T HE Times' review of the state of the " Legal
Poor rof London," which was published on Saturday last, is this year exceptionally full and interesting, and also exceptionally depressing. For it seems to leave no doubt that, so far as the Metropolitan district is con- cerned, we are in presence of a. definite reflux of that tide of pauperism which, through most of the last quarter of the nineteenth century, all social reformers hoped was on a slow but genuine ebb. The total, nearly 115,000, of persons receiving relief under the Poor Law at the Christmas just past was greater than that for the corresponding period of any year since 1871, while the number of workhouse last four years, a recent Return of the Local Government Board showing, for the second week in December, 103,164 in 1900, 107,539 in 1901, 113,869 in 1902, and 114,575 in 1903. In the second week of February, 1903, the total number of persons relieved reached the great figure of 116,138 (71,938 indoor and 44,200 outdoor).
And throughout the past year the level of pauperism continued exceptionally high. At the end of September the total was 105,657, which was greater than in the corresponding quarter of any year since 1871; while the proportion per thousand of the population (22.9) was higher than in nearly all the years since 1875. " There is no record of a higher indoor population or a higher [indoor] ratio per thousand of inhabitants —14-7.' There was a slight decrease on the September figures of outdoor pauperism as compared with 1902, but the total remained higher than in any previous year since 1882, while the ratio per thousand was also higher than in the few years immediately preceding 1902. Thus the Returns for 1903, as a whole, appear to register a definite spread of the actual and relative area of dependence upon State assistance, a definite decline in the effective strength oft individual self-help, at the heart of the Empire.
This is a grave situation, needing to be seriously faced and dealt with by all citizens who care for the common- weal. Happily there are good reasons to believe that, if there should be a general recognition of the necessity of taking action to check this advancing evil, the task will prove by no means impossible. For the danger has been created, at any rate in large measure, by slack and in- judicious Poor Law administration, which in itself has been due quite as much to the carelessness and indifference of a great number of otherwise good citizens with regard to this branch of local government, as to any definite adoption of unsound theories by those who have been elected as Guardians. Once let the average ratepayer be roused to take the same kind of interest in the sound administration of the Poor Law as he takes in political questions, even of the second order of importance, and we may fairly expect that he will rally in sufficient numbers to the support of a policy both more humane and more economical than has prevailed of late in too many portions of the Metropolitan district. For, as the Times' review plainly shows, it is an easy matter for the Londoner whose local Guardians are the exponents of a loose system of administration to compare his own Union with those in which more enlightened theories are dominant, and to recognise the natural effects of the divergent practices. Broadly speaking, those Unions in which a firm hand has been kept on outdoor relief are those in which the habit of reliance on public relief in any form has been reduced to a minimum, and vice versd. " If we take all the London Unions and their work from 1891 to 1901, it will be seen that out of nineteen where outdoor pauperism has decreased, sixteen record a decrease of total pauperism.
In the cases of eleven other Unions, the increase of outdoor pauperism was accompanied by an increase of total pauperism. Again, between 1901 and 1903 the largest additions to pauperism have taken place in Unions which have increased their outdoor pauperism." The most con- spicuously contrasted examples of the two opposite types of administration and their results are St. George's, Hanover Square, and St. George's-in-the-East. At the beginning of 1903 the proportion of paupers to population in the wealthy Western Union was 31 per thousand ; while in the poor and crowded Eastern one it was only 22.5 per thousand. Between 1891 and 1903 the total pauperism of the first increased by over 31 per cent., and its outdoor relief by about 74 per cent. ; while the total pauperism of St. George's-in-the-East decreased by over 34 per cent., and its outdoor relief by 70 per cent.
Facts such as these, if put clearly enough and often enough before ratepayers of average intelligence, can hardly fail to convince them of the hollowness of the arguments for an elastic administration of outdoor relief based either on its economy of the ratepayers' money, or upon its tendency to keep down the total numbers of those who obtain -the shelter of the workhouse. What it does is without doubt to cultivate among the poor the habit of looking to the Guardians for help in the tiding over of times of difficulty, and so to strike at the roots of that self-help and self-respect which are the vital conditions of economic and social progress. Their strength once thoroughly undermined and the habit of dependence formed, there remains only a difference in degree, not in kind, between the frequent resort to out-relief and the ultimate acceptance of the temporary, or even permanent, hospitality of the workhouse. In the old days, indeed, that phrase might seem little better than a cruel irony ; but it is clear that the great improvement effected of late years in the amenities and comforts of residents in the workhouse, especially in the case of the aged poor, is very markedly reducing, if it has not already to a large extent abolished, the shrinking aversion which the thought of such residence formerly inspired. Whether these improve- ments have gone further than is wise in the case of able- bodied inmates of workhouses we do not feel able to say. We cannot wish that there should be any check upon their existence and diffusion in the wards assigned to the respectable aged poor. But the fact that the work- house has thus been humanely and rightly shorn of its repulsive aspects to those who may seek its shelter when no longer able to support themselves enhances the importance of avoiding in the general adminis- tration of the Poor Law any such practices as will serve to encourage a disposition to rely on legal relief. Such, as we have seen, has been, and such must be, the operation of a lax system of outdoor relief. But in order to bring these truths home to the mind of the ordinary ratepayer it is necessary that persons of good standing and ability should exert themselves, individually and collectively. Societies must be organised for the reform of the administration of the Poor Law in those parts of the Metropolis in which at present it is being loosely and carelessly administered ; meetings must be held, at which the subject shall be treated in a lucid and interesting manner; and alike by speech and by writing, in the news- papers and in special leaflets and other such literature, strenuous and continued efforts must be made to educate the public mind in the right direction. In particular, candidates of superior quality must be found for the office of Guardian, who will be ready to devote their talents and their time to the laborious, and for a time, it may be, un- popular, work of bringing sound principles in regard to out-relief into operation. Much may be done both rowards promoting the election of such candidates, and towards facilitating their labours when elected, by arranging for the co-operation of charitable societies with Boards of Guardians in such fashion'as to secure that cases in which temporary help is really needed and deserved shall be assisted without coming upon the rates. If that be done, then the passage from an injuriously lax to a wholesomely strict practice in regard to out-relief can be made without hardship, without shock to public sympathies, and with far better hope of lifting the persons helped towards a more secure economic level. All this means, as we have indicated, a large amount of effort on the part of a large number of citizens, in return for which no personal glory is to be expected. But those who earnestly put forth such efforts will have the satisfaction of stemming a tide of really dangerous social reaction, and of strengthening their country at its centre to meet the stress of the ever-growing competition to which it must be exposed.
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