SOME POOR RELIEF 
 QUESTIONS.
 
 SOME POOR 
 RELIEF QUESTIONS. 
 
 WITH THE ARGUMENTS ON BOTH SIDES, 
 
 TOGETHER WITH THE SUMMARY OF THE REPORT OF THE 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE AGED POOR, AND 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE TAKEN 
 
 BEFORE THAT COMMISSION. 
 
 A MANUAL FOR WORKERS. 
 
 BY Miss GERTRUDE LUBBOCK. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY THE RIGHT HON. 
 
 SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART., M.P. 
 
 LONDON : 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1895.
 
 LONDON 
 BRADBURY, AGNJiW, & CO. LD., PRINTERS, WH1TEFRIARS.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 MR. MURRAY has asked me to write a few 
 lines by way of Preface to my daughter's 
 book, and I have much pleasure in doing 
 so. Though I fear I cannot claim to form 
 an impartial opinion, still it seems to me 
 that it will be useful, and I know that it 
 has been carefully prepared. 
 
 The idea is taken from the valuable 
 " Handbook to Political Questions of the 
 Day," by Mr. Sydney Buxton, who has 
 also been kind enough to look through 
 the proofs and make many valuable sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 As he says of his own book, so also in 
 the present case there is no attempt to
 
 viii Preface. 
 
 have the general characteristic and tendency 
 to weaken the feeling of individual self- 
 dependence. There are many who appear 
 to think that pauperism would cease to be 
 pauperism if it were only made sufficiently 
 pleasant, and especially if the pauper is 
 allowed to retain his vote. But food and 
 dress are merely accessories ; the essence 
 of pauperism is that it is a condition of 
 dependence. 
 
 The changing conditions of the country 
 continually raise fresh problems. I see 
 with pleasure that the number of aged 
 paupers tends to decrease, and I hope this 
 diminution will continue. On the other 
 hand we may encounter a formidable 
 difficulty in the future from the present 
 tendency to fixed rates of wages. Will 
 not the result be that men below the 
 average strength, or above a certain age, 
 will find it more and more difficult to 
 obtain employment ? It would be very
 
 Preface. ix 
 
 desirable if our Trades Councils would 
 consider whether any steps could be taken 
 to meet this danger. 
 
 We are sometimes told that the rich are 
 getting richer, and the poor poorer. This 
 is a great mistake. Sometimes I think that 
 the rich are getting poorer. But however 
 this may be, and while no doubt there is 
 still a terribly sad amount of poverty and 
 suffering, still it seems impossible for any 
 one who studies the question, who looks to 
 the Savings Bank Returns, to the Reports 
 of the Friendly Societies, to the Poor Law 
 Reports, and other sources of social sta- 
 tistics, to repress the hope that the hard 
 lot of the poor is becoming somewhat less 
 intolerable. For this there are three main 
 causes : the rise in wages, the fall in prices, 
 and last, but not least, better administra- 
 tion. 
 
 It is in the hope of doing something to
 
 x Preface. 
 
 dimmish suffering and improve the lot of 
 the poor, by assisting to secure a wise 
 administration of the Poor Law and of 
 funds devoted to charity, that this book has 
 been prepared. 
 
 JOHN LUBBOCK.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 OUT-DOOR AND IN-DOOR RELIEF ... i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS in 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 THE PROVISION OF MEALS 194 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 CHARITABLE RELIEF 227 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE 
 ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE AGED POOR . . 243
 
 ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 C. O. S. = Charity Organisation Society. 
 B. of Guardians = Board of Guardians. 
 L. G. Board = Local Government Board. 
 P. L. = Poor Law.
 
 SOME 
 POOR RELIEF QUESTIONS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OUT-DOOR AND IN-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 IT is urged that out-door relief i.e., 
 relief given to people at their own homes 
 should be confined, as far as possible, 
 to temporarily urgent cases of sickness 
 and accident, and to widows during 
 the first month of widowhood, on the 
 grounds : * 
 
 * The present Poor Law enables Boards of Guardians to reduce 
 out-relief to a minimum, if not practically to abolish it altogether ; 
 and many of those who desire to see strict administration univer- 
 sally applied, yet oppose legislative enactment as unnecessary and 
 undesirable. 
 
 L. B
 
 2 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 (i) That out-door relief is the main cause 
 of pauperism, and tends directly to its 
 increase. 
 
 By giving out-relief, we make people paupers 
 who would not become so if we offered them the 
 house. 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, late Chairman Bradfield B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1888, 
 p. 244. 
 
 " It (out-relief) 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. . . . The 
 actual numbers in receipt are no criterion to the 
 numbers that, though not in receipt of it, are 
 being pauperized by the expectation of it. I can 
 speak very strongly from my own personal obser- 
 vation of twenty years on this subject. . . . Then 
 out-door relief increases in-door relief. That point 
 is plain to the observation of any expert in poor- 
 law matters." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, Charity Organisation Review, 
 June, 1891. 
 
 Out-relief is the chief cause of pauperism, and 
 accounts for four-fifths of the pauperism of this 
 country, drunkenness and crime contributing very 
 little to it. 
 
 Ditto.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 3 
 
 " That out-door relief habitually operates as the 
 Commissioners assert, is thetestimony of Poor Law 
 Inspectors repeated year after year in their annual 
 reports of the Local Government Board. One 
 and all declare that the supply creates the demand, 
 that pauperism increases by leaps and bounds 
 when the administration is lax. . . ." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 148. 
 
 The degree of indigence and misery is exactly 
 in proportion to the assistance given to the poor 
 
 by rates. 
 
 ARTHUR YOUNG. 
 
 Facility of relief must of necessity tend to the 
 increase of pauperism unless there be counteract- 
 ing causes of trade, &c. 
 
 T. MACKAY, Charity Organisation Review, Ap. 1894, 
 p. 171. 
 
 "..-'. nine-tenths of the Poor Law applicants 
 are created by the system, and if it was not for 
 the system, those people would not have existed 
 in their present condition at all." 
 
 W. VALLAXCE, Clerk to the Whitechapel B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1889, p. 
 36i. 
 
 " It is the mal-admyiistration of the Poor Law 
 in the past which has made so much misery 
 
 B 2
 
 4 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - 1- 
 
 in our parishes, both in the town and in the 
 country." 
 
 Canon WILLES, Guardian, Basingstoke, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1890, p. 233. 
 
 (2) That an out-relief system perpetuates 
 and increases misery and suffering, and 
 is no real kindness to the poor. 
 
 " To those who desire improved administration 
 out-relief stands condemned for two chief reasons. 
 Firstly, because it perpetuates the misery it pro- 
 fesses to relieve, and secondly because of its 
 cruelty." 
 
 BALDWYN FLEMING, Pauperism and Relief, Reprint 
 from the Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 
 188990. ; 
 
 Out-relief instead of being a kindness to the 
 people is deeply injurious to them.* 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, late Chairman Bradfield B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1888, 
 p. 41. 
 
 * "... during the last twenty years Poor Law administration 
 has been the chief work of my life, with the sole object of helping to 
 raise poor people within my reach from the slough of pauperism ; 
 as each of these years have passed, I have been more and more 
 satisfied that the only practical way of attaining this object is by 
 abolishing out-relief, and that it is the greatest cruelty to the 
 labouring people to give it. I think that no intelligent person who 
 will carefully study the history of the Poor Law can doubt this." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1890, 
 p. 244.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 
 
 A prodigal system of out-relief will in the long 
 run defeat the object in view and increase the 
 misery which it is intended to alleviate. 
 
 Out-door Relief, Report of EDMUND H. WODR- 
 HOUSE, First Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 
 1871 2, Appendix B., p. 97. 
 
 The system "takes away from a man the in- 
 centives which nature provides to induce him to 
 practise the virtues of prudence, economy and 
 thrift, and to seek to improve his condition in 
 life." 
 
 Rev. J. F. A. HERVEV, Report of the Eastern Dis- 
 trict, P. L. Conference, 1883. 
 
 An out- relief system " manufactures paupers 
 wholesale, and makes any improvement in the 
 condition of the poor impossible."* 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian, St. George 's-in-the-East. 
 Evidence given before the Committee of the H. of 
 Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 213. 
 
 " I think we ought gradually, if possible, to do 
 away with out-door relief, not merely to relieve 
 
 * "My view is that the out-door relief system is so utterly de- 
 moralising to the character of the poor, that I deliberately would 
 take the risk of a few hard cases arising, rather than continue a 
 practice which, in my opinion, manufactures paupers wholesale, and 
 makes any improvement in the condition of the poor impossible." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER. Evidence given before the Committee 
 of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1 888, p. 213.
 
 Some Poor Relief Questions. LCH. i. 
 
 expense, but for the benefit of the poor them- 
 selves." 
 
 Earl SPENCER, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 56. 
 
 " There need be no cruelty in the strict ad- 
 ministration of out-door relief; the actual cruelty 
 consists in encouraging habits of extravagance 
 and intemperance, by holding out assistance from 
 the rates in an agreeable form, to all who may be 
 pinched." 
 
 J. JONES, Guardian, Stepney, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 571. 
 
 Guardians cannot indulge themselves in this 
 easy way of giving relief without causing a great 
 amount of suffering, and doing great injury to the 
 character and condition of the people. 
 
 Outdoor Relief, and "A More Excellent Way, "by 
 Rev. WM. BURY, Chairman Brixworth B. of 
 Guardians, 1895. 
 
 (3) That oiit-relief creates distress by in- 
 creasing the rates, and by bringing 
 many persons on to the parish who 
 would not otherwise be obliged to have 
 recourse to parochial relief. 
 
 " . . . so many thousands live just on the 
 verge of pauperism, that any addition to local
 
 CH. i.] Out -door and In- door Relief. 7 
 
 burdens may make many who were before the 
 payers of rates become the recipients of parochial 
 relief." 
 
 Prof. H. FAWCETT, "Pauperism: its Causes and 
 Remedies," p. 37. 
 
 "... every case in which out-relief is given 
 has a direct tendency to encourage others to 
 apply for it, so that, when relief out of the work- 
 house is freely given, the number of paupers and 
 consequently the amount of poor-rates will be 
 constantly increasing. And it cannot be doubted 
 that every additional penny which is added to the 
 burden of local taxation, must be the means of 
 bringing upon the rates many of those who were 
 previously living upon the verge of pauperism." 
 
 Out-door Relief Report of ED. H. WoDEHOUSE. 
 First Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1871 2, 
 P-97- 
 
 "... we are not administering a charitable 
 institution, we are administering that which costs 
 many a great deal of care and pains and perse- 
 verance to pay." 
 
 Rev. R. J. TACON, East and West Flegg B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, p. 
 356. 
 
 (4) A. That whereas an indoor policy tends 
 to ensure better wages and more constant
 
 8 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - i- 
 
 employment to the working classes, out- 
 relief lowers wages and hinders the 
 chance of obtaining better remunera- 
 tion or more regular employment. 
 
 "... a farmer does not dare turn off his men 
 in consequence of a transient interruption to his 
 work when he knows that the only resource of 
 the labourers may be to break up their establish- 
 ments and go to the workhouse. . . Hence thework- 
 house relief brings in aid the operation of private 
 interest to induce the farmer to give permanent 
 employment to his men ; and it is important to 
 mark that the hardship of sending a labourer and 
 his family to the workhouse, the great topic of 
 popular outcry, is the very circumstance that 
 forms the labourer's safeguard against being 
 thrown upon the parish, and secures him con- 
 stant work." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 131. 
 Report of E. C. TUFNELL, Esq. 
 
 " Whenever relief is given to a person already 
 earning something, the result necessarily is to 
 depress the wages of other persons following the 
 same occupation, because the pauper labourer can 
 afford to take less than his fellows, having the 
 difference made up to him by the union. They
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In- door Relief. 9 
 
 are therefore obliged to come down to the lower 
 rate which the pauper determines." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 15. 
 
 " If the employer of labour has to pay more 
 rates he can spend less in wages, and eventually 
 the cost of local taxation must affect both the 
 rent and the earnings of the labouring popu- 
 lation." 
 
 "Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, In- 
 spector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from the 
 Annual Report of the. L. G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " I think that for every penny you give in out- 
 door relief you take away two pence from the 
 wages." 
 
 Evidence of ALBERT PELL, before the Select 
 Committee of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 
 1888, p. 165. 
 
 " The relations between the poor-rates and 
 labour wages are not now so scandalous as they 
 were before the Poor Law Act of 1834. But 
 the principle remains the same now as it was half 
 a century ago." 
 
 ESCOTT'S " England,' 1 1885, p. 197. 
 
 If a man's wages are sufficient to enable him 
 to maintain himself he ought not to require relief; 
 " if they are not sufficient, the sooner they become 
 so the better, but the last way likely to make
 
 io Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i- 
 
 them so is to supplement them with out-door 
 relief. The out-door relief system tends to make 
 men poor, to keep them poor, to keep them down 
 and to keep them back ; to create the very 
 poverty it subsequently attempts most imperfectly 
 to alleviate, and so far from increasing a labourer's 
 income to diminish it, or at all events to keep it 
 stationary." 
 
 Rev. J. F. HERVEY, Report of the Eastern District' 
 P. L. Conference, 1883. 
 
 "... 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." 
 
 T. MACKAY, The Working Class and the Poor 
 Law, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, p. 285. 
 
 (43) That cases are constant of out-door- 
 relief promoting iinder-payment. 
 
 Out-relief " lowers the rate of wages. The 
 pauper can afford to sell his labour much cheaper 
 than the man who is supporting himself. We 
 had strong evidence of that in the enquiry of the 
 Poor Law Commission of 1834, and I think 
 that all observant men and women that have been 
 engaged in poor-law administration will bear me-
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and Indoor Relief. 1 1 
 
 out in saying that it has been fully confirmed 
 since then." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, late Chairman Bradfield B. of 
 Guardians, Charity Organisation Review , June, 
 1891, p. 246. 
 
 " The fact that wages are lowered by poor-rates 
 is no secret to employers of labour, for it is 
 in evidence that in numerous instances they have 
 favoured parish relief for that very reason. . . . 
 And we find that the granting of this relief, with 
 the view of giving lower wages, not only prevailed 
 under the unamended Poor Law, but has been 
 practised to a considerable degree under the less 
 favouring conditions of the amended law." 
 " Dispauperisation," PRETYMAN, p. 66. 
 
 (5) That out-relief is virtually a form of 
 wage. But a form of wage of the most 
 undesirable kind; and it were better that 
 the money spent in out-relief should go \ 
 as it would under a strict system of 
 administration, to the working classes 
 directly in the form of wages. 
 
 " Where labourers, with an ordinary degree of 
 prudence, cannot maintain themselves and their 
 families without parish relief, such relief is part
 
 12 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 of their own wages kept back to be doled out to 
 them as emergency requires." 
 
 " The Original," WALKER, p. 406. 
 
 "It is better for the working classes and all 
 sections of the community that he should be paid 
 suitable wages than that he should make up for 
 the deficiency by doles of any kind." 
 
 E. W. BRABROOK, Chief Registrar of Friendly 
 Societies British Assoc., Aug. 5th, 1892. 
 
 (6) That a system of out-re Lief is incom- 
 patible with thrift and independence, 
 and is a great incentive to improvidence; 
 whereas a restriction of out-relief has 
 been found largely to increase the useful 
 activity of friendly societies and savings 
 banks, of which out-relief indisposes 
 people to take advantage. 
 
 " There is no single point in which those best 
 acquainted with the subject more entirely concur 
 than in recommending a more stringent adminis- 
 tration of out-door relief as the best encourage- 
 ment to providence . . . and it is generally 
 admitted that no more potent agent can be de-
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 13 
 
 vised for inducing a man to join a friendly society 
 than the dread of the workhouse." 
 
 Fourth Report of the Friendly Societies Commission, 
 1874, p. cxciv. 
 
 "... the experience of those who have 
 worked under the Poor Law for many years has 
 been, usually speaking, that more restricted out- 
 relief has certainly encouraged thrift in the 
 Unions in which the system is practised." 
 
 G. LLOYD BAKER, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, 
 P- 358. 
 
 "... it (out-relief) exercises a very pernicious 
 influence upon Friendly Societies by supplying" 
 reasons and inducements for not becoming a 
 member to precisely the class of men whom it is 
 desirable to gain over." 
 
 "The Poor Law, the Friendly Societies, and Old 
 Age Destitution," by the Rev. T. FOWLE. 
 
 "The world at large even yet is not aware of 
 the extent to which saving and thrifty habits are 
 going on amongst us rapidly and increasingly I 
 believe, under the system of right Poor Law ad- 
 ministration." 
 
 Lord BASING, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891,. 
 p. 297.* 
 
 * See also "Med. Relief," p. 91.
 
 14 Some Poor Relief Questions. f CH - J - 
 
 (7) That out-relief is a source of injustice 
 and discouragement to the independent 
 and thrifty. 
 
 "... it (out- relief) places the individual who 
 is not ashamed to come upon the rates in a dis- 
 tinctly better position than the more thrifty and 
 independent breadwinner who makes the neces- 
 sary effort to keep himself and family above the 
 degradation of pauperism." 
 
 " Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, In- 
 spector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from the 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " There is abundant reason to conclude that a 
 number at least equally large are just on the 
 verge of pauperism ; often struggling with admir- 
 able resolution to obtain their own livelihood, 
 and frequently suffering far more than is endured 
 by the recipients of parochial relief." 
 
 Prof. H. FAWCETT, " Pauperism : its Causes and 
 Remedies," p. 3.* 
 
 "As, therefore, it is impossible to distinguish be- 
 tween the deserving and the undeserving, between 
 those whose poverty is involuntary, and those 
 who are poor simply because they are indolent 
 and intemperate, it becomes the more important to 
 administer all relief in such a form as will prevent 
 any applying for it except those who are forced to 
 do so by necessity." 
 
 Ditto, p. 43. 
 * See also pp. 49 and 53.
 
 CH - ] Out-door and In-door Relief. 15 
 
 Since it is impossible to examine into the 
 past circumstances of every applicant for relief, 
 it is impossible to guard against cases of men 
 who, after earning good wages, come for relief 
 the moment they are in want, and having never 
 put by anything, yet, being destitute, must be 
 relieved. 
 
 Lord LVTTELTON, June I4th, 1875, & of Lords, 
 
 "... the State must not pay exclusive regard 
 to the interest of that portion of the population 
 which has already been pauperized, but must also 
 consider the effect which the grant of relief, and 
 particularly the description of the relief, may have 
 on the rest. ... If the system places the pauper 
 in a better condition than that of the poor 
 labourer who supports himself, the latter is dis- 
 heartened in his struggle to maintain his indepen- 
 dence, and thus some of the working classes 
 become demoralised." 
 
 "The English Poor Law System," Dr. P. ASCHROTT, 
 p. 129. 
 
 (8) A. That encouragement cannot safely 
 be given to the thrifty by discriminating 
 in favour of members of friendly socie- 
 ties ; and to allow the poor-rates to be 
 treated as a subsidiary fund would
 
 16 Some Poor Relief Questions. C CH - i- 
 
 have an injurious effect on such 
 societies. 
 
 " . . . the only safe basis on which the system 
 of benefit societies can rest, under the present 
 system of the legal right to relief, is, that they 
 afford the means of providing, in times of distress 
 or disability, a more eligible and respectable and 
 liberal maintenance than that supplied under 
 the Poor Law, and that they should be still 
 regarded as a mode for avoiding the degradation 
 of parish support, rather than as conferring a 
 title by which a claim to such support may be 
 established even beyond the line of actual desti- 
 tution." 
 
 Letter from the P. L. Board to R. H. Paget, M.P., 
 5th Jan. 1870. See Annual Report of the L. G. 
 Board, 1869 70. 
 
 "... the tendency of holding out such 
 favours to members of Friendly Societies is to en- 
 courage 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 induce- 
 ment to them to join clubs, a promise that
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 17 
 
 they may thus become paupers on more favour- 
 able terms." 
 
 Fourth Report of the Friendly Soc. Commission, 1874, 
 p. cxcii. 
 
 " The same favour that is shown to members 
 of one kind of Friendly Society must be shown to 
 all ; for the Guardians have no means of discrimi- 
 nating between good and bad societies ; and if 
 they had, a man who through ignorance had 
 joined a society which did not meet with their 
 approval might with some justice complain that 
 his provident intentions were not recognized as 
 well as those of his neighbours, . . . but this 
 would be pro tanto an encouragement to the 
 worst kind of clubs, which are directly mischie- 
 vous to the ratepayers by throwing their members 
 on the rates, and discouraging to providence by 
 failing to perform the promises held out to those 
 who join them." 
 
 Ditto, p. cxc.* 
 
 (8) B. That it wo^lld be an injustice to 
 those who had shown other forms of 
 thrift, if the Giiardians were to 
 favour members of Friendly Societies ; 
 
 * See also Report of G. Culley, Third Annual Report of the L 
 G. Board, 1873-4, p. 75. 
 
 L. C
 
 1 8 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - J - 
 
 further- that it is fallacious to argue 
 that the member of a Friendly Society 
 is no better off iinder a strict system 
 than the man who has been improvi- 
 dent." 
 
 " . . . it should not be forgotten that so long 
 as any out-door poor relief at all is granted to 
 members of friendly societies, a person entitled to 
 sick pay will, in fact, be more favourably dealt 
 with by the Guardians than the owner of any 
 other kind of property. To the latter, no relief 
 could be properly granted so long as any of his 
 property remained ; the former would receive 
 relief while still continuing entitled to sick pay, 
 because the right to sick pay is not available 
 property, and cannot be parted with by the 
 person entitled to it, or appropriated by the 
 Guardians. It may be added that it is a fallacy 
 to suppose that a person entitled to sick pay from 
 a Friendly Society would in the event of a stringent 
 administration of the law be in no better position 
 than one entirely without means." 
 
 Fourth Report of the Friendly Soc. Commission, 1874, 
 p. cxcii. 
 
 (9) That the effect of out-relief on the 
 sense of family obligations and ties of
 
 cu. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 19 
 
 relationship is disastrous. It tempts 
 the poor to neglect their more unfor- 
 tunate relations, checks their willing- 
 ness to help one another, and moreover 
 lessens the sympathy of the wealthier 
 for the poorer classes. 
 
 " Children are not ashamed to let an aged 
 parent go on the parish, when by a little self- 
 sacrifice they could provide for his wants, just 
 because the parish has accustomed them to think 
 that it is not their duty, but the taxpayers' ; and 
 because the thing is done privately and quietly. 
 When he is required to enter the workhouse, the 
 shame which lingers in all but the basest natures, 
 asserts itself, the feeling of their neighbours, if 
 not their own, usually compels them to do their 
 
 duty." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 13. 
 
 " That relatives will come forward and help 
 when it is a question of the person going into the 
 workhouse, much more readily than when it is a 
 question of receiving out-door relief, I think there 
 can be no doubt whatever." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. O\VEX, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, before the Committee of the H. of 
 Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 25. 
 
 C 2
 
 2O Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 " Whilst in the one case relatives will help, in 
 the other they do not see the necessity for it." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, before the Committee of t/ie H. oj 
 Lords on P. L. Relief, 1 888, p. 25. 
 
 "... out-door relief is regarded by a consider- 
 able portion of our population as a fund from which 
 they are perfectly justified in obtaining as much 
 as possible. . . It is, in fact, looked upon as a 
 gift which carries with it no onerous conditions. 
 This being the case, there is comparatively little 
 inducement for people to make an effort to keep 
 themselves or their relations off the rates. The 
 clergy of our large towns, and others who have 
 had much personal intercourse with the poor, 
 deplore the effects produced by our Poor Law 
 in weakening the bonds of relationship and 
 affection." 
 
 FAWCETT'S "Pauperism," p. 29. 
 
 " Where there are relatives able to assist, 
 whether legally bound or not, an offer of the 
 ' house ' or the schools very often forces them to 
 do their duty for fear of the disgrace." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian, St. George 's-in-the-East, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 230. 
 
 "... over and over again have such persons 
 (friends and relatives) been found to be holding
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 21 
 
 back merely because of the knowledge that those 
 whom they ought to assist were in no danger of 
 going into the House, and over and over again 
 have such persons' purses been opened by the 
 contrary conviction." 
 
 English Poor Law and Voluntary Effort, H. G 
 WILLINK, Guardian, Bradfield, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1891, p. 12. 
 
 Out-relief " demoralises the natural relations 
 between parents and children." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, Charity Organisation Review, 
 June, 1891, p. 246. 
 
 The system of out-relief tends to make the 
 upper classes consider " that they are discharged 
 from the obligation of helping their neighbours 
 personally, and by personal sacrifice." 
 
 ALBERT PELL, Evidence given before the Committee of 
 the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 165. 
 
 Lax administration of out-relief is a great 
 discouragement to charity on the part of the well- 
 to-do classes. 
 
 Ditto, p. 184. 
 
 (10) That out-relief is liable to indefinite 
 expansion. 
 
 Out-relief "appears to contain in itself the 
 elements of an almost indefinite extension .
 
 22 Some Poor Relief Questions. L CH - * 
 
 Among the elements of extension are the 
 constantly diminishing reluctance to claim an 
 apparent benefit, the receipt of which imposes no 
 sacrifice, except a sensation of shame quickly 
 obliterated by habit, even if not prevented by 
 example ; the difficulty often amounting to impos- 
 sibility on the part of those who administer and 
 award relief of ascertaining whether any or what 
 necessity for it exists, and the existence in many 
 cases of positive motives on their parts to grant it 
 when unnecessary, or themselves to create the 
 necessity." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1834, p. 44. 
 
 " It would therefore seem that whenever out- 
 door relief is granted a dangerous force is called 
 into existence, which we have no power ade- 
 quately to control." 
 
 Prof. H. FAWCETT, " Pauperism : its Causes and 
 Remedies," p. 49. 
 
 " Every case in which out-relief is granted has 
 a direct tendency to encourage other persons to 
 apply for similar assistance, while the offer of 
 relief in the workhouse is not attended with the 
 same consequences to any appreciable extent." 
 
 Out-relief, Report of ED. H. WODEHOUSE. See 
 Annual Ref art of the L. G. Board, 1870 71.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 23 
 
 " To be workable at all, a system of out-door 
 relief requires the closest scrutiny of individual 
 cases ; and where this is neglected the number of 
 applicants quickly increases, imposture becomes 
 easier, and the character of the parish sinks. But 
 under our present arrangements the scrutiny is 
 very seldom insisted on, and is indeed extremely 
 difficult." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 13. 
 
 " And it is as certain as any law of human 
 nature, that every instance in which relief is given 
 without absolute necessity for it produces a crop 
 of other cases in which it will be asked for by 
 those who could do without it." 
 
 Ditto, p. 19. 
 
 " Poor-law relief is looked upon as a right. It 
 is a regular fund from which sums can always be 
 drawn, and the poor people look upon it as right 
 to draw from this fund. That is a very different 
 thing, and leads very much more to dependence 
 than if they look to uncertain funds like charity 
 ... I should like to see outdoor relief dimin- 
 ished by the system described by Mr. Crowder." 
 
 Earl SPENCER, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 56.
 
 24 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 " There can be no sufficient supervision over a 
 large number of cases, and if enquiry is insuffi- 
 cient the number is likely to be very large." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Some Controverted Points in Poor 
 Relief, The Economic Journal, Dec. 1893. 
 
 "It is universally acknowledged by all who 
 have watched its effects that it demoralizes the 
 neighbourhood, tempting everyone to apply for it 
 who knows that his neighbour is thus assisted." 
 
 LEVI L. BARBOUR, see Proceedings of the Anmial 
 Conference of Charities and Correction, 1891, 
 P- 45- 
 
 " The mischief of out-door relief is not confined 
 to the persons who receive it, but the poison per- 
 meates the whole community of the neighbour- 
 hood in which the recipients live." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, P. L, Conference Reports, 1888, 
 p. 40. 
 
 (li) A. That from the point of view both oj 
 the moral and material welfare of the 
 poorer classes, it is essential that the 
 position of the -bauper should be less 
 eligible than that of the independent 
 labourer. 
 
 " Throughout the evidence it is shown that in 
 proportion as the condition of any pauper class is
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 25 
 
 elevated above the condition of the independent 
 labourers, the condition of the independent class 
 is depressed ; their industry is impaired, their 
 employment becomes unsteady, and its remunera- 
 tion in wages is diminished. . . . Every penny 
 bestowed that tends to render the condition of 
 the pauper more eligible than that of the inde- 
 pendent labourer is a bounty on indolence and 
 vice." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commissioners, 1834, p. 228. 
 
 " Unless the condition of the pauper is on the 
 whole less eligible than that of the independent 
 labourer, the law destroys the strongest motives 
 to good conduct, steady industry, providence and 
 frugality among the labouring classes; and in- 
 duces persons by idleness and imposture to throw 
 themselves upon the rates for support." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission on the Further Amend- 
 ment of the P. L., 1839, p. 45. 
 
 (n) B. That the only means of ensuring 
 that the paubers condition is less eligible 
 than that of the poorest independent 
 labourer is to offer the workhouse."* 
 
 " With respect to the out-door relief there must 
 from the very nature of it be an immense deal of 
 
 * "With regard to the principle of giving poor relief under con-
 
 26 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 fraud. There is no industry, no inspection, no 
 human skill which will prevent gross impositions 
 belonging to this mode of relief." 
 
 S. MILLER, Assistant Overseer in the parish of St. 
 Sepulchre, quoted in the Report of the P. L. 
 Commission, 1834, p. 46. 
 
 " The only sure mode of ascertaining whether 
 the total receipts of the labourer are really suffi- 
 cient for the maintenance of himself and his 
 family is to offer, in lieu of them, an adequate but 
 less eligible maintenance, which will not be 
 accepted unless necessity requires it. This can 
 be effected by the offer of the workhouse and by 
 that only." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission on the Further 
 Amendment of the P. Z., 1839, p. 64. 
 
 "It is impossible to apply the principle (that 
 the pauper's condition should be less eligible than 
 that of the poorest independent labourer) to those 
 who receive out-door or domiciliary relief, for their 
 condition cannot always be ascertained or regu- 
 lated, inasmuch as it is often impossible to dis- 
 cover what resources they have or what aid they 
 
 ditions more ineligible than those under which the labouring classes 
 have to live, it should be noticed, perhaps, that as these conditions 
 improve the relative standard of relief in the workhouse may probably 
 be raised without detriment." 
 
 Some Controverted Points in Poor Relief, C. S. 
 LOCH, The Economic Journal, Dec. 1893.
 
 cu. i.i Out-door and In-door Relief. 27 
 
 may receive in addition to the maintenance 
 afforded to them from the poor-rates." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 47. 
 
 "It is impossible where it is given with toler- 
 able freedom for the relieving officers to ascertain 
 the actual circumstances of the recipients. In 
 most unions the relieving officers have several 
 hundred out-door paupers to look after. I know 
 for a fact, at any rate as far as country unions 
 with the large areas that they have are concerned, 
 that relieving officers cannot touch the fringe of 
 the subject in regard to ascertaining what the 
 condition of these people is, when they have so 
 many to look after." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, Charily Organisation Review, 
 June, 1891, p. 246. 
 
 " And there is an absolutely concurrent testi- 
 mony that there neither is nor can be anything 
 like adequate information as to the circumstances 
 of the case upon which the guardians can base 
 their decision." 
 
 Rev. T. FOWLE, "The Poor Law," The English 
 Citizen Series, p. 1 20.
 
 28 Some Poor Relief Questions. 1 CH - 
 
 (12) That the uncertainty necessarily attend- 
 ing the out-relief system causes it to 
 bear very hardly upon the -boor" 
 
 " All deviations from a general rule have a ten- 
 dency to break down forethought, and to produce 
 eventually greater evil than they alleviate. It is 
 far the truest kindness towards the poor to be 
 strict, and even stern, in maintaining uninfringed 
 general laws of relief. They then know precisely 
 what they have to expect, and prepare themselves 
 accordingly." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, Report of E. 
 B. TWISTLETON, p. 147. 
 
 " A hesitating and variable course of adminis- 
 tration of relief tends to promote speculative 
 applications from the poor and so to encourage 
 them in improvident habits, while at the same 
 time it frequently inflicts much injustice on them 
 by a sudden return to principles which have been 
 for a time abandoned." 
 
 Report of H. LONGLEY, Annual Report of the 
 L. G. Board, 18734, p. 160. 
 
 " The thrift test ... is no test at all. The 
 standard of the obligation to give relief on the 
 part of the administrators, and of the claim to
 
 CH. i.i Out-door and In-door Relief. 29 
 
 receive relief on the part of the applicants, will 
 vary everywhere, indeed must everywhere vary. 
 What, for instance, is a reasonable amount of 
 thrift ? The question will be answered in many 
 ways. . . . Thus the number of conditions in 
 accordance with which the standard of obligation 
 to give relief will rise in one Union and fall in 
 another, becomes indefinite. . . . The thrift 
 test is after all no test, but a source of injustice ; 
 and thrift after all is found to be only one point 
 out of many in the enquiry." 
 
 Some Controverted Points in Poor Relief, C. S. 
 LOCH, The Economic Journal, Dec. 1893. 
 
 "The present system from its uncertainty 
 leads to a great hardship and injury. I do not 
 mean only that a hard case here and there occurs, 
 when the house is unexpectedly offered instead of 
 out-relief, though such cases where they arise from 
 an absence of distinct principles, are to be con- 
 demned. I refer to that larger injury which is 
 done to the whole of the labouring classes, by 
 leaving it uncertain as to how much provision 
 they must make for the ordinary wants of life." 
 
 J. R. HOLLOKD, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876 
 p 618
 
 3O Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 (13) That out-relief is necessarily inade- 
 quate, and on that account alone 
 fraught with injurious consequences. 
 
 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 independent labourer, and since the con- 
 dition of the poorest labourer is so poor that 
 attempts to maintain the pauper at his own home 
 in a still inferior condition result inevitably in 
 inadequacy of relief, which is undesirable, the only 
 alternative is to give in-door relief. 
 
 T. MACKAY, On the Co-operation of Charitable 
 Agencies with the Poor Law, Charily Organisa- 
 tion Revie-iU, June 1893, p. 242. 
 
 Poor Law inspectors one and all declare that 
 the system " leads to the distribution, without 
 proper enquiry, of small doles which are inade- 
 quate and unhelpful when the necessity is 
 real, and extremely demoralizing when it is not 
 real." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 148. 
 
 " One of the strongest arguments against out- 
 relief is the cruel inadequacy of the amount given 
 ... if adequate out-relief were given to all the
 
 CH. r.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 31 
 
 present recipients the burden upon the rates 
 would become intolerable." 
 
 "Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, In- 
 spector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from the 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " The opponents of out-relief object to it be- 
 cause . . . they hold it to be demoralizing and 
 most oppressive to pretend to relieve a man by 
 the grant of an amount upon which it is abso- 
 lutely impossible that he can live." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "... it is evident that inadequate relief must 
 be supplemented by charity or by begging or by 
 working. Charity is misapplied when it is used 
 to eke out inadequate rate relief. Begging is 
 admittedly an undesirable complement to an in- 
 sufficient allowance. Working involves the neces- 
 sary consequence that the relief is in aid of 
 wages." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 (14) That it is certain that a firm and 
 settled policy of strict administration 
 would reduce pauperism to very small 
 dimensions ; and that this policy has 
 never failed to result in a general
 
 32 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 improvement in the condition of the 
 poor. 
 
 Wherever out-relief to the able-bodied has 
 been abolished : 
 
 " (i) Their industry has been restored and im- 
 proved. 
 
 (2) Frugal habits have been created or strength- 
 ened. 
 
 (3) The permanent demand for their labour 
 has increased. 
 
 (4) And the increase has been such that their 
 wages, so far from being depressed by the 
 increased amount of labour in the market, 
 have in general advanced. 
 
 (5) The number of improvident and wretched 
 marriages has diminished. 
 
 (6) Their discontent has abated, and their 
 moral and social condition in every way 
 improved." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1834, p. 261. 
 
 " A remedy which has been tried under almost 
 every conceivable variety of conditions, and which 
 has never failed to raise many to independence 
 who would otherwise have remained paupers." 
 
 " Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, In- 
 spector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from the 
 Annual Keport of the L. G. Board, 1889 90.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 33 
 
 " The beneficial results which invariably follow 
 a steady adherence to the workhouse system are 
 no longer a matter of conjecture, but have been 
 proved by long and continuous experience, and we 
 have the fullest confidence that the same results 
 will ensue from the adoption of the system as far 
 as practicable in all cases." 
 
 L. G. Board Report, 1874 5. 
 
 " Its discontinuance has, wherever it has been 
 attempted, been followed by an immense decrease 
 in the annual rate of pauperism." 
 
 ESCOTT'S "England," 1885, p. 199. 
 
 " The reduction of pauperism in England and 
 Wales has been coincident with a reduction in 
 out-door relief a reduction that is not merely 
 relative but absolute. ... In London too the 
 decrease since 1871 has been absolute, and not 
 merely relative to population." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, The Statistics of Metropolitan Pauperism, 
 Charity Organisation Review, July 1894. 
 
 " The \vise system of restricted relief to the 
 able-bodied has affected the whole pauperism of 
 the country the children and the aged, as well 
 as those in active life." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Pauperism, Wages, and Prices, Jan. 
 
 2 ISt, 1894. 
 
 L. D
 
 34 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. 
 
 (15) That a strict administration neither 
 
 pushes pauperism back into a mass of 
 
 unrelieved poverty, nor drives it from 
 
 one district to another, nor forces 
 
 persons into the workhouse; but on the 
 
 contrary makes the persons in question 
 
 self-supporting or friend-supported; in 
 
 either case their condition is improved. 
 
 "... if our people pass out of our Union, a 
 very large majority would be certainly sent back 
 to us as soon as they became paupers. I think I 
 may safely say I do not know one single instance 
 in twenty years in which that has taken place. 
 People do not leave their union for that cause." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, late Chairman, Bradfield B. 
 of Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891. 
 
 " It is a great mistake to suppose that the re- 
 striction of out-relief increases in-door relief; on 
 the contrary it decreases it. If you do not manu- 
 facture paupers by giving out-relief they do not 
 exist, and therefore cannot go into the house to 
 increase the numbers." 
 
 Ditto, P. L. Conference Reports, 1890, p. 244.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 35 
 
 The contention that a strict system of admin- 
 istration merely pushes pauperism back into a 
 mass of unrelieved poverty, will not square with 
 the fact that when out-door relief is stopped, in- 
 door relief also has a tendency to diminish. 
 
 T. MACKAY, The National Review, March 1892.* 
 
 (16) That in view of the good effects of a 
 strict system wheresoever tried, it is 
 both unreasonable and unwise to urge 
 the danger of reaction. 
 
 " It is not proposed to push the better adminis- 
 tration of Poorj Law relief by legislative en- 
 actment. Undertaken voluntarily and gradu- 
 ally its good results are manifest, and thus the 
 probability of reaction constantly diminishes. . . . 
 The evils of the old Poor Law were not caused by 
 any reaction from a better, more careful, or even 
 more stringent system." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Letter to J. Chamberlain, M.P., Times, 
 Jan. 28th, 1891. 
 
 The objection to a strict administration of 
 the Poor Law founded on its unpopularity is the 
 
 * See also BALDWYN FLEMING, "Pauperism and Relief," reprinted 
 from the Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 188990 ; C. S. LOCH, 
 " Old Age Pensions and Pauperism ; " ALBERT PELL, " Out-relief," 
 a paper, Oct. I4th, 1890. 
 
 D 2
 
 36 Some Poor Relief Questions. C CH - * 
 
 same objection which if persisted in would have 
 deprived us of the Poor Law Reform Act of 
 1834. 
 
 T. MACKAY, Old Age Pensions, The National 
 Review, March, 1892. 
 
 (17) That out-relief is condemned by all 
 who have brought study and experience 
 to bear on Poor Law administration. 
 
 " . . . there is no subject in which there is a 
 more complete unanimity of opinion among per- 
 sons who have made any intelligent study of the 
 question. Among the recognized authorities there 
 is absolute conformity." 
 
 T. MACKAY, On the Co-operation of Charitable 
 Agencies with the Poor Law ; Charity Organisa- 
 tion Review, June, 1893, P- 2 4-6- 
 
 "Theoretical economists, and the most experi- 
 enced practical men, have been nearly unanimous 
 in condemning out-door relief." 
 
 Outdoor Relief, Prof. BRYCE, M.P., P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 7. 
 
 " As regards the latter (out-relief) there is an 
 overwhelming preponderance of actual testimony 
 and of skilled opinion against it." 
 
 Escorrs "England" (1885), p. 199.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 37 
 
 " That out-door relief habitually operates as the 
 Commissioners assert is the testimony of Poor 
 Law inspectors repeated year after year in their 
 annual reports to the Local Government Board." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, M.A., p. 148. 
 
 (18) That many of the alleged hardships of 
 the workhouse, such as the association 
 of the respectable with the disreputable 
 inmates, the separation of old couples 
 and of parents and children, are no 
 longer inherent to an in- door policy. 
 The remedies lie in the hands of the 
 guardians, and are being applied in all 
 well-managed unions. 
 
 " There are very few workhouses where a re- 
 spectable person need be placed with disrepu- 
 table associates. . . . The remedy for this objec- 
 tion, so far as it exists, is in the guardians' own 
 hands. They have full power to classify the 
 inmates so as to prevent the association of re- 
 spectable persons with disreputable inmates." 
 
 "Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, 
 Inspector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from 
 the Annual Report of the L, G. Board, 1889 90.
 
 ;8 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - 
 
 "... when parents and children are in the 
 house together, the Board's regulations contem- 
 plate daily interviews." 
 
 " Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, 
 Inspector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from 
 the Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 188990. 
 
 " The Poor Law Act of 1847 provided that 
 where any two persons being husband and wife, 
 both of whom shall have attained the age of sixty 
 years, shall be sent into any workhouse, such two 
 persons shall not be compelled to live separate 
 and apart from each other, and by the 39 & 40 
 Viet. c. 61, it is further provided that the guar- 
 dians may permit any married couples to live 
 together, either of whom shall be infirm, sick, or 
 disabled by any injury, or above the age of sixty 
 years." 
 
 Workhouse Administration. Circular of the L. G. 
 Board, agth Jan. 1895. 
 
 " To classification in the workhouse much 
 attention is being paid, and since 1866 there has 
 been a continual advance in the matter." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, " Some Controverted Points in Poor 
 Relief," The Economic Journal, Dec. 1893, 
 p. 588. 
 
 "... the hardship to people of respectable 
 antecedents has been enormously mitigated the
 
 CH. i.] OiU-door and In-door Relief. 39 
 
 various classes of paupers are kept separate, and 
 under the same idea the children are isolated 
 from the adults." 
 
 W. BOUSFIELD, Kensington B. of Guardians, P. L. 
 Conference Reports^ 1891, p. 365. 
 
 " It may be said that the workhouse demoral- 
 izes those who dwell in it. Facts can be de- 
 duced which will prove that this allegation is not 
 generally true ; but even if it were so, it would 
 indicate not an inherent defect but merely show a 
 faulty administration." 
 
 Prof. H. FAWCETT, "Pauperism," p. 45. 
 
 " My own feeling is that the number of bad 
 characters in the workhouse is very often exag- 
 gerated, and I know that in all well-conducted 
 workhouses an effort is made to separate those 
 who are respectable who have respectable ante- 
 cedents from those who might annoy them, 
 either by misconduct or by evil language. 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., " Old Age Pensions," Dec. 
 th, 1894; see Times, Dec. 7th. 
 
 (19) That the reluctance of the poor to go 
 into the workhouse constitutes no argu- 
 ment against a strict policy ; but is much
 
 4O Some Poor Relief Questions. ten. i. 
 
 to be desired in the interest of the 
 poor themselves. 
 
 "The frugality and forethought of a young 
 labourer would be useless if he foresaw the cer- 
 tainty of a better asylum for his old age, than he 
 could possibly provide by his own exertions." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 47. 
 
 Reluctance to enter the workhouse most 
 fortunately does exist, and everyone who wishes 
 well to the labouring classes must most earnestly 
 hope it may continue to exist. It is the best 
 inducement to thrift and independence, and the 
 most powerful influence to lead children to sup- 
 port their parents and relations. 
 
 BALDWYN FLEMING, Inspector of the L. G. Board, 
 "Pauperism and Relief." Reprinted from the 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " He thought that already in point of food, cloth- 
 ing and warmth, the inmates of our workhouses 
 were quite as well off as many of those who had 
 to contribute to their maintenance there, and if 
 they removed all discomforts and disadvantages 
 which attached to residence in a workhouse, they 
 would altogether remove the stimulus to exertion 
 to which he had alluded." 
 
 H. JENNF.R FUST, jun., L. G. Board Inspector, 
 P. Z. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 223.
 
 CH. i.] Out- door and In-door Relief. 41 
 
 (20) That the poor have no just ground of 
 complaint when offered the workhouse, 
 and that those who come upon the rates 
 must be content to receive support in the 
 manner considered most consistent with 
 the public welfare. 
 
 "... even if it be in some rare cases a hard- 
 ship, it appears from the evidence that it is a 
 hardship to which the good of society requires 
 the applicant to submit. The express or im- 
 plied ground of his application is that he is in 
 danger of perishing from want. Requesting to be 
 rescued from that danger out of the property of 
 others, he must accept assistance on the terms, 
 whatever they may be, which the common welfare 
 requires." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1834, p. 263. 
 
 "... we must repeat, that a person who 
 applies to be maintained out of the produce 
 of the industry or frugality of others, must accept 
 that relief on the terms which the public good 
 requires." 
 
 Ditto, p. 344. 
 
 "... the pauper has no just ground for com- 
 plaint if at the same time that his physical wants
 
 42 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 are amply provided for, his condition should be less 
 eligible than that of the poorest class of those who 
 contribute to his support." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 45. 
 
