor," that 
 is, have an insufficient income ; application for 
 relief, therefore, is made by all, or at all events 
 by many more than will apply to a charitable 
 fund. 
 
 The success which has attended the administra- 
 tion of the poor law in Bradfield and Whitechapel 
 is often, and no doubt with justice, ascribed to 
 administration, but it can never sufficiently be 
 insisted on that the action of the poor law is 
 purely negative it is restriction, abolition ; the 
 positive element in the reform is the quickened 
 development of the spirit of independence among 
 the poor themselves. This quickened development, 
 again, rests on the fact (too often ignored by the 
 mere theorist) that the moderation of the poor 
 is such that they will not, except in case of 
 necessity, apply for in-door relief, or for relief from 
 the funds of a charitable society, if those funds 
 are protected by a very slight exercise of dis- 
 crimination and inquiry. 
 
 I am not merely theorising as to the existence of 
 this moderation of the poor in pressing demands on 
 charitable funds, as the following facts will show : 
 In St. George-in-the-East the out-door relief 
 
272 THE POOR LA IV AND CHARITY. 
 
 administered by the guardians in 1871 was .8916 ; 
 in 1874, 439 1. It is now a merely nominal sum, 
 and the local Charity Organisation Society is 
 giving relief at the rate of about 600 per annum. 
 The clergy of the Union are firm supporters of 
 the Society, and the indiscriminate almsgiving 
 is probably less now than in the old out-relief 
 days. As a matter of fact, moreover, the com- 
 mittee does not refuse many cases. The trade 
 of the Union is, on the whole, less prosperous 
 than in old days, owing to the decline of the 
 shipbuilding and sugar industries. To what, then, 
 are we to attribute the fact that the Society 
 (which, I may add, has never refused a case for 
 lack of funds) has had to meet a demand so 
 comparatively slight? They have never been 
 so absurd as to pretend that the diminution is 
 due solely to their greater industry in investigation 
 and discrimination. Far from it. It is due much 
 more to what I have termed the moderation of 
 the poor. 
 
 It has frequently been pointed out that it is 
 necessary to restrain the acceptance of poor law 
 relief by deterrent conditions. There is something 
 repugnant to our feelings in this. I would have 
 it observed, therefore, that by relegating the 
 duty of giving relief to people at their homes to 
 voluntary agencies, the condition of deterrence 
 is replaced effectually by a much more honourable 
 
THE EQUITY OF A STRICT SYSTEM. 273 
 
 and salutary safeguard I mean the moderation 
 of the poor themselves. 
 
 The offer of institutional relief, to which legal 
 relief is by our proposal confined, will be said 
 by some to be inhumanly deterrent. Such an 
 opinion requires some qualification. It is urged 
 by the Poor Law Commissioners, and ratified by 
 common sense, that the condition of the pauper 
 ought to be inferior to that of the poorest inde- 
 pendent labourer. Now, the condition of the 
 poorest independent labourer is poor indeed, and 
 attempts to maintain the pauper at his own home, 
 in a still inferior condition, result inevitably in 
 inadequacy of relief. Juries occasionally find 
 verdicts of starvation at inquests on the death 
 of persons in receipt of out-door relief. Such a 
 state of things cannot be thought satisfactory, 
 and it is aggravated by the feeling of injustice 
 which arises because all are not treated alike. 
 There is no union where every one gets out-door 
 relief. Some are everywhere refused. The 
 inferiority of the pauper's condition ought not, 
 on grounds of humanity, to be brought about by 
 inadequacy of relief. What is the alternative? 
 Nothing more than this, that the same measure 
 should be given to all, namely, carefully managed 
 and adequate relief within the walls of some poor 
 law establishment. When the Irish poor law was 
 created it was feared that the scale of maintenance 
 
 T 
 
274 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 in the workhouse, which, relatively to the standard 
 of living of the Irish peasant, was ample, even 
 luxurious, would attract too many applicants. 
 Those who understood the question insisted that 
 there was no fear of that. The result proved 
 that they were right. The dilemma is a simple 
 enough one. It is desirable that the condition 
 of the pauper shall be inferior to that of the 
 poorest independent labourer. Will you effect this 
 by giving inadequate relief and half-starving the 
 pauper at his own home ? Or will you not rather 
 import the necessary element of inferiority into 
 the lot of the pauper by attaching conditions of 
 restraint and discipline to an adequate and, on 
 the whole, comfortable maintenance ? On grounds 
 of humanity, quite apart from the fatal influence 
 of out-door relief on the thrifty habits of the 
 people, can we have any doubt as to the best 
 choice in this dilemma ? 
 
 There is no wish to pursue the pauper with 
 penalties. His destitution arises from the fact 
 that, from one reason or another, he has failed to 
 fit himself into the framework of free economic 
 society. If there are causes which have brought 
 him to this pass, removable, without injustice 
 to others, by legislation, by all means let them 
 be removed. In the mean time, his condition is a 
 misfortune ; no legislation can reverse this verdict 
 and convert failure into success. Remedies are 
 
INDISCRIMINATE CHARITY. 275 
 
 only a choice of evils. Civilised society will not 
 permit the unfit to perish, nor will it ruin itself by 
 permanently fostering failure by giving it all the 
 rewards of success. In a sound administration 
 of the poor law it takes a third course. It gives 
 a maintenance to failure more adequate than that 
 which can be won by those who live on the border 
 line between success and failure ; but, in order that 
 this shall not be a premium on failure, it imposes 
 conditions of discipline and restraint. 
 
 To return, however, to our proposed division 
 of labour. Although it is true that the modera- 
 tion of the poor and their latent capacity for 
 independence will contribute largely to the success 
 of this policy, still it is necessary that schemes of 
 public charity should be conducted with care and 
 discrimination. I can best explain my meaning 
 by an illustration. 
 
 The heaviest year our Society ever had in St. 
 George's was 1886, the year of the Mansion House 
 Fund. This fund was raised amid great excite- 
 ment and boundless advertisement. The idea of 
 relief was in the air, and though some 2000 was 
 expended in the district by the Mansion House 
 Relief Committee, the only result was that a larger 
 demand was made on other agencies. The mode- 
 ration of the poor was, in this instance, and by the 
 means above mentioned, broken down. The fund 
 was happily only temporary, but its influence while 
 
276 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 it lasted was very similar to the state of things 
 brought about by a permanent system of lavish 
 out-relief. The poor were kept in a state of 
 speculative ferment, and during the sittings of 
 the Mansion House Relief Committee application 
 for relief was made to it on behalf of about one- 
 third of the whole population. 
 
 Public charities of a permanent character 
 managed in this manner would, without doubt, 
 be very nearly as mischievous as out-door relief. 
 Public charity, therefore, should be administered 
 without ostentation, and under the safeguard of 
 full and deliberate investigation. In this way, 
 and in this way only, can the whole benefit of the 
 policy now advocated be secured. I use the term 
 public charity advisedly, for the action of private 
 charity, as already indicated, is not a matter to 
 be controlled by organisation societies, whose work 
 lies mainly with funds arising from endowments 
 and subscriptions, and from the donations of 
 the rich for persons unknown to them. Private 
 charity, in the strict sense in which I use the 
 term, is liable to error. A father may be over- 
 indulgent to a son, and a friend, by misplaced 
 liberality, may confirm a friend in unprofitable 
 habits ; but this is a form of error not to be dealt 
 with ex cathedra by any organ of public criticism. 
 
 The co-operation of the poor law with charitable 
 agencies, as carried out in three of the poorest 
 
THE C.O.S. IN THE EAST END. 277 
 
 unions of London Stepney, Whitechapel, and 
 St. George's was commended in the report of 
 the Select Committee of the House of Lords, and 
 the experiment is often quoted in poor law dis- 
 cussions. There is, however, one misapprehension 
 on the subject which I should like to correct. 
 The reform of the poor law in these three unions 
 was begun and carried out before our system of 
 organised charity had taken root in the soil. The 
 poor law reform in Whitechapel and Stepney be- 
 gan in 1870-71. The first report of the Tower 
 Hamlets Pension Committee is dated 1878. In 
 1879, the Whitechapel and St. George's Com- 
 mittees had not even separate offices, and at an 
 earlier date there was only one Committee for the 
 whole of the Tower Hamlets, which used to meet 
 in a little room in Philpot Street. 1 We have been 
 enabled to extend and consolidate our operations 
 because the poor law guardians have taken the 
 
 1 The following note has been supplied to me by Mr. Loch 
 with reference to the early history of the Society in the East 
 End: 
 
 The East End Inquiry Committee was opened in February, 1871, 
 and continued to be the only office for five of the East London poor 
 law divisions (viz. Whitechapel, St. George- in-the-East, Poplar, 
 Stepney, Mile End Old Town) till February, 1873, when the joint 
 Whitechapel and St. George-in-the-East Committee and the Poplar 
 Committee were formed. The East End Inquiry Committee became 
 in April, 1873, the Stepney and Mile End Old Town Inquiry Com- 
 mittee. In March, 1875, separate Committees were formed at 
 Whitechapel and St. George-in-the-East, and they continued to 
 make use of only one office. In April, 1875, separate Committees 
 were formed in Stepney and Mile End Old Town. 
 
278 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 first step and confined themselves to giving in-door 
 relief only. 
 
 It is impossible to make any subdivision of 
 labour till the more powerful party to the agree- 
 ment has become satisfied of its necessity. I 
 argue, therefore, that poor law guardians must 
 take the first step, under a profound conviction 
 that, whether there be an organisation of charitable 
 agencies, or whether there be none, they have no 
 right to withhold from their union the benefit of 
 sound administration. As a matter of fact, there 
 can be no doubt that, if guardians have the courage 
 and disinterestedness to face this reform, there 
 will also be found among them men of sufficient 
 position and energy to organise the charitable 
 agencies ; but I confess there seems to me to be 
 very little to be done till the policy of guardians 
 is animated by a profound conviction of the 
 necessity of reform. 
 
 At the same time, though I must insist that the 
 initiative lies with the poor law authorities, I think 
 that our organisation of charity has been of service 
 in strengthening the party of reform on the various 
 boards. Guardians are able to say that provision 
 has been made to deal with exceptional cases, 
 and they have not been deterred from continuing 
 to the union the enormous benefit of a sound 
 administration. They have never (and this is a 
 danger to which I desire to draw attention) 
 
" MUNICIPALISA TION" OF CHARITY. 279 
 
 asserted a right to choose our applicants for us, 
 or to override our decisions. The two bodies are 
 entirely distinct, and there is no publicly ratified 
 compact between us. The only bond between 
 us is that we both believe that by the tactics 
 pursued the poor are learning to do without the 
 help of either of us. 
 
 The proposal of Professor Marshall, that Charity 
 Organisation Societies should be recognised as a 
 part of the legal machinery of public relief, would, 
 therefore, be fatal to our usefulness. The co- 
 operation which we advocate is, therefore, more 
 a division of labour than co-operation pure and 
 simple. It consists in this, that the poor law should 
 confine itself to institutional relief; as a result the 
 greater part of the out-door legal relief now given 
 will be rendered unnecessary by reason of the 
 increased independence of the poor, and the 
 remainder is so small in amount that it can be 
 dealt with by voluntary charity. 
 
 The administration of the poor law and of 
 voluntary relief should go hand in hand, animated 
 by the common purpose not only to relieve ade- 
 quately, but, as it has been well put, to make the 
 influence of our relief system centrifugal, and not 
 centripetal. When this purpose is not present in 
 the minds of administrators, the most senseless 
 and disastrous competition between the poor law 
 and charity is set up. 
 
280 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 The City of London is a contiguous Union to 
 Whitechapel. At the time of the Lords' Select 
 Committee the pauperism of Whitechapel was 16 
 per 1000. In the City it was 62 per 1000. A 
 few years ago I made some remarks on this con- 
 trast, and I was taken to task by an influential 
 City paper. This gentleman, it was said, is very 
 badly informed about the City union. " Many 
 poor persons have come into the City for the small 
 charities which have hitherto been obtainable in 
 different parishes, and it is hardly fair to compare 
 the City " with other places. How far this is an 
 exculpation of the City guardians I do not stop 
 to inquire, but it does confirm my view that, where 
 no definite division of labour exists, the larger and 
 more numerous the charitable institutions, the 
 greater the burden on the poor law. In the chaos 
 here delineated both legal and voluntary relief act 
 with an overpowering centripetal force, so much 
 so that their warmest defenders can only excuse 
 the authorities by saying, "What can they do? 
 The place is a nursery for paupers." 
 
 Let me say a few words on the experience of 
 those country unions which have reformed their 
 poor law administration. In none of them, as far 
 as I know, has there been established any Charity 
 Organisation Society. The contrary is often 
 asserted, but without foundation. A charity organi- 
 sation society is very desirable, nay, even necessary, 
 
IN THE COUNTRY. 281 
 
 where there are a number of public charities and 
 a large mass of population, but there is much less 
 necessity for it in a sparsely populated rural 
 district. The squire and the parson and the 
 charitable persons of the neighbourhood ought 
 to exercise their common sense, and if there be 
 many of them there is no reason why, if they 
 choose, they should not meet in a committee, but 
 neither at Bradfield nor at Brixworth has this 
 been found practicable or desirable. The late 
 Mr. Bland-Garland told a friend of mine, who has 
 repeated it to me, that when he became responsible 
 for the administration at Bradfield he put aside 
 a certain annual sum 100, I think which he 
 was prepared to give away, in order to make 
 the transition to a stricter system more easy. 
 He added that in the first year the demand 
 on his purse did not reach half that sum, and 
 that in subsequent years it became gradually 
 less. 
 
 Very similar is the information given to me by 
 Mr. Bury, Chairman of the Brixworth Board. He 
 has from his own resources, and from moneys 
 entrusted to him, a small fund which he has used 
 much in the way described by Mr. Bland-Garland. 
 He is definitely of opinion that he would much 
 rather not have any organisation society. It is 
 not there, at all events necessary. I do not 
 think I misinterpret Mr. Bury's opinion if I say 
 
282 THE POOR LA W AND CHARITY. 
 
 that he does not regard the reform of adminis- 
 tration at Brixworth as a mere transition from 
 dependence on poor law relief to a dependence 
 on charitable funds, but rather that under the 
 administration for which he is responsible the poor 
 are successfully learning to achieve an absolute 
 independence for themselves. This desirable 
 result would be endangered if a charitable 
 committee were established permanently and 
 prominently before the eyes of the people. I 
 mention Mr. Bury's opinion and experience 
 even though it may seem to show that co- 
 operation with charity is not necessary because 
 it emphasises what I have already stated, viz. that 
 the positive element of reform in all this matter 
 is neither charity nor the poor law, but the spirit 
 of independence in the people themselves. 
 
