THE RELIEF OF THE POOR.*
MEN'S heads are never more fatally at the mercy of their hearts than when they are considering the terribly difficult problems connected with the duty of society towards its destitute members. Feelings of compassion and sympathy, which are still, even in this industrial age, common enough to do a great deal of well-meant mischief, urge the administrators of parish funds to regard themselves as dispensers of the united benevolence of the rate- payers. Such feelings are highly honourable, when pro- perly directed; nobody wishes the Poor-law to be inter- preted harshly, but it cannot be too strongly asserted that charity is one thing, and poor-relief another, and that a man should be carried as far as possible by sympathetic emotion when deciding as to the amount of his subscription to a hospital or a Christmas toy fund, but should regulate his feelings by strictly business principles when administering the funds levied from his fellows by compulsory taxation. Moreover, since the parochialisation of politics, the amiable mistakes of shortsighted sentimentalists have been assisted by partisans who would curry favour with the lower strata of electors by contending that the stigma should be removed from pauperism, and that a man who has failed in the battle • (1.) The Better Administration of the Poor-law. By W. Chance, ILA., Barrister-at-Law, Hon. Sec. Central Poor-law Conference, and a Guardisn of the Poor. London: Swan S:ainenschein and (J0.—:2.) Some Poor-Beiief qUes. tions, with the Arguments on Both Sides By Miss Gertrude Lubbock. With a Preface by the Bight Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M.P. London: John Murray.—(3.) The Prcbtem of the Aged Poor. By Geoffrey Drags, London: Adam and Charles Black,
of life should be all the more coddled and made comfortable. Any one who has ever given the most fleeting attention to the more obvious aspects of human nature, would know, without the aid of special facts and figures, that the result of such an abuse of sympathy must be fatal to the very class which these well-meaning sympathisers desire to benefit. By teaching the poor that there is a deep, well- filled purse into which they may always dip freely and without sacrifice of their own or others' respect, we deprive them of all incentive to those honourable endeavours which are the most satisfactory incidents in most men's lives. But however clearly these considerations may be recognised, most readers will be startled by the convincing strength of the case which Mr. Chance makes out, in his admirable work on the subject, for a sober and cautious administration of the Poor-law. He writes with the authority of an expert and the lucidity of one who has learnt to make figures speak for themselves ; every principle laid down is
supported by a formidable array of facts, and the writer never advances a conclusion without putting us in possession of the figures and experiments which have led him to it.
Put into a nutshell, Mr. Chance's object is the restriction of outdoor-relief. He evidently desires its total abolition ; but he is too wise to miss a chance of practical reform by straining after an ideal which is impossible under the present circumstances. His book is practically devoted to an enume- ration of the objections and abuses that are apparently in- separable from any system of relief which encourages " out- door " applicants, and of the benefits which have invariably been found to result from the strict application of the work- house teat. The following passage from his preface indicates his line of argument, and shows the convincing character of the statistics with which he supports it :—
" The great report of 1834 . . . . deals after all with a state of society and things which does not exist now ; and because this is so, many persons are apt to consider it out of date or no use for present purposes. This is an error. The principles underlying the grant of poor relief which it lays down are good for all time. Had the Poor-law been administered, since 1834, strictly on these principles in every union, as was done in Atcham, pauperism would probably have been reduced to a negligeable quantity. Even, however, with defective and faulty administration, pauperism has diminished in an extra- ordinary degree, and it is well to remember thee fact when the pauperism of to-day is considered; sad it is indeed, to think that in 1894 the mean number of our paupers should have been 787,933, or 26.6 per 1,000 of the whole population of England and Wales ; but in 1849 the number was 1,088,659, or 62.7 per 1,000 of the population. So, too, in 1894, our able-bodied paupers (excluding vagrants) amounted to 35 per 1,000 of the population ; while in 1849 they were 13.2 per 1,000. But the most significant figures are those for 1871. Then the mean number of our paupers was 1,037,360, or 46-1 per 1,000; and the mean number of adult able- bodied paupers, 172,460, or 7-7 per 1,000. In other words, we have only half the pauperism to-day that we had twenty-two years ago, Now it is a curious fact that it was about 1869 that attention was drawn to our increasing pauperism There was a general stir in Poor-law matters, and there is not the least doubt that the result was a change in the then existing system of adminis- tration. A few unions boldly adopted a policy of indoor-relief only, with the most encouraging results. These were exceptional cases. Other unions, however, began either then or shortly after- wards to administer outdoor relief more strictly. It is impossible not to trace the extraordinary reduction in our pauperism since 1870 mainly to this cause."
Having thus opened his case, Mr. Chance pursues his telling exposure of the evils of outdoor-relief through every aspect of the problem, driving home his conclusions with tables of statistics and interesting quotations from the reports of other experts. The advocates of the miscalled " sympathetic " system will perhaps be surprised to hear that the free granting of outdoor-relief has a direct effect on wages, and that the Guardians who go on these lines are therefore benevolent at the expense of the ratepayers, and to the benefit only of the employers of labour. This is especially noticeable in the CAW
of female workers, whose cases are generally dealt with very "leniently" by Guardians. "It is on record that the virtual abolition of outdoor-relief in the union of Bradford raised the wages of charwomen throughout the union by ad. a day.
The wage of the very poorest class in the com- munity is now kept down by out-relief."
It is hardly necessary to insist that the wretched pittances so doled out are quite inadequate for the support of those whom they demoralise. The amount of benefit conferred is in- finitesimal, but the evils of the system are almost incalculable. Not only are the duties of members of a family towards one
another thus transferred to the parish, but the present lax administration directly discourages thrift of all kinds. An instructive instance is given of a meeting of Somersetshire colliers, who assembled to discuss 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," and the whole proposal at once fell to the ground. Considerable irritation and discontent among the poor are inseparable from this system, which is bound to appear capricious and partial even when most conscientiously administered; whereas, when once the workhouse test is applied, the question of accepting or refusing relief is shifted to the only person who is in possession of all the facts of the case. Moreover, when em- ploying this method, the Guardians are at least sure that relief finds its way to the proper party; while many instances are given of the outdoor doles being diverted from those in whose favour they were granted, and an amusing story is told of a pauper who had been in receipt of relief for ten years, and was found by a new relieving officer working in a well-stocked garden, and in possession of a sty fall of pigs and a horse and cart for marketing purposes. The usual objections to the workhouse test—that it breaks up the home, and that it is lostly—are fully answered by Mr. Chance. He points out that only such " homes " as are unworthy of the name are, as a rule, broken-up ; and, moreover, that charity, organised in conjunction with the Poor-law Boards, can adequately deal with such cases when real hardship is involved. While the argument that the restriction of outdoor-relief would cause the flooding of the workhouses and consequent increase in the rates, is shown by conclusive figures to be entirely fallacious. We have only been able to touch on the leading features of this very interesting presentation of the case for indoor-relief as an incentive to thrift and self-reliance ; but we have no hesitation in advising our readers to study Mr. Chance's able monograph for themselves; to Poor-law Guardians it will be invaluable.
Further light on the same subject is provided by Miss Lubbock's careful compilation of authorities for and against various Poor-relief doctrines; while Mr. Geoffrey Drage sums up the various aspects of the Problem of the Aged Poor with his usual grasp of detail and effective lucidity.
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