 "... the Act (Poor Law Amendment Act) 
 is avowedly based on the principle that no one 
 should be suffered to perish through want of what 
 is necessary for sustaining life, but at the same 
 time, that, if he be supported at the expense of 
 the public, he must be content to receive such 
 support on the terms deemed most consistent 
 with the public welfare." 
 
 Sir GEORGE NICHOLLS, "History of the English 
 Poor Law," vol. ii. , p. 286. 
 
 "... the administrators of a public fund 
 who undertake to relieve the destitution of all 
 comers, are entitled to prescribe the form in 
 which relief shall be given, and in doing so to 
 have regard, as well to the general interests of 
 the whole community and to those of the poorer 
 classes, as to the individual needs of the applicant 
 for relief, which of course it is incumbent on them 
 in some form or other to relieve." 
 
 Out-door Relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY. 
 Third Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 
 18734, p. 182.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 43 
 
 " I think that when in-door relief is given the 
 person is better housed, better fed, and better 
 clothed than a very large number of those per- 
 sons who are maintaining themselves indepen- 
 dently, and that as long as that is done the State 
 discharges its duty, and there is no ground for 
 complaint on the part of the individual." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, K.C.B., Permanetit Sec. 
 to the L. G. Board, before the Select Com. oj the 
 H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 37.* 
 
 (21) That the hardship of "breaking up 
 the home " is not so common or so real 
 as it would seem, and has been greatly 
 exaggerated; and that the assumption 
 that the breaking ^lp of homes will be 
 co-extensive with the orders given for 
 admission to the workhouse is not borne 
 out by facts. 
 
 " This phrase, which represents a process for 
 the most part imaginary, is the familiar bugbear 
 of Boards of Guardians, and has exercised a most 
 prejudicial influence on their practice. In the 
 first place it assumes, and in many cases errone- 
 ously, that the applicant has a home at all, or 
 
 * See note, p. 25.
 
 44 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 such a home that its loss will be otherwise than 
 to the ultimate benefit of himself and his family." 
 
 H. LONGLEY, Out-door Relief in the Metropolis ; 
 Third Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 
 18734, P- 171. 
 
 " The refusal of relief is seldom the only cause 
 of breaking up a home, and the statistics prove 
 overwhelmingly that a very large reduction of 
 out-relief does not increase the recipients of in- 
 door relief." 
 
 BALDWYN FLEMING, Inspector of the L. G. Board. 
 " Pauperism and Relief," reprinted from the 
 Annual Report oj the L. G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 In any case recourse should be had to the 
 general considerations which have appeared, on a 
 balance of advantage and disadvantage, to render 
 in-door relief preferable to out-door relief. 
 
 Report of H. LONGLEY, Esq. ; Third Annual Report 
 of the L. G. Board, 18734, p. 171. 
 
 "... it is of the very rarest occurrence that 
 a home worthy of the name is broken up. ... In 
 some cases relations, friends, or the charitable, 
 come forward, in others energy is aroused, and 
 better work obtained, but it becomes apparent 
 that a large proportion of those to whom the 
 ' house ' is offered were never destitute at all. 
 Some people, too, imagine that when once a
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 45 
 
 person has entered a workhouse it is next to im- 
 possible for him ever to become independent 
 again ; this is not the case ; a trifle is borrowed 
 from a friend, a few nights are spent in a lodging- 
 house or unfurnished room, and very soon things 
 go on much as before." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian, St. George's-in-the-East, 
 P. L. Conference Reports ; 1876, p. 232. 
 
 (22) Tkat it is not denied that under a 
 strict administration cases of hardship 
 arise; but exceptions are "not fit to 
 disturb a rule " which has been found 
 to be for the benefit of the majority. 
 
 " The bane of all pauper legislation has been 
 the legislating for extreme cases. Every excep- 
 tion, every violation of the general rule to meet a 
 real case of unusual hardship, lets in a whole class 
 of fraudulent cases by which that rule must in 
 time be destroyed." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1834, p. 263. 
 
 " We do not undertake to deny that cases 
 of individual suffering may have occurred. We 
 know of no state of human society which ever 
 did, or, as we believe, ever can exist, in which 
 such cases may not occur. We have abundant
 
 46 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 proof that they did occur far more frequently 
 under the old system of Poor Law administration 
 than under that which we have been commis- 
 sioned to establish ; and we think that those 
 persons are in error who suppose that, because an 
 alleged case of distress and suffering is brought 
 forward, it is to be taken as a conclusive argu- 
 ment against the policy of the new system." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1836, p. 29. 
 
 " If guardians once undertake to deal with 
 hard cases exceptionally, the exceptions are 
 certain, before long, to break down the rule." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian of St. George's-in-the- 
 East, Evidence given before the Com. of the If. 
 of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 216. 
 
 " In the poor-law system it is of especial im- 
 portance to separate rules from exceptions, and 
 not to have regard, in framing general regula- 
 tions, to objections which only apply to excep- 
 tional cases." 
 
 "The English Poor Law System," by Dr. P 
 ASCHROTT, p. 206. 
 
 "... in administering a law broad results 
 and the general good ought to be considered 
 rather than exceptional cases ; kindness to the 
 individual too often means cruelty to a class ;
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 47 
 
 moreover, exceptional cases of hardship can be, 
 ought to be, and are met by individual charity 
 which is worthy of the name." 
 
 Poor Law Progress and Reform, by Rev. W. BURY, 
 Chairman Brixvvorth B. of Guardians, P. L, 
 Conference Reports, 1889, p. 319. 
 
 Refusing out-relief and insisting upon the 
 house-test might in individual cases appear cruel 
 and hard, but the general good must not be sacri- 
 ficed to considerations raised by exceptional 
 cases. 
 
 E. J. BROWELL, M.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1890, p. 71. 
 
 (23) That the guardians only concern is 
 destitution ; and that it is both contrary 
 to their duty, and most undesirable, 
 that they should attempt to judge char- 
 acter and reward virtue. 
 
 " In regulating the relief of the poor the State 
 has no business to encroach on the province of 
 philanthropy, and its duty is to see that its 
 agents are not benevolent at the expense of the 
 public." 
 
 " The English Poor Law System," Dr. P. ASCHROTT 
 p. 128.
 
 48 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. 
 
 "... the guardians are not the dispensers of 
 the alms of the benevolent, but -trustees of a fund 
 compulsorily levied, and falling to a great extent 
 upon the shoulders of persons whose condition is 
 but little removed above that of those to whose 
 relief they are compelled to contribute." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Report of ED. H. WODEHOUSE ; 
 First Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 
 18712. 
 
 " The State must act by general rules. It can- 
 not undertake to discriminate between the de- 
 serving and the undeserving indigent." 
 
 "Principles of Political Economy," J. S. Mli.L, 
 Bk. v., chap, xi., 13. 
 
 " What is said about the injustice of a law 
 which has no better treatment for the merely 
 unfortunate poor than for the ill conducted, is 
 founded on a misconception of the province of law 
 and public authority. The dispensers of public 
 relief have no business to be inquisitors. Guar- 
 dians and overseers are not fit to be trusted to 
 give or withhold other people's money according 
 to their verdict on the morality of the person 
 soliciting it ; . . . ' 
 
 Ditto, chap, ix., 13.
 
 CH - i-] Out-door and In-door Relief. 49 
 
 " What the law directs a guardian to relieve is 
 not poverty, however great the compassion he 
 may feel for poverty, but destitution absolute 
 want of the bare necessaries of life." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 9. 
 
 "A guardian is there to administer a public 
 fund, and his first duty, when he has obeyed the 
 law by relieving absolute destitution, is to the 
 people who have contributed that fund many of 
 them nearly as poor, and all of them, as far as 
 appears, more deserving than the paupers who 
 come before him, . . . the last thing that ought 
 to make him popular, or by which he should seek 
 popularity, is a lavish distribution of money 
 which is not his at all." 
 
 Ditto, p. 1 8, 
 
 " It seems to me as immoral for a guardian to 
 administer the Poor Law according to the benevo- 
 lent impulses of the moment, as for a judge to 
 allow his decisions to be influenced by feelings of 
 compassion, or to endeavour to acquire a reputa- 
 tion for benevolence by means of his judicial acts." 
 
 Charity and the Poor Law, Rev. W. BURY, Guar- 
 dian, Brixworth, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 44. 
 L. E
 
 5O Some Poor Relief Questions, [en. i. 
 
 "The administration of the Poor Laws is a 
 matter of police, not of sentiment, and should be 
 applied unswervingly in obedience to fixed prin- 
 ciples, and not become the haphazard display of 
 sentiment and a counterfeit charity." 
 
 Paper on "Out-relief," ALBERT PELL, Oct. I4th, 
 1890. 
 
 " The qualification for relief is not character in 
 any way ; it should not be affected by it. The 
 qualification for relief and the claim for relief 
 can only be based, and is only based, in the 
 English law, upon destitution pure and simple." 
 
 ALBERT PELL, Evidence given before the Select Com. 
 of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 182. 
 
 We must continually bear in mind that the 
 law which has called us into existence as Guar- 
 dians, has made us judges of the destitution, and 
 not of the merits of applicants for relief, and that, 
 as trustees of funds which are often raised with 
 considerable hardship, we are bound to refrain 
 from indulging our charitable feelings at other 
 people's expense." 
 
 Dr. COSTINE, Guardian, P. L. Conftrence Reports, 
 1876, p. 367. 
 
 (24) That the out-relief system is open to 
 inevitable abuses, and checks private
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 51 
 
 charity, which ought to administer to 
 tlwse cases of pauperism which are 
 not cases within the intended scope of 
 the Poor Law. 
 
 " Where cases of real hardship occur, the 
 remedy must be applied by individual charity, a 
 virtue for which no system of compulsory relief 
 can be or ought to be a substitute." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1834, p. 263. 
 
 "... such cases for which general regulations 
 are too harsh, furnish the occasion for private 
 charity." 
 
 " The English Poor Law System," Dr. P. ASCHROTT, 
 p. 207. 
 
 "... out-relief is open to abuses when ad- 
 ministered by a public body, to which in-relief is 
 not liable, and should therefore be confined as far 
 as possible within the narrowest limits. Most 
 suitable men for election to the general manage- 
 ment of local affairs might be quite unfitted for 
 the personal interest and sympathy essential to 
 the safe administration of out-relief. . ." 
 
 Letter to the Editor of the Charity Organisation 
 Review, by J. T. B., July 1894. 
 
 E 2
 
 52 Some Poor Relief Questions. [c-*. i. 
 
 The " pretence by the public authorities of 
 carrying out duties for which their mode of 
 appointment affords no guarantee of fitness, 
 involves a real danger of blinding many to the 
 need of personal help, which they would other- 
 wise be both willing and able to render." 
 
 Letter to the Editor of the Charity Organisation 
 Riview, by J. T. B., July 1894. 
 
 " The Poor Laws were never intended, and 
 never will be able, to supply the place of Christian 
 charity. The workhouse is not a charitable 
 institution, and relief administered from the poor- 
 rates, either in the workhouse or out of it, is not 
 charitable relief. It is wanting in all the charac- 
 teristics of such relief. And some of the greatest 
 social evils under which our country suffers may be 
 traced to misconception on this important point." 
 
 Rev. J. STEPHENS, Charity Organisation Review, 
 May 1894, p. 218. 
 
 " There are cases which the Board cannot 
 relieve without opening the door to various 
 abuses ; . . Charity outside the board-room can 
 be safely and widely exercised in many cases, 
 where relief through the rates would be in- 
 jurious." '". . 
 
 Out-relief in Brixworth Union. Report by the Rev. 
 WM. BURY. Third Annual Report of the L. G. 
 Board, 18734, p. 118.
 
 CH. i.] Out- door and In-door Relief. 53 
 
 " If in the administration of the Poor Law we 
 have cases of hardship, I am sure there is enough 
 wealth in the kingdom to come to their aid, 
 and those cases can be relegated to the lists of 
 charity." 
 
 ALBERT PELL, Chairman St. George's-in-the-East 
 B. of Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1876, p. 251. 
 
 " The Poor Law of England is, and must be, 
 necessarily severe. It has nothing to do with 
 deserving or undeserving, its sole function is to 
 relieve destitution, and destitution only ; directly 
 it goes beyond that it acts unjustly to the poorer 
 ratepayers and the struggling, independent work- 
 ing-men. The failure is not with the Poor Law, 
 but with the great body of the charitable public 
 who permit deserving cases ... to come to the 
 Poor Law at all." 
 
 J. H. ALLEN, Ex-officio Guardian, St. Pancras, 
 Evidence given before the Committee of the H. 
 of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1 888, p. 351. 
 
 (25) A. 1 hat an indoor policy saves the 
 rates. The argiimcnt that out-door 
 relief is cheaper that it costs as much 
 to keep one pauper in the workhouse 
 as would suffice to keep two or three
 
 54 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - J - 
 
 destitute persons outside rests on the 
 assiimption that all who are refused 
 out-relief will enter the workhoiise, 
 which is far front being the case. 
 
 " With regard to the expense, it is, doubtless, 
 more expensive to relieve a whole family in the 
 workhouse than to give a small addition to its 
 earnings ; but on the other hand, for one family 
 which would avail itself of the offer of the Work- 
 house, there is a very great number which would 
 decline such relief, so that the expenditure for th.e 
 entire maintenance of the one family would 
 amount only to a small part of the expenditure 
 for the partial out-relief of the greater number." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 67. 
 
 "... the grant of out-door relief multiplies so 
 largely the number of applicants that if relief 
 were afforded to all, the cost of such relief would 
 greatly exceed that of maintaining in the work- 
 house such of the applicants as would be willing 
 to enter it." 
 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1871 2, p. 66. 
 
 " This assumption (that all who are refused 
 out-relief will enter the workhouse) is wholly 
 untrue, as has been proved over and over again. 
 When the destitution of applicants is tested by
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 55 
 
 workhouse orders, about one in ten accept 
 in-door relief. . ." 
 
 "Pauperism and Relief." Report of BALDWYN 
 FLEMING, Inspector of the L. G. Board. Re- 
 printed from the Annual Report of the L. G. 
 Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " It has been proved over and over again that 
 a strict administration will reduce the rate." 
 
 The Interest of the Working Class in the Poor 
 Law, T. MACKAY, P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1891, p. 281. 
 
 "... the truth is that when applicants are 
 told that they must enter the workhouse, and will 
 not be relieved out of it, nine out of every ten of 
 them slip away, and only one remains to accept 
 the workhouse. . . So far from rilling the work- 
 house, the steady refusal of out-door relief actually 
 diminishes the number of its inmates, by dimin- 
 ishing the general pauperism of the district. The 
 out-door system is therefore, in the long run, far 
 
 more costly." 
 
 Outdoor Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference Re- 
 ports, 1876, p. 15. 
 
 " The guardian who is opposed to out-door 
 relief in all cases says, with unanswerable force, 
 that the universal compulsory application of the 
 workhouse test stimulates the poor to exertion and 
 self-help, keeps them clear of the degradation of 
 pauperism, and is as economically effective as
 
 5 6 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 it is morally salutary, while experience shows that 
 the offer of relief in the workhouse is refused in 
 nine cases out of ten." 
 
 ESCOTT'S "England," 1885, p. 194. 
 
 j (25) B. That to cut down out-relief every- 
 where to the extent it has been cut down 
 in the " model unions" would not entail 
 any increase in the number of relieving 
 ; officers as sometimes urged ; that it is, 
 on the contrary, where out-relief is 
 given that more relieving officers are 
 required. 
 
 " Surely it follows that anything like efficient 
 investigation of claims in an union in which out- 
 door relief was given preferably, and of policy, would 
 entail a far larger increase of relieving officers. 
 The proposition that more relieving officers are 
 required where out-relief is freely given is incon- 
 testable." 
 
 T. MACKAY, Charity Organisation Revinu, April, 
 1894. 
 
 , , . , . 
 
 (26) That the argument that a reduction 
 of out-relief would be followed by an 
 appreciable increase in deaths from
 
 en. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 57 
 
 starvation, rests on no evidence, and 
 that, on the contrary, starvation cases 
 are more likely to occur where out- 
 relief prevails. 
 
 " The truth is that t the uncertainty attending 
 the distribution of out-relief induces the destitute 
 to linger on outside the house in the (often 
 justified) hope that an adverse decision of the 
 Board as to out-door relief will be rescinded at 
 the next meeting. Further, it is well known that 
 not a few of the coroners' * starvation verdicts ' 
 occur in the case of persons who actually, at the 
 time of their death, are in receipt of out-door 
 relief." 
 
 T. MACKAY, The National Review, March, 1892. 
 p. 16. 
 
 An out-door relief system provokes want, and 
 tends to increase starvation. 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Charily Organisation Review, Feb., 
 1892. 
 
 "... I believe, from watching closely what are 
 called starvation cases, that they arise, not when 
 the policy of the guardians is strict, but when it is 
 vacillating ; when the applicant thinks that with 
 a little extra show of determination on his part, 
 he will get the kind of relief he wants." 
 
 J. R. HOLLOND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 624.
 
 58 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - J - 
 
 " The Poor Law offers shelter to every destitute 
 person ; but we cannot prevent individuals from 
 refusing, even in the last resort, the conditions 
 under which the relief is necessarily given. . . 
 Those who perish from want and exposure 
 generally prove to have been recipients of irregu- 
 lar legal and charitable relief, which has tempted 
 them to refuse, until too late, the shelter of the 
 workhouse." 
 
 National Pensions, H. CLARENCE BOURNE, Mac- 
 millan's Magazine, Feb. 1892. 
 
 (27) That the past payment of rates does 
 not entitle a man to relief. 
 
 " The Poor Law is not an insurance premium, 
 but it is a compulsory levy for the relief of those 
 who are destitute. It is obvious that if rate- 
 payers pay a premium, all are equally entitled to 
 relief, and all, at any rate, will apply for it, and the 
 rates must be multiplied to an enormous extent." 
 
 Introduction to "Insurance and Saving," Charity 
 Organisation Series, p. 23. 
 
 " Poor Laws involve no social right, only a 
 question of expediency." 
 
 " Dispauperisation," PRETYMAN, p. 171.
 
 C H. i.j Out-door and In-door Relief. 59 
 
 "... the poor rate is not an insurance 
 premium, it is a levy on the solvent portion of 
 the people for those who cannot support them- 
 selves ; and it is nonsense to talk of the payment 
 of poor rates entitling you to something when you 
 come to want. If that were so, it would have to 
 be a hundred times more than it is. . ." 
 
 T. MACK AY, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, 
 P- 309. 
 
 " The right to relief arises from destitution 
 solely, and in no sense from any claim on the 
 ground of rate payment." 
 
 "Pauperism and Relief," BALDWYN FLEMING, In- 
 spector of the L. G. Board. Reprinted from the 
 Anmtal Report of the L, G. Board, 1889 90. 
 
 " Every destitute man is equally entitled to 
 relief, but he has to take it in the form which the 
 guardians think it right to give it, and not as he 
 may wish to have it." 
 
 C. B. BOSANQUET, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 279. 
 
 "... rates are only paid for relief to be given 
 under certain conditions, and at the discretion of 
 the local authority." 
 
 J. R. HOLLOND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 619.
 
 60 Some Poor Relief Questions. 
 
 (28) That a strict administration does not 
 bring the Poor Law into discredit, but 
 that on the contrary out-relief does so, 
 and in consequence of the partiality 
 and uncertainty with which it cannot 
 fail to be administered. 
 
 " Experience shows that hard cases are fewest 
 in unions where people are thrown on their own 
 resources to meet all the ordinary contingencies of 
 life. In many out-door relief unions the dissatis- 
 faction with the administration of the Poor Law 
 seems chronic naturally, since out-door relief is 
 the mother of hard cases." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Some Controverted Points in Poor 
 Relief, The Economic Journal, Dec. 1893, 
 p. 588- 
 
 "... dissatisfaction with the Poor Law is 
 much more common in unions where out-relief is 
 given, as it always is given, with a partiality and 
 uncertainty which, though no doubt unintended, 
 is very apparent to the disappointed applicant." 
 
 T. MAC KAY, Charity Organisation Review, April, 
 1894. 
 
 " The unpopularity of the Poor Law is due
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and Jn-door Relief. 61 
 
 not to its stringency, but to the partiality and 
 uncertainty with which it is administered." 
 
 T. MACKAY, Old Age Pensions, The National Revinu, 
 March 1892, p. 17. 
 
 (29) That the policy which almost threat- 
 ened the country with " national bank- 
 ruptcy and permanent ruin" in 1832, 
 was no sudden policy, but was one into 
 which we had gradually "glided"* ; 
 that the dangers and difficulties of an 
 out- relief system are in no wise dimin- 
 ished, and that if we glide into a 
 similar policy again it will be attended 
 by the same fatal results. 
 
 The conditions under which Poor Law relief 
 is now carried on, and as far as we can judge, 
 must always be carried on, are essentially the 
 same as those pointed out by the authors of the 
 Report of 1834 as affecting both out-door relief 
 in general, and more especially the out-door relief 
 of the able-bodied. 
 
 The Limitations of the Poor Law, B. BOSANQUET, 
 The Economic Journal, June 1892. 
 
 * "Pauperism: its Causes and Remedies," Prof. II. FAWCETT,
 
 62 Some Poor Relief Questions. 
 
 On the other hand it is contended : 
 
 (i) That whilst the evils of indiscriminate 
 relief are generally admitted, the present 
 tendency towards an in- door policy errs 
 too much in the opposite direction. 
 
 There is too much assumption that every 
 applicant for out-relief can do without it, and 
 that most poor people, whether or not they 
 require it, would like to have it and would take it 
 without any conscious degradation. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 2. 
 
 " I believe the indiscriminate refusal of out- 
 relief to be as unjustifiable as its indiscriminate 
 bestowal." 
 
 Ditto, p. 54. 
 
 "... discontent with the present tendencies 
 of Poor Law administration is growing rapidly, 
 and there is an eager demand for some change." 
 
 Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, Poor Law Reform, The 
 Economic Journal, June 1892. 
 
 " The mischief that has grown to such a height 
 from granting relief in cases where proper vigi- 
 lance would have shown it was not required, or
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 63 
 
 in bestowing it in undue measure, will be urged 
 by no truly enlightened statesman as a sufficient 
 reason for banishing the principle itself from 
 legislation." 
 
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, quoted in Baxter's " Book 
 of the Bastilles," p. 340. 
 
 "... a judicious and discriminating liberality 
 in weekly allowances to the deserving poor living 
 in their own homes is to be recommended, and in 
 that respect the present system is open to im- 
 provement." 
 
 The Realm, Dec. 7th, 1874. 
 
 (2) That, unless out-relief continues to be 
 given in deserving cases, there is danger 
 of a revulsion of feeling, and a revival 
 of the old abuses of lax adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 " Excessive stringency would infallibly bring in 
 its train scandals which would be intolerable to 
 the public conscience, and which would lead to 
 a dangerous reaction in the direction of laxer ad- 
 ministration." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions, The 
 National Review, Feb. 1892, p. 726.
 
 64 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 " Depend upon it, any general adoption of the 
 scheme of no out-relief, made general in the only 
 way it could be by compulsion, would cause such 
 an upheaval in our midst we can little gauge. It 
 would cause a great revulsion of feeling in many 
 who have the greatest respect for the Poor Law 
 now, and would do the Poor Law a great deal of 
 harm." 
 
 The Advantages of Out-door Relief, R. S. MITCHI- 
 SON, Rugby B. of Guardians, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1891, p. 349. 
 
 (3) That any further reduction of out -relief 
 would be attended by an appreciable 
 increase in the amount of acute suffer- 
 ing, and in the mimber of deaths from 
 starvation. 
 
 A stringent administration of. the Poor Law, 
 whilst it would no doubt make a great reduction 
 in the official returns of pauperism, would pro- 
 bably be accompanied by an appieciable increase 
 in the deaths from starvation. 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Letter to C. S. Loch, Esq., 
 Times, Jan. 28th, 1892. 
 
 The " adoption of such a system would be 
 unworthy of the country, and could not be
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 65 
 
 carried out without inflicting a vast amount of 
 suffering." 
 
 JESSE COI.LINGS, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894- 
 
 (4) That proper discrimination between the 
 deserving and undeserving, though no 
 doubt difficult, is perfectly possible. 
 
 " It is true that the abuses of out-door relief are 
 at present so great that it should be abolished if 
 they could not be diminished. But it has not 
 been proved that it is impossible to separate the 
 deserving from the undeserving poor." 
 
 "The Economics of Industry," Prof. ALFRED MAR- 
 SHALL, p. 34. 
 
 \Yith a little care it would be quite possible 
 to find a sufficient number of educated, judicious 
 men to ensure a wise administration of out- 
 relief. 
 
 Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, Poor Law Reform, 
 The Economic Journal, June 1892. 
 
 In rural unions at least it could be accom- 
 plished without much difficulty it being com- 
 paratively easy to obtain knowledge of the cir- 
 cumstances of the applicants. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out Relief," p. 42. 
 L. F
 
 66 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH- i. 
 
 (5) That a strict administration merely 
 pushes pauperism back into a mass of 
 unrelieved poverty, or drives it from 
 one district to another. That it is 
 unsafe to infer from any decrease in 
 the number of paupers, which appar- 
 ently results from the introduction of 
 the in- door policy, that there is a corre- 
 sponding diminution of poverty. 
 
 " Even the diminution effected in out-door 
 relief is not evidence of a corresponding decrease 
 in the pressure of want. The diminution is 
 chiefly due to increased strictness in the appli- 
 cation of the Poor Law. . . This is doubtless a 
 wise policy, but it supplies no evidence of 
 decrease in poverty. It would be possible, by 
 increased strictness of conditions, to annihilate 
 out-door pauperism throughout the country at a 
 single blow, and to reduce the number of in-door 
 paupers by making workhouse life unendurable. 
 But such a course would obviously furnish no 
 satisfactory evidence of the decline of poverty, 
 or even of destitution." 
 
 "Problems of Poverty," J. A. HOBSON, p. 19.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 67 
 
 Pauperism cannot be repressed and if it is re- 
 pressed in one place it will probably crop up in 
 another, and those who save this expense in one 
 way will throw it upon neighbouring unions. 
 
 Col. ANDREWS, Guardian, Thakeham, P. L, Con- 
 ference Reports, 1889, p. 365. 
 
 " The new Poor Law has, however, failed to 
 extinguish pauperism and destitution. It succeeds 
 in obviating any but a few cases of direct starva- 
 tion, but it does not prevent a widespread de- 
 moralization of the pauper classes." 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law, 
 Contemporary Rev., July 1890, p. 98. 
 
 The reduction of pauperism due to the strict 
 administration of the Poor Law has been effected 
 " by increasing human misery. In other words the 
 terrors of officialism, the scant relief offered, 
 and the dread of being forced into the house, 
 have acted in the direction of preventing applica- 
 tion from the really deserving and respectable 
 poor, who have preferred to starve and die rather 
 than submit to a fearful humiliation for a doubtful 
 benefit." 
 
 J. M. BRINDLEY, Out-relief Report of the West 
 Midland District P. L. Conference, 1883.* 
 
 * See also pp. 129, 130. 
 
 F 2
 
 68 Some Poor Relief Questions. [^ H - * 
 
 (6) That it is unjust and cruel that all 
 should fare alike that the poor, who, 
 through no fault of their own, are 
 rendered destitute, should have their 
 homes broken iip, and have no recourse 
 but the workhouse, where the respectable 
 must associate with the disreputable 
 inmates, old couples are separated, and 
 parents not allowed access to their 
 children. 
 
 " There is something very terrible, a system by 
 which, when a man who has laboured and toiled 
 all his life, grows old and infirm, and can toil no 
 more, he is to be treated as if he had done some- 
 thing wrong, his home is to be broken up, his 
 children are to be taken away from his control, 
 and he, who would work, but cannot, is to be 
 bundled off into the workhouse with ne'er-do- 
 wells, who could work but will not." 
 
 J. MORLEY, M.P., Address to the Eighty Club, igth 
 Nov., 1889. 
 
 " In-door relief is unpopular ; it resembles 
 imprisonment, and seems too hard a fate for 
 those whose poverty is not the result of positive 
 vice." 
 
 "The Economics of Industry," Prof. ALFRED 
 MARSHALL, p. 32.
 
 CH - i-] Out-door and In-door Relief. 69 
 
 " I fail to recognize in these statutes (43 Eliz. 
 c. 2) an administration of the law by which the 
 old and the helpless are removed from their 
 children and their kindred into a workhouse as a 
 condition of relief, still less the refusal of out-door 
 relief except on the same condition whereby a 
 family is sold up, their home broken up, in all 
 probability never to be reconstituted, and the 
 whole family, old and young, charged for ever 
 upon the rates. This condition is known at this 
 time to be absolutely refused by an immense 
 multitude of our suffering and deserving poor; 
 they will endure any privation of hunger and cold 
 rather than break up their home with its natural 
 and Christian charities, the only possession and 
 happiness left to them in life, by going into a 
 workhouse, . . . the workhouse is a cruel deter- 
 rent when offered to families who, by a wise 
 assistance in time of need, may be carried 
 through the straits of winter when in want of 
 work." 
 
 Distress in London : A Note on Out-door Relief, 
 by Cardinal MANNING, Fortnightly, Jan. 1888. 
 
 " Consider what it means to a poor old couple, 
 who have spent the whole of their married life 
 in one cottage, and the whole of their joint lives in 
 one parish, amidst the acquaintances, associations, 
 and surroundings of an ordinary country village.
 
 7o Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 To leave all these will be to leave all that makes 
 life worth living for to them . . . however poor 
 and comfortless their home may be, still it is 
 their home, all their domestic affections centre 
 round it, and they may be trusted to cling to it 
 as long as they and their neighbours can scrape 
 enough to keep body and soul together." 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 40. 
 
 "The able-bodied, the aged and infirm, the 
 worthless, idle, and dissolute, the deserving but 
 necessitous, the professional paupers, and the 
 sturdy beggars, have pretty much the same terms 
 meted out to them. Aged couples who have paid 
 rates for many years, but have been overtaken by 
 misfortune, ought not, one would think, to have 
 Hobson's choice of the ' house ' offered them, 
 just as if they were drunken and lazy, and needed 
 correctional and disciplinary treatment." 
 
 The Realm, Dec. 7th, 1894. 
 
 (7) That an in-door policy does not tend to 
 decrease pauperism as its advocates 
 urge, but tends rather to its increase ; 
 neither is it to be denied that the reduc-
 
 CH. i.] OiU-door and In- door Relief. 71 
 
 tion of out-relief is accompanied by an 
 increase in in-door relief. 
 
 " . . . it is not to out-door but to in-door 
 relief that odium must attach. Evidently if we 
 wish to restrict the evil influence of the Poor Law 
 to the smallest number of persons, we are alto- 
 gether on the wrong tack when we drive them 
 into the workhouse. Widespread pauperization 
 accompanies in-door relief as its very shadow." 
 
 W. A. HUNTER, M.P., Out-door Relief: is it so 
 very Bad? The Contemporary Review, March, 
 1894, p. 315. 
 
 In-door and out-door relief are so related that 
 as one goes up the other goes down. 
 Ditto, p. 325. 
 
 " The indiscriminate refusal of out-door relief 
 pauperizes those who break up their homes and 
 go into the workhouses, aggravates the poverty 
 of those who refuse to break up their homes, 
 multiplies the number of those who are idle, 
 because they are not relieved by work, and drives 
 multitudes into the dangerous classes who become 
 desperate and hardened." 
 
 Distress in London : A Note on Out-door Relief, 
 Cardinal MANNING, The Fortnightly, Jan. 1888.
 
 72 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - 
 
 (8) That it is injudicious to drive a man into 
 the workhouse when he only requires 
 support for a limited period before 
 recovering his capacity or opportunity 
 for work. Once forced into the house 
 a man tends to become a pauper for life, 
 whilst with a little temporary relief 
 outside he might quickly regain his in- 
 dependence. 
 
 " I consider that each individual who once 
 finds its way into the poor-house is lost altogether 
 as being a useful member of the State." 
 
 Evidence of Lord COMPTON, M.P., before the Select 
 Com. of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1 888, 
 p. 140. 
 
 "... when a poor man receives relief out of 
 the workhouse it may be temporary relief. The}' 
 might feel the humiliation of it, but they might 
 get over it when better times come, and that 
 person may be saved from being a pauper here- 
 after. ... I have a strong suspicion that if they 
 once go into the workhouse they stop there. I 
 think you will all agree with me that a pauper 
 would be less likely to cease to be a pauper after
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 73 
 
 having got into the workhouse than he would 
 before, to what extent I do not know . . . ' 
 
 W. E. FORSTER, M.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1876, p. 238. 
 
 " When a man goes into the workhouse, his 
 home is generally broken up, so that he cannot 
 easily leave it and start in life afresh." 
 
 "The Economics of Industry," Prof. ALFRED 
 MARSHAI L. 
 
 (9) That the evidence afforded by tlie model 
 unions is not conclusive, and general 
 application of the policy not possible. 
 
 " We should require, however, to know much 
 more than we do of the history of these unions, 
 the present condition of their poor, the state of 
 the surrounding parishes, and the details of ad- 
 ministration before we accepted them as conclu- 
 sive guides. If the specific were as certain and 
 as simple as Mr. Loch supposes, how comes it 
 that, in spite of the natural anxiety for economy 
 which is felt by every representative body of rate- 
 payers, the example has not spread, and that this 
 policy of stringent administration is only followed 
 in a few isolated cases ? Its success may well be 
 due to the exceptional care and ability which
 
 74 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 have been expended by individual workers in 
 these unions. The discretion, the firmness and 
 the personal attention which they have given can- 
 not be supplied by general regulations or an official 
 
 system." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., The National Review, Feb. 
 1892. 
 
 " I want to know the number of people, if there 
 are any, who are driven out of unions by this hard 
 system, and I want to know something about the 
 death-rate." 
 
 Rev. R. S. MITCHISON, P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1890, p. 298. 
 
 General application of the system would not 
 prove so possible or simple as is often assumed. 
 
 Poor Law Reform, Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, 
 Economic Journal, June. 1892, p. 375. 
 
 The combination of qualities, both in the 
 administration and the people, without which the 
 policy cannot be carried out, is very exceptional, 
 and thus it always has been and will be impos- 
 sible to make the policy general. 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 "... we have the remarkable phenomenon 
 that the great majority of boards of guardians 
 who are practical men, and not extremists, who
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 75 
 
 are not usually elected from a class which is likely 
 to be actuated by any excess of sentimental 
 squeamishness, who have every interest in keep- 
 ing down the rates and encouraging thrift, and 
 who presumably have at least as much experience 
 in the administration of relief as the so-called 
 experts who write for their edification, persistently 
 abstain from acting up to the doctrines thus 
 preached to them, and relieve more paupers out- 
 side than inside the workhouse." 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 2. 
 
 " Theory, precept and example are alike 
 perfect, and yet the teaching does not and has 
 never spread." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and Endowment of 
 Old Age." 
 
 (10) That the amotmt of pauperism is 
 
 really unaffected by either policy. It 
 
 practically rises and falls with poverty. 
 
 " '. . . pauperism follows poverty . . . whether 
 the unions give much or little out-door relief, and 
 is not affected much, if at all, by the method of 
 administration." 
 
 W. A. HUNTER, M.P., Out-door Relief: is it so 
 very Bad ? The Contemporary Review, March, 
 1894, p. 320.
 
 76 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 (n) That the present system of Poor Law 
 relief tends to the direct discouragement 
 of thrift by making the exhaustion of all 
 savings the first qualification for aid ; 
 and that the solution, far from being 
 a withdrawal of all out-relief, which 
 would place the thrifty in no better 
 position than the thriftless, is rather in 
 a judicious and systematic application 
 of out-relief . 
 
 " Giving out-relief in a discriminating way is 
 conducive to thrift ; withholding it often leads to 
 recklessness." 
 
 The Advantages of Out-door Relief, R. S. MICHI- 
 SON, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, p. 337. 
 
 As regards the thriftless the privations which 
 attach to old age or sickness spent in freedom, 
 but assisted only with the bare necessaries of life 
 that are procurable with a small weekly pit- 
 tance from the guardians, constitute a sufficient 
 penalty. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief,'' p. 36. 
 
 " . . . at present many persons belonging to 
 the worst paid part of the labouring class are 
 probably prevented from saving by the feeling
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 77 
 
 that no amount which they can hope to save will 
 preserve them from the workhouse at last. Once 
 remove the cause of this feeling and it becomes 
 worth while to save money ; . . ." 
 
 A. W. NEWTON, Insurance against Old Age, 
 Chanty Organisation Revieiu, July, 1891, p. 277. 
 
 (12) That the difficulties of giving en- 
 couragement to thrift by means of out- 
 relief are not insuperable. 
 
 " The difficulties in the way of using out-relief 
 to encourage thrift are considerable, but less, I 
 think, than is often supposed." 
 
 Poor Law Reform, Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, The 
 Econo mic Journal, June, 1892. 
 
 (13) That the Poor Law should aim at the 
 prevention as welt as the relief of desti- 
 tution, and that the adoption of an in- 
 door policy deprives those administering 
 the Poor Law of a powerful means of 
 elevating the poorer classes. 
 
 "... the reason why we advocate giving out- 
 relief in a careful and discriminating way is 
 because we are convinced it is a mistaken and
 
 78 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 weak policy to do away with it altogether, a very 
 hard and cruel policy, which deprives guardians 
 of a great power of doing good in the way of 
 encouraging thrift and industry and discouraging 
 improvidence ; a policy which, if it is examined 
 closely, will clearly show that it begins and ends 
 with an acknowledgment of weakness and inca- 
 pacity in the guardians." 
 
 The Advantages of Out-door Relief, R. S. MICHI- 
 SON, Guardian, Rugby, P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1891, p. 323. 
 
 " I should say that the Poor Law did not carry 
 out what we expect of it, if it did not do its best 
 to prevent destitution as well as to remedy it." 
 
 Evidence of Lord COMPTON, M.P., before the Select 
 Com. of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, 
 p. 404. 
 
 " When people come to know that when they 
 do their best for themselves, that is a merit that 
 will be recognized, it will have a tendency instead 
 of depressing them to elevate their moral tone. 
 But if they live in a union where the guardians 
 do not recognize good conduct and merit, and the 
 applicants see that whatever they do they are 
 treated in the same way, they become reckless 
 and unconcerned as to their personal habits and 
 characters." 
 
 W. HOYLE, Reports of P. L. Conference, 1876, p. 379.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 79 
 
 (14) That wages would be raised rather 
 than lowered by a policy of judiciously 
 administered out-relief. 
 
 A moderate disbursement of out-relief tends 
 to lower the rates, and therefore if wages do 
 depend in any measure on the rates, will tend to 
 raise wages. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 35. 
 
 Even if out-relief necessarily added to the 
 rates it would not follow that out-relief would 
 materially affect the wages fund ; because the 
 general opinion of experts undoubtedly is that the 
 hereditary burden of the poor-rate falls on the 
 owner of the land and not on the employer of 
 labour. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 (15) That an indoor policy increases the 
 rates ; and involves a larger number 
 and a superior class of relieving 
 officers. 
 
 " It costs as much to keep one pauper in the 
 workhouse as would suffice to keep two or three 
 destitute persons out of the workhouse." 
 
 W. A. HUNTER, M.P., Out-relief: is it so very 
 Bad? The Contemporary Review, March, 1894, 
 P- 305-
 
 So Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 "... taking England and Wales as a whole 
 (although there are many individual exceptions), 
 those unions which give most out-door relief are 
 by far the cheapest, and those unions which give 
 most in-door relief are by much the dearest." 
 
 W. A. HUNTER, M.P., Out-relief: is it so very 
 Bad ? The Contemporary Review, March, 1894, 
 p. 306. 
 
 " It has always been, and always will be, a very 
 important part of the case of the advocates of a 
 reasonable dispensation of out-relief, that if out- 
 relief is abolished the great army of Poor Law 
 officials and the expenses connected with the 
 relief of in-door paupers must be largely increased 
 . . . that you must have a superior class of officers 
 and more of them ; ..." 
 
 "Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 17. 
 
 (16) That the in-door unions give least 
 relief in the cases where it is most 
 reqidred and most justifiable. 
 
 "... old age pauperism is from six to nine 
 times as great as all pauperism, and is consider- 
 ably less in the in-door unions. As old men and 
 old women past work are most deserving of help, 
 it follows that the in-door unions give least relief
 
 CH. i.] Oiit-door and In-door Relief. Si 
 
 in the cases where it is most required and most 
 justifiable." 
 
 W. A. HUNTER, M.P., Out-relief: is it so very 
 Bad ? Contemporary Review, March, 1894. 
 
 (17) That an in-door policy checks all 
 kindly help from relatives ; and where- 
 as they will often assist in those cases 
 where out-relief is given, they refuse to 
 help at all where in-door relief has been 
 offered and accepted. 
 
 " We deliberately dry up and starve at present 
 one of the most promising means of developing 
 the higher feelings of the poor." 
 
 The Reform of the Poor Law, SIDNEY WEBB, 
 The Contemporary Review, July, 1890, p. 107. 
 
 ( 1 8) That to refer any considerable number 
 of cases to charity would be to relieve 
 the ratepayers generally from- a burden 
 which they ought to dear, and to cast it 
 upon a small section of the community; 
 and tliat it is impossible to relegate to 
 charity all those cases for which the 
 workhouse is undesirable. 
 
 L. G
 
 82 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 It is impossible for charity to bear the whole 
 burden of out-door pauperism. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 38. 
 
 That the Poor Law virtually exists because 
 private charity did not sufficiently relieve the 
 needs of the poor. 
 
 Evidence of Lord COMPTON before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, 
 P- 403- 
 
 (19) That past payment of rates entitles the 
 poor to out-relief when obliged to come 
 upon the parish. 
 
 " The recipients of poor relief will probably at 
 some time in their lives have themselves con- 
 tributed to the rate, and are only receiving back 
 their contributions plus the assistance of the 
 wealthy and well-to-do." 
 
 J. FROME WILKINSON, The Endowment of Old 
 Age, The Contemporary Review, April, 1892. 
 
 "... the working classes both in town and 
 country are learning with an astonishing rapidity 
 that a man who has not grossly misconducted 
 himself, and has to the best of his ability saved 
 and made provision against adversity, has an 
 equitable claim to receive back in case of need
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 83 
 
 part of what he has contributed to the poor-rates. 
 . . . They urge that so long as the country holds 
 any of the money which he has contributed as an 
 insurance for himself and others against need, he 
 ought not to be forced to apply for the ' charity ' of 
 private persons." 
 
 Poor Law Reform, Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, 
 The Economic Journal, June, 1892. 
 
 (20) That the guardians are failing in their 
 ditty when they offer nothing but the 
 workhouse. 
 
 " The law declares that the destitute shall be 
 relieved, and the Guardians are not acting up to 
 their duty when they close the avenues through 
 which that relief should come, and dismiss the 
 applicant with an order for the workhouse, or a 
 recommendation to a charitable institution." 
 
 T. M. BRINDLEY, Out-door Relief, Report of the 
 West Midland District P. L. Conference, 1893. 
 
 "... I am surprised that so many people 
 overlook the fact that the poor who receive relief 
 in our unions are merely drawing that which they 
 are justly entitled to. ... Why should people be 
 driven to the alternative of accepting out- door 
 relief or no relief at all, when there were reason- 
 
 G 2
 
 84 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 able grounds for believing that they would not 
 take it ? " 
 
 J. HUGHES, M.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 518. 
 
 (21) That the conditions of Poor Law ad- 
 ministration are no longer similar to 
 those with which tht Poor Law Com- 
 missioners of 1 834 had to contend ; and 
 a policy which would have proved im- 
 possible in their time, and would have 
 Jailed to meet the evil of that day, has 
 become possible and necessary in this. 
 
 " The fact is that the new Poor Law has by 
 this time worked itself out. The main evils 
 against which it was directed have now virtually 
 disappeared. The chief objects of the Commis- 
 sioners have been attained . . . the work has so 
 far succeeded that the evils encountered to-day 
 are not those with which the reformers of 1834 
 had to deal. Standing on their shoulders we have 
 to-day a different task from theirs." 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law, 
 The Contemporary Review, July, 1890, p. 97. 
 
 It must be remembered that the state of 
 things existing when the Report of the Poor
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 85 
 
 Law Commissioners in 1834, was written, was 
 altogether different from that which now prevails, 
 or can prevail under the existing law and the 
 present system of Poor Law administration. 
 
 " Plain Words on Out-relief," p. 38. 
 
 " In 1834 the then practical best was no doubt 
 done. . . . Then, however, is not now. We are 
 not, like the Poor Law Commissioners, face to face 
 with a terrible outbreak of able-bodied pauperism 
 threatening to bring about national bankruptcy. 
 We are face to face with another economic 
 question How is old age to be adequately pro- 
 vided for ? Not the workers or the won't workers, 
 but the past-and-can't workers." 
 
 J. FROME WILKINSON, The English Poor Law and 
 Old Age, The Contemporary Review, Nov. 
 1893- 
 
 Industrial conditions have altered since 1834, 
 and the remedies applicable then ought now to be 
 modified. The problem of to-day is the treatment 
 
 of people out of work through no fault of their 
 
 / 
 own. 
 
 A. SHERWELL, Charity Organisation Review, June, 
 1893, p. 247. 
 
 "... the Poor Law reformers chose a cruel 
 remedy then, because on the whole its kindness
 
 86 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 was greater than its cruelty, and nothing kinder 
 was then practicable." 
 
 The Poor Law and State Pensions, by Prof. 
 ALFRED MARSHALL, The Economic Journal, 
 March, 1892. 
 