 In the foregoing remarks I have advisedly 
 avoided going into detail. The first step in reform 
 is to convince the majority of a board of guardians 
 of the necessity of reform. The details of the 
 methods taken to give effect to the principle 
 must differ widely in each district and with each 
 board. It would be very desirable, I think, that 
 the Society should publish one or two statements 
 similar to the late Mr. Bland-Garland's paper, 
 "From Pauperism to Manliness." It would be 
 interesting to have an account of the success of 
 the cross-visiting system pursued in Manchester ; 
 
NEED OF IN FORM A TION. 283 
 
 of the method of reducing pauperism by rigid 
 investigation, as in Paddington ; of the successful 
 establishment of a provident medical society 
 covering the whole union, as at Milton in Kent ; 
 of the history of efforts to affiliate provident 
 societies to hospitals, with a view of making our 
 hospital system the auxiliary, and not the hostile 
 competitor, of friendly societies and doctors' clubs ; 
 of the efforts for the improvement and better 
 management of the in-door establishments in 
 Whitechapel and elsewhere, and a thousand other 
 matters which will readily occur to you all. I 
 hope this meeting may encourage both the London 
 and the Provincial Societies in collecting and 
 circulating in a readable form information on 
 such points. 
 
 If time had permitted I should have liked to 
 say a good deal on these matters of detail, but 
 I hope I shall not be blamed for confining myself 
 on this occasion to the larger aspect of the 
 question. I have presented to you an ambitious 
 programme the reformation of public opinion on 
 this whole question. 
 
 I do not disguise from you the difficulties, but 
 to some minds its attractiveness is its difficulty, 
 the splendid opportunity that it offers for being 
 unpopular in a good cause. My reading of poor 
 law literature has discovered to me one little bit 
 of sentiment. It is where Sir G. Nicholls, to 
 
284 THE POOR LAW AND CHARITY. 
 
 whom as much as to any man the country owes 
 the reform of 1834, relates how, on his return 
 to his old home at Southwell, he was met in the 
 market place by a party of labourers, who shook 
 him warmly by the hand and thanked him for 
 having been their best friend. In a momentary 
 lapse from the dry, unemotional language of a 
 public official, he bids us imagine how "gratifying" 
 the incident must have been to one whose con- 
 scientious discharge of his duty had for years 
 made him one of the best abused men in England. 
 There is one element of encouragement which 
 I think worth mention ; there is no subject in 
 which there is a more complete unanimity of 
 opinion among persons who have made any 
 intelligent study of the question. Among the 
 recognised authorities there is absolute conformity. 
 The enemy in this case is ignorance and inex- 
 perience. There has been a disposition in the 
 past to relegate this matter to the " loose ends " 
 of society to the unemployed busybody of the 
 leisure class. But the question is becoming urgent 
 it is becoming a question for statesmen and, 
 with the hour, let us hope there will come the 
 men of courage and insight. Hitherto the 
 politician has not helped us much, but rather 
 the reverse. Legislation of various kinds is 
 proposed, most of it of a mischievous character ; 
 but the debate is only just begun, and those who 
 
THE OUTLOOK HOPEFUL. 285 
 
 have for years made study of this question must 
 not be silent. I confidently believe that we shall 
 be able to defeat the pessimism of those who 
 assume that inadequacy of wages and spendthrift 
 habits are ineradicable incidents in the life of the 
 labourer. We, at all events, cannot admit that 
 the only solution of this question is to be found 
 in conferring easy terms of pauperism on those 
 who were born for independence and freedom. 
 
VII. 
 
 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 1 
 
 MR. H. W. WOLFF has recently put within the 
 reach of English readers a most interesting account 
 of the history and constitution of Co-operative 
 Banks in Germany and Italy. 2 For fuller informa- 
 tion on this subject the reader is referred to this 
 excellent work. The object of the following pages 
 is merely to discuss how far these institutions of 
 popular credit are fitted to take a place among the 
 provident associations of the poorer classes of this 
 country. 
 
 Before considering any proposal for the es- 
 tablishment of popular credit, there is a pre- 
 liminary question to be asked. What is the 
 function of Credit in the wealth-producing 
 mechanism of industrial society? No English 
 writer seems to me to have apprehended this 
 matter so profoundly, and at the same time 
 explained it so lucidly, as Mr. H. D. Macleod, 
 in his various works on the theory of banking 
 and credit Briefly, Credit is Capital. By means 
 
 1 Reprinted from The National Review t January, 1894. 
 
 2 " People's Banks." By H. W. Wolff. Longmans, 1893. 
 
CREDIT. 287 
 
 of credit a man is enabled to pass into currency as 
 capital his mere promise to pay. The value of 
 such a promise to pay rests on the trustworthiness 
 and industry of the promiser, and on the general 
 proposition that human effort properly applied is 
 productive of harvest sufficient to reward all who 
 contribute to the result. A man, therefore, who 
 possesses credit capitalises his reputation, and 
 acquires thereby a better equipment for the enter- 
 prise in which he is engaged. If the operation is 
 successful, a solid addition to the wealth of the 
 community is made ; if it is unsuccessful, a certain 
 amount of loss is sustained ; but, as far as the 
 country at large is concerned, it is immaterial 
 whether the capital consisted in hard cash or 
 material actually hoarded by the operator, or in 
 credit advanced to him by other tradesmen, or by 
 credit associations. Credit, and the vast addition 
 to the national wealth thereby created, can only 
 arise in a settled state of society. It is based on 
 the general trustworthiness and the mutual con- 
 fidence of the persons who avail themselves of its 
 assistance. It depends on the general law that 
 the punctual performance of contract is the rule 
 and not the exception. A farmer trusts his seed 
 to the ground in the assurance that the natural 
 sequence of seed-time and harvest will be main- 
 tained. So the granting of credit in the ordinary 
 business of the world is based on the assumption 
 
288 PEOPLES BANKS. 
 
 that, if the industry of men of character and in- 
 telligence can be set in motion, a harvest of profit 
 will be reaped for all concerned for consumer, 
 for labourer, and for capitalist. Human energy, 
 which in a highly-developed state of industry 
 can only be set in motion with the assistance of 
 capital (and in many cases the capital will take 
 the form of credit), is just as prolific a source of 
 profit or harvest as the action of the seasons in 
 agriculture. 
 
 The illustration most frequently given of the 
 beneficial results of a well-organised system of 
 credit is the banking system of Scotland. Mr. 
 Macleod has pointed out that 1 50 years ago Scot- 
 land was perhaps the most backward country in 
 Europe. She owes her advance from this state of 
 barbarism, in part at all events, to her judicious 
 use of the instrument of credit. The broad fields, 
 which are now the scene of the most scientific 
 farming in the world, were then many of them 
 barren heath and swamp. The men were there 
 and the land was there ; but there was no realised 
 capital for the development of the country. At 
 this juncture the banking system of Scotland 
 stepped in, and by supplying the first instalments 
 of capital in the form of credit, laid a permanent 
 foundation for the agricultural industry of Scot- 
 land. Agriculture was, as the event has proved, a 
 field in which there was profitable employment for 
 
SCOTCH BANKS. 289 
 
 labour and capital. Even at the present day the 
 Scotch farmer receives a considerable amount of 
 assistance from the bank on what is known as the 
 " Cash Credit " system, and the additional capital 
 so imported into the industry is without doubt an 
 advantage to all concerned. In contemplating the 
 finished result of this effort we must not overlook 
 the fact that progress has advanced gradually in 
 the wake of successful experiment. The begin- 
 nings were small, and the originators of the system 
 had little thought of the vast possibilities of the 
 business which they were founding. Every advance 
 has been tentative, till proved successful by experi- 
 ment. The actual process may be briefly described. 
 In the rural districts of Scotland there was no 
 capital available to carry on agriculture on im- 
 proved methods. A bank agent appeared on the 
 scene, the emissary of some great corporation with 
 head offices in Edinburgh. A box of bank-notes 
 was sent down to him from the capital. The notes 
 were of the value of i, and were repayable in 
 gold on demand. The farmer went to the bank 
 agent with such security as he could command : 
 his lease (according to the Scottish custom) of 
 nineteen years, the guarantee of a friend, or merely 
 with his reputation as an honest man. The bank 
 accepted the security, and put a sum at the " Cash 
 Credit " of the farmer. Against this he drew cheques 
 which were paid to him in notes ; with these he paid 
 
 U 
 
290 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 for wages, machinery, manure, and the apparatus 
 of agriculture. If this form of enterprise had 
 been unsuccessful the banks would have withdrawn 
 their assistance after a few experiments and with a 
 trifling loss. Obviously, therefore, the real security 
 for this most important development of credit has 
 been, not the technical security obtainable in each 
 case, but the probability, which, in process of time, 
 grew to a certainty, that in nine cases out of ten a 
 competent, trustworthy man could, under given 
 conditions employ capital profitably. It is the 
 business of a dealer in credit to study these con- 
 ditions scientifically. Naturally, experiment is his 
 chief source of knowledge, and he discovered, 
 ambulando, that credit or capital could be advan- 
 tageously advanced to trustworthy persons engaged 
 in agriculture. 
 
 The dealings of Scottish banks with the farmer 
 have admittedly been of great service to the 
 country, and justify Mr. Macleod's comparison 
 of them to the fertilising waters of the Nile. 
 Through their instrumentality men who would 
 otherwise have remained labourers or farmers, 
 struggling vainly against a climate and soil by no 
 means naturally productive, have been given the 
 means of turning a wilderness into a fruitful land. 
 Apart from the economical aspect of the question, 
 it is worthy of note that, when the banks found 
 they could do sound business by advancing money 
 
THE LABOURERS CREDIT. 291 
 
 to farmers of skill and trustworthiness, there arose 
 a demand for men of that stamp. It would be 
 curious, and perhaps profitable, to inquire how far 
 the premium thus set upon character has been con- 
 ducive to creating that solid trustworthiness which 
 is the proverbial possession of the Scots middle- 
 class. There is very little in the earlier annals of 
 Scotland to lead one to expect that the character 
 of her people would be developed so conspicuously 
 in this direction, and one is tempted to hazard the 
 conjecture that here is one of those harmonies of 
 social adjustment which ever follow on freedom of 
 enterprise and freedom of trade. 
 
 The Scottish system of banking, however, has 
 not succeeded in putting credit at the disposal of 
 the mere labourer. Are, we, therefore, to conclude 
 that there is no form of industry in which the 
 labourer can use capital so as to preserve his 
 capital intact, and in addition earn enough to pay 
 wages and interest? This is the problem which 
 Mr. Wolff's interesting volume invites us to con- 
 sider. It is his contention that People's Banks as 
 they are organised in Italy and Germany have 
 taken a very important step forward in the solution 
 of this difficulty. 
 
 We need not complicate the comparatively 
 simple issue now before us by discussing the 
 right of banks to issue notes. This is a very im- 
 portant question ; but it is not immediately 
 
292 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 relevant to our present purpose. The Italian 
 and German popular banks have not, as I under- 
 stand, any right of note-issue. The credit which 
 they themselves require in order to give assistance 
 to their humble constituents is obtained from 
 larger banking institutions, and this practically 
 comes to much the same thing. 
 
 The popular banks operate principally among 
 the peasant proprietors. There are no peasant 
 proprietors in this country, and, as we have seen 
 in the case of Scotland, agricultural credit is 
 duly provided by our commercial banks. As far 
 as agriculture is concerned there has been in our 
 own country no very crying evil to amend. It 
 has been otherwise in Germany ; and in inventing 
 a remedy men appear to have hit upon an ex- 
 pedient which will prove useful over a far larger 
 area than that in which it was originally intended 
 to serve. The following quotation from Mr. Wolff 
 will best describe the crisis : 
 
 " Under this oppressive system," he writes, " in 
 1846-1847 the * Jews' were making hay. Among the 
 poor peasantry the distress was great. And the peas- 
 ants' distress was the Jews' opportunity. Every little 
 wattle-cottage and tumbledown house was mortgaged ; 
 most of the peasants' cattle belonged to the Jews . . . 
 famine and ruin stared the poor inhabitants in the face. 
 There was no one to turn to for help but the Jews. The 
 whole district accordingly was converted to a usurer's 
 hell. Naturally, Herr Raiffeisen's heart was touched 
 
RAIFFEISEWS BANK. 293 
 
 at the sight of so much misery ... he promptly 
 resolved to take up cudgels for the poor oppressed 
 peasants, and declared relentless war against the plague 
 of usury." 
 
 After one or two minor experiments Herr 
 Raiffeisen determined to establish a credit associ- 
 ation. 
 
 " With a balance of the ^"300 which, in all, he had 
 succeeded in raising with a good deal of trouble, in 
 1849 he set up his first Loan Bank, and offered the peas- 
 antry who would subscribe to his rules to supply them 
 with money for their needs." 
 
 Briefly the " Rules " or principle on which this 
 most successful enterprise is extending itself 
 through Germany and Italy is the Co-operative 
 principle, in its most elementary fof m. The maxim 
 Natura non facit saltum has a very special applica- 
 tion in matters of social economy. The proper use of 
 credit is not learnt intuitively, but only by practise 
 and experiment. To set up elaborate People's 
 Banks, as was done by Proudhon and his associates 
 at the Revolution of 1848, without first laying the 
 foundations of mutual confidence and trustworthi- 
 ness, was, as the result proved, to invite disaster. 
 The Raiffeisen Co-operative Banks, like our own 
 Friendly Societies, are not only business institu- 
 tions : they actually create the feeling of mutual 
 responsibility, to which alone they owe their 
 success. All associated life is co-operation, 
 
294 PEOPLES BANKS. 
 
 though the fact may occasionally be concealed 
 from our view. In ordinary commercial business 
 the co-operation is automatic and unconscious. 
 Lending and borrowing, for the purpose of 
 bringing capital to bear upon production, can be 
 equitably conducted when the parties thereto have 
 learnt the true social or co-operative lesson, 
 namely, that the whole system rests on the 
 punctual fulfilment of contract. 
 
 When attempt is made to use the commercial 
 principle between those who have not learnt this 
 lesson many evils arise. This truth is exemplified 
 by the strained relations which exist between the 
 money-lender and the small cultivator, whether it 
 be in Germany, Ireland, or India, by the failure 
 of ambitious attempts such as that of Proudhon 
 in 1848, and by the disinclination of the higher 
 finance (e.g. the Scotch banks) to organise credit 
 for the proletariat. In this last case the dis- 
 inclination is due partly, no doubt, to the fact 
 that full employment for banking resources in 
 earlier times was to be found in lending to the 
 upper and middle classes, and the organisation 
 of petty credit has been neglected. From this 
 neglect a certain degree of repulsion has arisen 
 between the dealer in credit and the small 
 borrower. There has been comparatively little 
 competition, and a usurious, monopolist lender has 
 begotten an evasive and untrustworthy borrower. 
 
