MR. CHAMBERLAIN ON POOR RELIEF.
IT is pleasant to find that the Government is not yet quite carried away by the flowing stream of Socialism. So excited has been public feeling by sensational reports of dis- tress, which, though it exists, is far from unprecedented, and so loose is the thinking current in the House of Commons, that there was positive danger lest some new and rash method of providing relief for the unemployed should, in a moment of impulse, have been hastily adopted. A section of the Radicals evidently incline towards a renewal of the discredited experi- ment of State works ; there are Tories who believe that State subsidies rapidly attract votes ; and the Parnellites, who are now eighty-six, will vote for anything which empties the Treasury, and can be called democratic. A vote like that which turned the London Parks into commons might have been obtained for some wild resolution, such as the right of all men to labour, and the sensible classes might have been brought into direct collision with the able-bodied residuum, which could then have pleaded a Parliamentary vote for its favourite panacea. It is evi- dent, however, from the debate in the House on Friday week, and from Mr. Chamberlain's Circular to Poor-law Guardians, that the old economical ideas still influence the authorities, and that while they fully recognise the momentary necessity of liberal relief, they are determined neither to disorganise labour nor to pauperise the people. Mr. Dawson, a new Tory Member, on Friday week, put the proposal in its best form by asking for the creation of small harbours, which, he said, would be bene- ficial to commerce and the fishing industry, and would lead to a great saving of life. This, he argued, was the time to make them, for labour was now cheap, and in making them the Government would draw off the unemployed. This proposal was, of course, only relief work under a new name ; for if such harbours were wanted, they would be made in the regular way, every proprietor along the coast being eager to gain the profit a useful harbour secures to the owner of the soil ; but still, it was plausible in form. Such a work looks useful, is "philanthropic," and does not materially interfere with ordinary industry. The House, however, was in a reasoning mood, and would listen to no such proposal. Mr. Mundella- a tried philanthropic Radical, who has done more for the real workers than most men of his generation— almost ridiculed the suggestion, showing conclusively that such harbours were not wanted ; that when wanted, they returned great profits to private speculators ; that if they were voted, a minute part of the money would go to unskilled labourers ; that such labourers must be drawn from the neighbourhood, and not from London ; and finally, that such works could not be begun for a year and a half, the Government having pre- viously to expropriate the land, to settle designs, and to collect the necessary scientific supervision. His speech was literally unanswerable, but he did not stand alone. Somewhat to the surprise of the House, Mr. Bradlaugh, who understands the opinions of working men, strongly protested in their name against the idea that the central power ought to relieve even hunger, declaring that trade was too heavily weighted already, and that " the interference of Government neutral- ised the self-reliant action of the local authorities, through which distress could alone be relieved." And Mr. Chamberlain, who certainly cannot be accused of under- stating the claim of the poor, and who is on this sub- ject the responsible Minister, utterly rejected the scheme. It might aid commerce, in which case commerce, and not the State, ought to pay for it ; but it would not save many lives, the great lose of life occurring on those portions of the coast already well provided with harbour& The State could not save every life, unless, indeed, as Mr. Milner Gibson had once remarked in answer to a similar application, "you could find some means of towing a harbour of refuge at the back of every ship," or, we may add, could prohibit the dangerous practice of going to sea altogether. He did not believe that the actual amount of pauperism was unprecedented—though there was grave distress among those who refused to beg—and he held that really to relieve such distress by works, there must be work provided everywhere. If, however, work must be provided everywhere, the local authorities were sufficient, and there was no pretext for demanding the interference of the State.
The House, it was clear, accepted these ideas, which formerly, when the country was a little less bewildered by a rush of soft- headed " philanthropy," would have been considered self-evi- dent truths, and on Monday Mr. Chamberlain proceeded to act on them. He issued a Circular to all Boards of Guardians, stating that the Local Government Board fully admitted the prevalence of distress which might become acute ; but held that " any relaxation of the general rule at present obtaining, which requires as a condition of relief to able-bodied male persons on the ground of their being out of employment, the accept- ance of an order for admission to the workhouse, or the per- formance of an adequate task of work as a labour-test, would be most disastrous, as tending directly to restore the condition of things which, before the reform of the Poor-laws, destroyed the independence of the labouring classes, and increased the poor-rate until it became an almost insupportable burden." The object, therefore, says Mr. Chamberlain, must be to seek some method of relief which retains the labour-test, which will not be inviting, yet which will not make paupers of the distressed ; and he suggests that the Guardians should, wherever possible, find work which all can do, spade labour or the perfecting of street roadways being the best, and should offer it to the unemployed at wages some- thing less than those ordinarily paid. In this way, the unemployed would be relieved, the public would be benefited, the " pauper stigma " would be avoided, while the labourers would have no temptation, when the necessity was over, to avoid returning to their ordinary pursuits. The Guardians alone can discriminate between real and false applications, and those Guardians who find such works may rely on it, Mr. Chamberlain promises, that the Department will, when neces- sary, advance them money on lenient terms. This Circular embodies, we believe, the best principle on which exceptional relief to the able-bodied men out of work can possibly be afforded. It saves them from the hunger which the com- munity, having accepted the principle of a Poor-law, is bound to prevent ; it relieves them of the fear of being classed with permanent paupers ; it prevents the grave evils which arise from overcrowded workhouses ; and it maintains the great idea that the man who can support himself is bound to do so, and not to seek to live at the expense of his toiling brethren. That last argument, which is the strongest of all, and which should press with special weight upon the minds of Socialists, is the one to which they pay the least atten- tion. They say that the only source of wealth is labour ; yet they, of all men, are the readiest to fine that labour in the amount required for the maintenance of those who labour less. Their doctrine of payment according to need, instead of according to agreement, is the death-warrant of the claim of labour to all that it produces ; but they go on repeating it as if it were unanswerable. We are happy to see that the Government, while pitiful and considerate to distress, being careful even to consult the amour propre of the relieved, and to avoid the appearance of almsgiving, still takes its stand on the ancient law, which is, it seems, too stern for modern thought, but which will not take itself away for all the dreamers in the world, " He that will not work, neither shall he eat." That is "hard " doctrine, it is said, and perhaps it is hard ; but it is not half so hard as the fact, which even Mr. Hyndman would admit, that there can be no corn without cultivation, and that cultivation involves continuous and painful toil.
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