 " Are the principles of 1834 Poor Law defen- 
 sible on any other ground than that of practical 
 exigencies ? And have not the exigencies by 
 which they were then justified passed away? . . ." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "To double the number of relieving officers would 
 have been a serious burden then, it would be a 
 light one now. To find a sufficient number of 
 educated judicious men for the work was almost 
 impossible then ; with a little care it could be 
 easily done now . . ." 
 
 Poor Law Reform, Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, The 
 Economic Journal, June, 1892.
 
 CH - i-] Out-door and In-door Relief. 87 
 
 Out-relief to the sick (unless in urgent 
 cases) and to the partially disabled, is 
 opposed on the grounds : 
 
 ( i ) That it tends to undermine the indepen- 
 dence of the poor ; and that a large 
 proportion of our pauperism notori- 
 ously originates in relief granted in 
 sickness. 
 
 "... this form of relief is accepted with less 
 repugnance than any other, though it operates as 
 an easy introduction to further applications on 
 less pressing emergencies." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1836, p. 25. 
 
 "... medical relief is the inlet through which 
 the habit of pauperism first creeps into a poor 
 man's house : it is the ready introduction to 
 permanent pauperism and deception." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, Report of Sir 
 E. HEAD, p. 229. 
 
 It is a matter of general experience in Poor 
 Law administration, that the receipt of medical
 
 88 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 relief is the most frequent beginning of a career 
 of pauperism. 
 
 Out-door Relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY. 
 Third Annual Report of the L. G. Board, p. 
 161. 
 
 " Those who have once accepted this kind of 
 relief often lose the sense of responsibility and 
 independence, and do not emerge again from the 
 ranks of pauperism." 
 
 " The English Poor Law System," Dr. P. ASCHROTT, 
 P- 234. 
 
 " If you do give it, the strong possibility is that 
 the repugnance to becoming the recipient of 
 public aid will be gone, and there is a great risk 
 that, for the future, very slight causes will again 
 bring the applicant to the Relieving Officer's 
 
 door." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Dr. J. MILSON RHODES, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 58. 
 
 " A form of pauperism which is the more 
 dangerous since it habituates the poor to depend- 
 ence, under circumstances which cloak the ten- 
 dencies of the system." 
 
 Dr. KAY, Assist. P. L. Commissioner. 
 
 "... when the family has been once entered 
 on the books, you may safely reckon that in
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 89 
 
 numerous cases it will not be long before applica- 
 tion for out-relief, in some form, will again be 
 made to the board by the same family. Self- 
 respect and self-dependence have been weakened." 
 
 F. TOWNSEND, M.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 
 p. 24. 
 
 " There is also ample evidence to show that 
 when medical relief is given on easy terms, such 
 relief leads on to further applications to the 
 guardians and habitual pauperism. We may lay 
 it down as a principle borne out by varied and 
 extensive experience that the wisest, kindest, 
 most salutary policy is to refuse medical relief 
 in the home except by way of loan." 
 
 State Relief, Rev. W. MOORE EDE, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1890, p. 63. 
 
 " But perhaps the worst thing of all is the evil 
 example exhibited to the children, who will prob- 
 ably soon come to look upon public relief as a 
 perfectly legitimate way of obtaining your bread." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Dr. J. MILSON RHODES, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 59. 
 
 (2) That medical oiit-relief directly dis- 
 coiirages thrift and providence, and 
 deters men from joining medical clubs. 
 
 " The unavoidable effect of gratuitous treat-
 
 90 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 ment of the sick is to discourage the poor from 
 supporting provident medical clubs and dispen- 
 saries." 
 
 Report of the Select Committee of the H. of Lords 
 on P. L. Relief, 1888. 
 
 There is no encouragement to a man "to secure 
 for himself beforehand medical attendance in sick- 
 ness by subscribing to a doctor's club, when his 
 neighbour, who has exercised no such prudence, 
 gets the same attendance for nothing ... It 
 discourages providence and independence, for it 
 seems to rob them by comparison of their fair 
 
 reward." 
 
 Rev. J. F. A. HERVEY, Medical Relief. P. L. 
 
 Conference Reports, 1883. 
 
 " Every medical order given means so many 
 families deterred from entering a medical club." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 Whereas out-relief deters a man from joining 
 a club, relief in the workhouse infirmary on the 
 other hand, although almost equal to a general 
 hospital, is not so eligible as relief with his own 
 family would be, and consequently there is an 
 inducement to a man to join a club. 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the White- 
 chapel B. of Guardians, before the Select Com. of 
 the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 492.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 91 
 
 "Nor must we forget that out-door relief is 
 very contagious, and if A., who is a steady man, 
 regularly paying his sick club, sees B., who is not 
 steady, receiving medical attendance and relief 
 free, it does appear to me that providence and 
 thrift are plants not likely to be of strong growth 
 in those places. You may think this is theoretical, 
 but if you will go over the government statistics 
 of post-office savings banks, co-operative and 
 friendly societies, you will find that all these 
 methods of thrift are languishing where there is 
 a large amount of out-relief given." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Dr. J. MILSON RHODES, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 59.* 
 
 (3) That when medical out-door relief is 
 given, a mans recovery is not likely 
 to be so speedy as if he went into the 
 infirmary ; and for this reason alone 
 oitt-door relief is not to a man's 
 real advantage. 
 
 "... every day's sickness means a loss to the 
 poor, and therefore it is of the greatest import- 
 ance that the duration of the illness should be, 
 for their own sake, as short as possible ; and 
 
 * See also (i The English Poor," T. MACKAY, p. 209.
 
 92 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 there is no doubt, with proper nursing and feed- 
 ing, the cases are cured more rapidly in hospital 
 than outside." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Dr. J. MILSOX RHODES, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, i8g2,'p. 58. 
 
 "... experience has shown that the infirmary 
 is the proper place for cases of temporary sick- 
 ness . . . My own experience as a guardian has 
 shown me the futility of out-relief in these cases : 
 where it is given the illness lingers on, but when 
 the sick applicant is made to enter the infirmary 
 he gets well in half the time." 
 
 J. R. HOLLOND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 
 621. 
 
 " It (in-door relief) adds materially to the 
 chances of the patient's early recovery." 
 
 J. JONES, Relieving Officer, Stepney, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 580. 
 
 (4) That out-relief to the partially disabled 
 enables them to undersell those who 
 depend entirely on their own exertions, 
 whereas in-door relief takes them 
 off the market and prevents them com- 
 peting as subsidized workers. 
 
 "... all persons who, receiving partial relief*
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 93 
 
 continue in employment with the aid of allowances, 
 enter into injurious competition with the inde- 
 pendent labourer, and it seems to us, that in 
 justice to the able-bodied labourer, this competi- 
 tion should as far as possible be put an end to " 
 
 Fifth Report of the P, L. Commissioners, 1839.* 
 
 * See also Outdoor Relief Report of the Committee of the 
 Brixworth Union, Second Annual Report of the L, G. Board, 
 1872 3 ; Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 15.
 
 94 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - L 
 
 On the other hand, out-relief in case of 
 sickness, and partial disablement, is up- 
 held on the grounds : 
 
 ( i ) That an in-door policy in the case of 
 the sick and partially disabled would 
 be inhuman, costly, and impractic- 
 able. 
 
 "Is it not better that those relieved should 
 occupy their time in doing some trifle to help 
 themselves ? . . . if any poor man or woman 
 goes to work, and yet is not able to get an 
 entire livelihood, it is better to let them earn as 
 much as they can, and then give them a trifle 
 besides from the rates." 
 
 J. WILFORD, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 586. 
 
 "... in the presence of sickness the past 
 should not be raised until the sickness has been 
 ministered to." 
 
 D. J. B. RUSSF.L, Conference on Overlapping of 
 Charitable Funds, Glasgow C. O. S., 1882.
 
 CH. i.] Oiit-door and In-door Relief. 95 
 
 It is urged that in cases of widows with 
 families, no out-relief should be given 
 except during the first month of widow- 
 hood, but that the guardians should offer to 
 take one or more of the children, on the 
 grounds : 
 
 (i) That out-relief when given to widows 
 tends to degrade whole families, morally 
 and physically, in consequence of the 
 scanty amount which is, and must 
 necessarily be given, in order to avoid 
 putting a premium on pauperism : 
 that to send certain of the children 
 to parochial schools, leaving with the 
 mother only such as she herself can 
 maintain by her own labour, has 
 proved the kinder policy to both parent 
 and child. 
 
 "... the children will be, in most of our 
 workhouses I hope we may soon be able to say 
 in all of them far better cared for than they 
 would be in their own wretched and unhealthy
 
 96 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 cottages, where they grow up in pauperism, ac- 
 customed to look to the relieving officer for their 
 weekly pittance. . . ' 
 
 Out-relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1876, p. 18. 
 
 " The amount of relief, when it is really needed 
 at all, is almost always insufficient to enable the 
 children to be properly fed, clothed or housed ; 
 they are thus exposed to the worst influences, 
 both moral and physical." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian St. George's-in-the- 
 East, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 228. 
 
 " If again, it is objected that the workhouse 
 test involves a violent and unnatural separation 
 between children and parents, the answer is that 
 the children will be better attended to in the 
 workhouse and district school than in a squalid 
 and destitute home." 
 
 ESCOTT'S "England," 1884, p. 195. 
 
 " The difficulties with which she has to struggle 
 are so well known that it is almost impossible for 
 her to obtain a room in a good locality ; and this, 
 together with her inability to pay anything beyond 
 the lowest rent, drives her to the poorest streets, 
 where the surroundings are such that it would be
 
 CH. i.] Out- door and In-door Relief. 97 
 
 almost a miracle if she contrived to bring up her 
 little ones respectably." 
 
 " (Jut-door Relief to Widows" (G. HILL, Publisher, 
 Westminster Bridge Road). 
 
 " Much may be said of the cruelty of separating 
 the mother from her children. I am inclined to 
 think there is greater cruelty in our present plan 
 of is. 6d. a week out-relief. If there are four, 
 five, or six children, the mother cannot do much 
 to earn a livelihood and at the same time look 
 after the children . . . The children, not properly 
 nourished, grow up weak and sickly and, unable 
 to earn a decent livelihood, become constant 
 dependents on relief." 
 
 State Relief, Rev. W. MOORE EDE, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1890, p. 67. 
 
 " Separation from the mother is an evil, un- 
 doubtedly a great evil, but it is a lesser evil than 
 a system of out-relief." 
 
 T. MAC KAY, Charity Organisation Review, Aug. 
 1893- 
 
 (2) That the refusal of out-relief has seldom 
 forced widows into the workhouse ; but 
 on the contrary, has resulted in their 
 
 L. H
 
 98 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 gaining a better position than whilst 
 in receipt of parochial assistance. 
 
 " In those unions in which out-door relief is 
 either withheld or very unfrequently administered 
 to this class, very few find it necessary to take 
 refuge in the workhouse." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1840. 
 
 " It was long ago proven that in those unions 
 in which out-door relief is either withheld from, 
 or very unfrequently administered to this class, 
 very few find it necessary to take refuge in the 
 workhouse." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 112. 
 
 " It has invariably been found that where, 
 as of late has frequently been the case, out-relief 
 has, from one cause or another, been refused to 
 widows with families, a large proportion of them 
 have, under the pressure, found it possible to 
 obtain an independent livelihood." 
 
 Out-relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY, Third 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, p. 183. 
 
 " When they received the out-door pittance 
 their friends considered that they were not bound 
 to help them ; now that they receive nothing, 
 those that are in want of assistance the aged
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 99 
 
 and infirm receive assistance from their friends 
 and families to a much larger extent than any- 
 thing they ever got from the union before, and 
 they are at liberty to do any amount of work 
 they like themselves, and most of them, I am in 
 a position to say, are infinitely better off; in fact, 
 they are all infinitely better off, and most of them 
 are earning three or four times as much money 
 as they get from their family. There is no danger, 
 there is no cruelty, in avoiding out-door relief to 
 widows ; it is the greatest kindness you can do 
 
 them." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, late Chairman Bradfield B. of 
 Guardians ; Report of the South Eastern Dis- 
 trict P. L. Conference, 1886. 
 
 "Widows have been found to be much better 
 off under the system advocated than they were 
 previously when granted out-relief, " because they 
 were free from the incubus of pauperism, and able 
 to demand full current remuneration for their 
 labour, and those requiring assistance received 
 it from their relatives much more readily than 
 formerly when the latter often made the Poor 
 Law dole an excuse for refusing it." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1888, 
 p. 41.* 
 
 * "I would say from my heart that one of the happiest circum- 
 stances of my life is that we refused to give any more out-door relief 
 
 H 2
 
 ioo Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. r. 
 
 (3) That out-door relief granted to widows 
 tends to reduce women's wages. 
 
 " . . . as regards widows or able-bodied women 
 themselves, allowances from the parish made to 
 them when in employment do not always confer 
 the advantages intended, inasmuch as their wages, 
 as in the case of able-bodied men, are commonly 
 reduced in consideration of the allowance from 
 the parish, and such reduction of the wages, com- 
 bined with the excuse furnished to relations or 
 friends from making contributicns in aid, together 
 with the pauper habits engendered, renders such 
 allowances to widows in aid of wages an injury 
 rather than a benefit to the class intended to be 
 relieved ; whilst in some districts the class of able- 
 bodied women are so numerous that their labour 
 (thus depreciated at the expense of the ratepayers) 
 is substituted for the higher paid labour of inde- 
 pendent labourers." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 108. 
 
 " In London, as in all large towns, there is a 
 distinct demand for female labour, which is no 
 
 to widows, because I see plainly all over the union that they are 
 far better off, and far happier than ever they were before. " 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, Charity Organisation Review, 
 June, 1891, p. 249.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 101 
 
 doubt frequently ill remunerated, but which, it 
 can scarcely be denied, would be better re- 
 munerated if the operation of the general princi- 
 ples which regulate the price of this, as of all 
 other labour, were not-disturbed by the existence 
 of a special class, who are known to be able to 
 sell their labour at a lower rate than that at which 
 the independent labourer can afford to work." 
 
 Report of H. LONG LEY ; Third Annual Report of 
 the L. G. Board, p. 180. 
 
 " Sums paid by Boards of Guardians to widows 
 with young children . . . will enable these women 
 to get work by accepting wages which would have 
 been impossible if they had not outside assistance 
 to depend upon. It is thus possible that, by 
 assisting a thoroughly deserving case, you may be 
 helping to drive down below starvation point the 
 wages of a class of workers." 
 
 "Problems of Poverty/' J. A. HOBSON, M.A., 
 p. 1 60. * 
 
 (4) That the contention that the children 
 tend under this system to become 
 infected with the pauper taint, and to 
 return again to the workhouse, has 
 
 * See also Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 15.
 
 i O2 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 been disproved ; and that out-relief, on 
 the contrary, is more liable to render 
 both parents and children permanent 
 paupers. 
 
 " As a matter of course, the children of widows 
 in receipt of out-door relief are brought up as 
 beggars, and pauperised from their infancy, and 
 the pauperism hangs to them." 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, Speech at the Annual Meeting 
 of the C. O. S., 2yd April, 1891. 
 
 Very few of the children educated in separate 
 or district schools become chargeable to the rates. 
 Out-relief, on the other hand, is likely to be both 
 infectious and hereditary. 
 
 C. LAYTON LOWNDES, P. L. Conferente Reports, 
 1891, P- 354- 
 
 " On the out-relief system the mother, perhaps 
 quite a young woman, becomes permanently 
 pauperised by the habit of dependence and the 
 contamination of other paupers ; her children are 
 trained up to lean on the parish, and are pretty 
 sure to bring up their families in turn on the same 
 traditions, so that the evil goes on perpetuating 
 itself for generations." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, Guardian St. George's-in-the-East, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 227.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 103 
 
 " Some persons have said that sending children 
 to school pauperises them, but, on the contrary, it 
 takes the children away entirely from the sur- 
 roundings of pauperism." 
 
 J. JONES, Relieving Officer, Stepney, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. 598. 
 
 " . . . it is far better to support the children in 
 district schools, and leave the widow with one 
 child, so that she would not be a pauper, and we 
 should not be bringing up all the children to 
 regard themselves as paupers." 
 
 F. STRUTT, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 591. 
 
 (5) Tkat it is almost impossible for the 
 Guardians to obtain a true knowledge 
 of the circumstances of the case. 
 
 " There is, probably, no class whose earnings 
 Boards of Guardians and their officers experience 
 such difficulty in ascertaining, and whose applica- 
 tions for relief, when tested, are so frequently 
 found to be groundless, or at least, based on 
 untrustworthy statements." 
 
 Out-relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY, TJiird 
 Annual Report of the L. G, Board, p. 180.* 
 
 * See also pp. 26, 27.
 
 JO4 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 (6) That out-relief given to widows too 
 commonly serves as an excuse to the 
 relatives to refrain from giving help, 
 whereas the refusal of out-relief, and 
 offer of the workhouse, " brings out 
 the best feelings and efforts " of friends 
 and relatives. 
 
 " When partial allowances of two shillings or 
 half-a-crown a week in aid of wages are made, 
 they too commonly serve to excuse relations from 
 the payment of contributions to a much larger 
 amount." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 107. 
 
 "... experience shows that friends or relatives 
 will, under these circumstances, come forward and 
 help by taking the charge of one or more of the 
 children, who will not lift a little finger to assist 
 when by so doing they think they are only reliev- 
 ing the rates." 
 
 State Relief, Rev. W. MOORE EDK, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1890, p. 67. 
 
 "The schools offer . . . draws out the best 
 feelings and efforts of relatives, friends, and the
 
 CH. i.j Oiit-door and In-door Relief. 105 
 
 charitable, and is thus morally beneficial to all 
 
 concerned." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, St. George's-in-the-East B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 228. 
 
 (7) That out-relief to widows contributes 
 largely to pauperism by inducing im- 
 providence. 
 
 "... outdoor allowances when given indis- 
 criminately in widowhood tend to put an end to 
 provident habits in respect of insurances in sick 
 clubs or otherwise." 
 
 Report of the P. L. Commission, 1839, p. 108. 
 
 The expectation that in case of the husband's 
 death the widow and children will receive relief 
 in their own homes, is the cause of recklessly 
 improvident marriages, and makes husband and 
 wife careless as to provision for the future. 
 
 T. BLAND GARLAND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1888, 
 p. 40. 
 
 " If the pauperism of aged adult women, 
 especially widows, was prevented, as it can be 
 without much difficulty, the beginning of very 
 much of the pauperism of women in old age would 
 be stopped." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Old Age Pensions, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1892, p. 122.
 
 106 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 (8) A. That widowhood is a contingency 
 of life which like others should be 
 provided for. 
 
 "... I must protest against the doctrine that 
 their position 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 deplorable it undoubtedly 
 is, is one of the ordinary contingencies of human 
 circumstances, which may, in some degree or 
 other, be provided against, equally with sickness, 
 or accident, or other bereavement. The difference 
 between these contingencies seems to be one of 
 degree rather than of kind. . ." 
 
 Out-relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY, Third 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, p. 183. 
 
 (8) B. That many widows prove themselves 
 perfectly well able to bring up their 
 families without relief. And many 
 
 more would do the same if not led to 
 
 rely upon it. 
 
 " It is notorious that large numbers of widows 
 of the poorer class do maintain and bring up 
 large families independently of Poor Law relief." 
 
 Out-relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLEY, Third 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, p. 183.
 
 CH. i.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 107 
 
 " One thing I am certain about, and that is 
 that it is a great mistake to give to widows 
 because they are widows." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Dr. J. MILSON RHODES, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 59. 
 
 " Experience has shown that most widows can 
 support themselves and two children." 
 
 A. G. CROWDER, St. George's-in-the-East B. of 
 Guardians, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 228. 
 
 (8) c. That in any case the general good 
 of the community must be the first 
 consideration, and that which has been 
 found to be .for the general welfare 
 should be adhered to. 
 
 " Even assuming, though I cannot admit that 
 a widow is necessarily incompetent to main- 
 tain her family by her independent exertions, the 
 fact of her widowhood does not seem to entitle 
 her to receive relief in a form which whether 
 given to a widow or another is prejudicial alike to 
 the recipient and to the community." 
 
 Out-relief in the Metropolis, H. LONGLF.Y, Third 
 Annual Report of the L. G. Board, 1873 4, 
 p. 182.
 
 Jo8 Some Poor Relief Questions, [CH. i. 
 
 On the other hand out-relief to widows 
 with families, in preference to the Guardians 
 taking one or more of the children, is urged 
 on .the grounds : 
 
 (i) That it is impossible for a widow to 
 maintain several children, but cruel 
 and undesirable to remove children 
 from home influences, or to relieve a 
 woman of her responsibilities, by letting 
 her part with her children. 
 
 "... whatever a mother is, she is generally 
 good for something. It is only the rarest excep- 
 tion that a woman is not good for something ; 
 and in the great majority of instances maternal 
 influence is better than pauper influence." 
 
 W. E. FOKSTER, M.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 
 1876, p. 244. 
 
 ". . . if a woman is left with a large family, 
 and a portion are able to earn their own living 
 and a little more, it is wiser to give the widow 
 just enough to support the others than to take 
 them into the house. You call it ' supplementing
 
 i.] Out-door and In- door Relief. 109 
 
 wages.' Is it not better than breaking up the 
 home ? " 
 
 J. WILFORD, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 586. 
 
 " With regard to a widow and her family, it is 
 cruel to take from her some of her children, to 
 leave her to support the rest. Where she is a 
 respectable person and the children have a good 
 school to attend, it is better for the Guardians, 
 and better for the public, to give that woman a 
 fair allowance, and allow her and her children to 
 live together as a mother and her children ought 
 to do." 
 
 Rev. J. PEARSON, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 89. 
 
 "It is a cruel hardship to a widow with a 
 number of children, struggling to keep out of the 
 house, able to get but very little from the 
 machinery of the church the district visitor 
 that she should not get out-door relief, with the 
 assistance of which she might bring up her 
 family." 
 
 Capt. ELLIS, Charity Organisation Review, July, 
 1894. 
 
 (2) That the system by which the Guard- 
 ians take charge of one or more of
 
 1 1 o Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. i. 
 
 the. children has not the advantage of 
 discouraging applications. 
 
 " That the system does not tend to discourage 
 applications for relief, but that quite as many 
 widows probably ask for and require relief under 
 this as under a system of giving out-relief." 
 
 Evidence of], C. JONES, Marylebone B. of Guardians, 
 before the Select Com. of the H. of Lords on P. L. 
 Relief, 1888, p. 379.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS. 
 
 THE necessity for some form of old age 
 pensions is urged on the grounds : 
 
 (i) A. That there is a grievous amount of 
 pauperism due almost entirely to the 
 disablement arising from old age, and 
 not due to vice, intemperance nor im- 
 providence. 
 
 "... although we have experienced a long 
 period of unexampled prosperity, a very large 
 proportion of our working people come upon the 
 rates in their old age." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 "... we see that under present conditions 
 one-half at least of the working class are con- 
 demned to end their days as paupers, and of
 
 112 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 these a large proportion, at any rate, are not 
 strictly accountable for the fate which is in store 
 
 for them." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions, National 
 Review, Feb. 1892. 
 
 "... of all men belonging to the working 
 and the poorer classes, one in two and a quarter 
 nearly one in two is compelled under our 
 present system, if he lives to sixty-five, to have 
 recourse to parish relief." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. , Speech at Birmingham, 
 Times, Dec. 7th, 1894. 
 
 "... my belief is that the great majority of 
 those persons who at sixty-five become paupers 
 are persons who have led a fairly thrifty, a fairly 
 industrious, and a generally sober life. I believe 
 that in the great majority of these cases their 
 necessities arise from the failure of their physical 
 faculties, and not from anything we are entitled 
 to call misconduct on their part." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "... of all who survive to the age of seventy, 
 one out of every three is believed to be in receipt 
 of poor relief. In London one death in every six 
 takes place in the workhouse or workhouse in- 
 firmary. In some rural districts, it has been
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 113 
 
 said, nearty every aged agricultural labourer is 
 a pauper." 
 
 Minority Report, Fifth and Final Report of the 
 Royal Com, on Labour, Pt. i., p. 128. 
 
 There are " a large number of aged people 
 shown by the best test that is available, to be 
 on the border line of destitution, if not wholly 
 destitute," and who, in the opinion of the local 
 administrative bodies, are unable to support 
 themselves. 
 
 " The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 69. 
 
 Twenty-five per cent, of the whole population 
 over sixty-five are at least in a state of deplorable 
 poverty, and by far the greater part of this 
 poverty is mainly, if not wholly, caused by old 
 age. 
 
 Ditto, p. 71. 
 
 " Old age is recognized to be one of the most 
 fertile causes of poverty, and it might be specially 
 dealt with by some plan of State endowment." 
 
 The Realm, Dec. 7th, 1894. 
 
 (2) B. That poverty due to old age requires 
 provision other than, and apart from, 
 L. i
 
 H4 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 that accorded under the present Poor 
 Law. 
 
 Age falls heavily on the poor, and the case of 
 the aged poor demands special consideration. 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 Old age pauperism, " though not so great as 
 has been sometimes asserted, is very serious. 
 Under the Poor Law it is treated undesirably ; 
 in-door relief lacks humanity, and -out-door en- 
 courages improvidence. We are therefore justi- 
 fied in seeking some better plan." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "... there is a heavy amount of dependence 
 on the relief afforded under the Poor Law, caused 
 by the disablement of old age, not at present 
 sufficiently provided against." 
 
 "Pensions and Pauperism," Rev. J. FROME WIL- 
 KINSON, p. 45. 
 
 "... those who had led lives of self-reliance 
 and thrift, and who had been accustomed to 
 secure for themselves by their own industry many 
 little comforts, should not be compelled to put up 
 with the same state of things as those who had 
 been worthless citizens all their lives." 
 
 G. HARTLEY, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894.
 
 CH - ii-J Old Age Pensions. 1 1 5 
 
 " It could not be disputed that there was some- 
 thing wrong about our present system of old age 
 relief, because it ought to be impossible for any 
 man who had spent a long life honourably, to be 
 compelled to seek relief in his old age in the work- 
 house." 
 
 G. BARTLEY, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894. 
 
 (3) That in considering the question of 
 old age pensions, the position of those 
 suffering from poverty ', but not them- 
 selves paupers, must equally be taken 
 into account. 
 
 It must also be considered that besides the 
 persons who have recourse to parish relief there 
 are always a great many people who are always 
 on the verge of pauperism and who are making 
 heroic efforts to prevent themselves from having 
 to apply for this form of relief. 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Speech on Old Age 
 Pensions, at Birmingham, Times, Dec. 7th, 
 1894. 
 
 " In considering the case for old age pensions 
 we are considering not pauperism, but poverty." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 69. 
 
 I 2
 
 1 1 6 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ CH - "- 
 
 (4) That it is necessary to allay the wide- 
 spread feeling of dissatisfaction now 
 prevailing in regard to the position of 
 the aged poor ; unless this is done a 
 dangerous reaction to tfte former lax 
 administration of Poor Law relief 
 with all its attendant evils is likely to 
 be the result. 
 
 " . . . if from reason of cost or lack of popular 
 support it (the endowment of old age) is rejected, 
 the movement of public opinion will inevitably 
 take the direction of an extension of out-relief." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 " I say that this inadequate provision for the 
 old age of our working people is not only a dis- 
 grace but it is a danger to social order. I 
 say that it is injurious to the individuals, and it is 
 injurious to the nation ; . . ." 
 
 Old Age Pensions and Friendly Societies, J. 
 CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., The National Review, 
 Jan. 1895. 
 
 " The dangers of a reaction towards out-relief 
 are obvious and urgent ..." 
 
 Rev. T. FOWLE, " The Poor Law, Friendly Societies, 
 and Old Age Destitution."* 
 
 * See note, p. 153.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 1 1 7 
 
 (5) That the small earnings of the poor, 
 which are often barely sufficient to 
 enable them to meet their daily needs, 
 render it wholly impossible for them 
 to make provision for their old age. 
 
 " I am willing to admit that as the sufferings 
 consequent on old age can be foreseen, every one 
 ought to make provision for them. But as things 
 now are it is practically impossible for the mass 
 of our working classes to make such provision." 
 
 Rev. W. MOORE EDE, National Pensions, Contem- 
 porary Review, April, 1891, 
 
 " Old age must be treated as in part the duty 
 of the individual, in part a collective duty of the 
 community, and must be dealt with on a system 
 of insurance in which one part of the cost shall 
 be borne by the individual and one part by the 
 rates or the Imperial exchequer." 
 
 State Relief, Rev. W. MOORE EDE, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1890, p. 71. 
 
 "... it must be remembered that it is almost 
 impossible for a large proportion of the poorer 
 classes to make adequate provision against old 
 age." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., National Review, Feb. 
 1892.
 
 1 1 8 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 Women " have often spent lives of the most 
 active and invaluable citizenship, without ever 
 having the smallest opportunity for saving." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 " So many women workers, at their present rate 
 of earnings, are quite unable to provide themselves 
 with a superannuation benefit as well as a sickness 
 benefit." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, "Pensions and Pauper- 
 ism," p. 94. 
 
 Though no doubt there is a real improvement 
 in the agricultural labourer's condition, yet the 
 Reports of the Assistant Commissioners to the 
 Royal Commission on Labour, " show that the 
 labourers, as a class, only earn a bare subsistence, 
 and that the great majority of them are in a 
 chronic state of poverty and anxiety ... It is 
 evident that with their scanty earnings it is im- 
 possible for them to make any provision for old 
 age. It is shown that for the great majority of 
 them parish relief or the workhouse is the only 
 refuge when past work." 
 
 JESSE COLLINGS, M.P., Observations appended to the 
 Fifth and Final Report of the Royal Com. on 
 Labour, 1894, pt. i., pp. 121, 125.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 119 
 
 (6) That it is open to question whether it 
 is generally desirable that the poor 
 should exercise sufficient thrift to enable 
 them to meet the requirements of old 
 age. 
 
 "... thrift and restriction on population are 
 no palliatives whatever ; and that so far from 
 thrift under present conditions being of value to 
 the workers, the probability is that if carried any 
 further than it is it would be injurious to them, 
 inasmuch as it would be in the main carried out 
 at the expense of their vitality or the vitality of 
 their children . . . Anything that he (a work- 
 man) takes in thrift now he takes out of his 
 vitality." 
 
 Evidence of Mr. HYNDMAN before the Royal Com. on 
 Labour. Minutes of Evidence, Q. 8406 and 8515* 
 pp. 594 and 604. 
 
 There is a growing conviction that the thrift 
 which is required to make provision for the period 
 of old age is wholly impossible with many, and 
 not possible with others, except at the cost of 
 lowering the whole standard of life and comfort 
 during the preceding years. 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 150.
 
 I2O Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. u. 
 
 (7) That far from discouraging thrift, 
 pensions would encourage all self- 
 supporting efforts, inasmuch as a small 
 increase of income would be likely to 
 serve as an effective inducement to lay 
 by ; whereas a sense of the hopelessness 
 of effective saving now prevents many 
 from exercising thrift. 
 
 " The great hindrance to thrift at present is 
 the hopelessness of being able to save enough. 
 With a minimum pension assured, even the 
 smallest addition becomes worth providing." 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law, The 
 Contemporary Review, July, 1890, p. 1 06. 
 
 " We have seen how the impossibility of saving 
 sufficient to make adequate provision for old age 
 operates with large numbers of the working class 
 as a discouragement to saving at all." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 149. 
 
 " They (the poorer classes) know that unless 
 they can make a full provision for their wants 
 saving is of no use, but will only disqualify them 
 for State relief. Why, then, should they save ? " 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M. P., National Review, Feb., 
 1802.
 
 CH- 1 1.] Old Age Pensions. \ 2 1 
 
 "... the certainty of a moderate pension 
 would raise the standard to which the poor 
 aspire. Every shilling saved would mean addi- 
 tional ease and comfort ; and there would be a 
 new inducement to provide for sickness, burial 
 and possible wants before sixty-five, if there were 
 a certainty of escaping destitution and the work- 
 house after that age." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., National Review, Feb., 
 1892, p. 729. 
 
 (8) That old age pensions would not 
 obviate the necessity for thrift or the 
 need of charity. 
 
 " The objects of saving are not exhausted when 
 old age after sixty -five is thought of. The years 
 of elderly existence and doubtful earnings before 
 the age of sixty-five has been reached have still 
 to be provided for." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 "... it is quite clear that a pension of 55. a 
 week, beginning at sixty-five, would not supersede 
 the necessity for thrift, or even for well-considered 
 charity. According to the conditions of modern 
 industry, the ten preceding years are exceedingly
 
 122 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ CH - " 
 
 difficult years, which would have to be provided 
 for by private resources. Nor, as a rule, would a 
 pension of 55. a week alone be sufficient to support 
 life outside the workhouse." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 149. 
 
 (9) That the fear of ultimate destitution 
 does not play such an important part 
 in engendering thrifty habits as is 
 often supposed." 
 
 It is for objects " the offspring not of fear but 
 of hope, that people are most ready to pinch and 
 scrape. Here, and not in the dread of being 
 some day destitute, lies the chief cause of human 
 thrift." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and Old Age Endow- 
 ment." 
 
 (10) That a system of national pen- 
 sions would serve to strengthen friendly 
 societies, and help to place them on a 
 firm financial basis, by relieving them 
 of the difficulty caused by the " illness 
 of old age." 
 
 "... inasmuch as one of the greatest burdens 
 on friendly societies' funds is the heavy charge
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions, 123 
 
 occasioned by what is called continuous sickness 
 among their older members, the existence of a 
 National Pension provision at sixty-five years of 
 age would have released them from all cost for 
 members above that age, with the probable result 
 of making many friendly societies actuarially 
 sound which at the present time have grave 
 deficiencies to show." 
 
 The Rev. WM. L. BI.ACKLEY. "Mr. Chamberlain's 
 Pension Scheme," Contemporary Review, March, 
 1892, p. 383. 
 
 " State pensions, so far from injuring their 
 (friendly societies') business would help them to 
 some extent out of a serious present difficulty." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 To a very large extent the friendly societies 
 are in a very critical condition. 
 
 ' ' The Poor Law, the Friendly Societies, and Old Age 
 Destitution," Rev. T. FOWLE.* 
 
 "Their (friendly societies') embarrassments in 
 the past have largely proceeded from the difficulty 
 of dealing with superannuation and the impossi- 
 bility of distinguishing after sixty-five years 
 between the incapacity caused by ordinary sick- 
 
 * See note, p. 153.
 
 124 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - n - 
 
 ness and that induced by advancing age. It 
 would be a great advantage to the societies to 
 disencumber them of old age claims, or at least 
 to assist them to meet them separately from their 
 other obligations." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., National Review, Feb. 
 1892. 
 
 (n) That the embarrassments of Jmendly 
 societies, due to the demands of old age, 
 will prove very serious in their con- 
 sequences^ not only to those societies 
 themselves, but to the whole nation, 
 unless some action is taken to relieve 
 them of similar claims in the future. 
 
 " Unless, then, something is done, and done 
 speedily, either in the shape of assistance from 
 without, or in the shape of new regulations made 
 for the government of these societies, then it is 
 perfectly certain that the embarrassment which 
 is already beginning to be felt will become very 
 serious it will be very serious for the societies ; 
 it will be very serious also for the nation." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions and 
 Friendly Societies, National Review, Jan. 1895.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 125 
 
 (12) That existing institutions make no- 
 satisfactory provision against old age, 
 and that it cannot be said that such 
 pensions would injure existing institu- 
 tions. 
 
 "The cost of providing adequate pensions is 
 found to be too serious for the great friendly 
 societies, and for any but a few of the more 
 powerful trades unions." 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law,, 
 Contemporary Review, July, 1890, p. 106. 
 
 " There can be no doubt as to the failure 
 of existing agencies to secure provision for old 
 age." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., The National Review, Feb. 
 1892. 
 
 "... provision for old age among the work- 
 ing class is not made through existing institutions 
 in any form that can be regarded as permanent 
 and satisfactory . . . There is therefore no 
 ground for the assertion that State action 
 would compete unfairly with existing voluntary 
 agencies." 
 
 " The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 160.
 
 126 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 " Broadly speaking, the great mass of the 
 weekly wage earners have no provision secured 
 for old age. As a consequence the only prospect 
 before them, after a life of honourable toil, is 
 penury and privation, ending, if life be prolonged, 
 in the grudgingly-given pauper dole of out-relief, 
 or in imprisonment in a workhouse." 
 
 Rev. W. MOORE EDE, National Pensions, Contem- 
 porary Review, April, 1891. 
 
 (13) That the opposition of existing volun- 
 tary organizations must not be accorded 
 too much consideration : that their 
 opposition is not justified, nor is it in 
 their own true interest. 
 
 " These societies (friendly societies) have no 
 sort of claim to play the part of Sir Oracle in a 
 matter which concerns the whole community . . . 
 The societies talk about superannuation year 
 after year, but no decision is come to ; the 
 problem of provision is in no way advanced . . . 
 We repeat, therefore, that the friendly societies 
 must not be allowed to block the way." 
 
 Daily Chronicle, Dec. 31, 1894. 
 
 " The friendly societies have the best right to 
 be heard on the question of sick insurance,
 
 -CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 127 
 
 whereas their opposition to a national super- 
 annuation scheme is not justified by their record, 
 nor is it really in accordance with their own best 
 interests." 
 
 ' : The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 125. 
 
 " Practically, the friendly societies do not pro- 
 vide pensions, and therefore could not have 
 reasonably objected to a National Pension Fund." 
 
 Rev. WM. L. BLACKLEY, Mr. Chamberlain's 
 Pension Scheme, Contemporary Review, March, 
 1892, p. 383. 
 
 The friendly societies " have no claim whatever 
 to step in now as having any vested interest in 
 providing old age pensions, because this is a work 
 that they have never done, and that they have 
 attempted to do with signal failure." 
 
 Ditto, p. 391. 
 
 " Voluntary agencies, however efficient in their 
 own departments, have clearly no right to demand 
 that the State shall refrain from supporting an 
 enterprise which is desirable in itself and is not 
 -covered by their organization." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 49.
 
 128 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 "... though their interests are large and 
 entitled to the fullest consideration, the interests 
 of the whole community must always be para- 
 mount." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, The Endowment of 
 Old Age, Contemporary Review , April, 1892. 
 
 (14) That existing organizations fail to 
 reach the thriftless, and help only those 
 who are already ndturally inclined to 
 providence. 
 
 The tendency of existing friendly societies 
 and others is, "while aiding the thrift of the 
 thrifty in no way to discourage or put an end to 
 the waste of the improvident." 
 
 Report of the Select Com. on National Provident 
 Insurance, 1887, p. vii. 
 
 Friendly societies "tend to make the provident 
 man more secure, but they do not even profess to 
 touch the improvidence of the thriftless at all." 
 
 National Insurance, by the Rev. WM. LEWERY 
 BLACKLEY, Nineteenth Century, Nov. 1878. 
 
 (15) That the evidence afforded by the model 
 unions does not conclusively prove that 
 a restrictive policy is capable of general
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 129 
 
 application, or would be generally 
 effectual in reducing old age pauperism 
 and poverty. Too muck weight must 
 not be attached to the alleged results. 
 
 It is unreasonable to be guided by preference 
 by the small minority of unions which have 
 abolished out-relief, and to ignore the vast 
 amount of evidence afforded by the large majority 
 of unions. 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 69. 
 
 " There must be some serious drawback, or 
 else it is certain that, with so many Boards of 
 Guardians economically inclined, hundreds would 
 have readily followed the example set them." 
 
 Old Age Pensions and Friendly Societies, J. 
 CHAMBERLAIN, The National Review, Jan. 1895. 
 
 " We should require, however, to know much 
 more than we do of the history of these unions, 
 the present condition of their poor, the state of 
 the surrounding parishes, and the details of ad- 
 ministration, before we accepted them as con- 
 clusive guides." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions, Nationa 
 
 Review, Feb. 1892. 
 L. K
 
 130 Some Poor Relief Questions, [en. H. 
 
 We cannot be sure that if the policy were 
 applied everywhere it would be uniformly as 
 successful as in these model parishes. 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 " Theory, precept, and example are alike 
 perfect, and yet the teaching does not, and has 
 never spread." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "I ... have said how hopeless the chance 
 seems to me of persuading people generally that 
 social salvation is to be found in the denial 
 of the claims of misfortune, combined with the 
 denial of self, which is involved in the refusal of 
 out-relief on grounds of high principle." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 " I contend that, even if we granted the policy 
 of the abolitionists to be the soundest possible 
 under the existing Poor Law regime, there is no 
 chance of its ever becoming extensive enough to 
 appreciably alter the condition of things through- 
 out the country generally." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, The New Poor Law 
 New Review, Jan. 1893.* 
 
 * See also pp. 66, 67.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 131 
 
 ( 1 6) That the problem of good administra- 
 tion would be comparatively simple 
 " if the troubles of poverty could be 
 relieved front the aggravation of old 
 age."* 
 
 " Withdraw old age ; if it be possible withdraw 
 the sick also ; and the problem at once becomes 
 manageable. . . Chronic pauperism would be 
 confined to a ne'er-do-well class, and might in the 
 end be stringently regulated." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 "... a Pension scheme offers its advantages 
 to all to the thrifty first, and in greater pro- 
 portion than to the unthrifty, who may then be 
 left without compunction to the tender mercies of 
 Poor Law more stringently administered than it 
 is at present." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., National Review, Feb. 
 1892, p. 729. 
 
 " That the difficulties connected with the 
 question of out-door relief would be materially 
 diminished if an institution were established for 
 
 * CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment of Old 
 Age." 
 
 K 2
 
 132 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 insurance against sickness and superannuation, 
 on a plan suitable to the requirements of the 
 labouring classes, under Government guarantee." 
 
 Petition of the Luton B. of Guardians to the 
 Government, quoted by the Rev. W. LEA, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, p. 84. 
 
 (17) That old age pensions could exercise 
 no baneful influence on wages or on 
 employment. 
 
 " The basis of work and wages will not be 
 disturbed because at the time the endowment is 
 given the best working days will be over. . ." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, The Endowment of 
 Old Age, Contemporary Review, April, 1892. 
 
 " Public pensions beginning sooner might tend 
 to reduce wages ; at and after 65 they will have 
 no effect on the wages of younger men, and but 
 little on those of the old." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 "Nor is it reasonable to suppose that the 
 prospect of a pension at 65 would have any effect 
 in advance upon the earnings of adult workmen. 
 Trade Unionists, indeed, may be heard to argue 
 that a pension scheme will have the special
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 133 
 
 advantage of saving the old from the necessity of 
 entering the labour market and depressing the 
 wages of younger men." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 155. 
 
 (18) That the aged poor, by virtue of their 
 labour and past payment of rates, 
 are entitled to support outside the 
 workhouse, and to support to which no 
 (l pa^lt)er" taint is attached. 
 
 A man who has honourably spent a long life 
 in labour, and has done his best, though that best 
 might not be much, should have some other 
 prospect in his old age than the workhouse. 
 
 J. COLLINGS, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894. 
 
 Society owes a duty to those who have 
 laboured the whole of their lives. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "No self-respect would in any way be lost by 
 the receipt of an old age pension, the State 
 simply doing its duty towards its old servants." 
 
 "Pensions and Pauperism." Rev. J. FROME WIL- 
 KINSON, p. 95.
 
 1 34 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 " When people had contributed for fifty years 
 to the Imperial treasury, it certainly was not 
 unreasonable that a certain portion of their con- 
 tribution should be ear-marked for their benefit 
 when they reached a time of life at which they 
 must call for outside assistance." 
 
 R. EVERETT, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894. 
 
 (19) That the aged poor are as much 
 entitled as any public servant to a 
 pension from the State ; and that these 
 pensions would in no sense be de- 
 grading. 
 
 " We are all servants of the nation, and the 
 labourer on the land serves the State every bit 
 as much as the civil servant and the officer in the 
 army or navy, who get their pensions. When 
 the labourer's full working days are over, having 
 served the State well in his generation, he has a 
 call upon the State to look to his declining years, 
 to keep his home for him, to see that he pass out 
 of life in rest and peace." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, " Pensions and Pauper- 
 ism," p. 88.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 135 
 
 " Old age pensions are granted to civil servants 
 and others, but, though the way may not be so 
 direct, the worker on the land the territory of 
 the State should be held to be just as much a 
 servant of the State, as the clerk in the War 
 
 Office." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, The Endowment of 
 Old Age, Contemporary Review, April, 1892, 
 p. 561. 
 
 " The industrious poor have really some claim 
 on the Society that they have served, and on the 
 State as its representative. After a life of un- 
 remitting toil at a remuneration which has barely 
 sufficed for daily wants, they ought not to be 
 compelled to receive their subsistence at the cost 
 of their self-respect. Those who have been in the 
 direct service of the State, as in the great manu- 
 facturing departments, or in the Post Office and 
 Revenue services, as well as soldiers and 
 sailors, are provided for in their old age. The 
 veterans of industry also are entitled to some 
 consideration. . ." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions, The 
 Natioital Review, Feb. 1892. 
 
 " The pension, to which the insured person has 
 himself contributed, or which he claims as a right 
 after his appointed time of service has expired,
 
 136 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 is not humiliating to the recipient, and has not 
 been so considered by the public servants of 
 every grade, from the cabinet minister to the 
 postman, who have been thus provided for. It 
 is, in reality, only wages deferred, and paid when 
 most required by Society, which has been bene- 
 fited by the services given." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., National Review, Feb. 
 1892, p. 729. 
 