BANK. 295 
 
 To some extent these difficulties have been 
 overcome by the elementary co-operative system 
 adopted by Herr RaifFeisen. The constituents 
 who form his banks are set to learn the lesson 
 of mutual confidence and personal responsibility, 
 line upon line and precept upon precept. A few 
 peasants bring together a portion of their savings. 
 The mere fact of their combination under the 
 Raiffeisen system entitles them to credit with 
 larger financial institutions. Practically they have 
 command of ample capital for their requirements. 
 Loans are made to members of the association, 
 the terms are ratified by all the solemnity of 
 mutual agreement, and every unit of the associ- 
 ation is morally and financially interested in the 
 punctual performance of the contract. Great care 
 is therefore taken that only honest and industrious 
 men are admitted to membership, that loans are 
 made only to those who are engaged in a reason- 
 able enterprise, and that, when the loan is made, 
 it is properly applied. Every nerve is strained 
 to enforce these conditions, and the whole insti- 
 tution makes for the establishment of that mutual 
 confidence which allows men to co-operate freely, 
 with no capital more material than hope, in 
 turning poverty into wealth. The mainspring 
 in all the enterprise thus set in motion is a belief 
 in the fruitfulness of human endeavour and the 
 inviolability of contract. 
 
296 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 If we may believe Mr. Wolff, some 150 millions 
 sterling are circulated yearly by the Co-operative 
 Banks in Germany alone, every penny of it used 
 productively, and, for the most part, under the 
 control of the poor man and for the benefit of his 
 labour. 
 
 There is an analogy, worth remarking, between 
 the success of this co-operative banking and the 
 success of the Friendly Society movement in this 
 country. It may not be necessary to assume that 
 co-operation on the ordinary automatic principle 
 of free exchange must always fail in dealing with 
 the poor man in credit or in sick insurance ; but 
 at present it appears to be impossible for a money- 
 lender to escape ruin if he lends at low interest, 
 or for a commercial insurance company to survive 
 the claims of malingerers if it undertakes to insure 
 against sickness. It is well known that various 
 highly-successful Life Insurance Associations have 
 tried to undertake sickness risks, but have one 
 and all abandoned the attempt as hopeless. The 
 experience of sickness in the Centralised Friendly 
 Societies, again, is considerably in excess of the 
 experience in the Affiliated Orders, where the local 
 supervision of claims is much more close and 
 effective. It is no reflection on human nature 
 to say that most men's desire to make their word 
 as good as their bond is much assisted by the 
 mutual supervision and advice which is the essence 
 
SUITABLE FOR ENGLAND? 
 
 of co-operation in its narrower, and, as I contend, 
 its more elementary form. 
 
 To sum up : There is much human enterprise, 
 in its result most beneficial, which is set to work 
 entirely in the hope of future profit. Credit is the 
 essence of such operations. It is proved by our 
 Scotch banking system that a desert can be 
 converted into a fruitful land by a judicious 
 extension of credit to a comparatively humble 
 class, and that German peasants can be rescued 
 from the hands of the money-lender by co- 
 operative banking. It will be conceded that, if 
 possible, similar facilities for advancing his position 
 in life should be given to the artisan and to the 
 agricultural labourer. The possibility is to some 
 extent proved by the German and Italian ex- 
 perience, and I propose now to consider briefly 
 such indications as seem to me to warrant the 
 presumption that a development of credit associ- 
 ations would prove useful in English industrial life. 
 The precedents of foreign countries, as well 
 as a certain natural fitness of things, point to 
 i griculture as the most suitable field for an exten- 
 sion of popular credit. In the Report of the Royal 
 Commission on Labour of Mr. W. E. Bear, 
 Assistant-Commissioner, on the condition of the 
 agricultural labourer in certain selected districts, 
 some interesting details are given as to cottage- 
 gardens and allotments. 
 
298 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 " Small holdings under fifty acres are most numerous 
 in proportion to population in the Union of Southwell, 
 and next so in that of Melton. . . . The most prosperous 
 small holders apparently are the makers of Stilton cheese 
 in the Melton Union, and I am disposed to place next 
 the few growers of fruit in a favoured part of the 
 Thakenham Union, on the greensand. . . . On good 
 soil for vegetables many occupiers of ten or more acres 
 in the neighbourhood of St. Neots get a living, though 
 they complain of hard times. ... In the Hampshire 
 district the small holders for the most part are said to 
 pay their way." 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson, another Assistant-Commissioner, 
 states that " allotments are generally plentiful, 
 or, rather, the supply is generally equal to the 
 demand." There is general testimony that this 
 is the case all over the country. The main 
 objection in the mind of the landlord is the 
 greater difficulty which there is in obtaining 
 fulfilment of contract with small men who do not, 
 as a class, realise the sanctity of such engagements 
 as fully as might be wished. The following 
 sentence from Mr. Bear's Report is fuller of 
 promise for the extension of small holdings than 
 many Acts of Parliament. 1 Speaking of St. Neots, 
 he says : 
 
 1 Under the old poor law it was usual for a certain class of 
 speculator to build cottages and then to obtain a pauper tenant, for 
 whom the overseers were directed to pay the rent. The system was 
 liable to great abuse, and naturally made building for pauper tenants 
 a safer speculation than building for independent labourers. Unless 
 I am misinformed, a somewhat similar result has already, in some 
 
ALLOTMENTS. 299 
 
 " Twelve or fourteen years ago there were hardly any 
 in St. Neots. When agricultural depression set in 
 allotments increased. ' Could not let at i to farmers, 
 so let at ^3 to labourers.' This was the complaint. . . . 
 That this complaint is natural will be admitted generally, 
 although they do not make sufficient allowance for the 
 value of land in a town. A rent of $ to ^4 an acre 
 for good land close to the populous parts of a town 
 and it is excellent land round St. Neots is not 
 excessive." 
 
 Elsewhere Mr. Bear remarks that the rents of 
 allotments at Basingstoke and St. Neots are very 
 high, "while they are enormous near the town 
 of Melton," where, as already stated, there is a 
 profitable industry in cheese-making. Now, if 
 a labourer can pay 3 an acre for land for which 
 a farmer can only pay i, it is to the interest 
 of all parties that free trade should prevail. It 
 means, in this, no doubt, exaggerated instance, that 
 the production per acre in the hands of the 
 labourer is 200 per cent, in excess of what it 
 would be in the hands of the farmer. Exaggera- 
 tion apart, it appears evident that there is a 
 considerable impulse now being given to the 
 
 places, arisen with regard to allotments. Under the influence of 
 the open market, landlords were more or less eager to let allotments 
 to suitable tenants. There is a disposition now on the part of some 
 landlords to decline this risk on the ground that their rents will be 
 safer, if they let to the public authority, and allow it to bear the 
 risk of sub-letting. The allotment acts are not easily put in motion, 
 and the result, in some places, has been a check on the extension of 
 the small holding system. 
 
3 oo PEOPLES BANKS. 
 
 industry of cultivating allotments, and if a well- 
 organised system of credit has been of service 
 to the German peasant, there is no reason to 
 suppose that it will be useless to the English 
 labourer, who is engaged in a similar industry. 
 An extension of credit associations would tend, 
 moreover, to put the industry on a sound business 
 footing. Allotments will never prosper if they 
 have to rely on the protection of Parliament or 
 the whim of philanthropic landlords. A man 
 who means to fulfil his contract must scrutinise 
 it before he engages, and in doing so it will be 
 to his advantage to have the assistance and advice 
 of a body of experts assembled in the parlour of 
 the Co-operative Bank. 
 
 The opportunities of the labourer are not, 
 however, confined to allotment. The profitable 
 cultivation of a garden, which is, as a rule, an 
 adjunct to a cottage let at a very low rent, could 
 be very greatly aided by reasonable facilities for 
 credit. It is precisely these small interests which 
 the Co-operative Banks have been so successful 
 in fostering. In parts of England, allotments 
 sub hoc nomine are not given, but labourers acquire 
 holdings under the less dignified name of cow- 
 grass. On one particular estate in Shropshire the 
 granting of cow-grass to labourers who are thrifty 
 enough to save money to buy a cow has obtained 
 with excellent, and in some cases astonishing, 
 
O THER IND US TRIES. 301 
 
 results for more than one generation of pro- 
 prietors. 1 
 
 If there is ever to be a change in the set of 
 migration to the towns it must be caused by a 
 development of the opportunities for small men 
 to rise in life. At present all chances of advance- 
 ment seem to be confined to the towns. There is 
 no reason to suppose that our large system of 
 cultivation will ever give way to a general adoption 
 of small holdings. Still, there is room for every 
 variety ; and, if small industry had the assistance 
 of a properly-organised system of credit, a new 
 career would be opened to talent which in time 
 would prove a very potent influence in staying 
 the tide of rural emigration. 
 
 There is perhaps less to be said with regard to 
 other branches of industrial life. Still, very con- 
 siderable changes are coming about in the owner- 
 ship of industrial property. Manufacture is now 
 organised on so gigantic a scale that ownership 
 on some joint-stock principle is becoming more 
 and more a necessity. The most useful applica- 
 tion of the principle of credit is the setting of 
 otherwise idle men to work in the creation of 
 new wealth out of poverty. Still, credit may 
 play a legitimate part in helping to transfer 
 
 1 See a remarkable table given by Mr. Cecil Chapmun, Assistant- 
 Commissioner, in his Report to the Labour Commission, headed, 
 " Particulars of Small Holdings supplied by Sir Baldwyn Leighton, 
 from his Estate at Loton." Appendix v., p. 141. 
 
302 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 industrial property from one class to another. 
 Some very interesting evidence was given by Mr. 
 Hardern to the Labour Commission, on behalf 
 of the working-class associations known as the 
 " Oldham Limiteds." For some reasons these 
 associations, which are joint-stock companies pure 
 and simple, have been generally classed as part 
 of the so-called co-operative movement. The 
 only way in which an "Oldham Limited" differs 
 from an ordinary joint-stock company consists in 
 the fact that its shares are owned by working men 
 generally by working men who are engaged in 
 other industries, and not by those who are in the 
 company's service. I am informed that local 
 banks have at times rendered considerable assis- 
 tance in the financing of these working-class 
 associations. Indeed, one of the objections alleged 
 against these companies is the facility with which 
 they obtain capital and the reckless competition 
 thus engendered. The pecuniary interest of the 
 officials and managers of these companies, it has 
 been remarked, is principally their salaries. They 
 are, therefore, less careful in some instances than 
 they might be of the safety and profitable employ- 
 ment of the capital entrusted to them. It is their 
 interest to carry on the business on any terms, 
 rather than wind it up in the interest of share- 
 holders whose capital is being diminished, and it 
 is the interest of the banker, whose loan is more 
 
JOINT STOCK TRADING. 303 
 
 or less fully secured, to side with the manager 
 rather than the shareholder. The result is reckless 
 trading at a loss. 
 
 This, even if it be true, is a danger incidental 
 to all joint-stock trading, and might form the 
 ground of an indictment of the joint-stock company 
 system ; but it contains no valid objection to the 
 proper use of credit as an assistance to poor men 
 towards creating or acquiring industrial property. 
 If working men can, with the assistance of banking 
 credit, establish mills at Oldham, and work them 
 successfully, there is no reason why they should 
 not do so elsewhere. If, as is alleged, the present 
 state of the law as to joint-stock companies is 
 unsatisfactory, by all means let us alter it, and 
 put all trading on the same reasonable footing of 
 responsibility, based on freedom of trade and 
 freedom for all lawful forms of contract. It 
 would undoubtedly be conducive to a better 
 tone of commercial morality, if the advantage 
 of credit were obtainable, not merely on the 
 faith of material securities, and, in the last 
 resort, legal remedies, but that in addition the 
 financial association should, as in the case of 
 the co-operative banks described, rely on the 
 reasonable nature of the enterprise in which the 
 borrower is engaged, and on his good faith and 
 ability to carry it to a successful issue. The 
 paradox that personal security, properly understood, 
 
304 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 and fortified by the responsibility bred from 
 a truly co-operative system, can be made the 
 very highest security of all, will prove a hard 
 saying to the ordinary man of business. It has, 
 however, commended itself as a profound truth 
 to an economist as little given over to illusions 
 as M. Le*on Say, who lays it down that the best 
 form of credit for banking purposes is purely 
 "personal credit" " le credit tout court sans 
 phrase" " Le credit stir gage n'a jamais /// que 
 Venfance du credit" 
 
 Leaving the question of the large industry and 
 the part which credit may play in transferring 
 property from the manufacturer to the labourer, 
 a few words may be said on the opportunities 
 for petty trade, which are probably much more 
 frequent than is generally supposed. I have 
 before me an account of a Costermongers' Co- 
 operative Loan Association, which appears to 
 transact a considerable loan business every year 
 with little or no loss. Many of my readers can, 
 I have no doubt, supply other illustrations from 
 their own observation of the advantage of credit 
 judiciously employed in aid of men of small means. 
 It was remarked to me by a gentleman who has an 
 unrivalled experience in savings bank business, that 
 over and over again depositors have come to him 
 and said that the 5 or 10 which they saved in 
 his bank had been the foundation of their fortune. 
 
THE SMALL INVESTOR. 305 
 
 So much impressed was he with the apparent 
 frequency of these openings for the profitable 
 investment of small savings, that he had drawn 
 the perhaps somewhat large conclusion that it 
 was better for a workman to deposit his savings 
 in a bank, in preference to sinking them beyond 
 his control in a sick benefit club or other insurance 
 association. Now, if the thrifty character repre- 
 sented by the 5 or 10 thus saved could com- 
 mand not only that sum, but in addition a credit 
 of perhaps a similar amount, together with the 
 advice, supervision, and assistance of a co-operative 
 credit association, is it not obvious that a wider 
 door of advancement is opened to talent and a 
 new element of hopefulness brought to bear on 
 the humble ambitions of working-class life ? 
 
 A practical question still remains. If it be 
 conceded that the establishment of popular banks 
 is an experiment worth trying, who are the persons 
 to whom this most promising enterprise can be 
 most fitly entrusted ? Is it possible that existing 
 savings banks can take any part in making the 
 savings of the poor reproductive ? 
 