 " At present we give a superannuation allow- 
 ance to about 160,000 retired civil servants, 
 military and naval officers and men, policemen 
 and postmen, &c. The system is being extended 
 to elementary school teachers and nurses. In all 
 these cases the pensions is given practically as a 
 matter of right ; it is granted in addition to what- 
 ever may have been saved by the recipient, and 
 it carries with it no stigma of public disgrace." 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law, Con- 
 temporary Revie-w, July, 1890, p. 104. 
 
 " It was most unreasonable that public servants, 
 who had probably received large salaries during 
 the time they were able to work, should obtain 
 pensions, while the public, who were their 
 employers, could not obtain pensions for them- 
 selves." 
 
 R. EVERETT, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 137 
 
 (20) That the objection that those who do 
 not reach the minimum age at which 
 the benefit is fixed will not benefit at 
 all, applies to all deferred annuities. 
 
 " So far as it (the argument) is valid, it is valid 
 against all deferred annuities, and all civil service 
 and military and naval pensions." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 (21) That mitigation of the natural con- 
 sequences of old age may be safely 
 attempted ; and is not open to the same 
 objection as mitigation of the natural 
 consequences of drunkenness, crime, &c. 
 
 " Drunkenness and folly are evils capable of 
 much contraction and indefinite expansion, and 
 in dealing with them we cannot dispense with 
 the deterrent influences of the consequences they 
 entail, or with safety mitigate these consequences 
 to any great extent. On the other hand, sickness, 
 old age, and death are inevitable, not to be 
 avoided by any fear of penalty, nor liable to 
 increase if the troubles they bring are softened." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age."
 
 138 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - n - 
 
 (22) That provision for the aged poor in- 
 volves no new principle, and that they 
 are virtually pensioned under the present 
 Poor Law, though under conditions 
 which obviate the benefits which would 
 otherwise follow. 
 
 " If we intend to give pensions to our aged 
 poor, as we virtually now do, had we not better 
 do so in such a way as to improve rather than 
 to injure their character, and in a manner cal- 
 culated to promote rather than to discourage 
 their thrift ? " 
 
 SIDNEY WEBB, The Reform of the Poor Law, 
 Contemporary Review, July, 1890, p. 104. 
 
 " It is not open to argument whether the aged 
 poor shall be provided for. Their claim to sub- 
 sistence is already admitted by the law. The 
 arguments against any provision apply as much 
 to the Poor Law as to a State pension. The 
 community already expends three millions a year 
 of national money in providing for the wants of 
 the aged poor ; and it is no longer a question of 
 principle, and hardly one of amount, but only of 
 the method in which a recognized duty shall be 
 discharged." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.,Old Age Pensions, National 
 Review, Feb. 1892.
 
 CH. a.] Old Age Pensions. 139 
 
 " We are already bound to keep every old 
 person who requires it at a cost of more than 
 55. a week, and to offer to all old people this 
 sum and no more, as a matter of public policy, 
 on the condition that those receiving it maintain 
 themselves outside the house, might be thought 
 to make the nature of the responsibility assumed 
 even more definite than before." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 The State already recognizes the duty of 
 relieving destitution, and we already make pro- 
 vision for the free education of the young, and the 
 next natural step is to go to the end of life and 
 help the aged. 
 
 R. EVERETT, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894. 
 
 (23) That there is nothing new in a system 
 which taxes the rich for the benefit 
 of the poor, the hard working and 
 thrifty for the idle and worthless ; and 
 that the inevitable anomalies which 
 will occur form no valid objection to 
 a pension scheme. They are inevitable,
 
 1 40 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH 
 
 and are present in the existing system 
 of Poor Law relief. 
 
 " It is absolutely impossible for the State or 
 any local authority so to deal with all the various 
 conditions of the life of the poor as to measure 
 out an equitable concession exactly equal in every 
 case." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Times, April sth, 1894. 
 
 "Is it possible to find a greater anomaly than 
 the present system, which treats the industrious 
 poor exactly in the same fashion as it treats poor 
 persons who are utterly undeserving; which 
 measures out to the man whose whole sensibilities 
 are at stake exactly the same treatment of the 
 common workhouse, as to the man who has been 
 an idler and ruffian during pretty nearly the whole 
 course of his existence ? " 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 " There is nothing new in a system of pay- 
 ment by the rich for the poor still less in 
 the worthy paying for the worthless. It is the 
 ordinary rule of life, and cannot be altered, unless 
 we steel our hearts entirely against the sufferings 
 of the sick and the weak, as well as of the idle,
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 141 
 
 the drunken, and the vicious, and leave them to 
 perish unaided." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " The Endowment of Old Age." 
 
 (24) That the biirthen of expenditiire, 
 though not apparently falling on all 
 classes alike, is ultimately borne by all. 
 
 It is objected that the thrifty man will have 
 to pay for the unthrifty. " The real facts are that 
 the cost will have to be provided by the whole 
 nation, by the thrifty and by the unthrifty alike, 
 but it is only the thrifty who will derive any 
 benefit from it." 
 
 J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Old Age Pensions and 
 Friendly Societies, National Review, Jan. 1895. 
 
 (25) That it is not altogether desirable, 
 from any point of view, that parents 
 should be dependent in their old age 
 upon tJieir children. 
 
 "... it may be doubted whether this state of 
 things (the dependence of parents upon children) 
 really does conduce to right feelings between 
 children and parents, and whether it does not 
 more frequently lead the children to regard the
 
 142 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 death of their aged relatives as a release from 
 a burdensome responsibility." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 13. 
 
 "... the dependence of parents upon child- 
 ren is not an unmixed blessing from the moral or 
 from any other point of view. It is apt to work in 
 a kind of vicious circle by increasing the difficulty 
 of saving, and thereby helping to perpetuate the 
 condition of dependence from one generation 
 to the next." 
 
 Ditto, p. 150. 
 
 " The objection, that it is the duty of children 
 to support their parents, if good at all, is good 
 against any savings for old age, or at least against 
 any encouragement of such savings, and 
 therefore goes too far. If children ought to 
 support their parents, it cannot be right for 
 parents to save, and so prevent them from 
 performing this duty. But filial duty may be 
 shown in many ways . . . while looked at in the 
 concrete, it is probable that thousands of old 
 people with 5s. a week in hand will find a 
 home with some son or daughter who, otherwise, 
 must have seen them enter the workhouse." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, "Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age."
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 143 
 
 Gratuitous pensions involving no pre- 
 vious contributions are advocated on the 
 grounds : 
 
 (i) That no scheme which does not give 
 
 pensions freely to all would make any 
 
 impression on the bulk of old age 
 
 poverty, or "touch the classes who stand 
 
 most in need of 'assistance ;" and that 
 
 it would be both unjust and unwise 
 
 to attempt to discriminate between the 
 
 deserving and the undeserving. 
 
 "To select the poor is to pauperise, to select 
 the deserving is to patronise. To do either is to 
 humiliate." 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age."* 
 
 " . . . it is not possible to maintain the dignity 
 of pensions if the question of poverty be intro- 
 duced in their distribution ... it is even more 
 subtly dangerous to inquire into a man's character 
 than into his means, if the benefit to be received 
 is to be kept free from all taint of pauperism." 
 
 Ditto. 
 * See note, p. 147.
 
 44 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 " With regard to old age pensions, they should 
 be given without respect to pauperism or poverty 
 if given at all." 
 
 " Pensions and Pauperism," Rev. J. FROME WILKIN- 
 SON, M.A. 
 
 All inquisitorial conditions as to whether a 
 man had received poor relief, or had saved any- 
 thing for himself, or had in various ways made 
 himself undeserving of assistance, ought to be 
 discarded. 
 
 J. COLLINGS, M.P., H. of Commons, April 4th, 
 1894. 
 
 "... a universal pension scheme without 
 contributions, and with no qualification except 
 that of having attained a certain age, is the only 
 comprehensive scheme yet proposed which is 
 clearly distinguishable from out-door relief, and 
 which avoids the evils that attach to out-door 
 relief." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 151. 
 
 (2) That no general pension scheme which 
 provided for all alike could be justly 
 said to pauperise anyone. 
 
 " An annuity which is given to all without any
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 145 
 
 qualification except that of age, cannot justly be 
 said to pauperise anyone. . ." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 130. 
 
 Annuities which all old people alike would 
 draw, and free of all poverty qualification, and 
 requiring no confession of poverty, could not 
 pauperise. 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 (3) That these pensions would tend to the 
 promotion of thrift. 
 
 They " would tend to encourage the practice of 
 thrift, dispelling that hopelessness of being able 
 to save enough, which at present so paralyses 
 saving." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON. The English Poor Law 
 and Old Age, Contemporary Review, Nov. 
 1893, P- 679. 
 
 " And if a minimum pension be given carrying 
 with it only the bare necessaries of life, the cause 
 of thrift will be strengthened instead of weakened, 
 and many will be roused to ' gather and lay by,' 
 because dread of entering the workhouse prison 
 
 L. L
 
 146 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 will have been removed, and a sunbeam of hope 
 caused to shine upon their declining days." 
 
 Rev. J. FROMF. WILKINSON, The Endowment of Old 
 Age, Contemporary Review, April, 1892. 
 
 Though not directly administering to inde- 
 pendence of character, no one would make less 
 voluntary efforts to save because of them, and 
 many would increase their exertions in this 
 direction. 
 
 CHARLES BOOTH, " Pauperism and the Endowment 
 of Old Age." 
 
 (4) That such pensions would be in the 
 true interest of benefit societies. 
 
 Friendly societies " should welcome such a 
 proposal as calculated to greatly improve their 
 position." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, " Pensions and Pau- 
 perism," p. loo. 
 
 "... it is my firm conviction that friendly 
 societies will have nothing to lose but everything 
 to gain by the adoption of a universal free State 
 Endowment List." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, The Endowment of Old 
 Age, Contemporary Review, April, 1892.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 147 
 
 "It is just because friendly societies I write 
 as a financial member of two of the largest of 
 them have attempted, by a subterfuge under 
 sickness, to contract to provide for their members 
 when past their working day, that the finances of 
 so many of them are in an unsatisfactory state. 
 . . . The funds were never intended to provide 
 for loss of wages arising from old age disablement, 
 but solely for loss of wages arising from specific 
 disease." 
 
 Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, A New Poor Law, 
 New Revieiv, Jan. 1893. 
 
 (5) TJiat the qualifications attached to such 
 pensions would ensure that they were 
 well bestowed: 
 
 "To have lived at all goes for something, to 
 have asked no relief goes for more, and to have 
 secured by savings, or through friendly feeling 
 or the loving duty of children a chimney-corner 
 where 55. a week will be adequate, may be 
 accepted as proof enough that the pension is not 
 ill bestowed." 
 
 " Pensions and the Endowment of Old Age," CHARLES 
 BOOTH.* 
 
 * Mr. Booth would exclude from such pensions those who had 
 been convicted of crime, and in the case of those who had been in 
 receipt of Poor Law. relief within a certain period, says, "I suggest, 
 
 L 2
 
 748 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ CH - " 
 
 " The vicious and the drunken usually pay their 
 penalty by an early death, and we find a general 
 agreement among those who know how the poor 
 live, that the standard of decency and sobriety 
 rises as age advances." 
 
 "The State and Pensions in Old Age," J. A. 
 SPENDER, p. 21. 
 
 (6) That such a pension scheme would 
 tend to raise the whole standard of 
 life. 
 
 *' I advocate it as bringing with it something 
 of that security necessary to a higher standard of 
 life." 
 
 "Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age," 
 CHARLES BOOTH. 
 
 that in order to guard against misuse, the claim for a pension of 
 everyone who has had relief during a certain previous period (in my 
 book 1 said ten years, but I should like to leave that an open ques- 
 tion) should be made through the guardians ; and the money applied 
 at the discretion of the guardians, indoors or out, for the benefit of 
 the pauper. In the case of those whose need for relief had been 
 the result of some accident, and had completely passed away, the 
 guardians might waive all interference, or if the relief had been 
 given on loan, might accept repayment. In other cases the pension 
 might be paid as out-relief for a period under inspection, and be 
 transferred to the old person after proof of satisfactory conduct. In 
 others again, the hand of the guardians and the eye of the relieving 
 officer might be always needed, and finally there would be those 
 whose relief could only be given in the house."
 
 ii.] Old Age Pensions. 149 
 
 On the other hand, it is contended : 
 
 ( i ) That the present number of paupers 
 forms a most iinsafe criterion as to 
 tJie needs for any national pension 
 scheme, since better administration 
 would largely diminish it. 
 
 " To base any statement in regard to the 
 alleged need of a national annuity or pension 
 scheme upon the pauperism of the country, as it 
 stands at the present time, is to accept that 
 pauperism as inevitable, whereas it has been 
 proved by the better administration of certain 
 unions in the country and in the metropolis, that 
 the number of paupers to population over sixty 
 can be reduced in a country union to a minimum, 
 say 4 per cent., and in the metropolis, if we may 
 judge by its poorest union, by more than half." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, " Old Age Pensions and Pauperism," 
 p. 40. 
 
 " It would seem that in country districts it is 
 almost entirely a question of Poor Law adminis- 
 tration whether 4 or 56 per cent, of the population 
 over sixty are paupers or independent when they 
 die." 
 
 Ditto, p. 19.
 
 150 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 " If a statistician had come to Bradfield in 
 1871 he might have argued that as one in every 
 thirteen was a pauper, that therefore exceptional 
 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." 
 
 The Working Class and the Poor Law, T. 
 MACKAV, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, p. 293. 
 
 (2) That old age pauperism has been caused 
 by maladministration of the Poor Law ; 
 and that in proportion as our poor 
 are no longer taught to look for assist- 
 ance from public funds > old age pauper- 
 ism will die out. 
 
 " . . . old age pauperism is gradually dying 
 out. In fact our present old age pauperism is 
 a legacy from the maladministration of forty years 
 ago, when old age itself was held to have a claim 
 for relief from the rates. The effects of better 
 education, of the increase of membership of
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 151 
 
 sound clubs, and of the increased savings of the 
 working classes, has scarcely yet been felt." 
 
 W. CHANCE, J.P., State-aided Pensions for Old 
 Age, P. L. Conference Reports, 1894. 
 
 " If relief is refused to the able bodied it will be 
 demanded less and less by the aged. People do 
 not wish to be dependent on public funds, and 
 when they are not tempted by these funds, or led 
 to expect that they may have them if difficulty 
 arises, they will plan their life accordingly. And 
 what has happened before happens again. Inde- 
 pendent sick and other clubs spring up. New 
 ways of providing for the future are adopted, show- 
 ing how fertile the population is in its resources 
 when its energies are not impaired by the luckless 
 interference of ill-administered relief." 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 114. 
 
 " Unions where a non out-door relief policy has 
 been adopted, and supplementation (of the allow- 
 ances of friendly societies) avoided, old age 
 pauperism hardly exists, and the whole popula- 
 tion in one way and another provides for itself." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Some Controverted Points in Poor 
 Relief, The Economic jfournal, Dec. 1893, 
 P- 589.
 
 152 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 (3) That in view of the remarkable progress 
 in the condition of the poor, both in the 
 unskilled labouring and in the artisan 
 class, during the last few years, and 
 the large and continuing decrease of 
 
 pauperism, no scheme for national 
 
 pensions is required. 
 
 All pauperism in England and Wales has 
 largely decreased including old age pauperism, 
 i.e., pauperism above sixty on the population above 
 sixty. 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Charity Organisation ReviriU, Jan. 
 1895, p. 22. 
 
 " The great decrease in the figures represents a 
 corresponding decrease in the alleged need for 
 some national pension scheme." 
 
 "Old Age Pensions and Pauperism," C. S. LOCH, 
 P- 23- 
 
 "... the person who requires a State pension 
 does not exist in any large numbers, and certainly 
 we should be puzzled if we looked around upon 
 our own neighbourhoods, to put our finger 
 upon any considerable number of persons sufii-
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 153 
 
 cient to justify so vast and so expensive a 
 scheme." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, Rev. T. FOWLE, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1892, p. 22.* 
 
 " If the comparative prosperity of the present 
 time continues, and if the Poor Law could be 
 administered in a more enlightened spirit, there 
 can be very little doubt that the question of pro- 
 vision for old age will gradually and surely solve 
 itself." 
 
 " Insurance and Saving," Charity Organisation 
 Series, p. 91. 
 
 "... the marked decrease of pauperism of 
 all ages in the past twenty-five years, the growth 
 of insurance through friendly societies and other- 
 wise, and the improved condition of the working 
 classes, are evidence of the increased ability of 
 the great mass of the people to make sufficient 
 provision for their old age, and in these circum- 
 stances it is undesirable to resort to any system 
 of State grants or bounties . . ." 
 
 VV. CHANCE, J.P., Hon. Sec. to the Central P. L. 
 Conference, 1894, Report of the P. L. Con- 
 
 feretues.^c 
 
 * The writer advocates endowment by the State of "every 
 Friendly Society which now affords, or hereafter is willing to afford 
 a sufficient maintenance of all its members permanently disabled by 
 sickness or old age." 
 
 t Even in the classes who comprise the lower grades of industry 
 ' ' the improvement manifests itself in better pay and more favour-
 
 154 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 able conditions of work ; but chiefly in this, that of the mass of 
 wholly unskilled labour part has been absorbed into higher grades, 
 while the percentage of the total working population earning bare 
 subsistence wages has been greatly reduced ; " and that of the still 
 deplorably large residuum of the population chiefly to be found in 
 our large cities who lead wretchedly poor lives, and are seldom far 
 removed from the level of starvation, " it would seem that not only 
 the relative, but perhaps even the actual numbers of this class also 
 are diminishing." 
 
 Fifth and Final Report of the Royal Com. on Labour, 
 Part I., p. 24. 
 
 The condition of the working classes has changed immensely, 
 and the material improvement has been very remarkable both in the 
 unskilled labouring and in the artisan class. 
 
 Evidence of 'J. M. LUDLOW, C. B., ex- Chief Registrar 
 of Friendly Societies, before the Royal Com. on 
 Labour, Questions 1852 and 1861 ; see p. 131 of 
 Minutes of Evidence. 
 
 "The wages of almost all classes have greatly risen, and their 
 purchasing power is greater. The savings bank deposits and 
 depositors show a progressive increase which is most striking." 
 "Social Evolution,'' B. Kino, p. 222. 
 
 " During the last 25 years the people of England have year by 
 year become more independent. Those who in the judgment of the 
 Guardians require necessary relief from the rates are become fewer. 
 About 37 per cent, fewer children received relief on Jan. 1st, 
 1894. than on Jan. 1st, 1871 ; 38 per cent, fewer able-bodied 
 persons, 1 8 per cent, fewer not able-bodied persons, including the 
 aged and infirm. And this great decrease is not r lative to popula- 
 tion, but absolute, for while since 1871 the population has increased 
 by nearly a third, the actual number of paupers is less by nearly a 
 fourth. The advance has indeed been extraordinary." 
 
 "The New Guardians of the Poor," C. S. LOCH, 
 issued by the Charity Organization Society, Nov. 
 89-1.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 155 
 
 (4) That the need Jor old age pensions is 
 exaggerated, and is not so great as it 
 appears that it has obtained iindue 
 prominence as a natural result of the 
 improved administration of the Poor 
 Law and that the large number of 
 aged poor maintaining themselves is 
 overlooked. 
 
 People are apt to get a distorted view. They 
 only see the improvident minority who come upon 
 the rates and ignore the unseen majority who 
 maintain themselves. 
 
 Major FITZROY, Chanty Organisation Review, July, 
 1891, p. 361. 
 
 " Formerly, in the throng of paupers, you did 
 not notice the old. Now the throng is less. The 
 adults who can the more easily provide for them- 
 selves have gone away. Some groups are left ; 
 widows and children, for instance, the sick, the 
 insane. But naturally the chief group is the 
 aged. This is the group that catches the eye 
 in England now ... As adult able-bodied 
 pauperism was reduced, old age pauperism would 
 become more prominent." 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 189?.
 
 156 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 (5) That very few persons are rediiced to a 
 state of pauperism solely in consequence 
 of advancing years, 
 
 Old age pauperism, pure and simple, after 
 sixty-five, is a much smaller factor than it is 
 usually imagined to be ; and the number of people 
 who at sixty-five or afterwards become paupers 
 owing to old age, without serious contributory 
 causes, is comparatively small. 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, May, 1892, p. 124. 
 
 " . . . it is certain that the causes that lead to 
 dependence upon the Poor Law in old age, are 
 in a great measure the same as those which lead 
 to it in earlier life." 
 
 "Old Age Pensions and Pauperism," C. S. LOCH, 
 p. 29. 
 
 (6) (By some] that it were better to see 
 
 what relaxation of the present too 
 strict administration of the Poor 
 Law would effect, before embarking 
 on any novel and expensive scheme, 
 such as that of pensions. 
 
 This country, " with an ancient, cumbrous, but 
 not ill-fitting Poor Law like ours, seems rather to
 
 CH - ] Old Age Pensions. 157 
 
 suggest grafting improvements on the old system 
 than revolutionizing with entirely new legislative 
 schemes." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, by J. BRINTON, Chairman 
 Kidderminster B. of Guardians, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1892, p. 5. 
 
 " There are many who think that if we meet by 
 pensions the case of those whose breakdown does 
 not begin till sixty-five, we may leave other forms 
 of suffering to be dealt with as at present. But 
 this would surely be to put patches of new cloth 
 into an old garment ; there would be rents at the 
 edges between the Pensions and the Orders for 
 the workhouse ; further patches would have to- 
 be added ; and at last we should have a most 
 expensive garment made up of patches." 
 
 Poor Law Reform, Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, The 
 Economic Journal, June, 1892. 
 
 (7) That a system of National Pensions 
 would injiire the working classes. 
 
 The effect of gratuitous or semi-gratuitous 
 pensions will be detrimental to all classes of the 
 poor. 
 
 " i. To those whose wages are inadequate, for
 
 158 Some Poor Relief Questions. ICH. n. 
 
 it will tend to perpetuate their unfortunate con- 
 dition. 
 
 " 2. To those who are successfully struggling, 
 for it will induce them to relax their efforts, and 
 fasten greater burdens upon them for the sake of 
 persons, some of whom are less thrifty than they 
 are themselves. 
 
 " 3. To those who, having sufficient wages, do 
 not make the wisest use of those wages, for it 
 will encourage them in habits which are pro- 
 ductive of unhappiness both to themselves and 
 to society at large." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions and Old Age, T. MACKAY, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 362. 
 
 (8) That timely provision for old age has 
 ceased to be impossible, even to the 
 labouring poor of agricultural districts, 
 and that the difficulty is already being 
 gradually overcome by the "solvent 
 power of free human initiation^ which 
 facts render legislative interference both 
 unwise and unnecessary. 
 
 " It would be a bold position to assert that 
 these rates (those of the Foresters and several 
 others) are impossible to the ordinary wage-
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 159 
 
 earners of the country even if consideration be 
 confined to that class. On the contrary the 
 figures prove to demonstration that the neglect 
 of annuities arises from want of will, not lack of 
 means, and that such a mode of insurance is un- 
 popular rather than impossible." 
 
 Self- Help versus State Pensions, C. J. RADLEY, 
 High Chief Ranger of Foresters, in "A Plea 
 for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY. 
 
 " The fact is that old age as a rule is not a risk 
 which a prudent man as a rule will seek to cover 
 by insurance." 
 
 The Working Class and the Poor Law, T. 
 MACKAY, P. L. Conference Reports, 1891, p. 295. 
 
 There are many societies which provide pen- 
 sions for old age whose payments cannot be said 
 to be beyond the mean of the agricultural 
 labourer. 
 
 \V. CHANCE, J.P., Hon. Sec. to the Central P. L. 
 Conferences, P. L. Conference Reports, 1894. 
 
 " It is a well known fact how few members of 
 well managed friendly societies ever trouble the 
 guardians. Let us leave the working out of the 
 problem to these societies. They are capable of 
 solving it without any assistance from or inter- 
 ference by the State." 
 
 Ditto.
 
 160 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ CH - " 
 
 " A review of the facts materially lightens the 
 outlook, for there is no room to doubt that the 
 community generally, and the working classes 
 especially, have made great progress in providing 
 for themselves during the past fifty years, and are 
 continuing to do so by voluntary and chiefly self- 
 managed means." 
 
 Self-Help versus State Pensions. C. J. RADLEY, 
 High Chief Ranger of the Foresters, in " A 
 Plea for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY, p. 279. 
 
 If people would only believe it, there is a 
 natural capacity in all men for a life of independ- 
 ence. 
 
 T. MACKAY, Charity Organisation Review, April, 
 1892, p. 125. 
 
 " In both of these (the Berkshire Friendly 
 Society and the Whittington Female Friendly 
 Society), subscription for an old age benefit is 
 compulsory, and this condition has not been 
 prohibitive of an increase of membership, as both 
 these societies are full of vigour and activity, and 
 are increasing their list of members. These are 
 both societies in agricultural districts, where wages 
 are unhappily very low. There is therefore no 
 inherent impossibility in a workman or working 
 woman subscribing for a deferred annuity, but 
 this is not a popular mode of saving." 
 
 " Insurance and Saving," Charity Organisation 
 Series, p. 90.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 161 
 
 (9) That the advocacy of pensions is a 
 counsel of despair, and unworthy of 
 consideration, for it accepts pauperism 
 as inevitable, and looks forward to no 
 improved conditions for the working 
 classes. 
 
 There is no more reason to despair of the 
 independence of the old man than in former times 
 there was to despair of the independence of the 
 able bodied. 
 
 " Insurance and Saving," Charity Organisation 
 Series, p. 92. 
 
 " 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 con- 
 ferring easy terms of pauperism on those who 
 were born for independence and freedom." 
 
 T. MACKAY, Hon. Sec. to St. George's-in-the-East 
 B. of Guardians, On the Co-operation of Cha- 
 ritable Agencies with the Poor Law, Charity 
 Organisation Review, June, 1893. 
 
 That to contend that the working classes 
 cannot make provision for old age to accept 
 L. M
 
 1 62 Some Poor Relief Questions. ECH. n. 
 
 such an economic condition as final and per- 
 manent would be an impotent surrender of 
 some, at all events, of our countrymen to per- 
 petual pauperism. 
 
 Self-Help versus State Pensions, C. J. RADLEY, 
 High Chief Ranger of Foresters, in " A Plea 
 for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY, p. 281. 
 
 " It invited working men to abandon hopes 
 founded on their best achievements, and to turn 
 aside from their efforts to organize labour on the 
 chances of legislation." 
 
 B. BOSANQUET, Charity Organisation Review, April, 
 1892, p. 157. 
 
 (10) That old age pensions will tend to 
 prevent any rise in wages, and will 
 thus injure the working classes : that 
 the advocacy of national pensions is 
 a practical denial of the fact that 
 provision for old age is a mans duty, 
 and one which his wages should enable 
 him to fulfil. 
 
 " It is better for the State that is the general 
 body of taxpayers that he should be paid suitable 
 wages for such services as he renders, than that it
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 163 
 
 should make up for a deficiency of wages by doles 
 of any kind." 
 
 E. W. BRABROOK, Chief Registrar of Friendly 
 Societies, British Association, 1892, Times, Aug. 
 8th, 1892. 
 
 " I do not pretend to 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 would enable him to meet the charge." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 In 1832, the defenders of the unreformed 
 Poor Law argued it impossible for labourers to 
 bring up their families on their wages, and that 
 the rates must make up the deficiency ; but the 
 Poor Law had been reformed, and the labourers 
 had managed to get better wages and to bring up 
 their families : so they would in time learn to 
 provide for old age. 
 
 T. MACKAY, Charity Organisation Review, July, 
 1891, p. 300. 
 
 " If it be urged that the wages now paid render 
 it impossible for the mass of workers to prepare 
 for old age, it may be worth while to recall the 
 fact that the wages before the Poor Law reform 
 fell at least as far short in meeting the current 
 
 M 2
 
 1 64 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 necessities of the unskilled labourer. It was 
 because the workers had to pay their legal debts 
 that wages rose . . . Once let the worker learn 
 to reckon the provision for old age one of his 
 proper liabilities, and it will be found that his 
 wages can pay for it, or else they will rise to meet 
 the necessity." 
 
 Mrs. H. CAVERLEY, Charity Organisation Review, 
 Jan. 1893. 
 
 The average man could not work till the day 
 of his death, and the earnings therefore of his 
 life ought to provide for the needs of his lifetime. 
 The bargain in that respect was between the 
 employer and the employed. Why should the 
 State interfere between them by undertaking to 
 bear the cost of their old age ? Manifestly it was 
 in reality no help to the labourer, for he would 
 only get from the State what he would otherwise 
 demand from the employer. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 "If it be said that it is difficult for him (the 
 labouring man) to save, I fully admit it, but I 
 say, ' don't let us increase the difficulties.' They 
 will be overcome much more easily when it is 
 known that they must be overcome than if this 
 point is left in uncertainty . . . Once let the
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 165 
 
 labouring classes realize that they must save, 
 that they must provide for themselves for all the 
 ordinary wants of life, and we shall see such a 
 growth of friendly and provident societies as will 
 prove the truth of the old adage, ' Where there's 
 a will there's a way.' ' : 
 
 J. R. HOLLOND, P. L. Conference Reports, 1876, 
 p. 619. 
 
 The case of a man who has not sufficient 
 wages " is a hard case, but its hardness consists 
 not only in the destitution of his old age, but in 
 the inadequacy of his wages. It is proposed to 
 accept this state of things as permanent, and to 
 grant a pension to this man out of the rates . . . 
 Provision for old age is a necessary of life, and 
 to provide this out of the rates is to put back in- 
 definitely the time when the wage earner will be 
 able to provide it for himself." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions for Old Age, T. MACKAY, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 356. 
 
 ( 1 1 ) That national pensions would dis- 
 courage thrift. 
 
 " The effect of the change on the thrifty would 
 admittedly be to diminish their savings." 
 
 Charity Organisation Review, July, 1891, p. 291.
 
 i66 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - n - 
 
 " To . . . lay down any general rule that the old 
 are to be maintained, the fatherless to be provided 
 for, the sick to be taken care of, is to render null 
 God's ordinances in favour of prudence and fore- 
 sight in the shape of the ordinary changes and 
 vicissitudes of life." 
 
 WALKER, "The Original," p. 132.* 
 
 (12) That existing institutions no longer 
 fail to Provide old age annuities ; and 
 
 that the slow progress made for the 
 provision for old age has been largely 
 
 due to the maladministration of the 
 
 Poor Law. 
 
 "... if out-relief could no longer be reckoned 
 on with comparative certainty, a great stimulus 
 would be given to exertions towards making some 
 provision for old age. It would be no longer 
 argued that ' old age is a long time to look 
 forward to,' and the workhouse test would invest 
 providence with new and hitherto unknown 
 attractions." 
 
 Fourth Report of the Friendly Societies Commission^ 
 1874, p. cxciv. 
 
 * See also pp. 189, 190.
 
 CH. H.] Old Age Pensions. 167 
 
 Societies which provide both sick pay and an 
 annuity in old age under one contribution are 
 rapidly spreading in many parts of England. 
 
 G. HOLLOWAY, National Pensions, National Review, 
 March, 1892. 
 
 " The extreme laxity of 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." 
 
 Introduction to " Insurance and Saving," Charity 
 Organisation Series, p. 24.* 
 
 (13) That the argiiment that Friendly 
 Societies have shown themselves in- 
 capable of dealing with old age annui- 
 ties, having rendered themselves Jinan- 
 dally unsound in attempting to do so, 
 is fallacious, since it is only recently 
 that these Societies have offered old 
 age annuities at all, and their em- 
 barrassments in the past have been 
 due to otfier causes. 
 
 "The deficiency arises for the most part on 
 the sick fund, mainly because of the indefinite 
 
 * See also State-aided Pensions for Old Age, W. CHANCE, 
 J.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 1894.
 
 1 68 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 nature of the term ' sickness.' The argu- 
 ment, therefore, has little relevancy against 
 the security of any insurance to be started by 
 friendly societies against the definite risk of 
 old age." 
 
 T. MACKAY, The National Review, March, 1892. 
 
 (14) That in view of the following facts, 
 it is reasonable to suppose that the 
 true remedy is to be found in the 
 gradual spread of the policy of con- 
 fining out-relief as far as possible to 
 urgent cases of sickness, or accident, 
 and to widows during the first month 
 of widowhood: 
 
 (a) That in unions strictly administered, 
 and where the supplementation of 
 friendly societies has been avoided, 
 old age pauperism "hardly exists" 
 and the number of those who come 
 on the rates is so small, that no 
 one would think of arguing from 
 tJie Poor Law statistics of these 
 model unions the necessity of 
 national pensions.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 169 
 
 (b) That it is *' a remedy which has been 
 tried under almost every conceivable 
 variety of conditions" and has never 
 
 failed to diminish the pauperism of 
 all kino's, in-door and out-door, able- 
 bodied and not able-bodied, and old 
 age pauperism. 
 
 (c) That the people have neither been 
 driven from the district nor into the ' 
 workhouse, but that their actual 
 condition within the union has so 
 improved as to enable them to keep 
 off the rates. 
 
 (d) That adoption of the policy has, 
 moreover, been attended by a very 
 rapid increase in the membership 
 and deposits of friendly societies, 
 and that when no out-relief is given 
 these are found to flourish and 
 prosper. 
 
 For the quotations bearing on these views, 
 see the Chapter on Out-door and In-door 
 Relief.
 
 170 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. H. 
 
 (15) That a system of national pensions, 
 originated on account of the alleged 
 danger of a reaction to lax adminis- 
 tration of the Poor Law, would be both 
 unwise and unreasonable. 
 
 The knowledge of what Poor Law abuses 
 have been and have wrought in the past is a 
 strong specific against the recurrence of the same 
 abuses in the future. 
 
 "The Poor Law," Rev. T. FOWLE, p. 175.* 
 
 " It is not proposed to push the better adminis- 
 tration of Poor Law relief by legislative enact- 
 ment. Undertaken voluntarily and gradually its 
 good results are manifest, and then the probability 
 of reaction constantly diminishes . . . The evils 
 of the old Poor Law were not caused by any re- 
 action from a better, more careful, or even more 
 stringent system." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Letter to J. Chamberlain, M.P., 
 Charity Organisation Review, Feb. 1892. 
 
 ( 1 6) That the question of old age pauperism 
 will practically remain untouched if 
 
 * See note, p. 153.
 
 CH. H.] Old Age Pensions. 171 
 
 the proposed sixty-five age limit be 
 retained. 
 
 " The benefit would depend upon length of life. 
 Thus it would be a substantial endowment to the 
 strong, the healthy, the well-fed and the comfort- 
 ably housed, and the rural population. To the 
 poor, the ill-fed, fhe docker, the riverside labourer, 
 the weather-tortured hawkers, the busmen, and 
 cabmen, it would be a mockery and a delusion ; 
 for to them the annuity age is a promised land 
 they can scarcely hope to enter." 
 
 C. J. RADLEY, Chief Ranger of Foresters, in "A 
 Plea for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY, p. 286. 
 
 " Old age does not always begin at sixty- 
 five. It may commence at fifty, or even 
 earlier . . . On the other hand, many men 
 will do a good day's work up to seventy-five. It 
 is, in fact, quite impossible to say at what time 
 of life old age begins." 
 
 W. CHANCE, J.P., P. L. Conference Reports, 1894. 
 
 " Man}- men over sixty-six were well and 
 strong, and able to work, and therefore did 
 not need help, whilst many others, who had 
 not reached that age, were weak and unable
 
 172 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ :H - n - 
 
 to earn a living, and they would be debarred 
 from relief." 
 
 Rev. T. FOWLE, P. Z. Conference Reports, 1892, 
 p. 17. 
 
 "... granted that there is much old age 
 pauperism, very much of it, unless it be due to 
 sickness, incapacity, or moral defect, can be 
 prevented, but in any case all but a little more 
 than half of it commences before the age at 
 which any of the proposed schemes would take 
 effect ... Of the paupers over sixty-five most 
 probably about forty-six per cent, become paupers 
 before this time." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, 
 P, L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 123. 
 
 "Carmen, cabmen, waterside labourers, are 
 not likely to enjoy a pension long after sixty- 
 five." 
 
 T. MACKAY, Old Age Pensions, National Revieiu, 
 March, 1892. 
 
 (17) That if once the principle of State 
 aid to siipplement income be admitted, 
 we are brought face to face ^vith the 
 question why maintenance should be
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 173 
 
 extended to the aged in preference to 
 women, children, the sick or infirm. 
 
 "... take the case of women; their wages 
 are notoriously low. Is not their condition 
 through life more pitiable than that of men who- 
 have become old after fifty years of lusty man- 
 hood ? Are you prepared to place the mainten- 
 ance of women and children on the rates ? Are 
 you prepared to take charge at the public cost 
 of all the sick and infirm, and to render Friendly 
 Society insurance unnecessary ? 
 
 "All these classes seem to me to have a more 
 equitable claim than the aged." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions for Old Age, T. MACKAY, P. L* 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 353. 
 
 " Why should not the State step in to provide 
 for those who, owing possibly to no fault of their 
 own, are thrown out of work? Their case is 
 really a harder one than that of the old man 
 who has neglected to make provision for his old 
 
 age." 
 
 W. CHANCE, J.P., Hon. Sec. Central P. L. Con- 
 ference, P. L. Conference Reports, 1894. 
 
 " If old age was to be provided for, why not 
 sickness ? If it be unfair to expect a man to- 
 provide for old age, it rnust be equally unfair to
 
 174 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 call upon him to provide for sickness, or for a 
 large family, or for any other contingency." 
 
 Mrs. H. CALVERLEY, /". L. Conference Reports, 1892, 
 P- 373- 
 
 (18) That the assumption by the State of 
 responsibility for the maintenance of 
 old age involves the introduction of 
 a principle altogether new ; that the 
 argument that no new principle is 
 involved, since the State is already 
 legally bound to keep every old person 
 who requires it, is fallacious, since the 
 State is only legally bound to give 
 relief when there is actual destitution. 
 
 "The maintenance of old age has hitherto been 
 a private, and not a public, charge. The proposal 
 to alter this is more than an amendment of the 
 Poor Law. It is a proposal to alter a fundamental 
 principle of society . . . Hitherto our attitude 
 to this question has been different. We have 
 been taught that it is a man's duty to provide for 
 his old age . . . We have been taught to regard 
 it as one of the fundamental harmonies of society, 
 if I may so speak." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions for Old Age, T. MACKAY, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892.* 
 
 * See also T. MACKAY, National Review, March, 1892, p. 351.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 175 
 
 " If adopted they will introduce a new principle 
 into English administration. Hitherto it has 
 been thought that the State should not undertake 
 the maintenance of individuals, except in certain 
 extreme cases, which it was desired to define, 
 and to limit very carefully." 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 85. 
 
 "The recognition of the responsibility of the 
 State to support men would be a new departure, 
 the adoption of a principle hitherto unknown to 
 the law." 
 
 G. DRAGE, Old Age Pensions, Dec. I2th, 1894 ; 
 Times, Dec. I3th. 
 
 (19) That any pension scheme will probably 
 affect the working classes injuriously 
 as regards ivages and employment. 
 
 If the employer of labour has to pay more in 
 rates he can spend less in wages. 
 
 BALDWYN FLEMING, " Pauperism and Relief." 
 Reprinted from the Annual Report of the L. G. 
 Board, 1889-90. 
 
 " It must be remembered that any financial 
 proposals which embarrass national or local 
 finances, and through them the trade and in-
 
 176 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 dustry of the country, may do more harm than 
 good to classes whom the pension scheme is 
 especially designed to benefit." 
 
 A. J. BALFOUR, M.P., quoted in the Charity Organi- 
 sation Rtview, Feb. 1892, p. 62. 
 
 " . . . the employment of the working class 
 depends on the trade and enterprise involved, and 
 if money is taken away for the army, or for the 
 endowment of old age, the labouring and earning 
 population is bound to be curtailed in its employ- 
 ment." 
 
 T. MACKAY, National Pensions, Charity Organisa- 
 tion Review, April, 1892, p. 132. 
 
 (20) That all taxation bears more heavily 
 on the working class than on any other, 
 for though ultimately borne by all, the 
 immediate pressure is felt most by the 
 poorest classes. 
 
 "... as regards the incidence of taxation 
 only one thing appears to be certain, namely, 
 that it will press ultimately most hardly on the 
 poorer consumers." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions for Old Age, T. MACKAY, P. L. 
 Conference Reports, 1892, p. 360.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 177 
 
 (21) That a national pension scheme would 
 tax tJie hard-working and thrifty for 
 the idle and worthless. 
 
 If an imperial tax is levied the ratepayers in 
 the well administered unions would directly or 
 indirectly have to support the paupers whom bad 
 administration was continually creating else- 
 where. 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Old Age Pensions and Pauperism, 
 p. 28. 
 
 (22) That it is fallacious to argue that past 
 work and payment of rates entitle the 
 
 poor to relief ; or that, like public ser- 
 vants, they are entitled to pensions. 
 
 " State servants, it is true, receive pensions, 
 but this is part of the contract for the hire of 
 their services. If they did not receive pensions 
 they would receive higher wages. Persons who 
 are not employed by the State as a rule sell 
 their services for wages, and the question of 
 pensions is not in the contract." 
 
 T. MACICAY, National Review, March, 1892. 
 
 " We most of us ... do not, indeed cannot, 
 labour for the State as employees. . . We do not 
 L. N
 
 178 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 pay taxes for our own maintenance or for the 
 maintenance of any class in the community, but 
 out of what we earn for our maintenance we pay 
 taxes for common advantages." 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Old Age Pensions and Pauperism, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 130. 
 
 " The superannuation (of State servants) is 
 taken into account in fixing the salary. If there 
 were no superannuation pay, a higher salary would 
 have to be paid." 
 
 W. CHANCE, Hon. Sec. Central P. L. Conference, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1 894. 
 
 (23) That State pensions are virtually an- 
 other form of out-relief, and liable to 
 the same objections. 
 
 " An attempt was now being made to put 
 State pensions to the aged on a different footing 
 from out-door relief, but it was morally and 
 practically the same thing." 
 
 General LYNEDOCH GARDINER, Charity Organisation 
 Review, June, 1894. 
 
 " If above sixty-five one working man in two 
 and a quarter, or two and a half, or whatever 
 the figure may be, is unable to support himself,
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 1 79 
 
 not from idleness, or drunkenness or ill-doing, but 
 simply from decay of his powers, then the fact 
 that we call his support an old age pension does 
 not in the least alter the financial problem of his 
 existence. He may be better supported, or worse 
 supported, or differently provided for, but the fact 
 remains that he has to be supported out of the 
 earnings of others." 
 
 Times, Dec. 7th, 1894. 
 
 " Relief from the State will be as much pauper 
 relief as relief from a Board of Guardians." 
 
 W. CHANCE, J.P., Hon. Sec. Central P. L. Con- 
 ference, P. L. Conference Reports, 1894. 
 
 "They are only another form of out-door relief, 
 by whatever title you choose to call them." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, J. BRINTON, Chairman Kidder- 
 minster B. of Guardians, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1892, p. 16. 
 
 " We can see nothing in these proposals for 
 State-aided pensions which differentiates such 
 relief in any way from our present system of out- 
 door relief, and, in our own opinion, it would have 
 exactly the same demoralizing effect on the thrifty 
 instincts of the people." 
 
 Introduction to " Insurance and Saving," Charity 
 Organisation Series, p. 33. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 (24) TJiat provision for old age is outside 
 the true province of the State, and 
 cannot be dealt with by the State with 
 any real advantage to the people. 
 
 "Attempts to hasten progress unnaturally by 
 substituting legislative enactments for a sense of 
 duty must lead to the degradation, and ultimately 
 to the oppression of the people." 
 
 C. J. RADLEY, High Chief Ranger of Foresters, 
 Self-Help -versus State Pensions, in " A Plea 
 for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY.
 
 ii.] Old Age Pensions. 181 
 
 Pension schemes involving previous volun- 
 tary contributions are opposed on the 
 grounds : 
 
 (i) That no scheme involving previous 
 vohintary contributions will reach the 
 lowest classes, and the improvident 
 will still come on the rates, and old 
 age pauperism practically remain un- 
 touched* 
 
 " The careless cannot now be induced to join 
 organizations of a provident nature, from which 
 almost immediate benefit may be obtained ; what 
 likelihood would there be of any inducement 
 that could be offered causing them to exercise 
 present self-denial for the distant prospect of 
 benefit 40 years hence ? " 
 
 RADLEY, Self-Help versus State Pensions, in " A Plea 
 for Liberty, ".edited by T. MACKAY, p. 284. 
 
 " What attraction will deferred luxury have for 
 the drunkard and idler ? " 
 
 H. BOURNE, National Pensions, Macmillaris Maga- 
 zine, Feb. 1892. 
 
 " In proportion as the conditions attached to it 
 tend to make it in any real sense an education in 
 
 * See also p. 143.
 
 1 82 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 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." 
 
 Introduction to "Insurance and Saving," Charily 
 Organisation Series, p. 24. 
 
 " The scheme will reach only the comparatively 
 prosperous and self-reliant, the class that can 
 most safely be left to provide for themselves." 
 
 J. FLETCHER MOULTON, Old Age Pensions, Fort- 
 nightly Review, April, 1892, p. 469. 
 
 "Those who can and have managed to make 
 an insurance provision for themselves without a 
 State subsidy, do not need such a bonus, while 
 those who (most frequently from no fault of their 
 own, but from inherited viciousness, debasing 
 environment, lack of the necessaries of life) are 
 wanting in the initial power will not be led to 
 perform an economic duty (for the benefit of after- 
 life) under the influence of a bribe looming in 
 the shadowy distant vista of some forty or forty- 
 five years. If they think at all they will be sure 
 to persuade themselves that they will never live 
 to enjoy possession of it." 
 