 A very interesting controversy has for some 
 years been carried on in France by M. Eugene 
 Rostand, the president of the Savings Bank of 
 Marseilles, with a view of getting the Government 
 Banks to do something toward promoting popular 
 credit. The savings bank system of France is 
 
 x 
 
306 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 very similar to our own. The money collected 
 by the banks finds its way into the Caisse des 
 Depdts et Consignations, just as with us the 
 savings of the poor are placed in the hands of 
 the Commissioners for the Reduction of the 
 National Debt. The money so gathered is used 
 to purchase government securities, consols, ex- 
 chequer bills, and, in France, the " rentes " of the 
 Republican Government. Such employment is, 
 of course, the very negation of the useful fertilising 
 application of petty savings which is the essence 
 of the Co-operative Bank, or of the commercial 
 bank pure and simple. M. Rostand has conceived 
 the idea that, if he can obtain for the rural and 
 provincial banks leave to employ their funds more 
 freely, a certain advance will be made. He has 
 been at pains to show that in every civilised 
 country in the world (England alone excepted) 
 the authorities of savings banks have greater 
 liberty of investment than in France. His crusade 
 is very interesting to us because, practically, France 
 stands in the same position to this question as we 
 do ourselves. Both countries have a savings bank 
 system, admirable as far as the safe custody of 
 funds is concerned, but otherwise entirely sterile. 
 Neither country has a supplemental service of 
 popular banks of credit. No one can fail to have 
 great sympathy with M. Rostand in his energetic 
 crusade ; but it appears to me to be an error to 
 
M. ROSTAN&S CRUSADE. 307 
 
 mix up the question of co-operative banking with 
 that of the savings bank pure and simple. With- 
 out presuming to speak for the possibilities of the 
 matter in France, it would be, in my opinion, an 
 entirely hopeless endeavour to seek aid from the 
 Post Office Savings Bank in establishing popular 
 credit. If the Government accepts the responsi- 
 bility of safeguarding the deposits of the poor, 
 it must be ruled by the most rigid system of red 
 tape. To guarantee deposits, and at the same 
 time to allow more or less speculative investment 
 to be made locally, without the assistance of mutual 
 co-operative supervision, would be to invite certain 
 financial disaster. M. Rostand, as I understand 
 it, would reply to this objection that there is 
 available in France, at any rate a large amount 
 of philanthropic and civic enthusiasm. Persons 
 animated by this spirit would, he believes, be 
 forthcoming to manage gratuitously the business 
 of popular banking. Now, without seeking to 
 disparage either philanthropic or civic enthusiasm, 
 it is enough to say that this idea is altogether 
 foreign to the habits of the English working class. 
 All their successful institutions are self-managed. 
 They may not always attain the ideal heights of 
 wisdom, but they are schools of experience in 
 which wisdom is being perfected. The self- 
 management of a Co-operative Bank by its 
 members is a school, not only of wisdom, but of 
 
3o8 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 that mutual rectitude of conduct on which its 
 success depends. To build popular credit without 
 this foundation would be to build in vain. M. 
 Rostand is far too acute a man not to perceive 
 this danger. All he asks is that the banks con- 
 trolled by Government may be allowed to follow 
 the example of the German and Italian banks, 
 and give credit to the smaller Co-operative 
 Banks. With us, however, the difficulty is that 
 these smaller banks do not as yet exist. Co- 
 operative banking has yet to win the confidence 
 of the country. It has done so in Italy and 
 Germany, and the higher finance is eager to offer 
 it every legitimate assistance. When success is 
 assured by laborious effort in detail, the Govern- 
 ment Banks will no doi*bt be found willing to 
 -encumber it with their patronage. 
 
 Mr. Wolff, whose view of the subject seems to me 
 to be entirely judicious, points out that in many 
 places where Government savings banks exist side- 
 by-side with popular banks, the people prefer their 
 own institutions. They very soon realise that the 
 savings bank pure and simple is merely the 
 apotheosis of the old stocking, and that the best 
 use of savings is the reproductive use of them in 
 the service of those who have gathered them. It 
 is to be hoped that this matter will attract the 
 attention of the Friendly Society and Co-operative 
 leaders. They are, of all men, the most competent 
 
A CONSTRUCTIVE PRINCIPLE. 309 
 
 to lay the foundation of a new departure in the 
 cause of thrift. They have withstood all the 
 blandishments of State pensions, and, by putting 
 their hand to this new enterprise, they will give 
 yet another practical illustration of their steadfast 
 faith in the value of personal responsibility ; they 
 will found another school of character, just as 
 effective as the great Friendly Society movement 
 itself; and they will confer a great and lasting 
 benefit on the whole nation, to which it is difficult 
 to see any limit. 
 
 To one other class of persons this matter ought 
 to have more than a passing interest. No one 
 questions the fact that there is much that is un- 
 satisfactory in our social arrangements. No one 
 maintains that this is^ the best of all possible 
 worlds. There are, however, many whose fortune 
 or misfortune it has been to be able to perceive 
 nothing but evil in many of the proposals for 
 social amelioration which from time to time are 
 made by well-meaning enthusiasts. Such people 
 have been called "Gradgrinds" and other ill- 
 sounding names. These flowers of controversy 
 are, of course, very welcome from critics whose 
 praise would set us seriously questioning the sanity 
 of our opinions. Still, those of us who believe in 
 personal responsibility and in the freedom of 
 private initiative, should be glad to welcome this 
 new illustration of the truth of our principles. 
 
310 PEOPLE'S BANKS. 
 
 Here is a successful movement, based on honest 
 human endeavour, involving neither the robbery 
 of the rich nor the degradation of the poor. Based 
 on the principle of freedom, and independent of 
 patronage, it puts a new weapon in the hands of 
 the poor man, and opens a career to industry and 
 intelligence which at present is closed. 
 
 To those who, like myself, regard increased 
 facilities for poor law relief and State pensions as 
 merely devices to sink the poor more deeply in 
 the slough of dependence, I recommend a study 
 of this question. They will find in Mr. Wolff's 
 book a guide at once entertaining and instructive. 
 
VIII. 
 
 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE 
 v. 
 
 THE "COLLECTIVE BARGAIN." 
 
 IN social controversies generally, there seems to 
 me to be a singular misuse of terms. A " socialist " 
 is a person who believes not in Society, but in 
 the coercion of Society by the State. An 
 "individualist" is a person who believes not in 
 that inconceivable abstraction, the individual man, 
 but in the harmonising power of a free society. 
 So a collective bargain in the mouth of certain 
 controversialists appears to mean an arrangement 
 which is not a bargain at all. This last proposition, 
 however, requires fuller explanation. 
 
 According to recent presentments of the case, 
 trade unionism is part of the collectivist movement. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Webb, in their " History of Trade 
 Unionism," declare that the sovereignty of the 
 trade union, in their opinion, rests on the same 
 basis as the sovereignty of the City or State. The 
 trade union, therefore, for the members of each 
 
312 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 trade, is, or, in the opinion of these authors, ought 
 to be a compulsory, all-embracing association. In 
 this event, admittedly, individual workmen are 
 denied their right to bargain, and it is for the 
 union to arrange the terms on which its members 
 shall work. 
 
 It may be said, however, that the bargain, such 
 as it is, is made between the trade union or 
 monopoly of labour, and the combined employers 
 or monopoly of capital. It must then be asked, 
 Can two monopolists, in arranging for an exchange 
 of services, be said, in the ordinary sense of the 
 term, to bargain? The question is, perhaps, an 
 idle one, for, except in a case like that of Robinson 
 Crusoe and his man Friday, in these days of foreign 
 competition such a condition of things is utterly 
 unknown. Let us, however, admit, for the sake 
 of argument, that rigid monopolies of labour and 
 capital have been established. Even in this 
 case, a closer examination of the collectivist 
 trade union theory will show at once that, in 
 the arrangement proposed, there is nothing in the 
 nature of a bargain. According to the doctrine 
 of the " living wage," which is a necessary com- 
 plement of the theory, it is the business of the 
 union to fix a minimum rate of wages ; then, if 
 employers cannot or will not accept the proffered 
 terms, their monopoly of employment will be 
 taken from them, and the State, imperial and 
 
THE NEW AND THE OLD UNIONISM. 313 
 
 municipal, will become the universal employer, 
 and regulate industry on the basis of the living 
 wage. This solution of the question cannot be 
 called a bargain. 
 
 The account of the matter given by the eulogists 
 of the new trade unionism is somewhat as follows. 
 The older trade unionists, they tell us, involved 
 themselves in a controversy with the economists 
 as to whether trade unionism was an advantage 
 to workmen and to society at large, and with 
 the moralists as to how far its methods were 
 consistent with justice. Taking advantage of 
 the prevalence of free trade opinions, they in- 
 sisted 
 
 "on the right of every Englishman to bargain for the 
 sale of his labour in the manner he thought most 
 conducive to his own interests " (Webb, p. 278). 
 "When," however, our authors continue (p. 279), 
 "they" (i.e. the old trade unionists) "contended that 
 the union should be as free to bargain as the individual, 
 they had not the slightest intention of permitting the 
 individual to bargain freely if they could prevent him." 
 
 Mr. Howell, the historian of the old unionism, 
 expressly denies this imputation ; but, it is 
 necessary to add, the facts, to some extent, at 
 all events, support the view of Mr. and Mrs. 
 Webb. The old trade unionist occasionally acted 
 coercively, but he either denied or palliated the 
 
3H FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 offence, he had not the effrontery to defend it 
 directly. 
 
 " No trade unionist can deny," Mr. and Mrs. Webb 
 sum the matter up, "that without some method of 
 enforcing the decision of the majority, effective trade 
 combination is impossible " (Webb, p. 281). 
 
 According to these authors, therefore, the central 
 idea of trade unionism is not a bargain of any 
 kind, but a right to use coercion, to replace Free 
 Exchange, and the laws of demand and supply 
 by an artificial regimentation of all industry. 
 According to this ideal, there will be no bargain- 
 ing in the market ; but for wages, as at present 
 understood, will be substituted an arbitrary scale 
 of maintenance called a " living wage," an amount 
 varying in different trades, and fixed apparently 
 by the combined labourers themselves. This scale 
 of remuneration, further, will be enforced by the 
 allied forces of trade unionism and municipal 
 socialism. 
 
 Giving evidence before the Labour Commission 
 [Q. 4501, Minutes of Evidence, Commission sitting 
 as a whole], Mr. Webb used the following words : 
 
 " What appears to me is that piece-work is apt to be 
 very prejudicial to the standard wage, unless there can 
 be some kind of price list or standard list to maintain 
 that collective bargaining which is the essence of trade 
 unionism." 
 
 As I understand it, this means that all bargains 
 
WHAT IS A BARGAIN? 315 
 
 should be subject to revision by reference to 
 a standard that is not arrived at by bar- 
 gaining. Mr. Webb does not like piece-work, 
 especially when reference to an ideal standard 
 is difficult, because essentially it does involve a 
 bargain. 
 
 It is not worth while to quarrel about words, 
 but by collective bargaining it is clear that Mr. 
 Webb does not mean that voluntary arrangement 
 which most men understand by the word bargain. 
 The use of the term may be due to a confusion 
 of ideas, or it may be part of the exoteric doctrine 
 of Socialism adopted for the sake of his allies 
 among law-abiding academic economists and for 
 the sake of the weaker brethren generally. 
 
 It is not of much importance, but it would 
 probably be an injustice to the intelligence of the 
 new unionists, as represented by Mr. and Mrs. 
 Webb, to suppose that they have any belief in the 
 collective bargain or any other sort of bargain. 
 The old unionists believed in it, but, by the lips 
 of Mr. Howell, they admit the immorality of the 
 methods deemed necessary, by Mr. and Mrs. Webb 
 and the new unionists, for its attainment. 
 
 The view of the scholastic economists is not 
 easily ascertained. In their hands the enunciation 
 of general principles has been so overlaid with 
 exceptions and qualifications that it is very diffi- 
 cult to understand their precise position. Still, 
 
316 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 amid much that to the plain man appears a mere 
 darkening of counsel, it may be gathered that 
 the new economists do cherish a belief that the 
 labourer, in the sale of his labour, derives a benefit 
 from the collective bargain. 
 
 In the background, throwing a sinister shadow 
 forward, is the Nemesis of that old injustice which 
 denied to the labourer his undoubted right of 
 combination. Persecution even of false doctrine 
 begets enthusiasm. Enthusiasm, even half crazy 
 enthusiasm, has so many attractive aspects, that 
 academic apologists are not wanting. Here, too, 
 as well as elsewhere, the wire-pullers of political 
 intrigue seek to use both the enthusiast and the 
 pedant for their own purposes. These are the 
 elements in which superstition flourishes, prompting 
 a line of conduct detrimental at once to civilisation 
 and progress. 
 
 The consequences which follow from an 
 acceptance of the alleged right of coercion are 
 obvious. To realise the trade union ideal, men 
 are not scrupling to resort to intimidation and 
 violence. A mere recital of the methods employed 
 in recent strikes makes it plain to every impartial 
 mind, that even if these methods led to the 
 millennium, they could not for long be supportable 
 by human nature. If our present system scourges 
 us with rods, collectivism, acting through its 
 faithful instrument of trade unionism, would 
 
THE RIGHT OF COERCION. 317 
 
 scourge us with scorpions. Mr. and Mrs. Webb's 
 contention that, without coercion, trade unionism, 
 as understood by the new unionists, is impracticable, 
 seems irrefutable, and for that very reason con- 
 demnatory of the methods of which they are 
 the apologists. Very few have the hardihood of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Webb, in claiming the right of 
 coercion for trade unions. Most people, apart 
 from the injustice of such a demand, see that it 
 is one which could not be enforced ; they rest the 
 trade union case, therefore, on the advantage 
 which is supposed to accrue to the labourer by 
 means of combination, enforced only by justifiable 
 methods of argument and persuasion. Those 
 who believe in this view of the subject reject 
 or overlook, more or less consciously, Mr. and 
 Mrs. Webb's incontrovertible statement, that on 
 these terms "effective trade combination is im- 
 possible." It is this modified assertion of the 
 practicable advantages of trade unionism that I 
 propose to examine. 
 
 There are, obviously, many difficulties in bringing 
 this opinion to the proof. Proof in this, as in other 
 matters, must proceed by a reference to the facts 
 of the case, or by the application of a general 
 principle, or preferably by a combination of both 
 these methods. Now, with regard to the facts, 
 it is obviously difficult, not to say impossible, 
 so to isolate the different phenomena, that we 
 
318 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 can, with any confidence, arrange them in sequence 
 of cause and effect. 
 
 Turning to the evidence given before the Royal 
 Commission on Labour, we find, for instance, that 
 one set of witnesses regards the rise which took 
 place in seamen's wages in 1887 as the result of 
 action taken by Mr. J. Havelock Wilson's union ; 
 while other witnesses declare that it followed 
 naturally on an expansion of trade due to inde- 
 pendent causes. Again, it is pointed out that the 
 wages of women, of agricultural labourers, and of 
 domestic servants have risen, although, in the last- 
 mentioned class, trade unionism has not existed at 
 all, and in the others only fitfully and locally. 
 From this fact one party seeks to draw the con- 
 clusion that, when circumstances warrant it, wages 
 rise, quite independently of trade unions ; while 
 another party argues that this rise is due to the 
 reflex action of trade unionism in other employ- 
 ments. Again, interpretation of the facts depends 
 a good deal on the difference between real and 
 nominal wages. In an address delivered October 
 29, 1894, to the Bradford Chamber of Commerce, 
 on the Fall of Prices, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre pointed 
 out that 
 
 "it appeared, as the result of the Royal Commission 
 on Labour, that it was now certain, not only that there 
 had been no general fall in the money wages of labour, 
 during the last twenty or twenty-five years, but the 
 
REAL AND NOMINAL WAGES. 319 
 
 reverse that money wages had risen in most, if not 
 all, trades." 
 
 With regard to the purchasing power of their 
 wages, Mr. Shaw-Lefevre sums the matter up as 
 follows : 
 
 " It could scarcely be doubted that the wages of 
 ordinary labourers went from 30 to 40 per cent, further 
 than they did twenty years ago, and those of the artisan 
 classes from 20 to 25 per cent further. Wheat at 2os. 
 a quarter, and sugar at 13^. per cwt, and tea at qd. 
 per lb., as compared with 52^., 26.?., and 17^. twenty 
 years ago, must be an enormous advantage to the 
 labourers of all classes." 
 
 Mr. Shaw-Lefevre's address was directed to 
 estimating the fluctuation in the value of gold 
 relatively to the value of other commodities. The 
 gold-value of labour had increased, while the gold- 
 value of most other commodities had fallen. 
 Now, as men do not live on gold, but on the 
 commodities which gold will purchase, it is 
 obvious that the cheapness of most commodities, 
 so long as his labour is not one of them, is of 
 the greatest advantage to the labourer. In any 
 appreciation, therefore, of the advantage of 
 collective bargaining, we ought not only to consider 
 the result of its action on wages, but also its 
 action in raising or lowering the price of com- 
 modities. 
 
 Further, we cannot confine our inquiry as to 
 
320 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 the effect of a collective bargain, to one trade. 
 If, as has been argued, there is a solidarity of 
 labour, and a reflex action from one trade to 
 another, we shall not have got to the bottom of 
 the matter, even when we discover that collective 
 bargaining has raised the wages of one particular 
 industry. Let us take, for example, the case of 
 miners. The following are some among many of 
 the possible indirect consequences of a so-called 
 collective bargain, (i) Miners fix what they call 
 a living wage, that is, a sum very considerably 
 in excess of an agricultural labourer's earnings. 
 When employers urge that an advance is im- 
 possible or a reduction necessary, the principles 
 of trade unionism will not allow other labourers to 
 improve their position, by accepting wages which 
 to them would be affluence. By this action miners' 
 wages are upheld, but other labourers' wages 
 are kept down. Similarly, just as it is, in this 
 way, made difficult for all other labourers to 
 pass from poorly paid callings to more profit- 
 able ones, so it is difficult for a coal miner to 
 pass into any better paid industry which is 
 protected by a trade union. In any computation, 
 therefore, we must strike a balance between those 
 who gain and those who lose by this restrictive 
 policy. (2) Mr. Pickard, M.P., the well-known 
 miners' representative, once proclaimed his inten- 
 tion of keeping the price of coal at 2 a ton, 
 
THE "FACTS" OF THE CASE. 321 
 
 with a view of enabling employers to pay high 
 wages. How many colliers could find a sale for 
 their output at such a figure? How many iron 
 furnaces and kindred industries would have to 
 close? Would the increase of wages secured to 
 some coal miners compensate, on an average, for 
 the loss to other miners and other workmen whose 
 place of employment would be closed ? Mr. 
 Pickard's 2 a-ton was not seriously meant, but 
 every artificial rise of price has similar results. 
 How are these to be computed? (3) Would the 
 gain to some miners compensate for the increased 
 cost which all, poor as well as rich, have to pay 
 for coal ? Or rather, for it is a much larger 
 question, would the gain in money wages be equal 
 to the loss in purchasing power, if ,the price of 
 all, or even a large number, of commodities were 
 thus artificially raised ? 
 
 If we are going to decide this controversy on the 
 facts, it is obvious that all these considerations and 
 many others are material, and that an answer to 
 all these questions must be given in the relentless 
 logic of arithmetic before we can be said to have 
 the facts before us. I venture to say that it is 
 quite impossible to produce these facts. It may 
 be indicated that there are facts, but, in the main, 
 I submit, this discussion must be determined by 
 more general considerations. It will be legiti- 
 mate to introduce illustration by the way, but 
 
 Y 
 
322 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 allegations of facts in a matter so entirely hypo- 
 thetical must be received with considerable caution. 
 As a first step to answering the question Does 
 combination for the purpose of collective bargain- 
 ing give the labourer an advantage? we must 
 consider the nature of the market in which the 
 bargain has to be made. Here we are met by a 
 preliminary difficulty. Mr. Howell, in his " Con- 
 flicts of Capital and Labour," p. 190, quotes with 
 approval a somewhat rhetorical passage from an- 
 article written by Mr. Frederic Harrison, in which 
 he protests against the idea that labour is a com- 
 modity, (i) First, because, in Mr. Harrison's inter- 
 pretation, the term commodity cannot be applied 
 to a thing of which there is no stock or realised 
 store. (2) Because the seller of a commodity can 
 send it or carry it about, because he can send a 
 sample of it and can treat by correspondence. 
 The labourer, he argues, has no commodity 
 to sell. He must himself be present at every 
 market. He cannot correspond with his employer, 
 he cannot send a sample of his strength, nor do 
 employers knock at his cottage door. This is not 
 a market. (3) And this, says Mr. Harrison, is the 
 most important point : 
 
 " The labourer has not got a commodity to sell ; what 
 he seeks to do is not to exchange products, but to 
 combine to produce. . . . The union of capitalists and 
 labourers is, in the highest sense, a partnership involving 
 
LABOUR MARKET. 323 
 
 a real equality of duties and powers. . . . Applied to 
 this noble and intimate relation of life this grand in- 
 stitution of society the language of the market or of 
 barter is a cruel and senseless cant." 
 
 Mr. Harrison does not, it may be presumed, 
 adopt the socialist doctrine that markets must 
 be abolished and replaced by municipal or com- 
 munistic regimentation. It is difficult, therefore, 
 to understand the meaning of this attempted 
 interruption of a serious argument. The term 
 commodity is, in this connection, a clumsy but 
 surely a very innocent synonym for service. Mr. 
 Harrison's formula does not help us in the very 
 least to determine the just proportion which ought 
 to exist between the wages of a haymaker and a 
 blacksmith. No one has ever maintained that 
 the sale and hiring of services are precisely the 
 same thing as the sale and purchase of material 
 commodities, but it may be as well to take his 
 objections seriatim, (i) No competent economist 
 will nowadays argue, that exchange is confined 
 to material commodities. The greater part of 
 modern business is the exchange of incorporeal 
 commodities. Services are exchanged ; incor- 
 poreal rights, such as debts, credits, etc., are 
 exchanged, and it is usual to speak of the me- 
 chanism by which the exchangers are brought 
 together, as the market. (2) All markets are not 
 constituted alike. Land is even more immobile 
 
324 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 than Mr. Harrison considers labour to be. A vast 
 amount of the hiring of labour is done by corre- 
 spondence, advertisement, and by aid of the 
 references of former employers, an agency which 
 has much the same effect as the sending of a 
 sample. In Scotland the hiring fair is still a 
 national institution. Master and man meet in 
 the market and spend the day in negotiation. 
 Readers of that admirable Scottish eclogue, 
 "Johnny Gibb of Gushetneuk," will remember 
 the account of the "feeing market" day at 
 the Kirktown of Pyketillim. Even if we admit, 
 for the sake of smoothing Mr. Harrison's sus- 
 ceptibilities, that his servants and his labourers 
 and the printer's devil are his partners in the 
 " highest sense " of the term, it still remains that 
 the terms of partnership rest ultimately on some 
 economical basis, and that basis, pace Mr. Harrison, 
 is conveniently termed the market. (3) The same 
 consideration suggests the answer to Mr. Harrison's 
 third objection. This turns in part on a mere 
 verbal quibble, but incidentally it betrays, I venture 
 to think, an important misconception of the indus- 
 trial mechanism of society. It is based on the mis- 
 taken notion of certain economists that production 
 is a process to be distinguished from distribution. 
 Fundamentally, all our industrial actions are 
 exchanges, and, as a condition of our treating 
 them as economic phenomena, they must be 
 
LABOUR MARKET. 325 
 
 expressed or considered as phenomena of ex- 
 change. Mr. Harrison seems to admit that the 
 sale of products, (in his vocabulary, products mean 
 material products,) is a process of exchange, he 
 does not appear to realise that all our economic 
 actions are likewise processes of exchange. Thus 
 a man deposits coins in a bank ; he parts with his 
 money, and receives in exchange a right to require 
 payment of an equal sum on demand or at a date 
 agreed, and, in some instances, to receive interest 
 in the mean time at a stipulated rate. If a man 
 enters into a partnership, it is still a process of 
 exchange ; he exchanges his capital, or promises 
 his services, for a share in the stock and credits 
 of the business, coupled with a right to receive 
 profit and an obligation to share losses on terms 
 agreed. If, as Mr. Harrison argues, a labourer's 
 contract implies a partnership, it is still subject 
 to the laws of exchange. Nor, as far as I can 
 see, is the dignity of human life, and of labour 
 as its most important manifestation, by any means 
 abated, because, in every industrial community, 
 services as well as commodities are subject to the 
 rules of the market. 
 
 In the great majority of labour contracts, ser- 
 vices are exchanged against money. By consulting 
 Mr. Schloss's "Methods of Industrial Remunera- 
 tion," Williams & Norgate (second edition), 1894, 
 the curious may see that there is practically no 
 
326 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 limit to the variation of terms on which labour is 
 hired. In some contracts, part payment in kind 
 still survives, a house is provided free or under 
 cost price, board is supplied, or a portion of farm 
 produce is allowed in addition to money wages. 
 Further, in every case, more especially in the 
 industries where labour is not a principal part of 
 the cost of production, personal considerations 
 have great weight. Many employers prefer to 
 pay something over the market rate, to secure 
 the permanent services of good-tempered and 
 suitable servants, rather than risk the lottery of 
 the market. On the other hand, domestic servants, 
 farm labourers, and, generally, those whose com- 
 fort depends a good deal on their personal relation 
 to their employers, will prefer to take lower wages 
 in a place where they are comfortable and con- 
 siderately treated, rather than change to a less 
 agreeable employment, where higher wages might 
 be obtainable. 
 
 All these circumstances have their weight, but 
 they do not alter the fact that all persons who 
 deal with their neighbours either for services or 
 commodities are necessarily subject to the Ordinary 
 laws of the market. The fact that there is a 
 labour market is obvious and requires, I submit, 
 no further demonstration, and the purpose of this 
 article is to discuss the conditions which govern 
 this market, and to inquire, from the point of view 
 
MOBILITY OF LABOUR. 327 
 
 of the labourer, what are the comparative merits 
 of a free market and a collective bargain re- 
 spectively. 
 
 A market has been defined to be " the whole of 
 any region in which buyers and sellers are in such 
 free intercourse with one another, that the prices 
 of the same goods tend to equality easily and 
 quickly." Now labour is not all of the same 
 quality, and, of necessity, there is a subdivision 
 of the market. The labour of the skilled artisan 
 commands a higher price than that of the agri- 
 cultural labourer. Still, there are causes which 
 make for a unification of the market. 
 
 First, even adult skilled labour has considerable 
 mobility, or power to pass from one industry to 
 another. Mr. H. Llewellyn Smith, in his very 
 interesting pamphlet on " Modern Changes in the 
 Mobility of Labour" (H. Frowde, London, 1891), 
 has shown most conclusively that the specialisation 
 of industry has increased rather than decreased the 
 mobility of skilled labour. This consideration is of 
 the utmost importance to the subject, but only one 
 or two illustrations can be given in support of 
 this general statement. A woollen-weaver could, 
 says Mr. Smith, become an efficient cotton-weaver 
 in a few days. This initial difficulty of a few days, 
 in normal times, prevents a complete unification 
 of the market, but this " initial friction " is over- 
 come by even a slight disturbance in the conditions 
 
328 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 of supply and demand. An offer of better wages 
 in one trade would, it may be presumed, be the 
 way in which this "disturbance" would make 
 itself felt in the labour market. It is, according 
 to this authority, in the domestic industries, i.e. 
 the industries not carried on in large factories, 
 that immobility is most conspicuous. Thus the 
 hand-made nails of Cradley Heath have been in 
 course of displacement by foreign machine-made 
 nails since 1830. " Mr. Burnett is of opinion that 
 the machine-made nail trade might have taken 
 root in the hand-made trade district and absorbed 
 the displaced labour, 'if the hand-made trade had 
 been carried on in factories ready to adopt new 
 mechanical ideas.' " And in support of this view 
 Mr. Smith relates that 
 
 " In the hand-nail trade at Silsden in the West Riding, 
 the tendency to crowd into a decaying trade seems to 
 have been checked by collecting the nailers into two or 
 three workshops. . . . The new generation now find 
 other outlets ... so that the hand-nail trade is mostly 
 in the hands of old men and is naturally dying . . . 
 with but little of the acute suffering which has made 
 Cradley Heath notorious." 
 