 J. FROME WILKINSON, "Pensions and Pauperism," 
 P- 55-
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 183 
 
 "... if the friendly societies, with their 
 superior organization and unique means of reach- 
 ing the people, find it impossible to make such a 
 scheme succeed, there is not much hope that any 
 other agency will be found equal to the task." 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain's Pension Scheme, TH. SCANLON, 
 Westminster Review, April, 1892, p. 363. 
 
 (2) That any bribe which attracts the 
 naturally improvident will be propor- 
 tionately injurious to those who would 
 be thrifty without it. 
 
 The more attractive it is made to the sub- 
 merged, the more baneful it will be to those who 
 are just on the point of emerging. 
 
 T. MACKAY, National Review, March, 1892. 
 
 (3) A. That old age anmdties are not a 
 popular form of thrift amongst the 
 
 working classes. 
 
 " The expedients by which a man can provide 
 for his old age are endless, and they elude statis- 
 tical tabulation altogether, and the proposal to 
 supplement from public funds the premium of a 
 workman who is subscribing for an annuity, is an
 
 184 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 attempt to force on him one particular form of 
 saving at the expense of others which are at 
 present more popular." 
 
 "Insurance and Saving," Charity Organisation 
 Series, p. 91. 
 
 " They (the poorer classes) utterly refuse to 
 have anything to do with deferred annuities such 
 as those in which it is now proposed to tempt or 
 drive them to invest their savings." 
 
 J. FLETCHER MOUJ.TON, Old Age Pensions, Fort- 
 nightly Review, April, 1892. 
 
 "... insurance for old age pay is not a 
 method of saving which recommends itself to the 
 intelligent working-class investor." 
 
 T. MACKAY, National Revic-v, March, 1892. 
 
 " There are a great many ways in which an 
 increasing number of people do provide for their 
 old age, and an annuity is only one, and by no 
 means the most important." 
 
 " Insurance and Saving," Charity Organisation 
 Series, p. 89. 
 
 (3) B. That it is doubtful whether it is 
 advisable for the poor to sink, their 
 money in old age annuities old age
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 185 
 
 not being the first eventuality for 
 which a working-man has to provide. 
 
 "... I venture to think that it would be the 
 height of presumption for the rough hand of the 
 law to interfere to coerce or cajole the working- 
 man 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." 
 
 T. MACKAY, The Interest of the Working Class in 
 the Poor Law, P, L. Conference Reports, 1891, 
 p. 296. 
 
 " The poorer classes have many wiser modes of 
 using their spare money, and the savings turned 
 aside to this purpose by such inducements will 
 probably be diverted from more important 
 
 ends." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, J. FLETCHER MOULTON, Fort- 
 nightly Review, April, 1892, p. 466. 
 
 (3) c. That they ignore the other very 
 numerous working-class associations for 
 thrift, and will prove an injustice to 
 those persons who have elected to pro-vide
 
 1 86 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 for themselves in otJier ways, and to 
 invest in other forms of property. 
 
 "... we cannot think that we should be well 
 advised to adopt a scheme which would, in effect, 
 offer an enormous premium to one particular form 
 of thrift, and that one which, as we have seen, is 
 the least acceptable to the taste and feelings of 
 the community, and which would risk injuring, 
 by unfair competition, the development of those 
 natural agencies which already possess the con- 
 fidence of the working classes." 
 
 H. BOURNE, National Pensions, Macmillan's Maga- 
 zine, Feb. 1892. 
 
 (4) That Friendly Societies have pronounced 
 any scheme of State-aided pensions as cal- 
 culated to compete with and to weaken 
 them, and to sap the independence, self- 
 reliance and character of the poor. 
 
 " They (Friendly Societies) feel, and rightly 
 feel, that State-aided institutions for relief will, 
 of course, provide a better investment for saving 
 than they can do, and so, inasmuch as like all 
 businesses they live by attracting new customers, 
 they will perish from the effect of unfair competi-
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 187 
 
 tion. Hence their resistance to all State-aided 
 schemes of pensions, a resistance which would 
 alone justify the nation in rejecting them, even if 
 there were no objection from the Poor Law 
 authorities. . ." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, Rev. T. FOWLE,* P.\L. Conference 
 Reports, 1892, p. 22. 
 
 " Friendly Societies live like other businesses 
 upon attracting customers, and inasmuch as 
 State-aided pensions must be a better pecuniary 
 investment, they will tend, if they succeed at all, 
 to draw men away from benefit clubs for mutual 
 insurance towards State-aided schemes for indi- 
 vidual salvation from destitution." 
 
 " The Poor Law, The Friendly Societies, and Old 
 Age Destitution," by the Rev. T. FOWLE. 
 
 * See note, p. 153.
 
 1 88 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 Gratuitous pensions involving no pre- 
 vious contributions are opposed on the 
 grounds : 
 
 ( i ) That these schemes involve a large waste 
 of money that it is absurd not to 
 discriminate between those who do, and 
 those who do not stand in need of 
 pensions. 
 
 The money involved " could be much better 
 employed than in such an indiscriminate gift to 
 all above sixty-five." * 
 
 J. FLETCHER MOULTON, Old Age Pensions, The 
 Fortnightly Review, April, 1892. 
 
 " . . . if old age pauperism is to be removed 
 and this is admittedly the corner-stone of the 
 whole edifice the pension scheme must be 
 compulsory and general. . . But to offer provision 
 for the whole population in this way would be to 
 do what, in the great majority of cases, is wholly 
 unnecessary, at a most extravagant cost." 
 
 Self-Help versus State Pensions, by C. J. RADLEY, in 
 " A Plea for Liberty," edited by T. MACKAY. 
 
 * "I would rather that the money should be spent in rendering 
 the life of the poor successful than in palliating its failure."
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 189 
 
 (2) That such pensions would discourage 
 forethought and providence, and in 
 many ways tend to demoralise, rather 
 than elevate, the character of the poor. 
 
 "The establishment of such a pension scheme 
 would tend to deteriorate the character, not only 
 of its beneficiaries who reach sixty-five years of 
 age, but of the whole race of our people, from the 
 day they begin to work for a living." 
 
 Rev. WM. LEWERY BLACKLEY, Contemporary 
 Review, March, 1892, p. 386. 
 
 To assure a man in youth " of a pension in old 
 age, without one independent effort of his own to 
 provide it, must magnify the mischief which our 
 present system is bound to produce. If the cer- 
 tainty of workhouse support in old age at the 
 worst, and the passionately-clung-to chance of 
 half-a-crown a week out-door relief at the best, 
 creates, as it unquestionably does, a main part of 
 our pauperism by paralysing the thrift instinct in 
 the young, and discouraging the independent 
 spirit and the saving habit, how much more 
 likely will a doubling of this terrible temptation 
 be to kill these instincts altogether ? If the 
 chance of a poor half-a-crown a week makes the 
 vast mass of our workers unwilling to provide for
 
 j 90 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - " 
 
 themselves, will the certainty of five shillings 
 instead induce them to be thriftier ? " 
 
 Rev. WM. L. BLACKLEY, Contemporary Review 
 March, 1892, p. 387. 
 
 " If it be proposed to create a system of State 
 subsidy open to all, the plan is one for the 
 replacement of individual effort by State aid, 
 without any need for it in the majority of cases." 
 
 RADLEY, Address to the London High Court of 
 Foresters, 1891, quoted in "Pensions and 
 Pauperism," Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON. 
 
 The suggestion "does not take into sufficient 
 account the possibilities of individual and social 
 deterioration that in many cases may ensue from 
 this absence of discrimination. Will it not tend 
 in the worthless to deepen the unworthy charac- 
 ter, to prove a barrier to that improvement of 
 character which the ordinary discipline of life and 
 the natural results of selfishness and improvidence 
 help to promote, and hence possibly to confer 
 upon the promised blessing the aspect of a social 
 disaster ? " 
 
 T. E. YOUNG, Vice-President of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, in " Pensions and Pauperism," J. 
 FROME WILKINSON, p. 121. 
 
 " He who has earned what he has, wants to 
 earn more. But, so far as we have analogies, the
 
 Old Age Pensions. 191 
 
 having by way of gift, altogether irrespective of 
 work done, or to be done, a gift without responsi- 
 bilities, is no stimulus to energy." 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH,. 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 131. 
 
 " If a man is to have a pension when he is 
 sixty-five, it is obvious that it becomes less worth 
 his while to struggle to get one for himself." 
 
 Subsidised Pensions for Old Age, T. MACKAY, P. Z. 
 Conference Reports, 1 892, p. 360. 
 
 " The fear of a destitute old age has, I am 
 sure, a very large part to play in stimulating at 
 an important crisis the progress of the working 
 
 class." 
 
 Ditto, p. 362. 
 
 " Is a law to deprive man of responsibility for 
 old age in any way less subversive of our present 
 civilisation than would be a law to deprive parents 
 of the care and maintenance of their children ? 
 Is it likely to cause less disintegration of all the 
 motives and obligations which hold society to- 
 gether ? " 
 
 Ditto, p. 353.
 
 192 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. n. 
 
 " To remove the necessity of providing for old 
 age would be to remove one of the most potent 
 influences of civilization." 
 
 Introduction to " Insurance and Saving," Charity 
 Organisation Series, p. 33. 
 
 "... an assured income of 55. per week would 
 in most cases operate conclusively to bar all 
 future exertion for further comforts." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, T. BRINTON, Esq., Chairman 
 of Kidderminster B. of Guardians, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1892, p. 9. 
 
 " And a certain result of old age pensions, State- 
 given, would be to discourage all these (banks, 
 co-operative and building societies' investments) 
 useful and natural forms of thrift." 
 
 Old Age Pensions, Rev. J. FOWLE,*/". L. Conference 
 Reports, 1892, p. 2i. 
 
 (3) That the policy would prove both un- 
 wise and unjust the worthy and 
 worthless being treated alike, and the. 
 industrious and thrifty paying for the 
 idle and improvident. 
 
 " It involves the disadvantage of allowing the 
 same benefit to the socially worthless, whose lives 
 * See note, p. 153.
 
 CH. ii.] Old Age Pensions. 193 
 
 have been devoid of all excellences of character 
 and effort, and to the socially worthy, whose lives 
 have been full of toilsome and honest work, 
 though unhappily consummated through mis- 
 fortune and trouble by a helpless old age." 
 
 T. E. YOUNG, Vice- President of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, in " Pensions and Pauperism," by 
 J. FROME WILKINSON. 
 
 (4) That it is idle to argue that since all 
 will participate, none can be said to be 
 pauperised. 
 
 " If dependence is bad for the few, it is bad for 
 the many. The feeling that the evil is an evil 
 may be decreased because many participate in it. 
 But the reality the evil of dependence remains 
 what it was." 
 
 Pauperism and Old Age Pensions, C. S. LOCH, 
 P. L. Conference Reports, 1892, p. 132. 
 
 L.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PROVISION OF MEALS. 
 
 THE provision of meals for those children 
 in need of them attending our elementary 
 schools, is advocated on the grounds : 
 
 (i) That reasons both of humanity and 
 economy make it incumbent upon us to 
 provide food for those children who 
 are found to be in need of it. 
 
 Humanity, Christianity, political economy itself, 
 read by the light of common sense, all declare that 
 to let a child of tender years stand starving before 
 our eyes, is impossible. 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Coziticil for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR. 
 
 Compulsory education " results in a continual 
 breakdown, and the filling of pauper lunatic 
 asylums and other places with children suffering 
 from nervous diseases. I propose that (the pro-
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 195 
 
 vision of food) as a means to be adopted by the 
 community for the stopping of the physical 
 deterioration which is going on amongst the 
 children of our great cities." 
 
 Evidence of Mr. HYNDMAX before the Royal Commis- 
 sion on Labour, p. 597. * 
 
 "... these hunger-bitten, ill-nourished children 
 of to-day, will, twenty years hence, those of them 
 who are still alive, be the stunted, feeble men and 
 women, the sickly fathers and mothers of the 
 generation next to come ; . . ." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR. 
 
 " The committee do not regard this work as 
 merely a work of charity in feeding hungry 
 children; they regard it as a work of true economy. 
 The health of a large number of children is yearly 
 being ruined for life by want of food. The suffer- 
 ing of ill-health affects the individual only. The 
 indigence, incompetence and vice, which are the 
 result of ill-health, are the concern of every 
 member of the community." 
 
 Report of the South London School Dinner Fund, 
 quoted in Charity and Food, Report of the 
 C. O. S. upon Soup-kitchens, 
 
 * This witness advocated free meals. 
 t Free meals advocated. 
 
 O 2
 
 ig6 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 (2) That the corollary to compulsory attend- 
 ance at the schools is the provision of 
 food for those children who are in- 
 sufficiently nourished at home ; and on 
 whom the teaching involves too severe a 
 physical and mental strain. 
 
 " There is some reasonable ground for the 
 argument that, being compelled to attend school, 
 they should be given the necessary amount of 
 food i.e., it is a cruelty to expect the same 
 amount of work from the ill-fed as well as from 
 the well-fed children . . ." 
 
 Summary of Evidence of Mr. HODGE, see Charity 
 and Food, Report of the C. 0. S. on Soup- 
 kitchens, &c., p. 24. 
 
 (3) That the whole bearing of the schools, 
 physical and intellectual, is found to 
 improve with the meals given to the 
 children. 
 
 That the dinners improve the physical condition 
 of the children very markedly, is a fact beyond 
 
 doubt. 
 
 E. S. ROBERTSON, Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1885.
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meal<. 197 
 
 " Where these dinners have been systematically 
 and continuously provided, a marked improvement 
 among the ill-fed masses, especially of the poorer 
 class of children, has been the invariable result ; 
 and that not in their physique alone, but in their 
 capacity for receiving instruction, in the greater 
 ease with which they pass their standards ..." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR. 
 
 "... by the aid of good food, children would 
 be able to pass the fifth standard two years earlier 
 than underfed children, and thus enabled to earn 
 something at the age of eleven, instead of having 
 to wait until they reached the age of thirteen, and 
 so save the school rates." 
 
 Ditto. Recommendations in the Third Prize Essay, 
 by Mrs. TAIT. 
 
 " Of the good these dinners have done our 
 poor children there can be no question ; all are 
 agreed on that point, the teachers especially bear- 
 ing emphatic testimony to the physical and mental 
 improvement of the little ones." 
 
 Rev. J. ROSE, Third Annual Report of the Board 
 School Children 's Free Dinner Fund. * 
 
 * See also " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the
 
 1 98 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 (4) That the fact that so many of the 
 children attending elementary schools 
 are underfed, involves, to a great 
 extent, waste of education. 
 
 " Most people are convinced that bad as it may 
 be to leave a child to the natural work of growth 
 without food, it is worse nay impossible to set 
 him learning without. 
 
 " In short, that the laissez-faire policy towards 
 the children of the destitute is a ruinous policy, and 
 we cannot afford to waste our educational resources 
 upon half-starving children." 
 
 Third Annual Report of the Board School Children's 
 Free Dinner Fund, 1885. 
 
 " There is no doubt that the children of the 
 lower classes get much less benefit from our 
 elementary schools than children belonging to 
 the better classes of society. The reason of this 
 was hunger. The children of the poorer classes 
 attending our schools in the East-end of London 
 the number, I believe, in some schools are quite 
 
 Central Cottncil for Promoting Self-supporting Penny Dinners ; 
 " Charity and Food," Report of the C. O. S. on Soup-kitchens, &<:., 
 P- 30.
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 190, 
 
 one-tenth of the whole were insufficiently fed 
 and insufficiently clothed." 
 
 Prof. STUART, quoted in " Penny Dinners," Prize 
 Essays issued by the Central Council for Promoting 
 Self-supporting Penny Dinners. Essay by H. 
 GARDNER, 1886. 
 
 " Besides rendering the education of all our 
 poorest children more effective and regular, I 
 believe that a food provision within the schools 
 would do much to draw the above children, and 
 to strengthen and encourage those whose duty it 
 is to enforce attendance." 
 
 Charity and Food, Report of the C. O. S. on Soup- 
 kitchens, &c. Remarks on the Report by Mrs. 
 PENNINGTOX, p. 21. 
 
 (5) (By some). That the needs of large 
 numbers of half-starving children in 
 the poorer schools can only be met by 
 free dinners. 
 
 " I venture to submit that the need of these 
 children can only be met by ' free dinners,' since 
 it is obvious that penny dinners, which are to be 
 even partially supported by the pence of the 
 children, cannot reach children who have no 
 pennies." 
 
 Ditto, p. 20.
 
 2OO Some Poor Relief Questions. L CH - in - 
 
 " It is too sadly true that a minority exists 
 among us, parents honourably poor, willing to 
 work for their children's bread, but for whom 
 work does not exist, parents who cannot, unaided, 
 meet in full the charges that Nature has laid upon 
 them." 
 
 " Penny Dinners." Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR. 
 
 (6) That the State has both rights and 
 duties in relation to children, which 
 make it incumbent to ensure that they 
 shall be so fed in youth, as to enable 
 them to become useful members of 
 society. 
 
 The parent is not the only person who has 
 rights in the child. 
 
 A. J. MUNDELLA, M.P. 
 
 The community has the right to see that every 
 child shall be fed, taught and trained, so that it 
 shall be possible for that child to live usefully. 
 
 Charity and Food, Report of the C. O. S. upon 
 Smtp-kitc/iens, &c. Remarks on the Report by 
 Mrs. PENNINGTON. 
 
 " We are only now beginning to recognize the
 
 CH. HI.] The Provision of Meals. 201 
 
 fact that the child belongs, not to the parent 
 alone, but to the community as well ; and that 
 the nation, not less than the parent, has rights 
 and duties in relation to it which cannot with 
 impunity be neglected or ignored." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR. 
 
 " Now, whether there be one such child, or one 
 hundred thousand in our elementary schools . . . 
 we must lay it down as an axiom that a child 
 habitually underfed, or so ill-fed as to make 
 healthy growth impossible, is being by some one 
 to that extent defrauded of its rights . . . every 
 child, until of an age to support itself, has a right 
 to at least the minimum of clothing, shelter, food 
 and training, required to fit it for becoming and 
 continuing throughout its after life a self-supporting 
 member of the community . . ." 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 (7) That it is beside the mark to argue that 
 the system tends to encourage drunken- 
 ness, and that the effect of feeding the
 
 2O2 Some Poor Relief Questions. C CH - ni - 
 
 children is to free so much money for 
 drink and self-indulgence. 
 
 " The drunken or dissolute parent is not so exact 
 an arithmetician that he will drink the price of 
 one loaf more per week because you give his 
 hungry children dinners." 
 
 Miss SiMCOX, quoted in Charity and Food, &c., 
 Report of the C. 0. S. on Soup-kitchens, &c. 
 
 (8) That instances q/ abuse are rare, and 
 incidental in a measure to all relief , 
 and that it is worth while to run the 
 risk of these, for the sake of those large 
 numbers who do in fact stand in need 
 of food. 
 
 " Are the parents who would abuse the penny 
 dinners in a majority over those who need them 
 and use them ? As far as my experience goes the 
 answer is, emphatically No ! " 
 
 Penny Dinners, S. D. FULLER, The Contemporary 
 Review, Sept. 1885. 
 
 " In many instances, no doubt, the penny saved 
 would swell the amount spent in drink, but are 
 the many, who would lay it by, to be forgotten or 
 ignored ? Are those who would wisely use the
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 203 
 
 penny saved to be left unaided because there are 
 others who would waste it ? " 
 
 Penny Dinners, S. D. FULLER, The Contemporary 
 Revie-a, Sept. 1885. 
 
 " I have no doubt that I was cheated some- 
 times, but it is better, in my opinion, to be 
 imposed upon occasionally than to let the whole 
 body suffer for fear a small fraction may go 
 wrong." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Cetitral 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by H. GARDNER. 
 
 (9) That abiise can be checked by means of 
 the school teachers, w/w have every 
 opportunity of knowing which children 
 are really in want of food, and whether 
 the want is due to misfortune, or to 
 miscondiict, on the part of the parents. 
 
 "... no one was better able to give an opinion 
 than the teachers and managers. The former 
 gave up much of their spare time to visiting 
 children in their homes. The latter were con- 
 stantly informed by teachers andby their 'Notice B. 
 Committees.' That they could decide without
 
 2O4 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 bias was shown by the replies to the circular sent 
 by the representative managers." 
 
 S. D. FULLER, Charity Organisation Review, Feb. 
 1885, p. 70. 
 
 "... in many cases the teachers, who usually 
 are tolerably well acquainted with the circum- 
 stances of the children, and the character of the 
 homes whence they come, know whether the 
 suffering of the child is owing to the misfortune 
 or the misconduct of the parent." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR.* 
 
 (10) That though an incomplete form of 
 help, it is, as far as it goes, of real 
 service. The only alternative is to 
 give no help whatever, since it is out 
 of the question to attempt to meet the 
 want by careful treatment of the indi- 
 vidual case. 
 
 ( 1 1 ) That improvident marriages amongst 
 the poorer classes will be neither affected 
 
 * See also Evidence of Mr. HODGE and Miss DE MORGAN, 
 Charity and Food, Report of the C. O. S. upon Soup-kitchens, &c., 
 pp. 24 and 25.
 
 CH. HI.] The Provision of Meals. 205 
 
 nor checked by allowing tht, poor to 
 suffer the full consequences. 
 
 " Experience shows us that no known check 
 deters the ignorant, the poorest, the most debased, 
 from having children they cannot support. To 
 leave them to suffer to the utmost the consequences 
 of poverty, ignorance and vice, is not to say they 
 will cease from having children ; for it is precisely 
 that portion of our population which is steeped in 
 want, ignorance and crime, which increases most 
 freely and most recklessly." 
 
 See Charity and Food, Reporl of the C. O. S. mi 
 Soup-kitchens, &f. Remarks on the Report by 
 Mrs. PENNINGTON, p. 21.
 
 206 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 On the other hand, it is contended : 
 
 (1) That action based on the argument that 
 children must not suffer for the sins of 
 their parents is unwise, and in oppo- 
 sition to the " law of nature, that the 
 conseqtwnces of each man's condiict are 
 borne by his family as well as by him- 
 self." * 
 
 " In the moral government of the world it seems 
 evidently necessary that the sins of the fathers 
 should be visited upon the children ; and if in 
 our overweening vanity we imagine that we can 
 govern a private society better by endeavouring 
 systematically to counteract this law, I am inclined 
 to believe that we shall find ourselves very greatly 
 mistaken." 
 
 " Essay on the Principle of Population," by the Rev. 
 T. R. MALTHUS, p. 433. 
 
 (2) That it is important to consider the 
 children in connection with the family 
 life as a whole, and that in those few 
 cases where the want can be adequately 
 
 * " Dispauperisation," PRETYMAN, p. 223.
 
 en. in.] The Provision of Meals. 207 
 
 met by gifts of food, the better plan is 
 to arrange it privately. 
 
 The children must be treated as part of a family 
 of a whole ; and in trying to help the children we 
 must take into consideration the circumstances 
 of the home life of which they form a part. 
 
 Mrs. LEON, Paper on the Assistance of School 
 Children, Chai-ity Organisation Review, April, 
 1894. 
 
 When parents are temporarily unable to feed 
 their children, through no fault of their own, " it 
 is not the children only who require to be fed, 
 nor is food the only thing they require; and 
 whatever charitable help is afforded had better 
 be afforded to the family as a whole, and the 
 food ultimately reach the children through the 
 hands of those to whom, in the course of nature, 
 they look for sustenance." 
 
 " Charity and Food," Report of the C. O. S. on Soup- 
 . kitchens, &c., p. 1 6. 
 
 "... to institute special machinery for pro- 
 viding of free dinners for the children of those 
 who are unable to pay, is unnecessary and in- 
 advisable." 
 
 Ditto, p. 20.
 
 208 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 " The family, not the individual, is the unit of 
 the nation, and parental responsibility is the 
 principle on which the family is based. This 
 responsibility the State may assist and supplement, 
 but cannot supersede." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR.* 
 
 (3) That any system which tends to remove 
 the obligation resting on the parents 
 to provide the necessaries, and to meet 
 the ordinary contingencies of lije, is 
 injurious to the individual, and pre- 
 judicial to the community at large. 
 
 " I have lived face to face with the poor for 
 now some years, and I have not learned to think 
 gifts of necessaries, such as a man usually provides 
 for his own family, helpful to them. I have 
 abstained from such, and expect those who love 
 the poor and know them individually, will do so 
 more and more in the time to come." 
 
 "Our Common Land," Miss OCTAVIA HILL, p. 61. 
 
 " To make up the deficiencies of the home from 
 outside is rarely of any benefit to the child ; it 
 
 * The writer advocates penny dinners.
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 209 
 
 dulls any remaining scruple in the parent, it 
 weakens the common feeling of responsibility, 
 and it excites a bitter sense of injustice amongst 
 the struggling poor." 
 
 First Report of a Special Committee of the C, 0. S. 
 on the Best Means of Dealing with School-children 
 alleged to be in Want of Food, p. 9. 
 
 " The ordinary contingencies of life which fall 
 within the range of ordinary foresight, should, for 
 the individual's own sake, and for society's sake, 
 be met by the efforts of the individual." 
 
 "How to Help Cases of Distress," C. S. LOCH, 
 p. iv. 
 
 " Any relief which removes a natural obligation 
 is, in its results, of very doubtful benefit." 
 
 Ditto, p. xxxvii. 
 
 (4) That in any case, whether many are 
 thought to stand in need of such gifts 
 or not, they miist of necessity be demoral- 
 ising when given in wholesale fashion, 
 and with no personal acquaintance- 
 ship with the recipients ; and that only 
 individual charity studying the causes 
 
 L. p
 
 2io Some Poor Relief Questions, t CH - m- 
 
 really touches the actual and imder lying 
 evil and removes distress. 
 
 " Charities given to the multitude are altogether 
 wrong. To be beneficial charity must adjust its 
 means to the wants of the particular case, and 
 not leave that case till it has effected a cure." 
 
 "How to Help Cases of Distress," C. S. LOCH, 
 p. xv. 
 
 To work out each case separately, although one 
 might be able to help only a few, does more good 
 than to feed a multitude. 
 
 Mrs. LEON, School-Manager, The Assistance of 
 School-children, Chatity Organisation Review, 
 April, 1894. 
 
 By setting up a big wholesale distribution of 
 meals attention was diverted fiom the rational 
 and proper treatment of each case. In the few 
 instances in which dinners seemed to be all that 
 was needed it was found possible to supply them 
 privately and unostentatiously, without the system 
 of any new machinery. 
 
 Rev. Dr. BRADY, Charity Organisation Revinu, Feb. 
 1891, p. 98. 
 
 " The danger to be feared was that family 
 responsibilities would be interfered with. Excep-
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 211 
 
 tional cases could be dealt with in an exceptional 
 way, and were no arguments for a wholesale 
 machinery." 
 
 E. BOND, Charity Organisation Review, Feb. 1885, 
 p. 68. 
 
 When parents are temporarily unable to feed 
 their children, through no fault of their own, it 
 is not the children only who require to be fed, 
 nor is food the only thing they require. 
 
 Charity and Food, Report of the C. O. S. on Smip- 
 kitchens, &"c., p. 1 6. 
 
 " Cases would no doubt arise where dinners for 
 the children might form part of a general plan for 
 the relief of the family . . . To give dinners only 
 was not adequate relief; and such attempts to 
 deal separately with one out of many needs would 
 prove a failure." 
 
 Rev. J. F. GREEN, Charity Organisation Review, 
 Feb. 1885, p. 69. 
 
 (5) That much of the poverty of the lower 
 classes is due to improvident mar- 
 riages ; and a system which relieves 
 a man of his responsibilities for 
 
 p 2
 
 212 Some Poor Relief Questions* [ CH - In - 
 
 maintaining his family will tend to 
 perpetuate the evil. 
 
 " . . . nothing can permanently improve the 
 condition of the poor but increased prudence in 
 marriage ; unless you have this, improvements in 
 other respects are of very little consequence." 
 
 Rev. T. R. MALTHUS, quoted by Prof. H. Fawcett, 
 " Pauperism," p. 94. 
 
 " Can the most fertile imagination conceive a 
 restraint at once so natural, so just, so consonant 
 to the laws of God, and the best laws framed by 
 the most enlightened men, as that each individual 
 should be responsible for the maintenance of his 
 own children ? . . ." 
 
 Ditto, p. 97. 
 
 " With confidence, however, it can be asserted 
 that if, in a country like England, the possible 
 increase of population is not adequately 
 restrained by prudential habits, the general con- 
 dition of the nation will become more and more 
 unsatisfactory ; and pauperism will assume more 
 formidable proportions." 
 
 " Pauperism," Prof. H. FAWCETT, p. 92. 
 
 "... prudential restraints upon population 
 will nearly cease to operate, if, through the
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 213 
 
 influence of a bad Poor Law, ill-considered 
 charity, or a vicious state of public opinion, the 
 idea is spread that the duty of maintaining 
 children does not rest solely with their parents, 
 but that society should bear a considerable por- 
 tion of the responsibility." 
 
 " Pauperism," Prof. H. FAWCETT, p. 97. 
 
 The extent to which people who try to escape 
 from the responsibility of their own acts are per- 
 mitted to do so will in no small degree determine 
 the amount of poverty and misery which will 
 exist in a country. 
 
 Ditto, p. 57. 
 
 (6) That compulsory attendance at school in 
 no sense involves the provision of food 
 for tlie children. 
 
 " Food is necessary for existence, and to pro- 
 vide it is plainly the duty of the parent, who is 
 the cause of that existence. It is no part of the 
 State's duty to encourage the parent by relieving 
 him of this burden, and so increasing the public 
 burden upon itself. Education, on the other 
 hand, is necessary, not in order to exist, but in
 
 214 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 order to be a fitting member of a civilized com- 
 munity, and it may fairly be contended that it is, 
 therefore, both the interest and the duty of the 
 community to provide it." 
 
 " Charity and Food." Xeport of the C. O. S. on Soup- 
 kitchens, &"f., p. 13. 
 
 (7) That the knowledge possessed by the 
 teachers of the family needs and cir- 
 cumstances does not afford a safe basis 
 for selection. 
 
 " The selection of cases is, as a rule, left to the 
 teachers, who, often living at a distance from the 
 school, and busily occupied with their proper 
 work, have very little personal knowledge of the 
 real circumstances of the parents, and have to 
 go very much by guesswork, or such imperfect 
 information as they can elicit from the children 
 themselves." 
 
 First Report of a Special Committee of the C. 0. S. 
 appointed to Consider the best Means of Dealing 
 with Children alleged to be in Want of Food, 1891, 
 P-5- 
 
 " The teachers do an immense amount for the 
 children, both in and out of school, but necessarily 
 so much of their own time is taken up in teaching 
 and in school routine that few of them can know
 
 CH. HI.] The Provision of Meals. 2 1 5 
 
 but little of the children outside their school 
 life." 
 
 The Assistance of School Children, Mrs. LEON, 
 School Manager, Charity Organisation Review, 
 April, 1894. 
 
 (8) TJtat the system tends to reduce the 
 rate of wages, since the wages of the 
 poor and unskilled are measured by 
 their necessities. 
 
 " There is, and until economic conditions of 
 unskilled labour are greatly altered and improved 
 there always will be, an indigent class, a ' residuum,' 
 whose earnings never more than suffice to supply 
 them with the barest necessaries of existence. 
 Whatever sum a family can be kept alive upon, 
 to that sum wages, in this lowest stratum of 
 society, are sure to sink. If the children are 
 gratuitously provided for, the necessities of this 
 ' residuum ' are to that extent diminished, and the 
 choking competition for employment among the 
 members of this unskilled class will force down 
 the rate of wages by the same amount." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Dinners. 
 Essay by Miss TABOR.* 
 
 * The writer advocates penny dinners, and in some instances 
 free dinners.
 
 216 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 (9) That the provision of food is, morally, 
 harmful to the children, and tends to 
 prodiice a habit of reliance upon 
 charity. 
 
 "... in our schools the children often get all 
 the moral and religious training they have. They 
 are taught truth, obedience and morality, and we 
 have no right to add to this a course of begging, 
 lying and humbug ; we have no right to train the 
 children to be paupers." 
 
 Mrs. LEON, School-Manager, The Assistance of 
 School Children, Uiarity Organisation Review, 
 April, 1894. 
 
 " My strong feeling is that the habit of being 
 fed leads to the habit of thought, under which 
 persons conceive that they are likely, as they 
 grow up, and their children also to be similarly 
 treated." 
 
 Evidence of C. S. LOCH before the Select Committee of 
 the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888. 
 
 (10) TJiat the system is not an effectual 
 form of help; and that the supply 
 creates the demand. 
 
 The system " constantly tends to create a 
 demand which it is ever more and more unable to 
 
 meet " 
 
 C. S. LOCH, Letter to the Times, Dec. 1889.
 
 en. in.] The Provision of Meals. 2 1 7 
 
 Teachers were beginning to be dissatisfied with 
 the meals from which they had hoped good 
 results. They found that the more they gave the 
 more the demand grew. 
 
 CYRIL JACKSON, Member of the London School 
 Board, Charity Organisation Review, Feb. 1891. 
 
 ( 1 1 ) That being' provided on a large scale 
 discrimination is impossible ; the system 
 tends to put a premium on neglect, 
 drink, idleness and improvidence, and 
 is, therefore, in the long run, of no 
 benefit to the children, and, on the 
 contrary, merely makes one of the 
 many forms of charity which in the 
 end multiply the misery of the poorer 
 classes. 
 
 " . . . to assist the child of an idle, extrava- 
 gant, or vicious parent, while industrious, thrifty 
 and honest parents are left to bear, as no doubt 
 they ought, the burden of maintaining their off- 
 spring, is to debase the moral standard by 
 offering a premium to recklessness and self- 
 indulgence, and by practically inviting parents 
 not, perhaps, wholly indifferent to their children's 
 welfare, not quite without a sense of responsi-
 
 2 1 8 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 bility for their maintenance, to spend in idleness 
 or drink the time and the money which should 
 have been given to making provision for their 
 family." 
 
 " Charity and Food," Report of the C. G. S. upon 
 Soup-kitchens, &*c., 1887, p. 15. 
 
 " To feed the children of the thriftless and 
 improvident, when starving time arrives, is in 
 reality to encourage the improvidence and self- 
 indulgence of the parents, and so to remove, 
 perhaps, the one incentive to forethought and 
 self-denial which they possess. To feed the 
 children of those who will not work except under 
 compulsion of actual necessity, is but to increase 
 the amount of idleness in which it is possible for 
 them to indulge. . . Again, to feed the children of 
 those who scant them needlessly of food at home 
 is to put a premium on cruelty and selfishness." 
 
 " Penny Dinners," Prize Essays issued by the Central 
 Council for Promoting Self-supporting Penny 
 Dinners. Essay by Miss TABOR.* 
 
 (12) That no system not entirety self- 
 supporting can be of any real benefit. 
 
 "... Such a movement, to be really useful, 
 must fully maintain the independent feelings of 
 
 * The writer advocates penny dinners.
 
 CH. in.] Ttie Provision of Meals. 219 
 
 the working classes, and to be permanent, must 
 have the vital principle of being thoroughly self- 
 supporting." 
 
 THOMAS CORBETT, Good Words, Jan. 1863. 
 
 "... the diminution of parental responsibility 
 for the food and clothing of children is necessarily 
 a most powerful encouragement to idleness, 
 intemperance, improvidence, pauperism. There- 
 fore, any appearance even of making society 
 responsible for prime necessaries is fraught with 
 deadly mischief, which can only be avoided in the 
 case of penny dinners by their establishment on 
 a sound commercial footing." 
 
 T. V. HOLMES, quoted in the Charity Organisation 
 Review, July, 1885, p. 310. 
 
 " . . . in the interests of the poor themselves, 
 the dinners should be only supplied on a self- 
 supporting basis (e.g., that the cost of food and of 
 labour [except so far as this was purely honorary] 
 should be covered) ; and that those given free, or 
 on merely nominal payment, having a tendency to 
 pauperise the people, are clearly injurious." 
 
 W. BOUSFIELD, Charity Organisation Review, Feb. 
 1885, p. 70.
 
 22O Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 Dinners to elementary school-children " should, 
 in the interests of the poor themselves, and can 
 be, supplied on a self-supporting and business 
 basis ; and those given free, or on merely nominal 
 payment, are clearly injurious." 
 
 Resolution adopted by the C. O. S., Charity Organi- 
 sation Review, Feb. 1885, p. 71.
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 221 
 
 Free charitable relief in the shape of 
 Soup-kitchens, is generally supported on the 
 ground that it is a perfectly legitimate form 
 of relief to those who are thrown out of 
 work through no fault of their own of 
 whom there are always large numbers * 
 and also on general grounds of humanity, 
 and often in reference to special and unpre- 
 ventable distress. 
 
 On the other hand it is urged : 
 
 (i) That soup-kitchens, together with the 
 various refuges^ free dormitories, bread, 
 coal and grocery tickets, gifts of clothes- 
 and blankets, form a system of free 
 food, clothing and lodging, which dis- 
 
 * "Even in those grades in which labour is better paid, the 
 statistics of the Labour Department (see the Labotir Gazette for Sept. 
 1893) show that a large number of competent mechanics are at all 
 times out of employment, whilst in periods of trade depression 
 many thousands of men are in the same condition." 
 
 Minority Report, Fifth and Final Report of the 
 Royal Commission on Labour, Part I., see p. 127..
 
 222 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. m. 
 
 courages thrift by removing an incen- 
 tive to lay by during times of work 
 and prosperity, and tempts the weak 
 and struggling man away at every turn 
 from, a life of independence, and 
 actually forms an encouragement to 
 many to remain in wretched circum- 
 stances. 
 
 " In estimating the influence of this class of 
 charities, it is impossible to leave out of sight the 
 vast number of bread, grocery, coal, and blanket 
 tickets, which are distributed by district visitors, 
 and religious and charitable societies ; the doles of 
 bread made at the churches under ancient endow- 
 ments, or the extension system of out-door relief 
 maintained in the Metropolis under the Poor 
 Law." 
 
 Report of the Society for Organising Charitable Relief 
 on Soup-kitchens and Dinner-tables, 1871. 
 
 "... in the aggregate, there is no class of 
 charities which affects a greater number of persons 
 or exercises a more powerful influence for good or 
 evil." 
 
 Ditto.
 
 CH. in.] The Provision of Meals. 223 
 
 (2) That the acceptance of free gifts of food 
 is not to be desired for any man ; and 
 the temptation to accept being very 
 great amongst the struggling poor, it 
 follows that to offer such gifts on a large 
 scale must be pernicious. 
 
 " There are few things for which it is more 
 mischievous that people should rely on the 
 habitual aid of others than for the means of sub- 
 sistence, and unhappily there is no lesson which 
 they more easily learn." 
 
 " Principles of Political Economy," J. S. MILL, 
 Book V., chap, xi., 13. 
 
 " He who statedly employs the poor in useful 
 labour is their only friend ; he who only feeds 
 them is their greatest enemy." 
 
 TOWNSEND on the Poor Laws, 1786. 
 
 " There is nothing more destructive to the 
 interests of mankind than the principle of pro- 
 viding for those whom Providence intended to 
 provide for themselves, whether the principle 
 is put in practice by Government or by 
 individuals, whether by Poor Laws or by private 
 bounty. By destroying moral energy it destroys
 
 224 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - IU - 
 
 the soul, and under the mask of kindness is the 
 height of cruelty." 
 
 THOMAS WALKER, "The Original," p. 131. 
 
 (3) That relief dealt out to the multitude 
 cannot be of any real benefit, and is 
 certain to create fresh mischief. 
 
 "... hasty remedies applied wholesale are 
 certain in the end to produce a crop of fresh 
 mischief in the place of the evil that they seek to 
 remove. . . in matters of charity, wholesale 
 work is not only imperfect work, but socially 
 dangerous." 
 
 Annual Report of the C. O. S., 189091, pp. 7, 9. 
 
 (4) That the system tends to encourage 
 vagrancy, and to produce increased 
 concentration in large towns. 
 
 "... every indiscriminate distribution of any- 
 thing will attract a large number of persons from 
 all parts of the Metropolis in order to see what 
 they could get." 
 
 Evidence of the Rev. J. KITTO before the Select Com- 
 mittee of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, 
 p. 384.
 
 en. in.] The Provision of Meals. 225 
 
 "... such a wide-spread system of giving 
 food forms a large part of that promiscuous 
 charity which tends powerfully to encourage one 
 of the worst evils of the present day the con- 
 centration in large towns." 
 
 " Charity and Food," Report of the C. 0. S. on Soitf- 
 kitchens, rc. , p. 6. 
 
 (5) That relief tends to raise rent* and to 
 lower wages. That the easier it is 
 made for men to obtain relief in the 
 winter " the less will be the wages they 
 will take in summer, and the poorer 
 and more miserable isjill be theii 
 position." 
 
 " The more the people can get to understand 
 that they must live by their own means, and that 
 they must provide against the winter, the better ; 
 in fact, unless they do that, we must increase the 
 amount of relief as the population grows. That 
 is the alternative." 
 
 Evidence of C. S. LOCH before the Select Committee 
 of the H. of Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888, p. 462. 
 
 * It has been held out to tenants as an advantage that they were 
 within a stone's-throw of a Soup-kitchen. 
 
 L. Q
 
 226 Some Poor Relief Questions. [- i- 
 
 (6) That the evils of free soup-kitchens 
 cannot, evert in part, be sajely met by 
 selling the food at less than its cost 
 price. 
 
 It is " very questionable whether the plan of 
 selling food for less than its full cost price is, on 
 the whole, productive of advantage. It tends to 
 confuse the broad distinction which ought always 
 to be maintained between honest, independent 
 industry and pauperism, and to encourage, by a 
 false appearance of paying their way, persons to 
 sink into the dependent class, who might other- 
 wise support themselves and their families." 
 
 Rtport upon Soup-kitchens and Dinner-tables, by the 
 Society for Organising Charitable Relief, 1871. 
 
 " If relief is to be given in the form of food, it 
 would be better that it should be given by means 
 of orders on kitchens or restaurants maintained 
 on commercial principles, instead of having 
 recourse to separate institutions existing for 
 charity only." 
 
 " Charity and Food," Report of the C. O. S. on SouJ- 
 kitchens, &*.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHARITABLE RELIEF. 
 
 THE mischief of alms-giving and inade- 
 quate charity, and the need for circumspec- 
 tion in giving, and inquiry before giving, are 
 
 urged on the grounds : 
 
 ( i ) That indiscriminate charity discourages 
 
 tJie worthy and virtuous, and far 
 from alleviating, increases misery and 
 poverty. 
 
 " Indiscriminate alms-giving always in the end 
 demoralises those whom it is intended to benefit, 
 and intensifies the evils which it seeks to alle- 
 viate." 
 
 Prof. H. FAWCETT, "Pauperism: its Causes and 
 Remedies," 1876, p. 9. 
 
 " When any thoughtful person takes into con- 
 sideration the amount of whining, of lying, of 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - 1V - 
 
 idleness, o voluntary degradation, which is 
 systematically encouraged, if not actually pro- 
 duced, by careless alms-giving, he will feel that 
 the instinct which disposes him to relieve a casual 
 beggar is not a virtue to be encouraged, but a 
 temptation to be resisted." 
 
 Charity, J. G. FITCH, Eraser's Magazine, Dec. 
 1869. 
 
 " . . .if our benevolence is indiscriminate, and 
 the degree of apparent distress be made the sole 
 measure of our liberality, it is evident that it will 
 be exercised almost exclusively upon common 
 beggars, while modest unobtrusive merit, 
 struggling with unavoidable difficulties, yet still 
 maintaining some slight appearances of decency 
 and cleanliness, will be totally neglected. We 
 shall raise the worthless above the worthy, we 
 shall encourage indolence and check industry, and 
 in the most marked manner subtract from the 
 sum of human happiness." 
 
 Rev. T. R. MALTHUS, "Essay on Population,'' 
 1872, p. 442. 
 
 (2) That doles " help none adequately when 
 the necessity is real, and are extremely 
 demoralising when it is not ; " if relief
 
 CH. iv.] Charitable Relief. 229 
 
 is given at all it should be suitable 
 and adequate. 
 
 "... the bestowal of inadequate relief is no 
 charity." 
 
 "Social Wreckage," F. PEEK, p. 175. 
 
 " I believe our irregular alms to the occupant of 
 the miserable room, to the shoeless flower- seller, 
 are tending to keep a whole class on the very 
 brink of pauperism, who might be taught self- 
 control and foresight if \ve would let them learn 
 it." 
 
 " Our Common Land," Miss OCTAVIA HILL, p. 54. 
 
 " We are largely helping by our foolish gifts 
 to keep them herded together in crowded, dirty, 
 badly-built rooms, among scenes of pauperism, 
 crime and vice." 
 
 Ditto, p. 55. 
 
 "... alms-giving is not necessarily Charity is 
 never the w r hole of it is generally the reverse of 
 it." 
 
 Rev. \V. BURY, Guardian, Brixworth, P. L. Con- 
 ference Reports, 1876, p. 45. 
 
 (3) That we require to exercise much 
 thought and care in giving relief, lest 
 by " making void and of none effect
 
 230 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - IV - 
 
 every check moral and physical? and by- 
 systematic ally stepping in, and coming 
 between, wrong propensities and their 
 appointed penalties, we do an injury 
 where kindness is intended, or in 
 helping one discourage and injure 
 many. 
 