 The tendency of modern industry, we need hardly 
 point out, is towards factory manufacture, and it is 
 satisfactory to learn that this tendency is productive 
 of greater adaptiveness among manual labourers. 
 Again, " among the various textile trades there is 
 
MOBILITY OF LABOUR. 329 
 
 almost perfect interchangeability both of weavers 
 and overlookers," subject to the initial friction 
 existing in normal times. At Lord Masham's great 
 mills at Manningham, Mr. Lister, as he then was, 
 substituted in succession the manufacture of velvet 
 for silk, of plush for velvet, and of sealskin for 
 plush, without introducing fresh workmen, although 
 the looms had to be adapted. Further, in some 
 cases men learn more than one trade, e.g. painters 
 and plumbers, probably because painting is a 
 seasonal trade. At Kingswood, near Bristol, Mr. 
 Smith informs us that a certain number of men 
 oscillate backwards and forwards between the boot 
 factories and the neighbouring collieries, according 
 to season. The management of steam machinery 
 is obviously an art which opens many varieties 
 of trade to the same workman. Mr. Marshall 
 ("Principles of Economics," p. 318) has drawn 
 attention to the importance of the principle of 
 interchangeable parts in machinery, and, mutatis 
 mutandis, and pace Mr. Harrison, there is a certain 
 analogy between the animate and inanimate parts 
 of our industrial machinery. They are becoming 
 more interchangeable with great advantage to the 
 labourer himself, and with increased efficiency to 
 our industrial machinery. 
 
 A second cause is of much greater importance. 
 The young are, so to speak, the raw material of 
 which the skilled artisan is made, the labour force 
 
330 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 which may be educated into many forms. Now, 
 it is most important that we should understand 
 the causes which determine the destination of this 
 new labour. Notoriously, for many years, there 
 has been a steady drift of labour away from 
 agricultural industry to the better paid industries, 
 which most usually are carried on in the towns. 
 In the north of England and in Scotland, there 
 is practically a unification of the labour market. 
 In the south, the isolation of rural parishes remote 
 from great centres of trade has retarded this 
 movement ; but even here intelligent young people 
 tend towards the employments which are better 
 paid. Money wages are not the only point to 
 be considered. The agricultural labourer has 
 advantages in the shape of a cheap house and 
 garden, and the wages of unskilled labour in town 
 and country are much nearer an equilibrium than 
 is generally supposed. Mr. Giffen informed the 
 Royal Commission on Labour (Q. 6956, Minutes 
 of Evidence, Commission sitting as a whole) that 
 fifty years ago one half of the working population 
 of the United Kingdom were agricultural labourers 
 or poor Irish ; now, less than one-fifth are of this 
 class, or, taking Great Britain alone, only about 
 one-eighth (see also " Essays in Finance," Second 
 Series, p. 422). This transference of labour from 
 agriculture to other forms of industry has been con- 
 temporaneous with a great rise in money wages. 
 
RISE OF WAGES. 331 
 
 Professor Leone Levi calculated that the average 
 yearly earnings of the working class, including 
 men, women, and children, was in 1867 38 per 
 head, in 1884 42 14^., and Mr. Giffen puts it at 
 the present time at 48. Further, since 1872 
 there has been a great fall in prices, from 25 to 
 30 per cent, in most articles of common necessity, 
 not including, of course, rent. This exception, as 
 we shall hereafter see, is very instructive. In 
 connection with this tendency of labour to pass 
 from the poorly paid agricultural industries to 
 more remunerative work, it has been pointed out 
 by Mr. Giffen and others that the number of 
 income-tax payers has increased in the last fifty 
 years at a much greater rate than the increase of 
 population. Evidently, then, there is an upward 
 movement at the top of the working class, as well 
 as at the bottom, and it is not unreasonable to 
 suppose that this upward tendency is present also 
 throughout the whole intermediate mass. (Giffen, 
 " Essays in Finance," Second Series, p. 427.) 
 
 Let us endeavour to follow the actual course of 
 this development. Let us visit in imagination a 
 remote part of rural England, at intervals of ten 
 years, during the past half century. In the earlier 
 decades we should have found labour in a condition 
 not far removed from mediaeval servitude, the price 
 of wheat extremely high because we were isolated 
 by protection from foreign markets, and the price 
 
332 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 of more perishable rural produce very low, because, 
 from difficulties of transit, the local market was shut 
 off from the larger markets of Smithfield and 
 Leadenhall. As we continued our visits, we should 
 remark a tendency towards a unification of markets. 
 We should observe that the young labour each year 
 has gravitated towards new industries, to a neigh- 
 bouring town, to a brickfield, a cement work, or 
 a colliery. We should find that the wages and 
 condition of the emigrants, and also of those who 
 remained, have improved ; that though the culti- 
 vation of wheat is discontinued, yet bread is 
 cheaper; that vast imports of cereals from all 
 parts of the world, and of meat from Australia 
 and New Zealand, have put these articles within 
 the reach of the labourer in a way that fifty years 
 ago would have been considered luxurious ; that 
 the price of miscellaneous country produce, such 
 as eggs and chickens, has probably risen, for rail- 
 way communication has united the country with 
 the market of the town. If we extend our obser- 
 vation and follow this produce to the town, we 
 shall find that this country supply has prevented 
 the price of such things from rising to a famine 
 rate. At the same time, the labour which has 
 come in from the country has found profitable 
 employment, and, as the eminent statisticians 
 already quoted have shown us, wages have 
 continued to rise. 
 
FALL OF PRICES. 333 
 
 Let us consider first the cheapening of pro- 
 duction. The French economist Bastiat has 
 dwelt on this aspect of the question with his 
 usual epigrammatic force. Besoins, efforts, satis- 
 f action, voila rhomme au point de viie faonomique. 
 The whole economical progress of mankind 
 depends on our making the middle term " effort " 
 less onerous and more productive. Some wants 
 are satisfied gratuitously ; when we breathe we 
 merely appropriate the air. We are conditioned, 
 however, by the fact that other things cannot be 
 as free as air. Nor need we lament this limitation, 
 for where a maintenance is free owing to the 
 bounty of nature, effort is unnecessary, and a 
 lower civilisation is the result In our Western 
 civilisation, by means of accumulated knowledge, 
 the result of many centuries of laborious effort, 
 there is year by year a greater approximation to 
 a gratuitous satisfaction of our most necessary 
 wants. According to Bastiat, economical progress 
 consists in the conversion of what he calls utilites 
 onereuses into utilith gratuites. Thus, the earnings 
 of capital are being reduced, the price of agri- 
 cultural produce is continually falling, both tending 
 to a condition which Bastiat has happily termed 
 gratuity. On the other hand, labour is being so 
 distributed that both agricultural and manu- 
 facturing wages tend upwards. 
 
 Mr. Mallock,in his admirably clear and suggestive 
 
334 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 little book, " Labour and the Popular Welfare," has 
 drawn attention to another aspect of this process 
 of development The force which pioneers this 
 beneficent evolution is, in Mr. Mallock's language, 
 ability. In other words, it is the free enterprise 
 of captains of industry, which is constantly moving 
 the waters of industrial chaos and forming a cosmos 
 in which common necessaries are given a continuous 
 tendency towards gratuity, and labour is organised 
 in an ever-ascending scale of higher remuneration. 
 Under the successful guidance of the captains of 
 industry common labour is given almost super- 
 natural power, and, even if the enterprise to which 
 it is applied proves unsuccessful, the wages of labour 
 are paid with exact punctuality. On every ground, 
 therefore, it is to the interest of labour to give a 
 free hand to the enterprise of the capitalist. Our 
 industrial system is a vast exchange, and it is to the 
 interest of all that each, be he capitalist, organiser, 
 or simple labourer, shall be permitted freely to take 
 his services to the best market. The limited aspect 
 of the subject now under consideration, namely, 
 the continuous enhancement of the price of labour, 
 which has attended its transference from agriculture 
 to other industries, is a necessary corollary of this 
 larger economic harmony of freedom. 
 
 Here, in all probability, an objection will be 
 raised which, even at the cost of a slight digression, 
 it is necessary to meet. It will be said that, 
 
THE UNEMPLOYED. 33* 
 
 although wages have gone up, there is a far larger 
 number of unemployed men than formerly, and 
 that the miserable condition of the unemployed 
 is due to the migration of labour which we have 
 described. This we believe to be a complete 
 misconception. The existence of the unemployed 
 must be assigned to quite different causes. There 
 are many persons whose character and disposition 
 are altogether averse to the yoke of industrial 
 discipline. Nothing but the sternest necessity 
 will induce them to submit to punctual and 
 regulated toil. It is idle to wax indignant over 
 the conduct of these humbler inhabitants of 
 Bohemia. There is no stern necessity driving 
 them to work, and vagabondage is plentifully, 
 nay, as far as quantity and ubiquity are concerned, 
 extravagantly endowed. Casual wards and philan- 
 thropic shelters are open everywhere. In the winter 
 this population frequents the towns, and while 
 the summer nights are warm, it wanders into the 
 country. Here is a nucleus for the unemployed 
 problem. Further, we have described the " initial 
 frictions" which, in Mr. Llewellyn Smith's phrase 
 divide one market from another. The activity of 
 trade unionism, in each or many of these separate 
 markets, has magnified these initial frictions 
 and has insisted that no one shall work for 
 less than a certain wage. Employers may be 
 willing to employ men of average efficiency at 
 
336 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 this price, but they are not willing nor able to 
 find profitable employment for those who, by 
 reason of old age, the inexperience of youth, or 
 lack of skill, fall below this average. These men 
 also must perforce join the unemployed. Further, 
 there are workmen out of work because their trade 
 is seasonal, or because, like the nail-making at 
 Cradley Heath, their trade is decaying. Their 
 misfortune is by no means due to the migration 
 of others, and their remedy must be the adoption 
 of an additional or supplementary trade, or migra- 
 tion to some new industry, a solution which is 
 more or less forbidden by the restrictive tendencies 
 of trade unionism. Again, there are a considerable 
 number of men whose intellects are altogether de- 
 bauched by their love of political agitation. They 
 live on the earnings of their unfortunate wives and 
 families ; they perhaps honestly believe that their 
 sufferings can be ended by some act of parliament, 
 and politicians give encouragement to a super- 
 stition which thus magnifies their own office. 
 These men devote their ample leisure to organ- 
 ising the unemployed. It is singular that women, 
 the most poorly paid part of the community, do 
 not take part in the unemployed agitation, and 
 that, although in previous winters the move- 
 ment, as a rule, began in October or November, 
 this last year, the winter of 1894-5, nothing 
 was heard of the matter till the School Board, 
 
THE UNEMPLOYED. 337 
 
 Guardians, and Vestry elections were over. The 
 spouters and agitators were of course otherwise 
 engaged. Genuine workmen who are out of work, 
 if they are unhappily beguiled into taking part in 
 this agitation, instead of watching for a market 
 where their services are required, are artificially 
 collected together and are mixed up with elements 
 which not only are unemployed but unemployable. 
 They are deluded into coming to London by 
 vestries which undertake the duties of guardians 
 and attempt to find relief work for all comers. 
 The unemployed in this way are driven into 
 hopeless congestion, and their chances of finding 
 their way back into the ranks of industry are 
 destroyed. Their character deteriorates, and their 
 case becomes hopeless. 1 The origin of this ruin 
 is not the freedom of migration, but the restrictions 
 which have been artificially set to their right of 
 free labour. A free organisation of labour would 
 inevitably carry such part of the unemployed, as 
 
 1 Numerous philanthropic attempts have been made to help this 
 class ; but the conditions are such, that the measure of success has 
 not been large. Our principal hope must be that a wiser adminis- 
 tration of public relief and a relaxation of trade union restrictions 
 will diminish the artificial creation of this class. Once created and 
 collected in great numbers, it is almost impossible to effect an 
 improvement in its condition. The only chance of reform is to 
 separate them, to allow them to find their way back one by one into 
 the ranks of industrial society, and in the limited number of cases 
 where this is possible, to subject them to wholesome personal 
 influence in a small and carefully supervised training home. The 
 attempt to deal with them in large masses is bound to fail. 
 
338 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 was really desirous of working, to a point, where 
 their efforts would be found profitable. It is a 
 mere question of organisation, one portion of the 
 unemployed will become customers for the work 
 of another portion, if a free market is allowed to 
 determine the use to which their efforts should be 
 directed. 
 
 The difficulty of the unemployed, then, is by 
 no means caused by the migration of labour from 
 the less to the more profitable, but, for the most 
 part, by the restrictions imposed by trade unions 
 and other similar influences on this beneficent 
 migratory movement. 
 
 To return to the improvement in the condition 
 of labour by reason of this continuous migration 
 where is it possible to find all this scope for 
 expansion? The answer is obvious, in the great 
 growth of some old industries, and in the daily 
 invention of new ones. Even a superficial con- 
 sideration of this aspect of the question brings into 
 striking relief the solidarity and mutuality of a 
 social organism based on the principle of free 
 exchange. A portion of the labour withdrawn 
 from agriculture has busied itself in making 
 agricultural machinery. An equivalent to the 
 labour which is deserting the poorly paid slop 
 work in the tailoring trade is being employed in 
 making sewing-machines, and the more elaborate 
 machinery proper to a clothing factory. This 
 
FL UCTUA TIONS OF EMPLO YMENT. 339 
 
 substitution of machinery for manual labour is 
 going on indefinitely, and when we read of 
 Niagara being harnessed for the service of man, 
 it is difficult to see where we can set a limit to 
 this tendency. Further, old machinery is per- 
 petually being retired in favour of new and 
 improved machinery. Railways have taken the 
 place of stage coaches, and there is every pro- 
 bability that in the immediate future the appli- 
 cation of mechanical power to locomotion will be 
 largely increased. 
 
 The improved conditions of labour have enabled 
 wage-earners to create new and important in- 
 dustries. Bicycle making, for instance, employs 
 a large staff of skilled and highly-paid workmen, 
 and their products are bought very largely by 
 their own class. Inventions, at first sight of little 
 value, have at times effected important and un- 
 expected revolutions. A toy, like the automatic 
 " penny-in-the-slot " machine, has brought about 
 a most interesting innovation in the method of 
 supplying gas to artisans' dwellings. 
 
 The following figures, taken from "Mullhall's 
 Dictionary of Statistics," seem to bear on the 
 matter under consideration. 
 
 The total number of persons employed in the 
 United Kingdom were distributed in the following 
 manner at the several dates given, as follows : 
 
340 
 
 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 CO 
 
 H 
 
 W 
 S 
 
 I 
 
 S 
 
 S 
 
 O 
 
 2 5 
 
 ~~ o" 
 
 VO VO 
 
 CO W 
 CO CO 
 
 
 N rf co 
 
 xo 0* S* 
 
 8 
 
 co cf 
 
 N * 
 M w 
 
 i-T cf^ cf cxT i-T 
 co co co T eT 
 
 
 oo 
 
 00 
 
 The following table presents the 
 a different point of view : 
 
 same facts from 
 
FL UCTUA TIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. 341 
 
 RATIO PER THOUSAND. 
 
 
 1841 
 
 1851 
 
 1861 
 
 1871 
 
 1881 
 
 Agriculture 
 Manufactures 
 
 298 
 277 
 
 276 
 307 
 
 233 
 307 
 
 192 
 
 298 
 
 162 
 288 
 
 Commerce 
 
 60 
 
 92 
 
 104 
 
 116 
 
 124 
 
 Mines 
 
 22 
 
 
 37 
 
 38 
 
 
 Building . . . 
 Professions 
 
 43 
 
 19 
 
 25 
 
 
 3- 
 
 61 
 33 
 
 Domestics ... 
 
 137 
 
 120 
 
 141 
 
 153 
 
 156 
 
 Various 
 
 144 
 
 no 
 
 101 
 
 120 
 
 135 
 
 Total 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 1000 
 
 IOOO 
 
 It will be significant to add that among the 
 professions, the principal increases have been 
 under the head of medicine, which has risen from 
 56,000 in 1841 to 102,000 in 1881, and of 
 education from 76,000 in 1841 to 224,000 in 1881. 
 Among manufacturing industries, the chemical 
 trade employed 7000 in 1841, and 55,000 in 1881. 
 The paper trade, 15,000 in 1841, and 61,000 in 
 1881. The textile industries show a decrease from 
 1,481,000 in 1841 to 1,283,000 in 1881, owing 
 largely, no doubt, to the disappearance of the 
 hand-loom weaver. In 1841 there were 234,000 
 male domestic servants, and 843,000 women. In 
 1 88 1, the numbers were 292,000 males, and 
 1,546,000 women. These last figures point to a 
 growth of middle class comfort, rather than to an 
 increase of the richer and larger establishments. 
 
342 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 Many interesting particulars as to the redistri- 
 bution of the population, in the various industries, 
 during the decennium 1881-1891, can be gathered 
 from the General Report, issued with the Census 
 of 1891. The natural increase of population 
 averaged 117 per cent. All increase, over and 
 above this limit, must be due to other causes, and 
 chief among them must be the attraction of a better 
 market, or, in the case of a decrease, the repulsion 
 of a falling market. 
 
 Subject to this qualification, the following 
 increases are recorded, and may be regarded as 
 proof of the growth of the class that can afford 
 to amuse itself : Musicians, 5 1 ; actors, 60 ; per- 
 formers, showmen, etc., 80 ; photographers, 59 per 
 cent, respectively. Significant, also, is the growth 
 of insurance business. In 1891, 31,437 persons were 
 engaged in this employment, twice as many as in 
 1 88 1, and three times as many as in 1871. Road, 
 railway, and water traffic employs 23 per cent, more 
 than in 1881. The telegraph and telephone service 
 employed 14,955 in 1891, as against only 9442 
 in 1 88 1. Farmers and agricultural labourers 
 have each decreased 10 per cent, while expansion 
 of a more profitable form of land culture is attested 
 by an increase of no less than 65 per cent, in the 
 number of gardeners, most of them engaged in 
 the industry of market gardening. The increase of 
 " engine and machine makers " was 28 and 29-8 per 
 
INCREASE AND DECREASE. 343 
 
 cent, in the decennia ending 1881 and 1891 
 respectively. The industrial class, as a whole, 
 increased 15*1 per cent., a percentage which would 
 have been much greater but for the exceptionally 
 small growth in two of the largest groups, namely, 
 the building trades and the textile industries. 
 
 A striking instance of the growth of a new 
 industry is afforded in the case of the makers of 
 electrical apparatus, which has risen from 428 in 
 1871, to 12,604 in 1891. Persons employed in 
 bicycle and tricycle making were, in 1881, returned 
 as 1072, and in 1891 as 11,524. 
 
 One or two decreases must now be quoted, they 
 are of even greater interest than the increases. 
 Shirt-makers and seamstresses are returned in 
 1 88 1 as 83,244. To this we must add machinists 
 (female) 7524 ; total, 90768. In 1891, this group is 
 arranged seamstresses, 5 5,096 ; machinists (female), 
 21,478 ; total, 76,574, or a decrease of 15 per cent. 
 The interesting point to be observed is that the 
 more highly paid labour of manufacturers and 
 workers of sewing-machines is superseding the 
 "gratuitous" labour of the poor needle -woman, 
 while the price of clothing is still tending to 
 " gratuity." 
 
 The shoe trade exhibits a different and more 
 forward stage of the same process. In each of 
 the two preceding decennia there had been a 
 decrease in the numbers following this trade. 
 
344 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 This was due to the substitution of machinery 
 for hand work, and the process continued till the 
 change was complete. The substitution once made, 
 the numbers of those employed would naturally 
 begin to rise again with the growth of the popula- 
 tion. The increase, accordingly, in the last 
 decennium is n per cent., corresponding to 117, the 
 average increase of population. In Northampton- 
 shire and Leicestershire, the chief home of the 
 machine boot trade, it is noteworthy that there 
 has been a continuous growth in the numbers of 
 employed, in each decennium, since 1861, of 34, 
 41, and 62 per cent, respectively, the whole 
 decrease having taken place elsewhere among the 
 hand-working operatives. 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the industry 
 of hand nail making. It is satisfactory to notice 
 that it shows a very remarkable decline, having 
 fallen from 18,741 to 9943, or 47 per cent., and, 
 further, that this follows on a decline of 18 per cent, 
 in the previous decade. 
 
 This list of illustrations could be extended 
 almost indefinitely ; but enough, for the purpose, 
 has been said. 
 
 The continuous fall of prices, since 1872, is 
 nothing more than the tendency of the common 
 necessaries of life to pass from the list of 
 satisfactions onereuses to the list of satisfactions 
 gratnites. The distribution of labour, as illustrated 
 
HINDRANCES. 345 
 
 by these quotations from the census report, follows 
 a different law. There is a continuous flow of 
 labour from the less profitable trades, to the more 
 profitable. Competition, which is perpetually 
 bringing down the rate of interest and profit, as 
 well as the price of common necessaries, points 
 out to the labourer by the unmistakable sign of 
 a stagnant market, the place where his labour is 
 tending to gratuity, and by the equally un- 
 mistakable sign of a buoyant market, the place 
 where advantageous employment is to be found. 
 The harmonious organisation of industrial society 
 depends entirely on the labourer's ability to read 
 and obey these signs. To attempt to destroy, 
 by coercive intimidation, the delicate sensitiveness 
 of this barometer, viz. the free market, is foolish 
 and suicidal in the extreme. 
 
 Before leaving this aspect of the subject, it may 
 be well to consider shortly some of the lets and 
 hindrances which impede the continuity of these 
 self-adjusting migratory movements of labour. 
 
 First and foremost, we should be disposed to 
 name the disastrous delusion which has taken 
 possession of the public mind, that the great capi- 
 talists, or captains of industry, who enrich them- 
 selves by organising services acceptable to the 
 people, are enemies of society to be cribbed, 
 cabined, and confined in all their movements. All 
 value is the result of partial and temporary 
 
346 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 monopoly. The only way to counteract monopoly 
 is by means of that competition which is daily 
 bringing the common necessities of life nearer to a 
 condition of " gratuity." The great development of 
 municipal pretensions has, without doubt, closed 
 the door to a vast expansion of private enterprise. 
 There is, we grant, a certain amount of difficulty 
 in admitting private enterprise to some of these 
 large undertakings, but the difficulties are exagger- 
 ated, and have been elevated into a body of 
 opinion, which is simply strangling our industrial 
 life. Private enterprise is being driven out of 
 many forms of industry. Municipalities in every 
 quarter lie in wait to confiscate the property of 
 tramway, water, and gas companies. Railway 
 companies are harassed, in their beneficent enter- 
 prise, by endless interferences and regulations, till 
 competent authorities tell us that the era of 
 railway construction is past. The country, it is 
 said, wants light railways, but such are the 
 impediments put in the way of private enterprise, 
 that it seems to be assumed that we can only get 
 these by means of the rates. The Post-Office 
 tried to extinguish the telephone companies, and 
 the district messengers companies, and now black- 
 mails them. The rich man, who uses capital with 
 success, is a great benefactor to mankind, but in 
 the opinion of the democracy, and Sir W. 
 Harcourt, he is a person to be subjected to 
 
HINDRANCES. 347 
 
 invidious and penalising taxation. The building of 
 artisan dwellings is pursued under circumstances 
 of the greatest difficulty, owing to threats of muni- 
 cipal competition, the exactions of the rate col- 
 lector, and the utter indifference of the legislature 
 to the necessity of simplifying land tenure and 
 transfer, and so introducing the healthy spirit of 
 private competition. Here is the cause that house 
 rent, almost alone among the common necessities 
 of life, has not shared in the general tendency 
 towards gratuity. Here perhaps also is the cause 
 of the curtailment of employment in the building 
 trades alluded to in our quotations from the census 
 returns. 
 
 The same spirit of delusion seems to animate 
 many of our voluntary associations. A volume 
 might be written on the mischievous, ill-considered 
 charities which add to the state endowments of 
 pauperism, and on the vast amount of energy that 
 is wasted in mere political gabble. But among 
 voluntary associations, without doubt, by far the 
 most mischievous is the trade union, as at present 
 conducted. At every turn, the migration of labour 
 to its most profitable place of employment, at 
 every step, the tendency of commodities toward 
 gratuity are thwarted and repressed. 
 
 One of the avowed objects of the Miners' Associ- 
 ations is to restrict the output of coal with a view of 
 keeping up prices and of paying high wages to the 
 
348 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 present number of coal miners. The true solution 
 of course is, that the flow of labour, in the coal 
 mining industry, both in and out, should be un- 
 interrupted. It is the policy of unions, however, 
 to prevent this. They endeavour to enclose 
 themselves in an isolated market, and proceed 
 to violence and intimidation to maintain their 
 monopoly. In the first place, they never succeed 
 for long in doing so, and, in so far as they do 
 succeed, they inflict on all other trades an injury 
 which reacts on themselves, and, most important 
 of all, they destroy the delicate mechanism which 
 regulates, to the advantage of all, the movements 
 of exchange which we have already described. 
 It is esssential to the interest of poorly paid 
 workmen that they shall be allowed to pass 
 freely into higher paid industries ; these have 
 ample compensation for this in the expansion of 
 still higher industries, and in the never-ending 
 discovery of new industries. 
 
 The question, Where is the custom to come from 
 for all this expansion ? can only proceed from 
 those who are blind to the mutuality of our 
 industrial organisation. The answer is obvious, 
 solvitur ambulando. The growth of working- 
 class incomes permits the working class to be its 
 own customer. This, however, is a point on which 
 we shall have something to say later on. The 
 talk of returning the labourer to the land is the 
 
THE AGRICULTURAL LABOURER. 349 
 
 purest imbecility. At a time when agricultural 
 produce is tending to gratuity, it is gravely 
 proposed to lead the emancipated labourer back to 
 the soil, and to the gratuitous toil from which he 
 has escaped. As we may see, by glancing at the 
 western farms of America, labour on the soil 
 need not be a gratuitous calling. Nor would it 
 be in this country if the healthy migration set 
 in motion by the call of the market were allowed 
 to exercise its salutary influence. To take the 
 labourer back to the land by any other means 
 than the legitimate attraction of the market, 
 would be a crime against him, and a double 
 crime against the less adventurous spirits, who 
 choose to remain agricultural labourers. Yet this 
 is the principle of artificial restriction which under- 
 lies the policy of trade unionism, and the avowed 
 object of empirics of all shades of political opinion. 
 At the risk of over elaboration, let me illustrate 
 this by an imaginary and by a real instance. 
 
 One hundred men, let us suppose, are engaged 
 in cheese making. Too much cheese is produced 
 and prices become unremunerative. The trade 
 unionist says, " Keep the hundred men employed, 
 but reduce your out-put of cheese, and endeavour 
 to make the public pay the same price for a smaller 
 amount of cheese." Now with every cheese pro- 
 ducing district in the world in telegraphic com- 
 munication with the English market, this is 
 
350 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 something like the action of Mrs. Partington and 
 her broom. Even if it is successful, the productive 
 energy of a hundred men is reduced perhaps twenty- 
 five per cent. If this procedure is spread, as un- 
 fortunately it is, to some extent, by the action of 
 trade unions, over the whole area of our industries, 
 we see that labour is confined to its least remunera- 
 tive employment, and the tendency of commodities 
 towards gratuity is reversed. 
 
 A charitable society in the east of London has a 
 number of old pensioners, men and women who 
 have striven hard to attain independence. Their 
 small pensions are given to them expressly in re- 
 cognition of these efforts. During the coal strike, 
 these old people were much distressed by the high 
 price of coal. The society accordingly made an 
 additional allowance. This was based on a rough 
 estimate of the additional expense. During eight 
 weeks some 13 were divided among thirty hearths. 
 The statistical reader, who happens to know the 
 number of hearths that were in the habit of drawing 
 supplies from the area affected by the strike, may 
 work out the sum for himself. It is easy to see 
 that by raising the price of coal the workman's 
 chance of attaining independence and leisure is 
 greatly diminished. 
 
 We have described the principle which we believe 
 to be our best guarantee for industrial progress. As 
 far as we have yet seen, trade unionism, as at 
 
THE ASCENT OF LABOUR. 351 
 
 present conducted, has no conspicuous part to play 
 in the ascent of labour. On the contrary, we have 
 seen that the restrictive policy of trade unionism is 
 one of the chief obstacles at the present time 
 barring the way of progress. Lest the considera- 
 tions already brought forward appear too general, 
 let us consider again the concrete case of the 
 labourer born in an agricultural district. Ex 
 hypothesi, he must either migrate to another 
 field, or the value of his services must be kept 
 up by a return to protection or by a restricted 
 output. As matter of fact, this second solution is 
 not attempted. It is altogether impracticable, and 
 the agricultural labourer does migrate. Now if 
 twenty young men in some rural district find it 
 necessary to seek other than agricultural employ- 
 ment, they do not attempt to bargain collectively, 
 they move off one by one, each, in all probability, 
 to a different place, and a different trade. This 
 migratory ascent of labour is only possible when 
 men are allowed to act singly and independently. 
 
 The advocates of the collective bargain confine 
 their view to too narrow a range. They see that 
 the collective bargain, established by the coercive 
 exclusion of other labourers on the one hand, and 
 by the threat of a strike on the other hand, does 
 at times extort from some employer a rise of 
 wages. This, of course, is seen, but it is necessary 
 to consider what is not seen. Either the advance 
 
352 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 of wages is warranted, or it is not warranted, by 
 the condition of the trade. 
 