 " Divine Providence has so arranged the world 
 that just as pain, sickness and death follow on 
 violation of the laws of health, so in like manner 
 idleness, shiftlessness and intemperance are 
 followed and punished by wretchedness and want. 
 . . . To remove the natural penalty would be to 
 stimulate and propagate original evil, which is 
 kept in check only by that penalty." 
 
 Out-door Relief, Prof. BRYCE, P. L. Conference 
 Reports, 1876, p. II. 
 
 " It has hardly been enough considered that 
 work for the poor demands an effort of mind as 
 well as a sentiment of good will." 
 
 Miss SEWELL, "The Conditions of Effectual Work 
 amongst the Poor." 
 
 "... more harm may come of work done ill, 
 than of work left undone for the poor." 
 
 Ditto.
 
 CH. iv.] Charitable Relief. 231 
 
 "That plain as they may be in a simple state 
 of society, the duties of charity have become very 
 difficult duties, requiring much conscientious 
 thought and much scrupulous care for their due 
 discharge." 
 
 See Anmial Report of the C. O.S., 18901. 
 
 " 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." 
 
 Introduction to " Insurance and Saving," Charity 
 Organisation Series, p. 37. 
 
 "... the truest charity may often lie in 
 making the wrong-doer's way as hard and bitter 
 as considerate thoughtfulness can manage to 
 make it." 
 
 " Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisa- 
 tionist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT, p. 191. 
 
 
 "... we should never in the sympathy we may 
 
 be tempted to feel towards the workless, forget the 
 debt we owe to the regular, steady workman. . . 
 In our efforts to befriend the one, we need to take 
 great care lest we in any way tend to injure the 
 other. . ." 
 
 Miss TlLLARD, Charity Organisation Review, Special 
 Conference Number, 1894, p. 54.
 
 232 Some Poor Relief Questions. t CH - IV - 
 
 All the men who really give themselves most 
 trouble about the poor are the most alive to the 
 terrible evils of the so-called charity which pours 
 money into the haunts of misery and vice every 
 
 winter. 
 
 EDWARD DENISON. 
 
 (4) That ignorance and good intentions are 
 not sufficient excuse wJien harm has been 
 done. 
 
 "... good intentions are not in themselves 
 enough ; and are no substitute for knowledge or 
 discretion." 
 
 ' ' The Old Poor Law and the New Socialism," F. C. 
 MONTAGUE, p. 10. 
 
 When harm has been done it is obvious selfish- 
 ness to plead ignorance and rest content in the 
 retrospect, because self has come through the 
 operation scathless. 
 
 "Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisa- 
 tionist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT. 
 
 (5) That indiscriminate charity creates a 
 keen sense of injustice amongst the 
 struggling poor. 
 
 " The present chaotic and idiotic system of 
 every person and every association giving away
 
 cu. iv.] Charitable Relief. 233 
 
 relief entirely independently of every one else, and 
 without any communication whatever with the 
 Poor Law authorities, is the means of making 
 London the paradise of loafer and idler, whilst at 
 the same time it disgusts and embitters the feel- 
 ings of the respectable working men, and produces 
 more mischief and more class hatred than any- 
 thing else." 
 
 Evidence of J. H. ALLEN, ex-officio Guardian, St. 
 Pancras, before the Select Committee of the H, oj 
 Lords on P. L. Relief, 1888. 
 
 " Very often when relief is given there is a 
 sense of injustice in the neighbours, arising from 
 the fact that improvidence is helped while their 
 own forethought and self-denial has to bear its 
 own honourable burdens." 
 
 Ven. Archdeacon WILSON, Charity Organisation 
 Review, Special Conference Number, 1894. 
 
 (6) That to undertake the relief of distress 
 is to undertake a responsibility which 
 needs justification ; and it is our duty 
 to consider the lUtimate effect of our 
 actions. 
 
 It is the duty of those who " assume the heavy 
 responsibility of intentionally influencing men's
 
 234 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. iv. 
 
 lives to form some idea of what their influence 
 is going to be." 
 
 Thorough Charity, Miss H. DENDY, Charity Organi- 
 sation Review, June, 1893, P- 2 6. 
 
 " . . . in all human affairs it is our bounden 
 duty before following any particular course of 
 action to look on ahead, and to forecast not only 
 the immediate, but also the ultimate consequences 
 of what we do." 
 
 Rev. J. F. HERVEY, Medical Relief, Report of the 
 Eastern District P. L. Conference, \ 883. 
 
 " . . .if you want to give charity properly, 
 give it after taking the trouble to ascertain your- 
 self whether it is going in the right direction. 
 The reason so much charity is given badly is that 
 it is given lazily." 
 
 C. E. TEBBUTT, P. L. Conference Report, 1876, 
 P-5I- 
 
 (7) That inquiry is a duty which we owe 
 to the poor that without inquiry it is 
 impossible to know whether on the one 
 hand interference is justified, or on the 
 other how help may be best rendered. 
 
 "... this destitution or distress may have 
 had such an origin that to remove it at once by
 
 CH. iv.] Charitable Relief. 235 
 
 instant relief would operate injuriously in a moral 
 sense in the recipient, or in those acquainted with 
 him. 
 
 Preface to ' ' Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity 
 Organisationist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT. 
 
 " But investigation is not needed only as a safe- 
 guard against rank imposture and positive ill- 
 desert. Still more hopeful, still more expedient, 
 still more precious is it in cases on the whole 
 deserving and entitled to our warmest sympathy. 
 In these we need it to guide us in our mode and 
 measure of assistance, and enable us to help 
 instead of harm." 
 
 " Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisa- 
 tionist," p. 316. 
 
 " Investigation is not a matter of choice. It is 
 a duty which no one can evade without responsi- 
 bility." 
 
 SETH Low, The New York Charity Organisation 
 Paper, No. 38. 
 
 " Depend upon it you cannot wisely help a 
 family, you cannot tell whether help at all is 
 needed, till the circumstances and character of 
 each member have been well investigated." 
 
 "Our Common Land," Miss OCTAVIA HILL, p. 57. 
 
 "... charity loses nothing of its lovingness 
 by being entirely wise. Now it cannot be wise
 
 236 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. iv. 
 
 without full knowledge of the circumstances 
 of those to be dealt with hence the necessity 
 of investigation." 
 
 "Our Common Land," Miss OCTAVIA HlLL, p. 64. 
 
 " No respectable family but has friends, neigh- 
 bours or savings to fall back on just while you 
 look well into their cases." 
 
 Ditto, p. 81. 
 
 (8) That thoughtless charity is often 
 responsible for acts of cruelty to 
 children and cripples. 
 
 " We are promoting the manufacture of diseased 
 and distorted children by the thousand . . . 
 People will do what they find it pays them to do. 
 If it pays them to work they will work, if they 
 find it pays them to beg they will beg, and if it 
 pays them to mutilate and distort children they 
 will do that." 
 
 "Considering the Poor,' 1 Sermon preached by the 
 Rev. R. EYTON, 1887. 
 
 There are hundreds of unfortunate cripples in 
 London being used by their relatives for selfish
 
 CH. iv. J Charitable Relief. 237 
 
 purposes " to attract the shallow charity which 
 flies about London." 
 
 Thorough Charity, Miss DENDY, Charity Organi- 
 sation Review, June, 1893. 
 
 (9) That the need for which assistance is 
 asked is often fictitious ; and that in 
 all these cases assistance only serves to 
 degrade the recipient, and to help him 
 " on the downward course of profes- 
 sional poverty" 
 
 "... it (distress) may be feigned ; if so, and 
 the assistance prompted by charity be bestowed 
 at once, that very assistance will encourage the 
 dishonest applicant for relief in his practice of 
 hyprocrisy. It will make him a being somewhat 
 worse than he was, by confirming him in his 
 purpose to go on imposing on ths credulity of 
 mankind and abusing their kindness." 
 
 See Preface to "The Thoughts and Experiences of a 
 Chanty Organisationist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT. 
 
 "... the amount of misrepresentation palmed 
 on the charitable, with regard to amount of 
 wages, period of alleged non-employment, cause 
 of leaving, etc., well nigh surpasses belief." 
 
 "Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisa- 
 tionist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT, p. 315.
 
 238 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. iv. 
 
 " The successful simulation of illness and 
 disease is far more easy than most charitable 
 persons imagine, even to the beguiling of medical 
 men." 
 
 "Thoughts and Experiences of a Charily Organisa- 
 tionist," J. HORNSBY WRIGHT, p. 109. 
 
 The skill of impostors in counterfeiting 
 starvation, sickness and infirmity is quite extra- 
 ordinary. 
 
 WALKER, "The Original," p. 285. 
 
 "There is scarcely a form of human suffering 
 which cannot be skilfully and easily simulated as 
 soon as it becomes clear that it pays to do so." 
 
 Charity, J. G. FITCH, Eraser's Magazine, Dec. 
 1869, p. 684. 
 
 (10) The fact of want of employment is 
 seldom the only cause of distress, and 
 by acting on the assumption that it is 
 the only, or even the chief cause, the 
 real and underlying cause of distress 
 is often aggravated ; and that cases of 
 people being thrown out of work for 
 any length of time through no fault
 
 CH. iv.] Charitable Relief. 239 
 
 of their own are not so common as is 
 supposed* 
 
 "... contrary to general belief, there is little 
 or no difficulty for those who seriously try to find 
 situations or employment. The difficulty consists 
 in so behaving as to keep them. Provided only 
 that a necessity for self-dependence can be made 
 to be felt, then every person, however unlikely, 
 soon finds a living somewhere." 
 
 WALKER, " The Original," p. 287. 
 
 "... throw people on their own resources, 
 and under circumstances the most untoward, 
 they will get through so often as to make the 
 exceptions not worth calculating." 
 Ditto, p. 2^8. 
 
 * In agricultural districts regular employment " is not difficult to 
 obtain by those who are willing to engage themselves." 
 
 Review of the Enquiry and Reports on the Agricultural 
 Labourer, by WM. C. LITTLE, Senior Assist. 
 Com. ; see p. 216 of the Fifth and Final Report 
 of the Royal Commission on Labour, Part I.
 
 240 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. iv. 
 
 On the other hand it is urged : 
 
 (1) That it is imperative on human beings 
 to follow the dictates of compassion, 
 and that in doing so, no man is 
 answerable for results. 
 
 Though deceived, a man " has still attained his 
 principal object he has wished to perform a good 
 action and he has acquired the merit of it . . ." 
 
 Preliminary Note to the Official Collection of Rules 
 and Instructions for the Administration of 
 Out-door Relief to the Poor of Paris, 1839. 
 Quoted in "Rights of the Poor/' S. R. BOSAN- 
 QUET, p. 360. 
 
 With regard to those whom we assist it is their 
 concern, and not ours, if they are guilty of decep- 
 tion. 
 
 " Rights of the Poor," S. R. BOSAXQUET, p. 337. 
 
 (2) That compassion will cure more sins 
 than condemnation, and that energy 
 and self-dependence " are likely to be 
 impaired by the absence of help as 
 well as by its excess"* 
 
 " Some readily find out that where there is 
 distress there is vice, and easily discover the
 
 Charitable Relief. 241 
 
 crime of feeding the lazy or encouraging the 
 dissolute. To promote vice is certainly unlawful ; 
 but we do not always encourage vice when we 
 relieve the vicious." 
 
 Johnson's Works, vol. ix. (Oxford Edit.), 1825, 
 P- 303. 
 
 (3) That it degrades the poor to inquire 
 closely into their circumstances before 
 giving the relief. 
 
 (4) That the number of impostors has been 
 greatly exaggerated, and that those who 
 are suspected of being impostors are 
 often merely so in tJie sense that they 
 have exaggerated their needs, while the 
 fact of their being in distress remains. 
 
 " The number of impostors has been greatly 
 exaggerated. The vast attention which has been 
 given to every information under this head, has 
 almost possessed the public mind with the image 
 and imitation and made it forget the substance 
 from which it is reflected." 
 
 "The Rights of the Poor," S. R. BOSANQUET. 
 
 The poor often give wrong addresses in 
 ignorance, carelessness, and owing to their small 
 L. R
 
 242 Some Poor Relief Questions. [CH. iv. 
 
 powers of observation, and there are " numerous 
 mistakes and misapprehensions which persons 
 can and do take advantage of who are ready to 
 look on the harsh side, and are willing to detect 
 imposture." 
 
 "The Rights of the Poor," S. R. BOSANQUET. 
 
 (5) That it is vain to deny that numbers 
 of working-men are habitually out 
 of work through no fault of their 
 own, and that it is idle and cruel 
 to assert that all who would could find 
 employment. 
 
 " Even in those grades in which labour is better 
 paid, the statistics of the Labour Department 
 (see the Labour Gazette for September, 1893) 
 show that a large number of competent 
 mechanics are at all times out of employment, 
 whilst in periods of trade depression many 
 thousands of men are in the same condition." 
 
 Minority Report, Fifth and Final Report of the 
 Royal Commission on Labour, Part I. p. 127.
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE EVIDENCE 
 
 TAKEN BEFORE THE 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE 
 AGED POOR. 
 
 OUT-DOOR AND IN-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 Page 6 (3). 
 
 Out-relief, by increasing the rates, tends to bring 
 many persons on to the parish ivho might not 
 otJierwise be obliged to have recourse to paro- 
 chial relief. 
 
 Lax administration leads to increase of the rates and 
 therefore tends to bring some among the independent 
 poor on to the parish. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 551. 
 
 " The persons who have to contribute the rates have 
 to be borne in mind, and it must not be forgotten what a 
 large number of persons there are who are only just 
 above the line of pauperism, and who, if rates are unduly 
 increased, would be likely to be dragged down to 
 pauperism themselves; and what a constant struggle 
 
 R 2
 
 244 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ A1>1 '- 
 
 many of those who must contribute their share of the 
 expenditure in out-door relief have in order to maintain 
 their independence." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 17. 
 
 Page 7 (4). 
 
 Whereas an in-door policy tends to ensure better 
 wages to the working classes, out-relief tends 
 to loiver wages. 
 
 C. T. RITCHIE : Out-door relief does to a certain 
 extent, of course, enable a person to compete somewhat 
 favourably with a person who is not in receipt of out-door 
 relief ? 
 
 W. E. KXOLLYS : No doubt. 
 
 C. T. RITCHIE : And by so much the tendency is to 
 reduce the wages of the independent poor ? 
 W. E. KXOLLYS : Yes. 
 
 Evidence of W. E. K NOLLYS, Chief General Inspec- 
 tor and Assistant Sec. to the L. G. Board, vol. ii. 
 p. 61. 
 
 "... the more out-door relief is restricted, the more 
 wages will tend to rise, and if it were possible to abolish 
 out-door relief, on which I express no opinion, I am 
 certain that wages would rise." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 119.
 
 API--] Out-door and In-door Relief. 245 
 
 Page 12 (6). 
 
 Out- relief is destructive of thrift, w/iereas a 
 restriction cf out-relief encourages providence. 
 
 Lax administration of the Poor Law tells against 
 thrift and against the interests of the friendly societies. 
 
 Evidence of E. W. BRABROOK, Chief Registrar of 
 Friendly Societies, vol. iii. p. 604. 
 
 Lax administration of the Poor Law is apt to destroy 
 all incentive to thrift. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 551. 
 
 C. S. LOCH : Do you think that_ a proposal that has 
 been made, by which the old age cases should be dealt 
 with by out-door relief with discrimination, is a good 
 system if it could be introduced ? 
 
 ROBERT HEDLEY : I have always myself considered 
 that it was the policy of the Poor Law to administer it 
 with the maximum of efficiency as regards relief of 
 destitution, coupled with the minimum incentive to im- 
 providence ; and if old people are to know that they are 
 to have an income out of the poor rates, I think it will 
 be calculated to discourage providence and thrift. 
 
 Evidence of R. HEDLEY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 85. 
 
 The tendency of a strict administration of out-relief 
 is to induce industrious and provident habits. 
 
 Evidence of SENIOR FOTHERGILL, Superintendent of 
 the Out-relief Department of the parish of Bir- 
 mingham, vol. ii. p. 171.
 
 246 Some Poor Relief Questions. [AIT. 
 
 Page 15 (8). 
 
 Encouragement cannot safely be given to the 
 thrifty by discriminating in favour of 
 members of friendly societies ; and to allow the 
 poor rates to be treated as a subsidiary fund 
 wottld have an injurious effect on such 
 societies. 
 
 If club payments were subsidised from the poor 
 rates, weak clubs would be encouraged, and friendly 
 societies weakened. 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 118. 
 
 C. S. LOCH: Take a method which is now adopted, by 
 which a bounty is put directly upon those cases in which 
 persons belong to friendly societies, since the money 
 that they receive from the friendly society is taken as 
 half what, in your opinion, would be the result of that 
 system, and what actually does result from it ? 
 
 T. MACKAY : It seems to me that it is the endowment of 
 the inadequate form of friendly society, which I am per- 
 fectly sure has been one of the greatest curses ; the bogus 
 public-house clubs, which meet at intervals, and pretend 
 that their benefits are offered on actuarial calculations, but 
 which, in fact, are nothing of the sort, and which simply 
 get along because they are supplemented by a lax 
 administration of the Poor Law. 
 
 Evidence of T. MACKAY, vol. ii. p. 512.
 
 \pp. ] Out-door and In-door Relief. 247 
 
 Page 17 (8). 
 
 // li'ould be an injustice to those who had shown 
 other forms of thrift, if the Guardians were 
 to favour members of Friendly Societies. 
 
 " I see an insuperable difficulty in any board of 
 guardians making a distinction between the form of 
 thrift which is exemplified by a contribution to a friendly 
 society and any other form of thrift." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L, G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 118. 
 
 Page 1 8 (9). 
 
 The effect of out-relief on the sense of family 
 obligations and ties of relationship is disas- 
 trous. 
 
 " I think that the neglect of parents by their sons and 
 others who are legally liable to support them, amongst 
 the poorer classes, is one of the crying sins of the 
 day. . . . Their relatives would very often subscribe 
 where they would not otherwise have done so, rather 
 than allow them to go into the workhouse." 
 
 Evidence of W. E. KNOLLYS, Chief General 
 Inspector and Assistant Sec. to the L G. Board, 
 vol. ii. pp. 44, 71. 
 
 " It is perfectly true that people will allow their rela- 
 tions to be kept at the cost of the poor rates, without 
 making any effort for them as long as they get out-door 
 relief ; but the moment they get in-door relief they will 
 make every effort to help them." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 117.
 
 248 Some Poor Relief Questions. t App - 
 
 " I am afraid there is a sad tendency in very many 
 cases to neglect the obligations, and I think all our help, 
 both charitable and Poor Law, tends to stimulate that. I 
 think many of the people are affectionate, only they think 
 that other people may as well support their parents, and 
 they often leave them in the hope that people will." 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 553. 
 
 Page 30 (13). 
 
 Out-relief is necessarily inadequate, and on that 
 account alone, fraught ivith injurious con- 
 sequences. 
 
 " As a result of the inadequate relief sometimes given 
 by the guardians, the necessity must arise for its being 
 supplemented from some other source by donations, 
 principally from charitable sources, from those with a 
 personal knowledge of the recipients, who feel constrained 
 to help them, through seeing that the relief given to them 
 is inadequate ; and then all the evils resulting from the 
 overlapping of relief from different sources at once arise ; 
 the temptation to deception on the part of the recipient, 
 and the ignorance as to the amounts to be received on 
 the part both of the guardians and those having control 
 of charitable funds." 
 
 Evidence of W. E. KNOLLYS, Chief General Inspector 
 of the L. G. Board for the Metropolis, vol. ii. 
 p. 44. 
 
 " There are many cases where a person has out-relief, 
 and the relief is absolutely inadequate, because it is not 
 supplemented, and that is one of the gravest mischiefs of
 
 At- p.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 249 
 
 out-door relief. The guardians assume that there will be 
 other means of income, and often, unhappily, persons in 
 receipt of relief may struggle on, getting insufficient food, 
 until they actually break down, because the relief has not 
 been supplemented." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 21. 
 
 " Half-a-crown a week is about the outside relief that is 
 given to old people. . . . Therefore they must either be 
 living with their relations, in which case I have nothing to 
 say, or they receive charity, or have other sources of 
 income which are unknown to the guardians, or not fully 
 known to the guardians. That is bad relief, and an 
 injustice to the ratepayer. Or, thirdly, they are starving, 
 which is grossly cruel ; or, fourthly, they are earning 
 money, and if they are earning money, for every penny 
 that they earn, by even casual employment, they are taking 
 precisely the same sum from an independent poor person." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 103, 
 
 It is one of the great objections to out-door relief, as it 
 is at present granted, that it is always inadequate to 
 relieve destitution, destitution being the only ground 
 which entitles the applicant to relief at all. 
 
 Evidence of ROBERT HEDLEY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 89. 
 
 " The great evil of the out-relief system to my mind is 
 that out-door relief is seldom or never adequate." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLAXCE, Clerk to the Board of 
 Guardians, Whitechapel, vol. ii. p. 147.
 
 250 Some Poor Relief Questions. l> pp - 
 
 Page 31 (14). 
 
 The decrease in pauperism is largely due to the 
 stricter administration of the Poor Lazv. 
 
 " No doubt the general improvement of the condition 
 of the working classes has had much to do with the de- 
 crease (in the number of paupers during the last 20 
 years). It is, however, impossible to say to what extent 
 the decrease is to be attributed to this cause or to that, but 
 the stricter administration, I think it is quite certain, has 
 had its share, and a considerable share, in securing this 
 
 result." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 18. 
 
 Page 34 (15). 
 
 A strict administration neither pushes pauperism 
 back into a mass of unrelieved poverty, nor 
 drives it from one district to another, nor 
 forces persons into the workhouse ; but, on the 
 contrary, improves the condition of the 
 labouring classes. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : You think there is a greater number of 
 persons receiving out-door relief, who if the law were 
 strictly administered, would be refused it ? 
 
 J. S. DAVY : They would be refused out-door relief, 
 and they would disappear from the pauper list alto- 
 gether. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : And that, you think, without inflicting great 
 hardship ? 
 
 J. S. DAVY : I have seen the pauper lists reduced 
 immensely, in a good many unions, and. I have never
 
 APP.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 251 
 
 | 
 
 heard of any wide-spread hardship in any union resulting 
 from that decrease. That it never would happen, I 
 cannot say; a great deal depends upon how it is done. 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 103. 
 
 The general reduction of out-door relief has not been 
 accompanied by any increased hardship in the position 
 of the poor. It has been concurrent with an enormous 
 improvement in the condition of the labouring classes. 
 
 Ditto, p. 106. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Let me ask you whether you think that 
 that restriction of relief leads to any practical hardship 
 amongst the poor ? 
 
 A. M'DOUGALL : I don't think it does. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Do you think it has tended to elevate their 
 character? 
 
 A. M'DOUGALL: I believe it has. 
 
 Evidence of A. M'DOUGALL, Jun., Vice-Chairman, 
 Manchester B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 266. 
 
 "I have no hesitation in saying that the effect (of this 
 almost total disappearance in the Whitechapel Union of 
 out-door relief and the application of the in-door test) has 
 not been to any appreciable extent to occasion migration 
 into other districts. The poor, in numbers, could not 
 possibly migrate into another district without a certain 
 proportion of them being returnable upon orders of 
 removal, and, as a fact, we have very few indeed." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the Guardians, 
 Whitechapel, vol. ii. p. 146.
 
 252 Some Poor Relief Questions. 1 APP - 
 
 " No facts have been brought to my knowledge which 
 justify the statement that there has been a migration from 
 a not out-relief to a pro out-relief union." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the Guardians, 
 Whitechapel, vol. ii. p. 157. 
 
 It might be expected that if the number of persons 
 receiving out-door relief was largely diminished, there 
 would be a considerable increase in the number of the 
 in-door poor. This, however, has not been the case. 
 There has been an increase in the number of in-door 
 poor, but only such an increase as is about equal to the 
 increase of population. The experience in those unions 
 where out-door relief has been almost entirely discon- 
 tinued, is as a rule that whilst there is a very large reduc- 
 tion in the number of paupers in receipt of out-door 
 relief, there is generally a very small increase, and in 
 some cases an actual decrease in the number of work- 
 house inmates. 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. pp. 17, 27. 
 
 1^639(19). 
 
 The reluctance of the poor to go into the workhouse 
 is to be desired in the interest of the poor 
 themselves. 
 
 " The workhouse ought certainly not to be deterrent to 
 such an extent as to make it a hardship to persons to go 
 there, and in fact the great majority of those in the work- 
 house are better fed, and better provided for than they 
 ever were before. It is, however, essential that there 
 should be such discipline and order that a person would
 
 APP.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 253 
 
 not desire to go into the workhouse if he could avoid it : 
 otherwise you would indefinitely increase the number of 
 those chargeable upon the rates." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 17. 
 
 Page 41 (20). 
 
 The poor have no just ground of complaint ivhen 
 offered the workhouse. 
 
 " I think it must be the feeling of everybody that the 
 lot of the poor in workhouses should not be made dis- 
 tinctly preferable to that of the independent poor ; but 
 clearly it is, and has been, better than that of most of the 
 independent poor who would be likely to apply for 
 admission, in the matter of food, clothing and warmth, 
 ever since, I should have supposed, workhouses have 
 been established." 
 
 Evidence of W. E. KNOLLYS, Chief General Inspector 
 of the L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 54. 
 
 " There is no independent labouring man who, so far as 
 material comforts are concerned, is so well off as the 
 in-door pauper." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 101. 
 
 Page 53 (25). 
 
 An in-door policy saves tJie rates. The argument 
 that out-door relief is cJieaper rests on the 
 assumption that all who are refused out-
 
 254 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ A1>1- - 
 
 relief will enter the workJwuse, wldcJi is far 
 from being the case. 
 
 " It has been estimated that about one in ten when the 
 workhouse is offered accepts this form of relief (in-door 
 relief). I am not including sick persons." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 81. 
 
 " As a rule, the returns show that if you have a very 
 strict administration you diminish the rate, as ordinarily 
 the cost of the maintenance of those who come into the 
 workhouse does not amount to what you save by the out- 
 relief that you avoid." 
 
 Ditto, p. 19. 
 
 So many more persons would willingly accept out- 
 door relief than in-door relief, that there is in practice a 
 higher charge on the rates where out-door relief is 
 given. 
 
 Evidence of W. E. KNOLLYS, Chief General Inspec- 
 tor and Assistant Sec. to the L. G. Board, vol. ii. 
 p. 72. 
 
 Page 58 (27). 
 
 The past payment of rates does not entitle a man 
 to relief. 
 
 " I do not think it was ever the intention, as far as my 
 knowledge goes, to look upon the payment of rates as 
 insurance for a future income." 
 
 Evidence of ROBERT HEDLF.Y, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 86.
 
 API'.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 255 
 
 Page 60 (28). 
 
 A strict administration does not bring the Poor 
 Law into discredit, but on the contrary 
 out-relief does so, and in consequence of the 
 partiality and uncertainty with which it 
 cannot fail to be administered. 
 
 " I have no hesitation in saying that the poor are 
 much more contented than they were twenty years 
 ago. They see an uniform administration, a strict 
 administration, but uniform ; and uniformity they under- 
 stand." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the 
 Guardians, Whitechapel, vol. ii. p. 158. 
 
 Page 6 1 (29). 
 
 Relaxation of the Poor Laiv would again lead to 
 the old evils. 
 
 C. S. LOCH : And if you relaxed your system in the 
 direction of the old Poor Law, do you think that you 
 would be troubled again with able-bodied pauperism ? 
 
 ROBERT HEDLEY : I think you would. 
 
 Evidence of R. HEDLEY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 85.
 
 256 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ AI>1> - 
 
 Page 62 (i). 
 
 That whilst the evils of indiscriminate relief 
 are generally admitted, the present ten- 
 dency errs too much in the direction of 
 restriction. 
 
 " I think that in-door relief should not be given to 
 those who can manage in any way to be maintained out of 
 the house, or rather, I should say that the house should be 
 reserved for those cases who were unable to find any 
 home in their old age, and for those most socially worth- 
 less ; that the old people should not be forced into the 
 house except they were of such a character that the 
 restraint of the house and its discipline were absolutely 
 necessary for them." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, Guardian, 
 Newark Union, vol. ii. p. 308. 
 
 " I think that in regard to the present system of ad- 
 ministering Poor Law relief to the aged poor, alterations 
 are not only desirable, but that they are imperative on 
 ethical and economic grounds." 
 
 Ditto, p. 505. 
 Page 63 (2). 
 
 Any universal adoption of a strict policy would 
 cause a revulsion of feeling in favour of a lax 
 administration. 
 
 "... if you wanted to bring into operation a univer- 
 sally strict administration of the Poor Law, you would find 
 a revulsion against it, you would find that the people would
 
 APP.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 257 
 
 not stand it ; and the reason that they would not stand 
 it is that a vast number of people who have been paupers 
 by the existence of the Poor Law would consider them- 
 selves, and other people would consider them, to be very 
 cruelly used, if very stringent measures were taken 
 against them . . ." 
 
 Evidence of the Rev. W. L. BLACKLEY, vol. iii. 
 p. 719. 
 
 " Very often it is kind to be hard ; but I do not think 
 the public would support a general system such as you 
 have at those unions (Bradfield, &c.), carried out through- 
 out the whole country. I think there would be a revulsion 
 of sentiment against that, if it were adopted very 
 largely." 
 
 Evidence of G. C. T. BARTLEY, M.P., vol. ii. p. 444. 
 
 Page 65 (4). 
 
 Proper discrimination between the deserving and 
 undeserving, tJiough no doubt difficult, is 
 perfectly possible. 
 
 ALBERT PELL : Do you think that we are capable of 
 saying who among our fellow-creatures are deserving and 
 who are not deserving ? 
 
 S. D. FULLER: Yes. 
 
 ALBERT PELL : You think we are ? 
 
 S. D. FULLER : Yes. 
 
 ALBERT PELL : You have never been imposed upon by 
 a false character ? 
 
 S. D. FULLER : Probably often ; it is none the less our 
 duty to try. Take the case of a deserving person sent up 
 
 L. s
 
 258 Some Poor Relief Questions. 
 
 by the Guardians to the committee of the Charity Organi- 
 sation Society for help, we recognize that the members of 
 that committee have the power to discriminate rightly. 
 I do not see why the Guardians could not be considered 
 to have the same mental powers." 
 
 Evidence of S. D. FULLER, Chairman, Paddington B. 
 of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 142. 
 
 " From the experience I have had in making en- 
 quiries I do not think there is any difficulty (in distin- 
 guishing those old age paupers who are temperate, in- 
 dustrious, and have lived a creditable life, and those who 
 have come to their present condition entirely through 
 thriftlessness and other misconduct). I think we pretty 
 clearly recognize what is the class of applicant that 
 appears before us. I never found that there was any 
 difficulty in getting information as to his past or present 
 conduct." 
 
 Evidence of Dr. H. J. PAINE, Chairman, Cardiff B. 
 of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 283. 
 
 Page 68 (6). 
 
 // is unjust and cruel that all should fare 
 alike that t he poor, who, through no fault of 
 their own, arc rendered destitute, should have 
 their homes broken up, and have no recourse 
 but the workhouse, where the respectable 
 must associate with the disreputable inmates. 
 
 Many old people are compelled to go into the work- 
 house through no fault of their own, and are then 
 obliged in a great many cases to be in the company of
 
 APP.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 259 
 
 those whose lives have been base and corrupt. Out- 
 relief would be more humane as well as a saving of the 
 rates. 
 
 Evidence of GEORGE EDWARDS, General Sec. of the 
 
 Norfolk and Norwich Amalgamated Labour 
 
 Union, vol. ii. p. 349. 
 
 Page 76 (11). 
 
 The present system of Poor Law relief tends to 
 tJie direct discouragement of thrift. 
 
 The hopelessness of being able to save enough to live 
 on in old age paralyses the will : " they do not make, 
 because they find they cannot pay enough to make, and 
 many of them also have not got the opportunities of 
 making, a separate provision for old age." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, Guardian, 
 Newark Union, vol. ii. p. 310. 
 
 In those cases where the allowance received from a 
 benefit club proves inadequate, assistance from the rates 
 should be afforded, and such a policy, far from discou- 
 raging thrift, would be a great inducement to men to 
 help themselves, as it would be a recognition of self- 
 help, and assist self-help. 
 
 Evidence of Dr. H. J. PAINE, Chairman, Cardiff B. of 
 Guardians, vol. ii. p. 280. 
 
 " I know that the doctrine of in-door relief, of course, 
 is pushed forward, in order to keep pauperism down ; 
 but I am under the impression that there is where a 
 distinction might be made, in the case of a thrifty 
 man; that instead of being sent into the House he 
 
 s 2
 
 260 Some Poor Relief Questions. t App - 
 
 should be relieved out ; I do not say to any undue ex- 
 tent, and in doing that, perhaps it may be cheaper for 
 the Guardians." 
 
 Evidence of T. BALLAN STEAD, Permanent Sec. 
 to the Ancient Order of Foresters, vol. iii. pp. 
 686 & 692. 
 
 " In the case of a union where out-door relief is very 
 rarely given, there would be an inducement to the 
 person to belong to a friendly society, and to subscribe 
 such a sum as would be sufficient to provide a main- 
 tenance for him. The refusal of out-door relief altogether 
 would be the strongest inducement to persons to become 
 members of friendly societies, no doubt ; but in the 
 case of a union where out-relief is given, I think that it 
 may be some inducement to a person to belong to a 
 friendly society, if he knows that by doing this he would 
 secure an advantage as regards the amount of relief if he 
 should require this aid beyond that which another person 
 whose circumstances were the same, except as regards 
 the friendly society, would obtain." 
 
 Evidence of Sir H. Owen, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 33. 
 
 " We contend that some modification or alteration 
 should be made in the Poor Law, which would enable a 
 man who partly helps himself, or rather that the fact that 
 a man who partly helps himself should not be deprived 
 of the rates of the district. . . . We further contend that 
 the State certainly should help those who help them- 
 selves." 
 
 Evidence of WM. STEELE, General Sec. of the 
 
 Northumberland and Durham Miners' Permanent 
 
 Relief Fund, vol. ii. p. 468.
 
 Arp.] Out-door and In-door Relief. 261 
 
 Page 79 (14). 
 
 Wages would be raised rather than lowered 
 by a policy of judiciously administered out- 
 relief. 
 
 If money is so spent as to increase the earning power 
 of the next generation, it does not necessarily lower 
 wages, but tends to induce a rise in the standard of 
 living, in which case wages would also rise. "Many of 
 those changes which are most beneficial for society may 
 lower wages, just for the particular time and in the 
 particular place." 
 
 Evidence of Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, vol. iii. pp. 
 536, 537- 
 
 Page 92 (4). 
 
 Out-relief to the partially disabled enables them to 
 undersell those wJio depend entirely on their 
 own exertions, whereas indoor relief takes 
 them off the market, and prevents them com- 
 peting as subsidized workers. 
 
 " . . anybody who gets relief from the poor-rate 
 should not be allowed to earn anything, never mind how 
 casual the earnings may be. ... I would rather that 
 they should sit with their hands before them ; I would 
 rather they should be given i/. per week to enable them 
 to do it, than that they should be given inadequate relief 
 which forces them to compete with the independent
 
 262 Some Poor Relief Questions. l> pl> - 
 
 labourer. 1 think the greatest hardship on the aged poor 
 is that they have not a chance alongside of the subsidized 
 
 pauper." 
 
 Evidence of J. S. DAVY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 103. 
 
 " I am perfectly certain that a decrease of out-door 
 relief is and must be accompanied by an increase of 
 wages. I believe that out-door relief given to people 
 capable of doing any work, or of earning anything, tends 
 to decrease wages." 
 
 Ditto, p. 107. 
 
 " I might mention another evil to which this out-door 
 relief, even in the case of the more or less aged, is very 
 much liable, that is to say, it supplements the earnings. 
 They do not earn regular wages, but, as I have said, they 
 pick up a little here, and a little there. Well, there are 
 many poor people, who, indirectly of course, have to con- 
 tribute to the rates, and the rates, which these poor people 
 help to pay, are used to keep an old person in such a 
 position that she takes part of the little earnings which 
 some of those who help to pay the rates would otherwise 
 secure. It is another thing for a charitable person to 
 keep a man or woman out of the workhouse ; but to take 
 the rates compulsorily from people, and to use them to 
 enable others to compete with those who pay them, can- 
 not be sound, either in theory or practice." 
 
 Evidence of T. GAGE-GARDINER, Guardian, St. 
 Saviour's, vol. ii. p. 222.
 
 A pp -] Ozit-door and In-door Relief. 263 
 
 Page 105. 
 
 O i it-relief granted to wido^vs contributes largely to 
 pauperism. 
 
 C. S. LOCH : In your evidence you mentioned that a 
 large number of people who were receiving out-door 
 relief were widows. Is not that so ? 
 
 H. OWEN : Yes, a very large number. Of those who 
 were returned as able-bodied female paupers, the total 
 number being 53,000, 36,000 were widows. 
 
 C. S. LOCH : And, therefore, any better method of 
 dealing with the cases of widows would probably have a 
 large resulting effect upon old age pauperism? 
 
 H. OWEX : It might be expected that that would be the 
 case. 
 
 Evidence of Sir HUGH OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. i. p. 28.
 
 264 Some Poor Relief Questions. l> pp 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS. 
 
 Page 117(5)- 
 
 In view of their small earnings, the poor cannot 
 fairly be expected to provide for their old 
 age. 
 
 " . . as a rule, the bulk of the working classes, cer- 
 tainly the bulk of unskilled labour, could not possibly 
 make an adequate separate insurance for old age, over 
 and above their sickness and funeral insurance, of suffi- 
 cient amount by which to provide for their old age," 
 
 Evidence of Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, Guardian, 
 Newark Union, vol. ii. p. 316. 
 
 " I think that in dealing with the poor some economists 
 expect from them a virtue which we certainly do not find 
 in ourselves. The poor, of course, have less oppor- 
 tunities of thrift than the well-to-do classes, and it is a 
 little too much to expect from them, unless in very excep- 
 tional instances, the extremely penurious lives which 
 would be necessary if they were to make, by their o\vn 
 efforts alone, a sufficient provision for old age. I do not 
 think they are called upon when they are in active work, 
 and providing for their families' subsistence, to deny 
 themselves everything in the nature of a working man's 
 
 luxury." 
 
 Evidence of J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., vol. iii. p. 659. 
 
 " My position was, that it was too much to expect of a 
 working man to give up everything which makes life
 
 App -] Old Age Pensions. 265 
 
 enjoyable, or even tolerable, to him, if that is necessary 
 in order that he should make an old age provision. I 
 do not think the rich man would do it." 
 
 Evidence of J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., vol. iii. p. 671. 
 
 Page 119 (6). 
 
 It is open to question whether it is generally 
 desirable that the poor should exercise suffi- 
 cient tJirift to enable t/iem to meet the require- 
 ments of old age. 
 
 " Even for the younger, it is, I believe, a fact that very 
 large numbers cannot afford any further deductions from 
 their incomes, and that, if any of them be tempted to 
 apply towards pension purposes, for their sole personal 
 advantage, the amounts hitherto devoted, in the interests 
 of their families, to the sickness and funeral benefit, 
 society at large will suffer by an increase of adult pauper- 
 ism. The lower ranks of labour already, through lack 
 of means, are compelled to neglect too many duties, and 
 it would be politically undesirable to offer any inducement 
 for their abandoning the self-respecting habit of providing, 
 through the friendly societies, for sickness and burial." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 631. 
 
 R. P. HARDY : A great many of these men say they will 
 not spend their money in pensions. I think they are 
 right ; I personally may have a surplus to apply to such a 
 purpose, they have none. Take a man even earning 
 three guineas a week, which I suppose would be a large 
 wage, would it not ?
 
 266 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 H. BROADHURST : Very. 
 
 R. P. HARDY : What has that man really got over when 
 he has discharged the duties of life out of three guineas 
 a week, if he has educated his children properly, has got 
 help for his wife, has not taken his children away from 
 school too soon ? 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 641. 
 
 Page 120 (7). 
 
 Pensions, far from discouraging thrift, would 
 encourage all self-supporting efforts by 
 removing that sense of the hopelessness of 
 effective saving which now prevents many 
 from exercising tJirift. 
 
 " It is my opinion that many people go to the Poor 
 Law now because they are hopeless. They know they 
 will have to go sooner or later, and under those circum- 
 stances they go sooner rather than later ; but if they had 
 the certainty of a pension and of being able to subsist 
 without Poor Law relief after 65, I think they would 
 endeavour to keep themselves away from it in the years 
 immediately preceding 65." 
 
 Evidence of J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., vol. iii. p. 696. 
 
 Page 122 (10). 
 
 A system of national pensions would serve to 
 strengthen Friendly Societies. 
 
 " The present financial condition of friendly societies, 
 and their unsatisfactory condition, has been mainly due
 
 Old Age Pensions. 267 
 
 to this providing for old age, or the disability of old age, 
 under the head of sickness claims ; . . ." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, Guardian, 
 Newark, vol. ii. p. 309. 
 
 For the State to step in and provide the ba^e necessaries 
 of life for old age would at once place the friendly 
 societies' system on a firm financial basis. 
 
 Ditto, p. 316. 
 
 Page 125 (12). 
 
 Existing institutions make no satisfactory pro- 
 vision against old age, and pensions would 
 not tJiei efore injure existing institutions. 
 
 ' Upon the whole, so far as the mass of the existing 
 friendly societies go (excepting the affiliated orders, the 
 Hearts of Oak, and a few others), I consider that no sound, 
 and in none a sufficient provision exists for old age relief 
 in the sense now called for by public opinion ; . . ." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 627. 
 
 A number of the societies have offered their members 
 benefits which their existing resources will never enable 
 them to redeem. 
 
 Ditto. 
 
 " Taking the number of all the friendly societies, 
 good, bad, and indifferent together, they include, I should 
 think, not more than one-third or one-fourth of the
 
 268 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ APP - 
 
 workers ; they certainly do not include that large mass of 
 pure labour for whom it is most desirable that these 
 schemes should be propounded ; they do not take in the 
 dockers and all that great mass of labour. I believe 
 they take in only a very limited proportion of the agri- 
 cultural labourers ; therefore nothing . . . that the 
 friendly societies could do, even if their finances per- 
 mitted it, would touch the mass of the population of 
 this country." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 640. 
 
 " My own impression is that the friendly societies who 
 have really not provided pensions, who do not provide 
 pensions eo nomine, might very wisely leave that part of 
 the business to be done by the nation, especially if the 
 nation gives half the money towards doing it. It would 
 not complicate their operations, it would not interfere 
 with their influence. I do not believe it would lose them 
 one single possible member." 
 
 Evidence of Rev- W. L. BLACKI.EY, vol. iii. p. 710. 
 
 Page 126 (13). 
 
 The opposition of existing voluntary organisations 
 tmtst not be accorded too mucJi consideration; 
 tJieir opposition is not justified. 
 
 " I think it (the opposition of friendly societies) is a 
 most serious point, but 1 do not think that they do 
 represent, to any great extent, the class on whom this 
 serious evil falls. They represent an exceedingly im-
 
 AFP.] Old Age Pensions. 269 
 
 portant body of public opinion, but not one particularly 
 concerned with this question." 
 
 Evidence of CHARLES BOOTH, vol. iii. p. 589. 
 
 " They have no claim whatever to step in now as 
 having any vested interest in providing old age pensions, 
 because this is work that they have never done, and that 
 they have attempted to do with signal failure." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. W. L. BLACKLEY, vol. iii. p. 711. 
 
 Page 141 (25). 
 
 It is not altogether desirable that parents should 
 be dependent in their old age upon their 
 children. 
 
 When the means of the children are very limited, as 
 they are in cases of agricultural and other labourers in 
 the rural districts, it is practically impossible that they 
 can contribute anything towards the support of their 
 parents, and that being so they, instead of desiring a 
 lengthened existence to their parents, almost, in some 
 instances, wish that that existence were terminated. 
 
 Evidence of ROBERT ELCOCK, Guardian, Wimborne 
 and Cranborne Union, vol. ii. pp. 248, 250. 
 
 Page 143 (i). 
 
 No scheme which does not give pensions freely to 
 all would make any impression on the bulk of 
 old age poverty, and attempts to discriminate
 
 270 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 between the deserving and undeserving ivo2tld 
 not be justifiable. 
 
 " A scheme depending upon contributions could be 
 adopted by only a portion of the community, and would 
 act preferentially in the interests of the least helpless, and 
 must necessarily leave the vast remnant still seething in 
 hopeless pauperism, which, in the interests of the State 
 and for the spread of civilisation, it is imperatively essential 
 to remove. . . . For these reasons mainly, it appears to 
 me no scheme has any chance of the required amount 
 of success, as a political and social measure, that is not 
 universal and immediate in its scope, non-forfeitable in 
 its operation, and absolute in its results of placing, at 
 least, all impecunious persons upon a retired list at some 
 fixed age, when further labour at wages should be pro- 
 hibited by statute." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 631. 
 
 " In my view, it is not within the legitimate province 
 of man to judge his fellow, except where the preserva- 
 tion of order makes it imperative ; consequently, I say 
 that any inquisition into a man's life, to decide 
 whether he administered his income properly, or made 
 the best use of his opportunities, would be insupportable, 
 and that no human being that I am acquainted with is fit 
 to sit upon such a jury." 
 
 Ditto, p. 634.
 
 Old Age Pensions. 271 
 
 Page 147 (5). 
 
 The presumption would be that tJie pension would 
 not be ill-bestowed. 
 
 " As a rule, the vicious and those that abuse life do not 
 reach old age ; and the fact that age has been reached is, 
 in itself, reasonable presumption that, all things con- 
 sidered, the gift of life has not been bestowed without due 
 cause." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 634. 
 
 Page 148 (6). 
 
 The general endowment of old age would tend to 
 raise the whole standard of life. 
 
 " These schemes would not be worth discussing if we 
 did not believe that they would have a moral and eleva- 
 ting effect upon the people." 
 
 Evidence of R. P. HARDY, Fellow of the Institute of 
 Actuaries, Actuary to the Hearts of Oak Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 643. 
 
 Page 152 (3). 
 
 The number of paupers has steadily decreased 
 during the last twenty years. 
 
 Taking the total of in-door and out-door poor: 
 whilst in 1872, 43 persons in every thousand were
 
 272 Some Poor Relief Questions. 
 
 in receipt of relief, in 1892 the proportion was 
 less than 26, and the decrease in the number of pau- 
 pers has been very steady, most years showing a de- 
 crease." 
 
 Evidence of Sir II. OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 4. 
 
 Page 156 (5). 
 
 That very feiu persons come upon the Poor Law 
 solely in consequence of advancing years. 
 
 " I do not know of old men who are saving and in- 
 dustrious who are not able to keep themselves out of 
 the workhouse ; I do not come across them." 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 565. 
 
 " I say it is a contingency ; it is not one I often 
 come across, that the sober, respectable thrifty man is 
 left entirely destitute in his old age." 
 
 Ditto, p. 566. 
 Page 156 (6). 
 
 A well-considered scheme, even though costly, 
 would be more desirable tJian the continuation 
 of the existing state of things. 
 
 " There are two (pension schemes), especially that I 
 think have a great deal to be said for them, Mr. Charles 
 Booth's and Mr. Moore Ede's modification of Mr. 
 Charles Booth's. My objections to them are that their 
 educational effect, though a true one, would be indirect ; 
 that they would be expensive; and that they do not
 
 APP-] Old Age Pensions. 273 
 
 contain in themselves the seeds of their own disap- 
 pearance. I am afraid that, if started, they would tend 
 to become perpetual. . . . But I would far rather have 
 either Mr. Booth's scheme or Mr. Moore Ede's scheme 
 than things as they are." 
 
 Evidence of Prof. ALFRED MARSHALL, vol. iii. 
 P- 543- 
 
 Page 157 (7). 
 
 A system of national pensions 'aould, in fact, 
 injure the working classes. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Do you think, speaking generally of your 
 knowledge of the conditions of life among the poorer 
 classes, that it would be good policy to remove from 
 them any of their personal and social responsibilities, 
 such, for instance, as some provision by the State or 
 otherwise for old age ? 
 
 Miss OCTAVIA HILL : I should be strongly of opinion 
 that it would be impolitic to remove such responsi- 
 bilities. I think what the poor really want now is 
 much more the realisation of them, and the stimulus 
 to live up to them, than any removal of them. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : In fact, to put the responsibility upon 
 themselves to make provision for themselves ? 
 
 Miss OCTAVIA HILL: Distinctly so; very strongly 
 indeed I should be of opinion that that was so. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 551. 
 
 " My fears are very great now of the people looking 
 more and more to what can be done for them, and less 
 and less to what they can do themselves, and in my 
 
 L. T
 
 274 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ A1>1> - 
 
 talk with all the poorer people, that is the great ten- 
 dency that I find among them. They are always talking 
 about other people's duties, or something they are hoping 
 to come from the skies, whereas, if they would just 
 turn round and do the things within their power, they 
 would begin to grow more prosperous, and they would 
 be far better, richer, and happier men, and it is a scheme 
 coming at this particular time that I feel would be so dis- 
 astrous to them. From my experience among the homes 
 of the people, I think what they want is not help from 
 above ; I think they want something which should develop 
 them and stir their own energies, and I do not think that 
 a State pension would have that result." 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 558. 
 
 Page 158 (8). 
 
 Timely provision for old age has ceased to be im- 
 possible, even to the labouring poor of agricul- 
 tural districts, and the difficulty is already 
 being gradiially overcome by the "solvent 
 power of free human initiation" which facts 
 render legislative interference both unwise 
 and unnecessary. 
 
 " The more thrifty and respectable of the poor have 
 done already many things for themselves, and it seems to 
 me it would be far better to leave the provision for old 
 age on the same sort of footing, to be done by voluntary 
 associations." 
 
 Ditto, p. 552.
 
 APP.] Old Age Pensions. 275 
 
 H. BROADHURST : I understand that you are against all 
 systems of pensions ? 
 
 Miss OCTAVIA HILL : I really am. 
 
 Mr. BROADHURST : Why ? 
 
 Miss OCTAVIA HILL : I do not see what we want them 
 for, because I think people can provide them for them- 
 selves, or their children can provide them for them. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. Hi. p. 558. 
 
 Agricultural labourers " do both save and support 
 themselves and bring up their families in ways that show 
 that it really does more depend on management, on 
 thrift, on industry, on economy, than on large wage; and 
 if they can do it, surely the large bulk of our people can 
 
 do it." 
 
 . Ditto, p. 559. 
 
 A. C. HUMPHREYS OWEN : Could you quite safely say 
 that there is no class of persons who are so ill-paid that 
 they could not afford to join friendly societies ? 
 
 T. BALLAN STEAD : No, there is not a class which can- 
 not. Some of our best courts are in the agricultural 
 districts, where the wages are the lowest ; some of 
 our best courts are in Suffolk, Dorsetshire, Hampshire, 
 and other places like those. 
 
 I have found that some of our best courts I mean finan- 
 cially, I am not speaking numerically are in what are 
 supposed to be the poorest districts." 
 
 Evidence of T. BALLAN STEAD, Permanent Sec. to 
 the Ancient Order of Foresters, vol. iii. pp. 687, 
 688. 
 
 T 2
 
 276 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ App 
 
 T. C. RITCHIE : And do I take it that you yourself are 
 satisfied that the working classes are progressing, and 
 progressing as fast as can reasonably be expected of 
 them, in the effort to provide for themselves by belonging 
 to friendly societies ? 
 
 REUBEN WATSON : I am confident they are. 
 
 T. C. RITCHIE : You are 'satisfied with the amount of 
 progress that is being made ? 
 
 REUBEN WATSON : Perfectly. 
 
 T. C. RITCHIE : And you think that legislative inter- 
 ference would in all probability not help forward the 
 movement which you have at heart, and might possibly 
 retard it ? 
 
 REUBEN WATSON : I am afraid that is so, exactly as you 
 state it. 
 
 Evidence of REUBEN WATSON, Associate of the 
 Institute of Actuaries, Actuary to the Manchester 
 Unity of Odd Fellows, vol. iii. p. 616. 
 
 "I think it is quite possible for the agricultural poor to 
 provide for all their primary wants, including those of old 
 age, if they are only let alone." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. WM. BURY, Chairman to the 
 Brixworth B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 242. 
 
 LORD BRASSEY : Do you think that the poor, and 
 especially poor women, have sufficient means outside of 
 the Post Office annuities for making provision for their old 
 age, by contributions which would secure them pensions ? 
 
 Rev. WM. BURY : I think, if they use their opportu-
 
 APP -] Old Age Pensions. 277 
 
 nities, they have the means of making provision for old 
 age and other primary wants. 
 
 Evidence of Rev. W.M. BURY, Chairman to the 
 Brixworth B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 242. 
 
 C. S. LOCH : And you have no belief that the friendly 
 societies do not go low enough : I mean, speaking of low 
 in the sense of wage earning ? You think that the friendly 
 societies are able to draw from every class, down to the 
 lowest ? 
 
 T. FATKIN : I think so ; and I think further, that if all 
 the working classes that can afford would pay to the 
 friendly societies, we should scarcely have any poor 
 relief at all. 
 
 Evidence of T. FATKIN, Manager and Actuary of the 
 Leeds Permanent Benefit Building Society, vol. iii. 
 P- 953- 
 
 C. S. LOCH : Is there any extreme difficulty, in your 
 opinion, in the unskilled classes providing for themselves, 
 not through a trade union, but through a friendly society? 
 
 C. J. DRUMMOND : I think not ; I believe I am justified 
 in saying that there is a large number of the unskilled 
 workers who are members of one or other of the 
 friendly societies. 
 
 Evidence of C. J. DRUMMOND, Labour Corre- 
 spondent to the B. of Trade, Past President of 
 the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, vol. iii. 
 P- 573- 
 
 By far the largest part of the skilled labour of the country
 
 278 Some Poor Relief Questions. t App - 
 
 can by trade unions, or in some other way, make its 
 own provisions for old age. 
 
 Evidence of C. J. DRUMMOND, Labour Corre- 
 spondent of the B. of Trade, Past President 
 of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, vol. iii. 
 P- 573- 
 Page 161 (9). 
 
 That the advocacy of pensions is a counsel of 
 despair. 
 
 " Suppose a man, 60 years ago, at the time when the 
 Poor Law was on a very different footing to that on which 
 it now stands, had got a law passed that sickness was a 
 proper public charge, and that a man should not be 
 expected to provide what was necessary for his sickness, 
 you would never have had the friendly societies ; and, 
 personally, I look forward to the poor obtaining just the 
 same kind of advantage from looking steadily in the face 
 this difficulty with regard to their old age; and I do 
 believe they are now doing it." 
 
 Evidence of T. MACKAY, vol. ii. p. 505. 
 
 Page 165. 
 
 National pensions would be destructive to thrift 
 and providence. 
 
 " The great work now accomplished by friendly and 
 other societies would be seriously damaged, and, I 
 believe, the poor rates would increase enormously during 
 the next half-century." 
 
 Evidence of T. FATKIN, Manager and Actuary of 
 the Leeds Permanent Benefit Building Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 941.
 
 APP.] Old Age Pensions. 279 
 
 The aid of the State in supplementing, would rather 
 diminish thrift, than augment it. 
 
 Evidence of Rev. WM. BURY, Chairman to the 
 Brixworth B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 233. 
 
 Page 166 (12). 
 
 Existing institutions no longer fail to make 
 provision for old age. 
 
 Trade unions are now taking it as part of their duty 
 to provide for old age. " I think I might almost go so 
 far as to say that nearly all trade unions provide super- 
 annuation benefit, but 95 per cent, pay it only to 
 members who are incapacitated either by old age or 
 infirmity, and there are very few indeed that provide 
 superannuation as a matter of right on arriving at a given 
 
 age." 
 
 Evidence of C. J. DRUMMOND, Labour Corre- 
 spondent to the B. of Trade, Past President 
 of the Hearts of Oak Benefit Society, vol. iii. 
 P- 573- 
 
 " We who are leaders, or profess to be leaders, in the 
 friendly society system, are endeavouring to do all we 
 can to induce them to establish annuity benefits or old 
 age pensions; and there are many thousands in this 
 country who are already so insured." 
 
 Evidence of REUBEN WATSON, Associate of the 
 Institute of Actuaries, and Actuary to the Man- 
 chester Unity of Oddfellows, vol. iii. p. 613. 
 
 There are many other societies (besides the Man- 
 chester Unity of Oddfellows, the Stoke and Milford
 
 280 Some Poor Relief Questions. OPP. 
 
 Society, and the Foresters) which provide annuities up 
 and down the country. 
 
 Evidence of REUBEN WATSON, Associate of the 
 Institute of Actuaries, and Actuary to the Man- 
 chester Unity of Oddfellows, vol. iii. p. 617. 
 
 J. STUART : Do you attribute the small number of the 
 members of friendly societies applying for Poor Law 
 relief to the provision made in friendly societies being 
 found sufficient, generally, to meet the needs of old 
 age? 
 
 T. BALLAN STEAD : That is so ; certainly. 
 
 Evidence of T. BALLAN STEAD, Permanent Sec. to 
 the Ancient Order of Foresters, vol. iii. p. 690. 
 
 Page 172 (17). 
 
 If once the principle of State aid to supplement 
 income be admitted, zve are brought face to 
 face with the question why maintenance 
 should be extended to the aged and infirm, 
 in preference to women, children, the sick, or 
 infirm. 
 
 " I think if the State intervenes on behalf of the aged, 
 it is difficult to see in what way the intervention of the 
 State may not be justified in other contingencies of life. 
 Whether the State provides the whole or part, it would be 
 regarded by the working classes as the duty of the State 
 to provide in part ..." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the White- 
 chapel B. of Guardians.
 
 APP-] Old Age Pensions. 281 
 
 Page 178 (23). 
 
 State pensions are virtually but another form of 
 out-relief, and liable to tJie same objections. 
 
 ALBERT PELL : Can you see any distinction between 
 pensions given out of the rates, and ordinary out-door 
 relief, excepting in the name ? 
 
 H. OWEN : There would be no distinction, except in 
 name. The burden would be borne by precisely the 
 same persons. 
 
 Evidence of Sir HUGH OWEN, Permanent Sec. to the 
 L. G. Board, vol. ii. p. 36. 
 
 " If a person is to be aided by a pension from public 
 funds by way of relief, the condition of things is the same 
 whether payment is out of the poor rate or whether it is 
 by the State, or whether it is out of the produce of the 
 taxation of the country." 
 
 Ditto, p. 41. 
 
 Any pension scheme should be self-supporting. Any 
 State subsidy in aid of such a fund would simply be out- 
 relief under another name, and its influence would be 
 pernicious. It would discourage thrift and independence, 
 instead of cultivating those qualities. 
 
 Evidence of SENIOR FOTHERGILL, Superintendent of 
 the Out-relief Department of the Parish of Bir- 
 mingham, vol. ii. p. 166. 
 
 Page 1 80 (24). 
 
 Provision for old age is outside the true province 
 of the State, and cannot be dealt with by
 
 282 Some Poor Relief Questions. l> pp - 
 
 the State with any real advantage to the 
 people. 
 
 " I have always regarded it as important, however 
 difficult a man's circumstances may be, whatever his 
 difficulties may be, however hard his life may be, as a 
 dangerous proposition to say that it is not a personal 
 matter for that man to provide for the future, but that he 
 is entitled to have that responsibility shared by the State, 
 or by some public fund." 
 
 Evidence of WM. VALLANCE, Clerk to the Guardians, 
 Whitechapel, vol. ii. p. 153. 
 
 " I am on principle against the State interfering at all 
 with the affairs of the poor in this sort of matter. ... I 
 would rather that the poor themselves be left to find their 
 own way of providing." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. WM. BURY, Chairman, Brixworth 
 B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 242. 
 
 Page 181 (I). 
 
 No scheme involving previous voluntary contribu- 
 tions will reach the lowest classes, and the 
 improvident will still come on the rates, and 
 old age pauperism practically remain un- 
 touched. 
 
 A pension fund which entailed a contribution from 
 the people themselves would still leave the great bulk of
 
 APP.] Old Age Pensions. 283 
 
 the aged poor to be dealt with by the Poor Law as at 
 
 present. 
 
 Evidence of W. E. KNOLLYS, Chief General Inspec- 
 tor and Assistant Sec. to the L. G. Board, vol. ii. 
 p. 62. 
 
 The majority of those in the metropolitan workhouses 
 are not persons who would be likely to have made con- 
 tinuous payments for their own benefit in old age. 
 
 Evidence of ROBERT HEDLEY, Inspector of the L. G. 
 Board, vol. ii. p. 88. 
 
 Page 184(3). 
 
 It is doubtful whether it is advisable for the poor 
 to sink their money in old age annuities old 
 age not being the first eventuality for ^cvhicJt 
 a working-man has to provide. 
 
 CHAIRMAN : Leaving out the risk of losing either 
 principal or interest by withdrawal or death before 65 
 years of age, what is your opinion of immediate life 
 annuities for working men before 65 years of age ? 
 
 T. FATKIN : They are quite unsuitable to the wants of 
 working men, and no reasonable amount of subsidy will 
 make them attractive. 
 
 Evidence of T. FATKIN, Manager and Actuary of the 
 Leeds Permanent Benefit Building Society, vol. 
 iii. p. 943. 
 
 Deferred annuities are most unpopular with all classes. 
 This is partly because they do not care to pay immediate 
 sums for very remote benefits, and also because they feel
 
 284 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 that if they invest their money in other forms, it brings in 
 a better and happier return. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 552. 
 
 " A deferred annuity would be undoubtedly a gain to 
 the poor, there is no doubt that it would be a gain, but 
 they think it is not the best investment of their savings ; 
 and I think they are right as long as they have not pro- 
 vided other things." 
 
 Ditto, p. 565. 
 
 Deferred annuities are not by any means the wisest 
 and most advantageous form of thrift for the working- 
 classes. 
 
 Evidence of Rev. WM. BURY, Chairman of the Brix- 
 worth B. of Guardians, vol. ii. p. 232. 
 
 Page 185 (3). 
 
 To grant national pensions and to ignore the other 
 very numerous working-class associations for 
 thrift, will prove an injustice to those persons 
 who have elected to provide for themselves in 
 other ^vays, and to invest in other forms of 
 property. 
 
 Any scheme for subsidising some one form of thrift 
 would prove unjust to those who have exercised thrift 
 and forethought in other ways. 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 553.
 
 Old Age Pensions. 285 
 
 Page 186 (4). 
 
 Slate-aided pensions would compete unfairly with 
 Friendly Societies. 
 
 "... We say at present that Mr. Chamberlain is 
 offering, or his committee is offering, to do a certain 
 business at 20 per cent, less than we can do it at, we 
 claiming to be charging the proper rate, and only 
 charging five per cent, for expenses ; and we shall more 
 strongly object to the scheme as we know it now than we 
 
 did before, because it is unfair competition 
 
 Certainly the friendly societies who are offering superan- 
 nuation or old-age pensions at a proper price will cer- 
 tainly protest against any other voluntary organization 
 coming into the field and offering them for 20 per cent, 
 less on the strength of getting from the State an augmen- 
 tation. ... It would not affect us much at present, 
 because we have not had much business in that direction ; 
 only it will take away the possibility of having any in 
 the future." 
 
 Evidence of T. BALLAN STEAD, Permanent Sec. to 
 the Ancient Order of Foresters, vol. iii. p. 684. 
 
 Page 189 (2). 
 
 Gratuitous pensions would discourage forethought 
 and providence, and in many ways tend to 
 demoralize rather than elevate the poor. 
 
 " It (Mr. Booth's scheme) would not be adequate. I 
 cannot believe that it would promote thrift. It seems to
 
 286 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 me that it would do a great deal to destroy what one is 
 of all things the most desirous to cultivate the sense of 
 responsibility of relatives; and I also object very much 
 indeed to the idea of its being applied to all classes of 
 people ; it does not seem to me reasonable, that people 
 who are well-off should have a right to an annuity, in 
 order to save the sensitiveness of other people who are 
 not well-off." 
 
 Evidence of Miss OCTAVIA HILL, vol. iii. p. 552. 
 
 " By the increased energy of friendly societies, the 
 multiplication of institutions for receiving the small 
 savings of the working classes, and the spread of educa- 
 tion, the number of improvident working men is yearly 
 diminishing. If, however, it became law that indiscrimi- 
 nate relief was to be given in either sickness or old age, 
 alike to the provident and improvident, a great blow 
 would be struck at the magnanimous work which is now 
 being carried on by the great friendly societies of this 
 country, with a probability of a decrease of provident 
 habits." 
 
 Evidence of T. FATKIN, Manager and Actuary of the 
 Leeds Permanent Benefit Building Society, 
 vol. iii. p. 945. 
 
 " I do not suppose that giving $s. would have any great 
 effect on a member of the middle classes ; I quite believe 
 that, because they are accustomed to the saving and 
 keeping of property; but with these poor people who 
 have to learn the necessity of making provision, I do not 
 think it would increase their chance of learning this
 
 APP.] Old Age Pensions. 287 
 
 necessity. It is not enough to warrant them in resting 
 content, and I think it would relax their efforts to do 
 anything at all." 
 
 Evidence of T. MACKAY, vol. ii. p. 515. 
 
 Page 192 (3). 
 
 Gratuitous pensions would be both unwise and 
 unjust^ involving compulsory payment by the 
 industrious and thrifty for the idle and im- 
 provident. 
 
 " Every one of those people will be compulsorily 
 insured; they will be, practically, compulsorily insured. 
 That is compulsion put upon the part of the nation 
 easiest to compel, and no compulsion is to be put on the 
 people who are unwilling to contribute. It is, then, in 
 fact, a compulsory insurance for all the better men, and 
 for all the better off. I have not a word to say against 
 the rich paying for the poor, but the scheme keeps up 
 some of the old vices which are in the Poor Law system ; 
 not that the rich pay for the poor, but that all the thrifty 
 are taxed, inasmuch as it is easy to do it, to provide for 
 all the wasteful, who are not taxed at all for the purpose. 
 And that is what I say, that this scheme becomes as far 
 as that a compulsory insurance of the wealthy by taxa- 
 tion, although it does nothing whatever to induce those 
 who are unwilling to do their duty." 
 
 Evidence of Rev. W. L. BLACKLEY, vol. iii. p. 710.
 
 288 Some Poor Relief Questions. \. M>p - 
 
 Page 193 (4). 
 
 Gratuitous pensions are virtually but another form 
 of out-relief . 
 
 "... One may reasonably say that the character of a 
 gift for no merit to people who claim it at 65 years of 
 age is of the same character as assistance given to the 
 destitute under the Poor Law." 
 
 Evidence of the Rev. W. L. BLACKLEY, vol. iii. 
 
 P- 727-
 
 SUMMARY OF THE REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ROYAL COMMISSION ON THE 
 AGED POOR. 
 
 1. IN the opening portion of our Report we have 
 discussed at some length the nature and causes of 
 old-age pauperism. We deplore the fact that so large a 
 proportion of the working classes are in old age in receipt 
 of poor law relief. We have seen, however, that the 
 number of adult paupers who are not able-bodied, and 
 therefore presumably consist chiefly of the aged, has 
 greatly diminished in proportion to the population. We 
 have also seen that, except in crowded urban areas, the 
 great majority of aged poor in receipt of relief are given 
 out-door relief, while those receiving in-door relief are 
 usually persons for whom it is necessary for substantial 
 reasons. The view often held that the aged labourer has 
 in general only the workhouse before him in which to 
 end his days, has been shown to be erroneous. 
 
 2. We are of opinion that no fundamental alterations 
 are needed in the existing system of poor law relief as it 
 affects the aged, and that it would be undesirable to 
 interfere either by statute or order with the discretion now 
 vested in the guardians as to the manner in which such 
 
 L. U
 
 290 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 relief should be given, since it is, in our view, of essential 
 importance that guardians should have power to deal, on 
 its merits, with each individual case. At the same time 
 we are convinced that there is a strong feeling that in the 
 administration of relief there should be greater dis- 
 crimination between the respectable aged who become 
 destitute and those whose destitution is distinctly the 
 consequence of their own misconduct ; and we recom- 
 mend that boards of guardians, in dealing with applica- 
 tions for relief, should enquire with special care into the 
 antecedents of destitute persons whose physical faculties 
 have failed by reason of age and infirmity ; and that out- 
 door relief should in such cases be given to those who are 
 shown to have been of good character, thrifty according 
 to their opportunities, and generally independent in 
 early life, and who are not living under conditions of 
 health or surrounding circumstances which make it 
 evident that the relief given should be in-door relief.* 
 
 3. We desire to place on record in strong terms our 
 conviction, that where out-door relief is given the amount 
 should be adequate to meet fully the extent of the destitu- 
 tion, and that proper investigation and supervision should 
 be ensured in all cases in which application is made for 
 relief. 
 
 4. We accordingly attach much importance to the 
 appointment of a sufficient number of relieving officers in 
 every union, and we have recommended that this matter 
 should receive the special attention of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board and of boards of guardians. We have also 
 indicated certain points of detail in which we think a 
 more efficient performance of the duties of these officers- 
 
 * See Memoranda by Lord Lingen and Mr. Pell, pp. 300, 302.
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 291 
 
 might be secured. We have particularly referred to the 
 need of personal communication between the relieving 
 officer and the recipients of out-relief, and of kindness and 
 consideration in the necessary enquiries ; and we have 
 stated the general principles on which we think that these 
 enquiries, which we have seen to be so important, should 
 be conducted. We have also urged a more frequent 
 review of permanent cases by boards of guardians, and 
 have pointed out the great responsibility which rests upon 
 them in regard to the administration of relief. 
 
 5. The abuses incident to out-door relief, unless care- 
 fully administered, are, as we have seen, very grave ; and 
 in some unions a reaction has led to its close restriction. 
 Such a system has in some cases met with considerable 
 success, but requires, as its advocates fully recognize, 
 great personal devotion on the part of guardians, with the 
 close and assured co-operation of organized charity. 
 
 6. We do not ourselves advocate any restriction of the 
 present powers of guardians to grant out-door relief in the 
 case of destitute aged persons, and, as appears from the 
 preceding recommendations, we are of opinion that the 
 mode of relief should always be settled with a due regard 
 to the past character, health, and surroundings of the 
 applicant, and should be fully adequate to meet the desti- 
 tution. It accordingly appears to us eminently desirable 
 that boards of guardians should adopt rules in accordance 
 with the general principles which we have indicated, by 
 which they may be broadly guided in dealing with indivi- 
 dual applications for relief, and that such rules should be 
 generally made known for the information of the poor of 
 the union, in order that those really in need may not be 
 discouraged from applying. 
 
 II 2
 
 292 Some Poor Relief Questions. t Apl> - 
 
 7. And we recommend that the Local Government 
 Board should call special attention, either directly or 
 through their inspectors, to the evils of inadequate relief, 
 and the necessity for careful and thorough investigation 
 of each case, with a view to the suitable grant of relief in 
 accordance with clear general principles. Such action 
 on the part of the Board would be of great value, and 
 would be free from the objections attaching both to 
 formal regulations on the- subject, and to the intervention 
 of the central department in individual cases. 
 
 8. We have noted with great pleasure the efforts which 
 are being made to brighten the lives of the aged inmates 
 of workhouses, and we think that such efforts should 
 receive every encouragement. We attach special im- 
 portance to the provision of light and interesting occupa- 
 tion and employment, such as we have seen may be 
 afforded through the agency of the Brabazon scheme ; and 
 to the supply of literature, amusements, and some small 
 luxuries. We think more variety in the food, and more 
 care in its cooking and service, are often needful ; and we 
 consider that leave of absence and visits of friends might 
 be allowed to the well conducted more frequently than is 
 usual at present, without prejudice to proper discipline. 
 
 9. The classification of the aged male and female 
 inmates which is prescribed by the regulations should, in 
 our opinion, be always carried out ; if it is not otherwise 
 possible, it should be effected by the grouping of work- 
 houses in connexion with the provision in section 8 of 
 the Poor Law Act, 1879, to which we have referred. 
 Every effort should also be made to keep apart those 
 whose language or behaviour makes them unfit com- 
 panions for the well-conducted inmates. Opportunities
 
 APP -1 Commission on the Aged Poor. 293 
 
 for privacy and for forming their own companion- 
 ships should, we consider, as far as possible, be given to 
 the aged inmates generally ; but we feel that any system 
 of classification by past character would present great 
 difficulties, and we are not prepared to recommend the 
 issue at the present time of any regulations enforcing such 
 classification. As we have already said, the matter is one 
 in which the observant sympathy of the guardians them- 
 selves and their officers must be of more importance than 
 any rules. 
 
 10. We have seen that the complaint often made of 
 the compulsory separation of old couples is without 
 foundation, and that aged married couples have a right to 
 live together if they wish ; but we consider that they should 
 be always allowed the opportunity of associating in the 
 daytime with other suitable inmates. 
 
 11. It is clearly of the greatest importance, as has been 
 often urged, that the officers of workhouses, and especially 
 the master and matron, should be persons of kindness, 
 sympathy, and intelligence. The election of 'such officers 
 rests with the guardians, and it is to them that we must 
 look to secure suitable persons. We believe that the 
 great majority of workhouse officers are kind and con- 
 siderate to those under their charge, but we fear that there 
 are some cases where the officers are wanting in the 
 qualities we have indicated, and we consider that when 
 such unfitness is established, it should be recognized 
 equally with positive misconduct, as a reasonable ground 
 for removal. 
 
 12. We have dwelt on the importance to inmates of the 
 safeguards afforded by the visits of the members of the 
 visiting committee, and of other individual guardians and
 
 294 Some Poor Relief Questions. t App - 
 
 committees of ladies authorised by the guardians. Such 
 visits not only give opportunities for complaints of hard- 
 ship or injustice, but also encourage that friendly sympathy 
 which it is so desirable the inmates should receive from 
 the guardians, the officers, and from others who are 
 interested in their welfare. 
 
 13. While we recognize that there are many among the 
 destitute aged poor to whom out-door rather than in-door 
 relief should be given, we have seen that relief in an 
 in-door establishment is necessary in many classes of 
 cases. We think that the various improvements in con- 
 nexion with workhouse administration which have been 
 already made, or are suggested in our Report, will do 
 much to secure happier conditions for those among the 
 respectable aged poor who, owing to their infirmities, or 
 for other reasons, are best relieved in-doors ; and we 
 note with pleasure that the Local Government Board 
 have, within the last few days, issued a circular to boards 
 of guardians with reference to the arrangements of work- 
 houses, showing that they are fully alive to the importance 
 of this matter. 
 
 14. For reasons which we have sufficiently indicated, 
 we are not prepared to recommend any material altera- 
 tions in the law by which children, in a position to do so, 
 can be required to give assistance to their aged parents, 
 if the latter become chargeable to the rates. Such assist- 
 ance can only be legally enforced by an order of the 
 justices, who must be satisfied that the person against 
 whom the order is made is of ability to pay ; and we 
 believe that their jurisdiction is in general fairly and 
 judiciously exercised. At the same time we have recom- 
 mended that, to avoid any appearance of unfairness,
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 295 
 
 justices who are also guardians should not deal with the 
 same case in both capacities, and we have also suggested 
 that provision might be made for an alternative reference 
 of such cases to the county court judge.* 
 
 15. We are convinced that the law of settlement may 
 sometimes cause hardship if enforced in the case of the 
 aged, and we recommend that legislation should be intro- 
 duced enacting that they shall not, in general, be liable to 
 removal. 
 
 1 6. The question of preferential treatment to members 
 of friendly societies who may be compelled to seek 
 assistance from the rates has been much discussed before 
 us, and considerable dissatisfaction was expressed that 
 guardians were not in strict law empowered to give more 
 liberal allowances in the comparatively rare cases in 
 which such persons have been obliged to seek assistance. 
 But the Statute passed in the last session of Parliament, 
 the substance of which is quoted in paragraph 175, has 
 given full discretion to boards of guardians in this 
 matter, so that it has not been necessary for us to make 
 any recommendation on the subject. 
 
 17. We have recommended an extension of the powers 
 of the Charity Commissioners for dealing with endowed 
 " dole " charities, as we are convinced that these can be 
 most usefully converted, to a much greater extent than is 
 now practicable, to objects strictly confined to the same 
 class of poor people as those for whom the doles were 
 originally given, such as the provision of almshouses and 
 pensions for the deserving poor in old age. In the case 
 of the Metropolis we have recommended that some 
 
 * See Memorandum by Lord Lingen, p. 300.
 
 296 Some Poor Relief Questions. 
 
 portion of the funds in the hands of the City Parochial 
 Foundation should, under certain conditions, be made 
 applicable to pensions in other parts of London. We 
 have also suggested means for making boards of 
 guardians and their officers more generally acquainted 
 with the facts as to local endowed charities within their 
 districts. 
 
 1 8. In our remarks upon the Poor Law we have fully 
 discussed the lines of administration which, in our 
 opinion, will best secure the careful and humane treat- 
 ment of aged persons who are now destitute ; and we 
 have strongly urged the value of the co-operation of pri- 
 vate charity, especially if administered through organized 
 societies, in securing independent provision for those 
 whose condition is clearly due to exceptional misfortune. 
 While we feel that charity which is not endowed should be 
 left to voluntary agencies, and should not be under State 
 or municipal control, we recognize the great importance 
 of co-operation between charitable agencies and the Poor 
 Law authorities, and we look forward with much favour 
 to the more general establishment of such agencies in 
 towns and elsewhere. 
 
 19. The evidence on Friendly Societies, the Post Office 
 Savings Bank, and other like agencies, has shown remark- 
 ably the great development of habits of thrift and provi- 
 dence among the working classes, and has satisfied us of 
 the general ability of those who are in regular employ- 
 ment to make direct or indirect provision for old age, as 
 well as for sickness and other contingencies beyond the 
 every-day needs of life. The various thrift organizations 
 which have been developed during the past 60 years have, 
 without doubt, contributed largely to the relative diminu-
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 297 
 
 tion of pauperism in proportion to population, which has 
 been in progress during that period. 
 
 20. We have indicated some points in connexion with 
 the position of Friendly Societies which, although not 
 directly relating to the subject of our enquiry, have been 
 shown to need attention. The mischief wrought by 
 unsound and badly managed societies has been very 
 forcibly brought to our notice ; and we have especially 
 referred to the importance of sound management and 
 actuarial solvency, as well as the serious effects upon 
 financial stability of the present common practice of con- 
 tinuous sick pay. This last matter is closely connected 
 with the question of separate provision by Friendly 
 Societies for old age, to which we again refer. 
 
 21. There is undoubtedly a wide-spread dislike of the 
 purchase of deferred annuities owing largely to a convic- 
 tion that other forms of thrift are of more value ; such as 
 expenditure on the advancement of children, or the 
 application of savings to investments, or in business, so as 
 to yield a permanent return without forfeiture or capital. 
 Nevertheless, increasing facilities for direct provision 
 against old age are being given by both the Friendly 
 Societies and the Post Office, and in our opinion the 
 growing development and importance of the juvenile 
 branches of societies may be regarded as a principal 
 means for bringing about a more general adoption of a 
 self-supporting system of old-age benefits. We have, 
 accordingly, made specific recommendations for alteration 
 of the Friendly Societies Acts, having as their object 
 (i) The provision of a separate old age fund, so that 
 sick pay may cease at 65, and a regular pension be given 
 after that age ; and (2) the removal of restrictions on the
 
 298 Some Poor Relief Questions. !> 1>p - 
 
 age at which children may join the societies. We trust 
 that these recommendations may have the double effect 
 of securing a regular provision for the old age of friendly 
 society members, and at the same time averting the 
 danger to the financial stability of the societies caused 
 by the present system of continuous sick pay in old 
 age. 
 
 22. We think that every effort should be made to sim- 
 plify and make known the opportunities for savings as 
 well as annuities which are offered by the Post Office, 
 and we have noted with pleasure the special attention 
 which is being given to the whole subject by the Depart- 
 ment. Many persons prefer " endowment policies " for 
 securing a lump sum at a given age to deferred annuities, 
 and we have recommended that the Post Office, with the 
 co-operation of Friendly Societies or other agencies, 
 should give every facility for this kind of insurance ; and 
 for the accumulation of ordinary savings with a similar 
 object. While such insurance leaves the capital at the 
 disposal of the insurer, when the given age is reached, it 
 enables him, if he desires, to convert it into the form of 
 an annuity for the remainder of life. 
 
 23. We have carefully examined the various schemes 
 for State assistance to the aged which have been sub- 
 mitted to us, and bearing in mind the great labour and 
 thought expended on them, and the high public spirit 
 and deep sympathy with suffering which inspired their 
 authors, we regret that, in view of the financial and 
 economic difficulties involved, we have been unable to 
 recommend the adoption of any of the schemes as yet 
 suggested, whether for endowment or for assisted in- 
 surance.
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 299 
 
 24. Having regard, however, to the widespread expect- 
 ation, in and out of Parliament, that some provision other 
 than that made by the Poor Law should be devised for 
 the assistance in old age of those among the poor who 
 have led respectable and industrious lives, we do not 
 desire that our enquiry should preclude the future con- 
 sideration of any plan which may hereafter be proposed, 
 and be free from the objections which have prevented the 
 adoption of the schemes submitted to us. In any case, 
 we cannot but hope that the facts we have collected, the 
 opinions we have elicited, and the searching examination 
 we have made into those schemes, may be of material 
 use.* 
 
 25. In conclusion, we again point out that the number 
 of aged poor who seek public relief, while still very large, 
 has much lessened in proportion in the last 30 years, 
 although the rate of decrease has greatly diminished 
 in the last decade. We are encouraged in our 
 hopes for the future by the remarkable growth of thrift, 
 as shown by the savings banks and insurances in friendly 
 societies, which are largely increasing in popularity and 
 importance. The self-reliance and strength of character 
 of the working classes thus evinced will greatly aid in 
 the solution of the problems of old age poverty, as well 
 as of general pauperism. Continuing and successful 
 efforts are being made by the people, both through 
 combined action and individual providence, to secure 
 for themselves and their families a position of comfort 
 and independence in their old age, and our recommen- 
 
 * See Memoranda by Mr. Henley, Mr. Pell, Mr. Roundell, Mr. 
 Loch and Mr. Stockall, pp. 302, 304, 306.
 
 3OO Some Poor Relief Questions. Arp - 
 
 dations have been largely directed to the encouragement 
 of this manly spirit. 
 
 (Signed) LINGEN. A. C. HUMPHREYS-OWEN. 
 
 BRASSEY. CHARLES S. ROUNDELL. 
 
 PLAYFAIR. C. S. LOCH. 
 
 J. J. HENLEY. JOSEPH ARCH. 
 ALBERT PELL. J. J. STOCKALL. 
 The signatures are subject to the Memoranda. 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY LORD LINGEN. 
 
 I do not agree with those parts of this Report which 
 may be thought to admit into the administration of the 
 Poor Law any title to relief except destitution. . . . 
 
 All those parts of the Report which point to the 
 extension or relaxation of the relief which is made com- 
 pulsory on the solvent part of the community by the 
 Poor Law, appear to me to suggest the adoption of some 
 agency outside and independent of the Poor Law, e . g. 
 the organised action of private charity, or (still better) the 
 systematic development of self-support. 
 
 I am opposed to all extension or relaxation of the Poor 
 Law itself, beyond administrative details in furtherance of 
 humanity and kindness such as are suggested in the 
 Report. In these I cordially concur. 
 
 As regards the systematic development of self-support, 
 while I think increased facilities for it needful, I am not 
 convinced that public pecuniary assistance is so ; and I 
 do not see my way to the administration of it, especially 
 in the shape of deferred annuities. At the same time, I 
 admit that the promotion of self-support in all its forms, 
 among the working classes, is of pressing importance in
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 301 
 
 regard to their old age, and is the safe and healthy sub- 
 stitute of many dangerous or impracticable proposals for 
 relaxation of the Poor Law. 
 
 As regards particular paragraphs of the Report, I 
 prefer to omit all the words following the word " case " in 
 line 5 of paragraph 2 of the Summary. 
 
 I do not agree with paragraph 33 of the Report.* In- 
 dependence is worth self-denial ; and Miss Octavia Hill's 
 evidence ... is to the effect that self-denial, even of 
 the poor, does not need to be sordid, and frequently is 
 not so. 
 
 I do not agree with the recommendation of an appeal 
 in paragraph 151 of the Report (14 of Summary). I 
 would omit all the words after " capacities." . . . 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY LORD BRASSEY, MR. JAMES STUART, M.P., 
 MR. A. C. HUMPHREYS-OVEN, M.P., AND MR. 
 JOSEPH ARCH, M.P. 
 
 We are of opinion that the recommendations of the 
 Commission do not go far enough, nor so far as the 
 evidence before the Commission warrants. 
 
 We consider that greater distinction should be drawn 
 between industrious persons who in old age have fallen 
 
 * The paragraph referred to is as follows : 
 
 "We are agreed in the opinion, and we are confirmed in our view 
 by the evidence we have received, that in Mr. Chamberlain's words, 
 ' as regards the great bulk of the working classes, during their 
 working lives they are fairly provident, fairly thrift y, fairly industrious, 
 and fairly temperate.' We do not suggest that, in exercising the 
 thrift necessary for a provision in old age, working men should 
 lead penurious lives, or deprive themselves of reasonable comforts."
 
 302 Some Poor Relief Questions. [A pp. 
 
 into misfortune, and the wastrels and worthless who seek 
 relief, and that more consideration should be given to the 
 widespread and commendable horror of the workhouse 
 which is entertained by the former class. . . . 
 
 . . . We observe that witnesses before us of the most 
 varied social views are united in the strong belief that 
 some system of old age pensions is both practicable and 
 desirable. We consider that the strength of public 
 opinion brought before us on this subject cannot and 
 ought not to be ignored, and we recommend the imme- 
 diate appointment of another body to complete the work 
 upon which we have only partially entered. . . . 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. J. J. HENLEY, C.B. 
 
 I have signed the Report, with which I generally con- 
 cur. I object, however, to paragraph 24 of the Summary, 
 because it may imply a future policy of State-aided 
 pensions, which would tend to encourage expectations 
 among the working classes to look for assistance in their 
 old age from the funds of the State instead of trusting, as 
 they have done in the past, to their own unaided efforts. 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. ALBERT PELL. 
 
 I am unable to concur with the recommendations and 
 the Summary to the Report in one or two respects. 
 
 It is recommended in paragraph 9 1 of the Report and 
 paragraph 2 of the Summary, that out-door relief should 
 be given to those "who are shown to have been of good 
 character, thrifty according to their opportunities, and 
 generally independent in early life." I disagree with
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 303 
 
 this recommendation, because it rests on the assumption 
 that boards of guardians would, if they possessed the 
 faculty, make a beneficial use of discrimination in the 
 character of applicants for relief, while the history of 
 early lives and characters in many, if not in most 
 instances, would be beyond their reach. 
 
 I disagree with it also as likely to introduce a claim by 
 a class for one particular form of relief, demanding an 
 enquiry into character which, while it would encourage 
 deception on the part of those seeking this relief, could 
 never be conclusively conducted, except on oath and by 
 judicial procedure, which boards of guardians are wholly 
 unfitted to employ. 
 
 I cannot give my assent to the views expressed in 
 paragraph 24 of the Summary. Having fully considered 
 the various schemes for old-age pensions brought under 
 our notice by their advocates, and bearing in mind the 
 opportunities afforded for their modification, as well as 
 for the submission of others, I do not think that the 
 assertion of a "wide-spread expectation" furnishes suffi- 
 cient grounds for recommending further inquiry by the 
 State, with the object of constructing a new scheme to 
 satisfy expectation on the vague desire " that something 
 should be done." 
 
 On the contrary I apprehend that such an attempt 
 would be likely to disturb the progress of independent 
 effort at present being generally made to meet the 
 exigencies of old age. 
 
 I am desirous, too, to state my belief that the extent of 
 destitution and want is exaggerated, from the hasty and 
 perfunctory manner in which we find boards of guardians 
 frequently conduct their enquiry into particulars of cases,
 
 Some Poor Relief Questions. [AIT. 
 
 and the disregard shown, in some important instances, by 
 their chairman to the duties of the relieving officer in his 
 entries, in the application and report books, as well as the 
 habit of treating the fund for relief of destitution as one 
 that may be applied to charitable purposes. Thus the 
 varying records of pauperism (some high, some low) are 
 attributable as much, probably more so, to administration 
 as to the real necessities of the poor, and lead to a false 
 conception of their actual condition. 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. C. S. ROUNDELL, M.P. 
 
 I dissent from the policy indicated in paragraph 24 of 
 the Summary. If it is objected that we have not obtained 
 complete statistical information as to the aged poor, or 
 taken full expert evidence as to the precise financial 
 bearing of the pension schemes which have been sub- 
 mitted to us, and that, consequently, we are not in a 
 position to pronounce an authoritative judgment upon 
 them, I answer that for all practical purposes the official 
 returns which have been laid before us do enable us to 
 form an adequate conception of the grave problem which 
 has been referred to us; and amply justify the conclusions 
 at which we have arrived. . . . 
 
 Some of the main points brought out by the evidence 
 are : 
 
 1. The remarkable continuous decrease of pauperism : 
 qualified only by the demoralizing and pauperizing 
 mischief of lax administration of the Poor Law ; 
 
 2. The remarkable continuous increase of wages, and 
 of the purchasing power of wages ; 
 
 3. The remarkable continuous growth, among the
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 305 
 
 working classes, of thrift, of facilities for saving, of 
 the desire to save, and of a healthy and honourable 
 spirit of self-help and self-dependence. 
 
 From these postulates it appears to result that direct 
 aid from the State towards the establishment of old-age 
 pensions is unnecessary, and, if unnecessary, detrimental 
 to the best interests of the classes concerned, and this 
 objection to State intervention on historical, moral, and 
 economic grounds, stands separate and apart from the 
 grave financial objections to be urged on the ground of 
 the enormous and incalculable cost which any such 
 scheme would ultimately involve. Whilst thus opposed 
 to any reopening of the principle of intervention by the 
 State, I desire to express my conviction that much may 
 be done, in the way of the encouragement of thrift, by the 
 Friendly or Provident Societies themselves, and by the 
 action of the Legislature in strengthening their position, 
 and in giving all legitimate facilities, through these 
 societies, and through the Post Office and other agencies, 
 for the improvement and development of existing powers 
 and methods. 
 
 With regard to cases (which there must always be in 
 every community, however well constituted) falling out- 
 side those hereinbefore contemplated, I hold that, if our 
 recommendations for careful inquiry and discriminating 
 treatment are adopted, no respectable aged person need 
 or ought, through misfortune alone, to be subjected to 
 the necessity of ending his or her life in the workhouse. 
 
 L.
 
 506 Some Poor Relief Questions. [ App - 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. C. S. LOCH. 
 
 I agree with Lord Lingen's remarks in regard to the 
 parts of the Report that deal with the Poor Law. . . . 
 
 Wherever it is possible, " the second poor," to use the 
 old definition mentioned by Sir Henry Longley, should, 
 in my 'opinion, be assisted in preference from charitable 
 sources, on some organised system, combining personal 
 voluntary charity with charitable help. This will become 
 easier as the co-operation between poor law and charity 
 recommended by the Commission is extended. 
 