 In the first case, ex hypothesi, the trade was profit- 
 able, and in due course fresh capital and enterprise 
 would have been attracted to it, and wages would 
 have risen. The action of the collective bargain, 
 held as a threat over the employer, has antedated 
 the advance by a few days or weeks, and this, as 
 far as we can see, is the only economical advantage 
 derived from attempts at collective bargaining. 
 Even then, it is attended by inconvenience. The 
 continuous fall of prices since 1872 proves con- 
 clusively that these attempts to regrate and fore- 
 stall the market are bound to fail. We must 
 recognise the conditions of the struggle in which 
 we are engaged. In spite of all opposition the 
 cost of the production of common necessaries is 
 tending to gratuity. Labour is an item in this 
 cost of production, and it can only escape from 
 this universal tendency by acquiring sufficient 
 mobility to follow the guidance of its own market. 
 For the permanence of its promotion it must trust 
 to the fact that human wants are inexhaustible, 
 and that the free market guarantees a constantly 
 improving organisation of industry for their con- 
 tinuous satisfaction. 
 
 Next, if the rise is not warranted, the advance is 
 gained by forcing employers to take less than the 
 normal rate of profit. In the long run, this cannot 
 
FALL OF PRICES PERMANENT. 353 
 
 fail to prove disastrous to all concerned. For, 
 if there is one thing more certain than another, 
 it is, that, in these days, no industry can prosper 
 and retain its market without repeated and con- 
 tinuous application of fresh capital, and this cannot 
 be obtained if less than the normal rate of profit 
 is earned. If machinery is not kept up to date, 
 the market is supplied from other sources, or, 
 in face of an enhanced, or even stationary price, 
 the demand becomes languid, the trade decays, 
 and the last state of the operative becomes worse 
 than the first. If, on the other hand, a rise in 
 wages is refused, or a reduction accepted, the 
 industry in question retains its market. The 
 lower wages act as a storm signal to keep other 
 labourers away, and, in course of time, equilibrium 
 is restored, the temporary check is removed, and 
 the old level reached or passed. The unity and 
 solidarity of labour is preserved, and each labourer 
 is automatically directed to his most profitable 
 market. 
 
 The fall of prices, the tendency towards gratuity, 
 is, we believe, inevitable. Even if the bimetallists 
 had their way, and their promised equilibrium 
 between gold and silver was maintained (a very 
 large assumption), there might be, with the increase 
 of money, a temporary rise in prices, but the 
 tendency towards gratuity would not be checked, 
 it would soon reassert itself. It is a condition 
 
 2 A 
 
354 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 out of which, happily, we cannot contract our- 
 selves. 
 
 Here, it may be convenient to notice two 
 fallacious arguments which prevent, more, perhaps, 
 than anything else, a right understanding of this 
 important question. One is the introduction of 
 the question-begging phrase, "fair wages." This 
 is based on the assumption that the market rate 
 of wages is unfair, and that when the market for 
 capital and enterprise in a particular industry is 
 good, i.e. when interest and profits are high, these 
 interests and profits should be reduced not by the 
 competition of capital and enterprise, but by 
 the coercive action of labour to secure a share 
 for itself. As the preceding argument has shown, 
 nothing can be more fatal to the true interest 
 of labour. Such action destroys the continuity 
 of the progress of labour, which, as we have seen, 
 is perfectly secure, without this killing jealousy 
 of the goose that lays the golden egg. The 
 natural organisation of the markets is inevitably 
 tending to a cheapening of production, to a lower 
 rate of profit and interest, and to the distribution 
 of labour in the most remunerative forms of 
 employment. Attempts to make a " corner " for 
 labour are unnecessary, and have no more moral 
 justification, or chance of success, than attempts, by 
 legislation or otherwise, to regrate and to raise the 
 price of wheat or any other commodity or service. 
 
A RIGID COMBINATION. 355 
 
 A second fallacy is based on the assumption that 
 every employer is a rigid combination in himself, 
 and that he derives some advantage from the fact. 
 Now, in so far as this rigidity exists, it is a source 
 of weakness. The employer's plant, contracts, and 
 capital, are hostages to fortune. Notoriously, 
 during long periods, great industries are carried 
 on at a loss. If an employer, in hope of better 
 times, and from an unwillingness to part from his 
 staff of workmen, disregards the falling market, 
 he does so to his own detriment, and to the 
 temporary advantage, at any rate, of his workmen. 
 If he attempts to hold himself unduly rigid against 
 a legitimate rise in the labour market, his best 
 workmen will drop off from him and go elsewhere ; 
 other firms will extend their operations, if they 
 can afford to hold the market, and still give 
 higher wages to labour. Mr. Cree, in his pamphlet 
 on trade unionism, gives an illustration which, I 
 think, very happily reduces the argument ad 
 absurdum. 
 
 " If Professor Marshall's argument had any force," he 
 says, " then a provision merchant, buying butter from 
 ten farmers and selling to three hundred customers, 
 should be at a great advantage in dealing with both, as 
 he 'represents a perfectly rigid combination,' etc., and 
 it should be necessary, in order to prevent him exploiting 
 the farmers, that they should combine against him, and 
 also that the customers should protect their interests in 
 
356 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 the same way. But they do not combine, and provision 
 merchants do not make fortunes ; the price of butter 
 rises and falls independently of their will." 
 
 Perhaps it will be said, that though the single 
 employer is not master of the situation, yet there 
 is a natural combination between all employers. 
 
 Now, this is a mere truism. There is a natural 
 combination between all men, not to give more 
 in an exchange than the market requires. That 
 employers succumb to this all-pervading human 
 foible is, of course, true, but it is distinctly untrue 
 that in normal circumstances capitalist employers 
 ever desist for a moment from competition one 
 against another. Combination is occasionally 
 forced on them, by an instinct of self-preservation, 
 in face of the attacks of the men's trade unions, 
 but even then it is difficult to maintain it for long. 
 Notoriously, the coal-owners' combination, entered 
 into at a moment when they had every inducement 
 to stand together, was broken down during the 
 late English strike by the defection of Colonel 
 Seeley. The militant Shipping Federation is not 
 an association for the purpose of influencing wages, 
 but is simply a protection society against the 
 domineering tactics of the Seaman's Union, and, 
 but for that union, would never have come into 
 existence. 
 
 The great American combinations, of which the 
 Standard Oil Trust is the best known, have never, 
 
ILLIBERAL EMPLOYERS. 357 
 
 so far as I am aware, been accused of endeavouring 
 to use their power to keep down wages. On the 
 contrary, according to a Foreign Office Report, 
 1890, No. 174, "the number of workmen" (in 
 the employment of the Standard Oil Trust) 
 " receiving average wages has increased, with a 
 chance of each individual workman to rise. The 
 better class of workmen are employed, and strikes 
 are unknown." Whether the consuming public 
 has a grievance is another question ; but it seems 
 to be conceded that the Standard Oil Trust is 
 by no means a monopoly, nor has it prevented, 
 or tried to prevent, a great decrease in the price 
 of oil. Its permanency is due to its moderation, 
 and the report of a committee of the House of 
 Representatives is probably not wrong in declaring 
 that " Every combination dangerous to the public 
 interest carries within itself its own destruction." 
 
 It will be admitted of course that some em- 
 ployers are closer and more arbitrary than others, 
 but these men, whether in the Scotch farm- 
 servants' feeing fair, or in the less formally 
 organised market, are avoided and worse served 
 than more liberal employers. Beyond this, no 
 employer, or combination of employers, can over- 
 bear the market, and the proof of this is, that they 
 never attempt to do it. If a workman asks for 
 a rise of wages, the firm may give it or refuse it, 
 but we never heard of an instance where a 
 
 2 A3 
 
358 . FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 combination of employers attempted to prevent him 
 from exchanging his services at a more profitable 
 rate elsewhere. The nearest approach to such a 
 state of things has been the futile complaint of 
 some old-fashioned maiden lady of straitened means 
 that her favourite maid-servant has been decoyed 
 away from her by an .offer of higher wages. 
 
 The weakness of the employer's situation, some- 
 what inconsistently, is at times urged by the 
 Socialists. His capital, they say, cannot run away, 
 but they add to this an exaggeration of their own. 
 Fixed plant cannot easily leave the country ; spoil 
 it, and rob it, and tax it to extinction, is the 
 statesmanlike maxim of this school. The most 
 superficial knowledge of modern industry, however, 
 should apprise them that credit (not corporeal 
 commodities) constitutes the main instrument of 
 commerce. Credit is based simply on our apprecia- 
 tion of the chances of reaping where we sow. We 
 have seen how vastly important it is that new and 
 miscellaneous industries should be developed. A 
 man with ingenuity and invention sees his way 
 to satisfy, at a profit, some human want. He 
 requires, however, credit or capital to carry it 
 into effect. As things at present are constituted, 
 municipalities, labour agitators, politicians, and 
 charlatans of all kinds lie in wait for that enter- 
 prise. Neither the man of ability nor the capi- 
 talist is permitted to undertake the risk, and the 
 
LEISURE. . 359 
 
 labourer, to whom alone there was no risk in the 
 matter, is defrauded of a new market for his 
 services. The air is full of theories of rapine and 
 confiscation ; and the uncertainty of all labour 
 contracts adds additional risk to every under- 
 taking. Credit therefore is shaken, and enterprise 
 dare not venture. 
 
 It may here be very proper to- remind the 
 reader, that the labourer asks not only for higher 
 wages, but for an increased share of leisure. It is 
 a praiseworthy and legitimate ambition. In this 
 connection M. Leroy Beaulieu has finely said, La 
 civilisation se mesure d t accrois semen t simultane et 
 des prodnits et des loisirs. By civilisation this dis- 
 tinguished writer means the orderly growth of 
 industrial society based on the principle of free 
 exchange. Already the services which the 
 labourer brings to the associated "effort" of 
 the community have secured to him some " satis- 
 faction " in the way of leisure. 
 
 Mr. Giffen has pointed out by means of incon- 
 testable statistics that shorter hours are now 
 worked for higher wages than fifty, years ago. 
 This boon cannot be purchased by the trade 
 union policy of keeping up prices by a restriction 
 of output. When effort in any given trade is 
 producing more than sufficiency of supply, the 
 remedy is not restriction, but a passing on of some 
 of the effort to new industries. 
 
360 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 Let me attempt to indicate the direction in 
 which these new industries are to be found. We 
 see vast combinations of capital and labour devoted 
 to supplying the rich with luxury and leisure ; the 
 ascent of labour permits, and in the future will 
 permit still more, great developments of industry in 
 supplying luxuries to those who are now poor. 
 Fifty years ago, tea, sugar, and wheaten bread 
 were the luxuries of the poor they are now 
 tending to gratuity. In the future, healthy houses, 
 leisure, books, and a thousand other refinements 
 must be subjected to the same process. There is 
 a disposition to look too exclusively to foreign and 
 colonial markets for the expansion of our trade, 
 and to neglect this prospect of an inexhaustible 
 demand which lies at our very door. To secure 
 the opening up of these new channels of trade, we 
 have no need of costly filibustering expeditions, 
 often of very doubtful morality, but of peace, 
 retrenchment of public burdens, liberty of enter- 
 prise, and security of property. Towards this ideal 
 we shall move more rapidly if we will only recog- 
 nise and forward, rather than ignore and thwart, the 
 true principle of progress. The Duke of Argyle 
 and Mr. Mallock have based their defence of 
 the private ownership of capital on the obvious 
 advantage accruing to society when ability, by 
 means of capital, is able to direct the industrial 
 effort of the community. There is, however, a 
 
LEISURE. 361 
 
 further harmony arising out of the private owner- 
 ship of capital. It is the device by which men 
 gain leisure for themselves in the evening of life, 
 and protection for the widow, the orphan, and the 
 helpless. Men's desire to purchase leisure, in other 
 words, a right of deferred consumption, arises from 
 many complex motives. Many desire to purchase 
 it, not for themselves, but for those dear to them. In 
 these feverish days the number of those who, being 
 able so to do, deliberately choose leisure for them- 
 selves is, we fear, comparatively few. In many cases 
 the demand for leisure would be more correctly 
 described as a demand for a short day, and plenty 
 of overtime at a higher rate of wages. It is a 
 perfectly legitimate desire. A man's first economic 
 duty is to maintain and provide an endowment 
 for the helpless persons dependent on him. Till 
 that is done, to a right-minded man, leisure will 
 be apt to seem idleness. 
 
 The philosophy of leisure is not well understood 
 in any rank of life. There are situations where 
 leisure is a crime, but there are also others where a 
 true wisdom will deplore the exaggerated import- 
 ance imputed, even by the best of men, to political 
 power, social distinction, and material wealth, as 
 things for which leisure is to be ruthlessly sacrificed. 
 Social distinction and material wealth are innocuous 
 possessions. It is the struggle for power for power 
 to be used for the most part in hindering by 
 
362 FREEDOM OF EXCHANGE. 
 
 legislation the natural progress of civilisation 
 which more than anything else is wasting the energy 
 of the nation. It is a tempting subject for a 
 digression, but it is necessary to return to the 
 labourer. 
 
 His facilities for purchasing leisure, for whatever 
 purpose he desires it, are greater than they were ; 
 and if, as a class, he will be guided by the true 
 principles of freedom, his progress in the near 
 future is assured. All is in his favour, the fall 
 in prices, the ascent of labour, the comparative 
 ease with which a small capital can be accumu- 
 lated. The danger, the only danger which threatens 
 his future, is his excessive and superstitious faith in 
 politics and trade unionism occupations no more 
 conducive to profit and content than the labours 
 of Sisyphus. 
 
 In the foregoing pages the freedom permitted to 
 a friendly critic has not, I trust, been exceeded. 
 The right of labour to combine has been fully 
 recognised, remonstrance has been addressed only 
 against the suicidal policy of restriction which 
 underlies so much of modern trade unionist effort. 
 It is admitted freely that there are many useful 
 purposes to be served by voluntary combined 
 action. The benefit and investment side of trade 
 unions is most valuable, and might no doubt 
 be largely extended ; as centres for public discus- 
 sion and information they might do much to reveal 
 
TRUE POLICY OF LABOUR. 363 
 
 to the labourer the real beneficence of his depend- 
 ence on the market All this would follow as a 
 natural corollary, if the leaders of the labour 
 world could be disabused of their present super- 
 stition. 
 
 Plain speaking will not, I trust, be imputed 
 to lack of sympathy with working-class ambitions. 
 An impartial observer must mark and regret the 
 disappointment which inevitably results to the 
 labourer from the use of mistaken methods. Most 
 of all he will deplore the misfortune which sur- 
 rounds the newly enfranchised heirs of political 
 power, with a crowd of sycophants and charlatans. 
 As token of respect and of sympathy, he will pay 
 them the highest compliment in his power to pay, 
 he will tell them plainly and directly what he 
 believes to be the truth, without fear and without 
 favour. 
 
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