 I agree with the remarks made by Mr. Roundell, Mr. 
 Pell, and Mr. Henley, in regard to paragraph 24 of the 
 Summary. 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. ]. ]. STOCKALL. 
 
 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 themselves 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 
 subsistence in old age, and to look for it as a right, 
 rather than depend upon a provision made entirely 
 by themselves. 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 sup- 
 posed to be existing under the administration of the 
 present Poor Law, if rate or State aid should come to be
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 307 
 
 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, with- 
 out the hope of such assistance, are nerved to make pro- 
 vision 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 
 entitled 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. 
 
 REPORT BY THE RIGHT HON. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., 
 THE RIGHT Hox. C. T. RITCHIE, M.P., SIR H. 
 MAXWELL, BART., M.P., MR. HUNTER, M.P., AND 
 MR. CHARLES BOOTH. 
 
 We are of opinion that the recommendations in the 
 preceding Report are inadequate, and do not go as far as 
 the evidence before the Commission would warrant. 
 
 . . . The views of the advocates of the present system 
 and of those officially engaged in its administration, have 
 been laid before us with great fulness by a large number of 
 able witnesses, while the dissatisfaction so largely felt and 
 expressed in the country has been brought to our notice 
 by selected representatives whose limited number gives no 
 
 X 2
 
 308 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 adequate impression of the popular sentiment on the 
 question. 
 
 . . . We emphatically agree with the paragraph in the 
 Report which says : " Making every allowance for the 
 qualifications which we have enumerated, we cannot but 
 regard it as an unsatisfactory and deplorable fact that so 
 large a proportion of the working classes are, in old age, 
 in receipt of poor relief." 
 
 We are also impressed with the fact . . . that there 
 are in addition to the number of actual paupers, large 
 numbers of persons who are always just removed from 
 pauperism, and who endure great privations in order to 
 keep off the rates, and we agree that they form a class 
 quite as deserving of consideration as others who are 
 actually numbered in the returns as paupers. 
 
 We think it is evident that, where there has been a dimi- 
 nution (in old-age pauperism), it is due in part to stricter 
 administration, but chiefly to the increased prosperity of 
 the working classes generally. We believe that the first 
 of these influences has been carried, on the whole, as far 
 as can be done without fear of a reaction ; and as regards 
 the second, we are afraid that we cannot calculate upon 
 such a tide of national prosperity in the future as marked 
 a large portion of the decade of 1872 to 1882. 
 
 While we are fully alive to the evils of indiscriminate 
 parish relief, we are convinced that unless more respect 
 is paid to the prevalent and well-founded sentiment in 
 favour of some distinction between the aged who are 
 brought to poverty by no fault of their own, and those who
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 309 
 
 have become paupers through drunkenness, improvidence, 
 and misconduct, the agitation against the present admin- 
 istration of the Poor Law may become irresistible, and 
 lead to changes undesirable in the interests of economy 
 and morality. 
 
 We fear, however, that a mere recommendation 
 addressed, as is proposed in the Report, to every board of 
 guardians in the kingdom, will be insufficient unless there 
 is some force behind it in the shape of power to compel 
 its adoption. 
 
 Assuming, . . . that everything in reason were 
 done to improve the position of the aged pauper, 
 we must express our strong conviction, that even under 
 the most favourable circumstances, Poor Law relief will 
 be a most unsatisfactory method of dealing with the 
 deserving poor in their declining years. 
 
 We admit the importance of many of the objections 
 urged to the various (pension) schemes that have been 
 laid before us, and we acknowledge the serious difficulties, 
 both economical and social, which surround the question, 
 but we are not convinced that they are insurmountable, 
 nor that some at least might not disappear on fuller 
 enquiry. . . . 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY THE RIGHT HON. C. T. RITCHIE, M.P. 
 
 The most important recommendation made in the 
 Majority Report is that adequate out-door relief should 
 be given to aged destitute persons of good character and 
 thrifty antecedents, who are not living under conditions 
 of health or surrounding circumstances, which make it
 
 3io Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 evident that relief can only be properly afforded in the 
 workhouse. With this recommendation I cordially agree, 
 but I do not consider that any efficient means are sug- 
 gested in the Report by which it will be made opera- 
 tive. . . I fear the recommendation in question will in 
 many cases remain a dead letter, unless means are taken 
 to secure that ill-considered and inadequate decisions 
 may be reviewed. In Scotland, an appeal lies from the 
 parochial boards to the central authority, and the evidence 
 before the Commission shows that it works without 
 difficulty or friction. I am of opinion that this principle 
 should be adopted in England in the case of the aged 
 poor. . . 
 
 MEMORANDUM BY MR. BOOTH RELATING TO OUT-RELIEF. 
 
 I do not entirely agree with the views on this subject 
 expressed either in the Report I have signed or in that 
 which I have not signed. 
 
 Unless as a temporary expedient, I hold any increase 
 in the amount of relief given, whether as regards each 
 case, or as regards the number of cases relieved, to be 
 a greater evil than so-called " inadequacy " in either 
 direction. . . 
 
 . . . In towns it may be well to divide strictly the functions 
 of poor relief and charity, and to restrict very closely the 
 numbers on the permanent out-door list, and to relieve 
 " adequately " those who are relieved at all, under very 
 close and constant supervision. In country places, on the 
 other hand, a small weekly allowance to the indigent old 
 (and especially women), given with a general knowledge 
 of their position and careful kindness, answers very fairly
 
 APP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 311 
 
 well. This parish allowance forms a nucleus round which 
 family, friendly, and charitable contributions gather, and 
 although the first enquiries ought to be searching, it is 
 usually unnecessary, and may perhaps even be unwise for 
 the guardians to worry their pensioners by too close a 
 supervision afterwards, especially with regard to their 
 earnings. It is, in my opinion, a mistake to suppose that 
 such casual earnings on the part of those of the old who 
 are assisted from the rates are economically injurious to 
 the community in any serious sense. The economic 
 injury caused by out-relief lies deeper, being inherent in 
 any form of assistance to the old, given only to those who 
 have not saved, or whose savings are exhausted. 
 
 REPORT BY MR. JAMES STUART, M.P. 
 
 . . . While agreeing with the positive recommendation, 
 as far as it goes, contained in paragraph 2 (reinforced by 
 paragraphs 3 and 4) of the Summary of the Majority 
 Report, to the effect that out-door relief should be more 
 generally granted, rather than in-door relief, to the 
 deserving aged poor, I regard the recommendation as 
 inadequate unless there be added some measure for 
 securing its adoption by boards of guardians. In the 
 Metropolis, moreover, a change in the law is necessary, 
 if this recommendation is to have practical effect. . . . 
 
 As to classification inside of workhouses, the Report 
 should, in my opinion, go farther than it does. It should 
 insist upon that classification. . . 
 
 The separation of the deserving aged in-door poor 
 might be effected to some extent by encouraging and 
 enabling boards of guardians to establish a limited
 
 312 Some Poor Relief Questions. [APP. 
 
 number of homes on the almshouse principle, which, in 
 the case of large towns, might be placed in the neighbour- 
 ing country. . . 
 
 REPORT OF MR. HENRY BROADHURST, M.P. 
 
 I believe that the time has now come for great and 
 fundamental changes in the provision for the aged 
 poor ... A state of things in which two out of three 
 of large sections of the labouring population are con- 
 demned, after lives spent in hard and ill-paid toil in the 
 service of the whole community, to linger out the rest of 
 their days in pauperism demands, in my opinion, the 
 immediate attention of Parliament. 
 
 Nor can I anticipate that any mere development of 
 existing Poor Law arrangements will meet the require- 
 ments of the case. . . . 
 
 I am equally opposed to the view that the maintenance 
 of the aged should be left to the private charity of the 
 well-to-do. . . 
 
 I believe that the only adequate way of dealing with 
 the situation is frankly to recognize the maintenance of 
 the aged as a public charge to be borne by the whole 
 community. . . . 
 
 ... I believe that a system, under which any person 
 could, at the termination of his working life, obtain a pen- 
 sion of even five shillings a week, would quickly remove all 
 the worst features of the present situation, and keep most 
 of the thrifty poor outside the contaminating circle of the 
 Poor Law. Far from anticipating any demoralisation of 
 character from such a system, I believe that it would 
 indirectly bring about an improvement in the standard of 
 life and personal character of the poorest class. . .
 
 A PP.] Commission on the Aged Poor. 313 
 
 ... I object to the proposal that the necessary funds 
 should be raised, either wholly or in part, by contributions 
 collected from the people themselves. I am, therefore, 
 opposed in principle to all contributory or insurance 
 schemes, such as those of the Rev. Canon Blackley and 
 Mr. J. Chamberlain. It has, in my judgment, been 
 conclusively proved, by witnesses of all shades of opinion, 
 that any voluntary scheme of National insurance or con- 
 tributory pensions would benefit only those who could 
 afford to make the contributions, and would leave 
 unaffected the great majority of the aged poor, whose 
 wages have been insufficient, or whose work has been 
 too irregular, to allow them to save. The grant of any 
 aid to such a scheme out of the taxes would amount, in 
 my view, to a cruel hardship upon the very poor. The 
 agricultural labourer, the unskilled worker in the towns, 
 and the woman wage-earner few of whom could ever 
 obtain a pension under an insurance scheme would be 
 taxed on every cup of tea or pipe of tobacco, in order 
 that pensions might be awarded to the comparatively 
 comfortable class of well-paid mechanics and foremen 
 who were in a position to make the contributions 
 required. 
 
 . . . For the State to enter into competition for the avail- 
 able subscriptions of the wage-earners must necessarily in- 
 crease the difficulty of all Friendly Societies, Trade Unions, 
 and Industrial Insurance Companies, whose members 
 and customers within the United Kingdom probably 
 number in the aggregate from eleven to twelve millions 
 of persons. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Charles Booth's proposal for 
 the grant of a pension from public funds without personal
 
 314 Some Poor Relief Questions. !>PP. 
 
 contributions, may secure the hearty support both of the 
 Trade Unions and the Friendly Societies. The provision 
 of a minimum pension for all aged persons would, in my 
 view, increase the business and facilitate the progress of 
 all these valuable forms of thrift. . . 
 
 The present practice of making children contribute 
 to the support of their parents should be radically 
 changed. . . To compel a labourer earning only eleven 
 to fourteen shillings a week to contribute towards the 
 support of his aged father, as is now often done, is not 
 only deliberately to manufacture pauperism, but also to 
 rob the worker, the mother of the family, and the young 
 generation, of some of the food and clothing indispens- 
 able to their efficiency. . . It exercises a harmful in- 
 fluence upon the character and family affections of the 
 poor, and yields in aid of the poor rate a quite insignifi- 
 cant amount. . . 
 
 . . . Whilst realising to the full all the objections to 
 the lax grant of out-door relief to the able-bodied, and the 
 still greater objections to the demoralising influence of 
 private charity, I think that, pending the adoption of 
 State pensions, full and adequate pensions from Poor 
 Law funds should be freely granted in the shape of out- 
 door relief to the aged poor of good character. The 
 present . . . discouragement of partial savings should be 
 abolished and out-door relief freely given to supplement 
 benefit societies, or other superannuation allowances of 
 small amount .
 
 LIST OF BOOKS, &c., QUOTED. 
 
 A Plea for Liberty. Edited by T. Mackay. Murray. 2s. 
 Charity and Food. Longmans, Green & Co. is. 
 Charity Organisation Review. Published monthly. 6d. 
 Conditions of Effectual Work amongst the Poor. Miss 
 
 Sewell. Spottiswoode & Co. 2d. 
 Considering the Poor. A Sermon by the Rev. R. Eyton. 
 
 1887. 6d. 
 
 Dispauperisation. Pretyman. 5-y. 
 
 Economics of Industry. Prof. Alfred Marshall. y. 6d. 
 Economic Journal. 2s. 6d. 
 England. Escott. 3^. 6d. 
 Essay on Population. Malthus. $s. 
 Friendly Societies Commission ; Fourth Report. Eyre & 
 
 Spottiswoode. 3-r. gd. 
 History of the English Poor Law. Sir G. Nicholls. Murray. 
 
 2 vols. 8vo. 14$. 
 
 How to help Cases of Distress. C. S. Loch. 2s. 6d. 
 Insurance and Saving. Charity Organisation Series. Swan 
 
 Sonnenschein. 2s. 6d. 
 Local Government Board Annual Reports : 
 
 ist Report, 1871 2 (Edward Wodehouse on Out- 
 relief). 3-y. 
 
 2nd Report, 1872 3 (Albert Pell on Out-door Relief in 
 Brixworth Union). 2s.
 
 316 List of Books, &c.. Quoted. 
 
 3rd Report, 1873 4 (Rev. W. Bury on Out-door Relief 
 in Brixworth Union; H. Longley, Poor Law Adminis- 
 tration in London ; Octavia Hill, Relief : Official 
 and Volunteer Agencies in Administering. Col. 
 Lynedoch Gardiner). 4-y. 
 National Pensions. H. C. Bourne. Macmillan's Magazine. 
 
 Feb. 1892. 
 Old Age Pensions and Pauperism. C. S. Loch. Swan 
 
 Sonnenschein. \s. 
 
 Our Common Land. Miss Octavia Hill. 3*. 6d. 
 Out-door Relief and " A more excellent Way." By the 
 
 Rev. Wm. Bury. id. 
 
 Out-relief : A paper by Albert Pell. Knight & Co. ^d. 
 Pauperism and Relief. B. Fleming. Knight Co. 4*/. 
 Pauperism : its Causes and Remedies. Prof. H. Fawcett. 
 
 ' V- 
 Pauperism and the Endowment of Old Age. C. Booth. 5-y. 
 
 Cheap edition, 6d. 
 Pensions and Pauperism. Rev. J. Frome Wilkinson. 
 
 Methuen & Co. is. 
 Penny Dinners : Prize Essays issued by the Central Council 
 
 for Promoting Self-supporting Penny Dinners. 
 Plain Words on Out-relief. Knight & Co. is. 
 Principles of Political Economy. J. S. Mill. ~,s. and $s. (id. 
 Problems of Poverty. J. A. Hobson. 2s. 6d. 
 Reports of the Poor Law Commissioners, 1834, 1836, 1839, 
 
 1840. 
 Reports of Poor Law Conferences, published annually. 6s. 6d. 
 
 Reports of each Conference are published separately, 6d. 
 
 each. Knight & Co. 
 
 Report of the House of Lords on Poor Law Relief. 1 888. 
 Rights of the Poor. S. R. Bosanquet.
 
 List of Books, &c., Quoted. 317 
 
 Report of the Royal Commission on the Aged Poor. is. 
 Minutes of Evidence, Vol. II. 45. 3^. Ditto, Vol. III. 
 4-y. id. Eyre & Spottiswoode. 
 
 Report of the Royal Commission on Labour. Fifth and Final 
 Report, Pt. I., 2s. Minutes of Evidence taken before 
 the Commission as a whole, 4$. lid. The Agricultural 
 Labourer, Summary Report, is. ^d. Eyre & Spottis- 
 woode. 
 
 Social Evolution. B. Kidd. los. 
 
 Social Wreckage. F. Peek. is. 
 
 The State and Pensions in Old Age. J. A. Spender. Swan 
 Sonnenschein. 2s. 6d. 
 
 Thoughts and Experiences of a Charity Organisationist. 
 Hornsby Wright. 
 
 The English Poor. T. Mackay. 75. 6d. 
 
 The English Poor Law System, Past and Present. Dr. P. F. 
 Aschrott. Knight & Co. los. 6d. 
 
 The Original. Thomas Walker. 5.5-. and is. 
 
 The Poor Law, the Friendly Societies and Old Age Destitu- 
 tion. Rev. T. Fowle. J. Parker & Co. 6d.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AGED POOR. 
 
 AGED POOR, The, number of, see 
 Old Age Pauperism 
 
 Agricultural Labourer, The, 8, 
 118, 134, 159. 1 60, 275-7 
 
 Allen, J. H., on the function of 
 the Poor Law, 53 ; on indis- 
 criminate charity, 232 
 
 Almsgiving, see Charitable Re- 
 lief 
 
 Andrews, Col., repression of pau- 
 perism, 67 
 
 Aschrott, Dr. P., Poor Law relief, 
 15, 46, 47, 51, 88 
 
 B. J. T., on out-door relief, 51, 
 
 52 
 Baker, G. Lloyd, on out- door 
 
 relief, 13 
 Balfour, A. J., M.P., on old age 
 
 pensions, 176 
 Barbour, Levi L., on out-door 
 
 relief, 24 
 Bartley, G. C. T., M.P., on old 
 
 age pensions, 114, 115, 257 
 Basing, Lord, on the Poor Law 
 
 in relation to thrift, 13 
 Blackley, Rev. W. L., old age 
 
 pensions, 123, 127, 128, 189, 
 
 190, 257, 268, 269, 287, 288 
 
 BRINDLEY. 
 Bland-Garland, T., Poor Law 
 
 relief, 2, 4, II, 21, 24, 27, 34, 
 
 99, loo note, 102, 105 
 Bond, E., provision of meals, 
 
 211 
 
 Booth, Charles, Poor Law admin- 
 istration in the Model Unions, 
 74> 75> I 3 5 ld age pensions, 
 in, 114, 116, 118, 121, 122, 
 123, 131, 132, 137, 139, 141, 
 142, 143, 145, 146, 147, 148, 
 269 
 
 Bosanquet, C. B., Poor Law 
 relief, 59, 6l ; old age pensions, 
 162 
 
 Bosanquet, S. R., charitable re- 
 lief, 240, 241, 242 
 
 Bourne, H. Clarence, Poor Law 
 relief, 58 ; old age pensions, 
 181, 186 
 
 Bousfield, W., on workhouse ad- 
 ministration, 39 ; provision of 
 meals, 219 
 
 Brabrook, E. W., 163, 245 
 
 Bradby, Rev. Dr., provision of 
 meals, 210 
 
 ' ' Breaking up the home," 43-4, 
 68-69 
 
 Brindley, J. M. , out-door relief, 
 67,83
 
 320 
 
 Index. 
 
 BRINTON. 
 
 Brinton, J., old age pensions, 157, 
 179, 192 
 
 Browell, S. J., M.P., on out- 
 relief, 47 
 
 Bryce, Prof., on out-door relief, 
 9, 19, 23, 36, 49 , 55, 96, 101 
 note, 230 
 
 Bury, Rev. Wm., on out-door 
 relief, 6, 47 ; charity and the 
 Poor Law, 49, 52 ; on alms- 
 giving, 229 ; on old age pen- 
 sions, 277, 279, 284 
 
 CALVERLEY, Mrs. H., old age 
 pensions, 164, 174 
 
 Chamberlain, J., M.P., Poor I, aw 
 relief, 39, 63, 64, 74 ; old age 
 pensions, 112, 115, 116, 117, 
 120, 121, 124, 125, 129, 131, 
 135. 136, 138, 14, Hi, 264 
 265, 266 
 
 Chance, W., J.P., Poor Law 
 administration, 151 ; old age 
 pensions, 153, 159, 167 note, 
 
 171. J 73 !78, 179 
 Charitable relief, evils of in- 
 discriminate, 227-8, 232-3 ; 
 evils of doles of inadequate 
 relief, 228-9 ; considerate 
 relief, 229-232 ; responsibilities 
 of, 233-4 ; duty of enquiry, 
 234-6 ; thoughtless charity res- 
 ponsible for acts of cruelty to 
 children and cripples, 236 ; en- 
 couragement of imposture, 237- 
 238 ; want of employment, 239, 
 
 DE MORGAN. 
 
 242 ; man not answerable for 
 results of, 240 ; number of im- 
 postors exaggerated, 241 ; law- 
 fulness of relief to the undeserv- 
 ing, 241 ; close enquiry degrad- 
 ing, 241 
 
 Charity and the Poor Law, 7, 21, 
 47-53, 8 1-2 
 
 Children, obligations of ... to- 
 wards parents, 18-21, 81, 104, 
 141-2, 247-8 
 
 Classification of paupers, 37-9 
 
 Collings, Jesse, M.P., on a strin- 
 gent administration of the Poor 
 Law, 65 ; old age pensions, 118, 
 
 133, 144 
 
 Compton, Lord, M. P., Poor Law 
 relief, 72, 78, 82 
 
 Corbett, Thomas, provision of 
 meals, 219 
 
 Costini, Dr., on the duty of guar- 
 dians, 50 
 
 Cripples, 236 
 
 Crowder, A. G., on out-door and 
 in-door relief, 5, 20, 45, 46, 96, 
 102, 105, 107 
 
 Culley, G. , on out-relief to mem- 
 bers of friendly societies, 17 
 note 
 
 Daily Chronicle, old age pen- 
 sions, 126 
 
 Davy, J. S., on Poor Law relief, 
 244, 246, 247, 249, 251, 253 
 
 De Morgan, Miss, provision of 
 meals, 204 note
 
 Index. 
 
 321 
 
 Dendy, Miss H., charity, 234, 
 
 237 
 
 Denison, Edward, charity, 232 
 
 Destitution, sole claim to Poor 
 Law relief, 47-50, 53, 249 
 
 Doles, evils of, 228-9 > see Charit- 
 able Relief 
 
 Drummond, C. J., on old age 
 pensions, 277, 278, 279 
 
 EARNINGS, see Wages 
 
 Ede, Rev. W. Mooie, Poor Law 
 relief, 89, 97, 104 ; old age pen- 
 sions, 117, 126 
 
 Edwards, G., on Poor Law relief, 
 
 259 
 Elcock, R., on old age pensions, 
 
 269 
 
 Ellis, Captain, out-door relief, 109 
 Employment, want of, 238, 242 
 Endowment of old age, see Old 
 
 Age Pensions 
 Enquiry, necessity for, 234-5 ; 
 
 see Charitable Relief 
 Escott, out-door and in-door relief, 
 
 9, 33, 36, 56, 96 
 
 Everett, R., M.P., old age pen- 
 sions, 134, 136, 139 
 
 Eyton, Rev. R., on charity, 236 
 
 FATKIN, T., on old age pensions, 
 
 277, 278, 283, 286 
 Fawcett, Prof. H., Poor Law 
 
 relief, 7, 14, 20, 22, 39, 61 
 
 L. 
 
 GARDINER. 
 
 note ; obligations of parents, 
 212, 213; almsgiving, 227 
 
 Fitch, J. G. , charity, 228, 238 
 
 Fitzroy, Major, pensions, 155 
 
 Fleming, Baldwyn, Poor Law 
 relief, 4, 9, 14, 31, 32, 35 note, 
 37, 38, 40, 44, 55, 59 
 
 Forster, W. E., M.P., on out-door 
 relief, 73, 108 
 
 Fothergill, S., on Poor Law re- 
 lief. 245 ; on old age pensions, 
 281 
 
 Fowle, Rev. T., out-relief, 13, 27 ; 
 old age pensions, 116,123, 1531 
 170, 172, 187, 192 
 
 Free Meals, see Provision of 
 Meals, Soup-kitchens 
 
 Friendly Societies, injured by out- 
 door relief, 12, 13, 15, 16, 245 ; 
 preferential treatment to mem- 
 bers of, 16-8, 246-7, 259 ; old 
 age pensions would strengthen, 
 122-4, 146-7, 266-8 ; provision 
 for old age by, 125-6, 158-160, 
 166-7, 267-8, 279-280 ; attitude 
 of ... towards old age pen- 
 sions, 126-7, 186-7, 268; old age 
 pensions would injure, 186-7, 
 190, 278 ; fail to reach the thrift- 
 less, 128 
 
 Fuller, S. D., 202, 203, 204, 258 
 
 Fust, H. Jenner, jun., the work- 
 house, 40 
 
 GARDINER, Gen. Lynedoch, old 
 age pensions, 178 
 
 Y
 
 322 
 
 Index. 
 
 GARDINER. 
 
 Gardiner, T. Gage, on Poor Law 
 
 relief, 262 
 Gardner, H., penny dinners, 199, 
 
 203 
 Green, J. F., children's dinners, 
 
 211 
 
 " HARD CASES," 45-7, 51-3 
 Hardy, R. P., on old age pen- 
 sions, 265, 266, 267, 268, 270, 
 271 
 Head, Sir E., on medical relief, 
 
 87 
 
 Hedley, R., on Poor Law relief, 
 245, 249, 254, 255 ; on old age 
 pensions, 283 
 
 Hervey, Rev. J. F. A., poor law 
 relief, 5, 10, 90, 234 
 
 Hill, Miss Octavia, 208, 229, 
 235, 236, 243, 245, 248, 272, 
 273, 274, 275, 284 286 
 
 Hobson, J. A., Poor Law adminis- 
 tration, 66, 101 
 
 Hodge, Mr., provision of meals, 
 196, 204 note 
 
 llollond, J. R., Poor Law relief, 
 29, 57, 59, 92 J old age pen- 
 sions, 165 
 
 Holloway, G., old age pensions, 
 167 
 
 Holmes, T V., penny dinners, 
 219 
 
 lloyle, W., Poor Law relief, 78 
 
 Hughes, J., M P., on outdoor 
 relief, 84 
 
 Hunter, W. A., M.P., on out- 
 door relief, 71 75, 79, 80, 81 
 
 INDOOR RELIEF. 
 
 Hyndman, H. M., on thrift, 119 ; 
 on the provision of meals, 195 
 
 INDIVIDUAL charity, 209-10 
 Indoor relief, should be the rule, 
 I ; is increased by outdoor relief, 
 2 ; a policy of... tends to raise 
 wages, 8-1 1, 32, 244, 261-2 ; en- 
 courages thrift and providence, 
 12-13, 245 ; encourages help of 
 friends and relatives, 19-21 ; 
 a system of.. .universally bene- 
 ficial, 32-3 ; reduces pauperism, 
 33 : is not harsh, 34-5, 250-3 ; 
 is not increased by restriction of 
 out-relief,34,252; ischeaperthan 
 out-door relief, 54-6, 254; entails 
 fewer relieving officers, 56 ; star- 
 vation cases less likely to occur 
 under a system of, 57-8, 249 ; 
 increases starvation and suffer- 
 ing, 64, 67 ; does not extinguish 
 poverty, 66-7 ; breaks up the 
 home, 68-70, 73 ; is unjust and 
 cruel, 68-70, 94, 258 ; increases 
 pauperism, 71-3 ; discourages 
 thrift and providence, 76-7, 259, 
 260; advocacyofanindoorpolicy 
 a confession of weakness, 77-8 ; 
 entails more relieving officers, 
 79, 80 ; greater cost of, 79, 80 ; 
 a policy of. ..checks the charity 
 of friends and relatives, 81. 
 See Hard Cases, Medical 
 Relief, Widows, Workhouse
 
 Index. 
 
 323 
 
 JACKSON. 
 
 JACKSON, Cyril, provision of 
 
 meals, 217 
 Johnson, Dr. , on charitable relief, 
 
 241 
 Jones, J., on Poor haw relief, 6, 
 
 92, 103 
 Jones, J. C. , in-door relief in case 
 
 of widows, 1 10 
 
 KAY, Dr., on medical relief, 88 
 
 Kidd, B., 154 
 
 Kitto, Rev. J., 224 
 
 Knollys, W. E., on Poor Law 
 
 relief, 244, 247, 248, 253, 254 ; 
 
 on old age pensions, 283 
 
 LEON, Mrs. , on the assistance of 
 school children, 207, 210, 215, 
 216 
 
 Life, expectations of, 170-172 
 
 Little, Wm. C., on agricultural 
 labourers, 239 note 
 
 Loch, C. S., on Poor Law relief, 
 24, 26 note, 29, 33, 35 note, 38, 
 57, 60, 98, \$\note; old age 
 pensions, 105, 149, 151, 152, 
 155, 156, 170, 172, 175, 177, 
 178, 191, 193 ; provision of 
 meals, 209, 210, 216, 225 
 
 Longley, Hy., out-door relief in 
 the metropolis, 28, 42, 44, 88, 
 98, 101, 103, 106, 107 
 
 Low, Seth, on charitable relief, 
 235 
 
 MITCHISON. 
 
 Lowndes, C. Layton, on out- 
 door relief, 102 
 
 Ludlow, J. M., on the condition 
 of the working classes, 154 
 note 
 
 Luton Board of Guardians, The, 
 petition of.. .on superannuation, 
 132 
 
 Lyttelton, Lord, on out-door 
 relief, 15 
 
 McDouoALL, A., jun., on Poor 
 
 Law relief, 251 
 Mackay, T., on Poor Law relief, 
 
 3, 1. 30, 35. 36, 55, 56, 57, 
 59, 60, 6 1, 91, 97, 246 ; old age 
 pensions, 150, 158, 159, 1 60, 
 161, 163, 165, 168, 172, 173, 
 174, 176, 177, 183. 184, 191, 
 278, 287 
 
 Malthus, Rev. T. R., on popula- 
 tion, 206, 228 
 
 Manning, Cardinal, on out-door 
 relief, 69, 71 
 
 Married couples, aged... in the 
 workhouse, 38 
 
 Marshall, Prof. A., Poor Law 
 relief, 62, 65, 68, 73, 74, 77, 
 83, 86, 261 ; old age pensions, 
 
 157, 273 
 
 Medical relief, see Out-door Medi- 
 cal Relief 
 
 Mill, J. S., 48, 223 
 
 Miller, S., on out-door relief, 26 
 
 Mitchison, R. S., Poor Law 
 relief, 64, 74, 76, 78
 
 3 2 4 
 
 Index. 
 
 MODEL UNIONS. 
 
 Model unions, the, 73-5, 129, 
 
 130 
 
 Montague, F. C. , 232 
 Morley, J., M. P., on the Poor 
 
 Law, 68 
 Moulton, J. Fletcher, old age 
 
 pensions, 182, 184, 185, 1 88 
 Mundella, A. J., M.P., 200 
 
 NEGLECT of parents by children 
 
 19-21, 81, 104, 247-8 
 Newton, A. W., thrift, 77 
 Nicholls, Sir George, Poor Law 
 
 relief, 42 
 
 OLD age, other provision than 
 that of the Poor Law required 
 for, 114 ; provision against. ..not 
 possible for the poor, 117-118, 
 264 ; undesirable for the poor to 
 attempt provision for, 119, 265 ; 
 no existing means of providing 
 for, 125-6 ; old age pauperism 
 largely due to maladministration 
 of the Poor Law, 150-1 ; 
 decrease of old age pauperism, 
 1 50-2 ; exaggerated estimate of 
 amount of pauperism due solely 
 to, I5S-6 
 
 Old age pensions, large amount of 
 old age pauperism necessitates, 
 1 1 1-6; danger of reaction un- 
 less granted, 1 16 ; impossible for 
 the poor to provide, 117-8, 264 ; 
 undesirability of their provicl- 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS. 
 
 ing, 119, 265; would encourage 
 thrift, and strengthen friendly 
 societies, 120-4,266-7; opposi- 
 tion of friendly societies not 
 justified, 125-8, 267-9 : ev i- 
 dence of model unions not 
 conclusive against, 128-30 ; 
 would lessen the difficulties of 
 Poor Law administration, 131 ; 
 would not affect wages adversely, 
 132; payment of rates entitles 
 to, 133-4 ; past labour entitles 
 to, 134-6 ; objection met, 137 ; 
 involve no new principle, 138-9; 
 anomalies involved form no 
 valid objection to, 139-40 ; 
 cost of ... would be borne by 
 all, 141 ; undesirability of 
 parents depending on their 
 children, 141-2, 269 ; argument 
 for . . . founded on the number 
 of paupers, fallacious, 149, 150; 
 no pension scheme required, 
 150-6, 168-9, 271-2 ; would in- 
 jure the working classes, 157, 
 273 ; provision for old age no 
 longer impossible for the work- 
 ing classes, 158-160, 166-7, 
 274-7 ; advocacy of ... a 
 counsel of despair, 161-2, 279 ; 
 will tend to prevent a rise 
 in wages, and to perpetuate 
 the dependence of the poor, 
 162-5, I 75~6; will discourage 
 thrift, 165, 278-9 ; slow 
 progress made by friendly 
 societies in providing . . . due
 
 Index. 
 
 325 
 
 OLD AGE PENSIONS. > 
 
 to lax administration of the 
 Poor Law, 166-7 ! clanger of 
 reaction to lax administration, 
 no ground for granting, 1 70 ; 
 objection to the sixty-five age 
 limit, 171-2 ; involve a new 
 and dangerous principle, 172-3, 
 280 ; will unjustly tax the indus- 
 trious and thrifty, 177 ; payment 
 of rates, no title to, 177-8 ; an- 
 other name for out-door re- 
 lief, 178-9, 281 ; undesirable, 
 1 80, 282 
 
 Old age pensions, involving pre- 
 vious contribittions, would fail to 
 reach the lowest classes, 181, 282 
 -3; would discourage thrift, 183 ; 
 old age annuities, not a popular 
 form of thrift, 183-4 ; not the 
 wisest form of thrift, 185, 283-4; 
 would prove a source of injus- 
 tice, 1 86, 284 ; would injuri- 
 ously affect friendly societies, 
 186-7, 285 ; attitude of friendly 
 societies towards, 186-7 
 
 Universal, necessityfor, 1 43-4. 
 
 269 ; would not pauperize, 
 144-5 5 would promote thrift, 
 145 ; would encourage benefit 
 societies, 146-7 ; would be well 
 bestowed, 147, 271; would raise 
 the standard of life, 148, 271 ; 
 would involve waste of money, 
 1 88 ; would discourage thrift, 
 189-192, 285-6 ; would deterio- \ 
 rate character, 189-192 ; would 
 
 OUT-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 prove unjust, 192, 287 ; would 
 pauperize, 193, 288 
 Out-door relief, should be the ex- 
 ception, I ; causes pauperism, 
 2 ~3> 5) 7> 87-8 ; increases 
 suffering, 4-6 ; demoralises the 
 poor, 5-6, 24, 30-1 ; brings in- 
 dependent poor on to the parish, 
 6, 7, 243 ; is destructive of thrift, 
 and injurious to friendly societies, 
 5, 12-15, 2 45 ; is easy to give, 6; 
 increases the rates, 7, 54-6, 254 ; 
 affectswagesadversely, 7-12, 92, 
 100, 244; proper discrimination 
 in granting not possible, 14-15, 
 24-7; injurious effects of supple- 
 menting the payments of friendly 
 societies by, 15-18, 246-7 ; en- 
 courages neglect by relatives, 
 18-21, 247-8; is destructive of 
 charity, 21 ; is liable to indefinite 
 extension, 21-4 ; is cruel in its 
 uncertainty, 28-9, 57-8 ; in- 
 adequacy, and consequent evils 
 of, 30-1,248-9; beneficial effects 
 of restriction, 31-3, 250 ; re- 
 striction of ... does not act 
 harshly, 34, 250-3 ; restriction 
 of... does not increase in-door 
 relief, 34-5, 252 ; danger of 
 reaction towards, 35 ; generally 
 condemned, 36-7 ; payment 
 of rates no title to, 58-9, 254 ; 
 causes discontent, 60 ; restric- 
 tion of... unjustifiable, 62-3; 
 danger of reaction towards, 63- 
 64, 256-7 ; further restriction
 
 326 
 
 Index. 
 
 OUT-DOOR RELIEF. 
 
 would increase suffering and 
 starvation, 64 ; proper dis- 
 crimination attainable, 65, 
 257-8; a restriction of. ..does not 
 remove poverty, 66-7 ; injustice 
 and cruelty of an in-door policy, 
 68-70, 256, 258 ; pauperism 
 increased by an indoor policy, 
 7~3 5 general application of an 
 in-door policy impossible, 73-5, 
 129-130; pauperism really un- 
 affected by administration, 75 ; 
 thrift discouraged by a policy of 
 indoor relief, 76, 259, 260 ; a 
 means of elevating the poorer 
 classes, 77-8 ; does not ne- 
 cessarily reduce wages, 79 ; 
 cheaper than in - door relief, 
 79-80 ; in-door relief checks 
 charity of relatives, 81 ; im- 
 possible to relegate all de- 
 serving cases to charity, 81-2 ; 
 past payment of rates a title to, 
 82-3 ; duty of guardians to 
 grant, 83. See Hard Cases, 
 Breaking up the Home, Out- 
 door Medical Relief, Partial 
 Disablement, Widows, Work- 
 house 
 
 Out-door medical relief, prefer- 
 ential treatment to members 
 of benefit societies by, 16-8, 
 246-7, 259, 260 ; tends to 
 permanent pauperism, 87-9 ; 
 destructive of thrift and pro- 
 vidence, 89-91 ; disadvan- 
 tage of, 91-2 ; arguments of 
 
 POOR LAW. 
 
 humanity and policy in favour 
 of, 94. See Partially Disabled, 
 The 
 
 Owen, Sir H., 19, 20, 43, 244, 
 249, 250, 252, 253, 254, 260, 
 263, 272, 281 
 
 PAINE, Dr. H. J., on Poor Law 
 relief, 258, 259 
 
 Parents, see Children. 
 
 Partially disabled, The, out- 
 relief to ... affects wages ad- 
 versely, 92, 261-2 ; out-relief 
 should be granted to, 94 
 
 Pauperism, increased by out-door 
 relief and dependent on admin- 
 istration of the Poor Law, 2, 3, 
 7, 21-4, 31-3, 2 43 2 5; un- 
 affected by administration of the 
 Poor Law, 67, 75 ; increased by 
 an in-door policy, 70-1 ; de- 
 crease of, 150, 152-4, 271 
 
 Pearson, Rev. J., on out-door 
 relief, 109 
 
 Peek, F., inadequate relief no 
 charity, 229 
 
 Pell, Albert, on Poor Law relief, 
 9, 21, 35 note, 50, 53 
 
 Pennington, Mrs., on the pro- 
 vision of meals, 199, 200, 205 
 
 Penny dinners, see Provision of 
 Meals, Soup-kitchens 
 
 Poor Law, The, and charity, 7, 
 21, 47, 50-3, 81-2 ; principles 
 of... similar for all time, 9, 61, 
 255 ; principle of, 24, 42 ; dis-
 
 Index. 
 
 327 
 
 POOR LAW, INSPECTORS. 
 
 satisfaction with, 60, 62, 255 ; 
 change in the conditions of ad- 
 ministration of, 84-6 
 
 Poor Law inspectors, testimony of, 
 3, 37 
 
 Pretyman, J. R., Poor Law 
 relief, n, 58 
 
 Provision of meals, The, advocated 
 on grounds of humanity and 
 economy, I94~5> 199-200 ; 
 necessary corollary to compul- 
 sory education, 196 ; educa- 
 tional advantages of, 196-9 ; 
 rights and duties of the com- 
 munity, 200- 1 ; does not 
 lead to increase of drunkenness, 
 201 ; abuses of the system, 
 202-4 ; individual treatment of 
 cases impossible, 204 ; does not 
 affect the number of improvi- 
 dent marriages, 205 
 
 practically a removal of the 
 
 natural obligations of parents 
 in regard to, 206-9 5 necessity 
 of treating the family as a 
 whole, 206-7 ; individual treat- 
 ment of each case required, 
 209-11 ; increases the number 
 of improvident marriages, 
 211-3 ; food and education, 213 ; 
 difficulties of selecting the chil- 
 dren, 214 ; tends to lower 
 wages, 215 ; injurious to the 
 moral characters of the children, 
 216 ; an ineffectual and injuri- 
 ous form of help, 216-8 ; un- 
 
 SHERWELL. 
 
 desirable unless self-supporting, 
 218-20 
 
 RADLEY, C. J., on old age pen- 
 sions, 159, 160, 162, 171, 180, 
 181, 188, 190 
 
 Rates, The, effect of out-door 
 relief upon, 7, 54-6, 79, 80, 243 ; 
 payment of ...a title to relief, 
 58-9, 82, 254 
 
 Reaction in favour of lax ad- 
 ministration of the Poor Law, 
 35, 63-4, 256-7 
 
 Realm, The, on outdoor relief, 63, 
 70 ; on old age pensions, 113 
 
 Relations, help of, see Children 
 
 Relieving officers, number of, 
 required, 56, 79-80 
 
 Rhodes, Dr. J. Milsom, on out- 
 door relief, 88, 89, 91, 92, 107 
 
 Robertson, E. S., on the provi- 
 sion of meals, 196 
 
 Rose, Rev. J., on the provision 
 of meals, 197 
 
 Russell, Dr. J. B., medical relief, 
 94 
 
 SCANLON, TH., on old age pen- 
 sions, 183 
 
 Schoolchildren, the assistance 
 of, see Provision of Meals 
 
 Sewell, Miss, on effectual work 
 amongst the poor, 230 
 
 Sherwell, A., on the Poor Law,
 
 328 
 
 Index. 
 
 SIMCOX. 
 
 Simcox, Miss, on the provision of 
 meals, 202 
 
 Soup-kitchens, advocacy of, 221 ; 
 discourage thrift and independ- 
 ence, 221-2 ; free gifts of food 
 injurious, 223 ; wholesale 
 charity injurious, 224 ; encour- 
 age vagrancy and concentration 
 in large towns, 224-5 5 tenc ^ to 
 raise rents and lower wages, 
 225 ; should be self-supporting, 
 226 
 
 Spencer, Earl, on out-door relief, 
 6, 23 
 
 Spender, J. A., on Poor Law 
 relief, 3, 30, 37 ; on old age 
 pensions, 113, 115, 119, 1 20, 
 122, 125, 127, 129, 133, 142, 
 144, 145, 148 
 
 Starvation, cases of, 57-8, 64, 249 
 
 State-aided pensions, see Old Age 
 Pensions 
 
 Stead, T. Ballan, on Poor Law 
 relief, 260 ; on old age pen- 
 sions, 275, 280, 285 
 
 Steele, Wm., on Poor Law relief, 
 260 
 
 Stephens, Rev. J. , on the Poor 
 Laws, 52 
 
 Strutt, F., on out-door relief, 103 
 
 Stuart, Prof., on the provision of 
 meals 199 
 
 TABOR, Miss, on penny dinners, 
 
 194, 195, 197, 2OO, 2OI, 2O4, 
 
 208 215, 218 
 
 WALKER. 
 
 Tacon, Rev. R. J., on out-door 
 
 relief, 7 
 Tait, Mrs., on penny dinners, 
 
 197 
 
 Tebbutt, C. E. , on charity, 234 
 Thrift, 5, 12-8, 76-8, 89-91, 
 
 105, 245, 259, 260 ; see Friendly 
 
 Societies, Old Age Pensions 
 Tillard, Miss, on charity, 231 
 Times, The, on old age pensions, 
 
 179 
 Townsend, F., M.P., on medical 
 
 relief, 89 
 Tufnell, E. C., on out-door relief 
 
 8 
 Twisleton, E. B., on out-door 
 
 relief, 28 
 
 UNIVERSAL PENSIONS, see Old 
 Age Pensions 
 
 VALLANCE, W., on the Poor Law 
 system, 3, 249, 251, 252, 255 ; 
 old age pensions, 280, 282 ; on 
 medical relief, 90 
 
 WAGES, effect of out-relief on, 8- 
 I1[ >32, 79, 92, 244, 261-2 ; effect 
 of pensions on, 132, 157, 161-5, 
 175-6; effect of the provision 
 of meals on, 215, 225 
 
 Walker, Thomas, Poor Law relief, 
 12; old age pensions, 166 ; on 
 provision of meals, 224 ; charit- 
 able relief, 238, 239
 
 Index. 
 
 329 
 
 WATSON. 
 
 Watson, Reuben, on old age pen- 
 sions, 276, 279, 280 
 
 Webb, Sidney, Poor Law relief, 
 67, 81, 84; old age pensions, 
 120, 125, 136, 138 
 
 Wholesale charity, 210, 217, 224 
 
 Widows, out-relief to . . . degrades 
 the whole family, 95-7 ; an 
 in-door policy the truest kind- 
 ness towards, 98-9 ; out- relief to 
 . . . reduces women's wages, 
 100-1 ; out-relief to ... tends 
 to the permanent pauperism of 
 parent and children, 102-3, 
 263 ; difficulty of obtaining true 
 knowledge of the circumstances 
 of, 103 ; out-relief to, checks 
 the help of relatives, 104 ; in- 
 duces improvidence, 105 ; as- 
 sistance not necessarily required 
 by, 106-7 5 the general wel- 
 fare in dealing with... still to be 
 considered, 107 ; necessary to 
 grant relief in the case of, 108 ; 
 undesirable to separate mother 
 and children. 108-9 '> an i- 
 door policy towards, no dis- 
 couragement to applications for 
 relief, no 
 
 Wilford, J., on out-door relief, 
 94, 109 
 
 Wilkinson, J. Frome, on Poor 
 Law relief, 82, 85, 256, 259, 264 ; 
 old age pensions, 114, 118, 128, 
 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 144, 
 145, 146, 147, 182, 267 
 
 Willes, Canon, on maladministra- 
 tion of the Poor Law, 4 
 
 Willink, H. G., Poor Law relief, 
 21 
 
 Wilson, Ven. Archdeacon, on 
 charitable relief, 233 
 
 Wodehouse, Edmund H., on out- 
 door relief, 5, 7, 22, 48 
 
 Women, 118, 276; see Widows. 
 
 Wordsworth, Wm., on out-door 
 relief, 63 
 
 Workhouse, The, classification in, 
 37-9 ; alleged hardships of, 37- 
 43. 2 53 5 repugnance to, 40 ; 
 treatment in, 68-70 
 
 Workhouse test, necessity for, 
 25-7 
 
 Wright, J. Hornsby, charitable 
 relief, 231, 232, 235, 237, 238 
 
 YOUNG, Arthur, on out-door 
 relief, 3 
 
 Young, T. E., on gratuitous pen- 
 sions, 190, 193 
 
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